Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2166: Chapter 2167: Fire Butterfly

Angel walked forward another few kilometers. Besides the Six-Tailed Fox he had seen earlier, he now spotted a Cossix Fire Salamander surfacing from the magma.

However, this Cossix Fire Salamander only poked its head out, glanced around, and quickly submerged back into the orange-red magma, disappearing from view.

Angel had a feeling that the Cossix Fire Salamander took a glance in his direction before diving back into the magma.

Could it have discovered me?

”It shouldn’t be, right?” Angel muttered to himself. His entire body was concealed by the Nightmare Illusion Node, and he had deliberately erased all lingering pheromones. Even a True Knowledge Wizard might not detect his presence, let alone the Cossix Fire Salamander, which didn’t seem to be Wizard Level.

Perhaps I’m overthinking it. Angel shook his head, choosing not to dwell on it, and continued onward.

Throughout this journey, every few kilometers, Angel would encounter a few unique elemental creatures. However, he didn’t disturb them and merely circled around.

Yet, in just this half-day’s journey, Angel already felt a profound sense of awe.

It is recorded in the common records of the Wizards’ Realm that the birth of elemental life in nature is extremely difficult. It must meet three conditions: extreme environments, coincidental timing, and a regional elemental concentration sufficient to sustain the energy consumption of elemental life.

This is different from the fire creatures Angel encountered in Duling Garden. Those were formed from Reeves’ elemental energy, not the natural forces of nature. These artificially formed elemental creatures still carried some of Reeves’ elemental attributes, which is why Angel didn’t choose to capture those fire creatures back then.

But in this region, the fire creatures Angel encountered were undoubtedly all naturally born.

In the outside world, a volcanic region supporting the birth of even one or two elemental creatures is already quite remarkable. But here, despite nurturing so many fire creatures, the power of the fire elements remains abundant, as if it has never been consumed.

Such a place is simply unimaginable in the outside world.

Amid these thoughts, Angel arrived at a fissure in the ground. This fissure was different from the previous ones; it could easily be called a ”gorge,” about ten meters wide, with large amounts of gray-black smoke rising from it. Peering through the smoke, one could see the vivid orange-red, rolling magma river below.

The temperature of the magma river was exceedingly high, distorting the space above the fissure with heat. Furthermore, as Angel stood next to the fissure, he could clearly see massive ground flames shooting up from the magma river, reaching skyward.

Compared to the ground flames he encountered before, these were even more terrifying.

Ordinary apprentices, even with flying vehicles, would probably not dare to fly over.

However, for Angel, although these ground flames were formidable, they couldn’t inflict too much harm on him. His reaction speed was fast enough to surpass the speed of the ground flame strikes.

With this in mind, Angel pushed off with one foot and leaped over the fissure.

After avoiding five consecutive ground flame strikes, Angel safely reached the other side of the fissure.

Having landed, Angel did not immediately continue forward. Instead, he turned back to look at the vibrant orange river flowing in the fissure.

”Something feels off. Even with frequent ground flames, they shouldn’t have sprayed at me five times in just ten meters, right?” Angel sensed that the ground flame strikes earlier were abnormal, as if they were deliberately targeting him.

Could an elemental creature in the magma river have discovered him? Yet, he was clearly hidden from start to finish.

Or was it truly a coincidence that five consecutive ground flames aimed at him?

Angel pondered for a moment, deciding to test once more. This time, instead of flying across, he took a step forward and suspended himself in the air above the fissure.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—

Three consecutive loud explosions erupted from the magma river. Three pillars of ground flame, enveloping glowing high-temperature magma, shot directly at Angel.

”I’m really being targeted,” Angel exclaimed, dodging the ground flame strikes and retreating to the edge of the fissure. He called out, ”Earl Mi!”

As his words fell, the shadow on the ground boiled like a black swamp, churning up. Shortly after, the outline of a head with Blue Lantern Flowers emerged from the shadow—it was Earl Mi!

Earl Mi lifted his head, his scarlet eyes looking over. Even without Angel issuing a formal command, Earl Mi understood his intentions.

With this, Earl Mi compressed his form, transformed back into a shadow, and darted forth like an arrow along the edge of the fissure, diving toward the magma river below.

Upon reaching the sky above the magma river, the black shadow turned bright red, resembling boiling blood flames, and plunged into the bubbling magma.

