Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 379: Interpreting Magic Array

A magic array that covered Hippocrotee?

Angor wasn’t really surprised to hear about this. Back when Shadow mentioned how a wizard from Dark Castle had given an entire Sorcerer’s Garden to Krakoks to be their new home, Angor already had a question about the wizard’s intention. There wasn’t anyone that would be so generous in this world.

According to rumors, people from Dark Castle were even more “brutal” than Brute Cavern. In the views of apprentices, Dark Castle was full of “black wizards”. Could someone from Dark Castle bestow such charity to Krakoks?

He highly doubted it.

“What does it do?” Angor asked Shadow.

“Heh, I don’t know much about this kind of stuff. As far as I can see, it ain’t anything that does you good. So, will you come?”

Angor looked at the sleeping Toby on his hand. He then looked back at the enchanting temple which held some unknown power that attracted Toby in his dream.

Angor assumed that the temple held something that asked Toby to explore, just like what he felt a moment ago. Unfortunately, Toby was in no condition to control his own body right now.

Before he got to learn what was hidden in there, Angor would not risk venturing into that uncharted temple.

“Wait there. I’m coming.”

To prevent Toby from “dream walking” again, he placed the bird in the space bracelet. Once he made sure that Toby didn’t resist, he left the mountain.

As soon as he left, a certain individual inside the mountain temple suddenly opened his eyes.

It was a bald, wrinkled Krakok elder with a long beard that reached the ground. His gray and muddy eyes weren’t focused, which suggested he was blind.

The old Krakok slowly limped to the center of the temple on his walking stick.

A lump of gray aura floated here, which kept spinning and releasing strange ripples into all directions. When engulfed by the ripples, the old man’s eyes slowly lost their vividness, and the several strands of black hair that remained on his head gradually turned white.

The old Krakok aged visibly and rapidly, but he did not back away from the strange aura. He only stared into it with great emotions mixed with yearning, sadness, and regret…

A cleric wearing a gold-rimmed white robe walked inside.

“Grand Priest, the singers we chose from all villages have arrived. Do you wish to look at them?”

The old Krakok slowly turned around and shook his head. “No… We’ll let those from the Citadel choose for themselves.”

“Understood.” The cleric watched the old man with a worried look. “Sir, the Soul Essence is too dangerous for your body. I shall watch it for you.”

“No. I can still do it.” The old man shook his head again.

“You can at least have some rest. We need you to direct the ritual tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll get any trouble at this point.”

“It’s okay. Just… leave me be for the moment.”

The cleric opened his mouth and closed it again. He then left the temple while sighing.

The old Krakok walked onto the temple balcony to look at his people who were at the bottom of the mountain. Then he looked at the dense buildings with another sad look.

He slowly moved back in front of the “Soul Essence”.

“A human intruder? The gap won’t open, and the torrent cannot leave here… You’ll have to stay here forever. Guess it’s only an insignificant opportunity for us. Whether it can help us with the revolution… does not matter now.”

Slowly, he paced into the shadows.

…

As Angor descended from the mountain slope, he sensed something familiar.

He looked around and saw Papaya in her silk dress. She was near the altar where she stood among a group of partners with the same outfit. They were moving their heads and singing the holy chant together.

Papaya didn’t look very outstanding, but the particular peaceful temperament on her seemed unique when compared to the other singers.

Angor easily sensed her presence because of the nightmare aura he left on Papaya. After the “jump scare” in Seedling Village, Papaya never tried to tell others about her encounter with them again.

And Angor only glanced at her for a brief moment before he walked away.

…

The city of Hippocrotee occupied nearly a thousand square meters which held countless structures tightly stacked together. The density of buildings did not hinder the exquisite craftsmanship of Krakoks. Even the smallest street lamps displayed perfect designs on them.

“Oh, you’re here,” Shadow said. He sensed Angor’s arrival because he was beginning to use less mana to sustain their Spirit Bond.

“Yup,” Angor said. He was walking along the edge of the city instead of heading inside right away.

“I’m at the west gate. There’s a small spire thing at my knee level,” Shadow said.

Most structures in Hippocrotee had two stories. Something tall enough to reach Shadow’s knees was obvious enough, which quickly helped Angor to locate Shadow.

“Aha!” Shadow smiled at Angor as he said, “We can become those evil giants that invade small cities in those childhood stories. Let’s crush some houses, and maybe a hero will ride a dragon and hunt us down. Oh wait, they only have hummingbirds here. So a hummingbird knight will come for us.”

Angor only chuckled at the joke.

“No kidding. I really feel like stepping on these nice little houses when looking at them.”

Shadow wasn’t really going to actually do stupid things when their plan was more important right now.

“So, did you feel the magic array?”

Angor stayed quiet and scanned around Hippocrotee. He didn’t feel anything when he walked around the city just now.

He frowned when looking at a small open ground near the center of the city.

“That statue… has something in it.”

Shadow frowned at Angor’s discovery. A moment ago, he had to get really close, and he had to use his spirit feelers to find the “trick”. But now, Angor just displayed that he had better skills.

It was a common thing for wizards to have gaps in their strength. However, Shadow was feeling VERY stressed out when even such a young apprentice could show him so much, especially since he himself was an elite from Floating Mech City.

Angor moved to somewhere higher and looked down at the city. “I see. Each statue was a node of a magic array. The nodes scattered across the whole place… I see 373 of them. They belong to 12 different runes, which made up one giant magic array.”

“You know about this array? What does it do?” Shadow asked.

“No…” Angor considered for a while. “Not now anyway. But I learned about all the basic runes before. If I check their variables and apply them to those magic formulas… I can do some reverse engineering and understand the effect of the magic array.”

“You can do that? Alone?”

Shadow knew what that meant, and he also knew how much calculation was involved. Getting a result with fixed variables was easy but definitely not the other way round. Without preceding rules, there were countless ways to reach a result. Shadow didn’t believe Angor could reconstruct the calculations on his own.

If only he’d known how Angor already learned about insane mental-calculation skills when he was studying Singularity Dispersive Meditation.

Still, Angor didn’t intend to tell Shadow about it. “You know more about this place. You should check out the ritual spot and find out if that temple I mentioned contains the core of the law or the exact nature of the law. I’ll stay here and work out the magic array.”

Without giving Shadow any time to protest, Angor found a concealed spot. He then took out some tools and began working.

Shadow moaned and headed toward the temple mountain.

After Shadow had left, Angor took out his tablet. He then entered several variables that required a large volume of calculation before he let the machine do its wonder.

He could also do everything without the device, but that would take much more time.

It had been some time since he last performed “mind overdrive”, but it wasn’t a big deal as he already memorized the tactic down to the depth of his soul.

When he opened his eyes again, the city of Hippocrotee had become a bunch of numbers or data in his view. Starting from the city base, different base numbers traveled into higher variables. They then turned into formulas, and finally, final answers began to show up at the topmost level.

Time went by as he scanned each section of the city for more data.

This Sorcerer’s Garden was a small world which could simulate day and night as long as there were sufficient materials and energy.

Angor completed his calculations just the night began. He didn’t go over all of the runes since what he worked on was already enough for him to find the nature of the magic array.