Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  There was no doubt that Remi’s plague was incredibly powerful!

  However, this was a different world, after all. The planar laws here and the manner in which the elementium functioned were all similar but different. Consequently, the infectiousness, lethality, and longevity of the plague viruses were suppressed to various degrees.

  Moreover, the trolls were all robust and resilient individuals. All of them had strong lifeforces and decent magic resistance. Remi’s plague was unable to mutate them into plague creatures.

  In a planar world led by humans, Remi only needed himself. He could easily turn every human he met into a plague servant of his.

  An army born of a single person!

  Remi could even take on an entire plane alone.

  Of course, if all the powerhouses of the plane gathered together, Remi would probably have to pay a heavy price to survive their retaliation. After all, he did not have many combat techniques.

  Thus, the differences in the plane’s system of laws and the power neutered Remi’s terrifying, potentially apocalyptic plague. It turned his plague into a mere ‘disease’ that could only slowly wear down the trolls’ lifeforce!

  The lethality of the plague was pathetic, but it did succeed in weakening the troll army.

  The troll army had already stopped all plans of searching for the invaders. They gathered together and tried their best to save their infected companions. With the voodoo doctor’s aid, the sickness of the patients was soon under control. There were no signs that groups of trolls were turning into plague monsters.

  The positions in the battle had suddenly reversed.

  The troll army, despite their absolute numerical advantage, had become the defenders. Meanwhile, the agile and mobile vampires led by two Third Grades became the ones on the offense.

  Every night, Mary took advantage of the cover of darkness to assault the troll camps with her vampires. She hoped to break through the defensive line to execute the voodoo doctors.

  However, the trolls held firm.

  They set up simple camps on the outside and lit bonfires all over, setting defensive points around the fires. Any individual that appeared within their sight would be greeted with a hail of javelins.

  The trolls were not weak at all, individually. In fact, they could compare to natives of mid-sized planes while they were fighting in forests. They all had the might of a First Grade, with strong bodies, resilient lifeforces, and close combat technique that could rival a First Grade body-refining adept.

  In close combat, they used their strange wooden spears that were as heavy as steel as well as their poisoned darts. In mid to long-ranged fights, they threw their heavy javelins with lethal precision. Overall, the trolls of Seawoods Plane had excellent potential as warriors.

  Should they conquer this plane, the Crimson Clan would come into possession of a fairly powerful army of slaves!

  …………

  Nightfall.

  The entire forest fell into an unusual silence.

  The wind blew, and the branches creaked. The river waters lapped against the shore, over and over.

  Who knew how many people were silently moving, hiding, and watching beneath this calm.

  A large, bright bonfire had been lit on the outskirt of the troll camp.

  At the moment, a troll commander of beginner Third Grade stood alone between two bonfires. He shouted furiously into the dark forest.

  A row of wooden javelins was stuck into the ground in front of him, while five large metal darts rattled on his waist.

  In the distant darkness, Mary hid in the thick canopy of an ancient tree. She looked through the swaying branches and examined this bold troll commander. Finally, she couldn’t help but say, “Who knows what that bastard is yelling about?”

  Upon arriving in a foreign plane, finding a planar native and taking their knowledge and memory to understand the plane’s basic situation was standard procedure for an adept. It was something that every qualified adept should be able to do.

  Extracting memory fragments and language was a common magical technique in the adept’s system!

  Unfortunately, Mary seemed to have no intention of learning the crude and primitive language of these natives.

  To Mary, the troll commander, covered all over with red and green paint, appeared no different from a gorilla beating his chest when he shouted into the forest.

  Intelligent life.

  Hmph! Them?

  “Master, this troll seems to be issuing a challenge for glory.” Vanlier, who was promoted to Second Grade by Mary’s grace, explained by her side.

  “Challenge for glory?”

  “It’s an unusual rule in the Holy Edicts of the troll empire. Any troll noble has the right to issue a challenge for glory at their opponent. This challenge is limited to the two people involved. No one else is to intervene or be seen as challenging the authority of the Feathered God.”

  “Oh.” Mary was somewhat interested when she heard this. “How is victory decided?”

  “The victor takes all, and the loser becomes the servant of the opponent!”

  “Seems like this troll empire is a society of the survival of the fittest. The ones who can stand on top are undoubtedly the most powerful individuals of their group. They like deciding positions of authority through martial power. No wonder their knowledge system is so pathetic!”

  “Indeed, master! Seawoods Plane only has primitive and crude hunting techniques. Not even large-scale farming or breeding techniques have been invented. No wonder they are unable to reach the heights that an empire civilization should have achieved. Master, seeing as there’s a Third Grade troll here, should we go elsewhere and see if we can break through there instead?”

  Mary’s pretty, long eyes narrowed slightly, as if she was considering something.

  Finally, she spoke up.

  “Vanlier, say, if I accept this troll’s challenge, do you think their Feathered God will project its power over?” Mary’s eyes had narrowed into a single slit as she said this. Terrifying killing intent shone from her eyes.