Thirty seconds later, dozens of ground flames erupted from the magma river, each reaching several tens of meters in height.

However, the power of the ground flames soon weakened, and their numbers decreased.

Two minutes later, Earl Mi flew out from the magma river, quickly returning to the edge of the fissure and merging into Angel’s shadow.

Once Earl Mi entered the shadow, he gradually emerged, revealing his head again.

The next moment, Angel watched as Earl Mi opened his mouth, and a Fire Butterfly, vibrant and orange, flew out from within.

”So this is the elemental creature causing the ground flame disturbances?” Angel asked softly.

Earl Mi nodded, the Blue Lantern Flower on his head swaying as he communicated waves of thought directly into Angel’s mind.

Earl Mi conveyed the memory of how he had chased the Fire Butterfly in the magma.

In the vision, the Fire Butterfly seemed nearly fused with the surrounding magma, and with each wing flap, spiral fire elemental shocks flew towards Earl Mi. Earl Mi redirected these fire elemental shocks upwards, creating the towering ground flame pillars earlier.

”So it was really responsible,” Angel once again focused his gaze on the Fire Butterfly.

Despite being released from Earl Mi’s grasp, the Fire Butterfly showed no fear. It even fluttered around near the Blue Lantern Flower, finally landing on it, seemingly quite at ease.

With some observation, Angel understood why the Fire Butterfly was so unafraid.

Because this Fire Butterfly... was an Elemental Sprite.

Elemental Sprites are also elemental creatures. They are referred to as sprites because they are in their juvenile phase of elemental life. During this phase, elemental creatures are generally small, mischievous, and endearing, much like elves.

This Fire Butterfly was such a juvenile elemental creature.

And such Elemental Sprites are always fearless, just as Jon once taught him with a saying from his childhood: ”Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers.”

It didn’t care about the consequences of the ground flame strikes or who the targeted person was; it simply did as it pleased.

Even when it was captured by Earl Mi, it wasn’t too scared and was still curious about the Blue Lantern Flower on Earl Mi’s head.

Ignorant and fearless.

Angel looked at this Elemental Sprite, not knowing what to say.

Elemental Creatures have a certain level of intelligence, but the vast majority of Elemental Sprites are quite unintelligent and act purely on instinct. This Fire Butterfly belongs to the unintelligent type. Even if Angel wanted to ask this Fire Butterfly something, he wouldn’t get a response.

However, it’s precisely because Elemental Sprites are unintelligent that Angel could roughly guess that the Elemental Shock the Fire Butterfly launched at him before was probably not intentional, just instinctive.

Fire Elementals generally have a mischievous nature.

When Angel was at Silent Hill, he was captured by Bogura and fell into a short coma. During that coma, the Fire Elementals that Bogura kept in the fireplace would occasionally pull his hair, burning his once golden hair into a mess. These Fire Elementals weren’t really trying to attack Angel; they were just plain mischievous.

In terms of behavior, Fire Elementals are the most classic troublemakers among the Elemental Sprites.

For the absurd attacks from these little troublemakers, Angel can understand it based on their identity; however, there is another thing he doesn’t understand right now.

”How did it discover me?”

Due to intelligence reasons, the Fire Butterfly definitely can’t answer this question. Thinking about it, Angel believes there are actually only two possibilities.

The first possibility is that this Fire Butterfly has a special detection ability; it can spot Angel hidden within an Illusion Technique.

The second possibility is that it’s not the Fire Butterfly that’s special, but rather this side of the Tidal World, this area, or the Elemental Creatures here with a general insight ability.

The first situation might be okay since only the Fire Butterfly can see him; but if it’s the second, doesn’t that mean all the Elemental Creatures he’s encountered have actually seen him?

Angel thought of the Fire Salamander from Koshi he saw earlier; it poked its head out from the Magma, glanced around, then looked in his direction before slowly submerging itself... At that time, Angel vaguely felt something was off. Now that he thinks about it, could it be that this Fire Salamander actually saw him, that’s why it hid?

”There’s really such a possibility.” Angel pinched his eyebrows with some distress, thinking he was hiding his figure to gather information; yet if Fire Elementals truly can perceive him, forget gathering information, his own information has probably already been leaked.

