A Sorcerer's Journey, 2

by Flying White Egrets

  Glenn gulped; he didn’t do as Norris suggested though. Seconds later, he asked suddenly.

  "Is there a hierarchy or something existing among us and the bigger universe?"

  Norris was quite shocked at this inquiry and said, "You’re such an ambitious student! I’ll give a simple answer. The universe is stratified into three grades according to power and influence: Dynasty, Empire and Civilization. A dynasty consists of creatures that are mostly powerless. The number of level four or five sorcerers or living beings having similar level of power is very limited. They hide by concealing their geographic coordinates, and when invaded, they mainly take advantage of natural barriers and natural force to defend. Dynasties take up the most part of the universe."

  Glenn nodded and said: "What about the Empires?"

  "Within these large worlds(empires), there is usually at least one lifeform with the battle strength of a seventh level sorcerer. Moreover, the World Laws of these large worlds are special, thus it's difficult to invade them. And it can be considered to be the initial form of a Civilized world."

  Norris looked at Glenn’s glazed face and went on, "There are some empires within the domain of influence of a Civilization that reach agreements of mutual survival with them. The empires pay tributes to Civilizations in exchange for non-aggression."

  "What about Civilizations?" Glenn couldn’t wait for the answer.

  "Every Civilization has invaded at least one Empire, and they have a huge sphere of influence. Others exist around them. But they’ve their distinctive trajectory of development. That’s aggression." As Norris was saying this, he seemed to have lost in thought and began to speak with a serious tone. "The Sorcerer Civilization met two other Civilizations in its long history, and wars broke out each time. Each war lasted hundreds, if not thousands of years. The wars were inevitable because Civilizations are aggressive in nature."

  "Two wars?" Glenn gasped. He then hastened to ask: "Did we win?"

  "Humph. We didn’t lose. If we had lost, why would you still stand in here? We would have been slaves to them!" Norris sneered coldly, and his voice dropped to a lower pitch.

  "The first war occurred in ancient times. So there are no written records for it. But, it was said that the Civilization around the ancient Sorcerer Civilization was shattered into pieces and since then, the broken pieces have been clinging to the Sorcerer Civilization for their debased existence." Norris paused for a moment and then continued, "The second war was clearly documented though. The Sorcerer Civilization was at an absolute disadvantage. Our enemy had smashed our last ditch defense and even marched into the expansive underground world beneath the Sorcerer Continent, which was the last piece of land we had at the time—the Dynasties and Empires we had taken up had been lost. It was the closest the Sorcerer Civilization had come the verge of extinction!"

  Glenn’ eyes widened, and face appeared ghastly. He then inquired.

  "How did we defeat them?"

  "Defeat them? Norris shook his head, and then he said slowly. "We didn’t defeat them. It was not possible. Although we were assuredly a powerful Civilization back then, with all these years of development after we had won the first war, yet the enemy was way more powerful. We didn’t see any hope at all."

  Glenn was still in shock, and he detected a grief in Norris’ eyes.

  "We had no way of surviving. However, there was one great, great sorcerer. He used his wisdom and cast a sorcery that was beyond imagination, that no one could ever be able to figure out. He used his life as the fulcrum and levered the Sorcerer Continent with a magical stick named the Destiny Lever. He powered the lever by putting a crystal stone which contained a huge amount of energy on the other end of the stick. As a result, he moved the Sorcerer Continent to the current geographic coordinates!"

  "He moved the whole continent?!" There were no words to describe Glenn’s shock. He had no expressions and he even couldn’t speak out a word smoothly.

  "There’s no need to doubt it. This is real. And we wore down out the enemies in the underground world beneath the Sorcerer Continent because they had lost their support. After that, we developed our own Dragon sorcerers there. As for this endlessly expansive place we’re living in now, we are actually foreigners who have occupied the aboriginals’ lands. All sorcerers who had survived this disaster had one mission only: to make the sorcerer world stronger and when we’re ready, to recover our old coordinates and to annihilate our enemies and take back what we have lost. That’s what we call Demon Hunting Expedition."

  After he finished that, Norris looked out of the Black Tower.

  "The last words before that great sorcerer died were inscribed in every sorcery school."

  "With my knowledge, give me a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." Glenn murmured.

  "Oh. You noticed that! I thought that only the ones who knew about the situation would pay attention to it." Seeing that Glenn had memorized that well-known dictum, he seemed comforted.

  Glenn gulped. "So it is! This maxim was said by such a great sorcerer."

  Glenn recalled the night when he wandered to the tablet recording that sorcerer’s quote. Before that night, he thought they were just lofty and pompous words. After that night, he had been thinking that it might be a sentence full of helpless exclamation! Now, considering that sorcerer’s situation, he could truly grasp this helplessness. Glen gashed his teeth, simmering with a complex feeling of anger and an eagerness to become stronger.

  Norris noticed the gloomy yet determined look on Glenn’s face and sighed. "He’s like the younger me!"

