Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  And this was the direction of advancement Greem had set for his Fire Element magic spell!

  The Flame Fiend was a dreadful creature of the Abyss that came from the lower tier plane. They usually possessed a huge and menacing body, however, their combative strength actually came from their terrifying flame ability that was beyond any comparison. Once they flew into a rage, their entire body would ignite, turning them into a horrible flaming humanoid. Any living beings that got too close to their body would have to withstand a constant fire damage.

  Without high fire resistance, ordinary enemies didn’t even have the qualifications to fight a battle with it, and would be turned into coke by the constantly burning flame. As for the enemies that had the qualification to stand face to face with the Flame Fiend, they would have to deal with raging Fire element magic spells that blotted out the sky and covered the earth, and the hand-to-hand combat skills of the Flame Fiend, which were not weaker than those of ordinary demons.

  Flame Fiends may not be the strongest creatures among all of the experts of the Fire element, but they were definitely the creatures that stood out from the rest who practiced Fire element magic spells. That was why Greem had drawn fourteen rune arrays on his body; he wanted to use them to fully arouse his potential and mimic part of the Flame Fiend’s abilities.

  This was also the main reason this magic rune suit was called ‘the transformation of a Flame Fiend!’

  Of course, all of this was based on Greem’s first and earliest assumptions and speculations. If he really wanted to transform into a true Flame Fiend, the best and most straightforward method would be to pay a visit to the lower tier plane, slaughter, and dissect a real Flame Fiend himself. As for now, he could only mimic and improve his design.

  The process of drawing the magic runes lasted for one whole day and night, until noon of the second day. Only then did Greem drag his exhausted body back to his residence. Meanwhile, Mary, who had just come back from outside, had been waiting for him in his room.

  When she saw that Greem was completely exhausted, yet still trying his best to keep up his spirit, a saddened expression emerged on Mary’s pretty, travel-worn face.

  After she helped Greem lie flat on his bed, Mary gently touched his face and softly said, “Sleep well! I’ll guard you right here!”

  Greem was barely able to give her a smile before he sank into deep slumber.

  …………

  Inside another room.

  Within the faint, transparent force field of a barrier, Alice could hardly tear herself away from the Adept level element crystal core; she kept turning the summoning core over and over in her palm. The fist-sized, transparent crystal core was emitting an enchanting glow that could grasp the soul of one who looked at it.

  With each turn and new angle, the transparent crystal core reflected another gorgeously bright and colorful, yet extraordinarily beautiful halo. Alice’s gaze rested on it, and her face had an expression of obsession; for a very long time, she couldn’t pull herself away from such emotion. With her vision, of course she could peer onto the surface of the crystal core and see the mysterious magical arrays that were as tiny as cow hair, but extremely complicated and profound.

  No matter how you looked at it, it was no doubt a great work of art produced by a skillful Grand Master.

  Relying on the exceptionally designed magical array, the unique power stored within the element core was guided and unleashed; by combining this power with the vast element energy gathered from the outside world, it gave birth to a frightful Adept level element golem that was capable of causing a major catastrophe!

  Whenever she recalled the fact that she was miserably defeated by this crystal clear, extremely beautiful, little object, an indefinable flame of anger immediately surged up from the bottom of Alice’s heart. But immediately after that, the flame of anger would melt away bit by bit under the strange, fantastic elemental halo of the element core.

  Oh right, I had promised that rasca… ouch… master one thing. It looks like I need to make the best use of my time and practice!

  While rolling about on her bed without care over her own image, Alice slowly stretched out her Spirit. Through the slight spiritual sense brought to her from the magical contract buried deep in her soul, she quietly confirmed the current location of her master.

  That… he was in his own room now, and he hadn’t fully activated all of the defense mechanisms. Also, it was obvious that his Spirit was on the low side, and he had sunk into a deep state. He should be sleeping now. Wow, isn’t this a great opportunity? As long as I can teleport one object into his hand, then I’ll have this precious thing accompany me for a few more days!

  Her mind filled with a restless excitement, Alice stretched out her hand and drew a magic rune in midair. After that, she took out an earring and tossed it over. The magic rune was covered by an extremely complicated magic ring; when the earring traveled through it, it was like penetrating a layer of transparent water mirror. Within a split second, it disappeared without a trace.

  Meanwhile, inside the other room, some enshrouding runes suddenly appeared on Greem’s right palm. Following the vibration of these runes, an elegant earring slowly penetrated through the spatial distortion; in the next moment, it would fall into Greem’s palm.

  Pap! Mary stretched out her hand and swung gently; the earring was instantly slapped into the corner of the room.

  “What a nuisance, it must be that little girl again! Hmph, trying to secretly give her earring to Greem, I knew she was up to something bad!”

  As the earring was slapped away, Alice immediately sensed it. “Eh, what happened? It is obvious I’m going to succeed this time, why was it slapped away suddenly? Could it be some kind of new defense mechanism? No way, I have to give it another try!”

