Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2922: Chapter 2923: Hidden Quest

Luigi was different from everyone before. After mounting the illusion dolphin, he fixed his body with its long tail and stood up, bowing to all sides.

It was as if he stood not on the back of the illusion dolphin but on a grand stage watched by countless people.

The ring of fire had yet to appear, and there was no movement in the grass or wind. Nevertheless, Luigi closed his eyes and slowly hummed gentle notes.

At the moment the first note appeared, Angel knew Luigi had chosen the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea.

This was a sainthood chant, a divine hymn created to praise the countless marine life!

In a normal performance, the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea begins with gentle little splashes, gradually stirring waves, eventually revealing a magnificent ocean and enchanting creatures swimming like elves. After the climax of the singing, it gradually recedes to silence as marine life bids farewell to the singer, carrying this beautiful echo until the end.

At the beginning, there is an accompaniment but no lyrics. At the climax, there is both accompaniment and lyrics. The final echo then returns again to no lyrics, only accompaniment, achieving a cyclical link.

Currently, Luigi lacks a harp for accompaniment and cannot directly proceed with lyrics before the audience is immersed, so he chose to hum a song.

With a gentleness to the extreme, like soft feathers tickling the ear with a slight sound, he quietly hummed, interpreting the beautiful prelude before the majesty of the waves.

As Luigi’s humming resonated, the audience’s once scattered applause fully ceased.

The host’s voice paused.

Even the wind over the ocean seemed to cease blowing.

Everything became silent, with only Luigi’s hum floating leisurely, lingering at the ear, penetrating into the quiet soul.

Finally, the prelude ended. The first Chapter of the lyrics began.

The first Chapter of the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea is the meeting between the singer and the sea’s creatures.

In the original version, the singer first encounters a pod of joyful dolphins rolling through the ocean.

Luigi did not change the lyrics, so his first Chapter also narrates how the singer meets the elf-like dolphins.

Even without the humming sound for accompaniment, mere lyrics are still enough to evoke in people’s minds a wondrous scene as if illusory yet real.

After the singer encounters the dolphins, they embark on a journey through the ocean.

Now, Luigi’s rendition fully aligns with the spiritual intent of the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea, even spreading that intent to the surroundings.

Under him, the illusion dolphin seemed to witness a series of scenes contained within, under the divine melody.

And the illusion dolphin in this spiritual intent gradually began to transform.

When Laplace last mounted the illusion dolphin, she completely treated it as a means of transportation, or a vehicle, like it was lifeless.

But this time, the illusion dolphin seemed activated by the song, showing unprecedented liveliness.

Moreover, not just one illusion dolphin.

One, two, three... A large number of illusion dolphins rose from the silver sea, resembling singers from the sainthood chant, becoming Luigi’s followers, accompanying the progression of his song.

The swimming posture of the illusion dolphins was no longer rigid but full of grace and flexibility.

Some of the illusion dolphins even spun along in the beautiful song, leaping out of the water one after another with the sublime rhythm.

Seeing this scene, the tight string in Laplace’s heart relaxed. The sight of illusion dolphins continuously leaping from the sea surface was in itself a performance.

This undoubtedly contributed bonus points.

While the audience was immersed in the performance, a few in mid-air whispered among themselves.

From Laplace’s perspective, though this scene was still the beginning, it was already stable. Illusion dolphins dancing, audience entranced—these scenarios never occurred before.

As long as it’s sustained, the score won’t be low. In fact, achieving a perfect score is not impossible.

As for their greatest concern, the ending of the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea, that’s a secondary issue now because the countdown below has reached one minute. At present, Luigi hasn’t even completed the prelude. Playing until the end before the countdown is almost impossible.

If all goes well, Luigi should reach the end around the middle Chapter.

Therefore, there’s no worry about a bad ending. After all, they won’t hear the ending.

Angel was quite curious about how Luigi would fill in the gap of this unfinished piece, but it now seems unlikely.

Since Luigi’s score won’t be low, Laplace began to consider the situation afterward.

