Age Of Adepts

by Stayrr

A data loving young man from Earth has an accident which transports him to a dark land filled with terrifying creatures and magical powers. Fortunately for him, he has a Biological Assistance Chip to ease his path. However, things in this bizarre and strange world are not always as they seem, and, though it is a tremendous asset, the chip doesn’t always work as expected. With all o

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Age of Adepts

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A data loving young man from Earth has an accident which transports him to a dark land filled with terrifying creatures and magical powers.

Fortunately for him, he has a Biological Assistance Chip to ease his path.

However, things in this bizarre and strange world are not always as they seem, and, though it is a tremendous asset, the chip doesn't always work as expected. With all of the crazy creatures and magical mayhem around him, one can only wonder what the future holds for this young man…

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Read Age of Adepts - Prologue online free - Light Novel Full

2032, Earth.

After many years of development, the first generation of the Biological Assistance Chip was released.

This Biological Assistance Chip was said to work by being embedded into one's DNA and would perfectly merge with the host, fully utilizing the current abilities of the host and assisting them in all facets of their lives, whether they be work, school, or entertainment related.

Of course, in order to avoid the chip becoming too intelligent and taking control of the user, the first generation of the chip didn't possess a complete, working artificial intelligence, but only had simple data storage and analysis functions. However, It was still capable of accomplishing work that required a huge amount of data processing, and, thus, was able to assist the user with complex tasks, which would normally strain the mind.

As one of 50,000 lucky people across the world, Li Xun had been selected as a first batch user and was given the Biological Assistance Chip, which he had always dreamed of, right after product launch.

Inside his home, Li Xuan unwrapped the package, which had made all his friends green with envy, and took out the Biological Assistance Chip.

In this day and age, technology had become quite advanced. The so-called Biological Assistance Chip was not one of those antique silicone chips, which needed to implanted, but a milky white orb that one would swallow. It was pill sized.

Following the instructions in the user manual, Li Xuan swallowed the orb and lay flat on his bed, patiently waiting for the chip to be absorbed into his body.

The white orb disintegrated in Li Xuan's stomach, slowly seeping into his cells, and then penetrating deeper into his physiology before embedding itself into Li Xuan's DNA and becoming part of his body.

The Biological Assistance Chip had now become an essential part of his life, able to enhance all of his senses to assist him.

But, as other users of the chip were busy getting used to a whole new set of senses, Li Xuan, who was obsessed with data and computing, was busy connecting the chip to the Internet.

However, as he was getting ready to experience the pleasure diving into the world of data, at the very moment that the Biological Assistance Chip connected to the link that led him to the vast amount of data in the new World Information Network, the immense ocean of data contained within immediately swallowed Li Xuan's small, weak soul consciousness.

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In a dark, oppressive swamp filled with a thick, wet fog.

Even the harshest sunlight was unable to penetrate the low clouds and gloomy fog, so anyone walking through this area would feel a constant chill on their skin.

There were small, foul-smelling ponds everywhere one looked. These ponds were inhabited by a myriad of strange creatures. Whenever wanderers visited, this desolate and silent land would become a paradise for those creatures, many of whom fed on flesh and blood. Demon Rattans, Scavenger Crows, Ghost Nannies, and Giant Swamp Alligators. Each of these terrifying demonic beings made travelers avoid this place like the plague.

But, right in the center of this swampy land, where no reasonable living human being could bear to live, a dark looking tower loomed over the surrounding land.

It was a tall stone tower, with a height of over a hundred meters.

Its foundation was made entirely of augite, so when the darkness of night came, the entire tower would radiate a chilly and silent glow, making it especially attractive to evil spirits and wraiths.

Maybe it was because of a lack of basic maintenance and care, but the lower part of the tower was completely entwined with the crazily growing vines of a demon rattan, making its surface look like it was filled with wooden spikes that shined like metal. If any ordinary man became entangled in these vines, all the blood in his body would be sucked out. Eventually, his corpse would join the others in the huge pile of bones lining the base of the tower.

The sky darkened with the coming night, a candle was lit inside the tower.

Dim candlelight leaked through the narrow window in the side of the tower. Not only did it's light not bring any warmth, but, instead, would send a shivering sensation crawling down one's spine and through their heart.

Greem, who had just turned fifteen, was sitting in front of a worn-out wooden table. There was a thick magic book unfolded in front of him, which he was silently making a copy of. Although he had arrived in this world two years ago, the discomfort of his soul still gave him frequent headaches.

His mind was distracted, the scenes of what happened back on Earth continually flashing through his eyes. In his distraction, the tip of his writing brush paused for a moment, causing a big lump of ink to well up on the crude goat skin.

"Damn it! I failed again!"

Greem's brows knitted into a tight frown. He couldn't control himself and clenched his fists. He wanted to scream out in anger, but he took a deep breath and held still for a while. After a long time, he finally managed to suppress the urge.

This world was no longer the Earth that he was familiar with, and the body he was now inhabiting was not his original body either. It once belonged to an Apprentice Adept, whose name was Greem. In brief, he was just a wandering soul, who managed to take over this body right at the moment when the original Greem died.

Retaining nothing from his original life, he traveled from Earth, where magic didn't exist, and came to this world of advanced magic, where foul demons and nonsensical creatures freely roamed. This world was a place where Adepts stood at the top. The process of adapting overwhelmed Li Xuan, such that he almost ended it all right there, but luckily, after merging the memory fragments that left in this body, Li Xuan had gained a basic linguistic ability. Otherwise, just with the weird pronunciations and grammar in this world, along with the completely different alphabet, which looked like swimming tadpoles, would be enough to torture him to death.

Even so, the headache that frequently struck him troubled him deeply.

In this place, he never dared to expose his real identity. He could only use Greem's name, trying his best to struggle to survival in this tall tower.

Although he was simply an Apprentice Adept living under Great Master Anderson, his glorious status would draw envy from most people living in this world. However, only those people who actually lived in this tall tower would know that not only was this not an enviable position to be in, but could actually be considered a terrifying form of torture and punishment.

An Apprentice Adept's basic job was to work diligently and conscientiously, taking care of the daily life of their Great Master, in this case, Great Master Anderson. They were also in charge of cleaning up the magic experiment equipment, keeping the inside of the tower clean, taking care of those demon creatures outside of the tower, and… being a part of Great Master Anderson's experiments.

Although the last job was rare, when the wagons that brought slaves or condemned prisoners were a few days late, Great Master Anderson, who easily became frustrated when there was a lack of beings to experiment on, would order a random apprentice to become his temporary lab rat.

It was said that Mary, who came from Ante Province and lived next to Greem, was 'fortunate' to become the experimental 'partner' for Great Master Anderson last month. She didn't die from the magic experiment, although her body was seriously 'contaminated', and she had some horrifying mutation now. Since she came out from the laboratory, wearing a thick cloak which covered her entire body, she had just hidden in her room and never left.

Many Apprentice Adepts thought that Mary might have died in her room.

But Greem knew the truth: Mary was still alive.

At night, in the unnatural stillness of that tower, he could hear the sounds of agonized groan scratching against the wall. Because of that, while everyone else was asleep, he would throw some food, which he had snuck back to his room, into her room through those tiny windows on the tower.

Although Greem had his own problems to deal with, he still had some compassion inside him, from his time back on Earth, so he felt he should try to help Mary, as best he knew how.

Today, the headache came at the wrong time. It chose to strike him right when he was making a copy of the book. He was low on money, yet he had wasted another piece of goatskin paper.

Although it was just a crumpled and crude goatskin paper, it was worth about two silver coins. In this world, the most commonly used currency was the gold coin. A gold coin could be exchanged for ten silver coins, and a silver coin could be exchanged for ten copper coins. Five copper coins was about how much money most people in this world made a day.

Hence, for most, an ordinary looking piece of goatskin paper was considered a huge fortune. But in this place, it was just rubbish that an Apprentice Adept could simply throw away.

However, within the tall Adept's tower, nothing was ever, truly free.

Greem was required to pay for Room, food, and board, along with the cost of learning with his own efforts. The only ways to earn money required one to walk out from the tall Adept tower, and either feed those brutal and ferocious demon creatures, take care of those eerie and strange demon plants, or searching out and harvesting the magic materials specified by Great Master Anderson. One could also earn money by cleaning out some of the dangerous areas within the tower.

When carrying out these tasks, they would put on a magic talismans made by the Great Adept himself, which would allow them safe passage through the magic formation around the tower. But in this mysterious and strange world, no mere talisman could allow one to consider themselves absolutely safe. Every couple of months there was always an incident where a few unfortunate guys would be devoured by demon creatures or plants when taking care of them. Sometimes people were struck down by magical energy while cleaning up some experiment of the Great Adept.

Therefore, most of the time the safer tasks would be taken by senior Apprentice Adepts, and, as a result, the weaker Apprentice Adepts could only pick more dangerous tasks to earn their money and knowledge points so they could continue their magic training.

Money was, of course, used to buy one's daily needs, while knowledge points were used in buying knowledge. It was a currency system created by the Great Adept himself. In the library within the tower, each magic book was labeled with different knowledge point values. Borrowing books would require knowledge points, not money.

The apprentices had to work hard to earn knowledge points, but those hard earned points would only allow them to borrow the book for a very short amount of time. The time was so short that it was totally not enough for an apprentice to master all the knowledge within the book. Therefore, most of the apprentices had made a habit of copying the books themselves.

Whenever they borrowed a magic book, the apprentice would put all their efforts into copying the knowledge they needed, so they could continue to study in future. Copying books required ink and goatskin paper. Obviously, these were not free either, and thus the Apprentice Adepts needed even more money.

Of course, if an Apprentice Adept came from a rich family, then they could spend a huge amount of money in exchange for knowledge point. The exchange rate between them was one knowledge point cost one hundred gold coins.

For example, the 'Glossary of Demon Creatures', which Greem had borrowed today, had cost him three knowledge points. He could only borrow it for half a day. With Greem's copying speed, based on his best estimation, he would have to borrow it three times in order to make a complete copy of this book.

This would cost him a total of nine knowledge points. Greem would have to leave the tower two weeks in a row in order to earn these nine knowledge points.

So he didn't feel even the slightest bit upset for wasting a piece of goatskin paper, but he was furious that he had wasted two hours of his precious time of copying the book.

Greem took another deep breath, and did his best to stamp out his anger, as doing so would help his book copying later, however, in the next moment, a familiar beeping sound suddenly resounded in his brain.

Beep* "Biological energy has reached the required amount. Biological Assistance Chip, serial number ZXJ9521 initiating…"

Greem let out a cry of surprise.

"Biological Assistance Chip!"

Once upon a time, during the tough time when he had just arrived in this new world, Greem had indulged himself in fantasies where he became a mighty immortal who traveled to a new world with a divine weapon. But too bad for him, besides giving him a frequent migraines, the damn chip had never shown any signs of activating. Surprise, surprise… it had finally decided to work today!

After the chip finished making adjusting to its new state, a graceful yet emotionless female voice resounded in Greem's brain.

"Host detected, establishing database… please wait…"

Eh? It could still identify his new body? That was unexpected.

After all, this was a world of advanced magic. The entire dimension was filled with a mystical material called Elementium. Based on the differences in these basic 'elements', these Elementium were classified into types, like Earth, Fire, Wind, Light, Darkness, etc.

Adepts would have differing levels of affinity toward these elemental types, and thus there were different fractions among Adepts. Because this system was completely different from how Earth operated, Greem was troubled and how to standardize the data in this world, so having the chip here to attempt to quantify these things brought him hope.

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After a long wait, the Biological Assistance Chip finally completed its first self-test.

Soon, all of Greem's basic attributes were projected into his mind.

In this world, every normal human being possessed some basic body attributes at birth. After years of research and classification, which had been done by generations upon generations of Adepts, they had finally categorized these into four different attributes: Strength, Physique, Agility, and Spirit. As one could guess, Adepts were differentiated based on these four basic attributes.

Strength was primarily used to quantify a person's musculature and body strength. This attribute was very important for close combat Adepts. The strength attribute would affect one's base damage when using close combat weapons, and it also affected one's melee accuracy.

For an ordinary man, having 3 to 4 Strength was quite normal. An adult with 5 strength would be considered to be quite strong.

Agility was used to quantify body synchronization, flexibility, reflexes, and balance. It was extremely vital for those warriors who wore light or medium armor, or for those bandits who wore leather armor, and for any people who wished to become good archers.

Physique represented a person's health and endurance. Any increase in physique would improve a person's Fortitude and Concentration. Therefore, it is very important for all professions.

Fortitude, also known as the ability to resist poison or disease.

Concentration. This iss a very important skill for spellcasters.

The minimum physique for any human is 1. If a human's physique dropped below 1, they would die.

Spirit determined a person's learning and inferring ability. This attribute was especially important for Adepts because it decided the number of spells an Adept could cast. It also made it easier for them to cast spells, as well as increased the power of their spells.

