Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Plague Arrows, plague clouds, poison shockwaves; all sorts of attacks quickly surrounded the old poison witch from every direction.

  The old witch waved her hand, and invisible poison scattered into the air. Even the wights could not endure the effects of the poison, despite being plague creatures themselves. When the toxin infected their scrawny bodies, they quickly rotted into slime and were reduced into a pool of noxious and pungent water.

  Ordinary plague creatures could only pester the old witch. They had no chance of killing her!

  Only a Third Grade could deal with a Third Grade.

  Remin commanded the plague beast beneath him to charge forward. They quickly arrived within a hundred meters of the witch while she was busy dealing with the wights. He then blew an invisible gust of poison in her direction.

  Even with her resistance to poison and toxins, Guinevere couldn’t help but shiver in terror when the poison reached her. A sharp, stinging pain immediately came from every one of her internal organs, as if extremely tiny poison insects were furiously eating away at her body.

  “Damned brat! You’re digging your own grave.” The old witch screeched wildly as purple blood came streaking out from her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. With the temporary increase in Spirit from her shout, a surge of invisible poison also started to spread throughout Remi’s body.

  When it came to poison magic alone, Remi was most assuredly inferior to the witch, having only advanced a while ago.

  However, Remi also let out a berserk howl in the face of the old witch’s self-destructive attacks.

  As he screamed, many of the poison zombies rushing onto the battlefield collapsed on the spot. Remi had mercilessly taken away the trace of plague essence in their cores.

  With the replenishment of these plague essences, Remi barely managed to endure Guinevere’s unusual poison spell. He then furiously injected even more plague seeds into the witch’s body.

  The two masters of poison screamed at each other and began to tear away at their opponents viciously!

  Chapter 986 - Dead End

  A deafening roar rang throughout the skies!

  Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms beat his wings and soared through the air with the arrogance of an emperor descending upon his empire, bending slightly to look at the shadow cutting through the forest.

  His emerald eyes were fixed upon the figure hastily fleeing into the distance.

  Natagu had long since exhausted his bloodline power after the grueling and bloody battle at the volcano. He had been forced out of his serpent form and had reverted to an ordinary human. It also unavoidably reduced his Physique slightly.

  Consequently, the wounds and pain that he could endure as a serpent became even more unbearable as a human!

  Natagu quickly flew over the trees, still coughing up blood as he did so.

  Purple-black blood wouldn’t stop flowing out of his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. His face was twisted in a vicious look, and his overall appearance could not be any more terrible. However, he could not be bothered about his image at the moment. All of his attention was focused on escaping the pursuit of the enemy behind him.

  The damage to his origin powers was extremely severe, but the legendary fire adept chasing after him was not much better.

  However, the fact that he had a Third Grade dragon as a mount already placed him in an extremely advantageous position in this chase. Even though Natagu knew that it was near impossible to escape the pursuit of a Third Grade dragon, his almost collapsed body and utterly exhausted Spirit gave him no courage to turn and fight the enemy.

  Godammit! It was just an interplanar bounty commission he had taken on! He would be suffering tremendous losses if he failed the mission, but that was better than losing his life here.

  He was severely injured, and so was the fire adept.

  Natagu’s wished for nothing other than for the fire adept to succumb to his injuries first and call off the pursuit to treat his wounds. It was this ‘humble’ wish that kept Natagu fleeing with all he had, all while drinking as many potions as he could.

  Unfortunately, as a bloodline adept whose primary ability was serpent transformation, Agility was not Natagu’s strong suit!

  The Third Grade thunder dragon’s lithe and majestic figure finally managed to catch up and loomed above him. Despair slowly crept into Natagu’s heart.

  Arms let out a long roar before lowering his head and releasing several dragon breaths down on Natagu. In doing so, Natagu was forced to move about in the air and dodge.

  With every dragon breath, Natagu had to make a sharp turn in the air, changing trajectories to evade the violent lightning by a hair’s breadth. The blue sea of lightning landed on the forest below, turning into a savage lightning storm that disintegrated all substances within its radius into a fine dust.

  Only some of the tougher and thicker trees that had lived for thousands of years could endure the violent lightning and remain standing after the destruction. However, their bark and leaves had all vanished without a trace, leaving only a smoldering trunk slowly burning from the flames created by the electricity.

  If Natagu were still at his peak, he might have dared to transform into the Black Mamba to face the thunder dragon head-on. However, his body was now in tatters, his Spirit was drained, and his bloodline powers were exhausted to the very last drop.

  Without his transformation, Natagu did not have the courage nor confidence to continue fighting against this prideful dragon. Even as he was being toyed with by breath after breath of humiliating lightning, Natagu still refused to turn and fight against the enemy.

  He simply didn’t have the strength!

  Unfortunately, though he wanted to avoid fighting now, the opponent clearly wouldn’t agree to that.

  Having consumed Life Stock Solution and Spirit Recovery Potion, Greem’s wounds were far less severe than Natagu’s. Yet, even with the use of these two incredibly effective potions, Greem could only barely keep his wounds from worsening. Healing the damage was exceedingly difficult in his current conditions.

