A Sorcerer’s Journey

Widening his eyes under the Mask of Truth, Grimm realized that he had nothing to fear now.

“You’re Third Ghostpepper, right?”

As he raised his violet Marked Friendship Key high in the air, Grimm stared at the powerful Dark Demon Hunter straight into his eyes.

“This Marked Friendship Key here is given by the great Stigmata Sorcerer Black Isotta himself. If you don’t have any other Marked Friendship Key that is on par to this one, you have no chance at all. Give up. I have my own reasons to do this. I must save my wife!”

Holding his “spine” sorcerer staff, Third Ghostpepper threw Grimm a cold glare with his dark crimson eyes while gray Spirit Flames burned silently atop his head.

It was a glare of ridicule.

“No chance at all? Shashasha… if that’s the case, I’m afraid you’ll have to witness your wife’s death right in front of your eyes…”

After finishing his words, Third Ghostpepper turned towards Kuryak and Roqhiroo.

“I’ll give you another chance. A minute later, I’ll go and find both of you… after I deal with him. If you still can’t handle that Black Sorcerer, wasting everyone’s time, then don’t blame me when I grab that Demon Hunter Consociation vacancy.”

Not understanding what he meant, Roqhiroo’s face was twisted in confusion.

Kuryak, on the other hand, immediately understood what’s going on. She quickly replied gladly, “Alright! One minute later, if you can kill this Demon Hunter and we fail… we will forfeit this competition to join the Demon Hunter Consociation.”

Grimm stared at Third Ghostpepper in disbelief.

This guy… was he insane?

This Third Ghostpepper wanted to kill him within a minute despite facing the overwhelming might of a Level 3 Creature?

No matter how strong he was, this Third Ghostpepper was still merely a Level 1 Sorcerer. Even if he was stronger than any other Level 1 Sorcerer, it was still impossible for him to accomplish that, right?

Suddenly, Third Ghostpepper’s palm that was aiming at Hattori the Hidden stopped powering the five skull rings on his fingers. As soon as the rings’ glow faded away, the shadowy skulls around Hattori vanished into thin air. Even the massive energy webbing had also disappeared.

“Hahahaha! Grimm, I’ll be waiting for you in the Black Domain…”

Giving Grimm a nod, Hattori the Hidden quickly fled the battlefield, leaving only a trail of shadow mirrors behind. However, a pillar of energy beam shot out from the flying pyramid and…

Boooom!

Massive explosions splashed open the Jewel Sea and sent the tidal waves several dozen meters to the air… Gradually, the noise and energy ripple of the flying pyramid were getting further and further away…

Seeing the three of them get far from him, Third Ghostpepper turned and faced Grimm, the massive fissure in the sky and its countless red eyes with his five Soul Slaves.

Third Ghostpepper couldn’t help but feel proud of himself!

Every sorcerer was proud of his own conviction.

This conviction was something that developed from their own perseverance, or from some specific incident from their past, or from their own potential in combat, or perhaps from their own high intelligence… from all kinds of things…

Much like how Grimm possessed an endless thirst for knowledge and felt proud for achieving or accomplishing various goals that the previous ancient sorcerers had set for themselves… Third Ghostpepper too had gone through various things in his Level 1 Sorcerer life. He too possessed all kinds of proud accomplishments.

Pride.

When a sorcerer faces something that involves his own pride, his emotion and passion would then overturn his cold logical thinking.

He would become something akin to a knight, one who possessed fiery passion and fighting spirit.

Third Ghostpepper was defending his pride at this very moment.

Raising his head, Third Ghostpepper, whose appearance looked like an old frail man, held onto his “spine” sorcerer staff firmly as his black sorcerer robe fiercely flapped around by the vast pressure that was emitting from the fissure above.

Vrooom…

Slowly, Third Ghostpepper’s sorcerer staff started to vibrate with Magic Power while he quietly chanted a series of spells that was associated to the great sea around them.

In an instant, clouds gathered towards them as violent tidal waves rocked below.