Most animals had a Spirit of 1 or 2, while creatures similar to humans would have at least a 3. If an ordinary human wanted to become an Adept, they would need to have a Spirit of 21, at minimum.

After analyzing the effects of these attributes to Adepts, Greem decided the most important attribute for himself currently was Spirit. Once his Spirit reached 21, he would be have leaped up to the heavens, officially becoming an Adept.

The only path for him to increase his Spirit was constant meditation, reading spell books and notebooks, and hearing of the experiences from other veteran Adepts.

However, all of this was simply within his sight but beyond his reach!

Because, in this gloomy and cruel world of Adepts, knowledge equaled power, and thus was hard to come by.

Why did so many Apprentice Adepts ignore the risks and stay in this place, even though they knew there was great danger waiting for them everywhere? Simple, it was because this was the only place where they could seek knowledge and resources for growth. When they stepped out from this tall tower of magic, even if they owned a fortune equivalent to the wealth of a country, they would have no way to obtain magical knowledge and experience. Not like that here, which they could obtain in a systematic manner.

In this frightening world of Adepts, all extraordinary spellcasting skill and precious spell knowledge were monopolized by Adepts. It was completely impossible for ordinary mortals to get access them!

Therefore, knowledge and resources were the wings for any Adept to fly after their dream. Only by having both could an Adept have a bright future.

After reading up on the basic attributes, Greem switched his focus to the 'skills' and 'personal ability' fields.

Greem only had two skills: Scroll Copying and Spell Reading. These two were basic skills for all Apprentice Adepts.

One of them allowed apprentices to copy the magic knowledge they needed for learning, the other one allowed the user to read spell books.

If an ordinary man touched a magic book without having the skill 'Spell Reading', then his mind would become confused by the words, due to the supernatural force of the letters, and they would lose control of their body for a period of time. Only those, like Apprentice Adepts, who went through strict mind training could overcome this psychic effect, accessing the real magic knowledge hidden within the book.

The only skill that he had listed in Personal Abilities was 'The Burning Hand'. This noted the only magic attack skill that Greem had learned in his 6 years of being an Apprentice Adept. The Burning Hand created a small ball of fire in his palm, allowing him to roast anyone who came too close.

Unfortunately, Greem was still an Apprentice Adept. There was no way he could master any spell completely. All he could do was follow the elemental typing that fit him best and attempt to do his best with it.

And, of course, the element that he had the highest affinity for using Fire!

Unfortunately, this affinity was not considered good in the walls of this tall tower within the swamp. As everyone knew, Great Master Anderson's elemental affinity was Darkness and Wind. Greem's path was not matched with his teacher, so it would be much more difficult for him to obtain guidance from his teacher. Therefore, most of the time he had to depend on himself and study even harder.

In fact, this problem had been troubling Greem since he arrived in this world, but now that the Biological Assistance Chip had started up again, Greem firmly believed that he could find a suitable magic path for himself in the coming days.

As for the 'Experience', after Greem read through the related information from the chip, he began to have a basic understanding of what it was all about. Through the process of organizing Greem's past memories and knowledge, the Biological Assistance Chip had extracted two conditions required for Greem to advance and become an Adept.

First, without a doubt, his Spirit had to reach the minimum level for an Adept.

For example, Greem's Spirit Attribute was at 8. That meant he was a 'wise man', being much more intelligent than ordinary people, but, in order to advance and become a real Adept, he needed his Spirit attribute to reach 21. There was a 13 point gap. This simply couldn't be rushed. He would have to read a mountain of spell books to reach that level.

Secondly, his own 'experience' had to reach a certain point as well.

This meant that, after Greem had increased his Spirit attribute to 21, he still needed to somehow raise his Experience to the maximum level. Only then he could officially advance. He needed to do both to become an Adept.

There were many methods of obtaining experience points. For example, scroll copying, spell reading, spending time practicing spellcasting, crafting magic wands, identify magic items… In short, any knowledge accumulation that involved magic would give Greem a certain amount of Experience points.

This all sounded easy, but it was actually quite difficult to accumulate Experience points.

Because only successfully experiments or completed understanding of magic could bring him experience points. Only after Greem completely read through and mastered a magic book could he understand its usage in the world. If he read a book, yet failed to understand the knowledge contained within, how could he grow?

It was always easier said than done. Even with help from Biological Assistance Chip, Greem still needed to work extremely hard in order to get what he wanted.

Right when Greem was lost in his fanciful thoughts, the sound of footsteps came from the corridor outside of his room.

"Greem, hurry, it's our turn to do tasks!" A rough voice spoke from outside his door.

It was Tony, an Apprentice Adept who around the same level Greem was.

Lower rank apprentices, like them, had to inspect the grounds surrounding of the tower every seven days for magic materials and properly harvest them. This was also one of the daily tasks the master of the tower had given to apprentices.

Greem hurriedly tidied up his room, grabbed a black cloak, which had been hung on the wall, opened the door and left his room.

Tony had broad shoulders, a huge body, a ferocious face, and a head with long disheveled hair. All of this made him look more or less like a barbarian. It was said that he came from a kingdom in the Grimm Highlands. According to rumors, people born in that land possessed barbarian ancestry.

Neither of them said anything when they met outside. They simply exchanged nods, then turned around and walked along the dark corridor, toward a staircase.

Although it was daytime now, they didn't meet any other apprentice along their way. There were over fifty official apprentices living in the tower but, most of the time, these apprentices were either busy with their own magic spell practicing, or preparing all sorts of weird magic experiments. They rarely loitered about in public places.

This was one of the main reasons why this swampy tower always looked so quiet.

After crossing the long, dark corridor and descending the spiral stone staircase they reached the main hall on the first level of the tower. Here they finally ran into more people, because this was the living quarters for the Probationary Apprentices.

Most of these people, children really, were 8 to 14 years old, and there were about twenty of them.

These little fellows came from all over, and they were all here with the dream of becoming the greatest Adept. But, little did they know, the path to becoming an adept was incredibly tough and terrifying, and that path was all that was in their futures.

Actually, there was a strict separation of the population in this tower. In general, most of these children only had around 3 to 5 Spirit Points. Therefore, they were currently not considered real Apprentice Adepts, and, thus, they could only be addressed as Probationary Apprentices.

All Probationary Apprentices had to complete their basic training in language and writing. Also, they could only advance when they were able to sense their elemental affinity and gather Elementium while meditating. Only then would they have the chance to climb up to the second floor and become an official Apprentice Adept. As for those fellows who could never reach this basic requirement, they would be weeded out.

Assisting these little fellows in completing their meditation, teaching them language and writing skills, instill them with the basic rules of the magic world… of course, it was impossible to let the Great Master Adept carry out these low-grade jobs. Therefore, it became the daily routine for official Apprentice Adepts in the tower.

But, such an easy daily task would never fall into Greem's hands.

After saying hello to Wallace, who was teaching those Probationary Apprentices their language class, both men ignored the burning glances from these little fellows and went straight through the main hall, quickly coming to a tightly sealed stone door.

Tony placed his right palm against the stone door and spoke in a low voice, "Curium • Ada."

Followed the completion of the secret spell, the ancient looking stone door slowly slid to both sides, revealing the dark, eerie looking swamp, outside the tower, to the two of them.

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This was an eerie and fearsome magical swamp.

Though it was daytime, the thick clouds and fog meant that very little light was able to get through, and thus the world looked quite dreary. The whole world seemed to have a gloomy, earthy yellow tone.

After living in such an environment for a long time, even the character of a person would change and become darker.

Both men waited until the stone door behind them completely closed up, then Tony pulled up his hood and said,

"I'm going that way."

He didn't wait for Greem's reply, but simply turned around and took a path that led off to the left, which led him onto a narrow and winding trail which was paved with tiny white stones.

Greem waited until Tony's bulky body disappeared into the misty fog, then he pulled up his hood, turned the other way, and took the trail on the right.

While walking, he whispered, "Show me the detected data for Tony."

In next second, a report about the Apprentice Adept Tony, done by the Biological Assistance Chip, was projected into his mind.

……

Greem's mouth twitched in surprise. With such a Physique, why didn't this guy change paths and become a Warrior? His strength and physique were twice that of Greem's. That meant that if he got in a fight with Tony, perhaps it would only take a single punch to knock Greem out.

But as an apprentice Adept, Tony had 6 Physique, 2 more than Greem. No matter how hard Greem worked, this innate advantage would be hard to overcome.

Knowing this, Tony was probably planning to follow the path of a Body Refining Adept. By using specific methods to strengthen his body, then using magic spells to assist his close combat ability… perhaps this was the only path he could choose!

Only by staying quite close to the target for a period of time could the Chip analyze and acquire such accurate information. It did this by monitoring the target's movement and behavior. No doubt this would allow Greem to take up a more proactive position when working with other people. It also allowed him to avoid taking unnecessary risks.

And this was, undoubtedly, the most important thing to Greem!

But perhaps such a method was useless against a real Adept, as their bodies were would sometimes radiate a strong elemental energy. This was something Adepts did passively after their body gathered a huge amount of energy. This was also how they avoided others sensing their strength.

It was unknown how much valuable information the Biological Assistance Chip would be able to ascertain when the target was under the powerful interference of energy radiation. Not only that, but Greem was worried that Adepts might be able to detect his Biological Assistance Chip, hence he had to be extra cautious when using it inside the tower.

The stony trail in front of him kept winding as it led into the depths of the misty fog. There were weird plants of all sizes, which could be barely seen on both sides of the path. There were short and thick, cone-shaped trees, small leafy plants that curled around in a spiral, vine-like rattans that brushed against the top of his head as he walked under them, and amazingly colored, mystical flowers that had petals the size of large washbowls… there was also a muddy, stinky pond…

Though all of this made it seem like this was just a normal swamp, Greem knew very well that he could never take even half a step out from the stony trail.

For all those animals and plants, which were able to survive in this magical swamp, were frightening demons who would eat every little bit of the humans they encountered, not even leaving their bones behind.

Those plain looking short trees were actually quite frightening. If a person got close enough to them, their curled up branch would instantly expand, grabbing and holding the person within its tight clutches. At that moment, the bloodsucking rattans, which were hanging on these trees, would coil up around that person, poking countless sharp thorns into their body, slowly sucking the blood out of their body, drop by drop.

After the person's blood was completely dried up, the remaining skin, flesh, and bones would become the best fertilizer for these killer trees.

If someone could ever safely dig out the blood red soil underneath those killer trees, they would certainly discover a huge pile of skeletons, some of which belonged to humans, some of which were animals. Without doing this, there was no evidence of any of the prey these plants had devoured!

There were two reasons why this tower in the swamp groomed these demonic plants. First, it was to prevent the intrusion from other humans. Second, it was so they could harvest some unique magic materials from the plants.

The root of the Killer Tree and the blood sack that grew within the body of the Bloodsucking Rattans were both good tonics. They were a beneficial supplement for Adepts who didn't have a good physique. On a regular basis, apprentice Adepts had to take the risk of being attacked by demon plants to harvest materials. Therefore, this was a dangerous task, which had a very high death toll.

It was probably because they had sensed the smell of blood and flesh from Greem's body, but the deathly still swamp suddenly seemed to come to life. Consciously, or unconsciously, all those demonic plants started wriggling their bodies, branches, and roots slowly moving toward the stony trail.

Greem pretended he didn't see the movements of these demon plants. He wasn't actually worried about them right now.

No matter how crazy or brutal they were, they didn't dare to move onto the simple and plain stony trail under his feet, as if there were something on this road that they feared.

"Query the database, record, and archive all the magic plants in the surrounding area!"

"Initial data insufficient… root database was incomplete and unable to match the species… activating elemental vision, reconstructing database…"

Following with a bunch of warning tones from the chip, the image projecting on his retina started swaying, then it straightened out as a vast amount of data began pouring down like a waterfall in front of his eyes. At the same time, every single object in his sight was highlighted with different colored lights.

Elemental vision? Was this a special ability that he got after the chip merged with his current body?

The plants were highlighted with a green colored light, indicated these plant demons contained a lot of Elementium that was, unsurprisingly, often found in natural plants. Other colors, like red, yellow, blue, and purple, indicated the areas where their respective energy was gathered. Besides these, the ever changing humidity, temperature, wind speed, thickness of poison particles, distribution of element particles and their circulation… all the data which the chip could detect was projected onto his eyes in a colorful dynamic graph.

Greem frowned.

This colorful and over complicated retinal projection had seriously affected his normal vision. This was too much information.

"Remove useless colors… remove diffused highlights… only focus retina vision on the most common energy ranges…"

After Greem gave out his commands, one after another, finally the glaring, colorful orb dimmed down bit by bit, and all the items in his vision had once again resumed their normal colors.

The thick and pale misty fog had now turned into countless lumps, threads, and sheets of slow moving water elemental particles. They were constrained by a mysterious force, and couldn't spread out, but were forced to cover this magic swamp month after month, year after year.

