Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Beta Town; no, this plane that they lived in was now in the sights of some terrifying enemy. The anomaly last time was much smaller compared to this one. It proved that the intruders from last time were only small in number. However, this time it was a considerable commotion. The intruding enemies had to be far stronger than earlier.

  The entire Karlmek Area was under the garrison of Bazzek's Seventh Land Corps. According to the flow of battles in the past, whenever enemies that the local defense force could not deal with popped up, only General Bazzek had the authority to gather up all the soldiers stationed in the various cities. Only he could organize them and send them into battle.

  The Seventh Land Corps only retained this mobile squad of four hundred goblins to make it easier to exterminate the slave rebellions that happened all over the place. They alone were enough to squash those unorganized rebellions!

  However, at this moment, Bazzek's heart felt like it had fallen into a bottomless pool of icy water. It was cold and dark. More importantly, he could feel himself perpetually sinking, not able to find any way out of this predicament.

  "The goblin zeppelin? Where's our goblin zeppelin? Have them move out now. I want them to reach that location as soon as possible to get the first strike on the enemies." In this instant, Bazzek was like a gambler that had gone mad from all his losses. He anxiously roared and yelled from the observation platform.

  A goblin officer immediately ran to issue the orders.

  Seven minutes later, that massive zeppelin took off from northeast of the town. It blew its horns and cut through the sky rapidly as it flew in the direction of the pillars of light.

  Fifteen to twenty kilometers of distance was only a matter of minutes for the balloon.

  As the thousands of goblins in town waited anxiously, the zeppelin closed in on the forest where the anomaly was proceeding. Just as it was descending to spy on the situation within the woods, a meteor shot out of nowhere and hit the massive balloon.

  The next moment, a huge fireball appeared in the skies above the forest. The frightening shockwaves from the explosion even blasted away all the trees and plants in a quarter-kilometer radius.

  Even from that much of a distance, the goblins in the town could feel the oppressive heatwave. Under their wide-eyed and slack-jawed gazes, the goblin zeppelin that had always been thought of as an aerial chariot instantly exploded into a fireball and fell towards the ground in tens of thousands of sparks.

  All the goblins went silent at that moment!

  Even the furiously shouting Bazzek suddenly seemed as if he had lost his soul. His head that had always been held high tipped downwards.

  A powerful enemy had finally descended!

  …………

  Greem retracted his right hand.

  It was him that had cast a spell and shot down the goblin zeppelin that dared to parade before them. He had done that even before he'd adjusted his Spirit, right after came through the wormhole.

  The price he paid for this was immense.

  A fireball of no more than two hundred and twenty points of power had caused his Spirit to decrease by one-third. It had even triggered the planar oppression that now entangled with his body and soul. He couldn't help but lean against his staff as he started coughing intensely.

  Mary, who had come here along with him, hadn't gotten used to the planar laws here either. She appeared to be in low spirits and had trouble fully controlling her body.

  The spatial wormhole created by the metal ball couldn't support even more manpower coming across. Having exhausted the spatial energies, it quickly collapsed.

  As the wormhole shrunk, the forest on this end of the wormhole rapidly experienced a reverse spatial tide. Dirt, branches, grass, rotting leaves, small insects, and other things were all dragged into space by the spatial wave due to their lack of magical protection.

  Then, with a light pop, the singular point vanished under the impressive regenerative powers of the plane.

  The entire forest regained its peace.

  However, if one stood here and looked around, they would find that the place looked as if a horrifying meteor crash had just ravaged it. All the trees in a quarter kilometer radius had snapped and fallen down. The part of the forest in front of the wormhole had been neatly cleaned up. Not one speck of debris remained there. Even the loose surface soil of the ground had all been sucked into the singularity, revealing the dark earth below.

  As a bloodline adept, Mary's physical condition should have been far above Greem's. However, as Greem advanced to Second Grade, his Physique exceeded Mary's, making him stronger and quicker when regenerating.

  He thought back to the first time he had traveled through planes. Even with a Sixth Grade Great Adept protecting him, Greem had still almost suffocated from the power of the plane. Even walking had been a problem. This time, even without a Great Adept protecting them, Greem was able to shield himself and Mary from the spatial forces during the journey and enter the Goblin Plane without any damage.

  Moreover, Greem managed to start moving freely after adjusting his breathing.

  While he still couldn't cast spells as freely as he liked, he was still in a much better condition than Mary's complete exhaustion.

  "I hate this world!" Mary leaned powerlessly upon Greem as she cursed, "The damned planar laws here make me feel like a fish thrown into a desert. I'm almost completely suffocating."

  Greem put on a bitter smile, even as he felt the same.

  Adepts could be considered high-energy creatures with the bodies of humans. Their bodies perpetually called out to the environment and communicated with it. The magical energy scattered throughout the plane constantly nourished their bodies, allowing them to maintain a state of high-magic.

  When they arrived on this low-magic Goblin Plane, the concentration of magical energy in the space was so low that it was almost unbelievable. The magical power here was inert and a lot less lively than the energy back in their homeworld. It wasn't as fresh.

