A Sorcerer’s Journey

Two months had passed.

The airship could only fly Grimm to the border of the hinterland area of the Seven Rings and he would have to go further by his own beyond the Human Will Mountain Range.

The area beyond was called the Wilderness or Academy Land by the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.

The Academy Land was not peaceful.

The area was made up of ‘resources’, human beings that were accepted by the Stigmata Sorcerer and who were carefully monitored on their multiplication. As the community grew larger in number, Sorcerers Academy would be established in the sorcerer towers of the area.

In that area, the population itself was the resource for the Sorcerers Academy, as the energy rotation of the sorcerer tower could only be supported when there were enough sorcerers raised from the population.

“Population Resources” was the basic concept of the sorcerer continent, similar to the Black Sorcerer’s practice. This was a concept aimed for development toward the betterment of the people. However, the Black Sorcerer’s practice was led toward the opposite direction.

The battle between academies within the Academy Land was most feared by the Arcane Sorcerers in the Outer Wasteland.

Many a time when war sparked between the academies, many entities were persuaded by the Stigmata Sorcerers to join the war and destroy Sorcerer Tower that went against the Stigmata Sorcerers. Those who were most likely being persuaded were Guardians of the academy, Demon-hunters from the Holy Towers, and also some of the Level 3 Sorcerer Academy deans.

Although the Stigmata Sorcerers did not join the war, the intensity of it, however, would be similar to a fierce massacre from the expedition of the Demon-Hunters. Occasionally, when war was declared between the alliances of Sorcerer Towers, it would require the resolution of the Great Necromancer!

…

Crossing the towering mountains and rushing directly into the clouds of the Human Will Mountain Range, a constant flow of water gushed down from the top that formed a veil on the surface of the mountains while accompanied by the sound of water splashes. The distinct void of the sorcerer world had replaced the rightful distorted dimension that should have occurred.

Although Grimm had already become an official sorcerer, it was still rather taxing for him to go through the enormous mountain range.

In retrospect, Grimm had already improved by leaps and bounds in the subject of soldering through mountains when compared to the time when he was still a sorcerer-apprentice led by Master Peranos.

Grimm descended quickly to the internal layer of the world. He kept gasping for breath.

Grimm regained a part of his magic power under the rich supply of Elemental Energy. He started to control Natural Energy to quickly pass through the Battlefield of White Bones, where ancient human beings fought the Oceanic Race. Gradually, boundless primitive forests and inland seas appeared, along with large numbers of wild animals…

One month later.

“Finally there is a city, not sure what place this is. Perhaps I’ll just try to take a look and see if there are any sorcerers or sorcerer-apprentices gathered around this gathering spot for human beings.”

Normal human beings from the Academy Land would not even come close to understanding the Hierarchical Governing Concept from the Sorcerer Continent.

Sorcerers were all being regarded as great and mighty by them, and Grimm could already forget about getting any information from them.

Grimm transformed into a normal-looking bard in the sky and controlled the force of nature to form a birdcage around Lord Myna. They then landed on a spot that was less noticeable and slowly walked forward.

“Oh Lord Grimm, please remove this broken cage. I would be embarrassed if any of the ancient Steel Emblem Mynas spotted me in this, you…”

Grimm ignored Lord Myna.

He looked just like an adventurous bard that was curious about everything and walked into town while following a carriage that was led by a merchant.

The city was not that big and there was a white-colored castle standing in the middle of the city. It was clean and shiny and shops and stalls were randomly erected on both sides of the city’s main streets. However, the flagstones on the road pavement were not maintained regularly. Hence, potholes everywhere caused the carriages to squeak and groan as they rolled over the pavement, splashing mud and grime from them. The surroundings of the city were awful. It brought back a memory of Grimm’s when he was still young; a city similar to the Bi Seer City of the Eastern Coral Island.

“Move away! Move away! You bunch of damned slumdogs!”

A carriage with fine finishing that belonged to an aristocrat rushed through. The coachman was sitting on the carriage and yelled to his surroundings, while a few horsemen accompanied the carriage. Pedestrians and merchant travelers on both sides of the street scooted out of the way while they humbly struck a salute toward the carriage.

The carriage left and went far ahead. Only then did the pedestrians continue on as if nothing had happened before that.

“Pfft, a peasant from the village.”

There was a cunning looking old man beside Grimm sitting on a merchant carriage. He wiped off the mud that splashed onto his body earlier and cursed toward the carriage that passed and moved ahead. He noticed that Grimm was looking at him, and he replied fiercely, “What are you looking at, you stinky beggar?! I will scoop your eyeballs out!”

“Swoosh”, a horseman with a big rounded belly who was beside drew out a huge sword while giving out signs instructing Grimm to move away.

All of them were normal human beings and they looked just like the ones from Grimm’s childhood memories.

Grimm ignored them and turned toward another direction. Lord Myna was in the cage Grimm’s held, and he was shocked saying, “Master, I know you are in disguise, bt can’t they recognize the great, elegant, and beautiful Steel Emblem Myna that you are holding in your hand? How could you possibly be a beggar? Are they brainless? Or perhaps the intellectual level of normal human beings have become negative in number?”