  It wasn’t an accident; the second time, the third time… all of Alice’s attempts were interrupted by some kind of unknown defense mechanism. Instead of giving up, it actually aroused her anger. “What’s all this about? It is obvious that guy is sleeping now. Why there is still such a strange defense mechanism? You’re the one who forced me now!”

  Gnashing her teeth in anger, Alice started to move both her arms quickly in midair. She actually unleashed a total of four spatial magic runes at the same time. However, before she had the time to teleport anything through them, all four spatial magic runes that had appeared on different part of Greem’s body vanished at the same time.

  Damn it, you’re challenging me right now!

  Alice, who had her competitiveness evoked, immediately started continuous and endless attempts, but to no effect. Unsurprisingly, every attempt was interrupted by something or someone. This made her even angrier, and she poured in more effort to try harder.

  At the same time, inside of Greem’s room, Mary was seen yawning and stretching her back while moving her fingers to quickly poke the air. Whenever a new spatial magic rune was formed, before it could establish a stable minor spatial tunnel with the other room, it would be instantly broken by Mary’s finger, which had been injected with Blood element energy.

  Therefore, unknowingly, Alice had started to play a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with Mary!

  Chapter 149

  Within a dark, wet room, a bloody magical array loomed in front of one’s eyes.

  It was a mysterious magical array drawn using the mixed blood of seven different species of demons. All the runes and magical lines that composed the magical array were drawn using fresh blood. The fresh blood was warm and the lines carried a slightly crimson hue; they looked bizarre and evil.

  In a corner of the room, there were countless dried bodies of demons from the Magical Swamp, all thrown messily in a pile. Each of them looked extremely miserable; anyone who saw them would be struck with shudders instantly.

  A previous member of the three strongest apprentices in the tower, Hawkeye Clutha, now sat with his legs folded inside of a magical ring, which was drawn right in the center of the magical array. His b
ody was fully covered with the pungent and stinking blood of the demons. Meanwhile, outside of this magical array, Madwoman stood, holding her huge blade. It seemed like she was thinking about something.

  In the next few moments, following a weird murmuring coming from the magical array, countless crows with black feathers and red eyes flew in from the opened window and leapt straight into the crimson magical array.

  Every single red-eyed crow who had leapt into the magical array exploded into tiny pieces of flesh and blood that shot in all direction. Countless black feathers floated through the air, but before they could touch the ground, they turned into wisps of smoke and vanished into thin air. Their flesh turned into countless skinless bloody snakes, whose bodies clustered outside of the magical ring that Hawkeye sat in.

  When there were enough bloody snakes gathered around the magical ring, Clutha’s body flickered as he removed himself from the center of the magical ring and reappeared beside Madwoman.

  “Alright, the magical array has started to function. It is your turn now!” Clutha glanced around at everything inside of the room. Then he nodded his head, satisfied. A hideous and dreadful smile emerged on his face.

  Though it was the last moment, Madwoman still hesitated. She couldn’t help but ask, “Clutha, are you sure this Blood Sacrifice magical array can really stimulate my Physique and make it grow stronger? But why I can sense a slight smell of danger from it?”

  Clutha replied, with a hideous smile on his face, “At our current stage, keep dreaming if you want to obtain significant growth in your overall strength without paying any price! Dangerous? Tell me, what magical array is not dangerous? This is the only Blood Sacrifice magical array that is within our ability and is also the only one that can help you! If this magical array wasn’t only focused on improving Physique, do you really think I would be so generous and give away the opportunity to improve my overall strength to you? Remember, once you become a Pseudo-Adept, you must help me complete that mission!”

  A determined expression flashed upon Madwoman’s savage face; she no longer hesitated. Some loud *doom* noises were heard, as she finally removed the thick and heavy magical armor on her body, removed her inner dress, and revealing her lean and perfect body. Naked, she stepped into the magical array.

  When she sat with both legs folded in the center of the magical ring, a shivering gleam flickered in Clutha’s bloodshot eyes, before he let out a deep, hoarse cry.

  As a result, more and more red-eyed crows started to leap through the window, and more and more bloody snakes clustered outside of the magical ring. Countless snake heads were poking around and their crimson bodies stacked, layer upon layer. Anyone who saw this would tremble in fear.

  In the center of the magical ring, Madwoman immediately felt a raging crimson tidal wave swarm into her body. Stimulated by this crimson tidal wave, the body factors which had been stagnating for a long time once again filled with vigor and vitality; they started to grow slowly yet steadily.

  Madwoman purposely held back the repelling force of her body from these external energies and allowed the crimson tidal wave to sweep across every single part of her body.

  However, while her overall strength was increasing, Madwoman had a vague feeling that something was not right.

  While the crimson tidal wave was stimulating her Physique’s potential, it seemed like it was also slowly corroding her nerve system, which resulted in significantly decreasing her control over her body.

  This… why was this process a little bit different from how Hawkeye Clutha had described?

  Madwoman struggled, sat up straight, and opened her mouth, wanting to ask Clutha about this. But when she opened her mouth, only then did she realize that all of the nerves on her face had become paralyzed, as she couldn’t let out any voice at all. Yet, when she tried to stand up from the floor, she felt as if every single part of her body had been dislocated and would never respond to her will.

