Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Devouring the blood of stronger existences was an effective method to improve the grade of a vampire, while the Bloodline Strengthening Potion could further stimulate the evolution of a vampire. With these two factors complementing each other, it was a huge boost to Mary. Hence, after pouring all of the potion into Mary’s mouth, Greem rubbed his palms excitedly, his mind filled with anticipation.

  He just couldn’t wait to see what Mary would looked like, after having both her overall strength and bloodline improved!

  After dealing with the Bloodline Strengthening Potion, Greem calmed himself down and started to give the gruesome magical book a thorough examination.

  When Greem rested his gaze on the horrendous ghost head drawn on the cover of the book, a pale white mist suddenly diffused from the book itself, and the ghost head became alive within the mist.

  It was a ghastly and bloodcurdling ghost face that hid within the shadows, so no one could see the expression on it, as sight was impaired by the mist. Just as Greem knit his brows in a tight frown, a strange, indistinct, and near inaudible voice suddenly rung up in his mind.

  “In accordance with the ancient will, following strictly with the principle of equivalent exchange! Little guy who is walking on the path of an Adept, do you want to obtain the mighty and mysterious knowledge from the ancient era? Then open me up quickly!”

  Greem was slightly shocked.

  He had heard of this kind of magical book, that had its own consciousness. Most of them were produced by Adepts of the ancient era. Inside of these books, it was highly possible one would find some unique magic spell or mysterious knowledge that no one knew. Of course, it could also be a prank left behind by an ancient Adept. There were even funny, true stories of official Adepts being fooled by such pranks!

  In order to open up such magical books protected by a demon spirit, not only would one have to follow the will left behind by the previous owner of the book, he also needed to fulfill some random in-bad-taste requests given out by the demon spirit itself. Therefore, it was a ‘fair trade’ that really depend on the luck of the person.

  “Your honorable demon spirit, if I really want to read the contents of this book, what kind of price do I have to pay?” Greem wasn’t fooled by the flowery words and cunning statements of the guardian demon spirit, but instead, he soberly asked the most critical question.

  From the relevant knowledge Greem had studied before, it was mentioned that when some Apprentice Adepts with insufficient overall strength found a demon spirit book, they couldn’t wait and opened it up straightaway, only to realize the price they had to pay after reading the book was not something they could afford, but it was all too late! Not only did the unlucky fellows not learn any ancient magic spells, they even paid the price with their own precious lives!

  Therefore, in the fundamental code of practice for Apprentice Adepts, when they bumped into some living creatures from the outerworld or demon spirits, they had to be really careful in any choices they made. Once they fell into these creatures’ word traps or were bound with a mandatory contract, getting themselves killed was, in fact, the lightest consequence. The most frightful was having their soul became these creatures’ war trophy.

  In the aspect of toying with someone else’s soul, these demon spirits could even be compared with a powerful existence, such as an official Necromancer.

  Perhaps realizing its small trick was discovered by Greem, the gruesome ghost face turned listless. “As expected, you’re a hateful boring guy. Aren’t you excited by knowing that you can learn ancient magic spells and mysterious knowledge? Why are you fussing with these boring questions!”

  “Your honorable ancient demon spirit, please answer my question!”

  “Alright, alright! If you wish to read this book, you need to give me 15 points of your Physique…” The demon spirit’s voice was getting lower and lower. The last few words sounded so vague it was as if it was the snoring of a kitten. Greem nearly didn’t hear what it said.

  Greem broke out in a cold sweat, nearly couldn’t hold himself back from throwing the demon spirit book from his hand.

  Damn it, 15 points of Physique!

  No wonder this book wasn’t opened up by the Fairy. Presumably even it grudged the loss of a precious 15 points of Physique. For Greem, he only had three points in Physique. If he had accidentally opened this book, the mandatory contract between him and the demon spirit book would be taken effect immediately. And since he couldn’t fulfill the requirement of the contract, let alone anything else, the only consequence would be an inevitable death, by having his soul extracted from his body!

  Just as Greem raised the book high up and want to forcefully throw it to a corner of the cave, a stream of data transmitted from the Chip stopped his movement.

  Within the on-site data, which had been restored and magnified a few times by the chip, the last few vague words spoke by the demon spirit book were clearly presented in front of him.

  “… or replaced with something of equivalent value!”

  It was spoken in an ancient language of ‘Amarr,’ and had been spoken with a weird tone by the demon spirit. Perhaps, most of the targets it ever spoke with had been deceived by this petty trick.

  Though the ancient Adepts had forced demon spirits to guard the inheritance of their knowledge, and had laid down the strictest rules for them, as long as any late-comers could achieve the requirement of reading the book, the demon spirit had to follow the will of the Adept and hand over the knowledge without hiding anything. But no matter how strict the rules, the crafty and cunning demon spirit could always find a workaround. This demon spirit had found a loophole in the contract, not only it increased the requirement of reading to a jaw-dropping condition, it had also hidden the most critical rule of the contract.

  Yes, even if that ancient Adept could come back alive, he couldn’t accuse the demon spirit for violating the contract. It had acted according to the contract between it and the ancient Adept! As for whether can you understand the ancient language of Amarr, it had nothing to do with the demon spirit! It is you who are lacking knowledge, and never serious in handling the situation.

