A Sorcerer’s Journey

The three Stigmata Sorcerers did not seem like they intended to land on the Void Fortress.

Suddenly, the thirty over Level 3 Dark Sorcerers tensed up and activated a surge of powerful Magical Power as the many Level 1 and Level 2 Dark Sorcerers had their eyes stuck on the whole process unfolding before them.

Then, countless crystal balls that contained various details about the Shadow World’s laws of nature and inhabitant specimens were conjured out of thin air.

A quarter of an hourglass later.

Grimm and Millie each received a crystal ball and a pig-like creature, which was half a meter in length, as specimens. Excited, they focused all their attention on the crystal balls first rather than the inhabitant specimens that were being paralyzed by Galvanic Chains.

After fuelling them with Magical Power, images started to glimmer in the crystal balls.

The images showed a world that was quite peculiar. Burning hot sand, rock and smoke-fuming volcanoes could be seen everywhere; the sun was so hot that it seemed to have scorched the land into a layer of coal—no grass was seen on any patch of land shown in the crystal ball. On top of that, night never fell in this world.

Grimm was utterly puzzled. So, this was the “Shadow World”. What happened? What caused this world to have to suffer such a harsh set of laws of nature?

An eternal daylight? How? Why?

Interested, Grimm patiently waited and listened to the introductory briefing from the crystal ball.

Over seventy percent of the Shadow World shown in the crystal ball were nothing but scorched barren lands. It was almost like the Boundless Ocean in the Sorcerer World—even though it was the biggest part of the world, the ocean was not a suitable habitat for the world’s dominant ruling species to live in.

On top of the scorched lands, there were volcanoes that fumed thick layers of black smog. The smog gathered in the sky in differing intensities and sizes, covering the scorching sun in the sky. This in turn cast shades and shadows of various sizes onto the vast land below—thus the name “Shadow World”.

The areas where the shadows constantly covered were safe from the deadly burning rays of the sun; therefore, these were the only places that any living being, with flesh and blood, could live. Each of these was, essentially, an “oasis” for these living creatures.

According to the crystal balls’ images, there were three massive patches of “shaded lands”, twelve medium sized “shaded lands” and a hundred and sixty four smaller “shaded lands”. Of course, there were also other even smaller “shaded areas” but their sizes were so minute that they were considered irrelevant.

Residing in these “shaded lands” were the dominant species of the “Shadow World”—the “Amonros”.

There were two types of Amonros, categorized by their skin colors—the “Golden Amonros” and “Enigmatic Amonros”.

Golden Amonros make up ninety nine percent of the Amonro population in the Shadow World; yet, they were ruled by the one percent of Enigmatic Amonros.

Golden Amonros were like the other Foreign Lands’ creatures—they had undergone passive flesh-based evolution. In that long process of evolution, a small group of elite Golden Amonros learned how to utilize elemental energy; the primary elemental energy that they had mastered was the fire element.

As for the Enigmatic Amonros, they were the noble families of the Amonro species.

There were limited information and intel about these Enigmatic Amonros though. The crystal balls only recorded their innate gifts of possessing powerful physical strength and being able to use a certain ability called the “Enigmatic Seal”. The records were highly vague—it would seem that the Sorcerers who recorded this information did not get to have any sort of interaction with the Enigmatic Amonros.

The next segment of the images shown was the prized resources in the Shadow World.

These resources were discovered by the Specialists sent from the Sorcerer World. These resources were then categorized by them according to their utility and rarity.

The one that was ranked first was a peculiar kind of flame called the “Vaidurya Flame”. It possessed the ability to grant any living being that had a Constitution of lower than 100 a unique physical attribute named “Vaiduryarion” after a hundred-year process of conversion. This would, in turn, grant the said living being an obscenely sturdy resistance against fire.

According to recorded experiments, any fire element that was lower than one thousand degree celsius would not cause any damage whatsoever to the host with the “Vaiduryarion” trait.

After viewing this information, Grimm’s eyes were burning with excitement and passion.

He had never heard of any exquisite material that could grant living beings the immunity and resistance to fire that was lower than one thousand degree celsius. Yet, when there were pros there would always be cons—such was the way of the law of balance in the Endless World. There must be a catch behind this great advantage of fire resistance that Vaidurya Flame granted.

Maybe it would require some other resources to form the reaction needed for the conversion.

Nonetheless, Grimm’s Constitution was now already over 100. Thus, he was not able to acquire this “Vaiduryarion” trait anymore.

The resource ranked second were the “Enigmatic Stones” and the intel about the “Enigmatic Seal”.

However, according to the pilot studies of the recording Sorcerer, if a Sorcerer wanted to utilize the Enigmatic Seal one would require a certain physical trait that the Enigmatic Amonros possessed. Other than that, there were also other conditions one needed to meet to use the power of the Enigmatic Seal; and the two most important conditions were the Enigmatic Stones and certain laws of nature surrounding the shadowy smog of the Shadow World.

Then, the third one on the list was a kind of plant life called “Camphoragate”. These plants were often found underground, extending in great lengths in various underground tunnels. These could be used as strategic resources in battles.

As for the fourth resource, it was a kind of stone called the “Combustars”.

Combustars were plentiful in the Shadow World. These stones possessed high level of fire element energy; and one could find obscene numbers of these stones at the volcanoes. However, the Amonros did not seem to pay much attention to these high energy stones.

