Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Under the merchant union's coercion, the conservative traditionalists had no choice but to silently move out of the Goblin Empire's center of authority– the Steel Capital.

  That was why the Steel Capital was now the base of mad goblin Gazlowe instead!

  The information that Greem obtained about this battle between the traditionalists and the progressives was vague. It also lacked organization. Greem still had absolutely no idea what the mad old goblin was thinking.

  Wealth and resources? For a native of a small plane, Gazlowe was only one step away from being the supreme leader of the entire plane. All logic suggested that he shouldn't be using such a radical method to anger the traditionalists!

  Given that to be the case, the only thing that could explain his actions was a rumor circulating throughout the Goblin Plane. People said that the one thing the smartest goblin in the world was thinking about was eternal life. All the insane things he had done up till now were all related to a project known as 'Immortality'.

  While Greem and the others gathered in a hidden mountain, their camp had a mysterious guest.

  Tigule!

  …………

  The curtain of night fell over the land.

  It was a peaceful stretch of forest that lied beneath the beautiful sky of stars.

  Tigule had run into the adept camp alone, before presenting the draft of a cooperation agreement to Greem in front of the blazing campfire. That agreement had the seal of the Royal Family on it.

  As the leader of the adepts, Greem was naturally the first person to read through this strange agreement.

  Greem casually stuffed the parchment into Alice's hands after he was done reading through it. He had a strange look on his face. He then silently assessed the exhausted and pallid goblin warrior across the fire.

  Alice quickly passed the agreement over to Mary after she was done.

  Soon, every adept by the campfire had read through the agreement once.

  While Greem was assessing Tigule, this goblin god of war was also secretly taking a look at all the mysterious adepts in the camp.

  He couldn't help but admit that these otherworldly adepts truly lived up to their names as mysterious, strange, evil, and unexpectedly powerful individuals. At least, that was what they looked like on the surface.

  From what Tigule understood, only one adept had been present when they first arrived. That was the strange bug adept who was completely covered in his thick black cloak. His power was just as weird and unusual as his appearance. Not only could he command terrifying bugs, but he could also turn his body into tens of thousands of black beetles.

  This strange ability alone made it hard for the goblins to hurt him with the weapons they possessed. The terrifying bug adept had even taken on a blast by the massive goblin cannon without dying during the battle against Prince Gazlowe.

  Moreover, the goblins couldn't even detect any signs of weakness or wounds on him the next time he appeared before them.

  It was an evil adept that couldn't be killed by any means!

  That was a fearsome opponent that Tigule would never wish to face. He knew too well the might of the goblin cannon!

  Yet, they relegated an evil adept like this to the fringe of the adept group. That was obvious from the order in which they read the agreement.

  Even though the adepts in this camp had such good relationships with each other that they were willing to share such important and valuable information with each other, there still seemed to be an apparent disparity between their statuses.

  Chapter 521 Project Immortality

  The worthy leader of the adept camp was that terrifying fire adept who had personally blasted the flying ship out of the sky.

  Even now, Tigule felt dizzy and fearful the moment he thought of the power the adept possessed.

  He wouldn't have been able to fight off this fire adept, even if he had piloted the most powerful Second Grade magical machine on this plane, let alone as he was now. The difference between their strength and equipment was not small. Tigule estimated that the Second Grade fire adept at his peak could deal with two to three Second Grade machines simultaneously.

  That seemed nearly unbelievable, but it wasn't that hard to accept once Tigule remembered that they were adepts from the famous World of Adepts!

  The other adepts in the camp also seemed to possess fearsome power that scared him. Each of them radiated a strange and robust energy. More importantly, they were all female!

  No, the more appropriate term was female adept!

  The second one to read the agreement was a slender, long-haired beauty with a distinct aura. It was hard to relate her to the evil adepts from her pretty face and gentle aura.

  However, for some reason, Tigule felt his heart beating non-stop the moment he set eyes on her. Tigule almost couldn't hold back a gasp when the adept finally noticed his gaze and looked at him.

  He felt as if his entire being had been utterly seen through by that adept at that very moment!

  He hadn't seen this female adept during the last fight. Her sudden appearance meant that the adepts probably possessed the ability to summon companions continuously.

  Tigule's round eyeballs continued to shift down the line toward the other adepts.

  The charming female adept in red armor with bat wings behind her back was a frightening and cold-blooded assassin. She also possessed the odd ability to heal herself by ingesting blood. However, the terrifying thing about her was that phantom-like speed.

  As someone who had personally witnessed Mary's terror on the battlefield, Tigule felt his heart shake the moment he saw her.

  Apart from these people, there were also three female adepts in the camp.

  The oldest one of them, with the wrinkled, sinister face and hunched back, was the powerful witch that had poisoned over a hundred mechanics with a single move.

  A hundred magical machine was a force strong enough to destroy any of the powerful races on the Goblin Plane. Yet these machines were as frail as chickens before the old witch.

  A hundred magical machines had charged at the old witch, all falling to the ground with a single wave of her hand, poisoned to death. Tigule shivered uncontrollably when the memory surfaced in his mind. He didn't dare to continue thinking about it.

