Warlock Apprentice

Dave mentioned something about the weapon to Angor before Angor went to fight Fox Master. However, there were not enough details. Angor only knew that Prome wanted his help for making a long-range alchemy weapon.

Since Angor asked, Prome revealed his idea right away. He needed a tiered long-range weapon which should be able to repel undead creatures.

"The request is from an old friend of mine. I still owe him a favor. I've tried to make many weapons without ever finding the right way, and half a year has already passed," said Prome as he sighed in frustration. "Synthesis has the best potential, but it requires great innovation and experience. I don't want to keep my friend waiting for any longer, and here's when your enchantment skills come in, young man."

Angor was not interested in Prome's story so he cut straight to the point. "I haven't spent much time in the field of alchemy, sir, and I only have a basic idea of synthesis right now. May I know what you can do via synthesis at your current level?"

"If I try my best, I can give a weapon the effect of 'Holy Light', which requires constant mana to support it. This means the weapon must be used in close range. It loses its effect when it leaves the user."

"I've not read anything about runes related to undead creatures yet. Can you tell me where to begin?"

Prome looked a bit embarrassed as he explained, "I'm afraid my knowledge on this particular subject is as limited as yours. I can only tell you several basic runes, and they may not help at all."

"If that's the case, please tell me which runes are possibly effective against undead, and I'll see if I know something similar."

Angor had read through Enchantment Cyclopaedia from start to end. He probably knew more runes than the entire rune collection in Cloud Library.

"First, you should know what 'undead' means…"

Slowly, Prome explained the characteristics of undead creatures to Angor.

Such creatures were mostly fallen souls which were different from ordinary souls made of pure energy. Anti-undead spells did not have any effect on ordinary souls. However, unlike pure souls, the souls of undead creatures had "fallen".

Almost all undead creatures were filled with negative properties such as tainted energy, evil emotions, dark thoughts, the will to kill or bloodthirst. Such creatures could wield curses at will. Many of them also possessed various strange abilities, so getting rid of them was never an easy task.

As far as spells were concerned, those with purifying effects usually worked best. Still, this did not mean that one could choose a purifying spell freely. For example, Cleanse and Dust Removal also had similar effects, and they could do nothing against undead creatures. There were several well-known spells for repelling undead such as Expel, Dimensional Rift, Holy Light.

After hearing Prome, Angor assumed that there were mainly three approaches to get rid of undead beings.

First was to send them away, such as another continent, inside a Sorcerer's Garden, or another dimension. This was the "laziest" way because when someone sent a creature away, it would ultimately go trouble someone else.

Another way was to "decompose" the creature and eliminate its consciousness. A fallen soul was still made of energy. By using certain spells to scatter, burn, or devour the energy meant erasing the undead creature itself.

The third approach was purification. Here, it meant purifying the energy in the creature and returning it to its original, pure form. Most Dark Wizards knew how to do this.

Generally, most wizards would use the first approach when facing undead beings. However, Expel spells including those which sent something into darkness, into another space, another plane, or the legendary spell that pushed something into another timeline were at least level-1 formal spells which were impossible for apprentices to learn.

That was why apprentices usually chose the remaining means—either eliminating the creature or purifying its energy.

"Elimination, purification or expel…" Angor held his chin and mumbled. "Allow me to think about it."

Prome sipped his wine and waited for an answer eagerly.

Angor spoke a while later, "I don't know any rune with similar effects at the moment."

Prome quickly grew disappointed.

"I don't remember many runes, but I can go check through the books later. There should be something helpful," Angor said. He could only fully remember the content of Enchantment Cyclopaedia: For Starters, which did not yield anything useful. He was positive something might turn up in the advanced editions.

"Please do. I really need to get my request done, and I have nothing else to depend on right now. My last choice was to look for a finished weapon from the Wizard Fair or one of the auctions," said Prome before he sighed deeply.

"Wizard Fair?" This one drew Angor's attention. "Is it a place designed for wizards?"

Prome chuckled and shook his head. "Not quite. There, people sell anything related to the supernatural. For example, alchemy items, magical plants, special mineral, books on particular subjects…"

"But can't you find them here, from the underground market?"

