A Sorcerer’s Journey

Half a month later.

Grimm had already left the Tomb Segja Sorcerer Academy and arrived at the outer rim of the Seven Ring Holy Tower.

Laying his eyes on a huge castle that was located at the base of the mountain, Grimm mumbled to himself, “So this is it I suppose?”

During the early phase of the Shadow World Conquest, Grimm had unwittingly rescued a Bright Sorceress from a hill of corpses and she gave him her sorcerer staff as thanks.

Grimm thought this was the end of the whole incident.

Ye, after the advent of the Shadow Calamity, Grimm found out that this sorcerer staff was the Bright Sorceress’ life box. After she was killed in battle, she was able to resurrect herself in the form of a Dwarf Tinman in the life box.

This led to some complications due to the Bright Sorceress’ life box which was built and retained within the staff. Although the Sorceress was now a Dwarf Tinman, she was still a legit Arcane Sorceress of the Sorcerer World.

This meant that Grimm had no means of controlling her despite she was now his property. Thus, this led to the situation that they were in.

Left without much a choice, the Dwarf Tinman made a contract with Grimm—so long as Grimm could move her into the Demon-hunter castle fragment, he would then acquire a treasure when he returned to Sorcerer World. She had also mentioned that after the treasure was found, she wanted only one small item from the treasure.

Then, Grimm had rushed back to Sorcerer World to heal from the Nightmare Shadow curse and headed to the slave market to sell the Amonros. After all that, he had then let her out of his Demon-hunter castle fragment.

According to the contract, she was supposed to be waiting for him here to fulfill the contract. Although all these were commitments that he had made years ago, this length of time was nothing to the sorcerers, considering their lifespan.

Thus, Grimm took his time to slowly descend from the sky and landed in front of the castle.

Hmm?

He was surprised to find powerful magic arrays around the castle. These arrays were so powerful that only sorcerers who were specialized in sketching Magic Arrays or a high-level sorcerer could create.

Creeak… creaaaak…

Several thirty-meter tall trees in front of the castle slowly opened its eyes as they extended their branches.

One of them spoke to Grimm, “O’ Honor…-able…Sor…cer…rer…”

The tree’s speech was extremely slow.

Shaking his head, Grimm pulled out his Seven-Ring Contract and crystal; the Seven-Ring Contract then started to emit the information of the Dwarf Tinman toward the tree.

Pzzzzt…

After projecting the information, the crystal ball appeared to have been affected by some form of signal stress before completing the information transfer. Grimm deduced that this was probably due to the sorceress being resurrected within the life box.

“Grimm, you’re finally here.”

A lively Dwarf Tinman stood inside Grimm’s crystal. She looked much better than the first time they met in her Tinman form in the Shadow World—she couldn’t even walk properly back then and would trip several times on the ground.

“Yes, I’m here.”

Grimm nodded his head and replied calmly, “It would seem that you’re quite eager for me to fulfill the contract?”

As they spoke, the little Tinman had slowly hovered out of the castle towards Grimm. Several guardian trees slowly turned towards her as Grimm put away his crystal.

Pop!

The Dwarf Tinman flew out of the Magic Interdiction and then started to accumulate Magic Power into her hand.

Then, she turned and released a series of elemental passwords towards the Magic Interdiction, opening a gap on it.

“Please come in.”

The Dwarf Tinman bowed and invited Grimm into the castle.

Grimm nodded his head and walked in.

Higher-level sorcerers were not required to return a bow to the low-level Sorcerers. Grimm was a Demon Hunter—his level and status were much higher than that of the Dwarf Tinman.

After passing through a green pasture, Grimm followed the Dwarf Tinman into a massive lobby in the castle.

“Master.” A black-haired green-eyed boy bowed at Grimm politely.

Grimm responded with a nod.

“Roshar, proceed to your room and continue your study.”

After sending the boy away, the Dwarf Tinman turned towards Grimm and explained, “That was my third apprentice—one who I’ve acquired on the way back. He’s rather talented.”

After that, she led Grimm through a long hallway; on the way, she slightly spun a vase that was placed on a cupboard.

Klunk klunk klunk klunk…

As mechanical gears started spinning from within the walls, an underground pathway was revealed.

She then led Grimm downwards into the pathway as two rows of magic lamps lit up inside. Grimm noticed the floor was covered by a bright long red carpet.

As they continued onwards, the door behind them slowly shut tight again.

“Grimm, the treasure that I talked about. This is it.”

The Dwarf Tinman leaped onto a magic experiment desk and pointed at a teapot that was sealed within a red-blue Magic Interdiction in the middle of the desk.

Walking toward it, Grimm was confused as he locked his eyes on the teapot.

“What is this?”

The Dwarf Tinman then beamed up a mysterious smile before snapping her fingers.

Snap!

The Magic Interdiction on the desk had been deactivated.

“It’s a Dimensional Apparatus! Oh wait, this apparatus contains human despair. So, I suppose it’s a Black Sorcerer’s Black Sorcery Apparatus?”

Grimm couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.

Then, the Dwarf Tinman snapped her finger again to activate the Magic Interdiction to hide the human despair that was rippling from the teapot. Grimm looked at her, waiting for her explanation.

The Dwarf Tinman slowly explained, “This is a Dimensional Apparatus that was passed to me from my teacher. It isn’t just any Dimensional Apparatus. It’s not an ordinary one too. It’s a Dimensional Sealing Apparatus.”

