As Glenn took a deep breath and viewed the sky for the second time, he noticed that the swirl had eyes, which were slit. And the swirl returned Glenn’s look.
"Am I under delusion? That’s not possible. If I had been hallucinating, the Gadflies would have reacted. But they’ve not." Glenn couldn’t help but pinch his thigh to verify if his body could feel pain.
The eye contact between Glenn and the rotating swirl continued for half an hourglass. During the process, Glenn was under the impression that he was like a bug in a glass ware, which was being surveyed by a great sorcerer in his/her laboratory.
"If the one behind this was a sorcerer from our side, why wouldn’t he show himself? If it was someone or something from the Underground World or somewhere else who might be unfriendly to us and who had lurked around on the Sorcerer Continent, it would have caused a sensation among us, and the great sorcerers on our side would have pursued it. The Sorcerer Continent is not a weak lamb waiting to be slaughtered. We invade others!"
Thinking about that, Glenn regained his confidence and pushed the door open. Darkness consumed Glenn. It was as if he had stepped into a monster’s mouth.
The door shut itself with a creaking sound after Glenn went in.
Glenn turned around with a rush. He didn’t see the green eyes that stalked him, but he noticed that wooden door, which was rotten and dilapidated. He thought: ‘With another slam, that door would certainly break.’ Soon, Glenn realized one interesting fact — the sound was back, and he could hear things again after stepping through.
Glenn calmed himself down but kept saying "how did this happen?".
Glenn took a step forward and kicked over a jar or something, and a crisp voice then filled the air.
Glenn realized the necessity of illumination. He chanted something, trying to produce a flame by using fire element, but nothing happened.
"Eh? Even sorceries couldn’t be pulled out here?" Glenn went nuts.
Making someone lose his sorcery was a top-notch capability. It was the absolute manipulation over natural forces. Glenn was convinced that one’s sorcery could be dampened to produce much lower level of sorcery energy and power, in other words, to deny the sorcery making him unable to have bigger effectiveness through the lever and fulcrum effect. But to cause a complete failure of a sorcery? This was unrealistic.
Glenn’s quest for sorcery was spurred on. He wanted to figure the whole thing out.
Glenn then fumbled around to get to the stairs. He desired to reach the tower top and have a close look at the swirl.
After stubbing his toe on a block of wood, he felt it using his hand knew that it was the stair. He lifted his right foot tentatively and landed it on the first stair. The wood squeaked, yet weirdly enough, the stair squeaked twice.
"Am I being followed? Is there someone else? I only took one step, why were there two sound out of it?" Glenn doubted.
Glenn attempted to produce a fire for illumination but failed again.
As Glenn was taking another step onto the second step, a faint moonlight came from the very dome of the tower, as if it was from the swirl itself.
Glenn took a breath of comfort, yet the next second, he found he was still on the ground floor, as if he had not taken any steps.
"Why am I still in the original point? Haven’t I moved?" Glenn murmured, yet his voice echoed a long distance within the silent tower.
For the second time, Glenn thought that he had been entranced. However, the Gadflies remained inactive in his body!
"Was the time reverted back? Or was I brought back by a force too fast force to feel?" Glenn placated himself by trying to explain this odd phenomenon.
Afterwards, Glenn climbed six or seven stairs at a stretch before he stopped suddenly. The double creaking sound thing appeared again.
Glenn panted for some air while he stayed on full alert. Quietly and slowly, he turned his head, and he was ensured that there was nobody.
Glenn rushed two stories in one breath.
The same thing repeated— Glenn took one step, two creaks would be heard.
Glenn echo located using his mask but found no living thing, neither did his sense of smell. At the time, something spooky occurred: there was someone puffing into his neck. He could feel the movement of the air, which then condensed on the surface of his neck.
A sweat rolled down from Glenn’s forehead.
"If I die tonight, I die for sorceries!" Glenn took a deep breath and made off at a scamper. He ran on until he had to stop for a rest.
