Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  After all, whilst in this Underground world, even if two men were separated by a ten meter thick rock wall, it would still be very hard for them to discover each other. The Underground Cave was a strange place, because there was more metal the deeper you went. This metal greatly interfered with spiritual sense and detection magical spells. Therefore, unless a special method was used, it was near-impossible that these two men would discover each other.

  Either way, the ability to move stealthily and to see in the dark were basic abilities for all intelligent Underground creatures. Without these abilities, it would be very hard for them to earn their living in this eternally dark place.

  Like a man talking in their sleep, Greem kept muttering things under his breath, describing everything he was sensing. Suddenly, his body trembled violently and he whispered urgently into Mary’s ears.

  “There are two human-like creatures located one hundred meters down, at an angle of seventeen-degrees south-east. I’m sensing a strong Elementium aura. It is highly likely that they are both apprentice Adepts.”

  Mary’s body went stiff, and her bloodshot eyes narrowed.

  The source of the quake had originated from that same direction, and, now there were two apprentice Adepts emerging from there. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. They both knew that there was a higher possibility of it being a bad situation than a good one!

  “Can you identify who they are? It would be best if you could get a clear sense of their strength!” Mary whispered, placing her lips beside Greem’s ears.

  It seemed that Greem hadn’t heard what she said, as he continued immersing himself in his detection. “They are heading in our direction right now, but there is a four-degree deviation… between us, there are three tunnels and two caves. They are ninety-three meters away… they have arrived at the first cave, however, the cave has collapsed. There is no tunnel leading to where we are. Wait… it seems that they are casting some kind of spell, as I can sense a strong Elementium ripple. It seems that they’re holding something in their hand that can pinpoint our location… that is…”

  Greem suddenly opened his eyes, a shocked expression emerging on his face. He whispered, “It’s a communication crystal! They have the communication crystal we were all given before we split up! They’re using it to track us!”

  After arriving in the Underground Cave, each person, in order to make communication easier, had exchanged their respective personal auras. The fact that the enemy had gotten hold of a communication crystal meant that one of their group members had already been caught by them.

  Greem took out a fist-size blue crystal from his waist pouch and prepared to toss it far away, but before he could, Mary stopped him.

  “If they are really locating us through the personal aura in the communication crystal, then why don’t we just prepare a trap for them…?” Mary asked. It seemed that whenever slaughtering was involved, a strong killing intent would always leaked from her eyes.

  Both of them were scheming and merciless people, so, after a short discussion, Mary took Greem’s communication crystal and hid in the darkness. Greem grinned evilly before kicking the Demon Alligator and sinking into the soil.

  　　…………

  Anna lead the way as they wormed their way through the broken and winding tunnel.

  Before entering the next cave, she quickly scanned the surrounding area.

  Her eyes swept across the silent tunnel before stopping. She looked far into the distance. Broken rocks and stalagmites were scattered around at the edge of the winding tunnel. Dimmed light, coming from unknown sources, was shining through the gaps between them, resembling the sharp fangs of grinning devils.

  She tilted her head slightly and listened to any audible sound. She heard a muffled rumbling coming from the beneath her. Sprays of mist were constantly bursting out from the cracks in-between the rocks; while the glow of illuminating fungus shone onto these mists, created a strange and unusual illusion-like scene.

  In such an environment the difficulty of hunting enemies was huge.

  The battle that had happened previously had caused a lot of damage to the surrounding terrain, resulting in many passages becoming hard to recognize. This caused the natives’ advantage to weaken, as they no longer had a solid grasp over the area.

  As the enemies they were hunting were very cunning, Anna made sure not to leave too many traces in the air. It was because of this that, after travelling a certain distance, she had to reconfirm the enemy’s location.

  Anna placed the blood-stained communication crystal on the ground and began to softly recite some strange, unintelligible spells. After she had finished casting, a pale, long-haired women, who didn’t have any facial features, manifested itself in front of her.

  “The great ancient banshee, please show me the location of our enemy!”

  After hearing her request, the faceless banshee, who was hovering above the communication crystal, slowly turned her head before stopping when she faced a certain direction.

  “Looks like they’re moving towards sector eleven!” Gary, the black-robed Pseudo-Adept, who was following behind Anna, said excitedly.

  Gary’s interruption had clearly caused the summoning ceremony to rebound. The faceless banshee’s head turned around until her gruesome face faced Gary. A mouth appeared and opened up on her face. It seemed like she was preparing to let loose a howl and devour Gary’s soul.

  Anna, who was an advanced apprentice, abruptly bit the tip of her tongue. She immediately spat out a mouthful of warm blood. An extremely miserable cry rang through the air as the banshee instantly disappeared.

  At the same time the banshee disappeared, Anna gave out a muffled grunt. It was clear that she too had suffered some backlash.

  Gary, showing no remorse for his reckless actions, flapped his robe and transformed into a strong wind, disappearing from where he was. His voice rushed into Anna’s ears and lingered there for a while.

  “I’ll go ahead and hunt for those enemies. Take your time and catch up quickly!”

