A Sorcerer’s Journey

The Eye of Destruction had already arrived dozens of times.

The time in the maze of the sea serpent could not be calculated parallel to the time in the real world, just like the time in our dreams could not be calculated parallel to the time in reality.

Darkness Pool had spread and Grimm’s body was completely hidden in the dark.

Hidden in the dark, Grimm was like a demon of death, blocking the three meters high cavern. He advanced step by step as if he was about to get rid of the creatures in the cavern.

To this day, Grimm had not performed any actions of engulfing the Spring of Serpentine, neither did he hunt for the sea serpent’s pearls and thus could not summon the power of Serpentine.

However, Grimm had grasped the survival rule on Mount Serpentine in this Spectral World and how to battle with his body alone after losing his sorcery.

This cave was the only target that Grimm had discovered on Mount Serpentine after a long period of searching.

The numbers of caves on Mount Serpentine were incalculable but generally speaking, the stronger the creatures or races that occupied the cave were, the wider the cave was. An example would be the huge cavern that was occupied by the sorcerers led by Grandalph. It was as huge as a hundred meters high.

On the other hand, there were the relatively smaller and narrower caves, just like the current one that was blocked completely by Grimm.

This group of colorful little creatures that looked like geckos were only twenty centimeters long. They were moving up and down very quickly and agilely in the cave, with big eyes looking at the darkness that spread from the deeper parts of the cave, nervously crying “cheep, cheep, cheep” while backing away.

Once in a while, a little gecko would leap and dash into the Darkness Pool, letting out a shrill cry and then not a sound was heard.

Finally, the Darkness Pool came to a halt at the deepest part of the cave and only one last narrow space had not been occupied by the Darkness Pool. Two little colorful geckos were lying on the rock, shrieking towards the unknown darkness.

Bam!

The Sabbatic Goat Staff appeared and was leaned on the rock. The pair of goat’s horns were clutched onto the neck of a little gecko causing it to be unable to move no matter how hard it struggled.

Slowly, a palm with lots of scales stretched out and grabbed the little creature in despair.

Crack!

The scaled palm easily twisted and broke the little creature’s neck.

Cheep, cheep, cheep!

Another little gecko shrieked and jumped up onto the scaled palm quickly, crawling along the arm into the dark, attempting to give the dreadful creature hidden in the Darkness Pool a deadly blow.

“Um?”

Startled and furious, Grimm seemed to have been hurt by this little creature’s counter attack.

Right after that, “Bam”, the little gecko that rushed into the Darkness Pool was hurled against the rock wall, falling onto the ground to its death.

The Darkness Pool gradually withdrew and Grimm’s figure appeared in the dim cave.

The scales retracted back into his body and Grimm frowned while touching the wound on his lips, it seemed like he was experiencing paresis.

To his surprise, the little creature’s counter attack had given Grimm a venomous “kiss” before he died. The venom began to take effect and the mixture of venom and refinery could not be immunized.

Grimm did not have any anti-venom.

Looking at the carcass of the colorful little creature hanging on his waist, Grimm picked up the little gecko on the ground, thought for a while and then tore the little creature’s abdomen open with the goat’s horns and removing what he thought were the liver and gall.

Cautiously waiting for the power of Serpentine to dissipate, Grimm opened his mouth wide and squeezed liquid from the two organs into his mouth.

It was not as bitter as he thought it would be, but rather it tasted a little sour like tangerine juice.

“Gulp, gulp” Grimm swallowed the juice.

Phew…

He let out a sigh of relief. Generally speaking, what he did would have some anti-venom functions and even if it did not work, the venom of this little creature would not cause death to Grimm with his strong physique.

Grimm spent dozens of the Eye of Destruction arrival days to finally find his guinea pigs to verify his guess.

“I ought to be faster or the power of Serpentine on these little things will dissipate.”

Grimm used his natural strength to fly towards the foot of Mount Serpentine, and before landing on a black grayish Phagocytic Shell about seven to eight meters long, he pried open the shell and on the shell meat lied a sea serpent’s pearl wrapped in a pupal case, wriggling. It looked like it was asleep, as if it had entered an amazing mirage.

Grimm crawled into the Phagocytic Shell and laid the little geckos beside the wallowing sea serpent’s pearl.

