A Sorcerer's Journey - Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Pace and Will

Under Peranos’s lead, Grimm had no option but to resist the bitter cold and strong winds as they flew even higher to evade the harassment of some low-intelligence creatures.

Separated by a distance of several kilometers, Grimm visually estimated the voidship’s form.

The voidship overall looked like a fish swimming in the sky. It appeared streamlined, more than 300 meters in length from head to tail. On its surface was an abundant metallic luster that actually somewhat reminded Grimm of that trace of metal texture he had found when he was in the Black Isotta Mysterious Realm.

How gigantic was the void fortress if the base could stow up to 100 racks for these flying ships?

No wonder…

No wonder it could be recorded in books as a blood-colored moon suspended in the sky.

DINGDONG!

A semi-transparent shield protected Grimm and isolated him from the strong winds and cold outside. Grimm and Peranos gradually rose to an altitude of around 2 kilometers as they rapidly flew towards the distance.

Outside the shield still existed the gales and cold but the interior of the defensive cover was a slice of tranquility and peace, seemingly like two completely different worlds.

Peranos said, “Ahead is the flowing sea. It’s called a sea because of its extremely vast size but, in fact, it’s only an inland lake—one of the large bodies of water in the sorcerer continent. We probably need three days flying at full speed over the flowing sea before passing through another mountain range. Then we can arrive at the bustling belly of the Seven Rings Holy Tower.”

The thriving district at the belly of the tower is a zone between the holy tower and surrounding regional academies that was passed down from a family of arcane sorcerers. It is a densely populated and relatively flourishing region of sorcerer civilization in the continent.

Grimm was doubtful and said in a deep voice. “Master should probably give me an account of the general geographical distribution of the sorcerer world.”

Oh?

Peranos glanced at Grimm before slightly pondering on it for a short period of time. He then unhurriedly explained, “The center of the surface of the sorcerer world is naturally the sorcerer continent. But the continent only occupies around a third of the surface area. The other areas are endless waters and above this maritime space are altogether three holy towers.”

Grimm asked, “Which three?”

“Sky Holy Tower, Dark Domain Tower, and Sea King Altar!” Peranos continued, “The Sky Holy Tower is a cultural remnant of ancient sorcerers. Its history is so incomparably long that it is even longer than the history of the continent’s One Ring Holy Tower. It is the core location of the sorcerer world’s cultural inheritance.”

Grimm’s mouth gaped widely. This was the first time Grimm heard that the Sky Holy Tower actually had such a long history.

Peranos narrowed his eyes and slowly said, “As for the Dark Domain Holy Tower—naturally, it is the birthplace of dark sorcerers. The Dark Domain has always been rejected by the sorcerer continent because their rules and regulations differed from the norm despite that they were also a member of the sorcerer coalition. It is a relatively isolated large archipelago.”

In regards to the sorcerer world’s terrifying Dark Domain, Grimm had also heard a little about it.

“As for the Sea King Altar, it is a holy land for the sorcerer world’s sentient underwater creatures. It is an oceanic civilization that has jointly survived with humanity since the birth of the sorcerer world in ancient times. Presently, it’s already a member of the Sorcerer Coalition.” Peranos explained the Sea King Altar’s origins last.

Sorcerer Coalition? Sea King Altar?

When it came to the Sorcerer Coalition, Grimm knew bits and pieces about it.

It was said that the Sorcerer Coalition was the sorcerer civilization’s highest organization outside of the top-most sorcerers in the sorcerer world. It was a coalition comprised of all super-powerful beings in all the areas the sorcerer civilization governed.

In other words, a few strong beings with peaceful contact with the sorcerer world or strong beings that were defeated and became vassal worlds must join the sorcerer alliance to truly have peaceful interactions. Although their relationship with the sorcerer world was not that of enslavement, it was still one of subordinance.

Over half the living beings in the sorcerer coalition were not humans. This organization was the ultimate force of the sorcerer civilization.

But this was Grimm’s first time ever in hearing about the Sea King Altar.

Was there actually a powerful native community the sorcerer civilization feared in the sorcerer world?

Peranos shook his head and ridiculed, “You don’t really believe that human sorcerers originally ruled this world and it was originally called the sorcerer world, right?”

“Eh… could it be it wasn’t so?” Grimm asked.

Peranos sighed. He laughed grimly, “Hn! Three days later, you will come to know about a more ancient matter that happened before the first civilization war of the sorcerer world. Now, I will once more tell you the governing structure of the sorcerer continent.”

Grimm held his breath and single-mindedly focused on Peranos.

“All of the Holy Towers in the Sorcerer Continent were established after the sorcerer world’s first civilization war. The high-level sorcerers of before all reside in a sky city. After the first civilization war… the sorcerer civilization gradually began to flourish after its victory, reaching a golden age. It’s said the continent at the time of the sorcerer civilization’s golden ages was far from limited to just seven holy towers. Only until after the second civilization war was it reduced to the seven holy towers in the present.”

Grimm scarcely breathed, completely absorbed in listening to Peranos’s relating of history.