Sealing Apparatus!

Of course, Grimm knew what a Sealing Apparatus was. The Green Python Thread that was given to him was one type of low-grade Sealing Apparatus. Its value was so great that one needed to measure it by Sorcerer Essence.

According to legends, the real powerful Sealing Apparatus were all connected to some forms of dimensions, like the Dimensional Gaps, Incubo Realm, and other immaterial realms.

The stronger these immaterial realms were, the harder it was for people to traverse and manipulate these realms.

Grimm inquired further, “You’re saying… this apparatus here is sealing a Black Sorcerer? Then why…”

“No!”

The Dwarf Tinman quickly interrupted Grimm. She knew what Grimm was proposing—”Why not present this Sealing Apparatus to the Seven Ring Holy Tower to earn some rewards?”

“I can’t do that. The one who was sealed within is actually my teacher himself. He was affected by human despair after a freak accident in an experiment. So now, he’s got a Black Sorcerer scent. He was a good Arcane Sorcerer when he was alive. I can’t have him carry the infamous reputation of a Black Sorcerer.”

A freak accident? Affected by human despair?

So these despair could affect them this way?

Grimm looked at the Dwarf Tinman with doubt.

Seeing this, she slowly took out an experiment note out of the desk and handed it to Grimm. The writings were more of a scribbling than actual writing; some of the wordings even used an ancient sorcerer inscription—making it even more difficult to understand.

Yet, Grimm kept on reading patiently.

…

“If I can make this work, I will be able to become a Dawn Sage! This is going to be a great milestone in the history of sorcerers. And my name will be remembered by many in the future! I shall name this sorcery ‘Nokee Primordial Reactivation’!”

The note started with a creative spark that a sorcerer named ‘Nokee’ had a long time ago and then it detailed his frenzied experiments.

“Unsuccessful?

“Graft-rejection? What?!

“Blood contamination? No!!!”

…

“Curses! These humanoids and demi-humans must be ones that were of lower levels. Yes… yes! This must be it! There is no way this wouldn’t work… Yes, I need to perform experiments on humans. This is the only way to prove my worth in academia. My worth… my existence… and my genius…”

It took an hourglass time for Grimm to reach this part.

The core concept of ‘Nokee Primordial Reactivation’ was to extract fragments of ancient creatures’ bodies and utilize techniques that were akin to Wild Instinct to remodel the human body.

To put this into perspective, Grimm acquired scales when he activated Wild Instinct and this granted him additional defense in combat. Nokee Primordial Reactivation, on the other hand, would graft the scales of other creatures onto a human. After the aid of some potions, this would then unlock certain human features that got devolved millennia ago in their evolutions.

In the eyes of the Anatomy Refinery Sorcerers, the wiser and smarter humans today had indeed devolved a lot when compared to their ancestors.

After reading this last part, Grimm noticed that the writer had turned more and more frenzied as he continued on being stubborn with his methodology.

In between were blank records of over 1500 years, then he had a new idea and became Level 2 Sorcerer.

1500 years later.

“Do not violate the Holy Tower’s laws. Or else you’ll never be part of the Dawn Sages. Then… how about I graft parts of a Black Sorcerer’s body onto me? Then, I’ll not be violating the Holy Towers’ laws, right? Yes! Yes, that’s it!”

Grimm couldn’t help but rub his eyebrows after reading this.

This old sorcerer had run his experiment for over 4000 thousand years and then advanced to be a Level 2 Sorcerer… and then he would risk heading to the Black Domain to capture a Black Sorcerer?

To the Black Sorcerers, the Sorcerer Continent was like a massive treasure cove that was constantly guarded by Demon Hunters. Yet, to the ordinary sorcerers, the Black Domain was a terrifying hell that had nothing for them to gain.

Yet, this man wanted to hunt a Black Sorcerer in Black Domain? He was out of his mind!

“Oh yes, yes! I will succeed indeed. Yes! This feels so great. This Black Sorcerer isn’t protected under the purview of the Holy Tower’s laws. After I have grafted in a Level 1 system, his cells had now grafted back to me. And grafting process was a huge success. This feeling… it’s like… every single one of my cells is waking up… this feels…”

Hmm?

Grimm started to breathe heavily as he quickly flipped to the next page.

Could it be that this sorcerer had made some breakthrough? Perhaps he had activated a certain secret from when humans were in their ancestors’ form?

“This world… what is this world? Why happened to the Sorcerer World? What have I become…”

“No. No!!!!!”

“God… no… God… God God God God God God!!!!!!!!”

Grimm shook his head in disappointment. This sorcerer had indeed gone insane and pushed all the blame of his failed experiments on God.

He was no longer a sorcerer.

However, Grimm saw two weird symbols on the last page. He’s not sure if they were words but it looked like some kind of message that the sorcerer had left before he was shrouded by insanity.

Closing up the experiment note, Grimm looked at the Dwarf Tinman.

The Dwarf Tinman spoke with fleeting sadness in her voice, “You can have everything that is sealed inside the apparatus. I just want you to help me to cleanse the human despair from this Sealing Apparatus. I want to at least preserve his legacy.”

Grimm understood what she meant. She wanted him to help her killing that “thing” that her teacher had morphed into.

Grimm responded calmly, “Alright. However, I need some time to heal my wounds first. Other than that, I need time to observe the Sealing Apparatus too.”