《Occult Sorcerer》


 Chapter-1 The new rune

    ¡°Hah¡­ 30 years and the progress is still so slow¡­¡± Grimm sighed with a little dejection on his young face. Even with his forty-five years of age, Grimm still looked young as if he has not aged since his twenties.


    He thought about his life ever since he came into this world, a world where magic dominated every thing, nothing like a everyday-friendly-magic using world.


    A world where strength reigns supreme, a World of Sorcerers'' and only for sorcerers.


    Grimm was very exited at very thought of learning magic when he was successfully admitted into his current school, Gibbous the School of Magic, to say more correctly, Gibbous the School of Magic for dark sorcerers, which people usually omit.


    But the race of getting good mission, gradually ate away his dreams. Missions? Why missions you might ask?


    Because a good mission is same as low mortality/death rate, while high payment. While with good payment resources, knowledge and steady progress are guaranteed, he didn¡¯t have any of that.


    A good mission needed him to join a good group while good groups always have high requirements and resentfully he didn¡¯t meet the requirements. While the not so good groups needed him to pay a little fee which he could not afford sadly.


    After a near death experience during a mission, Grimm was shit-scared to even take another mission. Luckily, after that incident he got a work in schools library, of course with some good pay of 20 magic stones per month.


    But after two curse attacks on him, he left the library for good and kept doing some simple missions to progress on his path.


    After the curse attacks he started taking care of his information. His hairs, blood, nails, saliva¡­ were very big threat to him as they were direct sources to lead the curses to him.


    Grimm started shaving his hair clean, covering his face with mask at all times and wearing a cloak whenever out in open. Without leaving any body part exposed to sunlight, his skin gradually became paler with time.


    The average life span of an apprentice sorcerer is about 200-220 years which is equal to 5 generations of any ordinary human.


    Grimm has 156 years left at most before his body would start to decay. The reason for this correct deduction is, after mental strength is developed by 15 points, apprentice sorcerers will be able to correctly deduce when they will actually die.


    Some people after knowing about the day of their death would start living to their fullest or start living all alone, away from the world, fighting within themselves.


    While the latter was quite correct for Grimm, after the attempts to kill him with curses, the environment of this school and the students with mean temperament of making use of everything, keeping away from the emotion and other apprentices.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Grimm had drastic changes within him in these 30 years of his schooling. He had became careful, silent and scrutinizing over this period.


    Just when he was about to open his door, a metal clashing sound resounded in his ears. He froze for a second and quickly turned around, he was alone in the room.


    Single-bed, wardrobe, a long table attached to wall giving much space for workspace while base of the table was made with some glass material for show-casing purpose which had no purpose. At the end of the table, there were many books piled on top of each other making table tilted toward books and a ball of bright light floating near the ceiling.


    The theory of Prana(Life-energy), Heart a Sucking Organ(not a pumping organ), the Order of Concentration Compendium and How to make your own meditation technique (for noobs) were some books each as heavy as 3-5 kg(6-11 pounds) on the table whose title could be easily seen from afar.


    Once again the metal to metal clashing sound resounded. But this time when Grimm listened to it carefully, he noticed that he was quite familiar with this sound. This sound was exactly same when he opened his virtual box every time in his previous life.


    Life is full of miracles, it''s just us who labels them which is good and which is bad because a insecure person will always feel threatened by the world.


    Grimm was a kind of person who took neutral path towards his feeling, never extreme to any side. Not extremely good not bad and it was also the first thing he was taught by the world that his attitude was the correct one to survive.


    It was not Grimm who was coward to not take any mission, it were the memories that he got from previous soul residing his current body. Not just the memories, but the emotions too.


    The two souls were constant clashing inside until recently when the previous soul accepted it''s defeat.


    Grimm was happy that finally he could be who he actually was. With all the experience from the previous soul and the memories which he experienced as a third party were a great deal of benefit for him and helped him taking out mistakes.


    Grimm suddenly closed his eyes, when usually black before his eyes was replaced by magnificent view.


    A translucent sphere in the endless dark, while covered with all kind of strange symbols hovering around it.


    Grimm was familiar with the particular three runes. The first one for [Blazing Shot] magic which was slight red and slight translucent as if coping the sphere, trying the equilibrium between them. The shape was a 6 revolving in itself.


    The second rune was [Erase] magic which is automatically activated when there is information leak from the user and burns it down. It had same colour like first one and the symbol was a big dot. No matter which side you look from it looked like a dot while it should the property of a sphere.


    The third rune was [Silence] magic, slight black and sight translucent at the same time making it a little grey, while the symbol was a reverse F. This rune helped reducing any kind of sound in the surrounding when activated.


    The three runes were connected with a string stretching from the translucent sphere never disturbing the aesthetics of the beautiful rune.


    While these three runes were connected to the translucent sphere there was an additional rune which was clearly many times larger and covered in multiple colours but it was not connected to the translucent sphere.

 Chapter-2 Dumb Clone

    The translucent sphere was also called mental sphere, which held the concentrated mental strength of the whole body.


