"Understood, Clan Leader."
Deserra was a conservative adept that liked to do things by the rules. He always wore a formulaic smile on his pale face, and his body revealed a trace of sickliness. His behavior was elegant, but not superficial. One look and anyone could tell he was the classic noble adept that came from a noble family.
Deserra's entire body glowed with light when Greem looked at him with his elementium sight. Not a single equipment slot where Deserra could equip something was empty. It was apparent that he was a reasonably wealthy adept.
Deserra took off of the ground after being called by Greem. He hovered in midair, the magical equipment on his body lighting up in order, providing him with plenty of enhancing and amplifying status effects.
He extended both of his hands, and several wind vortices started to gather between his palms before forming into a single sharp wind blade.
The lack of elementium in the Goblin Plane caused Deserra to require seven entire seconds to bring the wind blade to its strongest level.
Deserra then let out a battle cry as the sharp wind vortex shot out of his hand. It traversed a hundred meters in an instant and crashed upon the soul forcefield of the metal giant.
Some slight ripples appeared on the intangible soul forcefield, and Deserra's attack was quickly neutralized.
Eighty-five points!
The Chip immediately provided Greem with the strength of that attack.
Considering this was the Goblin Plane, and Deserra was a newly-advanced adept, an attack of this strength was already commendable. If this were the World of Adepts, that attack would probably have reached over a hundred points of damage!
Even back in the past, with all the optimization from the Chip and the explosiveness of his fire spells, Greem's spells had only reached a peak of one hundred and five points.
As such, Deserra's research into wind spells was still fairly decent in contrast!
Deserra's attack might not have broken through the metal giant's soul forcefield, but it had attracted Gazlowe's attention.
The metal giant bent its body slightly and turned its head toward Deserra. The pair of eyes that gleamed like searchlights shone toward Deserra.
A First Grade adept could hardly break through the defense of the metal giant controlled by Gazlowe, but what about a Second Grade?
Greem waved his hand, and a Magma Fireball the size of a human head instantly appeared in his palm. It continued to increase in strength as it absorbed the fire elementium around them.
The fireball immediately drew the metal giant's gaze.
"Gazlowe, don't move. I want to try this out."
Greem communicated with Gazlowe and then proceeded to push with his hand. The Magma Fireball in his palm cut across the sky like a streaking meteor and crashed against the soul forcefield.
Sparks flew everywhere, and lava splashed across the place!
One half of the metal giant was engulfed in that massive blast of fire.
Chapter 571 Otherworldly Metal Base
Two hundred and eighty-six points!
The Chip revealed that the power at the core of the Magma Fireball's explosion reached two hundred and eighty-six points!
The elementium might of any casual spell from Greem had been wildly increasing ever since he had advanced to Second Grade, despite the fact that he hadn't particularly taken any time to research and strengthen his fire spells.
The same Magma Fireball differed by two to three times when cast by a First Grade and a Second Grade.
Greem's current magic power was so powerful that a direct hit with his Magma Fireball would instantly exterminate a newly advanced adept that had all their defensive spells activated.
Take Adept Deserra for example. He had advanced to adept for seven years already, spending all his time between then and now doing magical experiments or spell practice. Yet, he had only mastered two defensive spells– Wind Barrier and Wildwinds Bulwark.
The former was focused on defense and could provide the caster with one hundred and fifty points of wind elemental protection, along with forty points of physical defense. The latter possessed both offensive and defensive properties. It could provide the caster with one hundred and twenty points of wind elemental protection and ninety points of physical defense. Moreover, the spell could also direct the enemy's motions and offset their melee attacks.
Both spells could only defend against an instance of a two hundred and seventy point attack, even when added together. Moreover, it leaned more toward wind-attribute defense.
If the enemy's instantaneous damage couldn't reach this level, then both defenses covering for each other could allow the adept to be untouched by the enemy's attack. Moreover, the adept could take advantage of the interval between attacks to allow their defenses to somewhat recover by injecting more magic power into the spells.
That was the main reason why individual magical defenses could keep adepts safely out of harm, despite how low their protection often was!
However, when faced with someone like Greem, whose explosive damage was above the limits of both layers of defenses, there could only be one outcome. The magical defenses would shatter, and the adept would have to endure the remaining magic attack damage.
That spillover damage would be nothing if it were someone like Medusa Dana or Manticore Leader Charon, as they had their powerful magical creature Physique. They could easily endure that little bit of damage and wouldn't be too badly wounded. However, the weak bodies of human adepts were greatly known as their most significant flaw.
Without their magical protections, even an elementium attack of twenty points could cause lethal and devastating damage.
Moreover, all this estimation had to consider the traits of the elementium in question.
Deserra's two defensive spells were of the wind attribute. As such, they could only have the best opposing effect against wind-attribute attacks. If the opponent used assaults of other elements, then the Wind Barrier and the Wildwinds Bulwark's defenses would be significantly discounted.
With all these factors present, Greem's two hundred and eighty-six point Magma Fireball could exterminate Deserra in a single shot!
