Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2408: Chapter 2409: Frost Mist

X0 designation?

Angel previously learned from Reynaud that a designation starting with ”X” denotes an experimental subject.

What Angel didn’t expect was that above Reynaud’s X1 designation, there exists an X0? Reynaud never mentioned it, probably because he didn’t know of the existence of this number 0.

Angel looked at the bright red ”0” digit and knew that according to lab conventions, the earlier the designation, the stronger the ability. It seems this number 0’s strength should not be underestimated.

As he pondered this, the glass column opened from the center. The cold liquid inside gushed out, filling the surroundings with chilling air. The frosty mist that had dissipated when the door opened began to gather again.

Through the thickening frost mist, a figure slowly walked towards Angel, each step exuding a sharp aura.

When the aura accumulated to its peak, it became oppressive.

From the moment the pressing aura appeared, Angel understood the opponent’s level of strength; absolutely at Official Wizard Level! Only an Official Wizard could possess such a stunning aura.

It seems they underestimated the wizard-level combat power of the laboratory. Three wizard-level combatants are in the open, but hidden strength includes at least six more.

”Care to chat, number 0?” Angel’s voice echoed in the silent space.

Soon after he spoke, a mechanical voice came from number 0’s mouth: ”Confirmed, authority below 99, no soul mark, target classified as intruder, threat level provisionally set to level 3, execute result: eliminate.”

Listening to the voice and seeing the sinister yet emotionless eyes, Angel understood that communication was basically impossible.

Though X0 is a subject, it seems emotions have been stripped away. Perhaps transformed into a cyborg.

His existence, perhaps just the guardian here.

As Angel’s thoughts drifted, a white light suddenly flashed, aiming for his neck.

Angel hurriedly retreated, but as soon as he moved, cold air swept from behind him. Somehow, an ice wall had appeared at his back.

Phantom limbs instantly flew out from his back, shattering the ice wall. Angel leapt backward multiple times to a position several meters away.

Once steady, Angel noticed the white light came from the pure white short dagger that suddenly appeared in X0’s hand.

The dagger emitted a sharp chill throughout, seeming forged from eternal ice.

But as an authority in alchemy, Angel immediately recognized the dagger wasn’t made of ice. The true material was unclear for the moment, but it brought a very familiar feeling to Angel.

Somewhat like the chain Nausicaa released before on Ghost Dock island.

This is... Soul Arms.

Seeing the first attack was dodged, X0 didn’t flinch, transforming into a shadow and charging forward, continuing the assault with the dagger on Angel.

Every dagger swing from X0 brought a surge of cold, causing the frost mist not just to persist but to grow denser.

However, no matter how fast X0 moved, he couldn’t surpass Angel’s speed, each dagger strike evaded.

During the dodges, Angel also counterattacked using phantom limbs, their coverage and attack speed far surpassing X0, interrupting his actions and even flipping him.

Even being flipped didn’t affect X0; he created several floating ice pieces mid-air, stepping upon them, maintaining speed, but unable to gain an advantage against Angel’s faster reflexes.

X0 seemed to notice this too; after continuous clashes, X0 abruptly leapt, kicking toward Angel’s chest. His aim wasn’t striking Angel but producing a bed of jagged ice spikes below, forming countless ice shards shooting toward Angel.

X0 himself retreated several meters away.

”Target speed uncapturable, threat level elevated to 2.”

Upon finishing the statement, X0’s pale skins began reddening, and a bubbling sound echoed, akin to boiling water.

As X0’s skin reddened further, steam rose from his body.

Upon attacking again, Angel keenly felt X0’s speed increase wildly, almost transforming into a ghostly shadow.

But unexpectedly, Angel’s own speed rose, no weaker at all.

If anyone were present, what they’d witness would be endlessly swirling frost mist and incessant battlegrounds sounds, as for figures... unless their eyes were enhanced, they wouldn’t catch sight.

Phantom limbs flew, blades clashing.

Air scattered with shattered ice particles.

”Target threat level evaluated significantly rising, about to reach level 1.” During combat, X0 number’s voice echoed again.

With the words falling, Angel clearly saw another pure white dagger appear in X0’s left hand.

”Level 2 threat improves speed, level 1 threat adds another dagger?” Angel internally mused: ”Does adding daggers heighten attack power?”

Soon, Angel experienced the combat effects of another dagger.

X0’s attack power did boost, but not as expected. The addition of two daggers enhanced a different power—frost mist.

Every X0 double dagger swing carved through the air with a trace of white frost mist.

This white frost mist was extraordinarily peculiar, unlike the ambient air mist, it harbored a strange energy capable of... freezing souls.

Yes, Angel concluded through evaluation that the mist could directly impact the soul.

As X0 swung double daggers swifter, this soul-freezing mist gradually replaced ordinary mist, expanding in the confined room.

The mist storm encroached on Angel’s battleground.

Although Angel persistently evaded, amidst X0’s chase and this sweeping attack, he was forced to pass through the mist.

Yet, the mist proved ineffective against Angel.

Despite X0’s unemotional state, witnessing this made him hesitate briefly.

...

At this moment, Angel researching beside the control node lifted his head: ”Seems, we’re being discovered...”

Toby chirped lightly toward the distant mist, seemingly saying: ”Fool.”

Though Dangross didn’t understand Toby, he echoed: ”Master Toby is correct!”

Angel ignored the puzzling exchange between the little fellows, instead turning towards the distant mist where he distinctly saw two silhouettes.

One was X0, the other... was Angel himself.

Or perhaps, it’s the illusion left behind by Angel.

