A Sorcerer’s Journey

Chapter 397: Level Two Savage Flame Giant

Fifteen years later.

As the lecture session of one hourglass came to an end, Grimm wrapped up the lesson he was teaching on the fundamental configuration laws of the Fire Elemental runes. Now that class was over, Grimm did not care if the apprentices were unable to understand his lesson or if they could not keep up with his extremely convoluted train of thought. He walked straight out of the lecture hall from the platform he was lecturing on without even turning back to look at his students.

“Mentor Grimm!”

Suddenly, a young lady behind him called out to Grimm, prompting him to slow down his footsteps. His eyes, shining like two little balls of different-colored flames underneath the Mask of Truth glanced back at this young sorcerer-apprentice that called out to him.

This female sorcerer-apprentice definitely had guts for her to call out to Grimm like that. More likely than not, she must have had a strong web of connections in this sorcerer academy. It was Dark Sorcerers like this young lady here that Grimm from back then was desperately trying to distance himself from.

The apprentice had a pair of large yet single-lidded, almond-shaped eyes glowing in the color of amber. Her eye color was nicely complemented by her orange-tan colored curly hair. The complexion of her skin was pale and delicate as if intricately moulded from porcelain. Her slender figure shrouded underneath that cerulean sorcerer’s robe naturally exuded an air of femininity. When she stood next to Grimm, the top of her head was right around the bridge of his nose, meaning they were not so far apart in terms of their height.

His eyes narrowed with a tinge of suspicion.

Grimm did not have much time to spare, what more to say of wasting it on building a superficial and meaningless relationship with this sorcerer-apprentice, who by the way, had exceptionally short lifespans relative to himself.

Now that the young lady had caught Grimm’s attention, she did the customary sorcerer’s greeting before her lips curved into a subtle smile, “Respected Mentor Grimm, I must say, your lecture was fascinating. Never in my life have I had so much fun in a class before. I have sought, though to no avail, in the second and third floor of the Isotta Tower for an arranged one-on-one lecture from you. I was thinking perhaps…”

Grimm shook his head before she had even finished her sentence, urging her to stop her persuasive act.

“I am merely a substitute mentor working temporarily at this academy. The existing lectures are arranged by the laws and by no means am I under any obligation to do above and beyond what I have been assigned with. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

Grimm went through with his rejection hurriedly for he was anxious about the results of his experiment back in his laboratory.

‘Not long ago I had just taken a disciple under my wing and trained him for more than a decade, only to find out about his death immediately upon coming back from a Demon-Hunting Expedition.’

It’s all pointless.

Evidently, Grimm’s rejection did not get through to the female apprentice as she replied eagerly, “But Mentor Grimm, I really admire the depth of knowledge you possess about sorcery. If I want to be your disciple, I have to grab the opportunity while it’s there and tell you about my intentions one way or another.”

The most conventional method official sorcerers use when deciding to pick a disciple would be during paid one-on-one lecture sessions with apprentices. In such cases, they would typically choose the one apprentice they were most satisfied with as their disciple.

This was also a method of financial investment for the academy’s Arcane Sorcerers, especially when there was a Holy Tower qualification battle in the near future.

Grimm’s pace came to a halt.

Even so, Grimm refused to rely on these kinds of methods for earning Sorcerers Essences and he certainly did not feel like wasting anymore of his precious time on such impotent acts, all while delaying his own experimental research.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Grimm flashed a look at the female sorcerer-apprentice and said to her, “If, come one day that you manage to become the source of all fears among the Big-Six sorcerer academies’ apprentices, and if you still do not have a mentor, go to the seventy-ninth floor of the Isotta Tower and look for the academy dean, Peranos. Maybe then, I will think about taking you under my wing.”

Right after saying this, Grimm paid no attention whatsoever to the apprentice and strode forwards.

The female apprentice stood there dumbfounded with a look of disappointment on her face as she watched Grimm’s back slowly disappearing into the distance.

How was she going to achieve greater heights without a mentor to expand her horizons?

Everything Grimm had said clearly stated his rejection of her own wishes.

Even in Grimm’s case, without Peranos’ dedication to impart his knowledge onto him and consequently widen his perspective on sorcery as a field of study, at most, Grimm would have only been one of the top-ten apprentices back at the Holy Tower Apex Battle. He could never have hoped to become the legendary sorcerer-apprentice that dominated the top, let alone become the source of nightmares for his fellow sorcerer-apprentices.

For this female sorcerer-apprentice to meet Grimm’s requirements would mean she has to at least be of the same substance other legendary sorcerer-apprentices were made of. And without the guidance of a mentor, this was practically impossible.

“Caw caw caw, Young Master, your cruelty knows no bounds. I think you might have shattered what’s left of that little girl’s hopes and dreams, caw caw caw caw…”

Myna cackled mischievously while Grimm remained unmoved. Mobilizing the Elemental Energy around him, he took off into the sky in the direction of his personal laboratory.

On the twenty-second floor of the Isotta Tower.

On the test bench, a bottle containing pitch-black, viscous blood burned continuously like a lamp. This was the Dark Savage Flame Giant’s blood culture Grimm obtained from the Black Isotta himself.

