Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2571: Chapter 2572: Harpy

After the Black Earl released the Shared Perception, Angel vaguely felt that the information on Dox seemed to be data-like, becoming extremely easy to identify. However, this data, now swirling around Dox, did not spread outward, clearly indicating that this was what the Black Earl referred to as ”the main body can control the perception range.”

When Dox did not agree to data sharing, no matter how clear the data was, it could not be further identified.

Angel’s perception was so clear, even though he was just a passive sharer; Dox, as the main body, felt more special compared to Angel.

At this moment, in Dox’s eyes, both Angel and the Black Earl had similar data entwining around them. The difference was, the data on the Black Earl concentrated at a point, and this point was incredibly deep, like a channel seemingly connecting to a vast and unknown world.

As for Angel, it was stranger; the data entwining around him was pitifully scarce. The data mainly emanated from the alchemy tools on his body, and the earlobe of his left ear which emitted a flame fluctuation. On his main body, the only readable data was the illusion node faintly surrounding him, and nothing else could be discerned.

However, even though it couldn’t be read, some faint green patterns could be seen, with the green pattern on Angel’s right eye being the most prominent. Upon careful observation, it seemed as if a magnificent and luxurious world was seen...

Dox dared not observe too much, although he couldn’t read the data, as the main body of the ”Shared Perception” spell technique, he could vaguely sense that the data on Angel was as extraordinary and... dangerous as that on the Black Earl.

”Sure enough, Angel can become the most dazzling wizard in recent years, no one else. There must be a big secret hidden on him.” While Dox pondered in his heart, he also thought that a big secret sometimes represents the elusive and changeable fate. His spiritual perception had little effect on Angel. Was it because of this ever-changing fate?

Dox dared not to continue to think deeply, because he found that Angel’s gaze at him had become a bit strange.

As the main body of ”Shared Perception,” although he could control the scope of perception, that is, the flow and non-flow of data, it also made the data on him particularly obvious.

Even just looking at Angel a few more times, thinking about things related to Angel, the relevant data began to drift towards Angel involuntarily.

By looking at the direction of the data movement, it was clear that Dox was thinking about something related to Angel at this moment.

This was also the reason Angel looked at him strangely.

Dox coughed twice, quickly restrained his wandering thoughts, and the data on him returned to its place. Then he gently sent his finger, stained with recessed magic blood, into his mouth.

Within the Shared Perception, Angel and the Black Earl simultaneously discovered some of the information on Dox began to become active.

And of these activated informational data, Dox did not hide anything but directly opened the observation permissions, allowing Angel and the Black Earl to investigate.

As Angel and the Black Earl incorporated this data into themselves, a large amount of related information naturally emerged from their minds...

A while later, the Black Earl canceled the Shared Perception.

The data on everyone’s body began to gradually fade away. As Dox breathed a sigh of relief, he also eagerly looked at Angel and the Black Earl, wanting to know whether they truly could trace the origin of the magic blood.

The first to speak was the Black Earl: ”It truly is magic blood, and it’s quite rare in the Southern Domain because it’s a kind of human-faced eagle magic blood from the West Continent Wizards’ Realm.”

After the Black Earl finished speaking, seeing Dox and Angel seemed to have never heard of the human-faced eagle, their expressions were full of confusion. He briefly described the human-faced eagle.

”The human-faced eagle is just the name we Southern Domain wizards gave them. In the West Continent Wizards’ Realm, the human-faced eagle is called ’Harvila the Misfortune Evader.’ It earns this title because the human-faced eagle usually appears as a female figure, and they are naturally endowed with extremely high misfortune resistance.”

”I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Cursed Wizards? This is a very special faction of wizards in the West Continent who wield misfortune as a power, impossible to defend against. The existence of the human-faced eagle somewhat restrains the threat posed by the Cursed Wizards.”

After listening to the Black Earl’s explanation, Angel suddenly attained enlightenment. No wonder he previously felt the information related to misfortune in his mind was quite active. He originally thought the magic blood was related to the Pilgrim of Misfortune from the Abyss but didn’t expect it to be a magical creature unique to another wizard world.

