A Sorcerer's Journey - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: The Final Preparation

The war between the academies.

The so-called academy-war was just a game created by the master of the towers, the Stigmata sorcerers, to help select the elite sorcerer students. But as a chess piece in the game, Grimm still needed to be discreet.

Normally, the game was used to filter a large number of students in the 19th section, and the ‘elite’ students in the 12th section would serve as judges, training partners, and executioners. Ten to twenty percent of the students would die from the ambushes launched by their opponents each year.

Also, according to the senior sister, Quiet Spring, if the battle went too well in the earlier stage, the conflicts inside the 12th section would become a problem.

‘If one wants to do his own researches and live a peaceful life, he’ll have to become a formal sorcerer, just like the Duke from the Krakatoa Harbor.’ Grimm thought.

Grimm walked back to his dorm and started constructing a future plan.

Things had changed. Grimm initially wanted to spend his remaining ten years prior to the Holy Tower trials to rank up, but it seemed like he had to join the event.

For the future plan, first, he needed to do something about the two unoccupied gift slots rendered possible by the Grimm Secret Tri-sorcery.

The slots should be filled with practical and developable talents. Grimm already had something in his mind after the days he had spent with Lefay. The rare water sign talent of Brianna and Kyrie’s space-twisting talent were probably his best choice.

The first reason why Grimm chose the two gifts was that he had easy access to Brianna and Kyrie since they were in the same academy. Besides, their talents were helpful in various situations.

Grimm had a high affinity with the fire element, so his affinity with the water element was extremely low. He doubted if he could successfully finish creating even the most simple water matrix on his soul. For that reason, Grimm might also be deterred to finish the Destructive Force of Fire Blast Sorcery. However, if given Brianna’s talent concerning water element, he could finish the Fire Blast sorcery before the Holy Tower Trails began.

As for Kyrie’s space-twisting gift, it had special effects on human bodies. It could help Grimm shun away from threats or initiate ambushes. Also, it could be easily developed in the future and Grimm would be able to gain advantages if engaged in possible sorcerer invasions against other civilizations.

Although the talent was weaker than Sun Child’s Body of Fire at the moment, it had not yet reached its limit and it would become much stronger in the future.

The third option to fill Grimm’s remaining gift opening was Sam’s Immortal Body. It was a mysterious talent. Grimm had developed a better understanding of it as he had gained more knowledge, but the results would be unpredictable, and he had to give it up.

And the immortal property was kind of misleading because it would only protect the practitioner from being killed against the sorcerers that had not yet mastered the enclosure sorcery.

As the Sun Child once said, if she was confronted by a sorcerer that had mastered the enclosure sorcery, she would be as weak as an ordinary student. Obviously, a student would not be able to learn it because apart from the high intelligence required, one must have a profound knowledge of time and space, and energy balance to cultivate it. Also, it would cost them hundreds, tens of hundreds or even tens of thousands of years to study and do research on such a sorcery that had such a great potential.

Another thing worthy of Grimm’s focus was to avoid drawing the attention of the “guardians” from the 19th section.

His priority was to join the Holy Tower trials that would be held more than ten years later, so he did not want to waste time in the academy war that would last years or even over a decade; he could easily use that time to increase his strength. What was more, Grimm would be weak when enhancing his body constitution by exposing himself to the poisons, so he would have to rely on the team.

A weak Grimm was still much stronger than an ordinary sorcerer student, though. As Lefay put it, he was on par with Brianna now.

Sorcerer Peranos had instructed Grimm to lay low while, at the same time, he couldn’t flinch from the war and had to fight for the badges. Thus, the best method that Grimm could come up with was to stay with Lefay.

And Lefay had not recovered from her wound. Although the injury would not impact her ability to fight much, Grimm still felt guilty…

Grimm had considered all the conditions and decided to stay low-key during the war. First, he had Lefay and other friends to take care of, and second, staying with a stable team would greatly raise the survival chances in a war, and he could use the free time to do effective experiments.

All in all, everything Grimm was going to do was for the Holy Tower trials that would be held in 13 years and then become the greatest demon-hunting sorcerer in the sorcerer world.

…

In the abandoned arena of the academy.

With the Ashen Mask on his face, Grimm followed the hint provided by Kris and walked towards the location where Brianna gave Lefay that wound in the fight.

Leaving no trace behind, Grimm looked like a ghost advancing in the darkness. He kept using his hunting nose to detect any odor or something left by Brianna. The only thing Grimm needed was his target’s blood or other life information and he would be able to cast the secret Tri-sorcery to copy their talent.

“Huh?!”

The smell… It belonged to Brianna!

The hunting nose under Grimm’s mask never forgot this “evil” smell. It was Brianna’s! Grimm carefully walked towards a corner of the spacious arena, and Brianna’s smell was getting more intense as he passed through the trees and bushes.

