A Sorcerer's Journey, 2

by Flying White Egrets

  Bang!

  Glenn smashed open the door of a tavern.

  In it, stray knights were howling around, drinking malt beers, and spitting; good-figured tavern girls were waggling, making sweet laughs, and drunkards were bragging about their adventures.

  This was the theme of a tavern these days.

  Glenn had pushed the door open aggressively. This conspicuous move had drawn the attention of the knights in the tavern. Those nights found them in constant danger while working for the nobles. Therefore, when the knights concluded that Glenn was not someone to mess with, those who were teasing around with girls just grunted several times, and the rest resumed what they had been busy with before.

  Glenn went for an available seat and sank down casually.

  As soon as Glenn had settled himself, a scantily-dressed tavern girl with firm breasts came to Glenn. She seemed a little old for her job here—her skin was not fair, and her face was not pretty as it once was. But she, like the other tavern girls, was incredibly hot. For this reason, these girls had always been the favorites of the knights, who always brimmed with vigor.

  The girl leaned and bent in front of Glenn while passing him a glass of inexpensive malt beer. The next second, she threw her upper body on the table, and her huge breasts changed shape when they were strained by the desktop.

  The teasing had of course come into his view. He once made a living in Bi Seer City for years. He knew what the rule was.

  Glenn pulled out a silver coin and tucked it into the slit between the tavern girl’s breasts.

  The girl’s face beamed, and then, as the knights would do in this situation, Glenn reached out his hand and fondled her breasts.

  Meanwhile, in a calm manner, Glenn told the girl to notify him if something related to Pamir Town came up. That said, Glenn pointed to where Pamir Town was roughly located on his map.

  The girl was very happy. She then fished for the silver coin stuck between her breasts. Afterwards, she looked at Glenn excitedly. She hadn't met a client who was willing to reward her with a complete silver coin. She was tempted to envision that she might ask him to her room that night if she didn't have other better jobs to do, and thus she might be paid handsomely again. The more important thing was that she thought Glenn was a tough man. The tougher and more ferocious-looking a knight grew, the more manly they would become. This was a standard applied differently when judging a noble.

  As for sorcerers, some of them had lost their aesthetic feelings. All they cared about was pivoted around seeking truth, essence and practicality.

  However, that tavern girl would soon find her plan with Glenn being his client for the night being thwarted.

  ...…

  An hourglass later, a short, stout man, with a pair of leather shoes on, pushed open the door of the tavern.

  He glanced around this scrubby, bustling place and shouted, displaying a few gold teeth: "Goods to be shipped to Bajaur. Need five good-at-fights hands. Commission is one gold coin."

  Usually, the distance from here to Bajaur was merely an over-20-days walk. The stingy kinds of business people would only offer 30 or 40 silver coins for a job like this. So one gold coin was very generous!

  "Hire me! With me escorting the goods, these as-revolting-as-a-mouse thieves and bandits will get out of our way. I’ll crush their balls myself." A knight who was smiling with a girl rose up suddenly and gave a roar. He was stripped to the waist, revealing a body as massive as a large bear.

  However, this knight was immediately slandered by another knight who flexed his muscles, saying:

  "Ha, what the f*ck are you? Don’t be cheated by his bloating. Once, he abandoned his hirer when bumping into a gang of robbers. He hasn’t been hired in months because of this. He’s a pushover, despite his strong appearance."

  At the time, that tavern girl who had received Glenn’s coin walked leisurely to Glenn again and told him that Bajaur was the nearest city to Pamir, slightly over 5 kilometers east of it.

  "F*ck you!" The knight being slandered retorted.

  ...…

  Soon, the tavern had been thrown into a disorder. On every occasion when the commission was handsomely priced, these nights would run into a fierce dogfight. Those who were standing at last would get the job. This was the rule, and this time was no exception.

  The girl who was conversing with Glenn screamed suddenly. She had caught sight of a large knight falling towards the table she was at, after he had been knocked over.

