Warlock Apprentice

“Are elemental creatures rare?” Angor asked, after hearing the argument between Dokibell and Sennefer.

Madelyne answered him, “Not really. You can find plenty of them in the wizarding world because wizards can create them out of certain familiars, given enough time. However, it’s not easy to find naturally-occurring ones. This calls for strictly coordinated environmental factors.”

Angor nodded—this was also what he learned from books. Though he was hoping to know something else.

“Is there a place, or a plane, that only has elemental creatures as its inhabitants?”

“What? Not that I heard of. There probably is such a wonderful place hidden at the far edge of the wizarding world where people have yet to explore.” Madelyne chuckled. “If we do find it, it will soon get overwhelmed by wizards from all over the world. I’m sure of it.”

“Why? Is that… good?”

“Let’s just say, wizards and elemental creatures have a peculiar connection between them…”

Slowly, Madelyne explained what it meant to “own” an elemental creature.

First and foremost, having an elemental creature to help could greatly improve one’s studies of elemental arts. Most wizards, no matter which art they focused on, should at least learn a few useful elemental spells. And an elemental creature could save them a lot of effort.

Secondly, wizards could use an elemental creature as a medium to cast powerful elemental spells. Doing so would consume a fraction of the creature’s energy, but it would gradually recover, as long as the wizard did not exhaust the creature in one go.

Also, an elemental creature could become a deadly weapon if trained properly.

“This is also something you should consider once you become a wizard. And if you can somehow capture an existing elemental monster living in the wild, you will not need to waste all that time cultivating one yourself. But note that ‘artificial’ ones and wild ones each have their pros and cons…”

An elemental creature that received long-time care since its birth was, of course, more loyal to its master. On the other hand, it was harder to bend the will of a wild one. Not to mention that it was already difficult to find an elemental slave that went well with one’s skill tree.

“Now you’ve heard it. If people ever learned that there’s a place where you can run into elemental creatures everywhere, they’d scramble there without a second thought.”

Angor just remembered that he saw Bogula’s fire sprites, which were probably Bogula’s personal elemental slaves. And he just had another question in mind.

“Erm, Miss Madelyne? Since it’s so hard to find these things from nature, why did you kill that snow enchantress instead of keeping it?”

“That’s because you don’t easily tame a monster who lives under the effect of all the chaotic energy in the Abyss throughout its life. Did you feel the fierce aura of malignance from that thing? It’s better if we get rid of it sooner.” Madelyne glanced at Angor. “So you’re interested in elemental monsters? That’s a bit too early for you, isn’t it?”

“Just curious is all. That was the first one I ever saw.”

“Well, they’re pretty rare, but you can still find them with enough effort. The next time I run into one, I’ll lock it up and bring it to you so that you can take a good look.”

“Uh, no, there’s no need. But thanks, ma’am.”

Angor asked these questions because what happened just now reminded him of the Torrent Plane. He never intended to hunt for elemental monsters.

Dokibell resumed its travel while grumbling annoyingly, whereas the team had retreated inside the chapel to rest.

Angor was a little frustrated that he just found another secret he had to keep. If what Madelyne said was true, then the Torrent Plane was a hidden treasure vault full of valuables in the views of wizards. Should anyone hear about this, he was sure to get bothered by all manners of visitors who sought to go there.

The only thing he knew about this Torrent Plane was that a strange map he found at Shannon Palace mentioned it. For now, he was not so sure about the credibility of the map yet. Perhaps he would check out the place first before deciding whether he should fully share the information with other people.

…

Two hours later, Dokibell walked away from the mountain zone and reached a body of water.

That was the Veiled Sea, a large body of brine constantly haunted by an eerily menacing aura that told people not to get too close.

Legend had it that a Grand Demon from the deeper levels perished here. Later, Mister Monkey came and deemed the story as baseless. Even so, he did warn people that there were deadly monsters lurking beneath, including ones that equaled legendary wizards.

Thankfully, most of these monsters would not climb out of the water to hunt for food from the land. Even if they did, they could not use their full strength when away from their natural habitat.

In other words, travelers should be safe to pass as long as they steered away from water.

Angor glanced at the broken cliffs and empty stones at the edge of the sea and wondered how “safe” their journey ahead truly was.

“We should be running into coastal monsters by now, yet we found not a single one of them.” Vifet scouted the surroundings with a serious look. The lack of monsters was an ill omen rather than a good sign.

“We’ll keep moving. Everyone, stay on alert.” Sennefer ordered, before speaking to Brofen, “Ready that potion of yours. Use it on Dokibell as soon as you see trouble.”

The bear moved slightly faster, probably because it felt unusual danger lurking nearby as well. To avoid attracting potential enemies, Dokibell also tried its best to walk as silently as it could.

Seeing this, the apprentices in the chapel all grew stressed again.

Dokibell was running almost twice as fast. But it wasn’t comforting enough, because they would spend at least half a day in the coastal area.

Slowly, the apprentices grew jumpy, until they became badly paranoid. Even the slightest sound of wind could scare them for good.

“What’s that bumping sound? Oh, it’s someone’s heart…”

“You just heard your own heartbeat, didn’t you?”

“Why-why did the wind stop? This place is dead!”

“Because I closed the window!”

When more and more people began to spread terror among themselves, even those with sturdier minds were getting affected.

Brofen glimpsed at the trembling apprentices, then looked at Angor, who looked much, much better.

“Damn it. How old is Angor again? A freaking teenager’s more daring than these adults. No wonder these fools had to come here and gamble for a destiny.”

“Hey, did you hear that?”

Brofen got tired of all the rambling and was going to scold whoever just said that, only to see that it was Sennefer who sent that alarm.

It was unlikely for Sennefer to tell jokes in such a situation. Besides, she looked rather serious.

Vifet tapped his cane on the floor and unleashed a circle of ripples around him, while his sand rat’s ears suddenly grew bigger and helped him listen to the environment.

“Indeed… There is something.”

However, Vifet couldn’t tell what exactly was that noise, as it sounded both like low-pitched mumbling and breeze blowing over.

“Wait. I heard a bird.” Brofen frowned.

Vifet gave him a side-glance. “Ahem. That’s Angor’s familiar.”

“Huh?”

Brofen looked that way and saw Angor “talking” to a gray seabird.

Angor finished his conversation and spoke to everyone, “Toby just told me that someone’s singing out there.”

“Singing??”

“Yeah. Not a song, but some kind of humming.”

“I agree.” Sennefer nodded. “It doesn’t contain any magic signature though.”

“Either way, it means something’s nearby,” said Brofen. “Do we find it or avoid it?”

The sound was getting louder as Dokibell moved, which meant whoever was “humming” was right in their way.

Vifet shook his head. “I’m afraid evading is not possible anymore. Our unknown friend has found us.”