As for the fifth resource…

Reading about these few dozens of prized resources, Grimm could not help but feel excited. Even if he did not really need these resources for his research, Grimm could also sell these on the markets of the Sorcerer World at a good price.

Now, the next thing on the list…

Grimm lowered his head and looked at the Amonro specimen that was being bound by Galvanic Chains.

This was a Golden Amonro. Covered in golden fur, the creature was only half a meter in height. Its appearance looked like a plump spherical little pig with a flexible two-meter tail.

Grimm observed the creature and began his analysis.

From the looks of it, this Amonro was an adult. Its total height was sixty two centimeters; its head was ten centimeters in length, hinting at a seemingly small brain size. Its nose and ears were quite sensitive and well developed while its skin possessed great resistance and vitality. Nonetheless, Grimm needed to perform a few experiments to determine the extent of its eyes’ and ears’ functionalities.

As for the creature’s unusually long tail, this thing was surprisingly flexible and sturdy. Perhaps to the Amonros, this tail worked the same way as humans’ hands and mantis’ cutters—it could serve as the means for utility and offense.

Next, Grimm observed its reproductive organ. It would appear that the Amonros possessed gender and reproductive capabilities; and their reproductive system was fairly well developed too.

According to the crystal ball, this Golden Amonro was an ordinary Amonro that did not have much of a social status. Its Constitution was around twenty three—much higher than the ordinary humans in the Sorcerer World. Nonetheless, the Amonro’s constitution was at a mere lower-average level when compared to the Demon Hunters.

As for the Enigmatic Seal, this Sealing technique was not one that required the use of Dimensional knowledge. Thus, Grimm and the Myna would be able to deter them with their dimensional-related gifts.

As he finished up with his analysis, Grimm looked to his side; Millie was still observing the inhabitant specimen that she received earlier on.

Moments later, Grimm and Millie traded their inhabitant specimens to research further on the Amonros. Then, they drew their conclusions based on the data and intel they obtained from the Golden Amonro race before they swapped the specimens with the other Dark Sorcerers who were present at the landing porches. This was to see if they could replicate similar results and conclusions from observing the other specimens in order to generalize the findings to the greater population of the samples.

After making observations on the outside appearance of the Amonros, it was time to observe the inner workings of the creatures.

To do so, they would need to dissect them and acquire information about the Amonros’ organs, run tests on their nervous systems, observe the organic growth system, and simulate psyche reaction to despair.

Of course, some Sorcerers had their own unique ways of running these observations on their specimens.

According to the findings of dissection, Grimm found out that the Golden Amonros’ most unique feature was their long flexible tail. As for the organs, these were some of the fundamental procedures that they had learned when they were apprentices so there was not much to be said.

As for the test runs for the nervous system, this was one of Grimm’s fortes; as such, this was not much of an issue for him. After that, he needed to observe the creatures’ organic growth. Each Sorcerer had their own way of running the observation according to their own specialties. Grimm’s method was to run microbial observation on the creatures’ cells—a little different from many who liked to peek into the creatures’ souls or gauge their energy levels.

Out of all the procedures, they left the simulation of psyche reaction to despair to be the last segment.

***

Half a month later.

After exchanging data and intel they acquired from the specimen dissections, Grimm and Millie fell into deep thought.

Grimm had learned a great deal about the Amonros from his research. His findings were mainly on deductions on the food chain of the Shadow World, Amonros’ evolutions, and their elemental weaknesses.

It was quite clear that the sorcerers who were masters of ice, water, and poison would be able to cause great damage to the Amonros. Amonros, despite their sturdy fire resistance and great energy in the fire element, were not resistant to ice, water, and poison.

Nonetheless, one ought to also be wary of the Amonros’ superior regenerative and berserk abilities. These were Grimm’s findings after running tests on their cells and organs.

When one looked at the features of the Amonros’ stomach, it was deducible that these creatures were omnivores. In fact, their diet was even more varied than that of humans—other than meat and plants, the Amonros could also digest energy minerals.

Thus, these creatures were much more resilient than humans.

Other than that, they were also three times more competent in terms of reproduction than humans. They only needed ten years to grow into adults, adjusting their bodily constitution according to the environment around them. Thus, with ample food and the right environment, these creatures could multiply in numbers in a relatively short amount of time.

Then, judging from their skins, they prefered habitats that were dark and shady. As for their need for water…

Looking at Grimm, Millie could not help but be impressed by him and feel ashamed of herself.

For when they were exchanging information about their specimens, all she could do was listen to whatever findings that Grimm had acquired. His observations and findings were so thorough, conclusive, and logical—surpassing Millie’s own findings in every way; and she acquired most of her research skills from her beloved father’s lab too.

Thus, Millie was utterly impressed by Grimm’s display of intelligence in his research.

It was as expected from the top Sorcerer-apprentice, who passed the nightmarish Holy Tower Qualification Battle!

If Grimm were to survive in his journey for the next thousands of years, Millie was sure that this Sorcerer would one day rise to be a new MVP amongst the Seven Rings Demon-Hunters.

‘So… my little sister was right after all. He is a genius… much more intelligent than any other ordinary Sorcerer… but…’

Millie then let out a sigh and thought, ‘But it’s due to this very reason… perhaps we could never walk the same path as him. If we do… he’ll grow so quickly that we’ll be entirely left behind. And he’ll not even look back to check on us.’