Age of Adepts

This news was only spread to the higher-ups of the Crimson Clan. The outside world had no idea of this.

As for the purpose of this seclusion, only a few people knew of it.

This seclusion took up eight years.

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

“Lady Mary is back!”

“Lady Mary is back!”

The announcement quickly spread throughout the adept’s tower.

The apprentices who stayed in the tower for personal matters rushed out of their rooms and respectfully bowed before the beautiful lady.

“Welcome back, Lady Mary.” Sentences like those rang out, filling the tower.

Mary couldn’t be bothered by the greetings and swaggered down the line of people.

Eight years was already a very long time for an ordinary person.

However, it was no more than the time required for a large-scale experiment for high-grade adepts.

Thus, eight years had passed, and Mary’s appearance had almost not changed at all.

If one had to pick out something different, it would be that she was now more mature and more beautiful!

Her skin was as flawless and white as jade, and her silk-like crimson hair rained down her back, swaying along with her seductive steps.

Her face was delicate and perfect, two glowing crimson eyes embedded above. From a distance, they looked as crystalline as an ideal pair of rubies. The corners of her eyes tilted upward slightly, and a faint smile always hung on her rose-like lips.

She wore bright red body-tight leather armor with skintight leather pants beneath. A green belt complimented her figure and drew out her slender waist.

Those shocking curves and that beautiful skin were maddening to all that saw her!

Anyone who beheld her for the first time would think of her as a pretty girl of no more than eighteen or nineteen. Who would ever have imagined that this was a vicious vampire adept who could kill without batting an eye and who had slaughtered thousands in another world!

Trailing along behind her were the most popular group in the Crimson Clan– the Rouge Corps.

At the very front and right behind Mary was the girl with somewhat mysterious origins, Emelia.

In just eight years, Emelia had grown into a young and attractive girl. Her slightly curled green hair rested on her shoulders, and she wore a strange robe woven from green vines. There was a short magic wand radiating green light in her hand as well. She had a light smile on her face, and her eyes were wandering from person to person in the crowd.

Her power was now at peak First Grade!

It was obvious that Emelia had won Mary’s favor over the past few years, which was why she now stood at the very front of the Rouge Corps. Behind Emelia were seven female blood elves.

They all had slender figures, sharp ears, delicate faces, and seductive figures. Their most apparent trait were those crimson eyes, adding a tint of evil charm and a hint of killing intent to their beauty!

These blood elves were commonly at First and Second Grade. They consisted of fighters of various classes from warriors, to spellcasters, to healers and archers. They had become powerful subordinates of Mary during battles outside.

Everyone loved to look at pretty girls, not to mention the Rouge Corps, who were both lovely and powerful. All the apprentices of Fire Throne surged out of their rooms and welcomed Lady Mary’s return with their most sincere and warm applause.

The Crimson Clan’s influence had seeped throughout every corner of Ailovis during this time.

With the immense pressure from Second Grade Bug Adept Lord Billis, three small adept organizations already had their legacies cut off and had no choice but to join the Crimson Clan. If it weren’t for the Zhentarim Association suppressing the Crimson Clan and preventing them from expanding as they liked, the entirety of Ailovis would probably be the Crimson Clan’s territory now. There would no longer be any voices of discord and any ‘trash’ that stood in their way!

Bug Adept Billis expanded the clan’s land in Ailovis, while Mary chose to bring her vampire army to go slack off in Lance.

In just three years, Brain Monster Gazlowe had managed to construct a new metal city in a new area– The Capital of Eternity.

To avoid this city from falling to the aerial attacks of dragonflights like the last one, Gazlowe had madly strengthened its defensive functions with no regard for the cost.

It had a shell with a magical alloy that was three meters thick, along with five giant magic energy cannons and over a thousand regular magic energy cannons. If one were to take into consideration the seventy thousand magical machines stored within the fortress, a dragonflight would have to pay an immense price to break through. It was a price so hefty that even a Fourth Grade dragon would cry at the thought of it.

After the Capital of Eternity was constructed, Mary, Zacha, and Tigule became frequent guests of the place.

While Greem was in seclusion, Mary, Zacha, and Tigule had been leading a dragonslaying party around. They robbed quite a lot of dragons, slaughtering and capturing the First and Second Grade dragons that were alone. Dragon Devourer Oliven had also come after hearing the news. She became the most hidden dagger in the group.

