Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  If Billis hadn't previously fully understood his master's choice of sending a pseudo-summoner bug adept like himself to be the scout, instead of a pure combat adept like Mary or Sabrina, he did now.

  The terror of interplanar teleportation was so horrifying that he still shivered at the memory. Those layers after layers of spatial distortions, and the shattered space around him. A slight misstep and he would have died, even with the guidance and protection of the magical array.

  Moreover, when that damned Alice irresponsibly tore apart the plane barrier of the Goblin Plane and tossed him in like that, there wasn't even the shadow of a magical defense cast on him. If it weren't for Billis' immortal body of bugs that allowed him to negate part of the spatial force's corrosion of his soul origin and core, he might have been torn to pieces in that ferocious and violent spatial maelstrom.

  Even so, his immortal body of bugs had still fallen apart at the last moment. He had taken great pains after the matter to recollect the remaining parts of his body.

  It was only now that Billis fully understood his master's thoughts.

  It seemed he had been chosen as the vanguard because of his immortal body of bugs. If it had been Lady Mary instead, things would have been very different. Even though her combat prowess was several times that of his, her ability to adapt and survive when faced with such disastrously harsh environments fell short of Billis'.

  Billis gloated over this fact for a short moment, before being distracted by his rumbling belly once again. His body was severely damaged, and his energy reserves were lacking. It seemed it was time to go looking for some blood meals!

  Billis recklessly hunted in this tropical, Amazon-like forest with the aid of his fifteen sting scorpions. It didn't matter if they were rabbits, mice, wolves, tigers, or jaguars; as long as they were within range of Billis' life sensing ability, none could escape the earth-attribute attacks of the sting scorpions.

  The fifteen sting scorpions were like fifteen stealthy demons, weaving underground between the roots of plants. Every time they found a target, they would silently sneak to the spot beneath it before using a sudden earth spike to exterminate the enemy in one hit.

  If the sneak attack didn't manage to kill the enemy, the sting scorpions would emerge from underground and use their terrifying jaws to bite the enemy's throat, causing it to bleed to death. If the scorpions didn't want the prey's struggling to attract new enemies, they could even use their poison stingers to inject excessive amounts of earth elementium into the victim, forcing them to die in despair while utterly paralyzed.

  Naturally, Billis didn't have Greem's ability to analyze and decipher the planar laws rapidly. That was why his solution to the planar suppression was brutal and straightforward. That was… to eat!

  He would only have the strength to resist the planar suppression once his hunger was satiated. By the time he devoured sufficient native lifeforms, he would be able to obtain adequate gene factors from the lifeforms to change his external life traits. It was actually a camouflaging ability that most predators possessed!

  As a classic carnivorous predator, Billis the Bug Adept was extremely proficient in this aspect.

  Billis shambled through the green sea of trees, a thick black cloak on his shoulders. He looked like the god of death come to life as he made his way through the vines, branches, and bushes, turning every place he passed into a land of death and decay.

  No living creatures detected by Billis' Spirit could escape the slaughter of the combat sting scorpions. Behind him, the formerly lively woods had been reduced to a place void of any life. Apart from some bugs the size of fingernails and other microscopic lifeforms, Billis had thoroughly cleansed all visible creatures from the sections of the forest that had been swept through by the sting scorpions.

  Billis could feel the planar suppression weakening thanks to his slaughter. Without the support of these tens of thousands of lifeforms, the mediums and carriers that the planar consciousness could lean upon decreased. The strength that it used to suppress an external intruder like Billis unavoidably declined.

  Billis' magical knowledge was insufficient for him to see through the planar consciousness and its nature. However, his base instincts allowed him to sense that the planar suppression weighing upon his body weakened as he killed more native creatures and the faster he killed them.

  With this rudimentary knowledge in mind, the amoral Billis immediately began his slaughter without holding anything back.

  Just as he was commanding his sting scorpions to surround and blockade three windwolves in a nearby cave, a loud noise from the horizon drew his attention.

  Billis repeatedly adjusted his compound eye modes and finally managed to capture the silhouette of a strange object through the dense foliage.

  It was an odd alchemical flying device with two weak soul fluxes in it.

  Billis gave up on his direct command over the sting scorpions and allowed them to fight with the windwolves by themselves. He carefully examined the strange combination in the air through the leaves.

  His master Greem had specially bestowed him with plenty of knowledge and matters of caution regarding planar wars before he crossed over. Among them, the first thing he had to do was to hide and conceal his existence. The second was to quickly find out the racial composition of the plane and find a way to assimilate into the local intelligent species. The third thing was to come into contact with the race that held the dominant position on the plane and to discover their weaknesses and strengths to exploit at a later time.

  Billis only had a vague impression and concept of this plane. It was the fact that this was a small plane where the goblins held the plane dominance!

  Goblins? These greedy, weak, and stupid creatures could dominate a plane?

  Billis almost hadn't believed his ears when he first heard of this.

  However, when he thought of the sly fellow that always accompanied his master, Billis had no choice but to admit that green goblins still had wits of their own. At least, in the eyes of his master Greem, that green goblin Snorlax might have been of slightly higher status than himself.

