Age of Adepts

Though their minds were filled with worries, the return journey back to the Adept Tower had gone rather smoothly.

After Greem used a secret magic word to disperse the huge Wind Elementium body of Lightning Giant, within the blink of an eye, the massive monster simply turned back into seven crystal clear, dazzling magical cores.

Before Greem could put them all away, Mary had leapt forward and placed them in her palms, giving them a good fondle and careful examination, while showing a look of great affection. After some time, as if just looking at them wasn’t enough to express her love, Mary actually brought the primary core to her face and kept stroking it gently, quietly feeling the slight tingling sensations caused by the tiny electricity sparks on her face.

Ugh... looking at this scene, Greem couldn’t help but feel helpless, as some black lines appeared on his forehead.

Come on, though these cores looked beautiful and glittery like some pure and magnificent objects, they were actually a fighting Golem that killed without blinking its eyes! After Mary had witnessed the savage and brutal performance of the Golem, she actually showed great attachment to it. This... Greem couldn’t help but sigh with mixed emotions, telling himself that most of the people who took the path of an Adept were those who had some sort of weird mentalities.

Suppressing the complaints he had in his mind, Greem finally took back his number one Golem from Mary’s hand. At the same time, he tossed a blood-colored crystal over to her. With Rock Snake’s ability to control Earth Elementium, it wasn’t too big an issue to filter out blood mixed with the dirt. His only hope was that after losing such a huge amount of blood, Toril wouldn’t have his overall strength drop too much, or else, for no reason, Greem would have to face another deadlier enemy in future.

Even after such a violent battle, all the summoning cores of Lightning Giant were still intact, but the summoning core of Rock Snake had suffered a lot of damage, which was the result of getting an Advanced Apprentice level Rock Snake to risk its life to pin down a formidable Bloodline Pseudo-Adept. After Greem dispersed the Golem’s body, only then had he realized that the Elementium on this summoning core was in a state of disorder and the magical energy was leaking uncontrollably. It simply looked as if it couldn’t be used anymore.

Greem took some time and examined it thoroughly. When the Chip finally confirmed this summoning core could no longer be repaired, he had no choice but to put it away regretfully.

And after tidying up themselves at the edge of the mountain range, both of them finally returned to the Adept Tower stealthily. However, as they were about to step into the main entrance of the Adept Tower, the two rock ghost statues placed on either side of the entrance suddenly moved.

Following a creaking noise produced by their movements, the rock ghost statue on the left, while maintaining their standing position on top of the tall rock platform, leaned forward and laboriously moved its rock eyes to stare into Greem’s face.

“Hey, little guy, the enforcer, Master Angus asked you to pay him a visit at his residence.”

After saying that, it retracted its body and once again resumed its original leaping posture – motionless and noiseless.

Greem was suddenly startled.

During his stay in this place, he had passed by this entrance many times and every time he would see this pair of rock ghost statues guarding the entrance. But, he never thought they were actually automatons. Not only that, they were... Adept level automatons.

It looked like this seemingly defenseless public Adept Tower wasn’t as fragile as he had initially thought!

Therefore, the journey that followed was a terrifying one that made his hair stand on end. Wherever Greem and Mary seemed to go, no matter if it was those lifeless statues or the shepherdess in the oil painting that hung on the corridor wall, they all had become alive and continuously repeated the same words.

“Quickly pay a visit to Adept Angus!”

With regards to these repeating messages, if both of them still had no clue that they were being watched by Adept Angus, then they really were idiots. But this also struck fear into their minds, because they weren’t able to tell what kind of method Adept Angus was using to watch them.

Hence, immersed in the oppressive atmosphere, both of them soon arrived at Adept Angus’s residence which was located on the fifth floor of the Adept Tower.

Adept Angus met with them in his laboratory.

Compared to their imagination, this place didn’t look as frightening, ghastly and filled with blood a they as they had fantasized. It was a clean and tidy private laboratory of an official Adept; the entire place was brightly lit and looked rather like an advanced laboratory. However, from the many jars that were placed around the laboratory, Greem could sense a dazzling red glow. From the living and kicking tiny creatures to the magical organs, all of them emanated a strong aura of energy.

And clearly, Adept Angus was in the middle of concocting some kind of special potion, as the table in front of him was fully covered with small bottles and test tubes of different shapes. When the both of them have arrived at the laboratory, Angus was seen gently shaking a test tube in his hand, and from time to time, he would bring it in front of his eyes to give it a careful examination.

A mysterious, azure potion was contained in the test tube. Every time Angus shook the test tube, there would be countless tiny bubbles bursting out from the azure potion, and transforming into all sorts of marine creatures. Sometimes it was a mermaid riding on a seahorse, sometimes it was a magical Narwhal flipping its tail and swimming around or sometimes it was a swarm of Silver Swordfish leaping and chasing each other around... In short, whenever he shook the test tube, they would transform into another creature, giving it a touch of bizarreness and mystery.

