“Did that body belonged to an advanced apprentice or a Pseudo-Adept?” Marcus asked in a deep voice.
“Of course she’s an advanced apprentice. If she was a Pseudo-Adept, we won’t be standing here before you, safe and sound.” Mary said naturally.
Hearing her answer slightly relaxed Marcus’ stiff expression, but he was still unable to get rid of his unnatural expression. If he didn’t experienced going to the underground world himself, he might not even be the slightest bit interested regarding this kind of result. But if there was one thing the cruel experiences of the underground world had taught him, it would be that using any kind of elemental magic spell in a place like this would be catastrophic. He knew their victory didn’t come easy as most apprentices only know a few elemental magic spells.
Elemental magic spells could inflict a massive amount of damage within a large area of effect, thus making them stand at the very forefront among all other kinds of magic. This made apprentice Adepts who mastered elemental spells to be likened to a magic cannon with frightening firepower, able to bombard the battlefields with magic spells and cause mass slaughter. What limited their potential was not the number of enemies but the very little amount of magic energy they had.
However, in this underground environment, all of these skills would no longer be of much use.
In the event of an unexpected fight occurring underground, the fiery elemental spells would destroy not only the enemy, but also the area around them. With that said, immeasurable amounts of dirt and sand would pour down from above. Even if it was a Pseudo-Adept, once he’s trapped in this dreadful situation, escape would have an extremely slim chance.
What apprentice Adepts want in this location was not some kind of magic spell that has a highly destructive power, but one with just enough power to defeat their foes. An apprentice Adept can only be called a qualified spellcaster when he/she is able to both control the power and effect of the spell, and efficiently cast it towards the enemy accurately.
Put it this way, a swarm of Rat Men ambushed you amidst the darkness, it’s not them that is more likely to kill you, but the explosive fireball you nonchalantly sent to the enemy. After being viciously swarmed by the underground creatures and being ambushed by strange demon beasts of the darkness, apprentice Adepts who had gone through this stressful and miserable situation would slowly adapt, shrugging off their previous arrogant and pretentious attitudes. Becoming someone ruthless but calm, yet smart and shrewd.
These few apprentice Adepts experienced firsthand how painfully hard it was to fight an enemy of the same level in this underground world making them feel shock over the corpse of an advanced apprentice brought by Mary.
Not one Body Refining Adept was present among the apprentices who signed up for the Underground Cave exploration mission. But why is that? It is because the deep and narrow underground tunnels aren’t suitable for Body Refining Adepts who fought with pure strength. When fighting in this kind of environment, mini magic spells with moderate power and quick casting speed would be preferable.
In a fight between apprentice Adepts, the two parties need to constantly change their battleground and slowly accumulate advantages to devour the enemy one bite at a time. Once either side realized the situation wasn’t looking good for them and decided to flee, it would be incredibly difficult for the chasing side to entrap the enemy without having any special ability.
But this red-dressed Mary could actually accomplish this feat, showing that she must have some kind of strange magic spells that are extremely suitable for use in this types of places. What would that be?
The group couldn’t help but ponder upon this.
At this time, thirty-four hours had already passed since they decided to split up. From what they could infer from the distances from here to the paths each of them took, even Sabrina’s group who took the toughest mission site should have returned by now. When they connected the dots between their absence and the violent ‘earthquakes’, the group was struck with worries.
Fortunately, the worst case scenario never happened. After three hours of waiting, Sabrina and Shila returned in a relatively bad shape.The mission site they chose was located nearly ten miles deep beneath the ground, thus being greatly affected by the violent earthquake earlier. If it wasn’t for Sabrina mainly studying mechanical spells, having replaced a few of her vital organs with powerful magical machinery, perhaps it would be very difficult for them to break through the collapsed underground passages that led them back to the surface.
Out of the five teams that had gone here, only four had returned safely. Hence, it was painfully obvious who among them were attacked.
Right when the group was about to bitterly accept the loss of two fellow members in their very first trip to the underground world, the young Pseudo-Adept named Leo fled back to their camp, bathed in blood.
His gray apprentice robe had torn apart here and there, his skinny body full of crisscrossing wounds. Dark smoke emanated from these wounds, staining the flesh around them in pitch-black color. Leo’s face had also been hit by an Acid Arrow, with half of his face making a sizzling sound resulting from the corrosive effects of the strong acid. If not for his distinct spiritual ripple revealing his identity, the group would’ve treated him as an enemy.
Although he was severely wounded, Leo still refused his teammates’ treatment. Especially because they were yet to truly establish trust between each other. He does not want his body’s secrets to fall into the control of any outsider.
Hiding in a corner alone, Leo hastily treated his wounds. He then came back to the group with a gloomy expression, prepared to be questioned by his teammates.
When they heard there were three black-robed Pseudo-Adepts and one advanced apprentice attacked Leo and Matthew’s group, even Sabrina couldn’t help but ponder in silence. If she was the one who bumped into the enemy group, maybe she herself wouldn’t escape uscathed. Seeing Leo was able to preserve his own life, it meant he possessed good enough ability to do so.
