A Sorcerer's Journey - Chapter 390

Chapter 390: Special Guide

“So Master Ukudali is already well acquainted with the great sorcerer Nilmar.”

Grimm smiled as he glanced at these four young men. “With Nilmar running the academy, these four juniors would undoubtedly have a bright future awaiting them.”

With the unexpected arrival of these four sorcerer-apprentices, would it mean that his task of recruiting ten apprentices would be completed successfully in no time?

Given that Nilmar was ordained as a Level-3 Great Sorcerer, it would only be a matter of when Peranos was leaving the academy. Once he leaves, Nilmar would fill in his shoes as the dean of Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy, which was the peak of an average sorcerers career.

As for the next step?

That would be Stigmatization, where the status of respect reaches into the Holy Towers, throughout the Sorcerer World. Of the tiny sliver of Level-3 sorcerers that reach this process wander the foreign worlds under the special care of the Sorcerer Worlds laws.

“Wuhuhuhu…”

Ukuwdali waved his hands, gesturing for his sons to form a line at the door. At the same time, a knight ran over to Myna to pay the entry fees of four gold coins.

“Despite the manifestation of their innate talents, as well as my dedication to their training over the years, I still cannot say for sure which one of them will be ordained an official sorcerer. But, I am ninety percent sure that they would pass the Holy Tower qualification battle and make it through as a reserve Demon-Hunter Sorcerer.”

‘Ninety percent sure?!’

That would be comparable to Millie and Mina’s chances, which included their special abilities of the Body of Flame, or the Ice Marrow Body, coupled with their above-average intelligence as well as their fairly good luck.

Grimm nodded his head to gesture for the first boys to step forward.

With his chin raised, the first young man Grimm tested had a face brimming with confidence. It was apparent this sort of testing had already been done by his father countless times before. Hell, at this point it wouldn’t be unfair to say that he could even test himself.

“Mental strength, fifteen points! Not bad kid, stand behind me then.”

No doubt, his innate abilities played a huge role for a mental strength of fifteen points and above. Though, Grimm was still in the dark as to what their materialized abilities were.

Because it wasn’t the young man’s first time doing such tests, not much expression was shown. Consequently, Grimm was unsure as to how he should react to such a situation.

“Yes, Master.”

Suddenly, to Grimm’s surprise, this young man revealed a smile as he stood beside the little girl behind Grimm, his head held high.

For both Sauron, whose mental strength was less than half of this young man’s, and the little girl whose name Grimm did not bother to enquire, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of inferiority in comparison to this handsome prodigy.

Similarly, Grimm finished his tests relatively quickly for the rest of the brothers.

“Mental strength sixteen points! Not bad, stand behind me…”

“Mental strength fifteen…”

“Mental strength seventeen…”

Grimm was secretly stunned by these four brothers. Could it be that descendants of sorcerers were naturally born with mental strengths above fifteen points and consequently, have a higher chance of unlocking their innate abilities?

Grimm’s hypothesis was not as far-fetched as it might seem.

Whether it was Brianna, Kyrie, Millie or Mina, they all had one thing in common, which was an inexplicable connection with the Sorcerer World. In Millie and Mina’s case, they were the same as the four brothers standing before Grimm. They were the direct descendants of a powerful sorcerer.

This is a perk of hereditary traits.

Like the creatures in the natural world, although every organism theoretically has the possibility to evolve into an apex predator at the top of the food chain, there would inevitably be only a handful who truly occupy the top level of the food chain.

Naturally, Grimm stopped himself from showing any expressions of surprise.

These four sorcerers apprentices were similar to Brianna and Kyrie back on the cruise ship. From an Arcane Sorcerers perspective, there would be nothing but riches awaiting in the future, which explains why Master Ukudali talked about Grimm being in luck.

If they were indeed as competent as Ukudali said they were, and if they were to make it through the Holy Tower qualification battle, then Grimm would stand a chance to become their guide. That would mean forty Sorcerer Essences in his pocket!

‘Hm?’

If that’s the case then the reason why Peranos assigned this task to him, wasn’t to snatch sorcerer-apprentices away from other Sorcerer Academies. Instead, it was to prevent himself from being snatched away?

Grimm’s glowing eyes had now pierced through the lies to reveal the true reason for his mentor’s assigned task.

This sorcerer Ukudali had obviously realized the unusual magic waves emanating from Grimm and figured that he was a special sorcerer dispatched by the academy.

‘Interesting…’

Regardless, Grimm casually raised his head and directed his gaze towards the long line of children waiting for their eligibility as a sorcerer-apprentice to be checked, “Next…”

Two days later.

After two consecutive days of inspection, Ukudali City has produced two children with mental strength above ten points. These two, added to the existing list of the four brothers, Sauron and the little girl, would make up eight people.

It now seems to Grimm that not only could he easily make it through the minimum recruitment of ten sorcerers apprentices, he was confident that he could greatly surpass the minimum without breaking a sweat.

