Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Greem could only put away all his intent to lie and cheat when dealing with a tiger as sly as this. He started to treat it earnestly and honestly.

  Intelligent life–any intelligent life–from any place would have a brain as smart as an adept’s. Most of the time, they appeared to be excessively lazy or bloodthirsty. However, that wasn’t because they had lower intelligence. Instead, it was their spiritual instinct that drove them to pursue the method of communication that was most direct and convenient for them.

  However, communicating with them was a somewhat annoying matter for adepts. The difference in lifestyle, species, thought processes, and interests all resulted in completely distinct logical thoughts. When two such individuals sat together for a discussion, it was only natural that their words would turn into fists.

  Unfortunately, Greem would never accept such a magical contract, even if he were to die!

  A man could be killed, but never humiliated!

  Greem might treasure his life, but it wasn’t at the cost of everything else. Moreover, his spiritual senses and the Chip’s scans allowed him to realized that the flaming tiger didn’t hold much hostility toward him. Rather than insurance for its life, the magical contract was more of a prank negotiation from the flaming tiger.

  At the very least, the little dot of light projected in Greem’s mind as the flaming tiger remained white despite his seemingly threatening pose.

  White meant neutrality.

  Red meant hostility. The greater the hatred, the brighter the color.

  Greem meant friendliness. Similarly, the deeper the green, the more friendly the individual.

  The information gathered by the Chip showed that the aura radiating from the flaming tiger was very much neutral; the tiger had no hostile intention to murder him. The various shows of intimidation were only a way to get Greem to do what it wanted.

  In all honesty, the tiger probably couldn’t even guess that an inconspicuous Second Grade human adept like this could break through the protection of its life forcefield and determine its true intentions by scanning its emotional spectrum.

  Greem became extremely calm and composed with this information from the Chip.

  After a five hour long negotiation, Greem finally arrived at a cooperative agreement with this flaming tiger.

  Greem would help Third Grade Flaming Tiger Cindral avoid attention by the Will of the World of Adepts and sneak it into the plane. Meanwhile, Cindral would have to help Greem kill the Second Grade Fire Lord Artes.

  Greem had originally thought he would be able to terrify the flaming tiger by naming the individual standing behind Second Grade Fire Lord Artes. Sadly, the tiger only betrayed an indifferent smile of disdain upon hearing of the Fifth Grade Fire King Groms.

  That made it harder for Greem to figure out the true depths and background of Cindral!

  After another seven minutes spent chanting and casting spells, Greem finally completed the magical contract with Third Grade Flaming Tiger Cindral. The golden magical contract hovered in the air, continuously extracting the souls of Greem and Cindral as collateral. If either side were to go against their agreement, the soul offered up as collateral would instantly be exterminated.

  Greem offered up two-thirds of his soul for this cooperation agreement, while Cindral only offered up a fingernail’s worth of his. It was a representation of the massive difference in their power!

  The contract represented a more considerable restriction on Greem.

  If Greem were to breach the contract, he would instantly lose a vast majority of his soul. He would immediately die from such a blow, even though he was a Second Grade adept. Meanwhile, Third Grade Cindral would only be paying a meager price. If he were to be punished by the contract, he would only feel a slight headache. It was far from capable of killing him or turning him into an idiot.

  It couldn’t be helped. It was the greatest difference between the powerful and the weak!

  Any single hair from Cindral’s body would be thicker than Greem’s waist. It was the same contract, yet Greem had to offer up nearly all that he owned to even compare to a shred of Cindral’s soul.

  No number of magical equipment could make up for the woeful difference in power between grades!

  However, at the very least, Greem had managed to avoid being wholly enslaved by the tiger. They might not be equal in power, but they were individuals of equivalent standing within the contract.

  Greem knew very well that he had come here to the Fire Elementium Plane to kill Fire Lord Artes, and he could only return to the World of Adepts once he accomplished this mission. If Cindral wanted to arrive in the World of Adepts as soon as possible, helping Greem complete his task was the best available option.

  Cindral pouted at Greem’s request before turning without hesitation and vanishing into the sea of fire. He left only a sentence behind when he disappeared.

  “When you want to go back to the World of Adepts, simply find a sea of fire and call my name three times. I will be able to find you!”

  Greem’s heart shook when he heard Cindral’s words.

  Would he be able to sense me as long as I call his name three times? This…why does this sound like the power of laws is involved? Could it be…?

  As a Second Grade fire adept, Greem might be considered a decent fighting force in the World of Adepts. However, once he stepped out of the plane, he realized that there were too many incomprehensible and unexplainable mysteries of higher lifeforms from higher dimensions.

  No wonder the World of Adepts had set the starting limit at Fifth Grade for adepts who wished to explore the outer realms. There had to be certain reasons for it. Adepts below Fifth Grade might think of themselves as fully-realized powerhouses, but there were far too many uncontrollable risks in the process of exploring the outer realms.

  That was why Greem had to be extremely careful while he was exploring this otherworldly Fire Elementium Plane. He could not let himself be put in an awkward spot where he had no control over his life again!

