Chapter 531: Half a Lifetime
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“We have arrived at the Seven Rings World.”
The hexagon-shaped metal cabin door of the Heart of the Seven Rings opened up, prompting Grimm and many other Demon-Hunter Sorcerers to exit the vessel. As Grimm took flight, he could feel the unique laws of the Seven Rings World surround him. He turned back to look at the mechanical airships traveling through the evening sky one final time before heading toward the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.
Perched on Grimm’s shoulder was Little Myna who was busy grooming his luscious feathers with his beak. While he did so, he mumbled incessantly to himself, “I wonder what happened to that little brat Vivian.”
Grimm remained silent.
Generally speaking, although the Holy Tower of Seven Rings was able to help the Sorcerer-Apprentices in their advancement toward becoming an official Sorcerer to a certain extent, the actual number of Sorcerer-Apprentices who actually advance as official Sorcerers remained uncertain.
From the batch of Sorcerer-Apprentices that Grimm belonged to, roughly one-third of the Sorcerer-Apprentices never returned upon setting foot into the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. One of them was Kyrie, whose innate ability was copied by Grimm to be incorporated as his own array of spells.
Grimm retrieved the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft and with a “whoosh”, the ball-like aircraft warped into a ray of light that shot into the horizon like a falling meteor.
The Starfall Reconnaissance Craft was releasing the Sorcerers World’s Principal Will. Even within the Seven Rings World, everyone along the way subtly gave way to the Reconnaissance Craft, allowing Grimm to reach the Holy Tower of Seven Rings within a short amount of time.
Half an hourglass later.
As darkness had fallen in the Seven Rings World, a massive tower, constructed from an amalgamation of bloody flesh, metal, and energy that stretched tens of thousands of meters into the sky, emerged. It was as if this grand structure alone was holding up the sky from crashing onto the ground. Emanating from it was an indescribably immense pressuring aura. The lights from the Voidships dotted the sky like stars, revealing Demon-Hunter Sorcerers, Mechanical Marionettes, and slave creatures all circling around the Holy Tower of Seven Rings like bees around their nest.
A “click” sounded as the cabin door of the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft popped open. Immediately after, Little Myna flew out of the craft from Grimm’s shoulder.
Sensing the Sorcerers World’s Principal Will from Grimm’s arrival, the surrounding mechanical guards and slave monsters quickly opened up a pathway among themselves to allow Grimm to pass through.
Without hindrance, Grimm walked onto one of the giant mechanical arms of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.
As the mechanical arm moved, a strange rippling sound reverberated through the air as Grimm was sent into what seemed like the body of a creature of cosmic proportions.
The warm embrace of sunshine, the square that was paved with neat rows of pure white bricks, the Sorcerers who took off and landed from this square, the interiors of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings was like a completely different world compared to the outside.
Grimm flagged down a team of Mechanical Marionette guards who had just arrived.
A mechanical eyeball shone a fluorescent ray of green light which scanned Grimm’s body from head to toe. In a matter of seconds, it seemed to have received complete information on its subject and the leader of this team of Marionette guards spoke in a stiff robotic voice, “O great Demon-Hunter Sorcerer, how may I be of help to you?”
“I am looking for a Sorceress-Apprentice named Vivian, she should have been assigned here after the previous Holy Tower qualification battle.”
The Mechanical Marionette paused for a moment before replying to Grimm’s request.
“Please follow me to the personnel registration department.”
Grimm nodded and replied, “Right.”
The interior space within the Holy Tower of Seven Rings was much larger than Grimm had imagined. As the World Core of the Seven Rings World, this space must have been expanded by Seven Rings Celestial Sorcerer through manipulation of its internal laws.
A little over half an hourglass later, Grimm arrived at a quiet place where there were relatively few Sorcerers around. This was where he detected Vivian, and here, a grey-feathered woodpecker passed a scroll it was holding in its beak to Grimm.
“Caw? It seems that the odds are pretty high now.”
Little Myna shook its head upon reading through the contents of this scroll.
“So she hasn’t advanced into an official Sorcerer yet huh…”
Grimm slowly rolled up the scroll and sighed regretfully with a pained expression.
He could not help but wonder if Vivian’s failure to qualify as an official Sorcerer was due to the constitution boosting potion he had given to her before she was sent into the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.
Alas, such mistakes were irreparable.
Grimm nodded as a greeting gesture to the few Sorcerers who were there drinking their tea before leaving the personnel registry of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. According to the location specified on the scroll, he made his way toward the Demon-Hunter Castle of a great Level-3 Sorcerer named Gulles.
The Holy Tower of Seven Rings was home to many such Level-3 Demon-Hunter Sorcerers, as well as a couple other top-tier elites, who were recruited by upper-echelons of the Sorcerer organizations, such as the Demon-Hunter Consociation that Grimm had given up the membership of once a long time ago.
A caterpillar-like creature whose body was a mixture of organic flesh and mechanical structures that was almost a hundred meters long was snaking its way through the main square of the Holy Tower at high speed. On its back were rows after rows of Demon-Hunter Sorcerers. Grimm waved down this creature and tossed a few crystallized energy stones in its mouth before climbing onto its back.
“Caw caw, young master, I must say, the make-up of this creature’s body is rather interesting.”