  Madwoman’s heart started to race. Taking the opportunity before she lost all her strength, she poured in all her effort and turned her head. Only then was she able to see Clutha.

  Clutha stood at the edge of the magical array, wearing a weird smile on his face and staring at her. His once bloodshot eyes had transformed into a bright green. As he opened his mouth, a bizarre looking bug head poked out from it. It had a ferocious mouthpiece and a pair of dreadful looking compound eyes. Anyone who looked at it felt their flesh creep.

  Perhaps sensing that the time was right, the scorpion pushed with its razor sharp legs and leapt out from Clutha’s mouth. It then crawled quickly across the floor, climbing over the creeping bloody snakes, until it got to Madwoman’s feet.

  The magical ring which had blocked all of bloody snakes on the outside had no effect on this scorpion. It moved and swayed its body at top speed, climbing up Madwoman’s burly body to her mouth. Madwoman tried her best to clench her jaw, but the paralyzed nerves prevented her from doing so. Using its front legs, the scorpion opened up a tiny slit in her lips. Then, without hesitation, it simply squeezed through the slit.

  The raging and furious Madwoman understood everything in an instant.

  Evil Bugs Acteon! It was him behind all this!

  The raging flame of anger burnt her body and mind. Using her strong will, bit by bit she expelled the crimson energies in her body. But too bad, when she had nearly succeeded in seizing back control of her body, her body started to tremble violently. It lasted for quite a long time, before everything calmed.

  Quietly and calmly, Madwoman rose to her feet. When she suddenly opened her eyes, deep within her pupils, one could see a slightly bright green hue.

  When she stood to face at Hawkeye Clutha, both of their mouths opened at the same time, revealing the hideous, dreadful, and ugly looking head of a bug.

  At the same time, in many dark corners throughout the entire Swampy Tower, some fearful looking and ugly scorpions were hidden quietly. They were either hidden underneath the bed inside of an apprentice’s residence or hidden in the darkest corner of the room. Silently and motionlessly, they kept watch over each and every move of all of the Apprentice Adepts.

  If any apprentice sank into the deepest slumber, they would move noiselessly. Crawling along the bed-leg and over the soft blanket, inch by inch they moved closer to the target. Once there was an opportunity, they would leap forward immediately, with their quickest speed, and jump into the mouth of the apprentice.

  Frightened and hoarse cries, together with the sound of struggling and retching, were heard from many of the apprentices’ residences. None of that made any difference to the matter. Their throats swelled up and a small lump dug quickly through them. In just a short amount of time, the apprentices who had put up such a furious struggle would calm and lie back on their bed, continuing their sleep.

  Meanwhile, inside their body, the head of bug was vaguely seen swaying its feelers happily!

  …………

  Inside of the bloody, stinking bug nest of Evil Bugs, Acteon.

  Acteon, still clad in the same thick, heavy black robe, bowed his head and sat quietly in the center of the secret room. Though the clothes on his body were seen moving, he didn’t look like a living being.

  So long his master, Anderson, didn’t give him any orders, he would always remain in the same posture and behavior: eating, resting, multiplying, and growing mechanically. All of the scorpions were the result of his own multiplication and fission, and it happened right in his huge abdomen, which looked like a pregnant woman’s. Countless tiny larvae kept splitting and multiplying. Then they would cluster together, slaughtering and devouring each other.

  Only the scorpions that were strong enough could devour enough of their peers to leave Acteon’s body and join the swarm of bugs that were in the secret room.

  In a corner of the secret room, a swarm of scorpions had clustered together and formed a new wave of bugs. There were now two groups of distinctly different bugs and they never mixed together. I
n the heart of this new wave of bugs, the bizarre bug that hosted Acteon’s primary consciousness constantly let out a faint chirping, keeping a secret spiritual connection with all of the bugs that had divided from it and now hid in different parts of the Swampy Tower.

  Within its senses, one after another, Apprentice Adepts in different parts of the tower had fallen into its control. This had allowed it to spread its spiritual tentacles wantonly to every single remote corner of the place.

  However, this army of its didn’t go the expedient route and invade every single individual. Instead, it only targeted the Apprentice Adepts who possessed basic combative abilities. As for the human slaves who lived in the lowest tier of this population, it disdained to waste its energy on them. In addition to that, it also purposely avoided a few specific targets in this invasion that had spread throughout the entire tower and so didn’t capture all the apprentices in one net.

  Greem, Mary, Alice, and Snorlax the goblin: this four unique individuals had become the exceptions who mixed among the group of bug-infested humans and hadn’t detected any changes to their surrounding environment.

  Meanwhile, Acteon’s primary consciousness, which was hiding behind the scenes and remotely controlling everything, now quietly accumulated and conserved his energy. Once the dreadful moment arrived, the individuals whose soul consciousness he controlled would become his fearless fighters. Although he had reached a strategic agreement with Greem, even though they were working together with a common effort, he still wished to keep some final trump cards that could allow him to turn the situation over at the last moment.

  …………

  Snorlax lay on its stomach in the Little Shop of Goblin, bored.