Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  They might not have been the targets of the adepts, but the shockwaves created by the reckless battle between two Third Grade adepts were enough to obliterate the entire town.

  Neither of the two adepts was at their peak. As such, the offensive power they had wasn’t sufficient to instantly defeat the other. Thus, after a difficult battle, Greem chose to retreat without any hesitation.

  Using the high-grade Fire Dragon’s Breath stored within his pendant, Greem forced back the Blade Princess and quickly summoned a Flamegate. Hundreds of fire creatures immediately swarmed out and rushed at Katherine.

  Though these fire creatures could not harm her, they could keep her stalled on the other side of the bridge. With this short time Greem bought for himself, he chanted his spell and used FIre Teleportation to flee the battlefield.

  The enraged Katherine swung her spinning blades, executing most of the fire creatures in a single slash before charging across the stone bridge and smashing the Flamegate into oblivion. This way, the fire creatures lost their source of reinforcement and became much easier to deal with.

  The Blade Princess couldn’t be bothered to deal with the summoned creatures. She walked to a spot on the battlefield and picked up the metal particles left by the destroyed blades before tracking Greem in the direction the fire aura had vanished.

  Having lost their target, the remaining fire creatures started to wander in the flames that were burning wildly in Lakeside Town.

  The sea of flames spread wherever they went, turning all things into ashes and the entire forest region around the town into a zone of death where nothing living dared set foot!

  At this time, the two otherworldly Third Grade adepts had shifted their battlefields to new grounds. They started a massive game of tag across the depths of the Cedrac Mountains.

  Chapter 945 - Battle in the Night

  It was deep into the night.

  The Cedrac Mountains appeared particularly quiet under the lightless curtain of night. One could almost say it was void of life.

  It had only been three days, and Greem and Katherine had fought each other nine times, creating nine death zones throughout the Cedrac Mountains.

  The beasts and magical creatures of the Cedrac Mountains might not be all that intelligent, but even they became incredibly cautious and sensitive to their environment when under the constant threat of death. A disastrous stampede would break out wherever the two adepts set foot.

  Whether beast, bird, or powerful magical creature, all the living beings would scramble to escape the area. None of them dared to remain near the two adepts for even a brief instant.

  Moreover, over time, the two adepts’ analysis of Henvic’s planar laws progressed. The power they could unleash increased, and the destruction of the environment around them became increasingly terrifying.

  During one of their battles, Greem’s Flamegate summoned thousands of fire creatures. They forcefully turned a valley in the mountains into an apocalyptic world of flowing lava and smoldering magma.

  Combined with the unique geography of the valley, the Flamegate was likely to exist for a long time to come. The fire creatures that had traveled to the valley through the Flamegate would become the guardians of the location, stopping any creatures from approaching it.

  Meanwhile, the two adepts that had created this new hazardous area paid no heed to the tremendous damage their reckless actions inflicted upon the Cedrac Mountains. They were still immersed in their intense fight.

  They fought in the day, but there was no peace to come in the night either. Both parties would find all sorts of sinister and wicked means of assassinating and ambushing each other. Unfortunately, all of their attempts until now had failed!

  Neither of the two adepts could end this war quickly. They had no choice but to turn it into an exhausting back-and-forth!

  It was hard for both of them!

  Greem started a bonfire at the foot of a snowy peak once night had fallen.

  A wild boar that had unintentionally run into him was roasting above the fire.

  Greem personally did all the work of skinning, gutting, cleaning, seasoning, and placing it on a spit above the fire. With the Chip’s assistance, he could come up with hundreds of recipes for roasting, cooking, and frying the boar at any time, turning himself into a world-class chef and the boar into a mouthwatering dish.

  As Greem turned the spit and coated the boar with layers of sweet sauces, he lifted his head and looked toward the other spot of fire in the distance, his face filled with unconcealable joy over his opponent’s misfortune.

  Another campfire was also burning furiously at the top of a mountain five kilometers away.

  Unfortunately for the Blade Princess Katherine, it was not boar meat or wolf meat that was roasting above her campfire. It was snake meat. Moreover, judging from the colorful scales that had yet to be completely removed from the snake, Katherine was cooking a poisonous snake.

  It wasn’t that Katherine disliked boar or wolf meant, but that she could not find any of them.

  Though she had washed off all the tyrannosaurus feces on her, the unique stench had yet to vanish. It caused Katherine to be utterly unable to find any large creatures within five kilometers of her, regardless of where she went.

  No large creatures meant no source of food. Though Katherine had brought some nutrition pills with her, those could only maintain her stamina and would not allow her severely exhausted Strength to regenerate quickly enough.

  Adepts were powerful compared to an ordinary person, but their immense power also demanded replenishment through extravagant eating habits. Katherine might be as petite as the girl next door, but her appetite easily outmatched ten muscular men after a long day of work.

  To make up for the lack of proper food over these days, Katherine had almost eaten all the rats and snakes in the mountains.

