A Sorcerer’s Journey

Chapter 163: The Dross of Ancient Knowledge

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

‘Hmm?’

Grimm looked at the tall building in front of him and felt a bit astonished. The building was a few hundred meters tall, with a structure that looked like an upside-down “V”.

“What a unique structure. It explains why it was stated on the map that this place would be very easy to identify. I didn’t expect the Fundamental Knowledge Library of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings to have this unusual structure. This is quite refreshing,” Grimm murmured to himself as he landed on the ground.

At the main entrance of the library, there was a long staircase with more than a hundred steps. A stone monument with the famous saying “Grant me infinite knowledge, and I shall be as a fulcrum, set to move the endless world”[1] written on it could be seen at the entrance, but nobody seemed to pay any heed.

The reason was because this type of stone monument was too common in the Sorcerer World.

Grimm gave a quick glance at the monument without any expression. Then he climbed up the stairs while maintaining his distance with the sorcerer in front.

A few humanoid robots were standing at the library entrance, each about three meters tall. Faint buzzing robotic sounds could be heard coming from their heads as they scanned the sorcerers who were passing by. Each robot had an automatic crystal ball monitor on their head to record the real-time dynamics in the library. Some rules and regulations of the library were stated on all of the robots’ chests.

It was different during the sorcerer school era days when sorcerer-apprentices had to pay magic stones to get fundamental knowledge from the library, now as a Demon-Hunter, obtaining common and fundamental knowledge of sorcery subjects were free of charge.

That was one of the basic perks of being a Demon-Hunter.

A few moments later…

A female human-like creature with cicada wings on its back guided Grimm to the fifteenth floor of the library, where all the books about voodoos were kept.

The human-like creature thanked Grimm and left in delight as it received half a magic stone as its tip.

Grimm glanced at the wide range of books in the library under his Ashen Mask. Based on his estimation, it seemed like there were around thousands of books on that row of three-meter high bookshelf.

Unlike the neat and tidy bookshelves back in the sorcerer school library, the different sizes of books arranged on this library shelf were slightly messy. There were even some ancient scrolls arranged at the bottom of the shelf which no one seemed to show any interest in.

These scrolls were considered as the “dross” of ancient sorcerers’ knowledge system.

Needless to say, all of the knowledge in the books and scrolls here were highly related to voodoo, which was why they were here in the first place, even including the ancient knowledge which seemed like “dross” to modern sorcerers.

Grimm took his time and picked a few books that caught his interest. Using the repulsive and attractive forces, he made the books float in the air and started to read them one by one.

Ever since Grimm became an official sorcerer, he was able to use natural force to drive the repulsive and attractive forces in the gravity. Hence his repulsive and attractive skill was no longer limited to only using it on himself, he could now use them on other external objects as well.

As for the ancient scrolls, just like the other sorcerers who had been here before, Grimm did not pay much attention to them.

First, Grimm flipped open a book which was around one meter tall and half a meter thick. The title of the book was “Calculation Formula of the Allocation Equation for Nineteen Times Proportion Voodoo”. After reading the introduction in the first few pages in detail, Grimm frowned and spent approximately another half an hourglass skimming through the book, and placed it back on the shelf in disappointment.

The calculation formulas in this voodoo book were probably rough estimations of voodoo measurement allocation written by pioneers of modern sorcerers.

This kind of abstract measurement allocation method was one of the major differences between modern sorcerers and ancient sorcerers.

Modern sorcerers categorized voodoo into seven categories based on the victim’s different fatal reactions. Grimm had already known this when he first learned about intoxication sorcery, hence the details were of no importance.

On the contrary, before the second Civilization War, ancient sorcerers and even more ancient sorcerers before them treated elemental sorcery, voodoo, alchemy, and every other sorcerer knowledge much like mysticism. Unlike modern sorcerers, ancient sorcerers did not have structured and systematic calculation formulas for all that knowledge.

Ancient sorcery knowledge had been passed down one by one by ancient sorcerers using countless scrolls.

