Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  "No! This is only the nature of them adepts. They might claim to be a group of individuals pursuing knowledge, but it doesn't fundamentally change their evil, cruel, and dark nature. They worship knowledge, but are not humble in any way. Their knowledge is vast but they are never compassionate. More accurately, the reason the World of Adepts is so powerful is because it gained power through the continuous robbing and exploiting of other planar worlds!"

  "Then will we be able to escape their control in the future?"

  "There is a chance in the future! But now, if we do not wish to forever be servants and slaves to others, we must learn what we can from the adepts!"

  Chapter 241

  Just as the two were having their conversation, the battle in front had already started!

  When he strode towards the dragon, Greem's two meter tall body had already swollen up to three meters in height. Ferocious elementium flames surged out from everywhere around his body, turning him into a terrifying human of flame in a matter of seconds.

  Thick magma armor appeared out of nowhere, quickly covering the body of this flame humanoid. Greem's steps became heavier and heavier. The originally red flames had become even thicker and denser, with a little more crimson to their color.

  The dragon feasting in the distance stopped its tearing actions and raised its head. It looked cautiously at this scary figure that had come within a hundred meters of itself.

  It had seen plenty of wildlife and magical creatures in its life, but this was the first time it had seen a lifeform like this. A humanoid creature? In his simple and shallow mind, humanoids were equivalent to weakness and cowardice. He had never seen such a terrifying humanlike creature!

  The opponent wasn't at all intimidated by its domineering aura, and was even challenging it actively!

  The whelp growled angrily. It knew something was wrong. It unfurled its wings and beat them rapidly, ready to take off at any time.

  Yet just as it was about to take to the skies, hovering just above the ground, Greem's large silhouette suddenly disappeared. The next second, a flame halo blasted forth above the back of the whelp. Greem's fist brought with it the massive weight of his body and smashed downwards.

  Dong! A muffled boom rang out.

  The green dragon let out a pained howl and fell downwards.

  It didn't fall straight to the ground. With an agile twist of its body, the whelp turned and faced Greem. Its thick hind legs and razor-sharp claws instantly ripped Greem's magma armor into shreds.

  Scorching jets of flames burst forth from cracks in the armor, sizzling as they fried the whelp's claw. Greem's heavy magma fist followed up with yet another blow to the dragon's head. The whelp ignored the blow. It endured the intense pain and continued to frantically scratch away at Greem's chest with its claws, as if it wouldn't stop until it had dug his heart out.

  Greem had also taken severe damage with the shattering of his magma armor. He shouted in anger, and the surging elementium flames combined with the Ring of Fire. The temperature of his flame streams increased exponentially. At this point, it was almost enough to melt a pillar of iron.

  The green dragon and the Flame Fiend were entangled together. The drastic increase in temperature made the whelp feel like it had been plunged into a sea of lava. Sweltering heat relentlessly surged into the seams in its scales and wounds on its body, constantly burning its flesh and blood.

  It felt like… it was about to be cooked!

  The whelp struggled frantically and finally managed to use its hind legs to kick Greem away as they wrestled on the ground. It then swiped at Greem with its tail as he was flying through the air.

  Greem's massive flame body turned into a fireball, crashing and snapping three tall trees before falling into the foliage below.

  The green dragon whelp got up from the ground with some difficulty. The front of its body had been roasted red and white from close contact with the Flame Fiend earlier. The pungent odor of burned flesh rose into the air along with black smoke.

  The whelp bent its body in agony and allowed its boiling flesh to press against the black dirt. It was only then that the pain lessened. Its angry dragon eyes stared closely at the location where the flames rose from. Its sharp senses kept a close check on every motion around him.

  There wasn't just one enemy!

  That flame humanoid was the most terrifying one.

  But it also felt three others quickly gathering elementium aura in three other directions.

  Casters as well! It's those evil casters!

  The whelp couldn't help but panic.

  In all the guidance and teachings it had received since its birth, the description of the evil spellcasters were the most scary!

  If it had already come of age, the magic resistance of its dragon scales would increase massively and allow it to resist their terrifying magic attacks. However, it was only a whelp near adolescence. Its magic resistance was far from being able to ignore elementium attacks!

  The dragon whelp didn't dare continue waiting.

  Its powerful hind legs kicked against the ground and its slightly burnt wings beat quickly. It wanted to return to the safety of the sky.

  However, once more, as its body had just risen from the ground, the dense vines from the trees nearby charged towards it and instantly bound its large wings before it could reach the canopy.

  Even though most of the vines were torn apart by its powerful wings, the whelp was no longer able to control its stumbling body. It fell to the ground once more with a painful cry.

  It crashed against the tough dirt and fell into a daze. A ferocious roar rang out from the woods and a fierce barbaric humanoid figure charged at the whelp with its body bent down.

  There was no explanation or conversation. One green dragon and a human clashed together just like that and started a savage battle. They wrestled and bit at each other like wild beasts.

  It was undoubtedly a humiliating experience to have a spellcaster fight like a warrior in such a crude way. However, to prevent the dragon from returning to the sky, both Greem and Cobalt, who turned into the barbaric giant, could only use their bodies to keep it bound to the ground.

