Age of Adepts

Some adepts might arrogantly think it possible if they hadn’t had any contact with such an opponent. However, after several battles over the course of the invasion, and their multiple run-ins with the radiant knights, all of the First Grade adepts had long since given up on such impractical thoughts.

The Second Grade knights on this plane might be slightly weaker. However, when they slashed at enemies with their radiant runic longswords, even their most basic physical attacks were as powerful as 60 points of damage, when converted to the measurements used by adepts. Those ferocious knight battle techniques, on the other hand, could even reach a terrifying 120 points of damage.

This also meant that the adepts’ magical protection and elementium barriers were not enough to shield them from the knights’ attacks if they got close. The most common strategy the knights employed against casters was to raise their energy shields above their heads and charge through the bombardment of spells. Then they would reach the casters’ sides to chop them, and all would be well.

Simple, violent, direct!

In fact, so simple that it even seemed laughable.

But it was precisely with such a strategy that the knights were able to forcefully exterminate all the naturally-awakened casters on this plane. Until they met this bunch of evil adepts from the World of Adepts...

Greem retreated from the battlefield, dragging the golden knight skeleton with him. Meanwhile, Acteon led his swarm of carcass beetles and took over his position. The two inevitably passed by each other.

Acteon’s face was obscured by the shadow of his hood. Only his disgusting and protruding lotus-shaped mouth part could be seen. At the instant they passed by each other, he turned and looked at Greem. He spoke with his unique screeching voice, "You are very powerful!"

Then his gaze mildly swept past the Scroll of Voodoo in Greem’s left hand, before rushing onto the battlefield with his bugs.

The disgusting feeling Greem felt in his heart finally started to dissipate after Acteon’s slimy and sticky gaze left his body. When Acteon said the words, "You are very powerful!", his bloody and maniacal gaze, his ear-piercing screeching voice, along with the hidden implications behind his words, deeply unsettled Greem.

If it wasn’t for the Fire Lord silently waiting behind him and one single powerful spell he had specially reserved to defend himself still stored within the Scroll of Voodoo, Greem might have even suspected that Acteon was thinking of attacking him!

Even though Greem was extremely weakened now, he still reserved some strength for a counter-attack. If anyone was unable to suppress their greed, he would be sure to use his most vicious attacks to shatter their foolish thoughts.

Adepts were like large and greedy lone wolves. In usual circumstances, they could band together to devour the enemy. However, if anyone within their pack showed any weakness or lethargy, they didn’t mind getting rid of these weaklings!

This cruel competition might make it difficult for the adepts to cooperate wholeheartedly, but it also succeeded in repeatedly creating cruel, savage, terrifying, and powerful individuals that could face any situation by themselves.

In a complex and dynamic battlefield, so called ’teamwork’ wouldn’t be of very much help. In fact, it was the well-rounded adepts that had a better chance of survival. One couldn’t fault the non-combat adepts for treating planar wars as a massive threat to their lives.

In a chaotic battlefield, you wouldn’t have a body refining adept to help you deflect the hordes of enemies, nor an elementium adept to erect an elementium barrier for you. You certainly wouldn’t have an adept that would bring you along as they retreated... you would always be fighting alone when you were placed in a battle.

Here you solved all the difficulties you faced by yourself!

If you ever fell into a dangerous situation because of your own weakness, you couldn’t count on any ’companions’ to valiantly come and save you. The best they could probably do is throw a fireball in your direction and drag a few enemies down with you.

In the battle happening currently, for example, even though the three body-refining adepts, Greem, and Hyde had set up a crude perimeter, there were still numerous small fries that made their way through. Those adepts being ‘protected’ at the perimeter had to deal with the pesky fellows in front of them while exterminating the knights in the distance.

The auxiliary adepts that lacked self-defense abilities and had to rely on their ’companions’ protection were the quickest to die in such a situation. Perhaps this was why most Esoteric Adepts chose to put some effort into elementium spells as well!

The battles at the perimeter were bloody and brutal, but so were the fights within the perimeter.

Before Greem could get his exhausted body back through the crowd of adepts, a small squad of witcher-knights charged at him while yelling a pointless battlecry. "Exterminate the evil!" Of course, they quickly fell under the Fire Lord’s violent fire spells.

The fact that Greem had an adept-level golem as a bodyguard made him pretty untouchable!

That said, Greem had to take a surprising five minutes before he could cross a hundred meter distance. Over three dozen witcher-knights had fallen behind him.

