A Sorcerer's Journey 263 Trials of the Vicious Thorns

Seven days had passed.
Grimm suddenly stopped flying in the air, Lord Myna asked with his eyes barely open, "What is it, did we get the wrong direction again? Didn't you already confirm five days ago that this is the Vicious Thorn Forest?"
"Look down" replied Grimm in a deep voice.
Down?
Lord Myna stood on Grimm's shoulder and looked downward once, and he replied in disdain, "A bunch of sorcerer-apprentices playing games of killing each other? What is there to look at?"
Grimm shook his head.
Lord Myna did not understand the meaning behind the recurring "killing games" for every new sorcerer-apprentice.
It was merely a coincidence that when Grimm passed through the area on that day, a trial was being held for newcomers from all six academies.
With the flying altitude of an official sorcerer, combined with a layer of magical interference restriction, none of the sorcerer-apprentices would have even noticed Grimm's presence, not to mention that only a very few of them had the capability to fly.
In Grimm's eyes, the sorcerer-apprentices that had Natural Dust embedded in their foreheads looked just like stars in the skies, scattered around everywhere.
The brightness of every star differed due to the different amount of Natural Dust that was embedded into each sorcerer-apprentice.
During those days of being a sorcerer-apprentice, the mysterious energy from the imprint on the forehead which was able to restrain other sorcerer-apprentices seemed to be so mythical to Grimm at that time. For now, it was merely the sorcerers affecting the force of nature.
It seemed to be unthinkable on how the great sorcerers could manage to master such an ability.
That was the trait of sorcery knowledge.
When it had yet to be mastered, it seemed so far, unreachable, and unknown.
However, a sorcerer would realize how simple the theory was behind it all when all related sorcery knowledge had been mastered completely as if only covered by a layer of thin gauze. However, in order to complete the discovery, it could cost an unimaginable amount of time, material, and energy to complete the hypothetical experiments required.
So dumb.
In the future, when sorcerers had learned from the paths and knowledge that other sorcerers had explored during the past; they would not understand how could such small and simple steps would cost tens of hundreds of a sorcerer's time to discover, experiment, and conclude. In the future, it might only take a few hourglasses of the sorcerer's time to read through the collections of books on magical power that had already been discovered during the past.
For example, sorcerer-apprentice could utilize the magical power within themselves to activate Natural Force, and then cast out sorcery which would turn out to be such a simple and natural phenomenon.
Who would have ever thought…
It was the Great Necromancer from ancient times that used the time that was incomprehensible by normal human beings to summarize the Law of the Natural Force of the sorcerer world. Bit by bit, it was then developed into the Fundamental Elemental Sorcery. Was it done with the purpose of closing the gap between sorcerers and normal human beings, to lower the entry-level of being a sorcerer, and to increase the number of sorcerers?

