Age of Adepts

When Greem first saw this flourishing green forest, he felt dumbfounded.

His first reaction was to use a spell to check whether it was actually real. The result assured Greem and confirmed that what he saw wasn’t caused by any illusion, but was instead an actual, genuine space within this Underground World.

Greem stood at the cavern entrance and scanned the boundless and dense forest. He instinctively sensed a strange and twisted smell lingering in the air. He was standing on the dividing line. Taking a step back would bring him to a hard rock layer that was painted with darkness and a weak glow of metal; while taking a step forward would let him be greeted by greenish grass that touched his ankle, and tall trees and dense vines that tightly barricaded the passage. In addition to this, there were also rose and fruit bushes.

Vaguely, through the greenery, Greem could even see the shadows of small, tiny animals that were sprinting through the forest. In the far distance, within the depths of the forest, tree branches and leaves were swaying up and down, and the howls of monkey and roars of tigers echoed across the place. This resulted in an extremely vigorous atmosphere in the forest.

However, behind this flourishing scene, a strange energy aura could be sensed. This aura made Greem’s heart tremble.

After three seconds, Greem had come to a conclusion. This place must be the ruins of the previous Elysium City that was mentioned by Snorlax. After the Adept Tower was destroyed, a huge amount of magical energy leaked. This frightening leakage was the direct cause of what was presented in front of Greem’s eyes.

Every Adept Tower had an Elementium Pool built within it. It served as the source of energy for all their magical equipment. But once the Adept Tower was destroyed, the leakage of these energies would cause a tremendous and irreversible contamination to the surrounding environment. The abnormal energy level in this region was so strong that it had even caused the birth of this mutated forest.

Yes, this was a mutated forest. However, but not those virgin forests which could be found everywhere on the surface world.

When infected by such a strong energy, any plant or creature would violate the natural law, and grow at an incredible speed, before mutating into a totally different species. Therefore, although the forest looked normal on the outside, it was just a disguise.

This place had become the paradise for demons!

Greem took off the thick and sweltering traveler’s cloak from his body and wiped the sweat off his face. He took out his water bag and replenished his body with some water. After that, while sitting high up on the back of Demon Alligator, he slowly and carefully continued his journey by entering the forest.

From the first step into this forest, anything around him could no longer be trusted.

In fact, this seemingly blooming, evergreen demonized forest was far more fearful than the dark underground tunnel. There were far more menaces that lurked everywhere. Yet, Greem had no idea what kind of demons were waiting for him inside of this forest. However, since he had come this far, no matter what was hiding in this place, he still needed to give it a try!

It was worth to mention, that, with the support of three Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake Golems, Greem’s heart had become bolder.

No doubt, walking in a forest that never been explored before was really tough.

The ground was choked with weeds and wildflowers. Shrubs could be seen everywhere, roses and vines climbed wantonly and some of the large tree branches stretched many meters long! All of these plants grew disorderly, tightly knitted into each other. These plants filled up every single gap between the tall and old trees. Without the Demon Alligator, it would be difficult for Greem to move even a single step in this forest.

But now, relying on the gigantic body and powerful muscle strength of the Demon Alligator, Greem was like someone who just had joined a demolishing team: crushing and ripping everything in his way. This resulted in a smooth and flat path being made in this densely grown forest.

With every step the Demon Alligator took, wildflowers, weeds, shrubs, and bushes would turn into powder. As long as a tall and old tree got in the way of the Demon Alligator, it would be knocked down and crushed. Old trees were falling down, vines began to break off and colorful leaves flew in the air.

However, countless bizarre scenes were hiding behind this seemingly normal situation.

Whenever the huge feet of the Demon Alligator crushed a patch green grass, countless indistinct and strange noises could be heard coming from underneath its feet. They sounded like the cries of a baby, yet also resembled the shrill howls of bizarre demons. It was rather unsettling and forced people to cover their ears.

When the Demon Alligator raised its feet again, Greem could see dozens of emerald green sprouts in the disc-shaped hole that was made. All the other weeds and wildflowers were crushed into a pile of greenish liquid, yet they were the only thing that survived. Not only did they survive, they even coiled up their green sprouts, like a living creature, and began to change into mouths full of sharp teeth. They began to tightly cling to the Demon Alligator’s feet and started biting like crazy.

Under their insane attack, pieces of dirt kept falling off the Demon Alligator’s feet. In addition, its feet had started to suffer some damage.

Meanwhile, right in front of Demon Alligator, some towering old trees were seen arduously pulling out their roots. They slowly ran away from the path the Demon Alligator would take later. However, there were still some fearless mutated plants who valiantly launched attacks at the Demon Alligator.

These mutated plants strongly resembled a sunflower. The only difference was the middle of the petals. At the end of the thin stalk, where the bright yellow petals were blossoming, a woman’s face could be seen mounted right at the center. Their method of attack was rather primitive, as they kept spraying out venom from their tiny mouths. This venom was not only acidic, but was smelly and sticky as well.