  She wasn’t an elementium adept and could not naturally recover elementium power through meditation and sleep. She was a mechanical adept. The source of all her strength came from her Physique, and the recovery of Physique could not be divorced from the consumption of food and excellent sleep.

  Consequently, her energy reserves had continuously been falling since she had entered the Henvic Plane. She had also suffered immensely over these few days of constant fighting against that damned male adept.

  After devouring a few half-burnt snakes and slightly relieving the burning sensation of hunger in her stomach, Katherine took out a bit of her time to repair the magical weapons she had with her.

  She took out some spare metal blades from her storage ring and replaced the ones that had been damaged during the day. Katherine also took out some magical materials and used the light of the campfire to repair her damaged parts and body slowly.

  In all honesty, a pretty and petite girl taking out parts of her body like they were mere components to clean and maintain them before placing them back into her body under the flickering light of the campfire in the night was a horrifying sight to behold.

  It sent shivers right down the spine!

  Meanwhile, Greem was enjoying his feast while relying on the wind spirits he had sent out to spy on this powerful mechanical witch.

  She was not a witch of the Northern Lands from the modern era!

  At the very least, Greem had never heard of such a mechanical witch in the Nothern Lands!

  Yet, she clearly bore the smell of an adept from the World of Adepts.

  As such, Greem deduced that she was likely a stationed adept of the Nothern Witches in one of their many lesser planes. Moreover, she was an adept that had been specially trained for slaughter and assassination.

  In all honesty, if Greem’s abilities had been even the slightest bit average, he would have been shredded to pieces by this mechanical witch. However, with the continued increase in his progress in analyzing the planar laws, Greem could unleash even more power.

  Finally, a clear beep could be heard as Greem finally got the notification that he had
been waiting so long for.

  [Beep. Planar analysis complete. Progress 100%. Host’s basic power has recovered. Highest potential combat power will be 78.21386291% relative to the World of Adepts.”

  Greem was not interested in the long series of numbers that came after the first two digits. Though the amount of his unlocked power did not reach the expected eighty percent, seventy-eight percent was still more than enough for him to work with.

  He had always fought alone in the battles before this instead of using the elementium magical machine. It wasn’t because he wanted to train himself. Instead, his severely restricted Spirit was far below the required threshold to command the Third Grade elementium magical machine. Releasing it would have instantly drained him of all his Spirit.

  Exposing such a glaring weakness to a mechanical witch that specialized in killing would have been akin to purchasing a ticket straight to hell! As such, Greem had no choice but to grit his teeth and use his unrefined combat techniques to battle against the mechanical witch.

  Fortunately, the years of planar warfare had provided him with quite a lot of training. The excellent magical equipment on him further improved his power, just barely allowing him to remain a match for the witch instead of being her prey.

  Still, a fire had been burning in Greem after all these days of bitter fighting. When he heard the Chip’s notification, he cast aside the ribs in his hands without hesitation and strode toward the bonfire in the distance.

  The mechanical witch seemed to have her own unique means of tracking and investigation, as well. She immediately stood up in confusion when Greem started to move and gazed into the dark forest.

  The two of them had been indiscriminately fighting all this while, regardless of location or time. However, night battles were still few and far between. After all, both of them needed time to recover their Spirits and heal their wounds.

  Neither side was willing to force the other into a dead-end before they had utter certainty at victory. Doing so would only make them suffer terrifying and irrecoverable damage. As such, nighttime became an unspoken time of truce between the two. Though assassinations, poisoning attempts, harassment, and all sorts of tricks continued uninterrupted, full-frontal confrontations had yet to occur.

  That was why Katherine couldn’t help but be on her guard when she saw the male adept’s strange actions.

  Given the current circumstances, she was still the one that held the advantage. She still had superior combat power. Most of these skirmishes and battles ended with her victory and his retreat. When it came to battle cunning and smarts, however, Greem was still a cut above her.

  Most of the time, Katherine found herself having trouble turning her combat advantage into an opportunity for victory, all due to Greem’s sly and sinister tricks. These factors were what made this otherworldly hunt turn into such a tedious and dangerous affair.

  Given Katherine’s understanding of the male adept, the reason he was so impatient to fight her must be due to him obtaining an opportunity to turn the tides.

  What would that be?

  While Katherine was thinking to herself and preparing for battle, Greem had already charged out of the woods.

  “Brat, was the beating you took from me a few days ago not enough for you? You were scurrying about like a rat. Why would you come and seek your death today…”

  Katherine didn’t manage to finish her words. Greem had released the elementium magical machine without any pause.

  Katherine’s face instantly turned green at the sight of this two-meter-tall magical machine rising from the ground. Violent magical energy was radiating from its gleaming alloy body.

  Third Grade. Dammit! It was a Third Grade magical machine!

  The Blade Princess’ crimson mechanical eye quickly determined the magical machine’s combat power based on the intensity of the magical energy and the destructive aura it radiated.

