A Sorcerer’s Journey

Whoosh!

From the depths of the searing-hot desert sand, a jet of yellow-sand sprayed upwards into the air.

As the sand scattered across the desert ground, a great sorcerer clad in a black robe quivered while floating mid-air. High in the sky, he observed the endless sandy landscape through his heavily distorted vision.

Grimm’s left hand was clutching a few small bottles, inside of which were the specimens of various insects he had preserved using the Frozen Seal.

“If this world really is one that is controlled by parasites, then the chances of an intelligent civilization that rules this entire realm is next to zero. Hopefully my journey back home would be less daunting.”

Based on the creatures who were trapped alongside Grimm in the giant monster’s belly, the biodiversity of this world was pretty impressive.

From this, Grimm was very sure that this world was not just a bleak, monotonous desert but in fact, a unique world brimming with life in every corner.

Satisfied with the direction he had chosen, Grimm took off to the skies.

At the moment, the Gadfly within Grimm’s body had been slowly recovering its consciousness and had started sobering up from the previous attack.

Although Grimm’s Gadfly had the mystical ability to alter one’s Life Code, speaking in terms of its constitution, it was just another low-level insect from the Sorcerers World, weak enough to be crushed accidentally should a human step on it.

It was only thanks to Grimm’s intelligence that a method was developed to amplify its unnoticeable ability into what it was today.

In the classical textbooks, a Gadfly was described as a herbivorous insect that fed off plant matter. In a nutshell, its actual status in the insects’ food chain was not worth mentioning.

But even so…

It was astounding that the puny insects of this world had managed to deal such a significant blow to Grimm’s Gadfly, which he had spent hundreds of years and invested much brain power in its breeding and development into a symbiotic insect.

For now, Grimm was still determined to go back to the Infernal Spirit World to try his luck on obtaining the Infernal Spirit Scripture. Though, the special characteristics of the insects in this world was also something that piqued his interest. Perhaps he should do some research and experimentation on the matter first before returning.

The number of World Nodes varied from realm to realm. Their sizes too were inconsistent. Some were big, some were small.

A large World Node was also commonly labelled as the World Core, Eye of the World, Mouth of the World or the End of the World.

World Nodes like these were usually located in desolated areas as they had no intrinsic value whatsoever. On the other end of the spectrum, they could also be treated as special locations, guarded heavily by a World Guardian.

As for the rest of the World Nodes, with sizes that were much smaller, they all shared the same few characteristics such as being extremely rich in resources, which in part explained why they had become the centerpoint of gathering for social creatures. Over time, these creatures would develop into smarter beings and settle down in these places where they would build their infrastructure that would inevitably turn into a bustling city later on.

The Spacetime Boundary of a World Node was relatively thin, which served a self-protective function for a particular world. The internal laws of a world would most likely concentrate near such areas and in the microscopic fluctuations of said laws, important resources would be born. This, coupled with the lack of disasters in these areas, would attract large numbers of creatures to settle there.

After spending a long time in flight, the sky had gradually become darker as this world invited the embrace of the night.

“Finding a World Node in such a mindless manner. This will require a lot of luck indeed.”

Grimm muttered to himself as he drifted across the desert sky. The temperature had plummeted as the sun had set, and the icy-cold night air now filled his lungs.

The difference in temperature between night and day in this desert was way too big. The temperature fluctuations far surpassed that of the Sorcerers World. Though, in the face of an official sorcerer, as long as he did not face any natural disasters, it should generally not cause too many issues.

Crackle, crackle…

The sand particles, having been baked under the scorching white Sun for the entire day had started making popping sounds after experiencing the sudden plummet in temperature which echoed throughout the desert, like the sound of fireworks in a festive season.

“Hmm?”

Grimm looked up inadvertently and was stricken by what he saw. A ray of light shone underneath the Mask of Truth as he activated its Eagle Eye ability. As his vision zeroed in on the target, he was caught by surprise.

“A Worm River?”

Buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz…

The crackling pops of the desert sand drowned out the low buzz from the Aphid River flowing across the night sky like the Milky Way, stretching far into the horizon.

Alas, Grimm had finally noticed the endless Aphid River which wound across the sky like a sea of stars by lifting his head so casually.

Were they engaged in a war among each other?

Like a sorcerer who relied on companion insects, he would first cultivate a batch of these insects before letting them slug it out like gladiators against each other. In the end, he would be left with only the most fearsome insects who survived the fight and had earned the right to breed.

Grimm flew up instinctively to observe the situation out of his curiosity as a sorcerer. Though, the rational part of being a sorcerer stopped him from proceeding further to avoid risking his life for some stupid reason.

