Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Chapter 122

  In just a short amount of time, the disturbance brought forth by Alice had died off.

  As a matter of fact, before most of the apprentices within the tower had gotten to the root of this matter, it had passed away into silence. Not to mention that Adept Anderson, who rarely showed himself in front of his apprentices, and even Evil Bugs Acteon, who had witnessed the entire process himself, had become very quiet.

  With regards to Greem’s performance, except Mary who didn’t express any surprise, the other two had been struck with awe. It was especially true for Acteon, the degree of his shocking emotion had even elevated to a state where he felt uneasy to even eat or sleep.

  Although Greem never publicly exhibited any hostility towards Acteon, as a Bloodline Apprentice who had taken a mutated path and took the initiative to strike at any potential enemy, the guideline Acteon had been practicing all his life was put all his efforts to construct an aggressive position in his living circle, which could bring him all the benefits.

  In the past, as he was constrained by his overall strength, he had no choice but to keep a relatively balanced relationship with the other two strongest. But after his breakthrough in the recent training mission, he could no longer hold down his true nature and had stood out, ‘subduing’ both Madwoman and Hawkeye.

  If he hadn’t witnessed the battle of that bizarre kid, perhaps, he would have thought the scale of victory had skewed to his side. Mary, who was only an expert in running fast, had nothing worth mentioning in her defensive and offensive ability and was not his opponent. As for Greem, a mere Advanced Apprentice, how big a storm could he bring up?

  However, the battle in the bird cage between Alice and Greem had deeply touched Acteon.

  From that day onwards, he kept asking himself inwardly. If he and Greem had fought in the bird cage, could he break through the line of defense formed by the group of golems and land his attack onto Greem? Obviously, the answer was something that he didn’t like to hear.

  Therefore, since that day, he had become extremely reticent!

  …………

  Within a dark secret room.

  Acteon, wearing a black robe, was sitting within the shadow of a corner, pondering himself while remaining silent.

  Throughout the entire secret room, there was only a magical torch lit up, and was placed on a wall in the far distance. Not only was the dimmed, jumping flame not able to bring any significant light to this space, instead, it gave a touch of gruesomeness and fear to the place.

  There wasn’t any furniture or decorations in this secret room, not even the commonly seen table or chairs. Even Acteon was sitting on the cold, hard surface of the floor with his legs folded. Behind him, in a corner of the room where light couldn’t reach, a mysterious cocoon was seen hanging down from the roof, and was expanding and creeping in a creepy manner.

  Rather than referring to this place as a secret room, it was more like a bug’s nest.

  Right beside Acteon, countless black bugs were swarming across the floor like a dark wave. Sometimes they would move to the east, and sometimes they would move to the west, the buzzing noise of their legs scratching the floor was incessantly lingering in the air.

  As if affected by these bugs, Acteon’s body which hid underneath the black robe started to move restlessly, as if there were hundreds of thousands of bugs trying to rush out from within, wanting to mix together with their peers which were crawling outside. Right when these black bugs nearly went out of control, finally, Acteon raised his head up, and within the shadow of his hood, two bright green glows ignited.

  A sharp, ear-piercing cry of bugs echoed out from within the secret room.

  Acteon opened his mouth widely. Right at the center of his mouth, which was formed with layers of lips, a peculiar head of bug suddenly poked out. The bug cry just now was let out from the mouth of this bug.

  Upon hearing the cry, the restless bugs had returned to a calm state once again. All the black bugs now surrounded Acteon, like people worshiping their king, they all held their heads low and remained silent, waiting for the order of their master.

  Acteon casually picked up a black bug and threw into his mouth, starting to munch on it and producing the crystal clear sound of biting and crushing. The stinking green liquid leaked out from his lips, and the pungent smell of it had made the air in this secret room even more filthy.

  “So, this is the path you picked for yourself? It is really unique!” An old voice suddenly rang out from within the secret room.