The double echo thing finally disappeared. Glenn was thrilled as if he had broken the spell of a sorcery. Meanwhile, a weird thing happened again: the light was lost for another time. He kicked the stair and no noise was produced.
"Was the space of this tower partitioned by something? Am I entering some deep water of something?" Glenn rested his hand on the slippery rail and pondered, "Lafite must have been anxious on not seeing me at her apartment? I have to see Sorcerer Norris tomorrow. Should I go further?"
Glenn braced himself and climbed another story. As Glenn stepped onto the middle stair, he felt as if his whole body went through a thin film. He received some resistance, but by force of inertia, he just cut through.
The moment Glenn pierced through the film, he was greeted by bright lights.
As Glenn’s vision restored, he found that he was still at the very first stair — he had not moved at all.
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Chapter54 The Sorcerer Tower
"Hey, you’ve been stunned silent in there since I entered here ten minutes ago. Are you gonna climb up or not?"
Glenn was jolted back to reality with a start on hearing the sudden urging. His knees nearly collapsed. He then propped himself up by leaning against the rail! In his surprise, he stammered, "Who are you?"
After Glenn recovered his intelligence, he found a girl standing at the door of the tower. The next second, he noticed her blue eyes. He was sort of relieved because it was not her who had tracked him. She didn’t have that pair of green eyes.
"Quick, get out of here. Don’t dawdle! The weird things in this tower won’t happen again once there are two or more people in here!" The girl continued her yelling.
This girl was terribly overweight. Glenn estimated that she weighed 400 kilos. That was Glenn’s only impression of her. Yet the next occasion they met, Glenn would be more deeply impressed.
Glen had no intention to argue with this rude, mysterious girl. He rushed past her, got out of the water tower and the yard that surrounded it.
It was already midnight. In the moonlight, the water tower just seemed like usual — tattered yet stately erected. Glenn didn’t want to tarry and went directly to the Black Tower. On the wall of the Bounty Section, he wrote: "4,000 magical stones for 100 Beauty Clams."
Before leaving the Black Tower, Glenn asked a service person about the date and time, and he was ensured that he had stayed in that water tower for about an hourglass.
After the official work, Glenn headed off to Lafite, who had been simmering in fury, for Glenn had been late for an hourglass. Yet the anger between the couple melted when skins contacted!
The following day was when Glenn and his mentor were scheduled to meet.
Glenn went to the Black Tower and arrived at the 79th floor, where Sorcerer Norris lived. Norris, Varro and the cat were already there, awaiting Glenn’s arrival. There was an adult female with them.
"Glenn, come! Today, you’ve been called here to learn the basic sorcery of intoxication."
Norris rattled on about the history of this sorcery. After that, he introduced the female beside him, who turned out to be his wife. The woman seemed taciturn. She hadn’t spoken during Norris’ 15 minute long tirade.
According to Norris, his wife was a gourmet. She excelled in cooking puffer fish.
"Glenn, this is puffer fish. We fished them for you. They are of significant medicinal val
ue." Norris’ wife smiled gently. The smile was charming. What was also enchanting was her small yet perfectly proportioned figure and her blond hair that rolled down to shoulder. Her face was enlivened with the gleam of her hair. Yet Glenn was astonished when he noticed a mouth on each of her palm.
The cat was also at the table with an apron before its chest. It made an annoying noise when swallowing its saliva produced on seeing the fish served for Glenn.
"Hey. These fish were brought here from the Foreign Land. And Norris built that large tank and raised them with great care, or they would have gone extinct." The cat said that without moving its eyes from the fish. "Today you’re being served this for a good reason. You’re too weak! You have a body constitution of 4 points. But eating one fish will boost your constitution up by 3. Remember, the first fish has to be swallowed up whole in one go."
"A three point rise? Are you serious?" Glenn grunted towards the cat, which didn’t answer his question.
