Age of Adepts

Seeing that her leader could not obtain victory, the Coldwinter Witches led by Cerro immediately interfered in the fight and took the dejected Morgana away with them.

Naturally, according to the agreement, Alice and the others obtained the victory in this battle.

Morgana was not directly defeated, which left some face for the Coldwinter Witches. Still, this war between the Fate Witches and the Coldwinter Witches had concluded with their defeat.

This shocking conclusion rendered the entirety of the Northern Lands speechless!

The Crimson Clan had successfully survived their crisis.

Though most of the Northern Witches were still dissatisfied with Greem and Alice’s relationship, they could no longer make an issue out of the Crimson Clan’s status.

Of course, while the other witch branches suffered no losses during this war, the Coldwinter Witches had lost tremendously. They not only had to give up half of their worldly territories as compensation but even one-third of their resource sites.

If it weren’t for the solid foundation that the Coldwinter Witches had accumulated over all these years, this massive blow might have plunged the entirety of the Coldwinter branch into a major crisis!

Additionally, after the war concluded, the Coldwinter Witches had to hand over several sets of high-grade magical equipment as a ransom to take back their captured sisters. That indirectly eased the Crimson Clan’s awkward lack of alchemists.

Greem might have mastered some degree of alchemy, but he invested most of his efforts into golem creation and magical patterns. His skill with magical equipment creation was mediocre at best. There weren’t very many items or pieces of equipment among the dragon hoards they had found that were suitable for the adepts. As such, these spoils of victory solved a big problem for the Crimson Clan.

This battle seemed to have left a lasting impression on Mary. She shut herself in her room in Fire Throne upon returning from the Tower of Fate. No one knew what she was secretly preparing for.

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

Greem caught wind of this news while he was enjoying his feast of fire dragon ribs!

Upon hearing of such a significant event that could potentially decide the future direction of the clan, Greem paused his actions for a moment and replied with a simple ‘oh.’ He then tilted his head and continued thinking about the matters he still had to tend to.

At its current scale, the Crimson Clan was no longer an organization that could be sustained by a single Third Grade adept. This improvement of the clan’s power was mandatory if it wanted to continue developing and expanding. At the very least, many more Crimson adepts apart from Greem needed to step up and contribute to the prosperity of the clan.

It was the only way the Crimson Clan could have a future!

If a single pair of fists were the clan’s weapon to conquer the world, then when Greem collapsed, the Crimson Clan would be a pack of rats fleeing a sinking ship.

Right now, people like Alice, Mary, and Billis were stepping forth, gaining pride and glory of their own. That was what Greem had most hoped for and what he was most exhilarated about!

As the highest authority in the Crimson Clan, having high-grade subordinates who could take on burdens for him meant that Greem could take out more time to spend on content that interested him.

Greem quickly browsed the Third Grade spells that the Chip had recently optimized while he ate; a sense of pride couldn’t help but swell from deep within his heart.

Vicious Fireball. Third Grade single-target fire spell.

Cast time: 1-2 seconds. Cooldown: 5 seconds.

Expended Spirit: 2 points.

Offensive power: 310-330 points.

Effective radius: 20-30 meters.

Possess the magical effects of fire poison and Coldflame.

Magma Armor. Third Grade defensive earth and fire spell.

Cast time: 2-4 seconds. Cooldown: 45 seconds.

Expended Spirit: 3 points.

Physical defensive power: 450 points.

Elementium defensive power: 300 points.

Possesses flame retaliation effect.

Flamegate. Third Grade fire summoning spell.

Cast time: 8-15 seconds. Cooldown: 15 minutes.

Expended Spirit: 7 points.

Can summon fire creatures with a total of 1270 points of fire energy (highest level summon is a Third Grade flame elemental).

Molten World. Third Grade area-of-effect fire spell.

Cast time 10-16 seconds. Cooldown: 50 seconds.

Expended Spirit: 6 points.

Can summon a massive 100*80 meters flame pillar. Offensive power in the thirty-meter wide core area is 450-480 points. The power of the fire decreases as the distance increases. For every 10 meters, the power of the flames is reduced by 50 points.

Meteor Burst. Third Grade single-target earth and fire spell.

Cast time: 8-12 seconds. Cooldown: 35 seconds.

Expended Spirit: 4 points.

Fire damage: 260-280 points.

Physical damage 220-240 points.

Effective radius: 20-30 meters.

Possesses 40 points of earth-attribute splash damage.

Fire Teleportation (short-range). Third Grade mobility fire spell.

Cast time: 3-5 seconds. Cooldown: 25 seconds.

Expended Spirit: 3 points.

Can teleport to any area where fire runes have been set up ahead of time.

Maximum teleportation distance: 3000 meters.

These five spells were all the Third Grade spells that Greem had obtained from the Chip’s continued optimization. They did not use the same models as other conventional Third Grade spells. Thus, if Greem were to hand them over to the Winds of Freedom’s Knowledge Hall, he was incredibly likely to obtain the corresponding contribution points.