  ‘Grow up quickly because a new war is on its way! Through other worlds’ creatures, we’ve learned some vague information about our enemy. We’re very far away from each other, yet both of us are aggressive, and both of us will destroy every obstacle between us, and a full-out war will be on then. The future of the sorcerer world needs sorcerers building new branch of sorceries and creating a brilliant history.’

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  Chapter59 The Glenn Dissimilation Sorcery

  In Sorcerer Norris’ laboratory, Glenn placed the two humanoids of same race onto the testing table.

  Before the experiment, Glenn had enclosed the testing table as a safeguard for possible unexpected risks. He looked solemn as he took out his sorcery notes and flipped through it. A moment later, he sat onto the chair, lost in thought.

  ‘I’ve tested Gadflies on frogs and mice in separate experiments. These things were all deformed horribly as a result. According to my guess back then, the mysterious and irregularly-formed small glowing points in their host’s cells must be the true form of Life Code and must contain the original life information. Besides, every cell must have its will for survival and these wills constitute the volition of a soul.’

  Glenn paused for a second and then shook his head, saying: "Maybe these weak creatures couldn’t take it when their form of life information was altered by the Gadflies. Then I’ve got to do it on humanoids to verify my guess!"

  Thinking about this, Glenn rose up and looked at the female humanoid lying on the table.

  Glenn stuck out his fingertip and slowly, a Gadfly the size of a rice grain was squeezed out from his skin. Since Glenn’s and the Gadflies’ souls were connected, the Gadflies were like a natural organ of his. Thus, he wasn’t feeling uncomfortable during the process.

  Glenn then put the Gadfly into the female’s body for it to multiply. She wasn’t resisting because Norris had suppressed her mental strength. She was essentially a vegetative being.

  Seven days later.

  After Glenn had completed other experiments, he came back at the testing table. Using his mental strength, he could feel that there were now tens of thousands adult Gadflies in the female’s body.

  With such a quantity of Gadflies, Glenn could continue with his experiment now.

  Glenn took something off the female’s body as specimen first
, and then he prepared an intermediate stone to replenish the magical force, which would be running low during the long-lasting experiment.

  Glenn looked serious. He took a deep breath and then stroked the subject’s belly, which was smooth. He closed his eyes slowly, and the next moment, he strained every effort and energized the Gadflies in the female’s body, trying to bring out the Gadflies’ best capability in affecting Life Code, an ability Gadflies were born with.

  Glenn kept on energizing the Gadflies in the female’s body by using his magical force, which gave out mysterious force that affected every cell of hers.

  The process lasted for a day. Glenn’s face had turned ghastly pale. And fear appeared in his eyes when he noticed the things within the enclosement.

  The female’s right hand had grown a big mouth in the palm, and the mouth moved towards her neck. It mangled the neck with its sharp teeth after it arrived and later snapped it completely; her tongue had jumped out of her real mouth and was crawling on the table like a serpent; her legs were covered with eyes, thighs with tendrils, and there was something moving in her belly, inflating and deflating it.

  Glenn was even more pale now. He murmured: "Sure enough. Energizing the Gadflies without really controlling them would crash the Life Code!"

  Glenn calmed himself down a little bit and grabbed many tools and material for conducting cursing sorcery. He then took out the specimen he had taken from her as the cursing medium.

  Moments later, Glenn perpetrated some simple cursing sorceries on these things in the enclosement, yet he found that they had no reactions.

  Glenn looked intense.

  "It seems that her life information has been altered entirely, and these things don’t belong to her any longer!"

  As Glenn was taking notes about the experimental results and writing down his thoughts, he had an inspiration.

  "If life information could be changed, then I would be immune to the curse sorceries which use personal information as a medium. Better still, by using Occult sorcery, hints might be found to modify one’s form of life information in the cells to the enemy’s, and this way, I could even curse the cursor!"

  Glenn was thrilled at this new thought.

  Another seven days had passed, and the male subject’s body had been infested by adult Gadflies too. After taking a specimen from the male’s body, Glenn pulled out a vial of turbid liquid. It was extracted and refined from the cranes, which served as the source to effectively neutralize Gadflies’ mutational effect.

  Glenn of course had no sympathy to the subject, and injected the whole vial of liquid into the male’s body.

  "Let’s see if this liquid could stop the energized Gadflies from causing the subject’s mutation."

  A day later, Glenn came back at the testing table, and he looked wistfully at the male who was covered by weird organs and tendrils. However, although the male had undergone mutations, different from the last test on the female, whose new limbs and organs were acting on their own wills and were killing each other, the mutated limbs and organs of the male’s were still "listening to" the will of his soul. And when Glenn cursed the male using the specimen belonging to the male, the extra body parts had no reactions as well.

  "Maybe if I give him enough of these liquids, then he won’t deform at all!"

  Without any hesitation, Glenn put another vial of the liquid into the male’s body. Obviously, that male humanoid was reacting and soon recovered to his original state.

  There was wisdom sparkling Glenn’s eyes.

  "If someone has an organ capable of producing that liquid, then he could change his form of life information. If that’s the case, cursing would not make a difference! And with this organ, the owner could also excel in camouflage and vital organ regeneration."

