Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2116: Chapter 2117: White Bud and Shell

When Angel saw Regina, she was already outside the ruins’ gate.

According to Tree Spirit, he initially planned to invite Regina to visit the Mirror World since she is a member of the Research and Development Institute, a status that warranted special treatment. However, Regina declined Tree Spirit’s proposal, stating that she wanted to save the surprise of entering the Mirror World for the upcoming Tea Party.

That’s what she said, but Tree Spirit was well aware that the real reason Regina refused the visit was simply because she already knew Angel was staying at the nearby ruins.

To get in touch with those few mushrooms she’d never encountered before as soon as possible, Regina headed straight to the ruins as soon as she arrived at the Barbarian Cave.

The appearance of the Mushroom Witch was just as seen before on the light screen.

She had a very petite figure, an excessively young face, wearing a dress adorned with mushroom patterns, much like a cherished noble daughter in a family.

Sadly, the area around the eyelids of this young lady was somewhat bluish-black, as if she hadn’t rested in days, appearing extremely fatigued.

”Miss Regina,” Angel greeted softly.

Regina glanced at Angel and asked somewhat puzzled, ”Why are you dressed like this?”

Angel’s current appearance was still the red-haired, golden-eyed look, quite different from Regina’s memory of him.

Angel was about to explain when Regina waved her hand: ”Never mind, it doesn’t matter what appearance you choose, let’s get to the point, when will you take me to see those mushrooms? Where will we work?”

Regina’s eyes were glowing, her impatience was evident.

Angel recalled hearing some students at Ashiliya Academy comment on Regina: she is someone with a keen interest in mushrooms but shows little interest in anything else.

Regina’s current demeanor indeed matched the rumors.

This personality can be seen in a positive light as devotion and focus, but it’s also easy to offend others. Angel, however, didn’t mind this straightforwardness.

Angel skipped any further pleasantries and directly nodded: ”The laboratory is ready for you, right in the third basement of the ruins. You can start your research anytime.”

”Then hurry up,” Regina urged without delay.

Angel wasn’t upset, he nodded gently toward the Tree Spirit, who waved a hand and merged his spiritual body into the tree, as Angel led Regina into the ruins.

As they walked, Angel explained the layout of the ruins, but Regina seemed completely uninterested in listening, her eyes still shining brightly with excitement and anticipation for the unknown mushrooms to come.

Soon, they arrived at the third basement.

The laboratory had been tidied up by Baruba, looking clean and neat, although the lab equipment was somewhat outdated.

Regina looked at these nearly millennium-old laboratory tools that had fallen out of the mainstream, remained silent for a long time, and then asked, ”You do research with these tools?”

Her words were normal, but Angel detected a hint of pity in her tone.

Angel: ”I have recently become an Official Wizard and need time to settle; I haven’t had a chance to do any research. This laboratory belonged to the original owner of the ruins, so it’s a bit old.”

Angel explained briefly and then continued, ”Do you need new ones?”

Regina waved her hand: ”No need, I have all the experimental tools in my Alchemy Workshop, I can do the research there just as well.”

After Regina said this, she looked around: ”Where is the main subject of the experiment?”

The so-called main subject, of course, refers to the mushrooms. Angel didn’t say anything, he simply took out a green mushroom, the Mysterious Luminance Spawn, and placed it on the workbench.

The Mysterious Luminance Spawn seemed quite unaccustomed to the surrounding environment and kept trying to move closer to Angel.

However, before it could reach Angel, Regina intercepted it halfway.

Regina carefully cradled the Mysterious Luminance Spawn in her hands, her eyes shining with a peculiar light, and murmured, ”What a beautiful color, and such an interesting spiritual quality! Even the aroma is so enchanting, it’s the most perfect combination I’ve ever seen!”

The Mysterious Luminance Spawn was jumping up and down in Regina’s palms, trying to escape, but the more it wanted to leave, the tighter it was held.

This was a love that was suffocating to the extreme.

While Regina was admiring the spawn, Angel coughed a couple of times, trying to attract Regina’s attention.

Unfortunately, it had no effect, as Regina was now engrossed in the allure of the Mysterious Luminance Spawn.

”I need to say a few things about the mushroom,” Angel stated.

