Age of Adepts c1-1513

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Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 465

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼


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  Dammit, wasn't this firegrass?

  Greem's mouth widened in shock.

  Firegrass could be considered a low-grade adept resource in the World of Adepts. Half a kilogram of such high-quality firegrass could easily sell for two or three magical crystals.

  But here…

  Greem stood up and looked at the boundless plains of firegrass in his vision. The shock and surprise in his heart were immense.

  He was screaming inside his mind. If he built a stable Flamegate here and sent out the adepts and apprentices to harvest all the firegrass here, the finances of the Crimson Clan would instantly stabilize.

  However, Greem's passionate heart immediately cooled down after some quick thought.

  The reason he could be here was due to the tower providing the fire elementium altar with a constant and massive supply of energy to sustain the Flamegate. The adept's tower would have to constantly exhaust energy to maintain the stability of the Flamegate.

  Every second and every minute he spent exploring the Fire Elementium Plane was draining away at the magical crystal reserve of Fire Throne.

  The harvesting of firegrass alone was probably insufficient to prop up such an extravagant otherworldly exploration!

  Moreover, the harsh environment of the Fire Elementium Plane meant that ordinary apprentice adepts could not survive here at all. Even the official adepts could not spend too much time here. Otherwise, the continually burning flames would eat through their defensive barriers and exhaust all their magic.

  Even surviving here was a chore, much less laboring for long periods of time. Given all these factors, the very idea of sending workers here to harvest firegrass became a ridiculous notion.

  No wonder adepts had never thought of excavating this place, despite its bounty of fire resources. The truth was the costs and profits involved in the excavation were severely imbalanced. One was fated to suffer losses if they were to try something like this!

  Greem laughed at his own misconception and brushed away the non-existent dust on his hands. It was now that he turned his attention to the few dark rocks near him.

  The surface of the rocks was rough and hard to the touch, much like the rocks of the material planes. However, when Greem's Spirit extended into the stones, he instantly felt the overwhelming and pure fire energy contained within.

  Fire essence rock was yet another low-grade fire resource of decent quality. If he had a large amount of fire essence rocks, he would never have constructed Fire Throne with such low-quality volcanic rock.

  This was truly the Fire Elementium Plane. Greem couldn't sense the presence of any other elementium particle in the environment, be it earth, water, wind, light, dark, or nature. One couldn't assume the usual elementium composition still existed with the presence of the sky and ground. Everything in this world was constructed from those ubiquitous fire elementium particles.

  It was only the guidance and restrictions of the planar laws that caused the fire elementium particles to exist in different states. Once their unique physical state was broken, they would disassemble into the most basic and primal fire elementium particles in the shortest time possible before assimilating into this odd and twisted elementium world once again.

  With the powerful x-ray vision and scanning functions provided by the Chip, Greem could continuously analyze this strange world in front of him. Unlike other foreign worlds he had broken into, Greem did not sense the suffocating and terrifying planar suppression.

  The elementium worlds were truly one of the few completely open worlds in the multiverse!

  Perhaps due to the uniqueness in the formation of the elementium worlds, their planar space did not reject the coincidence and connection with other worlds. The casters of any material plane could use simple magical arrays to travel between the various elementium planes, even going so far as to use them as transit points in their interplanar travels.

  Moreover, the elementium worlds did not reject visits from outsiders and would not ever defend themselves strictly like most material planes, which were afraid that some annoying bugs might find their way into their bodies.

  Greem had tried to activate his elementium sight, but he was instantly blinded by the intense red light, scaring him into deactivating it.

  Greem turned back, and the Flamegate was still silently standing behind him. The dense fire elementium in the surrounding air was drawn toward the Flamegate and disappeared from Greem's senses after entering the door of light.

  As long as the Flamegate was still here, there would be a tight connection between this place and the magical room in Fire Throne. Under situations where the fire elementium concentration was imbalanced, the fire elementium around the Flamegate would naturally diffuse towards the room in the tower to equalize the concentrations.

  If intelligent fire elementium creatures saw such a distinct phenomenon, they would be interested enough to figure out the cause. Given that to be the case, it seemed some special magical arrays had to be arranged on the side of the tower to ensure that no ignorant fools tried to stir up trouble.

  Greem placed his right hand on the Flamegate and silently connected with the distant Fire Throne. The Flamegate started to collapse and shrink under his precise instructions, slowly but gradually. Finally, it became a strange spatial node the size of a thumb.

  The Flamegate could not be shrunk any further after turning into a spatial node. At the very least, Greem's knowledge of spatial studies did not allow him to convert the spatial node into an invisible spatial node.

  Greem did not cut off the connection between the node and Fire Throne.

  As long as the spatial node was still here, Greem didn't need to worry about his retreat path to the tower being cut off. Though this would continuously exhaust the tower's energy, this spatial node had to continue to exist to ensure that he didn't become a lost traveler.

  If this spatial node vanished, the chances of a new Flamegate anchoring on the same spot were minuscule, even if a new Flamegate was immediately opened on the Fire Throne side. That was due to plane drifting and errors in connection. It was very likely that the Flamegate would appear in a random area hundreds of kilometers away.

