Chapter 534: Wastelands
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Half a year later.
Flying at full speed, Master Peranos, Grimm and the rest of their team travelled through half the entire span of the vast territory ruled by the Holy Tower of Seven Rings. They were now making their way through the barren wasteland that existed between the Holy Towers of the Six and Seven Rings’ domain.
This was the most desolate and dangerous place one could ever go to on the Sorcerer Continent.
Of course, the so-called danger only applied to the Legendary Knights and a small fraction of low-level Sorcerers. For Peranos, the great Level-3 Sorcerer, there were virtually no naturally-occurring threats on the Sorcerer Continent powerful enough to threaten his life.
The true danger instead, lied beyond the Sorcerer Continent, in the areas that even the Sorcerers had yet to completely control, let alone develop.
For example, the deep sea, the black domain.
As they made their way across the sky, Vivian felt as if she had returned to the time when the Holy Tower qualification battle had just ended. The joyful days she lived through as her mentor had prepared to send her off from the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy to the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.
“Hmm? Careful, hailstorm ahead.”
Flying in front of the formation, Peranos’ keen senses easily picked up on unexpected weather changes. Looking at the deep blue cloud shaped like a camel’s hump far off in the distance, he signalled for the giant bird to make its descent onto the ground. Thousand-Eyed Carnicus, who was ferrying Grimm and Little Myna on its back, too started losing altitude gradually.
The ground surface was covered by a bed of white flowers, and yet the entire place was inexplicably foul-smelling.
Several five-meter-long green rhinos, all of whom had a small sprout at the top of their heads, roared at the giant bird and Thousand-Eyed Carnicus who had invaded their territory. Sensing the oppressive aura from these two uninvited guests, the sturdy creatures charged into the distance, causing the ground to rumble under their sheer weight.
“Guys, quick! Look at that!”
“Caw?”
Vivian and Little Myna yelled out in surprise. Varro, who had the highest degree of knowledge on biology through participating in extensive research, was the quickest to come to his senses.
“Earth Vein Fairies!”
From the inconspicuous openings on the ground beneath Thousand-Eyed Carnicus and Peranos’ giant bird, emerged ten or more palm-sized creatures. They looked like small rats with their grey-drab bodies but the most eye-catching feature was their white string-like tail. They averaged around one meter long.
These Earth Vein Fairies stood up on their hind legs and each of them were hugging high-grade crystallized energy stones with their free forelimbs as they looked toward Grimm and Peranos’ direction.
“We are the Earth Vein Fairies who are under the protection of the guardian laws. Sorcerers, I can feel from your bodies the magnetic field of the Geocentric Stone. If you have additional Geocentric Stones, we are more than willing to trade for it with these high-grade crystallized energy stones.
An Earth Vein Fairy spoke in the Sorcerer’s language with an anticipatory look on its face as it shifted its gaze between Peranos and Grimm.
The Geocentric Stone was a type of rock that possessed the ability to manipulate and exploit the power of the Earth Veins. It was also the primer for both Grimm and Peranos’ attractive and repulsive force sorcery.
The difference between Peranos and Grimm was that the former kept his Geocentric Stone in near perfect condition within his body’s origin coordinates whereas the latter had completely dissolved his Geometric Stone into his bloodstream. It was also the reason why his body’s skin was flawless despite his age.
Peranos closely inspected the high-grade crystallized energy stones that the Earth Vein Fairies were carrying.
A short moment later, Peranos shook his head and sighed.
“What a shame. In an experiment I conducted ten years ago, I had completely exhausted my supply of Geocentric Stones.”
Grimm, too, eyed the energy stones the Earth Vein Fairies were holding. His gaze was locked onto a high-concentration energy stone which was producing a mixed signal of Earth-elemental energy and Life Force.
“Do you have any more Pox Amber of this grade?”
Apart from the Ice Top that the King of the Snowthreads had gifted to Grimm, Pox Amber was an essential ingredient for his experimental potion blend which temporarily increased one’s constitution. His original plan was to purchase it using Sorcerer Essences at the underground market of the Tree of Life. It never crossed his mind that he would stumble upon this here, of all places.
One of the Earth Vein Fairies replied excitedly, “We have loads of them! Are you willing to trade with us?”
