The various representatives of the large adept clans visited Fire Throne over a matter of days. Every one of them promised all sorts of benefits.
If Greem was willing to join their clan, they could provide him with all the knowledge and resources he needed to raise his ability and work toward Fourth Grade. This way, Greem didn’t need to expend effort toward managing the clan and could focus entirely on improving his skills.
Such conditions were already sufficiently generous for most adepts!
However, such conditions obviously could not tempt Greem. He rejected all of the offers.
Compared to some people obsessed with individual power, Greem placed more priority over the feeling of achievement at carving a place for himself out of nothing. In particular, with the Chip’s assistance, the magical knowledge and technical experience that required an extensive amount of time to accumulate was no longer a problem for him. He could take out much more time to invest in clan matters or research problems that interested him.
As opposed to living under someone else’s roof and reacting to every whim and will of theirs, he would much rather work for himself and find his own wealth!
What Greem never expected was for news of his Third Grade advancement to spark a considerable commotion in the Northern Lands, apart from just the one he had started in Zhentarim.
The witches, with their severe obsession with matriarchy, also broke out into intense arguments amongst themselves over a male adept like Greem.
Many tower owners and witch leaders voiced their opinions. Either this male adept was to be expelled from the Northern Lands, or he was to marry a yet unmarried tower owner and become a member of the witches’ subordinate forces. Among all these witch leaders, the one that was shouting the loudest was naturally Coldwinter Witch Leader Morgana.
Morgana was the weakest amongst the witch leaders, with only the power of Third Grade. Yet, at the same time, she was the youngest of them all, at only six hundred years old.
A six hundred-year-old hag might be some sort of monster in the eyes of a mortal, but she was as young and tender as an eighteen-year-old maiden when compared to the other witch leaders, who were easily over a thousand years old.
Alice might be even younger than her, but she was only Second Grade and had no means of subduing a powerful male adept of the Third Grade. If Alice and Greem were allowed to become a couple, their power dynamic clearly couldn’t reach the essential requirements in the minds of the Northern Witches, where a man was lower than the woman.
Thus, Greem would have to choose a partner from among the pile of ancient Third and Fourth Grade monsters if he wanted to remain in the faction of the Northern Witches.
The influential witch leaders had even convened a Witch Council for the express purpose of discussing Greem’s partner in marriage.
During this Witch Council, the typically gentle and quiet Alice turned into a spooked little wild cat. For the first time, her temper was fiery, and her words were abrasive. She shouted and issued threats of war at every single witch that dared to set eyes on Greem.
The first person she had to deal with was that Coldwinter Witch Leader Morgana.
With no choice left to them, the Witch Council could only permit this theatrical and comical clan war.
The war would only be between the Fate and Coldwinter Witches, while the outcome of the battle would decide whose hands the Third Grade male adept would end up in and whose partner he would become.
Though this matter concerned Greem, he had absolutely no say or choice in the issue. He could only passively accept the decision of the witches. Moreover, as the reward of the war, Greem himself was not allowed to intervene in the battle between the two witch factions.
Greem was stunned when he heard this news!
He had never expected his advancement to Third Grade to lead to such a ridiculous event. He had never thought that there would be a day where he himself would become a wanted good with a price, waiting on a shelf to be chosen by a witch who fancied him.
Not only had such a ridiculous thing happened, but the Witch Council had also notified all witch towers of this war through the use of written notices. One could only imagine how many tower owners would be sitting back and eating their popcorn, waiting to see a joke at the expense of the Fate Witches in the upcoming war.
It couldn’t be helped. The Coldwinter Witches might have experienced countless instances of complete destruction, and the new Coldwinter faction had only been established five hundred years ago. However, compared to the Fate Witches who had only been re-established two hundred years ago, they were immensely powerful already.
Moreover, the Fate Witches had to be the most inept at fighting amongst all the witch factions!
Their unique profession abilities were all limited to divination and astrology. They had absolutely no unique skills related to combat. Without the protection and support of the other witch factions, the Fate Witches could not possibly survive in as harsh an environment as the Northern Lands.
However, should they possess a powerful army in their hands, the Fate Witches predictive ‘Fate Sense’ and cheat-like ‘Divination’ would be able to put together the power of the entire military and allow them to unleash force far beyond the sum of their parts!
That was the true meaning to the existence of the Fate Witches!
However, the Fate Witches had only been re-established for less than two hundred years. Even the witch leader, Alice, had only just reached beginner Second Grade. She had very few witches under her lead; so few, in fact, that they could be counted with both hands.
Trying to use such a force to fight against the Coldwinter witches, who had seven to eight times their military power, appeared to be a fool’s errand no matter how you looked at it. It was no different from putting your face in front of the enemy’s palm and asking to be slapped. However, this thing had now involved her lover. It didn’t matter how difficult or arduous the task would be; Alice had no choice but to push forward without any hesitation.
When the news spread out, a huge commotion erupted within the Crimson Clan as well.
The first to blow up was the temperamental and irritable Mary.
