Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  But if she used the same method when facing Madwoman or Evil Bugs, Greem didn’t see any hope of her winning.

  Madwoman’s frightening looking metal sword was not just a decoration, and, with her Strength of 15 and her Physique of 16, she had more than enough to unleash brutal physical attacks. Maybe her 8 Agility was her weakness, but, with the help of magic spells, it would be really tough for ordinary enemies to use this weakness against her.

  And, although that Evil Bugs didn’t fare so well when faced with Alice, that didn’t mean his real fighting ability was weak. Also, since his body was formed of scorpions, didn’t that mean there wasn’t any blood for Mary to use her vampirism on?

  Thus, in conclusion, while Mary had gained strong abilities, but she hadn’t reached the incredible stage that Alice had.

  Since Mary was willing to protect him, Greem didn’t hide anything and, like a loyal military adviser, told all of his analyses to Mary, so she could give up any unrealistic fantasies she might have.

  After becoming a Vampire, Mary’s temperament had changed tremendously. It wasn’t hard to tell that the force of that alien bloodline had deeply affected her mind and conscious. She was being nice to Greem, but that was mostly because, during the mutation of her bloodline, he had shown compassion to her.

  But feelings didn’t last forever, and they would quickly fade from the cruel, rational, hard daily life of an Apprentice. Therefore, he had to show his skills to avoid giving the impression that he was simply hiding under Mary’s wings.

  Chapter 27

  Greem needed time to grow.

  Though he firmly believed that, with the experience of having lived a life before this one, and help from the Chip, his growth speed should not be less than those geniuses who were born with extraordinary innate talents, he needed time in order to grow. Just like a juvenile beast, even if Greem was given a pair of wings, his growth would still require a huge amount of time and the investment of a vast amount of resources.

  Currently, he was weak. If he had someone to protect him, he could grow much faster in the safety provided by that person. Therefore, when Mary took her own initiative and spread her wings to offered him shelter, although troubling in the way she did so, he now happily accepted this protection.

  But Greem wished he could show his value, trying his best to make this ‘relationship’ appear more like a form of alliance that benefited both partners, rather than just himself.

  Greem took a long look at Sinbad’s head, which was sitting in his hand. If he was right, Sinbad’s soul was still trapped in this head, and, if he didn’t properly manage it, perhaps the quality of his prize would be reduced.

  Anyway, this was the head of a Ghost Nanny’s Leader who could be compared to some Advanced Apprentices. Thus, no matter how he might use it, this was an excellent material for experimenting on.

  There was a total of three outsiders who had intruded on the Magical Swamp. Although they didn’t kill Alice, at least they had made her suffer. At this moment, that arrogant and cocky girl was either dead or in really bad shape. As for the other two intruders, Madwoman and Hawkeye should be dealing with them, so it was not something Greem needed to worry about.

  As for Mary, clearly she was more interested in the blood of the other two intruders, because, without saying goodbye to Greem, she transformed into her bat form and shot away, into the misty fog. In the end, Greem was left standing by himself in the swamp. After recovering from the shock of finally having a calm moment in this hectic day, he snuck his way back to the Adept Tower, wanting to safely get his loot back to his room.

  …………

  A dazzling light show was flashing in front of her eyes. At the same time, an intense dizziness made it hard for her to identify directions, or even which way was up!

  But, with the help of her spatial senses, Alice arduously freed herself from the chaotic spatial storm, ripping open a spatial crack and returned back to the physical world.

  A wriggling spatial crack appeared in mid-air, and, right after that, Alice came out from it facing upside down.

  “Ouch!”

  Alice, who utterly exhausted, had hit her head on the hard and cool surface of a rock, so she cried out in pain and surprise.

  Damn rascal. Damn Vampire. You better not let me fully recovered. Once I have fully healed, I’ll definitely…

  While crazily cursing in her mind, Alice suddenly went completely still, With her reminding eye wide open and filled with a great fear, she stared straight at the frightening figure that had suddenly appeared in front of her. The fear made her pause, forcing her not to do anything recklessly.

