Age of Adepts

Mirva’s true intention in coming here was to inform Greem of his compulsory mission for the Zhentarim Association, which was the mission to exterminate the Arcane Empire that would be in seven years.

Of course, to console Greem, Mirva had officially announced his status and authority as an elder after advancing to Fourth Grade. He also revealed the incredibly long list of resources that the Crimson Clan would be receiving.

Furthermore, Mirva also made no mention of the Crimson Clan’s recent expansionist actions.

After all, the death rate for this compulsory mission was extraordinarily high. It was a nearly lethal mission. Who would be willing to risk their lives for Zhentarim without receiving something in return!?

“—...all the way to the west with the Tarim River as the boundary. You are only allowed to expand to Blackwood in the south. If you push another two hundred and fifty kilometers to the east, your land will be bordering Elder Musso’s worldly territory. To ensure there won’t be any conflict, there needs to be a hundred-kilometer wide buffer where neither clan is allowed to station their forces. As for the Black Forest to the north, you are free to expand as you wish. Any and all land you take will be considered the territory of the Crimson Clan. If you require citizens or slaves, the Association is more than willing to trade with you at a greatly discounted price.”

Gargamel and Meryl stood behind Greem during these negotiations. They couldn’t help but look at each other upon hearing this, and they saw the unconcealable surprise in each others’ eyes.

If they were to expand according to Vice-Chairman Mirva’s description, didn’t it mean that the Crimson Clan’s territory would expand to twice its current size? The total amount of land belonging to the clan would almost span two entire regions. Such generous treatment was rare for even the other Fourth Grade adepts.

Moreover, the Crimson Clan bordered the Black Forest. They could expand indefinitely in that direction.

For any other clan, sending clan adepts and apprentices into the dangerous Black Forest to expand the clan’s territory was undoubtedly a risk. However, for the Crimson Clan, who possessed a large army of magical machines, the citizens they required to fill their lands and the slaves they needed to dig the mines and gather the resources were a bigger problem.

Greem narrowed his eyes as he listened to Mirva speak. He had a smile on his face, but he said nothing in response.

Even the experienced and cunning Mirva couldn’t help but be impressed at Greem’s show of restraint.

He was able to see the hidden danger present in great wealth and able to see the breeding opportunity present in great danger.

Everyone harbored similar thoughts with regards to such scenarios, but who, when it truly came down to it, could remain untempted by shiny treasures and brilliant resources? Who could view their own life and death with objective rationality?

Greem was barely over two hundred years old at the moment. For a Fourth Grade adept, he was practically a baby still mumbling incoherently. Despite this, Mirva had always sensed Greem’s calm, composed manner of behavior in the few times he had interacted with him, as well as a mean courage and decisiveness in taking risks.

Moreover, Greem demonstrated extremely high affinity with the fire laws upon advancing to Fourth Grade. Should he survive this crisis and grow further in power, there would hardly be any adepts throughout Zhentarim who could be a match for him!

That said, even given this to be the case, Mirva would sooner give up on that dangerous compulsory mission than seize upon the opportunity if he was in Greem’s shoes.

After all, advancing to Fourth Grade meant being able to enjoy nearly a thousand years of extravagance and enjoyment. Disregarding all the other places in the World of Adepts, Fourth Grade adepts were practically uncontested emperors within Zhentarim. They already stood at the peak of the pyramid. They had reached the upper limit of strength that the World of Adepts could possibly contain. They represented ultimate power amongst the adepts.

As long as they could survive in peace, then influence, resources, knowledge, status, beauties...anything they wanted would all come their way. They couldn’t stop it even if they wanted to.

Which adept would ever give up on such a life of luxury and enjoyment to participate in a terrifying mission to exterminate the Arcane Empire?

Mirva was not unacquainted with the name of the Arcane Empire.

In all seriousness, the arcanists were also a group of casters similar to the adepts.

However, the magical power that the adepts used was more similar to chaos energy. It was chaotic, yet powerful.

Moreover, adepts were very utilitarian in their pursuit of knowledge and often unscrupulous in the means by which they obtained what they wanted. Many adepts were willing to conduct all sorts of evil modifications to their own body, bloodline, and soul, just to further enhance their combat powers. In doing so, high-grade adepts slowly deviated from the path of a ‘human’ and slowly left their original species behind them.

The arcanists, on the other hand, were a group of incredibly disciplined and powerful spellcasters.

They treated knowledge with much more rigor and strictness, while also making it more accessible to the common folk.

Adepts only pursued their power for their own wellbeing. That was why there were often cruel and bloody methods used in raising and selecting later generations of adepts. Meanwhile, the arcanists were continuously refining and breaking down higher-grade knowledge and trying their best to assimilate these profound pieces of understanding into more common, lower-level applications.

The adepts prioritized individuality, believing that obtaining a single high-grade adept at the cost of a hundred low-grade adepts was worth it. After all, the fundamental power of an individual high-grade adept was not something that a hundred low-grade adepts could ever hope to match!

On the other hand, the arcanists spent a lot of effort and time on universalizing knowledge throughout their Empire.