However, such a fireball only caused the metal giant's soul forcefield to tremble intensely. It couldn't make it break. Also, once the flame shockwaves disappeared, Gazlowe directed his mental force into the shield, and the fragile forcefield turned stable once again.
[Beep. Detecting spiritual-type defensive forcefield. Elementium defensive strength: three hundred and twenty points. No physical defense ability.]
The numbers from the Chip rang out in Greem's mind.
The existence of the defensive forcefield rendered it impossible for Greem to see into the metal giant's construction and its basic defensive abilities. However, the Chip could still estimate the opponent's approximate defense through the destruction caused by the attack earlier.
A forcefield defense of three hundred and twenty points was honestly a little too low for a Third Grade monster.
However, considering the fact that Gazlowe had just gained control of this body, and that this forcefield was an omnidirectional, domain-type defense, this was an acceptable defensive power.
"Gazlow, how many points can your attacks go up to?"
Greem still needed to understand the opponent's offensive powers, now that the defenses had been tested.
The metal giant's five-meter-thick right arm reached outward when it heard Greem ask this question. A black cannon barrel, three meters in diameter, abruptly appeared at its palm. The next second, energy pulsed forth from the magic generator furnace, sending fearsome power into the right arm through special pipes.
A blindingly intense blue light instantly shrouded the black barrel.
Sla!
A terrifying blue lightning chain shot out of the barrel amid the crackling of electricity. The lightning arc blasted a steep mountain's peak two and a half kilometers away from here.
The destructi
ve elementium lightning erupted, instantly shattering the mountain peak into pebbles. Everything within the core area enveloped by the lightning blast was instantly vaporized, be it stone or rock. Only parts of the mountain peak that remained at the edge of the blast radius managed to survive the explosion.
Electric attacks were the fastest amongst all elementium attacks. Furthermore, they often brought with them lightning shockwaves that caused paralysis. However, the shockwaves didn't have much of an effect on the non-conductive mountain peak, apart from sending more rocks flying down the mountain.
The mountain peak had been like a cake towering high in the air. It now looked as if someone had bitten off the middle portion of the cake. The summit could hardly support the weight from above any longer. Finally, after a dozen seconds, the remaining bits of the mountain peak slowly collapsed before everyone's eyes.
Even though there was a distance of two and a half kilometers between here and there, the intense quake from the collapsing peak and the massive pillar of dust created by it still stunned the goblins and the adepts.
They might not be able to estimate the strength of that attack from the metal giant, but the Chip in Greem's mind could accurately calculate its power.
Eight hundred and fifty-three points!
That was a terrifying degree of power that made even Greem speechless!
In the World of Adepts, the power of a First Grade adept was ordinarily below two hundred points. If one were to be brutally honest, most adepts couldn't even go past one hundred and fifty points with their spells. Only those at the peak of First Grade and who were prepared to advance to Second Grade at any time had a possibility of going above one hundred and fifty points.
The strength of a Second Grade adept's attacks were often between two hundred to four hundred points. Only those exceptionally powerful Second Grade adepts could possibly reach beyond the threshold of four hundred.
Third Grade adepts, on the other hand, had offensive power of between three hundred to a thousand points. The difference in development direction and the difference in the degree of development would cause shocking disparity in combat ability. Powerful individuals at this level were often two to three times more powerful than their peers of the same grade.
As for attacks above a thousand points? That was overbearing might reserved only for Fourth Grade adepts!
However, statistics like these didn't take into consideration plenty of other factors. For instance, the combat techniques that the adepts possessed, the environment of the battle, their condition, and the matter of the intangible Fate. That was why statistics could only be statistics. There was no determined outcome for two adepts of similar statistics engaging in combat. Who would win, who would lose, who would live, and who would die. All of these things were affected by the unique circumstances and environmental factors. There was no absolute certainty of victory or defeat.
However, even the most potent combat technique and means of murder were useless before absolute statistical advantage.
It didn't matter how much more experienced Greem was at combat; there was no chance of survival if he was hit by that metal giant's eight hundred and fifty-three point electric blast.
Fortunately, some information that the Chip sent to Greem allowed him to let out a sigh of relief.
The metal giant that Gazlowe was controlling required at least three to five seconds to gather energy to fire a thunderblast like the one before. Moreover, the pose and light from preparing the shot were extremely obvious.
Greem would only need to avoid the barrel of the cannon if and when he found the metal giant charging up, and he would be able to escape the blast of death. However, even Greem, with all the defenses he possessed, would not escape from death if he were restrained to the spot for some reason.
Eight hundred and fifty-three points!
This amount of power was enough to pierce through all of Greem's magical defenses and utterly vaporize him.
Greem wouldn't be able to endure such a horrifying electric blast even if he transformed into the Flame Fiend.
The metal giant slowly lowered its right arm after that thunderous attack. The metal arm was glowing red after all that intense energy had passed through it. Smoke could be seen coming out of the arm.
