Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Hope burned in the teenager's eyes as he silently observed the surroundings of the camp.

  Soon, he made an even greater discovery.

  Chapter 172

  There was movement beneath the ground!

  He was the only one to sense the elemental flux; perhaps because he was the only one present with any spellcasting talent.

  This world's arcanology was incomplete and broken. Regardless, he was still able to successfully awaken his elemental talent and become a spellcaster. This demonstrated the monstrous compatibility between his soul's talent and one of this plane's laws. If he had been born in the World of Adepts, he would certainly have become a powerful warlock that could master spells effortlessly.

  Warlocks were an extremely unique existence, even amongst spellcasters. Most warlocks gained the ability to cast spells due to suddenly awakening the power of their ancestral bloodline, while other warlocks awoke due to their soul's unique talent.

  Draconic Warlocks and Blood Mages often arose because of their bloodlines, while Necromancers, Alchemists, and Destiny Mages stemmed from inborn talent. The two classifications were distinct and separate, with no chance of a warlock being born with both bloodline and talent!

  In any complete material plane, as long as Elementium was present, there would always be genius talents that could awaken their spellcasting abilities under the influence of the planar laws. Unfortunately, the Witcher Knights had already secured an indomitable position in this plane. As such, the existence of smaller spellcasting groups had been suppressed.

  This was much like the World of Adepts. There, adepts were unmatched and ran rampant, squashing the potential of all physical classes. Jobs that once required warriors, rogues, or priests were now dominated by adepts.

  Using the flexible and mysterious nature of spells, along with the division of spell masteries, the adepts managed to create specialized branches to mimic and replace once unique jobs. Body-Refining Adepts could be seen as a replacement for the warrior job, while agile adepts like Mary were no weaker than the strongest assassins. Even priests were replaced by countless alchemical tools, potions, or variant spells.

  Upon closer inspection, one would find that the adepts had slowly made up for their own deficiencies over the tens of millions of years of their development. In doing so, they had become a persistent nightmare of untold small and mid-sized planes.

  Even though the teenager had been bound and could not move, his talent and innate ability still allowed him to see more than the others in the camp. He held his breath and focused on his senses, silently waiting for the arrival of a change!

  …………

  Thirteen witcher-knights and eleven mercenaries.

  Amongst them, there was only one witcher-knight with the ability of a pseudo-adept. He seemed to be the captain of the squad. There were three knights with the ability of advanced apprentices, while the rest were all rookies at the beginner level.

  They were also equipped with standard knight's armor, longswords, and longbows. This meant that they had an outstanding mix of close and mid-range attacks, as well as their powerful defense. Observing close range through a wind critter, Greem realized something peculiar about the knights.

  More accurately, he found something mysterious on the knights' equipments!

  There were obscure patterns made of complicated lines on their shields, longswords, and bows. Furthermore, some crystalline jewels had been embedded in them. A normal person would have thought of them as decorations, but Greem could feel traces of magic on them.

  Beginner-level runic carvings? !

  Using the mysterious patterns to form simple runes, coupled with the magic stones and elemental crystals as energy sources, these knights had found an alternative way of tapping into the powers of Elementium.

  Greem watched the camp silently from a hidden spot and couldn't help but think it was amusing.

  A bunch of imposter elementium users had replaced the actual spellcasters. This made Greem, who had come from another plane, silently wonder at the oddity and twistedness of the developments here. As expected, if you visited enough realms, you could witness all sorts of odd and unusual situations.

  The World of Adepts was definitely a high-magic plane where human adepts were at the top. But this might not be the case in other planes. From what Greem knew, the goblin Grand Duke that Snorlax had been in secret contact with lived in a small plane where it was goblins who held the superior position.

  Humans' role had been reversed there, and they were the slaves of the 'short and stupid" goblin race. However, that kind of treatment was still considered decent. In certain notable planes, humans and humanoids were the livestock of larger magical creatures. Their situation was truly lamentable. A fate so terrible, most could not bear to dwell on the idea.

  After silently contemplating, Greem went back to watching the knights. Those mercenaries, on the other hand, were not worth his attention.

  A bunch of fools that dared to pretend to be swordsmen because they had leather armor and worthless swords, who dared to call themselves godly marksmen just because they had a hunter's bow on their backs, and who dared to call themselves powerful warriors simply because they had a rotten wooden shield....these kinds of people had neither ability nor talent. All they had was a little strength.

  Thus, Greem ignored them after a quick look at their gear.

  Greem observed them for half an hour. Once he had sufficient information, and the golems had reached their positions, Greem gave the order to attack while he remained hidden in the woods.

  The one in charge of this attack was naturally the chip. It was exceptional at managing and organizing resources. The main force of this attack was the poor Lightning Giant, who had been relegated to be a backup for so long. Using the Fire Lord might have yielded the best results for an all-out attack, but Greem wanted to capture some prisoners. Since the Fire Lord only had indiscriminate and overbearing spells, Greem was worried that these small fries wouldn't be able to survive.

