Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The terror of the Sea of Ashes was something that even fire elementium creatures could not endure!

  Beneath the magma giant was a small round stone platform only two hundred meters wide. A strange array much like the one on the altar outside had also been placed at the center of the platform. The stone platform was connected with the palace in the distance by a floating path of stone that was no more than ten meters in width. From a distance, there seemed to be two or three dozen stone platforms similar to the one he was standing on in this massive space.

  It could be assumed that these stone platforms connected to different regions on the outside of the Sea of Ashes. Only with Fire King Grom's approval could the fire lords have the chance to enter the Sea of Ashes to meet this legendary existence personally.

  The magma giant collected his feelings and walked toward the palace along the tiny path.

  From a distance, this strange palace didn't appear to be too big. However, when he arrived before the wide, spacious square, the magma giant's five-meter body instantly seemed as small as a bean beside the building. It was significant.

  The magma giant didn't dare to take another step once he arrived here!

  He went down on one knee and shouted with his booming voice, "Great Lord Groms, your loyal servant Artes has come by your orders!"

  A short moment later, a loud and deep voice reverberated throughout the place.

  "Rise!"

  This voice wasn't too loud, but when it lingered around the palace, it absorbed the nearby fire energy and became frightfully loud and intimidating.

  "Great Lord Groms, what orders do you have for me?"

  Fire elementium creatures were simply like that in nature. They cared not for all those troublesome courtesies and formalities, and they couldn't bother with lies and facades. Even someone as lowly as the magma giant went straight to asking his master's intentions the moment he arrived.

  "Artes, I need you to kill an adept!"

  "O' Great Lord Groms, as long as you give me the name of this adept, I will lead my army of fire to finish him." Magma giant Artes once again kneeled upon receiving his master's orders and expressed his loyalty with a passionate tone.

  "You don't need to go through such troubles this time! Simply stay in your territory, and there will be a human adept who will attempt to assassinate you. He is only Second Grade."

  "……"

  Artes raised his head and his giant face formed of magma and fire was filled with confusion.

  "You don't need to know why. Just stay in your territory and then kill the human adept who breaks into your land. Once you accomplish your mission, I will allow you to move from Dustfire Valley into the Pillar of Ashes."

  Artes' face was filled with wild joy upon hearing this.

  The Pillar of Ashes was only a hundred and fifty kilometers away from the Sea of Ashes. It was a desirable place of fire elementium concentration. Typically, only Third or Fourth Grade fire lords would be granted the opportunity to rule over territory like this. It made them rulers with genuine authority.

  "Understood, my master. Your loyal servant Artes will complete his mission!"

  "Leave if you understand already! Remember, I am waiting for good news from you."

  Magma Giant Artes bowed respectfully as the voice vanished. He then turned and walked back along the way he came.

  It was only when the magma giant's silhouette had vanished entirely from this strange world that Groms' voice once again rang out.

  "How is it? I have already assigned the task you asked of me. What about the matter you promised me?"

  A moment later, a ghostly female voice rang out in the space.

  "When have I, Maysa, ever gone against my word? Big fire person, the contract we signed stipulated that I will only tell you the location of the object once the matter is complete. The contract has not been fulfilled yet, and you have the face to ask me for it?"

  "Heheheh…old witch, do you think anything unforeseen could still happen? It is only a puny Second Grade adept. If he dares enter our world, my subordinate will naturally find him and crush him. Do you think that a Second Grade adept could kill a Second Grade fire lord underling of mine? Hahaha, you are way too childish."

  "I don't care what methods you use or what you resort to. You must complete what I asked of you or don't you even think of finding out the location of that thing from me. "

  "Fine, fine…dealing with you old hags is always troublesome. I'll go and take a little nap. It's only a matter of a dozen years anyway, and it will be over soon. Don't you forget your promise then, alright?"

  Having said that, the Fire King's voice finally fell silent. The cold female voice also vanished without a trace!

  A dull boom rang out as the blazing fires of the Sea of Ashes once again surged and ravaged the area, completely engulfing this unique palace.

  Chapter 756 Ambushed

  Greem was utterly ignorant of everything that had happened in the Fire Elementium Plane. He was still busy at work in Fire Throne.

  The process of crafting the Emblem of Fire was a delicate task of constant tempering and alchemical skill. Even with the Chip's help, Greem's progress was just as slow.

  Fortunately, Greem had sufficient patience and resources which allowed him to continue walking forward despite his repeated failures. Bit by bit, he managed to prepare all of the materials required to craft the Emblem of Fire.

  The base of the armband was the first component to be finished. However, just that base alone would not qualify as Second Grade fire magical equipment. After soaking the armband base in the fire dragon's blood for ten days, Greem finally reached the last step in the crafting process.

  He neutralized the liquid made from the molten fire agate with the neutralizing agent composed from the fire dragon's blood, then poured the mixture into the rune grooves that had been carved into the armband ahead of time. The three-dimensional runic arrays on the armband could only form a complete energy circulation system once these rune grooves were connected.

  Once that was done, the combination of the metal, runes, and the energy together would genuinely make a piece of Second Grade magical equipment that could help Greem. Before that, it could only be considered a pile of rare materials!

