A Sorcerer's Journey 305 Thousand Birds Frost Burs

Twenty years later.
Grimm's experimental observation of Destructive Energy required him to repeatedly replenish the high-density gel block within the crystal vessel. The replenishment process was extremely time-consuming as the gel needed to solidify into its block state after sealing its liquid form into the vessel. As such, Grimm drew up several other plans on the side to improve his own strengths while the main operation went on.
Prior to Grimm's expedition into the Shadow Enigmatic World, he had amassed a number of ancient voodoo scrolls to aid the enhancement of his physique. This means that his research advancement on basic voodoo knowledge lagged far behind that of modern sorcerers.
As such, if Grimm did not devote more time and effort delving into voodoo knowledge, even his field of Intoxication Sorcery was at risk of ending there and then.
However, it was apparent to Grimm the impracticality of taking the time to conduct large scale Intoxication Sorcery experiments before achieving any breakthroughs in his Destructive Energy experiment.
For the time being, Grimm had halted further work researching in Refinery Sorcery.
This means that except for the case where Grimm accidentally unlocked the First Stage Wild Instinct that greatly boosted his physical strength, his stats in Intoxication Sorcery remained unchanged.
Grimm was deep in thought as he stared deep into the black crystal ball, observing his personal stats.
Mental Strength: 100
Magic Power: 929~1093
Constitution: 389
Stamina: 189~237
Strength: 157~569
Vitality: 150~189
In terms of his mental strength, Grimm had already reached the maximum limits for that of Level 1 sorcerers. There cannot be further additions to his hundred points in mental strength until he rises into Level 2 sorcerer.
To Grimm's own knowledge, there were three research approaches one could use in order to ascend into a Level 2 sorcerer.
The first approach, which the majority of Elemental Sorcerers leaned towards, was to perform Elemental Modification on one's own body. This modification separates individual cells of the body from its pure flesh and blood essence, evolving the person into a half-elemental, half-flesh and blood being.
This was the key method for performing both Elemental Decomposition and Elemental Teleportation as a Level 2 Elemental Sorcerer.
The second approach was similar to that used by the Fake Faceless Nilmar or the Tomb Segja, which was by breaking apart oneself into tens of thousands of avatars. Although this method was slightly inferior to that of Level 2 Elemental Sorcerers' Elemental Decomposition and Elemental Teleportation, it was a method that allowed the evolution to match perfectly with one's own abilities.
The third approach was the method Elemental Surge Anatomy Refinery Sorcerers used.
This method utilizes Elemental Energy to perfuse and temper one's own body, allowing each individual cell to store large amounts of energy. Although Elemental Sorcerers of this kind only possess the Elemental Teleportation ability, and not the Elemental Decomposition ability, the sorcerer still could completely retain the evolution potential stored within his own cells.

