Warlock Apprentice

One night passed.

As the glowing plants absorbed light on the surface and released it in the underground space, the entire Windmill Town returned to the embrace of light. The dancer, immersed in the aura of the Nightmare Realm for over ten hours, finally returned to normal.

Just as they had previously speculated, the dancer, after being infected by the Living Line, gained the memory of a dancer. During these days of merging with the Living Line, the dancer’s muscles also memorized the dance moves, proving that even if the Living Line were stripped away from her body, she would still be a qualified dancer.

However, aside from dancing, the dancer was like everyone else and remembered nothing.

The only thing she remembered was that before she lost consciousness, she was helping a customer mend a torn sleeve. During the period when she was infected by the Living Line, she was completely without memory.

”So, after being infected by the Living Line, the body consciousness is in a sort of dormant state.” Greya said, ”It’s rather strange that the Living Line does this.”

Greya’s current state is quite similar to the Living Line. Her soul has occupied this body, forcibly putting the body’s original consciousness into dormancy. Therefore, Greya is very aware that this state is indeed troublesome.

Because two consciousnesses exist simultaneously within one body, even if one is extremely strong and the other extremely weak, the two consciousnesses will influence each other in the long-term merging process.

To avoid entanglement, the simplest method is to directly extinguish the body consciousness at the start,

But the Living Line didn’t do that, opting instead for a more complex step, which is why Greya finds it peculiar.

”Perhaps the Living Line’s ego-consciousness is not strong enough, unable to bear the performance consciousness required of an actor. Therefore, it didn’t directly kill the human consciousness but chose to slowly invade and eventually merge together,” Angel speculated, not speaking without reason.

Angel’s own talent causes Nightmare Realm creatures to generally not harbor malice towards him, allowing for limited exchanges without violating his own goals. As a result, through prolonged contact with Nightmare Realm creatures, Angel gained some understanding of this species.

Among the Nightmare Realm creatures he knows, intelligent ones like the harp players and chantors are surely wise, some even smarter than most humans; while the Colorful Dragonflies have slightly lower intelligence, capable of understanding only limited language; and the parasites of Night Demon City and the current Living Line have even lower intelligence, needing to leverage human consciousness to think. Therefore, they don’t eliminate the opposing consciousness when they parasitize or infect humans.

Greya also agrees with Angel’s explanation, but there are still some unresolved issues.

”Suppressing human body consciousness and using human consciousness for thought, this process is quite complicated. The Living Line, being a low-intelligence creature, is unlikely to accomplish this step. Unless...”

Greya left her words incomplete, but everyone understood.

—Unless all actions of the Living Line were already predetermined by a Black Hand behind the scenes.

This points to everyone’s greatest curiosity: Who is the person behind the Living Line? Is it really Yorkshire, or is there someone else involved? Additionally, the Living Line is now confirmed to be a Nightmare Realm creature, so how does it survive without relying on the Nightmare Realm’s aura—is it the improvement, evolution, or adaptation that Sanders mentioned? Can such improvement, evolution, or adaptation apply to all other Nightmare Realm creatures?

No one can answer these three questions, yet they weigh heavily on everyone’s hearts. The destructive power and lethality of Nightmare Realm creatures are enormous. Previously, they were constrained by the Nightmare Realm’s aura, forced to live in the Interlayer Space. If they no longer need the Nightmare Realm’s aura and emerge from the Interlayer Space, it would be bad news for the Wizards’ Realm.

After a moment of silence, the Tree Spirit smiled and said, ”There’s already a solution for the Living Line problem. At least near the Barbarian Cave, there won’t be a catastrophe caused by the Living Line. The other matters, we’ll discuss later.”

The Tree Spirit paused and then smiled at Angel, ”Angel just returned to the Barbarian Cave; isn’t it time to celebrate? Don’t worry about these matters.”

”Celebrate?” Angel was slightly stunned.

”Celebrate your promotion to an Official Wizard, of course~” The Tree Spirit winked, ”Do you need me to host a banquet for you? I can offer you the Life Pool of the Eternal Tree for free, allowing you to host your banquet there~”

The Life Pool of the Eternal Tree, located deep within the body of the Eternal Tree, is the core area. The vitality there is extremely concentrated, where ordinary people can have chronic ailments washed away within minutes, akin to a strengthened version of the Moonlight’s Praise. Wizards benefit even more from visiting the Life Pool.

Angel had only heard of this place before but had never entered. Now that the Tree Spirit suggested it, Angel couldn’t help but be curious.

However, despite his curiosity, Angel ultimately shook his head, ”Let’s forget about the banquet.”

Tree Spirit asked, ”Why?”

A banquet is certainly unnecessary, as many wizards do not host banquets upon advancing. The Tree Spirit mentioned the banquet for other reasons.

The Tree Spirit is well aware of Rhein’s intentions. Rhein feels Angel believes too much in distancing himself from everyone’s view.

In the Barbarian Cave, Angel is like an island. Apart from his mentor Sanders, others have little connection with him, even though Angel hardly uses the resources allocated by the Barbarian Cave. If this island were an ordinary wizard, letting them remain aloof would be fine, not using shared resources could even save money. But, Angel himself possesses significant value.

Alchemy Technique, status as a member of the Research and Development Institute, just these two backgrounds are enough for Rhein to pay attention.

Moreover, Angel’s status can affect the Barbarian Cave’s overall future direction.

The premise, however, is Rhein needs to confirm Angel’s true attitude. If Angel, like Sanders, holds the Barbarian Cave in high regard and is loyal, Rhein can use Angel’s status to make strategic changes to the Barbarian Cave’s future direction.

But if Angel continues to maintain that vague sense akin to the past, Rhein would certainly not trust placing future direction on Angel.

After all, the core of wizards pursues freedom, often acting unrestrainedly. No one knows if Angel might one day suddenly announce departure from the Barbarian Cave.

Therefore, to avoid such circumstances, they must first ascertain Angel’s attitude.

The banquet suggested by the Tree Spirit is actually a similar manifestation.

If Angel is willing to host a banquet and formally interact with the wizards throughout the Barbarian Cave, while it may not immediately convince everyone, at least it shows Angel’s intention to integrate into the archipelago.

Then, if Angel accepts some inquiries concerning Rhein’s stance and nothing goes awry, Rhein could start formulating the future direction.

Yet, Angel refused now.

The Tree Spirit’s expression remained unchanged as he smiled and said, ”Many wizards are quite curious about you. Don’t you want to interact with them?”