Before X0 emerged from the glass pillar, Angel had already released a large number of illusion nodes around. And the spread of cold liquid, causing mist to breed, provided a more concealed place for the illusion nodes.

When X0 came out, Angel had already constructed the illusion and arrived near the master control node.

What later battled with X0 was entirely an illusion.

”This X0 talks about quantifying threat level, but this judgment is just too bad, not even realizing that under such speed, there’s definitely something fishy since not even a single blade hit,” remarked Dangross with a clicking sound.

After the words, Dangross felt a chilly presence beside him, turned to look back, and saw Angel raising his eyebrows at him.

Dangross froze for a moment before coming to his senses, coughed twice and said, ”I didn’t mean Mr. Pat’s speed isn’t fast, it’s just, just...”

Though Dangross was stuck there, what he said was actually correct. Judging from the fighting style, attack strength, and other details, X0 is clearly a Bloodline Wizard with enhanced speed, and without activating the gravity meridian, Angel’s speed certainly couldn’t surpass X0.

If facing a normal Bloodline Wizard, one might get suspicious in a short bout: the enemy’s speed is so fast, yet they don’t use it to counterattack but manipulate a phantom limb to fight, which is clearly abnormal.

But X0 isn’t a normal wizard, he’s lost his emotion module, and from the current situation, he also lost normal logic. Both behavior and judgment rely on rigid quantification. This might make him calmer and better controlled, but facing a wizard of illusion series like Angel, he was completely outmatched.

If it weren’t for the spatial limitations, even if X0’s soul-freezing mist could spread, Angel would still use his illusion body to make him lose his way.

Unfortunately, there is no if.

The good thing about X0 is that without emotional interference, his judgment might have declined but becomes more decisive.

”Ice Blade unsealing failed, no soul of intruder detected, beginning to review combat, conducting energy identification.”

”Identification completed, over sixty percent probability of being influenced by illusion.”

”Intruder’s threat level beginning to fluctuate, current threat level upgraded to level 0.”

As the words fell, X0 stopped attacking, stood still, pulled out a pair of daggers and slashed his neck, causing a spray of blood.

A large amount of blood fell to the ground.

The blood pearls seemed to be drawn and slowly seeped into the ground. Immediately, a red light began flashing from below.

Within the red light, the route of magic patterns could be clearly seen.

The red light kept flashing... flashing, and flashing again.

But by the end of the flashing, there was no change.

X0 remained in place for a while, not knowing what happened, why after he activated the magic pattern with blood, yet the other guardian did not appear?

Indeed, there is another guardian here.

X0 is the obvious guardian, while the other is a concealed force. When X0 cannot ward off the intruder and the threat level reaches level 0, it would activate the ground’s magic pattern through blood and summon the hidden guardian.

But now, X0 was puzzled.

The magic pattern seemed activated, the red light flashed, his blood flowed, yet why didn’t the guardian appear?

As a semi-mechanical entity with a fixed mindset, it’s another thing whether X0 had self-doubt, but he definitely went into a ”program malfunction” state.

He stood dazedly in the mist, not knowing what to do.

Is it to continue moving forward and fighting? Which he can’t win.

Or wait for the other guardian to appear? But the red light is just flashing and no one comes.

After a while, X0 muttered dumbly, ”Program error occurred, unable to activate level 0 threat. Intruder threat relegated back to level 1.”

With the words falling, X0 continued hacking at the illusion... he actually wanted to slash Angel’s true body, but couldn’t find it and had to attack the illusion.

”Is this the legendary self-deception?” Dangross observed the happenings within the illusion, continuing his commentary.

After watching for a while, Dangross lost interest, turned to Angel: ”What was that red light just now, what is it trying to activate?”

Angel shrugged, ”I don’t know either.”

Dangross displayed a disbelieving gaze, but Angel wasn’t lying; he truly didn’t know what X0 was trying to activate.

Initially, he didn’t discover the magic pattern hidden beneath the floor, because this type of floor is made of special material, capable of silently shielding the senses.

However, as a master of Enchantment Studies, Angel is very knowledgeable about magic patterns. Additionally, he wasn’t fighting with X0 but simply creating an illusion to toy with X0, so X0 didn’t activate the ground’s magical energy array right away, allowing Angel time to study the master control node.

After observing the master control node for a while, Angel immediately spotted a peculiar magic pattern route.

This magic pattern route seemed to appear out of thin air, with no preamble but directly linking to the magical energy array.

It’s like a red dot on a blank sheet, Angel immediately noticed its abnormality.

After conducting some research, he found out that this magic pattern is connected to the floor, appearing ”out of thin air” due to the special material of the floor shielding the pattern route.

Continuing to study, Angel realized the mechanism of this magic pattern required a certain blood type to activate.

Looking at the activation condition, it was clear it’s not something good.

Although he didn’t know the final effect of the magic pattern, based on crisis judgment, Angel directly used an external slate method to temporarily suppress this magic pattern.

That’s why X0 couldn’t activate the magical energy array.

In a sense, this was some kind of coincidence. If Angel didn’t understand magic patterns, or didn’t first study the master control node, it was unlikely he would have discovered this matter.

But there’s no if in the world.

Various coincidences led to the current inevitability.

Turning his gaze to the mist where two figures resumed battling, Angel rubbed his temples, slightly sore from studying the magical energy array, and gently tapped the ground with his knuckles.

A head emerged from his shadow.

”Earl Mi, go and deal with X0.”

If it weren’t for the soul-freezing mist, Angel wouldn’t mind continuing to toy with X0. But now, the mist appeared, the space around the master control node is limited, if it drifted over, it wouldn’t be good.

So, it’s better to control him.