Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Mary finally understood at this moment.

  The Alice that she had always thought would be a little girl, who would never grow up, had indeed grown up. Not only was Alice's will so resilient that it shocked her, but even Alice's experience seemed to be more vast and encompassing than her own.

  The one currently standing before Mary was no longer the wicked little loli that liked to put on a cute facade; she was a true witch whose mind had matured so much it was hard to tell its limits.

  Mary had made up her mind while she was on the way here; she would fight Alice first regardless of what excuses she had prepared. However, the bloodline shackles that Alice mentioned had moved her.

  It could also be said to be the eternal agony of all offshoot vampires!

  As offshoot vampires, they were different from true vampires.

  True Vampires were mostly the bloodline descendants of vampire families. Their bloodline was passed on generation to generation. There were almost no limitations by bloodline shackles on them. On the other hand, offshoot vampires were often ordinary men that had been turned into vampires by the Embrace of true vampires.

  Mary was even more of a special case. She was a unique vampire that had been cultivated and modified by that accursed Adept Anderson with vampire blood that he had chanced upon. Thus, in all truthfulness, it was more appropriate to call Mary a bloodline corruptor!

  It was because of this factor that Mary had started feeling severe bloodline conflicts ever since she had become an elite adept. If she didn't find a way to deal with the trouble deep in her soul and bloodline, then elite adept might be the limit she could reach for the rest of her life.

  Even if she wanted to increase her powers, that strange and intangible bloodline shackle would turn all of her efforts into a pipe dream. If she wanted to change this, the only method was to drain that vampire of their blood, thereby allowing her to become a 'true' vampire!

  These were the secrets that Mary hid deep in her heart. Who would have known that Alice would expose them here? It wasn't hard to see why she was so affected that she almost lost control of her strength.

  Mary took several deep breaths and suppressed her instincts to go berserk. Finally, she managed to regain her rationality.

  "Tell me then; I want to listen to your conditions!" Mary put away her threatening looks and started conversing with Alice on equal footing.

  "I know you are looking for the location of that vampire!" A trace of a smile finally appeared on Alice's tense face.

  "Where is he?" Mary asked impatiently.

  "Is there any use in asking this question?" Alice smiled as she answered with a question, "Why? Could you actually bring men and kill your way to him, even if you knew his location?"

  "Why can't I?"

  Alice placed her hand on her forehead in pain.

  "Vampires have absolute authority over their bloodline descendants. Do you think you could even stand and speak with the vampire once you arrive before them? The vampire wouldn't even need to fight you. They only need to order you to kill yourself through the bloodline connection, and you would probably strangle yourself to death."

  Mary's body trembled uncontrollably for a moment.

  She had recklessly created blood servants and vampire spawn in the other plane. Those fellows were no more than worthless slaves and cannon fodder in her eyes. They had no personal rights or privacy. When she needed to leave the plane, she was even cruel enough to activate her Shackles of Blood and turn the hundreds of subordinates that she couldn't bring with her into nutrition for her growth.

  She had felt as if everything was just as it was supposed to be when she performed those actions!

  However, there was now a person above her that could impose the same things upon herself. It wasn't hard to imagine Mary's anger and fear!

  The more she thought about it, the more apparent things became. Mary's mind was now calmer and more rational than ever before.

  She raised her head and stared at Alice, delicately asking, "Then what do you think I should do?"

  "You don't need to be too worried!" Alice explained slowly, "I have already found that arch-nemesis of yours. We are very fortunate. He's still a First Grade vampire. We can still exterminate him with our strength. However, you definitely can't exterminate him yourself. In fact, you shouldn't even get close to him. That's why I will need to arrange the personnel to take him down personally. These vampires are all cautious. If we try and fail, we will likely alert them, and it will be much harder to find them again."

  "I understand!" Mary sighed and once again spoke, "I owe you for this one. As an exchange of benefits, I will also help you do on one thing with all of my abilities. I will not retreat, regardless of how dangerous it might be!"

