Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Therefore, the previously separated humanoid Clay Golem and the alligator Clay Golem merged, transforming into a strange looking ‘Demon Alligator Hunter’ form.

  From a far distance, they looked like a masculine hunter riding on a nearly three meter long demon alligator, holding a dirt spear in his hand. As the summoner of both golems, Greem was able to clearly see this newly formed golem. Actually, the hunter was not riding on top of the alligator, but its entire lower body had merged with the back of the alligator.

  A Clay Golem could never detach themselves from the ground, or else they would lose their endless supply of Earth Elementium. Now that they had merged, most of their abilities had been combined. The dense Earth Elementium had formed a layer of sparkling and crystal-clear Earth armor on their body, showing some signs of being similar to stone armor.

  Demon Alligator Hunter!

  Through extensive calculations performed by the Chip, and the merging of magical formations, two Clay Golems, with nearly identical sources, had been merged together, giving birth to a brand new golem.

  Greem strode forward. Following his arrival, the Demon Alligator lowered its body, gently coiling its long tail around Greem’s body and lifting him onto its back. The spikes on its back wriggled, transformed into the shape of a chair.

  Placing his body firmly into the clay chair, Greem lightly tapped his feet.

  “Let’s go!”

  Following his command, the Demon Alligator opened its mouth and let out a deep howl as it began to waddle its huge body toward the Ghost Nanny’s nest in the distance.

  Actually, those Ghost Nannies resting in the muddy swamp not far away had noticed their presense. But after going through two devastating mass killings, they had become like birds which jumped at the mere twang of a bow-string – badly frightened. Thus none of them dared to come out and look for trouble. However, having such a large Demon Alligator intrude into their territory and begin to wreak havoc to the muddy swamp they lived in, no matter how weak they were in comparison, these Ghost Nannies had no choice but to force themselves to face this foul intruder.

  Sharp, shrill howls, like night owls call, started ringing through the air of the muddy swamp. Skinny, yet surprisingly strong, figures kept squeezing out from the muddy pond, one after another one, letting out sharp cries and crowding in from all directions.

  Their hair was dirty and disheveled; their bodies pale and wrinkled; their nails pitch-black and razor-sharp… Like frightening ghosts, these demons charged toward the intruders while letting out terrifying howls. If an ordinary Apprentice Adept was here, perhaps he would have scurried away at this frightening scene, but Greem was just the opposite.

  Today, he was testing the strength of his newly combined Golems. How could he be scared at such a small scene?

  After ran his eyes over the swarm of Ghost Nannies storming in from all directions, Greem had a cruel smile come over his face as he stomped his feet.

  “Kill! Kill them all for me!”

  Upon receiving Greem’s command, the seemingly stiff and dumb Demon Alligator Hunter suddenly ‘woke up’. Although it didn’t have clear facial features, a strange ‘roar’ actually rang through the air, causing ripples to spread across the water.

  Biting with its mouth; ripping with it’s sharp claws; swinging around its long and powerful tail, the Demon Alligator dashed into the swarm of Ghost Nannies while launching frightening attacks. Though walking on the muddy, stinking water, its gigantic body moved like it was walking on flat ground. Shock waves could be seen spreading out from underneath its body, causing any Ghost Nanny that came within 5 meters of Demon Alligator to tremble, barely able to stay on their feet.

  Any Ghost Nanny who fell into the sharp claws and gigantic mouth would be ripped into a bloody mess in an instant, staining the water with their stinking, black blood. But even so, wave after wave of Ghost Nannies still broke through Demon Alligator’s head and tail attack, successfully squeezed themselves into both sides of its body, restlessly climbing up onto its back, trying to pull Greem and the ‘Hunter’ into the muddy pond.

  Faced with few hundred black, dirty hands clustered below its body, the Hunter showed no fear at all. Holding the spear in its hand, the Hunter kept piercing through the heads of Ghost Nannies. Since the Ghost Nanny was a demon and not an immortal creature, once their head was pierced through by the spear, they would die. Thus, ugly, twisted bodies of Ghost Nanny continuously fell off from Demon Alligator’s back, sinking to the bottom of the muddy pond.

