Warlock Apprentice

The woman left the arena while dusting her hands that were covered by leftover materials.

She then pointed to several seats nearby and asked Angor to join her.

“I didn’t know you’re a wizard, Miss Irisa. Sorry for not presenting the proper courtesy during the meeting.” Angor showed his noble discipline and took a seat after Irisa sat down.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. I believe you’ll become a wizard very soon, Mister Padt. Besides… I’m not the type to mind these small details.”

Despite her attitude, Angor didn’t really believe her words.

“I’ve yet to find enough opportunity to challenge the title of a wizard. You flatter me, Miss Irisa.”

“Each of Mister Phantom’s students succeeded.” Irisa raised an eyebrow and said, “If what I heard is correct, you’ve been studying wizardry for… less than two years, Mister Padt? A level-3 apprentice… Nobody can find a faster learner in the entire south. It’ll be quite a joke if someone as talented as you fail to make it.”

Angor chuckled and decided to divert from that topic. He talked about the main reason he was here instead. “So… about the request…”

“Oh? Did you run into any problems? Do note that I can’t help you with any alchemy-related trouble since I’ve zero experience in alchemy,” said Irisa.

Angor shook his head. “There’s no problem. I already finished your item.”

“Well, such a trinket shouldn’t take much of your time anyway.”

Angor was a bit puzzled to hear it.

If another alchemist were to take on the job, he believed that the time allowed by Irisa would be far from sufficient. It was almost impossible to perfectly recreate the crown using the incomplete runes drawn on the scroll.

He wondered if Irisa said that because she had no idea what alchemy meant.

Angor replied while concealing his true emotion as best as possible, “Before I give you the item, Miss Irisa, I want to discuss something first.”

“Let’s hear it then.”

“This ‘Crimson Crown’…” Angor revealed the treasure’s name first. “I didn’t know that you wanted me to create a replica of an existing treasure, and if I knew beforehand, I probably would not accept your quest. But since I already accepted your payment, so here I am, job completely.”

Angor waited for a response so that he could ascertain Irisa’s attitude. However, Irisa didn’t say anything, and her mask hid her expression perfectly.

“… After we finish the deal today,” Angor continued, “I will no longer have anything to do with this item. This means that I won’t be providing any further services regarding this crown. Such is my intention as well as my professor’s intention.”

He wasn’t sure he had what it took to protest against a wizard, so he chose to use Sunders’ name as a bluff.

Irisa chuckled. “There are too many cheap knockoffs of Crimson Crown moving around people’s hands. No one will care who crafted this one. This request is only to trick a certain bunch of idiots. I never meant to drag you to anything troublesome. You’re worrying too much.”

Irisa’s tone turned into a sarcastic one. “Besides, what makes you think that I’ll bring a weak apprentice into any important business?”

“Sorry for my unnecessary concern, Miss Irisa,” Angor said as he maintained his neutral look. “You must be really experienced and well-trained if an alchemy item enchanted with Bloodline Retrack is just a ‘small trinket’ in your eyes.”

“Bloodline Retrack? Whatever is that?”

Irisa found Angor to do the crafting because she planned to befriend this promising alchemist who was very likely to hit wizard-level. As for the crown, it only required some low-level materials and some modeling work. Any alchemist could do that.

Angor was just as confused to hear Irisa’s words.

“Um… Am I wrong? So the magic array used on the crown is Bloodline Remake, not Bloodline Retrack? But who would engrave Bloodline Remake onto something so small? That’s pointless…”

“Bloodline… huh? Magic array?” Irisa suddenly realized something. “Don’t tell me you added magic array on the crown too?”

Angor got a really bad feeling about this. “… This wasn’t your intention, Miss Irisa?”

Irisa rolled her eyes behind her mask and spread the scroll open.

“See for yourself. I didn’t give you any magic arrays.”

Angor pointed at several corners on the blueprint while explaining, “This is part of a contract-related rune. This is one intersection of a Tunnel rune. This here is ‘Blood Link’…”

One by one, Angor told Irisa the names of the runes he found.

Irisa stared at the random lines she couldn’t recognize. “Runes? Aren’t these decorative engraving on the crown?”

Angor was left speechless. Irisa’s reaction just told him that he did more work than what was written on his job description… if there were one.

“Lady Irisa, just so you know, alchemists can use parts of a rune to discover the entire rune.”

Irisa gave Angor a doubtful glance. “I showed the scroll to other alchemists before. They didn’t find any runes!”

Angor moaned and dropped the Crimson Crown replica onto a desk nearby.

“Pray look for yourself, Miss Irisa.”

Irisa immediately saw the red glimmer glowing from the beautiful artifact and widened her eyes more than she would normally like. Although Angor still could not see her face.

But-I-I asked him to make a duplicate!

To fool Goman King and his men, Irisa would occasionally ask alchemists to make many similar fake crowns. But none of them looked as true as this one!

Not only this—that ancient energy ripple displayed by the crown felt exactly the same as the real Crimson Crown.

“You-you MADE this? It’s as good as real!” Irisa couldn’t help admiring the brilliant craftsmanship aloud.

Angor was not in the mood to accept her compliment. He was mourning his precious time wasted by doing something with zero rewards.

It was almost an entire month! AN ENTIRE MONTH! For nothing!

Struck by sadness, Angor responded to Irisa’s following words by nodding absent-mindedly.

“This is so good! And that old man said I was wasting my time trying to buy your time using a cheap wyvern vein. Well, he was wrong! This is worth it!”

Knowing that Irisa only wished to establish a potential connection with him instead of looking for his alchemy service, Angor felt even worse.

He finally understood why Irisa referred to the crown by saying “a small trinket”.

It really was! She wanted a model of the crown without any special enchantment on it!

Angor did all the extra work because he forgot that not all alchemists possessed rich book collections like him. And even if they did, no one would spend so much time and effort just to earn a coil of wyvern vein.

As Angor sulked over his depression, Irisa was quickly making up a new plan with the crown she just received. Since this thing looked so real, instead of giving those assassins another trap, she might convince them that this thing was the genuine one.

“Are you sure the magic array on this thing is the bloodline, bloodline…”

“Bloodline Retrack,” Angor replied, not so politely this time.

“Yeah, that’s it, Bloodline Retrack!” Irisa gaze at Angor.

Angor somewhat felt her passionate stare across that mask.

He briefly explained the two magic arrays he deducted from the identified runes and told Irisa what Bloodline Retract was used for.

“That’s it!” Irisa yelled excitedly. “So that’s why Goman King can ALWAYS find where the crown is… Good! You helped me big time! Never thought you’d provide so much extra service!”

Can you stop mentioning it?! Angor complained in his mind.

When Irisa snapped her fingers, a shiny golden card appeared in her hand. “This is a gold VIP card used in Hurricane Shops. You can buy stuff from all Hurricanes Shops established around the southern wizarding region at half price!”

Cards? Again?

Angor didn’t want to accept the prize. He still did, just so he could leave as fast as possible.

“Thank you kindly. I think our agreement didn’t involve this card. I’ll gladly take it as a tip.”

“Yup, collected and delivered.” Irisa let out a hearty laugh. “Consider it a bonus for giving me such a wonderful crown.”