Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  An intense red light burst forth from within the red mist. A strange and intangible flux started to ripple into the distance under the guidance of some odd bloodline connection.

  Mary had already fled twenty-five kilometers away at this point.

  An indescribable mental summons entered her mind, even as she beat her wings and continued gliding across the canopy.

  Like a speeding train suddenly braking, Mary's elegant flying posture came to an abrupt pause. Her whole body folded together as she crashed down into the forest, snapping countless branches and vines as she fell.

  This sudden twist of events had been so abrupt that the fall itself almost threw her into a daze.

  However, before she could even regain consciousness, a strong bodily instinct forcefully manipulated her body and made her leap onto her feet. That same instinct then drove her flying back in the direction she had come from.

  Before even making it five meters, Mary swiftly came to her wits after. She instantly regained control over her own body and stopped walking.

  Two different consciousness were still intensely fighting over control of her body.

  Mary wanted to get away from that terrifying demon as fast as she could. However, her instinctual consciousness was driving her to return to the side of her bloodline origin. The two minds clashed on multiple layers of the body, unwilling to give up on even the slightest control of the most minor body parts.

  Mary couldn't even stand still. One foot stepped forward while the other stepped backward. One hand turned right while the other turned left. Even the muscles on her face were twitching intensely.

  Her entire body had been completely messed up by the two struggling consciousness!

  The vampire blood flowing in her body still retained the bloodline mark of Leicester the Vampire, making her unable to resist any orders from him. However, she was not a bloodkin that Leicester had created through the Embrace. As such, her soul wasn't under his control.

  When her soul started clashing with her bloodline instincts, neither side could fully control her body and became mired in a stalemate.

  An expression of surprise finally surfaced on the face of Second Grade Vampire Leicester when the bloodkin had yet to arrive despite a long time after his bloodline summoning.

  What a strange bloodline descendant! To be able to reject the summons of their bloodline origin. This…this was almost unbelievable!

  Leicester undoubtedly became even more interested in such a strange bloodline descendant.

  He stopped his bloodline summoning ritual and retracted the black mist. The cloud gathered and formed into a large pair of bat wings that could almost blot out the stretch of forest he was in. The vampire vanished with a slight beat of his wings. He quickly flew in the direction where the odd bloodline flux was coming from.

  The enemy was closing in.

  That strange instinctual consciousness in Mary's body had just died down. Yet, she didn't even get to rest for a moment when she sensed her bloodline origin getting closer.

  Mary hadn't felt afraid, even when she was fighting with her body's instinctual consciousness earlier. However, her face paled the moment she sensed her bloodline origin. She took to the skies without any hesitation and escaped on her wings at her highest speed.

  Mary had even used the spells Energy Explosion and Accelerated Flight to get away from this fearsome enemy.

  The opponent was able to use a single thought from dozens of kilometers away to make her body obediently walk back to surrender. Mary would probably have a difficult time stirring up even a rebellious thought if he managed to get to her.

  That was why Mary gave her very all. She used everything she had on her– magical items, scrolls, wands, potions, anything that could increase the speed of her flight, all for the sake of putting that much more distance between her and that demon.

  With her resilient mental consciousness, Leicester should be incapable of sensing her exact location once there were more than fifty kilometers between them!

  Mary dashed across the skies with this single thought in mind. A game of tag upon the Ad Plains started between her and that terrifying Second Grade Vampire Leicester.

  …………

  Zhentarim area, Feidnan City.

  Sanazar, Fügen, and Keoghan were gathered in a secret room at the higher levels of the tower for a meeting.

  As the core adepts of the Sarubo Clan, they had such a regular meeting on an annual basis. Things had been much busier this year, and correspondingly, more meetings had been held.

  During the regular meeting, Adept Keoghan gave a standard report on all matters that had happened within the clan, the distribution of the clan's resources, the assignment and adjustment of internal staff, the record of apprentice advancements, and so on. Once he had completed this, Keoghan took out yet another, tinier piece of paper from inside his sleeve and started to give a summary on everything that had happened in Fire Throne recently.

  Greem had been hiding in the adept's tower, completely hidden from the public. It had been six months since anyone saw him.

  The tower had recruited another two staying adepts.

  A few core adepts of the tower had also simultaneously vanished for a period a month ago.

  Goblin Snorlax had gone missing, though Majordomo Gargamel was still present in the tower.

  Half a month later, Meryl and Mary had returned to the tower. However, Bug Adept Billis, Poison Witch Endor, and Mechanical Adept Sabrina were still unaccounted for.

  Seven days ago, Mary set forth for the southwest of Zhentarim. Her goal remained unclear.

  Large amounts of resource imports and exports had been recorded recently. It seemed Greem's faction was up to something big.

  ……

  ……

  One by one, sentence by sentence, almost everything in the report was about the recent movements of Fire Throne's principal characters, as well as the details of essential matters. One would gain a perfect understanding of Fire Throne from all this information!