Grimm walked along the muddy street, and replied calmly, “This cage is hidden from their sights. Only sorcerers are able to see this.”

A few hourglasses of time had passed.

There was another carriage that seemed to be owned by an aristocrat. A small pack of sorcerer-apprentices who were nearby looked toward the cage that Grimm was holding on. Grimm was delighted, and he brought the birdcage over to them.

The entire street was already focussed on the few sorcerer-apprentices who were there.

An aristocrat greeted the sorcerer-apprentices while accompanied by eight elite horsemen that were aligned neatly. Pedestrians along both sides of the street also bowed their heads down to show respect. However, Grimm walked near the sorcerer-apprentice by himself, which seemed odd to everyone else.

“Hold on, you slumdog. Who allowed you to come near? Guards!!! Punish him with a hundred lashes of the whip…”

The chubby looking aristocrat yelled emotionally as he suddenly realized something was not right. He turned toward the three honorable “Master Sorcerers” but they all seemed frightened while bowing down to perform their sorcerer greetings to the ‘slumdog’ that was walking toward them.

“Honorable Master Sorcerer, how can we be of service?” Three of the sorcerer-apprentices completed their greetings and asked simultaneously while they ignored the aristocrat that seemed to be an unimportant person.

Sorcerer?!

The chubby looking aristocrat had a jaw-dropping moment, wide enough to stuff an entire apple into his mouth.

Before the aristocrat could even react, a strong force pushed him down from the carriage into a mud puddle. He fainted with dirt covering his face.

Also, two horsemen who were about to follow orders from the aristocrat were being tossed away over ten meters by Grimm’s force of nature.

Grimm did not care much about the short-lived normal human beings and their nonsense. To him, they were merely tools used by the Stigmata Sorcerers to reproduce wealth and as a cornerstone to cultivate the next generation of sorcerers. They were short-lived like the Caterpillar Fungus, and not even worth to be bothered with.

The sorcerer-apprentices looked toward the fainted aristocrat and it greatly surprised them. They shifted their eyes toward Grimm.

Since when were sorcerers so easy-going?

The three sorcerer-apprentices were very sure that if any sorcerer-apprentice would dare to insult a full-blown sorcerer in such a manner, they would never live to see the next day.

Grimm ignored everyone else, and asked the three sorcerer-apprentices, “Where is this place?”

“This is Shadow Claw Sorcerer Academy in Section 13 of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings,” humbly replied a sorceress-apprentice that wore a fine-looking earring. Full of anticipation, she looked at Grimm with a pair of beautiful green eyes.

Grimm had been in their shoes before and he knew what they had in mind. Their biggest dream would most probably to have an official sorcerer as their mentor.

At that moment, Grimm saw that both of the sorcerer-apprentices had no real defensive power, just slightly stronger than a normal human being.

If Grimm were to activate his Nature Force, they would not be even able to cast the most basic of sorcery.

Sorcerer-apprentices could alter the Nature Force of the sorcerer world with their own magic powers. However, full sorcerers could use their Nature Force to alter the world’s law!

Grimm lowered his head in deep thought. “Section 13?”

It seemed that there had been some deviation in direction. Grimm was wearing ragged clothes when he drew across the air with his hand and took out a crystal ball from the dimensional gap. He made some adjustments on the map that was reflected from the crystal ball to set the correct direction.

In the eyes of normal human beings that only perceived what they could see, it would be such an incomprehensible mismatch for them. However, it was the total opposite for sorcerers, as they would only seek intrinsic value and not pay attention to things that were not worth their effort.

Appearances were merely just for others’ opinions.

This came to the point of the aesthetic point of view, where the higher the level the sorcerer was, the more they would forget about things that were pursued by these short-lived normal human beings.

…

Grimm randomly passed a middle-level magical stone to the little sorceress-apprentice that was worthless to him. However, it was a profitable gain for her, and he was surprised by her disappointment.

Actually, the sorceress-apprentice looked to be in her thirties. However, she was still a little girl to Grimm, as if looking at himself when he was still in the sorcerer academy.

Grimm had the geographical coordinates in mind and was about to leave, but suddenly felt curious and asked, “What are you all doing in this remote little town?”

Another sorcerer-apprentice replied quickly, “We received a compulsory mission from the academy to search for the trails of the Black Sorcerer-apprentices that were from Section 12. An evil Black Sorcerer that was on a runaway in Section 12 had raised a large number of Black sorcerer-apprentices to confuse the detection of the Bounty Hunter Sorcerers. These sorcerer-apprentices have spread into Section 11 from Section 12.

Grimm was shocked, ‘The Phantom Thief?’

Grimm nodded and randomly passed on a middle-level magical stone to the sorcerer-apprentice, and quickly left the unknown little town of human beings within Section 13, while the sorcerer-apprentices looked at him in awe.

After a few days, the news had spread across the little town. News about a sorcerer who had punished the viscount of the town.