Zap… The Phagocytic Shell shut close and Grimm was trapped inside the same shell as the sea serpent’s pearl!

***

This was the egocentric Spectral World of the Phagocytic Shell.

“Is this the tail that had dropped off from an Amonro’s ancestor? If I can bring this tail back to the Void Fortress and pass it to the Battle Command, even if it is not rated as a Level-1 Honor Badge mission, it can definitely be rated as a Level-2 Honor Badge mission!”

Feeling excited, Grimm caught hold of the golden tail and flew towards the Void Fortress using his natural strength.

After a few days in the Phagocytic Shell’s Spectral World, along with the gold coin that always landed upright after being tossed into the sky, Grimm’s mysterious world all around him had been broken into shards.

Huff, puff! Gasping for air, Grimm tried to feel his surroundings with his hands. Below him was the shell meat of the Phagocytic Shell, and above him was the hard shell. Grimm put forth his strength to pry open the Phagocytic Shell.

The gray whirlpool was spiraling as usual, it seemed like he had experienced yet another arrival day of the Eye of Destruction.

Grimm looked nervously at the inner part of the Phagocytic Shell. The sea serpent’s pearl was still there but the carcasses of the little geckos had disappeared, leaving no residual behind at all.

Grimm tried to sense his own changes but no matter how hard he tried, he could not feel the change. There was no power of the sea serpent’s pearl which corresponded with the power of Serpentine at all.

‘Was my judgement wrong again?’

Beneath the Mask of Truth, Grimm went into deep thoughts. After a while of zoning out, Grimm felt tired and quickly crawled out of the Phagocytic Shell, letting go of his hand which had been holding on to the shell.

“Um?”

Grimm was suddenly taken back, there were not any changes at all!

At that moment, Grimm felt that the ground in the maze of the sea serpent was not that hard, as if it had softened, but other than that, he had not discovered any other changes.

“Is it possible… that this is weakening my deceived perception?”

Grimm thought of a possibility and was making guesses.

Grimm lowered his head when he returned to Mount Serpentine. Stunned, he picked up a strand of red hair and observed carefully.

This kind of red hair was scattered around the whole of Mount Serpentine and it was not the integrated mass of red rocks that Grimm had seen previously.

In the sorcerer’s cavern, beneath the Mask of Truth, Grimm’s pair of eyes suddenly contracted!

Grimm’s vision of Grandalph kept on changing between the form of a creature from the foreign land with bat wings on her back and viscous liquid dripping continuously from her body, and the form of a sorcerer. The words murmured by Grandalph were also switching between a sorcerer’s words and a noisy squeaking voice.

Those sorcerers who had lost their sorcery were actually Grandalph’s descendents.

Johann, on the other hand, had a different form. His bottom half was like an octopus with eight tentacles moving continuously and his upper half a light red skin like a mantis. Grimm’s vision kept switching in between the form of a creature from the foreign land and the form of a human sorcerer.

Was this…

Really deceiving my own perception?

Or was it deceiving each and every creature’s perception on Mount Serpentine?

Grandalph walked towards the altar in the secret chamber. The sea serpent’s pearl in her hand had lost its light red color and was now a gentle white color, as beautiful as pearls. It was struggling weakly under the light red colored power of Serpentine in the surroundings.

Grimm tailed behind Grandalph towards the altar, the mouth of the Spring of Serpentine.

Grimm stopped at the entrance.

This was not the huge altar. This was clearly the form of an Eye of Destruction, with its blood red color, twirling continuously in the sky.

The mouth of the Spring of Serpentine was the center of this gigantic rock, it was as if it was looking at Grandalph and Grimm.

Grimm was disgusted.

He had previously touched it gently, sniffed it carefully and even licked it with his tongue, just to find out the secret of the mouth of the Spring of Serpentine’s altar.

Right now, Grandalph was putting sea serpent’s pearls which looked like real pearls into the gigantic eye. These sea serpent’s pearls which emitted gentle white rays kept struggling but they gradually sank into the blood red “Eye of Destruction” and disappeared.

From the middle of the Eye of Destruction’s pupil, flowed a chain of bloody pearls, turning into blood clots which were taken by Grandalph.