In doing so, even children with no magical talent would obtain some resources, allowing them to step upon the path of using lower-grade arcane magic. If they had no magic power, they could draw upon the power of a magic crystal. If they had no arcane energy, they could draw upon an arcane pool. If they had no spellcasting ability, they could draw upon the spell pools. If their bodies were as frail as ordinary humans, they could construct arcane towers to protect themselves.

In the World of Adepts, those who could become adepts were only the extreme minority that stood at the peak of humanity. Meanwhile, in the Arcane Empire, you would have no problem becoming an ordinary arcanist as long as you were diligent and were not too untalented.

It was this attitude of the arcanists that allowed the Arcane Empire to rise to great power in such a short time.

Unfortunately, the rise of the Arcane Empire attracted intervention from many powerful tribes and races!

Based on what Mirva knew, the Scourge Lords, Titans, World of Gods, Starbeasts, Galaxy Wanderers, the World of Darkness, and the World of Phantoms were all involved in this one mission.

The adept’s faction could be considered one of the weakest forces amongst all those who had their eyes set upon the resources and knowledge of the Arcane Empire.

And in this great feast to devour the Arcane Empire, the weakest participants themselves would become prey for the other predators. As such, Mirva dispelled all thoughts of participating in the mission upon hearing of the specifics. He gave up, despite the potential resources and knowledge he could find.

Supposedly, a mission like this that involved the extermination of a major plane was the easiest way to obtain origin substances.

Unfortunately, the excessively large and terrifying line-up of hunters had terrified the Fourth Grade adepts of Zhentarim, which was what drove them to the laughable scenario of hastening the birth of a Fourth Grade adept as a scapegoat.

In all honesty, the Zhentarim Association led by Freed and Mirva had truly paid a heavy price for Greem’s service and to ensure he would not go back on his word.

With the presence of the contract they signed earlier, the Zhentarim Association wasn’t afraid of Greem disobeying the terms. However, in the hopes of not inflicting too much strain on their relationship with Greem–now a Fourth Grade adept–they had to offer up some resources to ‘trick’ him onto the frontlines.

Greem put down the long list of resources and thought for a moment. Finally, he said, “I am very satisfied with the resources listed here. However, I wish to name a few more things.”

“What? What else do you need?” Mirva’s heart was suspended for a second, fearful that Greem might make an unreasonable demand. The Zhentarim might have some resources, but those were the accumulations of a dozen Fourth Grade adepts over hundreds of years. It would break their hearts to lose all of it.

“Queyras alloy, Life Stock Solution, spacestones, and starsand.” Greem read each and every name very slowly, his pair of black eyes staring unflinchingly at Mirva.

Mirva’s brow jumped with every item Greem listed. The corner of his mouth even started twitching when Greem mentioned starsand.

Queyras alloy was a necessary ingredient in forging magic generator furnaces. The Crimson Clan required a consistent and stable supply of Queyras metal if they wanted to expand their magical machine army.

The use of Life Stock Solution was universal. Whether for the creation of high-grade life potions or high-grade life-extension ceremonies, Life Stock Solution would always be one of the core ingredients. Unfortunately, it was said that Life Stock Solution could only be produced in the Holy Trees of Life that belonged to the elves.

Sadly, no elves could be found in the two lesser planes that the Crimson Clan currently possessed.

Spacestones, on the other hand, were core materials used for establishing interplanar teleportation arrays. It was a strategic resource that most adept clans and organizations had to stockpile in preparation for war.

Starsand was not a resource that could be found inside a plane. Starsand came from the realms beyond.

When a plane was ruined, most of the planar substances within would be destroyed and blown away by the endless spacestorms. Only a minimal amount of the hardest and toughest materials inside the plane could be preserved. These materials were typically known as starsand.

They were the main ingredient used to forge top-class magical equipment, as well as an undying body!

It was said that one method for body-refining adepts to advance from Fourth Grade to Fifth Grade was to assimilate and refine a ration of starsand into their own bones, thereby allowing them to become immortal and indestructible beings.

As such, the value of starsand was no less valuable than origin substances in the eyes of Fourth Grade body-refining adepts!

Greem kept a close eye on Mirva as he recited all the resources he wanted. Once he was certain that his request had reached the psychological bottom line of Mirva and the Zhentarim Association, he immediately shut his mouth.

Mirva took out his handkerchief and wiped away the beads of sweat on his head in an exaggerated motion. He had an awkward and forced smile on his face as he did so.

“Queyras alloy. Molten Fire City is the only place that has a stable output of this stuff. If you really want it, I can serve as an intermediary and help you arrange a meeting with Alfred. That said, you should know that I can’t guarantee successful negotiations. After all, there seems to be some sort of disagreement between you and Alfred.

“As for the Life Stock Solution, the Association still has some spare stock of it. We can provide you with two and a half kilograms of the solution. That should be enough for your personal use.

“Spacestones are very highly demanded even within the Association. At the very best, if I were to put my reputation on the line, I could help you find two pieces of spacestone, and it is going to be very costly.

“As for starsand? No one can get you this stuff. Otherwise, Declan wouldn’t have been beaten at your hands.”

Even though the offer didn’t fully reach Greem’s expectations, he was more than happy with what Vice-Chairman Mirva had promised him.