Warlock Apprentice

The grim subject caused everyone to go silent again.

Nausica simply smoked her pipe and went over her own mind while hiding her face behind the smoke cloud. Shan had finished repairing Gank’s arm. The girl was sitting next to the campfire while hugging her knees to her chest, staring into the light.

“Will you join too?” Nausica suddenly asked.

She wasn’t looking at anyone, but they all knew who the question was directed at.

“I will,” said Angor.

“Then I have all the more reason to go as well. I can’t remain still while watching you improve.”

Angor could see Nausica’s plain look across the dissipating smoke. Her eyes looked more even more determined than ever.

“… You know, you don’t have to compete with anyone. Supernaturals live longer lives. You’ll always get somewhere, either earlier or later. Not much different.”

“But I don’t want to burden anyone. At least I should be there when you or Sailum’s in trouble, and not standing aside watching because I’m weak. What happened at Twilight Auction… told us something. We were in the outer hall looking as you suffered by yourself. I don’t want to go through that again.

“Besides, I’m not competing. Everyone wants to dive deeper on the path of wizardry.”

Angor wished to respect Nausica’s decision, but as far as he could see, Nausica was still a level-1 apprentice. She would surely become cannon fodder in the garden.

He didn’t want to see Nausica die like this.

Nausica flipped her fringe with a dreamy expression. “You see… Before I departed from Brute Cavern, Sailum made up his mind to inject Azure Bloodline. I wonder how he’s doing now… Did he succeed? Anyway, I’m hoping to improve myself and go back and share the result with Sailum. Friends are happy to see each other grow strong.”

Angor realized what was going on.

While it was true that the purification garden was a killing ground for apprentices, Sailum wasn’t any safer back in Brute Cavern.

Azure Bloodline was a special merchandise offered by Twilight Auction. Until today, there was zero information or reference regarding this particular bloodline. Fusing a bloodline into someone’s body alone was already something risky, but there were ways to mitigate such risk for known bloodlines. Some Bloodline Wizards even knew about secret arts that completely nullified the risk.

Yet people had nothing to go by regarding Azure Bloodline. There was only a rumor that said the user of Azure Bloodline “might” become a Sage Morph. But how likely? Nobody could say.

The danger Sailum was facing by using an unknown bloodline on himself was no better than going through the blood sacrifice in the purification garden.

Still, Nausica did everything while assuming that Sailum would triumph. At the same time, she wanted success as well.

People were improving in their own ways, and friends wanted to grow together.

“I respect your decisions.” Angor nodded.

“And thanks for telling me about the danger.” Nausica smiled.

Angor thought about keeping Nausica inside his bracelet until the end of the challenge, but on second thought, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to survive himself. Moreover, someone like Nausica would never agree to accept such help that would certainly damage her pride.

This was why Angor didn’t offer to help Nausica inside the garden. However, he already decided to finish her mechanical arm before the challenge began.

The arm was the only thing he could do for now without hurting Nausica’s ego.

He said his offer half a year ago, and Nausica didn’t have any problem accepting it, which meant she would gladly agree now.

“The other reason I came to you is to check on your right arm.” He flipped up Nausica’s crimson cloak and revealed the empty space under her right shoulder. “You won’t mind a little body examination, right?”

Nausica nodded somewhat uncertainly. “I guess you can, but are you going to—”

“I’m going to finish your mechanical arm within these days. I should have done that half a year ago, but you know, something took me away. Sorry that I’m a bit late.”

“It’s okay. But we have to enter the garden real soon. You don’t have to waste your precious time on me.” Nausica was as considerate as ever.

“Waste time? Not really. I have Mister Mithra to give me alchemy training these days. He’ll help me make my work better.”

It was commonly known that Sunders found Angor from Mithra’s house. Nausica completely believed him.

“Will it trouble you too much?”

“No no no. I’m going to create stuff anyway, might as well make something helpful.” Angor chuckled.

“… Thank you then.”

Angor scanned her severed nerves and was surprised to find that her remaining muscle under her shoulder didn’t wilt at all despite not having an arm for half a year. This was due to her bloodline training. What remained were as active and sensitive to potential treatment as ever.

After learning what he had to, Angor prepared to leave.

Before leaving for real, Angor glanced at the giant figure sitting beside the fire called Gank.

“Did Supreme Cult attack you because of him?” Angor asked Shan.

Shan was going through her thoughts about the purification garden. It took her some time to reply.

“Yeah. That Saladin is like a dog or something. We haven’t even been inside the city for long, and he already caught our smell. He didn’t attack us sooner because Mister Sunders was still with us as the escort wizard. We’ve been staying at Timber Pub. There’s this one time when we were hanging out a little, that guy immediately found us.”

Shan was trembling out of rage; it caused her pair of small braids to shake as well. “But Gank already registered an identity. He received it from the cult! And that fool still came for us.”

“Can you tell me something about this registration stuff?” Angor grew curious.

Shan answered without questioning why, “The shaman granny in my tribe gave Gank to me as a reward for getting admitted by Brute Cavern. She asked Gank to protect me. Granny was a wizard once, and Gank came from a brute tribe from another world who signed a contract with her.

“As for registration,” Shan said and ordered Gank to stand up. Then she removed the giant mask covering Gank’s face, revealing a horrific face and stretching fangs.

“This thing,” she said as she pointed at a leaf-like mark on Gank’s forehead, “is the registration. Different beings will receive different ones after coming to this world. Gank came from Lush Islet Plane. This leaf mark suggests his home.”

“Who decided on these marks?”

“The cult, duh. They’ll design a mark for every foreign plane that welcomes wizard expedition teams so that they can use it to tell where an otherworldly traveler comes from.” Shan sighed in distress. “Just like the marks you put on slaves. The travelers can still enter or leave the wizarding world freely, but they must have a ‘guarantor’ with them.”

Shan took out a parchment from her sling pouch. There was another leaf mark on it as well as the blood print of something.

“This blood mark restricts Gank’s actions. He must stay with the guarantor who carries this certificate.”

“Someone from an unknown plane will not have a mark, right?”

“Correct. In this case, that traveler is ‘illegal’ even if a wizard brought him or her here.”

Angor nodded in enlightenment. He thought “registration” was only some paperwork. Now it seemed there was more to it. Just like Shan said, registration was like enslaving someone.

He realized he wouldn’t be helping Jon in this way. There was probably no wizards who actually explored Earth before. And besides, Angor didn’t want such a slave mark on Jon. Even if someone got registered, there were people like Saladin who would break the rules.

Angor tried to ask something else while pretending he was only looking for conversations. “I heard such travelers get expelled by the world’s consciousness. They get weaker and ill, but it didn’t happen to Gank?”

“Weaker, yes. But not really ill. At least not for brutes. Supernaturals don’t get ill easily. Only mortal bodies will.”

“Ohh…” Angor nodded. “That’s why Balba looks fine. He’s a half-blood brute…”

Of course, he said that aloud to divert people’s attention.

When Angor left them and walked through Timber Pub, he attracted everyone’s gaze again. The two people who assaulted him earlier were lying on the floor motionless, while a man in a brown-checkered tail suit was examining them.

A whispering patron told Angor that this man was the owner of the pub. A wizard, to be precise.

The man looked up at Angor while his eyes glimmered with intelligence. “I see. You’re that man’s student.”

Angor bowed politely.

“I think I see what happened here. They were the ones looking for trouble.” He moved away to let Angor leave.

I guess being famous isn’t all about bad things? Angor thought while walking toward the street outside.