Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The damage to her mechanical parts could be repaired through mechanical magic, but the losses to her flesh tissues would have to be compensated through the consumption of food!

  Katherine had no choice but to unleash her ace technique, Bladestorm, to escape from Greem and the flaming tiger’s combined attack back in Hakans! It had undoubtedly made her wounds even more severe.

  That was why she had fallen into an eating frenzy after escaping Hakans and running all the way here.

  Just as she managed to stabilize her wounds and prevent them from worsening, a strange beeping sound came from her waist.

  Katherine’s expression froze. After resentfully hurling her half-eaten bear’s palm aside, she reached down and took out a black, fist-sized crystal.

  Katherine threw the black crystal into the air, and two red beams shot out of her eyes onto it. The strange gem immediately started spinning in mid-air.

  The cave that had been illuminated red from the bonfire silently turned a dark black as if the curtain of night had swept over the light itself. Everything around Katherine vanished without a trace, leaving only a phantasmal silhouette.

  “How…is the…job going?” Like a recording with faltering energy, the message from the black outline stuttered, seemingly disrupted heavily by something.

  “My lady, Witch of Fate, you found me a real good assignment,” Katherine laughed coldly and sinisterly, “The information you prepared for me only mentioned that he was a Third Grade elementium adept that had just advanced. It made no mention of a powerful Third Grade golem by his side, along with a Third Grade fire creature that could be summoned from another plane. Did you intend to send me to my grave against someone of such power?”

  Katherine had fled too early during the battle of Hakans and had not seen Third Grade Thunder Dragons Arms appear. Otherwise, she would only be several times more furious than she currently was.

  As a mechanical adept that excelled at melee combat, she did indeed have over an eighty percent chance of defeating an elementium adept of the same grade. However, that was only under ordinary circumstances. If she had known that the opponent could easily summon multiple Third Grade helpers, Katherine would never have come to this rural, piece-of-shit land to kill herself, regardless of what the Witch of Fate had promised her.

  That was why all of Katherine’s resentment and anger that had been accumulating over the past few days erupted when she finally met the person behind all this!

  Perhaps infuriated by Katherine’s rebellious attitude, a look of anger shot out of the eyes of the silhouette in the darkness. A faint mental message then flowed into Katherine’s mind.

  “Katherine, I won’t be talking nonsense with you. I’m exhausting Fate power to cut off that little bitch’s disruption to communicate with you. Time is precious. Your ineptitude has disappointed me greatly. A veteran adept that has advanced for over three hundred years, and yet you still can’t beat a brat that has only advanced for thirty years?”

  “How can you blame me for this? It is clearly a problem with the information you provided me. That brat can easily summon two to three helpers of the same grade at will. How am I supposed to fight with him?”

  “Hmph! I have investigated the situation you speak of. That brat is truly somewhat strange. Even my sense for Fate doesn’t allow me to see through him. As such, the prior plan must be changed. Immediately guide Natagu and the two others into Henvic Plane. The mission to hunt down that brat will be taken over by the three of them. Meanwhile, you will immediately go and kill that witch carrying the core for the long-ranged interplanar teleportation array. You must not let her deliver the core to the witch’s tower.”

  “You…intend to trap that male adept in this plane?” Katherine hesitated before she spoke, “Then how are we supposed to return after the mission is completed?”

  “Hmph! That’s not for you to worry about!” The black shadow spoke coldly, “I will have Natagu bring a temporary interplanar teleportation array with him. It should be enough for the four of you to successfully return!”

  Katherine thought for a moment and found no issues with the plan. Thus, she agreed.

  Rather than find a new location, it was better to make do with the current one. Katherine immediately started carving a ten-meter-wide array inside the cave.

  Katherine shouldn’t have had access to such advanced high-grade teleportation knowledge with what she knew. However, there was currently a Witch of Fate at the Great Adept level guiding her inside her mind.

  Even so, it took more than half a day for Katherine to carve the foundations of the teleportation array into the ground.

  A proper teleportation array should be carved in an area filled with energy. The land would have to be hardened and flattened before a standard teleportation array was carved out with professional workmanship. There were over ten thousand magical runes and lines that had to be drawn during this process, with no deviation or mistake in the angle or positions of the carvings.

  Any slight mistake would cause the teleportation array to fail, and the individuals that were teleporting would be lost in some unknown and mysterious land.

  This cave clearly could not reach any of these conditions. Katherine was no professional array master, either. This teleportation array she had carved was as crude as it could get. If anyone dared to attempt interplanar teleportation with such an array, they would not even know how they died.

  However, there was no helping the fact that a powerful Witch of Fate backed Katherine. Just by exhausting a ‘little’ of her powers of Fate, this teleportation array with less than a seven percent success rate successfully transported the three adepts.

  Milky-white light faded from the cave as dust and smoke landed on the three powerful adepts that had just arrived.

  To prevent their elementium shields from disrupting the precision of the teleportation, the three adepts had not employed any defensive spells. They had endured the entire process with their tough physical bodies alone.

  However, not a single one of them expected the point of teleportation to be a crude cave with a bonfire, rather than a broad platform or a secure teleportation room.