Although there were many other methods available to Elemental Sorcerers for climbing the ranks, they were mostly reserved for the tiny fraction of sorcerers that conduct specialized research.
As for Grimm, his choice naturally leaned towards the third approach of becoming a Level-2 sorcerer.
To his surprise, Grimm had discovered that the Ice Marrow Crystallisation skill, as well as the background knowledge on it, which was passed onto him by Mina was somehow incredibly useful for his evolution process.
Was he going down the path of becoming a Level-2 Frost Elemental Sorcerer?
The Frost Elemental branch of sorcery had very obvious perks including easy breakthroughs in advancing one's skills in crafting seals, strong elementalization abilities, a virtually indestructible defence mechanism, brute strength attack abilities…
However, the matter of advancing into a Level-2 sorcerer was still something very far away to mull over.
This was such because Grimm's accumulation of knowledge from his experiments and research on the Frost Element was still far from enough for him to perform Elemental Tempering on his own body.
The other thing would be Grimm's own constitution.
In comparison with his constitution points of 325 right before the Shadow Enigmatic World Expedition, Grimm's current constitution was at 389 thanks to his accidental unlocking of Level 1 Wild Instinct.
With such a strong structure, not to mention Grimm's large scale refinery back during the Shadow Enigmatic World Expedition, coupled with his original stamina, strength, and vitality levels, everything far surpassed his current stats. However, due to nearly a hundred years of being in a trapped state under the Prison Seal, he had grown multitudes weaker.
Ignoring other aspects, focusing on Grimm's maximum offensive power alone was enough to show the disparity in strength.
Grimm estimated that at his peak abilities back at the Shadow Enigmatic World, his maximum offensive power nearly reached 750 points. As for his current state, his maximum had dropped to a measly 569 points only.
What's more was that Grimm's current level of offense power was only such after twenty full years of careful recovery and training.
Grimm couldn't bear to see himself fall to such a sad state as he left the Seven Rings prison.
After a while of thinking while staring into the crystal ball, Grimm stood up and murmured to himself as he tucked away the crystal ball. "Knowledge about the Ice Marrow Crystallization Sorcery, Grimm's Elemental Staff 2.0 Official Version, second stage works on the Mask of Truth, Modifications on the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft, the continuation of Chimera experiments on the Shadow Hedgehog, the Demonic Blood Moss, the Golden Flame, as well as the experimental specimens that guarantee some degree of personal skill growth…"
Massaging his temples, Grimm once again murmured, "The list of things to do is not a small one indeed. A hundred years spent in the Seven Rings prison as punishment is really a shame to think about."
After a great sigh, Grimm took out the Ice Marrow Crystallization Sorcery scroll given to him by Millie. Unrolling it, he continued his research in the skillset. Some of the knowledge written in the scroll was evidently from higher-level sorcerers that specialized in the field of Ice Marrow Body research.
Needless to say, who else could this higher-ranking sorcerer be except for Mina and Millie's dear father?
As for the pesky Myna, he must have gone to Angelis' place to play for the day. The fact that Angelis was one of the Dawn Sages, despite being a mere Level 1 sorcerer, indicated that this Bright Sorcerer possessed some extraordinary talents.
***
Fifteen years later.
Inside the spatial fragment of Grimm's Demon-Hunter Castle.
The Golden Breedsnot Tree on the lone island had come to bear some Golden Breedsnot Fruits, roughly thirty of them. Each roughly needing one to two hundred years to fully mature.
Out of the other three Golden Breedsnot Trees that Grimm planted later on, two had started thriving, each growing into a seven to eight-meter tall sapling. Only one remained unwilling to grow into a fruit-bearing tree.
Grimm, who had just returned from his imprisonment at the Seven Rings Prison, snatched and drank away the juice of the fruits which were under the protection of the Raindew Flower Spirits in frustration.
As for the world war declared by the Raindew Flower Spirits?
Myna already had it covered…
With the exception of the three Golden Breedsnot Trees as well as some plant specimens that littered the small island, the other most eye-catching object was a Camphoragate Treehole shaped like an upright loaf of bread.
This was the experimental result after Grimm's tenuous selection of Camphoragate insect specimens.
Back during his apprenticeship days, Grimm loved experimenting with the Ground Bud seeds exchanged from Sorceress Elaine using his Love Vials. Now that Grimm had become a real sorcerer, Ground Buds were no longer suitable for him to use as an experimental material. It just so happened that the Camphoragate insects that created the extensive underground burrows had come into Grimm's possession as a replacement for the Ground Buds.
Being able to maneuver around the fleshy, fatty walls freely in the underground burrows and performing sneak attacks in pitch black environments. In this kind of habitat, Grimm could potentially kill off a Level-2 creature or two with ease using these tactics.
However, on this day, Grimm had not appeared on the small island, although he had personally descended into this World Fragment.
On the black surface of the water, Grimm took a deep breath before removing the Mask of Truth, revealing a calm, resolute face underneath.
In the center of Grimm's forehead, a diamond-shaped light shimmered brightly.
This is one of Millie's unique identifiers, the Ice Marrow Crystallization.
The Ice Marrow Crystal possesses the ability to release a huge wave of energy, greater than what the sorcerer was able to release at his or her current level. Such a strong outburst of energy however, required a class of sorcery capable of carrying the ability out and form a base for the energy's release.
For Millie, this sorcery would be the Ice Age Seal within the Ice Phoenix, which was then paired up with the Ice Marrow Crystallization ability.
In Grimm's case, it was virtually impossible for him to master such an elaborate sorcery skill as the Ice Age Seal within such a short timespan. However, he still clung to the hope that the Ice Marrow Crystallisation could, in some way come to good use in the upcoming Demon-Hunting Expedition.
So, Grimm had created, based on his own understanding, a "Dumb Sorcery" of his own.
Taking in another deep breath, Grimm crossed his arms in front of his chest and roared, "Thousand Birds Frost Burst!"
After a dazzling ray of light, a "ding" was heard from the diamond-shaped ice crystal in the middle of Grimm's forehead, before ice debris started accumulating. And in an instant, Grimm felt an unbelievable burst of Frost Elemental energy surge from within his body.
At that moment, Grimm was like a lone sailboat pressing on across rough seas.
His blonde hair erected from the outburst of magic. His eyebrows and hair all became dyed snow-white in the next instant. A large amount of frost started condensing as white snowflakes circled the air around Grimm, turning the chilled air into a small whirlpool, whistling as it spun around.
"Ah!"
Biting his lips, Grimm had now come to experience the impending, uncontrollable sensation Millie and Mina must have felt when they performed the same spell. After screaming out and opening up his arms, a large mass of cold wind and ice crystals merged into a concoction which then formed into thousands of Ice Birds.
Each Ice Bird, was a direct copy of Grimm's Firebird.
"Hmph!"
With a loud grunt, the dense pack of Ice Birds started rushing forward, like a flowing glacier moving toward a specified direction Grimm had pointed out.
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack…
The sheet of ice that formed on the surface of the sea had cracked open. After a short moment, a small iceberg had formed on the water surface.
As the magic gradually dissipated, Grimm looked at the newly-formed iceberg, slightly out of breath from the sorcery he had just performed. This wasn't some kind of seal. Hell, it wasn't even the kind of sorcery that could harm enemies.
The only use Grimm could think of for this ability is that should he meet some kind of undefeatable Level-2 or Level-3 creature in the next demon-hunting expedition, he could use it to block attacks and buy some time for him to escape.
After showing a satisfied smile on his face, Grimm's silhouette blurred as he left the World Fragment.
It's just that this Ice Marrow Crystallization ability would take exactly one year for Grimm to replenish before using it again...

Chapter end