Since it concerned important matters about the mushroom, Regina finally managed to reluctantly tear her attention away from the spawn and looked at Angel.

However, before Angel could speak, Regina interjected: ”Besides the Mysterious Luminance Spawn, what about the other mushrooms?”

”I’ll give you the other mushrooms later,” Angel explained as Regina frowned, ”The Mysterious Luminance Spawn is the most threatening of all mushrooms, it can affect and even parasitize inside an Official Wizard, transforming them completely from soul to flesh, ultimately dragging them into the Abyss of death.”

As Angel spoke, he cast an illusion, showcasing the terrifying state of Reeves after being parasitized, before Regina.

”Once the Mysterious Luminance Spawn matures, it will release a large number of parasitic spores. If these spores are absorbed by the human body, even an Official Wizard will suffer.”

”The most crucial point is, these spores could erupt from that dangerous place at any moment, spreading like a living line, across every corner of the Pamiji Plateau, drifting to other countries, and potentially affecting the entire Wizards’ Realm.”

Regina understood what a living line was, especially since she had sought intelligence related to it before heading to the Barbarian Cave. She knew well the impact the living line had on the Pamiji Plateau... If the Mysterious Luminance Spawn were like the living line, directly affecting all life and even Transcendent beings, the impending disaster would indeed be terrifying.

Moreover, from what Angel described, the Mysterious Luminance Spawn could release mist spores at any time, underscoring the urgency.

Added to that, with the Tea Party starting soon, if the Mysterious Luminance Spawn erupted during the Tea Party, the entire Southern Domain Wizards’ Realm would be in jeopardy.

With this in mind, Regina understood the urgency of the situation; Angel’s reason for not revealing other mushrooms was to ensure she focused all her attention on studying the Mysterious Luminance Spawn, to avoid distractions.

Even though Regina was eager to get her hands on the other mushrooms immediately, with Angel putting it this way, she couldn’t insist further.

”All right, I’ll focus on researching the Mysterious Luminance Spawn first, then we’ll discuss the others,” Regina said, looking at Angel: ”But I have one request.”

Angel: ”Please, go ahead.”

”I can wait to get the other mushrooms, but I would like to at least see them now,” Regina said, her eyes filled with anticipation.

Angel pondered for a moment and agreed to Regina’s request.

This request wasn’t excessive. Regina had come this time to help study Miying, although it was also out of her own interest, they had to pay a corresponding price here.

As for the specific cost, there was no plan yet, but before then, it was acceptable to fulfill Regina’s request.

After Angel nodded, he waved his hand gently, and five mushrooms of various shapes and colors appeared on the workbench.

When she saw these seven mushrooms, the golden light in Regina’s eyes was almost tangible.

She couldn’t wait to pounce on the workbench, her excited gaze constantly wandering over the five mushrooms.

”These are all mushroom juveniles.” Angel briefly introduced these five mushrooms, and since it concerned mushroom information, Regina listened very attentively.

”This pure white mushroom is the Sound Transmission Mushroom, which you should have seen when we were in contact before. Its effect is to allow sound transmission conversations between the parent and child bodies. It is subject to certain distance, energy, and environmental influences.”

Although there are distance limitations, compared to the current communicator distance restrictions of the Southern Domain Wizards’ Realm, it’s much farther. So, in Regina’s view, this was still very good.

However, Angel didn’t care much, since the communication distance in the Wilderness of Dreams was even further and more concealed. Against the backdrop of the Wilderness of Dreams, the Sound Transmission Mushroom had almost no advantage.

”This one with the particularly large cap and a notch on top is the Phantom Performance.” Angel paused: ”It is also the culprit of live-line infections. However, speaking of this mushroom, it has a little background story.”

Regina’s ears immediately perked up.

”Have you heard of Mad Wood?” Angel looked at Regina.

A flash of confusion crossed Regina’s eyes. She was clearly hearing this name for the first time, but an inexplicable emotion was rising in her heart.

”It seems you haven’t heard, but that’s okay. The Phantom Performance was initially cultivated by a guy named Mad Wood. It is said that the purpose of cultivating it was to hope for performance talents.”

Regina: ”Performance talents? Why?”

Angel shook his head: ”I don’t know, this is information I obtained inadvertently, the truth may have already disappeared into the river of history.”