  As the two were battling intensely in the forest, the vines on the trees and the thorns on the ground quickly wrapped towards the dragon's limbs and wings. It was the doing of the girl named Flower.

  Li'l Hawk, the other caster hiding in the forest, pressed his lips together and whistled. The call of eagles echoed back from the distant sky. A dozen black shadows dashed onto the battlefield like piercing arrows and joined the battle.

  As the three casters fought with the whelp, Greem got up painfully from a bush. Viscous crimson lava slowly flowed out from the shattered magma armor on his chest, quickly forming a river of lava before his body.

  Even though his Physique and Strength would multiply when he transformed into the Flame Fiend, his close combat prowess was still at an absolute disadvantage against a whelp five meters long and half a ton heavy.

  He grabbed a large rock from the ground nearby and roasted it with terrifying heat rays from his eyes. After the rock had been softened by the intense heat, he pressed it against his chest. It was only now that he had managed to seal the injury on his chest.

  Greem looked at the battle in the distance. He endured the throbbing pain from all over his body and closed his eyes while he silently started to prepare a powerful spell.

  To avoid leaving any obvious magical markings on the battlefield, he couldn't cast any of the area-of-effect spells like Meteor Shower or Fire Core Explosion. The only choice Greem had left were the spells with physical damage.

  Compared to the even fight between Greem and the whelp, the three native spellcasters were still at a complete disadvantage even when fighting together.

  The lunging eagles had no way of piercing the dragon's scales, and nearly half died from a single poison breath. These flying beasts couldn't do anything to hurt the whelp. The only thing they could do was interrup
t its line of sight.

  The surging vines and thorns were also corroded away by the poison mist.

  The only one that could somewhat restrain the whelp was the berserked giant.

  Unfortunately, the green dragon had managed to use its larger size, sharp claws, and powerful attacks to deal terrible damage to Cobalt.

  But this was enough.

  The whelp's fate had been determined when Cobalt managed to stop it in its tracks! Greem gained the chance to successfully cast his spell.

  Perhaps because it also sensed the terrifying might gathering around the ferocious flame humanoid, the green dragon tried its very best and broke free from the barbaric giant's assault. It bent its body and charged rapidly towards Greem.

  Now that the opponent had finished gathering power, taking to the skies would only cause him to become a moving target. Thus the whelp gave up on escaping and instead launched an attack at the flame humanoid.

  Greem let out a violent shout. His large magma hands extended forward and a flame whip crossed a twenty meter distance, striking the whelp's side. This blow was extremely powerful. The whelp stumbled and crashed against two trees before falling before Greem.

  Greem's spell had also completed at this moment. He raised his hands, and a terrifying sawtooth blade formed of magma and wreathed in flames quickly formed.

  The whelp’s tragic and agonizing howl rang throughout the woods. Several seconds later, the woods regained its unnatural silence.

  Greem stepped on the dragon's neck and pulled out the sawtooth blade with much difficulty. Dragon blood flew everywhere, spattering the red-hot magma armor and corroding it, filling it with green patches here and there.

  "Set up quick. The dragons will be back shortly!" Cobalt had transformed out of his berserked, barbaric giant state, turning into a middle-aged man with a stubble and a body full of tough muscles. He pressed against the wounds on his chest and shouted into the distant woods.

  A girl wrapped in green leather armor ran out from her hiding spot. Under the effects of her powerful plant energies, this entire stretch of forest started to change rapidly.

  The scorched earth was quickly covered by growing bushes. The charred and withered trees rapidly regained their life and color. The marks of battle were slowly vanishing. In less than five minutes the forest had returned to the state it was before. All marks and traces left by magic had been completely covered and hidden.

  The sound of footsteps. A teenage boy wearing an animal skin coat leapt out from the bushes holding an unconscious human in each hand. From the looks of their bodies, and from the looks of their clothes, it seemed they were… two powerful spellbreaker knights!

  Chapter 242

  A sorrowful roar echoed throughout the mountains.

  The green dragon, along with the two whelps that returned to search for their missing companion, dove into the woods. A short moment later, a mournful roar that caused even the ground to shake rumbled across the forest. The dragons took to the skies with their lithe bodies, circling above the trees as if they were looking for something.

  But no matter what they did, they couldn't accept the reality that their companion had died.

  Finally, amidst a wave of sorrowful dragon roars, the adolescent green dragon dove into the woods and picked up the whelp's corpse. It beat its wing and flew to the horizon with no hesitation. The two other whelps followed closely behind him, bringing the two spellbreaker knight corpses with them.

  It wasn’t until after the woods had regained their peace that Greem and the others walked out from the bushes.

  "Just like that?" Greem gazed into the horizon and spoke with disbelief, "Those dragons are not stupid. Would they really believe such simple misdirection?"

  "The dragons are not stupid. They are just too reliant on their prophecies!" A strange smile appeared on Diviner Mas' pale and elderly face. At this point, Greem really thought he had a lot of potential to be a scammer on the streets. Mas continued, "As long as I'm around, everything they see through their prophecies will only be what I choose to let them see. Moreover, the dragons have also been looking for an excuse to raid the palace. It's just that the excuse they've got this time is a little larger than they expected!"

