Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Whenever Greem thought of owning a golem of such level, his heart raced and he couldn’t hold down his emotions. He wished he could just bolt into the Ring-shaped Islands, crush all of the giant dead bodies, and seize all of the element cores into his arms.

  It was a pity that such thought would always remain a mere fantasy. If he really put it to action, he would face his death, as the Molten Giants would definitely skin him and swallow him alive!

  Approximately, there were over two hundred Molten Giants living on the island. Around seventy of them were juveniles of the Pseudo-Adept level, yet more than one hundred forty of them were adult Molten Giants. In this environment where they had no natural enemy and no worries about food, their defensive mechanism wasn’t considered too strong.

  If it weren’t for Greem’s level being too low, the stupid giants who only possessed a large body and strong overall strength would definitely become his best prey. But as for now, even if it was just a juvenile Molten Giant, Greem would have to put in huge effort in order to defeat it.

  Hence, if he wanted to pull chestnuts out of the fire, the only way would be to fish in troubled waters.

  After he tentatively drafted out his plan, he wasn’t in a hurry to provoke the Molten Giants. Instead, he became quieter than before. Every day, he only traveled and hunted at the outer perimeter of the volcano world, took a bath at the border of the lava ocean every three to five days, and stealthily scurried away.

  Relying on this regular mode of action, Greem successfully deceived the Molten Giant patrol teams, causing them to loosen their vigilance and not consider him as an enemy that could pose any threat to them. Although the hunt for Greem was still going on, it was more like a routine activity; every couple of days, the game of cat and mouse would be carried out.

  Of course, Greem wasn’t in a hurry.

  The duration of his mission was three months, and if he wanted any progress in his Inferno Body, he needed time to accumulate the energy. What he needed to do now was wait for the breakthrough of his Inferno Body. When the day came, that would be the moment he put his plan into action.

  Finally, two months after he entered the volcano world, the Inferno Body he had anticipated for long made the breakthrough.

  When the progress projected into his mind by the Chip jumped from 99% to 100%, Greem felt a tremendous transformation suddenly happen to his body.

  Everything had become different from the past!

  Flame Body!

  He had finally stepped over the stage of Inferno Body and owned a Flame Body of his own!

  Chapter 131

  There was a huge difference between Inferno Body and Flame Body.

  If with Inferno Body, Greem’s body was still considered flesh and blood, then now, after having evolved into Flame Body, he could be considered truly immune to fire. Even without relying on his Fire Lord’s Scepter, he could now swim freely in the lava ocean anytime he wanted and he wouldn’t be hurt by the high temperature.

  After all, the so-called fire immunity cast externally could only spare him from lower grade Fire element damage. Once an element flame went beyond a certain degree, he would still bear some damage caused by the flame. Previously, during the strengthening process of his Inferno Body, his body was easily damaged by the brutal modification performed by the Fire element energy. The strength of the Fire element energies had gone beyond the maximum endurance limit of his fire immunity.

  Now, after having completed the modification of his Flame Body, he could transform parts of his body into Elementium any time he deemed it was necessary, which gave him immunity from all Fire element damage. In the future, even if he was facing a Second Grade Adept, he wouldn’t be hurt by an element fireball cast towards him. However, such damage immunity was limited to only the Fire element. If he was attacked with a mutated Fire element magic spell, he would still be hurt by it.

  For example, a Magma Fireball, which was a magic spell that combined the damage of both the Fire element and physical damage. Although Greem would be immune from the Fire element damage, he could not escape from being hurt by the physical damage. Yet, a mutated Fire element magic spell like that composed more than half of all magic spells, as it was a common counter measurement employed by Adepts so that their element attack would not be totally ignored by their enemy.

  Previously, if Greem had gone too deep into the lava ocean, he would have had to face the possibility of being hurt by the flame. But now, with his Flame Body, any region with dense Fire Elementium would become his home. No matter how high the temperature of an element fire, he would not be hurt by it anymore. In fact, they became the biggest tonic for him.

  With the lava ocean, the topographical advantage of Molten Giants had evened out!

  For the Greem of the past, if the controlling of element fire was a superb magical skill, then the same ability had now become an instinct. From now onwards, he didn’t have to dive nakedly into a sea of fire, because he was fire, and fire was he. Thus, under his control, no element fire could burn off his clothes anymore!

  In addition to that, the biggest advantage brought by Flame Body was Focused Fire Element. All of the offensive strength of Fire element magic spell doubled, casting time reduced by half, and the cost of Spirit halved as well. In any region rich in Fire Elementium, the recovery speed of his Spirit would double, and the Flame Body would self-heal the damage on his body.

  But, there was a trade-off for this!

  It was not all benefits brought by the Flame Body. At least, if Greem was hurt by Water or Ice element magic spell, the damage would double. Also, when he was in a region rich in Water Elementium, the recovery of his Spirit and self-healing would also be repressed.

  Nevertheless, Greem knew this in advance, so he didn’t feel surprised at all. Currently, he was more concerned about his overall strength. After the Chip performed a thorough scan of his body, the latest data of his overall strength was projected into his vision.

