A Sorcerer’s Journey

*BOOM! BOOM!*

Two Fire Bats ignited the ground and waves of Inextinguishable Flames rolled into a ball. A student let out a whimper before space distorted and they departed from the Secret Mirror.

“Only 120 points… dividing that is just 60 points,” Glenn knitted his brow as he murmured to himself.

Without Claytia to guide him, Glenn was simply unable to root them out rapidly without clear-cut targets like before. Furthermore, repeatedly dealing with students that only had a little more than 100 points greatly reduced Glenn’s “tidying” rate. It was to the extent that today was already the ninth day of the Holy Tower Tryouts and Glenn was still loafing around in the 11th District.

Meanwhile, the 11th District students only felt like they were in a waking nightmare!

With the undercurrent of secret communications being passed around everywhere, all the remaining strong students in the 11th District were aware an exceedingly stronger outside student had come into their district, and this outsider ruthlessly attacked any student with a chain mark that exceeded 100.

After some time, those students with imprints worth less than 100 points successively left the Secret Mirror. Previously, it could be said that every single student Glenn saw, he attacked. Due to Glenn’s nightmarish way of clearing out the area, this originally flourishing area had already become a “desolate and crushed” land. Glenn, after less than half an hourglass’s worth of time, found it very difficult to see another person.

The 11th District became the area which Glenn had swept through the most thoroughly.

Only, Glenn started to faintly sense that the students of this area around him had apparently begun to prepare some huge precision trap. If he continued to unrestrainedly sweep up the place like an idiot, he might perhaps fall right into their trap.

Since there was no competition anyway, Glenn naturally would not stupidly go probe out this trap set up on the sly by who knows how many students. He let out a sardonic laugh before muttering, “I should probably leave. It’s already the final day so I should take a look at the 12th again!”

With this thought in mind, Glenn actually left the 11th District obelisk forest, which he had persistently tidied up for a number of days, without the slightest hesitation.

The black soil on the ground gave off a whiff of a fishy stench. Perhaps the average person would miss it, but Glenn’s hunting nose[1] was extremely sensitive.

Huh?

A flash of light came into Glenn’s field of view at that moment. Seeing the direction the other person was flying toward, it just so happened to be opposite to Glenn’s path. The other student appeared to be flying from the 12th to go to the 11th District.

Perceiving some light element, Glenn’s eyes underneath his mask flashed with a dazzling glimmer. In amazement, he said, “Lightwing Yerko Dar? It must be him. Hmm, after fleeing the 14th he went and toured the 12th. The total points he has…”

Fufu!

He smiled coldly. Glenn, who was originally flying peacefully in the sky, burst out with a terrifyingly red-hot radiance with a bang. It was as if a red sun had risen in the dusky sky. Wild elemental waves spread out unbridled. His figure became warped and he reappeared over 10-meters away. Tightly carrying the power of sporadic thunderbolts, in a flash, his figure became ghostly-looking for 20-to-30 meters before warping again. Once again, he appeared over 10-meters away.

Wielding terrorizing might, Glenn straightforwardly controlled the force which was able to crush everything and launched it toward that point of light in the distance. It was as if he had spread out a pair of wings to block out the sky and cover the earth, leaving the vastly huge shadow of a terrifying giant beast stretch out on the ground depicting an all-out attack on an innocent wandering minstrel in the middle of a journey.

A distance of over 1000-meters, with Glenn’s current speed, only needed roughly ten breaths to cover!

…

This Sorcerer-Apprentice who was an expert in the light element was precisely the 11th’s most famous Lightwing Yerko Dar.

The 11th District was different from other areas. Even though this district did not have a legendary student born in the past century, it had a large number of talents, or at least a little more compared to the 12th’s Top Ten Expert level students. The cream of the crop all had even more hidden trump cards. Of them, there were six people who Yerko Dar feared to the extreme.

Apart from those six, there were also several small groups that were more formidable than those six people.

If he were to encounter one of those six on their own, Yerko Dar could still depend on the characteristic of his sorcery to hold the initiative. But if he wasn’t careful and entered the traps set up by those tiny groups…

It was exactly because they were so internally united that Yerko Dar came to realize that it’d be truly too difficult to gather points in the 11th District. Perhaps there would only be a chance if he went roaming about outside.

Yerko Dar was also a student who was unwilling to accept being mediocre. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have managed to climb up to the 11th’s top-most place in the Sorcerer-Apprentice hierarchy in a mere forty years.

It was precisely because of his dreams, desires, ambition, and confidence in his own strength that Yerko Dar was able to arrive at the 14th District. After a fierce bout of fighting, in which he had held absolute dominance because of his speed and flexibility, Yerko Dar arrived at the conclusion that the Sorcerer-Apprentices in other areas were apparently not the same as those in his own area.

Apparently…

The average level was lower than the students in his own area by a margin?

Yerko Dar gradually investigated and verified his conjecture, thereupon arriving at incomparable excitement! If he could take advantage of his superior speed and quickly sweep away the weak and those who were as strong as he was but not as fast in five areas under these circumstances, he would have another option to take aside from just feeling helpless!

Thinking this, Yerko Dar practically saw the top reward beckoning him at him for a split second. His future looked bright.