    While the mental strength has to be concentrated, there is no specific shape mandatory, it can be a square or cone... any shape in which it has to be concentrated.


    This dark space was called mental scape, feeling the presence of this space was the first step to become an apprentice.


    There were 112 techniques, a whole of 112 techniques that were passed down through history.


    At the starting point of the pre-sorcerer period, before the world was renamed as Sorcerer World when the world discriminated against the sorcerers when the kings didn¡¯t want the rise of sorcerers they tried to hide these 112 techniques with all methods they could find.


    Either pressing down the apprentices when they in their developmental period or making the general population again practising these 112 techniques in the name of religion.


    But when the tunnel opened between two worlds, they understood sorcerers were going to rise someday and delaying them will only make their future generations slaves of another world, it was then the sorcerers were added to the hierarchy. These things were not something decided by a single person but many people with the highest intelligence, the greatest minds of all time.


    These people made the kings understand that sorcerers were not liability but necessity. But not all kings had good brains but they were crooks with a narrow mindset which led to a century of wars between humans for the authority.


    But at the end of the century, they were made to understand they were frogs in the well knowing nothing about the world. They were shepherds, those who raised cattle for others to massacre.


    When the period of Sorcerers¡¯ came they took the control and the name of Sorcerers resounded throughout the world. Throughout history, many religions were destroyed but not a single one was made. After all, religions were made to divide people, religion created the difference between people but when knowledge about the real was spread and the practice of 112 techniques gained popularity, humanity prospered.


    The people with some talent became sorcerers who kept passing down their knowledge to their future generations and the prosperous humanity kept giving sorcerer world many talented sorcerers.


    For sorcerers, morals were the second thing that was taught since their apprenticeship. Every apprentice or an actual sorcerer had to follow the moral code of conduct but it was strictly limited to the beings and things of their world only, outside their world, another world is only to be exploited nothing else!The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    That was the moral code of conduct for sorcerers!


    Let¡¯s come back to Grimm¡­


    Grimm could not understand how this rune came to be or how it worked. This particular rune was as colourful as if fireworks in the night sky. Where the colours usually depicted which element they correspond with and the shape which depicted the effect, this rune was bizarre!


    He could not make head or tail of the whole rune, it looked similar to the colourful nebula in vast universe which he had seen in his previous life. It had no specific shape, it was whole chaos!


    Suddenly a thought struck him, this rune was not connected to his mental sphere, what if he connects this rune with mental sphere.


    A translucent string drew out of the sphere and started moving towards the rune, but when he was getting the string to move closer to the rune he lost control, to his bewilderment, it was as if sucked into the rune and string connecting to mental sphere started glowing, becoming more transparent as well as affecting mental sphere at the same time.


    All this happened all of a sudden giving him no time to comprehend what was happening to his mental scape.


    It was when Grimm was thrown out of his mental scape, he was standing still in his room all this time.


    But something even more bizarre was Grimm was standing in front of himself!


    You have not read it incorrectly before Grimm there was another Grimm stand. The only difference was, while one Grimm was wearing a white mask and cloak covering his whole body, another Grimm was totally naked.


    The silence continued for a while until real Grimm asked cautiously, ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°I am your clone, master.¡± Said the naked Grimm. Neutral with no emotion in his voice.


    Grimm was still cautious, looking around thinking if someone was messing with him.


    ¡°Master, I am your first clone, I have some set instructions set by master rune.


    Before creating another clone you will have to wait for ten years.


    You can sync with clone''s senses at any time no matter the distance.


    All clone can be stored in your body at all time and they will be exactly same as master outside.


    All clones can use the runes learned by master other that master rune.


    All clones are separate entity after they are built.


    All clone are born with an additional random skill which can be used by master too. Instructions over.¡±


    Grimm was suspicious at visorcalledhe so called instructions excited him because he understood the power of many.


    Grimm needed so many things to prepare because he could finally see some light if he wins that competition he would become a sorcerer without any effort, all Grimm would need was to concentrate on mental strength and make it reach 40 points.


    But Grimm had many questions, ¡°Can you use the incantation while stored inside my body.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± clone Grimm replied.


    ¡°Would you use my mental strength for incantations?¡±Asked Grimm.


    ¡°No, I am a separate entity.¡± Clone Grimm replied.


    ¡°What is the maximum sync distance?¡± Asked Grimm.


    ¡°No limit, sync cannot be interrupted.¡± Replied clone Grimm.


    ¡°Which skill did you get from random skill?¡± asked Grimm.


    ¡°Matter Magnification.¡± Clone Grimm replied.


    ¡°Explain to me about your ability.¡± Asked Grimm.


    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­¡± Clone Grimm said.


    ¡°¡­¡± Grimm¡­


    ¡®Looks like I have many things to do now¡­''

 Chapter-3 Dumb Master

    Grimm gave the clone some cloths and a different mask. While Grimm¡¯s mask was a Japanese style Oni mask, the one Grimm gave to his clone was of blue scale dragon mask. All these masks were bought by Grimm on wholesale, at the cheapest price.


