His body was wearing a wide, grey sorcerer's robe. His head was wearing a pale mask filled with purple-black spiral patterns. His scattering gold curly hair faintly obscured the eternal earring on his right ear.
For ten days, Grimm came in and out of the third floor of Black Isotta, absorbing the knowledge of alchemy like a sponge.
With the accumulated knowledge and background due to a large number of magic stones, Grimm became more mysterious at this time. From the eyes under the pale mask, from time to time, he revealed the light of wisdom and thought. The wisdom and mystery, even a friend Grimm once knew, was no longer recognizable at first glance.
To and fro, and back and forth he went.
Grimm seemed to be living in the lonely world of a traveler, enduring or enjoying loneliness, drowning in endless knowledge.
Ten days later.
Grimm recorded a book full of alchemy knowledge, using basic ingredients to constantly try and attempt some alchemy experiments in his hut.
He let out a sigh.
"Of course, alchemy is academic knowledge that absolutely cannot be forged overnight. Some folks don't possess the accumulation of twenty years worth of its knowledge, not even the simplest sorcery artifacts can be created."
Grimm, massaging his tired forehead, just attempted to create the simplest sorcerer artifacts but ended with a failure, wasting dozens of magic stones as ingredients.
However, Grimm didn't feel discouraged.
The subject of alchemy might be difficult to get started with, but even though there weren't any sorcerers who possess such expertise, as long as they do a lot more smelting, experimenting and accumulating more knowledge, they would achieve better heights.
Half a month later.
Grimm went to the third floor of Black Isotta again, but this time, he entered the potions room to learn about potions.
Just like that, Grimm obtained the power of a sorcerer to teach knowledge on his own, but at the cost of consuming huge amounts of magic stones on the third floor of Black Isotta. Even with some ambiguities, sorcerers would always share their rich amounts of knowledge.
Therefore, Grimm's knowledge of sorcery started to grow at an exaggerated speed.
At this period of time, sorcerer apprentices in the same session were still struggling to obtain magic stones in order to learn new spells, with small opportunities to purchase a sorcerer artifact. They were willing to spend magic stones to study subjects of their own focus in lecture halls.
Time flew gradually until there was less than a week left before the trial exams.
At the eleventh hour, due to the ruthlessness of trial exams becoming more and more bizarre among freshmen, everyone even had the feeling of facing a test of life and death. Naturally, a feeling of being overwhelmed started to occur among the freshmen.
Some freshmen who didn't learn enough of three sorceries started their final enjoyment in despair and gave up on themselves.
The Deathsail League had gathered.
With the increasing power of the Deathsail League, even the shaman apprenticeships passed down from schools had to start to face up to this emerging organization.
Driven by this general trend, the Deathsail League finally had its own independent gathering place at Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy.
Unlike those old organizations, the trial served as a sifting screen for recruiting new blood. Other than accepting sorcerer-apprentices who were ranked ten and above per session that have been sporadic in the past three years, the rest of the Deathsail League mostly had to face the trial exams.
Although it is said that the brutal selection and elimination on the ship made the people with good potential to remain, it was precisely because of this, the trial this time let those who suffered the cruelty of the Deathsail League be even more focused.
As long as most of the league members can successfully pass the trial, then the Deathsail League truly had a foothold in Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy, becoming one of the five major organizations of the academy's sorcerer apprentices.
And now...
The Deathsail League was not an organization at all; it was just a powerful group rally, because the Deathsail League did not have its own heritage.
Among the many sorcerer apprentices, there was a so-called new list of sorcerer apprentice masters. This master list was based on the records of entering and leaving the deserted courtyard and occasionally flowing out of the Thorn Forest, and some sorcerer-apprentices were ranked privately.
Of course, this list only recorded the outstanding existence among the freshmen of this session, and those sorcerer apprentice masters of previous sessions were not being recorded.
The Deathsail League was famous, because among the top ten players, exactly six of them were the current thirteen elders of the Deathsail League.
In order to find out why, even some good people privately inquired about the horror elimination system of the Deathsail League on the ship once, which caused those who knew about it to be even more frightened by something called the Bloody Mill trial.
However, the Deathsail League did not care about this so-called list at all.
Because there was no such name as Solumn, Kyrie, and Brianna. This was just a boring ranking game among sorcerer apprentices ...
As the trials were approaching, the senior members of the Deathsail League had arranged a dance party in order to increase the friendship among the personnel within the alliance. This was an opportunity for everyone to help each other during the trials hopefully.
Elegant and relaxing music permeated the entire hall.
Lefay, Armida, Chris York, Nina York, Robinson, and an unfamiliar woman sat together, watching couples of sorcerer apprentices dancing.
Lefay wore a silver-white dance dress, with her strong chest exposing a big snowy white cavity. The tight-fitting skirt highlighted her tall figure and amazingly slender legs. A pair of crescent earrings were hidden by her brown-black short hair.
