Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The baby inside Eva had gone beyond the scope of an ordinary lifeform. Their traits as a semi-human and semi-monster had caused them to become a strange lifeform that was hard define by current standards. What delivery method to use had become the most significant issue that the 'nurses' were fretting over!

  However, what complicated things more was the fact that the strange and tiny life seemed to be in a stage where it was wildly growing. Just as it was about to come out, dozens of fleshy threads extended from its tiny body and dug into various spots on Eva's body. The baby was wildly absorbing Eva's life force.

  When Mary saw that Eva's life force was still falling continually and that Eva's life was at risk, she immediately suggested cutting apart Eva's stomach and taking out this naughty fellow. However, this suggestion was swiftly rejected by the agonizing Eva.

  As the mother of this strange being, she could sense that such an act would cause a life backlash that would severely affect the child's future development. Interrupting or stopping this would create tremendous consequences in its future that could never be compensated for.

  Thus, out of her desire to nurture her child, Eva stopped everyone from interfering. She even shouted at Gargamel and got him to get out of the delivery room. It was only then that she started leaving behind her will.

  Faced with this sort of awkward situation where they couldn't help, fight, or blame anyone, the girls could only retrieve bottle after bottle of life potion. They were trying their best to maintain Eva's life.

  However, the effects were minimal.

  Substitute Dolls, False Life Potions, Ring of Damage Reduction; they had put to use all of these magical items, yet they still couldn't stop Eva's life force from fading away.

  Gargamel was heartbroken at this, but he also understood Eva's feelings. That was why he no longer dared to bring up the idea of forcibly taking out the child. He could only strike his head while periodically taking out strange potions or herbs for Eva to consume.

  Watching your lover slowly die in front of your own eyes was the most horrifying torture in the entire world!

  The coldly observing Billis was also an elite adept now. As a bloodthirsty and cruel bug-man adept, he was extremely confused by everyone's unwise action.

  Was there any value in preserving a descendant that would bite the hand of its master?

  There was no second answer to this question in his mind!

  In his eyes, all lifeforms in the world were either targets to be hunted or servants to be commanded. Why would he ever sacrifice himself for someone else and use his own life to provide for a descendant that he had never been acquainted with?!

  That had already exceeded the limits of his comprehension as a bug-man adept!

  Adept Am and Adept Deserra, who had joined the tower after the others, could only stand by and wait for the results in silence. They had no right to intervene in the decisions of these more veteran adepts.

  Am had advanced to adept fifty years ago. He was the second pseudo-adept among Greem's disciples, after Meryl, to have progressed to adept. The last batch of the other two pseudo-adepts under Greem–Toril and Lena–hadn't met good ends. One had died due to failing the advancement ceremony, while the other had returned to their clan after exhausting eighty percent of their life force after failing the ceremony.

  After Greem had utterly isolated himself, he had never accepted any apprentices after Am and the rest. That was why Adept Deserra, who had unexpectedly advanced, was actually a disciple of Adept Meryl.

  If one were to consider it in that manner, Adept Deserra could already be considered to be a third generation adept of Fire Throne!

  "No, this can't continue like this!" Meryl performed a simple calculation of the speed at which Eva's life force was withering, and she couldn't help but speak worriedly, "Lady Mary, you had best contact Teacher Greem! Maybe... maybe he might have some idea of what to do."

  Gargamel, who was almost tearing out all of his wispy beard, suddenly lifted his head. The light of hope shone out of his beady eyes.

  Indeed! If he went to look for his master, maybe, perhaps, he could have a useable idea!

  Yet, just as Mary was about to speak, a deep and thick voice rang out in the room.

  "No need to shout for me. I'm here."

  Chapter 485 Beautiful Baby Girl

  A sound rang out as a strange human figure of pure elementium fire appeared in the corner of the room.

  Sixty-seven years had been enough time for Greem to push his Spirit to the twenty point limit. It had been enough for him to complete his Spirit elementiumization, and to achieve an elementium balance between his body and mind.

  In the past, Greem would merely have to turn into his Flame Fiend form, and this tiny room would have been so scalding hot that it would have been hard to even step on the floor. It didn't matter whether it was the pure heat he radiated or the Ring of Fire. Everything about him would turn any environment into a world of magma, with seas of flame and waves of heat.

  However, now that the fire elementium had reached a perfect balance, all the fire and heat that used to radiate outwards had vanished. When the two-meter tall elementium human stood by everyone, no one felt any change in the temperature. They couldn't even sense any feelings of suffocation from the fire consuming the oxygen in the air.

  The silently burning fires remained within Greem's body like the most gentle of servants. They didn't possess any of the violence and ferocity that people expected. That caused all the adepts present to suspect that they only saw an illusion. They thought that there were no flames on Greem!

  However, that massive aura of energy was as deep as a bottomless sea, and everyone in the room could clearly feel it!

  One couldn't help but wonder what Greem had gone through in the past couple of decades. After the most difficult twenty years at the start, Greem had forced himself to constantly be in the Flame Fiend form to stimulate the elementium in his mind and body to reach harmony and balance.

