Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Such pseudo-adept apprentices always belonged to a unique group in any clan. They might still belong to the category of an apprentice adept, but they were already starting to enjoy the privileges of a newly advanced adept from many other aspects.

  In fact, even part of the basic curriculum of the apprentice adepts was taught by them.

  It caused them to become towering and shining figures in the hearts of most other apprentices, becoming pioneers that were admired and idolized.

  As an outsider, Little Locke was introduced by Eco and was successfully able to join her social circle. It was a study group built around the pseudo-adept Ponta.

  Ponta. Human, thirty-seven years old. He was a Pseudo-Adept with an affinity for dark elementium, born in a small human kingdom in the Vikas Region of Zhentarim. According to the customs of human kingdoms, Ponta seemed to retain his identity as a prince. He had been sent into the adept's tower after he was discovered to have magical talents at a young age.

  He was also one of the earliest free apprentices that had chosen to join the Crimson Clan after its establishment. His power could only be considered average amongst the six pseudo-adepts of White Tower. However, due to his ability to summon a powerful shadow assassin, he was the one type of pseudo-adept other pseudo-adepts did not want to provoke.

  Pseudo-adepts often lacked powerful defensive magic before their advancement to official adepts. As such, no pseudo-adept opponent would want to try and experience a taste of the wicked shadow blade of an untraceable shadow assassin.

  In truth, Little Locke was not qualified to join a learning association like this one with his power of a beginner apprentice. However, Eco's recommendation, as well as his own odd identity as a goblin mechanic, drew the interest of Ponta, who allowed the goblin to join them.

  After two months of study, Little Locke had grasped the basic meditation technique. Apart from that, he had also very unexpectedly awakened to his talent as a goblin mechanic. It gave him a strange ability that resembled bloodline powers. It allowed him to bring out the combat power of magical machines to their fullest potential.

  Sadly, he had come to the World of Adepts with absolutely nothing on him. There wasn't a powerful magical machine he could manipulate to his benefit. Moreover, magical machines often contained a myriad of mechanical components and magical parts. Little Locke's weak Spirit couldn't possibly sustain such delicate and sensitive manipulations.

  Thus, with no options left to him, Little Locke could only pay out of his own pocket to purchase some magical machinery modification knowledge. He also bought some of the cheapest metals and proceeded to construct an eyeball combat machine.

  He called it an eyeball combat machine, but in truth, it was only a metal ball that could not be any cruder.

  It was only the size of a human head and freely propelled itself in the air through pressurized air shot out of small ports located all over its body. To reduce its weight as much as possible, he had carved out the inside of the metal ball entirely. In place of metal, the interior was carved with a series of wind arrays.

  The most direct consequence of this was a sharp decline in the metal ball's physical defense. However, in exchange, it obtained rapid movements and a fast flight speed in the air.

  The only offensive option of the eyeball combat machine was a ruby shard embedded in an indentation. The eyeball combat machine could gather wandering elementium energy through the energy gathering array and then shoot out an eleven-point heat ray through the ruby shard.

  Due to the impurity of the fire elementium within the ruby shard, this was the most powerful attack that the machine could muster, even with Little Locke's efforts. If Little Locke wanted to improve the power of the heat ray further, he would have to swap out the ruby shard for something of higher quality– a flawed ruby, perhaps.

  However, while a ruby shard only cost three magical crystals, a flawed ruby went for as much as twenty magical crystals. The massive price difference forced the poor Little Locke to go for the cheapest and most available materials.

  The magical intensity of the ruby shard could only sustain an attack rate of one shot every five seconds. Anything beyond this frequency had a high possibility of burning out the arrays within the eyeball combat machine and ruining the precious shard.

  Even so, a magical machine helper that did not require too much control allowed Little Locke to rapidly become one of the few strongest individuals amongst the beginner apprentices. After all, being able to fire an apprentice-level spell with fifteen points of power in five to seven seconds was already decent for a beginner apprentice.

  Other beginner apprentices had to constantly be wary of the agile metal monster zipping about in the sky when fighting with Little Locke. With two against one, there were very few individuals among the newbies who could beat Little Locke!

  To train the practical combat skills of the apprentice adepts, the White Tower would organize a venture of fifty kilometers in the Black Forest on a weekly basis for some of the apprentices. They were to hunt and kill some apprentice-level beasts or magical creatures. Of course, White Tower would always send an official adept to lead the party on every operation. The adept would bring the apprentices to a suitable area before allowing them to split up and act independently.

  One had to admit that the management of Crimson Clan's White Tower took a well-thought-out approach to the trials that the apprentices had to undertake.

  If the apprentice parties ran into trouble in the forest, they were free to request help from the leading adept. However, if they did so, all their spoils would automatically belong to the adept. That was why the apprentices preferred to gather around a pseudo-adept. It afforded them some additional protection in moments of crisis.

  After all, with the power of the pseudo-adepts, they were entirely capable of unleashing a single First Grade spell if they exerted to their limits!

