Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  It had completely different rules compared to the world he originally came from. Before he understood and mastered everything about this world, its planar laws, and its rules, Vanlier didn't believe himself able to help his master plan for everything that might come at them.

  He couldn't help but start thinking of Adept Greem as they traveled.

  What kind of relationship did this guy have with his master?

  Partner? Ally? Or…lover?

  The master might seem to be cruel and savage at all times, but she was still a human girl after all; no, a vampire girl. Perhaps it was possible that she still had a trace of a female's emotional dependency left in her heart!

  "Vanlier, what kind of stupid bullshit are you thinking about now?" Mary's angry shout almost caused Vanlier's soul to shatter and disperse.

  Due to the connection between their souls and the limited distance between the two of them, Mary could sense Vanlier's thoughts when he was too focused on thinking about something.

  "Spare me, master! I won't do it again." Vanlier hastily hid into Mary's armor again. He no longer dared to show his face.

  Mary, who was quickly flying through the skies, fell into contemplation after shouting at Vanlier.

  She had charged out here without hesitation after hearing about the trouble Greem was in. Yet, she still couldn't untangle her thoughts on this situation. She still didn't understand her own emotions.

  Lover?

  What an absurd and ridiculous word!

  Many male and female adepts did come together to become lovers, as well as what is known as husband and wife by others. However, the majority of adepts were often in a dependent relationship.

  One of them would be a high-grade adept, and the other would get into the relationship for resources, knowledge, or even influence within their clan. They would live a life of being groomed and taken care of, much like a pet.

  Mary couldn't accept such a twisted relationship, unless…

  Unless she was the dominant one!

  Mary's crimson eyes lit up when her thoughts wandered here.

  This might be a good idea!

  Chapter 452 Analyzing Runes

  The Stone Tower.

  In the end, this tower was just a crude building made of stone. It didn't have complete facilities like an actual adept's tower; it certainly didn't have a sea of lava, such as the one in Fire Throne, that Greem could use to continue tempering his Spirit.

  The efficiency of meditating in a place like this was only one-fourth or even one-fifth of what it was in Fire Throne. Every day here was like endless torture for Greem.

  To ensure he didn't end up wasting his time, Greem dedicated most of his time here to the study and mastery of the otherworldly runes.

  After eleven years of processing, the Chip had finally managed to analyze and decipher the one hundred and seventy-three runes brought back from the Knight's Plane. Apart from the one hundred and twenty-two primary runes that both worlds shared, thirty-five of the runes were variations of existing runes, and sixteen of them were new and rare runes.

  The shape of the runes had been confirmed and verified. What came next was a more detailed probing and analysis of each rune to figure out the hidden knowledge within them.

  One could say that the variation runes and rare runes were Greem's greatest harvest from his trip to the Knight's Plane. That was because these runes were the essence of the higher arcane knowledge of a small plane!

  The Knight's Plane might only have been a small plane, and its arcane knowledge was limited due to the knight's suppression, but the knights had also managed to push the power of every individual rune to their very limits.

  Things would have been very different if the green dragons manipulating the kingdom from behind the scenes hadn't been such misers. Had they done away with the bloodline limitations on the runic powers, the Sarubo Clan could only have dreamt of taking down the Knight's Plane with anything less than fifty First Grade adepts.

  However, there were no such things as 'if' in this universe!

  It was the greedy nature of the green dragons that caused the strength of the natives to be so distorted and weak. The knights hadn't been able to gain a decisive advantage against the sinister adepts.

  That was why the loss of the Knight's Plane had been an inevitability for the green dragons!

  Even if the adepts had never discovered this backyard haven of the green dragons, some other dominant race would have found it. The fate of the plane remained unchanged.

  These variant runes and rare runes that Greem obtained from the Knight's Plane still retained some of the origin forms of the planar laws there. That was because they hadn't undergone the long process of evolution and change that the World of Adept's runes had.

  That was the part that Greem valued the most!

  According to the Chip, the collected and created runes in the World of Adepts runic system numbered over a thousand. It was the combination of all these runes that forged the rich culture of magic in the World of Adepts.

  However, there were tradeoffs involved in this. The ancient adepts had once drawn upon the chaotic runes they saw and learned from nature. The continuous optimization, modification, and creation involved in the runic system over the years had caused these chaotic runes from ancient times to evolve and turn into the magical runes that adepts of today could utilize.

  The chaotic runes of ancient times were often the manifestation of planar laws on the bodies of powerful magical creatures. That was a time when the world consciousness had yet to be born. Consequently, these runes were not things that ordinary humans could master or understand. Only great adepts with exceptional talent and ingenuity could learn some of the chaotic runes. It was through these runes that they had gained access to supernatural and mysterious powers.

  The nature of these chaotic runes caused them to be extremely close to the truth and origin power of the planar laws. That was why every single adept that mastered the ancient chaotic runes were powerful existences that could rend the skies and split the earth with a single thought!