  In fact, if Greem was unlucky, the Flamegate might even appear underground, inside stones, or even within the bodies of some unfortunate individual.

  It would be exceedingly hard for Greem to find the Flamegate when that happened!

  The reason Greem placed the Blaze of Destruction on the altar as the host of the Flamegate was to leave behind a clear planar coordinate. He had been using the Blaze of Destruction for so long that he could sense every elementium movement within the staff. It was most suited to mark the planar coordinates.

  The planar consciousness in this whole new world was neither friendly nor hostile toward Greem.

  After several advancements and evolutions, the part inside him that was a fire adept became extraordinarily active. It was almost as if he was a long-lost son that had finally returned to his home. There was an overwhelming impulse to throw himself into the embrace of his mother. Meanwhile, the human part of him deeply sensed the terror of this world. It had become extremely dejected and weak.

  Greem was currently still maintaining his human form. A fresh red barrier covered his human body, refusing any contact with the surrounding air.

  After all, a human's body of flesh and blood would probably be reduced to cinders within three seconds in the violent environment of the Fire Elementium Plane. Even with his powers as a Second Grade fire adept, Greem would have to endure the oppression of the harsh environment if he didn't turn into his body of flames.

  Greem even radiated a portion of his fire energy to attach to his clothes and resist the corrosion of the fire elementium. Otherwise, he would be running around shamelessly buck naked!

  After doing all this, Greem casually tossed out an adept-level earth elementium golem. The three-meter tall earth elementium clumsily got up from the ground and was instantly e
ngulfed in explosive flames.

  Twenty-seven seconds later, the explosive crack of a crystal core rang out as this adept-level earth golem collapsed and disintegrated without a single sound.

  Its half-meter thick clay body had been burned to ashes by the fires along with the golem core deep within its body. That was why it had 'died' in twenty-seven seconds, even without anyone attacking it.

  It was an earth elementium golem, known for having the highest defensive power. If it had been a water or wind elemental instead, they would have lasted for an even shorter amount of time.

  Greem sighed. It seemed his golem army could not be put to use here.

  He looked around into the distance. In this world, his vision was reduced to a radius of two hundred and seventy-one meters. Everything outside his visual range was a bright red, making it hard to discern what was in the distance.

  Greem picked up a handful of dirt from beneath his feet and let it slowly slip from his fingers as he chanted a spell. A short moment later, a pale, emotionless face appeared in the air.

  It was a low-level magical spirit gathered from the earth through magic. Greem could gain some simple information about the area within a fifty-kilometer radius through some crude questioning.

  "Are there any intelligent lifeforms nearby that can communicate with me? I need to know their positions and numbers."

  "East…big things…many."

  The pale face replied in inarticulate adept's language and then dispersed.

  Greem sighed helplessly once again.

  All he acquired by expending the energy of a Second Grade spell was a couple of answers that could not be any cruder. This Spiritcall was a real headache of a spell sometimes!

  East? Which direction was east in this Fire Elementium Plane, where everything in every direction was just bright red?

  Big things? In the eyes of a magical spirit, anything taller than Greem would probably be considered big, wouldn't they?!

  Many? That was the worst answer of them all! How many was 'many' exactly?

  Still, being able to obtain such information in a world where he had no information was good enough.

  Greem rubbed his head and placed all his hopes on the Chip's analysis.

  Since it had been a magical spirit summoned with magic, it had naturally been bound by the rules of the adepts. Soon, the Chip managed to confirm the direction of east and indicated it with a blue arrow in Greem's vision.

  Greem looked to the west and thought for a bit before finally running in the direction of the blue arrow. The Second Grade Fire Lord indicated in the contract was somewhere in the west. However, Greem was currently still exploring the Fire Elementium Plane and did not have the luxury to think about the assassination of the target.

  It was best to first familiarize himself with the Fire Elementium Plane!

  Chapter 748 Blazefire Spirits

  Greem ran into a group of Blazefire Spirits when he walked in the direction given by the magical spirit.

  Compared to ordinary fire elementium, such humanoid blazefire spirits already possessed elementary intelligence and social traits. They lived on a large black mountain burning with a huge flame and kept all outsiders from getting close.

  It seemed as if they were guarding something there!

  Greem secretly got close to the black mountain with flames and silently observed each and every action of these blazefire spirits.

  The spirits were truly gigantic creatures. Even the young spawn were three meters tall, while the First and Second Grade spirits easily reached between five and seven meters.

  Judging from their appearance, they were humanoid creatures formed of bright yellow flames. They had humanoid bodies, arms, and heads, but everything below their waists was a blurry cloud of fire.

  Greem couldn't discern any differentiating sexual characteristics after much observation. Perhaps these elementium creatures had no such thing as sex to begin with.

  During the time he had been observing, most of the blazefire spawns had been playing about on the black mountain, never leaving its boundaries. Meanwhile, the adolescent blazefire spirits had formed patrol groups and were continually patrolling the surroundings of the black mountain.

