Warlock Apprentice

Just as Iron Granny said, Balba’s matter was never worth the concern. When Angor reported the matter to Sunders, the gentleman simply told him to “deal with it on his own, as he saw fit”.

In fact, there were many “guests” who were currently residing at Phantom Island, such as Nano the Fibber, and yet Sunders never cared. Since Iron Granny claimed that Balba was very unlikely to be a spy from another plane, there was no reason for Sunders to worry about him.

Similarly, Flora didn’t seem interested in Angor’s choice either. Instead, she was glad that she got rid of the unwanted burden AND she received another promise from Angor. Double gain!

Without any hesitation, Flora allowed Angor to take Balba away, on the condition that Angor had to give her an alchemy illusion item like the one he gave to Greya. Apparently, Flora would like to search for an opportunity in Angor’s illusion so that she could become a truth-finder wizard as well.

“From today, this half-breed has absolutely nothing to do with me,” said Flora.

This meant Balba was left with no professor like Dave, and he had to find everything on his own. But compared to Balba, Dave was still lucky that he had alchemy talent, which was acknowledged by Prome. On the other hand, Balba was a Bloodline Art apprentice who had a “suicidal bloodline” inside his body. He basically had nothing to rely on apart from his raw strength.

In other words, Balba was hopeless. And for this, no wizard would accept him as a student.

Two days later, Angor handed another brooch to Flora. This one was not designed based on Toby. Instead, he made a blood-red rose to go with Flora’s image.

The inspiration came from all the roses he received from Little Red. He named this item “Claret Rosette”. Though it looked different from Twinning Wings, the alchemy illusion inside was almost the same, just without the manifestation of Mystery.

Before this “trade”, Angor never expected that he could buy Balba’s freedom so easily. Once again, he was reminded of the fact that a person’s life was nothing in a world dominated by wizards. Lives were chips on the table, which could be used for bargaining purposes.

After returning from Flora’s island, Angor arrived at Apprentice Town and met with Balba.

“Okay, you’re free now. What will you do now? Are you staying at Brute Cavern or going somewhere?”

If he chose to stay, Balba would get to study wizardry, but he would not receive any help. He could probably find money from random quests and use the income to rent books from Cloud Library.

The Bomb Shroom Bloodline in his body was not meant to improve his abilities. On the contrary, it would prevent him from studying many useful bloodline cantrips. He might choose to return to the mortal world and spend the rest of his life as a level-2 apprentice. In Angor’s view, this was the better choice since the Supreme Cult probably wouldn’t bother to search for him among mortals.

“I’m staying.”

Balba’s answer was quick.

Angor wasn’t surprised. He could see Balba’s determination when this man risked his life just to receive Flora’s teaching.

“I see.” Angor wasn’t going to judge Balba. Besides, Balba was always free to change his mind later.

“I know I don’t have much to do in the organization now, but… I need to pay you back,” said Balba as he took out a scroll from his pocket.

Angor accepted the scroll and checked. It was a magical pact. It seemed that Balba was willing to become Angor’s alchemy familiar and offer his absolute loyalty for the remainder of his life.

Balba already left his name on the parchment.

Angor returned the scroll to Balba, much to the latter’s confusion. “I don’t need you to serve me.”

Balba looked down in distress.

“You know, it might be slim, but you still have some hope if you work hard enough. To become someone’s familiar means that you’ve completely given up on your future. I know you want to repay me, but do you think you have anything I need as a level-2 apprentice?

“Keep moving. Brute Cavern is a nice place full of surprises. Maybe you will find a great destiny one day.” Angor put a hand on Balba’s shoulder. “Don’t abandon yourself yet. No one can predict your future for you. You gotta earn it.”

After confusing Balba with several encouraging stories, which included Nausica’s awe-inspiring journey, Angor left him.

Balba probably believed that he would never achieve anything at this rate, so he could only pay Angor back using his entire life. However, Angor wouldn’t accept that outcome. He prevented Balba from becoming someone’s tool and preferred that it stayed that way.

But the truth was, Angor didn’t have much hope about Balba despite all the encouragement he said.

Angor returned to Phantom Island and began to study Glamor under Sunders’ instruction. It took him about ten days to grasp the basics of this cantrip.

Today, he was called to Sunders’ study.

“I almost finished inspecting your new samples,” said Sunders as he handed a stack of papers to Angor. “Find a time and read this by yourself. There aren’t many new discoveries apart from what we already assumed. I’m afraid we need yet more samples for further testing, but I don’t have time for that anymore. I’m leaving the remaining job to you.”

“Understood, sir. When exactly are you going to leave Brute Cavern?”

“Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan. Now listen…”

While telling Angor some useful instructions, Sunders showed him several piles of books that contained knowledge on various cantrips of different Illusionist categories. Since Angor had not determined a domain to focus on yet, Sunders simply left all relevant books for Angor to check later.

Next, Sunders left a drop of his blood for Angor so that he could sense Angor’s location as long as Angor carried the blood. At the same time, Angor could use the blood to request help in a pinch. Of course, under certain circumstances, Sunders might not be able to get to him in time.

With these settled, Sunders went off to talk to Rein Mute about their recent mission, while Angor returned to his bedroom and copied all the books he received into his tablet.

Next, he spent several hours reading through the newest research report.

Just like Sunders said, there wasn’t much to look at.

Sunders recorded every manifestation he discovered in the illusions in detail, along with about 30 cantrips he “learned”, including Wither and Enlarge.

These strange cantrips involved random expertise and arts and were mostly useless. However, Sunders still listed out the “relatively practical” ones and told Angor to keep an eye on them.

Also, Sunders made a general conclusion that even though the cantrips appeared to be aimlessly generated, they still fell within a certain boundary established by natural laws, such as life and death, creation and termination, fake and real.

And these happened to be what Angor witnessed inside Spotty.

Angor once reached a similar theory since he “studied” how to create these manifestations from Spotty as well. He carefully noted this down and put away the research report in his bracelet. Apart from all the cantrips that were unheard of in this world, this report was also a solid proof of his manifestations of Mystery. He could not let anyone else see it.