  It was a fairly important ability to have in the border region of the Black Forest. A pseudo-adept that had grasped a First Grade spell might not be said to be undefeatable, but it would make most of the area safe for them to travel.

  It was also the place in which their value to the other apprentices best manifested themselves!

  The spoils of the apprentices in the Black Forest would belong entirely to themselves or their party. They could sell these spoils to the merchant unions under the clan once they returned to White Tower, or they could also host an auction themselves. The gold coins and magical crystals earned through such hunts were sufficient to sustain their lifestyle in White Tower.

  The subordinate trading firms and auction houses of White Tower separated the prey and their spoils into different qualities. The apprentice-level beasts and magical creatures were directly sent into the factories, where they were processed into sealed metal cans by the goblins working there before being put into boxes and transported to the continent's central area.

  There, the Happy Coin Trading Firm established by Snorlax would be responsible for selling the goods to every human noble's villa and city.

  The flesh of ordinary beasts might not attract the interest of the human nobles, but the meat and hides of low-grade magical creatures were still popular products.

  After all, everyone knew that the bodies of magical creatures contained some degree of elementium energy. Being able to absorb this energy through daily consumption regularly would provide a pronounced increase in an individual's Physique and elementium affinity.

  Such minor changes might be insignificant in the eyes of the adepts, but they had immense meaning to the human nobles, who had enjoyed all manners of luxury and only sought to extend their lives for a few more years!

  If these nobles could consume magical creature meat on a daily basis, they could improve their Physique. However, more importantly, it could increase the chances of their descendants possessing magical talents.

  And that was what the nobles truly wanted!

  Of course, this change in percentage was a negligib
le one; only a small tick in the third or fourth digit past the decimal point. Still, through the incredible oratorical skills of Snorlax, who could turn a dead man living, the meat was exaggerated and described as mythical meat that could forever change the fates of the noble families.

  With some intense and effective marketing, Snorlax successfully started a new trend in Zhentarim– a trend towards eating healthy and improving one's Physique through magical creature meat. Moreover, this trend was something that other clans could not take advantage of!

  Every single adept clan had their own hunting parties that were responsible for killing magical creatures and gathering rare magical plants for the consumption of adepts. That should naturally give them the advantage needed to compete with Snorlax. However, firstly, the amount they hunted was still too little. It was insufficient to satiate the appetite of such a large group of human nobles. Secondly, the preservation of magical creature meat was a difficult task that demanded quite a lot of rare materials.

  If the meat were meant for the consumption of the adepts, the rich adepts would have no problem spending money on the preservation process. That allowed the hunting parties to make profits easily. However, trying to provide meat at the same price to middle and low-class human nobles was a foolish endeavor. These nobles would not be able to afford such a lavish magical creature feast even with all their worldly wealth.

  The subordinate goblin engineers of White Tower had specially created a vacuum-sealed metal lunchbox for this matter, solving the issue in a perfect yet affordable manner. This process allowed for the possibility of selling high-energy magical creature meat at a low price!

  It was through such methods that the White Tower successfully developed a living for the civilians who arrived in its territory. They only needed to learn the simple operation skills of a streamlined factory under the tutelage of the goblin technicians, and a qualified worker would be born!

  Chapter Notes:

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  As always, more than anything, thank you everyone for your continued readership and support of Age of Adepts!

  -Ryu

  Chapter 743 Ash and the Sourcestealer

  The thirteenth floor of the White Tower.

  As a mighty Second Grade adept, the trivial matters of the bottom floor of the tower no longer concerned or affected Greem's daily routine and studies.

  Greem had now resigned all his management powers to his subordinates.

  Of course, Greem's public explanation was the need to train the clan adepts and mold them into leaders. In truth, it was only a way for him to shirk off his responsibilities.

  Looking down at the daily lives progressing on the lower floors of the adept's tower as a Second Grade gave Greem the illusion that he was a chess player silently brooding above a game board. The future of the Crimson Clan, the efforts of the clan adepts, and the swarm of apprentices and civilians that had gathered like ants– all of these were no longer lives in Greem's eyes, but insignificant specks.

  The only difference was that some specks were a bit smaller and some were a bit larger!

  At this moment, one or two specks could no longer attract his attention. It was only when those specks gathered together on the chess board and rampaged furiously that he could bother to even cast a bit of his attention upon them. Moreover, this sort of focus had a bit of randomness and coincidence to it. There was no urgency or desperate concern.

  He was much like a lazy farmer that looked up to the sky and waited for his harvest to come. He was only responsible for sowing the seeds at a suitable time and then coming back to check on them the next time he remembered. The time it took for him to check back often related to the length of the magical experiments he was working on.

  If the seeds he sowed had failed to flower, the worst thing he would need to do was plant them again. If they succeeded in growing, he would gladly harvest only the portion he needed. As for the rest of the crop? They naturally became the compensation of the lower adepts for all their efforts.

