Chapter 289: Arcane Mount

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Seven days later.

The head of the academy quickly entered the room while a Woodbract Bird flapped its wings rapidly on her fingertips.

“Teacher.”

“Master.”

Gabriel and Grimm stood up to greet her. The head of the academy nodded her head and looked at Gabriel. “Gabriel, about that Demon Hunter you’ve described… the academy had acquired the latest information in regards to that person.”

Then Magic Power started to rock around her lips as she spoke a series of chants and elemental passwords, the Woodbract Bird loudly chirped before extending its wings and turned into a large leaf.

There was a map drawn with a clear black arrow pointing at a direction on the leaf.

“Oh… he’s heading towards the Jewel Sea!”

Gabriel, who was calm in the past few days, suddenly hastily jumped out of his chair and said, “That’s Roqhiroo. His ability in tracking is the best amongst us. His Cerberus would definitely be able to seek out the Black Sorcerer that Demon Hunter Consociation wants.”

Pausing momentarily, Gabriel continued on as he walked around excitedly in the room, “And he’s heading toward the Jewel Sea. That means, the Black Sorcerer had taken notice and is planning to escape the Sorcerer Continent. He’s heading towards the Black Domain. This is bad.”

Grimm didn’t say a word. Although his eyes under the Mask of Truth were calm, his fists that were hidden in his sorcerer robe were clenching tightly while his uneven breathing showed some level of anxiety.

No.

They couldn’t let Hattori the Hidden escape to the Black Domain!

Just like how Sorcerer Continent was a gathering place for Sorcerers, the Black Domain was one for the Black Sorcerers.

Black Domain was a massive island, as huge as a continent. The humans who lived there were all lab rats to the Black Sorcerers—they were kept in cages… bred and sold like cattle. They lived all their lives locked inside the Black Sorcerers’ labs—never experiencing freedom since their birth.

And there were no Black Sorcerer-apprentices. No civilians. No merchants. No knights. No nobles.

There were only the Black Sorcerers and the “dismembered”.

Other than the “breeders”—whose sole purpose was to breed continuously to increase the humans’ number, only the dismembered were allowed to live inside the Black Sorcerers’ labs. And amongst those dismembered, only an extremely few number of them would experience extreme despair—one that surpassed life and death. These dismembered would then became the “blackened”.

The blackened had not acquired any Black Sorcery from the experiments—making them ordinary humans with sorcery potentials. Nonetheless, they had indeed “evolved” into Sorcerers.

As soon as these blackened appeared, the Black Sorcerers would then carefully transport them to the Black Domain Tower in exchange for Sorcerer Essence.

In short, the Black Domain was a totally different world compared to the Sorcerer Continent. Grimm would not be able to hunt down a Black Sorcerer in their turf; it would not only be extremely difficult… it would be suicidal.

As for the Black Sorcerers in the Black Domain, the Sorcerer Continent was like a massive treasure continent, littered with countless hateful Demon Hunters. The continent contained the treasure that the Black Sorcerers valued a lot—vast human population.

Thus, although dangerous, there were always some Black Sorcerers sneaking into Sorcerer Continent to wreak havoc.

“No! I must head to the Jewel Sea right away. I must complete the demon-hunting mission before he leaves the Sorcerer Continent… to kill him before he flies out of the continent’s authority.”

Gabriel’s words were cold and calm.

Standing next to Gabriel, Grimm made himself looked like he was indeed his sidekick—he was there solely to acquire more experience in demon hunting.

Whoosh!

The leaf on the head of the academy’s hand suddenly turned into dust. Her face turned grim. “Oh no, the Tracking Sorcerer had been spotted.”

The Sorcerer Continent was never a land of peace after all.

Without hesitation, Gabriel quickly whooshed out of the 78th level’s window. As he flew in the air, he loudly shouted towards the room, “Goodbye, teacher.”

“Master, thank you.”

After giving his thanks and bowing, Grimm suddenly disappeared from the room after a dimension distortion wrapped around him.

In mere seconds, there was only the head of the academy left in the room. She coldly mumbled, “Let’s hope this Grimm, like Master Peranos said, is not going to stab Gabriel in the back to compete in the Demon Hunter Consociation mission. Or else… Hmph, even if it’s Master Peranos, I will let him know just what consequence he would face if he lies to a Level 3 Great Sorcerer…”

On the other hand, Grimm was looking enviously at the metal bird that Gabriel was riding.

