A Sorcerer's Journey 269 The Sorcerer's Nightmare Civilization?

Beneath all this lay… the Tower of Ruins?
When Grimm regained consciousness, he was already above the skies of a spectral world constructed from mental energy.
The pure-black seal formed a huge funnel. Grimm rested on top of the huge funnel. An unending stream of magical forces poured down from above, washing over Grimm's body again and again. The magical forces flowed along the funnel and down into the spectral world.
Sometimes, a scream could be heard from the magical forces that were washing Grimm's body. The screams came from Grimm's claw-marked bruises as they were being washed away by the unending stream of magical energy. The magical energy would then carry the bruises into the mind energy realm of the Tower of Ruins below where they would be sealed off.
"The rate of magical consumption...what a waste…"
Even though he let out a sigh, Grimm was still very grateful to Black Isotta.
Yes, thus, the feeling of a body that was saturated with magical powers…
"Perhaps I should take this opportunity and test out the hypotheses that I had in mind for years."
As he thought about this, Grimm struggled to stand up under the stream of magical power. Between the skin of his fingernail, a symbiotic insect emerged, quickly followed by a preserved jar of blood from another hand.
The jar of blood was a gift along with Myna that Millie had presented to Grimm during the Holy Tower Qualification Battles.
The sisters Mina, the Sun Child, and Millie of the Ice Age, who each controlled fire and ice, were the polar opposites when it came to elemental combination. Theoretically, they were also conflicting elements that could produce a higher rate of destructive forces.
Although Grimm had obtained some natural talents from his three great sorceries during his apprenticeship, he could only source for materials that were near to him. He was able to gain Millie's Essence of Ice Body, but as for the Sun Child who was far beyond his powers, it was almost impossible.
But now, Grimm would wish to evolve his trio of great sorceries into a quad. He had no idea of how long it would take to restore the vitality codes. For Grimm, who had just recently acquired the essence of the ice body, going further to master Millie's ice crystallization spell didn't seem too practical.
Hence, Grimm thought of modifying his three great sorceries.
Modification, in this context, was to substitute the vitality codes of the three elemental abilities with another similar ability. For example, Millie's ice elemental essence of the ice body could be replaced with Brianna's runic boiling water ability.
As such, there would be fewer changes to the vitality codes, while keeping the damage to the vitality code to an absolute minimum.
Since the ice element is a derivative of the water element, there was some foundational basis for his plan of modifying his spells.
However, if Grimm's previous calculations were correct, the experiment to modify vitality codes would consume a great amount of magical power. Grimm would have to spend an unbelievable amount of sorcerer's essence just to be able to get hold of high quality and extremely precious energy stones to complete the modification.

But now…
Grimm could tap into the endless stream of magical power that was washing his body. He now had the most perfect base for an experiment!
"Heehee, little one, don't you have anything to ask about the Bizarre Nightmare civilization?"
The Black Isotta excitedly asked Grimm as he stood above the boundary of the black funnel. He was releasing the unending stream of magical energy as he played around with an alien specimen.
Grimm, who was conducting an experiment under the magical stream, opened his eyes.
Questions about Nightmare civilization?
After pondering for a moment, Grimm asked," How did the ancient sorcerers defeat the Bizarre Nightmarish civilization?"
"Heehee, I knew you would ask this."
Grimm couldn't see the old sorcerer's expression clearly as the space around him continued to collapse. He could only see the old sorcerer waving his hand before muttering in an eerie voice. "Truth be told, the ancient sorcerers have never really defeated the Bizarre Nightmare civilization."
"That's impossible!"
Grimm was in disbelief. "But in the history books, why was it written…"
The old sorcerer interrupted Grimm's question. In a teasing voice, he said, "Little one, let me ask you this. Now that you've been cursed by the Nightmare Shadows, you should know by now that there are two parts to the Bizarre Nightmare civilization, namely the Bizarre World and the Nightmare World?
