Warlock Apprentice

This insect was believed to be extinct a thousand years ago. As its name suggested, it could create dreams.

Jon once told Angor an old story about empty dreams before, which reminded him of the amazing trait of the ant. This was why Angor purchased it in Floating Mech City just to give it to Jon.

The ant came with its own nest that looked like a small pyramid. But as soon as Angor placed it inside his bracelet, the ant ditched its home and moved into the Soft Larva nest instead. Angor had not figured out why the ant did so, but he didn’t worry about it too much.

When carrying the nest, he also smelled the stink of blood coming from it. It was Akeso’s blood, which he stored inside a container after removing Dodoro from a coffin. The blood of a wizard-level monster was a very potent component for drawing runes, so he kept it in safety.

It seemed the Dream Weaver would occasionally wake up, retrieve a small block of the blood, and carry it back to its new home. While being inside Angor’s bracelet for about a year, it had consumed a good amount of blood so that its body carried the same smell.

Angor reached a spirit feeler inside the nest to look for the naughty creature. However, what came into his detection first was a small white worm that wasn’t moving.

“A Soft Larva hatched? But it’s dead…”

The worm’s body had shrunk badly. There were two tiny pincer holes on it that suggested the Dream Weaver was the culprit.

“The ant came here to murder the larva? Guess I should take it somewhere else.”

He kept reaching his spirit feeler further inside until he saw the ant still sleeping on top of a small lump of condensed blood. There were also several Soft Larva eggs buried in the blood.

“Maybe the ant knows that the blood could help the larvae grow faster, so it did all these for quicker meals?”

This was a surprise. At least he learned how to hatch the eggs better now.

Without minding the eggs, Angor used his spirit power to carry the ant outside.

The insect started panicking when someone woke it up. Angor needed only to send a stream of gentle energy to soothe the ant, which wasn’t a very intelligent monster.

After buying the ant, Angor found a book that explained the nature of a Dream Weaver. Apparently, a Dream Weaver mostly depended on mutualism. By providing good dreams to someone, it expected food in return. In ancient times, humans and Dream Weavers used to be such partners.

“I provided all the blood you were feeding on for a year. Now it’s time for payback.” Angor sent his emotion to the ant.

The pair of “antennas” on the creature’s head moved back and forth, and Angor successfully read its response that appeared somewhat like an acknowledgment.

Angor then looked at the ice coffin in the room. The next question was whether the ant could survive the cold.

He tried placing the ant on the coffin and saw the insect crawling around casually. Telling from its simple emotion signals, he could tell that the ant knew nothing other than finding more food and a place to sleep.

He placed the “original home” of the ant beside Jon’s head and ordered, “You get a drop of blood each week, and your only job is to let him dream.”

He gently tapped one of the ant’s antennae, the white one. According to relevant knowledge, this was what he needed to do to instruct the ant to create sweet dreams for its target.

The ant remained still for a moment before it moved onto Jon’s head and used the same antenna to rub Jon’s forehead.

“That’s how it works?” Angor watched curiously.

The movement of the Dream Weaver appeared rather simple, but Angor somehow felt as if the creature were performing a very serious ritual by putting Jon under its protection.

About five minutes later, the ant moved back to its nest and began showing that “I need food” emotion again.

After receiving a drop of blood from Angor’s bracelet, it then carried it back to its “pyramid nest” and fell asleep.

The ant didn’t seem to have any problem with the cold. Still, Angor applied a Preserve Heat rune on its nest just in case.

With everything done, Angor looked at Jon again.

He wasn’t sure about this, but he believed the corners of Jon’s lips turned upward into a smile.

I wonder what he’s dreaming about… His home? Or his future journeys in this world? He was separated from his family 20 years ago. He must miss them very much. Are Mister Jon’s wife and daughter as kind as him?

Wait a minute.

He just remembered that he obtained a cantrip from Freud not long ago called “Dream Walk”. He could use this to look into Jon’s dream!

He quickly made up his mind to study and master the cantrip as soon as he could, even if it might be difficult to do so because such an art was completely out of his profession.

He now believed that buying the Dream Weaver was one of the best choices he ever made, even though Sunders claimed that it wasn’t worthwhile to trade the mechanism of an Energy Stabilizer for it.

…

He left a scout puppet above Jon’s coffin so that he could see any abnormalities should they happen.

The campfire in front of the manor was still burning brightly by the time he returned, but there weren’t many people awake to see it.

Most of the Krakoks had retreated back into their small skyscraper, which was placed beside the tea garden. Kumomo asked several of their members to build a rain shed above their apartment and fields so that their miniature structures wouldn’t be ruined by bad weather.

Toby and the Moonlily Fairy were sitting on a branch of the Milkberry Tree while “talking” to each other in a way that no one else could understand. Occasionally, they would give several careful glances to an owl, which was standing on another tree nearby, drooling over the smell of milk.

Angor chuckled and decided to leave them be. The owl couldn’t harm Toby anyway. He would let Toby and the fairy decide whether they’d allow the owl some snacks.

The entire manor had gone quiet except for several singing crickets. The place didn’t change too much in the past years, and Angor was glad to see it.

It would be even more perfect if Eureka weren’t here… he thought.

With such hope in mind, Angor returned to the manor castle.

He saw Auri snoring loudly on the floor outside his room and shook his head with a smile. It seemed even in her drunk state, Auri insisted on being his personal maid.

After carrying Auri to a bed in the neighboring room, Angor went into his own bedroom. He didn’t come here to sleep though. He planned to start looking for a way to help Jon as soon as possible.

Before doing so, however, he took out the Soft Larva nest first.