  “Master Anderson, you’re finally here!” Anderson lightly raised his head, as if he wasn’t surprised by the voice that suddenly broke the silence of the room.

  “You knew I’ll be here?” The old voice sounded surprised. It was the voice of the master of this Swampy Tower, Adept Anderson.

  “Of course! As long as you’re still the true master of this tower, I know you will contact me sooner or later!”

  “So, I assume you have also guessed my purpose in contacting you?”

  “You wish for my help in dealing with that Greem!”

  “Hmph, you’re a clever kid. Indeed! I need you to stand out and get rid of that hateful kid. And, I believe you’re willing to do this!”

  “Your respectful master Anderson, can I ask you a question? Do you really need help killing an Advanced Apprentice? Can’t you just kill him straightaway? Could that bring you any consequences, unbearable even to you?” Clearly, Acteon wasn’t an idiot. Without knowing the answer to this critical question, he wouldn’t want to become the gun held in someone else’s hand!

  “Because I still want to control that little vampire. She is the key sample to the next step in my blood research. Based on the relationship between her and that kid, if I do this myself, perhaps it would be extremely difficult for me to control her again.” Adept Anderson remained silent for a brief moment, before finally saying the reason.

  “With the combative ability that kid showed us yesterday, do you think I can defeat him?” Anderson was never bothered by Adept Anderson’s answer, instead, he quickly threw out the next question.

  “With my judgment, it is extremely difficult. If you’re fighting him alone, you’ll face an inevitable death. But, it seems you have formed an Evil Bugs Alliance. If you can bring in the strength of this alliance, perhaps it will be enough.”

  “But, by doing all these, what kind of benefits would I be getting? Instead, I’ll be offending Mary, a Pseudo-Adept for no apparent reason!”

  “What if I say I can make you stronger?”

  “……”

  “I suppose your contracted partner is that Queen Bug? The queen of Carrion Beetle, hehe, you’re really lucky to bump into such a great fortune. It looks like you did have pretty good luck in the past!”

  “……”

  “Right now, probably you’re worrying about how to improve your overall strength. You have tied your life with that Queen Bug, as the result, not only do you have to fulfill the level up requirement by yourself, you also need to fulfill the level up requirement of the Queen of Carrion Beetle. With that, though the half-bug body has given you an advantage when facing an opponent of the same rank, the speed of progress has also dragged you down.”

  “……”

  “How many Pseudo-Adepts had you devoured in your training mission? One or two? Without such lucky encounters, there is no way you can become a Pseudo-Adept smoothly. So, what are you going to do after that? In order to level up as an Adept, how many Adepts are you planning to devour?”

  “Master Anderson, I’ve understood what you mean. So, with regards to my current situation, do you have any better suggestions?”

  “It is no doubt you have to strengthen yourself first!” With a disdainful voice, Anderson gave his lecture, “Although currently, that Queen Bug is your contracted creature, and you two are sharing a life together, however, there is an issue of dominance that resides within your relationship. When you become stronger, naturally, it
will be your best servant. But if it evolves faster than you, though there is no risk in terms of your life, but when it comes to the true master of this body, perhaps most of the time it will be controlled by the Queen Bug!”

  “Then, how can I strengthen myself even faster?”

  “Hehehe… kid, most probably you have forgotten that I turned Mary into her current appearance! As long as you’re willing to participate in my magic spell experiment, I can promise you, I’ll give you an intrepid body that is not weaker than Mary’s!”

  “I agree to this condition. What do you need me to do?”

  “First, I need a drop of blood from your Queen Bug! Only by obtaining its blood can I accurately concoct the mutated blood most suitable for your body constitution.”

  After remaining silent and pondering for a long time, Acteon finally nodded his head in agreement.

  And after obtaining Acteon’s agreement, Adept Anderson immediately urged him to hand over a drop of Queen Bug’s blood.