  That was why the adepts had this terrible feeling of needing to exert themselves just to get air into their lungs.

  Another dozen seconds passed by before Mary was able to get somewhat used to the 'filthy' and 'inferior' air of the Goblin Plane. She left Greem's embrace and could finally move about freely.

  "Billis, you did extremely well!" Greem picked up the exhausted metal ball and turned to look at Bug Adept Billis, who was bowing to him, "Now, bring us to your hiding spot! I need more comprehensive first-hand information on the Goblin Plane."

  "Sir, everything has been prepared!" BIllis' bug head under the shadow of his hood revealed the traces of a wicked smile, "Please follow me!"

  Billis turned and walked towards the forest.

  Greem and Mary also donned their cloaks and pulled the hoods over their heads. They then followed along without a word.

  They had no choice but to keep such a low profile to avoid being surrounded by the natives.

  They'd had a Sixth Grade Great Adept helping them when they entered the Knight's Plane in the past. That was why the spatial ripples hadn't spread out that far. However, this time, they were practically traveling without hiding their tracks. Without an adept's tower to conceal the commotion, the intense spatial flux could spread as far as several thousands of kilometers away.

  Trying to hide this teleportation from the natives was only a pipe dream. It would only be possible if all the goblins in a radius of thousands of kilometers were blind and deaf. Therefore, Greem couldn't wait to relocate the moment they arrived and head to the hiding spot that Billis had prepared in advance.

  Chapter 500 Shooting Oneself In the Foot

  Billis' hiding spot was underground.

  It was a network of caves hidden ten meters beneath the ground. Some of the caves were used as holding cells for prisoners, and there was also a warehouse where spoils of war were held. However, most of them were still temporary bug nurseries.

  As the air vents were too well-hidden, air
circulation in the cave wasn't great. Factor in the vast amounts of fresh blood needed to nurture the bugs and Greem could sense the pollution and stink in the air the moment he entered.

  Billis was a bug adept. His own body had turned into an immortal body of bugs. Consequently, things like air, water, and food were no longer as crucial to him as it had been when he was still human. That was why Billis didn't realize the harshness of his living environment.

  However, just because he didn't feel the effects of it didn't mean his goblin captives were immune to it.

  All goblins with slightly weaker Physiques would die in the shortest amount of time possible under such circumstances. Lacking food and being trapped in an environment with damp and stale air; it was only natural. The ones that were left were all extremely powerful individuals. Sadly, the numerous deaths of goblin prisoners couldn't attract any of Billis' concern.

  He tossed any goblin that died into the bug's nest as food for the evolution of the larvae. Not a single piece of flesh was wasted. If the reserves of blood meals got too low, then he would go to the goblin settlements and abduct a few more people. At any rate, there were plenty of goblins there. Billis never needed to worry about the decrease in food supplies or about the living environment of the prisoners. There was absolutely no reason to be concerned about how long they lived.

  Of course, prisoners of different classes enjoyed different privileges. The few famous individuals among the goblins were singled out and imprisoned alone in more refined quarters. Billis had even picked a few female goblins to serve them, to avoid their premature deaths.

  Of these particular individuals, there was an advanced goblin engineer, two mechanics, and two lower-ranked officers of the Seventh Land Corps abducted from Beta Town.

  These goblins started to reveal some information under Billis' grueling torture. However, their knowledge was limited. The information they provided was also fragmented, making it hard for anyone to lay their eyes upon the true classified secrets within the Goblin Empire.

  Still, Billis didn't immediately get rid of them. He waited for his master to arrive before deciding their fates.

  Greem praised Billis greatly over his discretion and started to interrogate these goblins personally the moment he arrived at the hidden cave.

  It was evident that these goblins had received the greatest scare of their lives over the past few days of being imprisoned here. They saw and heard slaves of various races dragged from their prisons and tossed into those piles of terrifying bug's nest on a daily basis.

  The death cries of the slaves before they met their end, and the crunching sounds of bones and flesh being eaten, never stopped. The noises continuously rang in the ears of the goblins. Even though they couldn't see the larvae feasting, they could hear and smell further affected them.

  Seeing their companions fail to return after being dragged away, always hearing that crunching and snapping sound, still smelling that dense odor of blood and rot; no goblin could tolerate such an environment.

  Many goblins hadn't, in fact, died of starvation or suffocation. They had been shocked to death by this horrifying atmosphere!

  As a result, Greem realized that the goblins he interrogated could scarcely form coherent sentences. Their expressions were almost insane. Greem could hardly understand what they were saying even after mastering the common language of this plane's goblins through magic.

  However, unlike Billis, he didn't really care about that so-called classified information. He didn't ask about the origins of the magic energy batteries. He didn't ask about the secrets of the magic mechas. Instead, he repeatedly asked about the daily lives of the goblins, the ruling structure of the Goblin Empire, and the fundamental way that the military and the country functioned.

  These things were fragmented pieces of information, often too disconnected to be useful by themselves. However, they were beneficial for Greem as he pieced together how the Goblin Plane was run. Greem wasn't concerned about how fragmented the information was. That was because he had the Chip. The Chip's aid allowed Greem to ask the necessary questions that helped him figure out the core node that maintained the systems and hierarchies of the Goblin Plane.

