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Nine years later.
In this nearly forgotten ore range, about twenty students were in their defensive positions and Glenn’s team also stayed in here to take care of Glenn who had been studying his sorcery.
The students here had been used to this safe and easy life in the rear. The battle was going on in the frontline. Not here. They would just need to be on daily patrols, checking the interjections and the traps. And two students had even married and had a simple wedding.
During the celebration, all of the students joined. Glenn had given the couple a spare vial of meditation medicine as a blessing gift.
No sight of 19th section students for three years. This place had become a pure home front.
One day in a clearing of the range, Glenn chanted the spells carefully trying to outline the element creature in his mind by using the method of "language resonance". Also by taking advantage of the "motivator", the fire element and knowledge about souls, the creature was around the corner.
In a fluctuation of magical waves, a creature made of dark fire gradually manifested.
It was like a newly born baby, looking around at the strange world. And this baby was emotionally connected to Glenn. It was a three-meter-high giant in the shape of an irregular human with a humpback. His armoured skin, which was made up of water and radium elements, flowed as the black flame blazed. His snail eyes were burning with a clearer light, and now it was scanning around cruelly. There was a huge mouth on either side of his body. One was deploring and the other was yelling.
Judged by the interaction in Glenn’s mind, he began to assess his abilities.
"Basic physical offense power lies between 100 and 220 points. Element attack at around 170. The two mouths? En? One is to swollow souls? And the other was to eat hatred?
He could understand its ability to eat souls, because the motivator belonged to that "Devil Lord"—the creature from foreign lands who had the same ability. But why could it devour hatred? An ability related to emotions confused him.
However, with its basic physical properties, this new element creature would be ranked in the second level among the top ten students in the six schools. If its soul/hatred eating abilities could be explored...
Glenn watched and learned a follow-up ability of the element animal activation sorcery from Yates. After a strong vibration of magical waves. A two-meter-long, blue sword appeared in its hand.
Glenn stared at this element animal that he had spent eleven years building and then murmured. "From now on, you’ll be called the Greedy Flame Giant. I’ll explore your soul/hatred eating abilities some other day."
Element animals had their own slight, primitive will. It was the slightest enlightened part. The Greedy Flame Giant yelled in his mind.
Glenn dispelled his own giant and said, thoughtfully: "Since the boosting capacities of water and radium have been done studying, and the element animal is created. It’s time to increase the nine-time lever function to ten and then it would be the Destructive Force of Fire Blast Sorcery."
"The two twigs are rare signs and will be etched in my soul. By then, I’ll decide how to use radium based on the twig’s properties."
Thinking about this, Glenn concealed his good mood, and spent an hour patrolling around the perimeter as usual before returning to the tent. The physical exercise was reaping benefits in increasing his constitution too.
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Chapter81 The Crater
"Who is in charge at this resource point?" Asked one of the top ten students from the Umbra School, who had arrived at this tungsten ore range.
Lafite stepped forward and answered: "It’s me. Lafite from the Black Isotta."
The student glanced at her, whose stunning grace—a sort of grace that came with an unrestrained domineering manner—flooded him. Following which he narrowed his eyes.
Lafite’s withered skin had been healed after years of treatment. She had become a gracious queen again. And her character had become a little more cunning.
The student pulled out a map and chattered. "You take your men to reach here in five days." He pointed his finger at somewhere in the map. "The remaining few will be enough to guard this ore range."
"A center resource point?" Lafite got startled and then she murmured. "That ‘20 Drops of Blood’ is getting stronger enough to have this final battle? Their members were behaving like fools only years ago."
"Experiencing a purgatory of killing, most of them have been wiped out. If it were not for the protectors, the rest of them would have no resource points in their hands and would have been crushed a long time ago. This war would also have ended." The student sneered.
Lafite replied, thoughtful. "Then the 12th section is mobilizing all of the forces to go here?"
"Nope, it’s them that are doing this. We’ve occupied 180 points. The target of 30 points per school has been achieved. Thus it’s unnecessary to commit such a sacrifice as raiding the remaining 20 points. They’re doing it because, according to the intelligence of our men disguised on their side, they don’t intend to lose the war and are making their last-ditch efforts."
All of the students on the range were startled.
It seemed that the 20 Drops of Blood had become unified, and was now a behemoth that could meet the 12th section as equals.
And this was a flaw in the organization of the 12th section students. No strong leadership deprived them of the chance to smash the enemies once and for all.
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Tsha, tsha, tsha...
Lafite led her team along with other three students in running across an untraversed desert. The soft sands made melodic tsha sounds.