  To craft his second Fire Throne set piece, Greem spent most of his days in the magical laboratory, sparing time only to eat, meditate, and read related tomes and books.

  Of course, if it weren't for the daily meals being greatly beneficial to his body, and the meditation as the only way to replenish his Spirit, Greem would probably have gritted his teeth and skipped out on those activities as well!

  The intense external pressure had not only failed to take apart his confidence and crush his will. It successfully triggered that stubbornness and wildness hidden deep within his heart.

  The more the enemy wanted to defeat him, the straighter he would stand! The more the enemy tried to kill him, the more interesting of a life he would lead!

  Greem blocked out all external interference and devoted himself whole-heartedly to the crafting and refining of the Emblem of Fire armband.

  When it came to alchemy and alchemy alone, Greem had no teacher; he couldn't possibly have a teacher.

  With one Golem Creation Manual as his introduction to the subject, and with the help of the Chip, Greem had managed to turn himself into an 'underground master alchemist'!

  Of course, he was an overly specialized 'alchemist.' His knowledge and ability were concentrated solely on the creation of magical golems and the crafting of artifacts. Greem had no knowledge in the other branches and domains of alchemy. He knew so little that even an alchemy apprentice could beat him in that aspect.

  Still, perhaps it was stubbornness and madness that allowed Greem to improve so rapidly in the arts of artifact creation. Greem's title as a master alchemist was fully deserved at the moment the Emblem of Fire came into existence!

  Year 32,856 of the Era of Adepts. The twenty-fifth day of the seventh
month of the year.

  Seventy-eight days after Greem had signed the magical contract and the thirty-first day since he had scurried back from his exploration to the Fire Elementium Plane, the long-awaited Emblem of Fire had finally been successfully created.

  When the two set pieces of Fire Throne simultaneously connected with his soul, an odd resonance effect emerged.

  There was no magic being set off or any intentional activation of life forcefields. There was only one single halo of fire revolving around his body.

  Elementary Fire Immunity!

  It was unlike advanced fire resistance. What Greem had obtained was elementary fire immunity.

  Fire immunity was different from fire resistance. These were two entirely different concepts.

  Fire resistance was just a living being stimulating their life energies to resist the energy strength of the corroding fire elementium. Regardless of how high a being's fire resistance was, they could only resist fire energy damage within flames. They still had to endure a part of that damage if they were dealing with certain variants of fire energy.

  For instance, there was the physical damage from fire arrows, or the explosive shockwaves and scalding from a magma fireball.

  However, fire immunity was completely different!

  Fire immunity meant that the individual would never have to endure any type of energy damage from fire or any its variants. Though Greem had only obtained elementary fire immunity and was only immune to some low-grade fire energy damage, this was already of massive help to him.

  After all, the most populous creatures in the Fire Elementium Plane were those brainless low-grade fire elementium that only knew how to wander about aimlessly. Greem no longer needed to worry about being focus-fired on and brought down by these weak creatures now that he had elementary fire immunity!

  This way, the massive fire elemental army of that Fire Lord had become a useless ornament. Greem only needed to watch out for those high-grade fire elementals now.

  On the day after his successful crafting and after a night of peaceful rest to replenish his Spirit, Greem once again opened the Flamegate and snuck into the Fire Elementium Plane.

  One had to admit that the stubbornness of fire elementium creatures was truly impressive!

  Greem had just emerged from the Flamegate when he was instantly drowned in a storm of a dozen explosive fireballs.

  Ferocious flames, violent shockwaves, and extreme temperatures that could vaporize even steel.

  Terrifying flames devoured Greem's vision in a single instant. The fire damage's energy intensity that the Chip was projecting in his mind was also increasing exponentially. In the blink of an eye, the strength of the attack had reached five hundred and thirty-six points.

  An attack of this strength would be enough to obliterate most First Grade adepts. Of course, unprepared, even Second Grade adepts would suffer terrible losses from such an attack.

  However, by the time the surging flames gradually dispersed, the First Grade fire spirits crowding around the Flamegate were shocked to find that their target was still standing on the spot.

  Not only had he suffered no damage, but the red adept's robe on him also appeared to be utterly untouched beneath the cover of a strange halo of fire. Moreover, the adept was now looking around him with a hostile gaze. An unconcealable rage could be seen in the light from his black eyes.

  Dammit! These pig-headed fire spirits had sat here and waited thirty-one days for him!

  This…what kind of dumb and devastating obstinacy was this?!

  Greem looked around and immediately realized that the location of the Flamegate wasn't the same as last time. There were absolutely no signs of plains around him, which was more than enough evidence that he was at least fifty kilometers away from where he had arrived last time.

  These fire spirits had been able to catch his arrival despite such a huge deviation in the location of his appearance. The only possibility of this happening was that the spirits were monitoring all weak spatial points in this area.

  Filled with a trace of anger at his ambush and the desire to test out the power of the two Fire Throne set pieces, Greem roared and extended his hands. They immediately burst with blazing and searing flames.

  Burning Hand!

  This apprentice-level spell could only travel for half a meter at the hands of an apprentice adept. However, when cast by a Second Grade fire adept like Greem, the same spell flashed with flames five to six meters tall.