  Their groups were all composed of six blazefire spirits. The leaders were all Second Grade while the members were all First Grade.

  Greem could see some beehive-like holes at the top of the mountain from a distance. Those might be their homes. Still, due to the existence of the patrol groups, Greem had no chance to get close to the black mountain or to scout the place.

  Everything living in the fire elementium plane was a fire elementium creature of the same origin. They didn't require food, water, and air like humans did, but they still needed the constant nourishment of the fire elementium. Most fire creatures living in the fire elementium plane were extremely violent as well. They also hoped to become stronger as quickly as possible.

  For them, a home was where fire elementium was most concentrated and dense!

  Since the blazefire spirits took the black mountain as their home, then there had to be a powerful fire elementium cluster point in the black mountain. Maybe there were some fire treasures or relics.

  Greem hid in the surroundings of the black mountain for quite a while and ultimately made his decision to strike against these blazefire spirits.

  Of course, the main factor driving his decision was the discovery of no Third Grade beings among the spirits. Moreover, he badly needed to accumulate combat experience against fire creatures now. Thus, after much pacing about, Greem could no longer hold back. He moved.

  There was a sparse patch of forest at the foot of the black mountain.

  Several tall, bare fire trees were spread out evenly over a range of thirty miles. These trees had no leaves nor tender branches. The thick stems of the fire trees were only sharp and erect spikes that pointed toward the sky. One could even vaguely see viscous red liquid slowly flowing underneath their dark red bark, much like flowing magma.

  The sharp roots of the fire trees were also embedded deeply into the earth, desperately taking in fire energy from the underground fires.

  A squad of blazefire spirits silently walked through this forest of fire trees.

  There was no day and night cycle in the fire elementium plane. As such, most fire creatures had no concept of time. They simply executed any mission given by their leader to the best of their abilities. It was only when the fire energy within their bodies had been mostly exhausted that they would return to their dens and recharge.

  These spirits could dutifully remain at work for years on end as long as they still had plenty of fire energy within their bodies.

  This group's patrol mission was to survey this fire tree forest. They had walked past this fixed route more than tens of thousands of times and were exceedingly familiar with every fire tree and patch of earth along the way.

  Their mission was to chase away low-grade fire elementium that had wandered into the place, as well as to be on alert for attacks from the other surrounding fire creature tribes.

  There were not many disagreements or bad blood between the fire creatures of the fire elementium plane. The only reason for conflict was to rob the opponent of their fire elementium cluster point. Thus, the wars between tribes had never ceased!

  Today, this group of blazefire spirits once again stepped upon this familiar path, silently making their way through the ghastly and sinister fire trees.

  The one walking at the forefront of the group was naturally the leader and the Second Grade blazefire spirit. He was a whole seven meters in height, and a pair of golden flames burned fiercely upon his humanoid head. When he slowly hovered near the fire trees, everything within a one-kilometer radius would fall into his vision without exception.

  They had barely made it a quarter of a kilometer into the fire tree forest when a wandering fire elementium entered their security perimeter another quarter of a kilometer ahead.

  It was a beginner fi
re elemental only one meter in height. It only possessed the strength of a beginner apprentice and was obliviously walking between the fire trees, as if it had yet to gain intelligence.

  Of course, if it had gained intelligence, it would not have ignored the warning signs that the blazefire spirits had left around the perimeter.

  Seeing that a brat had trespassed into their land, the leader of the group waved his arm and impatiently ordered, "Doug, go deal with it!"

  A First Grade blazefire spirit following at the rear of the squad acknowledged the instruction. He then bent down and accelerated forward, charging at the ignorant fire elemental in the distance.

  With the difference in their power, a single punch from the blazefire spirit would be enough to pulverize the opponent's fire core and cause it to disintegrate completely.

  It was only once the First Grade spirit had reached within a hundred meters of it that the beginner fire elemental appeared to sense danger. The little thing turned and ran without any hesitation.

  "Hm? Does that thing know how to run?" The First Grade blazefire spirit known as Doug couldn't help but be surprised. He hastened the fire cloud on his bottom half, and the speed of his pursuit increased abruptly.

  Seventy meters. Fifty meters. Thirty meters. Ten meters.

  The distance between the two continued to close until Doug completely caught up with the elemental. He then raised his massive fists of fire and smashed them down upon the burning core inside the elemental.

  "Careful."

  The Second Grade blazefire spirit that had been observing from a distance was only half-heartedly watching. However, when his subordinate closed in on the fire elemental, he suddenly sensed some abnormal fire elementium flux.

  Sadly, his reminder was late!

  A seven-meter tall Flame Fiend of Terror suddenly emerged from behind a fire tree. It immediately thrust a lethal attack at the First Grade blazefire spirit upon its entrance.

  A giant magma fist smashed downward, crushing the head of the First Grade fire spirit into scattered flames. Before the blazefire spirit could drive his headless body out of range of the Flame Fiend, a massive magma hand had pierced his chest and retrieved the fire core within.

 

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