Warlock Apprentice

After assigning today’s tasks, the owner left.

The Hunting Museum rarely had visitors, and even if the owner was away for a long time, it wouldn’t affect anything—there was hardly any business to speak of.

With no customers, Pulapa found it odd how the owner made a living. He hadn’t been in Lassudral long, so perhaps the owner had other means of livelihood?

Following the owner’s instructions, Pulapa passed through the vast main hall to the Exhibition Room.

The Exhibition Room displayed various hunting specimens, but these were mostly empty shells. They looked lifelike, but beyond skin and skeleton, they were hollow inside.

Pulapa walked past the specimens to the rear of the Exhibition Room where there was a tall wall.

The upper half of the wall featured a painting. The lower half had a door.

Behind the door was where Pulapa worked every day.

Upon entering, Pulapa began to clean the day’s catch from the owner’s hunt, two Flame Leopards. As usual, he removed the flesh and entrails of the Flame Leopards, moisturized them briefly with “UFO Water” to keep them fresh for a long time.

Then, Pulapa began to clean the fur and piece together the skeletons.

While cleaning the fur, Pulapa inspected it carefully from top to bottom. The beautiful fiery pattern had not a single mark.

Although the Flame Leopard wasn’t a particularly formidable Magical Creature, one that even Pulapa could hunt, preserving the complete fur during the hunt was extremely difficult.

It was rumored that the owner was weak, which could be seen from the creatures it hunted.

But Pulapa always had a vague sense that the owner must be very strong. In the three months he had been there, although Pulapa had not cleaned any more formidable Magical Creatures, every creature hunted by the owner showed no signs of injury. They were all perfect, like the Flame Leopards, as if merely asleep.

Given the detail to which the owner attended, Pulapa didn’t believe that someone who pursued perfection would be weak.

Perhaps the owner also hunted Intermediate Rank Magical Creatures, but simply didn’t need Pulapa to clean them?

After cleaning the two Flame Leopards, Pulapa placed their specimens in the Exhibition Room; his work for the day was done.

Generally, Pulapa would seize the time after work to cultivate his body. Although the cultivation method in his bloodline inheritance might not be effective, without another method, he had to make do for the time being.

However, today Pulapa didn’t return to his cultivation but instead observed the painting in the Exhibition Room.

He didn’t find anything particularly special about the painting, but he noticed that the owner often stood there admiring it. Keeping an eye out, perhaps the painting held a secret. Pulapa decided to investigate it carefully today.

Pulapa stood under the painting for over half an hour with no discovery.

To Pulapa’s aesthetic judgment, the painting was incomprehensible.

The overall background was black… or rather, a color so deep blue that it was nearly black. Amidst this profound backdrop, there were streaks of dancing flames, large and small, forming a line and splitting the painting into an upper and lower half.

“What could this painting possibly mean?” Pulapa wondered silently to himself.

After watching for nearly half an hour, Pulapa’s eyes turned red from the effort, but he found no mystery in the painting. Instead, he noticed a detail he had never seen before: faint grey lettering near the bottom right corner that was almost blending into the black background.

These markings appeared to be the signature of the painter, but the text was unreadable to him, not written in Demon Language.

The script, winding like tadpoles, seemed somewhat like… human writing.

It was not until much later that Pulapa learned that it indeed was human writing, recording the name of the painting as well as the artist.

— “Night,” artist: Feng.

Pulapa hadn’t deciphered the meaning of the painting, but to his surprise, he found that the owner had returned.

Not only had the owner returned, but a black beast’s leg was slung over its shoulder. The leg alone was as large as a Flame Leopard, clearly indicating its true size was not small!

“Oh, you haven’t started your cultivation today?” Night turned to Pulapa.

Pulapa curiously eyed the beast’s leg, still burning with black flames, feeling it looked familiar, “Cultivating all the time hasn’t been effective, so I thought about going out to find some suitable things for my cultivation.”

“I see,” Night said, not commenting further. It took out two gleaming Gold Coins from a small pouch at its waist and tossed them to Pulapa, “I’ll pay you this month’s salary in advance, hoping you find what’s right for you.”

Gratitude flashed in Pulapa’s eyes. With these two Demon Gold Coins, he had a total of ten Demon Gold Coins, a considerable sum for him. To put it in perspective, his parents’ inheritance had been just two Demon Gold Coins.

“Thank you, owner,” Pulapa said gratefully. Seeing Night walk straight to the cabin behind the Exhibition Room, he guessed it was going to clean the beast’s leg and quickly offered, “Owner, if it’s cleaning, let me do it.”

Night, however, shook its head, “No need. Despite only one leg remaining, its flames are unquenchable. They are contrary to your element, and you’d get hurt dealing with it.”