Laplace looked at Angel: "Do you think Glaipnir has room to improve its score?"

Angel: "...We don’t even know what the beast-taming track is about yet."

Laplace: "I mean, like you instructed me and her before."

Laplace pointed at herself, then at the Rabbit Girl.

The Rabbit Girl’s high score was probably due to Angel’s advice to "act cute," which likely worked. And Laplace’s score was evidently inflated, likely due to Angel having her ride on the Rabbit Girl’s popularity, which she successfully did.

These belong to enhancements outside the competition and have little to do with the competition itself.

Angel managed to increase their scores, so could the same be applied to Glaipnir?

Angel roughly understood Laplace’s meaning. He pondered for a moment but then shook his head: "Circuses mostly collaborate with astrologers, if this track had an astrology aspect, it could leverage Glaipnir’s astrological traits to speak vaguely and fool the audience. But this track is beast-taming, which is hard to combine with astrology, so there’s nothing I can do."

As for having Glaipnir act cute? Uh... it would likely only receive boos from the audience.

Riding on Luigi’s popularity? That wouldn’t work either because Luigi’s song, the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea, builds emotions with highs and lows, and as it progresses, emotions will settle into tranquility. During this time, the audience likely hasn’t detached from the imagery of the Ode to the Spirit of the Sea yet, entering what’s termed "Sage Time." In this period, riding on popularity is nearly impossible. Popularity requires heat to catch, but during a cooling refractory period, catching heat is impossible.

Hence, Glaipnir, who comes after Luigi, is rather unfortunate.

Either rely on beast-taming skills for a successful passage or perform a work more excellent than Luigi’s to sway the audience back into an emotional fervor, thus earning bonus points.

And these, looking at them now, seem unlikely.

Thus, Angel still feels: "Considering score enhancement isn’t the most critical part; for Glaipnir, passing is key."

The beast-taming track is entirely new and unknown; pass first, and the rest can be dealt with later.

"I agree with his view," Glaipnir paused and looked at Angel: "However, on the other hand, I still have Bella’s whip to use. You... really have no problem?"

Glaipnir’s words seemed slightly provocative, but Angel could see that Glaipnir genuinely cared about Angel competing in the final track.

With the beast-taming track, at least she had enchanted land tools.

Magic track, is Angel really okay?

Although Angel says the magic track might be related to misdirection, it’s just a guess. What if it’s not? What if it’s about performing magic?

Angel looked at Glaipnir, smiled, and said, "I know a little bit of magic. As long as it’s not too off-topic, I should be fine."

Glaipnir frowned slightly but said nothing more, choosing to trust Angel.

On the other side, Laplace gave Angel a deep look. She always felt that after Angel entered the special dreamland, his confidence wasn’t less than Luigi’s? Does he have some hidden cards?

Laplace thought carefully... and found it made sense. Angel himself is the owner of the Crystal Origin of Dreams; even though he hasn’t fully controlled the Crystal Origin of Dreams yet, he must have gained some benefits during the process. So, having hidden cards is normal.

And Laplace’s guess... was correct.

Indeed, Angel has hidden cards, quite a few actually. Originally, his most useful hidden card was indirectly interfering with Wonderland of Dreams using the Ability Tree, but that required time.

But now, he finds the most suitable hidden card doesn’t necessarily have to be controlling Wonderland of Dreams.

The special dreamland prohibited all external items, including shedding scales, yet it did not ban authority!

Or rather, it couldn’t ban authority.

Even if Wonderland of Dreams were a core authority, it could only forbid sub-authority within its own system. For example, the Gate of Dreams belongs to the sub-authority of space law; space law could prohibit the opening of the Gate of Dreams, but it couldn’t influence the Mist of Sin, Tree Civilization, or Membrane of Rhythm because these do not belong to sub-authority under space law.

And Wonderland of Dreams itself isn’t considered a core authority; it and the majority of authority Angel currently wields are at the same level.

If they are at the same level, who can stop them?

