A Sorcerer’s Journey

“Hold your head back, Miss!” The stout man was startled and draped the carriage window’s curtain at once. Then he turned to Glenn and the other guys and glared at them sternly, inquiring, “Did you see her wearing…”

“Master, there’s no need to worry. We didn’t see anything,” an old knight replied timely.

The chubby man then shifted his gaze to Glenn and the rest, who were spared of possible punishments by also making a pretense of not seeing anything.

Convinced that the threat had been cleared, the rotund man snorted and started driving the carriage fleet out of the city.

“What are you afraid of? On arriving at Bajaur, I’ll be an official sorcerer student…” the little girl in the carriage mumbled discontentedly, which was caught by Glenn and the other knights indistinctively.

Glenn fell into a daze on hearing this, wondering if a sorcerer there intended to take her in.

……

As night fell, the five knights squatted around a bonfire, reveling in drinks and steamed buns while the little girl and the stout man were feasting on some fine food at another bonfire by a carriage.

Those big, tall knights had gotten acquainted with each other after having been together for half a day. And they would stick together for another 20 days for this temporary job. So they began to laugh and bloat together.

The strongest guy among them was nicknamed Violent Bear. His head glowed as he was speaking very highly of himself confronting Black Sorcerers, mutated beasts and others in his adventures. However, these were the most profound things a stray knight could see or even imagine!

For the remaining group members, one was nicknamed Cobra, who was a malicious-looking man of few words. The other two were twins dubbed Iron Hammer and Iron Axe, respectively. The twins never ceased talking, and both regretted not having met Violent Bear earlier.

As the dining went on, Violent Bear passed across some spirits to Glenn. He frowned initially, but the next second, he gobbled it up. It felt superb!

“Haha, Tyranny. You’re a forthright man! This is Tequila, a hometown specialty. It’s strong and would get the less heavy drinkers drunk in a whiff.” Violent Bear laughed out loud and then resumed munching his dried meat.

Tyranny was Glenn’s new nickname. After he had single-handedly flung the large man in the tavern out of the window, he had established his authority and taken Violent Bear’s place as the new head of the team!

Glenn didn’t reply. Instead, he guzzled another mouthful of tequila. At this time, Glenn had forsaken the social etiquette sorcerers should observe and was gulping meat and alcohol, which would have made Lafite or Robinson’s jaws drop.

At the same time, Glenn was pondering on another idea. The Glenn Dissimilation Sorcery had equipped him with an awesome capability in disguising. But exterior transformation would not suffice in actually deluding the enemy. He had to learn to act, and in some sense, acting was a practice of disguise.

Meat and drinks had filled Iron Axe’s body, and he commenced chattering. His conversation always hinged on girls and women, and now there was one girl with them, though she was very young.

“Hey, you think the girl by the carriage…”

Undoubtedly, this little girl was clearly not old enough, and wouldn’t have aroused their interest if it was not because of her sorcerer student identity.

“You dumb head! Do you wanna get yourself killed? Who gives you the right to talk about sorcerers?” Iron Hammer scowled at his little brother and hit him hard on the head. Sure enough, Iron Hammer didn’t know that the little girl was a sham.

Cobra rose up, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he stepped aside to look for some space to practice some martial arts which were essential for body-building and killing capacity enhancement.

The rest of the group rattled on, and Glenn thought that the talkative Robinson would have made a good partner with them if he had been here.

However, Glenn didn’t have any interest in talking. Rather, his eyes brightened when he noticed Cobra drilling his martial arts, which he desired to learn, and which would certainly power his constitution points up. So he went for him.

……

The carriage fleet proceeded on and encountered no obstructions for more than ten days. Now having being chosen as the head of these knights, he was really behaving that way. He ran to and fro by the fleet, staying alert for potential dangers. The knights lounging in the freight carriage watched this and couldn’t refrain from admiring him, although they had no idea that he was just exercising.

Luckily, Glenn’s patrol and vigilance had worked and brought some discipline into the team. One day, as Glenn was leading the procession at the forefront, he suddenly raised his hand, and the parade halted.

“What’s up, Tyranny?” Violent Bear called out to Glenn, and the stout man in the rear of the procession stuck out his head, trying to figure out what was going on.

“It doesn’t feel right,” Glenn said drily and calmly, as if he was an old knight who had been seasoned in plenty of deadly battles. “The forest ahead of us teems with wild woods and there are no cities in the vicinity, which make it a perfect ambush site for the robbers.”

Iron Hammer and Violent Bear ran to Glenn, frowning. “Based on past experiences, no gang of robbers stalks here. Are you sure about this, Tyranny?”

Glenn nodded, although he wouldn’t tell him that it was his enhanced hunting nose that had helped him detect a gang of robbers lurking in the forest.

Soon, before Glenn’s knight team had explored the way, the gang of robbers had shown themselves from the forest. There were 14 of them, and they quickly besieged the fleet.

Holding weapons firmly in hand, Glenn and the other knights glared at the robbers fiercely. However, both sides refrained from initiating a battle.

The stout man walked out of his carriage, smiling deferentially to the head of the robbers, and then he threw a bag of silver coins at him. “Use this money to buy some drinks for your guys. Please let us go.”

There was an unwritten rule between robbers and stray knights. If the stray knights hadn’t been hired by the business people, then the knights who had run into such incidents had no responsibility of protecting the business people, and if they had been hired and a possible strife would cost dearly, then the employer would get some money out of their pockets to bribe the robbers.

