Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2620: Chapter 2621: Strange Architecture

The simplest and most direct approach is to conceal one’s form and go straight over to use the Illusionary Realm to confound the Ghosteye Witch, then secretly take it and leave.

With Angel’s strength, there shouldn’t be any problems. After all, that Ghosteye Witch has not yet broken through to Wizard Level.

However, just as Angel was about to act, he hesitated again.

They have actually been in a Moving Mirage state all along, which means everyone has been concealing their forms. According to Angel’s envisaged direct method, it doesn’t differ much from their current situation.

Dox’s inspiration, if personified, would absolutely consider this aspect of concealment. After all, it is in sync with Dox’s thoughts, and since Dox himself is in the Moving Mirage, would inspiration overlook this?

Thinking this way, the most direct method may not be the best.

Perhaps this method can obtain the silver pendant, but it’s highly likely to trigger the ”danger” consequence mentioned by inspiration.

For Angel and Black Earl who have their trump cards, they can actually crush any danger, but if they truly let loose, this journey might become reckless, without any restraints.

And ultimately, this place could turn into a playground for the big shots.

This exploration holds great significance for Angel. He doesn’t wish for the final result to undergo a drastic change, so before doing anything, he needs to consider every aspect.

Concealing his form and going directly might not be a good choice.

Thinking of this, Angel, who had already taken a few steps forward, suddenly stopped again. He no longer displayed a confident and arrogant expression, instead began to carefully observe the Ghosteye Witch.

Since Dox’s inspiration specifically focused on this Ghosteye Witch.

This also means there is indeed something noteworthy about this Ghosteye Witch, so what could it be?

Angel decided to observe first and act later.

Angel’s change in demeanor and actions were watched by Black Earl, who secretly admired Angel for realizing the critical point faster than anticipated. It showed resemblance to Sanders.

However, merely relying on observation to discover the problem then acting might take quite some time.

Black Earl personally didn’t mind, but Angel, who had been advocating not wasting time throughout the journey, would probably find it hard to reconcile spending time on an ordinary ornament with only commemorative value.

Black Earl really guessed correctly.

Angel indeed felt somewhat anxious, especially as time ticked away, this anxiety grew more intense.

After pausing for half a minute, Angel finally moved.

”You all stay here for a while, I will set up an Illusionary Realm so you won’t be discovered.” After speaking, Angel directly set up a Fixed Illusionary Realm.

Then, without providing much explanation, he directly concealed his form and vanished from everyone’s sight.

”Is he going to act?”

”It’s a pity, even the master has concealed his form, not knowing where he is now?”

Dox: ”Not knowing where he is, just observe the Ghosteye Witch, anyway the ultimate goal must be it.”

Everyone whispered in the Mind Ribbon, hoping Angel would reply, but Angel seemed to actively block contact, leaving them unaware of his actions.

Even Black Earl didn’t know where Angel went.

With Angel’s Moving Mirage, along with Wind Element protection and Earl Mi enveloping him, not only did he conceal his form, but also removed all traces. Black Earl’s nose couldn’t detect Angel’s scent.

However, Angel chose to act alone so quickly, was he unable to wait?

”If he truly behaves recklessly, then there will be a good show to watch...” Black Earl chuckled inwardly and, like everyone else, stopped searching for Angel’s whereabouts and focused on the Ghosteye Witch.

...

On the other side, wrapped in the Moving Mirage, Angel did not head toward the Ghosteye Witch, but instead went toward a nearby building.

To Angel’s view, the Ghosteye Witch itself doesn’t have high strength, if it can truly pose ”danger” to them, it would likely stem from two aspects. First, external objects; second, backing.

External objects, like powerful Alchemy Tools that could threaten their safety, or an Alchemy poison.

And backing, most likely the two Wizard Level Ghosteye Witches at the Gemini Towers, or... the existence of the Triclops Blue Demon.

No matter which type of danger this stems from, it all presupposes that the Ghosteye Witch can first discover his approach.

Although it sounds a bit unbelievable, Dox’s inspiration, in a certain sense, indirectly confirmed this matter.

