Warlock Apprentice

Ivan put up a serious expression as he explained, “I’ve always wanted to see if the stars can guide me to an answer, yet the previous two attempts did not work out. This time, however, I finally learned something useful.”

The truth was, his constant effort did get him a result. But no matter how he tried to interpret, it was not enough to get him anywhere, so he decided to let everyone know and see whether their joint effort would do better.

“The clue is not very clear. For now, I can say that the item is not currently held by human hands.”

“What? Did a sea monster snatch it away then?” a wizard exclaimed.

“That’s impossible. A man took it!” Seurat raised his voice. He knew this because Flunza told him what happened in the “dark dimension”.

When the item vanished, Leviathan grew furious for some reason. Both Flunza and several wizards good at reading the emotions of monsters were aware that Leviathan was angry at a particular human.

Someone entered the dark dimension ahead of everyone and took the treasure away.

Later, Flunza even discovered a teleportation tunnel in the dark dimension. But he failed to locate the other end of it because the tunnel was soon sabotaged by whoever just escaped through it.

It was unlikely for a monster to know how to precisely destroy the runes used in the tunnel so fast. It must be a human they were looking for.

Ivan heard Seurat’s remark and chuckled. “How do you know if it’s not a monster who knows how to shapeshift? I know where you learned your clues. As we all know, Leviathan is strong but far from clever. Perhaps it mistook a monster for a human.”

“It makes sense. But why can’t anyone find the item using prophecy again?” a wizard commented.

A monster might have accidentally destroyed a teleportation tunnel. But it would be a joke to say that a monster knew how to block off prophecy spells.

Ivan shrugged. “That’s no longer something I can explain. I told you what I saw. Who knows, maybe the star map tricked me.”

Lupanya spoke, “Or maybe someone did take the item, but he gave it to a non-human, such as a familiar.”

“I agree.” Ivan nodded.

“Then we can do better if we ascertain the nature of this creature first, by which time we can thin down our search range,” said Seurat.

Everyone looked at Ivan again, hoping for further answers.

“I’m afraid I did not see what it looks like,” Ivan continued. “However, I felt… emotions. Dark, negative emotions. Greed, madness, drenching malevolence.”

“Greed and madness?” a wizard offered. “Certain Summoners know how to summon creatures with such characteristics.”

More people voiced their opinions, none of which helped them reach a conclusive decision.

“Let’s stop mindlessly taking guesses.” Lupanya lifted a hand to stop everyone. “For now, we shall keep the ‘anti-prophecy’ as a key point and proceed from there. Who’s next?”

The information offered by Seurat and Ivan wouldn’t have any imminent benefit to anyone, so people chose to disregard it for now and look forward to the remaining participants.

Lupanya looked at several wizards and set his sight on a man with a pair of goat horns and a chained shackle on his feet.

“Do you have anything to tell, Schker?”

The horned man opened his eyes and scanned everyone with a pair of eyes that showed excessive greed and lust. Anyone who received his attention would shudder uncontrollably.

Schker was also one of the Eighteen Overseers, and he was named “The Hanged Derelict”.

“Don’t ask me.” Schker spread his hands. “You don’t want to hear what I found out.”

Left with no choice, Lupanya looked at the remaining two Overseers who were yet to speak.

One of them was Gauss, who was not paying attention to what was going on as if he was thinking about other matters.

When Lupanya wanted to get his attention, the last Overseer, a figure covered in a gray and broken robe, spoke first, “Let me.”

“Go ahead, Azathoth.”

Lupanya was slightly surprised because this man usually did not make any sound in front of others.

“The Beyond” Azathoth was the most mysterious one among all Overseers. No one knew where he came from.

Azathoth looked up, allowing others to see his skinny jaw.

“Two things, one good and one bad,” he said in a sharp and unpleasant tone like someone with a broken throat. “The good one is, I sense a new item being made. One that could completely change how the wizarding world runs.”

An item that changes the world? Everyone gazed at Azathoth with a look of doubt.

Lupanya added something that supported Azathoth’s claim. “He speaks truly, because I felt it as well. I did not see anything specific, however.”

Those words got everyone curious. Could it be that a master alchemist made a new discovery? But even such masters couldn’t “change the world” so easily.

They all wondered if they could learn more about the item to gain an advantage, or even better, get their hands on the item.

“Here comes the bad news,” Azathoth continued. “The crisis is worsening further. It won’t be long before it’s fully upon us all.”

With that, Azathoth lowered his head and returned to be all quiet.

This simple clue caused the biggest disturbance in the room today. Speaking of “crisis”, the first thing people would think about would be the demon invasion. Azathoth was telling them that Mister Monkey would soon commence the final step of his plan.

Wizards were expecting such a thing to happen sooner or later. Still, they felt greatly unsettled when they realized that the crisis was finally here.

The room grew quiet as people tried to bear the depressing thoughts.

“Let’s keep going.” Lupanya looked at Gauss, who still looked a bit absent-minded.

“What I saw resembled Azathoth’s prediction. There’s no need to repeat it.”

That had left Lupanya as the last Overseer to provide his insight. And everybody was looking forward to this because it was usually Lupanya who contributed the most on these occasions.

“Listen. I registered an even worse omen. Worse than the demons and the parasites…”

…

The star reading day drew to an end. It was quite fruitful, yet people didn’t feel like celebrating their gain since most of what they heard was so grieving.

Mara took Dodoro back to their temporary residence. Ever since Dodoro suffered from the backlash, he remained unnaturally distracted, and it made Maya worried.

“What is it that you saw?”

Again, Dodoro did not answer.

Maya sighed in disappointment. She knew that Dodoro possessed an exceptional talent that allowed him to see more mysteries than people could imagine. But at the same time, doing so would incur a greater cost.

She had been suspecting if Dodoro’s “lack of a past” was also a price he paid for receiving such power. Dodoro might even be from a particular lineage that was believed to be extinct long ago.

…

Lupanya and Gauss remained behind in the observatory.

“Cassini?” Lupanya frowned, upon hearing Gauss’ idea. “Another one has been marked by the Time Thief?”

Gauss explained what he learned at Moxa Westland, as well as what Vifet told him earlier.

“You think Angor is the new target of Time Thief?”

“I’m almost sure of it. I once tried using prophecy on him, and it failed. He has an anti-prophecy alchemy tool.”

“An apprentice made something to prevent prophecy. An apprentice who earned Time Thief’s blessing…” Lupanya narrowed his eyes. “Remarkable. As a matter of fact, I knew his name for a long time. Not because of his alchemy achievements, mind you. It was Anglo who told me that this Angor might know what truly happened under those dark domes.”