  Alice let out a sigh of relief and walked forward to take Mary's hand. She softly laughed as she said, "Since we have already reached an agreement, then naturally, we are the best of sisters now. Oh! That's right, Sister Mary, did you know? I used to have a grandmother that really loved me in the past, but she… she… "

  Alice's blue eyes abruptly turned red at this point. Tears flowed down her face continuously.

  "What happened to her?" Mary gritted her teeth and asked.

  "She's been detained by some bad guys. She's even imprisoned in a terrifying place and constantly being tortured.”

  Mary looked at Alice, who looked like she was about to cry again. Even though Mary knew she was probably looking at a massive trap, she had no choice but to commit to it for the sake of the bloodline shackles.

  "Alright, stop crying!" Mary said frustratingly, "You just want me to help you save a person, don't you? Tell me the location and the person, and I'll go now."

  Alice, who had just been sobbing, immediately broke into a radiant smile. She grabbed Mary's hand and swung it about, "As expected, Sister Mary really loves Alice. Alice will also try her best to do help Sister Mary on her matter."

  Having said that, Alice leaned up to Mary's ears and whispered a few sentences.

  As expected, this was no easy task. The enemy was the Dark Witches!

  This Alice had indeed found a good opponent for herself.

  Mary sighed and left with tremendous resentment in her heart.

  …………

  Bee's Nest.

  As the den of the Aba Beemen, the security of the bee's nest was undoubtedly the strictest of all.

  However, the appearance of a mysterious phantom these days had plunged the ‘powerful’ Aba Beemen into endless horror.

  Over the past month, nearly a hundred beeman soldiers had gone missing. That was the gift that the mysterious phantom had bestowed upon the Aba Beemen. Moreover, as the mysterious ghost grew stronger with each passing day, he was no longer satisfied with waiting to ambush beemen hunting squads near the border. Instead, he actively invaded the territories of the beemen.

  Now, even patrolling in the forest near the bee's nest was no longer a safe errand.

  With no other choice left to him, the Beeman Commander had to shrink the defensive line and increase the number of men in the hunting squads from its initial fifteen men to the current thirty. The lack of food also halted the Aba Queen's act of quickly expanding the tribe.

  The number of beeman soldiers in the bee's nest had fallen from its peak of five hundred and sixty men to its current number of four hundred and thirty-six men. The number of hunting squads had also been reduced from twenty-five to ten. It was an incredible blow to the bee's nest!

  The beemen's detailed investigations finally allowed them to figure out the situation. The one attacking the beeman hunting squads was no magical creature, but a human apprentice adept.

  And this was precisely what confused and bewildered the Aba beemen.

  What means did an ordinary human apprentice adept possess to devour so many beeman soldiers?

  This question was finally answered by some beeman soldiers that had been fortunate enough to escape.

  That damned human apprentice
had walked upon the terrifying path of a bloodline adept. He could transform into a frightening bug man and continuously strengthen himself by devouring the bodies of beeman soldiers. He was also capable of hatching strange scorpions to act as his soldiers.

  Moreover, the scorpions that he hatched could hide under the ground. This ability was why the bee's nest was incapable of finding the enemy, despite sending out so many search parties!

  The Aba Beemen even sent messengers to the human adept's tower to protest the enemy crossing over agreed upon borders.

  Sadly, the human adept, that was skinny enough that he looked like a giant mouse, took out the peace agreement that he had signed earlier and rebutted. Spit flew everywhere as he explained elaborately to the beeman messenger that all of the adepts had stayed within the tower. None of them had taken a single step into magical creature territory.

  On the other hand, the conditions of the peace agreement did not regulate the actions of apprentice adepts.

  Thus…

  Fire Throne would not be responsible for any actions of the bug apprentice. If the Aba Beemen didn't like him, they were free to kill him and eat his body.