Different from modern sorcery knowledge, ancient sorcery knowledge was not concluded based on systematic calculations using the periodic table of elements. They were written by ancient sorcerers based on natural phenomenon and their own long term tentative experiments. As ancient sorcerers truly got themselves involved in the process of discovering all that knowledge, these knowledge systems where impeccably compatible with them. Eventually, all these abstract and uncertain theories turned into countless unexplainable ancient scrolls.

In general, ancient sorcery knowledge is similar to the emergence of the Bloodlust Puppet sorcery.

Although modern sorcerers were able to calculate some ancient sorcery knowledge and theories using backward reasoning, there were still some other bizarre and intriguing sorceries that were incomprehensible by modern sorcerers.

As ancient sorcerers consumed long periods of their lives in conducting sorcery experiments of a certain field of knowledge, they were usually elites in their field of focus. As a result, the level of their sorcery knowledge as a whole was much lower than modern sorcerers. However, since all of the ancient sorcerers’ sorcery knowledge was concluded based on their own research and experiment, the knowledge they had gained was completely compatible with their own body.

Hence, almost each and every ancient sorcerer was at the same level as the deadliest sorcerer-apprentice!

But of course, although ancient sorcerers were very powerful, they were only powerful within a certain field of sorcery.

As systemic formulas and basic elemental knowledge of modern sorcerers popularized, a lot of sorcerers stopped exploring and creating sorcery knowledge that were fully compatible with them, which resulted in a huge number of “slackers” in sorcerer schools. Hence, in terms of individual capability, modern sorcerers were way behind ancient sorcerers. However, this characteristic of modern sorcerers completely transformed the overall capability of the sorcerer civilization, even to an extent that was unimaginable to ancient sorcerers. Therefore, it was safe to say that the ability of some elites among the “sorcerer slackers” was on par with ancient sorcerers.

The so called “sorcerer slackers” in the modern sorcerer civilization were simply referring to those sorcerer-apprentices who practiced sorcery by entirely copying what was stated on the sorcery books without much of their own critical thinking. Their highest attack level would be around 80 to 100 points, which merely made them qualified to serve as cannon fodder during the Holy Tower qualification battle.

The knowledge system of the modern sorcerer civilization was an era of civilization explosion where any sorcery knowledge could be obtained and learned at a faster speed than ever before!

Grimm turned the page of the second book about voodoo that sparked his interest. The book was written by a modern sorcerer.

After a while, Grimm shook his head once again in disappointment.

The fundamental voodoo theories in the second book were not too different from what Grimm had learnt about intoxication sorcery, including its way of thinking. The voodoo formula stated in this book was all concluded based on the author’s own physical state and fundamental systematic calculations.

However, this was exactly the reason why Grimm was disgruntled.

There was not any part in the book that Grimm could learn from, it was just another simplified version of intoxication sorcery knowledge.

If Grimm had the time to slowly come out with a voodoo formula by doing calculations himself, what was the point of him visiting the library in the first place?

The sole reason behind Grimm’s visit to the library this time was because he would be spending a long duration researching on the Destructive Force. During the research period, his elemental sorcery capability would be stagnant. Hence, he needed to find another way to enhance his capability to ensure survival, and also to gain more advantages to facilitate his experimental research.

If Grimm took his time to research a new voodoo formula using the theoretical calculations of intoxication sorcery, it would give him exceptional advances on the path to becoming an Anatomy Refinery Sorcerer[2]. However, without a doubt, researching on intoxication sorcery would consume a huge amount of his time. In that case, his plan to research and master the sorcery of the Destructive Force would be postponed indefinitely.

Most importantly, Grimm’s ambition was to become an elemental sorcerer, not an Anatomy Refinery Sorcerer!

Grimm would rather be just like when he was a sorcerer-apprentice, being a nobody for hundreds of years and surprising everyone overnight, and becoming a greatly feared existence in the eyes of many sorcerers. The last thing he wanted was to become a mediocre sorcerer whose life was dictated by rules and destiny, and not to mention losing his own sense of identity.

