Warlock Apprentice

Angor hoped that the magnificent creature would leave.

But the truth disappointed him soon enough. The serpent looked back again. It did not make a sound, but those plain yet meaningful eyes already told Angor what it wanted.

“Alright alright, I’ll follow you,” Angor said with a sigh. Previously, he felt safe when the Aster Barrier could help him escape wizard-level monsters. However, he didn’t expect to run into one for real!

“Hey, Toby. Can you leave first and help me scout the area?” Angor tried to persuade Toby into leaving.

But the bird remained still on his top hat.

The serpent was swimming along with the water flow as well. Angor wasn’t foolish enough to actually believe that a monster would be friendly to him, so he kept the Aster Barrier activated while he observed the surroundings to find a way out of the situation.

The waterway was broad and dark. It was easy to lose one’s direction here. And his Light couldn’t let him see very far. He hadn’t ascertained whether the area above the water was the outside or another cave again.

After traveling for a few more minutes, Angor began to doubt that the water path wasn’t a way out after all.

That pool he went through earlier was short enough for ordinary people to get through simply by holding their breaths. However, he didn’t believe the current path was manageable without any specific abilities.

What about the corpses then? It wasn’t likely that the giant serpent killed them and left their bones intact for a thousand years.

As he found more and more questions, the serpent suddenly began to ascend.

Angor followed behind helplessly.

He reached the surface soon. Using Light, he noticed that the area above the water wasn’t large this time. The ceiling seemed like a giant bowl placed upside-down. There was a hole in the “bowl”, which only led to more darkness.

The serpent kept its head above the water and remained there quietly.

Angor was floating about 5 meters from the serpent’s head, and he once again felt terrified at the creature’s sheer size.

The serpent didn’t move ashore. It only stared at him with those golden eyes. However, the creature seemed anxious for something this time.

Angor had no idea what he was supposed to do. Getting back into the water wasn’t a good idea because he’d never outrun the snake. It was not like he knew where to go either. But he didn’t feel safer staying here either, as it was probably the serpent’s nest.

“What do you want from me?” He tried.

No response. More stares.

Angor changed his tactic by sending his emotion to the serpent, which didn’t get him anything either. He only sensed his fear escalating under the cold gaze.

He tried to think of something in his bracelet which might get him out. The bracelet’s Isolation effect wouldn’t work well since it couldn’t actually make him disappear. The water flow around him would give him out easily.

He thought about it and climbed ashore. At least Infinite Reticence would help him when he was out of water.

The serpent followed him up and revealed its giant shape in front of Angor for the first time. The creature wiggled its way into the “bowl cave”. Angor watched as giant water drops fell off its scales, causing the whole place to get wet.

He was now sure that the watermarks in the first path were left by this snake too.

Which meant… it had always been watching him, and it opened up that tunnel and drew him inside.

This was all strange. The serpent could have already killed him underwater if it wanted to do so.

Angor decided to stay put for now and keep following the serpent to see what it really wanted.

…

The cave path grew larger again as he walked. He came to a place where it could contain a hundred of such serpents without getting too crowded.

And he was glad about this. A wide area meant his Infinite Reticence could do a better job of concealing him.

He also saw some plants acting as light sources around the area. Unlike the light-absorbing plants that grew under the ceiling of Midnight Sovereign, these ones looked like glowing dandelions. They appeared like swarms of green fireflies when observed from a distance.

They weren’t very bright, but there were a lot of them. When he walked further in, he didn’t really need his own cantrip to observe the giant cave clearly.

They finally reached their goal. The path didn’t end, but the serpent had stopped moving.

Angor looked further down the path and wondered if that were their way out.

It wasn’t time to think about that though. He wanted to know what the serpent meant to do.

The creature led him into another path, which was a dead end. It was a big chamber illuminated by the green glowing dandelions.

The serpent moved in front of a pit.

Angor approached it and looked down. He could see nothing other than darkness. He took a guess that the serpent rested down there.

The monster picked up a glowing dandelion and threw it into the pit.

Using the shining swirling object, Angor’s eyes grew bigger when he saw the bottom of the pit covered in piles of white bones.

The limited area uncovered by the dandelion was already filled with bones. He took a quick guess that there were at least thousands of corpses lying down there.

Also, his great surprise didn’t prevent him from noticing the perfect condition of the bones as well as… medical boxes, scattered beside almost every corpse.

These corpses were also the villagers.

Did this mean the “assumed survivors” all ended up here? No one escaped?

But who killed them? Since the creature would easily grind the bones up if it traveled down there, it couldn’t be the one who killed them.

Angor looked back at the serpent and noticed… sadness coming from those golden eyes.

Sadness? A serpent was mourning for the dead people?

Did the creature share a certain connection with the deceased?

“Wait, connection…” Angor thought about that word and took out the first medical box he found in the dead lake. Then he picked out a potion vial, which was decorated by a strange mark—a black-scaled serpent swirling around a silver rod.

He looked at the mark and checked the black serpent beside him again.

“… This, is you?” He asked the sad snake in a small voice.

The serpent glanced at him without speaking, which was totally expected. Then it slowly climbed down along the stone wall.

At least it did not deny Angor’s question. Angor was now almost certain that the strange marks indicated this snake.

But using a real serpent as the signature of something? He quickly thought about certain wicked cult groups.

A devoted doctor always vowed to steer away from cults and whatnot when he started his career. Did this mean these doctors believed that the serpent was special? Their spiritual beliefs?

As he wondered, the serpent climbed back up again, and this time, it brought something with it.

Angor already noticed that the creature was searching for something down below. Looked like it succeeded.

And he was surprised yet again to see a coffin.

It was made from glossy, black oil wood, which was a very rare material that could stay in good condition even though it was in a bad atmosphere for thousands of years. Mortals usually used this thing to make coffins, while wizards only considered it a low-level magic plant. It was also the best axle bearing substitute in machine alchemy.

The coffin was black apart from its cover, which was pure white. The cover also had a “serpent-entwined rod” mark on it.

The serpent placed the coffin down and slowly nudged it toward Angor.

Then it kept staring at him quietly. Those reptilian eyes displayed faint, yet truthful emotion.

Pleading.

“You want me to help you bury it?” Angor looked at the coffin in confusion.

At the same time, he tried putting a hand on the wood.

Something suddenly came up.

The coffin began to shake madly, and the coffin lid twitched as if an unwilling and alive victim were trying to get out.

“Zombie?” Angor quickly retracted his hand and stayed alert.

By certain means, a dead body whose soul was left behind could become “alive” again in the form of a “ghoul”. However, a body without a soul could also become a “zombie”.

Either of those was a low-level monster which didn’t help wizards much. Wizards preferred experimenting on live specimens and turning them into puppets. For example, the infamous wizard in the southern wizarding region “Puppet Master” Bogula loved to craft beautiful lady puppets from live women.

Angor frowned at his own words. “No… A zombie at least needed a body. It has been a thousand years. Is there a Wanderer Skeleton inside that coffin then?”