Grimm nodded. He had previously received the same intelligence from Tomb Segia and Master Deidarion.
The old sorcerer continued. "Therefore, although the ancient sorcerers had completely defeated the Bizarre World, they couldn't completely kill off the elusive creatures from the Nightmare World, which lingered between the real and illusory worlds. Instead, these sly creatures that lived in the dream worlds had succeeded in finding a host for their Nightmare World in the Sorcerer World. They intend to turn the Sorcerer World into a Sorcerer's Nightmare World.
And that's why I said that the ancient sorcerers had never actually defeated the Bizarre Nightmare civilization. They were preserved in the apparitions of the Sorcerer's Nightmare civilization."
"What do you mean?" Grimm couldn't understand the old sorcerer's jumbled words.
"Simply put, each and every sorcerer of the sorcerer world are potential carriers of the Nightmarish Shadows. Beneath every bed lurk the shadows of the Nightmare world. The final goal of the Nightmare creatures was to take control of the sorcerer's world, a world much stronger than the Bizarre world in order to preserve their special means of parasitic evolution."
As the Black Isotta spoke, he took out a claw-marked bruise from Grimm's body and placed it within a black seal.
The claw mark kept hitting the edges of the black seal in a futile manner.
The old sorcerer continued with some cynicism in his voice. "In the eyes of all Stigmata sorcerers, these invincible and tough-looking Nightmare creatures are nothing but a bunch of energy parasites.
If you don't understand them, you would think that they are invincible devils. But once you understand them, you'll find they're nothing but a bunch of cockroaches and fleas. They could never even take over one of the sorcerer's apprentice!"
"How is that?" Grimm was stunned.
"Because there's a limit to the mental energy of the types of beings that they can manipulate. The crystal ball shows the highest limit of ten. But since the Nightmare world is much weaker now, it would be difficult for them to control even a creature with the mental energy level of five."
The old sorcerer shook his head casually.
Grimm had an epiphany. Could this be the reason why the sorcerer's academy would only pick people who had the mental energy level of above ten to become their apprentices?
As he saw Grimm in deep contemplation, the old sorcerer continued. "Even if you were to be pulled into the Nightmare world, these bunch of parasites would only make you unconscious. There's no way for them to control you and once you've become a Stigmata sorcerer, you would be able to suppress all the Nightmare creatures of the illusory world. You could even become what they call by the King of Terror."
Grimm pursed his lips. He didn't say a word. He was still in deep contemplation, but there was a sense of yearning in his eyes.
The old sorcerer stopped mentioning the Nightmare world. Instead, he pointed at the Alien specimen that was floating above. He smiled coldly. "Hehe! Have you seen the interesting structure of the specimen's internal organs?"
Grimm looked at where the old sorcerer pointed. It was an unknown part of the hovering skeletal specimen.
Grimm nodded cluelessly.
"This is the Bizarre creature's most important organ according to the ancient sorcerers' records: the egg pouch. The Bizarres have a most peculiar and primal way of evolving. They enjoy killing a bunch of creatures that are stronger than them before sucking out their blood. From there, they would split into multiple larvae which are stronger than their mother."
Grimm listened quietly. He was trying to imagine how the Bizarre lifeform originally looked.
"The ancient sorcerers had to face these terrifying Bizarre lifeforms. The weakest of them were at rank two. The Bizarre life forms relied upon Amino bugs to cast their curses. They had strong constitutions that were beyond the imagination of ancient mechanical sorcerers and dark sorcerers. They were also in possession of the secrets to manipulate natural forces. The weak sorcerer's world never stood a chance…"
After pausing for a moment, the old sorcerer smiled coldly. "Back then, the ancient sorcerers wouldn't have known that before the Nightmare world had taken up the Bizarre world. They had been to countless other worlds before finally choosing these Bizarre creatures which had unlimited evolutionary potential. The Bizarre Nightmare civilization was already a mature civilization, and yet the sorcerer's civilization was still in its infancy. How could they have fought back?"
