Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Ever since the chaos laws claimed dominion over Inkdeep Valley, the Adept’s Association stopped sending sorties of adepts down there. Instead, they guarded the adept towers that firmly stood at the entrances to the valley, preventing any powerful otherworldly monsters from breaking into Association territory.

  Every day, dozens–even hundreds–of magical creatures crawled out of the valley, attempting to break into the World of Adepts and feast upon its inhabitants. Battles broke out constantly at every single entrance.

  A barrage of magical attacks easily dealt with the more reckless creatures that only knew how to charge forward. The only concern was the enemies with unusual magical abilities.

  They had speed as fast as the wind, capable of breaking through the adept’s defense line of voodoo beast before anyone could respond. Or they had strange stealth abilities that allowed them to brazenly walk past the adepts unnoticed. Some even had the ability of flight and easily bypassed the adept towers.

  Any of these possibilities presented problems for the Adept’s Association. They could only do their best to intercept and hunt down these anomalies to reduce the pressure on the defensive line.

  Of course, no defense line could be absolutely impenetrable!

  That was why the Adept’s Association principle was to prioritize the larger threats. The Third and Fourth Grade monsters were not allowed to leave Inkdeep Valley. As for the innumerable, smaller enemies? They could only turn a blind eye and let them go if they didn’t have the manpower to deal with them.

  The Adept’s Association had a comprehensive and tight regional defense system in every one of their territories anyway. If these invaders showed themselves, the regional adept forces would deal with them.

  The collateral losses and casualties inflicted before these creatures were apprehended were the unavoidable costs of dealing with the magic surge.

  It was a once-in-ten-thousand-year calamity, after all!

  …………

  The forty-eighth day of the magic surge.

  It was an ordinary day, with everything going as usual!

  Saguri sat inside the main control array of War Tower 107, just like any other day, using the numerous arrays around him to monitor all movements from the nearby entrance to Inkdeep Valley.

  Array of Life Detection, Array of Elementium Detection, Array of Heat Detection, Array of Warning, Array of Motion Detection. With over a dozen arrays, the wondrous arrangement continually scanned for motion at the entrance through their own means.

  Suddenly, one of the dozens of arrays flickered with a bright red light.

  “Mm? That’s the Earth Amplitude Detection Array. It should have the longest range of detection,” Saguri looked over and couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “Could something have happened at the bottom of the valley?”

  He pondered the matter to himself as he pressed the third crystal button to his left.

  “Mast, there’s movement at the bottom of the valley. Go check it out with your magical eye!”

  “Understood!”

  The instruction was quickly relayed to a magical room on the third floor of the war tower.

  First Grade Adept Mast hastily got up from his crude bed and stood inside a complicated array drawn on the floor.

  He started chanting, and a magical eye the size of a human head appeared close to War Tower 107. Under his conscious control, the eye slowly cut through the dense mist and flew toward the bottom of the valley.

  The mist parted to either side within view of the magical mirror as the magical eye arrived, revealing the terrifying scenes below.

  The ground was littered with the corpses and remains of all sorts of vicious creatures, forming a bloody carpet that led to the depths of the valley.

  The air was thick with the scent of blood, and the howls of resentful spirits never stopped.

  The magical eye cut through the mist and followed the bloody path downward, silently moving toward the bottom of the valley.

  Initially, the eye’s image was extremely clear, and the eye could detect movements up to a hundred meters around it.

  However, as it moved deeper into the valley, the planar law aura began to thin and become distorted. The magical mirror images grew increasingly unclear, and the eye’s sensing radius was suppressed to within a dozen meters.

  Meanwhile, the corpses they saw belonged to increasingly monstrous beings. That much was evident from the size and appearance of the bodies.

  While the magical eye was heading toward the bottom of the valley, the walls on both sides began to tremble rhythmically.

  Dong! Dong! Dong!

  It was almost as if a vicious and violent beast was slowly climbing upward, and the entire valley was trembling due to its actions.

  It wasn’t just the ground itself. Even the mist and the air appeared to tremble with the quakes. The image transmitted from the magical eye grew blurry and out of focus.

  All of a sudden, the mist parted as an exceptionally gigantic monster entered within view. The magical eye exploded and shattered to pieces.

  First Grade Adept Mast, who had been controlling the magical eye far away in War Tower 107, shivered in fright. He hastily contacted his superior, the Second Grade Adept Saguri.

  “Prepare…prepare the defensive barriers immediately. A war beast…it is a war beast that’s coming for us!”

  Blaring alarms rang out throughout the war towers almost instantly.

  The war towers commenced powering up, countless complicated runic arrays lighting up in order from the tower’s base to the top. Dome-shaped energy barriers appeared one after another, engulfing the war towers and isolating them from the outside world.

  A ferocious tide of energy then started to gather within the towers, lingering around them and preparing to turn into violent offensive spells that blasted at their enemies.

  However, just as they finished their preparations, an earthshaking cry could be heard from the valley.

  A fifty-meter-tall colossal berserk ape with thick black hair sprinted out of the mist.

