Age of Adepts

Due to a lack of cover in a vast and mountainous region like the Burning Plains, trying to sneak into the dragon’s den while hiding from the local natives was virtually impossible. After a brief discussion with Vanlier, Greem finally decided to move to the Ironstone Highlands and advance to the den through the Blackiron Dwarves territory.

They rested for one night.

The party moved at the first sign of light on the second day, departing from Un’Goro Volcano under the sharp glares of the many Flamebelly Ogres.

With Old Fox Vanlier as their guide, the party’s progress hastened slightly.

They first went straight north until Un’Goro vanished from sight before turning northwest and walking along the Firefeather Mountains. After passing through the Abyss of Ka’el and making it through a terrifying nest of Ankara beetles, the adepts finally started to close in on Blackiron Tower, controlled by the Blackiron Dwarves.

The Blackiron Dwarves might have the word ’dwarf’ in their name, but their appearance and temperament were utterly different from the dwarves mentioned in the historical chronicles. They weren’t as gentle or kind as ordinary dwarves, and they weren’t even as welcoming of guests.

These fellows who lived in Blackiron Tower and spent their days in the red-hot furnaces forging and refining magical blackiron metal were of short stature, had bushy beards, and bulging muscles.

However, their personalities were extraordinarily violent and savage. They would ignite the blackiron bombs wrapped around their bodies at any slight provocation and rush to self-destruct and bring the enemy down with them. Indeed, in this magical world of Lance, these Blackiron Dwarves still insisted on using their blackiron pickaxes to dig and mine and continue to improve their blackiron rifles and cannons.

When Greem and his party first approached that towering Blackiron Tower standing in the valley between two massive mountains, they heard a dull cannon shot. Dense smoke rose from a shooting platform from the center of Blackiron Tower. A watermelon-sized iron ball then blasted a magma boulder into pieces, just fifty meters to the right of the adepts. The iron ball continued rolling even further away.

The initially wide and open magma plains started to narrow here where the path forward became obstructed by the two massive mountains that stood in the way. The terrifying tower that the Blackiron Dwarves had spent a thousand years reinforcing with magical blackiron metal stood right in between these two cliffs.

One had to pass through Blackiron Tower if they wanted to make it through the valley. And anyone who tried to cross through Blackiron Tower would have to deal with these Blackiron Dwarves.

With the cold and violent personalities of the Blackiron Dwarves, the only way of dealing with them was probably...combat!

After the first cannon rang out, the massive metal door at the bottom of the tower also opened to the sounds of grinding mechanical parts. Squads of Blackiron Dwarves in metal chestplates emerged in perfect formation. They all had blackiron rifles on their backs and explosives at their waists.

They charged forward, yelling their odd battlecries as they did so.

Even with Greem’s language library, he had trouble analyzing this mutated dwarven language.

The Blackiron Dwarves fired immediately after exiting the tower, without any attempt to negotiate or discuss.

Old-fashioned blackiron rifles rang out. They crackled loudly and the metal bullets they shot out clinked against the shields of the defenses. Tigule had no choice but to summon the Goblin Shredder once again and leap into combat, charging at the reckless and ignorant Blackiron Dwarves.

The tall Dragonborn Zacha took a few steps forward and used his massive body to cover for Greem. He courageously stood at the front, raising his hands to protect the more easily injured eyes, while letting the other parts be. After all, dragonborn had tough scales on their bodies. Those metal bullets could only send sparks flying when they hit him, with no possibility of actually wounding him.

As for Mary, she casually leaped about in the rain of bullets and let the wild storm pass her by. She would only raise a finger and flick when she ran into attacks that she couldn’t dodge.

Vanlier didn’t have Mary’s ability and could only shriek and hide behind Soros. Blood Knight Soros lived up to his identity as a Second Grade knight. Though he was disdainful toward Vanlier’s cowardice and shamelessness, he didn’t abandon him.

Soros brandished his longsword and swatted away the metal bullets flying toward him before launching a counter-charge at the Blackiron Dwarves.

Meanwhile, Bug Adept Billis didn’t even seem to fear these purely physical attacks.

He slowly walked forward, his body trembling slightly as he did so.

Every time he trembled, it meant that a metal bullet had hit his body.

Yet, it was almost as if he didn’t feel the impact. After advancing sufficiently far forward, Billis suddenly opened his terrifying insect mouth, and a swarm of insects surged out from within. This swarm gathered into a cloud in the skies and surged at the enemy like a dark shadow.