At that time, Norris’ second disciple Varro walked to Glenn and offered him an ivory dagger.
"It’s a small world. I didn’t expect we would be both studying under Sorcerer Norris. This is a little gadget I collected. It was made from a sorcerer’s nail — a level three sorcerer!"
Glenn accepted it, and he found that the dagger was irregularly indented. He felt it using his hand and said, "It’s sharp!"
"Try and use your magical strength to activate it!" Varro exclaimed.
Glenn followed Varro’s suggestion. The second the magical force ran over the dagger, it caught on fire, which then glittered in a pure blue shade.
After Glenn enjoyed his fish, the group broke. Glenn followed Norris to his laboratory after a sip of coffee.
Norris had a private laboratory, which was divided into nine separate rooms. It was well-equipped for research and experiments. And there were books and scrolls recording the knowledge passed on from ancient sorceries.
However, Glenn was still thinking about the Water Tower. So, he asked: "Sorcerer Norris. May I ask a question about the Water Tower? I climbed onto it before I came here."
"Eh?" was Norris’ response.
"It was so strange, so uncanny. I couldn’t even believe my eyes and ears when I was in there."
"So, you have been to the Black Mirror?"
"I guess so." Glen conjectured that the thin film might be the mirror that Norris was talking about.
"It’s a forbidden place! You’re not allowed to go there!" Norris’ face became stern.
Glenn had never seen his mentor speak in a high pitch, which caused a slight trembling of his hands.
"You’d better behave yourself. There are rules governing the school and the Sorcerer Continent. But, since you’ve broken in the mirror, it won’t hurt to tell you something about it." Norris’ serious face softened.
"1700 years ago, a sorcerer established this school— the Black Isotta School of Sorcerers! And of course that sorcerer owned the water tower. The water tower was a reservoir of mental strength, which is enclosed in separate spaces in the water tower!" Norris continued. "The energy waves the mental strength carried are so powerful that they might temporarily block the reflections of sound and sight and thus create dark, silent, dead spaces. In a space where energy waves are not that strong, reflections will be resumed, and you can see and hear things again. Strangely enough, different spaces are constantly changing position, so a sound might be repeated, so you might be misled into believing that someone was following you."
"There’s a probability for these things to happen, but there is one thing for sure. According to your description, you must have cut through the Black Mirror, and you pierced it without knowledge of its efficacy, so your mental strength will get a bump." Norris signified to Glenn to take a test of his mental strength.
Glenn took out his Black Crystal Ball, and his mental strength was measured at 29 points.
"Excellent, there’s a five point rise!" If Norris was not present, Glenn would have jumped into the air and waved his arm for a celebration.
"There are essentially three qualitative changes along the road of sorcery learning. The first one is to become a sorcerer. The second metamorphosis is to become a level four sorcerer — a Stigmata sorcerer," said Norris calmly. "A Stigmata sorcerer is all-powerful. They own an army of slaves on the Foreign Land. They build it after they conquer these living beings there, and some of these armies are of over 10,000 slaves."
"The reason why they’re so powerful was this!" Norris lifted his finger and headed up at the same time.
"The ceiling?" Glenn’s tongue slipped. He gave an answer that made himself laugh.
"The water tower! Every Stigmata sorcerer own a sorcery school, which hinges on the sorcery tower, in our case, the Black Tower. However, the water tower is the key."
"A key to what?"
"A key to his or her power! You see, the student who accidentally intruded into the water power would very likely increase his mental strength and thus the chance of becoming a sorcerer. The Stigmata sorcerer’s power grows when a student becomes a sorcerer!"
Things began to clear out. Glenn now knew that those in high power or authority wanted sorcerers! The First-years Sorcery Test had been designed to lay foundation for the Desperaters and whoever were stronger to become a sorcerer!
Glenn held back his anger and asked Norris about the level seven sorcerers — the Necromancy Sorcerers.