  An actual terror of a bug adept like himself was of lesser status than a green goblin who was the natural equivalent of the words weak and stupid. Billis could not lie to himself, though he was extremely reluctant to admit this to be true. That was because this was the reality!

  Billis finally gained a vague understanding of something when he set his eyes on that strange flying device.

  If this plane was filled with those naked and weak goblins who fought with wooden bows and short spears, he alone would have been able to crush them all with his ever-growing army of bugs.

  However, now, two 'stupid' goblins, who were so weak that they would lose to a beginner apprentice, were flying in the sky with the help of an odd alchemical construct. That was more than enough proof that these goblins were completely different from the ones in Billis' mind.

  If he were foolish enough to attack them head-on, then the tragic scenario of a great bug adept being chased around by a bunch of 'weak' goblins might actually come to fruition.

  The flying device that the two goblins were driving in was remarkably swift. Billis' judged from his observations that its velocity was around fifteen to twenty meters per second. This speed was already equal to the speed of adepts flying with the use of Fly.

  On the one hand, you had normal goblins who couldn't sense any supernatural auras. On the other hand, you had adepts who had mastered powerful abilities. If the weak goblins were able to display adept-level powers through some unknown means, then this invasion might be extremely difficult.

  While Billis silently contemplated, the cruel and bloody slaughter ended. Three sting scorpions had killed the three adolescent windwolves at the cost of some light wounds.

  As expected, the goblin plane was a low-magic plane. Even after scouring the entire forest, the number of magical creatures that Billis could find was few and far between. Ordinary beasts w
ould not have been able to deal any visible physical damage to the scorpions, regardless of how numerous they were. However, these three windwolves were considered part of those rarely seen magical creatures. They possessed the ability to manipulate wind elements.

  It was the violent wind blades that they released as a final struggle that caused some slightly more obvious damage to the scorpions. The storm of wind blades had severely cut the shell on the back of a sting scorpion. Some of the blades had even cut through the shell and caused purple and black blood to flow out.

  However, as the wounded scorpions feasted, their wounds healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

  With a soft whistle, the scorpions scattered in the nearby woods hurried back to Billis.

  Still cloaked in his black robe, he led them as he ran towards the direction the mysterious flying device had disappeared.

  Billis felt like there was a need to understand the opponent before he clashed with them in a frontal conflict. And as a bug adept, the only way he could understand an opponent was… to eat!

  …………

  Beta Town was a goblin town that neighboured a vast forest.

  The ones that lived here were, naturally, a group of lively and cute green goblins.

  One could even see quite a number of individuals from various other races in the town. However, most of them were being ordered around by the goblins and used as slaves.

  The buildings in Beta Town weren't all that large. That clearly had something to do with the height of the goblins themselves. The construction materials used many large metal parts, causing Beta Town to look shiny from afar. There was a taste of blood and steel to its image.

  There were round mushroom cottages, wrapped in a layer of metal on the outside. They possessed thick, heavy metal doors, disc-shaped roofs, and windows. White steam lingered in the air above the town.

  When Billis looked at the town from the edges of the forest, he saw a capital of iron and steel filled with a sense of strength.

  Chapter 495 Goblin Lumber Mill

  This was a rural town ruled by goblins.

  Billis hid at the edge of the town, continuously adjusting the scanning modes of his compound eyes, making a careful and comprehensive analysis of the things that stood out.

  An earthen wall three meters tall surrounded the town, and small watchtowers were constructed in the corners of these walls. Several goblin warriors stood in these towers, holding strange cylinders in their hands as they looked out for any movement around the town.

  Quite a few peculiar races could be seen entering and exiting the town. Most of these races were much taller than the goblin guards. However, they all shared a common trait. That was the metal collars on their necks that were forged from a unique material.

  If they were disobedient or started conflicts with the goblin guards, the guards only needed to press a single button in their hands. These large individuals would immediately collapse in a shroud of electricity before being subjected to plenty of whippings and beatings.

  Billis was shocked.

  Were these still the weak goblins from his previous impression? Since when were green goblins so cruel and savage? Were the electric-shock collars the reason they dominated the other races? Then what was it that they used to defeat their enemies and put the collar on them?

  Countless questions emerged in Billis' mind. However, another scene he witnessed quickly answered these questions.

  Loud rumbling and ear-piercing noise came from a different direction in the woods while Billis was secretly spying on the town. The ground slightly tremored as this happened.

  It was almost as if some giant creature was moving around in that place.

  Billis hesitated for a moment before leading his bug army and carefully approaching that place.

  It was a small camp that had been excavated in the forest.

  Thick logs that had just been cut down were scattered across the camp. Each of them was thick enough that it would take two people to embrace them completely.

  Five human-shaped logging machines that were three meters tall and seven hundred kilograms heavy were working hard at the edge of the camp. The ones sitting at the controls of the logging robots and controlling them to cut down the trees were tiny goblins.

  Alchemical golems or magic-powered combat golems?