On the night of the farewell feast, after Grimm attended to the two new recruits for a moment, he turned towards Myna.

Myna couldn’t stop rubbing his beak with his wings. His gaze towards the platter of delicacies prepared by Master Ukudali was indifferent, and his expression was unexpectedly sour, which was a stark contrast from before.

“What’s the matter?”

Grimm asked curiously.

After a moment, Myna replied with tears flowing, “Young Master, for the past two days, my jaw muscles have been cramping up unexpectedly. I’m dead tired from all this work, ughhhhhhh. I don’t wanna do this anymore, it ain’t fun at all…”

Giggle…

The third brother, Usoruni who sat beside them couldn’t hold back his laughter at the pitiful sight of Myna. Gesturing towards a servant standing far away, he ordered a tall glass of coconut juice. “Drink some juice then. It’s just gold coins, you should have passed the job to one of the servants.”

Myna’s eyes lit up before yelling towards Grimm, “Right! Young Master, where’s my number one? Call out number one! Let him do Lord Myna’s job of collecting gold coins from now on!”

Grimm was speechless. ‘Just some gold coins? Why not just hand it over to Sauron? Why should he do it himself?’

“Wuhuhu, once you all reach the academy, you all must learn to use your intelligence to carve out the paths of your sorcerer’s journey. I don’t think I need to reiterate the Dark Sorcerers’ laws. The matter of life and death rests upon your own hands. If any of you die due to your own ignorance and stupidity, I will just view it as having one less son.”

After Ukudali’s unforgiving speech to his sons, he turned towards Grimm and said, “They will be in your care along their journey. Please take good care of my sons.”

“Haha, Master, rest assured that is part of my duty.”

Grimm had removed the Mask of Truth for now as he was savoring a glass of fine wine distilled from the blood of an unknown creature.

***

Six days later.

After passing through nine small towns, Grimm had arrived at the second large city in his mission, Dakabun City.

At the moment, there were already ten recruited sorcerers apprentices sitting on the black flying carpet. Due to this, Grimm had no choice but to spend more Magic Power to expand the surface size of the carpet.

There were no sorcerers living secretly in Dakabun City.

Those who greeted Grimm and his fellow apprentices’ arrival were the wealthy merchants and nobles of the city. To Grimm, this was just a larger town in comparison to the places he had been to.

After spending two days worth of time checking more than two thousand children, he had found three more apprentice recruits with mental strengths above ten points. This was actually higher than Grimm’s expectations when he first entered the town.

On the night of the aristocrats’ ball.

Grimm stood quietly at the side of the hall, after coldly turning down a girl that had approached him.

Looking at the men and women swirling to the elegant dance music on the ballroom floor, Grimm’s eyes seemed to transcend time and he was suddenly returned to the time of the Death Sail League’s ball before the Holy Tower qualification battle.

Back then, he was an awkward dancer. Despite Lefay’s best attempts to teach him, he still couldn’t stop himself from accidentally stepping on the other person’s feet while dancing stiffly like a marionette. The people dancing in myriads of ways before his eyes were etched onto his mind.

The way they all danced, felt so passionate.

The graceful and noble air the four brothers brought with them attracted the attention of many young girls. The other sorcerer-apprentices, shrouded by the mysterious halo of sorcery too attracted the attention of many young noble boys and girls.

“Why aren’t you out there?”

Grimm asked with a tone of indifference as he glanced at Sauron who stood beside him.

Sauron pursed his lips before replying quietly, “Knights typically do not participate in balls held by the nobility.”

After a moment of hesitation, Sauron cautiously sat down beside Grimm. As the elegant music played in the background, he asked, ‘Master, I was wondering, how could I get ahead of the curve once I get into the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy…”

“You wanna get ahead of the curve, stand out from the others?”

Grimm laughed coldly before stating plainly, “Then stop thinking about such petty things. Maintain a very low profile there. The moment your head is filled with nothing but the boring knowledge about sorcery, the moment you stop thinking about standing above others, then you would naturally arrive at the top of the class of sorcerers-apprentices.

“Remember this saying, ‘Grant me infinite knowledge, and I shall be as a fulcrum, to move the endless world!’ The essence of being a sorcerer is to obtain knowledge that transcends the laws of the world, not to compete with others just to fulfill one’s temporary desires, nor is it to gain the euphoric feeling when you kill someone using sorcery! In fact, the pursuit of killing sorcery is only an enhanced method of being a knight. If you have such plans in mind, then the sorcerer’s path is not the right one for you.”

Sauron felt Grimm’s displeasure in his tone. His face turned pale as he lowered his head.

As for the laws that Grimm said, knowledge about it?

In Sauron’s view, this was something too far away, too abstract to grasp. What he had in mind, was the Fireball Spell, a force that greatly surpasses any knight’s strength.

This was what countless other sorcerers apprentices hoped to get. It was also considered to be dregs by the Sorcerer World’s laws.