Greem took his time and effort to sense the mental drain of each and every one of them, etching it to his brain.
The sudden increase in Spirit since his advancement to adept made his idea of a golem army much more realistic. With Greem's current Spirit, he could approximately support 100 beginner golems (clay golems, flamehounds, wind critters) or 25 advanced golems (water elementals, demon alligator hunters, stone serpents) or 10 pseudo-adept golems (lightning giants, water sprites, magma hounds) or 5 adept golems (Fire Lords)
Greem had only one Fire Lord and very few higher level golems. The only strategy left for Greem was golem swarming!
Just as Greem finished evaluating the golems, the chip suddenly let out a sharp siren.
"Beep, discovered odd biological existence transmitting mental flux……”
Greem turned around, his eyes bright as stars. Instantly, his vision pierced through hundreds of meters and locked onto an odd flying bug resting within a bush.
This was a bug with a dark black shell the size of a finger. It was resting on a thick branch, using the leaves to hide its body. If it wasn't for the chip, Greem wouldn't have been able to pick up on such a hidden "infiltrator" with his Spirit badly suppressed.
Jerk. It was Acteon's spy.
Greem frowned. Red shone in his eyes, and the bush where the bug was hidden instantly caught fire, ignited by the concentrated fire Elementium.
The insect realised it had been exposed and started to flap its metallic wings to leave. Sadly, Greem had locked on to it with his second "Ignite." The different plane laws of another world had affected Greem's first spell, forcing him to cast another.
The sudden flame enveloped the bug. It began to scream like a human as it wriggled its fat body. It seems that Acteon had attached a strand of his Spirit on the spy bug, and was hurt by Greem's spell.
500 meters away from Greem, in an empty field within the forest, the black-robed Acteon let out a groan from under his hood.
Acteon, much like Mary, had a special physique. He didn't rely too much on Elementium, and so the effect of the changed laws was not evident on him either. This was what made him think of taking the chance to kill Greem.
The reason he didn't choose Mary instead was because vampires were annoying and resilient creatures that were hard to kill. Greem, on the other hand, was merely an Elementium mage. Once his powers had been suppressed, killing him would be a breeze.
But the images sent by the bug sent chills down Acteon's spine. That damn Greem had so many golems! It irritated and terrified Acteon to no ends.
The volatile emotions were what caused a spike in his mental flux and allowed the chip to detect the existence of the bug. Acteon's mental world stung as the bug was consumed by the fire.
Hmph! I'll let you live for a little longer!
Acteon cursed and quickly disappeared from where he was.
He looked calm on the surface, but in truth, nervousness filled his heart.
That Greem's power didn't seem to have weakened. In fact, he seems to be way more terrifying now. If his army of golems surrounded him, along with the wraith-like Mary.....Acteon was confident in his power after he became an adept, but still, he had no chance against the both of them.
So he ran as fast as he could after cursing.
After all, he was scared that Greem would have a change of heart and come after him.
…………
Mary sped through the forest.
The vampiric bat she had turned herself into moved freely in the forest. At times, she flew up towards the skies and looking down on the valley. At times, she dove into the forest thick with trees and weaved between the branches, vines, and leaves.
Everywhere she went, countless critters were scared into hiding, where they looked upon this giant bat with frightened eyes.
Mary would occasionally break into the homes of powerful magic beasts, where they would attack her. Sadly, their immobile bodies could only eat the dust before Mary's lightning speed.
Winged dragons, gryphons, rocs, four-arm apes, razor boars, sabertooth elephants, man-eating demons……
Mary couldn't help but be impressed by the plentiful biological resources of this plane. It was way beyond her imaginations. The density of the creatures was even more impressive.
Of course, in comparison, the power of the creatures here was much weaker than those of the World of Adepts. It was rare to see any magical creatures in the forest!
The lack of magical creatures might be a fortune for the average human. This way human settlements would be much safer and suffer much fewer sacrifices. But this was terrible news for those with supernatural powers. This gave them far fewer opportunities to train themselves and learn from the wild.
The reason the adepts were so powerful was precisely because the World of Adepts was home to many equally powerful magical beings! To protect the peace of the human world, to allow the continued existence of humans, the adepts had to be more powerful, smarter and stronger than those beings.
Thus the power of adepts was the natural result of millenniums of bloody battles against magical beings, not because of the rise of one or two talented adepts.
If this plane lacked powerful magical creatures or beings, it was natural that the natives here could not give rise to an extremely powerful individual. This was the plane development theory every adept firmly believed in!
Why did the World of Adepts exile all adepts beyond the Fourth Grade? Precisely to maintain the balance of power between the adepts and the magical beings, to ensure a cruel and unforgiving world for their descendants, to grind and create more powerful adepts.
This was a theory Greem came to after collating the state of development of multiple areas, so Mary naturally knew about it as well. But she had never given a damn about any such theories. The only thing she cared about was whether there were delicious blood treats here!
