Warlock Apprentice

To wizards, the Otherworld was naturally the most comforting place, while mortals enjoyed the peaceful Real World.

The Midworld sat in between.

While talking about different concepts, Shadow led Angor toward the entrance of the cave so that they could go up to the surface again.

When passing through the “meeting room”, the three Krakok brothers opened up a small door from their original place in Real World and joined them.

Angor carefully checked the small door. “Can we come here by this door without using that magic array?”

“But how do you fit in that thing?” Shadow frowned and quickly added something when he saw Angor staring at him with a “you know what I meant” expression. “You mean to use something to change your size? I don’t know, but I guess you can. But you can’t learn Transform spell easily now. That technique’s almost extinct now that Mutation Larva is becoming scarce among wizards.”

Transform was a cantrip that changed someone’s shape. The user could either shrink to the size of a mosquito or grow into a giant. It was considered one of the hardest cantrips that an apprentice could learn.

People considered it “hard” when speaking in an academical way because there were too many prerequisite subjects to it, including biological structures, imitation, mana control... and several dozen more expertise. Furthermore, knowing all of these wouldn’t guarantee a successful attempt at Transform.

However, there was one method to “bypass” all the studies, which was to use the skin of a Mutation Larva on oneself to temporarily gain the ability to use Transform. However, as the demand went up, the supply of Mutation Larvae was almost exhausted; it had been that way ever since 500 years ago. Each time someone did manage to find some, it would create intense price wars.

They finally reached the cave entrance.

“You want to know if the Krakoks own this place, right? Now, take a look.” Shadow grinned as he urged Angor to go out first.

Angor glanced at Shadow. The covenant didn’t activate because of any tricks, which meant going outside shouldn’t be dangerous.

He climbed out of the Deadmen’s Dent.

While inside, Angor believed that the Deadmen’s Dent was exactly the same as the one in Real World. He expected to see the Hollow Woods outside or some trees at the very least.

However, what came to his sight was brown, barren mountain lands that didn’t even have a single grass growing on it.

The mountains looked dry and dead; it was as if they had traveled into one of those after-apocalypse movies.

As Angor looked around, he suddenly felt terrible fear poking at his heart as if some monster was looking right at him.

He slowly lifted his head while shivering a little.

A single, huge eyeball hung in the night sky, while its crimson-colored iris fixed its deathly gaze right at him.

The giant eye full of greed and blood-thirst saw Angor’s fear and slowly shut itself; it was as if it were mocking Angor’s cowardice.

When the eye shut itself, the night sky and moon regained their original looks.

The monstrous eye slowly disappeared. Everything that happened just now looked like a dream.

But Angor knew it was real because his whole body was still shaking like mad.

After making sure the eye was gone, he slumped to the ground and breathed heavily. The back of his clothes was now completely soaked by cold sweat.

When Shadow climbed out of the cave, he quickly saw Angor’s condition. “My my... what is it? A Magic Giant? A flying ghost ship? Or those magma-bastard birds?”

Angor was still panting badly. “What... What are those things?”

“Something that hunts the Krakoks. Do you really think Krakoks own this world to themselves?”

Angor remained silent and thought it over.

“I saw a big eye. Red iris, high in the air...” When imagining the look of the eye again, Angor quickly felt more sweat coming out of his pores.

Shadow held his chin. “Well, no wonder you sh*t yourself then. That’s one of the most mighty beings of the entire Midworld—Sesaybelles.”

“Sesaybelles?” Angor quickly sensed a familiar ring to that name. “Does that have something to do with Abelles?”

Apprentices probably didn’t know about “Abelles”, but they should have all used “Abelles’s Eye” before since they needed the item to test for their magic talent.

Abelles was the name of an abyssal beast. An Abelles’s Eye was made from its eyeball.

“Clever. They do share a blood relation, but a Sesaybelles is way more powerful than Abelles. A level-2 wizard, I assume.

“A Sesaybelles is huge. Each of its movements always shakes the whole world up and down. To prevent too much harm done to Midworld, wizards forced it to stay completely still. It has to use its eye to look around the Midworld. I guess you just saw it happen,” Shadow said. He suddenly pointed to the sky. “Look, Molten Flamingos.”

Angor looked up and saw a cloud made from burning birds approaching them. The creatures circled above them for a while before they disappeared into the horizon of dusk.

“Near-wizard level bird monsters. Even wizards will not offend them easily because they always stick in large groups,” Shadow commented.

“They saw us, right? Won’t they attack us?”

“They can’t,” Shadow said. He grinned again and pointed somewhere toward the northwest, “See that Magic Giant? You’ll see what I mean.”

Magic Giant?

Angor followed Shadow’s direction and saw a giant figure staring toward somewhere while it crouched on the sky.

Wait. Crouching on the sky?

Angor rubbed his eyes and looked again. And yes, the giant sat right in the sky with nothing to support it.

The somewhat funny-looking giant creature noticed Angor’s gaze and looked his way. However, it quickly lost interest in Angor and returned to staring into the other direction.

For a brief moment, Angor saw something reflecting light in the sky. It seemed a structure that looked like a glass dome existed right above their heads, which allowed the giant to sit on top.

“See that sh*t?” Shadow said, “That’s what’s protecting us from the monsters. A bowl-shaped barrier covering our heads, stopping invaders. They can only peek but can’t come inside. And the Krakok is the only race living under the dome.”

Shadow sounded impassioned as he continued, “Whoever from Dark Castle that did this to Krakoks must be a superman or something. She made this great barrier which actually held off all the deadly monsters out there.”

Shadow then pointed in the same direction that the Magic Giant had been looking at. “The Krakoks live right that way. Shall we go check it out?”

“How do you know that?” Angor wondered since Shadow just told him that ONLY the Krakoks should live here.

“I once rode on a flying ghost ship and observed their home. From outside the dome, that is.”

Angor tilted his head. It meant there were other entrances to go into Midworld.

“Oh, you think that was our only way in? Of course not. You didn’t find supernaturals often in the Real World because most of them are staying here. The Midworld and the Real World are the same in size. Most wizard organizations in Fairy World would fix their homes in Midworld or Otherworld. Silent Hill is inside Midworld too. Remember how I told you that you can’t just walk inside on your own? This is why.”

Shadow began walking toward the Krakoks’ habitat. “As you see, the dome is super strong that nothing can break it. I’d sit outside and look at the Krakoks like that giant too, if the little brothers didn’t tell me about the portal. I guess I have to become a truth-finder wizard before I can force my way in.”

“You sound as if becoming a truth-finder is easy,” Angor scoffed.

Shadow didn’t mind those words. “I can become a wizard, as long as I get that item hidden in Dark Castle. And if I’m a wizard, I’ll know how to find that path of truth!”

Angor didn’t protest further. Having faith and confidence was always better than being too humble.

“Since there are many wizard organizations here, they can take you to the Otherworld too. Why did you choose to use that portal?”

“You’re right.” Shadow smiled as he said, “But you should know that I’m not going to the Dark Castle organization, but the ACTUAL Dark Castle. And there are only two ways to go there. One is to use a portal located in the center of Dark Castle HQ, and the second one is where we’re heading to. There’s no way I can kick the door of their home base and wander inside when there are a whole lot of wizards watching, so... here we are.”