Chapter 217 – Revealing One’s Hand; Cooperation (1)
After a friendly display of talent, the two of them sat down again.
Roman placed his hand on his knee. The rings on his hand looked like jewels under the light of the fire. He put away his smiling disguise. At this moment, his bearing was heavy and dignified, and he truly looked like he had unfathomable strength.
Zhou Jing seemed to have sobered up. He grasped the mentality of a character and displayed the nervousness of thinking that his friend was an ordinary person but not a hidden expert.
After restraining himself for a while, Zhou Jing could not help but speak first.
“What’s with this power called sorcery? Why haven’t I heard anyone mention it?”
Hearing this, Roman slowly began to explain,
“Sorcery doesn’t have a long history. It appeared at the end of the tribal era. No one knows how the first sorcerer in the world discovered this power. Everyone only knows that he taught this power to his three disciples and instructed them to keep the secret of sorcery. He believed that this power was not suitable for large-scale transmission.
Therefore, the three disciples decided to set a rule. In the future, a sorcerer could only take in three students at most. In this manner, the disciples secretly inherited this mysterious power each generation… This is already the sixth generation.
Sorcerers usually hide among the people or live in seclusion. They don’t reveal their sorcery, so it’s normal that you haven’t heard of it. Moreover, for safety reasons, sorcerers rarely contact each other. They leave on their own after completing their apprenticeship. Unless they meet by chance, they won’t deliberately look for others. I only met other sorcerers once with my teacher in my early years, and I haven’t seen anyone else since.”
Zhou Jing was a little surprised. The history of sorcery was actually so short, far inferior to that of mutant beast hunters… He wondered if this power system was born locally or brought about by the lifeforms of other dimensions.
Lynen was an unorthodox sorcerer. He was just lucky to have picked up an introductory manual on sorcery. He did not know anything about the background and current situation of sorcerers. Now that Roman, an insider, had spoken, naturally Zhou Jing could obtain more information.
According to Roman, sorcerers usually lived alone and would not contact each other. In other words, they were not organized at all and were scattered among the masses.
Zhou Jing thought about it and pretended to be surprised, “So there are many sorcerers in the world?”
According to this inheritance rule, based on the multiplier of three students to a teacher, the sixth generation would mean there are more than 200 sorcerers.
Roman however shook his head, “Not everyone is willing to take in students. Compared to teaching, most sorcerers would rather spend their time on themselves. Moreover, due to some special reasons, taking in students is not good for sorcerers. In addition, sorcerers often go into the wilderness. Sometimes, when they encounter mutant beasts that are difficult to deal with, they will also die. Therefore, there are not many sorcerers left.”
“What’s the special reason?”
Zhou Jing pricked up his ears and asked curiously.
Roman pondered for a moment before explaining, “Alright, I can tell you first… Although practicing sorcery is not as dangerous as the blood potion, you have to appear in the wilderness to find a special existence called a nature spirit. The power of sorcery mainly comes from it.
“Nature spirits are very rare and are distributed in some strange areas. Their numbers are not infinite. Once they are obtained by sorcerers, they will disappear. The regeneration of nature spirits in an area is extremely slow, and they might even never regenerate forever.
Therefore, every time a new sorcerer is nurtured, there will be one less nature spirit. This is the reason why the first sorcerer instructed his disciples not to spread sorcery on a large scale. Later on, it became a consensus among sorcerers.”
Zhou Jing blinked. This matched the information he had obtained from Lynen.
Nature spirits were limited. If a person wanted to become a sorcerer, they had to fuse with at least one nature spirit. In order to become stronger, they had to fuse with more nature spirits. Therefore, nurturing students was equivalent to nurturing competitors.
He felt that only sorcerers who no longer needed the nature spirit to become stronger would have the mood to accept students.
“What kind of power is sorcery?”
Zhou Jing suddenly appeared to be a curious baby.
Roman was not stingy and explained a little more. It was similar to the contents of Lynen’s sorcery guidebook, but more detailed.
After talking so much, he changed the topic and said, “Master Bill, have you considered it? Are you willing to accept my conditions?”
Zhou Jing thought for a moment, “If a sorcerer can only teach three people in his life, can I learn it?”
Roman nodded, “I’ve never taken a student. If you agree to my conditions, I’ll teach you sorcery. You don’t have to worry about the risk of obtaining a nature spirit. I’ll help
you.”
Zhou Jing pretended to hesitate.
“But can I learn sorcery? Does this power really not need any talent?”
If Roman replied that there was no need, it meant that he had no intention of teaching him at all. He was just using sorcery as bait to lure him in.
However, Roman shook his head, “Sorcery isn’t something anyone can practice. It requires talent, but you have no problem with
it.”
“How can you tell?” Zhou Jing was puzzled.
Roman sized up Zhou Jing and calmly stated,
“Sorcerers have a simple way to determine if a person can learn sorcery. First of all, it’s your perception of nature. Your analysis of the special talents of various herbs and potions is a mutant manifestation of this aptitude. It shows the basic conditions to become a sorcerer.
“Secondly, sorcerers need strong mental strength… In words that you can understand, they need to be energetic and their thoughts have to be active for a long time. If you can work without sleep or rest in the workshop, it proves that your mental strength is stronger than ordinary people.”
Hearing this, Zhou Jing’s expression became a little strange.