"The Necromancy Sorcerers? You keep in mind one thing about them. You would be killed by their energy waves if you approached them. So, never do that. They live in the Holy Rings. That’s why they’re off bounds."
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Chapter55 Lymph
That night, Norris started the official teaching of sorcery — Intoxication Sorcery.
"Before learning the sorcery of intoxication, there is one thing you need to keep in mind: We keep trying to improve our mental strength through the power of elements. Then we utilize the principle of "lever and fulcrum" to produce the most formidable offense power. Different from us, sorcerers in the Underground World use a way related to dragon taming in advancing their sorceries, and intoxication originates from dragon taming." Norris smiled.
Norris then continued, "Do you know how toxic substances are categorized?"
Pondering on the question for a moment, Glenn gathered his courage and answered:
"I think there might be three types: toxins produced by animals, by plants and toxins linked to metals."
"Uh…that’s a very generic classification. Sorceries related to toxins are complex and hard to master. And the first thing to be not accidentally killed by your toxins is to remember how they are classified," warned Sorcerer Norris.
Glenn nodded heavily to demonstrate his consent.
Norris walked to a counter, took out a scroll and spread it out on the table.
It seemed that the scroll might have had a long history, for it had a light green shade. but it was not deformed at all — it neither crumbled nor frayed.
"Look at how this book recorded the categories of toxins." Norris moved his head slightly, signifying Glenn to come closer.
Glenn had great trouble in discerning the words on the scroll, because the words on the Sorcerer Continent differed a little bit from humans’, and they were written in ancient words. Therefore, it took Glenn a long time to recognize them. After he finished reading, Glenn said in a surprise, "They were divided according to toxic reactions?"
According to the scroll, the sorcerer who made this scroll divided all the poisons he once dealt with into seven categories.
Category one was blood-poisoning. Drugs of this kind damaged the blood circulatory system; for example, congealing the blood in living organisms.
Category two were neurotoxic drugs. They could hold up or completely block neural response of living organisms.
Category three was about detoxification. This sort of toxin was able to vitia
te the detox system and thus cause the operation of the vital organs to malfunction.
Category four was about necrotic substances. They could acidify the cells in a living body to a degree that they would die.
In addition to these four commonly seen toxins, there were another two kind of poisons recorded in the scroll, which were said to only exist in a few sorcerer worlds.
One was radioactive matter. They intoxicated the nearby living organisms by giving off rays and thus resulting in a complete failure of cellular metabolism. Its origin would surprise all who had no knowledge of it. This magical poison was produced by a kind of rare stone in nature, which was named as the Radioactive Stone by the sorcerer who documented this scroll.
The other scarce toxin was parasites. They were too tiny to be visible to human eyes and thus could only be observed through microscopes. These parasites lived on cell walls. They were highly adaptive to the changing environment within the host’s body. And they would, by feeding on the host’s nutrients and energy, multiply and proliferate until the cells couldn’t afford them. As a windfall, a membrane would form on the cell walls because of this, which would protect the cells from other damage.
The scroll also introduced a sort of intoxication method that belonged to no kind. That the target would be poisoned just by being stared at for some time was one. Such strange ways of getting people poisoned included producing a sound or controlling the target’s mind. Sight intoxication, sound poisoning or will control could be categorized into Cursing Sorcery or Occult Sorcery, but sorcerers of both branches didn’t recognize them.
After reading the scroll, Glenn had a big picture of how Intoxication sorcery would work, yet he didn’t know how to exploit the toxins mentioned above. So he inquired:
"Sorcerer Norris, where shall I begin, then?"
"This." Norris pointed his finger to the word ‘parasite’.
Glenn predicted something horrible. He thought:
‘Is Sorcerer Norris gonna ask me to invite these parasites into my body?’
"Glenn." Norris moved his finger off the scroll and faced Glenn. "Success is reserved for those who are willing to take an unusual path. And we may need to run a little risk along the way..."
A Sorcerer's Journey, 2 Page 2
