Warlock Apprentice

After washing up, Angor changed into some clean, casual wear and left his tent while Toby flew off somewhere on his own, wearing those fancy attire. He was going to come back in the evening anyway, so Angor did not think too much about it.

During the week, Angor shifted between two places and the teacher's book room was his fixed destination every day.

Even when he was having breakfast earlier, he was still thinking over the books he read these days.

He knew he should not take more than he could chew, so he only focused on very basic books. He finished A Hundred Essential Questions for Apprentices , Spells: Explained , The Effect of Spiritual Models , Basic: Mana Source … He started to draw an outline of wizards in his mind.

Sunders had yet to teach him anything and Flora had not given him any extra nuisance. The outline was completely drawn by himself, by reading different books, breaking down various definitions, finding out basics, and adding his own theories.

His own definition for a wizard.

The "wizard" in his mind did not have facial features nor clothes. It was only a blurry figure. However, he believed that as he read more and knew more, "he" would become more complete, and finally turn into someone that looked just like himself, and by which time, Angor would be a wizard himself.

Angor believed this was why the teacher asked him to look and solve questions by himself.

Rome was not built in one day. People had different ways to approach truths, and one should walk his or her own path instead of following others.

He understood why Sunders required him to forget Mara's words. "Wizard" was not something that could be defined, because everyone saw a wizard in a different way. Now, Angor was slowly trying to perfect his own wizard image using his own knowledge and experience.

Angor walked towards the teacher's tent following the usual path. When walking past the tents of the winners from nine chambers, he still felt different gazes fixed on him. There were contempt, malevolence, indifference, arrogance… He felt uneasy at first, but he got used to them.

Wizards that survived death matches all had their own traits, but was it not sad that everyone had become cold-blooded? In the general plane, wizards were bloodthirsty and cruel creatures. Maybe this was because of the harsh living condition. Even moderate people had to adapt when surrounded by hungry predators, or they would only be shredded into bits. Was this why most wizards have extreme personalities?

While full of expectation about his own future, Angor also prayed that he would not forget why he started his path and that he would never become one of the "rumored wizards". Living without a baseline might give someone freedom, but… indulgence was always easy while self-control called for a lot of effort.

When Angor was little, he was lazy about his daily duties. Studies, writing practice, getting up early, reading… He slacked off from them whenever Jon was not paying attention. When Jon lectured Angor about it, he would say that while it took someone 21 days to develop a good habit, it would take only a second to give it up.

To develop a good habit was to control indulgence.

Although those topics were irrelevant now. Angor ignored the unfriendly gazes and walked to the teacher's tent.

As usual, he took a seat in the book room and began going over the books one by one. Before becoming a wizard, he did not intend to dig deep into anything. He only tried to complete his image of a "wizard".

An entire day quickly passed.

As the twilight of dusk shone through the window, Angor stretched himself, dusted some ash from his pants, put away the books (a little reluctantly) and prepared to get back to his tent.

When he stepped out from the book room, he saw Sunders for the first time during the week. The man was sitting at his delicate desk, reading a classically-designed handwritten copy.

Seeing Angor, Sunders put his book down and looked at him with a casual look.

Angor greeted him politely.

Sunders gave Angor a neutral nod. Angor knew that the teacher did not really care about manners. Flora was always making mischief in front of him, and Sunders never minded it. Still, Angor's past education told him not to go beyond his border. At the very least, not before he got to know Sunders better.

"Do you have any new ideas after reading all these books?" asked Sunders even though he did not ask what exactly Angor had read.

Angor tilted his head and gave it some time before he expressed an answer, "Not any new ideas, but I do have some thoughts."

"Such as?"

"The only truth I've learned from these books is that it's really difficult to become a wizard."

Sunders did not comment on that answer. "Do you know what is a wizard now?"

Angor shook his head without a second thought. "No, I don't."

Sunders smiled. "Keep looking then until you find an answer."

…

Another week passed. The cloud whale was still gliding on the sea.

Naturally, flying was a lot faster than sailing. However, it had been two weeks now, and they still had not reached the Fey Continent. Angor felt both surprised and glad about it.

He was surprised at the size of the sea. It was probably bigger than the five oceans from Earth combined, and he had only seen a portion of it. He could not imagine how big this world was.

He was glad that he did not stay on The Redbud or it would probably take a year or longer to reach Fey Continent, in which case, the five-year plan he had for saving Jon would be impossible.

Sunders did not disappear this week. Each time Angor finished his reading, Sunders would ask him the same question: Any new ideas? What is a wizard?

And Angor always gave him the same answer.

One day, when Angor told Sunders "I don't know" again, Sunders did not tell him to "keep looking until finding an answer". Instead, he smiled at Angor in satisfaction.

"To not know is the best answer. I hope you'll find your own path towards wizardry soon."

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Sunders continued, "I checked the books you were reading. Good choices. To start from the very basic, instead of aiming high from the beginning, was a wise decision."

Sunders complimented, "Do you have anything to go by, about how to become an apprentice wizard?"

Angor considered for a while. "Building a model out of spiritual power and use that to stabilize mana flow determines that one has become an apprentice."

"Correct. Do you know how to build a spirit model?"

Angor answered, "The channeling method helps one construct a stable spirit model in his or her mind. Models built by different methods have varied stabilizing effects, and thus, different mana flow speeds."