When Greem finally made it to the adepts’ base after much difficulty, every single adept couldn’t help but greet him, even as they were still engaged in their respective battles. The adepts were generous with paying respects to a companion who could kill a Second Grade radiant knight all by himself.

Having greeted the adepts and notified Adept Keoghan, Greem slowly withdrew behind the gates of the tower. He found a safe spot within it and started a basic treatment of his body’s wounds.

He took out a Tree of Life leaf and put it in his mouth, then retrieved several bottles of ointments and started to spread them on his severely burnt hands. Greem also swallowed a bottle of potion that stimulated his Spirit to facilitate a rapid recovery. It was only after he had done all this that he sat down, grit his teeth, and endured the intense pain from all over his body.

Right now, deep in his eyes, the chip had sent out a report on the condition of his body. It was in a terrible state.

Name: Greem

Race: Human (Half-Elementiumized)

Gender: Male

Class: First Grade Elementium Adept

Attributes: Strength 1.5 (0.4) | Agility 0.9 (0.6) | Physique 1.4 (0.5) | Spirit 1.3 (0.1)

Condition: Spirit exhausted. Severe injuries in the process of recovery...

The numbers in the self-report were the current actual attributes of his body. It was only when comparing the two sets of numbers that he could truly feel the damage to his body.

Greem sat cross-legged on the ground, silently waiting for his body to recover. Meanwhile, the tall and mighty Fire Lord guarded the tower gates while helping the potions master Ferrier in his extermination of the witcher-knights that made it too close to the tower.

It seems that the clan placed quite a lot of importance on Ferrier’s talent for potions. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have assigned him to a rear position.

With the aid of the Fire Lord, Adept Ferrier could finally catch a breath after having struggled until now with his unrefined combat skills. He turned and looked at Greem, who was putting on an expression of intense agony, before tossing a small green vial to him. Ferrier shouted, "Spread it on your wounds; it can ease the burns from your source power’s flames!"

Greem caught the vial and held it before him.

Green liquid sloshed within the transparent vial. He opened the cork, and a unique aura belonging to life energy wafted out.

Greem lowered his head and looked at his hands. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly as he shook his head.

His white and slender hands were black as char now. Moreover, fine cracks had covered the entire surface of his skin. If he exerted even a little force his burnt skin would start cracking, revealing the black finger bones beneath.

The Leaf of Life he kept in his mouth was slowly but surely healing the burns on his hands. However, the burns this time came from the violent fire-elemental laws radiating from the Blazing Light. His hands would not be able to recover before he managed to remove the strands of planar laws within his wounds.

The newly grown flesh would instantly be deprived of their moisture by the heat from the fire-elemental laws, causing his hands to remain charred and burnt. Even though he was the source of these fire elementium laws, the backlash from them due, to his amateur handling of the powers, was still extremely terrifying.

If he didn’t find a way to absorb or neutralize these strands of planar laws, his hands would never be able to recover. This meant that he would not be able to weave hand signs and cast spells with his hands in the short term!

Greem poured a drop of the potion onto his left hand to test its effects. Crisp crackling sounds rang out at the very moment the fragrant green liquid made contact with his withered flesh. Pieces of charred skin started to crack. Small wisps of flame rose from under the flesh and were gradually extinguished as they were engulfed by the green liquid.

That patch of skin gradually started to heal, becoming smooth and radiant once again.

Greem nodded at Ferrier with a smile on his face. He confidently spread the green liquid all over the charred portions of his hands. As the crackling continued, strands of fire-elemental laws continued to be extracted and slowly dispersed in the air. At the same time, Greem’s hands were slowly recovering, becoming white and slender once again.

On the other hand, the intense pain and itching from the process of the skin breaking and flesh growing had been suppressed by Greem using his powerful Spirit. Only Greem himself fully understood the experience he was going through now!

In the meantime, a chilly gust of wind had blown into the tower. Adept Fügen, wrapped in a layer of snow and ice, appeared inside and quickly found a corner in the hall to treat his wounds.

"This is yours now!" Adept Fügen casually tossed a massive ice crystal towards Greem. One could vaguely see the radiant knight encased within. "Use this to get on the good side of that little vampire lover of yours. Who knows, maybe you will make your way into her bed immediately! Kehkehkeh... "

Even Greem was speechless when this strict and cool high-grade adept started teasing him. That said, the perfectly preserved body of a knight was far more valuable than that worthless pile of charcoal and bones he had.

Thus, Greem quickly kept the frozen knight! Greed was still glowing green in his eyes as he did so.

He knew very well that this meant that the leaders of the Sarubo clan had acknowledged his efforts. This was probably their gift to him for fighting with all his strength!