Warlock Apprentice

A strange, blueish form that kept releasing water into the environment emerged from the endless sea. Its body was completely transparent, which contained more seawater within. The creature was running on top of the sea in a strange manner. Upon reaching land, all the seawater suddenly vanished, which was replaced by a handsome-looking young man with a piece of blue fish scale covering his forehead.

The young man lifted a card and put a finger on his scale. When his body released a faint blue glimmer, a miniature whale emerged from his forehead and rubbed against its master's cheek affectionately.

"Why are we standing on land, Master?" The small whale floated about while spitting bubbles occasionally.

"The purification garden is about to open, and my professor asked me to come." The young man stroked the whale's belly.

"But Master, you're the son of the sea. The purification garden won't have any effect on your soul, which is already pure."

"I dunno why I'm expected. Professor already arrived. Maybe something else came about?" The young man's eyes brimmed with intelligence. "You're right, the garden is pointless to me. But I learned that Miss Maine might go there as well. And of course, I'm going too."

While speaking, the young man collected the bubbles released by the whale and created one giant bubble. Then he entered the bubble with the creature and disappeared behind a surge of foams.

…

"Miss Maine" was currently at Pleasure World.

It was a very famous appendage plane not far from the southern wizarding region.

There was no country or nation in Pleasure World. Each city operated on independently. Anyone with enough power could claim somewhere as his or her own turf.

Even though the cities had different names, there was one thing that they shared in common—each city was full of criminals who enjoyed extravagant entertainment day and night. With enough money, people could buy all possible forms of pleasure they hoped for. For this reason, the Pleasure World was favored by both rich men, who wanted to burn away their cash, and corrupted thugs, who sought sanctuary.

However, there was one single, special spot among all the filth-filled colonies that shone brightly like the moon accompanied by lesser stars.

Shangri-La.

This was also the HQ of Pleasure House. Among all wizard organizations in the south, the Pleasure House was among the top ten in terms of strength.

There was a foggy hot spring filled up with pure milk in the center of Pleasure House. Maine moaned in contentment and slowly stood up from the milk while caressing her smooth skin.

Her perfect body shape was clear to see across the misty air. The woman didn't look as strong as Nausica, yet she showed a different kind of alluring aura that would easily entice men. Her bewitching temperament was further strengthened by the pair of pure white wings stretching behind her back. With each flap, there would be snow-white feathers that floated around her body.

After getting out of the bath, Maine found a semi-transparent silk cloak and flew toward a portal with a card in her hand.

"Where are you going, Miss Maine?" another woman bathing in milk asked her in a loving voice.

"To the purification garden. I need to see someone dead," Maine answered without looking back.

Similar scenes happened at a number of different places.

In the depth of a primitive jungle, a traveler equipped with a giant bow and green paints over his body suddenly twitched his ears as he heard something traveling through the air.

He looked up and saw a single arrow that went past the sky; there was a letter attached to it.

He lifted his bow and released his own arrow at the ground. The attack created a bright, green light, which quickly created several giant tree leaves in the environment. With several skillful jumps, the rogue leaped into the air and took the flying arrow in his hand.

He landed back down and sat on the dirt to read the letter.

There was a glowing card inside the letter as well as a single seed that showed strange patterns on it.

The wanderer of the jungle cast a meaningful glance at the card before he slowly walked out of the jungle with his bow firmly held.

Tens of thousands of miles away from the jungle was a vast grass field. A charming woman was walking among colorful flowers. Each time she put her bare feet on the grass, she would create more flowers and butterflies on the spot.

She was heading toward the same direction as the wanderer.

Freaks living inside swamps. Monks training under waterfalls. Bell keeper working in a bell tower. A young witch with a black cat on her shoulder… Countless geniuses traveled to Floating Mech City for various reasons.

…

Fey Continent was too large for any wizard to fully measure its size, and this was made worse by the great number of appendage planes attached to it. Each appendage plane could be as large as another whole world. Even wizards who knew how to fly fast had to spend several years to go through an appendage plane.

For this reason, many nations scattered across Fey Continent only knew limited knowledge about their neighbors. They basically had no idea about anything beyond their field of vision.

However, there were exceptions, such as a place that enjoyed great fame among wizards and mortals alike.

Evory.

Mortals respected Evory because this country offered wealth and fortune to its surrounding area, providing jobs to countless people.

Railways, trains, steel technology, clockwork, machines… Over the past thousand years, the distinctive technologies from Evory had spread to the entire Fey Continent. Even somewhere extremely far like Midnight Sovereign now had their own underground trains and other automation industries built by mortal hands.

By its own power, Evory brought the age of steam to Fey Continent, leaving primitive societies behind.

At the same time, Evory was famous among wizards because Floating Mech City—the center of alchemy art as well as the biggest trading hub—was located at Evory.

Mortals barely had any chance to witness the magnificent city as it always floated above the clouds.

Currently, Floating Mech City had halted above an inland salt lake. More than a hundred airships were busy gathering salt from nature.

The brilliant appearance of the city was fully reflected on the clear surface of the lake.

The city, which was entirely built with metal, covered hundreds of kilometers of the ground like a giant monster that prevented sunlight from reaching the earth. Stretching clouds couldn't do anything to cover even a small corner of the city.

Despite its size, Floating Mech City possessed highly united construction style.

As far as people could see, everything looked metallic, albeit in different colors. Darksteel, bronze, gold, and silver… Also, all chimneys of the structures all pointed downward to release smoke and waste. From above, the city looked exceptionally tidy.

An oval-shaped building lay in the middle of the city. This was what kept the city alive at most times—the teleport station.

Floating Mech City was a neutral city with a good number of alchemists residing inside. It shared direct traffic connections with many other organizations. Since everyone seemed to consider the city as a trading center, they simply developed into one by slowly creating different services such as Sky Auction and Tower of Infinity.

Due to the necessity of constant external resources, the teleport station was considered one of the most important structures.

Today, a young lady wearing a wizard robe decorated by stars and moon was standing in front of a pale blue barrier; she was looking at an ancient portal array behind the barrier.

She was looking through the messages she received in her transmitter out of boredom.

"Portal handler Siria, be aware, your shift will end soon."

Siria had been at this post for two days, and the portal connecting Fairy World never lit up. This should be an easy job for apprentices, and it allowed them to earn some quick money. But not to Siria. She actually bribed someone to win this post. If no one from Silent Hill showed up… the money would go to waste.

She watched anxiously. There were only three minutes left before the next apprentice would take over the post.

Just as Siria silently bid farewell to her hard-earned money, the receiver shaped like a crescent moon suddenly lit up.

Someone had sent her a new message from the main control. Excited, she quickly read the message.

"Portal handler Siria, take note, the Silent Hill portal of Fairy World is activating. Six individuals detected. Prepare to receive them."

Siria immediately brightened up. "Copy that!"

Silent Hill… She quickly thought about a certain someone with wild, bright-red hair. "It must be him."

When no one was looking, she quickly activated her transmitter and sent a message to someone else.

"Silent Hill sent someone!"

Another message came back a moment later. "Roger. I'm right here."

Siria looked up and saw a man in a coffee-color trench coat and a gray felt hat waving a hand at her.

Siria carefully nodded and approached the portal array.

A bright flash of light revealed a number of people standing in the middle of the portal.