  Name: Greem

  Race: Human (Half-Elementium)

  Attribute: Strength – 9.24 (+1), Agility – 7.87 (+1), Physique – 13.22 (+1), Spirit – 20.

  Profession: Apprentice Adept (Pseudo-Adept)

  Health Points: 62/62 (Healthy)

  Experience: 927/1000

  Skills: Scroll Copying, Spell Reading, Golem Crafting (Intermediate), Focused Fire Element.

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

  Magical Equipment: Fire Lord’s Scepter, Storage Waist Belt, Secret Scroll of Voodoo, 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.

  Upon reading the latest body statistics produced by the Chip, even if Greem had a steady and resolute mind, he couldn’t hold down his surging emotions. He had finally become a Pseudo-Adept! From now onwards, he was no longer a rookie apprentice whose fate could be freely decided by anybody!

  However, it was a pity that since his Spirit had skyrocketed from 16 to 20, the Circlet of Nobility that brought +1 to his Spirit and the Purple Ioun Stone of +2 Spirit had lost their effect. His Spirit had now reached 20, which was the maximum Spirit for an Apprentice Adept. If he wished to increase it more, then he would have to gain understanding in the force of principle and aided with the ceremony of advancement.

  No doubt this had to come later. But as for now, the most important thing about becoming a Pseudo-Adept was that he could finally put the plan he had plotted for a long time into action!

  After obtaining the Flame Body, the human aura on his body had faded. So long as he carefully disguised himself, with the harsh and cruel environment of the lava ocean, it would be extremely difficult for those Molten Giants to find any trace of him.

  Greem returned to the shore and equipped himself with all of his magical equipment. Then he dove into the lava ocean onc
e again, disappearing without a trace.

  …………

  Over the last few days, Elder Nimr had felt ill at ease.

  As the leader of the surviving Molten Giant clan, Nimr was obliged to use its intelligence and life to safeguard and continue the existence of the Molten Giants.

  This world didn’t belong to them!

  Although Molten Giants had a large body and formidable individual overall strength, as a special race that couldn’t survive outside of the volcano world, they could only firmly stay entrenched in their own environment, avoiding any intrusion from outsiders.

  This was a world that belonged only to human Adepts.

  With regards to this, even the first Molten Giant born from the depths of the earth core had realized it. The human Adepts tolerated the existence of their unique race so that they could enslave them and loot their treasures.

  The volcano world belonged to them, yet they belonged to the Zuber Family.

  Bonded by a 1000 year old magical contract, the mighty clan of Molten Giants had become special miners who worked for the local human Adept family. Every five years, they had to hand in a long list of resources. Yet, even they, who were Sons of the Flaming Ocean, had a headache over the required numbers of resources on the list.

  As a powerful and proud race, they did try to revolt. However, the power of human Adepts was not something they could stand up against. Without experiencing it personally, no one could imagine how frightening the ability of a Third Grade Adept was. As a direct result of their rebellion, 1/3s of their clan members had been wiped out completely. It was a severe loss that took them nearly four hundred years to recover.

  Before the rebellion, though the human Adepts had treated them cruelly and harshly, they wouldn’t enter their territory. However, for the past few hundred years, the Zuber Family had been pushing them more and more. Frequently, when the volcano entered its resting period, they would send some Apprentice Adepts to train down here.

  It might just be training for the human apprentices, but for the Molten Giants, the apprentices were actually slaughtering their enslaved beasts. Not only that, sometimes they even besieged a juvenile Molten Giant who had been leaving them alone. This further attracted the anger of Molten Giants.

  However, though Elder Nimr had negotiated a few times with the Third Grade Adept of Zuber Family, it was always warned not to randomly hurt the Zuber Family apprentices who had their training here. But visiting apprentices were excluded.

  But too bad, in the eyes of the Molten Giants, human apprentices were nearly impossible to differentiate. Hence, they had no choice but to swallow insult and humiliation silently, organizing their own patrol teams to prevent any human apprentices from getting close to their habitat. Fortunately, the human apprentices who came for training weren’t too strong. Also, by intentionally driving Fire element creatures towards the outer perimeter, thereby forming a blockade, someone disturbing their life in the lava ocean was rare.

  Nevertheless, this year’s situation was obviously different from the past.

  This time, there was a mysterious guy among the human Apprentice Adepts who had breached the borders of lava ocean several times. It seemed like he was researching some kind of unknown magic spell. Due to his treacherousness, they had failed to intercept him even after sending a couple of patrolling teams. Therefore, Nimr could only order his clan members to heighten their vigilance and ban their juveniles from leaving their habitat alone.

  In order to avoid any outsiders from casting their covetous eyes on their harvested gemstones and materials, Nimr even deployed two more formidable fighters to safeguard their treasure vault. But from time to time, even when it was comfortably soaking in a lava pool, a feeling of fear still surged up in its mind, as if it had missed something really important.

