Warlock Apprentice

How to keep an otherworldly individual free from the consciousness of this world without getting them registered at Supreme Cult?

Angor had been searching for an answer for a while.

He thought Pierre could tell him since he just bought an otherworldly slave, but it didn't go as he expected. When he asked the question, Pierre tried to dodge it by beating around the bush.

"Don't worry about Nano. Fibbers can live 300 years on average. Nano is 47 this year, which means he can serve you for long enough."

Each time, Pierre would talk about Nano's life without listening to Angor's real question.

Angor was really puzzled that someone refused to answer him again. First, the Cloud Library did not have any record regarding this matter, and when he asked the others, such as a seasoned scholar like Prome, no one could really answer him.

There were many otherworldly travelers, both legal and illegal, in the wizarding world. Angor didn't believe that what he was looking for was a complex knowledge.

Perhaps this is a secret or something?

Angor kept questioning Pierre because this man was unlikely to notice Jon's presence. He felt safe here because he knew Pierre was the gentle type when it came to treating slaves. Even if Pierre grew suspicious of his questions, he probably wouldn't report him to the cult.

However, Pierre's tongue never loosened no matter how hard Angor tried.

Defeated, Angor had no choice but to leave Pierre's shop with a grim look.

He still had one other option, which was to force his way to get the information he needed by spending enough money. There were lots of places in the city where he could buy information, such as Rosy Boutique. He did not use this method earlier because he feared that people from Supreme Cult might notice his attempt.

But it couldn't be helped now.

Angor went upstairs and left through the shop's entrance while Nano followed him.

When Angor and Nano went away, the other slaves in the hall hoped that the young guest would visit them again. Anyone who agreed to Nano's terms would have no trouble buying the others as well. However, when they saw Pierre still staring at the door with a worried look, they decided not to ask who the guest was.

The information requested by Angor was not really a big secret as far as people who dealt with otherworldly slaves were concerned. Still, it involved the decrees and rules established by certain authorities, and Pierre dared not carelessly slip the information to outsiders.

But Mister Angor seemed really pissed just now… will he treat Nano badly because of this?

The conditions they discussed were just oral agreements, which were not bound by actual pacts. Angor was free to break his promise.

Pierre was really nervous when thinking about this.

He didn't have time to be worried about the matter as loud noises suddenly came from upstairs.

The man with the sunglasses was sitting in front of the entrance when he yelled, "Get those guys up here, Pierre! The cult is here again. They brought ten men this time!"

Pierre grimaced and quickly took out a transmitter. "Time for some work, folks! The goons are looking for trouble again!"

One after the other, the room doors were pushed open, and a number of apprentices who temporarily lived here came out. These people were the ones who helped Pierre stand against Supreme Cult.

"Oh, come on. The garden challenge ended a long time ago! Why are these d*ckheads still in the city?" Pierre cursed under his breath. He would show disrespect in the open because he knew the cultists would leave Floating Mech City sooner or later. If they refused to leave, Lawson would force them to.

As Pierre led his men into the narrow alley to confront the enemies, he realized someone else was occupying the cultists' time.

"We meet again, Mister Padt." The man who spoke up was the one dressed in an armored black robe and inspected the fat apprentice at Rosy Boutique earlier.

Angor was already in a bad mood when leaving Pierre's shop. When he ran into the members of the Supreme Cult, it just made him feel worse. This time, he did not maintain his gentlemanly manners. "Why are you guys everywhere? I know you have your own set of rules, but can you really poke around in the city so boldly?"

The other cultists frowned at his offensive speech.

Angor waved an arm impatiently. "This place is already small enough. Why are there so many of you anyway? It's getting really difficult to walk! Come on. Let me through, alright?"

The armored cultist narrowed his eyes as he looked at the shorter individual walking behind Angor. "The stink of Vulgar Sage… how unpleasant."

Angor didn't know what was that about. He kept gazing at the man who was blocking his way.

"Are you going away or not?"

"Oh, of course. How can we be so rude to Mister Phantom's student?" While speaking, the robed man slowly moved to one side of the path.

But the knight sword hanging on his waist suddenly became alive and rushed at Nano's position while covered under a fierce magic ripple. The weapon was aimed right at Nano's neck.

Clang!

As Nano fearfully watched the attack approaching, an ice wall emerged from the ground and blocked the sword.

Naturally, it was Angor who created the ice wall. He had already prepared the cantrip when he saw the cultist looking at Nano with a strange expression, and it seemed his precaution was very necessary.

Without wasting any breath to talk, both Angor and the cultist moved to engage each other. The Supreme Cult wanted Nano dead, while Angor would like to prevent that. There was no other way to get around this other than settling it with a fight.