    Behind that Oni mask, Grimm had a smug look, ¡°Let''s start¡­ hmm¡­ before that let me give you a name, how about Mator?¡±


    The clone was rather silent when Grimm thought clone liked his name too much, ¡°I would rather die than letting anyone call me Mator.¡± Was the clone''s reply.


    ¡°Then let me call you¡­ hmm¡­ Alpha! How about that!¡±


    ¡°Better!¡± Alpha replied.


    ¡°Okay, then let¡¯s start¡­ but¡­ you have a nice choice!¡± Grimm said.


    ¡°What did you think? I was a robot? I am a human same as you, the only difference between us is our relationship.¡± Alpha said.


    ¡°Oh! Just like I thought, just like I thought¡­¡± Grimm exclaimed.


    ¡°Let¡¯s start the experiment.¡±


    Grimm picked one round pebble which he usually used for [Blazing Shot] and told Alpha to use [Matter Magnification] on it.


    When Alpha used [Matter Magnification] on the pebble, the pebble got 10 times bigger but just for a second. That''s all¡­


    But when Grimm thought about it carefully, he found that this ability was too useful. If used it to attack someone and used it on them, his attack would be 10 times powerfully!


    Grimm quickly took out Crystal Ball, which told the Grimm''s status and his attack''s status correctly.


    Grimm


    Mental Strength 26


    Grimm made Alpha touch the Crystal Ball and stats once again surfaced.


    Alpha


    Mental Strength 26


    Grimm''s mental strength and Alpha''s mental strength were exactly the same. They were an exact copy.


    Grimm held one pebble and before using [Blazing Shot], Grimm told Alpha to use [Matter Magnification] when he uses his. The pebble shot out of his palm, magnified 10 times and exploded.


    The result was not as he had expected but the result was better than his own spell. The original power of the shot was 30 degrees but when magnified, it rose to 70 degrees and the power of the explosion rose from 15 degrees of area damage to 110 degrees.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    (The degree is the official measurement. A fireball spell damage is 50 degrees.)


    The result didn¡¯t magnify equal to size but it was already good. But he noticed that the explosion damage was greater. Just the shot separately didn¡¯t get much of damage magnification.


    Grimm knew that this result was what only elite apprentices could get. But what he could not understand, if someone could use the [Matter Magnification] spell rune and use it with other magic spells, won¡¯t they get high damage? But then he remembered what Alpha said when he was telling instructions, it was skill a clone is born with.


    Does it mean all skill that clones have are this abnormal? Other than mental energy pool that a clone have to use spell these skills are totally abnormal. If Grimm had this skill before, his current situation would have been totally different than it is now. Now, Grimm had enough idea how his previous idea of using these clones as suicide soldiers was just too funny.


    ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see what skill will the next clone will born with¡­¡±


    Grimm spent whole day thinking about how previous Grimm used to battle and change it according to how much his current capability was. His attack¡¯s were good but his defence was not up to the mark and in case of ambush, he would definitely get struck hard.


    When Grimm kept experimenting, he found [Matter Magnification] skill needed no mental energy until it used one at a time, it would take 1 mental energy unit to peruse if used on the second object. If constantly used on anything, it could be used for a long period of time.


    If he could learn any defence spell''s rune and use it, it would directly magnify the defence by 10 times! With the mental energy pool added with his, just think about how big his energy pool would be, even bigger than a pseudo-sorcerer! And in the next ten years, he would get another clone making his mental energy pool even bigger.


    ¡°But [Matter Magnification] will only work on the matter, not any energy. If you can see clearly, when you shoot that pebble with your [Blazing Shot], the only pebble is magnified leading it to a greater explosion. You are thinking too much.¡± Said Alpha.


    ¡°...can¡¯t you let me be happy for a minute?¡± Grimm''s face darkened.


    ¡°Instead of losing yourself in your delusions, use what you have efficiently. Even if you buy a shield, can you lift the shield when it is 10 times the original weight?¡± Alpha snickered.


    ¡°Hey, were you supposed to be my clone, why are you being so smart all of a sudden?¡± Black lines creased on Grimm''s forehead.


    ¡°If you look at your own actions, you will die laughing¡­ and who said I am exact emotional copy?¡± Said Alpha.


    ¡°Okay, I get it. But can protect my back when you are with me because we are going out.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± With that reply, Alpha jumped into Grimm as if diving into a river.


    Suddenly something started protruding out from back of his head, when Grimm touched it, it felt like a horn. But the more it protruded out, slowly it started taking a mask''s shape. The mask was exactly the blue scaled dragon mask that he gave to his clone.


    Behind that mask were eyes that were similar to Grimm''s but they were focusing at mid-air as if something is floating, giving a feeling of dead person¡¯s eyes. Still, they looked as if they were part of the mask.


    Now with an Oni mask at the front and Dragon mask behind, Grimm had a comic look with a cloak covering his entire body.


    Now with everything ready, Grimm opened the door with his newfound confidence. After closing and locking his door, Grimm moved towards the second floor of the Gibbous tower.

