Age of Adepts

With her tough, tensile skin and poisonous sharp claws, and her army of subordinates, Sinbad was capable of fighting on par with a Giant Alligator. Her deadly teeth and claws could easily tear apart half-inch thick armor, and just by touching an enemy’s flesh, the poison hidden in her pitch-black nails could instantly paralyze most living beings.

But, just like most of the other demons who lived in this swamp, she didn’t have any good long-ranged attacks. The Ray of Enfeeblement and Sleep Spell were very short ranged attacks, and could hardly penetrate basic defensive spells. Therefore, when she was faced with Alice, who could fly and attack from long range, although Sinbad’s overall attributes were suppressing this little girl’s, her lack of a long-range offensive skill made her unable to fight back.

Having fear toward the enemy’s traceless magical spell, Sinbad tapped her feet against the beast beneath her, and the Giant Lizard immediately dived back into the muddy water, leaving only Sinbad’s head on the surface. She viciously glared at Alice, yet showed no signs of backing off.

Alice furiously unleashed all her attacks, but Sinbad, who had hidden most of her body underwater, managed to dodge all of them. After all, Alice’s body movements were too obvious. As long as one paid attention, and moved away from the target area on time, it was actually pretty easy to dodge her spatial attack.

Even after striking at the Ghost Nanny Leader many times, Alice’s hands still only contained muddy water, which only made her even more upset. In her fury, she ripped eight noxious rotting brains out of some of the weaker Ghost Nannies, who were just standing around, causing the rest of them to panic and immediately dive down towards the bottom of the muddy water. Soon, only Alice and Sinbad were left in this large swampy area.

After furiously venting her anger, Alice took a moment to ponder her weakness.

Indeed, her Spatial Spells were mysterious and powerful, but they were all single target offensive skills, with the exception of her last ditch space crack ability, she had no large area of effect spells to speak of. Although she was nigh invincible when in 1-on-1 battles with Apprentice Adepts of a similar level, but when she was met with her current situation, her ability fell short of her wishes.

If she had mastered a Magma Fireball spell, she would be able to turn this stinking pool into a huge pot of boiling water in a few seconds, cooking all the foul demons that were hiding inside. But, because of her passion toward, and confidence in, her Spatial Spells, she refused to study or research any of those ‘simple’ Elementium Spells.

As the result, there was nothing she could do in her current situation. She actually felt helpless about how she would handle that evil Ghost Nanny Leader, who refused to get out of her way.

If her muscular partner was here, perhaps with the advantage of his bulky and strong body, he would be able to brutally break into the nest of this Ghost Nanny Leader. But Alice was a long-range Apprentice Adept with a weak Physique. Once she was trapped in a close fight with a multitude of Ghost Nannies, she had no confidence that she would be able to escape from this place in one piece.

However, she had decided that she was going to capture or kill the weird beginner apprentice who could see through her spells today. After a short moment of hesitation, she unleashed her spatial Protection Barrier. Then, like a shooting star, she simply threw herself into the muddy water.

Apparently, Sinbad never expected this little human Lolita who had lost one of her eyes would be so courageous. She quickly controlled the Giant Lizard and dived deeper into the water, letting out a weird and ultra high-frequency sound from her mouth, and calling all her subordinates to help.

The muddy water started to roll, as the stinking water began flowing violently. The calm swamp pond immediately started boiling like hot water.

Numerous moving object could be seen swimming crazily toward Alice. Those objects were actually Giant Lizards kept by Ghost Nanny. They were over 5 meters long and covered in a layer of tough scales. Aside from their sharp claws, they could shoot out a Petrification Beam at a target within 5 to 10 meters. Also, one after another, Ghost Nannies could be seen swimming down into in the stinking water, restlessly attacking this valiant intruder who attacked their home.

Under the surface of this stinking pond, where human vision was reduced to nothing, Alice was fully covered in an indestructible Protection Barrier. Her remaining eye was flashing with hatred as she used her unique spell to slaughter every single approaching enemy she could sense.

There were plenty of spells that would allow her to regenerate her eye that the scorpions had torn out, but she just couldn’t swallow her anger from receiving such a wound in the first place. Although it was that hateful bug man who did this to her, the real culprit was this weird low-grade Apprentice who had led her to this accursed stinking pond.

No matter whether it was some innate ability of his, or some kind of magical spell that allowed him to sense the spatial energy, there was no way that Alice could let this leak out to the public. If her enemies learned of this, the reputation Alice had made for herself would be at risk.

Following the eruption of a bloody and chaotic war under the muddy pond, the entire swampy area had turned into a fierce battlefield. Yet, the culprit of all this, Beginner Apprentice Greem, was currently having his petrified body being dragged into the nest of the Ghost Nannies.

After the fight began, the four Ghost Nannies had dragged the completely petrified Greem to the bottom of the pond. Then they dug a hole in the stinking and filthy mud, revealing an underwater tunnel. With Greem dragging behind them, they squeezed into the hole. The tunnel was filled with a sticky, pungent mud, but that didn’t slow down their speed at all.

