Age of Adepts

Once Greem was gone, all that was left was a pile of dirt and three charred bodies. On top of a tilted Killer Tree, not far from the scene, a Scavenger Crow with blood red eyes let out a soft caw, and flapped its wings, flying up into the foggy air.

But, right at this moment, a silky smooth, snow-like arm suddenly stretched out, tightly grabbing the Scavenger Crow before it could get too far. Without allowing this stupid creature to struggle, the tiny palm casually clenched, and so one of the demons who had the title of ‘Scavenger of Swamp’ was crushed into meat paste, and small bloody chunks flew in all directions.

The curvy, seductive body of Mary appeared on the top branch of the Killer Tree.

She gracefully stood there, staring off into the direction Greem had left. A small smile appeared on her face. Then, as suddenly as she had appeared, she disappeared.

Although Greem thought himself clever, he had underestimated just how bizarre and unpredictable magic spells could be. There was nowhere in this Magic Swamp where one could hide their activities. The Scavenger Crows, which could be found everywhere, were, in fact, Hawkeye’s spies, secretly spying on the activities of every single Apprentice for him.

In the dead of night, when Apprentice Adepts were hiding in their rooms, performing all kinds of strange magical experiments, they would never think that, in the night sky outside the Tower, there was a pair of blood red eyes spying on them.

With regards to this flying spy, only those who possessed sharp and sensitive Spiritual Senses could notice the difference.

If this spy had not been killed, Greem’s trick would have been related back to Hawkeye within half an hour. Therefore, although Hawkeye had the lowest combat strength among the Advanced Adepts, his ability to obtaining information was, no doubt, the highest.

Hence, the only way any Apprentice could keep secrets safe was to make sure that these ‘spies’, who could be found everywhere, were removed from the equation.

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

Greem had no idea of what had just happened behind him. Although his Elementium vision had discovered the Scavenger Crow, he didn’t think to relate it to Hawkeye.

After sneaking his way back to his room, Greem was unable to restrain himself and started tidying up his belongings.

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Other than Sinbad’s core, he had earned quite a few items from the events involving the fight with the Loli the other day. As he was rushing to turn the best resource he had into his personal strength, Greem had put all his focus on Sinbad’s core, and hadn’t taken the time to properly examine the other items!

Sinbad’s core had been the most valuable of them, and it had been turned into the summoning core of the Clay Golem. Of all eight premium quality Blood Sacks he found, Mary had swallowed seven of them, leaving him with just one. A delicacy like this was something only Adept Anderson could eat for sustenance without considering it wasteful.

As everyone knew, with the exception of Body Refining Adepts and Bloodline Adepts, most Adepts had very weak bodies. Constantly dealing with Elementium Corrosion and long hours spent reading spell books and magical scrolls... A lifestyle like this would only bring about a lousy body. Thus, though most Adepts were not so frail as to be unable to stand up to a gust of wind, almost all had weak constitutions.

If one focused too much on the utilization and strengthening of their Spirit, but neglected their body, they would often have very weak bodies, and have no choice but to take extreme measures, using tonics to strengthen their body.

The Blood Sack, harvested from the root of the Bloodsucking Rattan, was an excellent supplement for nourishing blood and qi. However, if one could find an Alchemist and get them to help them concoct it into a ‘Bloody Banshee Potion’, it could increase the Physique of a weak Adept by up to 2. Of course, this Bloody Banshee Potion only worked for those with 10 or less Physique, and it only worked once.

Obviously, Greem didn’t have the resources or abilities to get an Alchemist to concoct a Bloody Banshee Potion for him! Therefore, though he knew that consuming it directly would waste most of the essence contained within, Greem ate the Blood Sack.

When the soft, jelly-like Blood Sack broke in his mouth, a strong, bloody, and sweet taste exploded on his tongue. As the sticky essence of blood started to flow down his throat and into his stomach, a warm sensation started to surge within Greem’s body.

*Beep* “Unknown energy detected in Host’s body, unable to predict what changes said energy will cause to Host’s vitality. Does Host wish to cleanse it? If no answer is received from Host, cleansing procedure will automatically commence in 5 seconds...”

...

“5... 4... 3...”

“Cancel the cleansing procedure!”

“Host’s command received, cleansing procedure terminated... Would the Host like to monitor internal body data in real-time?”

“Yes!”

“Host’s command received. Commencing real-time monitoring of body’s internal data...”

A series of indistinct beeps followed, then data on his body was projected into his mind.