”In my bar, a guest who had been to the West Continent Wizards’ Realm once chatted about their experiences while drunk, mentioning the Cursed Wizards. He said the Cursed Wizards are the most enigmatic in the West Continent; their attack methods are almost impossible to defend against... didn’t expect there to be existences that could restrain them.” Dox recalled.

”The most enigmatic? Not really, those who manipulate misfortune aren’t just the Cursed Wizards, actually some Prophet Wizards have ways to manipulate misfortune too, though the source channels of misfortune differ, their effects are quite similar. So, you could say it’s quite special.”

The Black Earl indeed deserves to be a big shot, casually mentioning information that Angel and Dox had no contact with at all. So, Prophet Wizards also have means to manage misfortune?

”Since the human-faced eagles so restrain the Cursed Wizards, presumably, the Cursed Wizards must wish to kill them all, don’t they?” Dox said, ”Maybe the magic blood here was extracted after the Cursed Wizards killed them and eventually circulated to the Southern Domain.”

The Black Earl snorted lightly through his nose and said in a sarcastic tone: ”Didn’t expect you to be so naive?”

”Never only look at the surface of things. Although on the surface, the human-faced eagles restrain the abilities of the Cursed Wizards, in reality, the human-faced eagles are actually closer to the Cursed Wizards and instead resent all other humans besides the Cursed Wizards.”

Dox was taken aback, not minding the Black Earl’s sarcasm, and asked in confusion: ”Why is that?”

”The human-faced eagles and the Cursed Wizards are both mutually exclusive and mutually complementary. Their abilities complement and restrict each other, and while doing so, both sides can enhance their strengths.”

Translated, it basically means ”the more they fight, the stronger they become.” This complementarity allows the Cursed Wizards to control the misfortune ability more powerfully, and the human-faced eagles’ resistance to misfortune becomes higher.

”Therefore, almost every Cursed Wizard raises one or multiple human-faced eagles as extremely intimate companions, akin to elemental partners. On the contrary, other wizards, upon being cursed with misfortune by a Cursed Wizard, the first thing that comes to mind is to transfer their misfortune onto the human-faced eagle. The human-faced eagles are resistant to misfortune but not immune. So, more human-faced eagles die at the hands of other wizards. In this scenario, who do you think the human-faced eagles will be closer to?”

Although the Black Earl asked Dox, it was Angel who answered: ”They can only be close to the Cursed Wizards. However, this is also the tragedy of the human-faced eagles; even though they can coexist with the Cursed Wizards, fundamentally, it is the Cursed Wizards that cause the massive deaths of the human-faced eagles, although it wasn’t the Cursed Wizards doing the killing.”

The Black Earl also agreed very much with Angel’s words and softly said: ”Therefore, they complement and feed off each other.”

Amidst their sighs, they didn’t forget the main topic.

”Since it’s human-faced eagle magic blood, should we find some and try injecting it into the recess for a test?” Dox asked.

The Black Earl: ”I’m just an ear, not a brain. All I can do is help you confirm it’s human-faced eagle magic blood. As for the rest, I don’t know.”

It sounded somewhat reasonable—just an ear, not a brain—but neither Angel nor Dox believed the Black Earl’s words.

Each organ of the Black Earl has its own consciousness, and all these consciousnesses originate from the main consciousness. Perhaps the brain might process thoughts faster than the nose, but the nose is also a part of the main consciousness. What should be known is known; it’s just their specialization differs.

However, apart from this sentence, they still believed the other words of the Black Earl.

The Black Earl is currently in the same position as them. If he discovered any clues, it’s impossible for him to keep them hidden. So, he possibly genuinely doesn’t know what to do next.

”By the way, I must remind you that magic blood from the human-faced eagle is extremely rare in the Southern Domain. At least in the past hundred years, I haven’t seen it in circulation.”

That is to say, Dox’s idea of pouring magic blood into the hole also came to nothing.

After realizing this, Dox showed a melancholy on his face: ”I thought I found a clue, but unexpectedly, I’m still at a loss.”

