Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  In doing so, the Queen Bug could be considered one of Greem's magical servants. It didn't matter who it would assimilate with in the future. This soul brand would always remain and would be a necessary method for Greem to control her life and death.

  The Chip took the opportunity to scan the Queen Bug's mental consciousness and the form of her soul. Soon, the Queen Bug's attributes projected into Greem's mind.

  Queen Bug. Assimilation-type mutated magical creature.

  Does not possess offensive abilities on its own, but can provide the host with the unique ability of hatching combat bugs. Host's talents will decide traits of hatched beetles. However, the primary form of the bugs will always remain as beetles.

  Bodily attributes: Strength 1 | Agility 1 | Physique 3 | Spirit 2

  Hatched combat bug count: Determined by Spirit. Every point of Spirit allows control of twenty combat bugs. The current limit is forty bugs.

  Hatched combat bug speed: When provided sufficient flesh and blood as nutrition, five larvae can be hatched each day with a growth cycle of twelve days.

  Greem slowly went over the Queen Bug's traits and silently estimated its combat ability.

  The Queen Bug herself couldn't fight at all. She had to rely on the hatched combat bugs to protect herself. With the speed at which she could hatch bugs, Greem could obtain five adept-level beetles daily after twelve days. Of course, this required feeding the beetles sufficient blood and flesh. The stronger the creature the meat came from, the better the effect. These bugs could be used as consumable and disposable soldiers, constantly thrown into the battlefield as cannon fodder.

  From a particular perspective, the Queen Bug could be a moving, living biological den of beetles if she were utilized correctly. She could perpetually churn out soldiers for Greem's faction.

  However, the Queen Bug couldn't do this by herself. She only gained this fantastic ability once she had assimilated with another being. That was why choosing a proper host became an important factor after the Queen Bug submitted.

  Greem's scan confirmed that the Queen Bug still retained adept-level abilities, despite being severely wounded by Acteon's death. That meant that any apprentice adept would be able to become the new 'Evil Bugs' in a very short time, as long as they were properly trained!

  Moreover, the existence of the soul brand in the Queen Bug's soul meant that Greem had a certain degree of control over the new Evil Bugs.

  Thus, Greem decided to share the tower's control authority with the Queen Bug and allow it to make contact with all the apprentices in the tower stealthily. The Queen Bug could then make a list of individuals who could assimilate with her.

  Greem had expected every single apprentice to be included in the list. However, he was surprised when he saw the list provided by the Queen Bug.

  Weren't these too few names?!

  It was important to note that two dozen apprentice adepts were staying in the tower at the moment, including pseudo-adepts like Sabrina and Morse. However, there were just three names on the list provided by the Queen Bug. In fact, there wasn't a single pseudo-adept among them. None of Greem's four disciples were included in the list either.

  Greem only recognized one of the three names.

  Billis!

  Beginner Apprentice Billis!

  Greem couldn't understand this result. It wasn't until after he communicated with the Queen Bug that he finally got it.

  It seemed the Queen Bug didn't choose her host based on power. Instead, she decided based on their talent.

  The Queen Bug was a dark-attribute magical creature. Thus, she especially favored lifeforms with similar talents. Billis might be the weakest, but his innate affinity was extremely compatible with the Queen Bug.

  In fact, his soul compatibility with the Queen Bug was far superior to that of the previous Evil Bugs, Acteon!

  Billis.

  Greem repeated this name as he narrowed his eyes.

  It was worth trying!

  Chapter 459 Shadow Adept

  Three days later, the Aki Clan finally sent a messenger after a long wait.

  It was early in the morning. When Greem opened his eyes, he found a person in his room.

  A blurry silhouette stood in the shadows in the corner of his room.

  It was already bright outside. The bright sunlight scattered into the room through the narrow window, illuminating most of the space and painting it a golden yellow. However, the place where the shape stood remained dark and gloomy. It was as if a portal to the Shadow World had opened in the shadows there.

