Age of Adepts

From the tall bench, a senator with the head of a rat and the body of a human raised his head. He pushed the gold-framed glasses resting on his nose upwards and looked at Greem quizzically.

"Indeed, sir!" Greem tried to reply as calmly as he could.

The sight of a rat in a silver robe, flat cap, and gold-framed glasses slowly flipping through the pages of a book was enough to make anyone laugh.

But Greem didn’t dare! He really didn’t!

After all, the guy might have looked ludicrous, but he was actually a Third Grade adept!

Moreover, Greem was currently being tried as a criminal. He could very well bring more punishment upon himself with an act of disrespect like that.

"You violated the Space Management laws during your stay in the Castle in the Sky and opened a small spatial wormhole in your attempt to access another plane without prior permission. This act of infringement brought about a certain level of threat and harm to the Castle in the Sky. Do you plead guilty to these claims?" The ratman senator Piro slowly read through the document Randolph had handed over and repeated the crimes written on it.

"Sir, I do not deny my conducting of a spatial experiment against the rules. However, I plead innocent to the claim of my actions endangering the Castle in the Sky!" Greem couldn’t help but laugh at the judicial courts of this world. Still, a lot of benefits were tied up in this trial. He resisted the urge to laugh and use logic to get himself out of this mess.

"Do you have anything to add to Sir Greem’s response?" Piro turned to ask Randolph the Executor.

"Sir, we of the Space Committee are only acting according to the laws of the city. The defense system detected a spatial wormhole. The strength of the spatial flux is estimated to be around XXX dachs. The radius of the wormhole is one meter wide. The target area is a low-magic lesser material plane. The coordinates of the target area are somewhere between star regions 0713 and 0941. As the target area is an unknown star region, there is a possibility of contaminating the city when accessing said plane. This was why we three executors agree that Sir Greem’s irresponsible actions are deserving of a harsh punishment!"

Silver-Robed Executor Randolph’s statement was firmly worded. Greem couldn’t help but roll his eyes all the way back into his head when he heard Randolph speak.

You already detected that the plane on the opposite side of the wormhole was a low-magic plane, yet you worry about an invasion? This was just being illogical!

However, Greem had no choice but to play along with Randolph’s facade. He had to keep the Transportation Tool a secret.

"Sir, I believe Sir Randolph’s accusations are far too assertive. He has no direct evidence to support his claims of..." Greem was still trying to defend himself, but Senator Piro had already banged his gavel against the table.

"Lady Nunnally, the trial today is meant to examine Greem’s act of opening a spatial wormhole without permission. Why are you present here?" Piro turned towards Nunnally.

"Senator, Greem is a guest of the Byron Clan. He has only just obtained a victory for us in the esoteric duels. He came here in a hurry, and we of the Byron Clan didn’t have the time to explain the laws of the city to him. This was why this misunderstanding has occurred. I hope the Union courts can take this into consideration when issuing the punishment. We of the Byron Clan are willing to help him bear the burden of the fine!" Nunnally clearly didn’t want to lose the spacestone.

"But that is a spacestone!" Piro might have looked like an elderly scholar, but he wasn’t a stubborn man stuck in traditions. He let out a wicked grin as he brought up the key factor in this disagreement.

"Sir Greem has committed a crime. If you wish the Silver Union to let this issue slide, you will have to hand over that spacestone. Of course, we won’t be taking it or nothing. We will buy it from you at a price acceptable to both parties. On the other hand, you, Nunnally, shouldn’t try to interfere with this issue any longer. I can use my authority to provide the Byron Clan with 2% of my personal assets. This will be your reward for staying out of this issue. What will it be?" Piro smiled as he shut off Nunnally’s impractical fantasies of getting the spacestone.

She hesitated for a moment before accepting. She had no other option when confronted by this pushy senator.

Frankly, Greem’s opinion didn’t matter all that much now!

All he could do was request a larger compensation to minimize his losses.

"Speak, brat!" Pirot also seemed to be extremely satisfied by this unexpected harvest. He was in a very good mood, "What do you want as compensation?"

