Warlock Apprentice

“Alright, since I’m here. A new cantrip it is!” Angor puffed up his chest. “Tell me what kind of cantrip you want to learn.”

“Really, any cantrip?” Sailum was quite happy.

“Any, as long as it’s an elemental one.”

Angor’s tablet could only work out very basic cantrips, most of which used natural elements.

Nausica only planned to watch the kids having fun. However, when she heard Angor being so confident, she could not help teasing by asking, “How about you show us something that causes mist in the area?”

Among level-0 cantrips, Nausica only heard of a cantrip with such an effect called Dark Mist, which was available for Dark Wizards. There were other level-0 cantrips with a similar effect which all required a specific attribute, and there was no Element one.

Nausica asked this one to pull Angor’s leg. She never expected a valid answer.

Instead of replying her, Angor turned to Sailum again. “So a mist cantrip? How about you? I’ll show you one if you agree with her.”

Nausica watched with a smile. They all knew that Sailum was talented at Dark Arts, so he could easily learn to cast Dark Mist.

Nausica believed Angor asked Sailum’s opinion because he wanted Sailum to give a different answer, so he did not need to actually try something impossible.

She did not say it. It was only a harmless joke between friends, and she did not intend to embarrass Angor. Now that Angor was trying to distract their attention, she would gladly play along.

But she overlooked something—even if she successfully saw through Angor’s plan, the other individual on the scene might not obey her assumption.

... Sailum had not learned Dark Mist yet.

“Let’s do this then,” Sailum nodded happily. “I need to learn this one too.”

Nausica almost choked on her water. She saw Angor considering something with a serious expression. In order not to “embarrass” Angor any further, she decided to change the subject quickly.

“Actually, I’m not really interested—”

Knock, knock!

Someone came to the door of their yard.

They looked around and saw a bulky figure standing outside. Angor heard Sailum muttering something before he could get a good look at the visitor.

“Weird. He said he’s going to meet his professor. Why is he here?”

When Sailum invited the man inside, Angor noticed that it was someone he had not met in a while. Balba.

Balba had changed his wild dressing style into an ordinary one by wearing a common wizard robe, which did not help him cover his ferocious aura.

Nausica spoked to Angor, “We were ambushed by a flock of Abyss Rodent half a month ago. I tripped and fell among them by accident. Thanks to Balba, I escaped alive. That was when I lost my right arm too. Balba joined our team since that day.”

Angor believed he saw Nausica revealing a bitter look when she mentioned the “accident”.

“We invited Balba to our meal tonight. However, he didn’t accept the invitation because he heard Lady Flora came back to Brute Cavern,” Nausica explained Balba’s reason to come here so that Angor would not mind Balba interrupting their meal.

However, she worried too much. Angor considered Balba a savior when the man protected him from Hookdick’s assassin.

Balba joined them at the table. He gave Angor a really brief bright look before he returned to being all unruffled. He said nothing apart from a “Hello” as a courtesy.

Considering Balba’s mild frown, Angor took a guess that Flora did something to annoy Balba again.

Sailum went to bring a serving for Balba.

The fourth man at the table successfully turned their once joyful ambiance into an awkward silence.

Nausica tried to strike a topic by asking something, “Didn’t you go see Lady Flora? Why are you back so fast?”

Balba’s spoon halted in the air. “Someone told me that the professor already left by the time I arrived.”

Sailum frowned. “Again? Is she going to teach you anything at all? How irresponsible-”

“Hey, Sailum, careful with your words,” Nausica interrupted him with a serious look.

Sailum sighed. “It’s just... not fair for Balba. You know, we don’t see that many people stronger than Balba when we fought in the outer area of the abyss. If we know more spells, we would have kept that bastard!”

Nausica looked down. “It’s alright. I’ll find time to kill him myself.”

“What are you talking about? Which bastard?” Angor was confused.

Nausica lit up her pipe and inhaled. “It’s nothing. A cunning fool who tried to trick us. I can handle him.”

Angor realized Nausica did not want to talk about it, so he did not push.

“You can always ask me if you need help.”

Nausica nodded. “Relax. I know what I’m doing.”

“My professor already taught me a channeling method,” Balba suddenly spoke up.

It took them several seconds to realize that Balba was answering Sailum’s comment earlier.

“But we all have one. She should at least teach you that,” Sailum said.

Angor rubbed his temples. Now he thought about it, Flora never gave Balba anything yet. HE was the one who gave Balba the channeling method book.

He glanced at Balba and recalled Sunders words—”Do as you like. His fate is sealed.”

And he felt sad about it.

It seemed Balba was born with something to silence people. The meal went on in complete quietness again. The only sound they could hear was the food being munched on.

Angor tried to break the embarrassment this time. “Back to our talk. Since Sailum wants to learn to use mist too, I’ll teach you one.”

Sailum’s eyes twinkled. “I almost forgot!”

Nausica, on the other hand, looked at Angor in shock. She felt relieved when Balba came and interrupted their subject, which meant Angor no longer had to “act tough”. But now...

Or can he actually use such a cantrip? But that will break many rules written in the textbooks!

Despite her doubt, Angor already began his lesson. “I’m not talking about one cantrip, but a composite one. First, you need to learn Frost.”

Frost was one of the most commonly-used movement-hindering spells among apprentices. Of course, Nausica and Sailum both knew about it. Even Balba found the textbook of it from Cloud Library.

“A composite cantrip? But that’s... something difficult, right? I saw that concept from a book,” said Sailum as he tilted his head.

“Then you’re better than me, cause I never saw it before. What’s a composite cantrip?” Nausica said.

“Two cantrips used together,” Angor explained.

The principle of a composite cantrip was way more complicated than his explanation. Any sophisticated wizard here would be beyond astonished if they heard Angor talking about a newly-created composite cantrip.

Being able to create composite spells was one of the essentials for stepping onto the path of truth!

“To learn this composite cantrip, you need to use Frost, plus another cantrip I modified based on Dust Removal, called ‘Dust’.”

Balba was quite shocked to see what Angor was telling them. A cantrip that was free to be passed to someone else either originated from somewhere outside Brute Cavern or was created by Angor himself. It was probably the latter.

Balba smiled bitterly and shook his head. While “his peer” was creating new cantrips, he had only learned several useless ones. He really wished he could listen to Angor’s lesson, but he could not—it was obvious that he was not invited for this.

Balba stood up and prepared to leave.

“You can stay for a moment. It’s not anything big anyway, just something to obstruct someone’s view,” said Angor. After all, he initiated the topic just so Balba could study from him too.

When Flora asked Angor to give Balba some random cantrips, she had never expected Angor to actually do it. Knowing something did not mean the ability to teach. To Flora, Angor was not qualified as a teacher yet.

Flora never thought about the possibility of self-created cantrips.

Hearing Angor, Balba hesitated for quite a bit and finally surrendered to his eagerness to learn. “I... owe you one.”

Angor did not mind him at all.

“I shall name this cantrip ‘Dusty Haze’...”

...

Angor bid farewell to his friends when the moon hanged high in the sky.

Inside Sailum’s yard, Nausica, Sailum, and Balba were all writing something down, and their eyes reflected the glimmer of enlightenment.

Nausica picked up her paper and exclaimed, “So it IS based on Dust Removal! And such a solid model!”

She thought Angor was bluffing when he mentioned it to teach them. But it was real! A moment ago, Angor showed them the outcome of “Dusty Haze”. The cantrip could not fully block vision, and they could still see the faint shadows of people inside the area of effect. Yet it was enough to be considered a smokescreen-inducing cantrip.

While joyous, Nausica also felt a bit depressed.

“I’ve fallen so much behind you...”