Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Following Mary’s movement, two objects that had been placed on top of her body fell to the ground, producing a crystal clear noise.

  Alerted by the noise, the burly figure turned his head. When he saw Mary, a delighted smile immediately emerged on his face.

  “You’ve awakened?!”

  It was a sincere smile; a smile full of delight!

  Mary stopped her leaping movement. She narrowed her bloodshot eyes, asking with a cold voice, “Who are you? Why do you smell like Greem?”

  Looking at how nervous and panicked Mary was, an expression wavering between laughing and crying appeared on Greem’s handsome face. It looked like after her long period of sleep, both of them had changed a lot, resulting in Mary suspecting her own eyes.

  Greem stood up from the chair. In the past, he used to be as tall as Mary, but now, he was a head taller than her. With his burly body, when both of them stood face to face, the pressure unintentionally caused by his body actually forced Mary to take a step back.

  “To determine the real identity of a person, the best proof is his soul ripple. Mary, can you sense my soul ripple now?” Greem asked in a calm manner.

  At the moment, he didn’t want to overly provoke Mary, because she was like a strictly vigilant leopardess, looking as if Greem did something wrong, she would leap onto him and give him a fierce bite. Although his increased overall strength had given Greem more confidence, when they were in a tiny room with limited space, even five of him tied together would not be enough to hold against the ripping of a Pseudo-Adept level vampire.

  Yes, as Greem was very sensitive, he could tell that Mary was a Pseudo-Adept level vampire now! According to the classification of Vampires from the books he had read, Mary should possess her own noble title now.

  The titles of Vampire nobility were not the rankings used by ordinary mortal kingdoms. They were a form of hierarchy used by the Vampire clan based on the overall strength of their members. Due to the fact that vampires loved to stay hidden within human society, they disguised themselves as human nobles to conceal their true identity. Therefore they had adapted the same rankings used by human nobles.

  With Mary’s current level, perhaps she could be given the title of Baron!

  Vampire, Knight, Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, Duke, Grand Duke, Prince! These were the noble titles used by the vampire clan. Yet sometimes, the grade of their bloodline was not accurately reflected by the grade of their overall strength.

  For example, Mary’s current grade of bloodline made her a Baron, but her overall strength was Pseudo-Adept. If she were met with a vampire who owned the best blood of the orthodox vampire family, it was highly possible that his overall strength would only be Intermediate Apprentice level, but he had already been given the title of Viscount.

  For any race other than the vampire, the title didn’t carry any meaning. But within the vampire clan, it would bring tremendous benefit. At least, for that Intermediate Apprentice level vampire Viscount, when he was faced with Mary, it was highly possible that he would use the suppressive effect coming from the bloodline and force Mary to become his slave. As to whether he would succeed or not, that would depend on the level of suppression from the bloodline and the fight between their wills.

  Mary once again stared at Greem’s face wonderingly. She couldn’t stop sniffing the smell coming from Greem’s body. It was indeed Greem’s soul ripple! After making sure of this, the nervous expression on her face finally eased up a little bit. But, where did that pungent smell of sulfur and the feeling of sweetness come from?

  Once again, Mary brought herself closer to Greem’s body, opened up her juicy lips, ready to give him a small bite so that she could taste his blood. But just as her tiny fangs approached Greem’s neck, a small fireball suddenly exploded and blew her away.

  With just a small swaying movement in the air, Mary returned to Greem’s side. She stared right at a small flame that had suddenly burst out from Greem’s neck.

  It was a golden flame the size of a human thumb, quietly hovering on top of Greem’s skin and burning soundlessly. It did not produce the crackling noise of ordinary flames. After five seconds, perhaps not sensing any foreign hostility or intention of attack, the golden flame simply submerged into Greem’s skin without leaving a trace.

  Now Mary finally understood. The fireball hadn’t been summoned by Greem using a magic spell, but was a self-defense mechanism put out by the instincts of his body.

