A Sorcerer’s Journey

*Shu! Shu!*

Two figures passed through the land tainted with black, arriving at a new, unfamiliar forest of obelisks. They dropped down on the flat top of a stone pillar at the fringes of the forest.

A moment after Claytia closed her eyes and got a slight response, she looked towards Glenn. “There aren’t any responses in the vicinity for any students with points 300 or more. We should head deeper to search them out.”

“Fine.”

After Glenn responded with a single word from behind his mask, he took Claytia and headed toward the center of this obelisk forest before them. Glenn was currently carrying a gigantic ax on his back which was equivalent to a top-notch magic-channeling tool for a student. Even if Glenn found using it awkward, he could only temporarily put up with it.

After randomly catching sight of a few students and confirming they were in the domain of 13th District students, Glenn frowned. “Having flown such a long time and there still isn’t any response of students with some more accumulated points?”

Claytia shook her head, her complexion unsightly.

Internally somewhat flabbergasted, Glenn simply flew toward several sorcerer-apprentices with points under 100 in the distance. The other side all maintained a state of alertness. A female student was one of the few with a chain mark value exceeding 50. She was somewhat dark-skinned, wore a beautiful garland atop her head, and was leaning on an old, wooden magical staff.

“It’s someone powerful from outside the district again!”

When this female student caught sight of Claytia’s chain mark upon her forehead, she cried out in fear. One of her hands tightly gripped her badge while the other the magic staff. Only her hands somewhat shook, seemingly recalling some dreadful event.

Glenn waved his hand while maintaining distance from them. After doing his best to show that he was not hostile, he then asked, “Who are the powerful students in your district?”

Hearing Glenn speak this way, the several 13th District students slightly relaxed. The female student who was cautiously watching Glenn bitterly replied, “Which and what powerful students? Originally, after the first day the Secret Mirror opened, the district’s strongest students had already come together. They separated into two factions to launch a decisive battle according to a previous agreement so they could settle grudges accumulated over the years. But…”

Speaking up to here, the female student seemed to recall some dreadful matter and shuddered. “But barely into the second day of the Mirror, a 15th District student arrived, joining the previously deadlocked battle and eliminated all the students in one fell swoop. Besides the Sorcerer-Apprentices who were conferred as the strongest nine, many students all didn’t even have the time to break their badges before they were already reduced to bloody mists…”

The nine strongest students?

In no way would there be nine legendary students. It looked like this district must not have produced a legendary student in a hundred years. Moreover, their overall strength was weaker than average and extremely inferior to the 12th District.

Claytia was aghast. “Honorable Glenn, this 15th District student—is he the one you previously speculated…”

Glenn nodded and affirmed, “Apart from Hill Woods, who else could it be? It’s no wonder the points of the students on the third day were distributed like that under these circumstances. As it turned out, that guy was able to plunder so many points since he monopolized all the 13th District’s powerful students in a single haul.”

The female student of the 13th, however, hastened to explain. “No, it’s not what you imagined. We, the 13th District, really did not have the power to resist whatsoever only because those powerful students had repeatedly fought already…”

It was only natural that Glenn knew her meaning.

However, regarding the 13th District which did not have legendary students similar to Ice Age Mille or Primal Curse Althio, it would only have been a question of time before Hill Woods killed or expelled them all from the Secret Mirror. Even if their magic power wasn’t exhausted, it would only have been a matter of enough time.

After all, Hill Woods was indeed even more powerful than the common legendary-level student. Sun’s Child had called him a monster with her own mouth.

Claytia gave a sigh. She mumbled, “I truly regret not having gone to take a peek at the graceful bearing of Hill Woods owing to being frightened at the time. In the whole Holy Tower Tryouts, two districts actually shook with fear because of him.”

Having said that, Claytia teasingly looked toward Glenn and changed her tone. “Anyway… Honorable Glenn’s strength is truly incomprehensible, being able to pressure and even kill that kind of monster. That said, the points of these two districts will be yours right away in addition to the 12th District’s points—I’m afraid that there is probably no longer any contender for the reward of being the top in the entire Holy Tower Tryouts Mirror. Right, Honorable Glenn?”

Facing Claytia’s flattery, Glenn merely gave her an indifferent glance from behind his Ashen Mask. He then coldly said, “Nevertheless, it is good to ensure there is absolute certainty. Just as my Master had told me, the safest and most secure method, if I want to strive for the pinnacle, is precisely to drive all rivals out of the Secret Mirror!”