  When the fight became furious, the Hunter would wave its arms, unleashing countless Spikes in a 10 x 8 meter area, puncturing the bodies of Ghost Nanny on the ground.

  On his side, Greem clapped his palms before separated them, shooting out two frightening flames. In an instant, the Ghost Nannies, who had nearly reached his pant legs, were drawn into the scorching flame.

  Burned by the intense heat, the Ghost Nannies started screeching. For a moment, countless flaming bodies rolled off the back of the Demon Alligator, struggling in the muddy pond while letting out miserably cries, turning the entire muddy swamp into a living hell.

  Moving forward while growling aggressively, the Demon Alligator ripped apart everything that got in its way. Located at the highest point of its back, the Hunter attacked anything that got too close, while occasionally throwing its spear at a long range target. If there were too many enemies, it would unleash a Spike spell, causing Ghost Nannies to shed blood like fountains.

  Even though both Golems had combined their strength, they were nowhere near as flashy as Greem, who had transformed fire wielding maniac. He sat firmly on the rear end of Demon Alligator’s back, both arms slightly stretched out, shooting two frightening flames out a few meters, causing any Ghost Nanny who got too close to be caught up in a terrifyingly hot inferno.

  Following the reckless charging of Demon Alligator in the Ghost Nanny army, Greem’s frightening flame had nearly set the entire muddy pond on fire. Moments ago, these Ghost Nannies were still leaping to them crazily, but they were now filled with great terror, each and every single one was screaming and swimming away from the battlefield.

  Within the blazing, scorching hot muddy pond, the putrid smell of burnt flesh filled every inch of the air, making anyone who smelt it feel like throwing out. Greem had transformed into a frantic demon lord, controlling his frightening flames arbitrarily, killing every single enemy he could found on his way, totally had no idea that all the enemies around him had been turned into charcoal.

  When the blazing flames formed by Burning Hand finally died down, Greem finally woke up from the satisfying slaughter. After waking up, the first thing came to his attention was the pungent smell that filled his nose, which nearly made him suffocate.

  Stamping his right foot a few times and giving the golem a mental command, the Demon Alligator moved. Though it looked slow, it actually left the muddy pond at an incredible speed. When they finally left the pond, Greem looked over his shoulder, a miserable scene immediately revealed in front of his eyes, and he was filled with a great shock.

  Just a brief moment ago, when he was recklessly killing all those ‘weaklings’, countless terrifying, horrible consciouses had swarmed into his mind, making him frantic and crazy. Although it had been satisfying, it went against the elementary Adept teachings, which said all Adept had to keep calm and rational at all times.

  “Chip, activate Elementium Vision!” As if Greem had sensed something, he gave out his command with a soft voice.

  *Beep* “Elementium Vision activated.”

  The multi-colored Elementium Vision projected into Greem’s eyes. Looking around, he found the entire sky above the muddy swamp was full of broken souls, who were howling and groaning endlessly. No wonder his conscious had been occupied by something else just now. It was all because of these broken souls!

  If he was an Apprentice Adept who had an affinity Darkness, he would definitely have been struck with a wild joy, skipping around as he gathe
red all these broken souls. For them, these high quality broken souls were the best materials for their experiments. But Greem was unable to do these things.

  Without protection from Dark Elementium, if he got too close to these broken souls, who mainly comprised of negative energy, his Spirit and body would suffer a certain degree of corrosion. If this situation persisted, his body would become skinny, as his blood and soul were slowly corrupted by the negative energy. Therefore, Greem always kept a safe distance from any souls.

  Just now, he was immersed in a satisfying emotion of slaughter, forgetting his original purpose in coming here. Now, thinking back, he started to ponder on the combat performance of his Demon Alligator Hunter.

  Overall, the Demon Alligator Hunter possessed the ability of an Advanced Apprentice, thus it had no problem suppressing an Intermediate Apprentice. Greem even had the confidence to fight the strongest three, but, of course, it was tough to tell if he could actually beat them in a fight.

