Warlock Apprentice

“Please choose your destination.”

Greya had heard the question for the third time. She had not said anything yet because she was too surprised to take in the situation she was in.

This time, she finally decided to say something. “Witch’s Town.”

“Cat Bus will depart shortly. Please hang on tight. Next stop, Witch’s Town!”

As soon as it finished talking, the Cat Bus began bolting through woods, mountain ranges, and waters, like running on plain ground. Greya was once again surprised greatly when she felt no bumping at all. It was as if the creature-vehicle’s paw pads perfectly dampened all turbulence.

While enjoying the chilly night wind that went through the bus’ coverless windows, Greya admired the changing views outside on her soft fur seat.

She lifted her head and looked at the small map affixed above her seat, which had the names of different places on it. She said “Witch’s Town” earlier because this was the only name seemingly related to wizards. There were other stops called “The Bathhouse”, “Tree Hotel”, “Mermaid Sea”, “Monument Valley”, and so on. They did not sound so interesting compared to Witch’s Town.

“Angor used this thing as a means of transportation here? Weird, but pretty fun!” Greya stretched her body and moaned. “I just solved an obstacle for my new spell. I deserve some relaxation.”

She closed her eyes and let her mind fully experience the extreme speed of the vehicle.

The Cat Bus suddenly came to a halt. When Greya opened her eyes, she saw a strange road sign along the smooth path. Using a lit oil lamp hanging on the sign, she saw a raccoon waiting nearby while carrying an umbrella.

Oh, Angor even put more passengers along the bus’ way? That animal’s bathrobe looked pretty cute.

Slowly, Cat Bus turned to look at the raccoon using its glowing eyes. “Cat Bus at your service.”

The raccoon responded while ignoring Greya’s presence, “Is this ride heading to the Bathhouse?”

Cat Bus slowly shook its large head. “Current destination set for Witch’s Town.”

“Is that so? Alright, I’ll wait for the next one.”

While Cat Bus continued running, Greya turned around to look at the strange raccoon patiently waiting at the bus stop.

“So many interesting creatures… If I asked to go to Bathhouse, would that raccoon join me? Will something happen if so?”

She was very impressed with Angor’s previous illusion, where every small detail might show her a great story hidden behind.

Is there such a story about that raccoon?

Greya found her curiosity growing bigger by the moment when the illusion allowed her to choose where to explore instead of forcing her decisions.

A moment later, Cat Bus halted at a corner of the path. Greya thought there was another passenger waiting for a ride, but she did not find anyone.

The path took a great turn at the corner. If they didn’t follow the path and kept going forward, they would end up at a cliff that sat above raging seawater.

Greya saw an iron road sign placed at the turning point. Apart from an arrow that told them to head to the cliff, there was a line saying “This way to Witch’s Town”.

As Greya wondered why the sign asked them to jump into the sea, Cat Bus suddenly crouched lower and leaped high into the air.

Greya saw a strange door appearing in the sky, to which Cat Bus was going.

As soon as they entered the door, Greya found her vision blocked by thick mist.

She didn’t feel stressed. Instead, she felt excited, because she sensed nightmare aura in the mist.

The mist was moving around, yet she already noticed the particular stasis in the environment.

It was like time itself had stopped advancing and was waiting for curious explorers to discover the tales and legends that once happened in history.

Greya couldn’t help but tremble. She did not know if she was too excited or afraid. And in a complex mindset, she failed to notice that Cat Bus was coming to a stop again in front of a wooden pillar with an oil lamp on it.

“We have arrived at Witch’s Town. Please feel free to use my service again.”

Greya finally returned to her senses when she saw the giant cat looking at her.

“Already? But why is everything blurry?” Greya said while looking around the mist, which prevented her from seeing too far.

Cat Bus did not respond. It stared at Greya to ask her to get off.

“Yeah right… Angor can’t possibly make his illusion too ‘intelligent’. That would ask for master-level skills…” Greya thought and hopped off the bus.

As soon as she did, Cat Bus began climbing along the pillar until it reached a single string affixed on the top of it.

Greya couldn’t see where the string led to, but she was bewildered to see Cat Bus walking on the string nice and stably, until it disappeared into the mist.

Greya scratched her head and checked around her again.

The only thing she could see right now was a road sign placed in the middle of a junction, which had three different paths. Through some spiderwebs and dirty clothes that were on the broken sign, she saw “Witch’s Town” written in blackened blood.

There was another line of smaller characters beneath. “Welcome to Witch’s Town, the carnival ground for your nightmares.”

Nightmares huh? Greya chuckled. The nightmare aura around her felt good enough.

“Is this town a thriller park or something?” Greya didn’t feel scared in the least. As a true wizard, there weren’t many things in this world she considered terrifying. But still, she felt her emotion being slowly affected by Angor’s illusion, which forced her heart to beat faster.

Without hesitating, Greya walked into the mist.

…

Angor was working on a new draft, which was supposed to be Freud’s new residence.

At first, he planned to make something simple to save time, but on second thought, he decided to do some honest work since this would be his second product that had his “trademark” on it. Besides, Freud was going to live in the item temporarily. After Freud left, the item would be left for Angor to use.

Since it wasn’t hard to create a sanctuary that accommodated someone’s soul, Angor would spend more time perfecting the outer design of it so that the item might leave better impressions on whoever saw it.

He had decided to use the “skull of the departed” as the main material, which could sustain souls, which meant he had to take the fragile nature of bones into consideration when finishing the other parts of the design.

Soon, he finished drawing a small structure that looked like a church built out of white bones on his draft paper.

“No… this looks too dull and white. And adding engravings won’t help much…”

He considered and added some alchemy gold gilding to the church.

As the final product came out under his spell, he realized that the pale hue of the bones went rather well with all the shining gold.

It might not be the work of a master, but it could be considered an art nevertheless.

“Nice. I’ll call you ‘Church of the Deceased’.”

He thought about using “Bone Church” earlier, but this sounded too simple.

The church was built upon a round-shaped foundation. The building itself was not complete yet. Angor left some space for placing extension runes so that it might contain more souls. He could not do it yet since he had not studied how to draw the rune.

He left his “trademark” along with a “lifeless rune” on the foundation.

This rune was usually used by wizards to preserve fresh organs because the negative energy it gave out could prevent decomposition.

At the same time, such energy could nurture souls as well.

The “skull of the departed” alone would work well for protecting souls. When added with the lifeless rune, the church would become a true safe house for someone’s soul.

As long as the energy source, which was an energy crystal, was renewed in time, the Church of the Deceased would work consistently, unlike the Soul Floret, which would wither sooner or later.

To test the item’s actual effect, Angor took out the Soul Floret that contained Freud and placed it into the small church.