Warlock Apprentice

In the early morning, Auri pushed a food cart to Angor’s room and saw Angor buried among piles of papers. The floor was also full of discarded notes.

When Angor did not respond to her arrival, Auri crouched down to clean the floor up.

While at it, she randomly glanced at the complex shapes and symbols she couldn’t recognize. Strangely, she found it harder and harder to look away as if the incomprehensible contents had become alive and were now persuading her into following their guidance.

She saw a black door opening up in her view. The only thing she had to do was to reach for it—

Zap!

Auri woke up from her trance with a start and saw Angor standing right in front of her. The sunlight at dawn had added a dazzling outline to Angor’s form.

“You alright, Auri?”

Auri shook her head to clear her thoughts. The paper she was staring at was torn into two halves.

“I… pardon me, sir. I was just—”

“It’s dangerous for common ones to look at these magical formulas. You could have lost your sanity.”

Auri quickly stood up while trembling slightly.

Angor waved an arm to cast Cleanse. In a matter of seconds, the scattered papers flew to their rightful positions on Angor’s desk as if they just gained wings.

Auri spent a moment looking at the amazing sight before she realized what she came here for.

“Sir, I brought you Milkberry tree juice and coco flowers, along with pancakes and sausage prepared by Miss Mana. Also some mushroom soup, dessert, and fried rice. I-I cooked it,” Auri explained while bringing the food inside.

Angor didn’t feel the need to eat, though he didn’t reject Auri’s offer.

“Is my brother awake yet?” he asked while taking a sip of the soup.

“He did, but only briefly. Once Miss Mana fed him some soup, he fell asleep again. The doctor said he’ll be alright very soon!”

“Nice. I’ll not bother him for now then.” Angor quickly finished his breakfast. “What you did earlier must have hurt your mind slightly. Go and have some rest today.”

“T-thank you, sir.”

After seeing Auri off, Angor sat back at his table and looked at his new design, which he spent an entire night coming up with, after denying countless others.

It was a lock.

He made the lock to contain the domain sphere. Even though there was currently nothing in the dream wasteland that might threaten the sphere, he would like to find a better security measure just in case.

The lock would not disappear from reality when he used the Dream Whelk to summon it to the dream wasteland, which meant he could use the item in two places simultaneously.

He had another urgent matter at hand, which was being constantly monitored by two wizards living at Padt Manor. He could use his nightmare domain to block off detection, but doing so would cost a lot of energy, so he wanted to design an item for this purpose.

Also, it was always a huge problem when his Dream Whelk would draw curious wizards to him. He would like to use the lock to cover up the whelk’s signal as well.

He did find magic arrays for hiding Mystery energy, but even the simplest of them involved more than 20 runes and would determine the final product as a high-tier alchemy creation. He neither had the skills nor the resources to make such a valuable asset.

In the end, he chose to use “Silent Detainment”, an easier magic array consisting of five runes. This one was a comprehensive magic array used for both defense and stealth. It could not fully keep Mystery energy from spreading, but by combining other cantrips, he could limit the detection range within a hundred meters so that wizards farther away couldn’t notice.

He did not work on the magic array right away because he still needed time to study the runes first. For now, he had other tasks to tend to.

After placing the design draft in his bracelet, he prepared to head to Jon’s ice room.

The sound of flapping wings suddenly drew his attention. He looked at his window and saw Brulee standing there, looking at him with its large round eyes.

“Owls are supposed to sleep during the day, no?”

“I told you I’m not a common owl! I can do without sleep!” The owl suddenly remembered something and lowered its voice. “I never thought you’re such a brilliant alchemist.”

“And?” Angor found a black vest with silver linings from his wardrobe and put it on.

“My master told me that you agreed to make a new monocle for me?” the bird said.

“I did. Find me later and tell me how it should look like.”

Brulee’s eyes narrowed into a big and somewhat creepy smile. It quickly returned to Eureka since it had no idea how to design charms.

…

Angor came to the ice room and entered Jon’s dream.

In the lucid dream, Jon easily sensed Angor’s arrival.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, I’m here.” Angor did not forget their old joke.

“I lost count how many seasons I’ve gone through. How many months passed out there? Or is it a year already?”

“Three and a half months.”

“I see…” Jon sighed.

Jon was free to control the flow of time in his lucid dream. He had gradually forgotten the true concept of time.

Angor looked around and saw them sitting in the middle of a guest hall. The one they used to use in Padt Manor. Telling from the colorful dishes on the table, Jon was enjoying a nice meal earlier.

“You guessed. They don’t taste like much as long as I’m aware that this is all a dream. Honestly, it gets worse when I know I can cook good food using my own hands.”

“Then why are you still eating?”

“I thought I’d give you a proper welcome, duh.” Jon pointed to the space behind Angor. “Look there.”

Confused, Angor turned around and saw two figures sitting at another table nearby—a muscular young man and a beautiful lady who had a constant smile.

“That’s… my father?”

“Yup. Old Padt might be a big-bellied gentleman in your memory, but he looked a lot more handsome when he was young.” Jon chuckled. “Leon perfectly inherited his best looks. While you… you look more like your mother.”

The lady waved a hand at Angor and said, “Sorry I could not see you grow up, Angor. But I love you nonetheless.”

Angor didn’t know what to say. The beginning of his memory about his own mother was all about paintings and portraits, which all showed the woman’s elegant yet distant visage. This was the first time he saw such a warm smile from his mother.

He knew this was an illusion weaved by Jon, but he felt swelling excitement triggering his tears regardless.

“Thank you.”

“I’m slowly losing my memories… And I can no longer remember your mother fully. Her love for you always stayed true, however. I did not make her speak like that. Those were the exact words she told me to pass onto you before she left us,” said Jon.

The dream suddenly flickered.

“What—” Angor looked at the blurry scenery in shock. He knew Jon’s brain was not in its best condition, but Jon would not easily “mess up” important sights in the dream like this.

Jon shook his head in sadness. “It’s happening more and more often. I can’t carelessly create complicated dreams now.”

Angor had been wondering why Jon’s wife and daughter weren’t accompanying them. Was this because of Jon’s worsening condition as well?

“I’m forgetting stuff. And I fear that I’ll forget about you one day. But as I said before, getting to spend some nice time with you is completely worth it. Heh, I should be long dead.”

Jon is losing it both outside and inside, Angor pondered. But if I separate his consciousness and take him to the dream wasteland now…

He already planned to allow Jon to get familiarized with the Foundation City ahead of time. Seeing Jon’s current condition, he decided to explain his main plan.