The giant rampant bat finally caught the attention of the ruler of this forest. A rare three-headed chimera took to the skies, rushing towards where Mary was.
The chimera was a powerful magical creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake. Normal chimeras had only one head that was capable of spewing flames that could resiliently stick to its victim. And once a chimera has three heads, it would simultaneously wield the powers of flame, poison, and wind.
In the World of Adepts, such a creature might barely make it as a middle-tier magical being, but here, it was considered an extremely powerful beast.
Mary was excited that she had found a magical creature that attracted her attention. Instantly, she began baiting the three-headed chimera into a chase in the woods. Her body was much slimmer and much more capable of speeding through the thick canopies of all the ancient trees. The large chimera with a wingspan of 12 meters, on the other hand, was having trouble.
Amidst the sounds of snapping branches, the chimera charged through the forest like a bulldozer.
The strong but immobile chimera was at a huge disadvantage against the bat in such narrow quarters. Thus the angered chimera took to the skies after a fruitless chase. With all its power and all three of its elemental attacks, it bombarded the area where the giant bat was.
Chapter 166
Violent and ferocious attacks of three elements instantly covered the area where the giant bat was.
Exploding elemental fireballs, slimy and corrosive green globs of poison, continuous waves of ferocious wind blades……
Spells of three different elements, each with their own attributes now spew out of the three unique heads of the chimera, engulfing the forest in a magnificent and fiery funeral of magic.
But just as the chimera roared and reveled in the feeling of dominating the battlefield, a slim and tall figure broke through the wave of Elementium. It charged from the forest, quickly nearing the chimera.
The chimera was a magical being, but it also had powerful muscles and strength in a close quarters fight, Sharp claws and a powerful arm
ored tail were all powerful weapons of the chimera. The three ferocious jaws tripled its threat to any enemy that dared to go close.
But today was not this chimera's lucky day.
Three magical breaths fired in a panic were easily dodged by the ghostly figure with a flap of her thin bat wings. Its sharp claws that could tear apart a tiger were also deflected by the opponent's blood red armor. Nauseating blood thorns appeared on the surface of the armor, silently deflecting most of the chimera's blows.
The very next moment, a bat-winged demon that looked like a young human girl dodged the three jaws by a hair's breath. As she dodged, a chain of blood red magic arrows shot through the lion head in the middle.
The closely woven and tough scales of the chimera were no better than paper in front of the magic arrows. They shot through its eye and exploded inside the skull, blasting the skullcap far away. Scarlet red blood mixed with spots of white brain matter splattered everywhere.
Mary's petite body was like a buzzing fly about a lion as compared to the large physique of the three-headed chimera. But the blood red bow in her hands was a true weapon of killing, continuously sending blood red arrows to the chimera's weak spots.
The piercing power of the arrows along with the bloodsucking effect of the blood-attribute energy made it an unreachable dream for the chimera to even deal a little damage to Mary. It had only been three minutes since the start of the battle, but the chimera was already riddled with holes, blood pouring out of everywhere.
The chimera cried in pain. With a swipe of its menacing tail, it forced Mary back and turned its large body, desperately flapping its scaled wings, trying to escape back to its den.
But it was too late!
Mary stopped in the air, her bat wings slowly beating and spat out coldly: "Now you want to run? You are too late! "
The very next instance, a blood red beam slashed across the sky and already Mary was on the back of the scurrying chimera. For the first time since the battle started, her blood red bow was pulled into a full moon. Terrifying blood energy gathered on the bowstring, concentrating into a crystalline blood red arrow.
"Die! "
Mary's finger let go following her battle cry. The blood red arrow pierced the chimera's green scales at lightning speed, exploding at the part where the three heads met.
A big fountain of blood surged out of the chimera as it let out one final cry of sorrow that reverberated across the woods. Finally, it lost control of its large body and spiraled out of the sky.
A terrifying magical being that had ruled these woods for over a hundred years had so easily died at the hands of the fledgling Mary.
In all honesty, this chimera was no weaker than an actual adept. Sadly the difference in combat ability, equipment and the lack of a powerful means of attacking made it a bumbling target practice. So, he had to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the speedy assassin Mary.
Mary licked her lips. She was still not satisfied. Like a wild beast, she let out a crisp and sweet roar with her voice, letting all the beasts of the woods know of her dominating will.
Her skintight blood armor, the vast leathery bat wings, a perfect body and her domineering aura..... These were what gave Mary an attractiveness unique to herself, a special quality that merged both seductiveness with the chaos of bloody violence.
If Mary was so beautiful she was a rose, she would absolutely be a thorny one and in particular, thorns with lethal venom on it!
Mary stayed in the air for a few more moments as she waited for her will to be clearly transmitted to every corner of the forest before diving back down to the ground. She was going to savor her first blood treat in another world.
Far away, in the base, Keoghan stopped summoning his voodoo creatures. He tapped into the faint ripples of magic to sense the battle far away.