  Dammit, dammit, dammit! Apart from Agility, this magical machine was slightly stronger than her in Physique, Strength, and Spirit. Katherine could barely maintain a sixty percent chance of victory against a giant like this.

  However, her body would be significantly damaged, and her power weakened even if she won.

  If she were to fight this giant while dealing with the male adept at the same time? Katherine felt a chill run through her heart. The chance of victory she calculated was no more than three percent.

  Blade Princess Katherine let out a roar, and five metal blades spun forward, intercepting the assault of the two enemies. She turned and fled without any hesitation, quickly vanishing into the darkness of the forest.

  Reputation, dignity; what were those?

  They seemed like things that only living people would require.

  Just like that, a massive battle prematurely ended before it could even begin!

  Chapter 946 - Nighttime Confrontation

  The last month had been the most difficult of times for the Zambez Empire.

  Most of the high-grade knights of the Empire were gathered at Dabyrie Highlands under the command of the powerful Fourth Grade Holy Knight Roland, besieging the tower of the evil witches.

  Yet, at this moment, some more powerful and evil adepts broke into Henvic Plane and started ravaging the northern regions of the Empire.

  These outsiders didn’t seem to belong to the same faction, as they immediately broke out into a wild and unrelenting battle against each other upon arriving. Compared to them, the natives of Henvic were far too frail and insignificant.

  They would be destroyed in the apocalyptic fight if they even got close, let alone attempt to stop these outsiders. The man and the woman were both adepts from another world. Their reckless actions had already destroyed two border towns and created numerous no man’s lands in the Cedrac Mountains that no one dared approach.

  Moreover, as the two adepts left the Cedrac Mountains and moved toward the inner regions of the Empire, the losses and casualties caused by their fighting started to skyrocket. Their actions even caused a disaster in the north of the Empire.

  The source of the disaster was not Greem nor Katherine, but the Spirit of Pestilence.

  As a small peak Second Grade Spirit of Pestilence, it could not participate in the fight between two Third Grade adepts. Greem rarely summoned the Spirit during the fighting in the day. He would only send it out at night to harass Katherine.

  Of course, the only way the Spirit of Pestilence cold fight was through poison!

  Spreading poison over the ground and air everywhere Katherine might travel through, poisoning the water sources where Katherine might rest, even poisoning the creatures that Katherine might hunt down for food; in essence, the Spirit of Pestilence was happy to spread plenty of biological poison and plague spores over anything that Katherine might come into contact with.

  Unfortunately, Katherine was prepared. Her resistance to poison was also shockingly high. She never fell into a single trap laid by the Spirit. Instead, it was the common forest creatures that became unintended victims of the poison.

  Those who were poisoned to death were of no consequence. However, some more resilient and stubborn forest creatures brought the plague spores out of the mountains with them, spreading the epidemic to an even wider area.

  For a moment, the northern regions of the Empire were rife with the plague as it spread rapidly across the land.

  During yet another lightless night, the two neighboring bonfires were the only source of illumination throughout the wildlands.

  It was only the end of summer and the start of autumn, but the nights in the wild were already remarkably cold.

  Greem sat by the fire, roasting the deer meat in his hand with expert technique. A crystalline amber sauce was slathered all over the meat, sizzling softly above the flames. Two drops of golden yellow oil dripped onto the bonfire below, causing some light crackling and popping.

  The strange, doll-like Spirit of Pestilence sat quietly on Greem’s shoulder, propping its chin with its hand as
it brooded in silence. Orbs of dark green light would occasionally rise from its palm-sized wooden body, circling several times before sinking into its body once again.

  Greem was close enough to sense strands of strange energy merging with the Spirit of Pestilence every time the orbs of green light lit up. The Spirit’s energy aura would then increase ever so slightly.

  In all honesty, this slight bit of improvement was utterly insignificant. Even Greem would never have detected such a change if it wasn’t for his soul connection to the Spirit and the detailed scans of the Chip.

  However, even the weakest of energy would accumulate to a significant amount if it continued to pile on!

  Greem had a pronounced feeling that the Spirit of Pestilence had been wildly gathering energy over the past few days to break through that sturdy Third Grade threshold.

  The faint traces of energy that it absorbed came from the life forms killed by its poison.

  Naturally, weak forest creatures like centipedes, lizards, and harmless snakes provided immensely weak life energy when they died to the plague poison. However, as the plague spread through the human kingdom, the life energy that the Spirit of Pestilence obtained immediately started to increase exponentially.

  The strange life planar laws that applied to the Spirit of Pestilence meant that any living being that died to it would increase its power!

  There was no doubt that the Spirit of Pestilence was the one who had benefitted the most from the past month. Greem had also started to develop his own style of combat after the month’s worth of training and fighting. It had been a reasonably beneficial experience for him, as well.

  In comparison to them, Blade Princess Katherine was run-down and ragged!

  Two hundred meters away from Greem’s bonfire, Katherine had also started her own fire. The two of them were squaring off against each other from a distance.