  Adept Fügen patiently waited for Keoghan to finished his report. Finally, he couldn't help but bow and ask, "Lady Sanazar, should we… "

  "Is there any question about this?" The sharp voice of Third Grade Adept Sanazar rang out from the purple mist, "That brat has some real skills. To think he would dare to attempt a planar invasion just a few days after his advancement. Kehkehkeh, how bold!"

  Even though he already had his suspicions, Fügen clearly wasn't as sure as Sanazar was. He asked doubtfully, "Milady, is he able to do that with his current power? That… we are talking about invading a plane, after all!"

  "Hmph! Fügen, you are too conservative!" Sanazar couldn't stop herself from mocking, "If I were you, I wouldn't be wondering if he would dare to invade a plane. Instead, I would be wondering where he obtained the planar coordinates for an invasion. Greem's financial situation is clearly insufficient for him to buy any planar coordinates, even that of a small-sized plane from the Silver Union."

  "Could it have been provided by that girl in the north?" Adept Keoghan threw in his opinion.

  Sanazar thought for a moment when she heard this. She agreed with this idea.

  A fire adept that had only advanced to Second Grade for no more than a hundred days having enough money to buy world coordinates from the three major forces? This line of thought was just too ridiculous! The highest probability was that he had obtained external aid.

  And with Greem's social circle, the only one that could provide him with such aid could only be that Alice from Dragonblight.

  If that was the case, then had the adepts missing from Fire Throne died in the other plane? Or were they stationed there?

  Sanazar and Fügen's consensus was that it was likely to be the former.

  After all, the strength of Greem's faction was too weak. Even at their peak, they could only call upon six to seven adepts. Moreover, most of these adepts were newly advanced adepts. There was no way they could conquer a plane with
a force that small unless the opponent were a microplane with extremely limited resources.

  Even if they could take on the plane, five or six adepts in a small plane were like a handful of pepper cast into a creek. They would be swept away before they could make any substantial difference. Ruling a plane was even further out of the question!

  A lack of adepts made it difficult to form any effective ruling structure. Without that ruling structure, it was difficult to properly excavate the resources and wealth hidden within that other plane. Moreover, low-magic planes had extremely thin magic concentration. It was unsuitable for adept practices and cultivation. That would undoubtedly be an incredibly torturous exercise for the adepts stationed in the plane!

  It was certain that Greem would be unwilling to station himself in a low-magic plane that was lacking in both resources and magic. He would never accept his power improving at a crawling pace while being forced to deal with worldly management matters!

  It seemed Greem had already swallowed his first loss!

  The three core adepts of the Sarubo Clan couldn't help but sinisterly laugh when they thought of such a disaster befalling Greem.

  Chapter 550 Giant Metal Monster

  One had to mention how the victors of a brutal battle were always guaranteed the most valuable of spoils!

  After a month of work, the goblin excavation team had cleared away millions of tons of dirt and all sorts of other debris. They had overcome several difficulties and pierced through the hard layers of rock and stone. The Steel Capital, buried nearly a thousand meter underground, finally saw the day of light once more.

  In all honesty, it shouldn't have exactly been considered underground. After all, the Steel Capital had been built high atop the peak of a mountain. It had only been buried as the mountain itself collapsed.

  After all the debris had been cleared away, the ruins of the uncovered Steel Capital revealed to everyone the ferocity and violence of the explosion on that day. Most of the metal buildings had been distorted beyond recognition. In fact, many of the metallic components had their original attributes altered by the corrosion of the energy storm. They had been fused and turned into substances that were more akin to magical alloys.

  As the hundreds of construction machines operated at full power and endeavored to cut these metal parts into suitable sizes before lifting them out of the 'pit,' an unexpected event occurred.

  A mysterious force suddenly guided a large pile of broken and distorted metal parts to transform into an eight-meter metal giant within full view of all the goblins, clicking and clanging as the metal parts collided with each other.

  It had a rough and crude metal body, broken wires spouting sparks and electricity, a tilted metal head, and metal fists with large cracks in them.

  Even though this metal giant was unbearably crude, its large size and massive fists still caused devastating damage to the nearby construction machines.

  A single punch would flatten a construction machine to half its size. With a kick, the machine would be blasted to the sky, falling apart as it fell.

  This strange metal giant was like a tiger that had made its way into the middle of a pack of wolves. It beat back all the machines around it without any contest. Soon, five construction machines had fallen by its hands. The goblin mechanics within the machines had also been turned into unrecognizable crimson splotches on the earth.

  After all, this was an excavation site. Most of the machines that were active here were construction machines. They were not considered combat magical machines. All of them were built in a bulky fashion and had slow reaction speeds. They weren't outfitted with any weapons either.

  Expecting them to wave their saws meant for cutting and drills meant for digging to charge at a killing machine was truly unfair.

  The few combat magical machines that were present at the site quickly shifted to full power and rushed at the monster. They used a barrage of goblin rockets and rapid-fire guns to riddle the enemy with holes. Shards of metal went flying everywhere as their bullets found their mark.