  Greem wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead, and with a serious tone, he told the ghost face, “Your honorable demon spirit, please tell me what are the substitute requirements. I want to give it serious consideration!”

  The ghost face on the cover of the magical book suddenly became extremely angry, ferociously letting out a raging roar at Greem. However, as Greem had gained insight into this seemingly ferocious appearance, he just narrowed his eyes and enjoyed the demon spirit’s performance.

  Realizing that the threatening was ineffective, and its previous petty trick had been exposed, it knew by dragging anything further, it might trigger the frightful ancient contract. Left with no alternative, the ghost face of the demon spirit dully told Greem the real requirements of reading the book.

  “With 15 points of Physique, you can have a total control of this magical book. With 8 points of Physique, you can read all of the contents of this book. With 5 points of Physique, you can read any content that is below the grade of Adept, 3 points of Physique allow you to learn a specific magic spell, 1 point of Physique gives you a random magic spell.”

  “Substitute objects, I was asking about substitute objects! What kind of objects can be used as the substitution?” It was Greem’s turn to interrogate the demon spirit.

  “Magical gemstones, magical materials, any mysterious knowledge which is not inside of this book… anything and everything. As long as they are related to magic spell, they could all become the substitute objects, but the required amount would be a lot!”

  “How about this?” Greem tried his luck by placing an Emerald on top of the magical book.

  It was a large Emerald with a size similar to a human heart. It would cost at least 230 magic crystals in the Adept market.

  “0.3 Physique.”

  The answer given by the demon spirit shocked Gre
em.

  If calculated based on this, then if he wanted to gain total control of this book, 15 points of Physique would be equivalent to twelve thousand magic crystals! Maybe for an official Adept, this price was nothing, but for Apprentice Adepts who were constantly in need of resources, it was simply an astronomical figure.

  The corner of Greem’s eyes twitched. He tilted his head and looked at the pile of gemstones, which he had thought were plenty moments ago. But now, he felt that even if he had more of them, it was still not enough for him to spend.

  Placing the demon spirit book on the ground, Greem started to place magical gemstones on top of it. Every time after he placed one gemstone, the demon spirit would tell him a small figure.

  Shadow Stone, Tiger’s Eye stone, Malachite, Green Agate, Lesser Moonstone, Emerald, Topaz, Aquamarine, Ruby, Opal, Sapphire, Azure Moonstone, Flame Spessarite, Golden Dranite, Dawn Stone, Living Ruby, Noble Topaz…

  Following the piling up of the magical gemstones, the figures eventually reached 11. The remaining gemstones were all top grade. For example, Blood of the Old God, Blood Gem, Deep Peridot, Dawn Stone, Talasite, Night’s Eye, Lion’s Eye Stone, Crimson Spinal Stone. All of them were gems which Greem felt reluctant to give away.

  Chapter 108

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  Greem hesitated for a brief moment, then waved his hand, ordering the Rock Snake to a corner of the cave to spit out a huge amount of dirt, gravel, weeds, broken vines and other debris. Afterwards, he started to thoroughly search through the messy pile to find some magical items that had been left over by the Fire element Fallen Pseudo-Adept.

  Snorlax had awakened long ago and was cleverly squatting beside Greem, helping him accomplish the dirty job.

  After searching through the entire pile, Greem had found three magical items.

  One was a necklace that allowed the bearer to unleash Flame Balls instantly, another was a bracelet that could improve the efficiency of Fire element meditation, and the last one was a magical staff made of Fire Coral.

  As effects of all three magical items were for Fire element apprentices, they were suitable for Greem as well. However, since he had found the Fire Lord’s Scepter, they would no longer bring him those huge benefits.

  Gnashing his teeth, Greem placed all three magical items on top of the demon spirit book.

  “14 points.” The number announced by the demon spirit made Greem clench his jaw forcefully.

  It only needed one more point!

  Greem searched through his storage waist belt and waist pouch, he couldn’t find anything else that was suitable. As for the remaining items, he felt reluctant to give up any of them!

  Right as he was hesitating, a goose egg shaped Opal suddenly fell into the pile of gemstones.

  “15 points, you have reached the upper limit for unsealing the demon spirit book. The book will now start unsealing!” At this moment, the ghost face had finally shown the frightful manner of an ancient demon spirit. Soon, numerous magical arrays started to emerge on the cover of the book. Following a barely audible muttering voice, one after another, the arrays disintegrated and vanished along with those gemstones and magical items which had been used as substitute objects!

  After the ghost face had gradually faded away from the book cover, the real appearance of this magical book was finally revealed.

  Struck by surprise, Greem gazed at Snorlax who had an aching heart expression on its face. A smile emerged on Greem’s face. He nodded his head praisingly at Snorlax, before switching his focus back to the magical book.

  This book was called a demon spirit book initially, because the entire book was concealed by the demon spirit and one had to achieve the basic requirement to read it. But now, as the requirement of reading it had been achieved, according to the ancient contract, the demon spirit had taken the war trophies it deserved and disappeared from this world. That was why the magical book was now present in front of Greem.