Losing the spacestone was well within Greem’s expectations. He put up an extremely upset and heartbroken expression as he quickly thought of the compensation.

"Sir, I am personally interested in magical golems. I came here to the City in the Sky to gather more knowledge regarding magical golems as well as to collect the resources needed to craft such golems. I also happen to be extremely interested in golem talismans..." Greem spoke while keeping a close eye on Piro’s expressions.

Negotiations often depended on the opponent’s bottom line. If he asked for too little it would be a great loss of the spacestone. Ask for too much and he might cause Piro to become upset. This was why Greem stopped speaking after mentioning the golem talisman. He could already see Piro’s thin whiskers trembling at the very mention of the magical tool.

"Golem knowledge, resources, and a golem talisman... " The senator frowned as he considered, but he soon gave a reluctant nod, "We cannot provide you with the classified high-class knowledge from the Union, but we can provide you with knowledge on the more common and generic magical golems.

“Resources, on the other hand! I can provide you with a set of resources from our reserves. It should be enough for you to craft a total of twenty magical golems. You can choose the specific materials you want.

“Golem talismans... this is the most troublesome request.

“The Union forbids us from selling this strategic resource to non-Union members. That said, I do have a crude product from earlier times that does not fall within the boundaries of the Union’s laws. I can give this talisman to you...

“Of course, that is if your spacestone is worth this much!"

Piro stroked his whiskers as he told Greem of his offer, but his eyes were already fixated on the spacestone in Greem’s hand.

Its size, its quality...

Piro’s pointy face quivered as he grabbed the spacestone. He conjured up several clouds of black smoke and struck them into the spacestone to ascertain its attributes. An expression of surprise and joy appeared on his face after a short inspection.

It seemed that the quality of the spacestone was far above his expectations!

"Randolph, bring him to my adept’s tower. Give him the knowledge and resources I mentioned. He can pick what he wants. Also, brat, this is yours now!"

A crystal talisman shaped into a brooch was thrown to Greem’s hands.

A golem talisman!

This was a golem talisman!

Greem suppressed his excitement and quickly put away the golem talisman. He bowed and paid his respects to Piro before following Randolph out of the court. He could tell that Randolph had some sort of special relationship with Piro. Otherwise, Piro wouldn’t have specially ordered Randolph to be the one to lead Greem to the tower.

Moreover, there were over twelve courts surrounding the circular hall, with four other Third Grade senators in the courts. Yet Randolph had specifically brought Greem to Piro’s court. Greem wouldn’t have believed it if there wasn’t some sort of nepotism involved in this.

............

Piro’s adept’s tower was located in the Central Circle.

A golem butler was already waiting on Greem and Nunnally when they arrived at the tower.

Nunnally was smart enough to wait outside with Randolph. Only Greem went into the tower following the butler’s lead.

Perhaps because Piro didn’t want Greem to have any chance of seeing through the secrets in his tower, an electric fence appeared in front of Greem immediately after he entered the tower. The electric fence split the insides of the tower into several different paths. A short-distance transportation array stood at the end of each path.

The golem butler walked down a path of its own discretion. Greem had no choice but to follow behind.

When the light of the array finally faded, Greem found himself in a grand and massive private library. Countless books, scrolls, and parchments were arranged on the rows of bookshelves that lined the walls of the circular room.

Most of the books flowed with the brilliance of magical protections. They appeared to be connected to the defense system of the library itself. Numerous odd fairies wove around the shelves. They seemed to be performing maintenance and management on the books.

Naturally, these fairies weren’t living beings either. They were living golems that had been created with the use of some unknown unique material.

"The master wants a set of generic Second Grade golem knowledge prepared for this person." The golem butler’s voice was metallic and mechanical, but the words were clearly pronounced.

The roomful of fairies instantly started to flutter about upon receiving their orders. They quickly flew from shelf to shelf and picked out books with their slender arms.

Soon, a two-meter-tall and three-meter-wide mountain of books piled up before Greem.