Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Anna let out a jarring shriek as the pain hit her. She violently waved her two thick, long vine whips, hitting the Demon Alligator’s clay armor over and over again. Debris and clay flew across the room, turning the cave into a violent battlefield. At the same time, behind the heavy protection of the huge petals, she opened her mouth and spat out a clump of sticky, stinking, green, acidic vomit.

  The acidic vomit sprayed at the Hunter who was riding on the back of the Demon Alligator. The vomit instantly corroded and melted its upper limbs and skull. If the crystal control core of the Hunter wasn’t located at its chest, it would have likely been completely destroyed in this attack.

  Greem, who was lurking in the shadows, was struck by terror.

  It was as expected. The battle between advanced apprentices was not something he, a beginner apprentice, could easily get involved with. If it wasn’t because he was being cautious, and only let the Demon Alligator Hunter ride on the Demon Alligator instead of him, he probably would have been killed.

  He hadn’t mastered a defense magic spell, so, when facing a furious counterattack by an advanced apprentice, he had no trump cards that he could use to bring him out alive.

  But, the Demon Alligator Hunter, controlled by Greem, only needed to briefly restrain Anna’s attacks. That was more than enough to turn the tides of battle.

  Before Anna could save herself from the Demon Alligator’s gaping jaw, Mary’s attack had arrived.

  The sound of flesh being cut rang through the air. Mary bent over and stared at Anna’s head. She reached out and, using her sharp nails, she sliced through Anna’s firm skin. Then, she sunk her fangs into the area where the head and the stalk met.

  The quick, sucking motion made Anna go berserk. She struggled desperately, waving her arms and using them to violently whip Mary’s mutilated back. However, no matter how hard she tried, there was no way to stop the vampire from wildly sucking her blood.

  As more of her blood essence was drained, the power behind Anna’s whip began to shrink. Finally, her arm dropped and her body began to quickly dry up. Her eyes, hiding behind her petals, began to hopelessly close.

  As her life force was quickly departing from her body, Anna could no longer maintain her summoned spirit body transformation. Her body kept shrinking

  and transforming and finally returned to her original human form. Just as she died, Greem ordered the Demon Alligator to open its huge mouth and swallow Mary and the dead body into its body. It then turned to Greem and did the same before quickly descending into the earth again.

  The moment after they had disappeared, a loud boom was sounded out from a cave wall on the far side. Parts of the cave wall crumbled, resulting in a huge hold. A Pseudo-Adept, whose black robe was covered in a mist of green, illuminating light, sprinted into the cave.

  As he stared at the remains of, what seemed to be, an incredibly tumultuous battle, and smelled the stinking vomit that had spilled all over the cave, Gary unintentionally let out an extremely angry roar.

  He didn’t roar because he was heartbroken about Anna’s death. He simply hated the fact that the enemy had used the simple method of luring the strong and striking at the weak to eliminate his partner. This… this action simply displayed contempt towards him!

  “You bastards! Come out and fight me now, damn it! I’ve remembered your auras. You better not let me bump into you again. I…”

  After spending a long time furiously roaring into the cave, Gary had never sensed any abnormal auras. Left with no choice, Pseudo-Adept Gary turned around and dissolved into the darkness of the tunnel.

  Chapter 56

  [Editor DragonFly here! We’ve decided to change the term “Elemental” to “Element” when talking about a specific element to avoid any confusion. For example, Saying Fire Elemental could give an entirely different meaning which could mean a being made of fire. So in this case, Fire Element or the Element of Fire is going to be used. Also, we’ve changed “Blood Clotting Medicinal Paste” to “Blood Coagulating Medicinal Paste”. Sorry for the inconvenience and enjoy the chapter below. :D]

  After travelling for nearly two hundred meters underneath the earth, Greem was forced to resurface.

  After all, traveling underground underneath the earth’s surface wasn’t as easy as it is on the surface. Areas full of rock formations and random patches of sand had brought no small amount of trouble for the golem. For this very reason, Greem had immediately ordered the Demon Alligator to resurface by making their way out of a random tunnel just after they had left the danger zone.

  Greem closed his eyes and used his senses to probe things out. Inside the Demon Alligator’s stomach, Greem found Mary breathing rapidly, her body as hot as boiling water. As for Greem’s reaction to this, he just shook his head and sighed.

  The ancient bloodline of the vampires was, as expected, quite incredible. Just by sucking blood alone, their strength would continue to soar into greater heights.

  During the previous battle, Mary had forcefully sucked the blood essence of the enemy advanced apprentice, filling her body with great amounts of blood energy enabling her to, once again, undergo another round of evolution.

  Due to the lack of necessary information pertaining to Mary’s situation, Greem did not dare to disturb her natural evolution. What he could do, however, was to find a relatively safe place, he then made the Demon Alligator spit her out and placed her on a warm and cozy blanket. After that, he excitedly started to search the dead body for treasures it won’t need anymore.

  Before he started, he clasped both of his hands together forming a posture of a prayer, closing both of his eyes as he prayed to all of the gods he could think of. After he finished praying, Greem rubbed his palms excitedly, kneeling besides Anna’s miserable-looking body and started to conduct a search for possible loot.