  Acteon gritted his teeth and opened his lotus-shaped mouth, the bug resided inside once again poked out part of its body. Upon revealing itself, the bug immediately let out a miserable cry, causing the dark Carrion Beetles surrounded Acteon to become restless and furious. But after forced by Acteon, the Queen bug had no choice but opened its mouth and spat out a drop of strange liquid, which was extremely stinky and sticky.

  The air within the secret room briefly vibrated. When the drop of liquid left the mouth of Queen Bug, before it could reach the ground, a spatial ripple appeared at the right time cupping it from below. A bright light of teleportation flashed through the room, the liquid had disappeared in a strange manner.

  Acteon’s compound eyes flickered. Obviously, he was frightened by how tight a control Adept Anderson had on the tower.

  “Kid, you have made a wise decision! Alright, with this thing, I’ll be able to concoct a mutated blood soon. Once you have also owned the bloodline of a vampire, that will be the moment for you to shine!”

  Sensing that Adept Anderson’s powerful Spirit had gradually withdrawn from the secret room, only then Acteon blended himself back into the vast darkness. Within the dark shadow where no one could peek through, the chirping of beetle could be heard without end, no one knew what was the contents of the violent communication between Acteon and the Queen Bug.

  The entire space was filled with a ghastly and wicked atmosphere!

  …………

  After returning to his residence, Greem once again dwelled into the secluded lifestyle he used to have.

  Deep meditation, reading books, magic spell experiments… All these boring yet fixed routine had filled up his daily life. For some unknown reasons, a deep sense of danger had been enveloping Greem’s body and soul, urging him to keep accumulate knowledge and strengthening himself.

  He had a feeling, if he didn’t put in all his effort to run faster, some frightening events would happen on him. Although it was tough to explain where or who these dangers would come from, Greem believed in his instincts without a shadow of the doubt. And he had put out real action as preventive measures.

  Also, the magic spell study he carried out in succession had brought him tremendous benefits. Having been organized and classified by the Chip, all those magic spell books he had read in the past had transformed into the mystical knowledge that he could use at anytime he wanted. The vacancy of his elementary knowledge about Fire element magic spell had now been filled up.

  Therefore, unknowingly, both Inferno Shield and Inferno Force Field had become skills in his bag, while the mastery of Inferno Body had increased to 41% from 37%.

  Strictly speaking, currently, the fundamental knowledge in Fire element that Greem had was not weaker than that of any official Adept’s!

  Chapter 123

  Since the last compulsory mission had been completed, the Swampy Tower was like a clogged up water channel that had suddenly opened up. In a natural way, the fresh water from the outside world started to influence the life within the isolated world.

  And obviously, Adept Anderson wasn’t happy to see such changes. However, when he was faced with the will of the entire Zhentarim Association, which was a clan that even the Third Grade Adept from Sarubo Family dared not disobey, there was just nothing he could do to change the situation!

  Therefore, when the apprentices that had attended the training mission made their return, the Mission Hall of the Swampy Tower, which had not been used for a very long time, once again opened up. Every day, the mission board placed in the hall refreshed with countless new missions, from advanced missions like hunting feral demons of Adept level, which only Pseudo-Adept could participate in, to petty missions like gathering resources, expelling demons, and investigating abnormal events. It all refreshed in real-time.

  Put it this way, even at the center of the continent, the well-developed region and the primary colony of human society, every day there would be hundreds of thousands of bizarre incidents happening. Either it was the discovery of demon traces near a small town located at the border, or a village near the wilderness was attacked by some unknown beings, or some expedition team had discovered an uncultivated resource site.

  Without exception, whenever something like this happened, the Zhentarim Association would bring the matter in, and announce a time-limited mission to all the Apprentice Adepts within the entire central region of the continent. With this method, they could bring all the apprentices within the center region into play. Not only could they train these apprentices, they could also solve the problem occurring at the border of their territory. In another way, they used these apprentices to shoulder the heavy burden of defence missions instead of official Adepts.