"Stop." Lafite motioned for the team to halt.
The team looked at Lafite whose eyes were watching the distant sky above.
They had no idea that in the distance skies, a bird small like a black spot was hovering above them. Nobody was paying any attention to it except for Lafite. She had the Eagle Eye!
"Something is wrong with this bird. It had been following us for an hour. I think we are being watched by the 19th. This route is not flanked by our resource points which makes it a perfect place to ambush," said Lafite slowly.
"Yeah, we’re not going to view them in the old way. They are sorcery students. They learn. They were acting foolish because of their schools’ system." Cut in Robin, riding on her boar. She then picked up a water bag for a drink, and then watered the boar.
Chris put in: "Lafite, what do we do now?"
After some thinking, Lafite said: "You guys keep changing directions while moving forward in case of falling into their trap. I’ll get that bird and then catch up to you. And Robinson, you go to the nearest resource point to bring a rescue team. Considering your speed, reinforcements will be with us in three hours."
Hearing the instructions, Robinson took out the map and said: "I’ll try to achieve that in three hours!" He then continued. "My wife, keep in touch through the crystal ball."
Soon Robinson had disappeared with his mission in hand.
A pair of huge green leaf wings unfolded on Lafite’s back, and she then straightened her upper body, targeted the bird and shot a whistling arrow.
The bird sensed the coming arrow and fled away immediately.
In the team, an Ivory Castle School student fished out a little magical stick and threw it into the air. As it landed on the ground, he murmured. "We go where the stick’s tip points. We flip the stick every tenth of one hourglass. Basically, we’re heading to our destination and they couldn’t ambush us."
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Glenn was also in the team yet he was busy with his study of water and fire, and he had become completely immersed in this complicated element knowledge. It was called the Fire Blast Sorcery because this was the most basic application of the forces produced by water and fire when met. In simpler words, when the more stable water
element was added into the stable fire element, some sorcery would be used to unite the joint forces when the two elements met into one destructive force.
This rough use of energy was like when Elaine had detonated the magical stone without using the precise control through lever back in Glenn’s first class at the Black Isotta. It was a shame to sorcerers known for the lever method.
But this simple method was the best the ancient sorcerers could achieve in the area. The destructive force energy had their specialty and could not be collected through physical means and thus couldn’t be studied in-depth.
But in Glenn’s mind, even such a simple use contained the power of "prying up the lever", and this power was over 30 times greater than the effect that could be produced by basic mental force. If someone could create a more stable environment where water and fire elements blend, then the instantaneous destructive force would be even stronger. Besides, there was more potential in the force waiting to be tapped into.
Glenn was lucky to get this fire element sign with the indistinguishable property, so it wouldn’t be put out by water! This provided a solid base for his study of the Fire Blast Sorcery.
Rejoicing greatly, Glenn just kept his head low while following the team as if he was a mechanical log.
For the past few years, Glenn had been behaving like this. Except for the few who were friends with him, no other students had had any conversation with him. The only information they knew was his Ashen mask, and that he and Lafite were a couple.
Half an hourglass of time passed, and the travel-worn Lafite landed on the ground before the team. "That eagle ran off." She grunted.
Another three hourglasses elapsed.
The team looked out to the reinforcement in the distance Robinson had brought and became relieved. This 20 Drops of Blood was a lot stronger than the 19th students before. The team began to feel pressured even though they had yet to confront them.
After having greeted the new arrivals, Lafite led the new team and ran to the war zone resource point.
A day later.
"Cross this hill, and we’ll arrive at the Stigmata Canyon—the very center of the Traces of Stigmata Valley. This place possesses the lion’s share of the resources," said Lafite. "But this war wouldn’t be counted by the resource quantities." Lafite encouraged the tired group.
The group trudged their way and arrived at the hillside in an hourglass. They sat down, had a rest and ate something. When they climbed to the top and got ready to go downhill, they were taken aback.
The other side of the hill was almost 1,000 meters deep and it was very steep with a slope of about 45 degrees. The slope was slippery with no plantation nor protruding rocks. And opposite to this hill was an ordinary hill without any features.
The hill ranges spread in rings in a radius of 10 kilometers and the farthest one met the Daqipeng mountain. This was a witness to the traces of the years of the sorcerer world.
"This is not a hill. It’s a crater. Is this where that ancient Stigmata sorcerer fell?" Glenn thought
The fall of a Stigmata sorcerer caused such a great geological change, and this was the center of the Traces of Stigmata Valley—the Stigmata Canyon where resources abounded.
