Warlock Apprentice

Angor thought about keeping Freud inside his bracelet just like before. However, the Soul Floret could easily die without someone to look after it. It wasn’t anything valuable, but Angor still didn’t want to throw it away.

With that in mind, he carried the Soul Floret, which was Freud’s temporary home, into one of the neighboring rooms.

The first thing that welcomed him was the smell of fresh grass and flowers. The miniature “skyscraper” in the center of the room was surrounded by patches of plants. The tiny Krakoks were busily working in their fields around the building. The once empty base now had a good number of cultivated farmlands on it, which were filled with different flowers and fruit trees.

The strong ones were all doing their works, while kids were chasing each other for fun. Several older Krakoks were working on wood sculptures. A young Krakok was trying to impress his lover by playing a small instrument he crafted while a number of observers watched their lovely interaction.

The small Krakok society was developing healthily.

“Angor!” Dodoro joined him with a big smile.

Angor looked past Dodoro and saw Papaya’s grandmother sitting in front of a desk with a pile of papers placed on top. The characters written on the papers suggested Dodoro just finished them.

Angor smiled at the tiny residents to tell them to mind their works. He then went to check Dodoro’s homework while Dodoro waited beside him with a yearning look as if he were a kid that was expecting a prize from his teacher.

Angor was pretty surprised to see that Dodoro’s work did not look like what was done by a fresh learner. Dodoro’s handwriting was just like his innocent character—tidy, clean, pleasant to read.

Papaya’s grandmother provided the same opinions, which further brightened Dodoro’s smile. Even so, it seemed that Dodoro was still waiting for Angor’s comment so that he could find more motivation to keep studying.

Of course, Angor was not stingy when he praised Dodoro’s effort. When he did, Dodoro looked so happy that he almost hopped around like a bunny.””

Angor shook his head and chuckled. It seemed that Dodoro would still need Papaya’s grandmother to teach him how to behave “properly”.

After satisfying Dodoro’s needs for affection, Angor looked at Papaya. He planned to ask Papaya for help to look after the Soul Floret.

The Krakok girl had no problem agreeing to it, and she quickly called over several able-bodied farmers.

After telling them how to tend to the flower, Angor placed the Soul Floret behind the building.

Even though Freud was pretty obedient until now, Angor still placed a small illusion around the flower to prevent Freud from swindling the innocent locals.

The illusion was similar to the one he left for Flowey under the graveyard outside Dark Castle. It restricted Freud’s area and stopped him from making unnecessary interactions with outsiders. On top of everything, Angor also recreated Freud’s residence by leaving a lot of books and magazines so that the man wouldn’t get too bored.

After Angor left the room, Freud picked up a book and was delighted to see that he could read it just like reading a real book.

His eyes watered as something came upon his mind.

…

Angor greeted Number One and left Sunders’ mansion to head to the city area with Toby.

Just after his departure, a butterfly with black and white stripes on its wings slowly landed at the mansion’s door.

…

The successful evolution of the purification garden was supposed to be something worth celebrating, but this time, the sounds of celebration only belonged to the lower side of the city, while the upper side was instead troubled by grim silence.

Angor couldn’t tell how many people died in there. He assumed that there were at least more than 50,000 apprentices who were left behind, and apart from those who were close to them, no one else would ever remember the names of these apprentices.

Floating Mech City attracted more doubtful attention because most of the people regarded the garden sacrifice as a trap. A deadly one at that.

Combining all these factors, the streets of Floating Mech City seemed more desolated than ever.

The citizens and their leaders simply proceeded with their days as usual while they ignored the ongoing rumors.

The garden sacrifice wasn’t all about bad things. Various major organizations gained future invitations into the purification garden, which was enough to neutralize all the toxic comments.

For the city, time would always mend their ruined name. Some bad fame would not damage their development in the long run.

…

Following the empty streets, Angor headed to Bogula’s base.