  Greem found a relatively quiet place and dealt with the origin flames on him. He then attempted to locate the flaming tiger, but he couldn’t find it no matter what he tried. Still, he had a feeling that Cindral hadn’t gone all that far. The tiger was probably still watching him from somewhere nearby.

  It was a common problem with all elementium creatures!

  They lacked any concept of time in their minds. They were always slow at doing things and didn’t care about the passage of time. That was why trying to threaten the Third Grade flaming tiger with time was not an option. Cindral couldn’t care less if he were to arrive in the World of Adepts tomorrow, or next year.

  Time was practically static in an elementium plane!

  Of course, all of this had much to do with the long lifespans of the elementium creatures.

  Greem tried everything he could think of, but he still failed to locate the flaming tiger. With no choice left to him, Greem could only begin his journey once again and run straight toward the den of Second Grade Fire Lord Artes.

  …………

  Dustfire Valley.

  It was a desolate land filled with dust and fire.

  A massive valley ran across a vast plain. The interior of the valley was dark and dim, covered with dusty air and flame pillars that occasionally blasted out of the cracks in the walls. There was no chance of seeing what the inside of the valley was like from the outside.

  There was an ancient city deep in Dustfire Valley, with typically one or two hundred thousand citizens in it. They were all intelligent lifeforms with minds of their own. The civilians here might be a bit more honest and violent than humans, with none of their slyness. However, there were enough to make up a complete, though primitive, city.

  Greem immediately started to run into more fire creatures once he entered the edges of Dustfire Valley.

  After all this time, Greem had mastered the technique of disguising himself as a fire creature.

  Firstly, the fi
re spirit he disguised himself as couldn’t be too small.

  Though high-grade fire creatures didn’t assess power based on size, low-grade fire creatures still did. The larger you were, the more powerful the fire energy in your body. As long as the fire spirit that Greem hid as was sufficiently large, the low-grade beings would flee at the sight of him. They would never dare to harass him or look for trouble.

  Secondly, he couldn’t be too active.

  The Fire Elementium Plane was a dull and boring place. All the fire creatures here moved with a slow rhythm and spent their days wandering idly through different regions.

  It wasn’t until they developed a mind of their own in their fire core that they could break free of their chaotic primal state and awaken the consciousness of their individuality.

  This fact was reflected in the personalities and appearances of most fire creatures. That was to say– incomparably dull and slow!

  Even intelligent individuals with a mind were several levels behind humans when it came to the activity of their soul and the clever use of their intellect.

  Thus, Greem turned himself into a five-meter-tall fire spirit with a stiff, emotionless face and slowly walked past the two Molten Giants guarding the entrance of the valley. The giants only glanced at him before looking elsewhere.

  Chapter 790 - Rough Executor

  It was a strange city filled with fire creatures.

  Fire creatures were not proficient in building or smithing. As such, most of the buildings in the city were caves dug into the dark red walls. These buildings were then connected with twisting and winding tunnels. The ceiling of these caves had been made to be very tall to accommodate the large bodies of the fire creatures. The tunnels were broad as well.

  Much like most human cities, this fire city also had facilities such as inns, taverns, grocers, arcane shops, and auction houses. However, the ones managing these places were not necessarily the native fire creatures of the Fire Elementium Plane.

  Greem walked amidst the crowd of people through the entirety of this fire city. It was no more than two kilometers wide, and there was only a total of two or three dozen shops. Surprisingly, he found a material shop run by an adept.

  Tokke’s Materials!

  Greem’s heart trembled when he saw the shop name written in the adept’s language on the outside of the cave. He couldn’t help but walk into the store.

  It was an extremely crude cave. It was only one to two hundred square meters in size. Rows of stone platforms had been carved into the walls, where strange items were displayed. However, without a single exception, every single one of them contained dense fire energy.

  A listless little fire spirit was crouching on the counter. It only started to get up when it saw a customer enter and looked at Greem.

  The fire spirit looked as if it only had the power of an advanced apprentice.

  Of course, Greem still appeared like a towering First Grade fire spirit. He dragged a tail of fire behind his blazing body as he slowly walked into the store.

  A trace of joy appeared on the fire spirit’s emotional humanoid face when it first stood up. However, its previously passionate expression reverted to one of boredom once it recognized Greem’s fire spirit form.

  “Do you wish to buy something or sell something today? If you are trying to sell something, I’m afraid to tell you that our little shop is not exactly equipped to do so during this period. If you are trying to buy something, everything that the shop has is already on display. You may pick and choose at your discretion.”

  It seemed to have memorized these words and immediately regurgitated them when it opened its mouth. However, Greem’s attention was not on the fire materials it was introducing. Instead, he was thinking about the change in expression that the little fire spirit betrayed when it saw him.

  There was joy on its face when it saw a customer arrive. It was ‘human nature’ and easily understandable. However, its joyful expression vanished when it saw Greem’s fire spirit appearance. It seemed as if the fire spirit wasn’t glad about having a customer.