  Among all the Advanced Apprentices Greem met before, perhaps only the frightening Loli, Alice, would be able to suppress his Demon Alligator Hunter. As for the other Advanced Apprentices, he could only evaluate their abilities after fighting with them.

  Actually, the real weakness of this Demon Alligator Hunter was Greem.

  As the Demon Alligator Hunter was summoned by Greem, as long as the enemy took care of Greem, it would no longer be a threat. So, when a real fight erupted, perhaps most of the enemy’s offensive attack would be aimed at Greem. If he couldn’t withstand another adept’s massive firepower, no matter how tough was his Demon Alligator Hunter was, he would have no chance of winning a fight.

  Therefore, Greem had to find a way to solve this weakness, and this was also the second test would run today.

  “Demon Alligator Hunter! Dive down!”

  Following Greem’s command, the small ‘throne’ he was sitting on started to move forward. At the same time, the Hunter golem in front of him started to expand as Greem slowly merged with it.

  When Greem’s body finally disappeared into golem’s body, the Demon Alligator underneath let out a short growl, and an earthy yellow smoke started emitting from its body. In next moment, the entire Demon Alligator Hunter disappeared without a trace.

  As if suddenly he had sunk into a pitch black abyss. Greem’s breath suddenly stopped, being replaced by the strong smell of dirt. All of his senses had vanished, but there was a massive external force pressing onto his body. The force was so strong, it nearly made all his bones start to crack.

  But following the dispersion of Earth Elementium around Demon Alligator Hunter’s body, this external force started to subside, eventually disappearing.

  Although he couldn’t see with his eyes, nor hear with his ears, Greem slowly sent forth his Spirit energy, using it as a replacement for his eyes and ears, allowing him to sense everything around himself.

  He was traveling underground! Although he was not moving at an incredible speed, Greem still felt like he was riding on the clouds. It was like Demon Alligator Hunter was floating within a pool of sticky, heavy liquid, continually consuming the Earth Elementium energy stored within its body and breaking through the dirt around him, traveling by slipping through the earth.

  Chapter 44

  Greem was ‘swimming’ three meters underground, like a fish in the water.

  His Spirit energy went through the dense fog of Earth Elementium surrounding him, showing him the surrounding earth. Twisting roots of old trees; coarse sand and rocks; wriggling insects; gophers hiding in their nests; rotten tree branches, and some other unidentifiable things…

  It was only a short journey, but it allowed Greem to glimpse a completely different world that had always been right under his feet. In this secret world, Greem was like an untouchable king overlooking his kingdom, not caring about anything. If he really wanted to do something, with just a command, Demon Alligator Hunter would be able to wreak havoc in this place.

  Although he wished he could spend a little longer traveling underground, but after merely seven to eight minutes, he could no longer stand it anymore.

  It was not because he had depleted his Spirit, but because he was out of breath.

  As an Apprentice Adept who worked with supernatural forces every day, no matter if it was resistance or endurance, Greem’s body was way stronger than an ordinary mortal. Any ordinary human would go into a coma after holding his breath for a few minutes, but he was able to hold his breath for nearly eight minutes before needing to catch his breath.

  Following his command, the Earth Elementium around the outside of the Demon Alligator Hunter’s body started to vibrate, pushing away the thick and heavy soil above its head and slowly squeezing its way to the surface.

  The sudden arrival of the Demon Alligator Hunter had shocked the surrounding demons. Numerous sharp cries rung through the air, as curses poured onto them like rain.

  “Damn it! We surfaced in the nest of the Demon Babies!” Greem cursed, driving the Demon Alligator Hunter forward and breaking his way out of the swarm of Demon Babies.

  Although the Demon Babies’ Curse spell was unpredictable and hard to defend against, they were just low-ranked demons. Faced with the Elementium formed Demon Alligator Hunter, the success rate of their curses was not very high. Instead, two Demon Babies were killed by spears thrown by the Hunter, causing the rest of them to scurry away, hiding in nearby bushes and daring not to move the tiniest bit.