He occasionally heard people who talked about the Purification Garden. However, since they were not the ones who fought for their lives, they could only base their discussion on what they learned from magazines.

From their talks, Angor realized that he had gained a completely different name.

Forcing Jebra to back off was the most impressive incident people would know about him.

Even so, his new fame mainly convinced people of his strength. As for his alchemy talent that was mentioned by the magazines, not that many people believed it except for several wizards who already saw him personally.

Truthful or not, Angor didn’t mind these rumors. Time would prove everything, and it probably wouldn’t make any difference to him.

He reached Bogula’s place without meeting any trouble. The structure was still haunted by countless puppets of all sorts, who were already giving him cold stares from really far away.

The sun was still high above his head, yet he felt an unknown chill invading his bones.

He would never have approached this place had he not known that Bogula had left the city. In order to find Hookdick as soon as possible, he really needed Shadow’s assistance.

Soon after he reached the entrance of the base, the Rune Monitor that was dressed similarly as Number One slowly floated outside and approached Angor.

“Good afternoon, Kazar,” Angor said as he lifted his hood.

Kazar’s eye glowed in red “in surprise”. “Oh hello, Mister Padt. I’ve been tasked by Master that I shall maintain the best condition of your personal room, every day. Are you going to live here again?”

Angor quickly shook his head. He had more than enough reason to reject the hospitable offer. He still remembered how it felt like when several wizard-level puppets gave him deathly gazes every time he checked the window.

“No, thanks. I already found a place to live in. I came to talk to Sha-Diablo. Is he here?”

“Mister Padt, Mister Diablo had left the city half a month ago. He said that, before becoming a wizard, he will not come back to Floating Mech City again.”

Angor frowned at the news. He knew that Shadow would like to reach wizard level as soon as possible to revive Naga, and that the man wanted to travel around more to look for destiny. Even so, Angor didn’t expect Shadow to leave so soon.

And since Shadow was not around, Angor decided to get away from Bogula’s territory as soon as possible.

Before he walked away, someone else showed up from the base. Angor immediately recognized those strange black styles and thick black circles around that individual’s eyes.

“If you’re looking for Diablo, try looking around Northern Fields. He mentioned something about going to plane expeditions,” Falca said in a small voice as he walked past Angor.

Angor failed to understand those words at first, and Falca already left without giving him a chance to ask.

That’s… Falca, right? Did he suddenly gain a better character or something?

“Mister Falca received a message from Mister Taurus, and he must return to Silent Hill today,” Kazar explained.

It wasn’t what Angor wanted to ask, but he didn’t really care. After bidding farewell to the machine butler, he turned away and left Bogula’s place.

Since Shadow was unavailable, he planned to go to Timber Pub next and see whether Nausica could tell him something.

Before heading into Champagne Road, he first went inside “Moshi Street” to look for something he needed.

As the business center of the entire southern wizarding region, the city basically had everything he hoped for. Even if something was out of stock, he could always tell the shopkeeper to restock within several days.

He would probably leave this place in a few days, so he decided to use this precious chance to stock up his stash.

He had several new alchemy plans in mind, which were to craft some general-purpose weapons that he could use. Also, he wanted to do something about Akeso’s scale and hopefully create a defensive item out of it. He still had the scale placed in front of his heart as a simple means of protection, and he didn’t want any other alchemist to laugh at his silly idea.

He also needed to craft another suitable “residence” for Freud. And apart from all these, he was going to attempt apothecary with the help of Mithra.

These alchemy plans all needed time. He assumed that during his travel back to Old Earth, he would have plenty of time to mind his own schedule.

Now that he was still in the city, he wanted to purchase everything that he needed.

Once again, the prosperity of Floating Mech City was presented in front of Angor’s eyes when he arrived at Moshi Street.

Buildings in the air, shops flying around on airships, dimension entrances scattered about… Everything looked unique and colorful yet they existed in perfect harmony due to the ingenious layout.

The depressing ambiance caused by negative rumors did not get into this area at all.