When he heard Mary's arrogant and overbearing roar, the always strict Keoghan broke into an ugly smile.
"What a character! I like her. These kinds of exquisite vampires are hard to come by! It's unfortunate……"
He turned to where Greem had disappeared and shook his head in disappointment.
He could see that these two newly advanced adepts were very close. That Bloody Mary, in particular, heeded every word of Greem. It seems there was no chance for the male adepts in the clan!
Keoghan shrugged, took a few more toy-like robotic models from his storage space and threw them to the ground. The palm-sized models began to grow and expand as he continued to chant his spell.
Soon, 4 bizarre robotic creatures 3 meters tall stood before him.
Keoghan then drew a rune glowing with magic and put it into the core of the robotic beasts. Suddenly the robotic beasts started creaking and moving. After a slight delay, they joined the ranks of the construction army.
Already there were a dozen voodoo creatures with large and tough physiques and three to four giant clay golems in the previously silent base. The adepts were filling the roles of taskmasters, ordering the magic creatures to and fro, carrying timber, flattening ground, shaping the earth……
An outline for a simple and practical base was already surfacing.
And it had only been two hours since they arrived in this odd and mysterious other world.
…………
200 miles to the east of the base, there was a human city.
Inside the city hall, the polished floorboards were shining and the bright sun was flushing in through the lattice window. As the light reflected on the floor, the whole room was brightly lit, like the halls of heaven.
Ninther Mino walked into the hall with heavy steps. The crisp sound of stone clashing against metal rang throughout the hall as his metal boots stomped on the white stone floor.
As the only witcher who had advanced to a Spellbreaker Knight in the City of Herdurand, he was an important character for all the Witcher Knights.
The glimmering knight's armor, the metal gloves with their clearly defined edges, the delicate knight's sword by his waist, the polished and shiny war boots, the metal bow on his back and the covered helmet under his arms.....When you put all this together along with his stalwart body measuring up to 2 meters and his handsome face, made him the dream prince of all noble ladies of Herdurand City.
Four similarly equipped witcher knights followed behind him as he stepped into this gorgeous and elegant city hall.
The government officials sat around the long table stopped their boring speeches and turned to look in horror at these uninvited guests.
Grand Duke Lington who was seated at the head of the table rang his golden bell and summoned his bodyguards. Then he spoke, unhappy: "Ninther, this is the sacred city hall, not your witcher knights' base. When not summoned, you have no right to step in here! "
Grand Duke Lington was the owner of the City of Herdurand. In fact, he was the ruler of the entire Dulan Province. Within his lands, there were more than 3 major cities with a population over 100,000 men, and 16 smaller cities with a population below 30,000 men. The number of towns and villages were so numerous it was impossible to do a detailed count.
He had one of the most power even amongst the nobles of the Continent of Witchers.
Sadly, even with this much power, he had no means to make the arrogant witcher knights bend the knee. After all, all witcher knights on the continent belonged to the Central Kingdom. They took orders directly from the king himself. Even the nobles had no say.
On the Continent of Witchers, this group of people was the ones who dominated and ruled. These powerful knights who had powerful Battle Skills, these witchers who were loyal to the king. And the purpose of their existence.....was to purge the continent of the evil spellcasters that appeared.
In this proud nation where witcher knights ruled, several casters that awakened their evil powers would appear every year. They didn't have tough physiques, or a will of steel from constant training, or knight's equipment crafted to fit. But they could summon mysterious and evil flames out of thin air and
freeze enemies in ice or let the dead climb out of their graves……
These evil casters were a hidden but terrible threat to society and humans. Thus countless righteous and noble knights responded to the king's summons. Together, they ran to every rural and desolate village or town to judge and execute each and every evil caster who had exposed themselves.
These noble knights called themselves witcher knights and formed a massive but organised power structure. And this Ninther Mino who stood before their eyes right now was a respected witcher knight who had completed their advancement: a Spellbreaker Knight.
These witcher knights had a very respected status. They weren't even bound by the laws set by the nobles. It was a pain for every government official in cities where there was a witcher knight base.
This bunch of witcher knights marched in recklessly just as Grand Duke Lington was about to shout at his subordinates over the reduced tax profits.
This made the Grand Duke so much angrier!
Chapter 167
The handsome Ninther was not bothered by the Grand Duke's anger.
Ever since he became the youngest Spellbreaker Knight of the Dulan Province, he had been the leader of the witcher knights here.
Eliminating the darkness, protector of the weak, fearless!
This 28-year-old youthful knight followed the precepts passed down by the holy knights strictly. He avoided all luxurious entertainments of the nobles and put all his efforts and energy into "the purging of evil".
"Your honor, Grand Duke Lington, I heard you have a subordinate known as Sage Goth? I wish to see him immediately! "Ninther stood tall before the Grand Duke and said his target, ignoring the threatening looks of the bodyguards behind the Duke.
Although the words were those of a request, coming out of his mouth, they sounded nothing like a request!
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