A Sorcerer’s Journey

Four and a half months later.

Grimm returned on the Void Fortress again after completing his mission of leading the Bright Demon-Hunter army to kill the Ice Bats.

A year and a half in the Burrow World had passed since the beginning of their expedition, which was equivalent to two years in Sorcerer World if converted to the time calculation of twelve-hourglasses-a-day.

Grimm walked around the Void Fortress to collect information about the Burrow World.

Due to Grimm’s background as a Demon-Hunter with Rank 2 Honor Badge, and the fact that the Black Isotta personally called out his name before the expedition, no one recruited Grimm to execute any Demon-Hunting mission.

Of course, the main reason was Thousand-eyed Carcinus under Grimm’s feet.

As Grimm went around the Void Fortress, he received a crucial message—Black Isotta had ordered the Fortress to announced that there were no Level 4 and above creatures in the Burrow World. In other words, there were no World Lords in the Burrow World.

The news left Grimm in disbelief for a long time.

Generally speaking, the birth of World Lords represented the existence of the Principal Will of a World. Grimm could only think of four possibilities for the absence of World Lord in this world.

The first possibility could be the world’s Principal Will was too barren. The barrenness of the Principle Will could be determined by the amount and prosperity level of biological species within the world.

In a barren world with a lack of support from sufficient species, the only way for a World Lord to be born was to plunder resources from other worlds.

Looking at the countless enslaved creatures on the fortress square and the ground below the Void Fortress, this possibility was obviously unlikely.

The second possibility could be the World Lord had left the world and was wandering in the endless void, looking to conquer another world that was suitable for self-evolving.

However, if that were the case, the World Lord would be taking a huge risk.

By entering another abundant world rashly, the World Lord was bound to be attacked by the native World Lord and be rejected by the Principle Will of that world, unlike the intrusive power of the Sorcerer World’s Principle Will. World Lords who invade other worlds hastily could even be killed by other lower-level native World Lords.

The third possibility could be that creatures from another world had killed the World Lord of this world, and were constantly plundering fundamental resources and killing all the high-level creatures here, and eventually caused the inability of this world to produce a new World Lord.

This was the state of the worlds that were invaded by the Sorcerer World, and it was also the key reason why the Sorcerer World would be able to support such a huge and incredible amount of Stigmata Sorcerers and Celestial Sorcerers.

The fourth possibility could be the Demon-Hunters had yet to discover the hidden World Lord of this world.

Since Black Isotta had successfully led the Demon-Hunting pioneers to the bottom core of The Burrow, and had not found any intelligent life forms, Grimm suspected that the World Lord of this world might have been hiding out of fear.

Or even… it might have already escaped!

Based on Grimm’s personal knowledge, he felt that the possibility of the fourth scenario was much more likely.

Above Thousand-eyed Carcinus, Grimm pondered while holding the Sabbatic Goat Staff.

Should he travel to the core of The Burrow via Black Isotta’s route? Or should he explore another entrance to The Burrow?

For many Dark-Demon Hunters, after hearing the news that Black Isotta had successfully occupied the core of The Burrow and announced that there were no World Lords in Burrow World, they started to explore other routes to the core of The Burrow.

Since no matter how ever-changing each entrances were, they would eventually all lead to the bottom core of The Burrow.

Myna was standing on Grimm’s shoulder, feeling bored, grooming its own feathers.

Buzz…

All of a sudden, the Honor Badge on Grimm’s Sorcerer Barrier flashed.

Grimm stunned and felt something, he took out his crystal ball.

“Greetings, Demon-Hunter Grimm. The Battle Command detected your presence near the Void Fortress. Black Isotta had issued a new mission to recruit an unlimited number of Dark Demon-Hunters to travel to the core of The Burrow, and explore the branches of the burrows from the core. Are you willing to lead the mission and call for enlistment?”

Grimm’s eyes flashed under the Mask of Truth.

It was his first time learning that the Battle Command would be able to contact any Demon-Hunters with Honor Badge directly when they were near the Void Fortress.

‘Black Isotta was actually planning for Demon-Hunters to explore the Burrow from its core all the way up to the Surficial Tundra?’ Grimm thought to himself.

Meanwhile on the other side.

