Warlock Apprentice

Angor didn't know what was the relationship between that Bacabrado and rainbow dragonflies, but he was glad for the little surprise.

His happiness didn't last very long though. If he couldn't get out, the treasure would be meaningless inside this darkness. When he thought about this, his mood worsened once again.

He placed the Hollow Weed inside his bracelet to let them expand their territory.

…

More travel went on.

Another three days passed.

Following the nightmare aura, Angor experienced a wonderful journey that no one would believe if he ever told them.

He thought that running into a Bacabrado was a rare experience, which was not the case. Along their way, they came across all kinds of giant beasts, as if they were a king and his guards who were patrolling a city.

There was one such beast that was so large that the colorful light released by the dragonflies could not help Angor to see the tail of it.

It dwelt inside a misty cloud created by the nightmare aura. When the dragonflies traveled through, the magnificent creature glanced at them with its alexandrite eye before it slowly moved out of the way.

Angor never managed to see the full size of the creature. He couldn't remember the books ever mentioning anything with alexandrite-colored eyes and pure white scales.

Its size alone suggested immeasurable power. The monster was probably beyond wizard-level.

Angor could read the great intelligence that was displayed in its eyes. But it seemed like the giant beast didn't wish to communicate as it merely shut its eyes and simply let the rainbow dragonflies carried Angor away.

And this wasn't the only wonderful thing Angor witnessed.

He even took a guess that the plane passageway he was in was actually a "ranch" of Nightmare Realm, while the rainbow dragonflies were the managers. Every monster he came across only lived near the nightmare aura. He now felt it lucky that he found the dragonflies. If he followed the nightmare aura by himself, these unknown monsters would probably have made quick work of him.

Maybe fate didn't want him dead after all.

…

Angor wasn't sure how far he had to travel. Both he and Toby began to take less food, and Toby reduced his own movement to conserve his strength. The bird perched inside the small crater on Angor's top hat while he thought about something on his own.

Angor, on the other hand, took out his tablet and searched for the gourmet spell "Mana Bread".

He was glad that Sunders' collection included a small number of low-level Occultist cantrips. "Mana Bread" was among them.

And as he expected, the learning process was extremely slow.

Learning cross-subject abilities was commonly seen among wizards. Angor's Elemental Spells were also something out of his field of expertise. But to learn an Occultist skill was a completely different matter. These skills were considered "occult" because they were mysterious and unique.

But he still had to do this. Toby's dried fish would run out sooner or later, and they had no idea where their journey would take them. He had to learn the cantrip to make sure that they didn't die of starvation.

More time went by.

A week later, which was about the 16th day of Month of Harvest, Angor looked at the blackish substance in his hand. It was heavy like iron scrap, and it smelled like someone's unwashed sock which had been sealed somewhere wet and poorly-ventilated for an entire month.

This holey black lump of "Object-X" was the mana bread he managed to create after studying for nearly a hundred hours.

He could barely hold back from vomiting, let alone actually trying to taste the disaster.

Toby's fish slices were a little stinky too, but it was in a different way. Angor wondered if Toby would like this one.

Using such an excuse about which he himself wouldn't believe, Angor carried the black object in front of Toby's face.

"Hey, Toby, a piece of tasty bread for you. If it's good enough, I'll make you more," Angor said as he presented the smelly lump with both hands and a bright smile.

Toby looked at Angor in doubt and hopped onto his hand to take a sniff.

"Caaaarw!" The bird slapped the object away violently which knocked against Angor's forehead.

Angor felt dazed for a moment. "Oh gosh. Perhaps Gourmet Wizards use this spell to attack people? That hurts!"

He rubbed his swollen forehead and tossed the object into the void.

He tried several more times. Maybe because of his incorrect way of learning or some other reason, he only managed to bring out a similar bulge every time. The only difference between them was how long a sock was kept inside a drawer.

According to the book, a "Mana Bread" should be something with a sweet smell and soft on the tongue. A Gourmet Wizard could change the flavor of it by following his or her own taste, such as orange, mushroom, tomato or cheese…

It was only in books. Angor's creations all smelled like worn footwear.