Alice alone was more than enough competition for Greem. Now that another Morgana had jumped out of the woodworks, Mary instantly blew up like a barrel of gunpowder!
During a joint meeting between the Crimson Clan and the Fate Witches, the infuriated Mary slammed the tabletop and furiously declared war against Morgana, the woman whose face she had not even seen. She swore to defend her lover’s chastity even at the cost of her own life.
Meanwhile, the vampires were also enraged, and all requested to go into battle for their mistress.
Amongst them, Emelia was the one that made the most noise and moved around the most. She waved her little fists and shouted non-stop within the Rouge Corps as if she wanted to drag the enemy to the grave along with her.
The second one to stand up and speak was White Tower Majordomo Meryl.
She was a student of Greem’s, as well as the most respected and beloved core adept of the leaders of the Crimson Clan. She might only be at intermediate First Grade, and couldn’t even rank in the top ten powerhouses of the clan, but she was a central character in the authority of the Crimson Clan.
The other Second Grade adepts might excel at combat and slaughter, but they were inept at managing clan matters and dealing with more trivial tasks such as the allocation of resources.
Judging from the Goblin Plane and White Tower alone, one could see how all clan matters that Meryl managed were dealt with in an orderly and suitable fashion. The allocation of resources had always been fair as well, and all things progressed positively under her guidance.
Given this to be the case, Meryl was also an irreplaceable core character of the Crimson Clan!
Her words carried a lot of weight to them.
She expressed immense fury at this somewhat humiliating decision from the Witch Council. However, becau
se this had always been how the Northern Witches acted, the Crimson Clan had no choice but to deal with the matter using the thought processes and methods of the witches.
If that was the case, it seemed like a joint combat cooperation with the Fate Witches was unavoidable!
The key to the problem was what methods of cooperation was available to the two parties? How was the gathering of information on the Coldwinter Witches going? What did they need to be aware of when fighting against the Coldwinter Witches?
As they listened to Meryl list out all of these crucial questions one by one, the Fate Witches in attendance looked at each other. In the end, they had no choice but to hand over all the information they had on their hands.
The Coldwinter Witches were known as the most combat-proficient faction of the Northern Witches.
The ice and snow magic that they specialized in was very compatible with the harsh environment of the Northern Lands. Consequently, their abilities were significantly enhanced by nature when fighting outside.
However, the Coldwinter faction had experienced many crises over the years, and their witch legacy had also been cut off for long periods of time. This latest Coldwinter branch had only just regained their inheritance five hundred years ago. Though they were much more developed than the Fate Witches under Alice’s rule, they were still inferior compared to those factions that had lasted for several thousands of years.
At this point, the Coldwinter Witches only had a single Third Grade witch, who was their faction leader; Morgana, the woman who had started this conflict to begin with. The Coldwinter Witches had sixty-seven witches in total, eleven Second Grades, and fifty-six First Grades. Apart from them, the Coldwinter Witches also had twenty-eight subordinate adepts, most of them outsider First Grade male adepts.
The headquarters of the Coldwinter Witches was in Icesnow Valley, located in the southeastern corner of the Northern Lands. It was only a straight-line distance of three hundred and fifty kilometers away from White Tower.
Apart from these, the Coldwinter Witches also possessed thirty-one clan territories, eighty-nine human cities of various sizes, twenty-six resource sites of different classes, and four million direct subjects.
Chapter 855 - War of the Witches
A war between the Northern Witch branches was entirely different from wars in the center region.
In the Zhentarim region, any war started between two adept clans would bring about tremendous devastation and carnage. The utter destruction of an adept clan was easily one of the starting conditions for the war to conclude.
The defeated would be vanquished, and the victor would take all!
Defeated adept clans would be pulled out by the roots as their very name was wiped out of existence.
Meanwhile, the victors would devour all that belonged to their enemy, taking over new territories and resource sites while imprisoning and enslaving the adepts and apprentices of their enemy. They would grow strong and fast from the corpse of their defeated foe.
On the other hand, the Northern Witches had stringent rules for war between themselves.
No slaughtering of civilians, no destruction of resource sites, and even more so, no killing of the opponent’s adepts and apprentices. With such strict conditions about war, any party that failed to restrain the scope of battle and disrupted the local civilians or any other witch faction would be instantly be judged as the loser.
Consequently, the battles between witches were elegant and restrained, which was a far cry from the darkness and cruelty of Zhentarim!
Both Mary and Billis let out a sigh of disappointment in unison when they heard this.
For the two of them, a constant war was the only thing that could keep them going in battle. Their strength was built entirely upon the blood and flesh of their enemies.
The witch war this time had far too many limiting conditions. They clearly wouldn’t be able to enjoy a free and liberating slaughter. It also caused them to lose all interest in the upcoming witch war instantly; they couldn’t get their spirits up at all.
By the decision of the Witch Council, Greem was not allowed to interfere in this war. However, his many subordinates were not limited in this aspect and could freely join the Fate Witches as foreign reinforcements to become powerful fighters charging at the very frontlines.
However, Alice very clearly warned that the Third Grades of the Crimson Clan were not suited for involvement in this affair.