  “This…master, the trolls rely on a system of faith worship. Seeing that the troll commander’s power is at Third Grade, he is most certainly a renowned individual in their empire. It is almost certain that he will be able to borrow some degree of the Feathered God’s power. It will be difficult to keep the battle within our control if we engage an opponent like this in combat!”

  “So the Feathered God will appear? Hmph! We are gonna cross swords with that pretentious bastard eventually. Rather than fight it in its den, I would rather get to know it here and now. Wait here. I will go and meet that arrogant fool down there!”

  Having said that, Mary leaped and flickered towards the battlefield like a crimson phantom!

  Chapter 1169 - The God Takes the Bait

  The troll commander abruptly fell silent when he saw the enemy appear in response to his challenge.

  Countless violet silhouettes stood in silence in the crude camp fifty meters away. They quietly watched the battlefield with seemingly no intention of backing up their leader.

  The troll commander stood between two bonfires, slowly stretching his body.

  He took off the hide that draped over one of his shoulders and revealed his toned physique and the countless scars that covered his body. He was only wearing short, tight leather pants now. His agile and refined muscles moved as his joints cracked in preparation.

  Apart from the scars that told the glory of his battles, his body was also covered with all sorts of strange, colorful patterns. These were unusual tattoos composed of bright winding lines and mysterious runes.

  When the troll commander moved his body and his muscles trembled, a strange magical power lingered around him. The source of the power appeared to be those peculiar tattoos.

  Compared to the three-meter-tall troll commander, Mary appeared somewhat petite, even though she was 1.8 meters tall.

  Mary appeared between the trees and stepped
lightly on the black earth. She now stood before the troll commander, as elegant and seductive as she had always been.

  The light from the bonfire shone on her, coating her with a layer of golden light.

  She had a thin waist, slender figure, long limbs, and folded wings behind her back. The troll could not see Mary clearly when she walked out of the darkness, but this nearly perfect profile was enough to push any male towards irrationality.

  That said, the troll commander was not an inexperienced rookie unversed in the ways of life. Though Mary’s figure was incredibly seductive, he could sense that the woman walking elegantly towards him was giving off a suffocating blood aura.

  This blood aura was so thick that it almost felt solid, and it was only getting denser the closer she got.

  In the troll commander’s eyes, it was as if the enemy was cloaked in an invisible crimson veil that fluttered in the wind. This unusual sight not only added no beauty to the picture, but actually steeped it with a chilling sensation that went right to the bones.

  If the troll commander had even the slightest intelligence, he would understand that this was energy manifestation!

  For some reason, the troll commander felt his throat run dry, and a chill crept down his spine.

  More crucially, his previously raging and boiling battle will felt like it was freezing over!

  The troll commander shivered. He instantly understood that he had been intimidated by his opponent’s terrifying blood aura. That was why that sensation of helplessness had overcome him, even though it was something that should only ever happen to a rookie.

  “Roar!”

  The troll commander quickly roared at Mary, who was still strolling towards him. He stared furiously at the opponent with his fierce eyes before bending down and pulling up a javelin from the ground. He hurled it at Mary, and the projectile blasted forward like a bolt of lightning.

  His movements were so fast that the javelin had passed through Mary’s heart and disappeared into the depths of the forest while the dirt dislodged by the javelin was still flying through the air.

  “Nice.”

  “Lord Ka’no.”

  Countless cheers soared into the air, mixed with some whistling in between.

  However, the joyous atmosphere was quickly cut short.

  That was because the enemy had disappeared into the winds.

  What the troll commander had just ‘killed’ was no more than an afterimage left on the spot!

  “Hmph! Petty tricks. Come out here!”

  Frustration was written all over the troll commander’s face. He let out a loud grunt and stomped against the ground with his large feet. A visible shockwave rippled outward in every direction.

  Almost instantly, an obscure, crimson figure appeared a dozen meters behind him. Judging by Mary’s position, she had intended to ambush him from his blind spot.

  There was no time to use his javelins at such a close distance. The troll commander reached towards his back and pulled out a spear. Meanwhile, his left hand moved and instantly threw out the metal darts on his waist.

  Mary still had a smile on her face. She casually knocked the darts away with a few swipes from her unusual dagger. Her slender and agile figure quickly circled the troll commander as she dodged his multiple spear thrusts.

  Meanwhile, every time the crimson dagger in her hand flickered, a terrifying wound was left on the troll commander’s body.

  A beatdown. A thorough beatdown!

  The beginner Third Grade troll commander was helpless in front of Mary, the peak Third Grade vampire adept. The fluttering poisoned spear could not even catch up to Mary’s figure, let alone inflict any sort of damage.

  However, the troll commander was not to be looked down upon when he used his full strength.