“How was the overall strength of the enemies you guys encountered?” Sabrina asked Mary after she was done with Leo.
“We met two enemies, one Pseudo-Adept, and one advanced apprentice. We set up a plan and lured away the Pseudo-Adept then ambushed this advanced apprentice. Greem and I cooperated to kill her!” Mary described lightly.
Although she told them it was her and Greem together that killed the enemy, whether it was intentional or not, the group naturally ignored Greem’s existence.
No way, a beginner apprentice who had less than ten Spirit points and only mastered a spell or two, could a guy like this really participate in a battle between advanced apprentices? The group had a hard time imagining this.
It was only at this time that Leo noticed the female corpse lying besides Mary’s feet. Immediately after, he shrieked out loudly.
“S-she… she was among the four who attacked us. After Matthew and I split up and fled on our own, two Pseudo-Adepts went after me while this girl and the other Pseudo-Adept chased after Matthew. I only managed to escape from their pursuit after a bitter fight.”
Although Leo spoke evasively, the group didn’t really care much.
Split up and flee separately? Hmph. Under such perilous circumstances, would a mere advanced apprentice like Matthew even have the courage to flee on his own? Leo must have realized the situation wasn’t looking too good, thus he ditched Matthew and ran for his life. By doing that, he divided the enemy’s strength and attention.
Although everyone had already guessed what probably happened, no one blamed Leo for his actions. If they were in his shoes, they might have done the same thing as him.
Matthew’s inability to escape can only be blame to his own lack of ability. Who gave him the audacity to take on this Red Mission without any life-preserving methods?
After gathering information from both teams, Sabrina finally concluded the intelligence gathering about the enemies.
There were three Pseudo-A
depts. The first among them took the path of Bloodline Adepts possessing the frightening bloodline of the Demonic Serpent; the second one took the path of Profound Adepts able to summon some corpse puppets with powerful battle power; the last Pseudo-Adept walk the path of Principle Adepts having an elemental affinity with Wind Elementium.
With this intelligence in their hands and the dead body of an enemy advanced apprentice, the group received rewards from Adept Angus when they returned to the Adept Tower. Although Leo was ambushed on his way back, he was still able to return and complete his mission, thus he also received his share of the reward.
As for Mary, the girl who got lucky and was able to kill an enemy of the same rank all alone, she obtained a special reward from Adept Angus. But no one knows what kind of reward she actually received since the process of giving out rewards was done with utmost secrecy.
At the time the group was about to leave, Adept Angus warned them in a ghastly voice saying, “Little apprentices, you better not regard yourselves as veterans already after only one successful trip from the underground world. In the upcoming mission you will have, you’ll be met with more difficulty with the frequency of attacks from the enemy will rise. Only those who are cautious and prepared will live longer lives. So take advantage of the few days of rest you have, otherwise, you won’t be as lucky as you are now in your next trip.”
“Moreover, the intelligence you brought back is useful. I’ll pass them onto the hunting team here. I assure you, the ones who attacked you wouldn’t have a peaceful trip back towards their base. Jajaja…”
From the hidden meaning faintly revealed by Adept Angus’ words, the group finally understood the importance of the few apprentice teams that only consisted of pure veterans.
If we were to talk about it figuratively then, them, the new team would be the bait to lure out the prey. While the team of Blackhand Kevin would be the harpooner that strikes down the enemy. One acting as a prey to lure out the strong enemy apprentices, while the other acted as the hunter, specialized in hunting down these black-robed Pseudo-Adepts who took the bait and exposed themselves.
In fact, when those black-robed Pseudo-Adepts failed to kill Leo and Mary, they had also exposed their whereabouts. With just a send of a message, the hunting group who had roamed the underground world for many years would immediately pursue them.
Upon imagining the possible cruel fates the ones who ambushed him and made him flee in desperation, a savage smile emerged on the Leo’s half-festered face.
Chapter 58
The reward they received was directly tied to the difficulty of the mission they turned over.
The mission that Mary and Greem completed together had the lowest degree of risk, so the reward they received was much lesser compared to the others. But the special reward they got from bringing back an enemy’s body made them smile widely.
After they returned to their residences, Greem was planning on having a good rest in his room. But Mary stopped him and threw an object at him.
It was an Earth Element Crystal Core the size of an egg. An earthly yellow halo can be seen floating around the brownish yellow core with bits of tiny bright specks of light emitted from it. When he was holding it in his hand, It shined beautifully like a bright and shimmering star!
Greem could not help but hold his breath.
Through the rhythm of the undulating elemental ripples, he could clearly see that it was a Pseudo-Adept level Earth Element Crystal Core.
“You deserve this. I had already savored my reward by sucking dry all the blood essence of the enemy. Let this be the reward for your hard work!” Mary was still as generous as always and with that said, she turned towards her own room and went in.
Greem was pleasantly surprise and hesitated for a while but finally decided to keep the gift and went back to his room.
Greem waited for a bit to ascertain the surroundings were safe and calmed his mind. He remained silent as he started communicating with the Chip.
“Chip, can you digitize Mary’s attributes?”
