Greem wasn't daunted by Alice's tantrum. A thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
"You and I both know very well what the Northern Witches are like. They are an isolationist group of individuals who are extremely particular about their traditions and legacies. You and Liana belong to two different branches of witches. She wouldn't easily harm you in fear of interfering in the selection of the Witch of Fate."
"What about that?"
"If the two of us aren't mistaken in that manner, don't you find her actions odd?"
"Of course her actions are odd, she's gone completely mad!"
"Alice, calm down. Don't let anger blind you. Try and think. In doing what she did, what message did she want to send you?!"
Alice still shook her head in confusion.
"Her actions clearly angered you. But it also made you feel your own weakness and helplessness in that situation. What did you want the most when your emotions were at their peak?"
"Power!"
"Yes! Power! You need the power to strengthen yourself. You need the power to exact revenge. If that's the case, where does your power come from?"
"Where does power come from?" Alice repeated in a daze.
"You awakened the talent to be a Witch of Fate! Even though numerous other Witches of Fate awakened at the same time, you must know the source of your power if you trace it to its origins!"
Alice shook her head as if she still didn't fully understand.
Even though she was extremely talented and smart, her lack of experience made it difficult for her to keep up with Greem.
"You must always remember the source of your power." Greem patiently taught her, "You awakened the talent of the Witch of Fate. The source of your power can only come from a single thing– fate. Alice, let me ask you; do you believe in fate?"
Alice lifted her head and locked eyes with Greem. For the first time, she started to consider the true meaning of her talent as a Witch of Fate.
Believe in fate? Do I believe in fate?
Again and again, Alice repeated the question to herself. She fell into a stupor for a moment.
Indeed, ever since she awakened to her spatial affinity, manipulating space became second nature. She could command and control space as she willed. It was thanks to this powerful talent that she was able to dominate all opponents of the same level.
Her powerful strength caused her to be lost.
Everyone's fear and respect made her arrogant.
One by one, they succeeded in causing her to get drunk on her power, and she forgot the origins of her true power!
Fate?
Fate!
Alice recalled her time so far as an apprentice adept. She had never seemed to have consciously tried to understand or master the concept of fate.
She was at ease with enjoying the glory brought about by her talent in fate without ever trying to understand it.
What now then? At this moment, when she finally felt the humiliation of the weak, and once again desired for power, what should she do? Meditate day after day like those other adepts? Accumulate resources to strengthen herself? Or…
Alice suddenly felt even more lost.
Even if she had a clear idea of her path forward, and understood the true nature of her strength, how was she to experience that intangible and illusory fate?
Would shouting 'Fate, I believe in you!' into the sky allow her to gain power?
Her thoughts were all over the place, but she couldn't find a correct path out of the labyrinth. Alice raised her head and looked hopefully at Greem.
"What should I do? Teach me!" Alice, for the first time, requested with all her sincerity.
"Do you believe in fate?" Greem asked once more, his tone heavy and serious.
This was both a question and an answer!
Chapter 298
A follower of the Witch of Fate didn’t believe in fate?
This question might seem like a ridiculous one, but it struck Alice like a thunderbolt.
"Of… Of course… I… believe… in fate… "
Alice stuttered, her voice growing fainter.
Ever since she obtained her unique spatial talent, she had always considered it as her own innate ability. She had never considered the idea of having to discover the source of her talent. Alice was occasionally reminded of this intangible 'fate' that granted her this talent and praised it when she did. However, she had never considered 'fate' as anything more than a non-existent deity. Se had never truly thought about it.
There were less than nine years until the Witch of Fate selection. When that happened, all of the witches who had awakened the bloodline of the Witch of Fate would gather in the Northern regions. A final showdown would decide the identity of the true Witch of Fate.
And there could only be one!
Once the ceremony crowned a candidate as the Witch of Fate, all of the other potentials would die in untold suffering. The power of fate would be robbed from their cold dead corpses and bestowed upon the true Witch of Fate. That was why Alice would either be dead or alive in eight years.
She would face the first trial of life and death in her journey of fate!
What, then, decided her fate?
Strength and power? If Alice had power rivaling a Second Grade adept eight years from now, she would be able to sweep through the other candidates with no trouble. There was no chance anyone could take the title of Witch of Fate away from her at that point.
But was this possible?
Eight years. It was neither a long nor short length of time.
If Alice put in the effort, she would likely advance to an official adept, but she had no chance of leaping all the way to Second Grade adept! It was expected that many candidates should be able to become adepts by then. How was she to distinguish herself then?
Her spatial talent was exceptional, and her powers sufficient, but how weak were the other candidates compared to her?
In this brutal competition, no candidate ever willingly gave up their lives to save another. The Witch of Fate selection would be steeped in blood and death. The unprepared were doomed to become stepping stones for others.
