Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 362: Door

Using countless strings, Shadow could control every part and joint on Magician’s body.

Shadow began to hum a small melody. Following the music, Magician began to perform a solo dance.

The man jumped, spun, and hopped with superior agility.

When Magician bowed as a finale, Shadow released some more strings, which controlled the shadow of another pink-haired lady sitting across from him.

Controlled by the trick, the lady joined the music and danced together with Magician.

When Shadow’s music ended, Magician and the lady both bowed again, while holding each other’s arms.

Shadow recovered his white strings and placed Magician’s shadow in the middle of the table. A tiny round table was placed in the middle of nine tinier chairs, which made it appear as if a child had been playing house.

Seven small shadows already sat there when Magician and the pink lady’s shadows filled the remaining seats.

“Did you like your reward? A fine dance to celebrate the end of your own life, together with the girl you secretly loved,” Shadow said with a chuckle. “And I’ll be your personal musician. You should feel honored!”

A white string reached out again, forcing Magician to nod.

Magician had fallen under the same trick which affected everyone else in the room. He slowly grinned as he said up in a robotic tone, “Thank you, my, master.”

Shadow grinned to himself. Then, he slowly lifted his head.

“What about you? Are you satisfied?”

…

Angor had been staying cautious since he entered the dent.

Or rather, he always was while he walked among the trees, especially when he remembered that he saw the strange small shadow right here, on the day when he left the ranger house.

Back then, he thought it was a squirrel or something. Now that he learned many things in the city, he believed the shadow looked very similar to the one he saw in Count Leonrick’s manor.

Was that a Krakok? If so, the Krakoks always lurked around the city?

So Shadow was controlling the Krakoks? What was he planning to do?

It couldn’t be mere coincidence that someone picked the “Deadmen’s Dent” in these particular woods as the meeting spot.

Angor’s questions forced him to keep alert. When he saw the door at the end of the path was left wide open, he immediately activated Infinite Reticence to hide.

It wasn’t natural for someone to build a room inside a corpse pit. Judging from the marks, this place was carved out recently.

Angor believed that the Krakoks created this temporary place just for the scheduled meeting.

It was probably Shadow who distributed the message, not Michel.

Angor had been staying hidden inside the room so that he could find out Shadow’s plan. To prevent any unwanted surprises, he had used all means of protection he had, including Toby.

Of course, he saw everything that just happened.

It seemed Magician lost his own consciousness after being affected by the white strings.

Angor couldn’t understand the point of that strange dance in the end.

When Shadow asked a question to someone other than Magician, Angor began to wonder if he was already exposed.

“Magician’s friend, my dear. Won’t you give me your applause for the brilliant performance?”

Angor believed that Shadow already noticed his presence since there had to be some kind of sentries outside the door that saw him before he activated Infinite Reticence.

He also believed that Shadow couldn’t tell his exact position now. Angor was confident with the capability of his Infinite Reticence, which could even fool someone as powerful as Lady Mirror.

Shadow waited for a while and didn’t receive any response.

He had been pretending to be calm and well-prepared, but he almost lost his fake composure because he already lost track of whoever it was that accompanied Magician in here.

He did all those shows just to trick the unknown intruder into giving out himself, but it seemed that his plan had failed.

“He already left?” Shadow pondered. However, he quickly thought otherwise as the barrier that he placed around the entrance of the tunnel was still intact.

Someone was still inside this room!

Shadow released more white strings, which began to scan over the room.

Angor slowly stepped back. Infinite Reticence couldn’t make his body disappear. The strings would detect him sooner or later in this small room.

But he had another choice, which was to “enlarge” the room.

With quick work, a spell was made.

His Nightmare Domain was slowly spread open. The narrow and dark room gradually turned into a large guest hall in front of Shadow’s eyes.

“An illusion?” Shadow frowned. Using his strings, he realized that the boundaries of the room had grown much bigger. He knew about certain illusion arrays that could simulate larger environment by combining alchemy and magic arrays.

He stood up and controlled all the “puppets” to walk around the hall.

He suddenly sidestepped as a golden arrow that shone with magic power pierced the space to his side. It surely would have wounded him badly if not for his timely reaction.

“So, an illusion array it is.” Shadow glanced at the arrow stuck in the wall and grimaced. “Come. Show yourself,” he said into the thin air. “I don’t wish to fight you because of a fool like Magician or the other useless wizard wannabes. Now that you’ve shown me your strength, how about a fair talk?”

He spoke in a sincere manner while slowly lifting his hands over his head as if asking for peace.

Angor silently scoffed. His Nightmare Domain allowed him to see every detail, including Shadow’s small moves. He saw the man released three small figures under the table.

Three Krakoks.

As long as they were inside the Nightmare Domain, Angor could inspect the figures carefully even if they were hidden in darkness.

They looked exactly like humans, only smaller and darker-skinned. Their black hooded overalls caused them to look like clumps of shady imps.

Angor already saw their bright eyes glimmering in the dark.

The three Krakoks were carefully looking around the area and moving in unison, while Shadow was inspecting the illusion by some other means.

Angor fixed his attention on the small creatures. He sensed mana ripples from them.

Apprentices. Low-level ones.

Angor tried to cast Bind to capture the Krakoks, but as soon as the ropes materialized in the air, the Krakoks screamed and created a small door that allowed them to escape.

“It happened again!” Angor could no longer sense their presence in the Nightmare Domain.

Was that a spell that allowed inter-space travel? Usually, spells like these were only available to wizards. However, there were certain races with the right talents that could do this as well.

As Angor pondered about the question, Shadow immediately dashed toward him and released an area-of-effect cantrip at his location.

He had overlooked Shadow’s movement when looking at the Krakoks!

Angor cast Bind in a concealed way so that it would be hard to notice, but a warning from the Krakoks still gave his location out.

Shadow was moving so fast with the help of wind elements, and Angor didn’t have enough time to escape or cast another nightmare illusion. Out of desperation, he ordered a group of music teacups to block the attack.

Most of the incoming attack landed on the teacups, while a portion of it managed to reach Angor, knocking him away and breaking his sneak effect.

At the same time, Shadow also stumbled backward with a painful yelp.

Shadow believed that his Bloodline-enhanced instant level-2 cantrip was enough to kill an unwary level-3 apprentice. He didn’t expect a number of… teacups to suddenly get in the way and bounce his power back.

The teacups grew weaker after being separated from the nightmare tunnel, and many of them were shattered by Shadow’s attacks. However, the attacks were still dampened and partially reflected, which inflicted serious damage to Shadow.