Warlock Apprentice

“This portal was never used again since that day,” Shadow said with a sigh. “And I only learned about this secret entrance because Gummy, Gao, and Gamus told me.”

Three dark-skinned Krakoks hopped onto Shadow’s shoulder one by one, and each of them struck an overdramatic pose while they stared at Angor with their twinkling green eyes.

“So that door they always use leads to the Midworld?” Angor said as he pointed to the small creatures.

“Right. That’s their home.”

“Can all Krakoks do this?” Angor suddenly felt curious. If so, the Krakoks in history wouldn’t have suffered so much when they met the war-thirsted humans.

Shadow shook his head. “As far as I know, they received this talent when the wizard from Dark Castle implanted something into their bloodline. And after countless generations, only about one out of ten Krakoks can use that power now.”

Angor was shocked to learn that a wizard could change the genetic property of an entire race.

That must be a REALLY powerful wizard.

“But,” Shadow continued, “since that war, the Krakoks had completely lost faith in humans. No Krakoks will ever use their door to enter our real world. Gummy only went to Floating Mech City because of a nicely-timed accident.”

“I can sense their manas, which were similar to the level of level-1 apprentices,” Angor said. He then asked, “They can help you activate this array, right?”

“They can’t, because of their tribe’s discipline. It forbids them from bringing any humans into their land. Anyone who breaks that rule is considered a traitor and shall be eternally expelled by the Krakoks. I never wish that to happen to these three brothers. They are already taking a great risk by telling me the location of this thing.”

Angor nodded, but he had another question.

“Did that mean that the Krakoks still hate mankind? Which means... the Midworld should forbid all humans from going inside too?”

Shadow chuckled at the question. “You’ll see when you get over there.”

There were ten trigger nodes on the magic array. Shadow took one and ordered his puppets to occupy eight other ones. He then signaled Angor to stand on the last one.

Before he moved, Angor asked something, “I’ve no problem doing this, but you haven’t told me your real plan yet. What am I gonna do after the array is started?”

He asked because Shadow only mentioned “we’ll proceed from there” when they talked about the magic array in the morning. He had never said anything about what would come next.

This was what made Angor feel uneasy. For many times, Shadow assured him that there were no lies or danger involved, but Angor never fully trusted this guy.

There was one time Jon served him hotpot while he promised that “the dish isn’t hot at all”. When Angor earned a reddened tongue, he realized Jon wasn’t lying at all—by Earth standards.

He had to know what would happen once the portal was opened, and he had to figure out whether it was “dangerous” by himself.

Since it was the very critical point of his plan, Shadow had no choice other than to tell him the truth. “I’m heading to the Otherworld where Dark Castle’s located, and I need to find something there.”

“You... want to steal something from Dark Castle?”

“It’s not stealing! The stuff’s originally ours. A damn witch took it away from us. Now that there are only her apprentices who are guarding the castle, it’s a good chance for me to go and take it back,” Shadow said while his eyes glimmered with craftiness.

“‘Ours’?”

“I mean, it’s my teacher’s item. But he said it’s mine if I can get my hands on it.”

Angor grinned and quickly turned away. “Okay, I’m staying out of this. See ya.”

There weren’t many worse ways to die than trying to steal from the HQ of a major wizard organization!

“Hey, stop!” Shadow quickly called out. “I know what you’re worried about. Where I’m going is the real ‘Dark Castle’. Well, it has something to do with that organization called Dark Castle, but the one inside Otherworld is only a training ground for the old witch. It’s just an old building with some thunderclouds above it. There’s no wizard. Maybe they have some apprentices, but I can squeeze them to death in the blink of an eye.”

“Nope. I think you know how dangerous the base of a mighty wizard is, and you’re pretending,” Angor said. He thought about how Sunders’ Phantom Island was well-defended when the Sorcerer’s Garden was being prepared. Any intruder who dared to trespass would be cut in half by the powerful magic arrays.

Every wizard would definitely set up careful protections and traps around his or her residence, which were absolutely deadly to outsiders.

“Hey, chill! Those traps against wizards are all shut, and I’m not afraid of the remaining ones that are left for apprentices,” Shadow said as he thumped his chest.

