Age of Adepts

Three days later.

The tightly-shut door swung open. Great Adept Ulnak’s face was dark as he walked out of the room in black robes. He lifted his head and saw Greem standing respectfully at the door.

“Who are you? Why are you here? Cammpus, you’ve been getting worse about security!” Ulnak grumbled in annoyance as if he had forgotten Greem’s presence.

“Esteemed Lord Ulnak, please watch your words! I already relayed news of Adept Greem’s visit three days ago. You were the one who chose to ignore the message due to your obsession with Experiment Nine,” Tower Spirit Cammpus’ sharp rebuttal rang out in the air.

Ulnak scratched his head when he heard Cammpus’s ‘explanation’ and mumbled something under his breath.

“You are...Greem?” Ulnak raised his head as if trying to recall something. “Right, you’re the Fifth Grade that just recently advanced from the homeworld. Mmm, I remember now.”

Greem stood there silently and respectfully, trying his best to contain his Spirit.

The person who stood in front of him didn’t appear as a lifeform in his sharp senses. Instead, the adept appeared like a cluster of laws, wrapped together in a complicated yet organized fashion. Hundreds of law chains wrapped around his principle core and extended in every direction like the appendages of a squid.

Some of the law chains disappeared into empty space. It seemed like they maintained tight connections with certain planar worlds.

Of course, the thickest law chain was connected to the tower itself. As long as Great Adept Ulnak required it, he could connect with the tower spirit at any time and gain a complete understanding of everything within the tower.

Perhaps sensing Greem’s ‘gaze,’ Great Adept Ulnak flashed with light. An invisible principle fluctuation cut off all of Greem’s spiritual appendages and obscured him in blinding light.

Greem stumbled backward and couldn’t help but rub his eyes.

He didn’t know what Ulnak had done, but his eyes stung terribly and he couldn’t see for a while!

“Kid, that’s a little lesson for you. Don’t be reaching everywhere with your Spirit when you’re out there. If you run into the more impatient fellows, they would punish you just for that alone!” Great Adept Ulnak chuckled and said, “Seeing as you are a rookie that just came from the homeworld, I won’t be holding it against you!”

“Thank you for the lesson!” Greem slowly released fire elementium to mend the damage to his eyes as he bowed and expressed his thanks.

In all honesty, most ordinary people would have trouble getting used to the tremendous change in status, going from the most important person in a planar world to an ‘insignificant’ rookie in space.

Ulnak smiled. It seemed like he was incredibly satisfied with Greem’s attitude. He then said, “Follow me!”

A two-meter-tall portal abruptly appeared in front of Ulnak. He entered without any hesitation.

Greem swiftly followed after him.

The destination of the portal was a wide and luxurious meeting hall.

The room was filled with soft but bright lights that clearly illuminated everything in the room. There was a large wooden table in the center of the hall, covered in all sorts of books, tomes, scrolls, and writing utensils.

Ulnak sat behind the wooden table upon arriving. He rummaged through the scattered items and finally took out an old scroll from the bottom of a wobbling pile of books. He tossed it to Greem.

“Look at it yourself! As a rookie, these are the rules you have the obey while you remain in Camp Exodar. Furthermore, if you wish to construct an adept tower in the camp, you will first have to report the location and the scale of the construction.”

Greem’s heart trembled when the scroll fell into his hands, and he could feel the unusual toughness and smoothness of the material.

The Chip instantly identified the material in his mind.

Dragon Leather!

Greem was certain this was a scroll made out of dragon leather because he could feel a faint wave of dragon’s aura on it. Only someone like him, who owned a small dragon plane and constantly came into contact with dragon materials, could have been sensitive enough to notice this.

Greem rolled out the scroll and immediately saw row upon row of magical words inscribed upon it.

Kemedian.

It was probably the most widely used magical script and language among the adepts!

The contents of the scroll were exceedingly simple as well. It introduced the scale and laws of Exodar Camp, rules that outsiders had to abide by, and some special things to be taken note of.

In general, most camps would welcome Great Adepts!

After all, the more Great Adepts there were, the more powerful the camp would appear to be and the more influence they would possess. Moreover, no Great Adept wandered the universe alone. All of them had only been able to reach the heights that they had because an organization of some sort supported them.

