Mary started chuckling when she saw Uka’s fearful look.
“Look at yourself. All this time in hiding and even the adepts in the clan don’t recognize you anymore.”
Greem scratched his nose and let out a bitter laugh. He then took out a small vial of potion and tossed it to Uka.
“There are a few drops of life stock solution in there. Remember to drop them in your eyes, or they will end up blind from being burnt!”
Uka instantly gripped the vial tightly when he heard that there was life stock solution in it. He put on a smile and said, “My lord, you are…”
Greem didn’t reply. Instead, he stood there and glanced at the distant horizon.
A black dot rapidly increased in size at the edge of the white horizon. A ferocious storm followed the silhouette.
“I knew it was you, Greem. You made me wait for a long time.”
A magnificent dragon thirty meters in length and covered in fine blue scales beat his wings and dove down from the skies above. He then rapidly transformed into a broad-shouldered man in blue scale armor.
He started shouting at Greem as he charged over. He seemed exceptionally furious.
However, when he detected the strange elementium vibration and the layer of distorted and transparent magical flames around Greem, he fell silent.
“You…you’ve become Third Grade?”
Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms stared at Greem with a look of disbelief. His green eyes were filled with shock and surprise.
Though he knew that Greem would advance to Third Grade eventually, this was much, much faster than his expectations.
If Greem were just a Second Grade adept, then the Third Grade Arms would still possess the upper hand in their contract, even though it was meant to be a companionship contract of equal standing. Now that Greem had also become Third Grade, the contract’s constraints on Arms were much stricter than before.
It indirectly meant that Arms’ status had gone down!
That was what Arms was truly concerned about.
The adepts and apprentices here all shivered in fright when facing a Third Grade dragon’s aura of might at such close distance. However, what surprised them more was the name that the Third Grade thunder dragon had called out.
Greem.
Wasn’t…wasn’t this the name of that legendary leader of the Crimson Clan that had gone into seclusion for many years?
Could it be?
As expected, the tall adept that had accompanied Lady Mary raised his head and looked calmly at Arms. He then smiled as he said, “Long time no see, Arms!”
Arms looked at Greem in shock, incapable of responding for quite a while. Finally, he sighed and spoke, “You adepts are beings who cannot be measured with common logic. You aren’t even two hundred years old now, are you? And you’ve already advanced to Third Grade. Cough. I still remembered back when I was two hundred years old. I was just a tiny First Grade dragon, always following behind the…”
Arms voice turned softer and softer when he started recounting his memories. An expression of loss and nostalgia appeared on his face.
Just then, Meryl, who was stationed at White Tower, led seven clan adepts out of the tower and toward the teleportation array. The ten magical machines responsible for the order of the tower stepped onto both sides of the road, standing in the way of the crowd of adepts and apprentices.
“Congratulations, teacher, congratulations.”
Meryl was the first to bow, and the seven clan adepts that followed also did so.
Greem slowly retracted the energy aura he was radiating, just in case he blinded another group of clan adepts.
His present self could emit enough fire energy to harm any lifeform that dared to stare at him, even without activating the Burning Domain. As a Third Grade adept, the First Grade adepts were now as frail as ants in his eyes. If he didn’t keep his energy aura to himself, even the light and heat that he unintentionally radiated would be enough to blind them or turn them to ashes.
Greem now understood why those high-grade adepts chose to isolate themselves and rarely ever got together with the low-grade adepts. The main reason was the massive volume of the energy aura within their bodies. Compared to the low-grade adepts, they were like gargantuan beasts before ants.
High-grade adepts would have always to contain their aura when with low-grade adepts. They didn’t even dare to take a slightly heavier breath. One mistake and they could bring about irrecoverable damage to these frail ants.
This feeling of always holding back and being extremely careful was undoubtedly an unpleasant one!
Of course, the occurrence of this situation also had to do with the fact that Greem had just advanced.
The fire energy within his body was as dense as lava now; it was continually radiating heat of over a thousand degrees. When such heat combined with the fires around him, they formed a strange and distorted life forcefield. If ordinary lifeforms stared at him, it would be no different than looking straight at a burning sun.
Even those First Grade adepts and their frail eyeballs could not endure the backlash of such fire energy if they were unprepared. If that Uka didn’t find a way to treat his hurting eyeballs, he might actually risk losing his sight.
Little Goblin Locke was mixed in with the crowd. He looked upon that legendary and powerful clan leader through the forest of legs and watched as he slowly passed through the crowd and strolled toward the tower surrounded by all the adepts.
Just then, he had secretly activated the energy monitor on his goggles. However, when he pointed them at the clan leader, the monitor immediately started smoking. It had malfunctioned.
That caused Little Locke, now a pseudo-adept, to be utterly speechless.
Were Third Grade adepts already so powerful?
An important figure that others could only look up to. How perfect the world would be if that could be him…
Little Locke started drooling as he fantasized wildly in midday.
