Warlock Apprentice

"We're hardly one third through the night. Please calm down, Lady Lotus," said Twilight as she reassured the wizard.

Lydia scoffed, "Just no more wasting time."

The small incident quickly gave way to further auctions, which all proceeded smoothly once again.

Angor was still frustrated after bidding against Flora, and he failed to stay focused on the following items until someone on the first floor suddenly yelled loudly and drew his attention.

"Azure Bloodline, origin unknown. The seller claims that it came from a specific creature in a special plane from Eastern Borderline. Eastern Borderline is many dimensions away from the southern region, so our appraiser cannot provide their opinions on this one. The available information is only for your reference.

"We just received the item not long ago. From what we've found out, using the bloodline has a chance to make you into a Sage Morph, and I believe you all know what that means to a wizard. We shall start from a thousand magic crystals, and each raise will be at least a hundred. Begin."

Twilight struck her gavel.

It was followed by absolute silence. While Twilight stood on the stage awkwardly, no one provided a bid.

Angor wondered why.

Sage Morph was a particular being similar to his Nightmare Form. The former could improve the overall mental abilities of someone. A Sage Morph might also gain a talent called the "Sage Moment" which was a talent ability almost as powerful as a natural law.

And no one was going for such a valuable item?

Besides, one thousand was not overpriced for something like this. Angor still remembered how Ness declared that the vial of succubus blood would go for at least ten thousand magic crystals when sold.

And it was obvious that the Azure Bloodline was something better.

Angor decided to ask Prome about it.

"I don't know much about this bloodline," Prome replied, "but I can tell you why they aren't going to buy it. There are many reasons. For one, injecting a bloodline always has a risk. We know ways to lower this risk as long as we know which bloodline we're using. Bloodline Wizards even know about a special art that reduces this risk to null. However, this 'Azure Bloodline' is something we don't know about, which means no one knows how to avoid its risk.

"Secondly, she used big words that the bloodline MIGHT change us into a Sage Morph. True wizards do not trust in chances. To them, anything below a hundred percent means zero. And she never mentioned the success rate of the bloodline, which already tells us it must be a terrible gamble.

"There are other factors. But the two reasons you just heard are enough to discourage anyone from using the bloodline. So you see why everyone's staying put."

"But it's pretty cheap, right? We can use it in experiments too," Angor muttered, "the succubus blood worth tens times more."

"Succubus blood? That's an extremely rare treasure for all witches, and it definitely should sell high," Dave commented. "It's so easy to earn money from women. I saw a magazine several years ago about a certain rumor that someone extracted the seminal vesicle from a disgusting slug-like creature in abyss plane, diluted it in holy water, and found out that the remains gave out a strange perfume. You know what that was?"

Dave did not expect Angor to answer and revealed the answer right away, "That's the infamous 'Honeydew'. They gave it such a beautiful name to cover its filthy origin. Also, Honeydew is the prototype of all pheromone perfumes. A slug's seminal vesicle! They rubbed that stuff on their bodies! Damn, women are crazy." Dave shivered at the thought of it.

Angor blushed a little. He agreed with Dave, true, but he was in no position to provide his opinion, because… he once sold his "perfume" to someone as well.

"Well, wizardry is dull, maybe we all need to find pleasure now and then, hehe…" Angor tried to end the topic by chuckling in a silly way.

Twilight was going to declare a bought-in when her screen suddenly showed something.

"We have someone from the outer hall bidding a thousand crystals. Anyone else? Or the item will go to Number 13769!"

It seemed that as long as someone helped her escape the embarrassment, Twilight would no longer care who bought the item.

No one else responded during her countdown, which meant the Azure Bloodline was taken by someone outside.

At a wall corner in the outer hall, a woman covered in a black robe who carried a strange dagger with a butterfly engraved on it leaned against the wall as she smoked her pipe. When the central screen showed the result, she spoke to another young man beside her.

"The Azure Bloodline sounds nice, but there must be a reason why everyone ignored it. Are you sure you made the right decision?"

"I've no use for the Moonfall Stone anyway, so I might exchange it for something I can use. Besides…" The young man in a white robe was trembling. He grasped a thick-looking book against his chest to comfort himself. This was his first time spending such a great fortune.

"Besides, the Elder of Books told me that becoming a Sage Morph can help me turn it into a 'spirituality'. It's my only chance."

The young man looked up at the woman and smiled. "You've been an inspiration to me, ma'am. I want to fight for my destination even if it endangers my life, just like you." He looked at the woman's hidden right arm and became sad for some reason. "And as a man, how can I proceed down the path of wizardry if I can't even find such courage?"

"Man? You? Aha. You and Angor are both kids to me," said the woman. She held her long-handled pipe and remained silent for a while before saying, "Let's hope you succeed then. After the auction, I'll return to the organization and keep up my tower challenge. I'll ask my professor about how to reduce the risk of using that bloodline if I have a chance."

Just as she left the wall and stood upright, a gentle breeze blew over and lifted her robe a little to reveal her body.

Where her right arm should have been… there was nothing.

…

A good number of unimpressive items followed behind Azure Bloodline.

Lydia expressed her impatience for many times now. Even Flora agreed with her. Twilight was beginning to lose control of her composed attitude.

During this time, Angor successfully won his first bid. It was a stack of fifteen papers made from the hide of a beast called Chaos Beater. The paper could support magic arrays without breaking apart, which meant enchantment alchemists could practice drawing magic arrays on them. However, they could not really be used to unleash the power of the arrays.

The starting price was 500, and Angor won his bid by paying 700 because Flora saw his attempt and simply tried to play a prank.

Angor facepalmed when Twilight struck her gavel.

Why would she do such a thing??

As the 100th item was going to be presented, Twilight received a message from someone and grinned.

"Our next lot is a special and unique item. It's an art… if you would trust me."

"Art? Well, we know some wizards love to collect them, but do you really need to sell it at an auction?" Someone complained.

"Maybe a legacy left by a very famous master?"

Twilight only gave them a mysterious smile, before she looked up at the third floor. "I believe that Lady Lotus loves music quite a lot. You used to enjoy going to mortal concerts, no? Then you will definitely like this item."

"Oh? You're right, I do enjoy good music, but not just any music. There's something else you failed to mention, that many of the mortal concerts were bathed in blood because they failed to amaze me."

Twilight smiled again. "We shall see it then."

The stage grew darker. When the item was brought to the auction stand, a beam from the spotlight was focused on it.

"Oh… it's pretty. No wonder Lady Twilight regarded it as art!" Someone exclaimed.

"The 100th lot for tonight is this—'Land on the Sky'!" Twilight pointed to the showcase. "You will not find anything quite alike in this world. Also, it possesses some special properties. Feel free to take your guesses, but I do believe that you won't get the right answer."

The stage was protected by a magic array which prevented anyone from inspecting the area with their spirit feelers. This meant they could only examine the item with their eyes.

Someone commented, "I sense a soothing aura."

"A water-themed alchemy item maybe?" Someone saw the ocean wave design and guessed.

"But Lady Twilight said 'music' right? I think it's a sound weapon."

Twilight waited for a while to arouse their curiosity before finally introducing the item.

"This is a music box."

Everyone frowned at those words. When thinking about music boxes, they all thought about those terrible metal clinking noises. No wizard would enjoy listening to these cheap toys designed for rich mortals.

"Beware, this is no ordinary music box. It's a tiered alchemy item."