Age of Adepts

Perhaps because of his identity as a goblin, Snorlax didn’t receive too much planar suppression. He shook his head once upon arriving and instantly got acclimated to the planar laws here.

Adept Meryl had also accompanied him in traveling to the Goblin Plane.

As a strong supporter of Greem, Meryl couldn’t wait to participate in the first planar invasion her teacher had launched. Sadly, she was genuinely unsuited for combat. That was why Greem only decided to teleport her here after the battle had been mostly decided.

The first thing that Meryl and Snorlax saw upon arriving was the boundless fields, the blue skies, and the white clouds.

The location of the teleportation was set at the balcony of the goblin castle. As such, the both of them saw a group of individuals casually chatting with wine glasses in their hands the moment they turned around.

Two deck chairs had already been prepared for Meryl and Snorlax.

Meryl fell limply to the ground the moment she arrived. She couldn’t even greet the other adepts. It took her a long time resting on the soft deck chair to get used to that intolerable planar suppression.

In stark contrast to Meryl was Snorlax.

He had held his head for a short while, and the daze quickly passed. In fact, he could start chatting with the other people while drinking wine in less than seven minutes.

The servants who were passing wine and desserts to the adepts were all goblins. It was apparent that they had all undergone strict etiquette training and lessons on service. Every one of their actions and movements was elegant and uniform.

There were even five goblin musicians in the corner of the balcony, performing a pleasant tune for the adepts. The instruments they played were entirely different from those of the World of the Adepts. They possessed the style of the goblins.

Snorlax’s heart was relieved when he saw the scene before him.

The adepts must have been doing well, given how publicly they were showing themselves before these adepts. At the very least, they were in no danger!

The first thing to be done with the arrival of the newcomers was the exchange of information.

Meryl and Snorlax heard about the fearsome battles that had happened in the Goblin Plane through Greem. Greem had already tried his best to be brief. There were no embellishments or exaggerations in his story, yet the story he told was still enough to shock and awe Snorlax and Meryl.

The goblin magical machine army, flying ships, the Steel Capital, the immortality ritual, a Third Grade dragon, giant brain, space furnace...

Such mysterious and wondrous things had all appeared in the span of a single month. Moreover, all of these things were closely related to the adepts themselves. Such bizarre and unimaginable stories would only have appeared in the stories of the mortal world in the past. But now, they had become part of the legend of the adepts present here.

For the first time, Meryl had also become interested in planar invasions.

Sneaking alone into an unvisited plane. Hiding from the search of powerful native creatures in damp swamps and dark forests. Fighting the natives to the death in harsh environments when they ran into each other.

Win, continue to run and proceed to write your own legend. Lose, and you would fall into a world that was not your own. Even your head and body might become part of a personal collection for the natives to brag about.

Collect sufficient knowledge about the other world as you escape, and in doing so, discover the weakness of the enemies and learn to exploit it. Even a weak adept could kill an otherworldly lifeform far stronger than them through such means.

When the strongest lifeforms or organizations of the plane had been defeated, the invading adepts could naturally become the rulers, doing as they pleased with the resources and wealth within it.

Meryl fantasized as she listened to her teacher’s stories.

In her childlike mind, she had entered numerous foreign planes and crushed them all beneath her foot. She imagined titles and emblems of ’Plane Conqueror’ being bestowed upon her, allowing her to become the spotlight at every adept banquet, becoming the target of envy and jealousy of all other adepts.

Even a calm and discreet adept like Meryl couldn’t help but feel herself getting excited when she thought of such a scene.

She knew her limits, and her flaws made such a dream impossible to be realized. But, she was still an adept after all!

The desire to succeed, the desire to be recognized, the desire to obtain victory after victory; this had almost become second nature etched into the bones of every adept. It had nothing to do with one’s ability.

Snorlax’s mind had also gone into the clouds while Adept Meryl’s mind was wandering in her dreams.

The goblin maids surrounding him now were all so pretty and beautiful. Their bodies were so curvaceous and slim. It caused Snorlax’s hormones that had been thirsting for several decades to go straight through the roof, reaching all the way into the clouds. It hovered high up there and didn’t seem like it would be coming down any time soon.