As long as he approaches, the Ghosteye Witch will definitely detect his presence ahead of time.

As for how it achieved this, Angel does not know, nor does he want to waste time speculating.

Because what he needs to do now is to fundamentally prevent the Ghosteye Witch from discovering him prematurely.

Before coming here, Angel made a lot of preparations for this. Since there were Ghosteye Witches near the Hanging Jail Stairway in the Nightmare Realm, Angel, with the attitude that there might be Ghosteye Witches in the real-life Underground Labyrinth as well, studied a vast amount of material on Ghosteye Witches, even discussing with seasoned wizards like Ironclad Granny.

Ghosteye Witches, as Low-level Monsters, don’t really have much worth mentioning, the only aspects that interest wizards are their life forms and cultivation methods.

The specific direction of attention, as Black Earl previously mentioned, is how Ghosteye Witches might eventually form a perfect shape through continuous integration with other shadows, exchanging information.

The research topics in the material Angel examined were mostly focused on this.

Among them, there was a particularly unique study called ”Record of the Varied Postures of Witch Eye and Ghost Intermingling.”

Other materials were professionally analytic, sometimes leaving even Angel disoriented, but this material stood out freshly, like an illustrated catalog, documenting various Ghosteye Witches’ postures during cultivation seen by its author.

After flipping through a few pages, Angel realized this thesis was merely a personal niche interest of its author.

The kind that Dox might find interesting.

Because there were so many postures inside, and Angel found they didn’t seem useful, he quickly turned to the final summary of the material.

The final summary was quite ”interesting” as well.

——Updates will be ongoing.

When Angel saw this sentence, he almost crushed the document.

Fortunately, Angel held back, flipped through a few more pages, and discovered that not all pages were illustrations. In some particularly special postures, the author wrote his own insights, along with some personal discoveries and annotations.

At that time, Angel felt it was useless, but he patiently went through it.

Now, Angel finds that none of the other research materials were useful, but this unique document provided him with quite important information.

On one page of the document, there was an illustration recorded. It showed ten Ghosteye Witches stacked like a Pyramid.

There wasn’t much to say about the author’s insights, but in the annotation, the author mentioned a discovery.

”After observing over a thousand intermingling postures, I found something interesting: the more Ghosteye Witches intermingling, the more defenseless they become. This is probably because a large number of Ghosteye Witches signifies a massive flow of information, leaving them unable to pay attention to the surroundings.”

”Just like in this posture, when ten Ghosteye Witches intermingle, their alert range is already quite low. I revealed my form twenty meters away, and they were completely oblivious.”

”Although the more Ghosteye Witches there are, the more defenseless they are, if you think this is the best time to kill them, you’re wrong. Once you alert them, you’re facing a large number of Ghosteye Witches in pursuit. Unless you have the strength to take down all the Ghosteye Witches at once.”

”But then again, someone who can take down a large number of Ghosteye Witches probably wouldn’t care about what I said above. So, this is for the apprentices.”

”Yes, you, don’t look around, I’m talking about you, the apprentice reading this document wanting to hunt Ghosteye Witches.”

This author had quite the malicious humor. Angel could already imagine the speechless expression on the apprentice reading this part of the annotation.

Although the author said this information isn’t very useful for Official Wizards, it actually provided Angel with a concept.

The Ghosteye Witch outside, striking a pose surrounded by so many Ghosteye Witches, forming a small mountain, looked like the scene of an ”idol meet-and-greet” recorded on the Holographic Tablet, with all of them foolishly encircling that Ghosteye Witch.

The total number of these Ghosteye Witches might have exceeded a hundred.

When ten Ghosteye Witches intermingled, even if you revealed your form standing twenty meters away, they wouldn’t notice. So, if these over a hundred Ghosteye Witches were to intermingle simultaneously, wouldn’t their alert range drop to the lowest point?

And this, was Angel’s opportunity.