Grimm nodded and said, “If you are able to provide me with ten Pox Ambers similar to this one right here, I will give you my two remaining Geocentric Stones.”
“Deal!”
The Earth Vein Fairies accepted the offer happily and disappeared into their burrows in the blink of an eye. A moment later, they produced ten Pox Ambers that were being held in their arms dearly. Grimm laid down the two Geocentric Stones for the other party and thus, both parties concluded their trade on the spot.
“Wait a moment.”
Varro called out to the Earth Vein Fairies who were just about to return to their burrows.
“Do you have Earth Vein Essence here?”
As soon as their ears caught the words Earth Vein Essence, these little critters scrambled into their burrows hastily. Under pressure, Varro took out a small vial and made an offer.
“I’m offering to trade this with you! A bottle of pangolin wine, aged for over three hundred years! This is the last bottle I have on hand!”
‘Chi chi chi chi’
Hearing Varro’s irresistible offer, these Earth Vein Fairies went insane. They seemed to be discussing amongst themselves in their burrow and soon enough, they re-emerged from their hidey holes. With an intoxicated look on their faces, they inched closer to Varro hoping to hear more about this “pangolin wine” he was talking about.
Finally, one of the Earth Vein Fairies gave in to the temptation and asked, “How many drops of Earth Vein Essence do you need?”
“Ten drops?”
Varro asked cautiously.
“No way, two drops at most or…”
Finally, Varro managed to use the three-hundred-year-old aged pangolin wine as a leverage in his deal for five drops of Earth Vein Essence. These Earth Vein Fairies, upon concluding their second deal excitedly dragged the bottle of strong liquor back into their burrow and disappeared into its depths. The whole place returned to silence as if the exchange from before had just been an illusion.
“Wa ha ha, I’ve struck gold! To think that I was just teasing them out of curiosity and here in my hands are some Earth Vein Essence! I’m gonna be rich, wa ha ha ha!”
Varro burst out laughing.
Though, you could not really blame him for doing so. The so-called pangolin wine was just some weird alcohol old geezers drank and was worth no more than a single magic stone. Yet, this guy had managed to get five full drops of Earth Vein Essence in exchange. This transaction was downright out-of-this-world.
The market price for one single drop of Earth Vein Essence back at the Holy Tower of Seven Rings was at least over thirty Sorcerer Essences!
“Hmph, I knew you were up to something. So everything that you have achieved, has been founded upon such instances?”
Peranos’ words struck down on Varro when he was at the peak of his euphoria. Varro then proceeded to shut his mouth and peered into the sky above.
The hailstorm was a rare, but natural phenomenon that commonly occurred outside of the Holy Tower territory and was a result of Celestial-craters’ laws colliding with each other. Such storms were extremely powerful and not even the great Level-3 Sorcerers were willing to risk the chance flying through hazardous conditions like this. To put things into perspective, the level of chaos it could wreak was on par with the deadly eruptions in the Celestial-craters.
However, one special characteristic of the hailstorm was that it only affected higher altitudes. The air closer to the ground remained relatively unaffected and that explained why, in the moment, Grimm and the rest of the team could not feel any changes brought about by the Moraine storm. All they could hear was the low rumbling from massive ice lumps colliding with each other high up in the sky where the storm was conjured.
Half an hourglass later, the Moraine storm ceased and the sky cleared up. The group then began speeding up their pace, shrugging off attacks from the Sorcerer Continent’s creatures as they moved forward.
Four months later.
A Voidship could be seen floating toward Grimm and his group’s direction.
The three-hundred-meters-long airship blocked their path before a Level-2 Sorcerer emerged and announced to Peranos, “Great Master, the Holy Tower of Six Rings is currently conducting a thousand-year-long experiment with an ancient Dominator crater up ahead. Please bypass this area.”
“Six Rings Algae?”
Peranos asked inquisitively.
The Sorcerer nodded, confirming Peranos’ speculation. Peranos then turned to Grimm and said, “It seems we’ll have to go around them. The detour will eat up more time though.”
A short while later, Peranos, Grimm and the rest changed directions and continued on with their journey.
After bypassing this enormous crater, it would not take the group very long before they reached the academy district of the Holy Tower of Six Rings on the Sorcerer Continent.