The duration between Grimm being ordained a formal sorcerer leading up till now, he had continuously developed the Savage Flame Giant’s Soul Devouring ability. That, coupled with the sudden jump in overall strength when the Greedy Flame Giant evolved into the Savage Flame Giant, left only a small distance left to cover before it is officially classified as a level-two creature under the sorcerers’ laws.

Ten years ago.

Grimm was gifted with the Dark Destroyer Infernal God’s soul fragment by Black Isotta. After obtaining sufficient research material, he tried feeding the soul fragment to the Savage Flame Giant which resulted in a will of insatiable hunger that developed from the Flame Giant’s originally simple will.

He had expected such responses from the Savage Flame Giant long before the experiment took place.

Grimm then threw the souls he reaped from the Burrow World as well as the Condensed Soul-Gel Blocks he obtained by way of trading, into the Soul Devourer mouth of his Savage Flame Giant.

After that, Myna spat out the Lava Core and Grimm drew up a Combustar magic array which he used to attach the Savage Flame Giant’s mental strength frame onto the Lava Core, storing the entire thing within the magic array afterwards.

As for now, ten years have passed and there were already symptoms of the Savage Flame Giant’s will’s gradual awakening. This was the primary reason for Grimm’s impatience with the female apprentice from before.

Even with the large bottle of the Dark Savage Flame Giant’s concentrated blood culture, Grimm did not immediately use it to recreate the runes to its mental strength frame, for it to further evolve.

The reason for this was the dialysis of the Power of the Infernal Spirit!

To Grimm’s discovery, the best way to make the most out of this precious bottle of World Lord blood was to study its composition, its attributes down to the finest detail, before recklessly adding such powers to the mental strength frame of the Savage Flame Giant.

In the near future, during the “Dogma of the Infernal Spirit”, this culture would be key to find out the method for communicating with the powerful, unknown lifeforms of that foreign world.

With this in mind, Grimm stopped himself from wasting the World Lord blood culture for the reconstruction of the Savage Flame Giant’s mental strength frame. Instead, it was much wiser to reserve it for future use.

In the Infernal Spirit World, every Acraepoid is well versed in the art of Infernal Spirit Swordsmanship which was developed from the harmonious combination of one’s soul with burning flames.

According to Grimm’s research, the main sources of power for Infernal Spirit Swordsmanship lies both in the soul as well as the blade.

It seems that Grimm’s return from his expedition, should he decide to reconstruct the frame of the Savage Flame Giant’s mental strength, it would undeniably develop a fighting style that would lean heavily towards this Infernal Spirit swordsmanship. Considering that the Savage Flame Giant was evolved from the Greedy Flame Giant, that would mean the next evolution will be the third tier to his Giant.

This kind of evolution was in line with the formal sorcerers’ evolution method of continuously increasing the Elemental leverage by multitudes over time.

“What’s the matter, Young Master?”

Myna asked Grimm curiously as it stood on the test bench.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Grimm replied in a delightful tone, “Soon.”

After stabilizing his emotions he brought Myna out of the current laboratory and walked over towards the next one.

The third phase of work on the Mask of Truth’s Eagle Eye technique still needed a lot more time from Grimm.

As for the self-sealing project?

It was still inconclusive as to when it would be complete. For now, Grimm regarded it as a long term project stretching far into the future. The unnatural symbols and spots on the sound-proof pelt did not seem to be of special value so he deduced that the key points to solving the mystery must have lied somewhere else.

Perhaps he should have started the research basing off traditional sealing techniques?

However, for a sorcerer-apprentice, the traditional sealing technique was an extremely profound concept. To Grimm’s knowledge, the only apprentice to ever utilize such techniques was Millie only, with her Ice Age Seal technique. And despite her technique being incomplete, she still was revered as a legendary sorcerer-apprentice.

Nairo’s brother, Nairy should not have thrown his life away for the sake of his sister’s survival considering his commendable achievements while he was still a sorcerer-apprentice.

The answer to his mystery must be a relatively simple, yet profound one. What Grimm needed right now was a source of inspiration to come up with the answer.

Seven days later.

Grimm was zipping through the depths of the Vicious Thorn Forest in his Starfall Reconnaissance Craft.

In an open area with a grassy patch of ground, the Starfall Reconnaissance halted and with a loud “click” the metallic upper half of the sphere popped open, through which Grimm climbed out and onto the ground he jumped.

Silently muttering a spell under his breath, the surrounding Force of Nature started condensing into a central point. After hearing a loud bellow, the Savage Flame Giant appeared with converging streaks of gold and black running across its body.

The ten meter-tall body seemed to conceive a miniature volcano as hot steam poured in every direction. The temperature was so high that the grass beneath its feet had been charred black and turned into pure carbon.

Roar! Hurr…

Many of the creatures in the surrounding forest had been frightened by the sudden ruckus. Even the stronger creatures have been sent scampering for dear life while the weak ones trembled in silence. The entire place turned dead silent as the sound of crows and other birds ceased to be audible. The only thing left was the loud grunts from the mouths of the laughing and crying faces found on the giant’s chest and back.

Looking at the much more potent Savage Flame Giant, Grimm and Myna both grinned in satisfaction. Grimm announced proudly underneath the Mask of Truth, “Well, its basic constitution is above five hundred, its offense power averages around a thousand points and thus, according to the sorcerers’ laws, it has fulfilled the minimum requirements of a Level-2 Anatomy Refinery Sorcerer.”