  To lessen the burden of the teleportation array, the Great Adept in Katherine’s mind had even canceled the magical protections around it. As such, the whirlwind from the spatial flux blew all the dust and smoke into the air, causing the three recovering Third Grade adepts to be ambushed by unpleasantness the moment they appeared.

  The three adepts walked out of the array, coughing and covered in dust.

  “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Katherine, you bastard! Can’t you just lay down a defensive array? Who does things like this?” The adept in the lead immediately started roaring at Katherine furiously the moment he walked out of the array.

  Chapter 959 - The Unfortunate Katherine

  “Hmph! You people must have laughed at me plenty before you arrived! This is just my response to that.”

  Katherine was clearly acquainted with the three adepts and immediately replied.

  Two of the new adepts were female, while the last one was a male.

  The leader was the male adept, dressed in a long purple robe, and possessing a snake’s head instead of a human’s head. A snake’s tongue could be seen flicking from his mouth as he spoke, though the hissing made it difficult to understand him. A pair of strange green eyes with reptilian pupils gleamed coldly on his head, making for an intimidating sight.

  He was a serpentine adept whose origin bloodline had manifested.

  Of the other two women, one had a head full of white hair, a face full of wrinkles and spots, and wore a black robe. She leaned against a pitch-black wooden stick even taller than herself, her back almost bent at a right angle. The other woman appeared cute and pretty. She was dressed in an exceedingly seductive manner, and a purple crystal was embedded in her forehead. Her every move and action carried with them a distinctive charm.

  The three adepts violently coughed as they emerged f
rom the smoke and dust. Regardless of how they had looked like before, their faces were now all black and their bodies coated in dust and soot.

  “Katherine, you bastard, you dirtied my face.” The pretty witch valued her looks tremendously. As such, she was far more furious that her two companions.

  As she shouted, a shapeless wave radiated from the purple crystal on her forehead, causing the other three adepts to become somewhat absent-minded. At this moment, every smile, chuckle, frown, and wrinkle on this young witch’s face tugged at their heartstrings and teased their minds.

  Even dying at this very moment would be worth it if they could win her fancy and time!

  However, this instant of wavering in their minds only lasted for a single second. Katherine let out a cold snort and extended her arms. Two sharp metal spikes appeared in her palms.

  “Benija, you whore. Use your spiritual magic on me again, and I will kill you.”

  The young witch known as Benija smiled faintly as layers of thin yet firm telekinetic barriers shimmered out of her purple crystal and protected her.

  “Kill me? Come on then; we will see who will be the one doing the killing!”

  The other old witch cackled sinisterly and shuffled to a side without making a sound, as if expressing her neutral stance.

  The serpentine adept stepped forward between Katherine and the young witch as a barbaric and chilling aura abruptly gathering around him. A terrifying eight-meter-long serpent with indigo scales manifested above his head as his origin bloodline stimulated his magical energy.

  “Enough! Put away your magic and spells! Don’t forget. We are not here to fight amongst ourselves, but to complete the mission that the Lady has assigned us. No one is to strike out against a companion before the mission is complete. Otherwise…”

  One had to admit that the power of a bloodline adept was something that other adepts could not hope to compare to.

  Disregarding everything else, just his ability of manifestation allowed him to suppress all the other adepts with his terrifying serpentine true form. Judging from the energy aura he radiated, he wasn’t far from peak Third Grade.

  The old and ugly witch known as Guinevere was an expert at poison and an intermediate Third Grade adept. The young and pretty one was called Benija, skilled at spiritual magic and also an intermediate Third Grade.

  If a party like theirs could cooperate seamlessly, then they would be able to unleash unimaginable power against their enemies!

  However, as was their nature, every adept was selfish, sly, and cruel. To have them abandon all their prejudices to work together with all they had was no more than a pipe dream!

  The three adepts were enduring fearsome planar suppression from their initial arrival at Henvic Plane. As such, they were in no hurry to move. Instead, they gathered together to listen to Katherine’s describe her experiences over the past month and the basic situation of their target.

  The three adepts had initially been somewhat doubtful about Katherine’s description of the young fire adept. They felt as if she was exaggerating the opponent’s might to downplay her own carelessness in her defeat. However, their eyes filled with shock and terror when they saw the burn marks still left on Katherine’s body.

  A brat that had just advanced twenty to thirty years ago could beat Katherine so severely?

  A powerful Third Grade elementium magical machine. What was that? A new metal golem created by the Silver Union?

  A Third Grade flaming tiger summoned from the Fire Elementium Plane; that was much more likely. After all, fire adepts had an incredibly easy time in the Fire Elementium Plane. Conquering a small piece of land there and befriending some Fire Lords was well within the imagination.

  However, fire summons like these typically didn’t last too long. Moreover, all of these adepts had prepared Scrolls of Banishment. These scrolls were most effective against such otherworldly summons.

  Meanwhile, the old poison hag, Guinevere, developed an interest in the Spirit of Pestilence that Katherine described as the magical pet of the fire adept. She somewhat suspected that the Spirit of Pestilence was likely the initial form of some powerful Soul Equipment.