In these eight years, two Third Grade witches had also taken magical crystals out of their pouches to come to the Capital of Eternity and use the most violent methods possible to abduct two Third Grade dragons. The Crimson Clan had gotten a million and two hundred thousand magical crystals from this trade, along with two dragon lairs containing all sorts of treasures and resources.

Of course, the increasingly rampant activity of the Crimson Clan once again drew the alarm of the dragon lords. Three years after the Capital of Eternity was constructed, a large dragonflight led by five Third Grade dragons once again attacked en masse.

The result of this battle shocked the dragons immensely!

Two of the five Third Grade dragons were injured and forced to escape. Meanwhile, the other dragons either ran or were captured by the enemy. It was an utter defeat for the dragons.

The presence of the two magic generator furnaces provided an unlimited supply of magical energy to the one thousand magic energy cannons, turning the skies of the Capital into a no-fly zone. Meanwhile, the giant magic energy cannons that were practically a full-force attack from a Third Grade powerhouse heavily injured the attacking dragons.

The two wounded Third Grade dragons had been injured by these giant cannons!

As these magic energy cannons took a long time to charge up–and an even longer time to cool down–Gazlowe had no choice but to create five of them. When the dragonflight invaded, he used the magic energy cannons to bombard from a distance. The giant magic energy cannons could be reserved for continuous attacks at a close range.

A wild flurry of untrained yet powerful blows could even kill a trained master of the martial arts!

Such an indestructible metal city combined with the overwhelming firepower defense immediately caused the dragonflight to run into a wall and face defeat in front of the giant cannons.

In this battle, the Crimson Clan obtained seven dragons, one of which was a Second Grade!

No one knew if it was the goddess of fortune possessing her or the Second Grade dragon being extremely unfortunate, but Mary managed to Embrace the Second Grade dragon on the very first try. She had turned it into a Blood Dragon.

This way, apart from two Second Grade blood knights and three Second Grade blood elves beneath Mary, she now also had a Second Grade blood dragon. It turned her vampire army into the largest force in the Crimson Clan!

In all honesty, if it weren’t for Greem and Mary’s intimate relationship, even he would have to start feeling concern over such an overly powerful subordinate.

Mary had just led her underlings into the magical hall, and the shouts and screams of the apprentices rang out from behind like a tidal wave. With the combined strength of two blood knights and the blood dragon, a Second Grade dragon completely wrapped in magical chains was lifted through the tower gates.

These days, Lady Mary always reaped rewards when she went on excursions in Lance. Still, most of her spoils were small First Grade dragons. A living Second Grade like today’s was pretty rare. It meant that the Crimson Clan would now have an additional million magical crystals of income!

“You, you, and you; throw this earth dragon into a prison and make sure it is properly locked up. See which foolish client might fancy it. You, send the gems and materials in the sack to Lana and have her work harder to appraise all of the stuff. Remember, tell her that if she dares to mistake another Third Grade Morningstar Gem for a glowstone and send it to Snorlax’s place, I will personally hang her from the wall and teach her a lesson.”

Mary opened her broad bat wings and floated to the top of the hall. Here, she could see all the members gathered here.

The ones she had appointed to lift the dragon to the prison were all body-refining apprentices that the clan was cultivating. They all had the power of an advanced apprentice or pseudo-adept. Only muscle monsters like them could lift such a heavy Second Grade earth dragon.

The clan appraiser, Lana, rushed into the hall and happened to hear Mary’s criticism of her. Her face immediately turned red as fire. However, when her eyes shifted to the multiple sacks on the blood dragon’s back, a cold sweat rolled down her face. She couldn’t help but scream out loud, “So...so many.”

It would have been alright if they were everyday items. With Lana’s adept-level Spirit, an apprentice-level Identify would deal with the issue. However, if they were magical items, every one of them had to be appraised with an adept-level Identify or Magic Item Discovery to obtain a vague answer of what it was.

However, there was so much of the dragon’s treasure here. How many adept-level Identifies would she need to use to appraise all of them?

When the first few dragon hoards were brought back, Gargamel the Crimson majordomo had to specially open up a fountain of magic energy from the energy room to Lana’s room. She had to drink magic energy potions whenever she ran out of power and drink a Spirit activity potion whenever she ran out of Spirit. Even then, it took her fifteen days and nights of continuous work to complete her mission.

However, the dragon hoard this time was two to three times larger than the last. The quality of the magical items was also much higher than in the past. This...Lana would probably have to appraise to her very death to finish the mission, wouldn’t she?!

The next instant, this adept-level appraiser that the Crimson Clan had specially trained and cultivated betrayed an expression of tragic sorrow as if life was more painful than death.