  As soon as Gary had left, a hateful and venomous expression leaked out from Anna’s cold eyes. However, she knew, that with her status of only an advanced apprentice, there was no way she could offend those Pseudo-Adepts. If not for their need for her ‘summoning’ abilities, perhaps these Pseudo-Adepts would never even have allowed her to join in their hunting group in the first place.

  Their target was only a beginner apprentice and an advanced apprentice. Why did they dare traverse this Underground world with such weak strength? Sometimes Anna really wondered whether there was something wrong with the brains of the Adepts on the surface. How could they send such weaklings to the Underground world? This was no different than sending them to their death!

  Anna hastily grabbed the things she had left on the ground, before pulling her black robe tightly against her and rushing through the dark tunnel. If she was late, then that Gary would never leave anything good for her. Now, Anna’s only wish was that the enemy’s advanced apprentices could hold on for a little bit longer. If they did that, then she might have a chance to capture the beginner apprentice.

  In Elysium City, the city of Fallen Adepts, resources were extremely scarce. The resources she could get in exchange for a beginner apprentice from the surface could let her relax for nearly a year.

  The abyss-like tunnel didn’t seem to have an end. The winding passages full of obstacles made it difficult for her to run at full speed. Fortunately, there was still some residue Wind Elementium, left behind by Gary, in the tunnel. This not only prevented Anna from getting lost but also saved time.

  Anna had almost arrived at the huge cavern in sector eleven, however, she stopped in the middle of the last tunnel.

  For some unknown reason, her intuition was warning her that there was danger.

  Rumble…

  The ground suddenly shook, causing Anna to be terrified, as she felt that the source of the quake came from right under her feet.
r />   The violent quake caused the tunnel ceiling to collapse and huge amounts of sand and rocks to pour down from the ceiling. Soon, Anna was forced to retreat to the cave she had previously entered.

  In the dark and cold cave, a bizarre human figure silently waited for her.

  For any outsider, the darkness was the source of terror. However, Anna had lived in this Underground world for her entire life, so, for her, it was the best source of protection. But, right at this moment, she couldn’t help but be shocked. She stared at the apprentice Adept, who was standing far away.

  Anna used the enemy’s spiritual ripples to quickly identify them.

  It was actually that advanced apprentice! She couldn’t believe that he actually dared to confront her face to face!

  “Just let your companion show themselves!” Anna’s clever mind had quickly analyzed the whole situation. She continued by saying, “I can’t believe this! A beginner apprentice actually has the ability to travel through the earth! It looks like he really is suitable for living in this kind of place!”

  The mild earthquake just now had happened at the perfect time. It executed just the right amount of force to it had utilize the surrounding terrain and separate Garry and her. It looked like her enemies had chosen to ambush them and had picked her as she was the weakest. She scoffed. They actually dared to try and seek advantages over her, an advanced apprentice.

  A cruel grin lit up Anna’s face. She bent down and charged towards the girl in the red dress.

  Small announcement: As both new editors are busy with their life, I have decided to pause the release until next chapter is edited. New editor will start editing on coming Saturday. So, most probably I’ll release chapter 55 on Sunday. However, if you become one of my Patreon, you can still have early access to unedited chapters. Latest unedited chapter on Patreon is chapter 58, and chapter 59 will be released on Patreon within 2 hours from now.

  Chapter 55

  As Anna was charging towards the enemy, she quickly tossed a few bizarre magical rings onto Mary’s body.

  Confusion spell!

  Slow spell!

  One spell could confuse the target’s mind and cause there to be a delay in their reactions, while the other one could reduce the target’s movement speed by nearly half. If the target didn’t have immunity or couldn’t quickly dispel them, then these two simple curses could lower their strength by more than thirty percent.

  But, Anna wasn’t done yet! She cried out and stretched her arms out, facing her palms towards the sky. A strange-looking, glowing green rune soon appeared on each palm. Almost as soon as those runes appeared, the lower section of Anna’s arm began to transform into green vines. These vines brought about a fierce gale and began to whip Mary, who was standing there, motionless.

  It was Spirit Summoning.

  However, Anna’s Spirit Summoning spell was quite unique and could massively enhance her combat ability. This was because she could actually let a part of her body merge with the summoned spirit.

  The powerful whip smashed into the ground, causing two large cracks to branch out like a spider web. As the debris shot in all directions, Mary’s body suddenly turned into a series of after-images, and, within a split second, she appeared beside Anna.

  Anna couldn’t help but be shocked by Mary’s ghostly speed.

  In actual fact, Mary’s after-images were formed under the effect of the Slow spell. Anna shuddered as she realized that if the Slow spell wasn’t activated Mary probably wouldn’t even have left after-images at all. As soon as she realized that she was facing an opponent who possessed super speed, Anna couldn’t help but curse at her reckless and impulsive actions.

  Damn it! She shouldn’t have tried to start a melee fight with an opponent like this!

  However, it was too late to pull back the whip now. Anna cried out loudly as she unleashed a dazzling ring of green light that started to spread around her body. Soon, the light transformed into a thorny set of armor that perfectly covered her well-rounded body. After ensuring that she had a proper defense, Anna restlessly swung the whip above to protect her head, shattering all the after-images that had appeared in front of her.