The Shadow’s Light group had now wholly dispersed. Pseudo-Adept Ponta was undoubtedly an unfortunate individual. He had undergone backlash during his advancement process, and his power had regressed to that of an advanced apprentice. Moreover, after inspection by several adepts, his Spirit was confirmed as being irrecoverable. He no longer possessed the chance to reach for adept level!
Thus, four years ago, Ponta left the Crimson Clan and returned to his home.
It was said that he married a wife there and had a kid. He now led a peaceful, albeit ordinary, life of a mortal.
Meanwhile, Plant Apprentice Eco, who had been Ponta’s lover, had barely managed to promote to advanced apprentice level and was now studying potions underneath Adept Saru. Given her current progress, she would have immense difficulty reaching pseudo-adept level before her Spirit solidified.
Talent like this would not gain her many resources in any adept clan!
Body-Refining Apprentice Dakso was still an advanced apprentice. He was now a member of the Machine Supremacy, a combat group that Locke had formed. Meanwhile, the other member–Transformation Apprentice Blanco–had unexpectedly died in the Black Forest.
It was said that he had been torn to pieces by a two-headed ogre chieftain!
Though Locke had used alchemical bombs to blast the ogre’s cave and take revenge for Blanco, he could not change his death.
In the past eight years, over sixty apprentices of the Crimson Clan had died for various reasons in the Black Forest to the east. However, their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The Crimson Clan had also managed to exterminate over several hundreds of magical creature tribes.
It was due to the continued expansion and killing of these apprentices that the one hundred and fifty kilometers east of the tower was now a safe zone. Even ordinary people with no supernatural powers could go in there for routine jobs like logging and gathering, as long as their luck wasn’t too terrible.
To increase the basic defensive level of the civilians, the Crimson Clan st
arted to promote a sort of alchemical rifle among the populace. The gun required no magical energy or individual talent. Any adolescent would only need some short practice to understand how to use the rifle.
These alchemical rifles and their metal bullets had as much as fifteen points of physical damage within a radius of ten to seventy meters. That was already very close to the offensive power of a beginner apprentice’s spell!
However, training a beginner apprentice first required a certain degree of elementium affinity. It also needed one to two years to break through the threshold of meditation. Meanwhile, alchemical rifles had no such limitations. As long as the civilians of White Tower practiced hard, they could be allotted the guns and easily possess a certain level of ability to defend themselves.
This way, the civilians would no longer need to worry about wild beasts when going in and out of the Black Forest. With sufficient cooperation, they could even hunt down some low-grade magical creatures that slipped through the net.
To fully equip the civilians, these alchemical rifles were provided to everyone at no cost. Moreover, the civilians could claim a certain amount of free ammunition as long as they were registered with White Tower.
It was one one of the policies by which the Crimson Clan was swaying the locals to their side!
If it weren’t for their possession of the Goblin Plane, the Crimson Clan would not have the wealth and power to have the luxury of arming the lower classes.
With Adept Meryl’s diligent governance, seven small villages and a town had appeared around White Tower. The purpose of their existence was to provide the residents of the tower with daily resources. Of course, they also had within them certain entertainments, such as underground brothels.
According to the data, the number of civilians registered with the White Tower of Icewind had reached three thousand. This number was already more than enough to fulfill the daily needs of White Tower!
Chapter 850 - The Capital of Eternity
Lance, the Capital of Eternity.
The light in the array slowly faded away, finally revealing the one dozen towering figures standing within.
The teleportation array was constructed at the top of a magnificent tower of steel; a hall of iron completely protected the formation. One could see the vast skies of Lance in a single glance through the narrow windows nearby, along with its fluffy clouds.
The entire sky was filled with a sense of freedom and leisure!
Arms could no longer endure the yearning in his heart. He strode out of the metal hall and transformed into his dragon form before roaring and taking to the skies. Eight dragons of various colors followed behind him, roaring as they took off.
After eight years away from Lance, these dragons were at their limits.
In Lance, they were the sky, the gods, and the rulers of everything below!
They could freely fly above the blue skies and use their aura of might to terrify and scatter the ants below. They could descend whenever they wanted, enjoy any food they liked, abduct whatever beauty they fancied, and take whatever wealth they saw.
However, in the World of Adepts, the dragons weren’t the rulers. It was the adepts.
Even a tiger would have to crouch, and even a dragon would have to sleep in that sinister and strange world. Keeping a low profile was the key to longevity there. If they were to draw the eye of a high-grade adept, there were far too many powerful beings in that world who could kill them!
Arms, who had been used to luxury and pleasure, could not get accustomed to such an environment.
He had seldom flown freely in the skies of the World of Adepts in these past eight years. His usual range of activity was also limited to the fifty kilometers of woods around White Tower. Should he have left the protection of White Tower, his life would have been at risk.
Arms, Iritina, and the green dragons became exceedingly excited upon returning to Lance. They started flying and playing in the sky.
For a moment, the air above the Capital of Eternity was filled with dragon roars, making the place much more lively than usual.