They would writhe in pain and look on as someone else ascended the throne of fate, robbing them of all that defined to them… their talent, their bloodline, and their powers!
Alice's face drained to a pale white at the thought of that fearsome scene.
For the first time in her life, she felt her body filled with motivation. She gripped her tiny fists and cheered herself on.
"Alice, you can do it. Go, go! Work hard! I'll become the greatest witch! Ow… "
She didn't manage to complete her self-encouragement speech; Greem had hit her on the head.
"If your goal is only to become the greatest witch, I can guarantee you that you will not be the Witch of Fate!" Greem glared at her, "It seems I need to reconsider investing in you!"
"Why?" Alice angrily flashed her canine teeth, "How am I supposed to beat them without becoming the best?"
"Use your brain, idiot!" Greem shook his head, as if he couldn't deal with Alice, "You are fighting to be the Witch of Fate! The Witch of Fate! The core of your profession will always revolve around that one word. You don't need to be the strongest. You need to be the one closest to fate!"
Alice's body was no more than eight years old, and her mental age was no more than fifteen or sixteen. She was smart, intelligent, and possessed a good grasp of profound knowledge due to her talent. Still, she was unable to comprehend the concept of fate whenever they talked about it.
"So I don't need to busy myself with strengthening anymore? I should just use all my time to research fate?" Alice asked hesitatingly.
Bang.
He hit her head once again without warning.
"Why did you hit me again?" Alice grabbed her head with her hands and pouted. She was on the verge of crying, "Didn't you say that the Witch of Fate relied on fate rather than strength?"
"Why can't you understand?" Gree
m looked at her, "Strength is your guarantee for survival, while fate is the key to your victory! You must first strengthen yourself to ensure your survival so that you have a chance at victory. I can assure you that the first batch to be eliminated from the selection will be witches who have yet to reach adept level."
"Then?"
"And if those adept-level witches can't do anything about each other, fate will be the only thing they can rely on!"
"But how do you increase fate?"
"That's simple! Just advance to an adept first to make sure you survive. Then, work hard on divination! That is the true factor that determines your fate!"
"Then what do I need to do now?"
"You just need to do one thing now. Try and convince yourself to truly believe in fate. Not lip service or superficial faith, but a true, unreserved belief in faith. You can lie to me, but you cannot lie to yourself, and especially not fate! That's why… little brat, from today onwards, try your best to become a believer of fate!"
Alice nodded, her hands still protecting her head.
…………
Greem returned to his wooden desk once Alice fell asleep again. He took out the crystal brooch talisman and examined it.
This was the golem talisman that Piro had given him.
With this item, Greem could bring his metallic statue around with him once he created it. When he first obtained the talisman, he had dreamed of using the chip's scanning and analysis abilities to see through its secrets, reverse engineer it, then mass produce it.
However, this impractical dream was shattered after the last few days of research!
Dammit! This golem talisman wasn't what he expected. Instead of a massive lesser-plane where a metallic golem could be stored, it was an odd spell. This talisman that could stow away a ten-meter-tall war golem wasn't a spatial tool! Rather, it was a sealing spell!
Greem became furious upon discovering this fact.
He originally thought that he would be able to clone and copy the golem talismans once he overcame the technological barrier. This would have been easy with Alice's spatial talents and the spacestones in his possession. But who knew? It still ended up as a failure.
Greem couldn't help but be amused by his past fantasies.
If the golem talismans were so easily reverse-engineered, the Silver Union wouldn't have been able to maintain a monopoly for several thousand years. Even today, the high-grade adepts of the other major forces still had to traverse billions of miles to request help from the Silver Union if they wanted to carry their golems with them.
So many powerful adepts gathered at the Adept's Association in the east of the Continent, but they too were unable to see through the sealing spell used in the talisman!
Greem gave up after two days of research and confirmed that he wasn’t able to see through the spell as of yet.
He kept the golem talisman and began considering his journey forward.
His main mission on this trip had already been completed. Even though he wanted to stay for a little while longer in this territory, where esoteric adepts gathered like flies, he worried about the spacestones in his possession. He felt like it was safer if he returned to Feidnan City as soon as possible.
Now that Greem had made up his mind, he quickly contacted Adept Angus and had him reserve a ticket back to the Zhentarim Association ten days from now. He and Snorlax then took this opportunity to go on a shopping spree. They swept through the shops in the Outer Circle and frantically collected everything useful to them.
Greem received a sizeable crystal reward for winning the Byron Clan’s duel. He went all-out and bought everything he wanted. He exchanged his entire reward for innumerable materials, resources, and knowledge.
When Greem had first started shopping, he had hoped to purchase a stock of potions that could help increase his Spirit. However, he quickly gave up after going through a couple of shops.
It was simply too expensive! Way too expensive!
Eris' Nightmare. A Spirit potion that was extremely effective, even for adepts. Every dosage would bring an increase of 0.12 Spirits.