  At this moment, Greem had dimly tasted the mentality of Alice and the other two Advanced Apprentices when they intruded into the Magical Swamp. Once a person possessed the abilities and resources of an Advanced Apprentice, ordinary low-ranked demons were no longer a threat to them. As they were only faced with a bunch of ‘ants’ they could kill easily, no wonder that, even they knew this was a forbidden place, they could still behave so recklessly.

  To be honest, if Adept Anderson hadn’t done anything, with just the Apprentice Adepts and demons of the Magical Swamp alone, there was no way they could’ve stopped the trio.

  As for Alice’s sad encounter, it was completely by accident.

  Just because Alice possessed an overpowered skill and a frightening ability, it had forced Evil Bugs to fight her with his life. Then she had chased Greem all over the swamp and suffered a great loss at the hands of Mary.

  In the past, these hateful Demon Babies were a group of frightening and hard to deal monsters. If he had been surrounded by them, even with the protection of his magical talisman, he would have faced miserable consequences. But now, with the help of the Demon Alligator Hunter, Greem could actually kill them easily, and no longer feared them.

  Unknowingly, Greem’s mentality had started to change.

  Use one’s strength to bully the weak; the weak are easy prey to the strong; be pushy and overbearing… all these phrases sounded nasty to the ear, but, now that he was in the position of the strong, it was rather an enjoyable experience.

  Driving his Demon Alligator Hunter forward and rushing out from the Garden of Whispers, Greem came to the stony trail and jumped off his Golem. He dispersed the Earth Elementium and picked up the two summoning cores. He was quite close to the entrance of the Tower, thus, Greem decided to try to appear like his former weak self.

  Pulled his hood up and covering his face, Greem stealthily returned to the Tower.

  The experiment had been successful, and Greem’s confidence had grown. But, at the same time, it had exposed some problems, the most serious of which was how to handle long periods of time underground.

  Perhaps the Demon Alligator Hunter didn’t need to breathe, but Greem did! Deep underground, protected by the Earth Elementium emitting from the Demon Alligator Hunter, Greem had been given the ability to travel through the Earth. However, there was no air underground. If he didn’t solve this breathing problem, he would never be able to stay underground for more than 8 minutes.

  Hence, after returned to the Tower, for the next few days Greem spent mos
t of his time running between different Apprentices, searching for a solution that would allow him to have dark vision and breath underground. When he had some spare time, he would sneak out from the Tower to hunt for suitable demons that he could use to craft new Golems.

  But too bad, up until the last day before he had to set off, he still couldn’t find any suitable demons.

  After all, this Magical Swamp was just an extremely common resource site of an Adept family. It was all ordinary demons and plants being raised and planted here, where they were all easy to maintain and harvest. Therefore, it was just a fancy dream to harvest a large quantity of demon cores from this place. In fact, both Sinbad and the Giant Alligator King were rare advanced demons of the Magical Swamp, which only leveled up in the past hundred years. If not because of this, Greem would never have found any demon cores he could use.

  But though he didn’t find any new demon cores, Greem still harvested a bunch of magical materials and ingredients for magical medicine. Using these materials, Greem was able to exchange for some rather useful items from other Apprentices.

  Out of these items, Greem was most satisfied with an exquisitely made Circlet of Nobility.

  Wearing the Circlet of Nobility on his head, the crystal clear diamond socked right in front of the circlet was pressed against Greem’s forehead. Besides making him look a little regal, it also increased his Spirit by one.

  For an Advanced Apprentice, this circlet was unable to supplement their Spirit. But for Greem, who only possessed 8 Spirit, it brought him a rather significant improvement.

  Also, his dark vision problem had been solved.

  The solution? A pair of Gnome Goggles!

  According to the explanation he had received from the Intermediate Apprentice who had sold this item to Greem, the goggles were a product from another Plane. It was made from combining a black leather belt with two transparent crystals. Wearing it, Greem had clear vision in low-light environments.