 Chapter-4 Drooling Market

    The Gibbous tower was his school, his school where he learns magic, actually other than first few classes that he got here for free, Grimm never had any other class nor he had a master to guide him. But he had a goal in his mind now, the competition that was going to happen in the next six years.


    Well, it was not a competition but a compulsory match that every student once every fifty years had to participate in. A match, just to trim out students because of there just too many.


    Grimm has even heard, the school pays student magic stones to eliminate another student! He could finally rejoice at this opportunity he has got. Grimm didn¡¯t know much about the school''s history or about other schools and only knew some basic facts that could be easily found in any book.


    Actually, at the starting of every fundamental book or basic book, the basic historical structure is written. The first book he got from the school, the first half was about history repeatedly telling the same fact about how the sorcerers were the rulers of the world¡­


    The Gibbous¡¯s Tower was 100 floors high, while the 100th floor was restricted for anyone to go, sorcerers could access all floors up to 99th. While apprentices could access the first four floors, where they had their labs to experiment, market and all other stuff on the 4th floor. On the 2nd and 3rd floor lived all the apprentices.


    The place where Grimm was going was exactly the market on 3rd floor. Many apprentices set their temporary stalls on this floor, selling the harvest from their missions. Other than the apprentices, there were shops that sold various stuff that could not be found by apprentices but it was usually expensive.


    To purpose of having a market inside the tower, Grimm could not understand it first when he came to this tower but with time he saw other apprentices always contemplating in front of the shops. It was like everyday occurrence. Every time you go to the 3rd floor, in front of many shops or temporary stalls set by apprentices, you would find apprentices lost in their imagination.


    After coming to this market three or four times, even he got the hang of it. Looking at every material, thinking about how could he use it, the advantages, disadvantages, benefits etcetera¡­


    When Grimm reached the 3rd floor, the sight of apprentices mumbling like madmen, in front of almost every single shop, was just unique sight. The whole market looked like a cult doing some big ritual.


    Grimm reached in front of stalls set up by an apprentice, there were quite some things spread on it.


    Blue Tree Bark, Fallen Pepper, Fake Mermaid Berry, Gluttonous Eye, Dead Bird Feather, a small statue of an Old Witch which didn¡¯t look anything special etcetera¡­Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Grimm knew names of many materials and the some he didn¡¯t know, he asked apprentice selling them but these narrow-minded apprentices won¡¯t tell anything more than its name. Telling you it¡¯s properties, use etcetera, even if buy the whole stall they won¡¯t. If you pay them extra, it would be another story.


    Grimm stopped in front of a shop, looked at the material and started mumbling just like any other apprentice. Dazed, fish eyes staring at eyes material, spewing out something that even someone standing near couldn¡¯t understand.


    Blue Tree Bark, carnivorous plant, which usually has blue bark, purplish leaves, wilt in sunlight, hate blood, loves rotting animals¡­ best use of made a potion out of it, Blood Dialysis Potion¡­ used in line of an apprentice on the path of Transfiguration Sorcerers, to stop blood flow¡­ blood will redirect in other parts of body rather than flowing near it¡­


    Fallen Pepper, usually used in cultivating worms¡­ Fake Mermaid Berry, substitute material for potion making¡­ Gluttonous Eye, always giving milk fragrance, usually attracts fawns of animals¡­ Dead Bird Feathers, used in metal smelting works¡­ Old Witch statue, don¡¯t know anything about it¡­


    And if someone ask, how can someone remember name, use so on and so forth, of these freakish things, answer is very simple. Sorcerers work on development of mental strength and increase of memory is just a by product, which usually benefits these apprentices in long terms¡­


    ¡°Do you always do this thing? Mumbling in front of these small stalls?¡± Alpha''s voice resounded in Grimm''s head stopping his mumbling.


    ¡°Yup, it actually helps in knowing names of new materials, even if these bastards don¡¯t tell anything about the materials, many times the name tell many things.¡± Said Grimm.


    ¡°But names can be misleading sometimes¡­¡±


    ¡°True¡­ can you stop being so smart¡­¡± Black lines formed on Grimm''s forehead behind the mask.


    Grimm moved to the other stall, looking at the things others were selling. This apprentice was also wearing a black cloak with green eyes making his appearance a little unique, even the white part of his eyes was green.


    Well, there was nothing unique in this, as every apprentice had something which made him or her different from others. Some would have heavily modified their bodies but most sorcerers would like to retain their human body.


    Usually, most of the apprentices would come from a normal family who have no relation with magic, so modifying their bodies who freak them most of the time but after ten or twenty years, most of the apprentices would laugh at themselves while reminiscing about their past and ridiculing themselves because in search of power most of the apprentices would forget who they once were.


    On the next stall, Grimm saw a book ''Golem Rune Compendium'', his eyes lit up. Another round of mumbling started.


    ¡°Are you waiting for someone else to buy it?¡± Alpha said annoyingly.


    ¡°Right¡­¡±


    Grimm pointed at the book ¡®Golem Rune Compendium'' and asked, ¡°How much?¡±


    Without giving a single look at the book or Grimm, the green-eyed apprentice said, ¡°60 magic stones, no bargain!¡±


    Grimm knew bargain was of no use because books were the category where bargaining was useless. No one knew if the content was useful or not him because the other apprentice would never let Grimm see the content inside.

