A Sorcerer’s Journey

“Screw you and your game meat! Bloody low-class cat! How dare you even think about eating me! You are the game meat over here! Your whole family is game meat! Didn’t you know that the master’s and my favorite dish is a glazed black cat!”

Myna stood up like a fighting cock as it perched on Grimm’s shoulder and shouted taunts at the black cat. It was flapping around wildly, triggered by the black cat’s words.

The black cat jumped on a shelf gracefully.

“Dear, dear, surely you can take my jokes?”

After finishing its words, the black cat searched around the shelf and threw out a piece of dried fish. “Alright, I’ll let you have a taste of my private stash.”

“Caw! Who would want to eat your saliva-tainted cat food? Stupid black cat, don’t think that the great and untouchable Myna would let you off with this! Something the likes of you are not even worthy of licking the leg of the great steel emblem Myna… gah!”

Grimm threw the offending potty-mouthed Myna into the dimensional gap as he took the dried fish with another hand.

“Haha, Garnigel! Who would’ve thought that you hid a dried bonito fish! Just reminiscing the taste of it… what pleasure… ha!”

Grimm pretended to be interested as he threw a glance at the fish tank.

Garnigel stretched out its body lazily as it gently rubbed its eyes with its claw. It spoke in a sluggish manner, “Don’t even think about it. These fish are not going to breed again for another fifty years. They’re probably the last bonitos of the sorcerer’s world.”

“Master… so they are about to go extinct. Leave some for me.”

Myna poked its head out from the dimensional gap as it spoke to Grimm. It gave the black cat a dirty look. “From now onwards, black cats and bats are declared the most unwelcome species of the great steel emblem mynas.”

After that, the myna returned back to the dimensional gap and disappeared without a trace.

The black cat chided,” Grimm, your soul servant sure has one heck of a stinkin’ mouth!”

Suddenly, Master Peranos, who was standing beside barged into the conversation. “You always blame others, but what about you?! If it weren’t for your greedy mouth the last time, they wouldn’t have called me Peranos the Third for such a long time!”

The angry Master Peranos flapped his drooping sleeves around and turned to Grimm. “Grimm, I’ll ask my wife to prepare some dinner. She just got some fresh stuff from the Holy Tower of Six Rings.”

After finishing his words, the door creaked and Master Peranos left the room.

“Tsk! He’s always going on about me. He was the greedy one back then.” The black cat pouted displeasingly.

Grimm smiled and looked around the room. In a deep tone, he asked, “Where’s Second Apprentice Valor?”

“After he became an official sorcerer a hundred and seventy years ago, he went on a journey across the underground worlds. A few hundred years ago, someone discovered a world aperture that was connected to the sorcerer world. I heard it’s a rather interesting world known as the Fairy Nut World. It’s nearly completely explored by the underground sorcerers.”

Hmm?

A world aperture connected to the sorcerer world?

Looks like it’s a natural occurring world aperture. With a name like ‘Fairy Nut World’, it should be a world made up of asexual plant faeries.

Second Brother Valor’s rise to become an official sorcerer was to be expected. Or else, Master Peranos would not have taken him in.

…

After a warm, cozy candle-lit dinner, Master Peranos’s wife, Alice, cleared the table. Master Peranos and Grimm both entered the enclosed laboratory and sat across each other.

“Well, speak out then. What’s the deal about wrapping yourself tightly in elemental forces?”

Master Peranos was picking his teeth as he asked casually.

Beneath the Mask of Truth, Grimm let out a bitter laugh. He gradually dispersed the elemental forces that were covering his body. He reached out his hand from his loose sorcerer’s robe to reveal a purple bruise. The dense, bruised pores were moving about violently and struggling on top of each other as if they were about to surface from Grimm’s skin. It was a horrible sight.

In the laboratory, Master Peranos was shocked. As if a cold breeze had passed, the temperature in the room appeared to have gone colder. A dense, ominous air filled the room.

“This…”

After staring at Grimm’s hand for a while, Master Peranos looked at Grimm, who had taken off his Mask of Truth. He drew a cold breath and asked, “Nightmarish Shadows?”

Grimm gently nodded his head. He retracted his hand into the sorcerer’s robe.

Master Peranos stood up abruptly at Grimm’s admission. He threw away his toothpick that he had bitten in half and spoke in a sad manner. “Well, you sure got the best luck. Only a few of the modern-time sorcerers had this curse, and here you are, being one of them.”