If he could make this group of Ghosteye Witches start their cultivation, the alertness of that particular Ghosteye Witch would also decrease. As long as it wasn’t detected beforehand, Angel was confident he could quietly swap the silver pendant without alarming it.

As for how to make the Ghosteye Witches start their cultivation...

All records mention similar accounts: for them, cultivation is a natural occurrence.

Wizards who observe and record Ghosteye Witch cultivation never lack observation targets, so no Wizard has detailed how to proactively make Ghosteye Witches cultivate.

The reason Angel left alone was actually to explore this matter.

Of course, Angel wasn’t going to explore it himself; he planned to find a lone Ghosteye Witch and have Earl Mi create a shadow to ”intermingle” with it.

Ghosteye Witches engaging in shadow intermingling is a process where they exchange information through their shadow abilities. It’s not limited to their species; other shadow creatures can engage in shadow intermingling with them too. However, due to the thought that ”those not of my kind are likely to have different intentions,” Ghosteye Witches find it difficult to communicate openly with other shadow creatures.

As a result, the exchanged information might very well be useless or even malicious.

But Angel didn’t need valuable information exchanged between Earl Mi and the Ghosteye Witch; as long as Earl Mi successfully intermingled with it and understood the process, perhaps he could forcibly make the outside Ghosteye Witches intermingle.

...

The building Angel entered looked like an office building from the outside. After entering, Angel couldn’t confirm the building’s specific function.

Because there wasn’t a single good item inside; apart from Ghosteye Witches, the space was completely bare.

This also showed the high destructiveness of Ghosteye Witches. If not for the building being connected to a Magical Energy Array, they might have demolished the entire building.

Angel glanced around the surroundings.

He needed a place with concealment, a spot that could minimize battles or big movements, where there were also cultivating Ghosteye Witches. Only then could Earl Mi forcefully join their fusion through Shadow Transformation.

But the first floor had little cover, and the Ghosteye Witches were heavily centralized, so it wasn’t suitable for testing.

Without hesitation, Angel went directly to the second floor, which had quite a few partitions, but Ghosteye Witches seemed to dislike staying in narrow spaces, so they mostly gathered in the hall.

A few Ghosteye Witches were in the corridors, and a few more were in the partitions, but none were cultivating, so he had to give up.

The situation on the third floor was similar to the second, with no suitable places or targets for testing available.

Angel was even contemplating going back to the dark alley they came from. There, in the alley, there were several groups of cultivating Ghosteye Witches at distances far apart. Though lacking the Magical Energy Array barrier, it... could barely be used for testing.

However, Angel hadn’t given up entirely. He continued upwards. If he truly couldn’t find a suitable place and Ghosteye Witches in this building, he would return to the dark alley.

When Angel reached the fourth floor, he found himself not in a familiar hall but in a vast terrace, leading to a corridor towards another building.

Angel observed for a moment and found that, from below, this building probably had six floors, but upon reaching the fourth floor, there were no more upper stairs. Instead, one needed to head towards another building, and on the sixth floor of that building, there was a corridor leading back to this one, allowing further exploration of this building’s fifth and sixth floors.

This design—what were they thinking? Perhaps the fifth and sixth floors were temporary prisons?

Otherwise, there was no need to unnecessarily increase the distance.

After some thought, Angel decided to continue upwards for a look.

Through the terrace corridor, Angel arrived at another building, finding its structure similar to the previous one, though with visibly fewer Ghosteye Witches.

As for why there were fewer Ghosteye Witches, it was straightforward: this building didn’t have stairs from the third floor to the fourth floor. To reach the fourth floor where Angel was located, one had to go through the building Angel was just in... Even though there were plenty of Ghosteye Witches here, few were willing to go through the trouble of climbing the mountain and crossing the water to get here.

The architectural design made less and less sense to Angel. What could this bizarre design signify? Though puzzled, it didn’t stop him from continuing upwards.

Not finding what he was looking for on the fifth floor, Angel reached the sixth floor, greeted by a familiar terrace and corridor.

However, unlike before, this terrace had a door.

Though the door was currently open, its presence suggested added significance.