Trying to confront a veteran Adept who had become an official Adept for more than 300 years with the status of a Pseudo-Adept, such thought was no doubt as mad as a hatter. If not because he really didn’t have any other alternative, Greem would have never come up with this idea!
Greem counted on his fingers, at the very most, his team only consisted of three good fighters.
The actual body of Evil Bugs was now under the total control of Anderson. Although the beetle which hosted the primary consciousness of Acteon guaranteed that he could seize back the control for a very short period of time, such statement didn’t contain any elements worth trusting! Hence, inwardly, Greem had been treating Acteon as half a Pseudo-Adept. At the critical moment, it would be considered fortunate if Acteon didn’t turn his back on Greem and helped Anderson. Greem would never place the hopes for victory on this guy.
On the contrary, Mary was a helper whom he could count on. But unfortunately, her vampire bloodline was the work of Anderson himself, If Anderson didn’t leave any contingency measurement in it, Greem would really have to despise Anderson for being an incompetent Adept.
Knowledge is power!
A true wise Adept would always defeat his enemies using his brain and knowledge.
Therefore, with regards to how to use Mary in his Plan, Greem had his nerves on tenterhooks. Similar to Evil Bugs Acteon, when counting on the overall combative strength of his team, Greem could only take Mary as half a Pseudo-Adept.
In this iron triangle of resisting Anderson, two of them actually couldn’t be totally trusted. It was imaginable how depressed Greem was feeling right now in his mind and how tremendous the pressure he was enduring at the moment was!
It seemed that at the most critical moment, perhaps only he himself could stand out to resist the enemy!
As for the enemy they had to face, the First Grade Adept Anderson, if according to the calculations derived from the Chip, he possessed the combative strength of at least eight to ten Pseudo-Adepts. This also meant, even taking away the aid he received from the Swampy Tower, and the amplification he had from additional magical equipment he owned, just Anderson alone would be able to easily withstand the besiegement from eight to ten Pseudo-Adepts at the same time.
Of course, if they really did have ten Pseudo-Adepts, most probably they would be able to force Adept Anderson to give in. It was a pity that they didn’t!
There were simply too many uncertainties from Evil Bugs and Mary. Once the war started, the possibility of them turning into burdens was higher than becoming his strengths. If not because he really had run out of methods, Greem would never willing to form an alliance with such teammates who might betray him at any time!
With that, once the war started, it was possible that most of the pressure would be shouldered by Greem alone.
Meanwhile, since the birth of the Fire Lord, Greem’s personal overall strength had gone through a significant transformation. Currently, he could be considered a qualified Pseudo-Adept. No matter whether it was his defensive or offensive abilities, he was nowhere weaker than any ordinary Pseudo-Adept. And if he poured in all he got, he could even support two Fire Lords in the battlefield at the same time.
It could be said that from the last battle between the Fire Lord and Alice. The combative strength that an Adept level Fire Lord could bring into play was equal to at least two to three Element Pseudo-Adepts. Thus, even taking the maximum combative strength from two Fire Lords was only equivalent to six Element Pseudo-Adepts.
With a combative strength like this, together with Greem, Acteon, and Mary, they merely had the combined strength to fight that Anderson. As for who would obtain the final victory and who would be defeated? The chances of victory for Greem’s team was, in fact, less than 10%!
And even for this 10% of chance, it was based on the situation that all Greem’s plots were successfully executed and that Adept Anderson didn’t have any too much of an incredible preparation.
Just because of the overly low success rate, Greem had no choice but to arduously increase every single advantage he could on his side, while trying his best to eliminate the advantage on Anderson’s side!
Strictly speaking, Greem’s team actually did had some hidden approaches. The biggest piece of good news was that Evil Bugs could constantly supply them with the intelligence of the enemy. As the saying goes, know the enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat! In Greem’s scheme, he had to get to the bottom of Adept Anderson’s plot and plan, then came out with well-directed countermeasures and counter-attacks, as this would be the safest strategy.
On the other side, there was a super expert hiding in Greem’s camp: Alice. Although the relationship between her and Greem was rather stiff, when her life was in an endangering situation, presumably, she would also become one of the main fighting forces in Greem’s team. In Greem’s mind, at least this Alice was much more dependable than Acteon and Mary!
In order to increase the odds of winning the battle, even if it was just a small advantage that was not worth mentioning, Greem would still give it a meticulous and detailed consideration, altering and perfecting his plan and strategy. Even Snorlax was included in his plan and had undertaken some very important tasks.
While plotting his counter attack, Greem was also working hard to improve his survival abilities.
Imaginable, once things turned ugly between both sides, Greem, as the leader of their camp, would definitely become the primary target who Adept Anderson focused his attacks on. Therefore, currently, it was more important for him to improve his survival abilities than train his combative abilities, as it would be more beneficial for him in the upcoming warfare!
After going through a large number of filtrations and comparisons, there weren’t many methods that he could master in a short period of time to improve his ability quickly. However, the drawing of Magic Runes was definitely an exception.