  Glenn wanted this job so he decided that it was about time to make an exhibition of his power.

  After having sensed the right moment, Glenn held out his arm and caught the poor man who was tumbling towards him.

  Glenn’s move astonished that knight, and as he was panicking, he had found himself being raised up over Glenn’s head. He couldn’t get rid of Glenn’s hand, whose fingers had fixated him like steel loops.

  A loud sound was heard, and the next moment, that poor, large man had been thrown out of the tavern’s window, creating a parabola in the air before hitting the ground.

  This scene drew the attention from the other knights who were engaged in separate fights. Having realized that Glenn was someone not to be trifled with, they intentionally steered out of his way while kept on the fighting.

  That girl’s eyes beamed on seeing Glenn’s valor, so she was enticed to move her body closer to him.

  Several moments later, the fights were over. Glenn and four other big, burly men, whose faces were black and blue now, gathered at the tavern’s gate before the stout man.

  The stout man grinned. "Then this job will be on you guys. Come quick, our girl is gonna run out of patience."

  ‘A girl? So by saying goods to be shipped, he meant a girl.’ Glen thought.

  Moments later, Glenn and the others had been led by the man to the city gate.

  There were four carriages waiting there. Three of them were loaded with mugwort, and there was a non-freight carriage, which looked rather sumptuous.

  "Marlinton, are we good to go?" A girl put her head through the window of that carriage. She seemed to be fourteen or fifteen years old and was very impatient. Yet her outfit astounded Glenn and the other stray knights.

  "She’s wearing a cloak? Is she a sorcerer student?" Glenn said to himself.

  Glenn’s astonishment was not exactly about her garments. To run into a sorcerer student was common in the Sorcerer World. What had amazed him was the fact that she was hiring knights for her protection.

  The degrees of energy a sorcerer’s attack could produce were a far cry for the knights to match.

  But almost immediately, Glenn had realized something, and his face fell. He was not feeling any magical waves from her! Considering her mental strength, Glenn wouldn’t believe that such a little girl could have hidden her magical waves. Putting on a sorcerer cloak before one had magical waves was forbidden and would trigger investigation from LET (Legal Enforcement Team) of the sorcerer school in the jurisdiction. Unless one had been designated as a student by some sorcerer, the punishment resulting from this would be serious.

  This was to say that the dignity of a sorcerer was not to be violated.

  -------

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  Chapter64 A Black Sorcerer

  "Hold your head back, Miss!" The stout man was startled and draped the carriage window’s curtain at once. Then he turned to Glenn and the other guys and glared at them sternly, inquiring, "Did you see her wearing…"

  "Master, there’s no need to worry. We didn’t see anything," an old knight replied timely.

  The chubby man then shifted his gaze to Glenn and the rest, who were spared of possible punishments by also making a pretense of not seeing anything.

  Convinced that the threat had been cleared, the rotund man snorted and started driving the carriage fleet out of the city.

  "What are you afraid of? On arriving at Bajaur, I’ll be an official sorcerer student…" t
he little girl in the carriage mumbled discontentedly, which was caught by Glenn and the other knights indistinctively.

  Glenn fell into a daze on hearing this, wondering if a sorcerer there intended to take her in.

  ...…

  As night fell, the five knights squatted around a bonfire, reveling in drinks and steamed buns while the little girl and the stout man were feasting on some fine food at another bonfire by a carriage.

  Those big, tall knights had gotten acquainted with each other after having been together for half a day. And they would stick together for another 20 days for this temporary job. So they began to laugh and bloat together.

  The strongest guy among them was nicknamed Violent Bear. His head glowed as he was speaking very highly of himself confronting Black Sorcerers, mutated beasts and others in his adventures. However, these were the most profound things a stray knight could see or even imagine!

  For the remaining group members, one was nicknamed Cobra, who was a malicious-looking man of few words. The other two were twins dubbed Iron Hammer and Iron Axe, respectively. The twins never ceased talking, and both regretted not having met Violent Bear earlier.

