Warlock Apprentice

When Freud was looking, Angor took out their magical pact and applied an addendum to it.

Their agreement mentioned a special clause that either of them could add more requests to the deal accordingly, should any unexpected “force majeure event” impede a successful fulfillment. While drafting the covenant, both Angor and Freud swore in the name of the world’s consciousness, and now was the time to put this special clause to use.

“If I’m to use extra labor to retrieve the item, then you’ll automatically owe me a favor. In the future, I can ask you to fulfill this favor on condition that I do not endanger your personal safety, your freedom, or ask for anything beyond your power.”

Freud pondered and had no problem agreeing since the request seemed easy enough. He knew he was of little use in Angor’s view, which meant the “favor” wouldn’t be anything too hard.

After settling their new agreement, Angor moved to one side of the room to give Freud some time to talk with Sunny and Alda.

He had no idea what to ask from Freud yet. He made the extra condition just because he could, plus that he didn’t feel pleased when Freud’s promise didn’t go as planned.

As of now, Freud could neither help him fight or work for him as his assistant because they didn’t fully trust each other.

In the end, Angor shook his head to get rid of this concern. He’d like to get the Dream Whelk first before tending to other matters.

Freud soon finished talking about his old days with Alda and Sunny, and Tulu also came to.

Taking the chance when Tulu was too confused to get scared again, Freud said his apology and briefly introduced himself.

“A talent, you say?” Freud looked at the materialized water elements that surrounded Tulu and silently admired Tulu’s great potential.

Meanwhile, Tulu was feeling VERY anxious that Angor would be disappointed with him. Similar things had happened so many times before, and each time Angor would lecture him on his cowardice. But this time, he blacked out without even seeing Freud’s face.

Tulu gathered some courage and whispered, “I’m sorry”.

Angor maintained a poker face as he spoke, “Don’t worry too much. One needs time to train their mind. Nothing’s wrong about that.”

Tulu thought he had been forgiven. However, what Angor said next immediately depressed him even further.

“I need to leave and deal with some other business with Freud. Meanwhile, you wait for me in this orphanage.” Angor grinned at Tulu. “Of course, you’re free to leave if you can’t take it. On condition that you can find a way out, that is.”

Tulu shivered. “Sir-sir, what-what do you mean by ‘I can’t take it’? There’s something else in here?”

“You’ll know soon enough. You have enough food, right? And you can create water with your new ability. Just try not to die.”

Try what??! Tulu felt his heart growing colder.

As Tulu stumbled away to look for a phantom he couldn’t see, Freud joined Angor with a smile. “I think you like him, Mister Padt.”

“Of course I do. I’m expecting him to become a future backbone for Brute Cavern. Are you done with the kids, by the way? We are leaving.”

Freud nodded. “Of course. But Mister Padt, you see, Sunny is…” He glanced at the “blood prison” with a hesitant look.

Meanwhile, Tulu also looked at Angor with a similar expression but with a completely different intention. As someone who was going to spend more time in the orphanage, he sure wished that the little murderer stayed trapped rather than roaming freely.

Angor ignored Tulu and nodded to Freud. “Sure.”

He then moved to Sunny, who was not as hostile to him as before. “I’ll set you free later. But I also need you to play a small game with that big lubber over there. What do you say?”

“Big lubber?” Sunny tilted her head.

Angor pointed to Tulu, who was still trembling like a frightened kitten at the corner of the room.

“What game?” Sunny knew she couldn’t oppose Angor now. And besides, she believed Angor and Freud were friends.

“Let me see…” Angor stroked his chin. “You two shall play ‘Dead by Daylight: The Nightmare Orphanage’.”

As Angor explained the “rules” of the game, Tulu was giving Freud pleading looks, for he thought Freud could help him deal with Sunny.

“Chill it. Sunny’s not going to kill you,” said Freud.

And this only made Tulu more frightened.

Tulu then looked at his only hope—Alda—and hid behind the boy’s back.

