A Sorcerer’s Journey

…Two months later on the rooftop of the Flowerbed Castle on Third Du Peak…

“Little Ba!”

Glenn hollered as he flung a bone in his grip towards a corner.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

The Steel Emblem Myna spread its wings and chased after the bone like a puppy. In the blink of an eye, it picked up the bone from the floor with its beak, flew back to Glenn’s palm and gently placed it there.

Satisfied with its performance, Glenn hummed while he looked at the Steel Emblem Myna dancing cheerfully on his shoulder. It was sticking out its tongue and shaking its tail like a puppy!

After being trained by Glenn with much patience and cruelty, this broken bird finally “succumbed” to Glenn’s command. After all, it did not have the luxury of fighting back. It was a completely different bird now.

A smile of satisfaction spread over Glenn’s face and he threw the bone once more.

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

The Steel Emblem Myna picked up the bone and flew back. This time, Glenn was not at the same spot waiting for it to return. He uttered softly while walking out of the room, “Alright, today will be your day off, behave yourself.”

Glenn left the room right after he said those words.

Silence filled the air for just a brief moment. The Myna slammed the bone onto the ground and cried out loud, “Such humiliation! What a disgrace! Woo… I, Lord Ba, am a great Steel Emblem Myna, not some three-headed dog, this is a downright humiliation to the Steel Emblem Myna species! I will, I will…”

Creak…

The room door swung open followed by Glenn’s gentle voice wafting in, “What is the matter, bird? What are you babbling on about?”

“Eh?”

Shocked, the Myna quickly stuck its tongue out and acted like a playful puppy, “Ah… My great master Glenn, I am just fascinated by the name you have given me. Lord Ba was a ridiculous name, it could not fit my personality and it lacked creativity. Little Ba, on the other hand, is written with twenty-six strokes in the traditional language of The sorcerer civilization, the same number as the total number of Fundamental Runes of Elemental Sorcery. It has numerous profound connotations and literary philosophies…”

Glenn was amused by how the Myna was trying to please him. “Yes, a twelve-plus-six strokes phrase has a similar meaning to a twenty-six strokes word. It is amazing how well you can put them together. As for its profound connotations and literary philosophies…”

“Oh, no, no, the master should not be humble! Little Ba exists under the shadow of your overwhelming greatness, it is Little Ba’s honor…”

Moments later, Glenn left the room once again.

The Steel Emblem Myna beat its wings furiously against its own head as it exclaimed woefully, “How could a bird live like this, I’ve been a disgrace to the name of the great Steel Emblem Myna! This won’t do, I will have my revenge, my revenge! It will be epic!”

The myna looked around the room and noticed that there was a living frog inside one of Glenn’s experimental vessels. With its eyes set on it, the myna walked towards it with a mischievous look on its face.

A while later…

“Blame your master for this, and this, and this… I will stomp you to death! You will not be the only pitiful little frog I am going to stomp to death, I will do the same to all the bastard’s Soul Slaves… Woo woo, you jerk, why can’t you beg for mercy. Give me some kind of reaction, don’t just show me your ass…”

***

Meanwhile, Glenn laid on the flowerbed outside the castle trying to meditate.

The Celestial Cordillera was not going at its full speed, yet it was still moving rather fast. Glenn could feel the wind as it moved. The sea on the far edge was no longer covered in black, but was blue with distinct uninhabited islands.

Glenn only possessed twelve points of Mental Power at the moment. A first-class sorcerer’s limit was a hundred points. Glenn gained his first point by meditating for one and a half years, the second point was gained after two and a half years of meditation. At the rate he was going, Glenn should be able to increase his mental power after two hundred years. That should be enough time to prepare him for his compulsory missions.

Needless to say, this could be achieved if Glenn meditated persistently on a daily basis.

Other than understanding and mastering the knowledge he had neglected in his study period as a sorcerer’s apprentice, Glenn still had two different matters to deal with, both of which will lead him to two different directions.

One of them was to prepare for the war among worlds which will take place after two hundred years from now.

Demon-Hunters could participate in the world war at any time, but if a Demon-Hunter wanted to stay in the sorcerer world for a much longer period of time, there will be a mandatory mission every two hundred years. This was a countermeasure to prevent any sluggers from hiding among the Demon-Hunters.

