Snap!

A streak of azure blue flame suddenly blazed in front of Grimm. After breaking off a huge chunk of crystalized ice in the explosion, Grimm consumed some mana to set up his sorcerer’s barrier again. Still, the sudden event took Grimm by surprise.

This ice flame, as well as another mysterious source of energy, seemed to be emanating from deeper under the ground.

This source of energy appeared to be similar to the stigmata craters and necromancer craters of the Sorcerers World, which had an impact on the natural laws of the world.

“Darkness Pool again?”

Behind Grimm, the elemental light from Claudia’s exquisite magical staff was slowly dimming as if it were consumed by the surrounding darkness. It was unheard of in the Sorcerer World.

“Darkness Pool?”

Grimm had been sensing his surroundings with the ultrasound positioning sorcery from his Mask of Truth which was complemented by his olfactory enhancement. He had not had much experience in the darkness. As it was his first time hearing the new term, he puzzledly questioned.

Claudia was upset by the darkness surrounding the area.

“My last Demon-Hunting expedition was at the World of Eternal Night Spirit. It was a mysterious world dominated by a cursed soul. The core of their natural law was this Darkness Pool.”

Claudia appeared to be going deeper into her memories.

“In a world where the Darkness Pool becomes the law of nature, the principles of light and shadow are reversed. The world is no longer a place where light cast out the shadows. It was darkness that consumed light, a natural sanctuary for creatures of the dark.”

‘A darkness that consumed light?’

What a strange world principle.

Grimm then asked, still puzzled, “Could there be a world aperture that is connected to a world similar to the Eternal Night Spirit’s world under the ground that is causing localized changes to the law of this world?”

Claudia shrugged in response. She did not really know what was going on here as well.

At the same time, she no longer wanted to waste her energy in igniting the elemental light. Instead, she started emitting a pink cloud mist. There were faint sounds of wings flapping about coming from the pink mist.

Using the ultrasound positioning spell, Grimm could sense a structured world where darkness and light met.

It appeared that the great construction of this underground cavern had been undertaken since ancient times. There were obvious signs of aging on top of each stone wall.

The intertwined chisel marks were like the journals of the ancient Acraepoid laborers, jotting down each drop of their sweat and effort for the great Acraepoid’s will. They toiled hard for the glory of the powerful Acraepoid World.

Suddenly, Grimm and Claudia stopped dead in their tracks. They saw an energy node that had been obviously damaged by someone.

It was a miniature scale of a Flame Burrow. There were hundreds of fiery red chains connected from all directions which functioned like the energy nodes of the Sorcerer World.

However, it was completely slashed apart and was no longer functioning like it used to. All the chains had been cut off. The miniature Flame Burrow had been completely destroyed.

“This… Was this a huge seal array?”

As Grimm mumbled in shock, he stored a string of the metallic chain as a specimen for future studies. He was searching for something within the collapsed miniature Flame Burrow that spanned a hundred meters wide.

After some time, it was Claudia who picked up on something.

She found an azure crystal that had high purity. It had the energy of half a high-level magic stone.

After observing the crystal underneath the Mask of Truth, Grimm said in a low voice, “It would seem that the source of the ice flame in this area originated from this ice-element crystal. Yet, the construction of this seal is too shoddy for a large-scaled array like this. It doesn’t look like a sealing array worthy of a World Lord.”

Claudia put the azure crystal away.

“Indeed, it looks like this huge sealing array had other uses. There is a high probability that the Level-3 sorcerers have summoned Millie and Solumn to destroy the magical array and complete a hidden honor-badge mission.”

Grimm nodded and gave up searching the rubble.

“Let’s go. Though we won’t be fighting with the Level 3 sorcerers for the honor badge any time soon, in order to support the operation of this massive sealing array it would require a huge amount of energy in the main operating hub. Coincidentally, my research requires a huge amount of energy.”

As Grimm was about to fly away, he was startled.

Hmm?

Grimm pulled out a mysterious leather-bound book from his sorcerer’s robe. Instantly, a dark energy ripple converged towards Grimm as if he was locked on by the whole sealing area.

This book was obtained by Grimm after he had slain the young Acraepoid due to Claudia’s panicked reaction. It was a practice manual known as Vulkshy’s Infernal Curse.

“Grimm, you…”

As if she had seen something shocking, Claudia was clearly startled as she looked at Grimm. At the same time, she flew away swiftly.

By the power of the natural forces, Grimm could sense that the endless darkness was swarming towards him as if he were about to be consumed. Somehow, he had become the center of the dark vortex.

“What’s going on!?”

Under the suppression of the mysteriously powerful darkness energy, each of Grimm’s movements took tremendous effort to perform. His finger was twisting slightly as he tried to throw the Vulkshy’s Infernal Curse away to no avail.

‘Damn it!’

So there really is a deeper secret within the item that had been left behind by the World Lord!

While Grimm was worried, he did not escape using the spacetime coordinated access spell that he shared with Little Myna. Logic was telling Grimm that a hidden secret left behind by the World Lord’s practicing manual should not pose any danger.

Perhaps… it could even be some kind of unimaginable opportunity?

After taking a deep breath, Grimm clenched his teeth tightly beneath the Mask of Truth. He looked at Claudia who was slowly retreating and shouted with the last ounce of his breath, “Get away from here, go look for Millie and Solumn!”

At the next moment, Grimm could only feel a pull that had torn apart the spacetime. His body was twisted in a spiral like a string of yarn. A soul ripple emerged from the Vulkshy Infernal Curse, guiding the Darkness Pool to perfectly preserve Grimm’s body.

And so, Grimm felt relieved.

It seemed like Grimm had stumbled upon a huge secret by chance.

And this secret, according to Claudia’s theory of luck, supposedly belonged to the young Acraepoid?

Perhaps there really is so-called ‘luck’ in this world that worked like the rest of Grimm’s senses. Claudia’s sense of luck was just a tiny fraction of all the senses in the endless world.

However, Claudia had relied too much on this sense of luck, so much so that she had started to ignore the foundational pursuit of truth and knowledge. Her foundations had always been lacking.

How could there be a protagonist in this world?

Everyone was a protagonist in their own story. That was why every living being in every world had to go through endless fights.

It was the elusiveness of fate and the impermanence nature of the endless world that had given rise to the colorful stories of each living being!

While heaving heavily, and trying to calm his mind at the same time, Grimm could feel that the Darkness Pool that had enveloped him had transported him to a strange dimension. Huff! Azure colored ice flowers filled his sight. Grimm’s sorcerer’s barrier began to produce a banging noise.

On top of an ancient throne at the center of an altar was the body of an Acraepoid sealed perfectly in ice.