A Sorcerer’s Journey

Grimm and Claudia, in the perfect disguise as an Acraepoid couple, cruised in the sky as they flapped their decorative wings on their backs.

Burble, burble…

The sound of burbling water echoed across the atmosphere. The scene caught both Grimm and Claudia by surprise. They halted abruptly in the air, their eyes wide open and mouths slightly gapped in shock. Their sights were locked onto the river where its surface was filled with a thick layer of black abyss breath.

“Grimm, it seems that the severest damage done by the Abyssal Moss pollution is not to the plants, but the freshwater region of this world!” Claudia relented in a deep voice.

The river was about twenty-something meters wide, dark-colored waters winded around the river bank. It used to be a breathtaking view, with green grass and shady trees as its background, clear and sparkling waters flowing in the river. Yet now, the river banks were covered with dense Abyssal Moss. Animal carcasses and dead fish bones floated all over the river.

Grimm and Claudia collected a large number of creature corpses on both sides of the river banks.

“The concentration of the abyss breath here is far denser than the previous village ruins, it can already cause deadly attacks on creatures with a Constitution of less than two.”

Splash!

Just as Grimm had said so, a freaky-looking deformed fish suddenly jumped out of the river. It was about a meter in length, its body was covered with blood-red fatty tumors.

The deformed fish looked ferocious as it opened its mouth wide, with a sucker on its long tongue, and dashed towards Grimm who was much larger than it was, looking severely savage.

Buzz, buzz!

Bizarrely, a black arc discharge, filled with the abyss breath, appeared on the body of the deformed fish. Grimm, who was preparing his murderous stance, jumped in surprise upon this peculiar sight.

With a loud bang, the sucker on the deformed fish’s long tongue was stuck on Grimm’s sorcerer’s barrier.

Grimm quickly shouted loudly, “Don’t kill it!”

After stopping Claudia, Grimm caught the tongue of the fish stuck to his sorcerer’s barrier with one hand and a mass of freezing ice spread out.

The fish seemed to be aware of Grimm’s power but it was too late for it to detach itself. The ice crystals were spreading at lightning speed and it would soon freeze the fish’s body.

Buzz, buzz!

The black arc discharging from the fish’s body continued to resist its constraint.

Despite how intriguing this energy was, its power was very low. After all, this deformed fish was just an ordinary creature that had no chance to develop into a higher level creature after abyssalization.

Grimm needed a large amount of fundamental energy and accord energy for the second step of his experiment on Destructive Force, and also, the awfully expensive alchemy materials. He assumed even the Stigmata Sorcerers would be cautious at this level of depletion.

Grimm had never encountered this kind of black arc before, its experimental value must be worthy and precious.

However…

As Grimm’s Frozen Seal Energy was slowly freezing the fish at a relentless speed, suddenly, the abundant blood-red fatty tumors on the fish’s body exploded with a loud pop, blasting out tadpole-like creatures that intended to escape into the river that was contaminated with abyss breath.

“Huh?” Since Grimm had spotted them, he would never let them escape from his clutches.

Once again, large ice crystals emerged, freezing the tadpoles.

After the little black tadpoles escaped from the tumors, the deformed fish had seemingly lost its black arc energy as vitality slowly drained away from its body, only the tail that had yet to be frozen was still struggling as a final attempt to escape.

“Huh? Are you interested in these black arc energies? But if I’m not mistaken, you’re not very good at electrical sorcery,” Claudia went to Grimm and asked, blinking her sparkling eyes.

That is, in her female Acraepoid disguise.

Due to the attention of the Principle Will even in foreign worlds, Grimm opened the World Fragments of the Demon-Hunter Castle very quickly to avoid detection and stored the specimens. He replied flatly without further explanation, “They are for other uses.”

Inadvertently, Grimm was stunned as he stumbled upon an Acraepoid infant corpse floating on the river.

Claudia followed the direction where Grimm was staring at and grinned. “Well… I think the Acraepoid colony upstream has been polluted, and it has started to kill the weaker Acraepoid infants. Haha, and this is only the beginning of the abyssalization! When the Abyss Cataclysm is completed, it will be powerful enough to wipe out the Acraepoids in this world, all hail the extinction of Acraepoids.”

The Sorcerer’s Will, which was portrayed by Claudia, illustrated the desire for destruction. Therefore, when she saw that the Acraepoids had begun to show signs of failure, she could not help but show genuine excitement and delight.

Splash!

Suddenly, a velvety black tentacle emerged from the bottom of the river and dragged the Acraepoid infant carcass into the dark-colored water.

Grimm looked at the polluted river that was filled with black abyss breath and shifted his gaze upwards to the upstream of the river. He began saying in a calm tone, “Let’s go to the Acraepoid town upstream and check it out.”

“Okay.”

Grimm and Claudia, as formal sorcerers, were resilient to the erosion of these abyss breaths. They flapped their decorative wings and flew towards the upstream of the river in a swift motion.