  Alice examined her surroundings in confusion. Only now did she notice that she was in a dark, closed off stone room. This place was not the safe zone that she had set up in advance, and the person who stood in front of her was not any Apprentice Adept she was familiar with.

  Looking at the man’s skinny and almost dried-up body, his gray Adept long robe, his old wizard’s hat, and that vicious, eerie smile…

  Alice finally realized who was in front of her, and couldn’t keep herself from letting out a cry of shock, “Adept Anderson!”

  The skinny old man who stood in front of her was none other than the master of the Tower, First Grade Adept, Anderson.

  He was the highest authority of the Tower. Hence, right when Alice used the Teleportation spell and retreated, her destination was modified, bringing this little loli, who had already suffered so much, straight to his front door.

  The frightening ability of a real Adept was not something any ordinary mortal could understand.

  Honestly, right from the beginning of their apprenticeship, many Apprentice Adepts started modifying their bodies. In their minds, the appearance of their body and their face was far less important than their overall power.

  If someone thoroughly examined everyone in this town, out of over fifty Apprentice Adepts, perhaps less than half of them was still had pure human bodies.

  Bloodline modification, biological modification, spell contamination… all these were the direct results of their restless efforts to become stronger. The boundary between human and inhuman was not all that significant in this world of Adepts.

  Knowing that even Apprentice Adepts were heavily modifying their bodies, one can only imagine what full Adepts must do to their bodies.

  Able to endure the cruel and painful modification process, able to persevere in the lonely lifestyle of knowledge seeking, able to use all means and make themselves become stronger… After going through all this suffering and finally becoming an official Adept, do you think they would still have a kind and compassionate personality?

  When mentioning these Adepts in the world of Adept, what most ordinary people thought of was powerful, insidious, evil beings, who are level-headed in all scenarios. Although they claimed themselves to be slaves of knowledge, forever walking in the path of knowledge-seeking, their methods of gathering said knowledge would never be described as merciful or moderate.

  In the entire multiverse, being on of the rare, large scale planes, it was inevitable that the World of Adepts had enslaved more than a thousand middle and small scale planes. They brutally ‘appropriated’ all the resources and knowledge from those planes which they conquered, using them to arm and strengthened themselves. If an Adept family didn’t have their own private plane, they weren’t even considered to be in the lowest rank of Adept Families.

  The core strength of the army which represented the World of Adepts was made up of members of these Adept Families. If a First Grade Adept, like Anderson, was placed in the boundless battlefield of the endless conquering expedition, he would simply be cannon fodder.

  Yes, the entry requirement to be in the army of World of Adept was to be a First Grade Adept. As for Apprentice Adepts, they were merely rookies who were not experienced in the Principles of Planes. They were not even qualified to be cannon fodder.

  Thus, after meeting with so many Adepts, Alice held
a deep fear and respect toward these powerful people.

  Although her innate Spatial ability made her be considered an extraordinary talent, when faced with these official Adepts, even with her amazing protection barrier, she was merely a canary who could be killed by them anytime. In the World of Adepts, innate talent represented your potential, not your strength. Throughout the past millions of years, countless geniuses lost their lives to stronger Adepts with lesser potential.

  Therefore, when Alice realized she was facing an official Adept, her arrogant and violent attitude immediately vanished. Even though the severe injuries on her body made her feel an intense amount of pain, such that she was soaked with a cold sweat, she still acted like nothing was wrong, slightly bending her body forward, and patiently waiting for the man to question her.

  “I’m in a really bad mood today. It seems that a few bugs slipped into my garden when I was busy with experiment. So, little girl from the House of Fragrance… Who gave you permission to enter my territory?” Adept Anderson’s insidious looking face was completely emotionless, and his cold voice made shivers run down Alice’s spine.

