Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  After the past six months of preparation and putting aside research on all other fire spells, the Chip had managed to focus its calculation abilities and complete Fiery Refraction.

  Apart from Critical Wildfire and Halo of Rot, Greem now also possessed a Fifth Grade fire spell that actually belonged to him. The spell was also an offensive one.

  In addition to the Berserk Eye, Greem now had four hidden aces that could decide a battle!

  Moreover, the improved Orb of the Fire God was not just mighty support equipment. It also had the unusual function of being able to collect faith power.

  Ordinarily, collecting faith power was a mysterious ability exclusive to the gods. Having assimilated a fire divine authority fragment, the Orb of the Fire God also possessed a similar ability. However, the faith power it collected had to come from intelligent beings that devotedly worshipped Greem.

  It was through the Orb of the Fire God that Greem discovered, to his surprise, that he had a few devoted believers in several planes, along with several thousand loose believers.

  These people might not worship Greem religiously as an idol. Rather, they admired and respected him as a sort of standard in life. It was a different mentality from religious worship, but the faith power they gathered was not much different.

  Moreover, Greem shockingly discovered that he had a true believer that worshipped him faithfully in the World of Adepts.

  That was what was most unimaginable to him!

  Chapter 1490 - Plane Mutas

  When Grem once again returned to the station halls, everybody’s attitudes toward him had changed slightly.

  Even Sixth Grade Adept Gerritsen looked at Greem with a hint of approval and praise in his eyes. Greem was part of his hall, after all. He got to bask in the glory of Greem’s achievement as well!

  The magic surge was about to come to an end.

  Once the magic surge receded, the planar rifts that had opened because of the phenomenon would slowly close. When that happened, attacking any particular plane would require much more effort in tearing through the planar barrier.

  Perhaps it was because of this that the conflict between the adepts and the orc pantheon grew even more intense.

  Both parties were invading and defending across countless planeworlds. The battles breaking out only grew more and more frequent. Consequently, the chances of Great Adepts being mobilized had been increased significantly. The number of deaths on both sides also rose exponentially.

  In such a chaotic mire of endless battles and skirmishes, the more powerful you were, the more spoils you could obtain.

  The adepts were frantically grabbing every divine weapon, divine authority, divine virtue, and divine power crystal that they could get their hands on. Some of the more powerful adepts were even able to strip the divinity of dead gods to create special magical equipment with unusual domain abilities.

  Meanwhile, the gods were also hunting as many adepts as they could.

  It didn’t matter if it was the principle power of principle adepts, the immortal bodies of body-refining adepts, or the bloodline power of bloodline adepts. All of them were excellent, top-class resources that could be used as materials for higher-grade divine equipment by the hands of the gods.

  In particular, the Great Adepts’ immortal souls were a necessary material in creating high-grade petitioners!

  The battle between the adepts and the orc pantheon was more like a hunt between two high-grade species. The only ones dying were the cannon fodder and the low-grade subordinates, while the ones who benefitted from everything were the higher-grades that controlled the entire war’s development.

  As an independent pawn within the adept faction with no backers, Greem needed to have more aces up his sleeve if he wished to survive in this colossal conflict between two titanic forces.

  Fortunately, even if he was only a pawn, he was a very useful and superior pawn. Given that case, he didn’t need to worry about being mercilessly thrown out as a sacrifice!

  …………

  As the magic surge approached its conclusion, the chances of a climactic battle between the adepts and the orc pantheon only grew exponentially.

  The battlefields within all the small and mid-sized planes had been strategically retracted. All of the surviving forces then poured into the three major planeworlds. It seemed like these three worlds were poised to become the final battlefield, where the ultimate victors would be decided.

  Countless encounters, ambushes, sieges, and raids broke out during this process. Both parties’ high-grade forces were deployed frequently, and the chances and intensity of their battles rose steadily.

  Greem was informed of another deployment on the fifth day he returned to the station hall.

  The mission this time was even more straightforward and violent.

  They were to ambush an orc temple located in Plane Mutas. A Sixth Grade Great Adept would lead the party.

  It was the usual gathering of adepts and the usual interplanar teleportation. However, when Greem and the others arrived in Plane Mutas, what awaited them was a group of exhausted adepts covered all over in dust and dirt.

  This place was a small hill hidden in a vast stretch of mountains.

  It was nighttime at the moment, peaceful as the stars in the skies were bright.

  The group of adepts had lit a bonfire and gathered around the intricate teleportation array. They bowed and welcomed the arrival of the Great Adepts.

  Dong, dong, dong!

  Several loud noises could be heard as the light of teleportation flashed within the array.

  Several unusual silhouettes slowly appeared in the blinding white light, gradually forming into physical forms.

  Perhaps sensing the appearance of something that shouldn’t be here, the planar consciousness began to gather power. The dark clouds in the skies were blown away by violent winds. The bright and immaculate moonlight pierced through the mountain peaks and the branches of the trees, shining down on each of the Great Adepts.