Be it Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms, Emerald Dragon Iritina, or even Second Grade Gru, their appearance on the battlefield would immediately cause the scale and level of the war to go up.
If the Fate Witches could get foreign reinforcements, wasn’t it the same for the Coldwinter Witches?
It wasn’t too much trouble for the Coldwinter Witches. Witch Leader Morgana only needed to call in a few favors and drag a single Fourth Grade witch into the battle, and the war would lose all meaning.
That was why they couldn’t rattle the snake before the battle and cause Morgana to waste such a precious favor in her desperation to win the war. That was perhaps the key to this war!
Of course, with Alice’s presence on the side of the Fate Witches, Morgana’s psychological baseline was no longer a secret.
As long as no Third Grades from the Crimson Clan or Second Grade Split-Off Brain Gru appeared on the battlefield, Morgana would not be willing to make use of this trump card of the Coldwinter Witches.
Moreover, though Morgana could have a Fourth Grade witch join the battle using some favors that the Coldwinter branches of the past had accumulated, Alice, as the Fate Witch leader, also held similar aces in her hand. If the war reached this point, it would only be wearing away at the hidden powers of both factions.
No witch leader would be willing to cast away their hidden strength in such a meaningless battle for pride under ordinary circumstances; not unless it was a moment of life and death for the branch.
Thus, Alice started to pick her team and quickly put together a suitable army.
On the side of the Second Grade adepts, Alice would be the leader, reinforced by Mary and her vampires, Dragonborn Zacha, Goblin Tigule, Dragon Devourer Oliven, and the Spirit of Pestilence, all from the Crimson Clan.
As for Bug Adept Billis? Alice personally made sure he was off the list.
It couldn’t be helped. Billis’ means of attack were way too bloody and cruel. Every single move was meant to kill and butcher. It was an absolute taboo in the Northern Lands, where the civilian population was already very scarce!
Meanwhile, the Spirit of Pestilence, as Greem’s Soul Equipment, had never exposed its power to the outside world. This time, it had joined the ranks of the Fate Witches and took on the role of a terrifying magical spirit with a mysterious identity.
As long as it didn’t unleash its terrifying plagues and viruses, the Coldwinter Witches would have no evidence of its identity even if they were to suspect it.
On the other hand, the First Grade adepts were led by Berserk Witch Sofia and Icelady Snowlotus, supported by a group of blood elves and a large army of the improved Archers. Such an army was enough to deal with the provocation of the Coldwinter Witches!
…………
The battle happening in the Northern Lands had excluded Greem from the very start.
As such, when large groups of Crimson adepts hurried over to the Northern Lands for war, the person in question could only return to Fire Throne and began his semi-reclusive life.
Upon returning home, Greem immediately started examining the first Third Grade spell he had mastered after his advancement– Vicious Fireball!
Fireball spells could be considered the most comprehended and mastered spells among all public fire attribute spells.
From the apprentice-level Small Fireball, to the adept-level Magical Fireball, to the Second Grade Magma Fireball, the might and radius-of-effect of the fireball spells increased exponentially. Now, with the continued optimization and enhancement performed by the Chip
, the Second Grade Magma Fireball had advanced to the Third Grade Vicious Fireball, and its power had increased significantly.
The apprentice-level Fireball spell required three to seven seconds of chanting. It had a thirteen-second cooldown, exhausted two points of Spirit, and dealt between thirty to thirty-five points of power. Its power was relatively high compared to spells of the same grade. Moreover, the Fireball spells also possessed a splash radius of one to two meters, making it a relatively cost-efficient offensive spell.
The First Grade Magical Fireball required one to five seconds of chanting, had an eleven-second cooldown, exhausted two points of Spirit, dealt between ninety to one hundred and fifteen points of power and had a splash radius of three to five meters.
The Second Grade Magma Fireball required one to three seconds of chanting, had a seven-second cooldown, exhausted two points of Spirit, dealt between two hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty points of power and had a splash radius of five to ten meters.
The Third Grade Magma Fireball required one to two seconds of chanting, had a five-second cooldown, exhausted two points of Spirit, and dealt between three hundred and ten to three hundred and thirty points of power. It had a splash radius of twenty to thirty meters and also possessed the two special effects of fire poison and Coldflame.
That was merely the basic offensive power of the Vicious Fireball.
If one were to include the thirty percent power increase from Greem’s fire specialization and the effects of his profession cutting down Spirit consumption, cooldowns, and chant times of fire spells by half, an ordinary Third Grade Vicious Fireball cast by Greem’s hand would deal a shocking four hundred to four hundred and thirty points of damage.
It was already sufficiently shocking for an instant-cast Third Grade spell.
With this Vicious Fireball spell alone, Greem could quickly exterminate those Second Grade adepts with mediocre magic resistances in an instant.
Moreover, Vicious Fireball was an instant-cast spell in his hands.
With his current thirty-six points of Spirit, he only needed a single point of Spirit to fire a Vicious Fireball; Greem could simultaneously shoot thirty-six Vicious Fireballs.
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