  However, a small number of powerful individuals were hard-pressed to defend the massive entirety of the human race. As a result, many smart and intelligent sages had devoted their effort towards the research and analysis of the chaotic runes.

  Years of repetitive experiments and exploration had finally allowed an individual to become an adept by drawing upon the power of the new variant runes derived from the chaotic runes.

  These new adepts had undoubtedly possessed a far weaker mastery of the planar laws compared to the ancient adepts. Still, this progress had substantially lowered the difficulty of advancing to adept.

  Thus, generation after generation of accumulation, and the efforts of countless adepts had transformed the chaotic runes into the many new runes of the current system. This change over time significantly weakened the powers of the runes themselves and made the forces of the planar laws even more inaccessible. However, it allowed humans to cultivate a large batch of new adepts quickly.

  As the planar laws slowly became more intricate and refined, fewer adepts were able to master the chaotic runes. On the other hand, the new adepts started to rise in numbers. Finally, the adepts became the dominant force in this world, and a brand new civilization was born!

  All the runes that the adepts of today researched, studied, comprehended, and mastered were the new runes that had been created through the analysis of the chaotic runes. Those ancient runes that few could learn had now crumbled into the dust of history, never to be seen again.

  Still, all elementium adepts knew the power of these chaotic runes. The adepts would be able to quickly and more efficiently sense and experience the power of the planar laws if they used chaotic runes. It would be hundreds, if not thousands of times more effective to use the chaotic runes instead of the new runes. Of course, this only held true if the adept's abilities and knowledge had reached a certain threshold. Unfortunately, in the World of Adepts of
the present, it was virtually impossible to get one's hands on an ancient chaotic rune.

  The large adept organizations might still preserve some chaotic runes in their knowledge treasuries, but they would never be so generous as to offer them to the public for research. Instead, they hid them deep within their organization, treating them with the utmost importance and secrecy. Only the high-grade and core adepts of their organization were allowed to research them.

  Many powerful adepts had discussed these chaotic runes in their notes. The research and analysis of the chaotic runes were said to be extremely difficult and time-consuming. Even the same rune, when analyzed by two different adepts, could result in entirely different knowledge and experience for the researcher. Only the researcher themselves would be able to utilize the results they had discovered.

  That meant that no one would be able to refer to the research results, let alone use them, even if someone had been generous enough to publicize them.

  It was this unique situation of the chaotic runes that caused them to be undesirable to low-grade adepts.

  However, if an adept were able to decipher even a portion of a chaotic rune, they would be able to merge that knowledge into their abilities and create completely different and unique spells.

  Even though many adepts were creating new spells on a daily basis, spells containing the power of chaotic runes were always known for their strength and effectiveness. In fact, many adepts had even managed to form new adept paths and styles due to a single powerful spell they discovered!

  Greem had been an adept for eleven years. However, he had only gathered a measly number of three hundred and twenty-seven magical runes. Every single one of them was a fundamental rune. The variant runes and rare runes found in the Knight's Plane might not have undergone the countless evolutions and modifications of this world's runes.

  However, if Greem was able to decipher them completely, he might be able to figure out a portion of the planar law's pattern.

  The Chip organized and categorized these thirty-five variant runes and sixteen rare runes. The Chip split them into six major attributes– earth, fire, water, wind, light, and darkness. These attributes were then further divided and broken into branch attributes– acid, chaos, ice, shadow, death, lightning, evil, horror, flame, forcefield, language, radiance, soul, sound, and many more.

  The Chip estimated an astounding completion time of sixty-seven years for the task of researching all of these runes. That means that Greem would have to focus on only these runes for sixty-seven years without doing anything else if he wanted to figure them out entirely. Moreover, he didn't even know how useful they would be.

  That was a heavy time investment. It would be a devastating blow to Greem if the deciphered runes could not be included and used in the improvement of his powers!

  Greem only hesitated for a moment before choosing to prioritize the deciphering of the runes related to his affinity.

  There were three runes related to fire. One was a variant rune, while two were rare runes.

  Analyzing the variant rune required forty-one days while examining the rare runes needed seventy-eight and eighty-two days respectively. In fact, this was a considerably compressed timeframe that Greem was only capable of thanks to his fire affinity and the powerful tool that was the Chip. Any other adept would likely have needed several years or even decades to figure the runes out slowly.

  Since he had nothing better to do in the tower, Greem put all of the Chip's processing power towards the analysis of the variant fire rune.

  He wanted to know if these runes he had risked his life for could actually help him!

  Greem gave an order, and a strange rune made of pure fire immediately surfaced in the depths of his mind. The rune slowly started spinning. When Greem cast his mental consciousness into the rune, a peculiar and obscure feeling would rise in his soul.

  Back on Earth, in his previous life, any word constructed with symbols could only carry meaning with it. However, here in this fantastical high-magic world, words had energy and power. They became much more valuable. Apart from being able to convey information through complex symbols, the runes could also reveal hidden details about the world through the distribution and changes of energy within them.

