Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2376: Chapter 2377: Turbulent Currents

As one of the judges for the New Star Competition, Angel was quite familiar with Reynaud’s combat skills.

Although the gossip magazines often emphasized "luck" when talking about Reynaud’s matches, this was just a bias in public opinion. Readers preferred sensational stories; straightforward battles naturally lacked the excitement of John’s comebacks.

However, if you think about it carefully, you would understand that if Reynaud only had luck, he couldn’t keep standing on the stage of the New Star Competition.

Reynaud himself also possessed quite formidable combat abilities.

Even in terms of melee combat alone, he wasn’t much weaker than Nausicaa. Although his final ranking wasn’t very high, there were some unavoidable objective factors involved.

Reynaud dared not, and could not, use Soul Arms in the competition, and much of his combat system revolved around it. Without Soul Arms, his strength was halved.

After using Soul Arms, Angel felt that he could enter the top ten of the New Star Competition.

For comparison, Reynaud could make it into the top ten when fighting with all his might, but those ranked in the top 30 in the laboratory were all stronger than him... This meant that people ranked in the top 30 stood at the peak of the Transcendents’ wave in this era, excluding the Official Wizards.

Even though they were just Wizard Apprentices, cultivating so many strong top Apprentices indicated that the organization behind them was not to be underestimated.

"Does the strength of number 30 already reach the peak of an Apprentice?" Nis pondered for a moment and asked Reynaud, "Are there any Official Wizards among them?"

"There are," Reynaud affirmed, "Numbers 03, 02, and 01—I haven’t seen their prowess personally, but the attitudes of other numbered individuals around them, as well as various signs, all suggest that they have become Official Wizards."

Nis frowned slightly, "To think there are three Official Wizards, that’s quite a profound foundation. But if they were Official Wizards, they shouldn’t be so unknown... Do they have any official nicknames or names?"

Reynaud shook his head, "Perhaps they do, but I don’t know. Internally, we refer to them by their numbers."

"What do they look like?"

Reynaud shook his head again, "They always wear hoods. I’ve never had a close encounter with them while conscious... I only know that apart from number 03, who is female, the other two are male."

When he was a living experiment, he had close contact with them on the lab table. But once he lay on the table, he basically lost the ability to think normally and couldn’t remember their appearances.

Nis: "Three Official Wizards with unknown faces. Are they Wizards local to the Southern Domain, or did they come from elsewhere... Or perhaps, numbers 01, 02, and 03 are merely their private identities, and they have other identities publicly?"

Nis couldn’t guess their identities and decided to leave it for now, indicating for Reynaud to continue.

"Besides these three, there’s another thing that might require attention," Reynaud hesitated for more than ten seconds before speaking, "I heard about this from number 11."

Reynaud briefly introduced number 11.

He was one of the rare moderates in the laboratory, or at least appeared to be moderate, having a more amicable attitude towards the experimental subjects.

Number 11 had a well-known hobby: he couldn’t resist Mana Algae Powder.

As a result, Reynaud and others numbered like X would often bribe number 11 with Mana Algae Powder to learn about upcoming tasks and avoid particularly difficult ones in advance.

Once number 11 consumed Mana Algae Powder, he’d become like a drunk man, with no filter on his mouth, frequently revealing many secretive details.

Once, Reynaud learned about a laboratory secret from a heavily ’high’ number 11.

—Above number 01, there was a number 00.

"Number 11 said it himself, but after saying it, he seemed to realize it was inappropriate and immediately clammed up. No matter how we questioned him, he no longer spoke of it."

Reynaud: "I’m hearing about number 00 for the first time. I’ve never encountered it before."

"Number 00 sounds like a secretive existence," Nis murmured quietly.

"I’m not certain if number 00 really exists. However, even if it does, it probably isn’t in the laboratory."

Living in the laboratory for decades, Reynaud had encountered all the numbers from near and far, but there was definitely no number 00. If not for accidentally hearing number 11 mention it, he would never have considered it.

