Warlock Apprentice

Dave left Master Prome's lab at noon and came straight to Sky Tower. He then bought a ticket to watch Angor's fight.

He only had a vague idea about Toby's strength. He saw Toby's superior speed before, and the tattered corpse of Canine Master when Toby killed the guy. Dave already believed Toby should be pretty strong.

But he never expected what he was looking at right now.

Dave felt a chill down his spine. When he met Angor for the first time, he asked Toby to test out his flawed machine… He would never do such a thing if he knew Toby's true strength.

In the center of the arena, Angor aimed his Trigger Crossbow at Selena.

"What? Not giving up?" Angor spoke in a hoarse voice.

Selena did not answer. She looked determined for some reason and did not intend to surrender.

But she now had several broken bones. Especially her shoulder, which was completely shattered by Toby's kick. It was almost impossible for her to keep fighting.

Yet she held on. Selena held her shoulder with a hand and struggled to stand up. Her legs were shaking.

Pain on the body was not shown on her dust-covered, bloody face. Her expression remained blank.

"Why's she trying so hard?" Angor wondered. Losing the match only meant losing four match points, and it was not like he was going to kill her. Now Selena looked as if she was fighting with her ultimate enemy in the world.

He admired Selena's quiet character at the beginning of the match because most fighters in the tower were so annoying. At this moment though, Angor felt a bit agitated.

The arenas did not care for the lives of their participants, especially here at the Three Levels of Deaths. People died every day.

"Since you aren't accepting your defeat…" Angor was unhappy because he looked like the final boss in a novel story while the woman in front of him was a hero of justice.

"If that's what you want…" Angor triggered his mana and injected energy into the Trigger Crossbow.

"No! She lost! She gives up!" Someone suddenly screamed madly among the shock-stricken audience.

Angor, as well as Selena, looked toward the voice.

A black-haired man rushed down from the audience stand and reached the arena. He gave Angor a pleading look.

Dupond, Selena's elder brother.

Angor ignored him. He looked back at Selena when Dupond quickly yelled at his stubborn sister.

"Surrender now, Selena! I was wrong! I don't need you to beat this bas—I mean, Mister Baron Milk."

Angor rolled his eyes. Did Selena hold on like that because her dear brother asked a shameless request from her?

Selena looked at Dupond and responded in a plain tone, coughing up some blood.

"Oh."

"'Oh'?? Toss your card already!" Dupond feared that Angor might change his idea.

Selena nodded and threw away her profile card while still struggling a little.

[Winner: Baron Milk!]

…

Two minutes ago, when Dupond rushed to the arena…

"Someone's interfering with the match. You won't go stop him as the director?" Baroque looked at Melantha.

Melantha shook head. "He didn't go up the stage. We don't have the right to stop him from doing anything from outside. He can run in front of everyone naked if he wants. Rather, I wonder how Angor would react."

Baroque chuckled in a small voice and looked intrigued. "Sunders' student didn't kill a single fighter during his matches… Such a pity."

"I don't think the kid is a saint. Just… no one has tested his limit yet."

As the managing director of Sky Tower, Melantha knew well of every single fighter. Unlike the others, she clearly knew how Canine Master and Red Butterfly suddenly disappeared.

Self-control, knowing someone's limits, refraining from arrogance and greed… Those were all essential elements for a wizard.

Most people regarded wizards as bloodthirsty and violent characters because most wizards had really terrible limits.

"Really? Then Sunders found himself a good student this time." Baroque did not seem interested in Angor's character. He turned away and left. "I'm going. Match's ended, and that kid's going to the lottery soon. Now I think about it… 'Parasite Queen' had not lost a match in a long time. Maybe I should try her out against the kid, so she can go bother someone else instead of keep buzzing me on the same level."

"Mister Baroque… Please refrain from doing anything unfair to the participants." Melantha frowned.

"Take it easy, will ya? I guess you don't want to watch that kid go all the way to the top without meeting any challenge, eh? Fighting with different characters will help him grow up," Baroque's voice came from the distance loud and clear even though he already walked far. "And Sunders won't blame me for it. Rather, he's going to thank me."

