A Sorcerer’s Journey

*Bzzz…*

Glenn felt his body twist before reopening his eyes. Though he still stood on the top of the stone pillar, the breadth of it had become much greater.

This tall pillar approximately spanned 1 kilometer in width and was divided into two sides.

One side was the place Glenn stood while the other side had three Otherworld Beings of the same type as the corpses under his foot, flying in midair. A transparent layer of defense kept the two sides separated.

The entire defensive cover was similar to an enormous, upside-down saucepan lid with the middle separated. Glenn and the three Otherworld Beings looked toward their respective opposite sides.

Glenn glanced behind him. There was haze beneath the pillar, actually giving off the sense that they were located somewhere high enough to be in the clouds.

Hm?

Glenn used his hands to lightly touch the defensive cover behind him. He closed his eyes and meticulously experienced and studied the energy waves, actually sensing that it was a greatly enlarged version of his own Ashen Mask’s defensive cover. There weren’t any attributes to the energy but it had a fantastic capability to counteract large attacks.

“You, you… this little Sorcerer. How could you kill them?” A noisy and deranged spiritual voice was transmitted to Glenn’s mind. His brows slightly arched as he sized up the three Otherworld Beings in front of him with his gaze behind the Ashen mask.

So it was three creatures of school guardian rank…

However, Glenn discovered that each of the three Otherworld Beings appeared to have a few injuries. One of them had injuries that were comparatively heavy—a section of its left wing was severed as well as a claw which appeared to have been recently chopped off, blood flowing out from it. Speaking of the other two, one of them seemed to be under some kind of curse and incessantly sneezed as it continuously lost feathers from its plumage; the other appeared to have been afflicted with some kind of voodoo spell, its breathing somewhat disorderly.

The current condition of these three could not match up to a school guardian, so if he were to coordinate with the other Sorcerer-Apprentices…

What?

That’s not right!

Why was it that, up until now, he was the only one sent here?

Remaining still at the same place he had arrived at, Glenn immediately looked left and right. No less than several ten breaths’ time of searching later, space suddenly distorted as Earth Heart Wicky appeared. While Glenn was startled, he raised an outstretched hand with the intent to say something. Wicky, however, merely glanced left and right before confirming that only Glenn was here, and unexpectedly broke the badge in his hand without the slightest hesitation.

Space once again distorted, Wicky disappeared, and Glenn had several more points.

Glenn’s lips were parted but hadn’t produced a sound whatsoever, his hand that had been extended out in greeting also paused in midair. Underneath the Ashen Mask, his eyes could only foolishly gaze at the empty area where Wicky had left from.

Afterward, over half an hourglass of time, there were 7-8 students that randomly arrived. Yet every student, upon ascertaining that only Glenn was at this competition stage, broke their badges right away with the barest hesitation. There was even one person who had even said, “Oh, it’s you as expected…”

For these students to have arrived here they would have needed to possess a certain degree of power and were absolutely not weak individuals. Each of them ought to have points amounting to two-thousand or higher.

Glenn’s points constantly increased by increments but his face showed no joy whatsoever. Beneath the Ashen Mask, his eyes instead gradually turned apathetic.

Eventually, there were no more students being transported, and the number on Glenn’s forehead had risen to a terrifying number—49581 points.

Perhaps the reason why these Sorcerer-Apprentices came here once was merely out of a wish to confirm whether the frightening sorcerer had really come, never having planned to vie over the top reward on this competition stage. Anyway, since they were already unable to get first place, superfluous points would also not be useful in any way.

After half an hourglass of time, a burst of strange energy engulfed this big competition stage and a voice was heard in the depths of Glenn’s mind.

“The students on the competition stage, the way to the platform has already closed. You all can fight for each other’s points during the quarter of an hourglass’ time. Following that will be the showdown with the Otherworld life forms across from you. An alliance can also be formed to defeat those Otherworld Beings. Take note that leaving the competition at this moment is the same as losing half your accumulated points.”

There was a clear hint in this transmitted message.

Because previously, in one of these messages, it was mentioned that the Otherworld Beings also possessed the ability to steal points. Furthermore, the Otherworld Beings could wholeheartedly unite against outsiders since they only had a single goal. That is, attaining freedom and surviving.

On the other hand, the students here had all kinds of internal disputes.

So much so that if the students on the competition stage all failed, the top prize could even possibly fall to a Sorcerer-Apprentice who didn’t join the competition stage. If such a thing were to truly happen, the great embarrassment might end up becoming dark history that would haunt the students of the competition stage for their entire life.

Yet!

At this very moment in the Seven Ring Holy Tower’s 11th to 15th District competition stage…

From behind his mask, Glenn sneeringly muttered, “‘Students’?”

Glenn gazed at the empty area around him. In such a big space there was only one person. The entire Holy Tower Tryouts once again had no one bold enough to fight over the highest position with him. Even as he looked incomparably prideful, at the same time, at the bottom of Glenn’s heart was born an indescribable sense of solitude and loss.

This should have been a most spectacular moment, but there weren’t any people to share points with. There weren’t even any so-called rivals.

This… was just like the loneliness of the summit.

The lonely atmosphere that was born let Glenn finally realize the feeling that was behind Hill Wood’s attitude of never looking behind him, that domineering and solitary sense.

When his capabilities reached the point the peers around him all had no intention to compete with him. When everyone feared him. When he couldn’t find a single opponent he could treat as his equal. What goal and meaning was there for him?

Even attempting to advance to a formal sorcerer required the wait of several decades after the Holy Tower Tryouts.

