A Sorcerer’s Journey

Along with Chris, Nina, Robinson and Robin, Lafite had been on a field trip, in exploration of magical stones and other treasures. They returned a month later.

Glenn and Lafite met at Lafite’s dormitory.

Prying into a sorcerer’s privacy was a taboo on the Sorcerer Continent. But as Lafite’s boyfriend, when he saw a vibrant strap on her back, he couldn’t help asking in a careful voice:

“Since you’ve got a sorcerer to teach you stuff, why do you have to take risks by going into the wild instead of focusing on sorcery learning?”

Lafit gave him a snort.

“You think all students have your wisdom, your magical stones plus a good mentor? My mentor has 22 students; how do you expect him to give me much attention? However, we explored the ancient spot my father talked about, and it paid off! ”

Glenn noticed that she was playing a gold key in her hand, and there was excitement all over her face, so he didn’t say anything further and instead pulled her onto his chest gently.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sorcerer Norris had returned from the Holy Tower with three humanoids. They were brought back for Glenn for his experiments.

These humanoids had no expressions. Two of them seemed to belong to the same race. Both of them were over 7 feet tall, slim, pretty-looking and had no clothes on. Glenn circled around them twice and could tell that one was a male and the other was a female. Judging by their appearance, their difference from a human being were their huge ears, like a rabbit’s. Besides, their hands were also strange. Each hand had six fingers protruded from the palm, and each finger was separated by five joints. Therefore, it seemed that their hands were more flexible.

“They’ve been earmarked by the Holy Tower. So you won’t be judged as a Dark Sorcerer for using them. And I’ve suppressed their mental strength. You can find me when you need it lifted.” Norris was sitting on the chair, trying to contact someone through a crystal ball as he talked to Glenn.

“Got it.”

Giving Sorcerer Norris a simple reply, Glenn then turned his attention to another humanoid. Glenn could tell that it was a female, but he couldn’t discern any difference between her and a human. So he asked Norris about it.

“It’s a demi-human, borne from a species living in the foreign lands which had been conquered by sorcerers. Some lower grade sorcerers couldn’t check their lust and thus likely produced new species with local creatures. We call these kind of hybrid as demi-humans.”

“Demi-humans? Then do they have their basic rights there?”

“Ha, we weren’t taking over lands to propagate culture and knowledge. Basic rights for them? What a naive question! We ransack and plunder what they have, what they treasure and what they hold dear, as long as it satisfies our own needs. It may sound cruel but it’s an aspect of advanced civilization. If we would decline someday, then their destiny today would be ours in the future. Don’t you ever think that we would live in harmony!” Norris seemed vicious when he explained this, as if brutality defined sorcerers. “Eviscerate her, and you can see that she’s different from us!” added Norris.

Glenn gulped; he didn’t do as Norris suggested though. Seconds later, he asked suddenly.

“Is there a hierarchy or something existing among us and the bigger universe?”

Norris was quite shocked at this inquiry and said, “You’re such an ambitious student! I’ll give a simple answer. The universe is stratified into three grades according to power and influence: Dynasty, Empire and Civilization. A dynasty consists of creatures that are mostly powerless. The number of level four or five sorcerers or living beings having similar level of power is very limited. They hide by concealing their geographic coordinates, and when invaded, they mainly take advantage of natural barriers and natural force to defend. Dynasties take up the most part of the universe.”

Glenn nodded and said: “What about the Empires?”

“Within these large worlds(empires), there is usually at least one lifeform with the battle strength of a seventh level sorcerer. Moreover, the World Laws of these large worlds are special, thus it’s difficult to invade them. And it can be considered to be the initial form of a Civilized world.”

Norris looked at Glenn’s glazed face and went on, “There are some empires within the domain of influence of a Civilization that reach agreements of mutual survival with them. The empires pay tributes to Civilizations in exchange for non-aggression.”

“What about Civilizations?” Glenn couldn’t wait for the answer.