  The Greem in the past had to rely on runic tattoos to complete his Flame Fiend Transformation and become an exceptional master of fire. However, right now, Greem was perpetually maintaining this flame humanoid form of his. It didn't matter whether he was eating, sleeping, meditating, or performing magical experiments.

  Fire was no longer an ability of his. Instead, it had become an instinct of his, as natural as breathing and speaking.

  The old Greem had been an ordinary adept. The human was human, and the fire was fire. The one thing that allowed both to communicate with each other was that intangible fire elementium affinity of his. Now, most of the time, Greem subconsciously recognized himself as a cluster of fire– a cluster of fire with self-consciousness and a humanoid appearance.

  The most significant benefit brought about by this change was the fact that all the fire spells that Greem cast no longer required any chants or handsigns. They would gather and disperse with a single wave of his hand.

  The large-scale fire spells that Greem needed to spend a long time and a lot of mental energy to form had all nearly become instant-cast spells. Casting these spells was no longer a matter of whether there was enough time. It was only a matter of whether Greem was willing to spend the magic required to cast the spell.

  Consequently, for the current Greem, his flame humanoid state had instead become his usual state. If it weren't for being affectionate with Mary, Greem would probably already have just abandoned his incomparably 'weak' human form.

  After silently appearing in the room, Greem didn't talk too much with the rest of the people. Instead, he immediately walked towards the agonizing Eva.

  A soft bed had been placed in the middle of the delivery room. Eva was lying on top of it, her pale face drenched with sweat.

  She clasped the sides of the bed tightly with both her hands and raised her head to let out heart-rending and terrible screams.

  Greem didn't seem affected by the sight before him. He stood before the bed and bent his body. Blue lig
ht shined in the depths of Greem's pure red-flame eyes. With his twenty points of Spirit, and the Chip's powerful elementium fluoroscopy, long-range sensors, and full-spectrum elementium senses, Eva was like an open book. Everything–absolutely everything–was displayed before Greem's eyes.

  Eva's stomach still didn't bulge like an ordinary pregnant woman's, even while she was delivering. Beads of sweat covered her smooth body under the delicate green robe. Instead of blood, a pool of green viscous liquid gathered between her legs.

  Even with the layer of clothes obstructing his view, Greem could still clearly see Eva's stomach twitching every so often. Her belly was being forced into all kinds of weird shapes by the little thing inside.

  As Greem's sight penetrated even deeper, the flesh on Eva's body started to become semi-translucent, revealing the strange spore-like lifeform inside her. The sporeloks recorded in adept history surfaced in Greem's mind when he saw the baby's peculiar appearance.

  It had a humanoid body, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and four limbs. It had several pairs of protrusions on its back. When Greem looked even deeper into them, he could vaguely see dragonfly wings crumpled together inside these protrusions. The baby's appearance wasn't all that strange, but its flesh and blood were all as green as grass. They looked no different from the plant fibers of the natural world.

  One could also see the plant moss and sporangium unique to the sporeloks on the surface of its skin.

  Its hands and feet also ended in whip-shaped vine appendages.

  At the moment, the tiny spore-like lifeform seemed to have sensed that it was about to leave its mother. Sharp and thin needle-like vines had emerged from its body and pierced into Eva. The baby was currently wildly absorbing its mother's life energy through these vines.

  The life energy hadn't gone to waste either. It had all been converted into the massive energy required for the baby to readjust its bodily structure. In Greem's senses, the body of the little fellow was like a bustling construction site. All new muscle fibers and internal organs were rapidly forming. Even the bones used to support its body had appeared out of thin air.

  All of this was only realized by exhausting the massive amount of energy taken from its mother.

  "Go and retrieve all the blood crystals and green crystals. Also, get some flesh regeneration potions!" Greem tilted his head and thought for a moment before taking out an elementium core glowing with green light from his flame stomach. He placed that elementium core on Eva's abdomen.

  When the green elementium core touched Eva's skin, Greem could almost hear the small lifeform in her stomach rejoicing.

  The blood crystals were used to replenish blood, while the green crystals were formed by concentrating green plant energy. This elementium core, on the other hand, was a Second Grade core. Moreover, it was of the extremely rare plant-attribute.

  With the help of his elementium sight, Greem could very clearly tell the direction of evolution and the elementium affinity of this little fellow. Greem could target the baby's needs and replenish Eva's energy in such a way that the little fellow could loosen up draining from its mother.

  Eva's life force slowly started to recover under the replenishment of many life potions. She had finally broken free of the risk of a life backlash.

  Finally, after ten grueling hours, the soft sound of a baby's cry rang out. The strange lifeform made between Gargamel and Eva had been born.

  It was a beautiful and enchanting human girl. She looked like a human baby of two to three years of age despite just being born. She had a pink, chubby face, skin that was flushed red in a healthy manner, beautiful and long eyelashes, and a head full of curly and somewhat damp gold hair.

  When Meryl wiped off the green viscous liquid on her body and passed her into Eva's embrace, the baby girl even let out a joyous laugh. She still held on to that Second Grade elementium core in her tiny hands.

