Age of Adepts

During the next month, hundreds of conflicts erupted all over the Northern Lands. The Fate Witches that had seemed so weak reversed all expectations and demonstrated fearsome courage and savagery.

The Fate Witches might be at a numerical disadvantage in a witch-level war, but they did not back down at all.

They seemed to have managed to place a summoning core and a golem talisman in the hands of every single Fate Witch. If the Coldwinter Witches were to start a fight against them, they had an elementium golem to defend them and a magical machine to assault the enemy lines. Paired with multiple instant-cast magic wands and scrolls, the Fate Witches turned from sheep to big bad wolves, devouring a dozen Coldwinter Witches in a single go.

Of course, there weren’t many Coldwinter Witches who died. Most of them were simply defeated, captured, and imprisoned in the Tower of Fate in Dragonblight. It seemed they would not be able to regain their freedom until the war ended.

The sudden explosion of strength from the Fate Witches didn’t just stun the Coldwinter Witches alone. Even the witches of the other branches, who were watching from the sidelines, were utterly bewildered.

After all, these elementium and metal golems were artifacts of significant cost. Most adept towers only had enough money to use them as stationary guards.

To bring them out along with you?

A small golem talisman could easily cost over twenty thousand magical crystals on the market. Moreover, they were rare items that could not be bought so easily, even if one could afford them. It was hard to obtain these strategic items from the Silver Union without some special connections.

Summoning a First Grade elementium golem and a First Grade magical machine during a battle between First Grade witches might not tilt the scales of war too severely. However, when it was a battle between two witch apprentices, a single and sudden pseudo-adept level elementium golem would significantly impact the outcome of the fight.

Most of the participants in the battles that had erupted across the Northern Lands were witch apprentices. How massive of a deal was a pseudo-adept level elementium golem? The Coldwinter apprentices could slowly tell you all about it with their own tragic stories.

The addition of these elementium golems caused the Fate branch to go uncontested in battles between apprentices!

The opponent’s witch apprentices were either defeated and captured or sent packing back to their territories.

For a long time, Coldwinter apprentices would turn tail and run at the very sight of Fate apprentices. None of them dared even initiate a direct battle.

One could reasonably claim that the Coldwinter Witches were at a complete loss against the Fate Witches in this contest. They were not far from completely losing the war.

However, the Coldwinter Witches’ slump was instantly overturned with the participation of the Second Grade witches.

After all, Second Grade witches were Second Grade witches. They were not so easily pushed back by the likes of First Grade witches aided with some elementium and metal golems.

Disregarding everything else, just the sheer number of Second Grade witches exposed the weakness of the Fate branch.

The Coldwinter Witches had eleven Second Grade witches, while the Fate branch only had a single one. Moreover, that person was Alice, their leader, who could not so quickly appear on the battlefield.

The Fate Witches were at a complete disadvantage when comparing the strength of their Second Grades.

The Fate branch didn’t stand by idly while this group of Second Grade Coldwinter Witches stepped on the battlefield and started sweeping up the Fate Witches. Instead, they sent out a large group of Second Grade fighters from other races belonging to their subordinates forces.

Second Grade vampire adepts, Second Grade dragonborn, Second Grade magical machine warriors, Second Grade Dragon Devourer Oliven, Second Grade Spirit of Pestilence.

These sinister and vicious non-human Second Grades were utterly devoid of the pride and nobility of the adepts. They frequently resorted to ambushes and sneak attacks, as well as using superior numbers to overwhelm their enemies. They launched multiple assaults in cooperation with the Fate Witches while the Coldwinter Witches were still wholly ignorant of their existence.

In a short amount of time, three of the Second Grade Coldwinter Witches were beaten within an inch of their lives, and two were captured alive.

When news of such results circulated, it instantly caused a commotion in the Northern Lands. Even Third Grade Morgana, who stood guard in Icesnow Valley, could no longer sit still.

How did things develop to this point?

The power of the Coldwinter Witches was ten times that of the newly re-established Fate Witches.

This battle should have ended with the tragic defeat of the Fate Witches, and Morgana would have quickly taken the male adept under her wing. However, the reality was far from the ideal. Now, it was the Fate Witches who had the Coldwinter Witches on the ground, rubbing their faces furiously into the dirt.

It was undoubtedly an unprecedented psychological blow to Morgana!

Morgana had no choice but to walk out of Icesnow Valley and personally join the battlefield.

The enemy seemed to have predicted this would happen. The moment Morgana emerged from Icesnow Valley, the Fate Witches began a complete strategic retreat. They abandoned all of their outer territories and resource sites, recalling all their witches and apprentices to the Tower of Fate in Dragonblight, where they turtled up inside.