Greem stopped moving and stood straight. Hiding under the shadow of his hood was a pair of brightly flashing eyes, staring out at the demon plants beside the trail without blinking. With the help of his brand new vision, the true color of these plants hiding under the disguise of the swamp had finally been revealed.

Underneath the wrinkling and withered tree skin, was an army of eerie looking ghost faces that were tightly squeezed together. All of them were the souls trapped by the Killer Trees. Also, Greem could 'see' a green colored energy illumination on the needle like prickles on the edges of the Killer Tree's branches. This energy should indicate the presence of the paralytic poison that the Killer Tree used to sedate its prey.

As for the Bloodsucking Rattans, which hung from the Killer Tree, they looked completely demonic, as they were entirely blood red under his elemental vision. It was pure blood that flowing underneath its twisted, creeping green skin, and, right at the spot where it connected with Killer Tree, within a hollow tree cavity, numerous blood sacks, the size of a human fist, were pumping at a regular tempo, making them looked like human hearts.

Caw~ caw~

Together with few piercing caws, a group of Scavenger Crows flew in and stopped on a tree branch, moving their blood red eyes and staring at Greem.

Honestly speaking, being stared at by a group of ominous demons like this made Greem feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Faced with this group of dangerous swamp demons, Greem didn't dare be the slightest bit careless. Although Scavenger Crows were not considered to be strong demon beasts, their blood red eyes had the ability 'Doom', and there had been some frightful incidents in which Apprentice Adepts had their eyes blinded by these crows.

Seeing that these Scavenger Crows were itching to attack, Greem raised his right arm and softly intoned a spell that he had memorized. After five seconds of spellcasting, a large red magic fireball appeared in Greem's hand, twisting violently.

Greem's entire right hand was completely covered by this magic fireball, but he was still safe and sound.

This was his Burning Hand spell!

After spending six years in the Magic Tower, this was the only spell Greem was able to use.

With Greem's current ability, he could barely stretch the flame out 5 steps. That was his limit. Therefore, it could, currently, be considered a close range spell.

The violently burning magic flame brightened the surrounding fog. The powerful ripples generated by the fire element had finally made these demons realize that this human in front of them was not something they could easily capture.

As for those demons who were slowly gathering around Greem, it seemed like they were struck with a great terror, and all of them quickly fled away from the sides of the trail in a great panic. Also, that group of Scavenger Crows were letting out loud caws as they flew into the sky, briefly wheeling about in the air above and disappearing into the depths of the fog.

Greem breathed out a long sigh of relief. With this, the pressure on him had been reduced.

None of these demons had the guts to step onto the stony trail, but that didn't stop them from using their own methods in order to try to lure or intimidate Apprentice Adepts into leaving the stony trail. If Greem was scared by the terrifying scene of being surrounded by demons, and, in his panic, accidently left the boundaries of this stony trail… even with the help of Magic Talisman, he would probably die a terrible death.

The soul, blood, and flesh of an Apprentice Adept. No doubt they were much more delicious than ordinary humans or wild beasts. Besides, this didn't violate the agreement between the demons and the Magic Tower. Therefore, every inspection trip outside of the tower was a thorough check of willpower. Once these demons found a weakness in one's mind, the future of that person would not be good.

"Record everything you can about these demons!" Greem said calmly.

"Beep… record completed! Host, please name the creatures in the order they are presented."

Images of creatures appeared in front of his eyes.

"Killer Trees… Bloodsucking Rattans… Scavenger Crows…"

"Naming completed! New information has been recorded in the database."

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While most of the demons were backing away, in fear of the magical flame which had just appeared in the air, Greem jumped off the path, dug out the soil underneath a nearby Killer Tree, used his magic flame to burn the thick tree root, and finally saw the material that he had come to harvest today.

Between the tangled roots and pale white human bones were some small pulpy root nodes. Some were white, some were red, and there were even a few purple colored ones. Greem suppressed the disgust he felt and, using a small knife that he carried with him, he carefully harvested three of the purple nodes and placed them into his waist pocket. Afterward, he quickly rushed back to the path.

If this task wasn't so important, he wouldn't ever step outside of boundaries of the path! Even though he had moved with great speed, those demons, who had previously been running away, had, once again, gathered around. Also of note, the Bloodsucking Rattans, which hung from the Killer Trees, now occupied the space he had been in when digging up the roots.

If he had been a second slower, he wouldn't have been able to escape without a tough fight!

Actually, thanks to his new 'elemental vision', he was able to directly find the Killer Tree's core roots. If it was before, he would have had to make repeated trips from the path to find his harvest. The more trips off the path he had to take, the higher the risk.

He continued following the eerie trail for another two hundred meters, soon leaving the main clump of Killer Trees. In front of him, he saw a horrible ghost tree, which looked alive as it stretched over the stony trail, the vines and tree branches hanging down from it looked alive as they wriggled in the air.

Pulling out the magic talisman from under his shirt, Greem whispered the secret spell that every apprentice Adept had to master.

"Muhantoria • Sinra."

Upon the completion of the secret magic spell, a mysterious, invisible force erupted from the talisman, quickly covering every inch of his surroundings.

A warning blared within Greem's mind.

"Abnormal force field detected! The functionality of this chip is being interfered with…"

The voice of the chip got weaker and weaker. It slowly faded into a soft whine before eventually going completely silent.

Greem ignored the chip, then he started striding forward while holding the magic talisman up above his head. With each step he took, the vines and tree branches in front of him receded. Eventually they separated, allowing him to pass through and continue on his way.

Now that he was done with the Killer Trees and Bloodsucking Rattans, it was time for him to enter what was known as a paradise for a type of being known as a Demon Baby. Greem's heart held a strong fear for this place.

The area just past the Ghost Tree was filled with demons. They called it the Garden of Whispers.

If one looked out from the path, all they would see were fields of flowers, yet all these fields were filled with ashes, corpses, and countless demons.

The unique environment of the magical swamp had made this place a paradise for Demon Babies, Banshees, and Flower Fairies, all of whom were simply twisted creatures whose only desire was to fill their stomachs with the corpses and souls of the unprepared beings who entered this place. Whenever such a fool entered this place, his fate was to collapse under the endless evil influences and illusions and become a fertilizer for these unique plants, who lived off of death and despair.

Human Faced Mushrooms gathered on both sides of the path. They were all holding hands and singing a joyful melody, warmly beckoning Greem to join them. These little things looked like tiny mushrooms with hands and feet. They had a pattern on their caps which resembled a human face.

Although these Human Face Mushroom had cute little hands and feet and were not much more than a foot tall, when they gathered together, jumping and laughing, it sent chills down Greem's spine.

"Warning… Warning… Strange energy is affecting the host… Advising the host to leave this place immediately…"

Greem quickly backed away from the dancing mushrooms. When he had distanced himself from them, the spine-tingling sensation finally subsided.

No matter how cute these Human Face Mushrooms looked, they were still a genuine carnivorous demon, and they were known for not even sparing the soul of their prey. The original form of these demons was actually a type of white mushroom, which had been injected with a lot of potent Dark Elementium. Individually, they only had a weak illusion ability, which was definitely not enough for them to capture prey like a human, which was so much larger than them.

But these creatures lived together in a group.

When hundreds of Human Face Mushrooms gathered together, they could form a large mirage-like illusionary region, causing their prey to lose themselves without even realizing it. Thus, if one came across a large group of Human Faced Mushroom feasting on prey, their victim might still have a smile on his face, being completely immersed in some type of fantasy!

For an official Adept, these Human Face Mushrooms, who only possessed basic illusion abilities, were simply a good material for enhancing their own magic. But for an apprentice Adept like Greem, he would face the risk of being killed by them every time he encountered them.

If Greem couldn't withstand the illusionary region created by these Human Face Mushrooms and walk off the path of his own volition, then these creatures could enjoy a big feast without violating the agreement made with the tower!

Therefore, facing toward these smiling but insidious demons, who kept moving closer to him, Greem grinned and took out an egg-sized, stone, quickly throwing it right into the center of the dancing mushrooms.

In the next moment, a blue flash erupted from the stone as faded lightning struck out at anything close by. Five Human Faced Mushrooms fell lifeless to the ground. All the other Human Faced Mushrooms were scared and ran off in all directions, hiding in the nearby foliage.

Greem trotted over to the five Human Faced Mushroom corpses, carefully picking them up and placing them all into his waist pocket. Then he picked up the small round stone and returned to the path.

The small egg-shaped stone was a Thunder Stone, which he had purchased from apprentice Rick for a high price. When activated, it would shake violently for a moment before releasing a small burst of lightning which dealt 5 points of lightning damage. It was the perfect weapon for dealing with these Human Faced Mushrooms, which were quite weak. After all, his 'Burning Hand' spell was quite destructive, and thus he needed another method.

None of those Human Faced Mushrooms dared to show their faces after being attacked. However, the countless spine-tingling glances and the noisy clattering whispers were still following after Greem, making his hair stand on end.

The Human Faced Mushrooms were one the materials he had to harvest for his task. Therefore, once Greem had completed this part of the task, he quickly hurried down the winding trail, not daring to stay in that place any longer.

To be honest, among all the lands around the tower, this place was known for having the highest apprentice fatality rate!

Leaving the flowery fields where the Human Faced Mushrooms grew, Greem soon arrived at the region where the Demon Babies lived.

The Demon Baby was a little monster which had a small shriveled body, which looked like a human baby. They also had something like an umbilical cord dragging behind them as they moved. They moved around by crawling on the ground, but the speed at which they crawled was extremely fast.

These Demon Babies were not real babies, but actually very horrifying monsters. They had an innate ability, which was very similar to a 'curse'. With this 'curse' their words and wills would join together to become reality. One could imagine their power as something similar to a 'Wish' spell.

Unfortunately, they were all evil creatures with absolutely twisted minds, and their hearts were full of vicious hatred. Therefore, one shouldn't expect terrible malice to be unleashed upon them when they encountered these Demon Babies.

When dozens of Demon Babies gathered together and launched their most powerful curses toward a target, even a powerful Earth Bear would become greatly weakened by the stacking of their evil intentions. After that, the Demon Babies would easily be able to kill their victim.

When walking among this group of dreadful monsters, one would need heart, and a will of iron, or else they would end up having their skin stripped and bone dismantled by the Demon Babies, soon becoming one of the many wandering souls in this Garden of Whispers.

Greem quickened his pace as he hurried through the desolate bushes of the garden. He didn't have the courage to stop and simply held the talisman tightly to his chest, going faster and faster as he hurried through this section of the swamp.

By the time the sharp and ear-splitting cries of the Demon Babies started filling his ears, Greem was sprinting. Though it was terrifying, Greem soon left the Garden of Whispers, breathing heavily as he turned onto another narrow trail.

Although he had gone out to harvest materials, the more important part of this routine task was to inspect the activity of the demons near the tower and to check for things that were out of place, like if there were signs that an outsider had tried to come to this area. Every seven days he had to take note of the activity of all demons around the tower, appropriately harvesting some magical materials as he did so. This was the purpose for Greem's trip.

In fact, the region he was inspecting was actually a part of the inner boundary of the magical swamp. It was very rare for an outsider to actually make it this far into the swamp. After all, demons raised by Adepts were all extremely dangerous, even putting on a magical talisman wouldn't enough to guarantee the safety of an apprentice Adept. As for those ordinary humans who tried to sneak into this place to steal the resources of an Adept, the chances of them getting past all those monstrous demons was next to impossible.

To be honest, mortals most likely wouldn't even get past the outer perimeter of the magical swamp.

But, according to Greem's knowledge, sometimes the Adept Tower would purposely deactivate some of the outer perimeter defense mechanisms, actively attracting some ordinary humans into the depths of the swamp. At that moment, the swamp would turn into a demon carnival as they all feasted on the ignorant mortals!

The Adept Tower was a humongous ring-shaped structure and the landscape surrounding its foundation was extremely complicated. The demons were distributed throughout the swamp in a very methodical manner. Therefore, every inspection trip would require at least two apprentice Adepts, one went clockwise and the other went counter clockwise. They would follow a fixed route and cross most of the demon infested areas. Starting from the front door of the tower and meeting at the back door, once they completed this circular route their inspection would be considered complete.

Every inspection task would award them four Knowledge points and some gold coins. Compared to other tasks within the tower, the reward of Knowledge points was considerable handsome. But, even with such a high reward, most of the apprentice Adepts, who hungered for Knowledge points, would still step back from this inspection task, avoiding it like the plague.

The reason for this was obvious: the fatality rate for the inspection task was definitely the highest among all the tasks in the tower! None of the other tasks could surpass it.

For this inspection trip, Greem took the counterclockwise route, where he was required to go past the grove of Killer Trees, the Human Faced Mushroom's field, the Garden of Whispers, and a few other areas. As for the other apprentice Adept, Tony, he took the clockwise route, but it wasn't a safe route either. After all, those Giant alligators and Parasite Bug Queens were just as dangerous as some of the creatures on his side!