  For a moment, the moonlight turned blood-red, and the whole world seemed to be filled with bloodthirst!

  Greem felt an overwhelming hostility from the world the moment he completed his teleportation and walked out of the array.

  Countless rifts opened in the space around him, and a shocking number of law chains reached out toward his body.

  Greem grunted. A radiant crimson light shrouded his body, which turned into a slithering thread of principle power. This principle thread shredded every law chain that came close to him, preventing any of them from penetrating his body.

  Much like Greem, the other five Great Adepts–including the Sixth Grade–had conjured their own powers to resist the planar laws.

  The more they resisted, the more power the planar consciousness gathered around them!

  The other principle adepts, just like Greem, did not have the best Physique. Strenuous expressions appeared on their faces.

  “We were fortunate to have accomplished our mission! Our greetings, my lords.”

  Almost every adept in this party were Fourth Grades. The only Third Grade in the party had been the array master who had constructed this teleportation array. The leader of the party hastily walked forward and bowed upon seeing the Great Adepts arrive successfully.

  The Sixth Grade Great Adept quickly composed himself. He looked at his surroundings, unleashing his tremendous Spirit as he did so. In the blink of an eye, he had gotten a grasp of everything within a few dozen kilometers.

  “Well done! Headquarters will reward you all greatly once you return.”

  It was no wonder the Sixth Grade Great Adept praised them so. What they had accomplished was an achievement. They had broken into a mid-sized faith world and found a leyline to establish a teleportation array, all while fighting the numerous enemies pursuing them. All that with a party of only ten people!

  Such a tremendous achievement was deserving of all the praise the Great Adept gave them!

  “My lord,
this is a map of this world and the distribution of factions throughout it. We have marked out the location of the God of Slaughter’s main temple, as per headquarters’ request. Furthermore, numerous native orc forces have been pursuing us. The closest two are already within fifty kilometers,” The party leader was clearly a capable individual. This mission had been completed almost to perfection.

  “Very good!” The Sixth Grade Great Adept was overjoyed to hear this. He nodded and said, “There’s no need to risk your lives after this. Stay here and defend the teleportation array. You are free to move as you wish after seven days! We will make sure to wipe out all targets nearby that pose a threat before we leave.”

  Having said that, the Sixth Grade Great Adept took out a few purple vials and tossed them to Greem and the others. “Drink it! With this, you won’t have to endure the pain of planar suppression as long as you don’t use too much of your power.”

  Greem caught the vial and popped open the cork with his thumb. He could smell the potion inside almost immediately. The vial contained a strange liquid that immediately activated upon exposure to the air.

  [Beep. Initial scans complete. Target object is a Fifth Grade potion containing the aura of a plane origin. Upon consumption, Host’s identity as an outsider will be masked by a unique planar aura, thereby allowing Host to avoid suppression from the planar consciousness.] The Chip quickly projected the results of its analysis in his mind.

  Mm? To think, headquarters was even able to come up with a potion like this.

  Greem thought to himself as he lifted his head and drank the potion.

  The unique, barbaric aura of the orc planes radiated from his body when he swallowed the potion. The planar laws lurking around Greem instantly shrunk back. Even the annoying hostility of the planar consciousness slowly dissipated.

  “This is the world map. Take a good look and remember it! Sala, Colin, you two follow me. We will be attacking the orc temple. Greem, Rick, you two wipe out the ants around the array and rendezvous with us at the main temple…let’s go!” Sixth Grade Great Adept Briel lifted his hand and summoned a beginner Sixth Grade storm giant. It picked him and the other two Great Adepts up, slowly rising into the sky and hurrying southwest.

  The sudden arrival of the Great Adepts had definitely alerted the orcs. However, the fact that the adepts had so decisively sent out this powerful force to assault the main temple of this world would be beyond their expectations.

  As long as Greem and the others were quick enough and inflicted sufficient damage, the orcs’ foundation would probably be broken before the gods could descend. Once they destroyed the main temple, the orc gods would not be able to travel all that distance to retaliate against them, no matter how upset they were.

  Headquarters had already conducted their investigation before this mission.

  The main god worshipped by Plane Mutas was Garon Arcadas, the God of Slaughter. Plane Mutas was, in fact, one of Garon’s seven most crucial mid-sized faith worlds. Should this world be destroyed, Garon Arcadas’ might would undoubtedly be significantly affected for a short time.

  If that happened, the Seventh Grade Great Adepts would have more room and better odds in their battles against the Seventh Grade God of Slaughter.

  Upon seeing Sixth Grade Great Adept Briel leave with two of their companions, Greem couldn’t help but look at the Fourth Grade adepts’ leader.

  “There are two enemy forces that are closer on our tail. The first is the orc squad from Pyrbante, led by an advanced Fourth Grade berserker…they are in that direction!” The leader explained while turning around to point, “The other force is a powerful squad sent out from Galecliff. They are led by an advanced Fourth Grade tracker. Their position should be around here!”

