Warlock Apprentice

"If he has anything different than usual… it should be that bird monster," Melantha mentioned.

"Too bad, its' magic aura's too weak." The old man shook his head.

Next, the braided old man looked back at Melantha and changed the topic. "Your father sent a message again yesterday. He wants to know when you would go back."

Melantha crossed her arms and looked into the distance. "I don't intend to go back before finding my own path."

The elder chuckled and did not comment.

Melantha raised an eyebrow. "Now I'm curious, Mister Baroque. Why are you even here? Brute Cavern has been treating you in a strange way too. They already know who you are, and they didn't expel you?"

Baroque shrugged. "They probably should. But… what if we've got the same enemy? Or rather, a common interest?"

Melantha was shocked at Baroque's words. Before she could pursue an answer though, Baroque pointed to the stage.

"The fight's beginning. Now, I want to see how Sunders would react if his student died in Sky Tower."

On the arena, Angor carefully checked the woman standing in front of him.

Selena was an… ordinary woman wearing full black. Neither her clothes nor her face showed anything particular. The only thing worth noticing was her hair. Those curly, short hair strings were extremely greasy that they reflected a good amount of light.

Angor somehow felt good when looking at this "below-average" woman. She was the only opponent who remained completely silent during the entire countdown.

Someone of no words but swift actions… Angor really admired such characters.

During the three minutes before the match began, they both stood there motionless and without making a sound up until the countdown reached zero.

[Match start. Baron Milk VS Twilight of Night]

At the same time, Selena, who had been displaying a quiet temperament, suddenly disappeared from the stage.

"She vanished?!" Many from the audience yelled in shock.

On one of the front seats, Selena's brother grinned. "Vanished? Ha. She's too fast for your human eyes to see."

A fat swordsman sitting beside him smiled. "Bloodline apprentices have a lot of advantages here. Before a match, the magic array only inhibits their mana, not their blood."

Dupond always complained about Selena's timid character, but as her dear brother, he never hated Selena. Now that someone commented about his sister in a good way, Dupond felt pretty happy and began to boast, "Selena had never triggered her bloodline power during the waiting phase. This time, she spent three minutes to prepare her blood energy. Now she's strong enough to enter the top ten at Level 15! That's my dear sister. She's going to beat up the bastard for good! How dare he ignore me like that!"

On the arena, Selena's disappearance announced the start of a heated fight.

The woman now looked like a smoke string. People could sometimes notice a small trace, but quickly lost sight of it when they tried to look closely.

The audience all knew that Baron Milk, as a fresh new apprentice wizard, reached Level 13 only because of his weapon. Now that the weapon was completely useless against Selena's speed, Baron Milk had nothing to win the match.

They all believed that Baron Milk's defeat would be determined the next time Selena showed herself.

Someone already sighed in frustration. They should not have wasted money on a ticket only to watch such a pointless fight.

As everyone expected, Selena's faint figure materialized on the arena.

She appeared right behind Baron Milk's blind spot while holding a shiny blade in her hand. It was not a tiered alchemy weapon but was still enough to penetrate someone's throat easily.

"This is it…" All audience reached the same conclusion.

Melantha and Baroque, who had been staying at a far side of the audience stand, also shook their heads. "He got no chance."

Baroque commented, "Sunders was too careless when telling the information about the garden of purification to a kid who just became an apprentice for half a year."

As they all prepared to witness Baron Milk's defeat, a giant explosion came from the center of the arena which startled everyone. Smoke and dust covered the stage, preventing them from seeing what happened.

Was that a spell?

"What's the deal? She already caught Baron Milk off guard, so why did she use such a powerful spell?" The fat swordsman near Dupond wondered.

Dupond also looked puzzled. "I don't know. Selena never knows how to change tactic like that. Besides, she doesn't know any spells that create so much dust. Don't tell me—"

Dupond realized something terrible.

The explosion and all that dust was not Selena's work!

While the audience had their views obstructed, Baroque and Melantha already saw what was going on on the stage.

"Oh ho, you were right, Melantha. The kid really has a secret weapon," Baroque spoke.

"We thought the bird monster was weak… but it has such amazing burst power!" Melantha exclaimed in shock.

They did not see dust at all when using their sighting spells.

And the dust was not created by spells. It was the bird on Angor's shoulder who did it.

When Selena reappeared on the stage and tried to stab Angor from Angor's blind spot, the ordinary-looking bird launched itself at Selena at an impossible speed and kicked her away with a claw.

Dust covered the arena when Selena's body created a giant pit on the floor.

The floor of the arenas in Sky Tower was made from special materials. Only level-3 apprentices could damage them using their full power.

And since level-3 apprentices usually did not participate in these matches, the arena floors remained in good condition for many years. Until today, when one of the arenas received a human-shaped crater on it.

"Unbelievable… that seabird's weak magic ripples can hardly make it a monster. But it has so much strength," Melantha exclaimed. "I can see how it flies so fast because it has curves and body build fit for a speed-type monster. But there's no way it can release so much power."

Baroque closed his eyes and sensed the energy ripples coming from the stage. When he re-opened his eyes, he widened them in astonishment.

"I see it now. Melantha, use Remove Delirium and you'll know why."

Remove Delirium was a spell only available to formal wizards. The effect was mainly to find hidden truths. The principle behind the spell was using small traces to backtrack truths that appeared in history.

It sounded like reverting time, but the spell had nothing to do with the most mysterious energy called "time". It only used traces left by energy to deduct what happened earlier. It was similar to how detectives recreated a crime scene by using details left behind by the culprit.

Melantha cast a Remove Delirium and quickly sensed the change of energy in the bird's body several seconds ago.

"This is… the sequence of gravity!" Melantha yelled out. "But a bird? Did it learn it when Sunders built his Sorcerer's Garden?"

"Should be," Baroque replied. "The sequence is still shallow. It can only change its own gravity because it only gained the ability recently. We were near the garden too, and none of us learned the sequence. Neither did everyone else, according to what they said later. However… a beast beat all genius wizards to it? Ha. I never expected to see such a thing in my life."

Baroque looked back at Angor with a serious expression. "With the avian monster to help him, this kid will reach the top of the tower. There's no doubt."

…

As the other audience was still questioning "what happened", the dust on the arena had slowly settled down.

The scene was now clear to everyone. Their once impatient looks were instantly replaced by great shock when everyone's pupils shrank.

Baron Milk, who was "going to lose" according to their guesses, was standing in the middle of the arena, untouched. He was pointing his Trigger Crossbow to a pit in the floor — a pit surrounded by more web-shaped cracks that extended outward.

It was a pit that was about one meter deep. Inside the pit, a woman was shifting her body weakly. Her clothes and entire shoulder bone was shattered, and her eyes had rolled up into her head.

"But impossible! Selena was injured like that so fast?"

"Whatever happened just now? Shit! Everything was covered by freaking dust!"

"Any of you saw it? Why is the Level-1 weakling all fine? Selena's almost a level-3 apprentice!"

The strongest ones among the audience were merely level-2 apprentices, so no one could really figure out the situation.

Apart from Baroque and Melantha, the only other individual on the scene who knew what happened, or who had a possible idea about what happened, was Dave.