Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Then, the most crucial blow had been fired by Greem.

  Without Greem, Zacha and Mary would have only been able to occupy the wind dragon and would have had no means to defeat it.

  In the end, all three of them had been needed to capture the wind dragon.

  Losing any one of them would have made it virtually impossible to defeat the wind dragon lord here today.

  Even so, Greem still had his questions.

  "Strange… so strange. Why does this wind dragon seem so weak?"

  Chapter 579 Dragon Devourer

  Greem's doubts were quickly answered.

  Wind Dragon Cherkes wasn't some tough, unrelenting warrior either. Mary only needed to suck a little of his blood threateningly, and he spilled all the beans.

  Third Grade female fire dragon, an organized dragonborn army…

  Greem's head swelled when he heard about it. He once again frowned at his lousy luck.

  Second Grade dragons were small fry even in Lance. One of two of them going missing wouldn't draw the attention of any dragon. However, it was a whole different matter if it was a Third Grade dragon!

  A Second Grade dragon in Lance was like the village chief of some rural place; it wouldn't matter if he died. There would be no commotion or chaos. A Third Grade dragon, on the other hand, was like the lord of a city. These dragons often had many connections and complicated social ties.

  A slight misstep would very likely lead to the premature drawing of a Fourth Grade dragon's attention.

  The strength of the metal fortress that Gazlowe currently controlled was insufficient. It was still far too difficult for them to fight off a Fourth Grade dragon. In all seriousness, they could only be considered as illegal stowaways now. The best course of action was not to attract the attention of the dragons.

  Once they had rooted themselves here for a couple of years, the resource circulation within the metal fortress will have been smoothed out, and the enhanced new magical machines would walk off the assembly line endlessly. Only then would be the golden period for the Crimson Clan to excavate Lance on a larger scale.

  They could attack if they wished to, with the large group of magical machines as cannon fodder. Decimating the natives would not be a problem.

  They could also defend if things turned south. It didn't matter how many magical machines they lost. As long as the adepts could get back to the metal fortress in time, the Crimson Clan would not need to worry about this foothold of theirs being uprooted.

  When that happened, Greem, as the clan leader of the Crimson Clan, would only need to worry about the size of the benefit that they would get out of Lance. He would no longer need to be concerned about the possibility of being expelled from the plane by the dragons.

  Just as the three of them were discussing their next plan of action around the large body of the wind dragon, a low and hoarse female voice rang out from behind.

  "Er, this is a little sudden, but I still want to ask– do you people mind giving me this wind dragon?"

  The newcomer's voice wasn't loud, but the three adepts reacted as if thunder had just crashed down beside them. Cold sweat ran down their bodies.

  Greem glided backward and tapped the air with his staff. Six Fire Shields instantly surfaced out of nowhere and rapidly spun around his body. Dragonborn Zacha was indeed the most loyal servant of the world. He roared and stepped in front of Greem while brandishing his electric spear.

  Mary, on the other hand, let out a battle cry. Blood mist surged around her body, and only a crimson silhouette remained on the spot. Her true body was nowhere to be seen.

  Ambushing Cherkes in his lair was an operation that Greem had planned after obtaining precise information. Dragonborn Zacha had already relied on his identity as a dragonborn to scout the surroundings before the operation. They had only started the battle after ensuring that there was no possibility of intervention or interruption.

  Who knew this would happen? While they were still giddy with joy from capturing a dragon, the lair behind them had already been blocked off by an opponent.

  After hastily establishing his personal defenses, Greem finally started to solemnly assess this mysterious newcomer.

  She was a woman.

  Her face was obscured with a black veil, obscuring part of her looks. However, it was apparent that she was a human, given her exposed eyes and skin color. Moreover, she was an extremely powerful female assassin.

  One also had to admit that she had a good figure.

  The black bodytight leather suit hugged around her exquisite body. The curves were all in the right places as well. It was a pleasing sight from afar. That said, the weapons that the woman carried with her didn't suit her figure. She carried a massive kpinga that far outsized her on her back and two mysterious machetes sheathed on her waist.

  She also wore a pair of black claws on her hands. The gleaming black claws shone as if they had been polished. Greem could even vaguely hear the death throes of dragons when a breeze passed through the gaps between her claws.

  A human female assassin?

  Greem couldn't help but be intrigued.

  The opponent clearly wasn't a native of Lance. Then what was her purpose in blocking their way here?

  With the Chip's help, Greem's vision roamed about every part of the woman's body, lingering for a long time on each piece.

  It wasn't Greem being a lecher. Rather, there were far too many things about this woman that confused him.

  Dragon tooth necklace, dragonbone ring, dragoneye pendant, dragonhorn dagger; in fact, with the scanning function of the Chip, Greem had plenty of reason to suspect that the woman's very clothes were made of dragon hide. Greem could vaguely sense the curse of dragon souls upon the giant kpinga and machetes that she carried with her. Even her claws were stained with the curse.

  If these were all made of dragon materials, then the opponent honestly held fearsome power!