 Chapter-5 How does spells work?

    Grimm quietly looked into his pouch in which he stored his magic stones. There were 81 magic stones, which meant he could buy the book but it would make a big hole in his pocket. But when Grimm thought about winning the competition, he clenched his teeth and finally bought it.


    The magic stones were black in colour and lustrous but sized equal to an adult human''s thumb only. According to what Grimm knew, these magic stones formed in narrow places where Elements'' concentration is very high.


    The green-eyed apprentice didn¡¯t say anything about his behaviour as he had seen many like Grimm who had no money, weak and took every step carefully but a single thing about each apprentice setting up stalls was similar, which was, they all were quite proficient in whatever they knew. They were veterans who had seen blood when they are out while doing their mission.


    If you think about it and look around, throughout the market on the 3rd floor you won¡¯t find a single Sorcerer guiding anyone what to do. Even if you fight in the middle of the market no one will stop you, they won¡¯t even bat an eye on you even if you kill each other but if ever touch someone else¡¯s possession, you would have to pay the price. Everything was quite chaotic but everything was orderly.


    It was a unsaid rule to not fight on 3rd floor as everyone understood that this was the only place where they had a chance to get goods and materials at somewhat cheap price which as a apprentice they could afford. Even if an apprentice had a master to teach them some knowledge passed down through few generations, they would still need magic stones. After all you cannot depend on your master for all you expenses because they would only guide in the subject they are best at, you want anything more? Forget it!


    There are so many apprentices who would do anything they can just to get the guidance Sorcerer give to their apprentices, even killing each other was an option. It directly said the value of the guidance Sorcerer gave to their apprentices.


    Even if Grimm was left with 21 magic stones, he kept searching around. Before coming to the market Grimm had already decided that he would find something for Alpha so he could research and experiment while he would carry on his own experiments or until Alpha finds something that he finds interesting.


    After a quick round around few more shops and buying some material that were needed for him to learn Golem making. All those material needed were clearly written on the first page after the index.


    Reaching his apartment, Grimm looked around, opened the door and quickly locked the door after getting inside the room. The room was same as before nothing changed.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°You are really cautious but you don¡¯t use you brain, there is no need for someone to be suspicious of you and the sorcerers wouldn¡¯t mind a small apprentice like you fooling around because you would be directly eliminated in the coming competition. Instead, start doing your preparations.¡± Alpha suggested.


    ¡°Yeah, yeah¡­¡± Said Grimm, fed up with Alpha¡¯s nagging.


    Grimm and Alpha separated and started preparations for creating a Golem.


    A Golem is an Elemental construct with an Elemental Crystal working as the core. The Elemental Crystal is recovered from creatures who can manipulate Elements naturally.


    Humans are made from five Elements which are [Fire], [Water], [Wind], [Earth] and [Space]. These five Elements make the base of a human being''s existence. Likewise, other creatures consist of different Elements as a base which they are made of.


    Humans can easily manipulate these five Elements relatively compared to other elements. But when talents are talked about they are a different case, which we will talk about some other day.


    The runes which apprentices draw in their mental scape, the very process is very slow. As said before, compared to the five elements, the other runes made of different elements are even harder to make.


    Now, we are talking about the runes and their use in casting, let¡¯s discuss how apprentices and Sorcerer do it actually.


    As I have said before, the first step to becoming an apprentice sorcerer is to make use of 112 techniques and become aware of the mental scape where an apprentice can compress his mental energy into a mental sphere. The mental sphere can be compressed into any shape, any three-dimensional shape, the apprentice is convenient with.


    You must have noticed I used the word aware not built or anything else, which means in itself that mental scape is present in every human and is a part of every human, but every human forgets about the existence of the mental scape as they grow old.


    These 112 techniques take you to the time when you are a newborn, not literally take you back in time but help you feel the existence of the basic organ of your body which you have forgotten. Some are talented enough to become aware at first attempt and some take years but the hard work never goes unfruitful.


    After compressing mental energy until the mental strength becomes 10 units, an apprentice cannot start drawing runes in his or her Mental Scape.


    Now, this is the part where meditation comes into use. The use of meditation is to redirect the energies in our body to create a passage so that Elemental Energy roaming in the atmosphere can enter our body. As for which Elemental Energy a user want to redirect into his or body, it has to be decided before they start meditation.


    The Elemental Energy gets collected as a lump in the Mental Scape for an apprentice to use to make the rune and the cycle repeat until rune is completed.


    Now, how does magic spells work¡­


    When the Mental Energy which is compressed into a particular shape connects to that rune, with the help of Mental Energy the rune communicates with the Elemental Particles in the environment which helps an apprentice to cast the spell.


    So, the first step is to become aware of Mental Space then form Mental Sphere until it gives 10 Mental Strength. Then using meditation techniques, absorb Elemental Energies in the surrounding which further helps in drawing rune in the Mental Scape. Last step which is using Mental Energy to cast the spell.