  As the dining went on, Violent Bear passed across some spirits to Glenn. He frowned initially, but the next second, he gobbled it up. It felt superb!

  "Haha, Tyranny. You’re a forthright man! This is Tequila, a hometown specialty. It’s strong and would get the less heavy drinkers drunk in a whiff." Violent Bear laughed out loud and then resumed munching his dried meat.

  Tyranny was Glenn’s new nickname. After he had single-handedly flung the large man in the tavern out of the window, he had established his authority and taken Violent Bear’s place as the new head of the team!

  Glenn didn’t reply. Instead, he guzzled another mouthful of tequila. At this time, Glenn had forsaken the social etiquette sorcerers should observe and was gulping meat and alcohol, which would have made Lafite or Robinson’s jaws drop.

  At the same time, Glenn was pondering on another idea. The Glenn Dissimilation Sorcery had equipped him with an awesome capability in disguising. But exterior transformation would not suffice in actually deluding the enemy. He had to learn to act, and in some sense, acting was a practice of disguise.

  Meat and drinks had filled Iron Axe’s body, and he commenced chattering. His conversation always hinged on girls and women, and now there was one girl with them, though she was very young.

  "Hey, you think the girl by the carriage…"

  Undoubtedly, this little girl was clearly not old enough, and wouldn’t have aroused their interest if it was not because of her sorcerer student identity.

  "You dumb head! Do you wanna get yourself killed? Who gives you the right to talk about sorcerers?" Iron Hammer scowled at his little brother and hit him hard on the head. Sure enough, Iron Hammer didn’t know that the little girl was a sham.

  Cobra rose up, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he stepped aside to look for some space to practice some martial arts which were essential for body-building and killing capacity enhancement.

  The rest of the group rattled on, and Glenn thought that the talkative Robinson would have made a good partner with them if he had been here.

  However, Glenn didn’t have any interest in talking. Rather, his eyes brightened when he noticed Cobra drilling his martial arts, which he desired to learn, and which would certainly power his constitution points up. So he went for him.

  ...…

  The carriage fleet proceeded on and encountered no obstructions for more than ten days. Now having being chosen as the head of these knights, he was really behaving that way. He ran to and fro by the fleet, staying alert for potential dangers. The knights lounging in the freight carriage watched this and couldn’t refrain from admiring him, although they had no idea that he was just exercising.

  Luckily, Glenn’s patrol and vigilance had worked and brought some discipline into the team. One day, as Glenn was leading the procession at the forefront, he suddenly raised his hand, and the parade halted.

  "What’s up, Tyranny?" Violent Bear called out to Glenn, and the stout man in the rear of the procession stuck out his head, trying to figure out what was going on.

  "It doesn’t feel right," Glenn said drily and calmly, as if he was an old knight who had been seasoned in plenty of deadly battles. "The forest ahead of us teems with wild woods and there are no cities in the vicinity, which make it a perfect ambush site for the robbers."

  Iron Hammer and Violent Bear ran to Glenn, frowning. "Based on past experiences, no gang of robbers stalks here. Are you sure about this, Tyranny?"

  Glenn nodded, although he wouldn’t tell him that it was his enhanced hunting nose that had helped him detect a gang of robbers lurking in the forest.

  Soon, before Glenn’s knight team had explored the way, the gang of robbers had shown themselves from the forest. There were 14 of them, and they quickly besieged the fleet.

  Holding weapons firmly in hand, Glenn and the other knights glared at the robbers fiercely. However, both sides refrained from initiating a battle.

  The stout man walked out of his carriage, smiling deferentially to the head of the robbers, and then he threw a bag of silver coins at him. "Use this money to buy some drinks for your guys. Please let us go."

  There was an unwritten rule between robbers and stray knights. If the stray knights hadn’t been hired by the business people, then the knights who had run into such incidents had no responsibility of protecting the business people, and if they had been hired and a possible strife would cost dearly, then the employer would get some money out of their pockets to bribe the robbers.