As Dox sighed, Angel spoke: ”This indeed counts as a clue. Just now, the Black Earl explained the situation with the magic blood, so let me add to that.”

Angel’s words immediately drew the attention of both Dox and the Black Earl.

”I also received some information during the shared perception. However, this information is unrelated to the origin of the magic blood. If not for the Black Earl’s explanation, I wouldn’t even know about the existence of such a magical creature as the human-faced eagle.”

”As for the information I obtained, it actually relates to my secondary profession.”

Dox: ”Secondary profession? You mean as an Illusionist?”

Angel said quietly: ”...The Illusionist is my primary profession. I meant it in relation to alchemy.”

”Your call.” Despite saying so, Dox remained noncommittal. He didn’t know the extent of Angel’s expertise in illusion techniques, and most Southern Domain Wizards also probably had no idea. But Angel’s alchemical abilities have been acknowledged by the Research and Development Institute, and now, when mentioning Angel, the first thing that comes to mind is an alchemy genius, not an illusion genius.

However, if Angel believes himself to be primarily an Illusionist, then so be it.

Angel didn’t wish to argue on this topic, so he continued: ”Under shared perception, I could clearly feel that the magic blood isn’t that pure; there are some impurities in it.”

”After all these years, isn’t it normal for there to be impurities?” Dox wondered aloud.

Angel ignored Dox and continued on his own: ”I attempted to construct the Eye of Nalda and found it to be a very familiar feeling—not foreign impurities, but those belonging to a special mineral.”

At this, both Dox and the Black Earl realized what Angel was implying.

”You mean magic blood ore?”

Angel nodded: ”The residue in this hole should be from the human-faced eagle magic blood ore.”

”Even if it’s confirmed to be magic blood ore, what does it really explain?” Dox still seemed a bit confused.

Angel pointed to the depression on the ground: ”This depression, unless there’s some unimaginable far-fetched theory, is the fixed position of a lectern. And the residue of magic blood ore in the depression can only mean that the material used to create that lectern was the human-faced eagle magic blood ore.”

”And even the poorest quality magic blood ore possesses a long preservation capability, as its creation itself spans ages.”

By this time, the Black Earl understood Angel’s implication: ”You’re saying that the ’lectern’ here, because it was made from human-faced eagle magic blood ore, couldn’t have been eroded by time but was rather taken away by someone?”

Angel nodded: ”Although it’s magic blood ore, I didn’t feel any alchemical traces. Previous exploring wizards, unless they were alchemists, probably had difficulty determining the material of the lectern. Even if they figured it’s magic blood ore, due to its uncertain value, they might not have taken the lectern.”

Black Earl: ”So, it’s possible that the lectern here was taken by adventurers.”

Angel nodded again.

Upon seizing this clue, the Black Earl didn’t hesitate and contacted Vay immediately through the Mind Ribbon.

”Ask the Endless Old Man if the lectern on the hall stage was still present when he visited back then?”

When Vay received this message, he was on his way to the cellar with the Endless Old Man and others. The Endless Old Man and his group intended to first meet up with Machusa and her son, while Vay gathered information along the way.

The Black Earl’s sudden transmission puzzled Vay, as he completely didn’t understand what had happened. But he didn’t dare disobey his master’s command and immediately conveyed the question to the Endless Old Man.

After listening, the Endless Old Man looked surprisingly at Vay, realizing Vay had been following them closely yet somehow knew about the building’s situation. Indeed, the abilities of a Transcendent are unfathomable.

The Endless Old Man dared not inquire how Vay learned of this information, thought for a moment, then said: ”It was still there when I came, but...”

Half a moment later, through the Mind Ribbon, Angel and the others heard the reply given by Vay.

The result was quite pleasing.

The lectern was still there when the Endless Old Man first came. Due to a special encounter, they discovered that the single-column lectern was of such high quality that even their sharpest blades couldn’t cut through it.

As a result, a brute in their adventure group pulled the lectern out from the ground.

After some modification, it was directly used as a weapon to hammer people.

As time passed, that brute retired from the adventure group, but his weapon remained left for his apprentice, who happens to be part of the Hero Squad. He is Machusa’s husband.