…

Heh heh!

Glenn abruptly made a strange smile as he slowly raised his head. In this somewhat hard to describe wicked, cold and lonely atmosphere, Glenn peacefully looked toward the three Otherworld Beings on the other side of the competition stage. In an instant, these three Otherworld Beings suddenly felt that Glenn had seemed to somewhat change. In the indistinct shadow behind Glenn, there actually appeared the strange aura of that terrifying sorcerer who had kidnapped “their people” to this place. The “young and weak” sorcerer in front of them exuded a subtle sense of oppression.

At that moment, the three Otherworld Beings actually felt a trace of instinctual fear!

This… was the fear towards a sorcerer.

“You puny sorcerer, you are only by yourself and have no hope. Hurry up and leave, okay!” One of the Otherworld Beings actually began to “advise” Glenn. Only, there was a quaver in the spiritual waves it had transmitted, making its words seem to lack persuasiveness.

Kekekeke…

As he let out a grim and sinister laughter, Glenn actually licked his lips while coldly saying in the middle of the spiritual waves, “Exploration… is forever the true essence of a sorcerer.”

Having said this, Glenn unexpectedly squatted down and lifted up the Otherworld Being’s corpse he had previously half-studied. He parted its dissected abdomen and pulled out a fistful of organs dripping with blood and smiled viciously. “On the subject of this organ, it had perhaps evolved to take an irreplaceably important function in the past. However in your bodies right now, it’s started to atrophy and become non-essential. My guess… is that it surely became this way after the Sorcerer World occupied your world, right?”

Glenn’s action and words immediately caused the plumage of these Otherworld Beings to turn red, apparently caused by the increased flow of vital energy and blood upon being angered.

“Stop. Hurry and stop; you are treating the great Redhowl Crow Tribe with profane insult!” An Otherworld Being shrieked at Glenn through spiritual waves.

Glenn didn’t pay the slightest of attention to it.

He simply cut the bloody organ in his hand and dragged it out with a “pop” sound. Glenn exposed a hair-raising, excited smile as he looked askance at the three Otherworld Beings, making them give off sharp howls, but despite that, they basically remained unmoved. He proceeded to once again take out a bloody organ and said, “This organ. From observing your body structure, it should be the female reproductive organ, right? These arteries and veins with this structure… hm? Are you actually viviparous? I had initially thought you were oviparous organisms, you know? Keke…”

What was in Glenn’s hand at that moment was actually an undeveloped and whole Otherworld Being’s fetus!

This fetus was taken out from within the organ that Glenn had just dissected. Glenn’s entire expression showed sinister excitement as he displayed his harvest.

“RAAGH! Wicked sorcerer! Filthy sorcerer! Even if we die, you will also die to pay the price for your actions!” The Otherworld Beings exploded with a jumbled spiritual wave.

“Even though our great Redhowl Crow Tribe and Crow-Forest Moon World were conquered, the great Redhowl Crow Tribe will never disappear from the endless world!” Another Otherworld Being also shrieked.

Glenn took the fetus specimen and simply wrapped it up well as he taunted in a disdainful tone, “There’s already too many specimens of the Sorcerer World that have said similar words!”

Meanwhile, as he watched the three being’s eyes that were alight with hostility, Glenn silently thought, ‘This level of hatred ought to be enough…’

*Pop!*

Following a sharp and clear noise, the defensive layer separating Glenn and the three Otherworld Beings opposite him abruptly burst open just like a bubble. With scarcely any hesitation whatsoever, the three Otherworld Beings pounced with terrifying auras toward Glenn at once, appearing to want to thoroughly tear Glenn into pieces.

Suddenly a black flame gradually rose from Glenn’s side. Immediately following, a six-meters tall Greed Flame Giant was born.

The Greed Flame Giant had already successfully devoured the hatred Glenn had intentionally provoked from the three Otherworld Beings, greatly increasing its strength. So much so that it would be able to suppress a school guardian and an ordinary Level One Lianti Sorcerer.

*RAWR!*

The terrifying, berserk Greed Flame Giant stopped by Glenn’s side and Glenn unexpectedly got a feeling of insignificance.

It was as if at this very moment, the Greed Flame Giant was the protagonist of this space. Following the Greed Flame Giant’s action of sweeping across a 4-meter huge water and lightning sword held by its giant hand, lightning power rippled and dispersed everywhere.

…

An hourglass of time had passed.

In the exact center of the competition stage, traces of blood saturated a wide area along with the fishy stench of dark-red blood revolving in the air. One body after another lay scattered around; the Otherworld Beings’ corpses were lying down calmly and quietly.

At this very moment, only Glenn still stood firm and upright in such a big competition stage. He was emitting his own unique life fluctuations, even though these life waves were quite feeble.

Glenn wore a wretched smile as he gazed at this spacious, empty and quiet competition stage.

This… was really the competition stage the Holy Tower had set up for the Sorcerer-Apprentices to contend for the top reward?

Holy Tower competition? Compete with who!

*KACHA*

A several hundred meters pitch-black crack suddenly burst open in the dusky sky without cause. Subsequently, a huge eye slowly opened from behind that rift. In the split second this huge eye looked towards Glenn, he completely lost consciousness.

Dimly, Glenn seemed to hear a voice. “A guy with sixty-thousand points? Not bad…”

*RUMBLE!*

The chain mark on Glenn’s forehead suddenly transformed to a halo without any energy whatsoever. It seemed to be some kind of higher grade chain mark and status symbol; after all, Glenn’s heavily damaged body was rapidly healed by the mystical energy of the halo.