Warlock Apprentice

“No assurance. But the info can help you thin down your search range, and with your skill, you’ll have no problem finding the correct person, Mister Thewis.”

The info contained in one’s bloodline was always unique. It was difficult to read the entire “password” from the crown because the magic array was made a long time ago, but Thewis could still improve his chances by asking a Prophet or rely on other help.

“That’s the best you can do?” asked Thewis.

“Yes, I’m afraid.”

“Fair enough, we’ll use what we have. How do you get the clues though?”

“It’s not that hard. I just need some time to rework the magic array and find its root.”

In fact, Angor already did such a thing before, in order to ascertain the effect of the magic array. But now, he had to do it again, albeit with a different purpose.

Still, this would take some time since the magic array was rather complex.

“How long do you need exactly?” asked Thewis.

“About half a month?”

This wasn’t very long. Wizards usually spent years on end to do their research.

Thewis and Eureka took a while arguing whether they should temporarily leave the Crimson Crown in Angor’s care.

Angor was thinking about going back to Brute Cavern first before dealing with his new job. But Thewis soon dragged him into the “Banishment Realm” without giving him a choice.

“Stay here so that the Mystery energy of the crown did not get noticed,” said Thewis.

Angor wanted to use his Geometric Lock to cover the crown instead, but he then decided to accept Thewis’ arrangement. He wasn’t sure the Geometric Lock could block off Bloodline Retract from Goman King.

Also, he found it to be a good chance to get his hands on a new Mystery item. Perhaps he could learn something out of it.

“I’ll not delay you for too long. As soon as you get it done, I’ll use a plane passageway to send you to the Fey Continent right away.” Thewis handed the real Crimson Crown to Angor and summoned his familiar, the two-headed canine named “Soby”. “Tell Soby if you need to talk to me. It can get you out of the pocket dimension as well.”

With everything agreed upon, Thewis and Eureka left Angor alone in the narrow dimension, while Soby the hound rested on a chair nearby.

The beast still had the same look as Angor saw the last time—bright red fur and a sleep blinder, which made it appear as if one of the heads was always napping.

“Hey, Soby?” Angor tried.

The “non-sleeping” head of the familiar gave Angor a silent glare with a pair of deep emerald eyes.

Well, this one sure looks a LOT cooler than that chatterbox owl, Angor thought. He then requested, “Please tell Mister Thewis to inform my brother about my situation so that Leon doesn’t freak out when I disappear for half a month.”

To Angor’s surprise, Soby replied in Thewis’ voice, “Sure.”

“One more thing, sir, can you tell me Leon’s talent orientation?”

Thewis mentioned something about giving Leon a full talent test after Leon recovered. The test should already be done by now.

“He’s a Bloodline User.”

…

While waiting for Angor’s result, Thewis remained near the Demeter and thought about his next plan.

“What Angor came up with may not get us a direct hit, but it’s the only way we have to find the owner of the bloodline,” Thewis said to Eureka, who had been looking at the direction of the Fey Continued absent-mindedly.

“Alright,” Eureka replied, seemingly not interested.

“We’ll need a Prophet to get us a definite answer though. Now that’s our next problem.” Thewis frowned as he tried to think where to find such a helper.

Eureka suddenly showed a disgusted expression upon hearing those words.

That little b*stard…

…

Without wasting any time, Angor prepared several piles of spare draft paper and began his calculations.

It was a taxing thing to do, but he felt okay as long as he could examine the Crimson Crown up close. Although he wouldn’t do anything other than simple observations because he had no idea what the crown’s effect was. Going too deep might get him into trouble.

Just as he estimated, he came up with the final formula after two weeks.

Before he told Soby to summon Thewis, he looked at the crown and suddenly got an idea he would like to try.

What would happen if he used the Dream Whelk on the crown? Would he get a “copy” of the crown in the dream wasteland?

This would open up a lot of interesting possibilities. He might pull lots of different Mystery items to the Foundation City and do whatever he wanted with them.

But instead of commencing his theory in secret, he decided to ask for Thewis’ consent first. This way, Thewis would not blame him if his plan was found out.

Thewis already knew about the Dream Whelk and didn’t seem interested in the item. He probably wouldn’t mind Angor doing a harmless test with it.

As Angor expected, Thewis agreed without much of a thought. But to make sure nothing went wrong, Thewis and Eureka would both come and watch Angor’s experiment.

“Gracious me. A true Mystery treasure with such a useless purpose.” Eureka shook her head when seeing Angor placing the two Mystery items together.

“You mentioned that you studied Dream Manipulator arts before. Just to use the whelk?” asked Thewis.

“That’s right, sir.”

Angor quickly activated the whelk so that Thewis wouldn’t keep asking questions and notice he was lying.

Slowly, the Dream Whelk sent its energy, which covered the Crimson Crown. However, the energy did not reach the crown. It stayed outside as if there was a protective barrier to stop all foreign intrusion.

“I failed.” Angor took the whelk back with a disappointed look. “It cannot pull other Mystery items into dreams.”

“I expected as much. Just think, if you can freely send Mystery items to whoever lives inside the Dream Realm, how powerful could they get?” Eureka sneered.

“Everything in the Dream Realm is fake to us. They wouldn’t come into reality and do anything to us no matter what they can do in their dreams,” Thewis commented.

Angor would like to disagree, but he didn’t say anything in the end. After witnessing the gigantic monster towering over the dream wasteland, he no longer believed that the Dream Realm was completely separated from reality.

“I’ve burnt everything I wrote.” Angor handed the last result to Thewis. “This is the last copy. Rest assured that there’s no way I can remember any of that stuff in my head.”

He meant to make it clear that he would not get involved in anything further related to the crown.

“Good.” Thewis took the paper and nodded.

“Can I leave now, sir? I haven’t paid Jon any visit in a long time.”

“Of course.” Thewis freed Angor from the small dimension. “Talk to me when you want to head to the Fey Continent. I’ll give you a lift.”

Previously, Angor planned to ask the Ashen Traders for a faster way of travel, but now, he was glad that Thewis helped him save some cash.

While heading back to his room, he carefully thought over the brief experiment he just did. While it was true that the Dream Whelk was unable to get the Crimson Crown inside the dream wasteland, Angor did notice another interesting detail.