“Beep. Data collection has been completed… Detailed information is as follows…”
Ugh… She does indeed have a powerful ability that allows her to evolve just by sucking blood. Greem wondered what kind of magical experiment Adept Anderson, one who had resided in the Swamp Tower all these years, did to Mary. How is he able to create such a frightening magical puppet?
If Greem guessed correctly, Adept Anderson must have placed some kind of controlling mechanism in Mary’s body, deeply rooted in her Vampire bloodline. Although Adept Anderson might be lenient towards Mary now, once she matured sufficiently to his taste, perhaps that will be the time he will come and harvest what he had fostered.
What was the limit of Mary’s growth? Pseudo-Adept or official Adept? Could it be, Adept Aderson is planning to use some kind of method to create an Adept-level magical puppet?
Most importantly, once Mary becomes a Pseudo-Adept, she would have the terrifying ability to produce blood slaves. At that time, if Adept Anderson really wants her to, Mary could give him a loyal army of blood slaves. For a first grade Adept like him, this would be an excellent trump card against his enemies!
Mary might already be aware of her own situation which is why she was rather self-indulgent in both her actions and words. She did everything arbitrarily, unrestrained by her own natural instincts. She probably isn’t able to distinguish whether her thoughts was coming from her true self or from the will Adept Anderson planted deep within her soul using magic.
That’s why even though the relationship between Greem and Mary had been rather good as of late, he still harbored vigilance deep within his heart because he did not know when the trigger hidden in Mary’s body would be activated.
But this was a ‘small problem’ that can be solved with time. So long as Greem successfully become an official Adept, that Adept Anderson would no longer be a superior existence he couldn’t reach. Perhaps he could even solve Mary’s problem through exchanging benefits or other means.
Greem sat comfortably in front of the wooden table in his temporary shelter. He took out the spoils of the previous underground trip examining them one by one.
Naturally so, the thorny armor bracelet and the storage waistband he looted from Anna had to be kept for his own use. As for the earrings that has a self-healing effect, he would put it up for sale in exchange for magical equipment that’s more suitable for him. Since he already scanned and copied the contents of the notes about magic spells, it was no longer valuable to Greem. He would sell it too and see if anyone was interested.
The crystal green wooden stick and magical Mythril looked like the materials Anna had prepared to craft her future magical staff. Too bad though, as she hadn’t collected all the required materials, so she had to carry them with her which ended up as loot for Greem.
After having Adept Angus identify the crystal green wooden stick, he found out it was a tree branch from an Adept-level Treant that boosts the power of all Plant Element magic spells. Regarding the magical Mythril, it was a native product of the underground world, unable to be found above the surface. The thumb-size Mythril Greem found can easily fetch a price of more than a thousand magic crystals. It’s also quite rare and highly demanded that once it was sold, it can’t be bought back with the same price.
This is only natural as magic Mythril is a high-class consumable product and those who already got it after spending a hefty amount of money will also soon use them up. So a situation of high demand but low supply persisted.
Therefore, if Greem really wanted to craft his first-ever magic staff, he doesn’t have to find magic Mythril anymore. Though he needed to replace the material used as the main body of the staff. In the end, Greem’s elemental affinity was Fire and not the Plant Element.
Concerning the last item, the wooden statue, Adept Angus identified it as a spiritual beacon used to communicate with creatures from other planes. According to Adept Angus’ explanation, that femal
e apprentice Fallen Adept that they killed could establish a stable and strong connection with an unknown powerful being from another plane through the ritual of Spirit Summoning. And it seems that from time to time, they would exchange items from the other’s plane that they needed.
However, for this matter, Adept Angus expressed serious contempt.
The World of Adepts itself is a major plane that attracted the universe’s attention, dominating more than thousands of small and medium-sized planes. And thus, no matter what kind of resources one needed, anyone could obtain it through the local trading system. There wasn’t any need to use the backward method of communicating with other planes. Because each and every one of these planes have their own respective principles, added to that the severe interference caused by the tidal waves of energy from the oceans of stars, the resources consumed by a successful long-range item exchange would be three to five times higher or more, in contrast to the cost to get it via the normal method.
If it wasn’t for some extremely rare types of resources, no one would use such a primitive method anymore. As for the reason why that female apprentice still kept this communication beacon, it is most probable that she wanted to exchange knowledge with that existence.
And this was strictly forbidden by the entire Adept society!
Most importantly, if a native Adept carried out such scornful behavior that betrays the Will of the Adept World, then it would essentially reduce the beneficial response that person gets from the Will itself. As a result, it would become progressively harder for the Adept to advance to a higher grade compared to others.
That’s why there are not that many official Adepts who would do something like this, an act that would give them more losses than what they would gain. Probably only those Fallen Adepts that were banned by official Adepts would be willing to use this inefficient and harmful method similar to quenching thirst with poison.
Being just a mere beginner apprentice, Greem still haven’t qualified to get in contact with the Will of the world in a direct and clear manner. So, regarding the Will that Adept Angus had revered in utmost respect, Greem’s mind was filled with curiosity. Even though he has no specific plan to use it for magic experiments, he still kept the wooden statue with him.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 40