While examining the information on his body, Greem discovered something unexpected. Aside from both Physique and Health Points, which were slowly rising, it seemed his experience had increased as well. If his memory served him, he only had around 530 Experience Points during the last self-inspection, but now it had increased to 650. This... this was a huge leap of over 100 points!

Where did these points come from?

Ignoring the changes the Blood Sack was causing, Greem poured all his focus into reading the logs of the Chip. He soon found a message that he had previously missed.

“Host has successfully crafted the first Clay Golem, obtained 120 Experience points.”

So they came from crafting the Clay Golem!

It looked like he had found himself a suitable secondary profession, as it could provide him with an extra way to gain experience. In the past, he had always been afraid that learning a magic spell would consume a huge amount of his experience points. But with these supplemental experience points, the pressure of learning magic spells would be slightly lessened.

Strictly speaking, Greem was only 15 years old now, which meant he had plenty of time before he reached his prime, meaning he had plenty of room for self-improvement. This could be easily seen from the slowly, but surely, growing attributes that he had gained recently.

But, too bad, living in such a gloomy, oppressive environment had altered his character so that it was slightly skewed to darkness. Utilitarianism and materialism were all that occupied his mind. As for those seemingly beautiful emotions, like compassion and love, he had long since ditched them for their uselessness.

Before one could become truly powerful, they must be cautious and meticulous, in order to safeguard oneself against threats. But even with that, he still couldn’t escape from the power struggles of those Advanced Apprentices...

He had a favorable impression of Mary, and, from what he observed, Mary seemed to think positively about him. Although she seemed a little overbearing, she always tried to protect Greem.

But with Greem’s cautious and modest character, he was, obviously, not willing to place safety in another’s hands. So, fully utilizing this period of safety, he would pour all of his efforts into growing as fast as he could. This was his highest priority. As for his future? Greem had no idea what the future held.

He had no idea how he had arrived in this place, or why he was here, if there even was a reason. So far, all he had done was drift with the tide, not involving himself in any intrigues. His current status and identity had limited his vision, causing him to have difficulties realizing what this world was really like. Perhaps leaving this place was not a bad thing... at least he could truly experience this strange world!

And perhaps he would be able to discover what path he should take in this life.

As his mind was busy fantasizing about his future, the blood essence of the Blood Sack had finally merged with his body, tinting his pale skin with a red aura and filling his body with a strength that couldn’t be depleted.

As he watched, the number representing his Physique on the self-test report started to climb up, eventually stopping at 4.37. As when the river raised, the boat floated higher, his digitized Health Points had risen to 14.

His Physique had changed from 3.05 to 4.37, an increase of 1.32 points, although it wasn’t the result a Bloody Banshee Potion could bring, it still far exceeded his expectations. Perhaps this had something to do with his overly low Physique. Also, though his Physique had increased to 4.37, it was still on the same level as those Apprentice Adepts who were the same age as him, and he still couldn’t withstand a single blow from those Body Refining Apprentices.

As for the 14 Health Points, that was just a digitized model constructed by the Chip according to the characteristic of life forms in this world of advanced magic. It didn’t truly relate to reality. It was more like a representation of Greem’s current vitality.

Also, with Greem’s weak Physique, if he didn’t have any protection from a defensive magic spell, any magic spell that hit his directly would kill him on the spot. Therefore, in the next few days, besides restlessly digging into the potential of his Golem, he had to find himself a defensive spell.

If he didn’t, when he was to face wars in the future, let alone participating in them, just the shock waves caused by the fights between those mighty warriors would kill him.

After he finished with the Blood Sack, Greem resumed his inspection of the rest of his loot from the day before.

A broken piece of magical equipment, which had degraded so much that no one could tell what it originally was; a fist-sized metallic ore that glowed an odd blue; a strange egg-sized white stone.

That magical equipment was obviously a low-grade item, which had been crafted with the most common material, Thorium. It should belong to an Apprentice Adept who had gotten eaten by those Ghost Nannies, and was nearly worthless. Greem threw it away.

The egg-sized white stone was actually pretty good loot. After several tests, he finally identified what it was.

The egg of a Giant Lizard!

Giant Lizards were demons who resembled an alligator, like the one that had been ridden by Sinbad. Its natural habitat was places like small ponds or swampy areas, and had the innate ability petrify things with it’s Petrify Beam ability. If it were not for the short range of Petrify Beam, it would actually be a pretty good contractual companion.

He felt vitality from the egg, meaning it was still alive. If he could trade it with other Apprentices, he should be able to get something useful back.