  Curiously, Mary stretched out a finger and pressed the spot where the flame had emerged from. But this time, though she pressed and stroked Greem’s skin with her silky smooth finger for quite some time, no flame appeared. Mary startled for a brief moment. After that, she seemed to have learnt something.

  A shivering killing intention suddenly filled the air, and crackling noises were heard as Mary’s nails started to grow longer. Filled up with Blood element energy, the tip of her nails became extremely sharp. Nearly at the same moment, right at the spot Mary had her finger pressed, a golden flame burst out and ignited her finger.

  Her mind filled with curiosity, Mary brought her hand to her face and looked at it. The flame actually detached from Greem’s body, stubbornly burning her fingertip and continuously causing damage to her.

  A blood red beam shot out from Mary’s fingertip. Very soon, the Blood element energy neutralized and annihilated the flame. After that, she turned her head and looked into Greem’s face.

  “What exactly is this? It looks pretty amazing!”

  “The combination of Inferno Body and Fire Shield.”

  “Where did you get that smell of sulfur on your body?”

  “It is the aftereffect of soaking in underground lava. I’m looking for a way to get rid of it.”

  “Soaking in underground lava?”

  “You know, you’ve been sleeping for 32 days without waking up!” Greem spread his arms helplessly and continued, saying, “During this time, many things have happened and you need time to understand them all!”

  “Then tell me from the beginning!” Mary’s furrowed her brows and curled her tiny lips. “I want you to tell me while I’m eating!”

  Within two hours, Mary had swallowed five magical energy set meals continuously. Only then was she able to barely stop feeling the hunger from the depths of her soul. Meanwhile, Greem sat by her side, watching her wolf down her food, and he started to tell her what all had happened.

  Of course, Greem only told her what had actually happened. As for those speculations and doubts he had derived at the cave, he said not a word. After all, they were at the Adept Tower, which was controlled by others. Who knew if that Second Grade Adept Andre was watching them secretly. Therefore, to be on the safe side, he decided to keep the secret to himself!

  When Mary finally stopped eating, Greem brought out the two presents and gave them to Mary once again.

  Touching the exquisite Rose Armor and magical bow that she only had a vague impression of, Mary tilted her head up and waited for Greem’s explanation, puzzled.

  “Both of them were the Fairy’s magical items, but I’ve modified them. Now you can use them with your Blood element energy. In the past, you were lacking a long-range offensive approach. Now with these two magical items, we’ve fixed your weakness!”

  Greem had always complained about Mary’s simple approach to using her bloodline power. Although she had such an amazing innate talent, she still fought like a mad dog, trying to hurt the enemy by risking herself at the same time! If she was faced with an enemy who had the ability to stop her bloodsucking and regenerating ability, her fighting style was simply an act of courting death!

  Now, with the Rose Armor, her vulnerable defense had been patched up. And with the crimson magic bow, her lack of long-range offense had also been repaired. With both magical items, she could make use of her high agility, fighting with guerrilla style and slowly biting away the enemy’s offensive and defensive approach. If she was required to fight close-range, she could also put
away the magic bow, change her weapon into her cruel claws, and lock the enemy in a close fight.

  Essentially, not only was she well-equipped for long-range and close-range battle, she also now possessed the necessary defense. With all of these, Mary’s full combative ability was able to be unleashed!

  During this period of time, Greem had also been working busily on something else.

  After he completed the modification of Mary’s magical items, he spent all of his time mastering Fire element magic spells and restoring his golems.

  The Inferno Body was just an elementary threshold on his path to the Focused Fire Element. Although it didn’t give any direct combative ability to Greem, it was the best foundation for all Fire element magic spells. For example, the combination of Inferno Body and Fire Shield had given Greem the self-defense mechanism that triggered automatically upon touch. Any behavior that would harm him at close-range would immediately be countered by the self-activating flame, and it brought three to five points of damage.

  Although the damage inflicted by the flame was not strong, it didn’t require him to cast any spell, and it also didn’t consume any of his Spirit. It was considered a pretty nifty self-defense ability!