Or at least until…

Yerko Dar met that male student at the center of the 14th, Earth Heart Wicky. At that time the other had used a disdainful tone and ridiculed him like he was practically a flea. At that time, he was basically ignored. At that time, no matter what kind of attack he used to attack, they all seemed to only tickle Wicky, and Yerko Dar had reached a clear understanding regarding one thing.

It was none other than that above the summit of the 11th District students was another level!

However, Yerko Dar had very quickly become aware of Earth Heart Wicky’s weak point. It was precisely that if those two legs of his were separated from the earth for a time, his frightening strength would weaken greatly at once. Thus, the other never would separate from the earth.

Since that’s how it was, he could choose to completely ignore him and proceed to gather points.

Subsequently, Yerko Dar arrived in the 12th District. Yerko Dar had discovered that the average level of strength in this area was surprisingly not at all lower than his own 11th District because he had successively encountered a number of troublesome students.

However!

In spite of that fact, those Sorcerer-Apprentices had all appeared to be frightened of something, as if there was the shadow of an even more dreadful person obscuring the sky of this area. At last, he finally found out about that area’s two strongest legendary level students Ice Age Mille and Primal Curse Althio. Yerko Dar heard for the first time a new level dividing the students.

Above students similar to himself, there was still an additional legendary level? A class of Sorcerer-Apprentices that can contend against official refined level-one Sorcerers?

When Yerko Dark coincidentally bumped into Mille and Mina, who had experienced a large fall in strength, they had declared that there was an even stronger Sorcerer-Apprentice taking part in the Holy Tower Tryouts. Yerko Dar had witnessed with his own eyes the scene of a piece of land within the district ravaged by battle, all the stone pillars for several hundred meters around collapsed, the earth crisscrossed with scars, the earth scattered and smashed…

Yerko Dar understood that there was a level above legendary students. Furthermore, maybe even after ten Holy Tower Tryouts a nightmare level student might not be born!

Yet in this round of Holy Tower Tryouts, there was a nightmare level Sorcerer-Apprentice born!

After trembling with fright internally, Yerko Dar had all of a sudden felt an incomparable excitement because a new horizon had appeared before his eyes—a horizon even vaster than Yerko Dar could imagine. In these past several decades, Yerko Dar had loathed the familiar faces and sorceries. He was disgusted with the senseless inter-faction wars. He had hated not knowing the next step to take, he didn’t know his goal and he was at a loss.

Sensing the abundant sum of points on his forehead, Yerko Dar understood his own insignificance and thoughts of fighting for the top reward also disappeared. Like a Sorcerer who had gone touring around the sorcerer world now planning to return to his original land, Yerko Dar flew in the direction of the 11th District.

Below him was the moist black soil. As he traveled, Yerko Dar was lost in contemplation.

Yet, in the wake of indescribably terrifying element waves abruptly erupting in the distant skies, what seemed to be the oppressive dreadful might of the sun in the sky drew nearer. As those great energy waves capable of destroying everything came rolling toward him, Yerko Dar’s originally beautiful vision for the future immediately transformed to despair!

Was this precisely that nightmare level student?!

Was this really merely a Sorcerer-Apprentice? This kind of frightening might simply could not belong to a proper Sorcerer-Apprentice rank, alright! Even if he himself were to use several decades to grasp the profound sorcerer knowledge his mentor taught him and then used several more decades to complete teacher’s plan to further himself, he reasoned that he could at most reach the level of a legendary level student.

However…

Such power and pressure, what kind of sorcery magic had he learned in the end? What ancient magic books and scrolls had he obtained? This power was fundamentally not something a Sorcerer-Apprentice should possess!

…

That’s right!

Yerko Dar would never understand the true innate disparity between nightmare level Sorcerer-Apprentices and all other students…

The formidability of nightmare level students was never because of their prowess in sorcery but rather in knowledge! By treading the footsteps of predecessors, a student could only eternally live in shadows of others. They wouldn’t be able to find the true meaning of their own existence and shine with their own unique brilliance.

Only by walking one’s own path, relying on knowledge to achieve sorcery most suitable for one’s own ideology, could one become the most powerful sorcerer!

Perhaps, at that time when a student would first pick up magic books to master their first spell, their mindset in that instant was what already decided the future of that Sorcerer-Apprentice and the highest achievement they were capable of reaching.

It was the time when all students were excited because they obtained “formidable” strength. They only needed to find magic books to study those stronger sorceries to be filled with excitement at being able to gain even more formidable strength. Those formerly aloof and out-of-reach knights could be easily killed by them. Taking hold of one’s own destiny was the way to happiness!

However, only a few silly students would seriously ponder once in a while. For what reason do I do this…

And among those several silly students, the overwhelming majority would die in all kinds of catastrophic battles because of their foolishness and weakness, eternally entering the yellow river and fading away into obscurity.

But…

However, there was always that infinitesimal chance of there being that “silly” student who could become a “legend” in the future that all other Sorcerer-Apprentices wouldn’t be able to reach. Using decisive strength to suppress all “intelligent” students. Becoming a genuine nightmare for all students in the same area.

This was precisely the elemental sorcerer’s nightmare level Sorcerer-Apprentice.

The genuine protagonist amongst the generation of Sorcerer-Apprentices in the land.