  During the three hours of brutal fighting, he had essentially endured the violent attacks of two other adepts, all while fighting against the serpent. Though the unique environment of the volcano weakened much of the poison witch’s and the psionic’s might, three hours of constant attacks had still inflicted horrifying physical damage on Greem.

  If it weren’t for the great Physique of the Flame Fiend of Terror, along with the excellent physical defense and magical resistance, he would probably have been reduced to mincemeat by now.

  The more severe the damage he had suffered, the greater the anger that burned in Greem’s heart.

  In the past, he might have given up on pursuing the enemy if only to treat his wounds fifteen minutes quicker. However, he had made up his mind today. At every possible cost, barring his own life, he had to make these enemies who had trapped him for so many years pay with their lives!

  Blade Princess Katherine was still trapped underground, fighting with the elementium magical machine. She had no chance of winning.

  Cindral was chasing the psionic. As long as he didn’t go easy, he was very likely to capture her.

  Meanwhile, Remi was lying in wait where the old witch was headed. She would probably be caught in a terrible position as well. That said, even Greem had no idea how powerful Remi had grown since his advancement. He couldn’t be sure if Remi could capture the old witch.

  However, Greem was confident that Serpentine Adept Natagu was dead!

  When Greem joined in the battle from behind Arms, Natagu could no longer defend himself. He failed to dodge in time and was engulfed by a Vicious Fireball. By the time he escaped from the cluster of flames, screeching and hissing, half of his body had been burned black.

  “Greem, don’t you dare push me to the edge.” Even in the face of death, Natagu could not change his vicious and confrontational personality. He hissed and threatened, “Are you sure you can endure my final counterat
tack if you were to force me into a corner?”

  The only reply he got was another two Vicious Fireballs.

  Now that his bloodline powers had been exhausted, Natagu could no longer transform into a Black Mamba. He could only hastily erect an elementium barrier and shield himself from the explosion’s violent shockwave.

  The waves of fire engulfed the forest, turning the green vegetation and proud trees into black coal. Natagu stumbled backward, no longer as arrogant and prideful as he once was.

  “Heirimogongs. Void Poison Fang!” Natagu had a vicious expression on his face as he raised his right hand and shouted.

  A snake’s eye ring on his right little finger suddenly glowed with blinding light. The light pierced through the radiant fire and shot towards Greem. At the same time, Natagu opened his mouth and spat out a poison ball the size of an egg, which he silently fired toward Greem and the thunder dragon.

  After firing this poison ball, Natagu’s energy aura abruptly fell to half of what it used to be. He couldn’t even be bothered to see the effects of his attack and instead stumbled away into the forest.

  Even with his physical and spiritual condition below the warning line, Natagu’s robust Physique as a Third Grade bloodline adept still allowed him to sprint through the forest with the speed of a jaguar.

  As he fled into the woods, Natagu continued to look back for his enemies. In his moment of carelessness, he tripped on a vine and crashed into an ancient tree. He pulled himself together and picked himself up by leaning on a tree trunk before continuing to escape as far as he could.

  No one noticed that at the moment he grabbed the trunk to stand up, his left little finger fell off. The finger turned into an arrow and silently pierced into the trunk of the tree.

  Yet, Natagu continued to stumble into the forest as if nothing had happened.

  Flames erupted in the clearing of the forest, and Greem coughed as he walked out from the fire, just in time to intercept Natagu.

  After a short and brief exchange of attacks, Natagu let out a wild scream, his eyes filled with blood. A fearsome halo of poison erupted outwards. To enhance the lethality of the poison halo as much as possible, Natagu even sacrificed his blood essence.

  As the sickly green halo spread through the forest, all substances within one square kilometer, be they plant or animal, were reduced to a radioactive glowing green liquid the instant they came into contact.

  Even with the Burning Domain to protect himself, the poison halo still managed to invade into the space around Greem. The dark red flames became sickly green as the poison advanced.

  Greem let out a subtle grunt. He then used Sodden’s Holy Ring to quickly convert the powers of fire around him into holy power, setting up several layers of defense. It was only through the Purification powers of the holy light that he managed to defend himself against the poison.

  After surviving the attack, Greem stood up straight and looked around him. He couldn’t help but be horrified.

  Natagu had completely and utterly vanished. That terrifying poison had melted his body, soul, and his equipment. Meanwhile, all the plants within a square kilometer had turned into a bright green poison liquid, including the towering trees, vines, and bushes that covered on the ground. The entire area had been turned into a land of poison void of life.

  Natagu self-destructed?

  What a ruthless man!

  Greem couldn’t help but exclaim, even as he was shielded by layers of holy light.

  However, just as he was shouting at the death of a Third Grade adept, a statistic projected by the Chip attracted his attention.

  [……Soul Completeness 63%……]

  Hm? What was this?

  The Chip had estimated the completeness of Natagu’s soul based on that one attack he had unleashed before his death. It was only 63%. That was odd!

  Without the Chip’s data, Greem might have been stunned by Natagu’s decisiveness and ignored the oddities of his death. Given his personality and way of doing things, was Natagu the kind of warrior to sacrifice his own life to take down the enemy?