According to the records found in some magic books, the origin of magic spells actually came from observing and copying natural magic runes found on demon beasts by the ancestors of the human race. Most of the time, these demon beasts and demons didn’t have any knowledge of magic spells, and they didn’t understand any theories of magic spells at all. Yet, relying on the combination of their own innate abilities and the world around them, they could always master some mysterious abilities without being taught by anyone.
Although these magic runes were rather simple and primitive, they actually pointed to the very core of the World Principle, and they were the specific representation of Plane Principles for some lower tier planes. Therefore, it allowed them to possess some bizarre abilities that left one speechless.
Initially, the ancestors of the human race hadn’t known anything about it. However, the human race had proved themselves to be the species good at learning and creating. Some wise people among them had observed these natural magic runes and copied them, and had drawn them on their own body, which eventually became man-made magic runes.
And this was the origin of the magical array!
Later, as the ancestors of human race mastered more and more magic runes, they extracted the best, and through a continuous effort of reorganizing and restructuring, they eventually gave themselves a new power that never existed before. And, these unique runes extracted from natural magic runes were in fact, the magic spell runes that every single Adept had to learn and master today!
Put this way, ancient Adepts were actually a group of ordinary humans. They used a unique paint and drew all kinds of peculiar and bizarre magic rune patterns on their body, allowing them to possess some strange abilities that was similar to demon beasts or demons.
Through the historical changes of more than hundreds of thousands of years, this group of humans who kept studying on the arcane knowledge had eventually freed themselves from the status of ordinary humans and became the leaders and protectors of the entire human race. They no longer drew any magic runes on their bod
y, instead, they had them engraved on top of their weapons or some special equipment, turning them into frightening magical weapons and magical equipment.
They even learned how to meditate, using progressive methods to modify themselves into magical creatures similar to demon beasts. They also studied and analyzed the Plane Principle, ultimately, leaving the conscious seal that belonged to them in the functioning system of the plane.
As for now, Greem really wished he could borrow the help from these magic runes, so he could quickly improve his basic combative strength. Those scraped goatskin papers Alice saw in his room were actually the magic runes array Greem specifically made for himself.
Initially, Greem thought it would not be a difficult task. After all, he was a Grand Master of Automata who could carve seven magical arrays on top of a thumb-sized crystal core. The only difference now was the working area had shifted over to his own body, and the area had expanded to at least few hundred times, supposedly, it should be an easier task!
But too bad, when he really gave the task over to the Chip, and after the Chip ran through a thorough scan and analysis of his body, he was shocked to find out that on a human body, the area that could draw with magic runes was actually less than 1/7 of the total surface area. Yet, these areas were scattered everywhere on the body, and they were overly broken and in a disordered manner.
According to the distribution of these magic runes area, Greem came to the conclusion that the magical energy area on the surface of the human body was mostly interconnected with the vital organs. For example, the heart, brain, and lower abdomen, these were the places with dense magical energy, while the limbs and the edges of the body were the regions with thin magical energy.
Each region were interconnected with different vital organs, therefore, the magical energy they could support had slight differences as well. In order to better utilize them, he really needed to gave them a thorough and detailed examination and a huge amount of calculations and statistical analyses of data.
This was also the reason why Master of Magic Runes was a rare occupation and why it was also very expensive to draw a magic rune!
According to the information Greem had learned, if an ordinary apprentice wished to draw a magic rune on his body, even if it was just an Array of Agility (Agility +1) on his leg, the lowest fee he needed to pay a Master of Magic Runes was 1000 magic crystals. As for having an Energy Gathering Array (Doubles the speed of Elementium gathering) drawn on his chest, the lowest price was 3000 magic crystals.
Yet, for a magic array which could bring the ability to see through to the apprentice’s eyes, the cost of having it drawn was a hefty 5000 magic crystals.
Looking at the list of expensive prices, Greem felt his heart jerking spasmodically. Maybe, when he had nothing else to do in the future, he could consider becoming a Master of Magic Runes!
As Greem had completed the transformation of his Flame Body, the regions of magical energy on his body were larger than those on other ordinary apprentices’. Therefore, how he could make a good use of these magical energy regions had become a hard nut to crack. As the result, during this period of time, Greem had locked himself in his room, repeatedly examining the characteristics of the different regions on his body, using the Chip to construct the perfect magic runes drawings for him.
By carrying out this laborious task himself, Greem now knew why despite meeting with so many Adepts, rarely had he seen anyone of them have magic runes drawn on their body. In order to draw a magic rune on the body, the Master of Magic Runes had to fully understand the body attribute of the target. Try to think about this, would any Adept willing let an outsider learn every single detail of the secrets found in his body?
Therefore, this probably was one of the most important reasons why magic runes were not popular!
After going through comprehensive and detailed calculations, the plan to draw magic runes that Greem had drafted for himself was unprecedentedly humongous and complicated.
