Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2519: Chapter 2520: Staircase Trial

”This staircase seems a bit off,” Lady Melo also sensed the subtle tremors coming from the wooden stairs. From the surface of the stairs, nothing appeared unusual, but based on her past experiences, she speculated that it’s highly possible the stairs’ interior or shadowed side was inscribed with a Magical Energy Array.

As for the purpose of the Magical Energy Array...it’s probably not something good.

Nevertheless, Lady Melo wasn’t overly concerned. Although she couldn’t understand the Magical Energy Array, the person beside her was a master of Magical Energy Arrays.

Thinking of this, Lady Melo looked at Angel with hopeful eyes.

She hadn’t forgotten the playing card on the fourth floor of the prison. If she could witness Angel cracking the Magical Energy Array firsthand, it would be a kind of broadening experience...even if she didn’t understand it now, with time she’d surely find some meaning in it.

However, Lady Melo’s expectations were ultimately disappointed.

Angel did not crack the Magical Energy Array but instead cast an Illusion Technique, causing glowing footprints to appear on the stairs.

”Step on these glowing footprints, and you’ll be safe. If you don’t step on the correct path, you might...die? Like being served on a platter,” Angel said this cruel line lightly and then stepped back, giving a look to the Talented Ones. The meaning was clear—you go.

Angel had initially considered cutting off the mechanism’s energy to temporarily disable the Magical Energy Array. But for some reason, seeing those safe spots and imagining the awkward steps of a clumsy child, he suddenly didn’t want to crack the array anymore.

Faced with Angel’s sudden stance, the group of Talented Ones was dumbfounded.

”Do we go first?” The chubby one pointed at his own nose.

The others looked at Angel with hopeful and pleading eyes, desperately hoping they’d misunderstood his meaning.

If they were normal footprints, it would be fine, but the footprints on the stairs were extremely bizarre. Just looking at them suggested that maintaining balance while moving would be necessary for them to connect. They might even need to do some running and jumping while maintaining the pose. The difficulty was truly high!

However, Angel’s slight nod shattered their expectations.

For a moment, everyone’s expressions were quite colorful, with looks of terror, gulping to feign calmness, and others maintaining a cold persona although their pupils were dilating.

Angel merely watched silently, without saying a word.

”Are you really letting them go alone?” Lady Melo then spoke.

She appeared very concerned, but in truth, her feelings were entirely opposite. Angel had placed the answers on the stairs—just follow the footprints, and everything would be fine. If they couldn’t even do that, they shouldn’t be mingling in the Wizards’ Realm. Her speaking up was purely due to her selfish desire; she preferred to see how Angel would crack the Magical Energy Array rather than train these rookies.

The others, unaware of Lady Melo’s true thoughts, cast grateful eyes at her. Indeed, Lady Melo was still the kind one among them.

Angel didn’t ponder Lady Melo’s intentions; he thought she had softened a bit and replied, ”Didn’t you bring them to the castle for this very reason? Now, why are you hesitating?”

Lady Melo smiled awkwardly; it wasn’t easy for her to voice her true intentions, so she vaguely said, ”I’m not worried about them. I mean, the answer has been given, and having them walk it doesn’t really exercise them much.”

Angel raised an eyebrow, ”Really?”

Lady Melo affirmed, ”Yes.”

”But...” Angel pointed toward the Talented Ones across from them, ”are you sure that after giving the answer, they’d dare to walk it?”

Lady Melo followed Angel’s gaze. Except for Siber, who maintained her cold facade, the others clearly showed signs of fear.

Even Siber, with Lady Melo’s understanding of her, was likely internally anxious, though she couldn’t abandon her persona.

”Since Lady Melo thinks giving the answer doesn’t exercise them much,” Angel mused, ”let’s do this. I’ll give you a few minutes to memorize; remember where to go, then I’ll erase the hints. This way, it also increases the challenge a bit.”

The crowd was genuinely stunned when they heard this.

They thought Lady Melo was their saving angel, never expecting that after a brief exchange of words, what was a straightforward path turned into a blind journey.

Lady Melo opened her mouth to say something but, seeing Angel’s indifferent expression, ultimately remained silent.

This group of Talented Ones was indeed a bit too much of a handful. Even Lady Melo, their Guide, admitted as much.

Bringing such a lackluster group of Talented Ones back to the Barbarian Cave, would any wizard even bother sending them an invitation?