  It was enormous, with four powerful limbs. Its body was covered in black hair. The creature looked around it with a pair of crimson eyes on its ferocious face.

  A thunderous growl came from its mouth, and hot, steaming air shot out of its nostrils as it breathed.

  Fourth Grade. That was a Fourth Grade colossal berserk ape.

  The instant the enemy’s identity was clear, bolts of ferocious lightning cut across the sky toward it.

  A fierce light glinted in the ape’s eyes. It covered its head with its hands and crouched while dirt-yellow smoke gathered around it and concealed it.

  The next second, the battlefield was filled with the blinding light of lightning!

  Lightning rumbled, and electricity crackled across the ground.

  The battlefield’s center was engulfed by a white storm of electricity. Countless plasma balls extended from the center of the explosion and sizzling the ground where they landed.

  The entire place was filled with the scorched smell of electrified flesh!

  The raging storm of lightning lasted for a dozen seconds before dissipating. When the blinding white light faded away, the humongous mountain of scorched flesh was revealed.

  Finally, it moved.

  Large pieces of burnt flesh sloughed off, and a black rain descended upon the ground.

  All of a sudden, a pair of red eyes opened on the black mountain of flesh. The creature glared at the closest War Tower 107 with burning eyes.

  “Insufficient offensive power,” Adept Saguri, who was hosting War Tower 107, felt his heart beat uncontrollably. He screamed wildly into the communication crystal, “Continue to attack…continue to attack!”

  The twelve war towers within range immediately started to gather energy, albeit with much difficulty. Bolts of electricity began to crackle throughout their walls. In just a few more seconds, the next wave of lightning attacks would descend and drown this fearsome enemy in electrici
ty once more.

  Unfortunately, the colossal berserk ape would not give them this opportunity again!

  It let out a loud cry and shook its body, casting off the burnt and dead flesh. It ignored its terrible injuries and lunged wildly at War Tower 107.

  When the colossal berserk ape stood straight, the twenty-seven-meter-tall war towers only reached its belly. With this fierce rampage, its giant fists screeched through the air, crushing the war tower’s energy barrier in a single blow and landing on the tower itself.

  Crack! A horrible sound could be heard.

  The fist snapped War Tower 107 right in half.

  The upper half was blown a few hundred meters away, rolling across the ground until it disappeared from view. The remaining half of the tower was in shambles. The magical arrays inside exploded, one after another. With a sharp eye, you could see the few human adepts scrambling about in the ruins of the tower.

  They lifted their heads and looked at this ferocious monster with horror on their faces. They took out scrolls and attempted to flee to the other war towers. The blinding light of teleportation flashed all over the war tower.

  However, there were always a few slow individuals. By the time they realized something was wrong and attempted to flee, their entire world turned black.

  The terrifying iron fist of the colossal ape crashed down again.

  Dong!

  The rest of the war tower was crushed into dust along with its base!

  The battlefield fell utterly silent!

  Chapter 1377 - The Might of a Fourth Grade Adept

  The might of Fourth Grade creatures was truly something that could not be dealt with by ordinary means.

  The bloodline of a giant berserk ape might not be all that impressive, but it had advanced to Fourth Grade. The colossal ape was able to unleash horrifying devastation to all enemies that dared stand in its path.

  Such a powerful creature would be able to endure even a vicious attack from an actual adept tower, let alone these simplified war towers. When the colossal berserk ape revealed its real power, one of the tiny war towers instantly became its sacrifice.

  That wasn’t the end of it. The murderous ape, with its scorched black hair, picked up a five-meter-large piece of rubble and hurled it at the closest war tower. It then instinctively beat its chest several times before turning and lunging at the third war tower.

  “Attack…attack…use your most powerful spells!”

  “Let out the voodoo beasts…have the voodoo beasts stall it!”

  The colossal berserk ape’s burst of power caused the faces of all the overseeing adepts in the war towers to turn pale. They shouted out orders hastily, all while secretly reaching for the escape scrolls in their pouches.

  The teleportation coordinates were already set. They would be able to instantly escape to the adept towers in the backlines at the key moment just by activating the scrolls.

  This was the only reason they dared to remain stationed in the war towers!

  Bolts of lightning crashed down from the skies once more, forcing the ape to stumble forward as its hair stood on end. Large scorch marks appeared all over its back and shoulders.

  However, even such ferocious magic could not kill it. In fact, the lightning bolts were barely even impeding its movements.

  The colossal giant ape dug its fingers into the ground and picked up a giant piece of earth. It raised it above its head, blocking the bolts of fierce lightning as it sprinted toward the closest war towers.

  It kicked, punched, tackled, and even headbutted.

  What war tower could possibly endure such devastation from a fifty-meter-tall colossal ape?

  One by one, the war towers were knocked down like stalks of sugar cane. The Association adepts inside the towers either fled successfully or died. The casualties were tremendous.