That was an Arcane Mount. It could carry a sorcerer to travel in the air. Well, flying in the air was not anything unique in the world of sorcerers. However, these Arcane Mounts could not only carry its rider long distances but also increase its flying speed gradually along the way without the fear of it getting tired.

According to Grimm’s estimation, Gabriel’s metal bird could speed up to its maximum speed in just one day. And when that time came, Grimm would probably need to use dimension distortion to keep up.

Gabriel threw a glance at Grimm who was tagging behind.

Even though Master Peranos gave him his word, Gabriel did not believe at all that Grimm was not interested in completing the demon-hunting mission at all.

However…

There were only a total of seven people participating in this mission. Every single one of them was elites who had survived countless foreign world conquests.

Each one of them had Honor Badges on them.

Thus, they were all powerful. Way more powerful than any ordinary sorcerers. He must be vigilant, no matter how strong he was.

Thus, if he could use Grimm’s service and aid properly, Gabriel could slow at least one of these competitors down and raising his chance to complete the hunt himself.

After all, even though Grimm was a greenhorn… and had only graduated just two hundred years ago… he was still the high achiever who had acquired the number one place in the Holy Tower Qualification Battle.

Other than that, he had also acquired Honor Badges from his first Demon Hunting Mission.

This kid was indeed a genius sorcerer—one with immense potential.

This demon-hunting mission, to Gabriel, was not difficult at all. Any single one of them was not anything that the Black Sorcerer could take on at all.

No, the real difficulty was the rivalry between the Demon Hunters.

Feeling uneasy after this thought, Gabriel yelled at Grimm, “Just how long are you going to slow me down? Hmph, come and ride with me. I’m not going to wait for a deadweight you know.”

A deadweight? Grimm was of the same level as him! Grimm coldly replied, “Alright.”

Then, as a series of dimension distortion warped around them, Grimm had landed on the metal bird.

Gabriel, of course, had noticed Grimm’s disgruntlement. Yet, he didn’t think this was anything to be concerned with.

This kid was some brat that relied on his teacher to get the position to tag him along, to acquire more experience. They were just using one another, that’s all.

Nonetheless, he was the one in charge.

Smiling coldly, Gabriel hid his face under his sorcerer robes, one that was flapped around with powerful elemental energy while retracting the metal scaled tail into the robe.

Three days later.

The metal bird was fast indeed. Gabriel and Grimm had now arrived at the edge between the Vicious Thorn Forest and Jewel Sea.

Gabriel quickly put away his metal bird. The two sorcerers then started to scan their surroundings as they hovered in the air.

Creek creek creek…

Grimm noticed that Gabriel raised an arm… his arm had a layer of metal scales… ones that started to sink into his skin, making a series of creaking noise.

Hmm?

Wild Instinct Anatomy!

So, Gabriel was a Wild Instinct Anatomy Refinery Sorcerer? He could remain in his Wild Instinct Level 1 form and still not become weakened. He had essentially become a wild beast.

It would seem that this Gabriel was much more powerful than he first thought. He probably had mastered Level 2 form of Wild Instinct too.

It was rare to see Anatomy Refinery Sorcerer like Grimm.

Grimm once accidentally activated Level 1 Wild Instinct before—when he was training his body and Constitution continuously using various elements back then.

Grimm deduced that the reason he was able to activate Wild Instinct was probably connected to the Life Code Rupture.

Thus, this could be a clue for him to continue his research on Life Code Knowledge.

This deduction would probably affect his future research after he completed his study on Destructive Force.

A few moments later.

Gabriel shook his head as he extracted his metal scales back on his skin again, “No good. I’m not experienced in tracking using Perception Sorcery.”

The Tracking Sorcerer, that the head of the academy mentioned three days ago, last appeared here.

Turning his head, Gabriel looked at the low-profile, silent Grimm. Scanning Grimm behind the vapor of elements around him, Gabriel was looking at Grimm like how a senior would at a junior in the academy.

‘Other than this weird gray mask, there doesn’t appear to be anything unique about him,’ Gabriel thought.

Then, he asked, “So how’s your Perception Sorcery? Come on, are you going to aid me or what?”

Grimm wasn’t pleased with his disrespectful tone.

Not saying a word, Grimm closed his eyes and focused on activating his Perception. After about fifteen minutes, he suddenly opened his eyes and raised a finger in a direction, “A few thousand meters away in that direction. There’s a scent of death.”