In other words, during the ancient times, there were only communities of normal human beings and sorcerers, and sorcerer-apprentices did not exist during that time.
Hmm?
In between Grimm's deep thoughts, he was suddenly interrupted by a 'tense' battle between two sorcerer-apprentices that erupted on the ground.
There was a Tree Giant that about five meters tall, fully covered with rattan all over its body. It growled, "Haha, what now!? Genius from the Ivory Castle Sorcerer Academy... weren't you acting arrogantly just now? Why are you escaping now?! Were you frightened by the innate ability of a Dryad, little genius?"
On the other end, there was a sorcerer-apprentice who was flying at low altitude. He wore a sorcerer robe and held a magic staff, while his body was surrounded by a weak Lightning Force. His face turned red as he was unable to go face to face against the sorcerer-apprentice who had the innate ability of a Dryad.
Grimm realized that the imprint on the forehead of the sorcerer-apprentice that was flying appeared to be around 60 points, while the other sorcerer-apprentice that had the innate ability of a Dryad's bloodline was only 13 points.
"Hmm, both of them are quite gifted in their abilities. They are on par with the level of the 'Desperators' from those days, during the trials for the newcomers." Grimm had this thought in mind.
"Haha, haha…"
Lord Myna was suddenly struck by a burst of great laughter and could hardly close his mouth as if there was something funny. One of his wings clutched his stomach, while another one pointed toward the sorcerer-apprentice that transformed into a Dryad.
"Grimm, did you hear that? That little guy thought it's a pride to own the Dryads' bloodline. I could die from laughing. I bet this guy did not even know that the Dryads were only bonsai plants to sorcerers during the ancient times. They were used to guard the experiment lab and repel insects of all sorts. How could he still feel proud? This joke is killing me!"
Grimm shook his head and replied calmly, "There is nothing to be made fun of. After all the evolution that human beings had gone through, their bodies have become weaker, but their mental strength had grown stronger. Hence, they would consider such Dryads as great things."
After a short pause, Grimm continued: "Strictly speaking, he should be considered as a demi-human. During his time as a sorcerer-apprentice, he could rely on the bloodline from the other half to be stronger than others. However, it would also be more difficult for him to become an official sorcerer, if he were to be compared with any other normal sorcerer-apprentice."
"Frankly, there are countless greater lifeforms in the foreign world. Although there might be shortcomings from Bloodline Sorcery, however, the pros are greater than the cons, especially for the higher level lifeforms. This little guy here... he was so proud of his bonsai bloodline! How truly ignorant! He wouldn't even have a chance to merge with higher-level bloodlines."
Lord Myna had enough laughing, and he turned his head away from the 'drama' on the ground.
Grimm looked alarmed as he murmured to himself, "They are in the Stigmata Sorcerer's extrlarge 'Experimental Lab World' and were unable to see the bigger picture. Thus, resulting from a lack of knowledge, they are similar to those who thought that I wanted to take away the spirit of the Rain-dew Flower from their world…"
Grimm recalled past memories when he was still a sorcerer-apprentice. Hence, he did not mock the ignorance of those sorcerer-apprentices.
Suddenly, while Grimm was looking at the trials of the newcomers, he turned around and noticed that there were two sorcerers flying toward him at high speed.
One of them was a sorcerer and another was a sorceress. Grimm had never seen both of them before.
The sorcerer looked old and weary, wearing a blue-colored sorcerer's robe while holding onto a magic staff that was glowing with grayish orange flames. There was nothing odd on him, except his eyes were round and color milky like the eyes of a dead fish.
The sorceress was fully covered by refined soft metal armor. She had short hair, while a blooming much like the tail of a leopard extended from her back. Her body seemed to be fit and was surrounded by a layer of energy-filled white mist.
"Excuse me, Sorcerer, you have trespassed into Section 12 of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. This is a common training ground for sorcerer-apprentices from all six major sorcerer academies. Please identify yourself and leave this training ground now!"
The sorceress stared coldly at Grimm's eyes below his mask, as she pursed up the corners of her mouth. She sounded stern and unwelcoming.
Grimm stood before her with the appearance of a mysterious sorcerer that had golden long hair. Covered with a grayish-white mask with spiral patterns along with a Steel Emblem Myna on the shoulder, the sorceress had definitely felt the pressure and threat posed by Grimm. However, there were tens of official sorcerers around the training ground overseeing the ongoing training. Thus, the sorceress wouldn't hesitate to take on this mysterious sorcerer if the situation escalated.
"That's right, by the Black Mirror…"
The old sorcerer was halfway through his sentence when he suddenly closed his mouth. Both the sorcerer and the sorceress were visibly shocked, and they immediately performed the sorcerer's ritual to greet Grimm.
All this was a result of Grimm suddenly showing his sorcerer barriers with a Rank 3 Demon-Hunter Honor Badge on it!
Demon-Hunters represented the top tier battle power among the elemental sorcerers within the Sorcerer Continent. After they had endured the ruthless war in the foreign world and eliminated piles of corpses, they had merged combat ability into their own natural ability as a sorcerer. Hence, they were called Elite Battle Sorcerers among the elemental sorcerers.
With the addition of the Honor Badge, Grimm was already on par with the status of a Level 2 Arcane Sorcerer within the Sorcerer Continent.
In return, Grimm greeted the two Arcane Sorcerers. With his expression hidden under his mask, he replied in a deep tone, "I wish to make a trip back to Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy to visit my master. I hope I did not interrupt the elimination trials of the sorcerer-apprentices by entering this place."
Both of the Arcane Sorcerers let out a humble smile and replied, "Absolutely not! They are just a bunch of small kids."
"Master, since you were from the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy… coincidently, we also have three sorcerers from the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy, do we need to…"
Grimm shook his head, "There is no need for that. I prefer to travel on my own and I will leave now."
Grimm finished his sentence and turned around. He fled toward the direction of the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy at high speed, leaving behind the two Arcane Sorcerers who gazed at him as he fled.
A sorcerer with a level 3 Demon-Hunter Honor Badge was a rare encounter for a normal Arcane Sorcerer, and they did not always have the chance to get in contact with such an elite in the midst of a battle.
Suddenly, both of the Arcane Sorcerers looked at each other. The sorceress could not resist and asked, "Could this Demon-Hunter be here because of the Black Sorcerer Hattori the Hidden?"
"Perhaps he is. Word is, that Bone Bell Tower Academy was planning to eliminate scum from their academy and they had mobilized all of their high-level sorcerers. As a result, they outsourced two Demon-Hunters from the Holy Tower to participate in the elimination! Sigh…"
The old sorcerer let out a long sigh.
The new sorcerer-apprentices in the trials were unaware of all these things that happened beyond the restricted area and they continued with the trials to compete for their badge score.
In the eyes of these newcomers, the badge score was all they aimed for. Anything else from Black Sorcerers... the Holy Tower of Seven Rings, or even Demon-Hunters were still farfetched for them.

Chapter end