  Going to the human adept's tower had yielded no result. Yet, it was also impossible for them to go asking for help from the other magical creatures nearby.

  As such, the Aba Queen flew into a rage!

  Chapter 471 Everyone Busy With Their Own Matters

  The Black Forest in the afternoon was unusually and uncomfortably warm.

  Tall trunks supported the massive umbrella-like canopy.

  The distance between each of the ancient trees wasn't much. Their branches, leaves, and vines intertwined together to form the boundless expanse of forest. A thin mist wandered in the woods, and sunlight filtered through the gaps of the leaves to form slanted pillars of light, turning the forest into a dream-like fantasy.

  There wasn't a single trace of a bug's call or beast's roar in the forest.

  The dirt beneath a massive tree suddenly started moving, and a tiny earth hill the size of a human's head swelled on the spot. Countless black beetles surged out of the ground and gathered together to form a crawling figure of a human.

  This bug man formed out of a pile of insects stood silently for a while, as if he was communicating with some subordinates of his in the distance. A short moment later, the man raised his crawling head of bugs and turned to stare in the direction of the Aba Beemen's nest. Profound confusion filled his heart.

  The Aba Beemen had abandoned their outer hunting area and inner living area; they had all retreated into their nest. That was beyond his expectations!

  However, after some quick thought, Billis managed to deduce the actions of the Aba Beemen based on the knowledge crystal that Greem had given him.

  The knowledge crystal that Greem had passed off to him was full of content. It encompassed almost everything about the Aba Beemen. It detailed the origin of their species, the organization of their tribe, their governance system, the mode of operation of authority, the fundamental attributes of the different members of the tribe, their combat strategy, and the traits of the beemen classes.

  With this information, Billis could beat down these low-level magical creatures that even outnumbered his bug army. In fact, most of the time, Billis could lay down all sorts of traps and wait for the beemen to walk into them.

  Billis still managed to find the answer he needed from the knowledge crystal in response to this unusual behavior of the Aba Beeman.

  The Bloodlocust Bee. That was probably the only trick up the sleeves of those Aba Beemen!

  The bloodlocust bee was a type of terrifying otherworldly creature. It possessed adept-level power and was one of the rare individuals among the Aba Beemen that had individual power beyond an adept level.

  Any Aba Beemen tribe had to sacrifice the lives of three to five beeman soldiers on a daily basis to sustain the existence of a bloodlocust bee. That was why the Aba Queen wouldn't so easily hatch this terrifying creature that feasted upon its brethren, as well as the enemy, if the tribe didn't at least number a thousand.

  Yet now, the Aba Beemen had almost gone mad from torture by the annoying bug man. That was why they could no longer care for these taboos and instead prepared to hatch a bloodlocust bee to deal with Billis quickly.

  Recorded in the knowledge crystal was the fact that bloodlocust bees possessed resilient bodies that could even compare to beginner body-refining adepts. Their flight speed was swift, and their terrifying scythe-like mouthpart could shred steel.

  Fighting against a monster like this was impossible. Even Billis himself might be hunted down and killed, let alone his seven sting scorpions!

  Hmph! If I can't beat you, then I'll just hide from you!

  Billis wasn't a brainless, wild magical creature that only knew how to run against a wall until it died. In any case, the mission his master gave him was just to limit the expansion of the Aba Beemen. Now that he had mainly accomplished his task, there was no need to continue fighting them to the death.

  Return to the tower?

  A deadly murderous intent raged in Billis' heart when he recalled the forest spirit's angry look when she had seen him. However, that forest spirit seemed to be the partner of that mouse, and that mouse was his master's assistant. It wouldn't be easy to lay a finger on her.

  Since he wasn't going to return to the tower, then he might as well go and find trouble with the other magical creatures!

  Master said that the Three-Headed Fiend Hound and the Medusa were secret pawns that belonged to him. Billis couldn't lay a finger on them either, so his options were limited.