  Just as the magical machines were about to obtain their victory, the metal giant flailed its arms ferociously and forced the magical machines away from it. It then strode towards the damaged construction machines. The giant let out a roar as its suddenly liquified arms plunged into the remains of the machines.

  A bizarre phenomenon that no goblin understood occurred!

  The previously smoking, damaged, and immobilized construction machine came back to life once more. Its sundered body split into tens of thousands of tiny components and surged towards the metal giant's body like a flock of birds returning to their nests.

  The originally eight-meter tall metal giant suddenly devoured a damaged construction machine; its already large body once again grew amidst ear-piercing grinding sounds. It was now ten meters in height. Many attachments that once belonged to the construction machine had successfully moved to its body in an orderly and logical fashion.

  The expanded metal chainsaw let out a terrifying rumble as it started to spin. This previously unarmed giant now had a metal chainsaw in its left hand and a drill in its right. There was also a shiny metal armor covering its back and its breast. It… it had actually armed itself!

  Almost as if it had just discovered this strange metal ability, the metal giant shielded itself from the attacks of the magical machines while lunging at the other damaged machines on the site.

  It was through this method that the metal giant endured the attacks of six magical machines and slowly absorbed each construction machine into its body.

  In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a giant metal monster that stood fifteen meters tall, equipped with all sorts of strange attachments.

  At this point, the accumulation of metal parts had made it an unstoppable force.

  The magical machines that had previously managed to overwhelm it didn't even dare to get close to it now. They could only harass it from afar. Finally, a magical machine failed to get out of the way of the giant metal monster. The metal giant's fist crashed into the chest of the magical machine. It severely dented the machine's metal plates, and the sound of the goblin mechanic coughing up blood could be heard from within.

  A pool of blood flowed out from the inside of the machine.

  After unhesitatingly 'devouring' this magical machine, this giant metal monster armed with primitive mechanical weapons instantly transformed. The metal attachments on the surface of its body were all refitted into goblin rapid-fire guns with surprising offensive prowess.

  Countless black cannon barrels also extended from its massive body. Fist-sized bullets instantly riddled the remaining five magical machines with holes.

  The goblins immediately descended into chaos upon this happening!

  The goblin mechanics frantically climbed out of their construction machines and gathered with the other goblins. They swarmed toward the elevators and slopes that had been dug into the side of the pit in hopes of escaping this nightmare.

  Goblins pushed and shoved each other, howling and screaming as they vied for a way out. The excavation site at the bottom of the pit instantly turned into a chaotic mess.

  Just as the goblins were fighting to escape from this unkillable and fearsome metal monster, a blindingly bright red sun suddenly rose at the bottom of the pit. A beam of pure white light then shot across their heads and crashed into the chest of the giant metal monster.

  This pillar of light was one meter in diameter. It didn't look extraordinary, but it possessed a jaw-droppingly high temperature.

  The metal parts engulfed by the pillar of light immediately started to melt and soften, flowing down the body of the metal giant like hot wax.

  The metal monster seemed to sense the danger it was in. It thrashed left and right, hoping to escape from the entanglement of the light pillar. However, the column of light appeared to have a mind of its own. It closely followed the metal monster, regardless of which direction it went in, always keeping itself
focused upon the metal giant's chest.

  The giant metal monster stopped moving as if it knew it would be a futile attempt to escape from the white pillar of light. It roared ferociously, and over a hundred black cannon barrels emerged as its body ground and creaked. The cannons promptly began to fire a barrage at the source of the pillar of light.

  The giant metal bullets crossed paths with the Blazing Light, turning the excavation site into a fearsome battlefield!

  However, the battle only lasted for seven seconds before it ended with the loss of the metal monster.

  Blazing Light possessed an incomparable destructiveness and lethality in the hands of Second Grade Fire Adept Greem.

  The three-meter thick body of the giant metal monster had been forcefully pierced through by the pillar of pure white light. In fact, the white beam had even blasted the earth wall behind the metal giant and had melted a giant crater into the dirt.

  The chest seemed to be the vital point of the giant metal monster, and it lost its combat capabilities once that point had been pierced. The metal giant shuddered before collapsing to the ground with a heavy thud.

  Greem arrived in front of the metal giant's towering body with steady footsteps. Even though his height of two meters made him a giant amongst humans, he still appeared as tiny as a bean beside a wheel of cheese when compared to this strange metal monster.

  A crack appeared in the earth beside the giant metal monster, and tens of thousands of black beetles surged out from beneath. Soon, they reformed into the Bug Adept Billis, cloaked in his black robe.

  "Master, why does this guy look so familiar."

  "Of course he looks familiar!" A disdainful smile appeared on Greem's face, "He's an old friend of ours after all."

  "You mean to say that it…it's that guy?" Bug Adept Billis asked hesitatingly.

  "Hmph! I knew Third Grades wouldn't die so easily. Even that thunder dragon managed to live. What's so surprising about Giant Brain Gazlowe surviving the explosion?"