That left Morgana completely hanging in the air!

She couldn’t possibly run over to the Fate Witches’ base and bully the mortal armies and nobles who were left, could she? Especially with her status and identity! However, attacking the Tower of Fate; that was the origin tower of the Fate Witches. Even a Fourth Grade witch didn’t dare break into the tower, let alone a Third Grade like herself.

However, leaving the Fate Witches as they were...

Dammit! There were at least thirty Coldwinter Witches and over a hundred apprentices still imprisoned in their tower. If she ignored their livelihoods, then the reputation and honor that the Coldwinter Witches had built over the course of five hundred years would vanish without a trace.

Not to mention there were two Second Grade Coldwinter Witches still locked up in the Tower of Fate. She couldn’t abandon them, even if she were to abandon all the other witches!

For a moment, this somewhat comical conflict fell into an awkward lull.

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

Ever since he reached Third Grade, Greem was surprised to find that the World of Adepts that he was so acquainted with had become so unfamiliar.

It was like accidentally opening a door and realizing that the world behind that door was a completely different one.

Third Grade could be considered having crossed over the threshold of being a high-grade adept. It was an entirely different world from being a Second Grade.

As Greem silently thought alone in his room about the new magic that had just been analyzed, a strange blue light crashed against the tower’s defense system. The incident startled him. As a small opening tore in the tower’s defense system, the blue light flew before Greem and turned into an odd invitation letter.

The invitation letter was formed from blue elementium particles. Rows of letters mysteriously appeared on the note as it floated before Greem.

The message was straightforward. It was an invitation for Greem to join an adept organization known as the Winds of Freedom. The related privileges and duties of joining this organization couldn’t be any simpler. It seemed that he only needed to leave his magical brand on the letter to become a member of this adept organization. He would enjoy access to large amounts of information, resources, and knowledge not available to the outside world.

Meanwhile, the only limitation that the organization placed on Greem was for him to bravely stand out and defend the benefits of all Zhentarim adepts with his power should the Zhentarim area ever come under the invasion of any of the three major forces.

Greem instantly understood the situation from this information. It was probably an adept organization formed by the old men of the Zhentarim Association. The purpose of the organization was to unite the adepts of the central region to resist any invasions from the three major adept organizations.

Greem had not reached the requisite power level before this and, thus, had not been privy to the existence of this organization. Now that he had become a Third Grade, he finally received their invitation.

It could be seen that the threshold for entering the Winds of Freedom was to be Third Grade!

It indirectly demonstrated the massive difference between this organization and other small adept organizations.

Greem hesitated for a moment and finally extended a single finger burning with a bright yellow flame, and pressed it against the invitation letter.

The golden flame instantly left the mark of a burning fist upon the blue letter.

The next second, the blue elementium particles scattered into a sky full of glowing lights and leaving behind a strange palm-sized mirror on the spot.

Greem took the mirror in his hands as a notification immediately rang from the Chip in his mind.

[Beep. Detecting strange Spirit port. Initial appraisal suggests it to be a Spirit network port. Results of data scans: Safe.]

A Spirit network port?

Greem paused for a moment but abruptly understood something.

He had always been curious about something all this time. The state of civilization in the World of Adepts had always appeared to be too primitive and inferior. Regardless of how you looked at it, the World of Adepts was one of the powerful spellcasting factions of the multiverse. Their origin homeland should not be this backward.

Yet, the appearance of this round mirror fully demonstrated that Greem had not truly entered the civilization of the adepts. His past self had always been a lone wolf in the wilderness, wandering outside the periphery of the adept civilization.

Without any hesitation, Greem thrust his Spirit into the round mirror.

The next second, he found himself in a sea of information as the massive amount of data instantly flooded him.

If Greem had been alone, he would probably be moaning in agony at this moment.

Fortunately, with the aid of the Chip, any amount of data would not be able to run down Greem’s mental consciousness.

Greem had been sitting in his secret room. Now, he felt as if he had entered a strange Spirit world, turning into some sort of pure mental consciousness body within this realm.

After just three seconds, Greem got used to this body of consciousness, and he tried to open his eyes.

“Welcome to the Winds of Freedom. Is there anything I can do for you?”

The first to appear in front of Greem was a young, pretty girl in a fancy dress. She smiled sweetly at Greem and bowed in respect.

Greem looked around in confusion and then looked down at himself.

This place was a special stone room, only ten square meters in size. There were no decorations, furniture, doors, or windows; it was simply Greem and the girl standing in the room.

Greem extended his hands and put them in front of himself.

As expected, he didn’t see his original hands, but a cluster of strange shimmering light. This world and this girl in front of him didn’t exist in reality either. They were only illusions simulated through the use of magic.