  Other than the poison witch, there was also a half-human, half-machine female adept, as well as a muscular female adept whose body could compare to a man's.

  It was the first time he saw the latter as well; she was probably a female adept that had just arrived. He had crossed swords with the former on the flying ship. While she wasn't as powerful and brutal as the fire adept, her method of fighting and the direction she was developing was somewhat similar to the path the goblins had embarked upon.

  If it weren't for the hostilities between them, Tigule would have had a good mind to find a chance to sit down with the mechanical adept and exchange thoughts on the piloting of external machines. However, while the goblins were using exoskeleton-type magical machine mechas, she already seemed to have fused with those machines herself.

  Tigule's terrified gaze finally returned to the leader after sweeping through all the adepts in the camp. The opponent was also silently assessing him.

  Tigule also possessed the combat prowess of a Second Grade when he climbed into his magical machine. However, he was no more than a First Grade goblin mechanic once he left his vehicle. The difference in Spirit between him and Greem was so massive that it was impossible to make up for it with an external item.

  Tigule felt his eyes sting when he locked eyes with Greem. It was almost as if tiny needles were pricking them. It only got better once he turned his head slightly and looked away.

  However, tears were already streaking down his face.

  "Cooperation?" Greem's black eyes appeared to be very black and deep at the moment. His voice was even deeper and more resonant, with a trace of dominance behind it, "Gazlowe has just abducted your princess, and instead, you come here to discus
s cooperation with us? I most definitely have a reason to suspect that this is a scheme that the two of your factions have privately come up with."

  "We completely understand your suspicions!" Defeat and sorrow were written all over Tigule's green face, "However, since I dared to come here, I naturally brought with me the official promise and agreement of the Anderme Royal Family."

  The light in Greem's eyes flashed. He fell silent for a moment before finally speaking.

  "Then why don't you first tell me; what exactly is that Project Immortality Gazlowe is working on in the Steel Capital?"

  Tigule hesitated for a moment before speaking, "As most of the authority over the Steel Capital has fallen into the hands of the radical progressives, they have already been secretly working on that Project Immortality for as long as twenty or thirty years. Even we only recently managed to get some inside information a few years ago."

  "This so-called 'Project Immortality' is a research project that Gazlowe intends to use to extend his lifespan. He has spent a vast amount of resources and wealth to support the research of inventors, only to live a few more years. The study included many experiments on live samples and experiments on the assimilation of bloodlines. Unfortunately for him, they have all failed!"

  "However, Gazlowe has somehow managed to obtain a method of immortality from another plane through unknown means. He has constructed a massive space furnace under the Steel Capital. It is said that providing the Capital with an endless source of magic energy is only a front. The truth is that Gazlowe intends to build a planar door!"

  "A planar door?" Greem suddenly interrupted to ask. His words trembled with deep shock.

  Planar Doors were classified information among classified information, even in the World of Adepts. It was a high-level adept knowledge that no ordinary adept could hear of. All the adepts that had mastered the method to construct planar doors were core adepts of major forces. Powerful seals and restrictions had also been placed in their minds by the Great Adepts of the organization they belonged to.

  If anyone set their sights on this knowledge, a seal backlash would be triggered, and the adept's brain would be blown to bits while their soul was devoured.

  It was through such methods that the major organizations had always kept a tight hold on the secrets of planar doors. It was a privilege that only significant organizations could enjoy.

  Yet now, he heard news of a planar door in an insignificant small-sized plane. How could this not make Greem overwhelmingly surprised and excited!

  The level of the Goblin Plane's civilization could never have possibly leaped all the way to develop technology like a planar door. That was why Greem had reason to suspect that this matter involved higher planes.

  As expected, Tigule's following descriptions caused Greem's expression to change slightly.

  "The technology used in the planar door has exceeded the scope of our goblin civilization. It is not something that Gazlowe himself invented. It comes from a higher dragonspawn plane."

  Greem's expression turned by just a little bit.

  He had obtained a strange set of world coordinates after completing the deciphering of the metal ball he had gotten from Tigule. The research and analysis of the Chip showed that the plane in question was a small plane that had matured to the pinnacle.

  That was why, given Tigule's perspective, it was valid to call it a higher plane.

  Dragonspawn plane, Project Immortality, Steel Capital, planar door…

  That Prince Gazlowe was working up a real mess. Greem wouldn't need to be worried about being lonely or bored with an opponent like this!

  He silently listened to Tigule's exposition, occasionally interrupting when they reached a critical point. It was through this method that he finally gained a vague understanding of everything happening in the Goblin Plane.

  In the eyes of the adepts from the powerful World of Adepts, it didn't matter how powerful or strong the natives of a lesser plane were. They were still no more than magical creatures that were slightly stronger or smarter than usual. Regardless of where and when it was, the adepts would never treat these goblins as intelligent lifeforms that could be their equals. Naturally, there was no way they would ever give them equal treatment!

  However, after listening to everything said about this goblin prince, even Greem couldn't help but acknowledge that Gazlowe was a unique goblin compared to his kin.