They swam straight for a couple of meters, then upward. Soon, they burst to the surface of the water, revealing themselves to be in a damp tunnel under the swamp. Right when these demons started crawling forward, dragging Greem through this dark, damp tunnel, they heard the dulled and hoarse roar of Sinbad from the swamp above them.

The intense battle had caused Sinbad to start roaring furiously, calling all the Ghost Nannies in the entire area to aid her. Her voice was so loud it even made the tunnel walls vibrate violently.

Because of their hot tempers and low intelligence, the two Ghost Nannies following behind Greem became restlessness and let out a few short cries, quickly turning around and diving back into the mud. Obviously, both of them were answering the call of their leader and going out to fight the enemy. As for the other two Ghost Nannies, they too let out angry cries, but could only hold back their desire for the fight and continue their task of dragging Greem along the tunnel.

This muddy swamp pond was a home for the Ghost Nannies. They could soak themselves in the stinking mud and water, year in and year out, waiting for their prey to come. But, undeniably, they too needed a place to store the things they considered as treasures. Rotten and stinking dried meat, worn-out leather armor, weapons that showed a lack of maintenance and were full of rust, and the stinking roots of plants that they had harvested...

If these items were placed left in the fetid swamp water they lived in, they would quickly rot away into nothingness, so Sinbad dug out a horizontal tunnel beneath the bottom of her swamp, drilling out to place far from the wet swamp and making a relatively drier cave to store things in.

And now, the petrified Greem was being escorted to this cave.

Although his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were covered by sticky mud, and his body was as hard as a stone statue, Greem’s mind was still functioning as it did before. He was still able to sense everything that was happening around him.

It seemed that those two monsters had finally started to fight!

Through the indistinct vibrations and roars coming from above, Greem could imagine how intense and bloody the fight was. Although the army led by Sinbad far outnumbered her enemy, and they were fighting in their own territory, Greem still didn’t think they could defeat that frightening little Lolita.

Having mastered no Elementium Spells and only fighting with their tough bodies, when facing with Alice’s nigh invincible Protection Barrier, their fighting ability was a joke. As long as they couldn’t find the hidden ‘back door’ of the Protection Barrier, even if they kept attacking until their heart and lungs gave out, they could never break through that Protection Barrier.

Unless they could force Alice to use up all her Spirit Points, they would surely lose the battle. Hence, while they were busy fighting amongst each other, Greem should do his best to escape from the place.

Although Greem’s body had become petrified and couldn’t move the slightest bit, he was still capable of manipulating his Spirit Energy. Reaching out with his spirit energy, he undid the stopper on the little bottle hiding in his mouth, disgorging a spicy and strong potion, which quickly flowed down his throat and arrived at his stomach.

After many years of inspection trips around the Tower’s perimeter, Greem knew the in’s and out’s of the abilities of the swamp demons. Would he really go on inspection trips without preparing himself for the possibility of being inflicted with a strange status? This ‘Freedom of Movement’ potion was an item he paid a high price for and bought from another Apprentice Adept of the Tower. It was effective in removing Petrification and Paralysis of any type.

After the potion starting to take effect, a tickling sensation gradually spread across Greem’s rigid body, and his body slowly returned to his control.

After being dragged for nearly a hundred meters, they finally arrived at a rather dry cave with a good bit of flat ground. A moldy smell filled the narrow cave and nearly made Greem suffocate.

After throwing Greem into a pile of messily placed objects, the two Ghost Nannies started to yell and roar at each other. It seems like they were arguing about whether they should go and help in the battle or stayed here to guard their ‘food’. But, right when both of them were busy arguing, two crackling noises sparked up behind them. It was the sound of two fist-size Elementium Fireballs coming to life.

The two Ghost Nannies were startled for a moment. Then they noticed the petrified human had stood up, and there were two small fireballs dancing in his palms.

Possessing only basic intelligence, these Ghost Nannies had no idea what was going on, but when they sensed the fresh smell of flesh and blood, they immediately let out aggressive roars and leaped toward Greem.

In the next instant, the two small fireballs exploded and turned into two blazing flames, burning their way toward two Ghost Nannies. Both parties brushed past each other, with Greem soon falling on the floor, panting for breath. His shirt was torn, a four frighteningly deep wounds could be found on his chest.

On the other side, the two Ghost Nannies continued on their way and slammed into the dirt wall behind Greem. Smoothly controlled by Greem, the two burning flames traveled through their huge mouth, and burned off anything that contained in their heads. As a result, both of Ghost Nannies died.

The air was thin in this cave, and it was only made thinner after being burned off by the Fire that had just happened. Greem was gasping for breath for quite some time.

Stars were dancing in front of Greem’s eyes, and he felt really unwell. He didn’t felt any pain coming from the wounds caused by the Ghost Nannies, but instead felt a strange tickling sensation. This made Greem’s heart sink. Damn it, he had been poisoned by the Ghost Nannies attack!

He searched around on his person, found a bottle of antidote, and poured it into his mouth. Only now did Greem let himself calm down.

He held his breath in deep concentration and listened to the violent vibrations coming from the tunnel. This was a sign that the battle wasn’t over yet, and he still had a chance to escape, so Greem set his mind to rest and gathered his courage. Then he began examining the nest of the Ghost Nannies.