Age of Adepts

After a month of work, the goblin excavation team had cleared away millions of tons of dirt and all sorts of other debris. They had overcome several difficulties and pierced through the hard layers of rock and stone. The Steel Capital, buried nearly a thousand meter underground, finally saw the day of light once more.

In all honesty, it shouldn’t have exactly been considered underground. After all, the Steel Capital had been built high atop the peak of a mountain. It had only been buried as the mountain itself collapsed.

After all the debris had been cleared away, the ruins of the uncovered Steel Capital revealed to everyone the ferocity and violence of the explosion on that day. Most of the metal buildings had been distorted beyond recognition. In fact, many of the metallic components had their original attributes altered by the corrosion of the energy storm. They had been fused and turned into substances that were more akin to magical alloys.

As the hundreds of construction machines operated at full power and endeavored to cut these metal parts into suitable sizes before lifting them out of the ’pit,’ an unexpected event occurred.

A mysterious force suddenly guided a large pile of broken and distorted metal parts to transform into an eight-meter metal giant within full view of all the goblins, clicking and clanging as the metal parts collided with each other.

It had a rough and crude metal body, broken wires spouting sparks and electricity, a tilted metal head, and metal fists with large cracks in them.

Even though this metal giant was unbearably crude, its large size and massive fists still caused devastating damage to the nearby construction machines.

A single punch would flatten a construction machine to half its size. With a kick, the machine would be blasted to the sky, falling apart as it fell.

This strange metal giant was like a tiger that had made its way into the middle of a pack of wolves. It beat back all the machines around it without any contest. Soon, five construction machines had fallen by its hands. The goblin mechanics within the machines had also been turned into unrecognizable crimson splotches on the earth.

After all, this was an excavation site. Most of the machines that were active here were construction machines. They were not considered combat magical machines. All of them were built in a bulky fashion and had slow reaction speeds. They weren’t outfitted with any weapons either.

Expecting them to wave their saws meant for cutting and drills meant for digging to charge at a killing machine was truly unfair.

The few combat magical machines that were present at the site quickly shifted to full power and rushed at the monster. They used a barrage of goblin rockets and rapid-fire guns to riddle the enemy with holes. Shards of metal went flying everywhere as their bullets found their mark.

Just as the magical machines were about to obtain their victory, the metal giant flailed its arms ferociously and forced the magical machines away from it. It then strode towards the damaged construction machines. The giant let out a roar as its suddenly liquified arms plunged into the remains of the machines.

A bizarre phenomenon that no goblin understood occurred!

The previously smoking, damaged, and immobilized construction machine came back to life once more. Its sundered body split into tens of thousands of tiny components and surged towards the metal giant’s body like a flock of birds returning to their nests.

The originally eight-meter tall metal giant suddenly devoured a damaged construction machine; its already large body once again grew amidst ear-piercing grinding sounds. It was now ten meters in height. Many attachments that once belonged to the construction machine had successfully moved to its body in an orderly and logical fashion.

The expanded metal chainsaw let out a terrifying rumble as it started to spin. This previously unarmed giant now had a metal chainsaw in its left hand and a drill in its right. There was also a shiny metal armor covering its back and its breast. It... it had actually armed itself!

Almost as if it had just discovered this strange metal ability, the metal giant shielded itself from the attacks of the magical machines while lunging at the other damaged machines on the site.

It was through this method that the metal giant endured the attacks of six magical machines and slowly absorbed each construction machine into its body.

In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a giant metal monster that stood fifteen meters tall, equipped with all sorts of strange attachments.

At this point, the accumulation of metal parts had made it an unstoppable force.

The magical machines that had previously managed to overwhelm it didn’t even dare to get close to it now. They could only harass it from afar. Finally, a magical machine failed to get out of the way of the giant metal monster. The metal giant’s fist crashed into the chest of the magical machine. It severely dented the machine’s metal plates, and the sound of the goblin mechanic coughing up blood could be heard from within.

A pool of blood flowed out from the inside of the machine.

After unhesitatingly ’devouring’ this magical machine, this giant metal monster armed with primitive mechanical weapons instantly transformed. The metal attachments on the surface of its body were all refitted into goblin rapid-fire guns with surprising offensive prowess.

Countless black cannon barrels also extended from its massive body. Fist-sized bullets instantly riddled the remaining five magical machines with holes.

The goblins immediately descended into chaos upon this happening!