  It was often common knowledge and ideologies that the entire public would know. No goblins would ever treat such information as classified secrets that would concern the survival of their plane.

  As more and more information poured into his brain in a stream of data, a basic outline of the strange Goblin Empire shrouded in clouds was slowly revealed.

  However, unfortunately, there were still too few goblins here. Most of the Goblin Empire remained shrouded in mist and fog. Greem could only slowly deduce possible hidden information through the vague and relatively irrelevant information he had obtained.

  Greem had also appraised the magic energy battery. It was indeed a system of energy usage that entirely differed from the World of Adepts. However, Greem still discovered a trace of something he recognized within– basic runology!

  Back in the Knight's Plane, the natives were able to invent a type of runes that merged the energy of magical crystals with their own life forces. In doing so, they had managed to create the unique advancement system of the witcher knights. Of course, there were shadows of the dragon's interference behind the invention of these runes.

  Here on the Goblin Plane, the individually weaky goblins had managed to rely on the accumulation of knowledge and technique to invent some primitive firearms. That was what allowed them to break free of their identities as a weak race and become one of the top ten intelligent races of this plane.

  What made the goblins genuinely shine above the rest, rise above them, and become their rulers, was the creation of the magical machines!

  The early magical machines had all been crude golems mostly made of metal. They were driven by the limited numbers of magical stones in this plane and were able to release the energy contained within the stones by burning them. The power drove the steam systems, allowing the gears to turn and the massive robot to move.

  Of course, there were many problems with this way of doing things. The early magical machines were all slow and clumsy. The technology used in their creation was so crude that it was hard to take them seriously. Still, it was these first magical machines and a shocking number of firearms that allowed the goblins to establish themselves as the blessed of this plane.

  The Goblin Plane might be a low-magic plane, but there could still be natural magical stones that existed in such environments. The goblins had used their powerful magical machine army to defeat one race after another. They had then forced the slaves they had obtained to excavate mines and dig out metal ores and rare reserves of magical stones.

  The appearance of the magic energy batteries was something that had only developed in the last hundred years. A certain engineer of the Goblin Empire seemed to have obtained the guidance of some otherworldly individual. They had managed to incorporate the fragments of arcanology they learned with magical machines.

  The Goblin Empire then built a massive space furnace near the capital. The furnace could continuously draw magical energy from the endless space and seal it into some unique crystal prisms. That was how the magic energy batteries in Greem's hand came to be.

  The energy in these batteries was too violent and wild. It was several times more dangerous than magical stones. However, there was no limit to their quantity. That was why the invention of the magic energy batteries freed the Goblin Empire of their dependence on magical stones. It allowed the goblins to obtain an infinite source of energy.

  Moreover, with the appearance of the magic energy batteries, more and more advanced weaponry and equipment that employed these batteries started appearing in the Goblin Empire. The kingdom's strength rose at an unprecedented rate. However, the Seventh Land Corps that Greem had come into contact were considered a local defense force. They had yet to receive the newest magic-powered weapons.

  The more he heard about these goblins, the more
ominous of a feeling Greem got.

  It was especially so when the advanced engineer known as Beirut drew the blueprints for the magic mecha for him. The ominous feeling reached its peak. Greem saw far too many magic runes or information related to them in the process of the Goblin Empire's production of the batteries: the way they stored the magical energy, the way they drew the energy, the way the energy was utilized.

  All this caused Greem to start thinking.

  It was important to note that two completely different worlds could hardly even produce the same magic runes without connected passages.

  Take, for example, the runes that Greem had obtained from the Knight's Plane. Even though the runes that represented fire worked similarly, and had a similar function to the fire runes of the World of Adepts, they were written in a completely different manner. The runes of each world existed in a form that was most compatible with their planar laws.

  That was why the runes manifested by the planar laws were different when the planar laws themselves differed!

  However, Greem saw far too many runes from the World of Adepts in the blueprints that Beirut had drawn. Even though they had all been artificially distorted and modified slightly, most of the landmark origin symbols were still there. They were clear as day.

  It was when Greem heard Beirut start talking about the 'Father of Magic Energy' with a tone of utter admiration that his face began to contort. It was Prince Gazlowe of the Goblin Empire.

  Gazlowe...Gazlowe…Gazlowe…

  Who else could be more familiar with this name than Greem?

  The reason he could even bring Billis and Mary to this place was thanks to that individual known as Grand Duke Gazlowe. No. He was no longer a Grand Duke. Instead, he was the most celebrated and respected goblin engineer, alchemist, and inventor of the Goblin Empire, as well as the only prince of the empire that was not related to the royal lineage by blood.

  It was rumored that the goblin prince had relied entirely on the immensity of his genius to invent these mysterious runes that changed the fate of the Goblin Empire in a moment of ingenuity. If it wasn't for the traditions of the goblins that prevented those of royal bloodline from becoming king, Gazlowe might have been able to be crowned as the rulers of the goblins.