Warlock Apprentice

Angor perfectly blended in with the color of night and moved above Yothur City, and the occasional golden runes shown on his boots did not give him away at all.

Upon arriving at Sunken Street, he gazed at Gurman’s small yet comfy yard from above, as well as the warm light shining through the windows.

The window on the second floor was left open, through which he saw a man in a black robe reading some files in the candlelight. Those were the same files he read several days ago.

This robed man must be the “first guest” mentioned by Gurman. Also, Angor already felt magical power coming from this person. But it seemed it was only an apprentice who had not been learning wizardry for much time.

The guest put down the files and was now questioning Gurman with an irritated look, clearly not satisfied with the result.

By reading their lips, Angor saw Gurman giving the robed man a similar explanation as what he heard last time, that more information about Lucas could only be found in the Anrum Monarchy.

Next, the robed guest tossed a small pouch to Gurman and left.

After asking Toby to keep track of him, Angor floated to Gurman’s window.

He saw the old man happily feeling the weight of the pouch before putting several dozen gold coins onto the desk.

He knocked on the window glass, which startled Gurman a bit.

Gurman glanced at the window and suddenly felt his mind going blank for a brief moment.

“Was someone there? Oh wait… didn’t I close the window a moment ago? It’s so cold outside…”

He mumbled as he slowly went to close it off. “I think I just forgot something… Oh never mind. The age is getting to me…”

Angor saw Gurman returning to his coins and pondered over what he just heard.

He just asked a few questions from Gurman. As he expected, the robed man did not learn any extra info.

When the robed man questioned whether anyone else was interested in Lucas’ matter, Gurman told him about the purple-haired woman, after which he mumbled, “That witch of a basket has poked her nose into the business”, and left.

Although Gurman wasn’t sure if he heard right. It might be something that sounded similar.

Angor searched his memory and failed to recall anyone by the name “witch of a basket”.

“Was he referring to that purple-haired woman?”

Since the black-robed man was still within reach right now, he decided to go after him for now.

He took a moment to sense Toby’s signal, which came from the northwest, and flew off.

He soon found Toby in the air, who kept an eye on their target.

Angor heard the sound of tides from his position and frowned. The area below him wasn’t completely strange to him—it was Yothur Harbor, where he alighted from The Limpet. Actually, the ship was still anchored among a number of cargo ships right now.

“Is he trying to get to the Anrum Monarchy by ship?”

Earlier, he thought about capturing the robed man and interrogating him for clues about Lucas since this man didn’t seem strong at all. But in the end, he decided to wait and see when he saw his target looking left and right as if he was waiting for someone.

The robed man paced around the harbor area for a while before heading to a dark corner hidden behind several trees. Even so, Angor had no problem seeing him from above.

Following the edge of some large containers, the figure walked onto a trestle bridge, which seemed to be a nice fishing spot. But instead of fishing, he lifted an arm and released some glowing glitters into the water below.

Following some bubbles, a white dolphin emerged from the water and carried the robed man into the distance.

“He’s a Summoner?” Angor held his chin. “Or was that his familiar?”

He could tell that the dolphin wasn’t a common animal since it had some unusual energy signatures, but he couldn’t ascertain its nature yet.

At the very least, the robed man should belong to an organization or a group. It was unlikely for a rogue level-1 apprentice to acquire a familiar.

So is he after Lucas alone or is he working for his organization?

With this question in mind, Angor followed behind his target.

After traveling on the water for about half an hour, they stopped at several hundred kilos away from the coastline, where there was nothing in view.

As Angor wondered what to look at, he suddenly heard the sound of a foghorn coming from underwater.

The smooth reflection of the moon was suddenly disrupted. Surprised, Angor watched as a giant blue whale appeared in his view.

He only knew a few monsters around the wizarding world, but this horned whale happened to be something he was familiar with. He saw the creature last year when he was attending the purification garden challenge. The whale belonged to Jebra, the student of “God of Seas” Flunza.

An adult Horned Abyss Whale was a monster capable of manipulating the very space around its body, which made it as valuable as a Cloud Whale.

Angor was already regretting his decision. He should have dealt with the robed man back at the harbor. But now… the whale suggested the presence of a very powerful organization, and he’d better not anger them.

The robed man had hopped from the dolphin onto the back of the horned whale.

Angor thought someone important would show up and address his target. But no. The robed man remained alone while chanting something under his breath.

The whale waved its tail and slowly ascended into the air, which made it closer and closer to Angor’s position.

Startled, Angor quickly moved away and hid inside a cloud, fearing that he had been found out.

“Since you came all the way here, might as well stay for a while, will you?” a cruel voice said to him from behind.

A water pillar rose from the sea, which came right at him.

Using his boots, Angor maneuvered in the air to evade the attack. In the meantime, Toby lunged at the robed man with his gravity power fully activated.

The man went down without showing any resistance.

Angor then saw Toby returning and gazed at the now motionless man with a frown.

“He’s dead? That’s it?”

But why isn’t the whale doing anything?

He knew something was off and stayed cautious.

The robed man slowly stood up with his head jerked to an inhuman angle. At the same time, Angor felt the air around him getting wet for some reason.

Before he knew what was going on with the environment, the moisture formed a blue bubble that locked him inside.

When he noticed that the bubble was too sturdy for him to break physically, he prepared a cantrip and unleashed flames around him to burn the bubble off.

The fire did eat away the water slowly, but the bubble also drew more water from the sea and recovered. Angor never managed to get the opening big enough to escape.

“Just stop. There’s no way you’re defeating the endless water elements here,” the robed man said.

Angor glanced that way and saw the man’s neck still broken, which looked pretty horrifying.

“You’re not alive…” Angor frowned. “An alchemy puppet?”

“Ho, you read a lot of books, I see. Are you with the basket witch? But I never heard that hag recruiting guys before.”

“Who’s ‘basket witch’?”

“If you’re not her man, there’s no point in keeping you then.”

A different type of moisture began to fill up the bubble.

The robed man saw Angor still using fire against his prison and snickered. “Give up. You’re not getting out of that.”

“Oh really?”

Following the sound of an explosion, a giant flaming beast showed up from Angor’s position and burst the bubble open. Before the robed man could recover from his shock, the beast rushed at him with Angor on its back.

“An alchemy puppet is meaningless to me, but this whale’s horn must be a nice material. Don’t mind if I do.”