Claytia gaped, clearly understanding that Glenn wanted to thoroughly sweep away all competitors of the five districts. She sighed in admiration, “Hey, we already searched this district for two days because there weren’t any high-ranked students to ‘sweep and clean.’ At the moment, it’s a situation where all the points are scattered. Look—all the small and weak students like they have not left the Mirror.”

Glenn glanced at the several tense students across from him and shook his head. He had no interest in these small amounts of points. He directly flew into the distance.

Claytia faced the students and laughed, her entrancing and alluring bearing immediately making the male students slightly change their expressions. They concealed the change at once, one after another, but the sensation of Claytia’s laughter unceasingly lingered in their ears, the afterimage of her graceful and lithe beauty always reappearing in their eyes.

After three hourglasses of time.

After Glenn and Claytia monotonously expelled nine students who had only possessed about three-to-four-hundred points, Claytia pointed in one direction and said, “Oh! Four kilometers that way, there is a student with a chain mark valued at around 600 points.”

“Hm?”

Glenn was astonished. “Is it a fish that escaped Hill Woods’s net[1]? The strongest of those students we just recently dispatched was merely close behind the 12th’s Top Ten in power. If it was the 12th District that had faced their predicament, perhaps they wouldn’t have gathered 300 points by now either.”

Claytia said, “Quite possible. Presently, this district fundamentally just does not have any decently powerful people. A student with similar strength to the second-level of the Top Ten Experts is sufficient to dominate this 13th District. Oh, that’s right, I heard my teacher say once that something happened in the 13th several decades ago involving two of their schools and schools from other districts. The result of the conflict was the 13th District’s two schools lost and even both their Sorcerer Towers were razed to the ground.”

Their Sorcerer Towers razed to the ground!

Alarm appeared in Glenn’s eyes. Other Sorcerer-Apprentices might not be aware but Glenn knew: the Sorcerer Tower was one of the primary sources of strength for Level-Four and above Stigmata Great Sorcerers.

Of course, Glenn wasn’t very clear about the specifics of the degree of energy amplification, but it should be a lot based on Master Peranos'[2] research.

Thus it appeared there was a reason the 13th had declined to this state.

It was very probable the Stigmata Sorcerer inside that district had a conflict with another district’s Stigmata Sorcerer and then initiated a true school war in the Sorcerer World. After that, following the defeat of the two sorcerer schools in the 13th and the thorough flattening of the Sorcerer Towers, the students also deteriorated as a whole.

If there wasn’t a Master to instruct them and a student wanted to rely on their own understanding to become a powerful legendary level Sorcerer-Apprentice?

It’d be too difficult…

This drew a single sigh from Glenn. Apparently, it was inharmonious even between Stigmata Great Sorcerers. An even higher entity was guiding the competition between Sorcerers, and these masterminds were most likely the true rulers of the Sorcerer World—Necromancers.

As for reasons…

Having been informed of that Sorcerer World secret through Peranos, Glenn already faintly guessed the real intention and decision for this guidance. He thought to himself that he really had to obtain the reward for reaching the summit of this Holy Tower Tryout. At the same time, he also felt that unspeakable sorrow emerge in his chest again.

‘Will the Sorcerer World really have a day like Master spoke about in the future…’

“What’s the matter with you?” Claytia asked in astonishment.

Glenn indifferently replied. “Nothing. Go, let’s head to the location of the target.”

As Glenn flew away, Claytia neither knew what he was thinking nor did she really care. In any case, her points had already exceeded 2000. According to Claytia’s calculations, even if she left the Secret Mirror, one-thousand points was already sufficient to qualify as a reserve Demon-Hunter.

Still, what’s more… the circumstances of this Holy Tower Tryout was somewhat different.

If Glenn continued to sweep away and expel a lot of powerful students from the Mirror, it was very likely that the points would be concentrated in Glenn. At the same time, the score for the other students becoming Demon-Hunters would become pitifully lower. This might also bring about the need to lower the cut-off point for the Demon-Hunter qualifications compared to former years.

After two days straight of sweeps, Glenn and Claytia both left the 13th District. Once again they faced the next forest of obelisks as they flew toward it.

The remaining two districts ought to both be areas with normal development, probably…

Presently, five days’ time already passed. According to normal circumstances, if the two areas had legendary level students, they should have already finished gathering points for their chain mark within their own districts and their next step would be preparing to search other areas.

Glenn had to hurry to the next area otherwise that district’s legendary students would move and more effort would need to be wasted.

As for the final area’s legendary students, it was quite possible that the direction they would head to would be a different area from Glenn.