  Being an advanced apprentice, she must have some magical items she carried with her. No matter how poor she was, she should at least have some magical books or notes containing valuable magic insights. Even if she didn’t brought those with her, Greem still hoped he could at least find some magic crystals or magical materials.

  When Anna was still alive, she was beautiful while also having a well-developed body which added another level of attractiveness towards her. Unfortunately, the last battle was incredibly violent, resulting in most of her skin being torn into bloody scars, making her current looks a far cry to her previous one. Despite her body being in such a state, most of her clothes and equipment were still intact.

  The very first item that Greem looted from her body was a bracelet Anna had worn on her right wrist.

  Through his Elementium Vision, he could see that the bracelet emitted a bright green glow making it obvious it was indeed a unique magical item. Greem spent quite some time in identifying it and found out that the bracelet could swiftly unleash a plant element armor made of countless thorns.

  Although the plant element was not in line with Greem’s elemental affinity, as long as there is energy stored in the bracelet, Greem could still forcibly use it. Having mastered not even one defensive magic spell, being able to use it as a substitute for such spells brought him a great sense of happiness. He even gave the bracelet a few kisses out of joy and wore it on his wrist with not an ounce of hesitation.

  The next item Greem looted was Anna’s leather boots.

  After going through identification, Greem found out it was a pair of magical boots made from Lantern Grass and the leather from a Demon Flower. The boots had the magical effect of being unhindered when walking through a forest. When wearing them, one wouldn’t be stopped by the bushes,vines and brambles when walking through a virgin forest. Even if it was in an impassable forest that no one could walk through, these boots would allow the wearer to pass through it as if he was walking on flat ground.

  Unfortunately, it was a lady’s boots!

  Greem had tried putting it on a few times, but it clearly wasn’t suitable for him. Left with no other choice, he set it aside
for now and decided to go and ask Mary in the future to see if she has any interest in them.

  The third item he discovered was a pair of magical earrings.

  It had the effect of self-recovery magic of the plant element. By wearing these earrings while standing still in a place filled with lush vegetation, the wearer would recover approximately ten health points every fifteen minutes. Although it comes with a strict condition, it could still help during certain types of situations.

  After all, just using Blood Coagulating Medicinal Paste would only heal external wounds but not provide any restoration to health points. For this very reason, wearing these earrings might be able to save his life in precarious situations.

  With Anna’s status of an advanced apprentice, owning three magical items was considerably good. Soon, Greem stripped off her waistband and quietly identified it while holding it within his hand.

  It was a well-made and luxurious-looking waistband. A bunch of bizarre runes were engraved at its inner side. Greem spent a decent amount of time reading them but he could only recognize four of them from the eleven runes present.

  Feeling hopeless, Greem borrowed the strength of the Chip.

  “Chip! Scan these runes!”

  “Beep. Scanning of storage waistband completed… discovered eleven Ancient Adept Runes, initial result shows they are the activation spell of the waistband… the content of the spell is…”

  Following the data transmitted by the Chip, Greem furrowed his brows and imitated the pronunciation of the eleven Ancient Adept Runes.

  Right after the spell was recited, Greem sent out his senses and discovered the existence of a small spatial space from the waistband. Within this tiny space, dozens of unknown items floated around.

  A storage waistband! It really is a storage waistband!

  Greem had long coveted a convenient treasure like this one.

  Although the storage waist pouch was quite common among apprentice Adepts, it wasn’t a spatial item, that’s why it wasn’t capable of eliminating the weight of the items stored within and it was also unable to isolate the magical ripples emitted by magical items. While the waistband was considered to be of the lowest grade of spatial items, anything stored inside would no longer weight anything and no outsider would be able to sense the magical ripples inside.

  Therefore, he was pleasantly surprised for being able to harvest a luxurious treasure such as a storage waistband. For his very first battle in the underground world, it was considered to be really good.

  Greem carefully looked over his shoulders and realized Mary was still in a state of deep meditation. He immediately put on the storage waistband carefully hiding it beneath his waist pouch.

  This precious treasure cannot be exposed!

  This was an incredibly amazing item. Greem already had one even though not all pseudo-Adepts have the fortune to own one!

  After glancing at Anna’s corpse several times, making sure there weren’t any leftover magical items on this Fallen Apprentice Adept’s body, Greem went on to inspect the contents of the storage waistband, taking them out one by one.

  Inside, he found seven magic crystals, a notebook about magic spells, a Croaking Frog used for special magic spells, a communication crystal, a crystal green wooden stick which was as long as his arm, a magic mythril the size of a thumb, and a wooden statue normally used by priests.

  ……

  Including today’s loot, Greem currently owns a total of ten magic crystals indicating how rich he had become with this small fortune of his.

  The notebook about magic spells recorded Anna’s insight and her experiences on her learnings of plant element magic spells. It also contains incomplete knowledge concerning the use of summoned spirits to possess and strengthen the summoner’s body. Unfortunately, all of these weren’t of much use to Greem because of his magical affinity towards fire which contradicts the element of plant. It looks like he has to find a way to trade it for something else of use after his return.