Glenn was a Dark Demon-Hunter. Other than the Demon-Hunter’s sorcerer barrier spells and curses, he must master the way to harvest the Black Sorcerer’s negative energy, and create a chimera by unveiling the mysteries of life and death.

The Black Sorcerer’s negative energy harvesting ability might seem the same as the Greedy Flame Giant’s soul/hatred eating ability, yet they had different foundations.

Based on what Glenn knew…

Generally, the negative energy collected by all the Black Sorcerers is a negative emotion called Despair, which will permanently increase the level of a Black Sorcerer’s basic energy attack!

Therefore, when a black sorcerer channeled negative energies around them to cast some spells, the spell power will be amplified by the level of Despair they had harvested. This was the reason why even some of the simple spells cast by a Black Sorcerer was so devastating, and the chimera they empowered became such a nightmare.

However…

The Despair level amplification only worked on the same lifeform from which the Black Sorcerer harvested its negative energy.

For instance, if a Black Sorcerer harvested Despair from human experiments that Black Sorcerer’s spell will only be amplified when he cast it on a human and had no effect on other lifeforms.

This was the reason why Black Sorcerers were banned in the sorcerer continent, yet this did not stop them as they still appeared anywhere they wished!

There was a distinct difference in the fundamentals of a Dark Demon-Hunter and a Black Sorcerer.

Although Dark Demon-Hunters harvested the same Despair, they only harvested from creatures from another world in a war but never from a human being in the sorcerer world. Some Black Sorcerers even stayed in other worlds just to harvest a great amount of Despair from the same species, with hopes that it would end combat as fast as possible in the future.

For a Dark Demon-Hunter, Despair harvesting was applied to enhance knowledge on certain elements rather than to master the mysteries of life and death which was the aim of Black Sorcerers.

From a certain point of view, Black Sorcery was to study the weakness of every species on this earth and control their life and death through spells. Their ultimate goal was to stand on top of the Endless World’s food chain. As for elemental sorcerers, it was to consistently evolve and master the knowledge in the Endless World and serve a greater purpose.

This was the reason why Glenn strived to be an official sorcerer.

The second reason was the evolution Glenn experienced from an apprentice to an official sorcerer. There was a great difference between both ranks in terms of mastery of nature force.

The most distinct evolution was the ability to distribute a Soul’s Power. An official sorcerer could slice his or her soul into seeds and gain Soul Slaves.

It was common for a Stigmata Sorcerer to have countless Soul Slaves as pawns in a war between worlds. Every Demon-Hunter would have a strong Soul Slave to boost their combat power, as they fight the war side by side.

Another prominent benefit was the entitlement of contract signing with a Legendary Knight.

Instead of assuming it was the sorcerer who chooses its Legendary Knight, it would be more appropriate to say that a sorcerer openly declared the contract terms using his or her blood which acted as bait for legendary knights who might be hooked.

Generally, the sorcerer would list down all the terms and conditions, including the appearance and style, the benefits offered and that contract’s period…

As for now…

Glenn, who was a Demon-Hunter, had no intention of getting himself a Legendary Knight to serve him. He thought that it was not worth his effort to let go of such a significant amount of Soul Fraction. It would be wiser for him to get more Soul Slaves.

Things would be different, however, for an Ougi Sorcerer.

After the hourglass signaled the end of its turn, Glenn was done with his meditation on the lawn. He stood up, took out his crystal ball and proceeded to go over his current status.

Mental Power: 12, Magic Power: 119~133

Stamina: 139, Stamina: 90~122, Strength: 88~212, Vitality: 79~101.

(Translator note: The calculation of Mental Power remains unchanged. After reading the previous chapter, the ‘Stamina’ calculation was confusing and illogical. Regard Strength and Vitality as attack and defense power. The original Stamina rating of the main character will be used in the future.)

As Glenn was putting away his crystal ball, he could see the edge of a land in the far distance.

“Well, it looks like we have finally returned to the sorcerer continent huh?” Glenn murmured as he walked back to the castle.

Glenn stopped as if he suddenly thought of something. With a gesture, he sliced open a Dimensional-Gap and peered inside. Moments later, he shook his head in disappointment and sealed the gap.