"It's different. The merchandises here are aimed for apprentices. Do you notice that most shops here are run by mortals? Most of what they sell is still considered non-supernatural. There are only a few alchemy items or materials." Prome paused a little before continuing, "Of course, the random stalls sometimes get surprises in them, so there are many wizards who come and check now and then.

"Still, most wizards would choose Wizard Fair. Mid-tiered and strong apprentices prefer to go there instead of wasting their time in the underground market."

Angor realized why he could not even find a simple wizard robe today.

"Um, where can I find it? Is it under one of the apprentice towns too?"

Prome shook head again. "The Wizard Fair is not inside the mirror world. Oh, and there are more than one. Some of them are stationary, and some travel around. One of the closest one to us is located in a tribe area on Parmigi Highlands, about a hundred kilometers away from the mirror world. But I heard that a serious blood-dissolving epidemic broke out there and killed many wizards, so the fair has been moved away somewhere near the Evernight Kingdom. There's another fair close enough to Brute Cavern which lies inside the capital of Darkivil Empire, a thousand kilos from here."

Blood dissolve? Angor remembered hearing about something like this which required Flora's presence. And she had not returned to Brute Cavern yet.

"A thousand kilometers… that's pretty far. Too bad. I really wanted to check it out," Angor sighed.

"Far? Is it?" Prome and Dave both asked.

"Um, it's not?"

Dave failed to hide his chuckle. "You didn't come from a primitive tribe yourself, right? Even mortals could afford to ride steam trains now. If we board a train that goes through the core tunnel, it'll only take us three days to reach Darkivil Empire's capital from here. And if we can find an airship and travel above Parmigi Highlands… half a day, or less.

"You can also use flying spells or alchemy items that help you fly and you'll reach there in just a day."

Angor was a bit embarrassed. Ever since he left Marginalized Island, his knowledge about transportation did not grow at all. He still believed that people depended on horses to travel, which would cost them a month or two to go somewhere a thousand kilometers away.

"You want to see the Wizard Fair?" Dave asked.

"Yeah."

"You can come with me next time then." Prome offered. "Whether you can find an idea for the weapon, I'm going there anyway. If you have something to work on, I'll get the materials from the fair. Otherwise, I'll just buy a weapon there. The fair provides many rare materials. You'll always find what you need."

Angor did need some materials right now. He collected lots of greyspace microbes during the construction of Sunders' Sorcerer's Garden, which were the major materials for making a space storage. Since he started to study alchemy, Angor always wanted to get the remaining materials and try to make something himself.

But he never found them in the underground market. The resource distribution hall offered some of them… at an insane price.

"Please let me come with you then. I need to find some materials as well."

Prome nodded and agreed. He would not mind earning favor from Angor.

"You want some other materials? You can't find them here?" Dave asked.

Angor nodded.

"It means… Do you have a new alchemy plan? Or is it for your music box?" Dave asked eagerly.

"No, it's for something else. But I haven't come up with the whole plan yet. I'll tell you before I start doing it," said Angor as he promised Dave.

"Music box? You're interested in such a trinket?" With the main business done, Prome proceeded to learn more about Angor.

Angor chuckled. "Toby really loves music, so I want to make one for him."

"Toby is the name of Angor's familiar. You know, the really scary bird," Dave explained to Prome.

"I see…" Prome was quite interested in Toby, but he managed to hold back the urge to ask. It was already something private. He would never hesitate to inquire such info from other apprentices, but he was more careful around Angor.

"Do you want a music box, Dave? You provided me the Echo Flowers after all," Angor said.

"Nah. It's just one of those boring toys for little girls. I've no use from it."

"You sure? I'm going to apply Tranquility Rune on it, you know."

Despite its name, the rune could not provide absolute quietness. It only helped someone to concentrate.

Dave considered and shook his head. "I've seen music boxes from other people before. It only gives out really noisy metal noises. The rune won't work much."

"Is that so? I hope you won't change your mind," said Angor who was quite confident in his creation.