“BAM BAM…”

Two sorcery waves ahead caught Grimm’s attention, coming from where Brianna’s smell was. Grimm’s expression changed. If the two destroyed the life information left by Brianna, he could not imagine how much extra time he would need to track Brianna down to get it.

Grimm’s feet got off the ground and rose into the air as the formulas governing the Repulsive and Gravitational Forces flashed in his mind. Blazing flames spurted out of Grimm’s body; he looked like a sun in a smaller size hanging in the sky. The sun was coming off seemingly infinite light and heat which then turned into a meteor and rushed toward where the sorcery waves were coming from.

The meteor left a trail of a heat wave in the sky.

The two students only had about 60 to 80 degrees of magic waves. They stopped fighting right after they realized someone strong was present. One of the student’s eyes contracted and at the same time shouted, “It’s the one who ranks as the 7th among the top ten…”

However, the man withdrew from finishing the sentence after catching sight of Grimm’s Ashen Mask, “No, it’s the Ashen Mask Grimm. He’s on the hunting list!”

The hunting list was created by the top four students who were also the leaders of the academy’s four major leagues. Its purpose was to force the elite students to join them. However, most of the other top ten students did not like what they did, and the Death Sail League had started to go against the list which they believed would bring negative impact to its development.

Grimm was not concerned about the two. He passed through them with fire surrounding his body, and his line of sight fell upon something more important.

There was an enormous tree that was cut in half ahead. Green walked towards it and sniffed at the dried blood stain carefully and collected a sample of it excitedly. He then left the abandoned arena and flew back to his dorm right.

It was not until Grimm had disappeared from their sight when they regained the courage to breathe heavily, and cold sweat had dripped down the two students’ chins.

They were convinced that the students on the hunting list would be invariably strong.

And the man who had passed through them was not just a powerful student. He had overtaken them in terms of sorcery while they were several years ahead of him entering the academy.

The two students suddenly lost the motivation to duel, and they stared at each other for a second before they flew away to opposite directions.

One day after, in the abandoned arena again.

“Ashen Mask Grimm! You won this time! I’ll see you in 13 years on the trials!” Kyrie’s voice echoed in the air and he then disappeared as space was distorted.

Grimm chuckled, and his three-or-four-meter-long arm slowly returned to its original shape, and it almost looked like there was no bone inside his arm. Also, he carefully collected the blood left on the blade of the End Sound dagger in his hand.

Grimm had challenged Kyrie to a fight with him and Kyrie had accepted it without much thought. The result was obvious. Although Kyrie had made some improvements recently, yet essentially Grimm was on a higher level. He had not yet been considered as one of the top ten students, but it was already possible for him to win a fight with someone who ranked between No. 5 and No. 10.

…

20 days later.

Grimm had finished analyzing Brianna’s gift. The rare water element sign could stimulate evaporating from the target’s body, and because of it, the enemies being hit by Brianna’s golden eye would dry up and wither.

After having absorbed the rare water sign, Grimm’s affinity and sensation with the water element had been greatly enhanced. Based on this, he could finally continue on the study on the fire blast sorcery.

As for Kyrie’s talent, the space-twisting property was sort of similar to Body of Fire and could be explained using his body’s physical composition. Its effect was to buff the force in the space in different ways, such as twisting, pushing, direction changing, and folding. It was a strong application!

In Grimm’s understanding, the length, width, and height in the three-dimensional world could be folded like a piece of paper. If the two points on the same paper met, space would be distorted, and then he could change his location immediately.

What Grimm needed was practical experiences in large quantities, and when his control of space would become better as he got used to distortion. But to master it, he needed more knowledge about space.

…..

Seven days later, the last day before the war.

In Grimm’s laboratory.

“Haha…Finally…finally! This wand! This memorable wand! It’s finally completed! I’ll name it the Grimm Holy Fire Element Grand Wand! Well…umm…no, something is missing… It’s version 1.0. Yeah, it shall be called the Grimm Holy Fire Element Grand Wand Version 1.0!”

However, the wand looked great though its property was a shame to Alchemy itself.

Not considering Grimm’s elements’ effect, magical consumption would be reduced by 3.5% when fire element sorcery under 300 degrees was launched and the attack power would be increased by 1%. And it was also credited to the precious crystal stone, a gift to Grimm as a compensation by the Sun Child’s mentor, the Eternal Flame.

If he learned that Grimm crafted such an item with it, he would not be pleased and something terrible might entail.

Although Grimm had wasted a rare magical material on the wand, it was still a great landmark achievement to himself.

Grimm had spent years before finally crafting his first magical tool after wasting a great number of alchemy materials.

However, he was still much faster than those students studying alchemy.