  The Croaking Frog was a common magical material. It’s primarily used for setting up alert-type magic arrays which belongs to the auxiliary magic array type.

  The communication crystal Greem found was obviously from one of his groupmates who was captured by Anna. By sensing the personal imprint stored inside it, he knew the unlucky owner of it was in fact, Matthew, an advanced apprentice.

  Both the crystal green wooden stick and the magic mythril were rare magical materials. The former was a semi-finished product, a plant element magical item Anna was crafting but only managed to finish halfway. The latter was a high-grade material used for crafting magical staves, which could greatly improve the conductivity of magical energy. Effectively reducing the loss of energy when casting spells.

  The amount of magic mythril Greem has on hand was enough for him to craft a small-sized single-handed magical staff.

  Greem was uncertain about the purpose of the last item, the wooden statue. A magical aura exuded from it but there wasn’t any magical runes or characters engraved on this item. It looks like he has to return to the Adept Tower and have an expert appraise it for him to know what exactly it is used for.

  While Greem was observing the wooden statue and silently pondered, a soft and warm body suddenly assaulted him from his back.

  “Hehe, my dear, handsome Greem! Since you treated me so nicely, how do you want me to repay your kindness?” A sweet and seductive rang beside Greem’s ears. After that, Mary squeezed her arms beneath his armpits, gently stroking the area around his chest.

  Ugh…

  This sudden and unexpected lustful development instantly made all of Greem’s hair on his body stand on ceremony, also causing his body to become as stiff as a stone statue.

  “Do you want me to give you a kiss?” Mary’s sweet voice lingered in his ears.

  “I…”

  Just when Greem was about to say something, a fragrant but sloppy tongue forced its way inside his mouth.

  It was as if a Magma Fireball spell suddenly exploded in Greem’s mind, blowing all other thoughts away! His mind lost on cloud nine, losing himself over the blissful moment of the present.

  A fairly long time had passed by, and only then did Greem finally struggled to get his mind out of this dream-like state. At this moment, Mary could be seen sitting beside him, holding a pair of magical leather boots in her hand.

  “Chip, tell me what happened just now? Why does Mary affect me so deeply?” Greem secretly asked the Chip this question.

  “Beep. Detected traces of a magic spell… Host might have been charmed by a spiritual magic spell. Judging from the experience the host went through just now, it should be the ‘Natural Charm’ spiritual spell…”

  Natural Charm?

  Greem couldn’t help having his lips twitch.

  Damn! This particular one is extremely effective!

  Ultimately, most magic spells of the spiritual type would show obvious spirit ripples when being casted. So long as one paid close attention, it’s rather easy to guard against them. But, what makes Natural Charm a cut above the rest lies in the word ‘Natural’.

  This spell cannot be learned at all, as it only awakens in a limited number of species. Once it was awakened, it would bring the host a tremendous but hidden benefit.

  Whenever a creature possessing the ability of Natural Charm entered a dangerous region, it would not gain the hostility of those neutral creatures as long as the creature didn’t have any destructive behavior.

  If Mary does indeed possess this ability, then every word and action from her would be more seductive and charming compared to before, making it harder for enemies to be on guard against her.

  Greem couldn’t help but start to doubt, did Anna possessed some kind of special bloodline in her body, for example, that of a Demon Flower or a Demon Tree? If not, how could she bring out such a weird ability by having her blood absorbed by Mary?

  “You’re awake now, Greem?” Marry seemed to be fully satisfied by how the sit
uation turned out.

  “I never thought just a single kiss from me could bring your head up in the heavens! Looks like you really have to temper your willpower more often!”

  Greem stared at Mary with a distressed expression. He noticed that Mary is still unable to properly control her newly obtained ability, that’s why each and every word and action of hers carried a strong power of suggestion and seduction.

  “We already killed an advanced apprentice Fallen Adept, should we continue looking for more resources or return back as soon as possible? Greem can only try his best and divert Mary’s attention.

  “Let’s go back!” Even though Mary was an overenthusiastic, her mind was still clear and logical saying, “We have created more than enough of a racket here. Maybe the other teams are already rushing back to our base as we speak. And so, I’ve decided we should be heading back too! I don’t want any more of this underground world place crawling with those black-robed Pseudo-Adepts!”

  “Yes!”

  Greem nodded his head, fully agreeing to Mary’s suggestion.

  Chapter 57

  When Greem and Mary finally arrived to where the groups had split apart, there were four people waiting for them already.

  Noticing the weakest team had successfully returned safely, a relaxed smile simultaneously appeared on the faces of Marcus, Leander, Isaac, and Bruce as their hearts finally felt at ease. If something happened to the Greem and Mary duo, someone would have to do investigation missions all alone.

  But before they could ease their blooming smiles, they were slack-jawed after seeing the dead body Mary had brought back with her. Seeing the black-colored Adept robe with distinct characteristics from the ones they’re wearing, they all came up with an idea… this apprentice Adept’s corpse belonged to a Fallen apprentice Adept.

  While the three advanced apprentices could still remain impassive, the Pseudo-Adept Marcus sported an unnatural expression on his face.