Many overhanging vines started to twist crazily. A frightening large mouth suddenly broke out from the end of these vines. It was full of countless tiny teeth that look frightening and sharp. If any creature passed by them, it might only take a single leap to bite off the creature’s head.

A disgusted expression emerged on Greem’s young face.

This forest was just like a gigantic beast in disguise. Once the Demon Alligator intruded, it instantly triggered all the snakes hiding in the bushes. If someone without sufficient strength came here by accident, they would probably find it difficult to keep even their corpse intact!

Imagine this: without the Demon Alligator, those mutated sprouts, that hid between the ordinary grass, would cut through the soles of one’s feet. They would then squeeze into the body of the creature and begin to feast on the delicious flesh. Those old trees, who could walk freely, were most probably the Dryads who existed in the legend. Once an ordinary creature was entangled by their roots, their only ending would be suffering through the pain of having their flesh devoured by these frightening trees.

As for those terrifying plants and snakes in disguise, they were just the companions of the Dryads. Although their individual strength wasn’t worth mentioning, there were a lot of them. It would be rather troublesome if Greem was caught by them.

Greem slightly tilted his head upward and pointed with his finger. Beside him, a long vine, that hung from a tall and old tree, was nearly touching him. However, with this point of a finger, a flame suddenly broke out and coiled up the vine. Within the towering and scorching flame, the vine kept twisting and struggling violently, while its ferocious mouth started letting out a strange hissing sound that made one frown.

But it was too bad. No matter how crazily it struggled, it just couldn’t escape the fate of being annihilated. The scorching flame soon devoured its body, transforming it into ashes that fell from the sky.

Perhaps realizing this intruder was tough to handle, indistinct whispering noises could be heard coming from the depths of the forest. With great effort, countless mutated plants started to flee from the area around the Demon Alligator.

After efficiently frightening these demonized plants, who had no idea of their limits, the Demon Alligator slowly and leisurely continued its journey into the depths of the forest.

After they continued for a short distance, Greem looked over his shoulder. The path they came from had once again been blocked off by those strange plants. It looked like these demonized plants were not willing to let their food slip away. They still wished to feast on Greem’s corpse.

The next wave was coming from the demons who lived in the demonized forest.

The species who were affected by the environment the most were creatures of the forest. When they absorbed the Elementium energies that lingered in the air, they would evolve into frightening demon beasts who possessed the ability to use Elementium. However, demons and demon beasts were different. Demons weren’t the result of natural evolution. They were more like monsters created by the abnormal contamination in the environment.

Their species were complicating and confusing and their abilities were wild and mystifying. So far, no Adept could slam their chest and brag that they understood every single demonic species. So to speak, in every unexplored virgin forest, there was a possibility of finding some new demon species.

And usually, compared to demon beasts, they were much more frightening and bizarre!

The first wave of attackers that dashed out from the depths of the forest was a pack of mutated wolves.

The bodies were as large as an adult cow and was dark red and bizarre looking. Most of their hair had fallen off, exposing countless lumps and dark spots. Even more strange was the fact that all of them had two heads. These heads were gruesome and frightening. They had pale white fangs and gigantic mouths. Green slime kept dripping down from the edges of their mouths, and a strange glow could be found at the end of its throat.

Their movements were vigorous and agile, while their burly body could be compared to tigers and lions. When they leaped out from the forest in a large pack, howls that sent chills down one’s back immediately rung throughout the entire sky.

A chain of half-transparent Wind Blades and a rain of snake-shape lightning instantly flooded the huge body of the Demon Alligator.

Some of these double-headed wolves were prowling the outer perimeter. They kept casting spell after spell at the Demon Alligator. Some would howl and dash to the side of the Demon Alligator and use their half-inch long, sharp nails and their glowing fangs to crazily attack the clay armor of the Demon Alligator.

Greem’s face turned slightly pale.

With just one round of attacks, a large portion of the Demon Alligator’s clay armor had broken. If it were not for the protection of the Hunter, Greem would probably have had to face enemy’s attack directly.

The individual overall strength of these double-headed wolves wasn’t too strong. They were, at the most, at the level of Intermediate Apprentices. But when more than a hundred giant wolves came together in a massive army, even the Demon Alligator Hunter, who had the overall strength of an Advanced Apprentice, would find it hard to defend against this frightening enemy!

Greem gritted his teeth, pulled out an Elementium core and gently tossed to the ground.

When it touched the ground, a Rock Snake, that was more frightening than the Demon Alligator, squeezed out from underneath the soil.

The robust body of the Rock Snake was formed entirely from rocks. The internal diameter alone was slightly over two meters. When a massive object like this jumped into the pack of wolves, it signified the start of a reign of terror.

Although the elemental and physical attacks of the double-headed wolf could shatter the Demon Alligator’s defense, they just couldn’t move or bite off anything from the rock solid body of Rock Snake. Thus, the battle between them was more like a one-sided slaughter, with the wolf pack having the miserable fate of being completely wiped out!