With this thought, Lady Melo didn’t hesitate any longer and decisively stood on the same side as Angel.

”There are only eighteen steps in total; I’ll give you five minutes...no, that’s too long. Three minutes should be enough. Three minutes to memorize, starting now.”

Angel snapped his fingers, and an illusion of an hourglass appeared in mid-air to keep time.

The group wished to protest that three minutes was too short, but seeing the hourglass above, they knew there was no escape, and they crowded around the stairs to start memorizing.

While they memorized, Angel turned his head, looking toward the Specimen Corridor.

He didn’t actually think there was much time to spare; he was constantly monitoring the first floor’s situation through the castle’s Magical Energy Array.

Now, the Princess had nearly finished her meal. If she didn’t head elsewhere, she might come up soon.

But even so, Angel had no intention of giving up the ”training” for this group of Talented Ones.

The confidence came from...Illusion Technique.

Angel extended his finger, releasing a large number of Illusion Nodes toward the Specimen Corridor. Combined with the numerous specimen heads, they could transform this corridor into an Endless Corridor.

Even if the Gray Crow followed the Princess, Angel was confident in briefly stalling them.

Having done all this, Angel turned back to the group of Talented Ones.

Angel discovered that these Talented Ones actually possessed some redeeming features; if you pushed them hard enough, their potential would eventually surface.

For instance, at that moment, Angel noticed different strategies from the Talented Ones.

Almost none relied on rote memorization; some took out pens to jot things down on their hands, while others rapidly moved their fingers as if playing a piano, using finger rhythms to encode positions in memory.

The most intriguing, however, was Amisha.

Amisha started jumping on the spot, left and right, striking balanced poses, using her muscles directly for memory.

Three minutes ended, the hourglass disappeared, and the glowing footprints on the stairs gradually faded away.

Angel looked at the group, ”Who’s first?”

By then, everyone was eager to go first, understanding they needed to act fast on what they had memorized.

Ultimately, Amisha went first, which was a sign of the group’s care for her. After all, among them, only Amisha had suffered punishment.

Amisha didn’t decline, took a deep breath, and approached the stairs.

She didn’t move immediately but hummed a cheerful nursery rhyme. Keeping rhythm with its beat, she stepped onto the staircase like dancing.

Perhaps aided by the song, Amisha moved incredibly smoothly. In just a few seconds, she reached the third level without triggering any mechanisms.

Seeing Amisha’s success gave the others more confidence.

They promptly began lining up to ascend.

The Talented Ones were now solely focused on how to safely ascend, paying no attention to the gracefulness of their ascent.

Lady Melo watched the Talented Ones, moving and jumping like intellectually challenged children, and suddenly a thought arose in her mind.

Could it be... Lady Melo turned to look at Angel.

Angel glanced at her, and Lady Melo immediately turned away, looking serious while staring at the amusing scenes on the stairs.

Everyone had different methods, and their efficiency varied, but what made Lady Melo feel relieved was that everyone made it upstairs smoothly without triggering any traps.

Indeed, potential needs to be forced out.

Although this exercise wasn’t truly difficult, for this group of people who had emerged from the Ivory Tower, achieving this was already a good start.

While Lady Melo was feeling gratified, Angel felt nothing at all. If they couldn’t overcome this level of difficulty, then they were truly foolish.

However, once the Talented Ones finished ascending the stairs, it would be their turn.

The Talented Ones were on the third floor, craning their necks to look down, curious to see how Angel and Lady Melo would ascend. They remembered their awkward ascent and wondered if they would also... The crowd dared not think too deeply, for these were the illustrious Transcendents.

Yet, what the crowd absolutely did not anticipate was that Angel didn’t take the stairs at all.

With a gentle motion of his hand, a series of ripples appeared before him, and a barely visible door opened in front of him.

Angel extended a hand to Lady Melo: Ladies first.

Lady Melo silently stepped through the door, and only then did Angel follow. Passing through this door, they directly appeared beside the Talented Ones.

Watching Angel and Lady Melo emerge from the Spacial Portal, the crowd fell into silence.

Clearly, there was such a grand and sophisticated Spacial Portal... Why were they forced to act like intellectually challenged individuals?!

Lady Melo was silent as well. She too had expected she would have to ascend in a bizarre manner, but Angel used Space Sorcery to directly transport them here.

