A Sorcerer's Journey 512 Pursuing Self-Will

Ten years had passed.
Even though his heart had already imagined how vast the Sorcerers World was, Grimm had yet to experience it himself with his own two feet in reality. How vast the Sorcerers World truly was!
So vast that every world Grimm had experienced in the past was incomparable to this boundlessly vast world.
Perhaps only this boundlessly vast world with such capacity could bear the weight of the Eternal Dominator's arrival.
Every night, Grimm only had a brief period of time to follow the short distance of the Tricolor Fairies' flying trail. For the past five years, Grimm knew that he had already flown past the infinite range of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. After passing by the Stigmcrater Dense Area, he had reached the Holy Tower of Four Rings in the Nightmare World.
Admiration and respect filled his heart.
In the past ten years, every broad stigmcrater and necro-crater Grimm had passed by were all parts of the Sorcerers World's history. Every stigmcrater, and every necro-crater, had their own unique background story. They were definitely not just the plain image they seemed to be in the eyes of the future generations.
"How vast the Sorcerers World is… I am too small in the midst of all this..."
The crescent moon hung high in the sky of the Nightmare World with loneliness as its company. It was as if Grimm was a lone traveler in the Nightmare World, holding the Lamp of Awakening as he pursued in the dark, pursuing the laws of a fairytale in the sky. As one of his legs was in mid air, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Flap flap flap flap....
The hundreds of Tricolor Fairies gradually flew away into a distance. Yet Grimm did not move as he stopped and observed the Nightmare World environment he was in.
The area a hundred meters away was shrouded in nightmare mists, forming a blur which emitted an ominous, suppressed breath of fear.
Compared to his earlier days of constantly feeling panicked, disgusted and revolted, Grimm had now started to get used to his identity as a Horrifying Creature in the Nightmare World. He was already used to the environments of the Nightmare World.
These familiar customs to him were just like the Sorcerers World's cycle of weather, day and night, and even the four seasons.
"No..."
Grimm suddenly shook his head as he bent over and grabbed some nightmare mire from the ground. Watching the nightmare bugs crawling between his fingers, a ray of radiance shone in his eyes.
"Falling into the Nightmare World? No… this isn't the so-called 'falling'. The Nightmare World is just a part of the Sorcerers World. Instead, it can be said that I've returned to the Sorcerers World!"
A sudden moment of realization, and a sudden change of heart.
The lonely, suppressed feeling of hiding and fleeing Grimm felt from the Dreadlord's hunt a few moments ago, was suddenly replaced by serenity. A calmness from wandering throughout the Sorcerers World and understanding the great Sorcerers World's history along with the vast universe.