  “Honorable Adept Anderson, my mentor, the great Deborah, sent me here to deliver a message.” Alice didn’t hesitate and immediately stated her purpose of coming here.

  “Deborah, the crazy woman?” Anderson frowned, “So, you’re that genius Apprentice that Deborah got three years ago? Now what? Are you trying to show off in my place after learning a few tricks from her? Hahahaha… little girl, didn’t your mentor tell you that I don’t like to be disturbed? Oh right, so are the other two little bugs from the House of Fragrance too?”

  Cautiously standing up while keeping her back straight, Alice quickly replied, saying, “No. We met at the outside of Swampy Area. All of us are here for our own respective missions. One of them is from Mandasor Academy, the other is from the Black Glove Association.”

  “Mission? All of you came to my Magical Swamp for a mission?”

  “Yes! We each received training missions from our own organizations. That’s why we came here uninvited!”

  “Damn it, damn it… I knew those damn Zhentarim guys would never stop trying to get this place. This is The Magical Swamp! My private territory! How dare those guys set this place as one of their mission sites. In the next Adepts gathering, I’ll definitely report their damn behavior to the council…”

  Perhaps what Alice said had been a sensitive subject for Adept Anderson, but, though he has already behaved crazily, when he heard about the situation he became even more frenzied. Almost screaming, he began to venomously curse at someone in some distant land. At a certain point, Anderson started speaking in a couple of different languages, and Alice could only identify not more than three of them.

  At some point, Adept Anderson calmed down and suddenly became quiet. Once again, his insidious looking eyes stopped on Alice’s face.

  “Because you have shown respect, I’ll not keep you here. But, as you have intruded on my garden and wreaked havoc, I can’t let you go without punishing you. This will serve as your lesson!” Adept Anderson gently pointed his staff into the air and unleashed a tiny glowing green dot, which shot right into Alice’s empty eye socket.

  At the same time, a bizarre looking ring suddenly appeared under Alice’s feet. After blinking a few times, a bright light flashed, and Alice disappeared from the stone room.

  At almost the same time Alice was expelled, the same teleportation ring also appeared under the feet of the other two Apprentice Adepts, who were still searching through the depths of the swamp. With a flash, they were expelled from the Magical Swamp as well.

  …………

  At the entrance of Magical Swamp.

  It was a small, desolated, miserable looking hillside.

  Facing the hillside was the Magical Swamp, covered with a thick fog. When looking out from the hilltop, besides the numerous muddy ponds, one could only see some light mangled foliage. Otherwise, nothing seemed abnormal.

  After a dazzling flash, Alice was thrown to the ground from empty space.

  Before she could struggle up, another two light flashes occurred, and two familiar figures appeared in the space around her.

  While whining, Alice stood up from the ground, hastily taking out all sorts of bottles from her waist pockets and beginning to restlessly heal herself. Although she had left the boundaries of the Magical Swamp, she dared not utter any curses toward that Adept.

  Who knew if that damn Adept had some way to spy on them. If he heard her say anything bad, perhaps he would strike them down where they stood…

  Chapter 28

  Moaning and groaning, the two newcomers staggered to their feet.

  Comparing to the spatially talented Alice, both of them rarely teleported, therefore, aside from the normal dizziness that accompanied teleporting, both of them felt sick, almost to the point of throwing up. However, both of them had extraordinary Physiques, which made them very adaptable. Thus, after a brief moment of rest, they had recovered.

  Apparently, before being teleported to this place, these two had been in fierce fights, as both of their bodies were covered with scars. Even now, they were tightly gripping their weapons, as if thinking they might be attacked at any moment.

  When they saw Alice, who was looking incredibly miserable, both men exchanged glances, incredulous looks in their eyes. Before they had entered the Magical Swamp, the three of them had spared, trying to determine who would be the leader of this temporary team.