  Therefore, the Lightning Giant who had been sidelined was now back as the main force on the battlefield!

  [ Author: The Lightning Giant's entrance will always be so cool. It even brings with it its own sound effects.]

  Sudden flashes of lightning instantly illuminated the night sky, and as the giant appeared in the sky, there was an ominous rumbling of thunder.

  Some mercenaries that were still indulging in the feast had yet to clear their heads. They stopped eating and looked about confusingly while muttering. "So weird! The weather was clearly good. Why's there lightning?"

  Some of the more alert fighters lifted their heads. Their expressions suddenly fell when they saw the terrifying humanoid wreathed in lightning floating in the sky.

  The difference between the well-trained witcher-knights and the motley crew of mercenaries was evident when faced with this imminent danger. Immediately the witcher-knights tossed aside their silverware and wine glasses, then sprinted to where they had put their equipment. The mercenaries, on the other hand, stared wide-eyed at the mysterious giant. It was only until they saw the knights' actions that they started scrambling for their weapons.

  The inside of the camp was in chaos!

  But why would the Lightning Giant give them the time to equip themselves?

  The giant raised its large, hazy hand as a terrifying thunderstorm quickly formed above the camp. The bright moon and brilliant stars of a once beautiful evening had become covered by a world of piercing lightning and roiling black clouds. One after another, forked lightning struck down from the clouds across the length of the entire camp.

  The effect was still limited by this low-magic plane, where magic was weaker. Otherwise, the magnitude of the thunderstorm could still increase several times. Even so, a weakened thunderstorm already brought about catastrophe to the people panicking below.

  Every blast of forked lightning would change direction when nearing the ground, blasting towards the metal swords a
nd armors of the knights and mercenaries. The intense high-voltage currents crackled through their bodies. Every blast of lightning would affect three or four people before dissipating.

  With every lightning bolt that fell, a few pained silhouettes would stagger and fall within the camp.

  The lightning giant had already reduced the lethality of its lightning as much as possible, under Greem's request, and concentrated on stunning and crowd control.

  Although the thunderstorm wasn't considered powerful, having 20 points of damage at best, it still managed to cripple most of the mercenaries in the blink of an eye.

  However, as expected, the witcher-knights were a special job that often crossed paths with "heretic spellcasters". Even faced with an overwhelming flood of magical attacks, they did not lose their cool or scatter. Instead, they squatted, raised their small shields, and activated the unique "rune arrays" within. Using the small energy shields, they blocked most of the falling lightning blasts.

  Protected by the cover from their companions, some of the witcher-knights even pulled out their metallic longbows to start firing waves of elementally charged magic arrows.

  Enchanted longbows? No! It was only a simple and crude embedded crystal. Compared to the developed and perfected enchanted weapons of the World of Adepts, the energy efficiency of these crystals were disgustingly low.

  This was such a crude magic bow that even a beginner apprentice from the World of Adepts wouldn’t choose to craft such an item.

  Even though these bows were a crude means of utilizing magic, they were already the best magical tools on this plane. The reason the witcher-knights were able to dominate and oppose nobility all over the country was precisely thanks to this "trash equipment" that Greem couldn't care less about!

  While everyone in the camp had been distracted by the Lightning Giant, the clay golems that had been lying in wait, underground, finally surfaced under the instructions of the chip.

  The knights that had been concentrating on the Lightning Giant felt the ground give out under their feet. The very next moment, they had sunk into a mud pit that appeared out of nowhere. The shocked knights furiously struggled to get free.

  Sadly for them, something more surprising happened!

  The mud pit that had trapped their lower bodies instantly turned back to ordinary dirt. In the blink of an eye, six of the thirteen witcher-knights were magically trapped by the earth. As the knights scrambled to save their companions, clusters of dirt in the camp began to swell, gathering into multiple clay golems.

  Under the knights' frightened gaze, the clay golems charged towards the knights on legs that were as thick as pillars. At the same time, the figures' fan-like clay hands and heavy fists swung down in a cascade of blows towards the knights.

  The knight captain let out a battlecry as he drew his longsword. With his energy shield in one hand, and a magic longsword with elemental flames in the other, he parried the strikes of the clay golems. Under his directions, the remaining knights also put on their mail, grabbed their weapons, and rushed forward.

  The witcher-knights formed a loose circle, protecting their trapped companions behind them while starting to engage the clay golems.

  Without elementium attached, mundane weapons could not possibly damage the clay golem's sturdy body. But with the magical weapons, along with the ability to use a type of special knight battle technique, the knights were miraculously able to force a stalemate against the clay golems.

  Chapter 173

  If Greem was still that adept apprentice with only a couple of golems, the "battle" before him might actually be a little more stimulating and exciting.

  Sadly……

  The number of low-quality golems, like the clay golems, in Greem's storage belt had already hit triple digits. Even intermediate golems like the stone serpents were being summoned in squads. Greem's golem army was already shaping up nicely, with the exception that his collection of pseudo-adept level golems was still lacking.