However, considering the fact that he was learning something completely foreign to him, him being able to create an object after learning for a week was already something.

During an afternoon, he forced himself to take a small bite of his mana bread while he endured the overwhelming stench.

As he thought, it was like chewing kibble used for feeding pigs. Or rather, kibble was way better than this.

Still, as long as he pinched his nose, his tongue couldn't really register the bad smell. He could totally swallow it if he tried not to think about it too much.

He was determined though, that unless they were left with absolutely nothing else to eat, he would not rely on this sorry stuff.

Their journey continued. During their time, Angor noticed some other details about this place, such as his meditation helped him to expand his mana pool at an extremely fast pace.

The rate at which he purified primal mana was still the same. Yet his mana pool grew visibly. After another two days, Angor finished another meditation session and sensed that his mana pool had swelled. The books said that such a feeling meant he had completed all necessary training for a level-1 apprentice.

He was now at his bottleneck before turning into a level-2 apprentice.

The Singularity Dispersive Meditation already helped him grow a lot faster than everyone else. He was shocked once again, that his training speed inside the plane passageway was three or four times more efficient.

His previous progress suggested that he would achieve such a condition in the Month of Frost or when the purification garden was opened. But he did it four months earlier!

Reaching his bottleneck in Month of Frost was already a bold estimation. It would usually take others several years to do the same. Dave, for example, was still a level-1 apprentice who was far from the bottleneck even though he came to Brute Cavern five years earlier than Angor.

Angor found this to be both unbelievable and exciting. It seemed training was faster in a plane passageway. There were no books that mentioned such a thing.

He wondered if it happened because of the rich nightmare aura.

But he couldn't ascertain the reason yet. Getting stronger was more important right now. He had no idea where the dragonflies were taking him to, and no matter where it was, having enough strength to survive was rule number one.

Usually, the bottleneck which prevented a level-1 apprentice from becoming level-2 was relatively easy to manage compared to the next one. Even the most ordinary person could break through with several years of effort. Of course, those who were rich enough could always buy potions for this, while others simply needed enough time.

Angor was different. The channeling method he learned suited him perfectly, and he successfully established the axes of the universe in his mind space. To him, breaking a minor level bottleneck was like a walk in the park. His real challenge would only begin when he was near the wizard level.

It only took him three days to break through to level-2 apprentice. Nothing went wrong.

Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise. He would never train so fast if not for the unknown assailant who pushed him down here.

He had another problem now.

He improved too fast, without learning many of the essential skills and knowledge.

He could count the number of level-1 cantrips that he had learned with one hand, and he hadn't started to study the Tooling, Smelt, and Freeze cantrips. He was planning to make a list for the cantrips he needed to learn after the Twilight Well incident was over. Maybe he would even join several class sessions in Tree Spirit Garden while at it so that he could adjust what he had learned from Jon properly before he proceeded for real.

He did none of these. No lessons, no cantrips. And here he was, a level-2 apprentice, forced by fate and opportunity.

He was now determined to take some time to strengthen his foundation upon returning to civilization. Otherwise, his "level-2 apprentice" title would be completely fake.

But… could he really return at all?

He got an answer a day later.

…

It was the 21st day of Month of Harvest, as well as the 21st day since he had been inside the plane passageway.

Due to the help of the rainbow dragonflies, his lengthy journey finally drew to an end.

He saw a bright exit at the end of the direction, which looked very outstanding in this dark place.

As he wished, the dragonflies flew toward it as fast as they could manage.

The exit looked very similar to the entrance in Lady's Juice, but a little bigger and more stable.

Before they reached it, Angor could see the silhouette of buildings behind the exit.

"Is that the Nightmare Realm?" Angor didn't know whether he should really feel happy.

Nevertheless, he should get out. Anything was better than staying in the void. And it wasn't completely impossible to find a way out of the Nightmare Realm.

While he comforted himself, Angor slowly floated out of the plane passageway in which he had spent half a month…