  Greem was a little taken by surprise. He closed his eyes to sense, but neither his spiritual senses, the Chip's energy scans, nor even the tower's defense system could pick up any abnormality from that corner of the room. If one had to pick out any unusual phenomenon where the silhouette was standing, it would be the slightly more active nature of the shadow energy there.

  However, this so-called activity was only relative.

  The entire World of Adepts was a high-magic world filled with plenty of elementium magic. Still, the distribution of elementium energy would be imbalanced depending on geographical and environmental traits. Some places would start to accumulate similar elementium materials that were compatible with their environment. That was a common phenomenon in the World of Adepts. Greem, when closing his eyes, was almost incapable of differentiating that blur from the background using his spiritual senses alone.

  Greem took a deep breath and climbed out of bed. He stared at the blurred silhouette and bowed to greet his guest, "It is my honor to meet you! Welcome, Sir Colin!"

  "I was still wondering why Flandre had lost. However, I've suddenly understood everything after seeing you with my own eyes," A cold and chilling voice rang out from the blur of shadows. One couldn't tell whether it was a male or female speaking, "To think you had started tempering your Spirit before you completed tempering your body. Hehehe. Brat, if I were you, I would take it slower and replenish the emptiness of your body first."

  Greem listened silently.

  Even though he didn't know why the opponent was suddenly giving him advice, he knew that their information was beneficial to him.

  Ever since Greem had completed the elementiumization of his body and turned it into a flame body, his potential had improved by leaps and bounds. However, while he had dug a massive pool, he hadn't had the time to fill up that pool.

  It was important to note that Greem's attributes were supposed to be much higher than they currently were. With his power of a veteran adept, all of his attributes should at least be above five points. As long as he was willing to spend some magical crystals and find a suitable body tempering technique, he would be able to increase his Strength, Agility, and Physique twofold within twenty to thirty years.

  Unfortunately, he had been too busy running errands everywhere. That caused him to lack the necessary accumulation of knowledge. Even though his Spirit was at an extraordinary height of seven points, his other bodily attributes were severely hindering his improvement.

  Even though he had managed to cover up this situation through various means, this 'internal emptiness' had become a serious concern of his!

  Even though he had managed to crush the two Aki adepts in a glorious display of power, it had mostly been a result of the wind dragon's abilities. The enemy hadn't been able to attack him as they had liked with the wind dragon next to him. Thus, Greem was able to exploit his advantage to its fullest extent and steer the circumstances of the battle in whichever direction he pleased.

  If he hadn't possessed the wind dragon, Greem would have had to rely on his second phase Transformation to clash directly with Adept Flandre. He would have been at the mercy of his enemies the moment his transformation time was over!

  According to the Chip's calculation, the dragon crystal that Alice gave Greem was worth a minimum of three hundred thousand magical crystals. After he converted it into the wind dragon golem, its price even ballooned to an exaggerated five hundred t
housand magical crystals.

  Adept Flandre and Sicha hadn't lost without reason. They had been forcefully buried under the weight of five hundred thousand magical crystals.

  "Sir Colin, the purpose of your visit this time…" Greem would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous when faced with a Second Grade Shadow Adept from the Aki Clan. After all, just the sheer extent of power that they had demonstrated so far made it extremely likely they could kill him with a single strike.

  The stone tower might have been Greem's base, but even now, he still hadn't managed to lock onto the opponent's location with his Spirit. In fact, Greem couldn't even tell if this blurred shadow in front of his eyes was Adept Colin's actual body.

  That meant Greem would have to rely on his instincts to land any of his single-target spells if a fight broke out. It wasn't hard to imagine how effective that would be!

  "Our Aki Clan and your Sarubo Clan have come to an opening agreement. The war will not continue any longer. Otherwise..." The adept in the shadows let out a chilling laugh, causing fear to further grip Greem's heart, "I have taken away those two individuals. This is the compensation for you."