Especially when you had to harvest some of the Alligator eggs or a bug cocoon. Doing these things required one to go deep into their nest, and this was what was so dangerous about the clockwise inspection task. Therefore, when Greem saw Tony at the back door of the tower, he felt glad that Tony had survived as well.

Both guys didn't talk much after they met. They just nodded their heads indifferently and continued into the tower.

It was the apprentice leader, Anksorus, who was waiting for them there. After submitting the required items for the task, the two of them were basically free for the next six days. As for the Knowledge points, Anksorus had input them into their magical talisman using a secret method.

For all the apprentices in the tower, their magical talisman was actually a token of their identity.

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After submitting his task, Tony immediately rushed back to his room, obviously intending to go to take a nap. After all, every inspection trip would push one's nerves to the limit, and it really consumed your stamina. In contrast to Tony's actions, Greem hesitated for a moment, then he turned around and walked toward the library.

It was around midday, so there weren't very many apprentices inside the library.

It was a simple stone room with dozens of yellowed wooden bookshelves placed against the walls. On top of these shelves were all kinds of magic and spell books made from all kinds of materials and in all shapes and forms. The man who managed these books was a middle-aged, intermediate level old apprentice Adept.

For these intermediate apprentice Adepts, who had only barely reached this level with help from the experience of age, the Adept Tower would never put in any more effort to cultivate them. Also, this group of apprentice had given up their ambitions. They were not willing to take those overly risky missions, but, at the same time, they refused to return to the life of ordinary humans. Therefore, they became a unique group within the apprentice Adepts.

Although a librarian only received one Knowledge point every seven days, it was an easy job, and there wasn't any danger at all. That's also the reason why this task had been occupied by these senior intermediate apprentice Adepts. For someone like Greem, who had no one to depend on and was forever alone, all he could do was take on those dangerous missions.

Greem didn't rush to the bookshelves in the deepest area, like he used to do. Instead, he was browsing through each bookshelf leisurely, occasionally picking up a book and flipping through a few pages. All the books in this library were books of magic. When they were not borrowed, only the introduction was visible to a reader, while all the other content in the book was perpetually covered with a layer of floating dark fog, making sure no one could read through it.

Greem never dared to underestimate this normal looking dark fog, because it was personally designed by the master of this tower, the frightful Adept Anderson. Without going through a treatment from a special magical formation, no apprentice could read the content of the book, not even a single character. If anyone started wishfully thinking of breaking this mechanism, they would trigger a hidden magical formation, attracting the ire of, and punishment from, the Great Adept himself.

Although the consequences could be quite dire, Greem still wanted to test to see if his Biological Assistance Chip could bring him an advantage in this situation. After all, Knowledge points were very difficult to earn, and currently Greem only had 7 points. Knowledge points alone were not enough to support his needed Spirit growth requirement.

He picked up the book, 'The History of Adept', and pretended he was seriously reading the intro. But in actuality, deep in his mind he was quietly issuing commands to the Biological Assistance Chip.

"Scan this book. Try and see if you can obtain the content without triggering the magical formation!"

beep* "Command received, processing mission… starting deep scan…"

Greem lowered his head.

When the Biological Assistance Chip was scanning things outside his body, his eyes would take on a red tint. This required him to mask his eyes to prevent anyone from finding something abnormal through his eyes.

"Unknown protective force field detected… analyzing…" *beep* "Warning… force field is experiencing an unknown transformation… scanning terminated…"

Greem quickly closed his eyes and then the book.

It really didn't work. Any tiny bit of interference from the outside world would be enough to trigger the protective magical formation on the book. It looked like his overly optimistic stealing mission had failed. Henceforth, if he wanted to obtain new knowledge, he had to be honest and exchange for it with Knowledge points.

But he had no regrets on this matter. Because, with the help from Biological Assistance Chip, he no longer had to use the traditional method of copying – by hand. Any book, as long as he could borrow once, he would be able to duplicate it exactly, without missing anything, into the storage area of the chip, and he would be able to read it anytime he wanted.

Even if he couldn't master the book in a short period of time, he could still save them up and let the chip sort through and categorize them. Afterwards, he would be able to take his time and slowly study the content of the book. With this alone, the chip was provided him a tremendous boon!

He had no other choice but to put down the 'History of the Adepts'. After that, Greem came to stand in front of another bookshelf. All the books on this shelf were related to the usage of the fire element, a very suitable section for him, according to his elemental affinity, and that's the reason why this bookshelf was the one he visited the most.

'The Behavior of Fire Elementium'

'Controling Techniques of the Fire Element'

'The Burning Hand'

'How To Cast A Huge Fireball'

……

……

Some of these books were pure theory discussion on magic spells, some were simple insights into casting spells, some were orthodox models of elemental spells and casting techniques… among these books, the books about casting spells were able to help him master some necessary spells and improve his combat ability, but they were not enough to increase his knowledge storage. Only those books about the theory of magic had a possibility of improving his Spirit.

How to utilize his Knowledge points in the most reasonable manner. He needed to expand the number of spells he could use, thus boosting his combat ability and survivability, and, at the same time, he needed more books on magical theory, which could push him further into becoming an official Adept. This was a tough conundrum that really pushed his mind to the limit!

Greem became confused as he pondered this question while standing in front of the bookshelf.

Every magical energy system would definitely have their own respective theoretical foundation, and the power of Adept was based on the strength of their foundation.

So, what exactly did Magic represent to Greem?

Giving no reason, Greem gave the chip a nearly impossible long term mission.

"Chip, gather all the foundational information related to magic and find out the source of it. Also, give me the leveling path which best suits my future development!"

beep* "Command received, processing mission… constructing long-term observation project: The Source of Magic… lacking information, failed to construct a complete model… constructing short-term evaluation project: The Host's Path to becoming an Adept… lacking information, failed to construct a complete model…"

The continuous blare of warning noises made Greem feel another headache coming on. What could he do? The Biological Assistance Chip had just awakened, so its database was nearly empty. If he didn't find a way to gather some basic books on magic, it would impossible for it to come to any reliable results.

Fortunately, he had copied several books over the past six years. He would find a way to feed them to the chip when he returned to his room. Then the chip would, at least, have something in its database. Not like now, where it wasn't able to do anything.

Turning around and leaving the library, Greem first went to the canteen and cured his hunger. Only after he was sated did he return to his own room.

Upon opening the door and entering his room, the first thing Greem did was throw a glance at the floor beneath his feet.

Right on the floor near the door was a weak rippling of fire elemental energy.

The energy came from fire elemental particles purposely placed near the door. They didn't have any major functions, but when someone passed by that spot, the elemental energy around that person would inadvertently alter the arrangement of these fire elemental particles. With that, Greem would easily be able to tell if anyone had entered his room while he was gone.

People in this community of Adepts rarely showed their true faces. Those who were not proactive in their preparations and self-defense wouldn't last long in this tower.

Gently closing the door, Greem impatiently dug out all the Magic notes he had copied over the past few years. After a serious calculation, Greem figured that he currently owned five complete Magic books.

The first book was definitely the 'Glossary of All Things". It was the elementary book for all apprentice Adepts.

Greem sat down in front of his wooden table, meticulously reading through this 'Glossary of All Things'. Although the majority of the content within had transformed into his memory, but unavoidable he still forgot some, especially the tiny little details.

At first, he did his best to recite the book as he went through. He was having the Biological Assistance Chip copy all the knowledge content via his eyes into its storage, sorting and storing them according to his specifications.

As time went on, Greem stopped wasting his energy on thinking or even reading. He simply turned himself into a human copying machine, his eyes continually flickering as they scanned over every single word, magical inscription, and image… they were all being copied at high speed.

In less than fifteen minutes, the 'Glossary of All Things' had been completely saved in the Chip's memory!

Even Greem himself couldn't control his shock at this extreme speed.

As the core elementary book for all apprentice Adepts, this 'Glossary of All Things' recorded over ten thousand different races and unique creatures that had been discovered in the Adept Mainlands. It also held records of most of the commonly found plants, animals, minerals, special magical materials… As a whole, this book had over thirty thousand entries.

During his first two years here, Greem had spent a whopping 17 months copying and memorizing the entire book, But now it took him less than fifteen minutes to save it completely.

While getting over his shock at the Chip's amazing speed, Greem closed the book, and slowly started recalling the copied memory into his mind. Information on any species, fauna or flora, would appear in his mind as soon as he thought of it. The Chip would also project any related information and data into his mind. This would, indeed, save Greem a lot of time.

Good. This was really useful! He would never have to worry about struggling to memorize that hard to understand magical knowledge.

Being completely overwhelmed with excitement, Greem didn't pay any attention to the growing pain in his brain. He couldn't wait and quickly took out the second book, starting to duplicate it using the same method.

'The Beginning of Spirit Force', an orthodox book on Magic Theory. It mainly explained the raw source and application of the Spirit energy used by Adepts. It also contained some simple methods for exercising one's Spirit Force.

After he finished copying the second book, Greem gently touched his head. He felt incredibly nauseous and tired at the same time.

These… these were the symptoms of Spirit energy depletion!

As an apprentice Adept, he was extremely familiar with this situation. During the period when he had just learned the Burning Hand spell, as he still couldn't master the output of his magic energy, he had always depleted his pitiful store of Spirit energy.

In the later stages, when he got more familiar with the casting of Burning Hand, he finally gained a level of proficiency over Spirit energy usage without being taught by anybody. When one controlled magical energies, their Spirit energy was proportionate to the strength of their soul. The stronger one's soul, the more Spirit energy they had to use. Thus, that person would be able to cast more magic spells.

Take Greem as an example! He had a Spirit of 8, and his Magical energy was ten times his Spirit. In this case, 80 points. There were some Adepts who liked to call this Magical Energy 'Adept Energy'.

Anyway, these 80 points of Adept Energy were all Greem's current abilities afforded him.

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A simple Burning Hand magic spell would require Greem to expend approximately 20 Adept energy points, which meant that Greem could cast four Burning Hand spells in a row. But, of course, that was just in theory, as it was extremely difficult to achieve that in reality.

When an Adept had a full 'Energy Pool', his mind was performing at its best. No matter whether he was pondering over hard questions or casting spells, he would perform the best when his Energy Pool was full, but when an Adept's Energy Pool was at its max, his mind would become fatigued. The most significant expression of this would be dizziness and the swelling of certain tissues in the brain, causing the Adept to feel sick and start throwing up.

If he tried to cast a spell at that moment, even a spell that would normally only take him five seconds, he might not even be able to cast it in ten seconds, and there was a good chance he might not even be able to cast it at all.

Therefore, when any Adepts were required to frequently cast spells, they did their best to conserve a portion of their Spirit energy so that they could avoid all the negative side effects of Spirit Fatigue.

From the symptoms Greem was having, it was clear that his Energy Pool was at less than 5%, and thus he was suffering from Spirit Fatigue. The only solution for this was to get a good night of sleep. After all, sleep is how a brain relieves itself.

The Chip was great, but it consumed a large amount of Greem's Spirit energy when it was operating. Hence, once he realized that he was suffering from Spirit Fatigue, Greem struggled to his bed, threw himself onto it, and immediately fell asleep.

The rest of the day passed as he slept, and the darkness of night settled over the swamp. Now the moon had raised itself high up into the dark sky, though its face was rarely seen through the dense clouds and fog. A deep silence reigned over the quiet Swamp Tower as many of its residents went to sleep.

During this time, a tall and bizarre dark shadow suddenly appeared beside Greem's bed, bending over him and quietly staring down at him.

As the result of nausea from his severe Spirit Fatigue, Greem didn't sleep well. Even though he was in a sleeping, his brows were tightly knitted in a frown and his face was filled with distress.

The bizarre looking human figure had its back toward the moonlight, so its entire body was immersing in an indescribable darkness. No one would be able to clearly see its face, but no one could ignore the pair of blood red eyes flickering on this unseen face. These eyes would make anyone who saw them shiver in fear.

"Blood… blood… I need blood…"

The dark shadow tremblingly stretched out both arms, as if to grab Greem's neck, but, for some unknown reason, it always retracted back, as if it was reluctant to do whatever it was trying to do. Its behaviors seemed to suggest that it was experiencing a fierce mental battle within itself. Also, it kept mumbling the same words over and over again, showing the intense struggle happening within.

After a few minutes, it seemed to gain control of itself. It paused for a moment, then stared at Greem, who was completely unaware as to what was going on around him. A few moments later, it turned around and jumped out of the window.

This window was on the outside of the tower. This meant that there was a formidable Magical Formation attached to it, which would make it impossible for any outsider to roam freely in this place. But, strangely enough, when this dark shadow grabbed onto the tower wall outside Greem's room, it never actually triggered the magical formation surrounding the tower.

If Greem had seen this, he would have realized that this being was an Apprentice Adept, as only Apprentice Adepts had the Magical Talismans which would let them freely travel through the magical formation.