  The attack of the war towers had inflicted damage on the ape as well. Unfortunately, the extent of the injuries was not enough to stop its movements. On the contrary, the pain and wounds had made the ape even more savage. Every one of its actions was more wild and vicious than before.

  The Association adepts were incredibly furious and frustrated at the sight of a Fourth Grade monstrosity ravaging their war towers.

  They gave out orders frantically. Waves of violent spells bombarded the colossal berserk ape from every direction, causing it to howl in pain and grow even more fierce.

  In less than ten minutes, eight war towers had collapsed at the hands of the colossal berserk ape. The adept casualties inflicted over the course of this made the host of Adept Tower Three, Fourth Grade Bloodline Adept Neve, unbearably furious.

  Of course, as a human adept, rushing out to fight a literally berserk creature wasn’t befitting of the calm and rational image of the adepts.

  Light flickered above Adept Tower Three as a sea of magic energy began to gather. With her own bloodline power as the trigger, a fearsome thirty-meter-long serpent with jade-green scales appeared.

  It was a bloodline projection Neve had created through the powers of the tower. It was, in fact, twice as powerful as she was.

  The instant the giant serpent appeared, the rampaging berserk ape stopped its movements. It turned around and glared at this projection.

  The two gigantic monsters stared at each other, a thousand meters and a dozen war towers between them.

  The bloodline serpent projected by Neve opened its eye slowly. Several strange spots of green light could be seen around its unusual purple eyes. The serpent flicked its long, forked tongue as the whole battlefield was engulfed in a cold and sinister aura.

  The serpent clearly had terrifying venom. Once bitten, the poison laws it possessed would render all antidotes ineffective. The only thing that could resist the poison’s power would be the individual’s poison resistance and life force.

  Upon sensing the might of its opponent, even the berserk ape became cautious. It was fearful that it might be killed because of a single moment’s carelessness.

  The colossal berserk ape might not be very intelligent, but it still knew where the true danger lay. It might seem like it was only barely equal with the war towers, having sustained so much damage. However, its wounds were only surface wounds. Its life origin had hardly been touched.

  Which was to say that no matter the number of war towers, the colossal berserk ape would have been able to destroy them all given sufficient time.

  The war tower had no hopes of endangering its life!

  However, this terrifying serpent that had materialized out of thin air was a different matter entirely.

  In all honesty, this mysterious serpent was the only thing on the battlefield that could threaten the ape’s life.

  Hssss!

  With the adept tower behind her, Neve had no fear of this ignorant berserk ape.

  The serpent hovering in the air above Adept Tower Three opened its maw, and a ball of glowing green poison shot toward the enemy like an arrow.

  The berserk ape frowned and extended both arms forward. Large clouds of yellow smoke surged and concentrated into a massive boulder in front of it.

  Pu!

  A dull impact could be heard as the poison hit the boulder.

  The battlefield instantly rang out with the sound of sizzling poison. Dense white smoke rose from the boulder.

  The white smoke did not dissipate. Instead, it mysteriously wrapped around the boulder and found its way into the colossal ape’s giant nostrils.

  Aooooo!

  The colossal berserk ape instantly flew into a rage when the poison smoke entered its body.

  It shook its body twice and felt a terrifying, stinging pain inside.

  It lifted its head and roared, its blood boiling in response to its emotions. The boiling blood allowed it to suppress those traces of poison instantly.

  Phew! Phew!

  The wind howled as yellow light flashed in the ape’s hands. With every flash, a five-meter-long boulder would form and shoot toward the mysterious serpent in
succession.

  The serpent was much smaller than the ape was. It was obvious that it did not excel at strength.

  That was why the berserk ape was attempting to force the serpent forward into a melee.

  Why didn’t the colossal berserk ape charge at it?

  Berserk apes preferred to settle everything with violence. That did not mean that they were complete idiots. The serpent was coiled right above an adept tower. If the berserk ape got too close and became entangled by the powers of the adept tower, it would easily betray a lethal weakness to the serpent.

  Thus, the ape dodged the poison spit attacks with agile movements, all while retaliating with massive boulders hurled at the adept tower.

  The two massive creatures attacked each other just like that, with the adept tower at the center of their battle. In the blink of an eye, the entire battlefield had turned into a mess.

  The war towers caught between the two Fourth Grade powerhouses were undoubtedly the most unfortunate. They would be razed to the ground by attacks from any side. If the serpent’s poison spit hit a war tower, its barriers and walls would be corroded in a matter of seconds, its walls crumbling as if they had been made of sand.

  If they were hit by a boulder from the ape, the entire structure would collapse. The adepts inside would die instantly if they didn’t escape in time!

  Truly, when gods fought, it was the mortals who suffered!

  In less than an hour, this ape had removed the one dozen war towers that the Adept’s Association had planted close to this entrance.

  If it weren’t for the terrifying shockwaves from the ape and serpent’s battle, the magical creatures hiding at the bottom of Inkdeep Valley would have swarmed out and scattered in every direction.

  The serpent that Neve had projected might have shocking offensive power, but it still had limitations against this overwhelmingly resilient and strong ape.