“At present, humanity is able to travel across probably only around half of the sorcerer continent’s lands. The extent all humans operated from was gradually spreading from every holy tower in all directions. The sorcerer academy areas were precisely in charge of training and protecting the ordinary commoner in the sorcerer continent’s developing front-line. As for the arcane sorcerer clan inheritance, they’ve become the egg white to the whole egg.” Peranos used an analogy.

So the academy regions were the shell, the holy tower was the yolk, and the arcane sorcerer clan was the egg white?

Grimm didn’t ask why the humans of the sorcerer continent spread out from the holy towers as the centers because he long had an answer in his mind: The present sorcerer world’s commoners were merely the new life the Holy Tower especially “cultivated” to once more increase the inhabitants after the sorcerer world’s second civilization war.

As for the commoners of ancient times? It could be presumed they had already become extinct after the second civilization war.

And the operating range of humanity on the sorcerer continent was merely half the land mass. What about the other half?

“The other half?”

Peranos was baffled. “Didn’t you see the Traces of Stigmata Great Valley? Within the other half, one-third of it are areas fundamentally unsuitable for human inhabitation. Furthermore, two-thirds is none other than the ecological regions under our protection.”

Grimm’s complexion turned poor. In a deep voice, he asked, “The second civilization war permanently destroyed one-sixth of the sorcerer continent’s geography?”

Peranos sighed. “You as a student need not think about these things. For the current sorcerer world, the truly flourishing land was precisely the inherited lands of these arcane sorcerer clans. These clans all have long traditions—some powerful clans even possessed direct connections with holy towers and some also operated within district academies. Oh, that’s right; that fatty you called over the last time you were in the interrogation room basically serves the arcane sorcerer clan named Orchid Tree.”

Grimm softly exhaled and nodded.

Sure enough, the current sorcerer world still hadn’t recovered from the damage it suffered during the second civilization war. Additionally, the most fundamental duty of district academies was to “protect and cultivate” commoners and reclaim the sorcerer continent’s “wild lands.”

Suddenly, Grimm thought of something and nervously asked, “And the underground world?”

The underground world?

Peranos was taciturn for a long time before deeply saying, “The sorcerer world’s subterranean space is about the same as the surface area of the sorcerer continent. There are five strange lands known as the Dragon-Hunting Abysses.”

Grimm also naturally knew about the underground abysses.

It was said that all the abysses possessed a miraculous ability to produce life by making use of certain world rules of the earth. Continuously producing a countless amount of adolescent wyverns and strange life, it was also the origins of the underground wyvern lianti sorcerers.

“Grimm, do you know what civilization the sorcerer world waged the second civilization war against?” Peranos unexpectedly inquired.

Grimm blankly shook his head.

Peranos nodded. He said heavily, “You will understand as soon as you obtain world-core fragments. You need to forever bear in mind that the underground world really wasn’t the sorcerer world’s wealth but its eternal shame.”

Shame?

Grimm knew the underground world was where the powerful civilization opened up front-lines after the sorcerer civilization was completely defeated in the second civilization war.

Thinking of it like this, it was not wrong to call it shame…

Peranos unexpectedly gave a “sorrowful” smile and slowly said, “Do you know? That civilization controls a miraculous ability. An incomparably powerful ability. It was the root cause of the sorcerer civilization losing the war then! They are able to corrode the world-core of a world and alter a world’s laws. Every invaded and occupied world of theirs all had a subterranean space’s dark abyssal lands similar to the sorcerer world’s emerge. And those wyverns that have not gone through a sorcerer’s training will turn into a pawn of that civilization…”

Grimm’s eyes widened in disbelief.

If it was as Peranos said, wouldn’t that civilization be… too excessively powerful?

Invading and occupying a world. Altering a world. Then producing an unending stream of wyverns that acted as the vanguard pawns of that civilization to invade other worlds?

This war method was a formidable method and more suited to demands of war than the sorcerer world’s familiar method!

Peranos gritted his teeth, deep voice trembling. “That ability of theirs is called ‘world source corrosive seeding power’! Grimm, do you know what that means? In their eyes, our sorcerer world means…”

Grimm naturally knew what Peranos was going to say.

Forcefully seeding[1]?

After he shivered, Peranos exhaled and steadied his emotions. He continued, “It is from the other side’s ‘world source corrosive seed technology’ that the sorcerer world got the inspiration for ‘principal will invasion technology.’ Sorcerers from the distant past once more combined the ancient sorcerer’s ‘void fortress technology’ to create the ‘principal void fortress invasion’ power of the modern sorcerer civilization.”

Peranos uncovered a period of ancient history little by little.

Grimm tightly gritted his teeth but his eyes behind his Ashen Mask were incomparably calm. Grimm watched Master Peranos who was already unwilling to speak again. The staunch wisdom and cruel temperament characteristic which belonged to so many mature sorcerers were slowly born in him.

The present sorcerer world seemed to be powerful but was only a homeless starving wolf—cutting a sorry figure as it licked its wounds after having suffered a severe wound, its two eyes glowing with a dark-green light from hatred, anger, and hunger.

This… was precisely the sorcerer civilization’s pace and will at this very moment.