Age of Adepts

“What did you find? Show me!” Adept Andre ordered.

Without any hesitation, Greem respectfully bowed and gently placed Mary on the floor beside him. He then turned around and asked Snorlax to bring the bag over. But too bad, his order had already lost its effectiveness, as Snorlax had collapsed on the floor and couldn’t get up.

Left with no other choice, Greem walked over to the huge bag and arduously dragged it to the center of the meeting room. He opened up the bag and poured everything out on the floor.

Immediately, precious stones, dazzlingly magical gemstones and an exceptionally designed rose armor and magical bow rolled out onto the ground. Meanwhile, the Fairy’s body which looked like a saggy leather pouch and the broken stalks of its true form were mixed among them. They looked like they hadn’t gone through any sorting.

Looking at the scene, Adept Andre who looked like an evil youth narrowed his eyes, showing a ruminating expression. But when he gazed at the bright chest badge on Greem’s chest, the smile on his face became stronger, while the oppressive atmosphere that had suffocated Greem instantly disappeared.

“An Adept level demon leader! I never expected an Intermediate Apprentice like you could harvest a prey of this level, no wonder Angus was so impatient to recruit you into his family!”

“It is all because of the care Master Angus has shown for me. Actually, we were able to defeat this frightening Fairy because of Mary; she had risked her life for this. Also, we were helped by a few Fallen Pseudo-Adepts!” An excited expression immediately appeared on Greem’s face. Without waiting for Master Andre to ask the questions, he started to narrate the battle of the demonized forest in a detailed manner.

He had no idea whether this Adept Andre had any methods of learning the truth of what had happened in the Underground World. Out of careful consideration, Greem chose not to tell any lies, and he told the entire process without covering anything up, expressing how proud he was for participating in such an incredible battle.

It was a rare occurrence, as Adept Andre patiently and carefully listened to everything Greem had to say. From time to time, he even nodded his head praisingly.

Greem was able to fight an Adept level demon for such a long hour, employing some tricks, he even dragged a few Fallen Pseudo-Adepts who had come to ambush him into the battle, and eventually became the final winner who looted everything. To be honest, when such crafty planning and strategy was seen from an Intermediate Apprentice, it clearly showed his amazing ability to control a battlefield.

“You only found these after killing an Adept level demon?” Adept Andre’s eyes kept lingering on the magical book tied to the side of Greem’s waist. It was not until after Greem finally took out a strange looking, fiery red scepter from his storage waist belt, that his expression had relaxed a little bit, “So it is a Fire Lord’s Scepter! Not bad, with your Fire element affinity, currently this scepter is the perfect magical item for you!”

Andre lowered his head and pondered for a brief moment, he then raised his head and said, “I need some magical materials for the experiment I’m working on right now, so, I’ll purchase all your war trophies. And since you’ve risked your life to find all these items, I’ll not seek profit at the expense of a little guy like you. Here are a few items, the value of each is higher than your magical materials. You can pick which one you want for yourself.”

Following a wave of Adept Andre’s hand, though it was mixed with all the other war trophies, the Fairy’s corpse and the fragments of its true form started to fly up into the air by a mysterious force. In an instant, they were thrown into a dark rift that suddenly tore up in midair. After they disappeared, three small bubbles flew out from the dark rift, each of them was holding a bizarre magical item of peculiar design.

One was a narrow-necked flask the size of a human palm, containing a mysterious, light-blue potion.

Another one was a pair of red colored wings. It shone with a cold metal glaze, and a special glow kept circulating on top of it.

The last one was a token engraved with mysterious and complicated patterns, the purpose of which was unknown.

“The value of these three items are not lower than that of your demon corpse. The first one is an ‘Elementary Intelligence Potion’, with the current level of your Spirit, it will increase your Spirit by three points without causing any harm to you. The second item is an Adept level Wing of Flamingo, with a simple transplant operation, you’ll be given the ability to fly freely in the air. And the last one is a Token of Permit, with it, you can visit the World of Deep Red once, a place where you can improve your Fire element affinity.”

Greem’s body shook, his eyes instantly went wide, as he greedily stared at the three peculiar items floating inside of the bubbles. A wild beast was making an uproar in his mind, asking him to pull over all these items and make them his.

Clenching his fist tightly, after put in a huge effort, Greem finally pressed down the restless emotions in his mind. He raised his head and asked with a stammering voice, “Your respectful Master Andre, I... can I chose more than one?”

“You can only pick one! The value of your demon is only worth one.”

Greem fixed his bloodshot eyes on all three items in front of him. Meanwhile, his mind was spinning fast to decide the right choice.

Though the Elementary Intelligence Potion was a good item, it was only effective for apprentices below the Pseudo-Adept grade. Also, using it just to increase Spirit was rather wasteful, as the biggest purpose of it was used to bring enlightenment to one’s intelligence. As the matter of fact, not everyone who lived in the Adept Continent was given the ability to study magic when they born. Even when two official Adepts got married, it was also possible that they would give birth to an ordinary child who had no talent in magic at all. In that situation, the purpose of Elementary Intelligence Potion had come into play.