  Although Anna had a nearly impenetrable defence, ripples still continuously appeared on the surface of her armor. A few crisscrossed scratches were seen on the armor near her chest and ribcage. Also, after suffering a few hits from the enemy’s sharp nail, a long strand of the vine had been cut off from her left arm. Despite the fact that only green liquid was oozing from the wound, Anna couldn’t stop herself from taking a step back and letting out a painful groan.

  Anna crazily forced a new strand of the vine whip to regrow. After regrowing, it once again began swinging violently in all directions, brutally attacking every possible enemy that appeared.

  As a matter of fact, she had absolutely no idea where the true form of the enemy lay. The only thing she could catch was the bizarre after-images that were left behind by the enemy attacking at their top speed.

  It was clear that Anna wasn’t familiar with melee fighting, and she could only decently attack by using the summoned spirit. Thus, when comparing Anna, a beginner-level melee fighter, with Mary, who was a master of melee combat, it was obvious that she would suffer a tragedy today!

  Her whip vine, that she crazily swung from side to side, couldn’t touch Mary at all, and her body armor could only barely spare her from Mary’s attack. However, despite this, she was still hanging on. At least, under Anna’s crazy offensive strikes, Mary found it rather tough to get close and attack the body armor. Although from time to time, Mary could successfully attack it, it still wasn’t enough to deal a deadly blow.

  At the same time, far behind them, sudden, rapid booms were heard from the other side of the tunnel. This tunnel had been clogged up by countless rocks and sand. It was obvious that the black-robed Pseudo-Adept, who was led down the wrong tunnel, had discovered that something was amiss. The rapid booms were probably caused by him crazily attacking the clogged tunnel.

  The raging magic spells that the Pseudo-Adept was unleashing caused a large amount of rock debris, and countless stalagmites and stalactites to fall down and break into pieces. They were falling apart in haphazardly, filling the entire battlefield with smoky, rock dust.

  If that Pseudo-Adept was given sufficient time, it was likely that he could really break through the cave wall and open a new temporary passage.

  Anna knew that her reinforcement would soon arrive, so she gave up on attacking and just focused on defense. Anna ignored the fact that Mary kept leaving bloody scratch marks on her body and just kept crazily swinging her whip.

  Indeed, it seemed that none of these advanced apprentices could be taken lightly.

  Although the magic spells they had mastered hadn’t yet reached an extravagant stage, they still covered all the aspects of combat: offensive, defensive, distraction and self-enhancement. This meant that the outsiders barely any weaknesses to exploit. This eventually led to the outsiders gaining a quick win.

  Anna and Mary were both advanced apprentices, but, judging from the situation, Anna was clearly weaker than the quick and aggressive Mary. Although Mary wished to end the fight as soon as possible, it was something that was easily said but not done. At the very least, Mary couldn’t do it without paying a price!

  Mary’s attacks had caused the cave wall to be on the brink of collapse, with many cracks decorating it. After seeing this, Mary gave up on killing Anna alone.

  “Rascal! Don’t just hide there and do nothing! Quickly come over and help me!”

  After dodging the vine whips attacking her sides, Mary once again waved her hands. She then left two deep, bloody scratches on Anna’s body. However, as Anna had quickly regained the initiative and had begun to attack again, Mary was unable to attack any more. She quickly dodged the vine whip that curled backwards. When she once again broke Anna’s defence and managed to move closer, she found that both the wounds had been completely covered by the thorny armo
r.

  It had happened again and again. Eventually, Mary couldn’t tolerate anymore and called for help.

  Anna’s face turned pale in an instant.

  Anna was already struggling with fighting Mary alone. She was absolutely convinced that, if she had to face the combined attacks of two people, she would face disaster.

  Anna didn’t dare to neglect this thought, so she immediately bit off half of her tongue. As she spat out a mouthful of blood, her body suddenly became taller.

  Before this, only a small part of her arms had been transformed into green vines. But now, her body started to expand and her skin started to break apart, exposing countless green vines worming in between.

  By forcefully increasing her summoned spirit’s level, Anna had completely transformed her body into a frightening Man Eating Flower. Her feet had transformed into green roots that dug their way into the ground, her arms were fully transformed into whip-like green vines, and her body played the part of the thorny flower stalk. However, her head, the only thing left that resembled a human, was surrounded by a countless number of huge flower petals.

  After transforming into the carnivorous, violent “Flogger”, all of her vital organs had disappeared from her body. She knew that as long as she could hold on until Gary arrived, all the energy spent on performing the secondary transformation of her summoned spirit would be worth it.

  Greem, who had been hiding in the dark, dared not to neglect the fight anymore. He finally made up his mind and got himself involved in the battle between the two advanced apprentices.

  A vibration suddenly resonated through the ground. The ground underneath the Flogger’s feet had turned into a slippery, muddy swamp-like area. Before Anna could flee from this area, a huge and frightening figure emerged beside her. It opened up its huge mouth and bit on the flower stalk that made up her waist.