Myna was thrilled on Grimm’s shoulder. “Caw? Did you say leading a team?” said Myna in excitement.

On the other side of the crystal ball was a beautiful female Demon-Hunter from the Battle Command. Her silky black hair was tied in multiple little braids, falling smooth on her back.

On the screen of the sorceress” crystal ball, she was initially communicating with a mysterious Dark Sorcerer wearing a white mask, but suddenly being interrupted by a big bird blocking the crystal ball screen.

A little startled, the female sorcerer quickly understood that the “big bird” must be the soul slave of the Dark Demon-Hunter. “Yes, but you have to recruit team members on your own, within ten people in a team.” She laughed.

Grimm lifted Myna from the crystal ball and threw it back on his shoulder.

‘Recruit members on my own?’

This reminded Grimm of his experience of being forcibly recruited by a Demon-Hunter with Honor Badge during his time in the Shadow World.

He wasn’t expecting to be recruiting other Demon-Hunters and executing the mission as a leader.

“Caw, caw, my dear Master Grimm, come on, accept the mission, what are you waiting for?”

Myna seemed to be more eager than Grimm, urging Grimm constantly.

“I accept the mission,” replied Grimm.

After confirming Grimm’s acceptance of the mission, the female sorcerer from Battle Command recorded some information and said to Grimm, “You may now proceed to the sorcerer tower to collect your mission scroll. Best of luck on your mission.”

With that, the female sorcerer ended her conversation with Grimm and disappeared on the crystal ball screen.

“Caw caw caw caw! This is great! My dear Master Grimm, how about you lead the Demon-Hunters, while I’ll be the commander of their soul slaves. Don’t you think this is a great idea?” said Myna coyly.

“No!”

After Grimm replied with a poker face, he told Thousand-eyed Carcinus, “Wait for me here for a while, I will be back after a few hourglasses.”

“Yes, Lord Grimm.”

Thousand-eyed Carcinus was chewing the remains of a Burrow World’s native creature with its giant claws slowly, no longer a vegetarian as before.

Grimm left Thousand-eyed Carcinus and flew to the Void Fortress.

Myna did not give up and continued to say, “Master, how about I be in charge of…”

“No.”

…

A moment later, at the sorcerer tower of the Void Fortress, Grimm received a parchment mission scroll.

“Open up a burrow passage and record information about the passage in a crystal ball named “Burrow Databank”, and the leader will receive ten Sorcerer Essence as reward, while each team members get six Sorcerer Essence.

Grimm took out his crystal ball as he analyzed the mission information.

On the scroll, a long burrow passage was clearly marked, connecting the burrow entrance under the Void Fortress to the bottom core of The Burrow.

Meanwhile on the other side.

After being rejected by Grimm for seven to eight times consecutively, Myna clenched its teeth, stomped its claws, and decided to buy itself a slave with its own secret hoard, just for the sake of being a “commander”!

Grimm was baffled by Myna’s decision, but decided to ignore Myna and let it be.

Standing on the deck of the fortress square, Grimm stopped a Dark Demon-Hunter.

He was a Level 1 Dark Sorcerer with a withered face. In his confusion, Grimm held a Sabbatic Goat Staff in one hand and took out the opened mission scroll in another.

Grimm said slowly, “This is a Demon-Hunting mission from the Fortress, you are now recruited by me.”

A Level 1 Demon-Hunter without any Honor Badge was the lowest level of all Demon-Hunters. Under the circumstance of not violating any Demon-Hunting rules, generally they could only obey Demon-Hunters with higher authority.

The old sorcerer nodded and recognized Grimm’s identity, he followed him in silence.

Just like that, Grimm recruited seven Level 1 Demon-Hunters on the fortress square. Suddenly, a female Demon Hunter from afar caught his attention.

Her body was wrapped by layers of black metal chains, looking just like a black metal ball.

Under her golden long hair, cruel madness filled one of her eyes, while depression and loss filled another.

The female Demon-Hunter was in the same sorcerer-apprentice batch as Grimm, she was the elite sorcerer-apprentice who stood out during the Holy Tower Qualification Battle from Section 21 to Section 28—Nairo.

Grimm and Nairo also spent their first Demon-Hunting expedition together in the Shadow World, but they did not have much interaction.