  All the adepts who gathered around might not have Greem's strange ability to see into someone else's body, but they still knew well the abnormality of this baby girl. The fact that this little newborn person already knew how to put on a show and make herself even more likable to everyone was odd enough as it is.

  Everyone pretended to be ignorant despite clearly understanding this fact. They smiled as they congratulated Gargamel and Eva as if they hadn't observed the abnormality of the baby girl.

  The adepts took off one after another after leaving behind their gifts.

  Just as Greem intended to leave, the infinitely grateful Gargamel personally sent him to the door.

  "Master, there is no problem with my child, is there?" As they were bidding farewell, Gargamel secretly contacted Greem with his Spirit without showing any oddity on his face.

  "She has yours and Eva's life brand on her. That is more than enough!" Greem's answer was simple and straightforward. Yet, at the same time, there seemed to much more of a hidden implication behind it.

  Gargamel lowered his head and thought for a moment, before nodding and approving of his master's opinion.

  Judging from all the abnormality that had occurred during the delivery process, this baby girl was genuinely suspicious. However, it was just as Greem had said. As long as the bloodline flowing through her belonged to him and Eva, why was there a need to care for such an insignificant 'flaw'?!

  Soon, only Gargamel and Eva remained in the secret room. Eva immediately pulled Gargamel towards her and looked into his eyes deeply.

  "This is our child!" Eva's voice was firm and serious.

  "This is our child!" Gargamel promised with the same severity.

  Having obtained Gargamel's promise, Eva was finally able to put the baby girl in Gargamel's arms without any concerns.

  The baby girl blinked with her beautiful green eyes and smiled sweetly at Gargamel.

  A smile just as sweet finally appeared on Gargamel's withered old face when he sensed the thick bloodline aura from the baby. He tightly embraced the baby girl.

  However, he immediately felt his chest hurt as something hard pressed against it.

  He lowered his head and saw that it was the Second Grade plant-elementium core that the baby girl was still holding on to.

  "Darling, come on, give that thing back to master. I'll find you so many more things just like this another day. Is that okay?" Gargamel couldn't help but want to take away the elementium core when he sensed the furious elementium energy inside the Second Grade core.

  Who expected his actions to cause the baby girl to start crying immediately? Even her cute little face was all scrunched up now.

  "It's ok, it's ok, it's ok. You keep this thing. You can give it back to me any time you are tired of playing with it." Gargamel hurriedly changed his words. Only then did the baby girl break into a smile once again.

  Gargamel could only helplessly put on a bitter smile.

  …………

  Greem finally returned to his lab. He took out a small vial and poured the green viscous liquid that he had silently acquired earlier into the vial.

  Even though he hadn't conducted any experiments or accurate magical tests, Greem was confident that the baby girl that Gargamel and Eva had given birth to was the legendary Sporelok.

  After excluding the possibility of an invasion of foreign species, Greem now had reason to suspect Eva the forest spirit's true identity.

  If Eva hadn't been a victim of parasitism, then the only possibility was that her bloodline origin was from the sporeloks of the underground world.

  Furthermore, as a mutated native magical creature, Eva herself might not have that much of an understanding of her own roots!

  Chapter 486 Greem's Improvements

  Greem.

  Human (Elementiumized). Male.

  First Grade Elementium Adept.

  Bodily Attributes: Strength 9 | Agility 7 | Physique 11 | Spirit 20.

  Condition: Healthy.

  Note: Bodily attributes have reached genetic limits.

  After the grueling toil of the past sixty-
seven years, Greem had finally completed the elementiumization of his Spirit. Moreover, he had successfully allowed his Spirit to reach perfect compatibility with his elementiumized body. However, this had also caused his body's potential to be completely excavated. Greem had to find a way to advance to the next Grade and create a qualitative change in himself. Otherwise, in one or two hundred years, he would probably find it virtually impossible to improve, even if he ate the liver of dragons and the marrow of phoenixes for every single meal.

  The perfect compatibility between his body and mind had allowed him to reach a delicate balance. He had constructed a life energy circulation system within himself.

  What made Greem even more relieved was the fact that he had managed to take advantage of the tempering of his body and Spirit, as well as include the Flame Fiend's Heart in this circulation system. The Flame Fiend's Heart had become the core of his body that continuously pushed him towards further evolution. This way, his body would become an eternal forge, even in areas lacking elementium energy. Greem would always be able to produce pure fire energy from within himself.

  According to the Chip's calculations, Greem's fire core would be able to support magical attacks up to thirty points, even in areas utterly devoid of magic. Greem could continuously throw out fire spells of thirty points and below, even without absorbing energy from his surroundings or exhausting the elementium energy reserves he had within himself.

  If Greem increased the strength of the attacks to seventy points, he could still sustain his offense for two hours. A seventy point attack was already the line that distinguished between apprentices and adepts. Moreover, this two hour referred to continuous attacks, with only a bit of delay between each spell.

  If Greem switched to guerrilla tactics and moved around as he attacked, then it would provide the fire core with a buffer to regenerate. In doing so, Greem could even extend the duration of combat to one day and one night.