The dark shadow was climbing around the outside wall of the Adept Tower at an extremely fast speed. Its movement was swift and agile, yet seemed effortless as the shadow flowed around the vertical face of the tower. This was an impossibly impressive feat of strength and dexterity, and would have stunned anyone who witnessed it. Surprisingly enough, it seemed like it purposely moved through the dark corners of windows and ledges, where moonlight couldn't reach. This made its movements even more impressive, yet also hard to see.

Its movement was swift and graceful, and it didn't make any noise over the course of its journey. Also, it seemed like it was searching for something specifically, as it purposely avoided the rooms which were still lit by candlelight. After searching for a while, it seemed to finally find whatever it was looking for.

It hung on the side of a narrow window, tilting its head slightly to one side and listening for a moment. Only after making sure that the sound of breathing coming from inside the room was stable and lengthy did it carefully climb through the narrow window.

For a while, nothing could be seen or heard inside the room. After a few minutes, it finally left the room, the faded smell of blood hovering around its body.

It was obvious that the dark shadow was satisfied with itself. Before it sneaked away, it squatted on the narrow window and casually turned its head upward and looked at the sky. Right at this moment the clouds cleared just enough for the moon to shine through, pouring its silver light down from the sky above, and lighting up the face of the shadowy figure.

What was seen was the youthful face of a teenage girl. Her face was fair and beautiful, but if one looked closely, they would see two sharp incisors sticking out slightly from her upper lip, and if they looked even closer, they would see blood staining these teeth.

The beautiful young girl used her tiny tongue and gently licked both teeth clean. When she withdrew her tongue, she pursed her lips, as if she were tasting a delicious fine wine. Only after sitting there for a moment did she leaped out from the window and disappeared into the dark shadows below, where the moonlight could never reach.

…………

The next day, Greem was woken by a rapid knocking at his door.

Greem shook his head, which still felt dizzy, then he got up and opened his door. To his surprise, he found three people standing outside.

Apprentice Leader Anksorus, Apprentice Ellen, and Apprentice Fenrir.

The position of Apprentice Leader was personally assigned by Great Master Anderson, and Anksorus was the current Apprentice Leader. Therefore his status was supreme amongst all the Apprentice Adepts. Most of the time, he would perform Apprentice management duties on behalf of the Great Master, managing all the Apprentice Adepts inside the Tower. Also, as he possessed the strength of an intermediate Apprentice, thus all lesser Apprentices had to obey his orders. If someone antagonized him, he could easily play put that person on a path to death, and they would never know that they had been set up.

As for the other two men, Ellen and Fenrir, they were just beginner Apprentice Adepts, just like Greem, but both of them were good at butt kissing, and they had followed Anksorus day in and day out, licking his boots. Hence they were considered the trusted followers of the Apprentice Leader.

So wherever Anksorus appeared, these two flatterers would always be there. The relationship between them was similar to the symbiotic behavior between the Killer Trees and the Bloodsucking Rattans. Two flatterers needed help from Anksorus. Only then would they have the privilege to choose safer daily tasks. Meanwhile, Anksorus would need these two Apprentices' help in order to hold back those idealists who desired his position.

Greem had an unsociable and eccentric character, and thus he rarely made contact with others. Therefore, the relationship between him and this group was not good, but not bad either. That's why he felt really surprised when he found out these guys standing outside his room.

Apprentice Leader Anksorus was a young man in his mid-twenties. He had a hawk nose, a pair of thick brows, and sharp eyes. Although his facial features didn't make him look fierce, it still gave an imposing air to anyone who stared at him. The moment when the wooden door opened up, Anksorus flashing glance immediately fell on Greem's face, indistinctly making Greem feel as if his skin had been burned.

Greem felt a small shock in his heart.

He knew that this was an anomaly that only happened when one's Spirit energy overflowed, and was a signal that this guy's overall power had reached to a very high level.

Among all the Apprentices of the Tower, there was actually very strict divisions which were based on the power of the Apprentice.

Those who had only mastered one or two Magic spells, and possessed a Spirit level of 10 or less were all beginner Apprentice Adapts, considered to be the lowest ranked among the Apprentice Adepts in this tower. As for those who had mastered three to four Magic spells, and had a Spirit level of 11 to 15 were classified as intermediate Apprentices, and they were considered to be fairly strong power. Finally, those who mastered five or more Magic spells, and had a Spirit level of over 16 were the elite of the Tower: the Advanced Apprentice Adepts.

Once an Apprentice's Spirit level reached 20, then he had gained the qualification to become a Pseudo Adept, and the Great Master Adept would give him a special treatment, preparing himself for the ceremony which would mark them becoming an official Adept.

One must note that, currently, there were no real Pseudo Adepts in this Swamp Tower!

As for this Anksorus, although it was unknown how many Magic spells he had mastered, but, with the help from some unique Magic items, sometimes he was able to unleash a power which not weaker than that of an Advanced Apprentice. Within the Tower, there were only three people who had reached the level of Advanced Apprentice: Hawkeye, Evil Bugs, and Madwoman.

Of course, these were not their real names, but nicknames.

Hawkeye was Clutha, a frightening guy from the West Coast. In order to strengthen his own power, he actually replaced one of his eyes with a hawk's eye. This gave him some bizarre abilities.

Evil Bugs was Actaeon. He was even more bizarre than Hawkeye. He went as far as raise a swarm of horrifying bugs with his own blood and flesh. When fighting with him, a single careless mistake in battle would end with being eaten by thousands of bugs!

As for the last one, Madwoman, she had an immense thirst for violence. Using a huge steel sword, which was taller than your average human, she was undefeated among all the Apprentices. She was so violent and terrifying in battle that no one dared to challenge her.

The three of them had either mastered some Magic spells with tremendous power or possessed some bizarre and unique abilities. No matter what, they had long ditched the status of ordinary Apprentices and all become candidate who had the potential to break through and attained the status of Pseudo Adept.

Thus, when facing with the flaming glance from such a powerful Apprentice Adept, Greem's spirit was clearly not enough to support him, and his mind was suppressed by the person in front of him.

"Greem, something happened in the Tower last night! Do you know anything about it?" Apprentice Leader Anksorus was still staring coldly at Greem without saying anything. It was Ellen who was doing all the talking.

"What? Something happened? Was someone killed in a Magical experiment?" Obviously, Greem had no idea what was going on.

"There were no issues with any magical experiments. Someone was murdered right inside his room!" Finding that Greem's puzzled eyes and shocked expression didn't seem fake, Anksorus spoke slowly, but his eyes were still focused on Greem's face, making sure he missed nothing of Greem's expression.

"Murdered?" Greem was startled, but he immediately became freaked out and said, "Who died?!?"

Although from time to time Apprentice Adepts died in accidents in this Swamp Tower, most deaths happened while on dangerous missions or from accidents in bizarre Magical experiments. Not once had an Apprentice Adept been murdered by someone before. After all, every single Apprentice Adept was a precious treasure for Great Master Adept Anderson, so he would never allow his Apprentices to murder each other.

Once something like this discovered by him, those who violated his will would definitely be severely punished.

"Muret."

Greem frowned.

He knew this Muret. That guy was just an ordinary Apprentice who had only mastered one magic spell… that was all he knew. The only other thing he could remember was that this guy had a face full of freckles, and was younger than him.

"So why are you guys here…?"

"We need to check your room. This is not out of spite against you, as we are checking every apprentice's room." Anksorus said with a cold manner.

"That's right, we have to check everyone's rooms. Move aside quickly, or we will tell the Great Master that you are to blame for this murder… Do you think you will live long if that happens?" No doubt Fenrir was the biggest nuisance here, spitting out threats against Greem.

Greem felt anger well up in his heart, but he gritted his teeth and slowly pressed it down.

They were checking everyone's rooms?

Would you have the guts to check Hawkeye's room? How about Evil Bug's room? Or maybe Madwoman's room. You guys would turn around and walk away if Madwoman was standing in front of you!

Though his heart was full of rage, Greem simply frowned. He hesitated for a short moment before finally moving aside and letting them enter his room.

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His room was small and cramped, being, at most, around twenty square meters. Just by standing at the door, one could see everything inside.

There was a bed and a simple old wooden writing table. A few books were messily placed on top of it, one of which was lying open, a few strange and mysterious symbols could be seen on the exposed pages. An old chair was also in sight. The paint on it had been worn away, revealing the original dark color of the wood beneath.

A wooden rack was sitting on one side of the room and there was a row of glass jars resting on top of it. Inside these jars were some weird half-cultivated plants and bizarre demon organs.

An iron edged wooden box was sitting in the corner of the room. There was a trash can sitting right next to it.

Other than these, there was practically no other furniture in the room.

A derisive look could be seen in Ellen and Fenrir's eyes.

Although they were also Apprentice Adept, both of them were living lives that were hundreds of times better than Greem. Not only did they have big, soft, and comfy beds in their rooms, but the luxurious decorations in their rooms was similar to that of human nobility in this world.

Maybe it was because they wanted to show off their authority, but both Apprentice Adepts rushed into the room and began to rummage through his meager belongings.

The mattress on the wooden bed was thrown to the ground, the books on the table were flipped about in a messy way, and an ink bottle was overturned, staining all the opened books with a large amount of ink. The iron edged wooden box was opened up and all the clothes in it were dug out and thrown on the ground.

Apprentice Leader Anksorus merely stood at the door and watched as his men wrecked Greem's room. He impassively looked on and did nothing to stop them.

Greem stood beside Anksorus. In his sleeves, his fists were repeatedly clenching and releasing. At the same time, his eyes were filled with a cold fury.

After wrecking his room, Anksorus's two lap dogs finally finished 'searching'.

Under the triumphant and snide glances of the two men, Greem coldly shut the door.

He hurried over to the overturned wooden box. After briefly searching through the pile of messy clothes, Greem finally couldn't hold himself and cursed in a low voice.

Python Rattans, Rat Grass, Black Lotus Flower, Wild Steel Flower, Grave Moss…

After risking his life and going on so many inspection trips, the Magic materials he had arduously harvested from the Magic Swamp were all missing. It was obvious that Apprentice Leader Anksorus's two henchmen had picked them up while 'searching for proof' just now.

Although he intended to rush out and confront them, when he thought of Anksorus's insidious and gloomy expression, a tremor immediately went up Greem's spine.

Clearly, these guys were using the excuse of investigating Muret's death to loot all the normal Apprentices resources. And because of Anksorus's Apprentice Leader status, no one dared to confront them to their faces. Of course, these three bastards wouldn't be so stupid as to provoke one of the powerful people in this tower, they were only brave enough to pick on someone weaker, like Greem.

Soon, they were knocking on the wooden door next to Greem's.

Mary's 'encounter' was no secret to these few guys. Since she hadn't shown herself for a long time, they were taking this as an opportunity to see her current status. Apprentice Leader Anksorus also wanted to know if she was still alive or not.

But right when Ellen was getting so annoyed that no one was answering the door that he was about to break down the door, the door actually opened up from the inside.

A young girl wearing in red cotton dress stood in front of them.

"So it's Apprentice Leader Anksorus! I haven't had the time to thank you for arranging my last task!" The delicate voice of the young girl could easily melt anyone's heart, but that was nothing compared to the effect of her mesmerizing beauty.

She had slender limbs and well-defined curves, and her skin was as fair as flawless jade. Her facial feature was delicate and perfect, and her tiny red lips were covered with a smile. But the most attracting part of her was her pair of bright blood red eyes. They were like two pure crystal clear rubies mounted on her extraordinary face, making her as enchanting as a fairy.

Also, she was wearing a bright red dress that completely exhibited her lovely body and exposed a large portion of her fair skin, dazzling anyone who saw her.

In this gloomy Swamp Tower, the majority of the Apprentice Adepts wore unified gray Apprentice robes and black cloaks, causing dark tones to become the main theme of this place. By bumping into a young girl with such a splendid and glaring bright appearance, these guys immediately stunned, immediately becoming tongue-tied at her charming beauty.

Not only that, but after witnessing the magnificent beauty of the girl in front of them, an inexplicable lust began to surge the lower half of the three men, burning violently and bringing their more carnal hunger to life.

Anksorus proved why he had been specifically chosen by the Great Master Adept himself, as his self-control was far stronger than the other two men. While Ellen and Fenrir were seized by a sudden lust and showing horny faces, being ready to surrender their souls to this girl, Anksorus was able to pull himself out from this 'charm' instantly.

"Who are you? Quickly tell me your name, or else…" Anksorus's expression was changing rapidly, he took two steps back and hastily placed both hands in his waist pockets.

Although the Tower was a big place, all the Apprentice Adepts were pretty familiar with each other. After all, there was only about forty to fifty people here, and they had all been living together for years, so it would be quite strange for them not to know each other.

Even someone like Greem, who was known for being unsociable and eccentric, had a couple of 'friends' who he would communicate with, not to mention Anksorus, who was the Apprentice Leader that had to liaise with every Apprentice each week.

It would be modest to say that, with both eyes closed, Anksorus could list out all the basic living situation and status of every single Apprentice Adept, from level one to level three, of the Adept Tower.