Sitting lazily on the bench, Lefay's arrogant eyes did not hide anything, exuding extreme feminity.
Dozens of sorcerer apprentices who invited her to dance with them had been rejected. Those who were rejected by Lefay only smiled ceremonially, and did not dare to say anything.
In the past three years, because of Lefay's pride and wilfulness, she had caused many people to be smitten by her, so how many times she entered and left the courtyard was unknown, but she still lived well until now.
Instead, it was her enemies, most of whom never appeared again.
Because of these impressive achievements, Lefay became one of the top ten masters of this session's freshmen list of Black Isotta, also known secretly as both the Poison Tongued Queen and Poison Tongued Beauty.
Lefay naturally did not care about this list either.
The deeper she understood the knowledge of sorcery, Lefay felt the unfathomable nature of those three people, not to mention that they had a Level-2 sorcerer as a mentor, and never appeared in front of everyone after three years.
The gap would only get wider, even bigger than before.
"I don't know if he'll come over, he really has a bad temper and likes to save face..."
Unspeakably, Lefay suddenly said this inexplicable word while holding a wine glass. Only a few people around her heard it, but everyone understood what she meant.
Secretly, Lefay was somber and melancholy, looking at the red wine in the wine glass, as if recalling the days on the ship.
"Brother Grimm, shouldn't he be here? After all, I haven't heard from him for more than half a year, maybe he ..."
Nina York wore a half-mask, covering her lost eyes and scars on her face, and whispered.
Although only half said, everyone knew what she meant.
Chris tapped his sister's head and whispered, "Nonsense, Grimm is our closest partner, how could he die so easily?" Chris then ruffled his sister's hair.
On the side, Armida's height was exactly one meter and eighty-five, with his golden long hair turned over to the back, and a thick and broad chest muscle was exposed under the coarse beard. He wore casual green attire, but he displayed a burly, tall threatening appearance.
For three years, Armida's infatuation with Lefay could be seen by almost everyone.
No matter how venomous and bad-tempered Lefay was, Armida accepted it, just to be by her side.
However, for exactly three years, Armida has confessed to Lefay several times, but received no response at all. He was a little sad at first, but his mind was flexible at this time.
Could it be… Lefay likes that person? But, whether he was on the ship or at the Sorcerer Academy, that person showed no outstanding performance at all. He was just Lefay's servitor at best, what makes him so worth it to be smitten by Lefay?
Panicked, Armida tentatively said, "What would you do if he came back?"
Feeling uneasy, Armida continuously stared at Lefay.
"Mind your own business."
Lefay said coldly, looking up, drinking a glass of red wine.
Sure enough, that person was the one in her heart!
Armida's face fell a little.
Was it giving up his three years worth it?
Or directly asking that person to compete fairly with himself as a man?
"Hey, you guys, do you really care about Grimm or not?" You only know how to say Grimm, but only you remember him right now, don't you guys usually pay attention to some of his information? Look at this. "
Robinson spoke suddenly and took out a piece of paper from his shirt.
"A list of sorcerer apprentices? Well, there is Brother Grimm, he's really in there!"
Nina yelled in surprise, while both Lefay and Chris at the side rushed over to look at it. Armida followed Lefay's eyes, and she saw Grimm's name on the list.
On the other side, the girl next to Robinson curled up her brown curly hair and asked with a smile, "I didn't expect your relationship to be so good?"
Robinson grinned, with his hand wrapped over the girl's shoulders, and joked, "If I remember correctly, he should be exactly twenty years old this year. I am twenty-two years old, so I will let him call you his sister-in-law!"
"Hmm, who says I'm going to marry you...?"
The girl pretended to be angry while saying that.
Suddenly, Lefay who was sitting lazily at first, and Armida who was choosing to linger, and other elders of the Deathsail League seemed to sense something at the same time. Their eyes looked at the hall door, watching that sudden appearance of the naturally proud, laughing sorcerer apprentice.
Smash!
A Deathsail League sorcerer-apprentice who was talking to the sorceress-apprentice personally at first, saw this person at the door by accident. His eyes widened, and his wine glass was dropped into numerous fragments in his hands and he was unaware of it. His mouth muttered with disbelief.
"Solumn?!"
That's right, this sudden visitor was exactly a legendary existence for all members of the Deathsail League, Solumn!
The sorcerer apprentice who was accepted as a disciple by the faceless sorcerer!
The small undercover team member who was in the same squad with Grimm, but almost never talked!
Unless the people of the Deathsail League forgot everything that transpired on the ship, no matter at what time they recall, the mysterious, tall, out of reach sorcerer apprentice named Solumn would always appear in their memories.
Solumn smiled confidently with his hands around his shoulders. The cheerful dancers in the hall looked at him with surprise, and their eyes flashed.
Perhaps Solumn was too bright and too dazzling, as if the protagonist of all sentient beings appeared, attracting everyone's attention. So everyone didn't notice the man in the white mask who came late was in the far side of the hall.