  Thus, many of the things that Meryl was trying to accomplish to the best of her abilities were only casual thoughts that had popped up in Greem's mind.

  It was the different perspectives with which beings of different dimensions looked upon the same matters!

  For Greem, he was the Crimson Clan leader and naturally had an obligation to lead the clan territory to prosperity and wealth. However, the specific steps and plans that led to each outcome were carried out and executed by adepts like Meryl. Greem only needed to convey his instructions.

  Greem didn't even need to commit to realizing the plan himself. All he needed to do was take note of the matter's development at required times and suitably push the progress of the projects forward. In Greem's eyes, the immensely important training in the Black Forest for Little Locke and the other apprentices was no more than a small component in the practical training of the clan apprentices.

  Even if a large group of apprentices died in the Black Forest, it would only delay the clan's rise by five or six years.

  A single accident could mean the end of their lives to Little Locke and the apprentices. However, for a Second Grade adept who's lifespan lasted four hundred years, it was only a slightly longer magical experiment that had failed to come to fruition.

  Even if they failed, all the adept needed to do was wipe away the failures and replace them with new 'experiment materials.' The adept could then continue with this constant process of clan development, exploration, and experimentation.

  Moreover, even as Greem continually corrected the clan's developmental plans, most of his attention was taken up by the magical experiments at hand. The thing that he was most concerned about was undoubtedly the creation of the two set pieces of Fire Throne.

  For this purpose, he had even hired a sewing master from the Northern Witches at an expensive rate. He had the sewing master sew fire dragon boots of the perfect size with the fire dragon's hide, tendons, and fire marrow crystal. Greem then personally completed the final step of the creation process, using special techniques to activate the fire arrays that had been carved earlier under the surface of the fire dragon boots.

  As a bright yellow flame burned around these boots, all the impurities on them were burned away, leaving only the purest and most fundamental base. Finally, the magical patterns and runic lines carved within the boots faintly showed on their surface, forming a mysterious and wondrous pattern on the outside.

  At this point, Greem had expended several hundreds of thousands of magical crystals and three months worth of time. The first loose piece of the Fire Throne, the Boots of Ash, had finally been completed!

  As Greem's first Second Grade magical equipment, Ash could not only provide Greem with higher magic resistance, but it could also release a Burning Path without demanding any Spirit exhaustion on Greem's part. This way, Greem would leave behind a small blazing trail with fires one meter in height and two meters in width wherever he walked.

  Any creature that walked into the Burning Path would have to endure fire damage of sixty points a second. Moreover, the Burning Path could last for as long as three minutes.

  It also meant that Greem could easily set up a combat environment beneficial to himself all over the battlefield. Greem's regeneration would double while he was in the flames. It undoubtedly improved his stamina and ability to sustain in battle!

  Moreover, as an unexpected boon, the Boots of Ash even provided Greem with a +1 Spirit bonus. It was something that even the Chip had not predicted. Greem suspected that this had something to do with the fact that all the fire dragon materials used in creating Ash had come from the same source.

  Bless the mighty Sec
ond Grade Fire Dragon Bamler. He had not only offered up the best hide upon his body, but he had also offered up a three-meter-long fire dragon's tendon and a fire marrow crystal formed from his spine. Of course, the rest of his body had not gone to waste either. It had been wholly devoured by Dragon Devourer Oliven, becoming the nutrition she needed to continue growing in power.

  Sadly, Oliven couldn't possibly allow Greem to scan her body and soul origin with the Chip. Greem could only estimate the extent of her improvement based on her external performance.

  Oliven.

  Advanced Second Grade, Female.

  Race: Unspecified.

  Profession: Dragon Devourer.

  Bodily Attributes: Strength 10 | Physique 12 | Agility 21 | Spirit 20.

  Bloodline Abilities: Reverse Dragon's Might, Dragons' Bane…

  In particular, when Oliven was dealing with dragons, her magic resistance would double, and most of her attacks would ignore the dragons' magical and physical defenses. These unique profession abilities were too good when used for dragonslaying.

  Greem couldn't help but think of stealing a portion of a dragon devourer's bloodline ability.

  However, Greem quickly quashed this boring idea from his mind upon gaining an indirect understanding of the weaknesses of dragon devourers.

  First, dragon devourers were only powerful against dragons!

  When facing other species, most of the dragon devourers' abilities became useless, instantly turning them into weaklings.

  Second, dragon devourers were the common enemies of the dragons!

  One couldn't think too much of Arms' current relationship with Greem. Though it seemed to be a very close relationship, if he were to discover a dragon devourer subordinate to Greem, there was no doubt that he would instantly become an enemy.

  It couldn't be helped. The bloodline talents of dragon devourers were too terrifying. They were murderers practically tailored to dealing with the great dragons. If any single dragon devourer were to become sufficiently powerful, they would pose an immense threat to Lance; no, even the entire dragon species.