The appearance of such a large flight of dragons did not frighten the constantly moving crowd within the steel capital. These Lance natives of various skin colors and races stopped and looked at the dragons flying above. They then continued their journey, utterly unphased.
As half a master of the Capital of Eternity, Split-Off Brain Gru was already waiting respectfully before the teleportation array.
He confirmed the ‘rumors’ when he saw Greem in his red robes and the powerful magical aura he radiated. He couldn’t help but flatter, “Welcome, O’ respected Master Greem!”
Greem’s eyes swept toward Gru. He could sense a trace of weight and seriousness to Gru’s every word and action. There was no longer the same levity as before.
It seemed these beings liked to differentiate their treatments based on the power of the individual they were dealing with.
With the power of a Second Grade, Greem had commanded a Third Grade brain monster in the past. Consequently, he was met with all sorts of excuses and insincerity. He needed to trim those unnecessary malicious thoughts in Gazlowe’s big brain every so often.
However, now that Greem had advanced, the attitude of Split-Off Brain Gru immediately did a one-hundred and eighty-degree turnaround. For the first time, Greem felt sincerity behind the words ‘master’!
Greem walked into the steel hall and arrived at the edge of the tower. He slowly looked down at the metal city below.
In all honesty, this Capital of Eternity that Gazlowe had constructed was becoming increasingly like those cities of steel that Greem remembered from his past life.
The steel tower was seven hundred meters tall, but it wasn’t even the tallest building in the steel capital.
The entirety of the Capital of Eternity as built into the mountains. All the buildings and facilities were made of special metals. It gave the city a strange sense of cold, gray indestructibility.
The center of the Capital was a massive tower of steel. It was one kilometer thick and slowly tapered off near the top, vanishing in the clouds. The rest of the buildings were attachments stuck on, like strange branches and thorns on the tower.
The teleportation tower that Greem was currently on was one such building.
The insides of the Capital of Eternity only allowed entry to magical machines and adepts. The other native forces that lived near the Capital could only choose to build their own straw houses and strange buildings at the foot of the tower.
From seven hundred meters above, Greem even saw a stretch of swamp and forest with hundreds of swamp creatures living in it.
“What is that?” Greem couldn’t help but ask.
“Master, that is where the wetlands lizardmen live!” As a bit of a master of the place, Gru naturally knew everything there was to know about the surroundings of the Capital, “I originally intended for them to stay in the Capital of Eternity, but their daily lives can’t be separated from the swamp. So, I had no choice but to carve out an area there for them to live.”
Greem nodded silently.
With his extraordinary sight, he could even see the massive forges that the highland dwarves had built near the Capital, along with the lighthouse-styled insect nests of the swamp flies and the nests of the thunder rocs at the peak of the hills in the distance. In fact, Greem even saw some shadow creatures moving in a corner where there was a large cloud of dark, black mist.
It seemed that the Capital of Eternity had gained control over the entire surrounding areas during these past few years. Moreover, conscious management and planning had also been put into the affairs of the subordinate races. It was a display of Brain Monster Gazlowe’s highest worth!
“How did you manage to gain control over the subordinate races?” Greem continued asking.
“The big guy had already mastered Brainwash. He can use his power to control the leaders and core figures of these tribes. As such, there is no need to be co
ncerned about their loyalty!”
Gru’s reply also caught Greem by surprise.
Brainwash? Wasn’t that a was a high-grade skill among soul powers? Through what means had Gazlowe managed to master it?
Gru seemed to have seen through Greem’s surprise and gave a simple explanation.
“A few years back, Mistress Alice sent back some Mind Flayers from the World of Adepts.”
Greem instantly understood everything before Gru could finish.
No wonder. Mind Flayers were known throughout the multiverse as experts at soul powers.
They were powerful and evil hermaphroditic creatures that fed on the brains of intelligent lifeforms. They could strengthen and empower themselves by absorbing the brain and consciousness core of their prey. They had humanoid bodies, but a strange, squid-like head.
Their eyes had no pupils and were a pure milky white. Four constantly squirming tentacles grew near their mouths, two long and two short. The bodies of the Mind Flayers were a light purple, and their skin was cold and as elastic as rubber. Their skin was also covered in a layer of disgusting slime.
Apart from their soul and mental powers, the Mind Flayers had almost no other abilities. That was why they were a terrifying race of people that could harness soul power to their limits.
They could use their powers to brainwash intelligent lifeforms and turn them into their loyal servants.
They could also use their powers to mimic the effects of all sorts of magic. Moreover, magic mimicked in this manner was not affected by magic resistance.
Ordinary Mind Flayer spawn were also known as Illithids and started as First Grade creatures. Only adolescent Illithids were known as Mind Flayers, and these were powerful Second Grade beings at the very minimum.
Giving Gazlowe a Mind Flayer she managed to catch was a good move on Alice’s part.
Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe had a peculiar body and terrifying power, but not the individual combat ability to match. The main reason being his origin as a weak goblin. Consequently, even after becoming a Third Grade brain monster, he could not naturally master fearsome soul powers.
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