Mary always had little resistance to something as peculiar as this, but since they were in the laboratory of an official Adept, she just couldn’t act as recklessly as she usually did. Thus, she could only throw her question to Greem using the movement of her lips. Perhaps Mary’s rank was way beyond that of Greem’s, but in terms of magical knowledge and their application in real life, Greem could defeat her easily.

The blood of a deep sea mermaid!

Likewise, Greem replied her question moving just his lips. Only the blood of those deep sea mermaids who lived in the deepest area of the ocean could have such a unique illusive effect. That’s right, what they saw just now was not real, but just the illusionary force ignited by the shaking of the azure colored blood.

After a long time, Adept Angus finally put down the test tube in his hand and turned around to stare at both his visitors.

“Moments ago, the leader of Wharton family lodged a complaint. He thinks your reckless behavior has seriously damaged the honor of their family and asked me to hand you over to them. So, tell me, should I listen to his request?”

Mary frowned, as she had no idea how to answer this question. She tilted her head and threw her gaze over to Greem and hinted at him to answer the question.

Greem smiled and bowed deeply, saying, “Your respectful Master Angus, to my knowledge, the leader of Wharton family is just an ordinary human! How can a mere mortal with no special status give you an order? If they really wanted me and Mary to atone for our mistakes with our life, then the Master Adept behind the family will definitely give out his order personally.”

Adept Angus narrowed his eyes, staring at the duo with a tilted glance.

Vampire + Golem Controller!

And that too, they were an Advanced Apprentice level Vampire and Intermediate Apprentice level Golem Controller!

But there was one thing surprised him – this team was actually headed by the Intermediate Apprentice who was much weaker!

Could it be because of the excellent potential of Golem Controller put out by this kid or was there another reason? Or else, why else would that little girl, who was an Advanced Apprentice level Vampire, be willing to give up her authority between them?

After all, not one of the apprentices who took upon the path of Adept had a kind heart. Instead, their mind was completely filled with arrogance and pride. They were just a group of self-centering people with wild ambitions. It would be absurd if they had willingly treated weaker peers with modesty and an amiable attitude.

As the result, when any Adept had the need to team up with someone else, the team would usually be headed by the strongest amongst them, while the rest of the team members obeyed all his commands. This situation was even more obvious amongst the Apprentice Adepts. Therefore, Angus showed great interest in the duo in front of him.

“Kid, being a good talker is useless. The man you provoked this time was Toril, the member of Wharton family who has the highest chance of becoming an official Adept. I heard that because of your willful action, the time for that guy to become an official Adept was pushed back by three years! Hahaha... now all the members of Wharton family are showering in flames of anger and they are searching for you two everywhere. Perhaps, once you two leave this place, there will be a large group of people waiting for you outside, wanting to capture you and exchange you for a reward!” A treacherous smile emerged on Adept Angus’s face.

Greem’s heart began to race, as he felt helpless about their current situation.

If that Wharton family was really as aggressive as Adept Angus described, perhaps before both of them could even enter the Adept Tower, they would have already been captured. Since Adept Angus said it like that, based on the strong implication of a warning in his words, perhaps he was just intimidating them and forcing them into a trap. Facing the intimidation of an official Adept, what options did these two little Apprentice Adepts have?

“Your respectful Master Angus, Mary and I are just two mere Apprentice Adepts, naturally, we’re willing to follow anything you say. I wonder is there anything we can offer you our services for?”

Seeing as Greem had behaved as he had expected, Adept Angus let out a satisfied smile.

“Show me your Golem!”

Without saying another word, Greem presented the summoning cores respectfully with both hands.

Using his fingers, he pinched each core a few times and gave them all an examining glance; the smile on Angus’s face grew stronger.

“It looks like they were all personally crafted by you!”

“Yes!”

“If you’re given with three years, can you become an official Adept?” Adept Angus suddenly changed the topic.

“Ah...” Greem was dumbstruck and didn’t know what to say. Even Mary couldn’t control herself, as her eyes went wide.

“There is nothing to feel surprised about! Because I can only protect you for three years. If that Toril becomes an official Adept before you, then I have no reason to stop him from seeking his revenge. As for the complaints coming from his family, they won’t affect me at all. After all, you defeated him in a fair match. If a defeat like that causes the family to jump onto their feet, then the Wharton family will have lost all face completely. But...”

“Mary and I are willing to pay any price in exchange for your protection, is there anything we can do for you?”

“Hahaha... talking to a smart kid like you really saves me a lot of trouble. Here, this is a magical contract, I want both of you to sign your name on it! Don’t worry, with your current overall strength, I don’t need anything from you. Once you’ve signed the contract, it also means you have signed a contract with my family, the Byron family. With that, I can use the name of the Byron family and provide you with three years of protection and spare you from the retaliation and harassment of the Wharton family.”

“What do I need to do in exchange for the protection?”

“You need to become an official Adept in three years. After that, you have to represent the Byron family and participate in a competition. A competition that only Titan Controllers, Golem Controllers and Automaton Controllers can participate in.”

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