 Chapter-6

    Inside Grimm¡¯s stash, there were two Elemental Crystals. One was Nature Elemental Crystal in sky green colour and another was Earth Elemental Crystal with the colour of an Amber stone. Both Crystal looked like metal pieces, lustrous.


    These Crystals were the basic material needed for a Golem construction. When any creatures die there is always a chance for an Elemental Crystal to form but due to its rarity they cost high. Luckily, Grimm found two Crystals when he was on a mission in a dead body and stored them in his pouch before anyone could notice.


    But Grimm never got the chance to sell it so he left them as it is to sell them when in need.


    The first chapter in the book told how could one practise without using actual Elemental Crystal. It told to use sheets soaked in magic crystals for at least 10 years and use them to draw runes. If a core is successful drawn and circuits are complete, they sheet would glow or else it would shatter like a glass.


    Grimm had bought many sheets with the crystals he had. The first method was to decide, which shape to go with. As he was a total beginner, Grimm decided to go with a tetrahedron which had 4 faces. Having 4 faces meant he had 4 surfaces on which he could draw on.


    The runes were divided between Energy Storage, Energy Absorb, Element Runes, Ability Runes and Circuit Runes.


    In the book, there was one Energy Storage rune which works like a battery storing Elemental Energy, one Energy Absorb rune with needs to be made with Element Rune to redirect the needed Elemental Energy. As for Ability Rune, it was necessary as it resurfaced some of the original abilities of the creature the Elemental Crystal is extracted from. There were eleven Element Rune, which allowed him to be able to work on eleven different types of Elemental Crystals and at last there was a different type of Circuit Runes which help him connect different runes.


    Before Grimm started working on Elemental Crystals, he would have to practice first. So, he made a tetrahedron out of Magic Induced Sheet and selected the runes he would use.


    An Energy Absorb rune, Energy Storage rune, Earth Element Rune and Ability Rune was selected.


    Grimm first used blank papers to learn the runes he was going to make by drawing them again and again.


    After learning the runes Grimm used Mental Power to make Magic Induced Sheet which was folded in tetrahedron shape float a little. Decided to use the top three faces to draw runes other than Energy Storage rune, Grimm started drawing Energy Absorb rune.


    While Grimm was drawing rune on the Induced Sheet, he was not allowed to lift the carving feather. The carving feather was not dipped in ink or something else but pure Mental Strength was used. Sometimes making mistakes, sometimes forgetting that his Mental Energy was depleted already, Grimm continued working for a whole month before he could successfully carve the rune on the Induced Sheet, at the same time wasting 27 Induced sheet on a single rune. Other than eating an drinking, he was using his full time on practicing.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Ten Magic Induced Sheets cost one magic stones, which was not that costly but still too much for him. He was just making too many mistakes!


    ¡°When did you become so diligent?¡± Alpha asked quizzically.


    ¡°Stop mocking. It¡¯s too much to do. The surface is just too small to draw but it¡¯s still okay. What will happen when I will use Elemental Crystals to carve? I am not that rich¡­ man¡­¡± Grimm complained.


    ¡°Then why don¡¯t we make the crystals big enough to carve upon. I am what you were thinking when you bought this book. A Golem 10 times it¡¯s original size, decimating each and every opponent¡­ but use some brain, I can use my skill on any material!¡± Alpha suggested.


    Hearing the suggestion, Grimm¡¯s eyes lit up. He had a new found courage now. He wanted to test how far this method could go.


    Grimm made a tetrahedron with his 28th Magic Induced Sheet and asked Alpha to use his skill. The original fist sized tetrahedron got 10 times bigger than it was before. With more space, Grimm could finally made use of space freely.


    This time everything went smoothly.


    In two years time Grimm learned how to carve all the runes on the Magic Induced Sheet. A tetrahedron with flickering red colour was floating on the desk which he was using.


    ¡°I have become proficient in carving but I think I can use a cube instead as it has 6 faces which will give me even more space to carve.¡± Grimm thought.


    Grimm had a plan that if he could carve two more Energy Storage runes, which would directly increase the sustainable time of the Golem. Plus the Mental Energy Pool of Alpha had helped Grimm all this time.


    Using his Mental Energy and depleting it, again and again, had increased his and Alpha''s Mental Strength directly to 29 units from 26 units which were quite an unexpected result.


    It was then Grimm noticed that his and Alpha¡¯s Mental Strength increased at the same time, always equal to each other.


    On the other hand, from practicing Aikido moves again and again taught by Grimm, Alpha had been exercising regularly to increasing his body constitution, making his muscles look more powerful compared to Grimm¡¯s. But when compared to real Body Constitution Refining Apprentices, Alpha''s raw strength was much weaker.


    The direct reason for this was the knowledge and resources that he didn¡¯t have access to!


    Grimm had no knowledge of how Body Constitution Refining Apprentices trained their bodies. Other than some rumours that he had heard from somewhere that Body Constitution Refining Apprentices used poisons and other extreme conditions to train their bodies in order to exceed the human limit without giving permanent damage to their body.