  Chapter 114

  Recently, Greem had been carried out an in-depth research on the Inferno Force Field.

  He had completed studying all prerequisite knowledge related to Inferno Force Field. Currently, he was able to cast it and maintain it for ten minutes. However, regarding combining his Inferno Body and the Inferno Force Field, there were still many tough questions to solve.

  According to the best scenario Greem had thought of, he wanted to make the damage caused by the auto triggering self-defense flame to be reflected onto the force field. With that, once any enemy entered his Inferno Force Field, the enemy would have to constantly suffer from the damage caused by the flames. This was almost equivalent to a small Ring of Fire magic spell!

  Greem had estimated this before, if he wanted to fully master the Ring of Fire, he would most probably have to wait until after he became an official Adept. As for now, he was trying to achieve it with an irregular way – using a combination of Inferno Body and Inferno Force Field to eventually yield a result similar to that of the Ring of Fire.

  Yet, in order to achieve this, he still needed a huge amount of magic spell knowledge and analysis, and he also needed to further optimize the control of the Inferno Force Field’s nodes. In short, most of his energy had been reserved for the Chip, so it could perform the heavy load calculations. Meanwhile, Greem only needed to work on some simple tasks like reading, meditating and the restoring his golems.

  After the battle in the demonized forest, Greem’s team of golems had suffered heavy damage.

  The Lightning Giant had lost two auxiliary cores; it would be able to restore to its full power once they were replenished. However, out of the three Rock Snakes, two of them had been completely destroyed beyond repair. Therefore, during this period, besides hiding in his room and studying some related magic spells, Greem had spent most of his time in the Alchemy Laboratory.

  Through the enthusiastic promotion of Snorlax, those magical gemstones they had brought back from the Underground World had all sold out, bringing Greem a huge amount of magic crystals and handy magical equipment.

  Also, Greem had acquired a completely new body attribute, as his combative strength had skyrocketed.

  Name: Greem

  Species: Human

  Attributes: Strength – 7.32 (+1), Agility – 7.51 (+1), Physique – 9.47 (+1), Spirit – 16.67 (+3)

  Profession: Apprentice Adept (Advanced)

  Health Points: 34/34

  Experience: 871 / 1000

  Status: Healthy

  Skills: Scroll Copying, Spell Reading, Golem Crafting (Intermediate), Casting Mastery

  Personal Abilities: Inferno Body (Passive), The Burning Hand (Solidified), Fire Arrow (Solidified), Flaming Spear (Solidified), Fire Shield, Fire Damage Reflect (Proximity Passive)

  Magical Equipment: Fire Lord’s Scepter, Storage Waist Belt, Secret Scroll of Voodoo, Circlet of Nobility (Spirit +1), Ioun Stone (Spirit +2), Boots of Speed (Agility +1), Talisman of Force (Physique, Strength +1), Wand of Dispel, Wand of Healing, Wand of Prophecy, Green Spirit (Curse Resistance +5), Screaming Tree Branch.

  After spending a huge amount of magic crystals, Greem finally experienced the huge gap in overall strength by having most of his magical equipment replaced. There was a Star of Felune gemstone among the loot he had brought back from the Underground World, after having it cut and crafted by a Jewel Master, he had acquired an Ioun Stone which had the effect of Spirit +2. Together with the Circlet of Nobility that gave him +1 in Spirit, although Greem only had 16 points of Spirit, he was able to unleash a frightening combative strength of 19 points.

  This also meant, if Greem had pushed all the way to his limits in a battle, he would be able to simultaneously control six Rock Snakes, or two Lighting Giants and one Rock Snake.

  Nevertheless, crafting a Lightning Giant would require a Pseudo-Adept level core from the Storm Giant, which was a prohibited item that he could only obtain by luck, not by searching for it. Therefore, even after Snorlax nearly visited all the merchants within the surrounding regions of the Adept Tower, they never found another one.