Little Myna flew down from Grimm’s shoulder and stood on the back of the hundred-meter-long caterpillar with an excited look on his face.
Every one of the stumpy legs on this gigantic caterpillar were constructed from metal, and they moved with extreme speed. To his surprise, even at such a pace, its passengers were riding relatively comfortably and the journey had little to no bumps.
“Yeah.”
The last time Grimm came to this place was when he had unintentionally “sabotaged” Vivian. Back then, he did not pay much attention to the field of knowledge on mixing metal, energy and organic flesh. This time round, Grimm realized that it was better for him to go through this subject in detail.
Grimm looked around and his gaze fixated on a Level-3 Great Sorcerer sitting beside him.
Hanging in front of his chest was a white flowing beard that seemed to cause ripples in the air around it. On his head was a pointy black Sorcerer’s hat as his hands were clasped around an old wooden magic staff. For some reason, there was a little green shoot rising from the staff he was holding.
Sensing Grimm’s gaze, this old Sorcerer naturally looked back at him.
Grimm performed the Sorcerer’s greeting toward this Level-3 Demon-Hunter Sorcerer before asking humbly, “Master, if I wish to learn the knowledge of combining machinery and flesh-and-blood creatures, to what place should I go to trade for such knowledge?”
“Oh ho, Is this your first time coming to the Holy Tower?”
This old Sorcerer was a relatively friendly Bright Sorcerer. Through the gentle gaze on his wrinkled face, one could very clearly see the Light of Wisdom shining brightly.
“This is a new knowledge system developed by Seven Rings Celestial Sorcerer. It is said that this system was retrieved and revived from the graveyard of knowledge systems that once belonged to ancient civilizations that were lost in time. Seven Rings Celestial Sorcerer obtained such knowledge and altered it to suit the Sorcerers of today, such that they can be developed on a large scale. You have a Rank-1 Demon-Hunter Honor Badge don’t you? So long as you are willing to become a member of the many Sorcerer organizations and move into the Holy Tower’s interiors, you can very easily obtain what you are seeking for at the price of some Sorcerer Essences.”
After his explanation, the old Sorcerer thought for a moment before adding on one last thing.
“Of course, what you get is just knowledge of the law. You have to try it out with your own sorcery and develop it by yourself from then onward. Though, keep in mind that the price of trading for such knowledge is not cheap.”
The enthusiasm of the other party made Grimm display a bright smile.
“Thank you, Master.”
“Caw caw caw caw, can we buy a specimen like this one back home?”
Little Myna whispered, his tone brimming with anticipation.
The old Sorcerer shook his head and replied with an amused smile, “Unfortunately, the Holy Tower of Seven Rings does not provide such services. Perhaps you should try asking the Sorcerers who are researching such creatures instead.”
***
Grimm climbed down from the back of this massive caterpillar and took off alongside Myna. Not long after, they found Gulles’s Demon-Hunter Castle as specified on the scroll.
As a visiting stranger, Grimm walked up to the door of the Demon-Hunter Castle and knocked lightly.
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
Footsteps could be heard from beyond the castle door.
After a brief moment, the door creaked open to reveal the wrinkled face of an old Sorceress-Apprentice standing behind it. Her mouth was open just as she was about to say something, but she was stunned when her eyes were met with Grimm’s mask as well as Little Myna who stood on his shoulder.
“Senior… Senior Grimm? Mavrica Nevichy!”
Vivian’s eyes interlocked with Grimm’s. Her gaze was a mixture of surprise and shame, at the fact that she was still a Sorceress-Apprentice.
After not seeing each other for such a long time, the time it took for Grimm to complete one Demon-Hunting Expedition was, to Vivian, almost half her lifetime. Such was where the line was drawn between beings of different levels.
“Vivian!”
Little Myna plopped itself happily on Vivian’s shoulder.
“Junior.”
Grimm’s voice hinted feelings of guilt he was feeling at the sight of this Sorceress-Apprentice’s face, who seemed much older and frailer than himself.
Vivian was approaching the final stage of her life. Grimm could sense through her soul that she had only about ten years left to live.
Vivian’s hopes of advancing into an official Sorceress was a stillborn dream.
“Senior Grimm, come in quick! This is the Demon-Hunter Castle of the great Sorcerer Gulles. Master is extremely friendly and has taught me many lessons on sorcery. Oh right senior, how is Mentor Peranos doing?”
Vivian was clearly trying to suppress the guilt from rising up from the bottom of her heart. Not once did she indicate that her failure was due to Grimm’s “sabotage”. Instead, she blamed her failure on the shortcomings on her intelligence in regards to sorcery.
Grimm followed Vivian into the Demon-Hunter Castle.
“It’s been such a long time since I have met my mentor. The mission I received in the Demon-Hunting Expedition has become increasingly complex for me to handle. It’s because of some unexpected sequence of events that I could return to the Sorcerers World to pay you a visit.”
A while later, an old Sorcerer who stood a mere one and a half meters tall appeared.
From his eyes, Grimm detected a signal expressing regret for Vivian’s condition. To this, he could only force himself to smile, just like he would at the memories of Lefay from long ago.
Grimm shifted his gaze toward Vivian who was introducing Gulles to him.
In the final years of her life, it would be wasteful to spend it here in this closed world. She should be happier instead, to see the beautiful and vast Sorcerers World one last time before leaving the world for good.