Warlock Apprentice

There was a patch of dry, fissured wasteland that served as the boundary between lava zone and more wasteland. Here, about a hundred individuals gathered. They were either standing or flying, laughing or being all quiet. Most of all, they were all looking at the handsome-looking man in silver uniform in the center of them.

If Angor were here, he would quickly recognize the surrounded individual as one of the elite apprentices sent by Floating Mech City—Dira. Or rather, he was actually Carveline who disguised as Dira.

“I believe we all know what’s going on, Dira.” The speaker was a black-skinned, bald woman with heavy makeup and a strapless robe. “Now speak. What exactly is this ‘blood sacrifice’ thing? Where’s the exit?”

Dira revealed a mocking, silent smile as his response.

“What? You think you can go and fight all of us?” The bald woman gave Dira a side-glance while touching her large ear stud. “If you don’t talk to us, we’ll force you to.”

“Go ahead and do it, Chocolate. But don’t drag us all inside your business.” Another fine-looking woman with dark skin said to her, “We’re simply trying to talk with Mister Dira. No fighting needed.”

Chocolate quickly grew irritated when someone openly disobeyed her script so soon. “Ohh, look at that, it’s Tana. I was wondering, why did your drunk teacher ask you to come here in the first place? So you can die sooner? Or…” Chocolate glanced at the young man standing beside Tana. “Did you manage to find a new follower by spreading your legs?”

The other onlooking apprentices chuckled ominously.

Tana was wearing too little fabric. There was only a small, triangular piece of cloth covering her breasts, which did not hold back a pair of alluring, suggestive spots. Both her abdomen and thighs were fully exposed. To others, she looked like a professional hooker.

There were many apprentices around who simply couldn’t control their eyes when they saw Tana. Even a small fat boy beside Tana was looking at the woman with a bleeding nose.

Tana herself didn’t really mind Chocolate’s taunting words. She dressed like this just to retain her speed. However, most people would only regard her style in the wrong way.

Still, there was someone who was unhappy about what Chocolate said.

“Take back your words this instant, Chocolate, or you’re not going to get out of the garden alive. Who knows, this place makes a perfect graveyard for you.” Hermes, Tana’s childhood friend, struck the ground using the flaming whip he was holding, which created a large gash in front of Chocolate’s feet.

Chocolate was already regretting her move. Offending Hermes was not in her plan. Besides, she knew she couldn’t defeat Hermes.

“I didn’t mean—” Chocolate decided to stand down and make an excuse.

Before she could, however, they heard someone yelling in a childish voice, “Get her, Alby!”

A white rhino rushed into the open and headed straight at Chocolate with its sharp horn lowered.

Chocolate jumped a little when she saw the incoming animal. She quickly gave up her plan of “playing nice” and dived out of the rhino’s way while quickly constructing a cantrip model in her mind space. Next, she pressed her hands on the ground, causing a series of black, unrooted flowers to grow rapidly.

“The Black Manda Flower, the blossom of death…” Someone recognized Chocolate’s skill. Similar to nightmare illusions, her flower also came from a unique legacy that only a few selected people could learn.

“Sh*t. Come back, Alby!” the childish voice yelled again, but he was too late this time. The rhino was already surrounded by the black flowers.

“You attacked me first… so don’t blame me for this!” Chocolate gave them a cruel look.

Quickly, the flowers withered into a cloud of petals that covered the animal up.

People suddenly felt cold air blowing over them. In a blink of an eye, the black petals were frozen solid.

Behind Chocolate, Dira raised a hand while releasing visible cold air from it. His dancing cape also suggested he was the one who caused the wind.

Before Chocolate could question Dira’s purpose, Dira turned around and moved into the lava zone.

“You want to run?!” Chocolate moved again and aimed an attack at Dira’s back, which was pushed back by another cold gale.

She shivered and lost her balance.

Chocolate was among the elite apprentices, but she knew she lacked strength compared to Dira.

“Are you stupid or something? Brother Dira is asking us to follow him.”

Chocolate looked around in rage at the childish voice who kept offending her. She fixed her gaze at a small boy who was now sitting on top of the white rhino.

Hermes poked at the boy’s forehead. “Stop, Loki. And nobody asked you to send Alby into the battle. Don’t get hot-headed like that next time, or you’ll keep getting into trouble.”

Hermes then moved first and followed Dira’s track with Loki. Soon, the others also joined the group.

Before stepping into the burning area, Dira floated toward the sky and gave the followers another mocking smile as if he was discouraging weaklings from keeping going.

When Dira finally entered the area, the others looked at each other uncertainly. They knew that some of them didn’t have what it took to stay alive in there.