For instance, within the instance created by Wonderland of Dreams, one can still go offline, which means Wonderland of Dreams and the Gate of Dreams are not subordinate to each other and don’t interfere.

Since the Gate of Dreams can be used, why not use other authority as well?

However, Angel had never entered the special dreamland before, so he never thought in this direction. Until this time, when he entered the "Sunshine Circus," he noticed this point.

The only regret is, other authority he possesses has not fully manifested in the Crystal Origin of Dreams, only Celestial Alternation has faintly shown.

But that’s enough.

Even if the current ability of Celestial Alternation is weak, Angel is still confident in using it to pass a track.

Moreover, Angel could use Celestial Alternation to help others pass... but in the previous three tracks, it wasn’t applicable, and helping them may not reach the baseline of 75 points.

Right now is fine, even without his help, it’s done well.

As for whether to help Glaipnir later, it’s not too late to decide then.

...

Luigi, surrounded by a flock of phantom porpoises, finally reached the latter half of the track.

Here one could already see the opposite shore and the clown head flying high.

Meanwhile, fire rings finally appeared.

Luigi noticed the fire rings, but he didn’t pay much attention, still immersed in singing verses of the "Ode to the Spirit of the Sea."

Moreover, as the climax of the singing verses approached, Luigi had even less time to spare, his whole being immersed in the sainthood chants.

The first climax came when encountering a solitary whale, a whale rejected by its kin, and it joined the Singer’s journey during the Singer’s passionate and joyful chanting.

The second climax was when the Singer met a turtle carrying an island, which loved the life on the island, but the life there panicked upon learning the truth behind the land they stood on. The Singer’s arrival sang the turtle’s feelings out, resolving the conflict between them.

Upon hearing this, everyone seemed to see a scene. A bonfire party was being held on the back of a giant turtle in the ocean under nightfall, with the theme called... reconciliation.

At the third climax... as Luigi was about to sing, he suddenly sensed something wrong.

After the two previous climaxes, about three minutes had gone by, and the five-minute limit for the fire ring track should have been met... even exceeded.

Why does he feel like he’s still on the back of the phantom porpoise?

Luigi continued singing verses while quietly opening half an eye to peek outside.

Upon seeing, Luigi almost went off-key.

Because, before him, fire rings ignited one after another, stretching to the opposite shore.

Previously, there was only one fire ring; how come there are so many now?

Moreover, he also noticed on the neck of the clown head on the opposite shore hung a countdown clock.

With the increase of fire rings, this clock didn’t decrease but instead increased?

What’s going on?

This is not only Luigi’s confusion but also the confusion of everyone up in the sky.

Faced with this odd situation, others were still befuddled, while Angel quietly said, "Is this... triggering a hidden plot?"

The Rabbit Girl was conveniently beside Angel, and upon hearing his words, curiously turned her head to look at Angel.

Her gaze was still timid, but her curiosity overcame her social anxiety.

"Wh-what does ... hidden plot mean?"

Angel glanced back at Rabbit Girl and whispered, "It’s nothing; it’s just that the planner behind thinks Luigi’s singing verses stopped halfway were a bit regrettable, so they set this up, determined to let Luigi sing the entire sainthood chant."

The planner Angel mentioned was the Dream Creator.

Sunshine Circus now looks quite real, but summing up, it’s still someone’s dream, and as long as it’s a dreamland, the Dream Creator has absolute interpretation rights.

Most likely, the Dream Creator thinks Luigi’s performance exceeded expectations, so using this method to extend Luigi’s "life."

Overall, this must be a good thing.

The only thing to watch out for is whether Luigi will disappoint with the ending lyrics for the "Ode to the Spirit of the Sea."

Angel thought about it, and even if the ending really turned out bad, overall it’s good, and the score shouldn’t be low.

Thinking this, Angel gathered his wandering thoughts and carefully listened to Luigi’s singing verses.

To be honest, he’s also curious about how Luigi will extend the "Ode to the Spirit of the Sea."