Comparing the combat strength of both creations, the Titan, which possessed a unique body was no doubt stronger than a Golem who was summoned temporarily. But since the beginning, Greem could only create Golems but not a Titan, the main reason was… Titans occupied a huge amount of space, and it was not convenient to carry around.
Take the cheapest Clay Titan as an example. A Clay Titan which wasn’t equipped with any magical equipment already weigh three hundred kilograms, standing at 2.4 meters tall. A giant like this was indeed powerful, but how was Greem going to bring it into a battlefield?
Even in non-combat mode, a big guy like this was near impossible to pack and carry around. Also, its massive weight would mean a consumption of a lot of magic energy, thus, depending on the Titan’s ability to absorb the magical Elementium in the air wasn’t dependable as it wasn’t enough to supply its need in combat.
Therefore, a Titan which possessed a fixed body was more likely to be used as a guardian for an Adept Tower or some important magical equipment. During normal times, they would be hidden in a secret spatial void, motionless. Making their magical energy consumption be at the lowest level. Whenever they were needed for a battle, the preset alert mechanism would then activate them, and then churn them out from the void in order to repulse the enemy or annihilate the intruder.
To achieve all these, it required the support of a massive energy storage inside of an Adept Tower.
With all these characteristics, it has been decided that Greem could only fight with the help of Golems. After all, bringing an egg size core everywhere he went was so much easier and concealable than bringing along a Titan which could shake the earth with every step it takes.
As a result, in order to maximize the help of the Golems, while Greem continued to improve the fighting potential of his Golems, he’s also trying his best in increasing his Spirit. After all, his Spirit was directly related to the number of Golems he could use in his future battles.
That’s why, on the fourth day after his safe return to the Adept Tower, and after his Physique increased to 3.82, he consumed another bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion. This time, it added 0.7 to Greem’s Spirit, slightly lower than the previous increase of 0.75.
By continuously consuming the same type of magic potion, the result it yielded the next time would be lesser, until it had no more effect to its consumer. This was a normal phenomenon that had been thoroughly researched by Adepts, and no one could do anything about it.
The reason behind this phenomenon was because of the body’s natural resistance to drugs. After consuming the same type of magical potion for a long period of time, the residue of the drug that was hard to remove would accumulate in the body, reducing the magical effect of the same drug. Though this was a progressive process, but it did exist.
So, after consuming the Mind Concentrating Potion, Greem’s body attributes were as below.
Compared to last time, Greem’s Spirit had gained an increase of 1.07. 0.70 was gained through the Mind Concentrating Potion, while 0.37 was earned through the magical energy meal set and his daily meditation. Based on a rough calculation, if this 1.07 of increment was exchanged into magic crystals, it would cost around 350-400 magic crystals.
This numerical figure had made Greem believe that a successful Apprentice Adept was indeed fostered by a huge amount of magic crystals.
…
It was noon time. After finishing a tiring business deal in the morning, the most successful goblin merchant in the Adept Tower could be seen walking at a brisk pace toward its own room.
Ever since it earned its first barrels of gold from Greem, Snorlax had rented a room beside its master’s residence as its own cozy home. Every day, it was only to report the daily result to its master at the evening, then it could spend the rest of the day at its leisure.
Having a good night’s sleep, counting the money until its hands cramp.
To be honest, a pleasant life like this was the perfect lifestyle it had always dreamed of. However, this dream was never realized when it was following the Second Grade Adept, it also never came true when it was still roaming in the Underground World, but instead, its dream was actually realized after it became the follower of an Apprentice Adept.
For that reason, for the past few days, it had become totally insane, spending all its day bustling around.
During daytime, it would spend all of its time in the apprentice market, using its eloquence and innate talent to earn a steady stream of magic crystals. At the evening, after enjoying its meal, it would dwell inside of its simple room, counting all the magic crystals it earned during daytime over and over again. In fact, every night it was sleeping in the middle of all the magic crystals it earned.
But the smart Snorlax also knew one thing, it was that mysterious master behind it that gave it all these. Without the financial support and total delegation of this mysterious master, it was just a green-skinned goblin that was looked down by all Apprentice Adepts. It wouldn’t even have the right to yell in the middle of these apprentices.
Despite spending all day and surrounding Snorlax with honeyed words, it could still see that deep inside of the Beginner Apprentices’ eyes, there was still a hint of disdain that cannot be hidden by them. What they respected was not Snorlax, but the mysterious master was behind it.
Despite having extraordinary talent, without a powerful master as the clever goblin’s backup, the only ending for it would be being pushed onto the ground, having its face branded with the mark of a slave, then thrown into the dark and wet dungeon, feeding on the leftover food of humans, yet carrying out tedious and laborious jobs.
Snorlax was aware of all these, because before it was chosen as the test subject by the master Adept, that was the life it went through!
Compared to that, although its current master wasn’t as powerful as the previous one, but after indulging in such a lifestyle, it had never even thought of escape anymore. Most of the time, it even kept hoping that a lifestyle like this could last forever!