Master Peranos shook his head. “How long has it been?”

“About eleven years.”

Grimm replied softly. He warily continued on. “I came back in the hope that you, Master, would seek help from the great Stigmata Sorcerer from the Black Isotta…”

“The great Stigmata Sorcerer of Black Isotta is a rank six sorcerer who’s almost reached the rank of a great Necromancer. He’s been busy trying to improve himself for countless years. Why would he have the time for you? Compared to the Stigmata Sorcerer of Black Isotta, you’d have better chances betting on your elder master or your grandmaster.”

Elder master? Grandmaster?

Grimm appeared surprised. “Master, I’ve met Second Master Deidarion and he told me about the great Stigmata Sorcerer, Tomb Segia. That was how he recommended the Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer to me. However, he didn’t mention the elder master and grandmaster to me.”

“Hmm? So you’ve met him?”

Master Peranos lowered his head and pondered for a moment. “Well, it’s right that he didn’t mention anything about your first master and grandmaster. Grimm, you are now a demon-hunting sorcerer. It’s about time you start putting your foot down. I’ll let you in on a little something. This concerns the life and death of the sorcerer’s civilization.”

The life and death of the sorcerer’s civilization!

Grimm was stunned. “What about it?”

Peranos’s eyes squinted in seriousness. He spoke in a deep tone. “One thousand five hundred years ago, they found signs of an unknown civilization at the edges of the sorcerer’s world through world exploration. We know very little about this unknown civilization as there is no direct contact with them. The higher-ups of the sorcerer’s world temporarily named it as the “Metal Destroyer” civilization. Perhaps this was why your second master didn’t mention the elder master and the grandmaster to you.”

He then let out a sigh. “Your elder master and grandmaster are Level 4 Stigmata Sorcerers after all. Sealing the Nightmarish Shadows would have a noticeable effect on the sorcerer’s tower.”

“Another civilization! Is the sorcerer world going to start the third civilization war soon?”

There was a hint of terror in Grimm’s voice.

Although Grimm couldn’t fully comprehend the civilizational wars, he could imagine what kind of terror an ancient civilizational battle would wreak from the ruins of stigmata and necromancy craters that covered the mainland of the sorcerer’s world.

And from a modern sorcerer’s understanding…

With the countless soul slave legions of the sorcerer’s world and its many void fortresses, their first encounter with the unknown rival, the “Metal Destroyer” civilization, would be so severe that it would be akin to a meat-mincing machine of the worlds.

After trying to calm himself for a while, Grimm continued to ask, “Master, when do you think will the sorcerer world clash with the Metal Destroyer civilization? How much time do we have left?”

“Definitely in one epoch. Three or five millennia at minimum, seven or eight millennia at most. Who knows. Your eldest apprentice, sister Quiet Spring had become one of the pioneers of the sorcerer world exploratory team and had already embarked on a journey to infiltrate the isolated world. The last time you’ve met her was most likely the last time you’ll ever meet again in this life.”

Grimm became silent. He reminisced about the eldest apprentice, sister Quiet Spring. She was one to have always wrapped herself up in white clothes and had a long, black sword behind her. Her strong, wild moves gave out an aura that could destroy the earth.

Grimm raised his head. “Master, I think the Black Isotta Stigmata sorcerer would agree to help me seal the Nightmare Shadows. Tomb Segia once said that the Black Isotta Stigmata sorcerer would surely want to get a hold of the ancient ruins.”

Ancient ruins?

Peranos thought for a while before speaking gently. “Did you mean… the place you found in the mysterious realm of Black Isotta?”

Grimm once carelessly mentioned to Peranos about an ancient ruin in the Black Isotta. Master Peranos reprimanded him, saying that this secret was privy to Grimm himself.

The memories of that incident were still fresh in Grimm’s mind.

Grimm slowly nodded his head. “That’s the place. Tomb Segia once said that if it was related to the ancient ruins of the extra-terrestrial Nightmare civilization, the great Stigmata Sorcerer from the Black Isotta would surely grant my wish.”

Master Peranos became silent for a while. He slowly spoke, ” I see…the energy needed to seal your Nightmare Shadow curse is insignificant for a great Stigmata Sorcerer of Black Isotta. But, if he could get some external assistance during the coming civilizational war, it would surely be of help.”

After finishing his words, Master Peranos said, “Follow me to the 99th level of Black Isotta into the mysterious realm. We are going to meet the Tower Master.”