Warlock Apprentice

“My luck? Heh, what nonsense.” Felicia raised an eyebrow at Angor’s words.

“Hey sis, why is he sleeping?” “Greya” pointed at Angor who had just rested his head on the table.

“Oh. Maybe he’s too tired.”

...

The fluttering butterflies took Angor into a vast and quiet space. Angor knew this place since he was already forcefully brought here before; once by Parasite Queen and once by Ness.

This was Soul Space, somewhere both real and fake, and both inside and outside his body. Soul Manipulators believed that Soul Space existed in another dimension created by human consciousness.

Angor wasn’t sure what exactly happened to him. The only thing he could see was the swarm of butterflies which led him yet deeper inside Soul Space, while he could do nothing to resist.

He looked around and didn’t find his own form. Telling from his previous experience, he knew that his soul wasn’t separated or forced away like what happened during the fight against Parasite Queen. He could still think clearly, which meant... he existed as his own consciousness maybe?

For now, he would believe so.

And since he could still control his thoughts... he assumed that he was going into Soul Space on his own, while the butterflies were simply following him.

Soul Space was a boundless realm with no directions, and one could only find his or her soul by following his or her self-awareness.

Accompanied by butterflies, he soon saw something familiar.

It was his soul. Compared to last time, his soul was now resting above a small patch of grassland with fluffy spheres like dandelion seeds floating around it.

The soul itself now looked more solid and purer.

Next, his “consciousness” moved away from the butterflies and went inside the soul.

“Soul Angor” slowly opened his eyes.

...

Just as she had expected, Felicia noticed that Angor’s consciousness returned to his soul. She was curious about how the boy’s soul looked so solid that it almost appeared as another individual. Also, that grass field under his feet was obviously something with self-defense capability.

She considered and ordered a single butterfly to enter the grass field.

Usually, grass and butterflies were perfect and natural combination. But here, as Felicia’s butterfly touched the boundary of the grassland, the floating fluffs immediately began to unleash their spores which dissected the butterfly into broken energy fragments.

“Green Velvet?” Felicia frowned. “His spirit grassland looks so real, so the Green Velvet is a pretty powerful one. Maybe it has almost matured?”

Meanwhile, Angor was also inspecting the grassland.

He immediately thought about his Green Velvet when he looked at the fluff balls and deadly spores.

But in his memory, the Green Velvet didn’t look like this before. He never knew how to actively peek inside his Soul Space before. He could only feel the drastic changes inside him, such as the last time when he was knocked out by a powerful energy while approaching the Holy Temple.

Was that when the Green Velvet gave birth to this grassland?

After witnessing how a butterfly was melted in a blink of an eye, he knew that the Green Velvet could defend his soul better now.

“Miss Felicia?” Angor couldn’t really move or speak in his soul form, but he was adept at utilizing emotion ripples to communicate now.

A moment later, he received a mixed emotion directed his way.

“Nice spirit grassland. It seems like you don’t need my Midnight Butterfly after all.”

“As you see, I already have my own soul defense. Shall we end this matter?” Angor looked at the butterfly swarm that was still lingering outside the grassland.

Felicia looked at Angor’s soul as well as those glittering eyes which looked more vivid than Angor’s real eyes. If possible, she would even claim those beautiful eyes as her collection.

“Leave? Sure. But you won’t mind me taking another look at your soul, will you?”

Angor didn’t say anything since nothing would help right now. Felicia would do anything she wanted to satisfy her curiosity, and he couldn’t hope to stop her.

“I’ll not take advantage of this for free, of course. I’ll tell you something useful in return,” Felicia’s emotion continued to speak. “Your Green Velvet is almost grown, and a matured Green Velvet may not be a good thing to you.”

“Why?”

“Well, I’m not your teacher, so you have to find out on your own.”

Angor remained silent again.

“Smart boy.” Felicia grinned.

Since Angor “allowed” her examination, Felicia proceeded to inspect Angor’s soul. Ordinary souls usually appeared semi-transparent, but Angor’s soul looked almost like a real human. It was even wearing a robe.

Should Angor learn how to eject his soul outside, most people without the right skills wouldn’t be able to tell his soul from his body.

“Are you a Soul Manipulator?” Felicia asked.

“No,” Angor answered with a dry tone.

“And you still have such a substantial soul?... Rare case, indeed. Now, whatever made that legendary Isabelle so interested in you?”

Felicia kept on looking.

A black butterfly with white stripes entered the grassland upon Felicia’s order.

This one was clearly more powerful. The spores came and went through the insect without affecting it in any way.

And it seemed the Green Velvet was “angered” for some reason. Clusters of grass suddenly grew wildly from the field; they became thicker until they became a trap that swallowed the butterfly.

Again, the butterfly moved through their barrier like it didn’t exist.

It seemed the butterfly could shift between dimensions. Under the attacks, it could simply escape briefly into another space.

When the insect almost reached Angor’s soul, the Green Velvet did its last attempt by covering Angor tightly while leaving a number of white flowers outside as a defensive measure.

However, Angor’s “cage” suddenly vanished into the grassland again as the butterfly drew closer.

“You... canceled it?” Felicia asked.

“It can’t stop you anyway. Why waste time?”

Felicia chuckled, probably scoffing at Angor’s weakness.

The butterfly landed on Angor’s soul, followed by the second one, then a third... until a group of butterflies was crawling all over Angor’s soul.

Angor closed his eyes and let the insects send feedbacks to their master.

“Decent quality and density...

“As solid as apprentices at their peak levels.

“Huh... what’s this?”

Felicia suddenly grew confused. “I found soul ripples which should belong to a real wizard. Did someone transfer his soul energy to you before? It’s almost—”

“‘Deadman’s Redemption’, Mister Ness.”

“Thought so. That old pervert actually wasted five years of his strength just to solidify your soul?”

“My mentor took me to him.”

Felicia frowned.

She never asked Angor about the name of his teacher since she more or less had an idea by now. She planned to pretend that she didn’t know the boy’s teacher. She also planned to use this as an excuse if anyone were to come and blame her for peeking into Angor’s soul.

However, she believed “that man” wouldn’t care about this at all.

Still, she wasn’t sure about her previous assumption after listening to Angor’s words. As far as she knew, “that man” was far from being a kind-hearted teacher who would seek help from Old Ness just to help a small boy.

“Is it actually Rein Mute or... Wallace?”

Felicia became hesitant when thinking about those two names since both of them were overprotective of their students. Especially ‘Silencer’ Rein Mute, who was now a level-3 wizard as well as the real controller of the entire Brute Cavern.

She wondered if she should keep going.

And she decided to proceed anyway. To others, she “didn’t know” Angor’s teacher after all, and it was not like she was going to kill Angor. She was only inspecting the soul of a young apprentice. No one would actually consider this a serious crime or something.

With the concerns gone, Felicia controlled her butterflies to further examine Angor.

This time, she planned to go straight into the soul and see what was inside.

“He even got a Soul Furnace? Guess he has no problem concentrating on Soul Manipulator spells now. But... why do I feel that something keeps bugging me?”