“Okay, so, no wizards, no wizard-level traps, only weak apprentices. How convenient! How did you learn about this anyway?” Angor crossed his arms as he waited for an answer.

Shadow stuttered for a while and moaned.

“Okay, fine! I’ll tell you. It’s a challenge that my teacher gave me. He sorta made an agreement with that old hag. They will not interfere with my actions in my plan, and if I can seize that item, I can take it with me. This is all true. I swear to the world’s consciousness!”

Angor considered. Those words seemed to be hiding something else, but Shadow wasn’t a fool. This man accepted the challenge because there was enough profit in it.

“So... what do you want me to do?” Angor asked.

“Actually, I don’t know yet,” Shadow said as he looked away embarrassingly. “I only planned to get you to help me with the portal. But when I saw your powers, I thought maybe you can help me with my mission. I’ve no idea what to expect though. I’ve never been to Dark Castle myself.”

“Then we should stick to your original plan. I’ll help you start up the magic array, and that’s about it. Don’t ask anything else from me.”

With those words, Angor stepped onto the last magic node.

Shadow spread his hands and murmured “uh” and “em” for a while, but he didn’t say anything else in the end.

Following Shadow’s signal, everyone and the puppets unleashed their manas at the same time to trigger the ancient magic array which had been staying dormant for a thousand years.

Light beams showed up from the array one after the other, which formed into a bright circle of brilliance that swallowed everyone in it.

Angor closed his eyes to avoid getting blinded. He felt as if he were walking through a thin film in the air when the light slowly died down...

He opened his eyes and... didn’t see anything in particular. They were still standing inside the small chamber, while the same magic array laid under their feet.

Did the portal fail? Wait...

Angor closed his eyes again to sense the air around him. He could no longer sense the dread. The air was still stagnant, yet it wasn’t as terrible as before.

“This is the Midworld,” Shadow said. He left his spot and joined Angor while holding a small meter device in his hand. “The amount of primal mana in the atmosphere is about... 30% higher than the original world.”

Angor tried to feel the density of the mana, and he quickly agreed with Shadow.

“And when we get to the Otherworld,” Shadow continued to explain, “it will keep rising again and again until it doubles what you would usually get.”

However, rich primal mana didn’t mean anything to them. The bottlenecks of mana reserves for apprentices were usually determined by the speed at which they converted their primal manas, not the speed they absorbed it. Drawing too much primal mana would damage one’s mind space instead.

Only wizards who knew how to convert primal manas with high efficiency could make use of somewhere with an abundance of primal manas.

Shadow ordered his puppets to stay put inside the chamber, and he noticed Angor doing the same.

“... You’re not going out there to check? I know, you’ve done your part. But aren’t you curious about the Midworld? You can’t find it anywhere else other than Fairy World, you know.”

...

Angor was convinced by Shadow.

He didn’t wish to get involved in Shadow’s business, but he was very interested in Krakoks and their home.

The two of them headed to the exit of the underground cave while Shadow explained what appendage planes were to Angor.

The Fairy World was such an appendage plane. And just like the other appendage planes, it came into existence during a plane fusion.

A plane fusion could either happen when a “powerful plane” moved to absorb a “weaker plane”, or vice versa, when a weaker one chose to join a bigger plane for some reason.

The fusion would exterminate most of the high-level creatures in the weaker plane until nothing could potentially harm the stronger plane, by which the weaker plane would officially become the appendage of the bigger plane.

Different planes had different “characters”, just like people. For example, there were planes filled with pure gas, liquid, or vacuum. The base law of an appendage plane would slowly get affected by its “master” while it kept some of its own properties.

For this reason, appendage planes tended to appear varied and complicated in nature.

For example, the Brilliance Plane, which was a famous appendage plane of the wizarding world, enjoyed eternal daytime because of the unchanging star orbits. This plane did not have “night”. And because of the fixed patterns of the stars, it was a brilliant residence for wizards who studied astronomy.

The property of Fairy World was that it had two other levels of worlds hidden under the real world—the Midworld and the Otherworld. The three worlds possessed different rules and different amounts of primal mana distribution.