"If number 00 truly exists, judging by power ranking, it’s likely the strongest of all numbered individuals." Nis looked at Angel, "Anyway, we must remain cautious, lest our negligence leads to failure."

Angel nodded, keeping number 00 in mind. He then inquired further about the individuals with top numbers. However, Reynaud knew little as those with top numbers seldom appeared, making it impossible to gather information, so he gave up.

As the Q&A continued, it reached noon.

"Time’s up," Angel closed the lid of his pocket watch, "Now let’s see if ocean currents really change."

As he spoke, Angel extended his Spirit Tentacle beyond the force field, using its movements in the gentle waves to perceive the transformation of the current.

Currently, the Spirit Tentacle swayed back and forth like the long brown algae at the sea bottom.

From a macro perspective, there was a general direction for the currents, but focusing on a specific area, they became very chaotic, shifting left and right. In Angel’s mind, each current direction was like an individual arrow, and at this moment, these arrows pointed every which way, swaying like a dancing ribbon, making it impossible to determine a specific direction.

Angel explained the situation, to which Reynaud responded, "This is a normal phenomenon, don’t worry. The transformations indicating the lab’s location are very conspicuous and not influenced by such details."

"Once it occurs, it will surely be sensed."

Seeing Reynaud speak with such confidence, while Angel felt it contradicted the natural laws a bit, upon further consideration... discussing natural laws in the Devil’s Sea seemed like a jest.

Moreover, this was still within the restricted zone of the Devil’s Sea—the Mist Belt.

Any abnormal phenomena could potentially occur here. Since Reynaud was so confident, they would just have to wait and see.

Everyone else went silent, each using their own methods to await the change in the currents.

As time ticked by, no change had occurred in the currents, but the quiet atmosphere was broken... disturbed by Dangross.

Dangross didn’t speak but kept rubbing around, creating some rustling noises.

When Angel turned to look, Dangross would immediately stop. When not observed, it would continue, as if deliberately making sounds to assert its presence.

Eventually, even Toby grew impatient and called out to Dangross hanging on the Blood Night Shelter.

"Chirp chirp chirp—"

In the face of Toby, Dangross took on an utterly fawning demeanor: "Lord Toby, is there anything you need from me?"

However, there was a language barrier between Dangross and Toby, and Dangross couldn’t understand anything Toby was saying.

Angel could only help Toby translate: "It’s greeting you warmly, what were you stalling about earlier?"

Of course, Toby’s version of "warmly" was Angel’s politeness added during translation.

Dangross hesitated for a moment, then spoke: "I, I was..."

Before the stammering Dangross could finish, a buzzing sound suddenly came from afar. Angel immediately gestured to Dangross to keep quiet, and listened intently.

The buzzing wasn’t coming from sea beasts but from the ocean itself, the humming of the sea.

"It’s coming! It’s coming!" Reynaud floated up at this time, exclaiming excitedly in the direction of the humming.

As his words fell, a huge shadow suddenly appeared in the distance, rapidly approaching their location.

At first, Angel thought it was the purple giant beast returning with the humming, but upon closer inspection, he realized those shadows were not creatures. Rather, they were not entirely sea creatures but a special phenomenon of flying sand and debris stirred up by the rolling ocean currents.

With the approaching shadow, those flying sands accompanied by tiny Mayfly creatures swept towards them.

"So this is the ocean current," Angel thought to himself. No wonder Reynaud mentioned that the direction of the laboratory could be judged by the ocean current—it was simply too conspicuous.

"Let’s go." Angel maintained the force field, moving against the crazed tide.

The ocean current rampaged across the seabed, leaving behind dust wherever it passed, with corals shattered, resembling the aftermath of a hurricane.

Above the sea, it also formed wave after wave of enormous splashes.

It looked incredibly wild and dangerous.