But wait… she did come out from Mary's room….

Mary, a girl who came from a remote province. The largest impression she had made on Anksorus was very stubborn. But if judging by her looks, Mary, who came from a family of nobles, was, in fact, a rare beauty amongst all the female Apprentice Adepts.

Too bad she was ignorant of her status in the tower, as she simply ignored the countless invitations Anksorus sent, requesting her to join him in his bed on nights when he was lonely. Therefore, during an occasion when Adept Anderson urgently needed a subject to experiment on, and thus had turned to Anksorus for an Apprentice Adept… he had passionately recommended Mary for the 'position'.

Could it be…

Thoughts were flashing through Anksorus's mind, and he quickly thought of that stubborn little beauty, who was cowardly and weak in any situation that mattered, yet had stood him up countless times. When comparing that girl to the vibrantly dressed girl who had an imposing manner in front of him, his jaw dropped and he let out a shocked cry.

"You… you're Mary!"

As if hearing the name 'Mary' caused the girl in the red dress to feel pain, her sweet and charming face suddenly twisted ferociously, causing her small cherry mouth to seem to tear open from the corners of her lips to her ears, turning her once small mouth into a gaping maw which stretched from ear to ear. With a sudden movement, the girl leaped forward, quickly biting down on Anksorus's bare neck.

With a single bite, nearly half of Anksorus's neck was removed, exposing his bloody flesh and broken trachea. His blood instantly shot out, like a water fountain, and soon the floor, the wall, and the body of the girl were all stained with blood.

Anksorus fell back and slammed up against the cold hard wall behind him. He slowly sliding down the wall and ended up sitting on the floor, trembling nonstop. Meanwhile, he pulled a magical item, which was shaped like a scorpion, out from his waist pocket, and triggered it, causing it to shoot out a flaming red beam toward the girl in red dress. The beam went straight through her chest.

This flaming beam was a very powerful Fire Magic, so the intense heat of the beam instantly burned an egg-sized hole through the girl's body. The scorching beam didn't stop after passing through her body, and it even left a hole on the corridor wall behind her.

After using it, Anksorus threw away the magical item. Next, with both hands trembling, he pulled a small, fist-sized bottle containing green liquid from his waist pocket, he then pulled off the bottle's cap and poured the liquid onto the huge wound on his neck.

Anksorus had a pretty strong vitality, so even though he had suffered such a deadly injury, he didn't die immediately. Instead, his half-broken neck suddenly showed signs of rotting, and the exposing flesh rapidly dehydrated. At the same time, the blood spurting from his wound slowed down and eventually came to a complete stop.

Partially zombified body.

After learning about organic structures, anatomy, and necromancy, an Apprentice Adept would be able to use Magic and implant a thing called a 'Zombie Sack' within his body. With that, once the Apprentice suffered a severe injury, the Zombie Sack would be triggered and make part of his body zombified, preventing him from dying due to the injury.

But it was just a temporary measure. Once the instant threat of death had passed, a new threat approached, as he would now have to find a way to get rid of the violent negative energy in his body.

But when faced with the choice of life and death, most Apprentice Adepts choose to save their lives, not matter the cost. As for the dangerous negative energy, that was something they could worry about at a later date.

However, in next second a shadow was cast over his body.

With one hand caressing his nearly broken neck and the other holding a small bottle up above his gaping wound, Anksorus was unable to do anything in response except turn his head to see what was happened, and what he saw was the girl in the red dress's huge bloody mouth full of sharp teeth. Her red dress was being stained purple by some liquid leaking from the hole in her chest…

Purple colored blood?!

Was she still human?

This was the last thought that ever went through Anksorus's mind.

The girl, once again, leapt forward, placing her body on top of his and latching her gaping maw onto his wounded neck. The sound of her sucking out his blood was loud and clear.

As the girl was busy with her work she was ignoring the other two Apprentice Adepts at her side. Both men had taken out the crude magical items they owned and readied them in their hands, but when facing with such a bloody and horrifying scene, neither of them could gather enough courage to trigger the magical items in their hands.

Thinking back, even the powerful magical item of Apprentice Leader Anksorus couldn't cause real harm to this red dressed monster, perhaps the magical items in their hands would not be enough to damage her in the slightest. What if they provoked this monster? Perhaps it would leap onto their bodies next, feasting on their flesh, drinking their blood, and crushing their bones between its teeth…

By the time both men had proceeded to cower up against the wall, trembling nonstop, the girl in the red dress had stopped consuming the flesh and blood of the former apprentice leader. She sat up from the body, her back facing toward these two cowardly Apprentices, and took out a snow-white handkerchief and a round shaped small mirror. She proceeded to gently wipe her lips, a look of satisfaction covering her face.

Under the effect of some mysterious healing force, the bloody purple hole on her chest started stitching itself together at an incredible rate. In the blink of the eyes, it had transformed back to the same silky smooth fair skin, and not even the tiniest scar could be seen.

What a frightful regenerative ability! Could it… could it be that she was the legendary, fearsome noble of the dark – the Vampire?

Through a tiny crack in his door, Greem witnessed everything that had just happened. As for how his neighbor, who had been contaminated by a Magical Spell, turned into a Vampire, he didn't have a single clue.

But in regards to the death of the Apprentice Leader Anksorus, he was filled with a heartfelt joy.

However, the fight had lasted for some time, and even an Apprentice had been killed. No matter how insensitive the Adept of the Tower was, he should have sensed something by now!

Greem's mind was suddenly filled with a single thought: With all that had just happened, how was this day going to end?

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After licking the blood off her face, the girl in the red dress turned around, once again revealing her delicate and seductive face to the two quivering Apprentices. Fenrir, who couldn't withstand such a powerful visual impact, fainted, his arms and legs splaying out on the floor in random directions.

The terrifying and ferocious look of 'Mary' had been completely covered up, as she had turned back into the lovely girl with the beautiful face. However, her blood red eyes and the two small, yet sharp looking, teeth sticking out from her lips gave hints of the terrifying being hiding behind the charming beauty.

Though nearly half her body was splattered with blood, she somehow managed to look as delicate and charming as a flower. It was such an intense visual impact that even Greem, who was only glimpsing this through the crack in his door, couldn't control himself and felt himself being charmed by her intense beauty.

A Vampire in its nascent form had no fear of having its body damaged, because, as long as they had blood, they would be able to obtain unlimited vitality. This was an immortal species which only existed in ancient books in this Land of Adepts. As they were over hunted by Adepts, their species was nearly extinct. Even if there were some survivors, they dared not to expose their real identity.

This was why Greem was so shocked by seeing Mary turn into a Vampire. After his initial shock over Mary's current racial status, Greem also felt a shiver, as he thought about how powerful Adepts must be, that they should be able to hunt these vampires into extinction.

What kind of Magic experiment did Mary go through? How did it turn an ordinary human girl into this bloodthirsty ancient species who loved to kill? Could the strange noises he heard during the night have been caused by Mary's 'mutation'?

Right when the red dressed girl Mary moved threateningly towards Ellen, who was still trembling, the torches on both sides of the dark corridor suddenly lit up, and a mystic figure stepped out from the shadows of the wall and spoke.

"Halt your steps, my child. Today's slaughter has been more than enough for you to complete the last step in your evolution! From now on, you have to try your best to restrain your desire for fresh blood by steeling your mind. Return to the path of searching for knowledge!"

The man who was speaking had a bent back, and his face was full of wrinkles and loose skin. A long, flowing, pure black robe covered his body, and a long pointed hat, which curled slightly at the top, sat on his head. He was holding a staff made from twisted roots and gnarled branches, and it had a big green crystal embedded on top of it. Specks of light diffused from the crystal, creating layers of amber in the middle of the air.

This old man was the only Adept in this Adept Tower, the great Adept, Anderson.

As for his Adept rank, with Greem's current knowledge and experience, he had no idea.

Although he had known that today's events would alert the master of the Adept Tower, which is why Greem had disabled his elemental vision beforehand, but when Adept Anderson suddenly appeared in the hallway, the strong magical energy radiating from his body still caused Greem's eyes to sting and tear up.

Greem quickly, yet gently, shut his door as tightly as possible, hiding quietly in his room. He didn't have the courage to peek at what was happening outside. If he saw some secret that Adept Anderson didn't want anybody to know about, his pathetic life would quickly end.

All the real Adepts, that Greem knew about, were cruel and vicious men, who weren't phased in the slightest when it came to killing someone, and who carried out all sorts of dangerous and evil magical experiments on living human and creatures as if it was nothing. No matter how careful he was, there was no way he could hide from Adept Anderson's spiritual senses. However, by behaving in this way, he was showing that he wasn't trying to watch, and wasn't involving himself in any of the Adept's business. At least if he left before anything really happened, he would be safe.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, a nasty confrontation was ongoing.

Mary had, once again, turned into a ferocious and frightening Vampire. Her blood red eyes were flashing like a wild beast's and her nails had started to grow crazily, eventually becoming sharp claws with glinting tips.

Clearly, the Vampire Mary had a bestial nature. Her body was up against the wall. Like a gecko, she was climbing around on the vertical wall at an incredibly high speed. She started rushing toward the master of the Tower, Adept Anderson.

Running along the wall at high speeds, when she got close enough to the Adept, Mary kicked off the wall with her powerful legs, catapulting her lithe body toward the Adept at a blazing fast speed. While her body was flying through the air, Mary stretched her claws forward, reaching out to grab at the Adept's heart.

When faced with this aggressive Vampire in her nascent form, all Adept Anderson did was grin his evil smile. There wasn't the slightest sign of panic or worry on his face. He shook the staff in his hand, and a small tornado appeared in Mary's path.

"Even though it is just a homunculus, the bloodthirsty nature actually surpassed the consciousness of the host… what a pity…"

Mary's body weight was rather light after being modified, so her attacks were focused on speed and agility. Too bad that, in the eyes of an Adept, her innate abilities, though beyond that of normal humans, were not enough to cause him even the slightest bit of worry. Therefore, when Mary slammed into the tornado, she was immediately caught tightly in it, and was unable to escape.

A second later, as the suction force of the tornado became stronger, Mary let out a cry of shock, as her body was being spun about, making her ridiculously dizzy.

Under the control of Adept Anderson, the tornado twisted, and Mary was thrown out from it, forcefully slamming into a nearby stone wall. Although it did not seem like Anderson had put much effort into it, but the impact was enough to take Mary out of the fight. Greem could even hear the sound of bones cracking through the wooden door.

"A newborn Vampire who has lost her mind… Why would I keep you? Go to hell!"

Adept Anderson smiled hideously, then he raised his skinny and wizened right arm, unleashing a pale white flame, filled with the aura of death, which floated above his palm. Then he flipped his palm and pressed down onto the struggling and groaning girl's forehead.

Perhaps it was because she sensed that her death was near, but this vampire, who were known for having extraordinary senses when it came to detecting danger, finally stopped struggling about like a beast. Mary suddenly let out a grating scream, moving her body backward desperately, a deep fear could be seen in her eyes as she looked at the flame. Those same eyes had shifted from a crimson red to a deep green color.

"Eh?" Master Anderson stopped pressing his arm down. The deathly fireball was still burning quietly, but the cracking sound of a normal fire burning couldn't be heard. The reflection of the pale dancing white flame made Mary's pale face look even whiter, as if there was a thick layer of powder applied to it.

"Oh… So the fear of death can make you regain consciousness? This is a phenomenon that I have never seen before… I think there is value in researching this." Adept Anderson spoke to himself under his breath. He waved his palm and killed off the flame. After that, he snapped his fingers, creating dozens of small air vortexes around Mary's neck, limbs, and all her joints, firmly chaining her up.

Then he turned around and glanced at Anksorus's corpse.

Because of Mary's blood crazy feeding, all the blood in the body had been sucked out. Therefore, Anksorus's corpse had taken on a very grim visage. What had been healthy looking skin minutes ago had become wizened and saggy, making his corpse look similar to that of a mummy who had been buried underground for dozens of years.

"The original Apprentice Leader is dead… I'll have you replace him! Remember to properly manage all my apprentices." With a frown on his face, Adept Anderson simply pointed his finger at Ellen, who was barely able to stand by supporting his weight against the stone walls, and gave out his order in an indifferent tone.

After he finished saying that, the torches on the corridor's wall suddenly dimmed. When they resumed their original brightness, the master Adept and Mary had disappeared from the corridor.

After witnessing a bloody feast and barely escaping with his life, Ellen was unexpectedly promoted to Apprentice Leader. His body was still trembling violently, and his pants were wet, but his face was filled with a mixture of shock and excitement.

Suddenly he thought of something. With staggered steps, he leaped onto Anksorus's corpse and began to crazily search through the contents of the dead man's pockets.

Since he had become the new Apprentice Leader, the Magical Talisman which represented the status of Apprentice Leader now belonged to him. He had to find it as soon as possible.