  For example, there was the fire rune currently floating in Greem's mind. Even though he had only formed squiggly lines in the shape of the otherworldly rune, he had somehow touched upon the fire laws of the world. The lines that formed the rune were now glowing with a golden radiance and caused all who looked at it to feel a strange warmth.

  This feeling came from within the soul! It wasn't an external feeling.

  When Greem looked at this rune, a warm feeling would naturally rise in his heart. It wasn't a magical effect applied to him from the outside.

  This mysterious power enchanted him. His mental consciousness couldn't help but sink into the feeling, silently experiencing and trying to understand the fluctuation of the fire aura within the rune.

  While he was trying his best to feel the rune with his soul, the Chip emitted a brilliant blue light. The light shone upon the variant fire rune, conducting a detailed and comprehensive analysis while it recorded every single change happening within.

  Just then, the tower's defensive arrays sent a warning to him through a unique frequency.

  An outsider had broken into the stone tower!

  Chapter 453 Approval

  Greem almost hadn't recognized Mary when he first saw her.

  The ten years of battle in the other plane had produced a tremendous change to Mary's appearance and composure.

  Her skin was still as white as ever, her face as delicate as before, and her eyes still glowed the crimson color of blood. However, this once incomparably beautiful young girl had now become a cold, decisive, and capable leader. Her every action carried a commanding aura of intimidation that silenced all doubts.

  The arcane hall was now filled with apprentices that had caught wind of the news!

  Even though they knew the intruder was a terrifying adept, they didn't seem scared at all. They held magic wands in their hands, holding their scrolls at their waist while downing several bottles of resistance potions. They worked together and took up all the advantageous positions in the room as they stared at this beautiful intruder with fierce looks.

  Sir Flame Demon was now within the tower. That undoubtedly filled the apprentices with boundless courage and bravery. If Sabrina hadn't suppressed their eagerness, apprentices would have already struck at the intruder.

  "May I know where you have come from, Lady? Why are you trespassing here in the property of the Sarubo Clan?" Sabrina was nervous, but she still acted as the chief of the apprentices and stepped in front of this mysterious female adept.

  Before the intruder could even speak, Greem's voice rang out in the room.

  "Everyone put your wands away," Greem arrived promptly by the spiral staircase, "Allow me to introduce our guest. This woman is the famous Adept Mary of our Sarubo Clan!"

  Adept Mary? The Bloody Sorceress?

  The apprentices opened their mouths wide in shock. They stared at Adept Mary with complicated feelings. She didn't seem as scary and terrifying as the rumors claimed. She had an infamous reputation within the clan for being violent. Almost all of the apprentices had already heard of her feats. She was a combat adept that had risen to prominence alongside Adept Greem, and she possessed powerful vampiric talents.

  She had been sent to a planar battlefield right after she had advanced to adept. Consequently, not many apprentices within the clan had seen her before. Why else would the apprentices do something as ridiculous as not recognize one of their clan's adepts?

  "Mary, when did you come back? Let's go to my room and talk!" Greem clearly sensed the changes Mary had undergone after such a long time away.

  However, things didn't unfold the way he thought they would. Mary didn't seem too happy or excited to see him. Instead, she narrowed her crimson eyes and silently as
sessed Greem. After a long pause, she proudly spoke, "I killed Acteon!"

  Greem's face twitched. He couldn't help but ask a question in return, "Evil Bugs Acteon? You killed him?"

  The Bloody Sorceress killed Evil Bugs?

  This explosive news came as a massive surprise to all the apprentices. None of them could hide the shock that their faces betrayed.

  The one who was most affected by the news was Greem!

  Others might not have known difficult of an opponent Acteon was. However, he had personally fought against him multiple times. He knew just how annoying and powerful his magic was. Acteon's abilities might not be the most powerful, but they were certainly the hardest to deal with!

  Moreover, Acteon was also a powerful adept that could punch above his weight.

  If given a chance to raise his army of carcass beetles, he would have been able to crush any ordinary adept. The bugs would have devoured them before they even had a chance to get close. One couldn't measure Acteon based on his attributes as a newly advanced adept. With the numerical advantage of the carcass beetles and his own undying body, Acteon could wear away at an elite adept and drag them to their grave.

  "I officially challenge you now!" Mary was destined to surprise some of the apprentices into a coma today. Another massive bomb had come out of her mouth when she spoke, "Come with me!"

  Bloody mist rose behind Mary. A pair of large leather wings with a clear outline opened up. She slowly levitated off the ground and charged out of the stone tower, flying towards an empty area to the west of the city.

  Dammit? What was this?

  An expression that was neither upset nor happy appeared on Greem's face. He was completely baffled.

  Even he didn't always understand what Mary was thinking with her temperamental personality.

  "All of you listen to Sabrina's orders. Watch the tower and make sure nothing goes wrong before I return!" After leaving some simple instructions, Greem activated all of the defensive arrays using his authority as the stationed adept. He then quickly followed behind Mary and hurried towards the east of the city.