However, these were all combat spells that Greem had prepared for himself. If the specific numbers of the spells were shown to the public, it would be effortless for his opponents to obtain the core statistics of his combat tactics.

This factor alone made it such that Greem could never put them out in public!

Meanwhile, the first elementium magical machine now possessed some degree of combat power after all these days of optimization and refinement. However, due to the lack of a magic generator furnace, the average Second Grade elementium magical golem crystal core could only sustain it for five minutes of all-out combat.

Greem had barely managed to keep it fighting for fifteen minutes through the harmonization of three Second Grade elementium golem cores.

It made Greem even more desperate to obtain a new batch of Queyras alloy.

Hydra, the first golem that the majority of the Goblin Plane’s engineers had gathered to construct, was almost ready for operation as well. Yet, the magic generator furnace that was supposed to function as its energy core was still nowhere to be found.

As such, Greem frequented the Trading Hall of the Spirit Illusion Realm even more.

However, the terrifying price of Queyras alloy and ores left Greem without any options.

Perhaps because of his past year of continuous search and questioning for Queyras alloy, he finally attracted an individual interested in a trade.

This day, Greem had finally concluded his daily meditation and once again entered the Spirit Illusion Realm. He was stopped by an incredibly youthful-looking, skinny man when he entered the Trading Hall.

“You are...Fire?” The tall and skinny man carefully assessed Greem.

Fire was the unique codename that Greem had given himself. After all, here in the Spirit Illusion Realm, he required a fake identity with which he could interact and trade with others.

“I am Fire! Do you have any business with me?”

“I have a mission here with me. You might be interested.” The skinny man smiled mysteriously.

“Mission? Shouldn’t that sort of thing be in the Mission Hall?” Greem couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

In the Spirit Illusion Realm, his appearance was that of a humanoid flame. Moreover, his face was covered by a golden mask. Others would have a hard time figuring out his true identity through these external traits.

“That’s not for you to worry about; just take a look at this mission first!” The skinny man flicked a finger as a purple-black orb of light flew toward Greem.

[Beep. Detecting odd data stream. Requesting instructions from host. Allow connection?]

“Connect!”

As a cool feeling surged into his consciousness form, a strange set of information appeared in his mind.

......

Molten Fire City Creature Banishment Mission. Third Grade.

Mission Issuer: Molten Fire Castellan

Mission Contents: The Molten Fire City of the Skettis Region has been invaded by an otherworldly fire creature over the past two years. Currently, it has caused the deaths of one Second Grade adept, three First Grade adepts, and many more apprentices. The underground mine of Molten Fire City has also been severely affected.

Mission Rewards: 50,000 magical crystals. 1,200 hundred contribution points.

Mission Requirements: Recruiting two Third Grade adepts.

......

Greem gave it a quick look before shaking his head disinterestedly.

He was still solidifying his power after advancing to Third Grade, and it wasn’t ideal for him to leave the clan to participate in a dangerous mission. As such, he rejected it without any hesitation.

The thin man seemed to be prepared for this. He whispered to Greem with a voice transmission, “I heard you have been searching about for Queyras alloy.”

Greem stopped in his tracks when he heard this.

“You have news about Queyras alloy?”

“To tell you the truth, there is Queyrqas alloy in the underground mine of Molten Fire City. However, the mine mostly produces Eternium ore. Queyras ores are only an associated mineral!”

Greem narrowed his eyes.

“You are the Castellan of Molten Fire City?”

The tall man smiled slightly, “The Castellan of Molten Fire City is a Fourth Grade adept. I am only a hired adept working beneath him.”

Greem sensed the man’s aura carefully. He might not know the person’s true identity, but there was no doubt that he was a Third Grade adept.

“Can you tell me more about this mission?” Greem hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he could not help but ask.

“That beast broke into Molten Fire City two years ago. Its origins are bizarre. It seems as if it snuck into Molten Fire City through the underground tunnel beneath the lava sea. It occupied the magma sea near the underground mine after it arrived and has continually harassed the voodoo beasts who descend to mine the ores. As of now, the losses to workforce and equipment are uncountable.”

“You people did not make a plan to capture and kill it?”

“It seems to be a fairly intelligent fire creature and is exceptionally sly. It never dives too deep into Molten Fire City and only devours some eternium ores near the mines. The castellan wanted to capture it, but whenever the castellan gets close, the creature dives into the sea and hides. Once the castellan leaves, it immediately shows up and starts causing trouble again. We have suffered all of its harassment over these two years!”

“Has its power been confirmed?”

“Intermediate or Advanced Third Grade. We have already sent people to confirm it. If it weren’t for the environment there being suited to it so much, we would have seized it. Any other Third Grade fire creature would have been caught.”

Greem couldn’t help but lower his head and start thinking when he heard this.

It seemed that they had found him because of his identity as a fire adept.

The skinny man couldn’t help but promise another reward when he saw the offer sway Greem.

“I have heard you have been looking for Queyras alloy everywhere. If you can banish that creature and return the mine to its normal state, our castellan has promised that some Queyras metal can be added to the list of rewards.”