Moreover, they transported only after all the Talented Ones had reached the third floor.

This made Lady Melo more certain of a particular suspicion in her heart.

Perhaps her cheap junior, Serum, was right. Angel was indeed sly underneath. On the surface, he appeared elegant and gentle, but his inner self occasionally displayed a mischievous streak. And this staircase incident was probably one of Angel’s mischievous sides surfacing...

Angel certainly wouldn’t admit to orchestrating this scene to see how intellectually challenged children ascend stairs.

He was genuinely training these Talented Ones. See, he managed to push out their potential, didn’t he?

Angel felt he did nothing wrong as he glanced at everyone: ”The situation on the third floor differs from the other two floors; there’s only one room here, but inside that room, there may be some surprises.”

Angel went straight to the point, causing the group of Talented Ones to temporarily set aside their thoughts on the staircase incident and turn their gaze toward the back.

They had noticed earlier upon ascending.

The third floor had no corridors, just a short segment resembling corridors on both sides, but it was clear to see the walls at the end.

And opposite the stairs was a large double door in a fairytale style.

The door was primarily pink and red, further accentuating the fairytale aura, with some carvings that seemed like fairy tales. But if examined closely, one would find that these tales had been modified. For example, the princess lived happily with the prince, just in a different way; the prince was eaten by the princess. Such a togetherness probably counted as being together.

The door had no traps, but the handle was somewhat low, evidently designed according to the height of a Princess.

Angel pushed open the door directly.

Everyone curiously looked beyond the door, only to find that they couldn’t see anything inside, as it was filled with rainbow-colored mist.

”Enter, there’s no danger, but there might be some surprises.” Angel paused. ”Or perhaps, scares.”

He finished speaking and directly walked into the rainbow mist.

Lady Melo immediately followed.

The other Talented Ones had no choice but to join them.

...

As soon as Lady Melo entered the rainbow mist, she felt something amiss, as if a familiar energy was floating around.

Before she could discern the source of this energy, a door appeared ahead.

With the appearance of the door, the surrounding rainbow mist seemed to retreated somewhat. She could vaguely see a pebble path beside the door and a fenced area. And this door appeared to be the door of a wooden house?

Why was there a wooden house in the third-floor room? Was it an illusion?

Lady Melo hesitated for a moment, deciding to go inside in the absence of other clues. Moreover, Angel had mentioned earlier that there seemed to be no danger here.

With this in mind, Lady Melo walked along the pebble path to the entrance.

The door wasn’t locked and was easily pushed open.

A gentle, compassionate elderly woman’s voice came from inside: ”Little Melo, you’re back. I’ve just heated up your favorite sweet snail soup, come and have a taste.”

The familiar voice instantly left Lady Melo stunned. She looked up and saw an elderly woman with white hair smiling at her by the hearth inside.

This elderly woman was no stranger to Lady Melo; she was her... grandmother.

Her grandmother’s voice, her grandmother’s smiling face, all were just as she remembered. But Lady Melo knew the person before her was not her grandmother.

At least, her grandmother would stir a pot with a long spoon, not directly dip her hand into the boiling pot.

”Is this what the gentleman meant by surprise, or rather a scare?” Melo whispered.

Even knowing the grandmother before her wasn’t real, Melo still walked over. Memories long locked away unfolded in a unique way; whether real or not, she wanted to closely, earnestly see her grandmother’s face again, hear that familiar voice, even if the words were frightening, and the actions were bizarre.

But before Melo could reach her grandmother, the scene before her eyes abruptly changed.

Her grandmother was gone, the wooden house vanished, and the mysterious cauldron also disappeared. She found herself no longer in that wooden house but in a glass room.

She was not alone in the glass room; Angel was sitting in the center.

After confirming Angel wasn’t an illusion, Melo hesitated momentarily and asked, ”Did you pull me in, sir?”

Angel nodded.

”Though I don’t know what you saw, it was merely bubbles created by Illusion Techniques... You probably noticed the obvious falsehoods, so it’s better not to indulge.” Angel softly advised looking at the dazed Lady Melo.

Lady Melo was silent for a long while before nodding: ”I understand.”

Seemingly not wanting to discuss the illusions she saw further, Lady Melo took a deep breath and swiftly shifted the topic: ”Sir, may I know where this is?”

”The only place within the Rainbow Illusion House not affected by illusions, also a transit point to the next room.”