It could promote an ordinary child into a Beginner Apprentice Adept straightaway. This was the biggest value of it!

The Wings of Flamingo, it was a pretty good assisting magical organ. And best of all, it was an option that brought the least amount of bloodline contamination. After owning it, Greem would have the ability to fly freely in the air.

Also, for this kind of transplanted magical organ, usually it would just be a small bloodline mark that solidified on the body. From the face of it, no one could tell any difference. Only when he recited a simple magic incantation would the magical organ activate and a pair of magical wings would stretch out from his back.

For him, whether for pursuing enemies or for fleeing at high speeds, it was an excellent option!

But, after clenching his jaw tightly and hesitating for some time, Greem eventually stretched his hand towards the third bubble.

Though the first two items were extremely rare and precious, but if he was willing to spend some magic crystals, he could still find them in the market. But for the third item, which would allow him to improve his Fire element affinity, it was something that could hardly be found anywhere else!

The bubble burst, and a cold metal token fell into Greem’s hand.

“Good, very good! The deal is complete, and you can leave now. As for how to use this token, you can go and ask Angus!” Andre waved his hand after finished saying that. In an instant, Greem felt the sky and the earth spinning around. When his mind had finally settled down, he realized he had returned to his own room located on the second floor.

Right beside him, he saw Mary who was sleeping soundly, Snorlax who was struggling in getting on its feet again and the opened bag with glows of gemstones all over the place, the Rose Armor shining brightly, magical bow and the Fire Lord’s Scepter... after a careful counting, none of them was missing. Everything was lying on the floor, emanating its own glow quietly.

Haha, it looked like these items couldn’t enter the eyes of a Second Grade Adept. He was being overly worried previously!

Before Greem returned to the Adept Tower, he had successfully hypnotized himself to forget every single assumption he had made before this, and only made a backup of them in the storage area of the Chip. Now, after leaving the control of that Second Grade Adept, the backup data stored inside the Chip had once again transmitted into his mind, allowing him to remember those memories he had forgotten.

He had no choice, as when faced with a Second Grade Adept, he had to be extremely careful.

Greem carefully placed Mary on the bed, before putting all the gemstones into the bag and tossing it over to Snorlax, asking it to find a way to settle them. As for himself, after putting away those magical items, he turned around and left his room, rushing toward Adept Angus’s residence.

It was hard to describe what kind of strange expression Adept Angus had when he saw the mysterious token. However, after he listened to Greem’s much-varnished explanation, though he still had his brows knitted in a tight frown and felt puzzled, he just couldn’t find anything wrong with it.

Angus dared not show any hesitation with regards to the order from a Second Grade Adept. He stomped his feet lightly, and immediately, a mysterious magical array that covered the entire main hall emerged on the hard rock floor.

“Insert that token into the center of this magical array!” Angus ordered with a low voice.

Only now Greem had noticed that right in the center of this magical array which was entirely made up of element energy, there was a round shaped notch, and the size which perfectly matched the bottom of the mysterious token.

After Greem inserted the token, Angus, while slowly activating the magical array, exhorted Greem with a deep voice, “The place you’re going to visit is the World of Deep Red. It is a small space created inside of an underground volcano by the Adept Tower. A place suitable for those apprentices with Fire element affinity to train. After you arrive there, do not do anything extra, as the place is heavily guarded by numerous magical automatons, also... in a few simple words, just follow everything ‘she’ says!”

Angus’s voice became slightly hesitant at the last few words. Especially when he mentioned ‘she’, his face was filled with a strange mixed expression of envy and hatred.

This had caused a nervous feeling to slowly enter into Greem’s mind.

Could that place have something special or strange?

However, before he could ask any other questions, the magical array had activated. Once again, Greem was forced to go through a violent dizziness that overwhelmed all his senses. Everything in front of his eyes had been stretched out and became a vague image. The space around him would sometimes elongate and sometimes compress – it just looked like a dough that anyone could knead freely.

Greem had no idea how much time had passed.

According to the Chip, the entire process only lasted five seconds. However, Greem himself felt as if it had lasted for one whole day.

When the dizziness brought by the disorientation of space finally faded away, Greem rolled his eyes and leapt out from the magical array, throwing himself onto his knees to retch. Never in his life had he hated this simple space teleportation so much! He didn’t possess the integrated and near materialized Spirit like an official Adept, thus without the protection from the magical array, there was no way he could defend himself from the invasion of the spatial force.

Yet, while he was cursing inwardly, a pair of slim and soft long legs suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. After that, a female’s charming, seductive voice rang into his ears.

“Eh, how come this time it is a handsome boy? I thought that old man Angus has finally come to see me! Handsome boy, what’s your name?”

To his horror, Greem raised his head!