  Given Greem’s observations over the past few years, Natagu was not only not a warrior, but an extraordinarily sly and wily adept with plenty of schemes and plots. If he genuinely had to die, Greem was certain that he would rather get on his knees and beg for mercy than commit suicide.

  Given that to be the case, Natagu’s self-destruction now felt like more of a trick to hide the incompleteness of his soul.

  Greem lifted his head and looked at the path where Natagu had traveled. A cold and dangerous light gleamed in his eyes.

  Hmph! A 37% soul completeness was more than enough for a full revival when used with specific secret techniques!

  Chapter 987 - Falling One By One

  Greem casually strolled through the forest.

  With the powerful memory of the Chip, he could perfectly retrace the path that Natagu had taken. Blue light flickered in his black eyes as all sorts of special vision functions activated, helping him scan and sense every inch of ground he was covering.

  Up to the dense canopy of the ancient trees, and down to the clearing where the vines and brambles grew abundant: no unusual activity within ten meters of Greem could escape his powerful spiritual senses.

  Finally, Greem stopped in front of the place where Natagu had tripped. He stared at the tall tree there. Both Elementium Sight and the Chip’s energy scans revealed a high-energy substance no more than ten centimeters in length within the trunk of the ancient tree.

  “Natagu, if you really want to escape with your life next time, remember not to keep your storage ring with you.” Greem coldly said as he stood alone in the forest.

  The clearing was empty save for himself, and it wasn’t clear who he was speaking to.

  A cool breeze brushed through the area, causing the leaves to shuffle and move. No one stood out to answer his question.

  “Hmph! You still haven’t given up at this point? Then I will make you show yourself!”

  Crimson light flashed in Greem’s eyes. Two terrifying Solar Rays quickly sliced through the tree, leaving two fine red lines in the trunk.

  The tree trembled before slowly falling in a loud rumbling noise, leaving a smooth stump wide enough that it required three people to encircle it fully. A human’s finger wearing a strange ring was revealed in the center of the tree’s core, slowly crawling on the wood.

  Perhaps understanding that its attempts to save itself and escape had been seen through, the finger no longer concealed itself. It slowly transformed into Natagu’s appearance during a strange transformation process. However, Natagu was no more than ten centimeters in height at the moment. He was a miniature version of himself. Moreover, he was not wearing anything and could only hold up the ring around his waist to cover himself. It was a hilarious sight to behold.

  “Lord Greem…Lord Greem, as long as you let me go, I am willing to gift you with all my wealth and knowledge.” The miniature person screamed with all his strength. His voice was low, but Greem could hear him clearly.

  He looked at the storage ring, large enough relative to Natagu to be a hula-hoop, and put on a malicious smile, “All of your resources and your collection are kept within the ring, aren’t they? It will be mine once I kill you. There doesn’t seem to be a need for you to gift it to me!”

  “No, no, no…my lord, those are only ordinary resources. I have even more resources hidden in the Outlands. As long as you let me go, I will give them all to you. Moreover, if you must kill me, I will let this last bit of my soul self-destruct. Don’t hope to get anything from my mind.” Natagu screamed with all his strength, as if trying to present himself to be fearless of death, yet also trying to be careful not to infuriate Greem.

  “Your offer is not enough. You are a Third Grade bloodline adept, after all. What you are offering is most definitely not enough to pay for your life!”

  “My lord, my lord. I have a temporary interplanar teleportation in my ring. You won’t be
troubled about leaving this damned plane once you have it!” Natagu tried his best to demonstrate his value.

  “Still not enough.” Greem was still shaking his head.

  “Then…Lord Greem, this humble one is willing to serve you! As long as you don’t kill me, I can sign a contract of servitude with you and become your Third Grade servant. My lord, a Third Grade would act as your subordinate. That…should be able to satisfy you now, should it not?” Natagu was practically prostrating himself and begging like a slave to save his life now.

  “Contract of servitude? Third Grade servant?” Greem couldn’t help but fall silent, seemingly moved by the offer.

  “Yes, yes. This humble one will release all the defenses around his soul for you to leave your soul brand within. My lord will no longer suspect this humble one’s intentions anymore, will you?” Having said that, Natagu released all the defenses and restrictions around his soul without hesitation.

  Greem could sense that his soul was truly fully open to him now.

  He could leave his unique soul brand within as long as he wanted. When that happened, Natagu’s very life and death would be in his hands, and Natagu would have to listen to his every word, never daring to be even slightly disobedient.

  Greem chuckled.

  “Hmph! Natagu, when you were chasing me across the world, did you people ever imagined that this day would come? I have never provoked you, yet you came to hunt me, traveling billions of kilometers from the Outlands to take my life. Yet now, you have become my captive prisoner. Say, aren’t you just worthless?”

  “Worthless, yes, worthless, incredibly worthless. This humble one is the epitome of worthlessness! This one should never have believed the words of that old witch and come to this damned place to find trouble with your magnificence. Otherwise, this one would never have ended in such a terrible position. It is all because this humble one is a terrible judge of people. All because this one has horrible luck. It is no fault of my lord at all!” It seemed like Natagu was willing to abandon all dignity to survive.