Half of them chose to stop here, while about 40 people ventured forward.

Nobody spoke, but they all believed that they had made the right choice by leaving weaker ones outside as “materials” for the sacrifice.

The white rhino was also flying in the air, but with one extra passenger on it—a small, fat boy in a chef uniform.

He was holding a wooden stick in his hand that had a flying fish pierced on it—the rhino just helped them catch their prey. On his other hand, a small ember was burning brightly, which slowly gave the fish corpse a deliciously brighter look.

The boy then sent a strange energy into the fish, which instantly brought a pleasant aroma to everyone’s nostrils.

“Oh god, I can’t take it! Alan! Quick, give it to me!” Loki reached out a hand with an eager look.

“Just one more second. Alan’s special-brand grilled fish is coming!” The fat one, Alan, smiled joyfully.

Hermes also gulped at the attractive smell of food. “Man. I think there’s something strange about that scent. In a good way.”

“Well, our professor spoke highly of Alan’s skills. His dishes are on our recommendations at Butterfly Tavern!” Tana looked proud.

Most people looked their way upon sensing the smell of good food. They hardly had time to eat earlier, and so, something cooked by a Gourmet Wizard had successfully tickle their hunger-infested minds. Even Dira, who had been flying at the front of the group, cast a meaningful glance at Alan.

“He just looked at you!” Loki pointed to Dira while munching on his fish. “Maybe Brother Dira wants some too!”

“Why are you calling everyone you see ‘Brother’?” Hermes chuckled.

“Maybe you really should offer Dira something. He did save Loki just now,” Tana suggested.

Alan nodded. “I can, but… why isn’t he speaking anything?”

Tana raised an eyebrow. “Maybe his character’s just shaped like that?”

Dira didn’t accept Alan’s little gift. Again, he glanced at the boy silently as he kept flying forward.

People began to doubt something. Just like the small cook said, Dira never said a single word ever since they met with him. Were they going to where they were expecting at all?

Dira’s all quiet, which meant they had been following him by assuming Dira’s intention.

Is he actually planning to take us somewhere dangerous and kill us all? Perhaps all the other apprentices from the city are waiting for us?

While thinking about the question, people found themselves arriving at a giant lava lake.

Something was waiting for them, true. Not the apprentices, but a giant monster that was slowly emerging from the lava.

Even though only half of its head was exposed, it was already bigger than an adult cloud whale!

Along with its monstrous head, several hundreds of tentacles slowly reached out from the abyss, causing the relatively peaceful lava to go violent.

Everyone froze at such a terrifying sight.

They heard someone talking from afar, “Here, we got backup! Just like I said. You keep it busy. I’ll go talk to them!”

The “backup team” looked at each other, not sure what to do.

“He fooled us all!” someone exclaimed. “Dira brought us here to get us killed!”

Sinehowze appeared in their sight. “Huh? Not really. The exit is just below that abyss. Well, believe it or not, I don’t care.”

“But how? That thing’s at least a wizard-level monster!”

“Actually, it’s a liiiittle weaker than it appears to be. But we need something strong, right? Just think, you need to reach this place, kill that thing, and enter the abyss. The whole process will kill 90% of us. And that’s how the blood sacrifice works!”

Someone slowly nodded. The woman did make sense.

“Can’t you see that some people are already trying to finish the job over there?” Sinehowze pointed to the Lord of Tentacles in the distance.

Keely, Freud, Yethew, Shayaron, and an old man they didn’t recognize were confronting the monster. However, Keely wasn’t moving for some reason. She just sat on her broomstick and watched while the others unleashed various attacks.

Apart from the strange old man, the other combatants were all famous figures too. Not long ago, Keely made quite a grand entrance by provoking “Child of Ocean” Jebra in front of everyone.

So it is true? The exit is down in that pit? People felt more convinced now.

“Shall we check it out?” Hermes stepped up first. Whether it was true or not, he believed they always needed to see with their own eyes.

While the group moved to join the fight, Carveline sent a private transmission to Sinehowze, “What’s happening here?”

Carveline was pointing at Freud’s group. When she left earlier, Sinehowze was the only one in this area. Why were there so many people all of a sudden?

“These fools found their way here just after you left,” Sinehowze responded with another voice transmission. “They knew about the Lord of Tentacles and the rumor about the exit below, so I said something to sway them into helping us. Although I don’t really understand that Keely girl… She’s not interested in the exit. She’s using her cat to look for someone.”

“Who is it?”

“No idea. She won’t tell me. Each time someone approaches her, she growls like she’s really angry. And I can’t beat her in a fight, so I just left her there.”