  Greem had initially determined the opponent to be of Second Grade from the feedback of the Chip. However, if his observations were not incorrect, then she would have to be a lot more powerful. Unless she was not afraid of death, she had to be that powerful to brazenly walk within the dragon-ruled Lance with a full suit of 'dragon' equipment.

  Greem hesitated for a moment and mentally adjust this mysterious woman's power to Third Grade (to be verified).

  The formerly solemn Zacha and Mary felt their hairs go on end when they heard from Greem that the opponent could be Third Grade.

  Damn! As expected of a dragon plane that was many times more powerful than the Goblin Plane. Even a random person they ran into could be Third Grade.

  The three adepts quickly turned tense once again.

  The woman dressed like an assassin stepped forward as if she saw the anxiety and solemnness of the adepts. She spoke softly. "You don't need to worry. We are not enemies!"

  The three adepts took a step back in unison.

  Greem paused for a moment before replying, "May I know who you are, lady? Why have you appeared here?"

  "The reason I'm here is naturally because of that fellow behind you people." The mysterious woman smiled coldly as her eyes fell upon the immobilized Wind Dragon Cherkes.

  Cherkes also clearly recognized this mysterious woman. He immediately started roaring in a frenzy when he saw her arrive.

  "Take me away…take me away, quick. Adept…adept, didn't you want to take me away and make me a slave? Hurry up and take me away; let's leave now. Please don't ever hand me over to this woman. I…I can give you all the wealth here..."

  A 'frail' human woman so utterly terrified a Second Grade adolescent dragon. He looked so frightened he would be willing to obey Greem unconditionally as long as Greem took him away from this woman.

  That caused Greem to start thinking about the broader implications.

  "Hmph! Aren't you fast? Slipping away from me two times only because you are a wind dragon. Even going so far as to bring the Azure Wings to exterminate me. Hmph. I will tr
eat you well once I get my hands on you." The female assassin obviously had a grudge on the wind dragon. She was laughing coldly while staring at Cherkes with sinister eyes. It made the wind dragon tremble in fear.

  Something wasn't right. This female assassin didn't seem to be Third Grade.

  If she was Third Grade, she might as well have just stood out and demanded Greem hand over the wind dragon. Greem and the others wouldn't even have dared to say another word.

  However, if she was only Second Grade, then there was no reason Cherkes should be so terrified of her. After all, even Greem, Mary, and Zacha had to work together to beat the wind dragon, trapping it within its lair and sealing off the exit. A little Second Grade assassin shouldn't be strong enough to make Cherkes so scared!

  Greem then thought of the various dragon equipment the woman had on her, along with that dense dragonsoul curse upon her entire being. The Chip instantly found an extremely rare and unorthodox profession within the data library that related to these traits.

  "Dragon Devourer!" Greem couldn't help but exclaim.

  "Hm," The female assassin raised her head in surprise and reassessed Greem, "You, sir, are truly from the World of Adepts. To think you were able to discover my identity so quickly. Indeed, I am a dragon devourer. A Second Grade dragon devourer!"

  Greem nodded silently. He finally understood why the wind dragon was so afraid of her.

  The stealthed Mary started to ask a bunch of questions through a mental connection with Greem. It was evident that she knew nothing about dragon devourers, given how she spent all of her time on improving her battle techniques.

  Greem had no choice but to send what he knew to Mary and Zacha via mental links.

  Dragon Devourers weren't members of the dragon species. Instead, they were a strange hybrid dragon species.

  It was hard to verify which specific dragon tribe their bloodline originated from at this point, but they were undoubtedly the greatest mistake that the dragons wished to rectify.

  Dragon blood might course through their bodies, but they felt no kinship with the dragons.

  They had no exceptional intelligence either and behaved like ordinary humans until their bloodline awakened. They didn't know any of the mysterious Dragontongue magic, but they were the nightmare of the dragons.

  The moment they came of age and awakened to their bloodline as dragon devourers, they would instantly possess elementium affinity that outshone even the faerie dragons. They would also gain the same fearsome Physique and Strength of the dragons. They could recklessly hunt down dragons of even higher grades than themselves and absorb the elementium energy within those dragons to patch the flaws in their bloodline.

  They were the dragon devourers!

  People slew dragons for a myriad of reasons– wealth, fame, glory, resources, and much more. However, they slew dragons only for the sake of devouring the bloodline of the dragons. The increase of their strength came solely from consuming dragons. As such, they became the greatest prick in the eyes of all dragons.

  Every single dragon would summon all of their companions the moment they caught wind of a dragon devourer. They would swear upon their lives to exterminate the dragon devourer, even if they had to rely on their numbers.

  That was how the dragon devourers had almost gone extinct from being hunted down by the dragons. The surviving devourers had no choice but to hide here and there.

  Greem and the others being able to meet a dragon devourer in Lance was nothing short of a miracle!

  Chapter 580 Civilization and Conflict

  It took a Herculean effort to bring the massive dragon back to the metal fortress, even for Gazlowe's construction machines.

  That dragon devourer had also returned to the adept's base under Greem's warm invitation.

