Warlock Apprentice

Personally, Angor wouldn’t mind rescuing the drowning kid.

The panicking villagers confirmed it for him, that Kumur went into the water all by himself just to spook the other kids. Kumur intentionally stayed in the water for longer. And when he decided to return, he could not.

In Angor’s view, letting the rowdy kid stay there and face the monster as a live bait seemed like a good lesson. This was why he did not move to intervene yet. He was confident that Toby could easily reach there and snatch Kumur back before the monster could do anything.

Angor was planning to wait until the last second to get Kumur out so that the naughty kid would learn how to behave in his life. But… he wasn’t expecting Tulu to interrupt his plan.

And he didn’t like it.

While it was true that there was no absolute righteousness or injustice in the wizarding world, Angor usually preferred to act as a “lawful” wizard, or white wizard, because of Jon’s education.

Still, he wouldn’t approve Tulu’s rash decision.

The monster they were looking at was obviously not an ordinary beast that could be bested using human wisdom. Tulu, as a mortal, had zero chance of defeating a supernatural monster on that fragile fishing boat. By going there, Tulu was throwing his life away with no hope of achieving anything.

Knowledge was crucial for wizards and apprentices alike. One needed time, and of course, being alive, to seek knowledge.

Angor was disappointed to see Tulu being so negligent. It was fine to be either too kind or too selfish in the cruel wizarding world. But someone who couldn’t recognize their limit was just hopeless—they’d die before they knew it.

Still not moving, Angor watched Tulu driving his boat to Kumur’s position with an indifferent expression.

It seemed Kumur wasn’t the only one who needed a hard lesson today.

As Tulu moved closer, the beast’s eyes gleamed ominously as if it was ready to collect its new prize.

The other bystanders all realized what the beast was trying to do here. Someone even warned Tulu aloud so that they had one less victim. But it was too late—the monster would catch up with the boat anyway.

Meanwhile, Angor was slowly growing suspicious of another matter.

He had been watching for some time, and it was so strange that Kumur was still on the surface of the water, while a typical suffocating child would quickly lose it and go silently already.

In fact, Kumur looked rather energetic as if he weren’t in trouble at all

Angor didn’t find it TOO strange since a child born in a fisher village should definitely be a natural swimmer. However, something else further confused him.

When Tulu’s boat was only about ten meters away, Kumur saw someone coming and began paddling that way in a clumsy fashion. His head bobbed up and down while choking on water badly, and he looked about to die at any moment.

“Help-help me, Mister Tulu, sir!” Kumur called between his incomplete breaths. “Help…”

“I’m not old enough to be your ‘sir’ yet!” Tulu yelled while reaching a paddle to Kumur. “Hang on! Quickly!”

Kumur reached out an arm, only to sink further.

“I-me legs… I can’t move me leg!”

“Blast it!” Tulu cursed. “You looked just fine! Why now?”

A man showed up from behind Tulu, which was probably Ralph. “Tu-Tu-Tulu! That thing is coming for us!”

Tulu looked up and saw the monster somewhat casually swimming their way. It didn’t even use any special ability probably because it knew its dinner couldn’t escape.

When Tulu had time to react, the monster was already closing its jaws at the small awning boat.

Two water splashes were heard just before the boat was chomped in two halves—Tulu and Ralph managed to jump off in time.

The monster spat out some wooden shards with an annoyed look and set its gaze upon its prey again.

“Move it! Get back on land!” Tulu yelled while Ralph was already on the move out of survival instinct.

Tulu was going to do the same. But when he heard Kumur desperately calling his name, he clenched his teeth and grabbed the kid with him.

Thankfully, Kumur no longer had the strength to struggle now, or the extra burden would undoubtedly kill Tulu faster.

But this didn’t mean they could escape.

Between Ralph and Tulu, the monster had chosen the latter since this one had an extra treat. Like before, it approached Tulu from behind at a slow pace, which still looked a lot faster than a human swimmer.

When it opened its mouth at its target, Tulu quickly dived to one side and avoided the attack thanks to all the experience he learned from Devil’s Water.

After missing its mark for a second time, the monster finally decided to be a little bit more serious by creating a small torrent to block Tulu’s path.

By some miracle, Tulu once again got away from a deadly biting attack by diving into the water below.

The moment he surfaced, he saw a water arrow coming right at his forehead.

He jerked his head aside at the last moment, but the attack still connected with the side of his face and ripped his skin open.

Out of instinct, he put a hand on his injury before the smell of blood and terrible dizziness struck him.

This was made worse when his leg suddenly went stiff—the previous moves had completely exhausted him.

While he tried his best to stay afloat, the monster soon reached him.

Now he finally had the time to regret his decision.

I shouldn’t have returned home… I shouldn’t have accepted Ralph’s stupid offer and gone fishing. I shouldn’t have gone after Kumur!

So many wrong moves, and they finally contributed to his death.

He closed his eyes and waited for his end. There was nothing he could do now.

“You did something futile, which should have been plain to see. Don’t do it again. I’ll save you this time, and you should keep what happened today in your mind. I’m expecting payback in the future.”

Tulu opened his eyes and saw a flying figure confronting the seemingly invincible monster.

He saw something shiny flashing past his view before the monster was cut in two.

“I-I-I’m saved?”

Instead of celebrating his survival, he looked at the monster’s corpse and suddenly felt disheartening hollowness assaulting his mind.

Angor slowly looked back at him. “Remember what I said.”

Then he used Hand of Spell to carry Tulu back ashore.

Ralph, who was halfway in the water, heard the cheers of people and realized what had just happened.

“Man… that must be the wizard Tulu told me about.”

Unlike Tulu who just went through a terrible experience, Ralph quickly recovered from his fear and was going back to his people and hurrah with them.

But when he stepped onto dry land, he saw people had stopped talking and were all looking at Tulu, who sat in the middle of the group while covering his left ear… or what was supposed to be his ear.

Tulu no longer had a left ear. There were only bloody shreds that remained.