  A black shadow shot towards Greem before exploding into a cloud of blindingly dark mist. When the fog slowly dispersed, a gray pouch was in Greem's hand. It was heavy as if it had been filled with plenty of things.

  Greem's heart trembled.

  Just then, if the opponent hadn't stopped the black shadow and just allowed it to hit him instead, he would have been killed without the time to react.

  This opponent had used this move with the intent to intimidate!

  When Greem finally shifted his attention away from the gray pouch, he realized that the blurred silhouette had already vanished.

  The room suddenly became slightly brighter for no apparent reason.

  …………

  Gilneas City.

  One and a half kilometers away from the stone tower, there sat an ordinary house. Thick black cloth covered all the windows and doors. The inside of the building was filled with a shadowy substance so thick that it was practically solid.

  A strange adept draped in black robes was silently sitting within a small array in the house.

  Suddenly, the array shone with a black light, and the roomful of shadow substance started to flow.

  The dense shadow substance gathered in two spots and formed two silhouettes. As more and more shadow substance flowed into the shapes, they started to become increasingly substantial.

  Finally, the surplus shadow substance dispersed, and two adepts with blood and flesh appeared on the spot.

  An instant ago, Sicha and Flandre had been locked in their cells with bitter expressions. Who knew that the very next second, their Spirits would be fazed for a single moment, and they would find themselves in this pitch-black space.

  The two of them were stunned. However, the two immediately understood everything when they saw the black-robed adept sitting in the array. Sicha and Flandre hurriedly bowed and paid their respects.

  Sicha's broken body had roughly healed after a dozen days of recovery. However, the regenerated flesh clearly couldn't reach the same degree of refinement as before. Consequently, his physical body appeared to be slightly weak and empty.

  "My greetings, Sir Colin!"

  "Sir Colin!"

  A hopeful light suddenly emerged from the dispirited eyes of the two adepts. They bowed to Adept Colin with happy surprise on their faces.

  "Your performance this time was terrible. The name of the clan has been dragged through the mud because of you two," The black-robed adept's face was still shrouded in shadows. Even their voice was somewhat phantom-like, "Prepare yourself for punishment after we return!"

  Sicha's and Flandre's faces flushed white in an instant.

  "May I know how the clan intends to deal with this matter?" Flandre stuttered as he asked.

  "What is it. Do you intend to have two mid-sized clans engage in an actual war?" A cold voice rang out from within the shadows, "If you two had put up a better performance, we might have had a little advantage over the opponent during negotiations. And what now? You destroyed their resource site, and even worse, became prisoners yourself. The clan has lost quite a lot of resources to put this issue to rest. Hmph!"

  The two of them had been shut in the tower for a long time. Sicha and Flandre had plenty of time to guess what their clan's reaction would be. Still, the hatred and disapproval in their hearts were still as intense as ever when they heard the news with their own ears.

  "Sir Colin, does the clan not intend to hunt down that pseudo-adept Sak?" Flandre couldn't help but ask.

  "The killing order remains effective, but we cannot continue issuing it with the name of our clan. That Sak fellow has to die! Unless he never walks out of Feidnan City. Otherwise…" The voice from the shadows was sinister and ice-cold. It was almost as if they had forced their words out between their teeth. It was chilling to hear them speak.

  "Then, what about the Flame Demon?" Sicha was the one to ask this time.

  His had been the most significant casualty of this fight. Consequently, he was also the most furious and vengeful.

  "Conflicts between adepts are unavoidable. Naturally, the clan will fully support the both of you if you intend to win back your reputation. However, all of this can only be conducted in your name. Think carefully about this. If you fail once again, he will have sufficient excuse to murder you!"

  Their faces turned even paler when they heard Adept Colin's words.

  "That Flame Demon has a powerful wind golem. His power is already equal to the peak of elite-level." Sicha spoke resentfully.