The goblin mechanics frantically climbed out of their construction machines and gathered with the other goblins. They swarmed toward the elevators and slopes that had been dug into the side of the pit in hopes of escaping this nightmare.

Goblins pushed and shoved each other, howling and screaming as they vied for a way out. The excavation site at the bottom of the pit instantly turned into a chaotic mess.

Just as the goblins were fighting to escape from this unkillable and fearsome metal monster, a blindingly bright red sun suddenly rose at the bottom of the pit. A beam of pure white light then shot across their heads and crashed into the chest of the giant metal monster.

This pillar of light was one meter in diameter. It didn’t look extraordinary, but it possessed a jaw-droppingly high temperature.

The metal parts engulfed by the pillar of light immediately started to melt and soften, flowing down the body of the metal giant like hot wax.

The metal monster seemed to sense the danger it was in. It thrashed left and right, hoping to escape from the entanglement of the light pillar. However, the column of light appeared to have a mind of its own. It closely followed the metal monster, regardless of which direction it went in, always keeping itself focused upon the metal giant’s chest.

The giant metal monster stopped moving as if it knew it would be a futile attempt to escape from the white pillar of light. It roared ferociously, and over a hundred black cannon barrels emerged as its body ground and creaked. The cannons promptly began to fire a barrage at the source of the pillar of light.

The giant metal bullets crossed paths with the Blazing Light, turning the excavation site into a fearsome battlefield!

However, the battle only lasted for seven seconds before it ended with the loss of the metal monster.

Blazing Light possessed an incomparable destructiveness and lethality in the hands of Second Grade Fire Adept Greem.

The three-meter thick body of the giant metal monster had been forcefully pierced through by the pillar of pure white light. In fact, the white beam had even blasted the earth wall behind the metal giant and had melted a giant crater into the dirt.

The chest seemed to be the vital point of the giant metal monster, and it lost its combat capabilities once that point had been pierced. The metal giant shuddered before collapsing to the ground with a heavy thud.

Greem arrived in front of the metal giant’s towering body with steady footsteps. Even though his height of two meters made him a giant amongst humans, he still appeared as tiny as a bean beside a wheel of cheese when compared to this strange metal monster.

A crack appeared in the earth beside the giant metal monster, and tens of thousands of black beetles surged out from beneath. Soon, they reformed into the Bug Adept Billis, cloaked in his black robe.

"Master, why does this guy look so familiar."

"Of course he looks familiar!" A disdainful smile appeared on Greem’s face, "He’s an old friend of ours after all."

"You mean to say that it...it’s that guy?" Bug Adept Billis asked hesitatingly.

"Hmph! I knew Third Grades wouldn’t die so easily. Even that thunder dragon managed to live. What’s so surprising about Giant Brain Gazlowe surviving the explosion?"

Having said that, Greem’s body exploded into a cluster of flames and reappeared on the broad chest of the metal monster.

His large hand blazed with a golden flame and reached inside the chest of the monster to extracted a strange brain from within it. This brain had a dozen fleshy tentacles beneath it and was the size of a human head.

Gazlowe had once been as big as a hill. Now, it wasn’t much bigger than a human’s brain. Greem’s Blazing Light from earlier had pierced through the upper left side of its brain, burning away nearly one-third of what was left in the first place.

Greem flicked at the tentacles dangling beneath the broken brain. They seemed utterly limp and void of any life. After all, no one would be able to live any longer if a third of their brain had been burned away!

"Master, is it still alive? Why can’t I feel the presence of any life force? Could it have been beaten to death by you already?" Bug Adept Billis also turned into a cluster of black mist and flew onto the metal monster. He reformed himself beside Greem.

"Dead? Well, isn’t that good." The smile on Greem’s face became even wider, "Well, if that’s the case, then I guess I’ll just burn the rest as well!"

The fire on Greem’s hand immediately started blazing after he said that.

"Not dead... not dead. I’m not dead."

Small Brain Gazlowe had wanted to play dead. However, he now had no choice but to dispel his pretense and regain his aura of life.

The miniaturized Gazlowe seemed to understand that its strength was insufficient to deal with this leader of the adepts. Thus, he quietly stayed in Greem’s hands, enduring the burning of the red flames.

"Tell me! How did you survive that massive explosion!" Greem stared at the little fellow in his hands and asked in a calm tone.

Even though his tone was calm and peaceful, Gazlowe felt a real threat of death in it.

"I... I... seem to possess the ability to regenerate from even a drop of blood!"