Skipping over the Phantom Performance, Angel continued to introduce other mushrooms.

These mushrooms included: White Embryo, Proliferation, Shell.

The Yamen Mushroom and Omnipotent Mushroom, which Angel valued most, were not taken out at this moment. Yamen can achieve medium to long-distance teleportation, which is the cornerstone of the future development of the Barbarian Cave, and Rhein had advised not to expose the existence of Yamen for the time being.

As for the Omnipotent Mushroom, it can grow according to the will and thoughts of the cultivator during its growth, ultimately developing into the form the cultivator desires.

Although Angel has not yet seen the specific finished product and effects, Minister Nuka had introduced this mushroom very solemnly at the time, with more emphasis than other mushrooms. It can be seen that this mushroom is indeed extraordinary.

Without concrete research results, Angel also does not plan to display it.

However, although the Yamen and Omnipotent mushrooms were hidden by Angel, the few that were displayed each had their own peculiarities.

Proliferation needs no introduction, being able to stabilize space in a demi-plane, very useful.

As for the White Embryo Mushroom and Shell Mushroom, each has its own characteristics.

”White Embryo, its cultivation requires the use of Mare Stone and blood, the Mare Stone provides energy, and the blood is for shaping. Its effect is that by long-term irrigation of blood, it can grow into the likeness of the blood owner.”

Simply put, if Angel continuously irrigates the White Embryo with his own blood, the resulting mushroom will look identical to Angel.

Regina: ”Even if it looks like a human on the outside, the inner shell is still a mushroom. What’s the point of this?”

Angel also expressed that he didn’t know, he couldn’t figure out what the purpose of the White Embryo was, so he rarely paid attention to this uniquely-shaped mushroom.

”As for this Shell Mushroom, it is called Shell because it will form a shell, or rather, a force field around itself that is invisible to the naked eye. Within this force field, it can conceal all its own presence.”

”Moreover, the mature form of the Shell Mushroom is very small and can be carried around. When carried around, its shell will also envelop the human body, making your presence completely vanish, even no pheromone would escape.”

The effect of the Shell Mushroom, compared to other mushrooms, is very straightforward and clear.

Unfortunately, the effect of the Shell Mushroom can be replaced, as many spell techniques can conceal one’s presence. Therefore, Angel’s expectations for the Shell Mushroom were the lowest.

However, the Shell Mushroom is currently also a juvenile, and it is hard to say if it will have any special effects when matured. Even if it truly has no special effects, if the energy level of its effects is very high, it will still be useful. For example, if the range of the ”shell” reaches dozens or hundreds of meters, rather than only being able to hide just one person, its usefulness would naturally greatly increase.

After introducing the mushrooms, Angel left some time for Regina to observe these mushrooms by herself.

Although they couldn’t start researching immediately, these mushrooms stood like flags on a hilltop, and once Miying was fully researched, they could conquer new heights. So, letting Regina observe them was also meant to encourage her, so she could concentrate and work harder to complete the research on Miying.

A long time later, Regina reluctantly shifted her gaze away from the mushrooms.

It could be said that these mushrooms are rare in the world. Regina wanted each and every one of them, but unfortunately, she can only temporarily give them up for now.

Fortunately, Miying is also very nice.

In the upcoming days, having Miying as a research subject still made Regina feel happy. Moreover, once Miying’s research was finished, she could move on to other mushrooms, giving hope to the seemingly monotonous days.

After saying goodbye to each little mushroom one by one, Angel then collected them.

”When do you plan to start researching Miying?”

Regina had no hesitation in her reply: ”Let’s start now.”

Angel felt a slight pang of emotion; with Regina’s enthusiasm for research, perhaps they really could complete the study before Miying’s threat arrives.

However, although Angel also wanted to start now, there were still some matters needing attention.

For instance, experimental assistants.

While Angel and Regina were talking, the Tree Spirit had already brought eight specially selected assistants to the ruins.

These eight assistants all had reached the peak of the apprentice level, capable of doing many things.

Although Regina felt that she could study alone, since the Tree Spirit had already brought them over, she did not refuse. She could tell that the Tree Spirit hoped these assistants would learn some useful techniques from her, and Regina did not mind this, as after all, the mushrooms themselves were to be used for the Barbarian Cave, teaching them some things was reasonable and necessary.