Angel sighed: ”Forget it, let’s not think about it anymore.” Pretend you haven’t been discovered and continue forward. When he encounters Fire Elementals again, he’ll test it out then.

Having determined the next strategy, Angel looked again at the Fire Butterfly resting on the Blue Lantern Flower.

How should he handle this Fire Elemental?

This question’s deeper meaning is: should he release it, or should he capture it?

Before coming to Tidal World, Angel had thoroughly researched information on Elemental Creatures. Elemental Creatures are very useful to a Wizard; not only can they assist in practicing Spell Technique on the elemental side, they can also serve as casting media for quickly releasing powerful attacks. Moreover, if nurtured well, Elemental Creatures themselves are a formidable force.

It could be said that as an Official Wizard, having an Elemental Creature partner is indispensable.

So how does one choose an Elemental Creature suitable for themselves?

Aside from artificially cultivated Elemental Creatures, in terms of choosing naturally occurring Elemental Creatures, the current mainstream view in the Wizards’ Realm has two opinions: The first is to choose Elemental Sprites and start nurturing from the juvenile phase, accompanying them; the second is to choose maturing Elemental Creatures, which already have certain abilities and can directly assist the master in practicing elemental side Spell Technique.

These two choices have their pros and cons. Generally speaking, Wizards on the elemental side will choose to nurture from Elemental Sprites, because self-cultivation makes them more loyal, and one can influence the Elemental Sprite’s future development according to their own desire.

Most importantly, once Elemental Sprites mature, there is a high probability they can give the host an ability: Elementalization.

With the ability of Elementalization, a Wizard can basically ignore the majority of physical attacks.

The advantage of choosing a juvenile Elemental Sprite is very significant, but the downside is also obvious; the cost of nurturing Elemental Sprites is too high, and the nurturing period is too long, often spanning decades or centuries.

Choosing a maturing Elemental Creature has existing abilities, allowing it to have considerable combat strength directly. But there are disadvantages too; a maturing Elemental Creature already has a certain amount of wisdom. They may not want to follow you, and even if they do, their abilities and attributes may not suit you.

If Angel were to choose, he could actually go for either option.

For the juvenile phase, he does not lack Magic Crystals, so he can nurture Elemental Sprites without concern for the cost.

For the maturing phase, he too can choose it, because he doesn’t primarily rely on Elemental Creatures for combat. To him, Elemental Creatures are just a medium to assist in cultivating elemental abilities.

Since both are viable, this Fire Butterfly can indeed be taken as well.

Angel crouched down and gently touched the Fire Butterfly, wanting to sense its internal elemental structure... But at that moment, the Fire Butterfly flapped its wings, and a Fire Tornado went straight for Angel’s face.

An infanthood Fire Butterfly’s Fire Tornado isn’t strong by itself, but here the Fire Elements were too active, causing the AOE of this Fire Tornado to be extremely large.

Angel wasn’t much affected himself, but he accidentally activated the nearby underground Magma Lake.

Torrents of magma surged upwards like an inverted flaming waterfall from the ground.

Angel quickly flew into the air to avoid getting burned.

After the flames slightly calmed down, Angel glanced at this Fire Butterfly with a slightly stern expression. He couldn’t be bothered to make a choice and directly snapped his fingers at the Fire Butterfly.

Off you go.

The Fire Butterfly turned into a blazing arc and fell into the depths of the crevice.

”Let someone else discipline this troublemaker later.” Angel dusted his hands and said without hesitation.

As for talent? When he had touched the Fire Butterfly earlier, its internal flame structure was quite ordinary, and Angel truly didn’t find anything especially talented.

Anyway, there are bound to be many more Elemental Creatures and Elemental Sprites here; no need to waste time with a troublemaker.

Without hesitation, Angel turned and left.

In the next few miles, Angel didn’t encounter any more Elemental Creatures; perhaps they all hid within the magma. However, he saw many different kinds of Demonic Materials exposed on the Scorched Earth. These included gemstones, magical ores, and remnants left by Fire Elemental Creatures, like flame feathers and fire-affinity nails.

He didn’t touch any of these things, because there were too many to carry, and most of them were Low-level materials. In the future, he could issue tasks at the Barbarian Cave and let the apprentices come here to collect them.

His priority now is to explore and gather intelligence, everything else comes after.