The head robber gave the money bag a lift, took a glance at the stay knights and then shook his head. “I would have made way for you, but today is not your lucky day, someone wants you. So…”

Afterwards, the head robber waved his hand, and over ten robbers behind him closed in on the fleet, making queer laughs.

The stout man was taken aback. He had lost his reason and was simply gazing at the head robber.

“F*ck you, b*tch! Thinking we are useless? I’ll smash you.” Violent Bear came towards the head robber with his axe, and the other three knights in Glenn’s camp were also enraged, their eyes turning red. Noticeably, a sense of justice in the knights’ heart had been triggered by the rule-bending robbers, and they had gotten ready to fight till death, but only after taking several lives of the other camp.

Finally, the two camps were engaged, and very soon, as a strand of blood spurted into the air, the fight came to a standstill. All people on the spot directed their eyes towards the large, blood-dripping sword.

“Ah!!!” A miserable scream was heard, and the head robber had been greatly shortened. His sword had been broken in two, and his body had been severed in half from the waist.

The head robber’s body from above the waist fell onto the ground. It then crawled backwards as if to try to escape from this demon in front, leaving a stretch of strewn viscera and blood stains. It was a gruesome scene.

Glenn was benumbed.

He had seen the head robber charging at him and since he knew a little about martial arts, he instinctively chopped his sword at the incoming enemy’s head.

The head robber had concluded that Glenn was just a rookie knight while rushing at him, so he didn’t take Glenn’s sword move seriously. He had even thought of the next move against Glenn if Glenn could have taken his first chop. The head robber had slaughtered countless rookies like Glenn.

However, the instant Glenn’s huge, thrusted sword met the head robber’s, the robber’s sword snapped. The strong force left in Glenn’s sword, after having cutting in half the enemy’s sword, then sliced his body. The head robber’s pupils dilated, and he still couldn’t believe what had happened to him.

What had gone through Glenn and the head robber’s mind was in no way known to the others. However, they did know that Glenn sliced the head robber with a casual wave of his sword.

“You…this…Tyranny…this…” stuttered Violent Bear. And the bald knight had even developed some sympathy with the crawling robber, and became hesitant whether to axe the stupefied rest of the other camp, and so did the other members of Glenn’s camp, who didn’t expect such an improvement of situation in their favor.

Even Glenn himself was not sure of what to do next. He had expected to carry on the fighting with the robbers to further build his constitution. Since Glenn had cultivated the dissimilation sorcery, as long as he was not beheaded, everything would be just fine.

But it seemed that the field exercise had worked, and his strength had been enhanced to a level much higher than an ordinary knight. He had “accidentally” caused a heavy casualty.

Glenn stroked his nose, looking hesitant about whether to kill the remaining robbers.

“A legend knight! He’s a legend knight!” A terrified, shaking voice broke amid the robbers, and the speaker then pointed to Glenn.

This seemed to be the only explanation to Glenn butchering a head robber without much effort!

The knights around Glenn stared at him adoringly, and Cobra who had remained silent finally said something, eyes glittering. “Are you really a legend knight?”

Legend knights were humans whose physical capabilities had been elevated to their limits and could bring out their strength deriving from their blood essence. With this strength, legend knights would offer to serve some sorcerers. Once rebuilt by their master, their strength might be reinforced further, and they might become a really strong knight, yet this seemed a desperate dead end!

“Um…you may call me that,” Glenn pretended and owned to it, thinking that the party would break on arriving at Bajaur and their life would never cross afterwards.

Glenn’s confession confirmed the conjecture harbored by the robbers and the knights alike, who were still staggered by this answer.

Legend knights were a rare species. They were even scarcer than sorcerers! Becoming one was the life-time pursuit for innumerable knights.

“Haha, a legend knight? Wonderful!” A queer, evil voice flew out from behind the robbers, and accompanying the voice, a stranger came into view.

“A Black Sorcerer?!” The knights convoying the fleet yelled, unwilling to believe what they were witnessing.

A Black Sorcerer had one characteristic that distinguished them most. Their body was constantly shrouded in a gray dark aura because they had killed too many humans and absorbed a mysterious force from them. The force was said to be a negative energy representing thrilled, desperate and pathetic howling for justice. It was said that only the Holy Tower could conceal such negative energy totally, and thus the Black Sorcerers it nurtured were not real Black sorcerers and were called the Demon-Hunting sorcerers.

The Black Sorcerer in front of the crowd was around 16 or 17 years old and had a tender face. However, no one on the spot seemed to have an opinion about this fact because they were all consumed by terror. Meeting a Black Sorcerer equaled death for ordinary humans in this Sorcerer World.

“Wait!” At the time, the little girl came out of the carriage and dashed anxiously towards Glenn and the Black Sorcerer, holding a black, weird-looking card in her hand.

The Black Sorcerer was thrown into a trance on seeing the card. Meanwhile, Glenn was shocked as well.

“This Black Sorcerer seems rather weak! I can hide my magical waves from him even though I only have 30 points of mental strength. He can’t recognize me as a sorcerer student! What is wrong with the Sorcerer World? Why is such a weak Black Sorcerer walking around freely?”

Glenn studied this Black Sorcerer who emerged from nowhere as if he was faced with a rare species.

‘Maybe I should preserve him as a specimen.’ Glenn thought. ‘But will I be hunted by other Black Sorcerers? Or I can just kill him and bring his head back to my mentor, then this job will be finished. This is a Black Sorcerer!’