Warlock Apprentice

One needed to attain a certain level for their energy reserve, physical strength, and soul quality before becoming a wizard. These were mandatory factors that couldn’t be bypassed.

Angor’s soul quality was already beyond the requirement, while his biggest weakness—his body—somehow received an unexpected boost during this exploration. He still needed more training to reach the wizard level, but it probably wouldn’t take very long.

This meant the last remaining challenge for him to go for the wizard level was his energy.

Just not long ago, becoming a real wizard was still a very distant goal that required a gods-knew-how-long time. Now that the achievement was almost within his reach, Angor suddenly felt at a loss.

However, meeting the mentioned conditions did not guarantee a successful breakthrough. He still needed knowledge and various skills for it.

None of these were urgent. Angor knew that he would get to them in due time.

Sunders’ summary regarding Angor’s newly gained bloodline didn’t look very good. In fact, the bloodline’s initial properties looked rather inferior compared to most of the low-level bloodlines.

But for some reason, the gentleman seemed really passionate about his discovery. With his quill, he noted down all his theories and data onto several parchments.

Sunders didn’t mind when Angor cast a curious glance at his writing. He even offered to explain some of the data he was working on.

The Origins of Projected Bloodline.

Speculation 1: There is a bloodline that resembles someone’s own bloodline to a degree of over 95%. Should we consider it “external” at all?

Speculation 2: Does a projected bloodline only improve basic properties without causing “qualitative” changes in one’s body?

Speculation 3: If “2” is correct, will the user of a projected bloodline be able to accept a new bloodline without undergoing other treatment beforehand?

Speculation 4…

Sunders already reached the final, conclusive question: Is it optimal to use a projected bloodline? Will it be able to be used as a universal body-enhancement approach?

From Sunders’ notes, Angor learned that what he received couldn’t be defined as a common-sense “bloodline” yet. It made him stronger just a little, and that was about it. No extra abilities or talents.

However, Sunders also mentioned that such a bloodline fusion was potentially and extremely beneficial. If his assumptions were correct, Angor was free to accept another “proper” bloodline.

This had saved Angor a lot of time and effort as he no longer needed to go through training to elevate his physical strength.

Although a lot of further examinations were still required for them to reach any solid judgments.

Also, did this have any unwanted side-effects?

For example, certain wizards could hide their consciousness in their blood, and when someone injected the blood into their body, the aforementioned wizard could take control of the blood user from the inside.

Discovering similar side-effects required a ton of data and steps. Instead of working on it slowly, Sunders planned to ask a prophet and hopefully receive a direct answer straight away.

“… Once we get back to Brute Cavern, I’ll go to Maya and figure out the possible danger that comes with the bloodline. She is the only prophet we have, by the way.”

Angor nodded before he gave Sunders a pleading look. “Um, my hand…”

Sunders gave him an impatient side-glance.

“I mean, no! I’ll look into it myself!”

Sunders chuckled and appended the new parchments he just finished reading to The Mystery of the Nightmare Realm.

“It is true that the projected bloodline barely increases your strength, but as far as I can see, there isn’t another bloodline that suits your body as well as this. Despite my speculation, I suggest that you do not find another bloodline to use before becoming a wizard.”

Angor nodded as he understood the opinion. He was currently an Occultist, so he didn’t need a top-class bloodline. Besides, better bloodlines were generally available to wizards only. He would like to wait until he hit the wizard level so that he could choose among the better bloodlines.

“Alright, that marks the end of our test session,” Sunders said as he glanced at Angor’s right hand again. “About that… I can only give you several initial conjectures, which might not be correct.”

Angor quickly put on a hopeful look.

“That hand can unleash the same level of power as level-3 Bloodline Art apprentices who have yet to fully activate their power. I’m referring to raw strength. As for other special powers…”

Sunders pointed at the floating green marks. “I cannot say for sure yet. I’ll find time later and make a detailed plan to test it out. Meanwhile, make sure you note down anything special should you find any. It might make our test easier.”

Even though he did not show it, Sunders was very careful when talking about Angor’s new hand. He felt scared. He was mostly speaking the truth when he told Angor that someone with long blond hair was “fusing” with Angor’s right hand beside the strange cottage. However, he did not mention the hideous aura that was he saw on that stranger. It was even more dreadful than some of the deadliest monsters he ever encountered.

At that moment, Sunders felt as if he was witnessing a living nightmare inside the Nightmare Realm.

This was the true reason why he did not want to perform any test on Angor’s right hand carelessly—he could not find the courage to do so.

Every time he looked at the green lines closely, a pair of crimson eyes would emerge in his vision, and the crimson eyes would stare back at him.

While Sunders tried to get over the fear that was lingering in his mind, Angor was casually making all sorts of gestures using his strange hand to get used to it.

Sunders considered something and took out a black glove from his space storage.

Next, he injected a small stream of nightmare aura onto the item that had the emblem of his family—the Eagle Clan.

“This will help you conceal the green light—”

He suddenly hesitated. He gave Angor the glove because he didn’t want to see those green marks, yet he never asked for Angor’s opinion. Some wizards preferred to expose their strange visual effects for everyone to see. No matter what his student would choose, it wasn’t proper for him to force a decision like this.

But at the same time, Sunders did not wish to take back the glove since he already revealed it with obvious intentions. It would look silly if he were to change his mind so soon.

Perhaps I can find an excuse, such as allowing others to see the green marks will give away the secret of the Nightmare Realm—

“Nightmare aura on such solid illusion nodes?! How do I do that?” Angor happily took the glove, which surprised Sunders a little.

“Oh, ahem. This is ‘Imitation’ spell but is based on nightmare power. You can figure out how to do it by looking at this glove.”

Angor nodded and quickly wore the glove on his right hand, which instantly caused the floating marks to vanish. Also, the glove disguised the abnormal size of his right hand perfectly.

He took a liking to the design of the glove as well. It was black, and an emblem of a winged sword stuck inside a rose was sewn on the back of the hand using dark-silver threads. He knew this was Sunders’ family emblem. The “passport coin” for entering Phantom Island had the same picture on it.

While Angor joyfully admired his new glove, Sunders moved to check the items they took from Witch’s Town.

He discarded all the common objects into the void and gave the magic plants to Angor since he had no use for them.

The liquid left by the water beast contained rich energy that could be sold to others. Sunders gave this one to Angor as well—he didn’t really need the extra money.

As for the Bloodrose Ghoul, Sunders eliminated its soul at the Nightmare Realm, and the remaining bones couldn’t be used to extract a bloodline.

Selling the corpse might earn him 100,000 crystals or so. He considered and stored the bones as his research materials. He then left the Bloodrose vine to Angor.

The vine was a wizard-level material, so Angor could not use it yet. However, Angor had no problem accepting the gift since he heard that he could sell it for big money.

I can get money to pay my debt!

Angor did not offer to give the vine to Sunders to compensate for the bill because according to Sunders, the vine was worth more than the amount of what was due.

“Good. You took everything I gave you, including the monster corpses. This means you can bring back wizard-level items, and perhaps something even better.” Sunders smiled in satisfaction.

“Everything?” Angor frowned. “But… where is that painting?”

“Painting? What painting?”