  Greem nodded in agreement after quickly thinking about it.

  Due to the existence of the Dragon Covenant, the green dragons were not shameless enough to outright rob the palace. However, the fact that most of the dragons raiding Skandre in recent days had been dragon whelps, that caused havoc and massive deaths with every appearance, was enough to reveal the dragon's plan to create an excuse.

  If the witcher-knights couldn't resist the urge to fight back against the green dragons, they would have a proper excuse to tear apart the Covenant and horde a lot more wealth before retreating from this plane.

  Sadly, they didn't expect that the excuse they were looking for came at the price of a whelp's life.

  This might have been their only miscalculation!

  "When will they come to take their revenge?" Greem followed with a question.

  "Before the break of dawn tomorrow!" Mas spoke with utter certainty, "So if Sir Greem has anything he wants to do, you best use tonight's time to its fullest. Otherwise who knows what will be left of the kingdom in the all-out fight tomorrow!"

  "Very good! If all works out well, I'll leave tomorrow after completing the two tasks. I'll lift the magic seals on the scrolls before I leave!"

  "Then… let's hope for a successful and pleasant cooperation!"

  "I also look forward to working with Sir Mas in the future!"

  This last sentence was Greem's sincere thoughts.

  Greem had truly felt the benefit of having a Diviner as an ally over the past few days of cooperation. No matter what they did, things almost went down well. Even the few risks they had to take were within their control and expectations. If he wanted to have massive plans for development in the future, cultivating a loyal prophet was a must.

  That Alice seemed to be a very good candidate!

  Witch of Fate? A witch bearing the name of Fate. It was certain that they walked down the same path as Mas. Mmm. When Greem returned, he would most definitely take his time to train Alice.

  …………

  The back of Mount Mingsu.

  Mount Mingsu was deathly silent and dreary when night fell.

  Ever since the construction of Runeforge Camp, the back of Mount Mingsu had turned into a restricted area. The witcher-knights sealed all the entrances into the mountain and constantly patrolled the place to ensure there were no trespassers. Along with the steep and dangerous geography of the place, with its many dangerous cliffs, no man or creature travelled this area.

  Greem had only managed to sneak in with the cover of nightfall. Two other casters had followed behind him. One was the transforming ‘adept’ Cobalt, and the other was that plant-attribute ‘adept’ Flower.

  Greem had witnessed their abilities in the fight earlier.

  Their Spirits were slightly stronger than pseudo-adepts of the World of Adepts, but their use of spells and magic was far more inferior. In an all out fight it was uncertain if they would be able to beat the most powerful pseudo-adepts.

  Their prowess, in fact, matched their identities.

  A small plane with no knowledge or resources. How could they possibly hope to cultivate any kind of powerful individuals?!

  It hadn’t been long since night had fallen. Greem kept a tight count of the time. He drew a small magical array in the cave they were hiding in and silently triggered the fire rune in the distance.

  Almost at the same time that Greem cast his spell, Daphne, who had just returned home, fell to the ground in pain. She felt like seven or eight burning furnaces had been crammed into her body. An endless wave of heat radiated from within her, slowly boiling every bit of her blood.

  After consulting many doctors–to no avail–the news of her daughter's condition finally spread to the ears of that radiant knight stationed in Run
eforge Camp. Naturally, faced with the bad news that his daughter's life was hanging by a thread, he unhesitatingly rushed out of the camp and returned home.

  This news quickly found its way to Greem as well, with Diviner Mas’ lookout spotting the radiant knight walking into his house.

  The assault started almost immediately!

  Below a cliff at the back of Mount Mingsu.

  The metal waste falling from above had piled into a mountain a dozen meters high. The smoking waste sizzled against the wet ground, causing the entire place to be filled with a pungent odor and thick mist.

  In the past, some scavengers and wanderers would sneak here in the dead of night to scavenge for valuable things amongst to waste to sell for money. However, with the start of the dragon raids in Skandre City half a month earlier, no one came here anymore.

  Greem and the two others easily found their way to the bottom of the mountain using the dark of the night as cover.

  Greem raised his head and looked up through the mist. He could vaguely see a cave on the cliff three hundred meters above. The entrance was only four or five meters wide, with the edge of the cave gleaming from the light reflecting off its metal fence.

  Greem did a quick calculation. A single Fire Teleportation wasn't enough to get him to the cave. If there wasn't a foothold somewhere in the middle, he would have to find another way up.

  According to the plan they had agreed on, the plant-attribute 'adept' Flower found a spot beneath the cliff. She dug a hole in the ground and buried the seed of an Ironthread Vine. A single frail vine as thick as a finger quickly grew against the cliff as she chanted.

  As Flower's chanting proceeded, the vine continued to grow and its roots started to grow thick and large in size as well. In a matter of seconds it had formed into stairs that reached into the sky, crawling all the way to the bottom of the cave on the cliff.

  "It's done! Get up!" Adept Flower whispered under her breath.

  Under her orders, three massive leaves grew from the vine. The three stepped onto a leaf each, and they shot straight up through the mist like a modern elevator.