  Although both of them were very confident in themselves, they were both defeated by Alice’s mysteriously Telekinetic ability. If they were being honest with themselves, this Alice definitely had the ability to kill them instantly.

  But, unexpectedly, after splitting up for only a short time, Alice had suffered very severe injuries. Compared to her, their wounds were nothing worth mentioning.

  “Alice, who were you fighting with? Was it a Pseudo-Adept?” Hesitantly, the muscular man with a huge sword on his back asked the terrifying loli what was wrong. The Snake headed man, who was standing beside him, also showed an expression filled with concern, quietly awaiting Alice’s answer.

  “Kerry, my business is my own…” Alice didn’t deem to answer the question, and simply kept focusing on healing her own injuries.

  Alice secretly felt a great fear in her heart. She was not worried about her injuries, she had suffered severe injuries before this. What she feared was whatever Adept Anderson had done to her when he threw that bizarre looking green light into her eye. No matter how she examined herself, she couldn’t find anything unusual in her body, so she had no choice but to focus on healing her wounds.

  After drinking all sorts of potions, the wounds on her nearly disintegrated body finally stopped leaking blood. Then Alice started to apply a dark purple, pungent smelling, medicinal paste onto her wounds.

  Strangely, the result of this seemingly insignificant mud-like paste worked really well. No matter how awful a wound was, as long as it was covered by the paste for a short period of time, her skin would be restored to its former fairness and smoothness.

  After she finished healing all her wounds, Alice starting to heal her right eye.

  If a normal human lost a body part, it would be a lifelong scar that could never be healed. But for these Apprentice Adepts, who had set foot in the field of mysticism and supernatural forces, restoring lost body parts was quite possible.

  From a black clay pot, Alice carefully picked out a strange looking creature, which looked like a tiny snake. Pinching its tail, she carefully placed it into her empty eye socket. This weird creature was being pinched by Alice so it couldn’t move, causing it to keep twisting in the air while making a jarring, sharp hissing sound. It had a head that looked like a meatball, and a mouth that opened up like a flower. Within this odd shaped mouth were many tiny, sharp teeth.

  “Snake-Sakura Grass!”

  Obviously, the muscular man knew about this creature, and he couldn�
��t help but sigh at its value.

  “What is this thing?” The Snake headed man had never seen anything like this before.

  “It is a holy healing medicine, able to replace any missing important organ in the body. Don’t judge by its ugly looking appearance. It is a mutated plant that was specifically cultivated for this purpose. It’s basic price of it is around 70 Magic Crystals.” The muscular man briefly explained. At the same time, his face was filled with envy.

  “70 Magic Crystals?” Snake headed man was shocked, and he was instantly able to understand the value of this item.

  Numerous major-scale Adept associations existed in the World of Adepts. There were simply too many to count. Internally, each of these organizations and associations would implement the system of knowledge points or exchange points, of which none were exchangeable. Therefore, in an effort to solve cross-organizations trading, the Magic Crystals was born.

  This was an advanced-magic universe with countless planes.The entire space of each of these planes was filled with a magical energy. Usually, these magical energies were equally distributed throughout the space, but, on rare occasions or in some unique environments, very dense clusters of magical energy could be found.

  Therefore, in these unique environments, the overly dense magical energy would infest the surrounding minerals, turning it into a crystal. This crystal was a unique item that allowed Adepts to quickly replenish their Elementium consumption. Hence, it was an item that had gained the acceptance of all casters in every single major plane.

  As a result, the Magical Crystal had become an important strategic resource for the Adept World, as they were constantly conquering other worlds. Thus, it was used as the basic currency for the entire World of Adepts.

  The Snake headed man couldn’t help it and gulped.

  For example, in the Black Glove Association he came from, after he successfully completed this training mission, he would get 15 knowledge points and 30 Magic Crystals. To get 70 Magic Crystals, he would have to complete two ‘Dangerous’ missions, seven ‘Difficult’ missions, or thirty-five ‘Normal’ missions.