  The book had a black cover and was made of leather. The corners of the book were installed with golden frames, giving it a touch of a dignified and ancient look. Greem tried to weigh it in his hand, though the book was at most thirty pages, it weighed a whopping three to four kilograms.

  When Greem used his finger and gently stroked the rather coarse hardcover, the name of the book condensed from greenish ghost flames and was revealed. It was written in the ancient language of Amarr – The Secret Scroll of Voodoo.

  As Greem had unsealed the book with the highest requirement, when he held the book, a feeling of kinship immediately filled his mind. He didn’t even need to flip the pages with his own hands, as when he penetrated the Scroll of Voodoo with his Spirit, the book started to flip the pages by itself and stopped at any page that Greem showed an interest in.

  After giving it a brief read, Greem was instantly shocked by the contents of the book.

  The entire Scroll of Voodoo was simply an encyclopedia of voodoo, compiled by an ancient Adept. From the origin of voodoo to the prevalence of voodoo, records of different voodoo ceremonies, and detailed process of creating a voodoo doll… this book had them all in extreme detail.

  Besides the vast knowledge of voodoo, it also included many bizarre and unpredictable voodoo curses from the ancient era. For example, Scourge Cauldron, Curse of Bloodline, the Spell of Great Pestilence, Kiss of Death, Spirit of Pestilence… Just hearing their names alone would be enough to make one’s hair stand on its end, but casting them was surprisingly simple. The materials used were not rare resources or expensive materials, but… humans.

  To be more precise, the casting required a large amount of humans, including their souls and flesh!

  The entire Scroll of Voodoo seemed to be teaching someone how to use the simplest method to create the Scourge Cauldron. Then how to use the Spell of Great Pestilence to produce a deadly pestilence that could wipe out all living being in an entire continent. After that, gathering all the variants of pestilence and merging them together to eventually produce the mighty Spirit of Pestilence.

  And this Spirit of Pestilence would be the strongest warrior working for the owner of this secret scroll.

  By sending it out, Pestilence would wreak havoc to wherever it went, causing death to spread across the land. Any living beings without a proper defensive magic spell would unable to stand against the invasion of this Pestilence, which had been mixed with a small percentage of source rules of Voodoo.

  Since the ancient era, the Spirit of Pestilence had been the best agent in warfare and was used by Adepts to deal with those lower grade Planes who put up a desperate struggle. For smaller scale Planes, they just need to throw a Spirit of Pestilence onto it, and they would be able to have their harvest one month later. The entire Plane would have been filled with howling souls that wandered everywhere, and they could seize any materials and resources they had wanted from that place. Compared to sending a large army of Adepts to eliminate enemies everywhere and repress the revolts from the natives of the place day and night, this method saved a lot of time.

  However, this method was overly evil, and frequently it would evoke a strong reaction from the Will of the Plane that was being invaded. After all, the Will of the Plane was the collection of every single material and living beings’ wills. When all the living beings on a Plane were wiped out, the Will of the Plane would perish altogether. Therefore, those who possessed the Spirit of Pestilence would often receive a curse from the Will of Plane which had perished and would become an enemy of that particular Plane.

  Once an Adept was labeled as the enemy of the Plane, he would be disgusted by all the Planes, including the origin Plane where he was born and raised. And when someone like that entered into a random Plane, he would immediately be welcomed by the wrath of everything in that Plane, as all the living beings within the particular Plane would advance wave upon wave, launching
attacks at him without any fear of death and would only stop once one side was dead!

  Hence, as he was holding a weapon of mass destruction like this in his hand, even Greem couldn’t remain calm anymore!

  Greem restlessly connected his mind with the Scroll of Voodoo, asking the Chip to make an identical copy of the content in his mind, then ordered it to slowly organize and analyze the data. He wanted to know if the Chip could find something suitable for him to use from these ancient voodoo magic spells.

  Once Greem had established a deeper spiritual connection with the Scroll of Voodoo, to his surprise, he found out that this Scroll of Voodoo could be used as a magic spell book. He could store six spiritual models of magic spell in a secret space within the book. This also meant, as long as he held the book in his hand, he would have six free magic spells which he could instantly cast.

  Of course, he had to store the spiritual models of these six magic spells in the book first.

  Damn, wasn’t this just like the cache in his Chip, but an outworldly version?

  At this point in time, Greem couldn’t help but feel respect towards those ancient Adepts. Though they were fighting alone, and they didn’t have a complete education system which allowed one to slowly accumulate knowledge like how it was done back in the Earth, with just a tiny little spark in the mind of a random and unknown genius, they could actually create a mysterious space like this, which looked like an advanced technology from the modern world.

  With regards to this, Greem couldn’t help but admire them speechlessly!

  Initially, he thought he was the only one who had the technique to solidify magic spells and stored their spiritual models in his mind. But judging from what he had just discovered, this mysterious world did indeed have a similar technique. The only difference was, once the spiritual model stored in the mysterious space of the book was used, it would vanish, and would once again need to be re-injected before it could be used again. Based on this point alone, it was not as effective as the cache in his Chip.