  Greem could hole himself up in his residence and improve the foundation of his magic spells bit by bit. But, Mary and Snorlax couldn’t behave like that. Hence, during this time, they were like prisoners who had bloodshot eyes, hanging around all day inside of the Mission Hall, quietly filtering through the missions and finding ones they like the most.

  After all, Mary had taken the path of a Bloodline Adept, and it would slow her progress to just rely on the accumulation of magic spell knowledge. Only by constantly devouring the blood of experts would ensure her quick progress. Therefore, she had shown enthusiasm when picking her missions, and she had been working hard in completing them. Within just a month, she completed two missions and earned herself twenty merit points.

  But it was too bad that all the missions she chose were located within the perimeter of the Swampy Tower. It was a region where human society was well-developed. Though sometimes demons intruded into the place, it was just impossible to have any Pseudo-Adept level monsters. Therefore, she had no alternative but to look for a distant location.

  Very soon, a suitable mission jumped into her eyes.

  At the Timbermaw Hold, located seven thousand miles away, a camp of Lycanthropes who moved from the depths of the jungle was suddenly discovered. Therefore, the local authority had announced a mission to recruit Pseudo-Adept or Advanced Apprentice and was preparing to eliminate this camp.

  When Mary enthusiastically invited Greem to join her in this mission, she was turned down straightaway.

  As an Element Apprentice who prepared to take the path of Focused Fire Element, Greem felt he needed to be more focused on the mission of his choice. Last time, he had gained tremendous benefit by soaking himself inside the underground lava pool in the Underground Cave region, so he wished to find another place which had a similar environment like the volcano, so he could make further progress with his Inferno Body.

  He had a feeling that in order for him to advance into the realm of official Adept steadily and surely, the Inferno Body played a very important role.

  Fortunately enough, on the third day after Mary left excitedly, Snorlax, who had been spending all day in the Mission Hall, rushed back to Greem. The mission that suited him the most had appeared!

  It was a mission to gather resources, which had a
rather low risk, and the location of the mission was right within a volcano which would erupt on a fixed interval. Cotopaxi Volcano was located near the border, east of the Sidney region. It was a place rich in Fire Diamonds of premium quality, and was one of the main incomes for the local Adept Family.

  Cotopaxi Volcano was a very powerful active volcano. Out of the twelve months in a year, it would be in a dangerous active period for nine months. During this period, even Adepts wouldn’t risk their life by stepping into it. Only during the three-month resting period would the Cotopaxi Volcano calm down slightly and give the nearby Adept Family a chance to harvest the Fire Diamond that could be found underneath it.

  Even during the resting period of the volcano, the temperature inside was still incredibly high. Also, as most of the Fire Diamonds were found at the edge of lava pool or floating inside of the pool, no ordinary humans could harvest them, and only Advanced Apprentices who had element resistance could achieve this seemingly impossible mission.

  Therefore, in order to increase the productivity of Fire Diamonds during this resting period, aside from sending their own family members to harvest the Fire Diamonds, the local Adept Family would also announce a mission publicly. Any apprentice that entered the Cotopaxi Volcano just needed to submit a fixed portion of Fire Diamonds at the end of their mission, and they could keep the rest as a reward for their mission.

  As a result, every year before the volcano entered its resting period, it also was the time to announce this mission!

  Greem rushed to the Mission Hall. Without hesitation, he immediately undertook the mission of harvesting Fire Diamonds. Looking at the message of the mission, it was only open to twenty apprentices and Greem was the nineteenth apprentice who undertook the mission. Nearly at the same time that he accepted the mission, it disappeared from the mission board.

  The quota of twenty apprentices had been completely filled up!

  The mission required Greem to report to the mission site located in the Sidney region within fifteen days. Time was pressing, so Greem immediately started to arrange all the necessary matters.