  The eleven First Grade fire spirits had backed off and put up defenses for fear of some powerful spell from the human adept. They immediately relaxed when they saw him cast such a crude fire spell. Instead, they surged forward and lunged at the enemy.

  As First Grade fire spirits of the Fire Elementium Plane, their fire resistance was shockingly high; they did not need to worry that this human adept's low-grade fire spell could possibly harm their bodies. Instead, they took the opportunity of the adept casting a spell to close in on him for close quarter strikes.

  After all, given the powerful fire defense that the human adept had just shown them, long-ranged fire attacks were probably ineffective. If that was the case, then melee combat was the only trick left up their sleeves!

  Just as the eleven fire spirits charged to Greem's side, the blazing fire in his hands trembled and contorted. The smoking flames were then concentrated and forced into brilliant spears as red as a ruby.

  "Go!"

  Greem roared as the flames in his hands were driven to their extremes. Eleven crystalline spears that were tougher than steel extended from his palms. They instantly pierced the chests of the fire spirits and ran through the fire cores hidden deep within their bodies.

  The eleven fire spirits trembled and remained frozen on the spot, unable to move.

  As Greem clenched his fists, the eleven crystal spears immediately dispersed into intangible flames and returned to his palms.

  The eleven fire spirits started to tremble increasingly fiercely. Finally, their shattered fire cores could no longer constrain their fire forms. Boom, boom, boom! Several small flame explosions occurred in a chain, engulfing the area into an overwhelming storm of fire.

  Of course, such explosions triggered by the destruction of their souls was much, much less potent than the self-destruction caused by their own will. Greem simply stood on the spot and treated it as a warm gust of wind. He didn't even bother to dodge.

  Hopefully, these fire spirits had not managed to send out a message in time!

  Greem mumbled to himself after dealing with these fearless grunts.

  However, Greem knew it was no more than wishful thinking. The fire spirits had probably reported on the situation to their headquarters at the very instant he teleported over.

  He couldn't stay here for too long. Otherwise, there was a real possibility he would run into those terrifying Second and Third Grade individuals!

  Greem had more than eighty percent chance to win against a single Second Grade Blazefire Spirit with his current power. If he faced off against two Blazefire Spirits, his chances of victory would fall to thirty percent. With three of them, Greem would have to run as far as he could. Otherwise, he would die a terrible death after being ground away by the enemy.

  As for a Third Grade fire spirit? Greem had no other way of dealing with a being like that apart from having the Flame Fiend of Terror self-destruct and buy some time for him to escape.

  Fortunately, the one good thing about the Fire Elementium Plane was the rarity of Third Grade creatures, much like the World of Adepts. They were not individuals that one simply ran into. Otherwise, Greem would never have dared to come exploring in such a dangerous and lethal world!

  After turning around and shutting the Flamegate, Greem cleaned up the battlefield and started his journey to explore the Fire Elementium Plane.

  Chapter 757 Strange Plane

  The Fire Elementium Plane was truly the world of the fire creatures.

  Meanwhile, a pure fire ade
pt like Greem also undoubtedly enjoyed a massive boost to his fire powers here.

  Sadly, all the creatures here had shockingly high fire resistance. Otherwise, Greem would most definitely have treated this otherworldly exploration as a casual monster-whacking trip.

  To reduce the chances of being discovered, Greem had no choice but to perform fire conversion on his body and reveal his body of flames. There were far too many low-grade fire elementium that wandered around aimlessly in the Fire Elementium Plane, much like himself.

  These fire elementium creatures would roar and charge at any otherworldly intruders they saw, yelling all sorts of weird slogans and battlecries like "Eliminate the intruders," "Let the fire warm your heart," and then immediately break out into combat. Moreover, these fire creatures had absolutely no reservations about self-destructing if they found the enemy to be too powerful to deal with!

  Greem, in his current state, could easily exterminate apprentice-level and even First Grade fire elementals with a flick of his wrists. However, battles against them would always leave a mark of varying degree upon the spot. All this would undoubtedly leave a trail that would allow the pursuers to chase after him.

  Thus, Greem disguised himself as a wandering fire humanoid of First Grade to avoid all unnecessary troubles. He carefully advanced in the direction he had decided upon.

  Of course, Greem wasn't idle along the way. The new 'Fire Molding' ability he had just gotten became his greatest toy, providing him with plenty of entertainment.

  It was a strange ability that the Emblem of Fire had provided him with. When he summoned magical flames around his hands, he could make these flames change and shift form according to his will. After countless attempts and experimentation, Greem had successfully imitated over a hundred different weapons, including knives, swords, claws, shields, spears, whips, and bows.

  According to the data gathered by the chip, this Fire Molding ability could be divided into two different states: melee and mid-ranged. Melee weapons that could be imitated included: knives, swords, warhammers, claws, shields, and many more. The quality of the weapons and defensive equipment could compare to First Grade magical equipment. Mid-ranged weapons that could be imitated included fire whips, fire bows, as well as arrows formed from concentrated fire, providing Greem with a certain degree of mid-ranged offensive options with Fire Molding.