In an instant, Angor unleashed an illusion and prepared to trap the enemies inside an impenetrable mist.

But something unexpected came up.

…

Pierre and his guards entered the alley only to see the battle already ended.

There was still lingering mist, which soon went away. A number of people had collapsed on the ground—cultists in their black robes. The only two people who were still standing were Angor and a short figure who was trembling beside him, Nano.

Pierre watched in horror when he realized that all ten elite members sent by the Supreme Cult, who all remained until the end of the garden challenge, were wiped out.

It was only a minute ago when his sunglass-wearing friend warned him of approaching enemies!

Pierre turned to his partner, hoping to learn what just happened. But the sunglass-wearing man only stood there completely still with his mouth agape. It was the owl, which had been standing on the sunglass man's shoulder, that explained what it saw using "wing language". Although the alchemy familiar wasn't intelligent enough to describe too many details.

The owl saw thick mist covering the entire alley, and then heard the noise of clashing weapons. Next was what Pierre saw for himself—mist gone, bodies down.

Pierre couldn't tell how exactly the battle ended, but he was sure it was Angor who defeated the entire group of elite cultists all by himself.

Pierre had many helper apprentices here who could manage to fend off the cultists, but it was impossible to defeat them.

While the fat shopkeeper stood far away to observe the situation, Angor was glancing at his right hand with an uncertain look. His right hand, as well as the dancing green marks, were now hidden inside the black glove he received from Sunders.

How did that simple mist illusion come out as a large-scale nightmare illusion? Is it because of my new hand?

Truth was, Angor did nothing more than unleashing an illusion to obscure the sight of his enemies. But for some reason, the affected cultists suddenly started fighting among themselves and spared Angor any further effort.

As Angor pondered over the situation, Pierre slowly approached him while smiling out of fear.

"Mi-Mister Padt, I—"

He almost jumped when he saw Angor gazing at him.

"I mean, how-how should I deal with these people?" Pierre pointed a trembling finger at the fainted cultists.

Despite their condition, the cultists were not seriously wounded because they never intended to go for Angor's life in the first place—their job only asked them to deal with otherworldly intruders. And with such a mindset, they did not use lethal force when attacking their teammates.

"Do as you want. Kill them if you prefer. But whatever becomes of them next has nothing to do with me," Angor replied in a cold tone and took Nano away. He wished to find out why his right hand enhanced his illusion since it seemed like an urgent matter.

"Wait, Mister Padt!" Pierre suddenly called. He just realized that Angor didn't seem to be on good terms with the cult. He wondered if he could tell Angor about that secret, just for the sake of Nano's wellbeing.

…

A moment later, Pierre took Angor back to the shop. They went straight into his private resting room while the other workers in the shop watched them go in shock.

"… What you wanted to know is Abyssal Inscription, Mister Padt," Pierre said and asked Nano to remove his shirt.

Angor saw a picture either drawn or tattooed on Nano's chest, which looked like a tailed demon wrapped inside a pair of black wings. The demon's tail looked like a hook that caught a pile of beautiful-looking books on it.

"This, is an Abyssal Inscription," Pierre told him through a private voice transmission. "It was one of the basic means of protection left by a Grand Demon called 'Vulgar Sage'."

Angor listened to Pierre's words, and finally, he got the whole picture of the business that centered around otherworldly intruders.

Apparently, Abyssal Inscription was a kind of dark knowledge invented by Vulgar Sage. After receiving lots of expurgations and modifications, it was then brought to the wizarding world. Scholars from different generations researched on this particular subject and managed to remove all harmful elements of it, which finally turned it into the subject of Inscription known today.

Throughout history, Inscription gradually became a more advanced technique compared to the original Abyssal Inscription. According to Pierre, this subject, which was no easier than Alchemy and Runecraft, was relatively popular around Western Continent and Northern Province, while very few people in the southern wizarding region would study it because of Supreme Cult's interference.

The so-called "registration" used by Supreme Cult was, in fact, applying inscriptions on the bodies of otherworldly travelers. Similarly, what they used was the modern, "localized" Inscription, but not the primary Abyssal Inscription.

"In order to protect someone from being expelled by the world's consciousness, you must apply the protection bestowed by another equally powerful world, and the Abyss Plane was one such great plane. Thanks to the Abyssal Inscription that represented the might of Vulgar Sage, Nano did not need to worry about getting affected in this world."

After Pierre finished explaining to Angor, he felt anxious. He was afraid that someone might have eavesdropped on them.

In the southern region, telling the knowledge of Abyssal Inscription to others equaled to challenging the authority of the Supreme Cult. Slavers all knew how to avoid provoking the cult, in which case the cult would mostly cast a blind eye to their shady business.