  Nimr was an enormous Molten Giant who stood at seven meters tall and was the oldest member of their clan. It had turned 1815 years old this year, and its overall strength had reached the pinnacle of Molten Giant. If it was converted into the hierarchy of human Adepts, it had the mighty overall strength of at least a Second Grade Adept.

  But, as a special race who relied on their strong bodies and innate talent when fighting, it had mastered less than ten powerful Fire element abilities. Yet, the same grade human Adept could have nearly one hundred incredible magic spells, which they could use freely.

  They lacked the profound accumulation of knowledge with the history of over hundreds and thousands of years like human Adepts, lacked the endless bizarre magical equipment which human Adepts owned, and did not have the massive numbers of minions who could be called for freely. By just relying on the powerful innate abilities gifted by the Will of the Plane, the Molten Giants would never escape their fate of being enslaved by human Adepts!

  With the overall strength of Nimr, so long as that frightening Third Grade Adept of Zuber Family didn’t come personally, in its home of the lava ocean, it never feared, even when faced with an opponent of the same grade. But, for the past few days, a frequent chill had been flowing through its mind, as if something bad was going to happen to its clan.

  For this reason, it felt uneasy even when eating and sleeping. Every single day, it urged its clan members to patrol every region and inspected all the islands regularly, causing everybody to be busy and tired. But it felt rather relieved, as after this restless period, the three month resting phase of the volcano was approaching its end. Upon sensing the rumble coming from the earth core that became louder gradually day by day, its mind calmed down slightly.

  But as the ending of resting phase approached, the more its fear grew.

  Yet today, the uneasy feeling in Nimr’s mind had reached maximum level, so that it could hardly sleep in the lava pool within its cave. It couldn’t stop itself from walking out from its residence, placing itself at the edge of the island that it had taken as its home, and quietly watching any surrounding activities.

  Chapter 132

  The inner ocean, which was enclosed by the Ring-shaped Island, covered an area of five miles in a straight line. While Nimr stood at the edge of its own island, it could barely see the outline of the island to its opposite. It threw its glance over to the islands one after another and could see the busy figures of its clan members everywhere, yet it saw more juveniles who were swimming in the inner lava ocean, playing and chasing with each other. Though it was a little bit noisy, it actually made the clan look more lively and full of energy.

  Right as it was about to shut its eyes, trying to sense the possible direction where the danger might come from, far at the Southeast border of the Ring-shaped Island, an unprecedented explosion suddenly broke out. A rock wall of nearly one hundred meters in circumference shattered into pieces, shooting countless rocks fragments and debris like a shower into the lava ocean and causing a massive flame and dust pillar to rise up.

  Nimr sprinted with big steps. One after another floating island flitted across under its feet. In less than fifteen minutes, it had arrived at the floating island located nearest to the explosion. Standing at the edge of the floating island, half of its body was submerged in the boiling hot lava. Using its right palm that was as large as a coach, it scooped up a huge pool of molten lava and poured it onto its body, while reciting a series of profound, obscure and strange incantations. After finished with that, an enormous Eye of the Flame appeared right in front of it.

  “The mighty Spirit of Fire, please show me what happened at that place?” Using its deep and hoarse voice, Nimr spoke out its request.

  Supported by the powerful Fire element energy, the Eye of the Flame trembled, soon, the scene located dozens of miles away was projected in front of it.

  “These damn intruders! It must be them who are destroying our home and profaning our holy ocean! Elders, follow me to banish them from our land!”

  Nearly one hundred strong giant fighters saw the scene as well, and the air filled with their furious roars. After greeting each other, they quickly boarded one a
fter another primitive looking lava rock battleship and sailed towards the place of the explosion at top speed.

  Elder Nimr was controlling the Eye of the Flame and kept watchful eyes on any activities happening in the region afar. Though there was a huge commotion, but it just couldn’t find any traces of the intruder. This… no doubt had made Elder Nimr more worried!

  What exactly did these intruders want? Could it be merely an act of vandalism?

  With the understanding Nimr had toward those Human Adepts, regardless of what they did, they were all well-targeted with hidden motives. It was rare that they would meaninglessly destroy something, just to vent their anger!

  If their true motive wasn’t to destroy the lava ocean, then…

  A shudder struck Elder Nimr’s mind. It turned around and roared at the remaining clan members, “I want a total locked down on the entire island! All adult giants must act right now…”

  Before it could finish its word, a huge dust pillar suddenly arose from an island located at the Northwest corner of the Ring-shaped Island, as if something with a gigantic body was rolling on the ground and wreaking havoc.

  That island… that island was their clan graveyard!

  “Damn it, those foul humans should be devoured by the Spirit of the Flames, how dare they make trouble at the place where our ancestors are sleeping! Quick… hurry up… I want everyone to go there right now!”

  Hearing the roar of their Elder, all the remaining Molten Giants immediately strode in the direction of the graveyard in top speed. At the same time, some giants who possessed the ability of Fire Teleportation were even seen slightly squatting down and immediately disappeared within a towering fiery explosion. And a moment later, at a distance of two to three hundred meters, a similar fire pillar appeared, revealing the body of the same giant.