A Sorcerer’s Journey

After a brief moment, as Nairo returned, Grimm’s ten-person Demon-Hunting team was officially formed.

Nairo glanced at Myna intentionally several times, but Myna seemed to have completely forgotten about her. Myna was busy arguing with the parrot and paid no attention to Nairo at all.

Grimm stood opposite the group of Demon-Hunters. Nine members, plus himself, just right for a Demon-Hunter team.

Grimm nodded and said, “Well then, let’s go.”

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…

Under Grimm’s guidance, the nine Demon-Hunters flew to Thousand-eyed Carcinus and landed on its gigantic figure.

“This is…?”

Lou Linman asked the question that was in everyone’s mind. Everyone was looking at Thousand-eyed Carcinus in disbelief.

A Level 3 creature!

Grimm replied calmly, “This creature is a guardian given to me by the great Black Isotta. But of course, it’s only for this Demon-Hunting expedition in the Burrow World.”

Clack, clack!

“I will fully obey Lord Grimm’s orders during this Demon-Hunting expedition,” explained Thousand-eyed Carcinus as it clacked its claws.

Feelings of disbelief showed on the faces of Lou Linman, Nairo, and all the other seven Demon-Hunters.

The corners of Lou Linman’s red lips curved up. “Black Isotta sure does give you a lot of great perks,” she said.

Grimm did not say anything further. After reading some information about the passageway to the Burrow on his crystal ball, he pointed a direction for Thousand-eyed Carcinus.

Thousand-eyed Carcinus caused quite a commotion as it moved its gigantic body. The many Demon-Hunters, flying machines, mechanical puppets and insignificant soul slaves around all made way for them.

Thousand-eyed Carcinus moved without a single obstacle in its way.

Carrying a group of ten sorcerers including Grimm, Thousand-eyed Carcinus descended to the ground towards a burrow entrance where a few Prism Fortress was built nearby.

“Hm?”

Two other teams were also flying towards the burrow entrance in a distance and noticed Grimm’s team who were on Thousand-eyed Carcinus.

One of the team was lead by a Level-2 Demon-Hunter, with nine other Level-1 Demon-Hunters as members.

They were all amazed.

‘How did these merely Level 1 Demon-Hunters manage to make a Level 3 creature carry them to the core of the Burrow?’

‘This…’

‘This is really too unbelievable…’

Another Demon-Hunter team only had four members. All four of them were Level-2 sorcerers, with no trace of Honor Badges.

The eyes of the four sorcerers were focused on Grimm who was standing at the forefront of his team.

‘This gray and white spiral mask, this goat skull staff, this vivid and beautiful myna, isn’t he the sorcerer who was personally mentioned by Black Isotta?’

‘Seems like he was worthy of being called out by Black Isotta after all, how on earth did he get that giant…”

Grimm stood at the forefront on Thousand-eyed Carcinus. The long red fur of the Carcinus covered up to his leg. With the Sabbatic Goat Staff in one hand, Grimm slightly bowed to the leaders of the two Demon-Hunting team.

The leader of the nine Level-1 sorcerers bowed back and left without saying anything.

Surprisingly, the leader of the Level-2 Demon-Hunters stopped for a while and asked, “Leader Grimm, are you interested in going to the core of the Burrow—the Snowthread Burrow—together?”

Grimm hadn’t really explored the Burrow.

From the information gathered about the Burrow, the Burrow was a combination of tens of thousands of smaller burrows of different creatures, connected with each other like a beehive, resulting in a general term for all the smaller burrows called “The Burrow”.

Among the tens of thousands of burrows in the Burrow World, the small burrows were just like the size of the world fragments at Grimm’s Demon-Hunter castle, their areas were so small that they weren’t worth mentioning, and there were no powerful creatures worthy of attention inside.

In the Burrow World, most burrows were small and insignificant.

However, some large burrows were said to be as large as the world fragment of the Mysterious Realm of Black Isotta Tower, which could form an entire ecosystem on its own.

Well, a mysterious realm of a Stigmata Sorcerer?

As far as Grimm was concerned, he still couldn’t cross the vast Black Isotta Mysterious Realm in a short period of time, hence he could already imagine how huge a burrow could get.

Hence, it was hard for Grimm to believe that no World Lord was born in such a vast and complex world system.

Looking at these reasons, Grimm had no reason to refuse. “Sure,” he replied.

The leader of the Level-2 Demon-Hunters was an old sorceress with wrinkled skin. She looked at Grimm and nodded. “You may call me Alxa.”

With that, the old sorceress initiated to lead the way, and Grimm instructed Thousand-eyed Carcinus to follow.

