Warlock Apprentice

Angor stepped out of the plane passageway and immediately felt something was wrong.

He thought the rainbow dragonflies were taking him to the Nightmare Realm, which… didn't happen. The area outside was still full of nightmare mist, but he did not sense that particular stillness which suggested frozen time.

When he turned back, he saw a giant monster nest about ten meters high.

It looked exactly the same as the one he saw in Lady's Juice. Even the dragonfly guards were patrolling in the same manner.

He looked around further and only saw more mist in every direction. There were faint building silhouettes across the mist, which all looked like small wooden cottages.

He then sensed more carefully and noticed that everything here was ordinary, apart from the nightmare aura.

"This is not the Nightmare Realm… Is it the wizarding world, or another plane?"

Of course he hoped he was back at the wizarding world. However, even if someone was here to tell him otherwise, he wouldn't really feel depressed.

Those who just went through true desperation would find comfort in the tiniest bit of hope.

Being able to escape the plane passageway was already a miracle. For now, he wouldn't ask for more. The situation already seemed better since this wasn't actually the Nightmare Realm. He had no reason to get sad.

He took Toby and walked for a while.

Meanwhile, the dragonfly guards and some other wandering dragonflies all followed behind him like a shiny carpet flowing in the wind.

He didn't use the "Infinite Reticence" effect of his bracelet since it wouldn't work with the sparkling little creatures hung so closely to him.

He sighed and waved his little pursuers away as he asked them to return to their nest.

These creatures saved his life. He didn't really want to force them away like how Sunders would usually do.

Perhaps they did their job by helping "Shava". To Angor, however, this was a life-saving favor that he couldn't forget easily, even if his saviors were… dragonflies.

He considered for a moment, and by using his emotions, he tried to tell the insects to go back and guard their nest.

They didn't comply at first. They only slowly moved away when Angor told them "the queen demands you to protect your post instead of wandering about".

Yet several hundred of them still remained beside Angor, including the bigger member who gave Angor the Hollow Weed lump.

This particular dragonfly was about twice to three times bigger than its kin and brighter as well. Angor took a guess that this was their leader.

Instead of "mass-broadcasting" his emotion, he directed his thought to this big dragonfly alone this time, hoping that it would bring its members away.

It seemed this one was more intelligent. After several attempts, when Angor actually "ordered" it to go back, the large dragonfly finally took the others back to the nest.

Or not, again. There was still one single dragonfly left, which had been doing its bee-style waggle dance all along. It seemed this one was too indulged in its dance to notice anything else, and it followed Angor closely wherever he went.

Angor simply expanded his Nightmare Domain and put the dragonfly inside so that it could join the teacups.

Good, now the music band got a new dancer.

He had been walking about 10 minutes since he left the monster nest, and he slowly learned the landscape around him.

It seemed to be a village, but he didn't see any villagers. The entire village was covered in a dense mist. He couldn't see the sun.

Maybe the villagers were possessed just like what happened in Midnight Sovereign? No. He should be seeing mad clowns if that was the case. He hadn't heard any singing yet.

Besides, he saw no parasites.

So it's just an ordinary village that's swallowed by the nightmare aura?

With this question in mind, he opened the door of a small cottage nearby.

It was rather narrow. Something similar to a temporary hideout for a hunter. The wooden walls had patches everywhere.

He didn't get to open the door fully before it broke apart into several pieces, along with the door frame. Then the whole house crumbled down on him, burying him under wooden rubbles.

Since he activated the Magic Barrier on his overcoat in time, he wasn't really harmed. He struggled and climbed away from the ruins. He then looked back with a frown.

The house had decayed away completely… How much time had passed since this place was abandoned?

His plan of finding information or directions from this village just got a whole lot harder.

He turned his attention to another small villa, which looked relatively solid with its design mixed with wood and bricks.

"Nothing special… The doors and the ceilings all suit the size of a human…"

It meant the village was inhabited by humans or humanoids.

The yard of the villa was full of weed. Angor carefully pushed the gate open, which worked fine without breaking down. The designer of the house probably considered this.

The furniture inside the house, however, wasn't so sturdy. Wooden desks, chairs, dusty platforms… Everything would quickly crack up the moment Angor put force on it.

"It's been like this for at least several centuries or longer."

Each of his movements would bring up lots of dust. It wasn't an issue when the "Purification Field" of his top-hat was working. He was only worried that whatever he might need was either hidden under the thick dust or had rotten away.

In the end, he gained nothing from the small villa. The stairs weren't usable, and when he extended his spirit feelers into the second floor, he couldn't sense anything.

He proceeded to check a number of houses. Nothing.

Until he finally noticed something inside a giant, fortress-like structure in the center of the village.

This place looked like a command center. Angor found rotten pens, paper scraps, and semi-intact parchment with drawings on them. Whatever was written couldn't be seen under the dust. And since any attempts to remove the dust would only break the paper, he had to give up.

The only thing he managed to find was a map about the surrounding area of the village which was engraved into the wall of the fortress.

A large circle contained the entire map within. There were trees, probably woods. House icons in the center, likely suggesting this village. There were also lakes, tents, torches… The map clearly explained all possible landmarks nearby.

But Angor had a question.

Everything was inside that circle. So what was "outside" the circle? Did the circle mean "safe zone", while the area beyond was dangerous?

He had no idea about that until he ventured out to see for himself.

He took out his hologram tablet and took a photo of the map. He then left the village behind.

There was nothing else to see there, so he might as well go outside.

As long as he was away from the plane passageway, anywhere else would be fine.

…

Half a day later, Angor trotted back into the village with his head lowered in distress.

He was all ambitious when he left the village, believing that his feet could take him anywhere as long as he stayed determined.

And he was wrong. After taking a great tour, he finally understood what the circle around the map meant. It didn't mean "safe zone", but a restriction.

The area inside the circle was the only passable ground.

As for the circle itself… It was a stone wall that reached all the way into the sky.

Angor spent half a day as he made a full trip along the "circle", but he did not find any opening or anything that he could use to climb the wall. And with the mist over his head, he could not see the top of the wall.

This meant he was either at the bottom of an abyss or an underground area like Midnight Sovereign. Either way, it wasn't easy to get out.

His most important task right now was to find an exit.

And he believed such an exit existed. There was only a dense forest around the village. There was no cultivable soil or ranch field. The villagers who once lived here couldn't possibly survive by picking fruits off the trees only.

Those pens and forging tools had to have come from somewhere outside. There had to be a way to go somewhere, and he had to find it as soon as possible.

He walked on the main path of the village while thinking about this question. He left his spirit feelers out to scan the surroundings so that he could notice anything of interest.

Also, he began to realize that the village might have been more beautiful than he imagined.

The decayed houses didn't prevent him from noticing the careful designs of them. Almost every family had trees planted around their house. It was just that most of them had died due to the lack of sunlight. He tried to establish the image of a lively village in his mind, where friendly villagers, colorful flowers, and fruitful trees laid everywhere.

It seemed like a perfect paradise to escape the war too, should any war broke out outside.

But despite his imagination, there were only ruins and silent sadness left behind.