  At the very least, his ability to stir trouble was no less inferior to Greem's!

  The old goblin Gazlowe had been devoting all his efforts to working out that so-called immortality ever since he had sensed his impending death. If he had only been doing goblin experiments and dissections in his own plane, there was no way the Goblin Empire would find itself thrown into the chaos it was currently in.

  But Gazlowe had simultaneously maintained subtle and discontinuous connections with seven or eight powerful individuals from various planes. He had also obtained quite a lot of otherworldly knowledge and techniques through multiple instances of trade.

  Furthermore, after assimilating all this knowledge from various planes, Gazlowe had managed to forge a path of his own and come up with the unique Project Immortality.

  He intended to dig out his brain and soak it in a particular life solution of sorts. He would then transfer that brain into an ultra-magical machine forged from all the special alloys and rare resources of the plane after the brain had been strengthened to a certain degree.

  The massive space furnace he had constructed under the Steel Capital was the heart he had prepared for himself. The entire Steel Capital, on the other hand, was very likely to be animated and turned into his new body.

  Doing so would require large amounts of life energy from a high-energy lifeform.

  Gazlowe had initially planned on tricking a batch of adepts into his trap and then imprisoning them. Sadly, Alice's rare instincts allowed her to sense something wrong ahead of time. She didn't create a planar passage to the silver spacestone. Instead, she had used randomized teleportation and threw Billis to some unknown corner of the Goblin Plane.

  It was Alice's cautiousness that caused the old goblin to lose his grip on the situation in the Goblin Plane!

  Chapter 522 Steel Capital Strategy

  The old goblin didn't have many days left!

  Gazlowe's failure to catch the adepts caused a massive and irreparable hole to appear in his Project Immortality. For the sake of extending his lifespan, Gazlowe had no choice but to compromise with a certain powerful individual from another plane.

  When the planar door was activated, the entire Goblin Plane would become subordinate to the Dragonborn Empire of the other plane. The old goblin would then obtain the high-energy lifeform he had been waiting for, successfully completing his transition from a biological lifeform to a mechanical one.

  Initially, the goblin royal family had no idea about these secrets. However, as Galowe had stolen Princess Vanessa away to the Steel Capital, the Royal Family sent plenty of scouts and spies into the city. That was how they had managed to stumble onto Gazlowe's secret plans.

  Most of the citizens of the Steel Capital had been put to hard labor by Gazlowe. They were forced to work day and night to complete the planar door. The mercenaries and patrol squads of the Risk Investment Company surrounded the outside of the Steel Capital and sealed off all of the paths and harbors that led to the city.

  Gazlowe's private army had all retreated into the Steel Capital. They turned the place into a well-defended magic energy city.

  The selfishness of the old goblin had also placed the goblin royal family into a predicament, faced with enemies on both sides. Inside the plane, the evil adepts wreaked havoc as they liked. Outside the plane, the Dragonborn Empire was waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Even if they gathered together all their strength and defeated the adepts, the Royal Family were still fated to be enslaved by the Dragonborn.

  The goblins finally lowered their heads in this moment of crisis. They had
prepared to negotiate a truce and a treaty of agreement with the adepts, prioritizing the foiling of Gazlowe's scheme.

  The royal documents that Tigule had brought with him indicated that the Royal Family was willing to hand over part of their authority and share their resources with the adepts, as long as the adepts helped them defeat Gazlowe and repel the Dragonborn invasion.

  Greem naturally agreed to the Royal Family's terms.

  Now that he had come to the Goblin Plane, everything here was fated to become his land and his wealth. Why would he ever allow an army from another plane to march into the Goblin Plane and contest his rule here?

  That old goblin was indeed a scourge. Leaving Gazlowe alive would put a big dent in Greem's plans.

  Greem's understanding of that Dragonborn Plane was far too incomplete. Greem didn't have absolute confidence that his seven adepts could beat the Dragonborn's army if they clashed in the Steel Capital.

  After a period of thought, Greem's eyes fell upon Alice's face.

  Alice smiled brilliantly as if she had sensed the fervor in Greem's eyes, "Since we have already come to this place, then we have to get something to show for it. Go ahead and do what you will!"

  With Alice's affirmation, Greem's troubled mind finally settled into resolution and determination.

  "I agree to cooperation!" Greem nodded at Tigule and said, "Then, do you people have any specific battle plan in mind?"

  "We sneak into the Steel Capital, destroy the planar door that's being constructed, save Princess Vanessa, and kill Gazlowe."

  As the representative of the royal family who had been charged with all decisions, Tigule quickly gave a detailed rundown of their 'Steel Capital Strategy.' The adepts quietly listened to the plan.

  …………

  Five days later.

  Outside the Steel Capital.

  A sturdy mountain pass located at the opening of a mountain.

  A battle had just ended, and three dozen goblin mercenaries stationed here had all become corpses. The wolf feces above the mountain pass had been ignited. A thick plume of black smoke rose to the sky, in clear view even from a dozen kilometer away.