The Nightmare World?
Perhaps there was a time in the Ancient Sorcerers World where, to humans or to sorcerers, nightmares were mysterious—an unknowable thing that was even feared and repelled.
However, as the Sorcerers World grew and both the worlds had started to merge and adapt to each other, the Nightmare World and the Sorcerers World became like the Abyss World underground and the Sorcerer Continent on land, both had already become a whole.
Nightmares had also become a part of the natural law in the Sorcerers World.
The Sorcerers World's humanoids that did not have nightmares did not represent a complete Sorcerers World.
Everything in the Endless World, like the relationship between the material world, the spectral world and the void world, relied on each other and could not be separated from each other.
As one viewed everything from the highest point, he could see that there was no such thing as good or bad. All there was to it was a personal, interesting and amazing journey under the laws and fate of the Endless World.
"This feeling.... maybe I can try advancing to a Level-2 Sorcerer."
The sudden sentiment allowed Grimm's accumulated knowledge, as an official Level-1 Ice Element Sorcerer, to reach a peak of confidence. It was time for him to try to advance and become a Level-2 Sorcerer.
Even if he were to fail, it would still be a wonderful experience on the journey of a Sorcerer.
As he was pondering upon this thought, Grimm looked at the corrupted trees of the forest and the blurry nightmare mists in the distance. In this silent yet empty environment of the Nightmare World, Grimm sat on the muddy ground.
Grimm took off the Mask of Truth, revealing a face that had witnessed an abundance of years that had passed. His golden locks of hair naturally flowed down as his eyes of ice and fire burned vibrantly with the light of wisdom.
Before Grimm, three books were placed.
The first book was Grimm's Destructive Force Research Notes. Grimm had devoted all of his energy in this handwritten notebook after becoming an official Sorcerer. Three sections were included in the book, including the knowledge system branch of the fire element, the knowledge system branch of the ice element and the elementary destructive force cognition.
What Grimm needed most at this moment was the ice element knowledge system branch section.
The second book was the Ice Marrow Crystallization Book that Millie gave to Grimm as a token of thanks for the time when Grimm saved her in the first Demon-Hunter expedition that took place in the Shadow World.
Due to the fact that Grimm's Great Sorcery Spell of the Three Sacred Eucharists had succeeded in replicating Millie's Ice Marrow Body, he gained the qualifications to conduct in-depth research on the Ice Marrow Crystallization process developed by Millie's father.
It was exactly due to the fact that this particularly amazing set of sorcery knowledge could aid Grimm greatly in his advancement as a Level-2 Sorcerer, that Grimm had initially planned to take an Ice Element Advancement Test after returning back to the Sorcerers World.
The third book was the Book of Grimm that was given to Grimm by the Stigmata Sorcerer of the Black Isotta Tower.
Yet the Book of Grimm at this moment had no texts or words in it, including the first page and the cover page, all pages were blank without a single word. Calling it the Book of Grimm was just for the convenient figure of speech made by Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer when it was given to him.
From what Grimm had studied, there were approximately three ways of advancing to a Level-2 Sorcerer.
One of them was the approach that most Elemental Sorcerers took, approaching advancement by undergoing an elemental transformation of the body. Through that transformation, every cell of the body would be separated from the biological trait of being creatures made of flesh and blood as they undergo a half-elemental, half-flesh biological evolution.
Normally speaking, this process could even continue for a few decades.
The second way would be similar to Fake Faceless Sorcerer or Tomb Segja.
Decomposing one's self into tens of thousands of avatars. Although he was slightly weaker in the Level-2 Sorcerer's ability to decompose and teleport elements, this way could fit perfectly with some of his existing abilities.
The third way was what most Elemental Surge Anatomy Refinery Sorcerers chose.
Utilizing elemental energy to perfuse and temper one's own body, allowing every cell to store great energy. These types of elemental sorcerers might not be able to perform elemental decomposition abilities as they only possessed elemental teleportation abilities, they were able to store and save the self-evolution potential within the cells.
There were various ways as to how other Elemental Sorcerers advanced but those ways of advancement were only suitable for a minority of specialized Sorcerers.
As for Grimm, he would naturally choose the third way of advancement, which was the advancement through perfusing and tempering cells in the body.
This way of advancement required the least amount of time and only required a momentary breakthrough of extreme mental strength.
***
A layer of ice crystals gradually began to spread in all directions.
The nightmare mire beneath Grimm started to freeze as a layer of white snow covered the pure black nightmare mire. The frost law throughout the Nightmare World had started to form a whirlpool as it converged towards Grimm.
Yet, even with the cold around Grimm, who seemed like an ice fairy at the moment, he felt like he was soaking in a wonderful hot spring.
Gradually, a blizzard started to form around Grimm, freezing him layer by layer in an iceberg about ten meters high. Grimm silently closed his eyes in the iceberg as he strived to undergo an advancement in a Sorcerer's life stage.
At this moment, Grimm could feel that every cell in his body was filled with Ice Elemental Energy. The energy was so full that it had reached the peak of his own ice elemental knowledge.
However, when compared to the energy needed for each cell to advance to a Level-2 Sorcerer, it was far from enough. In other words, the accumulated ice elemental knowledge Grimm had was far from enough for him to become a Level-2 Sorcerer.
Suddenly, Grimm opened his eyes in the iceberg!
"Crack!" The rhombus-shaped ice crystals on his forehead shattered into little pieces of ice crystals as they melted in the iceberg. A tumbling sound could be heard from the inside of the iceberg. The ten meter tall iceberg started to shrink and concentrate into nine meters, eight meters, seven meters, six meters....
When five meters were left, the concentration process in the iceberg came to a stop.
At that moment, every cell in Grimm's body was bursting with shocking Ice Elemental Energy. However, under Grimm's mental control, he did not attempt the approach of the half-flesh, half-elemental biological transformation and instead sustained the flesh vitality in the cells to control this Ice Elemental Energy.
Finally, Grimm vaguely felt a familiar leverage law.
This was...
In between Grimm's flesh vitality and his mental strength, another leverage law was set up. Instinctively, Grimm chose to lower his mental strength to increase his flesh vitality in order for each cell in his body to gain a greater control over the enormous Ice Elemental Energy within them.
After a few breaths, Grimm's mental strength was lowered to the level of 40 mental strength points of an Apex Sorcerer-Apprentice.
However, right at that moment, there was a huge increase in Grimm's life vitality. His hair was glowing—his face radiant as his body emitted an unbelievable will of growth in life. It was as if the life desired in an adolescence was erupting like a volcano.
"Now!"
Boom! The shrinking iceberg cracked into pieces as Grimm yelled out. The ice pieces were shattered into a far away distance as they landed on the surface of the Nightmare World.
Grimm's shocking life vitality was rapidly lowering, consumed as he attempted to surpass the 100 point limit of a Level-1 Sorcerer's mental strength limit.
50 mental strength points, 60 mental strength points, 70 mental strength points...
As if it were second nature to him, Grimm reached the 100 point mental strength limit of a Level-1 Sorcerer in no time. Grimm growled as an inner self-will from a deep part of his soul was being stimulated by force.
A soul could be separated into two parts—an Instinctive Life Will and an Emotional Life Will. What Grimm was doing was evolving his self-will over his life instincts.
This was the other source of a sorcerer's active evolution, besides proactively pursuing knowledge.

Chapter end