    But the path of Sorcerers was more focused on increasing Mental Strength and utilizing it efficiently, only a few Sorcerers who could not walk on this Orthodox path anymore would walk on Body Constitution Refining Sorcerer''s path.

 Chapter-7

    Even if Alpha was an exact clone of Grimm, since the day Alpha was born he had his own path to walk upon, he was a separate entity. The relationship between Grimm and Alpha was very deep too, sharing all thoughts at all times like born-brothers even though there were no over emotion dialogues are involved.


    At the starting point, Alpha was just Grimm''s part who he had to take care of because he could help him many ways. The existence of Alpha was like a symbiotic relationship. He had skills which he could make use of or Grimm had full authority to replace him at anytime he wanted.


    But the time Grimm grew fond of Alpha and the relationship between them was now was like two brothers sharing a single room, trying to grow stronger together.


    Even if this magic based world was different in many ways compared to his previous world, even if this world had changed him, he still carved for things such as friends which was nearly inexistent in this school. Grimm was fed up with the cold shoulders and mocking eyes of the strong and powerless against worshipping gazes of the weak.


    There were still 4 years left to the competition.


    Grimm used Mental Energy to lift the cube made of Magic Induced Sheet and started practicing. The only difference this time was the addition of two more Energy Storage runes.


    After 2 years of consistent practice, Grimm was proficient enough to make all runes perfectly and problems like insufficient Mental Energy was solved by Alpha so, everything was going smoothly.


    Normally a Sorcerer couldn¡¯t pass his Mental Energy to other Sorcerers until specific preparations are made like Grimm and Alpha were doing. This kind of sharing of Mental Energy was completely unheard of.


    After 3 hours, the model was complete. The runes were flashing sky green colour all over the model. Grimm couldn¡¯t help but be mesmerized by it.


    Now, it was the time to start preparations for making the Nature Golem. After making a circle on the ground with a white dust like material and filling it with all kinds of alphabets until fist sized space was only left inside the circle, Grimm took out the Nature Elemental Crystal from his stash.


    Grimm took it and placed in the dead centre of the Magic Circle. This Magic Circle was used to refine any kind of impurities found in Elemental Crystals, only leaving behind pure Elemental Crystal.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    The alphabets were a set of instructions to change the shape, what impurities to clear or to compress the crystal or not etcetera¡­ The Elemental Crystal were always in irregular shapes so this was an unnecessarily necessary step that Grimm had to follow.


    Grimm and Alpha stood opposite to each other outside the Magic Circle. Delicately using Mental Energy to trace all the lines made by white dust. Wherever did the Mental Energy went, the white dust started glowing. When tracing the Magic Circle was complete, the Elemental Crystal rose an inch from the surface.


    Starting from few rotations, it kept spinning at slow speed while the shape of the crystal started to take clear shape. The once fist sized irregular shaped Nature Elemental Crystal became more and more refined until it¡¯s original size decreased by one-tenth.


    Now, all that left was a sky colour cube that one could easily hold in one hand but it was still just a pretty cube and if he wanted to sell it now, it¡¯s price would be lesser than half of what it originally was.


    So, it¡¯s Golem time now! Grimm took the cube and placed it at his working space and took out seven Dead Bird''s feathers. This was something he bought from the market when he got to know that Dead Bird''s feathers good to use in carving and increased chances of succession.


    Dead Bird is not literally a dead bird but a bird made of Dark and Nature elements. It can¡¯t fly but it¡¯s feathers are metal hard and spear strong beak plus it fast movements due to it¡¯s strong legs making it a first class predator.


    But the fate is cruel, the predator''s feathers were plucked out and now being used to draw, life is just amazing! Who knows when what will happen.


    These kind of thoughts were revolving in Grimm¡¯s head making him tighten his fist unconsciously.


    Grimm started working on the Nature Elemental Crystal cube more diligently than ever. The lines, runes and paths connecting runes were made so perfect that it looked like a piece of an artwork. His hands ever still, while his eyes completely focused on the cube.


    ¡°Hah! Finally done!¡± Grimm shouted in excitement.


    Alpha who was standing behind Grimm looking at him, no one knew what he was thinking or what kind expression he was making behind the mask but even so his happy eyes could be seen easily.


    A sky green colour cube was floating on the workspace. Grimm kept looking at it with satisfied grin on his face.


    Grimm took the Golem Core to the middle of room where there was some free space to experiment. First he inserted some Mental Energy to create a signature so that others won¡¯t be able to use his Golem Core or hijack it whenever he uses it.


    Inserting Mental Energy once more into Golem Core, with green light emitting out of Golem Core the radiance kept getting bigger until it became one meter big. The radiance was more like green fog, building the structure of the Nature Golem.


    Golem had slender built of approximately one meter height. It limbs were made of root like material which were visible and rest of the body was covered with green leafs of different lengths making it look like it had a hunchback.


    The only striking colour on whole Golem was it¡¯s eye''s colour which were completely red looking at everyone from under it''s leafy hood.


    Just when Grimm was thinking about the Golem and some experiments he wanted do on it, he heard a bell which he never ever had the chance to hear from his first day in the school. It was the bell which told all students to assemble on first floor.