According to his plan, he would need to draw an Energy Gathering rune array at the bottom of both feet, both palms and wrists would need to have a Precise Strike rune array (Instantly enhances the output of Elementium, causing element damage to be doubles), a Major Elementium Strengthening rune array on his chest, a Major Elementium Defense rune array on his back, and a Light of Spirit rune array on both his forehead and temples (able to directly transform Spirit into offensive Fire Element magic spell).
Each and every single one of them was tailor made for and by Greem himself!
Chapter 148
Etching magic runes on one’s own body was not something that could be easily accomplished!
It required special magic rune ingredients, a Master of Magic Runes who possessed peculiar innate talent, exclusive drawing experience and skill… and not a single requirement could be omitted. However, Greem didn’t have even one of them.
Inside of the Alchemy Laboratory of the Swampy Tower.
The radiance from dozens of illuminating crystals had made the laboratory as bright as day; not a single shadow could be seen. Unlike in the past, Greem didn’t stand in front of the Alchemy Station. Instead, he was lying down on top of the Alchemy Station. Today, he was both the operator and the target of the operation!
He didn’t have any of the special ingredients required for the drawing of magic runes, so Greem could only use the method of crafting golems to carve the magic runes; he couldn’t hire any professional Master Magic Runes, so Greem could only do it himself, drawing on his own body; he didn’t possess any of the experience and skill in drawing magic runes that were passed down for generations, and he was solely depending on the optimized combination and simulated experiments carried out by the Chip in his Spiritual Domain…
Today, it was destined that Greem would become a bull in a china shop, as he would throw every single pot and bottle that represented all of the previous expectations and rules onto the ground and then break a new path that belonged solely to himself.
In a normal process of magic runes drawing, the Master of Magic Runes would usually need the aid of some medicines, so that he could reduce the recovery ability of flesh and blood in a particular region. Every single rune array that functioned properly was composed of hundred and thousand of runes and magical lines. If the target of the drawing was someone with high Physique, before the last line of rune could be drawn, the first line of rune would have completely self-healed.
This would completely destroy the entire process of magic rune drawing!
Using a special medicine to anesthetize and repress the recovery ability of blood and flesh on a particular region of the target’s body, and using the magic rune ingredients meticulously concocted to etch the corresponding magic runes on the skin of the target, and finally, interconnecting them with the magical energy organ inside of the target’s body. This was the elementary theory that let magic runes stimulate the human’s body, which could make the target unleash a special ability.
It was because of this tedious and complicated process that the importance of a Master of Magic Runes was so significant. There had been some fellows who wished to save the hefty amount of magic crystals that one cost, and fancied that they could use the simplest method of drawing magic runes on themselves. They thought such magic runes could bring them some effects for a short period of time, and following the self-recovery of the body, every external change made to their bodies would eventually fade away.
And very soon, they had realized that they were just drawing water with a bamboo basket – it achieved nothing. Not only would the magic runes not be solidified forever, it also cost them a dearly expensive amount of ingredients.
Unfortunately, the magic rune suit of the Flame Fiend that Greem was custom making for himself was an example of that mentioned above. Nevertheless, relying on his extremely high control over his Flame Body, the process of losing effectiveness would definitely be slowed down. Also, he had never had the hope that the magic rune suit could be used f
orever; so long as it could support him in making his way through this ‘calamity,’ it would be enough.
Greem lay flat on top of the Alchemy Station. Using his Spirit, he activated the alchemy equipment.
As the needle-sized heat beam hit his body, Greem started to smell a pungent burning scent coming from the burning of his muscle and fat and he heard the hissing sound of boiling fat. The heat beam moved slowly across the surface of his body, scorching his skin and turning it black, leaving behind lines like shallow trenches.
Expressionless, Greem silently endured the burning from the heat beam. At the same time, he had to pour in all his effort to repress this Flame Body’s instinctive defense and counterattack against the heat beam. In addition to that, he had to hold down the regeneration speed of his flesh. Before those shallow trenches could recover, Greem controlled the other alchemy arm, using it to inject the filler that he had prepared beforehand into them.
The strange hissing sound of the heat beam burning his flesh, the pungent stinking smell that came from the filler slowly corroding the muscle of a human body… the weird sound, the strange smell, both filled the entire Alchemy Laboratory almost immediately. It would make someone feel like he had come to a dark, ugly room of torture!
Greem was trying to draw a rune array composed of complicated, hard to understand runes, and full of numerous winding lines onto a random part of the body. At the same time, the core nodes of the rune array had to perfectly overlap with the magical nodes found on the body itself. During this process, any slight deviation would cause the total destruction of the entire rune array.
Therefore, even though the severe pain coming from the surface of his body kept stimulating his nerves, Greem still retained the same expression and focused his vision on the tiny light beam that kept jumping over his skin. With an attentive gaze, he watched the entire process as his skin turned red, softened, collapsed, turned dark, and eventually, became coke.
There would be a total of fourteen rune arrays drawn on his body, each of them an independent entity, and all possessed the effect of stimulating the body function of that particular region. But when they were interconnected and activated, they would create an extremely complicated, profound and mysterious magic rune suit – the transformation of a Flame Fiend.
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