Waist pocket, inner pocket, neck guard, leather boot…

He performed a thorough search through all the places that could hide things on Anksorus's body. The corpse, which he had formerly looked on with fear and distaste, had now become his treasure chest, filling him with great delight.

Finally, he found the Magical Talisman on the dreadful looking broken neck of the corpse. Holding it high up, he laughed loudly and merrily, obviously having no idea how insane was his behavior looked in the eyes of others.

Fenrir, who had fainted on the floor, moved his body, struggling long and hard to stand up.

As he gazed at Ellen, he was filled with a murderous intention due to the jealousy he felt.

As a matter of fact, he had awakened long before, but, as he couldn't predict what would happen, he had remained lying on the ground, pretending he was still unconscious.

Who would've thought that his fear would actually make him miss an opportunity to become the next Apprentice Leader, which was quite a prestigious status to him. At this moment, he wished he could strip Ellen's flesh from his bones!

"Why didn't that vampire kill him?!?" Fenrir roared furiously in his mind.

But on the surface, he had covered up the feeling of loss and fury, which was so prevalent in his mind. When he stood up from the floor, he had a flattering smile on his face.

"Apprentice Leader Ellen, quickly get up. The floor is dirty. Let me clean up the mess for you!"

Fenrir's interruption immediately restored Ellen to reason.

Ellen stood up swiftly and tidied up his appearance. While looking at the Magical Talisman in his hands, an arrogant smile covered his face.

"I'll leave everything here to you! Something bad has happened to the original Apprentice Leader. I need to inform everybody about this urgent news… Hmm. I seem to remember that it is time to feed those Giant Alligators outside…" The last part of the sentence was said in a cruel and uncaring voice.

"Understood! I'll clean this mess up right away!" Fenrir couldn't help but bend his head even lower.

After enjoying the first tastes of his newfound power, Ellen couldn't hold himself back, and let out a loud laugh again. Then he quickly walked down the corridor and out of sight.

He had looted everything left on Anksorus's body, but there might still be some good stuff left in Anksorus's room. Therefore, after leaving the mess to Fenrir, he impatiently sprinted toward the end of the corridor.

It took a few minutes for the sound of his malicious laughter to die away.

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At dinner, all the Apprentice Adepts learned that they had gotten a new Apprentice Leader.

In regards to this change, most of the Apprentices showed no reactions, and not a single person even asked what had happened to Anksorus.

Greem, being quite the opposite of their new Apprentice Leader, Ellen, who was proudly proclaiming his new status in the cafeteria, could barely hold down his ire at his new Apprentice Leader.

Although the former Apprentice Leader hadn't been very nice, at least he was a fairly strong guy who had mastered three to four magic spells. He wasn't as strong as Hawkeye, Evil Bugs, or Madwoman, but he was much stronger than most of the elementary level Apprentices. Why else would they swallow their pride silently while being ruthlessly exploited by him?

On the other hand, everybody knew Ellen's background. He was just a rookie, and had only mastered 'Wind Blade' and 'Twister Shield'. He had spent most of the past year hiding in the Adept Tower, which made his combat skills awfully weak. If he had to fight them, perhaps more than half of the Apprentices Adepts could defeat him 1-on-1.

But looking at the four 'friends' who were surrounding him, clearly this guy had a good understanding of his weaknesses and had compensated for them by drawing in a few helpers.

Right when Ellen was proudly giving his 'inauguration speech', the wooden door of the cafeteria was roughly kicked opened by someone, forcefully slamming up against the stone wall.

After that, a young man, who had his left eye covered with an eye patch, walked into the cafeteria with a somber expression on his face.

Apprentice Leader Ellen's 'inauguration speech' came to a sudden halt. At the same time, whispers of "Hawkeye" could be heard from all corners of the cafeteria.

The young man who wore eye patch was one of the three strongest Apprentice Adepts, Hawkeye.

As they were the strongest, each of them had a group of subordinates who always gathered around them. Therefore, the three of them never came to dine in this cafeteria, as all their meal were brought directly to their rooms by their subordinates.

That's the reason why all Apprentices felt surprised when Hawkeye suddenly visited the cafeteria.

Of course, Hawkeye didn't come here for a meal, but to look for someone.

Hawkeye swept the entire canteen with his single eye, and every single Apprentice lowered their heads, rather than meeting his gaze. It was impossible to do anything else, as a powerful energy seemed to travel out from his eye, suppressing anyone who dared to meet his eyes.

See Hawkeye begin to walk towards him, Greem felt his heart stop. He immediately lowered his head even more.

Unfortunately for him, Hawkeye's legs came to a stop right in front of him.

"Are you Greem? Come with me!" Hawkeye didn't say very much, but what little he did say was impossible to ignore. After saying that, he turned around and left, not caring the slightest about anyone else's reactions.

A wry smile appeared on Greem's face. He pushed his meal tray away, stood up, and followed behind Hawkeye.

Without turning his head, Greem could feel the annoyed gaze of the new Apprentice Leader, Ellen, burning a hole in the back of his head.

Greem had a rough idea why this guy came for him. Therefore, when, after following Hawkeye through a few long dark corridors, he arrived at a certain wooden door, he was fairly sure he was right about what was going on.

This was Madwoman's room. Waiting inside were the other two strongest Apprentice Adepts: Evil Bugs and Madwoman.

It was a stone room, nearly as simple as Greem's room, and it was furnished to the same level as Greem's room was. There was a solid wooden bed, a writing table, and a chair… nothing else.

Well, there was one more thing. In one corner of the room, there was a human-shaped practicing target made entirely of metal. From the crisscrossing scars and markings on it, perhaps it was the most frequently used piece of 'furniture' in this room.

Also, Madwoman's iconic steel greatsword was hanging from the wall on the other side of the room.

Hawkeye, Evil Bugs, and Madwoman didn't have a harmonious relationship most of the time, but when something related to their personal interests happened, this small group could still work together to further all their interests.

As this was Madwoman's room, clearly she was the only one who would take charge here.

When Greem, who felt he was in an awkward situation, stopped right in the middle of the room. The person who attracted most of his attention was Madwoman, who had a muscular body, which looked like that of a barbarian's. She was standing with her arm folded at her chest. Madwoman didn't wear a soft and baggy cloth robe, like most Apprentices, but wore a simple leather jacket and pants.

The leather jacket was straining and looked like it was going to burst as her bulging muscles pushed against it. Her muscles looked like chunks of steel and made Greem feel a bit envious. To be honest, no matter how much Greem searched in his memory, he swore that he had never seen a woman with such a muscular body before.

"I heard that you saw what happened this afternoon? Tell me everything you know! If anything you say is of value, we will reward you considerably!" Madwoman's voice was like her body, strong and powerful.

In regards to what Madwoman said, Evil Bugs, whose entire body was covered with a thick cloak made a movement as if he was nodding his head, while Hawkeye, who had brought Greem here, didn't do or say anything.

…………

Half an hour later, Greem returned to his own room.

After he shut the door, he impatiently pressed his back against the cold, iron framed, wooden door, saying nothing aloud, but speaking in his mind.

"Was there any result from your probe just now? Quickly, show me all the data!"

Beep* "Probing of living organisms completed. The results are listed below…"

Following that, streams of information started flowing into his brain, It took a moment, but information on the strongest three Apprentice Adepts started taking shape.

Since the Biological Assistance Chip had activated, it had been lacking much in reference to information on Adepts, as it had no data for comparison. Therefore, the organizing and categorization of Adepts had not progressed at all. In Greem's brain, there was a huge amount of information on Magical Spells, Magical Items, and conceptual descriptions of each, but he just hadn't had the chance to witness and observe any actual Magical phenomenon. As a result, the chip was unable to derive information on the more magical things in his surroundings based on its current memory.

It was such an unfortunate situation.

But, today, through close observation of the three strongest Apprentice Adepts, no doubt Greem had obtained a lot of precious data. This would, no doubt, be of great benefit in defining his future development path.

Of course, if he could personally experience the abilities of an official Adept, it would result in him getting much better data. Unfortunately, he feared that his chip's scanning feature would be noticed if he targeted an official Adept. Therefore, Greem could only use his passive sensing ability, which was the mode he had put the chip in when Adept Anderson had suddenly appeared yesterday.

As for today, when the three strongest Apprentice Adepts were standing in front of him, he felt it was safe to scan them, and they did not have very strongest spirit energy manipulation abilities, so they were leaking a lot of energy, which the chip could scan and analyze. That's why Greem could fearlessly put out his full sensing and sense all the leaking information. As the result, it had progressed in its calculation of the source of Magic.

These were absolutely amazing numbers. If they had not been within the realm of Greem's expectations, perhaps he would have cried out loud. Hawkeye was, indeed, worthy of being called one of the three strongest Apprentice Adepts. With just these basic body stats, he could easily crush Greem.

In a matchup against Hawkeye, his strength was weaker, his speed was slower, and his body was not as tough. Even if both of them only mastered one spell, Hawkeye would still have thousands of method to kill Greem. Not to mention, this guy was far more powerful when using magic spells!

But Hawkeye's Spirit attribute was the one gave that Greem the most surprise. Having a Spirit of 18 meant that he had incredibly strong spiritual senses. He would be able to sense the slightest heartbeat within a 50-meter radius! With such a strong sensing ability, the difficulty of launching a sneak attack on him would be immense.

However, the chip put a question mark in the race field… It looked like there were some inhuman elements to be found in the energy he put off. Maybe this had something to do with the implanted eye?

Compared to Hawkeye, it seemed Evil Bugs was better at concealing his energy, as even the chip couldn't obtain his attributes at such a close range. But from his powerful Spirit of 19, which clearly couldn't be hidden, it could be seen that, between the two, he was the one who was the closest to becoming an official Adept.

But looked like he had modified his body to a very high degree of modification, as it had reached a level where even the chip couldn't determine his race.

In brief, although he probably didn't have the highest of physical attributes, he was still one of the three strongest, and this was shown in the frightening spells he had mastered and the modifications he had made to his body.

Looking at Madwoman's attributes, a sense of powerlessness came from the bottom of Greem's heart. 15 Strength, 16 Physique… was she still a fucking human? Perhaps, with attributes like these, she was no different that some of the demon beasts in the swamp?

When comparing the strength of two fighters, if there was a difference in strength of 5, the weaker party would be easily knocked flying. If the difference was 10, the weaker party would experience broken bones and smashed flesh every time they got hit. The difference in Strength between Greem and Madwoman was a shocking 11 points.

This… This was ridiculous! Even if both of them fought bare-handed, Greem would be as fragile as glass in front of her? Not to mention that if she struck him in the face, he would likely have his skull crushed in.

Naturally, all kinds of fighting scenes appeared in Greem's mind, but in every scene, he would end up severely beaten or dead.

As for that 16 in Physique, it simply placed a huge gap between them. Even if Madwoman just stood there without moving and let Greem attack her with Burning Hand for a couple of minutes, it still might not be enough to kill her.

Through the comparison of this basic data, once again Greem acknowledged his weakness. With just his own personal effort, and under the magnifying effect of his innate attributes, the gap between himself and these guys, who were extraordinarily talented, would just become bigger and bigger. He didn't think that there was any way he could catch up to them on his own.

Therefore, if he really wanted to proceed in this bizarre world, the only thing he could depend on was the Biological Assistance Chip inside him.

Only after pondering these things did Greem look at the reward he had gotten from the 'strongest three'.

With a flip of his hand, a thick book appeared in front of Greem.

With his great eloquence and accurate depiction of his experience from the day before, Greem truthfully described all the detail movements of the red dressed Mary. No doubt this gave the 'strongest three' a better impression of him. Only then was he given this odd looking book of magical knowledge.

According to the rules of the Adept Tower, any exchange of internal knowledge was strictly prohibited. Exchanging any magical knowledge copied by Apprentice Adepts was also strictly prohibited. Anyone who violated these prohibitions would be punished by the master of the Tower. Therefore, Madwoman must have obtained this book from another place, or else she wouldn't have simply given it to Greem.

Greem held his breath impatiently, then he flipped to the first page of the book.

'Golem Creation Manual'!

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"Titan, a physical construction with a powerful magic at its foundation. It is a magical automaton. It is made using mystical materials, such as the Magic Repelling Steel from the Master Material Universe. The primary characteristic of it is the resistance toward the elements." –Lilo • Ann

……

Golems are artificial, self-locomoting objects created by Adepts. The Titan was the most powerful of these golems. The most defining characteristic of these Titans was their resistance toward elemental attacks. In other words, only those golems which possessed elemental damage resistance could be called Titans. It was all because of the mightiness of Adepts. It was only thanks to the characteristic of elemental damage resistance that they were considered to be so powerful.

However, being able to resist elemental damage didn't mean the golem was the ultimate weapon for an Adept. This ability only allowed a Titan to be immune to spells targeted at its body. For example, using a fireball on the ceiling above a Titan, causing it to be crushed by the weight of the ceiling, or casting an Acid Pool spell and causing the Titan to fall into the generated pool of acid. Both of these spells were very effective against Titans. Not to mention that all Titans had very low Spirit. They could only follow simple commands, which was their biggest weakness when facing intelligent lifeforms.