  All these brilliant ideas came to Glenn’s mind in such a short time, and because of this, he became hectic. Almost immediately, he had decided to learn anatomy. That way, he could modify and maybe evolve that liquid-producing organ in cranes, and then transplant it into his body. By then, he would be able to create a new sorcery by which cursing would be negated and camouflage would be easily done.

  "I will name this great sorcery after me—the Glenn Dissimilation Sorcery!!"

  As Glenn was leaving the laboratory, in his excitement, he noticed the demi-human and halted. Somehow, another wonderful idea struck him. It might sound unrealistic, but Glenn was still analysing it for its practicality using his wisdom.

  Seconds later, he returned to the male and got out a Gadfly from him. Then, through his soul, Glenn ordered that Gadfly to memorize the male’s Life Code information and then he put it into the demi-human’s body.

  "I’ll come back and see the results in seven days." With the Gadfly transfer done, Glenn then went for his mentor to learn about anatomy.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~

  A week later.

  Before the testing table, Glenn cursed the demi-human using the specimen taken from the male’s body. To his surprise, she was reacting to the cursing!

  "Does it mean that Gadflies have memories?"

  Having made this huge discovery, Glenn hurried to his dormitory and came back with drops of blood that belonged to Mina—Daughter of Sun. He had conserved them in a refrigerated vessel. Afterwards, he quickly took out a Gadfly from his body and put it into the blood.

  According to Mina’s own words, she had a body of flames[1]. It was a gift.

  Glenn had learned that gifts were sudden mutations made by some living beings in a population. They obtained it when adapting to the environment.

  Therefore, if Glenn could change some of his life information, and allowed part of his Life Code have Mina’s mutated information, then he would have her gift. If that became reality, Glenn might become the most powerful sorcerer in the sorcerer world, and even no upcoming sorcerers would match him! And the simple reason was that he could copy gifts that he desired and plant it in himself.

  However, these were just Glenn’s wild guesses. They had to be experimented before they could prove to work. And according to the nature’s rules, copying others’ gift was subject to fundamental restrictions, and thus was impossible to achieve, or this would break the balance of living beings’ existence.

  What Glenn couldn’t understand was the fact that gifts would just give sorcerers a head start. The higher level a sorcerer was at, the more negligible gifts’ role would be. The thing that determined a sorcerer’s achievement was knowledge. And Glenn’s gift-copying idea was a part of knowledge, which was way more powerful and important.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  FOOTNOTES:

  [1]: A body of flame is like a phoenix, which obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.

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  Chapter60 The Glenn Secret Tri-Sorcery

  Glenn had moved the Gadfly which had been nurtured in Mina’s drops of blood into his own body, and with it fully growing in his body, his mind was filled with a feeling of both delight and misery.

  Glenn was gleeful because he had made surprising discoveries— his capability in mastering fire element had been growing exaggeratedly. Beyond that, his body could feel, albeit vaguely, the existence of free fire element energy in the air. It had to be mentioned that the ability to feel the energy out there in nature belonged exclusively to sorcerers!

  With the crystal ball floating in the air, Glenn conducted the Fire Bird sorcery which had an offensive power nine times its raw, primitive power.

  Boom!

  A fire with high temperature followed the explosion and when it settled, Glenn moved his hand towards the crystal ball and felt the degree of the attack. He couldn’t help but yell in a thrilled voice.

  "The attack power reached 138 points!"

  Up to this point, Glenn had 29 points of mental strength, and 280~301 points of magical force. Considering the students’ utilization rate of mental strength, which shoul
d be about a quarter, then the raw attack power was about 7 points. When the fire element attack was launched in the form of Firebird, its power should be somewhere between 55 points and 65 points, since the Firebird would enhance the raw power by 8 times. Then why was it indicated at 138 points on the crystal ball? There were about 80 points left unaccounted for. So, by doing the math here, Mina’s ‘Body of Flame’ property had elevated the raw fire element attack power to a level that was tenfold! The Firebird enhanced it by 9 times, and the Body of Flame by 10 times! When put together, the attack power would be 19 times of its raw attack power!

  Green took in a cold breath.

  No wonder Mina had behaved so arrogantly and overbearingly in the Gory Test, as if no one could compare to her. Now with her Body of Flame, and 29 points of mental strength, Glenn could almost match her energy level, and he could easily pull off a fire element attack with over 100 points of power.

  In addition, the Body of Flame had an affinity to fire element, and because of this, a fire element assault which was below 65 degrees would be totally negated by Glenn. And Glenn was still evolving passively because the Gadflies in his body were helping him become more resistant to attacks of various elements.

  The Body of Flame was indeed a very powerful talent for sorcery students!

  Highly strengthened sorcery skills led to Glenn’s ecstasy. However, a crack had appeared on his Life Code, which sentenced him to a miserable state. Artificially modifying Life Code, however small a part of it, would inevitably cause it to crack.

  According to Glenn’s guess, if modifications were done more than three times to the Life Code, then it would then break down entirely. As a result, his life form would be in a disorder. Technically speaking, the situation would be what ensued when the Gadflies were fully energized and yet there were no liquids to control them.