Melantha shook her head again. She turned back to watch Angor leaving the stage slowly.

…

After Angor disappeared from people's view, the audience was still discussing what had happened in the dust cloud.

Even Dupond tried to get an answer from his sister while helping Selena move away from the arena.

Selena stayed silent for a while and thought about her previous fight thoroughly.

She chose to show up from the right-rear side of Baron Milk so she could catch him off guard. As someone born from a killer family, Selena knew well about how to find the blind spots of people.

However, before she could get the decisive hit, a shadowy figure assaulted her.

She never figured out what attacked her because it came so fast. Her speed and reflexes were nothing compared to what ambushed her.

Now that she could think about her fight carefully, she had an idea.

Selena asked Dupond to removed her damaged coat.

When her shoulder was revealed, she inspected the wound on her shoulder bone and saw several bone-deep claw marks, which did not surprise her at all.

"This is—" Dupond noticed the damage as well. "It's the bird?"

"Umhm." Selena nodded.

"I checked it before your match. It's just a low-leveled monster. In fact, it's even weaker than a typical monster. So the bird is so powerful…"

Selena did not respond. Dupond was only an onlooker who had no idea what terrible strength the bird truly held.

"Weird. Nobody knew which art Baron Milk studied. From all the information I collected, he had never used any particular spells and only won by using his alchemy weapon. Those who lost to him in lower levels all called him 'Dirty Milk'." Dupond pondered, "maybe he's a Summoner?"

Angor returned to the backstage and headed to the lottery section.

He was surrounded by people halfway. Being popular always meant attracting more troubles.

Those who tried to act friendly with various unknown reasons formed up a circle around Angor and asked him different things they wanted to know, such as his winning tricks and who created his alchemy weapon.

They did not really obstruct his way, so Angor kept on walking.

Until he reached the lottery box, when the braided old man, Baroque, smiled at them and asked, "You all want to join? Splendid. I really need more participants in the queue."

Everyone quickly left at those words.

Next, Baroque smiled at the boy who stood in front of him. "I assume you came to draw more opponent?"

"Yes."

"Getting two wins today proved your strength. I can allow you to schedule more matches now. However…"

Baroque sighed. "It's too late now, there are only four choices left in the box. Two of whom are on the ranking list. Are you sure you want to pick?"

Four? That's…

Angor frowned. Even if he could win against all four of them, he still could not get enough points.

"I won't draw. I'll go fight all of them one by one," said Angor. He paused for a moment before he continued, "Also, I wish to get my name into the lottery pool."

Lottery pool meant the box which contained the participant choices.

The Sky Tower would not force its participants to join fights. However, if someone wanted to keep his position at a certain level, he or she had to join at least one match in each month until they reached the top level, in which case they would no longer lose levels automatically.

The lottery pool consisted of those who waited for the minimum match. Most of these people would enter the lottery, finish a match right away, and come back next month.

Angor never tried this before because when a matching would arrive was completely at random. He had been drawing opponents nonstop, so he did not need to enter the pool.

Since he was now at the Three Levels of Death… he might as well do so.

Anyway, if someone actively chose him, he still had to wait until tomorrow.

"Is that so? Not a problem," said Baroque as he squinted his eyes. "The announcement screen outside will show the new schedule for tomorrow at eight in the evening. You can check who would fight you from there."

Entering the lottery pool did not mean that he would get chosen right away.

Also, Dave's information contained the data of three of the four remaining participants. The fourth one was someone like Angor who just came to Level 13, so Dave had not found anything about that one yet.

Among them, the first name that caught Angor's attention was Fox Master.

According to his memory, this one always turned battles into showy performances.

…

The Sky Tower regarded participants in the Three Levels of Death as valuable assets. In order to ensure their safety outside, there were many complicated cableways for these levels which also allowed their users to get off midway and to avoid being stalked.

Angor used such a cableway to leave, so he did not have anyone following him.

Later, he went to the mortal market. Before heading back to apprentice town, he hired someone to help him note down the new schedule shown in the evening.