Therefore, there were three things that Grimm had to accomplish.

Firstly, to do his best to shorten the time frame of researching on the Destructive Force, and to end the stagnant period of his elemental sorcery capability as soon as possible.

Secondly, to enhance his external capability of elemental sorcery during his stagnant period within the shortest time possible, so that he could protect his own life for experimental research, and even gain other advantages to expedite the research process of the Destructive Force.

Last but not least, to break through the sorcerer ranking in full force. Although in the aspect of foreign world expedition, this would not help Grimm to improve his leverage knowledge ability, it would still improve his mental strength fulcrum, which was another form of capability enhancement to protect his life.

Considering the points above, Grimm would surely choose not to go through the lengthy time needed and hassle of walking on the usual path of cultivation, meditation, using normal intoxication sorcery to match the voodoo formula step by step and testing the formula on himself, and cultivating himself via body refinery…

Grimm’s passive evolution ability had speeded up his progress on the self-experimentation of intoxication sorcery and saved a lot of his time. This eventually resulted in Grimm, an elemental sorcerer, fighting against elemental sorcery by using his constitution, which completely crushed the other elemental sorcerer-apprentices.

Of course, all of these were made possible because of the support of Master Peranos’s radioactive stone, and also the “shortcut” he got by using the Evil Eye Kasmira. With the help of these two highly poisonous items, Grimm did not spend any time researching and developing any new voodoo formula.

At this moment, Grimm still had the urge to continue his foolish mistake of enhancing his capability in a short period of time.

While the consequences of doing so would be…

Perhaps Grimm could actually enhance his capability, but only temporarily. In the long run, his capability would even entirely cease to improve. Until a certain point in time, if Grimm still wanted to gain achievement on the path of intoxication sorcery, he would have no choice but to start all over again, calculating a voodoo formula which was compatible to him step by step.

Grimm would certainly pay a higher price if he continued on with this foolish mistake of his. This was one of the laws of equity of the endless world.

Grimm continued to read the list of books one by one and shook his head in disappointment after disappointment.

‘Well, I guess the only way for me to save time is to use magic stone or even sorcerer essence in exchange for voodoo formulas from other sorcerers,’ Grimm thought to himself.

‘If that’s the case, these expenses…

‘Hm?’

Grimm, who was frowning, unintentionally spotted an opened ancient scroll and was taken aback.

Suddenly, Grimm smacked himself on the head. His expression under the Ashen Mask was of excitement and delight.

‘What on earth was I thinking?’

‘How have I never thought of this!

‘I was actually thinking of exchanging for modern voodoo formula with other sorcerers and letting all these bizarre ancient voodoo formulas go to waste!

‘Although these ancient voodoo formulas have some flaws here and there, such as missing materials, incompatibility of toxicity, and difficulty in controlling the overall toxicity, but I can certainly still find some formulas that are suitable for my current intoxication anatomy refinery.’

After all, Grimm was still an Anatomy Refinery Sorcerer with a mere constitution of 139 points, most voodoo formulas would still have an effect on him. Unlike senior sorcerers who were already immune to a lot of voodoo formulas, Grimm did not have to be too picky with his voodoo formulas yet.

Perhaps these weird and unstable ancient voodoo formulas would be seen as useless in the eyes of other intoxication sorcery practitioners. However, for Grimm who could adapt to a wide range of voodoo formulas due to his passive evolution ability, some of these more stable voodoo formulas would still be acceptable.

Still awestruck, Grimm hastily squatted down and searched through all the ancient scrolls eagerly. These were exactly the scrolls that were deemed as useless to many modern sorcerers, including Grimm himself just moments ago.

Three days later…

Using his crystal ball, Grimm recorded six ancient voodoo formulas which he found from thousands of ancient voodoo scrolls, then he finally left the library satisfied with what he had obtained.

Over ten hourglasses later, Grimm flew back to his Demon-Hunter castle after he purchased some materials for his Destructive Force research and other ingredients for the ancient voodoo formulas.