The base price was set at 1400 magic crystals per vial. It had severe side effects as well.
As implied by its name, the adepts that consumed this potion would find themselves trapped in a bizarre dream realm every night. They would not be able to break free with their own strength or external stimuli.
They endured a nightmarish experience that lasted two hours before they could wake up.
Such a horrifying side-effect brought about severe safety concerns for adepts that drank it!
The other potion, the Evil Spirit Water, was even worse.
Adepts would be swarmed by wraiths and undead for a lengthy period of time after consuming this potion. If they didn't prepare the necessary defense procedures, then it was very likely they would be possessed by evil spirits.
This was why most adepts that drank the Evil Spirit Water never dared explore old ruins and graves. They became a living undead magnet, attracting all the souls nearby towards them. Any sane adept felt chills running down their spine at that very idea.
The other adept potions were the same. All of them had high prices and negative side-effects. If Greem wanted to raise his Spirit with potions, he would have to increase his wealth ten times over.
Just like that, he spent his remaining days moving through the various stores and shops. Soon, the date of departure arrived!
Chapter 299
The return trip was much more pleasant compared to the lively trip here.
Even though they passed through the same places, there were fewer magical creatures that dared to chase after the battleship.
Greem was confused at first. However, after talking with some of the accompanying passengers, he discovered that the Silver Union was enraged after the abduction incident executed by the Harpy Kingdom.
Consequently, the Silver Union had gathered a group of Third Grade adepts and invaded the Harpy Kingdom. They slew nearly a thousand of the ugly creatures, including a hundred harpy witches.
Unfortunately, they only saved two of the kidnapped adepts. The remaining few had clearly been unable to endure the 'savage' mating process and were drained of all their essence.
The two survivors were both body refining adepts. Their Physiques were comparable to magical beasts.
Sadly, even they had been squeezed to the brink of death by the time they were finally rescued. It appeared it was going to be hard for them to completely recover without one or two years of rest!
The explosive reaction of the Silver Union caused the magical creatures to grudgingly settle down.
Two and a half months later, Greem, along with Alice and Snorlax, finally returned to the center of the Continent.
Their first destination was Guardia Port, the public city at the very west of the Zhentarim area.
They stayed there for two days before a flying ship heading towards the central area arrived. Five days later, they successfully returned to Motta City.
They didn't dare stay in Motta City for too long. The three of them quickly bought a small wagon and hurried out of the city.
…………
A dark forest. A temporary campfire crackled and sizzled.
Snorlax busied himself preparing dinner.
He put up a metal stand over the fire and placed the pot on it before moving to prepare the ingredients.
Alice propped her head up with her hands as she silently gazed into the distance.
She had been like this ever since the strict scolding from Greem.
Greem informed Snorlax that he was going out, then he stood up and walked into the dark forest. Before dinner started, he wanted to see for himself what the outside world of the World of Adepts looked like.
The Continent of Adepts’ trees always grew tall and straight. Their leaves flourished in dense patches as well, almost blotting out all of the light from the sky. The only sources of light came from the faint and desolate glow
of Moonlight Grass and Glow Shrooms.
There weren't very many bushes or fields of grass that grew above knee height. A thick layer of withered and yellowed leaves covered the ground, where a vast stretch of green grass spread.
There were very few critters here.
After all, this was fairly close to the road. Large magical creatures wouldn’t show up around here. Consequently, apprentice adepts were able to freely use the wild beasts nearby as target practice. This was why Greem couldn't find the presence of a single carnivore or herbivore after walking a quarter of a kilometer into the darkness.
All of a sudden, just as he was about to turn back in disappointment, he stopped.
He turned and looked towards his side. He was keeping his guard up.
A towering figure made his way over with heavy footsteps.
His feet crushed rotting leaves as he strode over, the plants snapping and crackling as they were shredded to pieces. The sound reverberated far throughout the silent, shadowed forest.
Greem licked his lips and narrowed his eyes. A faint blue light started to flicker about his irises.
He was completely prepared for a battle.
Meanwhile, he had already sent a warning to Alice and Snorlax through their mental connection.
Under Greem's elementium sight, a bright, blinding-red light emanated from the figure. This was a sign of extreme hostility, as well as severe danger. Greem felt a potent, yet suppressed, aura on the person.
The energy reactions from the unknown man were intense in Greem's visual projection. Most of the energy nodes were spread across the person's limbs, joints, and key organs. It was because of this that Greem could tell the identity of the unknown man. He was a body-refining adept!
It was almost the dead of night in the middle of a silent and unpopulated woodland. His opponent's intent was obvious. Greem couldn't help but be curious. He had maintained a low profile when he returned. How had the Black Glove Association tracked him down?
"You are the Flame Demon Greem?" The tall shape spoke but kept a thirty-meter distance between them.
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