Filling its mind with endless fantasies, it used the rune talisman tied around its waist and a magical password to open up the door of its room. But upon entering, it was immediately stopped by a strong smell of blood.
In just one morning, its room had transformed into a bloody and frightening slaughter house. Meanwhile, its lovely yet mysterious master was seen standing in front of a bloody autopsy table, seriously examining a strange body that had been dissected completely.
He was seen holding a dissecting knife, wearing a pair of deerskin gloves fully stained with blood, and a long white robe that was covered in blood as well. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was busy working on an autopsy experiment.
It looked like its master was a rookie in the biological autopsy.
Even though Snorlax never personally dissected any creature, but it had spent a long time in the laboratory of a Second Grade Adept. Influenced by what it saw during that period of time, Snorlax actually possessed a richer knowledge in autopsy than Greem. If it was a necromancer apprentice, he would never make an autopsy experience into such a bloody scene.
Which part to cut, how to avoid the blood vessels of the creature, all these were the basic skills of a necromancer apprentice, thus it was impossible to drag himself into such a messy state. Therefore, Snorlax was sure that it must be the first time its master carried out such an autopsy experiment.
As the loyal servant of its master, how could it just sit back and ignore the awkward situation its master was facing right now?
Moving over a small stool, Snorlax climbed up on it and started to passionately give advice and suggestions to its master, it wasn’t even afraid of being dirty and personally helped out to move the body of Lizardman so that its master could dissect the creature on a better position.
Surprisingly, Snorlax actually turned into a tutor who possessed an excellent magical knowledge, wittingly or unwittingly starting to guide Greem on his first ever autopsy experience. Of course, becaus
e of the patience of the teacher, and the devoutness of the learner, none of them actually felt anything wrong with their current roles.
Therefore, with the ‘assistance’ of Snorlax, Greem smoothly completed his first autopsy exercise.
It was right until Greem satisfyingly removed his deerskin glove, throwing them together with his long white robe into a dustbin beside the autopsy table, did Snorlax suddenly realize its ‘rude’ behavior. It quickly rush off the small wooden stool, squatting down beside the stool and waited for the punishment of its master.
“You’ve done great today. It looks like you learned quite a lot of things from that Second Grade Adept. I’ll have you as my assistant in my future autopsy exercises.” Greem gave Snorlax a warm smile, and then continued saying, “Get up! Do you really think I’ll punish you for something that you never did wrong, just because of my pride? Alright, clean up the place, it’s time for lunch!”
Conveniently tossing away the rubbish in his hand, Greem turned around and returned to his own room, leaving behind Snorlax who had a blank expression.
Looking over its shoulder at the bloody ‘slaughter house’, it sniffed the pungent smell of blood and after thinking for some time, Snorlax finally understood why its master didn’t want to put this autopsy station in his own room.
He must be afraid the smell would affect his appetite!
This was a really special master. Snorlax murmured inwardly.
Chapter 87
The Underground World had been in turmoil recently.
This was the message that Kevin had specifically brought when he had paid Greem a visit.
Of course, Kevin hadn’t visited him just to inform him of this message, but to also bring along the chief officer of Lothar Merchant who had been stationed in this place. The purpose for their visit was to purchase those Blood Garnets that had been awarded to Greem and Mary in mine number seven.
Having spent some time identifying them, Greem determined that these Blood Garnets were rather special magical materials. Those that were mainly used in crafting some types of unique magical items, however, they were of no help to the Golem that he needed now. Perhaps because of this, Greem briskly gave all six Blood Garnets that he and Mary had owned to the Lothar Merchant and let them handle the sale.
As for the fee, Greem had not asked for magic crystals, but instead had requested them to exchange all the profits into Pseudo-Adept level Elementium cores. In response to his request, the chief officer had agreed with a smile all over his face.
Since Greem had been willing to give away his Blood Garnet, the chief officer was able to complete his half-yearly target. Additionally, since Greem didn’t accept the magic crystals and was willing to exchange them for Elementium cores with Lothar Merchant, the chief officer was able to complete two transactions in one go! How could he not be happy?
The reason why Greem had acted so briskly earlier was because he had found out that this Lothar Merchant was supported by the Adept Angus whom he had been dealing with this entire time and that both Kevin and Adept Angus had belonged to the same family – the Byron family.
Due to these two reasons, Greem had agreed to the request of this chief officer without any hesitation, as it would also serve as a friendly gesture towards the Adept Angus.
To reciprocate Greem’s friendly gesture, before leaving with satisfaction, Kevin showed a warmer attitude to their friendship. Secretly, he told Greem that if there was anything in the future that Greem wasn’t able to solve by himself, Greem could definitely pay a visit to Adept Angus. Regardless of whether it was the purchase of knowledge or exchange of resources, Adept Angus would be sure to give him the best discount!