“Don’t worry, mister!” Alda comforted. “Sunny’s very nice. If anything bad happens, you can come to my home.”

“Your-your home?”

“Yeah. This building is supposed to be Sunny’s turf, while mine is the playground in the backyard. Sunny won’t go there.”

“The playground is your home? You sleep there?”

Alda didn’t seem to mind Tulu’s sympathetic look. “It’s a pretty good place. I can ride the horsies, the slides, and talk to the kitties! There used to be a lot of people traveling outside the fence, but not anymore.”

Ouch. This kid’s impressive. He was murdered by someone, then he spent such a long time in total loneliness and has not fallen yet… Tulu thought.

Away from them, Angor had easily broken the key nodes of the blood array and freed Sunny. Also, he kept a small trace of the blood and used Narda’s Vision to identify it.

While the cantrip was still “calculating” the result in his mind, he went to Tulu and said, “I’ve told Sunny. From now on, she would act as a good old killer and hunt you down, while you do your best to stay alive. As Alda said, the playground is your ‘safe zone’. Sunny will not go there.”

Tulu quickly perked up as he planned to stay at Alda’s playground until Angor came back.

Angor gave Tulu a devilish smile. “Each day, the playground only opens up to you during the six hours before dawn. You can’t enter that area at the remaining times.”

While explaining, Angor began deploying illusion nodes in the area, turning the entire orphanage into a giant illusion that showed a theme park with a somber atmosphere.

Next, Angor put a hand on Tulu’s shoulder. “I left some tools and ‘Easter eggs’ in the illusion that might come in handy. Stay strong, my friend.”

He then left the place with Freud, leaving Tulu to stare at him helplessly.

A moment later, Tulu looked back only to see Sunny giving him a really bloodthirsty smile.

“Ten minutes before the game begins, mister. Be prepared…”

…

Freud left the grounds of the orphanage while glancing back occasionally.

In his view, the building was now hidden behind a thick mist, and he could hear the childish giggles of many children coming from it. He was sure that anyone unfortunate to wander inside that place would end up in a ghost-haunted nightmare instead of the usual orphanage.

Also, as he observed, some of the “Easter eggs” left by Angor weren’t helpful. Instead, they were deadly traps.

“Are you sure about this, Mister Padt?”

“No biggie. As you said, Sunny will not actually go for his life.” Angor shrugged.

The illusion was both a “lesson” for Tulu as well as a test to show whether such games could be used in place of other recruitment tests such as Sunders’ deathmatches.

Freud didn’t ask further. He knew Angor meant to train Tulu’s mentality, which was essential for Tulu to stay at the wizarding world.

But that game…

Freud shook his head and sighed. He wasn’t sure if he could endure that kind of mental stress if he were in Tulu’s boots.

Angor summoned Gondola. He then called Freud over and began heading to the capital city of the Central Empire, Saint Sem.

Like everyone else who saw the amazing vehicle for the first time, Freud expressed his utmost appreciation about the ingenious design, and when he saw no response from Angor, he changed the subject.

“Mister Padt, as I said in my theories, you can create a ‘dream world’ using the Dream Whelk together with an illusion like that one, which we can use as a long-lasting testing ground for new recruits, like games they can join and quit at any time.”

As he listened, Angor wondered if he accidentally gave Freud any fictions from Earth that were about “virtual reality games”. But as far as he could remember, he only placed simple “crossover novels” and traditional literature in Freud’s room. There wasn’t anything that could have told Freud about these ideas that highly resembled a certain technology from Earth.

“VR games… tsk. This is getting advanced pretty fast.”

“Pardon me, Mister Padt?”

“It’s nothing. Again, I think your idea sounds fascinating. But it all relies upon whether we can actually combine illusions and the effect of Dream Whelk, which is… unlikely, I’m afraid. Above all, we have to get the whelk back first.”

“You’re right…” Freud sat back and gazed at the flourishing Saint Sem City in the distance. “I know the whelk is still there. I can feel it.”