  Two squads of orcs. There were almost certainly going to be quite a lot of Fourth Grades among them. However, they were still nothing but ants before Great Adepts Greem and Rick!

  “Which one do you want?” Greem smiled coldly and indifferently.

  “The berserker, I guess! Hopefully, he can let me have a bit of fun,” Great Adept Rick also smiled the same cold smile. His entire body turned into black smoke and disappeared into the ground.

  Greem said nothing else. His body erupted into flames.

  There was a loud explosion as he appeared on the horizon.

  By the time the adepts looked toward his new position, another ring of fire had erupted, and Greem was far away in the distance.

  Chapter 1491 - A Slaughter

  A lively and bustling orc camp.

  Even though the curtain of night had fallen upon them, the camp showed no signs of quiet or sleep.

  The boisterous orc warriors gathered around a campfire, drinking strong spirits as they beat their chests and tapped their weapons, singing to the heavy tune of some old song. They laughed loudly, and there hardly seemed to be any of the urgency and suspense that came with war.

  A dozen orc powerhouses with savage auras were gathered in the camp center’s largest tent, loudly discussing a matter.

  Meanwhile, a particularly muscular werewolf sat at the very end of the tent. Two ancient-looking knives were sheathed behind his back, and he wore leather armor engraved with strange runes. He wore a bone necklace made out of bone fragments and fangs on his neck. His joints were all covered with tough leather adorned with vicious spikes.

  A shaman sat by his side with feathers attached all over him. Several pieces of bone had been stuck through his nose and lips. His exposed body was covered in colorful ceremonial mud.

  The only ones that were allowed in the tent were orcs of at least Third Grade and above. They were all incredibly strong, muscular, and even their weathered armor couldn’t contain their savage aura.

  As they loudly argued about how to exterminate the evil adepts hiding deep in the mountains, the orc shaman who had been sitting silently to the side suddenly lifted his head. His face was filled with shock and horror as he looked toward the mountains.

  There were few orc shamans, but all of them enjoyed reverence and respect within the orc tribes. They could communicate with the orc gods through special ceremonies. Thus, they became the most authoritative individuals when it came to decisions within the tribe apart from the clan leaders.

  “High Priest Sanger, did you discover something?” The strongest werewolf that sat at the head of the table reached out with his hand and stopped his subordinates’ bickering. He frowned and asked.

  Even though he could not sense the specifics of what was happening, the chilling waves he felt from the bottom of his heart alarmed him.

  He did not have any divination abilities, so it was only natural that he couldn’t see the movements of the evil adepts fifty kilometers away. However, as an advanced Fourth Grade, he already possessed the qualification to come into contact with the intangible planar consciousness.

  It was almost as if…the Earth Mother was warning him through his sixth sense.

  An unknown danger was approaching this squad!

  “It’s the invaders,” The ugly face of High Priest Sanger twisted. He coughed violently as an unconcealable look of fear and horror reflected in his pure white eyes. “I don’t know what they did, but they’ve infuriated the Earth Mother greatly! The Earth Mother just gave me a warning. We must escape immediately! Now, hurry…we won’t be able to make it if we dawdle any longer!”

  “Are those invading adepts here to attack us?” The werewolf leader said in shock. “Given their strength, that shouldn’t be possible, should it?”

  “Yes, let them come! Us orcs have never been afraid of them.”

  “I will go wake up those brats now. It’s just in time to give those adepts a nasty blow.”

  A few of the orcs that were clearly more brawns than brains began shouting loudly as if they could cut down any enemy that came their way.

  The entire tent started to bustle with noise again.

  “Silence! Shut up, all of you shut up! Listen…what’s that noise outside?” The
werewolf leader abruptly perked his ears and seemed to be listening closely to something.

  The orcs fell silent and listened closely.

  As expected, they could faintly hear a series of strange explosions from the distance. Moreover, the explosions were getting closer and closer, louder and louder.

  Out of nowhere, the orc shaman started coughing up blood from hearing the sounds. His voice trembled.

  “Enemy attack!”

  Dong, dong, dong!

  The orc powerhouses broke through the leather tents and took to the skies.

  They might not know Fly or have divine spells to support them, but their savage, violent Strength allowed them to overcome gravity and temporarily hover in the air.

  Even more orc warriors emerged from the patched tents, shouting as they looked at the sky and pointed with their weapons.

  Bright, beautiful fire halos erupted on the distant horizon like festival fireworks.

  Judging by the sequence and direction of the explosions, something was heading toward their camp.

  Greem arrived with the night winds and managed to find the orcs without much effort.

  Compared to the other adepts, Greem’s means of stepping onto a battlefield was too flashy and cool. With the long trail of fire he left behind in the air, people could see him coming from fifty kilometers away.

  However, given his identity as a Fifth Grade legendary adept, there was no need to be too careful in a mid-sized world like Plane Mutas.

  Greem appeared above the orc camp with Fire Teleportation and reformed his body. He looked down upon the dozen muscular orc powerhouses and the many orc warriors scurrying behind them.