In less than half a day, the Pseudo-Adept level Elementium cores that Greem had requested were delivered to him. There was a total of four Elementium cores, one of the Earth element, two of the Water element and one of the Wind element. In addition to the cores, he also received map of the entire Underground World which clearly marked every detail that had been discovered so far. However, this map could only be used as a reference, because it was very tough to perfectly line it up with the actual terrain and one needed to consider the changes in terrain.
Greem had finally understood that the only thing that could help him establish the competitive advantage in future battles was a large quantity of Golems. There were many benefits that the Golems brought: they were convenient and fast, easy to hide, and could be owned in large quantities. If the conditions permitted, Greem even wished that he could build an army of Golems that would obey his every single command.
If anyone so much as looked at him the wrong, he wouldn’t need to take care of them himself. With just with a signal from his eyes, a swarm of Golems would flood the enemy in an instant.
Of course, such fantasy could only be realized in the distant future. As for now, however, he could only continue carefully crafting his team of Golems.
Yes, Greem had already had a tentative idea – using a variety of Golems and combining different tactics to effectively use the full combat force for each type of Golem. Since he had spent most of his time in the Underground World recently, he preferred to craft more Earth element Golems. However, considering the potential changes to the future battlefields he would encounter, he would have to prepare in advance.
The Water and Wind element Golems were in preparation for his future.
Especially a Wind element Golem, owning one of them meant that Greem would had a free flying demon pet, thus he would no longer have to worry about traveling long distances anymore.
After the Chip had scanned those Elementium cores, Greem ordered it to start drafting the most suitable design for the Golems. Once this had commenced in an orderly fashion, Greem took the crystal ball and quietly gave the data and records stored inside a thorough study.
Within the dark screen, he could only see bright dots on the uppermost layer. Even though it was just the uppermost layer, it had still been completely formed by numerous winding and twisting tunnels, cracks, secret passages, valleys, and water channels. Countless caves and caverns were marked in between making them look like the dazzling stars in the night sky. While there were innumerable passages that connected all locations, most of them were impassable by normal human beings.
On this map, the spaces where one was only allowed to stay temporarily were marked in green, while the passable passages were marked with tiny blue lines. In between those dense and complicated arrays of blue and green were countless glowing red dots. These were the rough distribution of the currently known underground creatures, colonies and demons.
Of course, in this three-dimensional map of the uppermost layer of Underground Cave, Greem wasn’t find any information related to the ruin of Elysium City.
For this reason, Greem called upon Snorlax and asked it to point to the exact location of that Adept treasure. After spending half a day seriously studying the map, Snorlax finally pointed to a region. Greem didn’t see any indication of a city in that region. Instead, he saw a large patch of red that represented danger.
In the Underground World, there were many regions filled with dangers that made no outsider want to step into them. Usually, either those regions had a harsh natural environment that no apprentice would be able to endure or they housed some extremely dangerous demons. No matter the reason, they were all dangerous regions that all Apprentice Adepts had to handle with extreme care.
Looking at the dazzling red glow on the map, Greem couldn’t help but start to hesitate.
Judging from the brightness of the color, the region was a dead zone where even Pseudo-Adepts would be faced with danger. Hence, when Snorlax pointed at it without the slightest hesitation, it seemed rather logical that it was the right place.
Since the ancient era, Adepts liked to build all sorts of laboratories in their own residence. From Snorlax’s description, Greem could tell that this Second Grade Adept had been an expert in biological modification. However, once his laboratory was abandone
d, there was a very high chance that those mutants, golems and the magical energy that had been stored in the laboratory could irreversibly contaminate that particular region.
It would have been fine if those mutants or modified creatures had died, but if a powerful fellow was lucky enough to have survived, those Apprentice Adepts who went to explore the region would be facing a frightening monster similar to an Adept. Though Snorlax claimed it knew the magical password for some of the laboratories, the potential risk still held Greem back.
While Greem was hesitating, a message from Snorlax boosted his confidence to take the risk.
A Fire Lord’s Scepter!
There was actually a Fire Lord’s Scepter in a secret chamber of that Second Grade Adept!
For others, this Fire Lord’s Scepter was merely a powerful magical item that could summon three Pseudo-Adept level Fire Spirits every day. But for Greem, it had an inexplicably special use.
With Greem’s elemental affinity of Fire, he could totally use this scepter to construct a Teleportation Gate to get to Fire Elementium Plane. By doing so, he would have an endless supply of Fire element cores. And once his overall strength reached a powerful stage, he could even try to occupy a territory in the Fire Elementium Plane and become a true Fire Lord himself.
Putting aside everything else, just take those Elementium cores that Greem had been gathering. Perhaps most of them weren’t even produced in his own plane, but were harvested from those other Elementium Planes.
The entire multiverse was boundless and deep. It was completely filled with elemental energies that came in all forms, which would eventually compose into a vast ocean of energy. Meanwhile, different planes were like islands – isolated from each other and floating in this vast ocean of energy.
Each plane was a completely different world of its own – from earth, mountains, rivers to oceans, sky and living beings, nothing was lacking. But, when each plane was born, they were mixed with an imbalanced Elementium energies, thus making each plane show a totally different and unique characteristic.
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 59