  During this period of time, the name of Snorlax had become famous in the middle and lower tiers of the Adept Tower. Nearly all the merchants supported by Adept families had learned of its existence.

  In fact, within the Underground Cave region, all high-end materials and resources were almost monopolized by these merchants supported by Adept families. They purchased every single local product that was produced in the Underground Cave and sold them to other regions, earning a huge amount of profit through the price differences.

  Although other ordinary merchants or traveling tradesmen tried to achieve this as well, they just didn’t possess the abundant economic capabilities and a communication network that spread across the entire Adept Continent like those Adept Families’ merchants. There was no way they could compete with these giants. As the result, just by selling off a Night-Eyes Stone and a Talasite gemstone, Snorlax had quickly won over the hearts of these small merchants and traveling tradesmen.

  And perhaps, these powerful merchants had received a warning from the Adept families that supported them, though Snorlax had undercut them and sold off these high-end materials and resources, it didn’t face any attacks from anyone. With that, it simply created the mysterious and mighty image of Snorlax. Most of the mysterious magical equipment Greem acquired actually came from these traveling lower grade tradesmen.

  Greem was the one who had the most understanding about his own overall strength. Currently, a large percentage of his overall strength was focused on golems. At least, until he could complete the framework of his Fire element magic spells, he could only rely on his golems to maintain a powerful offensive strength.

  Since he didn’t have to worry about his offensive strength, Greem had shifted the focus of his research in Fire element magic spell to defensive magic spells. Whether it was the Fire Shield, the Inferno Body or the Inferno Force Field, all of them were Fire element defensive magic spells. As long as he wasn’t facing an Adept level opponent, even if he had to fight a Pseudo-Adept, it would be very difficult for his opponent to bypass his multi-layers Fire element defense when surrounded by a group of golems.

  But, as there were numerous magic spells of all kind, and most of the lower tier magic spells were invisible, incorporeal and tough to predict. Therefore, in order to avoid any accidents, Greem had crazily purchased some higher grade magic wands.

  The Wand of Dispel could eliminate some abnormal statuses that could be applied to his body. For example, poison, slow, frost, paralysis and some others.

  The Wand of Healing could help cure some obvious injuries in his body.

  The Wand of Prophecy could predict the direction where the dangers might come from in ad
vance.

  Aa the Dagon region was a place with an abundant choice of items, Greem even planned to prepare a preventive measure or healing approach for each possible magic spell attack that he might have to deal with in the Underground Cave. Preparedness prevents calamities, this was the core belief that Greem had in his life!

  After equipping himself, Greem was confident that he could even fight against those Pseudo-Adept level experts. Of course, not an ultimate expert like Hulk! When faced with an ultimate expert like Hulk, the golem crafted using an advanced apprentice level core was still too fragile. It was really difficult to use the characteristic of element golems to reduce Hulk’s overall strength.

  If Greem really wanted to fight with Hulk, perhaps he would have to promote the level of all his Golems to the Pseudo-Adept level and use two Lightning Giants as his primary combat force. Therefore, though with his current combative strength, Greem already had the ability to imperil Hulk, he still lacked the confidence to defeat him!

  As for those apprentices under Hulk, Greem wasn’t being arrogant, but if they were to fight fairly, no Apprentice Adept would be his match!

  Nevertheless, though his overall strength was improving at a steady pace, Greem dared not stepped into the Underground Cave again. The reason was simple. After the battle of demonized forest, one Fallen Pseudo-Adept was killed and the others were severely wounded, and the Elysium City had announced a kill order toward Greem. As long as he stepped into the Underground Cave, Elysium City would try to kill him at all costs!

  This also meant, at that point in time, it was highly possible that he would see a Fallen Adept from the group who ambushed him halfway.

  For this reason, after Greem learned the news from Adept Angus, he was left completely speechless. He had no choice but obediently throw himself in secluded cultivation, never stepping out of the Adept Tower.