  Wyverns?

  No. Wyverns could fly. Catching them would be a complicated matter!

  The brutelephants?

  Not possible either. The brutelephants' Strength and Physique were off the charts. His sting scorpion larvae couldn't even wound them with their current power.

  No matter how Billis thought about it, the flaming tigers and the ogres were the most suitable target for him now.

  Billis' strength was improving at a significant rate. He would likely reach advanced apprentice after two or three more feasting sessions. At that time, his boosted Spirit would enable him to control even more subordinates, and his combat prowess would increase even further.

  Mm! It will be the ogres then!

  There were plenty of them, and they lacked magical abilities. They were just right for watering his army of bugs.

  After making up his mind, Billis no longer hesitated. His entire body suddenly fell apart and once again turned into a swarm of countless tiny bugs. The insects dug into the ground and headed northeast towards the ogre camps.

  Seven sting scorpion larvae the size of washbasins quickly tunneled behind him under the ground.

  Seven small swells in the earth quickly appeared and extended into the distance.

  …………

  Fire Throne.

  Boom! A massive explosion that shook the ground and the heavens.

  The entire tower trembled slightly.

  With just a tiny mistake, such as a small deviation in the runic lines being drawn onto a Second Grade elementium core, the rioting of the magical energies had resulted in a terrifying explosion.

  This explosion had exceeded the tolerance limits of the defensive arrays in the alchemical lab. The frightening shockwaves spilled out of the room and even affected the entirety of the tower.

  Greem opened the doors of the lab and stumbled out of the room with a billowing cloud of black smoke behind him. The entire laboratory was already a mess with shards and pieces of the destroyed alchemical platform everywhere. A ringing sound came from the room.

  Keoghan, Gargamel, and Meryl hurriedly went to him after receiving news of the incident.

  "Are you okay?"

  "Are you alright, master?"

  "You didn't get hurt, did you, teacher?"

  Three people and three different expressions of concern, but the only reply they
got was an intense wave of coughing from Greem.

  Greem's young and handsome face flushed white now. There was even a trace of blood at the corners of his mouth. Several large holes had been blown into that black robe of his, and several small fires were also burning on the cloth.

  Judging by the situation at the scene, it was evident that the explosion of the elementium core had damaged both his mind and body. No defensive arrays protecting him would have been able to endure the chain explosions triggered by the elementium blasts in that environment. The elementium shockwaves would easily hurt his mind and Spirit.

  "Cough! It's… such a shame," Greem continued intensely coughing as he spoke frustratedly, "Just a bit more and it would have succeeded. It's still a matter of my Spirit being unable to keep up, after all."

  "Greem, you don't need to be in such a rush," Adept Keoghan felt pity over the loss of the Second Grade elementium crystal core, but he still needed to console Greem on the surface, "The time limit for the clan's mission is still abundant, and you don't need to be so hasty in crafting the cores. It's better to take it slow and steady!"

  Gargamel and Meryl weren't in a position to speak about this situation. They could only surround Greem and help him treat the most obvious wounds on his body.

  Greem's Spirit recovered by a lot after during this short rest.

  "It's a shame this time! I would have completed it with just a little bit more, and then I got impatient. In the end, I failed again."

  "There's no need to rush; there's really no need to. From my perspective, you need to be more steady when doing this. Also, I've completed the voodoo beasts you asked me to modify. There are still many matters I need to tend to back at the headquarters so I won't be extending my stay here any longer." Greem had shut himself inside his lab for the past few days. Keoghan hadn't been able to see him at all. That was why Keoghan took this chance to say his farewells.

  Of course, Greem was extraordinarily gracious and thankful for his services. He went and had Gargamel retrieve the agreed-upon reward before personally handing it over to Adept Keoghan.

  Even though everyone belonged to the same clan, these sorts of tasks that consumed large amounts of Spirit and time couldn't be performed for free. That was why a reward was necessary.