  The spear in his hand might not be able to catch Mary at all, but as long as he remained on the defensive, he could still pose a tremendous threat to Mary when she approached. Even though his body was all bloody from the cuts Mary inflicted, these wounds were all located on insignificant locations that would not seriously affect him.

  He defended his critical points carefully, giving Mary no chance to attack them at all.

  The troll warriors in the camp could all see that this was a one-sided battle. Their breaths were heavy with anxiety, their eyes were bloodshot, and the wooden spears in their hands creaked from how hard they were gripping.

  Even they were excited and eager to rush into combat. It was only natural that their commander, who was fighting a bloody battle in front of them, had gone berserk.

  However, the massive gulf in power made all of his efforts and courage fruitless.

  If things proceeded down the current path, Mary would be able to exterminate the troll commander easily. The price she would have to pay in exchange was merely some exhaustion to her blood energy and some slight injuries to herself.

  She could quickly recover all this after the battle was over.

  As such, Mary could kill this seemingly powerful troll commander at no loss to herself!

  The reason for this was the tremendous difference in overall power between the two of them.

  This overall power referred not only to their individual grades, but also their bodily attributes, techniques, bloodline talents, and equipment.

  In this regard, the troll commander was far from qualified. Only his combat techniques and bodily attributes could barely be regarded as those of a Third Grade.

  In Mary’s opinion, this troll commander had the Strength of a Second Grade, the Physique of a Third Grade, and the Agility and Spirit of a First Grade. Meanwhile, his techniques were composed solely of close combat attacks.

  These techniques might have been effective against opponents with no supernatural powers. However, against Mary, who possessed extraordinary Agility and unusual blood magic, it was no different than trying to have a boar catch a monkey. The troll commander was led around by the nose and remained helpless in the situation.

  He erupted with his full strength three times and failed to injure Mary at all. On the contrary, he had only made his wounds even more severe. It caused the troll commander to be increasingly insane and wild in his strikes.

  He panted like a clumsy boar chasing after an illusory image. A stinging pain would suddenly appear somewhere on his body, and another gash would be inflicted on him.

  A light cloud of blood energy would linger on the wounds inflicted by Stinger.

  Even with a troll’s impressive regenerative abilities, these wounds would not heal by themselves if they didn’t dispel the foreign energy first.

  After thirty minutes of fighting, the troll commander had only managed to leave a light cut on Mary by using all of his power in a single instant. Meanwhile, he was already covered in blood, making for a horrifying sight.

  The troll commander’s anger was at its limits!

  His blood aura had bubbled to a peak, and even his roars left visible ripples in the air itself.

  Finally, he let out an earthshaking battlecry and pointed his spear at the sky. A ferocious bolt of golden lightning blasted down from above, landing right on the spear’s tip.

  Lightning howled as sparks filled the air.

  The blinding flashes of electricity enveloped the troll commander and activated the strange magical patterns on his body. All the designs lit up at the same moment, illuminating him and making him appear as a terrifying demon god shrouded in destructive, apocalyptic thunder.

  The trolls watching in the camp fell to their knees and prayed with all their being, welcoming the descent of the great will.

  Mary originally had confidence in assaulting the troll commander while he was caught up in this ritual of his.

  However, her body was paralyzed by these wandering currents of golden electricity when she approached. If she had not retreated the moment she realized this, the lightning storm that came after would have inflicted terrifying damage.

  Dammit! Just as she expected, the summoning ritual
couldn’t be interrupted.

  Mary grumbled angrily and backed up a hundred meters away, watching the troll commander’s transformation in silence.

  The golden lightning roamed all over the troll commander’s body. Where it traveled, what remained of the blood energy on his wounds were devoured without a trace. His damaged body was also quickly healing under the effects of the powerful energy. All of the wounds closed and recovered at a visible pace.

  The troll commander’s muscle swelled again, and his bones stretched, turning him from three meters tall to five meters tall. He was like a terrifying demon god clad in lightning armor, with enough might to shake the earth with a single wave of his hand.

  The troll commander lifted his head and roared, releasing the limitless power within his body.

  Once his body had finished transforming, he looked down. His two glowing eyes were fixed on Mary.

  As savage and cruel as Mary was, she couldn’t help but feel her heart tremble when the troll stared at her. The raging battle will in her heart stalled for a brief instant.

  The Feathered God?

  Or just a weak consciousness from the Feathered God?

  As expected of a native totem god from a lower plane. It couldn’t even tell that it had stepped into a trap. Should she say that only the brave or the ignorant were fearless?

  Mary silently mumbled in her mind. An unnoticeable expression of cruelty and amusement finally appeared on her face.

  I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.

  Chapter 1170 - Mary’s Way

  The descent of the mysterious will had obviously changed the troll commander!

  Apart from his wounds being healed one by one, his power had also increased drastically. He’d only had the Strength of a Second Grade, the Physique of a Third Grade, and the Agility and Spirit of a First Grade. Now, all of those had been raised to Third Grade.