An elementium magical machine like this might still be able to crush and overwhelm Second Grade Silver Knights, but its advantage would be much less distinct when fighting against a Third Grade knight.
As the elementium magical machine combined too many unique systems of the elementium golems and the magical machines, repairing it was much harder than repairing an ordinary magical machine. Greem could only accomplish such as task with the help of the specialized alchemy lab in Fire Throne. Greem’s only recourse now was to try and find some ordinary metals to repair the more obvious wounds on the elementium magical machine’s body.
The elementium magical machine was soon mended with a ‘patchwork’ of various colors. Though its defenses had improved slightly, it was still far from its peak condition.
After half a day of banging and knocking, Greem finally managed to patch up all the more glaring holes in the elementium magical machine. Its Physique had increased from 31 points to 34 points, but it was still a far cry from its original 39 points of Physique.
Greem waved his hand and had the elementium magical machine stand-by at the entrance of the cave. He then carefully took out the Third Grade storage rings he had looted and started to appreciate their beauty and contents.
It was important to note that most adepts would not bring all of their rare resources and wealth with them while crossing planes on their adventures. Still, Greem was very confident in the bounty he would find within these Third Grade storage rings. The reason was straightforward. They were the rings that Third Grade adepts kept with them at all times after all.
As Natagu and Benija were both dead, the soul brand they had left on their rings had dispersed on their own. Greem managed to decipher the password set upon them with the help of the Chip in no time at all.
All adept storage rings were protected by the double verification of a magical password and a personal soul brand. Access would be denied if any of these verifications were to fail. Now that the spirit brands had dispersed, Greem only required the magical passwords to unlock them.
The first ring he examined belonged to Natagu.
As Greem probed into the ring with his Spirit, the Chip quickly projected a list of items in his mind with its powerful scanning abilities.
There were: 32,000 magical crystals, 104 magical gemstones of various types and attributes, 3 shed snakeskins, 1,068 snake scales, 17 kilos of Black Mamba poison, 73 Saro fruits, 225 grams of Dreamsource Grass, 12 grams of Solar Flowers, 11 instant-cast magic wands, 53 magical scrolls, 26 vials of magical potions, 1 runic teleportation array, and several pieces of magical equipment.
Apart from all these magical items, there was also an assortment of personal items and life supplies. There were also quite a few unusual magical plants and rare ores that could not be found in the World of Adepts. These things were probably obtained in the space of the realms beyond.
Setting aside the items whose value could not be assessed yet, the Chip estimated the value of the contents of Natagu’s ring to be approximately two to three million.
However, what caught most of Greem’s attention was the one-use teleportation array and the five vials of bloodline potion.
According to the Chip’s scan and analysis, two of the five bloodline potions were bloodline recreation potions, while the other three vials were bloodline purification potions. All of them were bloodline potions that had been specially developed for the Black Mamba serpent bloodline.
With these potions, Greem had the means to create a few bloodline adepts with serpent bloodline within the Crimson Clan. However, there were already several clans with serpentine bloodlines in the Zhentarim area. If a few serpentine adepts were to appear in the Crimson Clan, it was very likely to attract misunderstanding and hostility from these clans.
However, Greem didn’t mind at all!
Meanwhile, the one-use teleportation array was the key to Greem successfully escaping from Henvic Plane. With the runic array, Greem would no longer need to go by his original plan– sneaking into Fire Elementium Plane first and finding a way to lock-on to the coordinates of Fire Throne.
The original plan might have sounded simple, but several hazards and unknown risks lay in the way of its execution. Moreover, Great Witch Maysa also appeared to have a few acquaintances in the Fire Elementium Plane. If she were to hold a precise grasp of his location, the plan of traveling to the Fire Elementium Plane would be a massive risk of its own!
Now that Greem had this one-use teleportation array that had been personally made by Maysa, he only needed to adjust the teleportation coordinates slightly, and he could very quickly return to the World of Adepts. If the Great Witch Maysa were to find out that it was her own doing that had sent Greem back home, she would probably be furious!
Apart from the teleportation array, the bloodline potions, and the odd treasures of the realms beyond, the seemingly ordinary wands and magic scrolls were fairly valuable goods as well. Most of the instant-cast magic wands contained Second and Third Grade spells. These spells almost included every single possible magical element in the World of Adepts.
Even the occasional First Grade wand that Greem found contained extremely practical spells such as Locate Object, Time Reversal, and Dream Enchantress.
One could be used to find an object while another could be used to view the occurrences within an area over the past three hours. The last one could be used to summon a Dream Enchantress to serve oneself.
A Dream Enchantress was a strange creature who had a body of pure Spirit. They were harmless magical creatures who could use their powerful dream-creation abilities to weave a pseudo-realistic dreamspace for their summoner. As such, they were the most frequently summoned magical creatures by all manners of adepts, without contest!
On the other hand, the magical scrolls appeared to be of much worse quality.
That was to be expected. Natagu had already used all of the high-grade magical scrolls during all their battles. The only ones left had to be the ‘defective’ products.