  The clay golems were extremely tough to deal with when they appeared in such large numbers.

  In all honesty, a clay golem with the power of an intermediate apprentice should have a difficult time fighting against a disciplined witcher-knight. The golems made of clay weren't as tough as stone golems or steel golems. The crude magical weapons and knight battle techniques of the witcher-knights could reliably destroy half a clay golem's body with a single strike.

  Unfortunately, this group of witcher-knights evidently lacked experience fighting against a large number of elemental golems. They had no idea that there was an extremely important elementium core within each elemental golem. Far too many of their attacks were wasted on the clay golems' dense limbs and their soil-like heads.

  Every clay golem that had sustained heavy damage to their limbs would sink beneath the ground. Once they repaired their bodies and emerged again, they were no different from a brand-new golem.

  In the eyes of the witcher-knights, this group of over forty clay golems was an an unending army that continuously sprang from the ground. It was not something that could be destroyed by human strength.

  At the start of the battle, every time an eye-catching knight battle-technique was executed, it would cause two or three clay golems to crumble and fall, resulting in the knights cheering in excitement. But now, as the golems endlessly rose from the dirt, the knights became too exhausted to deal with the heavy mud fists and unexpected mud spears.

  While coughing up blood from their accumulated injuries, more and more witcher knights were bashed to the ground by the clay golems' fists, and the circle where the battle was taking place slowly began shrinking. Soon, only the knight captain and his two deputies were still resisting. The clay golems surrounding them, however, had already formed three or four layers around them.

  Seeing that the battle was basically over, Greem stopped hiding. With determined strides, he walked out from the darkness. Slowly, he stepped into the disheveled camp.

  His appearance instantly drew the attention of the last three people!

  These three instantly understood Greem to be the mastermind behind tonight’s attack when they saw his black robed silhouette.

  They looked at each other, grit their teeth and made a firm decision in an instant.

  The two deputies shouted as they tossed aside the badly battered shield. Quickly, they drove the flame longswords to the limit of its power and charged towards Greem, cutting down all the clay golems in the way as they did so.

  But just halfway, they were stopped by the horde of golems.

  The two deputies let out another battlecry and their faces flushed red. While they still had the strength left, they threw the two dense flame swords forward. The impact of the swords caused most of the golems in front of them to collapse and fall to the ground.

  The knight captain took advantage of the opening made by his deputies. White light flashed around his body. He became like a sprinting jaguar, breaking through the scattered blockade of golems. Intense flames flared about the longsword in his hand as he slashed at the evil heretic with all his might, the sword leaving behind several afterimages.

  The hot wind slightly lifted the hood from Greem's head, allowing the airborne knight captain to lock eyes with Greem's burning pupils.

  Even though the captain's charge was so powerful, and his burning longsword was but a short distance away from the heretic's brow, there was no trace of fear or hesitation in his opponent's burning eyes.

  The knight captain's heart shook.

  It was the first time in his life he had seen a pair of eyes burning.

  Not a metaphor, nor an illusion, but an actual pair of flaming eyes that were spewing out terrifying jets of flame.

  His flaming longsword blazed like a torch and was now less than a meter away from the heretic's head. At this distance, with the speed at which he was charging at, his strike would land in a fraction of a second.

  As the captain mustered up all his strength to deliver a cripplin
g blow to those fearsome, flaming eyes, the ground erupted. The ground in front of the heretic's feet split apart and a large, imposing monster emerged.

  Coincidentally, the captain's flame longsword sliced into center of the terrifying monster’s stone head!

  Stone shattered; dirt and sand fell to the ground……

  The longsword cut through layers of stone before finally becoming stuck in the thick and dense stone.

  The pseudo-adept level stone serpent broke apart the ground, bringing with it the flame longsword stuck in its head, as well as the captain himself. As the serpent fully rose from the ground, it exposed its full size of ten meters.. Tons of dirt, sand, and stone tumbled down from its large mouth and around its pitch black eyes, knocking the captain around.

  Even so, the knight captain still did not let go of the longsword stuck in the stone serpent's head.

  The two deputies, on the other hand, had collapsed due to exhaustion after that last blow. Several clay golems charged forward and quickly restrained them.

  Right now the only person who could still move was the knight captain, still dangling from the stone serpent's head.

  Greem impatiently snapped his fingers when he saw the opponent's stubborn and futile struggle. A thunderous blast of lightning from the sky struck the captain. In the very next second he fell like a piece of rotten wood, smashing a hole in the ground where he landed.

  Having cleaned up the last of the resistance, the camp was finally silent.

  One after another, clay golems began cleaning up the camp in an orderly fashion.

  The rubble from the aftermath of the battle was cleared away, and the shattered ground patched up. The campfire was lit again, and a new skinned boar was placed on the rack above the fire....

  The teenager bound to a tree shivered. For a moment he felt like time had reversed back to when events had just started. The surroundings before his eyes were still the same. The only difference now was that the sole person in the camp was the mysterious man in the black robe.