Half an hourglass time later, both of them stopped.

“Sulfur?”

A large amount of sulfur powder was sprinkled on the floor. It seemed that sulfur had the effect of blocking the Abyssal Moss expansion as the Abyssal Moss was much lesser on the other side of the sulfur powder. He did not expect the existence of wise Acraepoids in this world.

At the underground abyss of the Sorcerer World, the same technique was used as almost all buildings were mixed with sulfur powder to prevent the Abyssal Moss erosion, which was also the cheapest remedy to solve the issue.

Of course, it was just a temporary measure, not a permanent cure.

Once mature Abyssal Moss appeared in the world, if there were no purification and elimination done on these contaminated creatures, a self-abyssalization must be done to adapt to the change of the World Law.

The lower level the creatures were, the easier they were to be mutilated by the abyssalization. On the other hand, the higher-level creatures were at a lower risk of being affected.

As for the ruler’s desire for a swift adaptation of the abyssal mutilation during the abyssal cataclysm, it was almost impossible to accomplish.

This, perhaps, was one of the Balanced Laws of creature replacement in the endless world.

After flying for a while, from afar, a small city with rows and rows of Flame Burrows, about a hundred meter tall, was presented to Grimm and Claudia.

Many Acraepoid Warriors were guarding and patrolling around the small city, blocking many Acraepoids outside the city and not allowing them access.

Grimm and Claudia fixed their target and flew towards an elderly Acraepoid who was one of the many blocked outside the city gate.

“Uncle, what is going on? Why are these Acraepoid Warriors not letting you in?”

The elder was carrying a young Acraepoid. He seemed to have suffered the abyss contamination as he was fragile and sickly pale, some parts of his skin were reddish and swollen.

When the elder Acraepoid turned towards Grimm and Claudia, he hurriedly saluted them upon the sight of Grimm’s Infernal Blades and Claudia’s luxurious attire.

“Pardon me, dear noble Acraepoid Warriors, it is because of those damned evil sorcerers. There are fresh holy fruits in the city, the land not contaminated by the Sorcerer’s Shadow, the city is also free of the ferocious mutilated creatures. Everyone wants to get in, but these wicked sorcerers are able to change their outlooks and disguise themselves as Acraepoids to enter the city and contaminate the place with their devilish magic and Sorcerer’s Shadow. Now, no outsider can enter the city unless they are able to exert the Infernal Energy and confirm their Acraepoid identity.”

Grimm used the Infernal Blades, which had evolved into the Dark Devourer Infernal Spirit from the Savage Flame Giant, as a prop to cover up his identity, and he was recognized as an Acraepoid Warrior by the elder Acraepoid.

The black flame above his head was swaying faintly, the remarks from the elder Acraepoid were full of despair and powerlessness, as well as hatred and fear of the sorcerers.

“Oh, is that so?”

Grimm nodded and continued in a tone of great dismay, “These abominable sorcerers! Sooner or later, the almighty Infernal God will drive them all out of this world!”

Grimm’s furious remarks seemed to touch some Acraepoids around him. They nodded in sorrow, longing for a better tomorrow.

They had become very fearful and alien to the previously familiar land that was horribly contaminated by the abyss.

Often, some lowly creatures possessed the ability of inflicting fatal damage as they had inhaled and exhaled these abyss breaths, harming the weaker Acraepoids and causing erosive damage to their biological cells.

Grimm, along with Claudia, proceeded to enter the city but was intercepted by four Acraepoids.

Claudia leaned against Grimm timidly. All Grimm had to do was withdraw the blade on his waist slightly, releasing the Infernal Energy breath from the Dark Devourer Infernal Spirit. The four Acraepoids were startled upon the frightful scene.

This Infernal Spirit Power had apparently reached a remarkably high level, it was as if the light shining on the black flame would be swallowed.

“My Lord, this way,” the four Acraepoids greeted respectfully as they made way for them.

Under the envious gazes of tens of thousands of Acraepoids, Grimm and Claudia flew into the city swiftly.

This small city was called Fort Santalum. Although the height and magnificence of the Flame Burrow was far inferior to the Dark Destroyer Kingdom, it was much better than the ten meters high civilian Flame Burrow that they had seen in the previous village.

“Huh? Over there…”

At that moment, a huge crowd of Acraepoids, almost tens of thousands of them, gathered around the Dark Destroyer Temple square in the Fort Santalum.

In the center of the square, a female Acraepoid was stripped naked and tied on a thick wooden stake, firewood and branches were layered underneath the wooden stake.

“You, evil sorcerer! You have the nerve to disguise yourself as a great Acraepoid to intrude into this city. Now, what else do you have to say?” a Dark Destroyer Temple abbot raised his torch and shouted angrily.

Sorcerer?

Grimm and Claudia exchanged glances. They did not feel any Sorcerer’s Breath from this female Acraepoid.

Could it be that her Camouflage Sorcery was up the roof, even surpassing theirs?