After happily glancing through Natagu’s collection, Greem excitedly placed this storage ring on his finger. The ring’s snake’s eye gem glowed brilliantly. Greem now had four magical rings, almost enough for an entire hand.
He then took a look at Benija’s storage ring.
It was also filled with piles of magical crystals, an assortment of magical gemstones, an equally shocking amount of magical materials and resources, and just as much magical equipment and accessories. However, of all the treasures, the one that caught Greem’s attention was a Second Grade starbeast corpse that was trapped within a piece of strange amber.
A lightbulb went off in Greem’s mind when he saw the starbeast’s corpse. He immediately realized that this was that thing, the thing that had made him willingly take the risk of adventuring here in Henvic!
Greem had the Sourcestealer and could extract innate abilities from the bloodline of certain magical creatures. It was something that only Alice and Mary knew about. Even Great Witch Maysa could not obtain such detailed and private information through the use of her Fate Divination.
Alice had only known through the powers of Fate that she could find the bloodline ability she had always wanted if Greem came to Henvic Plane. However, she had no idea what bloodline ability this would be, nor where it could be found.
That was why Greem had come to this plane despite the tremendous risks; for himself and Alice.
Yet, despite wandering in Henvic Plane for such a long time and traveling to so many different places, he had never heard of any information regarding starbeasts or unusual magical creatures. Just as Greem was starting to fall into despair and believed that Alice’s premonition was only false information released by the enemy as bait, this item appeared in front of him in such a mysterious fashion.
Benija. The psionic adept clearly came from the galaxy of the realms beyond. How exactly did she manage to capture this Second Grade starbeast? And what sort of wondrous ability was hidden within the b
ody of this Second Grade starbeast?
Greem had no clue whatsoever. He could only silently wait until he was back at the tower to analyze the corpse. As for now, Greem grabbed the storage ring and kissed it furiously before solemnly placing it on his right hand.
Greem quickly skimmed through Blade Princess Katherine’s storage ring.
It was just as valuable and filled with treasure, but there was nothing that could catch his attention like the starbeast’s corpse. That said, Greem still found some odd metals in the ring that possessed unique magical traits.
It was apparent that Katherine had been saving these metals to maintain her body and repair its damage.
Chapter 990 - A Wind Rises
The World of Adepts.
Recently, the Crimson Clan’s situation within Zhentarim had begun to grow worse.
A rumor was starting to spread, claiming that the legendary adept who had forged the Crimson Clan had died in a foreign plane. It was said that the leaders of the clan were remaining silent about the news to avoid inciting panic.
These rumors might have seemed entirely baseless, but it had struck a weak spot of the Crimson Clan.
The Crimson Clan had multiple independent factions within. If it hadn’t been for the legendary fire adept suppressing all voices of disapproval with his tremendous personal power and the loyal support of Mary, Alice, Meryl, and several other adepts, no one could have gathered this force of vampires, goblins, dragons, and witches and turned them into a gathering to be feared by the world around them.
With Greem failing to appear in the clan despite the many passing years, and core member Fate Witch Alice starting to seclude herself within her Tower of Fate, the operation of the entire clan fell squarely upon the shoulders of Gargamel and Meryl, two mere First Grade adepts.
Meanwhile, Third Grade Vampire Adept Mary was also the only person left of the clan’s high-grade fighting force.
This, combined with the various unstable situations within and without the clan caused some waves to begin to rise. Both the adepts who had begrudgingly surrendered during the last adept war, and certain ambitious individuals among the goblins, were carefully testing the Crimson Clan’s real strength. They were all trying to find ways to break free of the clan’s control.
During this time, some well-established major adept clans also expressed deep hostility towards the Crimson Clan. They began to suppress and bully members of the Crimson through subtle and overt acts alike.
For a moment, many hostile incidents targeted at the Crimson Clan occurred all across Zhentarim. Goblin merchant groups were chased out of certain territories, and several of the clan’s resource sites were attacked. Despite having conquered nearly eighty percent of the land in the Ailovis Region, the Crimson Clan had no choice but to withdraw their defensive line and shift their forces to the dozen most crucial First Class Resource Sites.
As the de facto leader of the clan, Mary had no choice but to take on the burden of heading the group, as unwilling as she was.
For a moment, the vampire adepts were out and roaming, returning teeth for teeth and blood for blood. They beat back wave after wave of enemies with the most ferocious showing of force, even putting down three incidents of an uprising in the Ailovis Region aimed at overthrowing the Crimson Clan’s rule.
However, the more they killed and the fiercer they fought, the worse the situation for the clan.
All sorts of rumors were spreading about the clan, along with the fires of war. The powerful mastermind behind the scenes appeared determined not to stop until the Crimson Clan had been thoroughly uprooted and crushed.
Mary had no choice but to use her authority as the clan leader to bring the Fourth Grade magical golem dragon from the White Tower to the central region. It would serve as the core fighting force in defense of Ailovis.
That undoubtedly intimidated the mastermind and gave the Crimson Clan a chance to catch a breath.