Black Isotta's question seemed to be pointed toward Grimm. Grimm couldn't help but throw the question right back at him. "How?"
The old sorcerer pointed at the Bizarre life form's egg pouch. "The answer lies here."
After pausing for a moment, the old sorcerer continued. "The ancient sorcerers who have broken the arcane elemental forces and curse of the Bizarres finally found the clue to defeating the Bizarres. It was their evolutionary method!"
Grimm was stunned. There was a flash across his eyes. The answer suddenly came flooding on him!
The Bizarres hunted in packs. After killing an enemy that was stronger than them, they would suck the blood off and split into multiple larvae that were much stronger than their mother.
However, the sorcerers from the sorcerer's world evolved through knowledge!
That was to say when a great Stigmata Sorcerer had been killed, the first generation of Bizarres would suck his blood and split into the second generation of larvae through their egg pouch. They would only become creatures that had constitutions of less than ten… utter garbage!
Perhaps there was some exaggeration in his assumptions, but those second-generation Bizarres must've suffered a great collapse in their strength.
Hence, once the ancient sorcerers had made a great sacrifice for the first time while momentarily holding off the first generation of the Bizarres' invasion, fighting off the second-generation Bizzares that had "evolved" would then be a pure massacre!
Could it be that the many fragmented worlds that surrounded the sorcerers' world were actually sacrificial grounds created during the first civilizational war? Could this have happened when they were trying to hold off the first generation of the Bizarre invaders?
After the sacrificial battles, the first generation of Bizarres that had absorbed the blood of Stigmata sorcerers, even the great Necromancer, had started to "evolve" wildly, splitting into the second generation of "garbage" Bizarres. What followed was nothing less but a bloodbath…
Now, Grimm finally had a true understanding of the ancient sorcerer's first civilizational war, which was the history of how the sorcerer's world developed in its infancy.
One could only imagine... the sacrifices that the sorcerers had to make to hold off the powerful Bizarres with their ancient mechanical marionettes for the survival of the sorcerer's world; the fierce battles that had ruptured the world into countless fragments.
It was due to the noble sacrifices of the ancient sorcerers that gave rise to the growth of the sorcerer's world today.
By studying how the Bizarre life forms manipulated the forces of nature, the elemental sorcerers were born. By combining the sorcerer's evolutionary method, which was through knowledge, they shaped the modern elemental sorcerers that we now came to know.
By studying the curse spells of the Amino bugs, the symbiotic insect civilization of the elemental sorcerers were born. No longer confined to Amino bugs, tens of thousands of symbiotic insects were soon developed.
After noticing that Grimm had understood all that was laid before him, the old sorcerer moved the alien specimen around and spoke calmly. "Hence, in the future, if you are able to become a Stigmata sorcerer and remove the curse, you should spend more time in the Nightmare world. Although you can't destroy them completely, we can infinitely lower the mental energy level that these parasitic Nightmare creatures have close to zero once the many generations of sorcerers keep weakening them..."
Grimm knew that the old sorcerer was making fun of him. He smiled bitterly.
Two days later.
Grimm, who was still under the stream of magical energies, eventually opened his eyes. He exclaimed with joy, "I've finally completed modifying the life codes of my three sorceries. After a while, I should be able to try out some of Millie's ice crystallization spells."
Thinking that a diamond-shaped crystal would appear on his forehead like Millie's, Grimm laughed excitedly.
On the other side, Black Isotta who was on top of the black funnel glared at Grimm and yelled out, "Little one, if it weren't for Peranos, you would have had to work for me for a thousand years to get back all the magical power that I've wasted! Hmph!
Now, I've sealed the curse, but I will only supply the seal with magical energy for seven thousand years."
As Grimm caught hold of a sheep's skull, a blur ran across his eyes. He reappeared on the ninety-ninth floor of Black Isotta.

Chapter end