The introduction of a new Great Adept to the camp was equivalent to joining forces with an organization of decent influence!

As for the size of that organization? That would depend on the management skills and talent of the Great Adept themselves.

That said, most adepts did not like to concern themselves with these trivial matters. There were very few organizations that could actually grow to a significant size.

The true owner of Exodar Camp was Seventh Grade Great Adept Erlenwald. However, the one currently managing it was his disciple, the Sixth Grade Great Adept Ulnak.

If Greem wanted to take up residence at Exodar, he would have to construct an adept tower of his own and fall in line with the camp’s management.

Of course, Greem had already established a foothold in Camp Exodar. That was the Capital of Steel that was located outside of the camp. However, the Capital of Steel was located outside of camp and wasn’t under its direct protection.

Most of the time, the Capital of Steel had to endure attacks by galaxy wanderers and starbeasts, all by themselves!

Should Greem choose to join Camp Exodar, he would also have to take on certain obligations, even as he enjoyed the protection of a Seventh Grade Great Adept. That obligation was to enroll himself as part of the camp enforcers and become one of its managers.

Of course, as a Great Adept, he wouldn’t need to do all that dirty work personally. There were effective and structured forces that already worked at the camp. These forces were the worker ants that kept it running.

As authority figures, the Great Adepts only had to inspect their work once in a while and reward or punish accordingly. The Great Adepts only needed to show themselves when the scope of the problem was beyond what their subordinates could manage.

These significant incidents seldom happened once in a decade.

As such, most Great Adepts didn’t object to being bound by these obligations!

Moreover, being in control of the enforcers meant being able to slot in trusted subordinates into the force. This way, the Great Adepts would be able to intervene in the camp’s resource and material market to obtain rare resources that could only be found in space.

This beneficial agreement was undoubtedly generous for rookies that had just taken their first step out of a planar world!

Unfortunately, Greem had already planned out his future. He could not walk along the same path that ‘ordinary’ people did.

“Have you made your decision? Which division of the camp do you intend to join?” Ulnak yawned as he asked impatiently.

Greem carefully returned the scroll and said, “My lord, I do not intend to join the camp!”

The air in the room seemed to freeze for a moment.

Ulnak lifted his head abruptly and took a serious look at Greem for the first time.

“You said...you don’t intend to join the camp? Could it be that you have relations with another camp? Is it the Endless Gardens? Are they trying to get you to join them?”

For some reason, when the Endless Gardens was mentioned, Ulnak’s lazy gaze turned cold and stern, as if harboring the flames of anger.

“The Endless Gardens?” Greem shook his head slightly. “I have never even heard of them.”

“Well, if you’re not planning on staying in the camp to find out more about space while collecting resources, what are you preparing to do? The situation in space is extremely complicated. Don’t think you can mess around just because you are Fifth Grade. I know of a dozen Great Adepts who have died in space over the past few thousand years alone. Don’t act rashly!”

“I intend to go develop in the Fire Elementium Plane. That place is more suited to my soul origin. It should be better than a camp in space!”

“The Fire Elementium Plane,” Ulnak brooded silently and couldn’t help but nod in agreement with Greem’s idea.

As a pure fire adept, Greem would not be too badly rejected by the native fire elementals of the Fire Elementium Plane. If he were willing to work hard and put in the effort, he would have no problem becoming a free fire lord there in a few hundred years.

As for becoming a Fire King...that would probably require the blessing of the Fire Elementium Plane.

As an outsider that slipped into the plane, it wasn’t hard to imagine how difficult it would be to obtain that blessing.

“If you don’t intend to become a member of the camp, then you can’t stay here for too long. Moreover, that small trading point you’ve established outside of camp will no longer be protected by us! Have you thought your way through these consequences?”

“I’ve made up my mind!”

“Very well. You may leave now then! Remember, you cannot stay in the camp for more than a year. You must leave Camp Exodar within the year!”

Greem bowed and acknowledged the instructions. He then prepared to leave.

Just as he was about to teleport away, Ulnak’s voice rang out in his mind.

“You just arrived, so there will be a lot of organizations trying to get you to join them. Stay sharp and pick carefully. Don’t get involved in the conflict and disagreements of the higher adepts.”

Crimson light flashed, and Greem’s form vanished.