  If they could imprison the fire adept and find a way to peel the Spirit of Pestilence from his soul instead of killing him immediately, she might have a chance to research or experience the mysteries of Soul Equipment.

  It was important to note that Soul Equipment was extremely rare and valuable even for high-grade adepts. In particular, Soul Equipment that perfectly suited one’s soul origin and elementium talent was something that could only come with tremendous luck.

  Guinevere’s old and withered heart couldn’t help but start beating furiously again upon hearing of their target possessing a poison-attribute Soul Equipment.

  Benija, who possessed Innate Charm, paid most of her attention to Katherine’s description of the young male adept’s appearance. Benija felt her entire body turn hot at the very thought of her enemy being a young, handsome, and powerful male adept. Her body couldn’t help but shiver and tremble.

  She pinched her legs together and couldn’t help but start rubbing them together slightly. Lust spilled out of her eyes, scorching like fire as if she couldn’t wait to seduce the enemy.

  Benija might have looked like a lusty woman on the outside, but she was, in truth, a classic poison widow with a dark, dark heart. She liked seducing and charming powerful male adepts before planting a spirit seed in their mental consciousness once she ensnared them.

  Thus, the Spirit that the adept had so painstakingly obtained through meditation would be transferred to Benija.

  Spirit that had been taken by Benija in this manner would never be able to be restored through sleep or meditation. The unfortunate victims would suffer a permanent decrease to their Spirit limit.

  After a simple report, Katherine left the cave without any hesitation.

  After leaving the task of hunting Greem to the three new adepts, she only had to deal with a Second Grade witch. This simple and easy task couldn’t make her any happier. Katherine was also secretly imagining the scene that would play out when her three companions ran into Greem.

  If the three idiots ended up being as arrogant as she had been when she arrived, then they would be in for a surprise and a brutal beating. If, just hypothetically, that bitch Benija died on the battlefield, it would be the most pleasant thing for her.

  Katherine continued to move toward the southwest of the Zambez Empire according to the Lady’s instructions, even as all sorts of thoughts ran through her mind. The disruption of Fate meant that even the Lady could not find Witch Rena’s exact location. However, she could still obtain a vague position and prevent Katherine from running all over the Zambez Empire without a lead.

  Rena might not be powerful, but she was a Witch of Deceit after all. If she hid, Katherine had no confidence in finding her in a crowd, even if she was an entire grade above her.

  However, with the Lady’s continuous guidance, finding this witch was not a difficult matter at all!

  That was why Katherine was extremely relaxed now.

  Yet, just after she crossed a stream with a smile on her face and traveled through a broad and empty area, she stopped before a cliff.

  The trees nearby trembled as an army of knights in simple armor ran into her as they cleared the path with their swords.

  Holy knights. Why did she run into a group of holy knights here?

  The corner of Katherine’s mouth twitched. Was this damned streak of misfortune not over yet?

  “Witch.”

  “She’s a witch.”

  Katherine’s strange appearance could not be concealed. Thus, the knowledgeable holy knights immediately recognized her identity.

  Enemies with a grudge tended to clash violently upon meeting!

  The holy knights raised their swords and shields, surrounding Katherine in a fan-shaped formation.

  Katherine also gripped the metal spikes in her hands tightly, a wicked
smile crossing her face. A cold, starving gleam of slaughter shone in her crimson mechanical eye.

  In a single scan, she detected that this group of thirty to forty knights consisted only of weaklings. The most powerful of them were two Silver Knights, while the rest were only Iron Knights. Knights like these were cannon fodder in her eyes to easily slaughter and dispose of.

  She had lost many of her metal blades in Hakans and suffered tremendous damage. However, sweeping aside such fodder was still no problem. More crucially, the humiliation and anger she had been bottling up from her encounter with the male adept could finally be released through this slaughter.

  However, just as Katherine prepared to fight, the bushes behind the holy knights split apart, and another holy knight walked forth.

  Katherine’s crimson eye swept over him, and she immediately bent over in pain from the blinding radiance. Her mechanical heart started beating intensely.

  Dammit! It’s a Fourth Grade!

  Chapter 960 - Third Grade Spirit

  There was a cave that used to be dark and damp.

  However, after some simple modifications, Greem turned it into a simple, yet comfortable, underground home.

  Since leaving Hakans, Greem had found a safe place nearby. He then had the stone serpent dig thirty meters downward before excavating a crude fifty-meter-square cave.

  The humidity underground was no problem. A simple barrier of heat turned the damp dirt into hardened earth. Greem then placed an illumination stone in the ceiling and imbued it with magical energy, making the cave bright.

  He released the elementium magical machine as a lookout before making a bed of stone in a corner of the cave and lying down to sleep.

  It had been twenty-seven days since he broke into the Henvic Plane. Greem had not had any proper sleep over the past month due to the constant harassment of that annoying Blade Princess. Even deep meditations were rare. Though he was a Third Grade adept and his body was as tough as most magical creatures, spiritual exhaustion was still unavoidable.