Now Glenn could be considered as having a preliminary understanding of the great powers. And this Stigmata sorcerer must have been top one of their class to have caused such damage.
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Chapter82 The Proposal for Unity
The slope was like many pieces of slates paved together. Lafite and the rest of the team got down on the slope and slid down to the bottom of the crater.
This Stigmata Canyon was the stronghold for the 12th section. As the final battle was coming, the number of students gathering was also mounting, and the estimated number was 30,000.
"Stop." Lafite motioned to the group.
Lafite floated off the ground on her wings of leaves slowly, and said: "The students here have spotted us. Let’s wait for a possible checkup." The team stopped, looked up to her and nodded.
"It’s weird." Nina murmured, who was sensitive to elements. "Fire and radium elements abound in here. And other elements are much less than normal."
Hearing this, the rest closed their eyes to feel the elements proportion in the air. And moments later all of them showed a surprised expression.
"Is this also because of that ancient Stigmata sorcerer? So many years have passed, and yet the geological environment is still being affected?"
A sharp intake of breath was heard.
Afterwards, the crowd gulped and Robin questioned. "It can...t be like this."
A student from the Ivory Castle retorted. "It’s likely! It’s a great sorcerer. Who knows what power he/she had."
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Moments later, twenty students were diving towards them from the air. Suddenly they stopped and hovered to make sure there was no ambush and then launched into another charge.
Several dozens of meters away, a student straddling a groom shouted towards Lafite’s team. "Which school are you from? Who sent you?"
"We are students from Black Isotta, Compass, Hourglass and Ivory Castle. It’s a Compass student who asked us to come here." Lafite replied in an equally loud voice.
All of Lafite’s team members understood the other side’s caution. According to intelligence, there was ongoing infiltration from the 12th into the 15th. There was no reason why the 15th was not doing the same.
"Okay, wait here." The student in the air flew back to his camp on the groom.
Moments later, a team of over 20 came to them from the air and among them there were familiar figures. They were Alastair and Sam. Sam was fluttering his black wings in the air, and there was a drifting aura around his wings which helped him determine that those with Lafite were not moles.
"Lafite, the Death Sail League is getting intense without you. Where have you been?" Alastair had come before Lafite as Sam was inspecting the group.
"Has you fully recovered from the wound?" Alastair surveyed her.
Seeing students from the League, Lafite became much happier. "I’ve been guarding a rear resource point. Mostly idle. What about the front line? I heard the 20 Drops of Blood is getting stronger?"
Sam came to Lafite too. His eyes were like a thaw hole in ice, now become softer upon seeing his own people.
"This league is a little like the league you guys set up back in the ship. They’re causing problems. The good news is that they have sent protectors several times and we haven’t. "
Alastair smiled. "They can send for 11 times and we’ve 16 left. We only used two."
"Is it really so?" Glenn who was behind Lafite thought.
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Three days later.
This resource point was rich in radium stones. The student guards had been mining them for their own possession. Whether it be for sale or use as research material, these stones were valuable. Glenn extracted some too. He then ground them and put them in a tube for his future research of radium or alchemy. He was not in the mood of collecting too much of it though. His goal was the Holy Tower tryout in four years.
Time was limited. Glenn was not sure if he could pull off that Fire Blast sorcery before the tryout, even though he had been trying his best.
One fact was that given Glenn’s power, he would almost certainly became a Demon-Hunter. Besides, since his mentor Norris once promised him that he would become one, he then must have some card to play to help Glenn with the goal. However, this title couldn’t catapult him to that apex of glories.
Clomp, Clomp...
Heavy footsteps were heard, and soon a large student appeared before Glenn.
The girl was obese, but Glenn felt that her figure was burly. With a chain bola around the leather armour on her waist, she walked in an imposing manner. She gave off the image of primitive cruelty.
She was Bethany, wh
o was once ranked the tenth in the top ten students of the Black Isotta. However, her ranking had risen to sixth place. The advancement was due to her thrilling actions in the war when a protector from the 19th section had targeted her yet she was able to escape.
"Glenn, I came because I heard you were dispatched here. If there was a final battle, would you be interested in joining us? I admire you for your capabilities."
Although Bethany was a female, she was not girly. She talked to Glenn as she sank to the ground with a thumping sound.
Glenn put away his tube, looked at Bethany and said: "It’s not gonna happen. I’m tasked to guard a remote point for the past years, so I haven’t had any chance to collect the badges. I intend to gather some in the near future."
"How many are you short on?"
Glenn was startled by the question. He then calmed down and answered lightly. "72."
A Sorcerer's Journey, 2 Page 17