They swarmed the enemy wherever they went, using their nightmarish numbers to devour the enemies.

One couldn’t see anything that was happening inside the black cloud, but the fearsome crunching sounds that came from within were bone-chilling.

Over the past few days, Billis had managed to digest and absorb the knowledge crystal that Endor had left behind. As such, he could now transfer poison attributes to every single individual insect in the swarm. The swarm under his command no longer solely relied on physical attacks, but also horrifying poison damage.

However, given how weak these Blackiron Dwarves were, their corpses were gone long before the poison could even act. Billis’ improvement flew under the radar of the other adepts.

As for the burden of the group, Oliven? She chose to once again daydream in the battlefield.

At any rate, those Blackiron Dwarves wouldn’t actively attack her as long as she didn’t attack them. The special effect of the Orb of Deceit was just as powerful as before!

Beng! Beng! Beng!

The strongest of the Blackiron Dwarves was only at the advanced apprentice level. The rest were even weaker. If it weren’t for the cracking blackiron rifles in their hands, Billis alone would have been able to wipe them out.

Unfortunately, just as this thought emerged amid the adepts, something changed at the front of the battlefield.

Beng...beng...beng!

Several deafening sounds rang out as massive explosions appeared, causing several terrifying mushroom clouds in the distance. The Goblin Shredder that had just run into the ranks of the dwarves and was slaughtering their numbers immediately charged out of the dust cloud, covered in dirt.

Judging from how it was stumbling about, Tigule had probably been stunned and fazed by the apocalyptic explosions of the enemy. Billis also waved his ugly insect claw and let out a furious shriek in the direction of the battlefield.

That round of explosions had caused tremendous losses to his swarm, enough to make him feel hurt by the loss!

Savage. Truly savage!

These Blackiron Dwarves were as vicious to their kin as they were to enemies. They would wildly ignite their explosive packs and charge at the enemy when they were losing.

These blackiron bombs might only have individual power of one hundred and sixty points and might not be able to kill Tigule–who was well protected under this magical machine–but the explosive shockwaves were enough to make him suffer. The poison swarm that had been recklessly slaughtering the dwarves died in droves, causing Billis to shriek and howl.

Each poison insect that he could currently breed in his swarm only had seven points of Physique. They could not possibly live through such a terrifying explosion that could even directly kill a First Grade adept.

Greem couldn’t help but frown at the sight of this.

To think a group of dwarves that were not even First Grade could stop their advance. That was not a good sign!

Greem felt rage rise up his heart. He mumbled quickly, and after a dozen seconds of chanting, a yellow, head-sized fireball suddenly appeared on his right palm.

This odd fireball was entirely different from the magma fireballs and magical fireballs he usually fired. At a glance, this blinding fireball not only radiated no warmth, it even gave off an odd, chilling feeling.

It was a Coldflame Fireball that had undergone improvement by the Chip. Its method of attack was also even more wicked and malicious.

Greem flipped his palm and pressed it downward. The Coldflame Fireball vanished into the crimson rock below without a single sound.

A hundred meters away, the smoking and bloody battlefield was immediately sealed by a strange, chilling aura. Traces of chill winds seeped out from under the ground, avoiding the swarm and freezing all of the Blackiron Dwarves in ice.

In the blink of an eye, the previously violent battlefield had turned into a world of ice and snow. The Blackiron Dwarves were frozen in all sorts of odd poses. Their wicked smiles were still fixed on their faces as they were sealed in a thick block of ice.

Due to the speed of the frost, some metal bullets that had just shot out of the rifles had also been frozen along with the guns themselves, forming odd and weird human ice sculptures on the battlefield.

However, this was the Burning Plains after all. The temperature of the air and ground was shockingly high. Even the powerful magic of a Second Grade adept couldn’t last very long. As the heat waves raged, the human sculptures started to melt, but the cracked ice continued to burn coldly like actual fire.

The Blackiron Dwarves that had been wrapped in the Coldflame started to burn once their bodies were exposed to air; they simply melted before everyone’s eyes.

Indeed, the bodies of the Blackiron Dwarves melted, just like the ice around them!

With a single move from Greem, the one hundred surviving Blackiron Dwarves outside Blackiron Tower were exterminated.

The Blackiron Dwarves who were still hiding in the tower finally felt fear upon witnessing this scene.

Kuangdang! A loud boom rang out. The two massive metal doors of Blackiron Tower were firmly shut again.