“Every Civilization has invaded at least one Empire, and they have a huge sphere of influence. Others exist around them. But they’ve their distinctive trajectory of development. That’s aggression.” As Norris was saying this, he seemed to have lost in thought and began to speak with a serious tone. “The Sorcerer Civilization met two other Civilizations in its long history, and wars broke out each time. Each war lasted hundreds, if not thousands of years. The wars were inevitable because Civilizations are aggressive in nature.”

“Two wars?” Glenn gasped. He then hastened to ask: “Did we win?”

“Humph. We didn’t lose. If we had lost, why would you still stand in here? We would have been slaves to them!” Norris sneered coldly, and his voice dropped to a lower pitch.

“The first war occurred in ancient times. So there are no written records for it. But, it was said that the Civilization around the ancient Sorcerer Civilization was shattered into pieces and since then, the broken pieces have been clinging to the Sorcerer Civilization for their debased existence.” Norris paused for a moment and then continued, “The second war was clearly documented though. The Sorcerer Civilization was at an absolute disadvantage. Our enemy had smashed our last ditch defense and even marched into the expansive underground world beneath the Sorcerer Continent, which was the last piece of land we had at the time—the Dynasties and Empires we had taken up had been lost. It was the closest the Sorcerer Civilization had come the verge of extinction!”

Glenn’ eyes widened, and face appeared ghastly. He then inquired.

“How did we defeat them?”

“Defeat them? Norris shook his head, and then he said slowly. “We didn’t defeat them. It was not possible. Although we were assuredly a powerful Civilization back then, with all these years of development after we had won the first war, yet the enemy was way more powerful. We didn’t see any hope at all.”

Glenn was still in shock, and he detected a grief in Norris’ eyes.

“We had no way of surviving. However, there was one great, great sorcerer. He used his wisdom and cast a sorcery that was beyond imagination, that no one could ever be able to figure out. He used his life as the fulcrum and levered the Sorcerer Continent with a magical stick named the Destiny Lever. He powered the lever by putting a crystal stone which contained a huge amount of energy on the other end of the stick. As a result, he moved the Sorcerer Continent to the current geographic coordinates!”

“He moved the whole continent?!” There were no words to describe Glenn’s shock. He had no expressions and he even couldn’t speak out a word smoothly.

“There’s no need to doubt it. This is real. And we wore down out the enemies in the underground world beneath the Sorcerer Continent because they had lost their support. After that, we developed our own Dragon sorcerers there. As for this endlessly expansive place we’re living in now, we are actually foreigners who have occupied the aboriginals’ lands. All sorcerers who had survived this disaster had one mission only: to make the sorcerer world stronger and when we’re ready, to recover our old coordinates and to annihilate our enemies and take back what we have lost. That’s what we call Demon Hunting Expedition.”

After he finished that, Norris looked out of the Black Tower.

“The last words before that great sorcerer died were inscribed in every sorcery school.”

“With my knowledge, give me a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Glenn murmured.

“Oh. You noticed that! I thought that only the ones who knew about the situation would pay attention to it.” Seeing that Glenn had memorized that well-known dictum, he seemed comforted.

Glenn gulped. “So it is! This maxim was said by such a great sorcerer.”

Glenn recalled the night when he wandered to the tablet recording that sorcerer’s quote. Before that night, he thought they were just lofty and pompous words. After that night, he had been thinking that it might be a sentence full of helpless exclamation! Now, considering that sorcerer’s situation, he could truly grasp this helplessness. Glen gashed his teeth, simmering with a complex feeling of anger and an eagerness to become stronger.

Norris noticed the gloomy yet determined look on Glenn’s face and sighed. “He’s like the younger me!”

‘Grow up quickly because a new war is on its way! Through other worlds’ creatures, we’ve learned some vague information about our enemy. We’re very far away from each other, yet both of us are aggressive, and both of us will destroy every obstacle between us, and a full-out war will be on then. The future of the sorcerer world needs sorcerers building new branch of sorceries and creating a brilliant history.’