“O’ five Soul Fire of the Dead, I command you sew up your Decayed Bone Webbing…”

Of course, while Third Ghostpepper was chanting his sorcery, Grimm was not resting his hands either. Slowly conjuring up elemental energies, Grimm condensed the power of fire and ice on both of his hands, forming a powerful scarlet red energy ball like the one that Millie and Mina created together in between his palms.

“Fire Blast!”

Grimm’s Fire Blast Spell was much faster than Third Ghostpepper’s sorcery.

As a ray of scarlet red beam flashed across the sky, a gust of powerful explosion roared above the Jewel Sea.

Boooooom….

The noise of the explosion rippled far and wide, sending tidal waves back by miles.

In the sky, Grimm panted quietly as he looked at the vast sea of fire burning the ocean below while violent winds attracted by the flames blew his Sorcerer Robe and long hair fiercely.

“Is his sorcery prevented?” Grimm panted quietly to himself. Despite having grown so much from his life journey thus far, Grimm was not so prideful to the point he thought he could wound his opponent in just one strike.

As the flames faded away gradually, Grimm’s eyes shrank as he quickly evaded a ray of white energy beam.

Hmm?

Something’s off!

Grimm realized something went wrong and quickly turned around to check his back. What he saw was like a massive punch to his heart.

The worst thing that he could imagine had happened.

A several-dozen meter white energy webbing had sealed off the massive black fissure in the sky. Gray Spirit Flames were burning silently on the webbing, powering it constantly. Slowly, the expanding black fissure had started to close up.

Third Ghostpepper was trying to seal up the fissure and send the gigantic creature back into where it came from before it successfully crawled out into the Sorcerer World.

Roaar!

As though realizing its own predicament, the monster let out a loud roar as it extended its massive red pincer while speaking anxiously in the Sorcerer language.

“Roaaar… Sir Grimm, give me one minute! No. Fifty seconds. I only need fifty seconds! I will definitely complete my master’s order and descend to the Sorcerer World as you command.”

Grimm was stunned after hearing this.

This “crab monster” called him “sir”?

Perhaps Black Isotta had given him some special orders? Or perhaps it had misunderstood something?

Gatchaaaa! Gatchaa! Gatcha!

The pincer above Grimm’s head started to cut the webbing furiously—like a mad beast struggling and fighting off with its own life, totally ignoring the risk of him getting hurt.

At the meantime, a second pincer also extended out of the fissure to try to pull apart the sealing webbing.

Creeeak!

One of the threads of the massive webbing was pulled off…

On the other hand, Grimm was able to see that there were only two Soul Slaves left by Third Ghostpepper’s side. Perhaps the other three Soul Slaves had been killed by the Fire Blast Spell earlier.

As for Third Ghostpepper’s Sorcerer Staff and Skull Rings… they appeared to be expendable tools to activate sorceries; thus, having spent their uses, these tools were also gone.

Third Ghostpepper did not seem to mind at all. As he let out his usual maniacal “Shashasha” laughter, a dimensional crack was torn open in the air before three Soul Slaves jumped out from it.

The three Soul Slaves quickly raised their heads towards his head. The moment their heads touched the Spirit Flames that were burning atop his head, the Soul Slaves suddenly were engulfed in the Spirit Flames.

In mere seconds, they were now powerful Level 1 creatures!

It would seem that this weird flame sorcery was able to turn six monsters into Level 1 creatures and maintain them that way throughout the battle.

Even if some of them fell in battle, they could be replenished in a short time.

Carrying a full body of scales from his Wild Instinct Activation, Grimm shot a glare at Third Ghostpepper.

“One minute, huh? Well… let’s see how you are going to kill me within one minute.”

After saying this, a seven-meter tall gold-black Savage Flame Giant slowly stood up behind Grimm. It slowly opened its burning golden eyes and stared at Third Ghostpepper before letting out a fierce roar, showcasing its massive power.

Roaaaar…!!!