  They had humanoid shells made of pure metal, large chains, gears, axles, exaggerated metal saws, and hot steam that blasted out from the backs of the robots.

  The loud rumbling Billis had heard earlier was the sound from these massive giants advancing through the forest. That ear-piercing sound, on the other hand, was the terrifying noise of rapidly-revolving chainsaws cutting down trees.

  One by one, the massive trees that rose up over twenty meters collapsed with a thundering thud and the ear-piercing noise of chainsaws. The goblins then manipulated the logging robots and cleared away the obstructing branches in a matter of moments. They used the massive robotic hands to carry the lumber back to camp.

  The five logging robots working in the forest had different roles as well. Two were in charge of logging, one was in charge of cutting down the branches, while the other two were responsible for carrying the logs around. The robots had an explicit assignment of duties and worked in an orderly fashion under the control of the goblins, putting on display an unusual yet immense kind of power.

  The hulking slaves that Billis had seen in town could be seen here as well. They lifted the lumber onto the cutting machines inside the large buildings under the supervision of the goblin guards. The logs would then be reduced to several smaller pieces of a more appropriate size before being hauled onto carts and taken away.

  After seeing the entire process, Billis finally understood that this place was no more than a small lumber mill under the rule of the green goblins. The rumbling constructs weren't the combat machines of the goblins either. They were only auxiliary tools being used to log.

  The dark clouds over Billis' heart thickened when he saw this.

  In all honesty, the goblins before him were probably only the lowest of cannon fodder in the Goblin Empire. If even these cannon fodder were equipped with these terrifying 'strongmen,' then the fundamental strength of the Goblin Empire could be easily deduced.

  It might be a small plane, and the ones that ruled the plane might only be a group of 'weak' and 'foolish' goblins. However, a bad omen suddenly rose in Billis' heart.

  This plane didn't seem to be as easy to deal with as he had previously predicted!

  However, as a bug adept from the World of Adepts, Billis couldn't possibly have been frightened into submission by this tiny difficulty. He made up his mind and hid in the depths of the forest. He started sending out bug scouts that he had specially cultivated to sneak into this goblin lumber mill secretly.

  …………

  The damp forest.

  Green, tall trees and annoying bushes were everywhere. Resilient vines and brambles filled the rest of the space between the trees.

  The humidity in the camp was extremely high. When paired with the noise, it was almost impossible to get a good night's sleep in this environment. That was why Uldum remained sleepless even after sticking cotton buds in his ears. The trembling from falling trees and the loud sounds of the chainsaws were too much.

  Uldum softly cursed as he rolled out of bed. He slid into his heavy metal boots before walking out of his tent.

  "Oh, commander, you're finally awake. That Old Pa Tok has already come by twice. It seems he has something especially important to report to you." The guard stationed by the entrance to the camp shouted into his ears with an almost comical tone.

  Uldum was the commander of this camp. The five goblin shredders were all under his command. Consequently, his status was even higher than the green guy that was the mayor of Beta Town.

  Uldum shook his head several times before finally recalling that he was the one who sent Old Pa Tok out to investigate that strange occurrence in the distance. Tha
t unique quake that shook the earth had been felt even from dozens of kilometers away.

  For some reason, Uldum had felt short of breath. Guided by some unknown train of thought, he had immediately sent his best goblin helicopter pilot to investigate. Now that they had come back with a report, there had to be some extraordinary discovery.

  With that in mind, Uldum immediately strode to a wooden hall in the middle of the camp. As expected, Old Pa Tok was anxiously circling the wooden table. Goblin Apprentice Mosaldin was sitting by his side with a face full of confusion. It seemed he hadn't fully understood the situation.

  "Speak, Old Pa Tok!" Commander Uldum entered the wooden hall and sat down in front of the table. He looked at the old goblin with a solemn expression, "What news do you bring back for me this time?"

  "O' respected lord commander, the news I bring to you might not be good!" Old Tok took off his goggles and gripped the leather cap in his hands. An expression of hesitation appeared on his face.

  "Go on; I am listening." Uldum's heart sank.

  "I believe… I suspect that some interdimensional monster has intruded upon our world!" Old Pa Tok's grip tightened as he finally voiced his thoughts.

  The commander abruptly stood up. Anxiety appeared on his green face filled with yellow freckles. He quickly asked, "What kind of creature? How powerful are they? Are their numbers many?"

  Old Tok stuttered awkwardly, "We didn't see anything when we went there. Only a forest destroyed by uncontrolled spatial forces."

  "You saw nothing? Then the monster you mentioned?"

  "Even though we saw nothing, my years of experience led me to sense a trace of evil that didn't belong to our world!"

  Commander Uldum once again sat down. An expression of uncertainty appeared on his face as well.

  As a veteran warrior that had followed him for a long time, Old Tok possessed a wealth of experience unmatched by most goblins. That was why Uldum had no reason not to take Tok's report seriously. Still, how was he supposed to report this to this superiors without any evidence!

  The shouts of slaves came from the camp outside as he was mired in doubt.