  The head robber gave the money bag a lift, took a glance at the stay knights and then shook his head. "I would have made way for you, but today is not your lucky day, someone wants you. So…"

  Afterwards, the head robber waved his hand, and over ten robbers behind him closed in on the fleet, making queer laughs.

  The stout man was taken aback. He had lost his reason and was simply gazing at the head robber.

  "F*ck you, b*tch! Thinking we are useless? I’ll smash you." Violent Bear came towards the head robber with his axe, and the other three knights in Glenn’s camp were also enraged, their eyes turning red. Noticeably, a sense of justice in the knights’ heart had been triggered by the rule-bending robbers, and they had gotten ready to fight till death, but only after taking several lives of the other camp.

  Finally, the two camps were engaged, and very soon, as a strand of blood spurted into the air, the fight came to a standstill. All people on the spot directed their eyes towards the large, blood-dripping sword.

  "Ah!!!" A miserable scream was heard, and the head robber had been greatly shortened. His sword had been broken in two, and his body had been severed in half from the waist.

  The head robber’s body from above the waist fell onto the ground. It then crawled backwards as if to try to escape from this demon in front, leaving a stretch of strewn viscera and blood stains. It was a gruesome scene.

  Glenn was benumbed.

  He had seen the head robber charging at him and since he knew a little about martial arts, he instinctively chopped his sword at the incoming enemy’s head.

  The head robber had concluded that Glenn was just a rookie knight while rushing at him, so he didn’t take Glenn’s sword move seriously. He had even thought of the next move against Glenn if Glenn could have taken his first chop. The head robber had slaughtered countless rookies like Glenn.

  However, the instant Glenn’s huge, thrusted sword met the head robber’s, the robber’s sword snapped. The strong force left in Glenn’s sword, after having cutting in half the enemy’s sword, then sliced his body. The head robber’s pupils dilated, and he still couldn’t believe what had happened to him.

  What had gone through Glenn and the head robber’s mind was in no way known to the others. However, they did know that Glenn sliced the head robber with a casual wave of his sword.

  "Y
ou…this…Tyranny…this…" stuttered Violent Bear. And the bald knight had even developed some sympathy with the crawling robber, and became hesitant whether to axe the stupefied rest of the other camp, and so did the other members of Glenn’s camp, who didn’t expect such an improvement of situation in their favor.

  Even Glenn himself was not sure of what to do next. He had expected to carry on the fighting with the robbers to further build his constitution. Since Glenn had cultivated the dissimilation sorcery, as long as he was not beheaded, everything would be just fine.

  But it seemed that the field exercise had worked, and his strength had been enhanced to a level much higher than an ordinary knight. He had "accidentally" caused a heavy casualty.

  Glenn stroked his nose, looking hesitant about whether to kill the remaining robbers.

  "A legend knight! He’s a legend knight!" A terrified, shaking voice broke amid the robbers, and the speaker then pointed to Glenn.

  This seemed to be the only explanation to Glenn butchering a head robber without much effort!

  The knights around Glenn stared at him adoringly, and Cobra who had remained silent finally said something, eyes glittering. "Are you really a legend knight?"

  Legend knights were humans whose physical capabilities had been elevated to their limits and could bring out their strength deriving from their blood essence. With this strength, legend knights would offer to serve some sorcerers. Once rebuilt by their master, their strength might be reinforced further, and they might become a really strong knight, yet this seemed a desperate dead end!

  "Um…you may call me that," Glenn pretended and owned to it, thinking that the party would break on arriving at Bajaur and their life would never cross afterwards.

  Glenn’s confession confirmed the conjecture harbored by the robbers and the knights alike, who were still staggered by this answer.

  Legend knights were a rare species. They were even scarcer than sorcerers! Becoming one was the life-time pursuit for innumerable knights.