 Chapter-8

    The 1st floor¡­


    It was a large hall, well, using the word large would an under estimation of the size of the hall. The hall was just too huge!


    The ceiling was around 100 meters high while the hall was big enough to hold 100,000 people at the same time. Grimm thought that this hall might be going underground to satisfy Hall¡¯s size, he could not think of any other reason.


    At the centre of the hall, there was a large pillar, as it was cut from between not letting it touch the ceiling, it resembled a stage more due to it¡¯s diameter.


    All apprentices were standing around the tall white pillar waiting for something to happen. It was then when the apprentices heard a voice that they looked up to see a figure hovering on top of the pillar.


    The figure wore a black cloak while some black fog covered his facial features, the hands looked just bones with no flesh sticking on them and no other body part could be seen.


    Behind that figure stood two more figures wearing red and black cloaks respectively. The figure in red was a woman with pretty face of a teenage girl looking cheerfully at every apprentice, while the man in black cloak had a hard face showing no expression. The trio who were standing on top of the pillar were formal Sorcerers of the school.


    ¡°Crescent Tower has issued a challenge against our Gibbous Tower. The challenge will be held in Mirror Valley like it has always happened. Every apprentice will get 5,000 magic stones for every apprentice they eliminate.¡± The Sorcerer waved his hand in mid again creating a fissure. For whole fifteen minutes, the fissure kept spreading ultimately taking shape of a mirror.


    The smooth mirror floated in the mid-air. Many apprentices had seen this for first time so the astonishment could be clearly seen on their faces.


    ¡°Lets begin!¡± The Sorcerer clapped with both his bony hands over his head. Somehow, hearing the clapping sound every single apprentice in the hall fell unconscious wherever they were standing.


    Grimm felt his head heavy and tried to stretch his hair but to no avail, it was when he remembered that he was bald.


    Grimm looked around to find himself in the middle of a forest. Thick trunk, towering trees and canopy covering most of the sky.


    ¡°The competition has already begun.¡± Alpha''s voice resounded in Grimm¡¯s head.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Hearing this Grimm became alert. It was then did he noticed something hovering over his head giving bright light. He tried to touch it, hide it, destroys it, only to find that he could not do anything to it.


    The Halo kept pulsing like heartbeats. Grimm felt that the Halo was communicating with something, it was then the pulsing got stronger.


    Grimm felt losing his control over his body and saw his own body ducking. The place where he was standing a moment was frozen by ice shards. Grimm quickly figured out what had happened.


    Alpha must have seen this coming so ducked the shot to save him and he felt that the Halo''s pulsing was an indication that someone was near him or not.


    With Alpha''s vision, he could see a figure in a white cloak standing on a tree branch getting his spell ready for one more attack.


    Grimm quickly took action, two hands stretched out of Grimm''s back with palms joined and while Grimm quickly drew a sign with his hands. Between joined palms there was a pebble stored in them when Grimm completed the hand sign, a pebble shot out from between the palm at high speed.


    The white-cloaked appreciate was in the middle of making hand sign as he did not expect the retaliation would come so fast. But seeing it was just a [Blazing Shot] spell, he became careless and cast his own spell to counter this minor spell.


    What he didn¡¯t expect was the sudden magnification of the pebble. When it clashes with his spell, other than slowing its speed a little it does much but when the pebble ten-times it¡¯s original size exploded, the damage he took was very high.


    Like a kite with its string cut, the apprentice blew away from the explosion hitting the tree truck near it and then falling down hard.


    The apprentice was spewing blood and didn¡¯t seem like he was far away from death. He didn¡¯t have the strength to stand up anymore anyway but Grimm still cautiously probed and shot another [Blazing Shot].


    The hands retracted from Grimm¡¯s back reverting to his original appearance.


    ''You have gained one point!¡¯


    ¡°Quickly take the loot and let¡¯s hide. The explosion was very loud, others will be coming here shortly.¡± Alpha said.


    Grimm moved quickly to the apprentice''s dead body and took everything he could find on him, hiding on thick branches of the canopy using [Erase] and [Silence] spell at the same time, hiding his presence.


    After a while, an apprentice came to the scene and probed around. Looking at the Halo on top of his head, it looked like this apprentice must have killed four or five in this short period of time.


    This apprentice wore an emerald cloak with white linings. He quickly looked at the wounds of the white-cloaked apprentice, probed for any clues to the direction of another apprentice who killed the one before him. After getting no result of the probe he quickly hid in the tree branches just below Grimm.


    Another apprentice wearing black cloak came, checked the white-cloaked apprentice''s wounds and chuckled to himself. He rubbed his hands, wearing a cunning grin on his face and hid on the same tree just below green-robed apprentice.


    From the bushes came two apprentices, one male and another female. They looked at the scene and looked at each other. As if taking with their eyes, they nodded at each other and hid on the tree which was near to the white-robed apprentice who was laying dead.


    Don¡¯t know if intentionally or not, the female apprentice from the duo had left a footprint at a very inconspicuous location.