After Night had spoken, he entered the cleaning room directly and closed the main door behind him.

Pulapa then reflected on the “undying flame” in his mind before leaving the Hunting Museum. He walked for a long time, when suddenly a spark of inspiration seemed to flash through his mind: the undying black flame, and those hind legs like those of a horse.

It made him think of a kind of Magical Creature.

Dark Gold Nightmare!

Could it be that it was the hind leg of a Dark Gold Nightmare?

The more Pulapa thought about it, the more he felt he was correct, although he was quite far away earlier, he could indeed sense an almost imperceptible formidable pressure emanating from the black beast’s leg.

If it really was a Dark Gold Nightmare, could it be that this prey was hunted by the museum’s owner?

Pulapa suddenly became excited; a Dark Gold Nightmare was comparable to an Intermediate Rank Demon, and some of the more powerful Dark Gold Nightmares could even be compared with great Demons. Such a powerful creature, if it could be hunted by the owner… wouldn’t that mean that his earlier speculation was not wrong and that the owner’s strength was indeed very powerful, it’s just that he didn’t show it usually?

If the owner is so powerful, can he ask the owner to teach him how to increase his strength?

Pulapa sadly shook his head, even if the owner was powerful, he was of the flame attribute, which was completely contrary to him; it was impossible for him to have anything to teach him.

He should just keep exploring Lassudral and see if any of the shops here had something that could help him.

After walking around for most of the day, Pulapa felt he was still too naive.

The purchasing power of ten Demon Gold Coins was not bad, but if he wanted to buy something that could increase his strength, whether it was cultivation methods or special treasures, it would not be likely.

These were not only urgently needed by Pulapa but also desired by any other Demon or Half-Blood Demon.

Therefore, their prices were very expensive, starting at at least fifty Demon Gold Coins each.

It seemed that if he wanted to have the ability to take his revenge, he would have to wait a few more years.

Pulapa, with a heavy heart, prepared to return to the Hunting Museum. At least in Lassudral, the owner was very kind to him, and if he was willing to work hard, it shouldn’t take too long to save up fifty Demon Gold Coins.

On his way back to the Hunting Museum, Pulapa caught a glimpse of a small hut out of the corner of his eye.

Turning back, he realized that he had reached the outskirts of Lassudral again, and the mysterious hut called “幻迷” was just in the woods not far away.

Pulapa shook his head, planning to continue walking.

But just then, he noticed that beneath the sign named “幻迷,” there was actually a line of characters.

What was most important was that he was not unfamiliar with these characters; they even brought a strange sense of nostalgia.

Abyss Language! To see the Abyss Language here?!

The Abyss Language is the unified written language of the Indigenous People of the various Abyss settlements, and his mother was an Indigenous Person from the Notting Tribe. Since his childhood, Pulapa had not only learned the Demon Language from his father’s side but was also very familiar with the Abyss Language taught by his mother.

Therefore, when he saw the Abyss Language among the array of Demon and even ancient Demon languages’ signs in Lassudral, an intense feeling of closeness immediately welled up within him.

Following this sense of closeness, Pulapa unconsciously walked toward the “幻迷” hut.

Through the green-shaded path, though it was just separated by a few trees, Pulapa felt the air here was incredibly comfortable. It somewhat relieved the oppressive feeling he had had since arriving in Lassudral.

Light from the undying light source filtered through the canopy, casting mottled shadows on the stone path.

When Pulapa arrived at the door of the hut, he looked up and examined the sign carefully.

Besides the word “幻迷” on the sign, there was a line of text written in Abyss Language: “Feel the rhythm of the ocean.”

As a Water System Half-Blood Demon, Pulapa naturally understood that the ocean did have its unique rhythm, but what use was feeling its rhythm, and why was it related to “幻迷”?

Moreover, how does one feel the rhythm of the ocean?

A scene emerged in Pulapa’s mind: a demon with wings on its back scooped up a bucket of sea water, poured it into a bathtub, and then, smiling, pointed at the tub, as if to indicate that just by soaking in the tub, one would feel the rhythm of the ocean.

Pulapa shook his head, discarding the imagined scene, thinking that he would find out the actual situation once he went inside.

It had to be said; this wooden door was really too low. Had he not been slightly interested in the Abyss Language on the sign, Pulapa would definitely not have stepped inside.

Before entering the hut, Pulapa had thought that the person who would write in Abyss Language on the sign was probably a Half-Blood Demon. Moreover, one that acknowledged their Indigenous People’s bloodline.

However, after Pulapa stepped into the hut, he found out that he was completely wrong.

It was not some Half-Blood Demon who acknowledged their Indigenous roots, but an actual Indigenous Person themselves!