If this world had a World Lord, it would most likely lurk in the Aphid River high up in the sky. For an alien like Grimm to approach such a place would be too much of a risk.

Even if against all odds, there was no World Lord, this Aphid River was so wide that in comparison, Grimm was just like another particle of sand in the desert below him right now.

“It seems to me that to name this world the Aphid River World would not be too far off.”

Grimm’s eyes lit up underneath the Mask of Truth. The number of worms in the Aphid River up in the sky had probably reached the level of a world’s principal will!

The so-called Principal Will of a world, was the tendency towards which the common will of a world’s living beings would lean towards. This Aphid River had undoubtedly affected the will of the entire world completely, and was multiple times more impactful than the Snowthreads of the Burrow World.

After a while, Grimm lost his interest in the Aphid River above him and continued his journey forward.

The sky gradually brightened and the desert below him was no longer the sterile environment from before. Patches of vegetation started to enter his view and they grew sporadically across the sandy landscape.

Not long after, an oasis presented itself before Grimm.

There was a mountain range below. To Grimm’s surprise, the peaks of these mountains were snow-capped. Large amounts of water vapor must have been intercepted by this arc-shaped mountain range, explaining the formation of the oasis on the surface below.

The lake of the oasis was green, like that of pure jade. Water flowed down from the mountains into the lake slowly, but steadily.

“Well, that didn’t take long for me to find a World Node! I guess my luck isn’t half as bad after all.”

Grimm uttered to himself excitedly. He could perceive the Boundary of Relative Space here turning noticeably thinner as compared to the surrounding area.

“It’s so quiet!”

Grimm noticed something odd.

Technically speaking, there was no doubt that this place was where living creatures of this world would gather around. Even if it were barely dawn, when creatures were about to start their day, this place was way too silent, and in an eerie sort of way.

After constantly scanning the ground, Grimm discovered many native creatures roaming the ground. The diversity and quantity of lifeforms in this place was unrivalled.

However, it did not matter whether they were herbivores or carnivores. They were all peacefully curled up, their bellies rising and falling to the constant rhythm of their breathing as they were sleeping.

Yes, there were no nocturnal creatures in this world!

Just as Grimm was caught off guard by this discovery, a ray of light started shining from the horizon which was accompanied by a droning buzz appearing out of nowhere.

Grimm turned his head to find a group of insects descending from the heavens. They were flying back to this oasis from the Aphid River.

These flying insects must have numbered up to tens of millions as they were so dense that they were uncountable, even for Grimm. However, in comparison to the entirety of the Worm River, they amounted to nothing more than a drop of water in the sea, a particle of sand in the desert.

These insects, or to put it more accurately, parasites, flew back in an orderly manner, to their hosts who were still deep in their slumber. One by one these parasites drilled back into the creatures’ bodies through their ears, noses, mouths and for some, directly through their skins.

As the insects disappeared from the sky, the originally dead silent oasis had sprung back into life. The creatures started their day off by killing one another in a never ending struggle to survive and to pass on their genes, a scene that transcended across different worlds.

As Grimm floated mid-air in the sky, he took out the crystal ball and began silently recording the world below him.

For Grimm, there was no point in collecting the biological specimens here. After all, these creatures were merely empty husks. Although they were flesh-and-blood beings and possessed spirits, they only had simple instincts and the law of this world had come completely under the insects’ control.

In the end, this world belonged to the insects.

And in the forefront of these insects was the parasite. They had successfully made it into the top of the food chain and had now dominated this entire realm!

In such a world, parasites were no longer mere parasites.

The creatures infested by said parasites were nothing more than vessels and a source of nourishment for the individual parasites. Their relationship was similar to that between machinists and their Machine Heart mechanized suits.

“The Endless World truly is wonderful. Even the Stigmata Sorcerers who can conquer and develop certain areas to derive knowledge from its features can never hope to attain a complete grasp on each and every domain. While the Sorcerer Civilization is extremely powerful, we are nothing but another milestone for the Endless World’s development in the eons to come.”

Sighing after making such a declaration, Grimm started his search for native energy ores around the oasis area whilst maintaining a low-profile.

Three months later.

Grimm had collected a bountiful harvest of insect specimens. Standing in the middle of a small magical array, his signal was covered by a native energy ore.

After the magical array hexagram had formed a perfect cycle of energy, a black-grey beam of light pierced into the skies above to form a small whirlpool black hole.

A low growl.

Grimm’s three-meter-long silhouette after activating the second level of Wild Instinct, charged into the black hole’s horizon as soon as the beam of light disappeared, vanishing from this Aphid River World in which Grimm had gone on a brief adventure.