Behind Grimm, the rest of the Demon-Hunters were all relieved. With Thousand-eyed Carcinus, no matter what happened to them in Burrow World, they could take it easier.

After all, the Black Isotta had personally informed all Demon-Hunters that there was no World Lord in Burrow World.

Everyone was relieved but Nairo. With metal chains wrapped around her body, she looked down and clenched her teeth.

The more Grimm showed his potential, calmness, and glory, the more Nairo felt an unspeakable pain, just like when the World-Core rewarded them with the Sorcerer World’s World-Core Fragments.

He seemed to be an obscure Dark Sorcerer, yet he obtained the most number of World-Core Fragments from the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.

During the previous battles with the Dark Sorcerer named Yupao, deep under Nairo’s cold and heartless appearance, she was proud and happy of her own capability. As her tutor said, she would be the strongest sorcerer-apprentice of their batch.

However, everything changed after the World-Core Fragments were distributed….

But even so!

Nairo still didn’t think that Grimm would be stronger than herself. In her mind, the cruelty of chaotic region where she came from was not something that they could imagine. Nairo had always believed that she was the strongest and most talented sorcerer-apprentice among the others in the same batch.

She was determined that one day, she would show them what true despair and horror looked like!

With such a mindset, Nairo’s stayed low-profile in her Demon-Hunter Castle for two hundred years, eager to show her strength and prove everything about herself during her first Demon-Hunting expedition.

However, once again, the cruel reality crushed Nairo’s heart mercilessly.

There were just too many so-called geniuses and powerful Demon-Hunters.

They were all the best within their sorcerer-apprentice batches. Whether it was Grimm, or Nairo, they were all just one of the members among the crowd.

It was just like the Holy Tower of Seven Rings baked an oven full of buns every hundred years, over and over again, and they were just some of the buns that looked slightly better than the rest.

These so-called “genius sorcerers” were the same group of people that formed the Demon-Hunting expedition army, and the same group of people that were killed and devoured by the endless Amonros in the Shadow World, not leaving a trace in the world.

At that moment, only Nairo realized how insignificant she was…

Turning from someone who was greatly feared during the sorcerer-apprentice days to an insignificant member of Demon-Hunters, Nairo could only see it as a twist of faith by god.

In that kind of pain, Nairo finally found herself, and gradually grow to become an official sorcerer, having her own understanding and thoughts of the world.

Unless a sorcerer became a great Stigmata Sorcerer, an individual sorcerer’s strength would be too insignificant in the ever-changing world, so insignificant that they could only become food for other stronger creatures who tried to change the world.

The vastness of the Endless World had far exceeded the imagination of the sorcerer-apprentices.

So much so that, every new Demon-Hunter would not be regarded as an official Demon-Hunter by the Holy Tower. Only after a successful Demon-Hunting expedition and returning to the Sorcerer World and experiencing the inevitable growth process of an official sorcerer can they be considered as a true Demon-Hunter!

Only by constantly living through battles that caused mountains of death and seas of blood, by becoming stronger and stronger, and by having a firm faith, could a Demon-Hunter become a real nightmare to any of the Sorcerer World’s enemies.

These “demons” that walked the borderline of death, have regarded killing as an art and instinct, their beliefs became their dreams and eventually their sole reason for existence, they will heartlessly crush any creatures that resisted the Sorcerer’s Will.

Only after going through all these thoughts, Nairo became fully aware of her own role, and transformed into an official sorcerer.

Moreover, she planned to keep growing herself in one expedition after another, until the day she became a Stigmata Sorcerer.

However…

When Nairo looked at Grimm, he didn’t seem to have the same kind of awareness as she did, but how did he surpass her?

‘Did Grimm already have such awareness during his sorcerer-apprenticeship?’

‘That’s impossible, that’s completely impossible.’

Nairo wouldn’t believe anyone as insignificant as a sorcerer-apprentice would have the same awareness as an official sorcerer.

Due to the gap between different levels of life, the perspective of creatures within each level was completely different, it would be impossible for low-level live forms to see and understand the perspective of a higher life form.

She still couldn’t imagine how a sorcerer-apprentice—whose world was only about sorcerer schools, tests, and assessments—would have all the realization of an official sorcerer.

Even understanding why such cruel assessments existed in the first place would be challenging for sorcerer-apprentices.

In Nairo’s mind, sorcerer apprentices could only resent, or even curse the way of the system, but could only obey unconditionally.

Until one day, after they experienced the cruelty of the real world, and completely grow into an official sorcerer, they no longer resented, and even became grateful and understanding, protecting and passing down this cruel system.

Nairo couldn’t comprehend, what caused such a huge gap between Grimm and herself?