Yet, for Angel and the others, such a scene was not much of a threat, not even as dangerous as the tidal wall Angel encountered before.

They swiftly moved in the direction where the ocean current came.

In between, they inevitably encountered some sea beasts driven by the current, but these beasts couldn’t withstand the current, let alone pose a threat to Angel and the others.

The ferocious ocean current lasted for more than ten minutes before starting to calm down.

However, even though the surface of the sea was relatively calm, the currents beneath remained strong, clearly pointing the way for them.

After about half an hour of struggle, they arrived at a chaotic reef area filled with dust.

"I seem to remember the terrain here; we shouldn’t be far from the laboratory," Nausicaa spoke, perceiving the general environment through the faint light of the force field, making a judgment.

After Nausicaa spoke, she looked toward Reynaud, seeking his confirmation. However, Reynaud appeared slightly dazed.

"Reynaud, what’s wrong?" Nausicaa asked.

It took Reynaud a while to come to: "Nothing, I... I’m just thinking, we are so close to the laboratory now, but I still don’t sense anything."

Reynaud looked off into the distance, seeming to see through the murky waters to the steel-and-mechanism-filled underwater laboratory: "I’m beginning to doubt whether my body is actually in the laboratory."

Reynaud’s doubts reminded everyone of the two prophetic hints given by the witch Maya in the Wilderness of Dreams.

"Your flesh is in a cold environment; it might even be frozen. This freezing is harmless and beneficial to your body."

"Around your flesh, I hear human whispers."

Based on their assumptions from the two prophetic hints, Reynaud’s flesh was likely saved by someone, and very possibly in a scenario similar to the ’Healing Ice Coffin’.

Because of such conjecture—and the fact that there was no human habitation nearby—they all consistently believed that Reynaud’s body must have been picked up by the laboratory people. After all, perfectly fulfilling the prophetic conditions, in the known mist belt environment, only the laboratory could achieve it.

But now, being so close to the laboratory, according to the natural attraction between body and soul, Reynaud should have had vague sensations. Yet, in reality, Reynaud still had no perception, which was a bit strange.

"...Maybe there are Magic Patterns in the laboratory that interfere with perception," Nausicaa said.

Reynaud: "If that’s the case, then it’s okay."

The fear was that they actually guessed wrong, and Reynaud’s body wasn’t in the laboratory.

Reynaud shook his head, temporarily putting aside his concerns. Regardless of whether his body was in the laboratory, he must go there to remove the mark on his soul.

All situations can wait until he reaches the laboratory.

Reynaud perked up again, looked around, and said to everyone: "We’re about to enter the area patrolled by guards, so we must be careful."

"Although there are no guards nearby, there are some herded sea beasts patrolling. These sea beasts are not to be underestimated in strength."

At this point, Reynaud sighed lightly: "If only the magical creature left by number 17 hadn’t found us then, we could’ve followed the usual herding routines of the sea beasts and stealthily avoided their paths into the laboratory."

"Now, with their vigilance, they will surely change the sea beasts’ paths. It won’t be so easy to sneak in unnoticed."

As Reynaud finished expressing his sentiment, a cold snort sounded: "Who said it’s difficult?"

The speaker was Nis, who glanced at Reynaud and said: "That’s because your strength is lacking; there are many ways to hide from the sea beasts."

With that, Nis was ready to demonstrate a soul sect concealment ability, but before he could act, a circle of air ripples appeared around them. Soon, their forms, scents, all remaining pheromones disappeared.

Even the faint light of the force field was hidden.

"This is... illusion technique."

The one who released it was undoubtedly Angel.

Nis originally wanted to complain a few words, but seeing Angel didn’t respond, instead, his gaze fixed directly in the distance.

Nis hesitated for a moment, following Angel’s gaze.

With the naked eye, there was still nothing visible except for pitchblackness and pervasive dust.

However, through water flow fluctuations, Nis clearly sensed a creature of considerable size swimming toward their direction...