Warlock Apprentice

After alighting from Gondola, Angor saw the same mountain woods and the cliff wall that was supposed to be the entrance toward Ness’ residence.

He was still a level-1 apprentice last time, so he couldn’t understand the mechanism hidden on it. Now, however, he easily sensed the illusion energy that lingered on the wall.

“A sorcery array without any illusion nodes… But the energy flows are readable.” He carefully checked the inconspicuous lines and curves drawn on the wall.

But Sunders stopped him by knuckling his head. “Quit it. The initial array isn’t that strong, but the traps following behind are beyond your imagination. You’re looking for a sure death if you provoke them.”

Wizards usually put powerful defenses around their territories. In case anyone successfully barged in, they would rather destroy the territory than letting the intruder discover anything useful. Angor’s curious action was too improper.

Sunders tossed a small energy sphere onto the cliff, when the stone wall split up from the middle, revealing a narrow path.

Heeding Sunders’ warning, Angor proceeded as quietly as he could without doing anything unnecessary.

They soon reached the basin-like area hidden inside the valley, which was constantly covered in thick mist. In reality, it wasn’t an actual mist. It was a crowd of translucent souls with no clothing on.

When Sunders and Angor visited here last time, these souls were immediately scared off by Sunders’ mighty aura. This time, however, the soul energy released by Angor was enough to chase them away, which suggested Angor’s soul was almost as powerful as a wizard.

“Greetings, Mister Phantom. My master is waiting right inside.” A woman in a maid dress wiggled closer and kissed Sunders’ boots.

“Lead the way.” Sunders showed a disgusted look.

They arrived at the wizard tower in the center of the basin where Ness lived. Angor noticed that the entire tower was made of Requiem Stones—a long-lasting tiered magical material used for comforting spirits.

Angor could have placed Freud’s soul inside a Requiem Stone without spending time on making Church of the Deceased or anything too complicated. However, this material was extremely valuable since it was only produced in Anima Plane. He once checked the entire underground market and did not find anyone selling it.

Angor now understood how so many souls existed in peace in the valley. With a tower constructed purely out of Requiem Stones, these souls did not worry about “dying” at all.

Ness wasn’t in his lab this time. Instead, the old man was waiting inside a room on the top level of the tower, which looked a little disrepair.

There was no light source in the room. Only the faint light that traveled through a window helped Angor see his surroundings, but just barely.

Ness was sitting on an extra-long couch, where the bad illumination added to his elderly look.

“What is it, pal? You came all the way here just to show off your nice little student to me?” Ness spoke in a gruff voice and went to light up an oil lamp.

“What is there to show off?” Sunders sat down across to Ness, removed his gloves, and crossed his legs. The dim yellow light somewhat improved his sophisticated, gentlemanly look.

“Yeah yeah, you’re so good at your thing, being a nobleman and all…”

Ness glanced at the boy standing behind Sunders who was obviously enjoying the prime stage of growth, both inside and outside.

“Oh, you’re talking about Angor? There’s no need to ‘show off’. Everything is plain to see,” said Sunders.

Ness scoffed, “I guess you’re bringing more trouble to me then? Each time you’re here, you either piss me off or ask me to do free labor.” Ness leaned on his sofa and ordered a half-naked maid to cuddle him. “Speak already. What do you want?”

“Angor just—”

Ness lifted a hand. “The last time you wanted me to examine that sequence inside his soul, you cost me the soul energy that I spent years working on. Just stop it. I don’t want to hear another word about this little b*stard.”

Sunders stopped talking. And when he did, Ness felt a lot happier as if he just won a war.

“Fine, let’s not talk about Angor.” Sunders changed the subject. “So, about your student.”

“My student? Saka?” Ness rolled his eyes. “What is there to talk about? He’s always working on getting his ‘third star’… Hey wait, is it like, Saka offended you in any way?”

Sunders shook his head. “Not him. It’s about Hookdick.”

Ness scowled. “Oh come on, I see what you’re trying to do. I don’t know how Hookdick screwed up, but it’s so easy to guess.” He then stared at Angor again. “You won, right? Congrats!”

Angor didn’t respond. While it was true that Ness promised not to interfere with the battle between two apprentices, Angor was still worried that this old wizard wouldn’t always remain calm when his student was murdered.

But now, it could be seen that Ness never cared much about Hookdick.

“I heard that Hookdick once went to ‘Soul Soil’?” asked Sunders.

“Yup. Does that have anything to do with you?”

“Maybe a little. Did he manage to learn any sequence while at it? Such as… a sequence related to souls?”

Angor was a bit surprised to see his professor asking the question so straightforwardly. Would Ness answer at all?

It turned out that Ness wouldn’t question Sunders’ intention too much. Ness had no idea that something could transfer someone’s sequence away, and he didn’t raise any doubt.

“He did. But the power he collected was too slim.” Ness shook his head. “Hookdick’s really talented in soul-related skills. It was impressive for him to grasp the sequence in that garden during ‘downtime’. He would have completely comprehended the sequence of souls if he were to ever witness a ‘soul garden’ being created. Such a pity that his soul was already eliminated.”

Being able to study sequence power from a “developed” Sorcerer’s Garden meant Hookdick’s superior talent was likely to help the man reach wizard level easily, or even become a truth-finder… if he was not blinded by his vengeful ambition.

“What is the effect of the power he found?” Sunders kept asking.

“The soul sequence he learned?” Ness considered. “It only appeared as an ordinary spell called Soul Link. Every Soul Manipulator needs to study this spell when reaching the wizard level. Guess Hookdick got it a little bit early.”

Soul Link was a spell that opened up a theoretical tunnel between one’s soul space and mindspace. This tunnel was mostly pointless since soul space and mindspace could not interact with each other. However, Soul Link was still considered mandatory to all Soul Manipulators. In fact, it was another imperative spell alongside Soul Furnace.

This spell allowed its users to remain in connection with their mindspace, after ejecting their souls from their bodies.

Typically, souls could not cast spells since they possessed neither mana nor a place to construct spell models. This was where Soul Link worked by letting people channel magic in their soul form.

However, this only allowed using magic possible. One could not meditate to recover mana or expand mana pool without returning to their body.