  In just seven days, Gazlowe's construction machines had dug up the mountain and turned it into a hidden base. The massive hole that had been carved into the mountain had also been sealed with a metal wall. Countless secret doors had been created at the bottom of the wall, allowing the construction machines to stream in and out constantly.

  Logging parties, scouting parties, hunting parties, geo-exploration robots, geological soil inspectors, biodistribution statisticians; ordinary tasks were left to the unquestionably loyal and steel-headed construction machines, but the sampling and investigation of the environment, life forms, and geological resources couldn't be left to them.

  A large-sized goblin teleportation device was quickly constructed within the base, allowing the metal fortress to possess a stable and uninterrupted means of communication with the Goblin Plane. The first batch of individuals to teleport over was the goblin technicians and engineers that the metal fortress desperately needed.

  Just as expected, all the goblins were struck with 'magic-drunkenness' from suddenly moving from a low-magic world to a high-magic world. All sorts of abnormal conditions started to afflict the one hundred goblins. They came down with fevers, threw up, and even their moods turned sour. The goblins finally barely managed to adapt to the environment of Lance after the death of over four dozen of their number.

  With the arrival of these helpers, the various construction and magical machines that Gazlowe built now had commanders. A goblin technician would command four or five magical machines, perfectly executing the various tasks that Gazlowe assigned to them– scouting, investigations, sampling, logging, hunting, and many more. Moreover, these goblin officers could provide Gazlowe with a detailed and comprehensive mission report after each mission.

  It increased the work efficiency tremendously. It was much easier than having Gazlowe forcibly keep a trace of his mental consciousness around the machines to control them remotely.

  Moreover, Gazlowe's soul origin still came from that old goblin. As such, his personal preference and hobbies still leaned toward invention and the creation of new technology. He couldn't be bothered to take on the lowly and inefficient task of overseeing operations under ordinary circumstances.

  To ensure that he could be free of this repetitive, inefficient, and exhausting task of an officer, Gazlowe specially built a hidden room within the core area of the metal fortress. He converted the place into a mysterious brain pool and started to cultivate a new secondary brain.

  The secondary brain would be able to take his place in dealing with these menial daily tasks once it had grown and matured. That would allow Gazlowe to retake his preferred office as an inventor, scientist, and engineer.

  Everything in the metal fortress was already running in an orderly fashion by the time Greem returned. Along with him came his two subordinates, an unexpected guest, the wind dragon, and the team responsible for transporting the wind dragon.

  It was almost as if this was the first time the female assassin had seen such a strangely metallic civilization. She carefully assessed these clanging metal machines with bodies forged of steel and iron. She couldn't sense any life or flesh within them.

  Yet, mere metal lumps like these possessed behavioral awareness akin to humans. They were able to gather together, carry a massive wooden log, form groups to lift a metal cage filled with howling beasts, or even form neat lines under the command of a technician.

  The metal path leading to the various areas of the metal fortress might be broad, but they were still narrow relative to these giant steel machines. Even so, these machines knew how to wait and let others by when they streamed past each other within the narrow corridors. No such thing as collisions or accidents happened.

  This extremely orderly scene naturally drew the shock and respect of the dragon devourer.

  Civilization!

  Though they were only a bunch of metal lumps with no soul consciousness, she sensed the existence of an otherworldly civilization through these machines.

  Only civilization could make every member within society display such order and discipline. Only culture could allow a group to rise beyond their primal state and become a unique existence respected by others.

&nb
sp; Most species that possessed their own civilizations were scattered and small. They required the pooling together of the majority to ignite the flames of civilization. However, the civilization in front of the dragon devourer's eyes seemed to be concentrated and unified. The radiance of intelligence and the light of culture seemed to have gathered around a single powerful individual. This one individual was allowed to direct and assign the power of the entire species.

  Civilizations like these were rare, but they weren't unique!

  However, what surprised this female assassin was the fact that the lower class of this civilization were all metal machines. She couldn't help but want to meet the master of this civilization.

  "Master, you brought back an outsider? Do you need me to make special preparations?"

  Gazlowe's mental consciousness silently connected with Greem while he gave the female assassin a tour while walking toward the central hall.

  "No need! This is a dragon devourer. She is very likely to become our ally in the future. I'm confident she won't betray us to the dragons because those dragons are more likely to exterminate her first!" Greem replied confidently.

  "Dragon Devourer?"

  Gazlowe had no related data or information within his memory. As such, Greem had to sent over sets of information he had organized on the matter.

  Gazlowe only paused for a second or two before completely digesting the knowledge. He couldn't help but raise a suggestion for Greem, "It's true that this dragon devourer has the power, the motive, and the right to be our ally here on Lance. However, master, you must be careful. Prematurely having our relationship with this dragon devourer become exposed to the dragons before we establish a foothold is very likely to draw trouble."

  "Mm, I know! That's why you'll send another group of magical machines to Twin Peaks. Clean up that place one more time. Either capture all living things there or kill them. No witnessed can be allowed to escape!"