According to their detailed investigations, the higher-ups of the clan had finally figured the identity of the mastermind plotting to overthrow the Crimson Clan. That person was the current clan leader of the Fabres Clan– Fourth Grade Body Refining Adept Declan Fabres.
In all honesty, most of the higher-ups were shocked and confused when they heard that Declan Fabres was the one plotting against the clan. After all, the Crimson Clan did not possess a genuine Fourth Grade of their own. That was why they had always remained incredibly respectful of these established clans, never fighting with them over territorial benefits.
Yet, now, that Fourth Grade adept had suddenly struck at the Crimson Clan so viciously. It was truly beyond the expectations of the Crimson Clan’s leaders.
While everyone was caught up in confusion, Mary seemed to have vaguely understood something.
Greem’s entrapment in a foreign plane and the current predicament of the clan were very likely both the plot of a single person.
Upon understanding the cause-and-effect of the whole matter, Mary gave up on any thoughts of negotiating with the enemy. Instead, she started a full-force counterattack while fortifying the clan’s worldly territories and resource sites. Under her strong leadership, Bug Adept Billis, Dragonborn Zacha, Goblin Tigule, and the whole host of vampire adepts struck out at their enemies.
If the enemy dared to destroy one worldly territory belonging to the Crimson Clan, they would exterminate all worldly nobles in three of the enemy’s territories. If the enemy dared raid a resource site of the Crimson Clan, they would destroy five resource sites belonging to the enemy.
The Crimson adepts had always been fearless and ruthless fighters. They were like venomous snakes, coiled offensively and retaliating against every single attack, refusing to back down or compromise even if it came at the cost of injuries to themselves.
At the start of the battle, the Fabres Clan had mostly been aggravating and persuading other third party forces to attack and harass the Crimson Clan. However, once all these parties had suffered tremendously in the territories of the Crimson Clan and were intimidated by their show of force, the Fabres Clan finally moved.
As a veteran clan led by a Fourth Grade adept, the Fabres Clan had existed for over three thousand years now. The incredible amount of power and influence they had accumulated over the years was incomparable to the Crimson Clan, which had only established itself less than a hundred years ago.
As the Second and Third Grade adepts of the Fabres joined the fray to fight against the Crimson Clan, the entirety of Zhentarim boiled with commotion.
Every single adept clan and organization cast their attention on the Ailovis Region, silently waiting for a victor to emerge between the two groups. Some discussed the situation amongst themselves, some simply watched, and others pretentiously predicted the outcome of the war.
Still, regardless of how they talked and analyzed, the Crimson Clan was not likely to come out untouched from this war. After all, the enemy was led by a Fourth Grade adept with a force of three dozen Second and Third Grade adepts. They, on the other hand, only had two Third Grade adepts and a flight of unruly Third Grade dragons. The difference in power was too vast. They were hardly even on the same level.
For a moment, all the minor organizations that had been obeying the rule of the Crimson Clan started become treacherous, either joining the enemy’s side or choosing to remain neutral. This further reduced the morale of the Crimson Clan.
Given the basic power of the two clans, some adepts declared that the Crimson Clan would be facing total defeat. At the very best, they could only defend Fire Throne–their headquarters–with the might of the Fourth Grade magical golem dragon. As for their other territories and clan resource sites; they lacked the strength to defend them!
However, the true cause of the Crimson Clan’s disorganization was not the chaos and commotion that was brewing outside. It was the absence of Greem, their legendary clan leader.
The Crimson Clan had always been an adept clan built around Greem’s charisma and power. The
tens of thousands of hearts belonging to the clan had always been tied to Greem alone.
If Greem was present, the clan was present. If Greem was absent, the clan was like a human whose skeleton had been extracted from their body, limp and incapable of any strength.
Be it the brain monster’s faction in Lance or the prideful dragons, everyone refused to listen to Mary’s orders, only obeying on the surface and never genuinely acting accordingly. They never used their full strength to defend the honor and dignity of the clan.
Even the weaker goblin faction had much to say about Mary’s orders. If it weren’t for the vampire faction overpowering them by a long shot, the goblins would probably have seceded from the clan to protect themselves.
Given that case, the only ones who were obedient to Mary were a few of the core adepts, along with her subordinate vampire faction. Defending the vast lands of Ailovis and the many resource sites with such a force was no more than a dream.
Mary had no choice but to shrink the clan’s forces further, abandoning the territories and resource sites on the outskirts. She concentrated what limited military force was within her hands and silently waited for a chance to tear a piece of flesh out of the Fabres.
Her efforts finally bore fruit. The constant retreat of the Crimson Clan finally baited out some valuable targets into the battlefield.
Excited at the prospect of profit, a group of Fabres adepts started a raid against a First Class resource site located near the Raul Wastelands, slaughtering all the Crimson adepts and apprentices keeping watch in that place.
They were led by two Third Grade adepts!
Upon receiving the call for help sent by the clan adepts and apprentices before their deaths, Mary set aside her usual attitude of turning a blind eye. Instead, she gathered the elites of the clan and made a beeline for the resource site.
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