Most human adepts would not be able to differentiate which of these goblins were male and which were female. That was why it was even more of a futile effort to expect them to make a judgment of their beauty.

With a human’s standards, these goblin maids that were sending Snorlax into paradise were all extremely ugly. Stout bodies, round waists, green skin, mouths as large as melons, and those big yellow teeth...

In particular, these goblin maids had thick black hair growing on their heads, beneath their armpits, and on their feet. It utterly disgusted the few human adepts present here. If it wasn’t because they knew these maids were a form of ’goodwill’ sent by Tigule to appeal to them, the adepts might have suspected Tigule had done so to disgust them intentionally.

The adepts might be disgusted with these maids, but Snorlax was not.

Truthfully, in Snorlax’s eyes, these goblin maids were much prettier than the few female adepts. He had never understood why his master could tolerate being intimate with such ugly female adepts.

Fortunately for Snorlax, Mary didn’t possess any mind-reading abilities. Otherwise, today would be his funeral!

Greem also received information about the situation in Fire Throne from Snorlax and Meryl.

Greem had kept a very tight hold on the flow of information. As such, the disappearance of the adepts here had been attributed to an expedition to somewhere in the World of Adepts.

One or two adepts missing was not a problem. However, if a large group of the core adepts in Greem’s faction vanished from the tower, it would attract the suspicions of his enemies. If Greem managed his time well enough, his enemies couldn’t do much even if the tower’s strength was temporarily emptied.

However, things were bound to change, and incidences were likely to happen if things dragged on for too long.

The invasion had already gone on for one month and three days if they had started counting since Billis’ teleportation to the Goblin Plane. Greem estimated he still had ten to fifteen days worth of time to maneuver around. The chances of something happening to Fire Throne would increase exponentially if he couldn’t settle the matter of the Goblin Plane by then.

Meryl woke up from her daze after a while and realized that someone was missing from the adepts present in the room.

"Where’s Sabrina? Is she out on a mission?" Meryl asked in surprise.

Greem didn’t answer. He only shook his head dejectedly.

Meryl instantly understood what he meant.

Mechanical Adept Sabrina had died!

This unexpected news shocked Meryl beyond words.

Even though Sabrina had been a few decades later than her in advancing to adept, a single Sabrina was strong enough of a mechanical adept to fight off three to four of herself.

Such a powerful adept in her eyes had silently fallen in this insignificant Goblin Plane. This...how...how could this not make someone sigh in exasperation?!

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

The war of the Goblin Plane had already concluded.

The ancient Royal Family lost all confidence and ability to continue fighting with the adepts once news of Gazlowe’s loss reached them.

Moreover, the plague seeds that Greem had planted all over the plane had also started reproducing en masse. The number of infected goblins had reached 4.7 million. That was more than two-fifths of the total goblin population.

Few of these infected goblins would survive if a fight broke out between the goblins and the adepts.

Moreover, Tigule had personally described the strength of the adepts upon returning. That made the stale and decaying Royal Family incapable of finding the will to fight back.

After all, these adepts could even defeat a Third Grade thunder dragon from another plane. What were they, with their weak powers and abilities, supposed to fight the adepts with?

If Gazlowe were still alive, if the metal ore reserves they had in the Steel Capital still existed, these goblins would not hesitate to fight the invaders to the death, even if it meant the collapse of their world. However, now the thousands of years of ores reserves of the Goblin Empire and all their special alloy materials were buried deep under the collapsed mountain along with the Steel Capital itself.

Even if they wanted to resist the adepts, what were they supposed to use to do so?

Without noticing it, all the goblins had lost their previous courage and bravery. Plenty of voices requesting cooperation with the adepts and starting a joint excavation of the Goblin Plane began to emerge among the citizens.

Of course, this was no more than a fig leaf that the goblins were using to hide the last bit of face they still had.

The positions between the adepts and the goblins had unknowingly changed when the Goblin Empire lowered their heads to the adepts for the first time.

The Goblin Empire still retained their lands and their legitimate rule, but their crown had been branded with the mark of the adepts.

The rule of the plane naturally fell into the hands of the adepts!

Or more accurately, into the hands of Greem.