  There was something odd about this!

  Greem’s eyes swept across the shop and found a few unknown objects etched with magical runes on the surface. Judging by these items, there was no doubt that this shop had something to do with adepts.

  “You…are…shop…owner?” The fire spirit Greem had turned into asked with a slow and stiff tone.

  The language of the Fire Elementium Plane was an ancient native language. Its vocabulary was, and the pronunciation was bizarre as well. It was difficult for a plane traveler to master the language without plenty of experience.

  Naturally, as a Second Grade adept, Greem had no such issues.

  He could effortlessly retrieve the portion of knowledge related to the language from native creature soul shards by using Soul Arrest. Meanwhile, he could easily mimic the unique accent of the fire creatures by changing the internal structure of his fire form.

  Apart from absorbing the Essences of Fire to raise his fire affinity, Greem had spent his last few months observing and mimicking the native creatures.

  The fire spirit showed no signs of suspicion at Greem’s behavior and only shrugged helplessly.

  “This store isn’t mine. I’m just a helper hired by a human adept. Our…shop owner…was taken away by the Lord. It’s already been a few months, and they still haven’t been released yet.”

  Greem’s heart shook as he instantly knew what he did wrong.

  In all seriousness, all of the fire creatures he had seen since entering the Fire Elementium Plane appeared to be foolish and slow, even though they did appear to show signs of intelligence. He’d thought that Cindral was an exception, but now, it seemed like he had underestimated that Fire Lord.

  That Fire Lord had arrested the adept who had set up the shop but didn’t order the shop to be shut down. That was clearly meant as a web, cast out to catch him. Every single individual who walked into this shop would probably be subject to strict investigations by the Fire Lord’s subordinate.

  His disguise might be very realistic, but there would certainly be flaws if he were caught and interrogated.

  Even at this moment, Greem could sense seven or eight powerful fire humanoids rapidly approaching the store with his sharp senses.

  “Does this shop have a backdoor?” Greem grabbed the little fire spirit and asked hurriedly.

  “Yes, it’s in the back.” The fire spirit was shocked. Its skinny fire finger had not even pointed to the place, and the giant fire spirit in front of it had already turned into a blaze of fire and vanished from sight.

  Greem had just disappeared when a massive wave of heat rolled into the shop. A large group of ferocious molten giants walked in.

  “Where’s the big guy that came in earlier?”

  “Hurry up and speak! Where is he?”

  “Speak.”

  Several five or six-meter-tall molten giants surrounded the one-meter half fire spirit and roared with their deafening voices.

  This fire spirit with only advanced apprentice powers practically froze on the spot. It pointed at the back of the shop with its trembling hand.

  The molten giants immediately brushed aside the counter in their way and crashed through the stone door that was half their size to chase after Greem.

  Greem quickly walked across the small alley behind the shop. His large body of flames rapidly morphed as he walked. By the time he exited the alley and joined the crowd of people, his body had already shrunk to three meters. He’d also made plenty of minor changes to his face and appearance.

  There was no way the enemy would suspect a ‘weak’ First Grade fire spirit like himself if they were to search for him based on his earlier appearance.

  Moreover, fire spirits, flame spirits, and fire elementals were the most commonly seen fire creatures in the Fire Elementium Plane. Almost half of all the fire creatures on the street had the same blazing humanoid appearance as Greem. There were only some slight
differences in the details.

  However, these differences were hard to tell as long as you weren’t a native of the plane!

  Greem had dissected and scanned plenty of fire elementals and fire spirits over the past few months to understand their body structure and appearance. With the delicate energy manipulation abilities of the Chip, he could completely replicate the looks of the fire spirits he had met, down to the finest detail.

  Thud, thud, thud! The loud footsteps rang out as the molten giants ran out of the alley. They immediately grabbed the fire spirit closest to them and dragged it before their eyes for a better look.

  Most fire beings were wild and impatient creatures that couldn’t be bound by law or discipline.

  This First Grade fire spirit was furious at having been suddenly attacked. It might know that it was not the opponent of these molten giants, but the flames around its body still blazed as a stream of fire shot at the giants.

  The molten giant in the lead betrayed a wicked smile on its gruff face. It immediately picked up the fire spirit and smashed it against the ground. This single throw broke the fire spirit’s body into pieces. It took dozens of seconds before this fire spirit finally managed to gather its flame together around its core.

  “We are acting on Lord Artes’ orders. Otherworldly spies have entered Dustfire Valley. All fire spirits are to follow me to the Lord’s hall to verify themselves now. If anyone dares resist, then this fellow will be your fate!” The molten giant straightened its body, stepped upon the unfortunate fire spirit, and loudly announced to everyone present.

  The previously peaceful fire city instantly exploded with commotion upon hearing such an order.

  The fire elementals were all creatures with extreme tempers. How could they possibly endure such an attitude? One by one, they waved their arms furiously at the molten giants. Some, who possessed even worse tempers, started to gather fireballs in their palms as if they were about to start a fight without another word.