  "No First Grade adept within our clan would be his opponent in a duel! Unless..." Flandre started stuttering once again when he reached this point.

  "Unless it was Sir Ivan who took action!" Sicha gritted his teeth and blurted out the words that Flandre had hesitated to speak.

  This Adept Ivan was referred to by Sicha and Flandre as Sir, but he was, as a matter of fact, still a First Grade adept. However, he was a peak First Grade elite adept and was preparing his advancement to Second Grade.

  More importantly, Adept Ivan was the personal disciple of this Second Grade Adept Colin.

  "Hmph! Dream on!" The black-robed adept's sinister Spirit swelled and immediately made it difficult for Sicha and Flandre to breath, "Ivan already moved to the clan's lesser plane last month. There, he can attempt his advancement to Second Grade without any interference. That is why you two will have to win back your reputation on your own. Don't expect the clan to help you with that. The clan leader even warned me before coming on this trip; I am not allowed to strike at someone below my grade. Otherwise, we are very likely to invite a strong retaliation from the Sarubo."

  Sicha and Flandre knew this for a fact as well.

  It was an unspoken rule among the various adept organizations. No higher-grade adept would be allowed to murder lower-grade adepts without proper reason.

  Of course, it was an entirely different matter if the lower-grade adept initiated the provocation!

  This rule was all for the sake of maintaining the ruling order of the World of Adepts.

  Without this rule, the high-grade adepts of the clans would be able to slaughter their enemy's low-grade adepts and mortal civilians. If they were allowed to murder as they liked, no one would remain in the clans except for the few high-grade adepts.

  Under normal circumstances, high-grade adepts would not intervene in the conflicts between low-grade adepts. Otherwise, the opponent could use this as an excuse to murder the low-grade adepts of their own clan.

  A meaningless conflict like this would inflict an extensive and intolerable loss upon any adept organization!

  Chapter 460 Assimilation

  The third level of the stone tower.

  Greem slowly walked to a hidden room after completing his daily meditations.

  At the moment, Beginner Apprentice Billis was sitting inside a large wooden
bucket in the room. His expression was twisted and wicked as if he was silently enduring intense pain. A pungent, unknown purple and black liquid filled the wooden bucket.

  Billis struggled to get up and greet Greem when he saw the adept enter. However, Greem stopped him.

  "How is it; is the assimilation process going well?" Greem asked caringly.

  "Everything is going smoothly, Sir!" Billis endured the intense pain and replied with much difficulty, "I will definitely succeed in this assimilation!"

  Billis pushed aside the long robe draped over his shoulders and revealed his bony chest and pulsating tumor there.

  As a wandering apprentice, Billis wasn't particularly fit. Still, it wasn't as if he was underweight and skinny either. However, in the span of two to three days, he had lost a shocking twenty kilograms. He looked as if his life was burning out. The culprit for his terrible state was that parasitical tumor in his chest.

  Embedded in Billis' chest was a tumor the size of a fist. One could vaguely see a strange bug squirming in there through his skin. The bug's head had firmly planted itself in Billis' chest. Only a small portion of its body and abdominal sac remained on the outside.

  Billis' pain became even more intense as the bug slowly edged closer to his heart.

  Greem bent down to examine the progress of their assimilation. He then straightened his body and advised Billis solemnly, "The Queen Bug has come into contact with your heart. Next, it will find a way to infest your heart and try its best to assimilate with the organ. So, I ask you one last time; do you regret this? If you regret it, I can still interrupt this process. Otherwise, once this phase starts, obvious bug transformations will happen to your body in a short period of time. By then, even I can no longer do anything for you!"

  "I know that my talent will never allow me to become a true adept without Sir's help. That is why I do not regret this choice of mine. Aaaaaah!" An intense pain shot through Billis' heart the moment he finished speaking. He couldn't help but grip the sides of the wooden bucket and howl in agony.