It was clear that the metal giant couldn't fire such a violent attack consecutively. Moreover, it needed to perform some extent of repair and maintenance to parts of its body before it could fire the next shot.
This discovery caused Greem to lower his head in contemplation.
"Gazlowe, I remember you attacking me from the flying ship last time. That attack was far more terrifying than this one. It had reached one thousand points of power. Why is it this weak this time?" Greem started communicating with Gazlowe using Password of the Mind.
"Master, I need to obtain stronger magical alloy if I want to fire a stronger attack. The materials used in creating this body were far too ordinary. If I charge for more than five seconds, the magic energy cannon within me will disintegrate before I could attack." Brain Monster Gazlowe seemed to have understood his status and his identity. He became honest like never before.
"Apart from energy attacks, what other powers do you have?"
"Master, apart from the two massive magic energy cannons within my body, there are also a hundred ordinary magic energy cannons, one thousand arcanite rifles, one hundred high-radiation flamethrowers, one thousand goblin rockets. These are the most basic weapon units.
"Apart from those, I also have one hundred and thirty-six construction machines and six hundred and seventy-two combat magical machines within my body. These are the most basic combat units.
"Furthermore, I carry within my body two simple goblin factories that can create simple goblin weapons, two metal ore smelting factories that can smelt metal ores into required metal components, and one magical machine construction factory that can produce magical machines as long as there is a supply of magical alloys. Currently, fifteen basic magical machines can be produced on a daily basis.
"However, it is difficult to maintain the functions of these metal factories while in combat mode. I need to find a suitable area to transform myself into defense mode before I can obtain the required energy and space to put the factories into motion."
Combat mode, defense mode.
Greem, who had traveled here from Earth, was instantly reminded of something back from long ago. The strange image of the Mobile Construction Vehicles of Red Alert surfaced in his mind.
Fold it together, and it turns into a towering metal giant. Spread it out, and it turns into an extremely well-defended metal fortress. It was the mobile base that he had always dreamed of!
Chapter 572 A Difficult Journey
The Lance Plane.
It was an exceedingly beautiful small plane.
The entire plane was composed of stretches of swamps, hills, plains, forests, volcanoes, and vast seas.
In terms of area alone, Lance was two times the size of the Goblin Plane.
The biological resources here were plentiful, and the reserves of metal and ores were shockingly high.
Moreover, the reserves of magical crystals and resources of Lance were many times that of the Goblin Plane due to its nature as a high-magic plane.
The most populous and widely found tribe across the vast plane were the trolls, who had all sorts of various tribal branches.
Trolls were a fearsome combative species who averaged seven feet tall (approximately two meters) and two hundred pounds (approximately ninety kilograms) in weight. They possessed large skeletal structures and had remarkably developed muscular strength. They were skilled at using poisoned javelins and spears and possessed all sorts of desirable racial abilities such as berserking, regeneration, beast slaying abilities, and proficiency in throwing weapons.
Voodoo doctors with strange voodoo abilities would even be born in some large troll tribes. They wielded some of the more primal arts of herbalism and voodoo magic.
The trolls had been the rightful rulers of Lance before they were faced with a terrifying invasion. In fact, at the peak of their history, the trolls had even established an utterly vast Troll Empire.
Unfortunately, all of this came to a screeching halt in the 1207th Year of the Voodoo Calendar.
The history of the trolls' rule had ended when a massive flight of dragons arrived, soaring in the blue skies.
The dragon allied army quickly destroyed the capital of the trolls and slaughtered their army.
The massive Troll Empire instantly fell apart and was split into hundreds of territories of various sizes. The dragons obtained different lands depending on their grade and power. Fourth Grade dragons could claim lands over a million kilometers in size as their territory, while Third Grade dragons could only take lands of a hundred thousand kilometers.
Dragons of even lower grades could only own one or two villages or a large troll tribe as their land, living the life of a lord served by a horde of servants.
The Dragon Lords intentionally cultivated a group of dragon descendants with a native bloodline upon conquering the plane– the Dragonborn. It was to suppress the resistance of the trolls.
The dragonborn hid within the palaces and dragon dens they had created with all their hoarded wealth and gemstones, while the order within their territory was maintained by the dragonborn servants who possessed their bloodline.
These dragonborn were the loyal servants of their dragon lords. They were usually responsible for taking care of the daily lives of the dragon lords within the palaces and the dens, but they would occasionally leave the lands to retrieve the offerings and contributions of the troll tribes.
Small-scale troll resistance and riots wouldn't even need to alert the dragon lords. The dragonborn had an immense individual strength and possessed elementium powers granted by their dragon bloodline. These disturbances were often settled by a small number of dragonborn warriors and scouts.
As such, the hierarchy in Lance had turned into a food chain where the dragon lords ruled from high above, the dragonborn were the middle class, and the trolls were the ones being exploited by the upper levels. As for the other tribes that were even weaker than the trolls? They became the target of exploitation and robbery by the trolls themselves.
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