Also, Titans were not totally immune from elemental damage, as using a specific elemental spell would cause a specific effect to a certain type of Titan. By properly understanding their weaknesses, it was rather simple to fight against a Titan.

……

So golems were mechanical living organisms who possessed powerful strength and were created with magic. The most significant difference between them and other golem was their strength, making them seem full of vitality. Golems gained their magical life from an elemental soul, which was usually of the Earth element. The process of creating a golem was taking a soul and tying it onto a manmade body. It would then merge with this specially prepared vessel, and obey the will of its creator.

……

Golems didn't have their own minds, and they wouldn't do any other things unless their creator specifically gave them the command. They would follow simple and precise commands, and couldn't accept complicated strategies or tactics. The creator could only command a golem within a 60-meter radius, and he had to be able to see or hear the golem. If no new command was given, the golem would usually give their all in carrying out the last command given to them. Of course, they would fight back if somebody attacked them.

If the creator was not going to be near the golem, he could preemptively give the golem a simple command to guide its movement, or could make the golem follow another person's commands. But as the creator of the golem, he could always make the golem only follow his command, revoking another person's control rights at any time.

……

Somehow, once he started reading the book, Greem was instantly caught up in the content of it, hardly able to tear himself away from it, and, thus, he finished it in one go.

Golems were a really good thing!

Putting aside those advanced steel golems, even the lowest level clay golem could challenge an advanced Apprentice Adept. In other words, only a group that worked well together, and all were at the advanced level of a combat profession, would have the possibility of defeating a clay golem.

As guards for Adepts, Titans, and other golems, were so much more dependable than human guards, as they were absolutely loyal. On the downside, the cost of a Titan, or any other golem, left Greem speechless.

Take the lowest level clay golem as an example: a clay golem, without any additional magical equipment, weighed 600 pounds, was 8 feet tall when standing straight, and was entirely made from soft clay. This type of clay golem wouldn't take any damage from sharp weapons, but some heavy weapons could cause physical damage to them.

The base cost for this type of clay golem was 21,000 gold coins. As for the stone golem, which was one level higher than the clay golem, their basic cost was 55,000 gold coins. And the even higher leveled iron golem was a shocking 80,000 gold coins.

This was the base cost before taking in the effects of supply and demand of the market into consideration. If it was during a period of war, these golems, which were extremely suitable for use on the battlefield, would have their prices doubled and people would still easily pay for them. As long as a small lord purchased three to five clay golems and placed them into his own army, he would be able to gain a huge advantage when fighting with other nearby lords.

Therefore, if he was able to become a golem creator, money would no longer be an issue for Greem!

Unfortunately, not only did it take a huge amount of unique materials to create a golem, but it also required an extraordinary wondrous item crafting skill and the ability to create soul vessels. If Greem's innate elemental affinity was the Dark element, maybe he could extract souls from some human-like creatures. Then he would be able to easily create soul vessels, which could give a golem basic intelligence. However, his elementary affinity was the Fire element, and that killed off any possibility of making a golem anytime soon.

What Greem could do now was ask the Chip to store all the content on this 'Golem Creation Manual' temporarily, so he could do more research in the future. After considering all these things, he began to research the new functions of the Chip.

Following the slow chanting of a magical incantation, Greem, who had stretched out his right arm, suddenly had a glowing magical flame ignite in his hand, covering his entire palm and part of his arm.

As he was staring at the flame burning calmly on his hand, the mechanical voice of the Chip resounded in his brain.

Beep* "A complete Spirit energy model has been detected. Please confirm if the host wants to solidify it? Warning: The solidification will reduce Spirit by 2 and Profession Experience by 50!"

The same message had appeared once when he was inspecting the outside of the Tower. But, as he was at a dangerous place at that time, Greem hadn't dared to test it, and, hence, he had chosen to ignore it. But today, he decided to check out what this Solidification was all about!

"Confirm!"

Beep* "Solidification task commencing now… expected completion time: 12 hours, 27 minutes and 13 seconds…"

Greem's mind trembled as with the Chip began the 'Solidification task'. He clearly felt part of his Spirit had disappeared. After a self-inspection, he found his Profession Experience had dropped from 614/1000 to 564/1000.

Ugh… his 614 Profession Experience was the result of Greem's past six years of effort, including constant meditation, countless failures while practicing spellcasting, countless hours under the dimmed candlelight copying those hard to understand books of magic, and those dangerous, but unavoidable, magical experiments…

Frankly speaking, in the past, Greem had, indeed, been pretty useless. He had become an Apprentice Adept six years ago but had only accumulated half of the Profession Experience required to become an intermediate Apprentice, and he had only mastered one spell – Burning Hand. As for the second magic spell he was currently learning – Fire Arrow – he had only just begun gathering the preliminary knowledge for it, and thus was still far away from a successfully casting of that spell.

After analyzing this data, he realized that, among all the Apprentices in the Tower, the innate attribute of his body was considered low-grade… No wonder he hadn't become an intermediate Apprentice in these six years.

But that was the Greem of the past!

Now, with the support of the Chip, he had gained a fresh start and would soon be able to solve all the difficulties in front of him.

The task of solidifying the Spirit model for the Burning Hand was occupying most of Greem's mental capacity, which made him feel mentally exhausted. In this situation, it was no longer suitable for him to carry on with any spell practice or reading that would consume his Spirit. Therefore, Greem simply lay down on his bed and began to meditate.

Following the start of his meditation, Greem gradually calmed down. His breath became longer and more regular, and his entire Spiritual conscious was completely indulged in extending from his body.

The once noiseless room became emptier and quieter, as if everything around him had suddenly become muted. The feeling of his body became indistinct, and he felt like he was sinking into a gigantic piece of cotton candy. It felt like everything his body was being pulled apart.

Finally, his spiritual conscious broke through the boundary of his body and went into a bizarre world.

This was a world full of lights.

Mystical specks, of a variety of colors, were dancing in the air, completely filling every inch of space he could sense.

Perhaps the intrusion of his spiritual conscious alerted these illuminating specks, who seemed to dance around irregularly and unconsciously. Suddenly this bizarre world shifted and became a little bit of different.

Greem's spiritual conscious started to swim aimlessly in this world full of bright specks of light. Wherever he went, it seemed like each different speck had its own independent conscious, as they each acted in different ways.

Those illuminating specks who dimly glowed red showed an obvious welcoming behavior toward Greem, as they would jump into his soul when got close enough, giving him wisps of warm sensations. On the other hand, those cold toned illuminating specks, for example, Blue, Gray, Black, White… clearly, they were keeping a distance from him.

As for those neutral colors, like Purple, Green, Yellow, these illuminating specks didn't move away from him nor show any passionate behavior, but when Greem's spiritual conscious touched them, they would still merge with him slowly. The entire process was calm and harmonious, and nothing unnatural could be found.

The bright orb representing Greem's spiritual conscious slowly roamed in this boundless ocean of light, passively accepting the merging of those specks of light. Out of curiosity, he tried to control his orb and moved toward some White specks. Apparently, his arrival had alarmed the White illuminating specks, as the leisurely and mindless swimming specks immediately fled the area.

Finally, Greem couldn't bear it anymore. Under a strong conscious guidance, a spiritual tentacle suddenly stretched out from his transparent orb of soul and poked through a slightly bigger White speck.

The White speck exploded, turning into a stream of Spirit and flowing into Greem's soul. Compared to the warm sensation he got when merging with the Red specks, what this pale looking speck brought to Greem was gloomy, dead silence.

The feeling was like when someone woke up at midnight and suddenly drank a glass of cold water. It just made his body shiver. Aside from the shivering sensation, Greem's spiritual conscious felt a shock and a corrosive pain. It seemed that, while it would bring his Spirit some advantages, merging with the White specks would also damage him.

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Greem suddenly shuddered, shaking him out of his deep meditative state.

Greem sat up on his bed, panting. He could still vividly remember what he just experienced in his dream. He could even feel a bit of the burning pain he had received from the white speck.

Was it an illusion? A dream? Perhaps it was something else?

Greem began to feel a certain sense of bewilderment and confusion.

He had meditated countless times before, and every time it had been a vague experience. Only rarely did he feel anything even slightly spiritual. As for that last dream…. it was… it was like he was in control of himself while dreaming!

"Chip, run a self-scan!" Greem, having suddenly thought of something, gave the chip an order.

Beep* "Beginning scan of the host's body… Scan completed. Saving self-test report…"Following the messages from the Chip, a new self-scan report was projected into his mind.

Name: Greem

Race: Human

Attributes: Strength 4 Agility 4 Physique 3 Spirit 8.03

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Job: Apprentice Adept (Beginner)

HP: 11/11

Experience: 566/100

Status: Healthy

Skills: Scroll Copying Spell Reading

Personal Abilities: The Burning Hand

As expected, some abnormal changes had occurred in his body.

If not because the Chip could perform an accurate detection down to the cellular level, Greem would never know that the deep meditation just now had actually increased his Spirit by 0.03 and his Experience by 2.

That meant that the dream-like state he had experienced just now was not an illusion, but had really happened.

So what were those colored specks of light?

Right when the question arose in his mind, the answer came to him.

Elementium!

Every person who had the talent to become Adept would have a different elemental affinity. Those colored specks of light he saw during meditation were actually bits of Elementium flowing through the world around him. As his elemental affinity was fire, those red specks, which were drawn toward him, like bugs toward a bright light, were actually Fire Elementium.

According to the Elementium classifications done by Adepts, his affinity toward red Fire Elementium was the highest. After that was the green Plant Elementium and the yellow Earth Elementium. As for the others, he did not have an affinity to them as they were repelled by the Elementium which he had an affinity to.

As for the white speck that Greem had caught during his meditation, it must have been Dark Elementium. Because it did not match with Greem's affinity, it would be at least ten times, or even a hundred times, more difficult for him to catch compared to Elementium he had an affinity for. Besides that, although these Dark Elementium could still increase his spirit by a tiny amount, they would also hurt his body at the same time.

In his memory, the few Apprentice Adepts he knew who had Dark Elementium as their primary elemental affinity, didn't have very healthy bodies and they always looked like a gust of wind could knock them down. Perhaps the corrosiveness of the Dark Elementium was the cause of their frailty?

It seems that the innate elemental affinity of an Apprentice could affect the efficiency of their meditation, and that efficiency could, in turn, increase the growth rate of the Apprentice's Spirit.

Greem tried to recall what he experienced back when he was meditating, and what he remembered made him frown. According to his memory, the numbers of white Dark Elementium specks was clearly far more than the number of red Fire Elementium specks. That meant that, in this environment, the efficiency of meditation for those Apprentices who had an affinity for Dark Elementium was way higher than his own!

How was this possible? Shouldn't the distribution of the basic Elementium in this world be relatively balanced?

Could it… could it be that the Adept of the Tower did this purposefully?

Suddenly, Greem's face took on a ghastly pallor.

He had just remembered that master of the Tower, Adept Anderson, had affinities for Dark and Wind Elementium.

No wonder that many of the other Apprentice Adepts who had joined the Tower around the same time as Greem had mastered two or three spells and managed to rank up to intermediate Apprentice, while he was still struggling down the path of a beginner Apprentice. It was not only his own innate talent that tied him down. It was this damn 'harsh' environment.

Greem thought for a second, then he gave up the idea of meditating again. For a beginner Apprentice Adept like him, although meditation could increase his Spirit, it still couldn't replace sleeping. Therefore, in order to restore Spirit in a fast and efficient manner, calming his mind and sleeping was the best way to go.

Looking at his own Spirit, which had been reduced to half, Greem shook his head and smiled bitterly. Then he threw himself back on his bed and fell into a deep slumber.

……

The next day, Greem, who was sleeping soundly, was awoken suddenly by an alarm from the Chip.

To his surprise, the spiritual model of the Burning Hand had been solidified by the Chip.

Over the next few seconds, all the data regarding this spiritual model flowed into Greem's mind.

The Burning Hand was a low-grade fire spell capable of engaging foes in both offense and defense, but it was not considered a powerful spell. However, the spiritual model of it showed that it was formed from many magic words; 28, in fact. Each of these 28 magic words was nearly impossible to pronounce and had its own unique independent usage. While it may appear that each of them was unrelated, when they were put together in a specific formation, they would become a complete magic model, capable of unleashing magical forces on the physical world.

If this task was handed to an ordinary man, asking him to memorize 28 independent but closely connected magic syllables, then to recite them without missing a single one… Most mortals wouldn't be able to achieve this, as just speaking a single spell word required great control and energy.

When he first arrived in this world, he didn't believe he would be able to do that. But in this bizarre world, where Elemental Energy was everywhere, he actually accomplished this fairly easily.

Of course, this had something to do with his 8 points of Spirit Energy.

In the past, reciting the Burning Hand spell, which consisted of 28 magic syllables, took Greem 5 – 7 seconds. But, now that it had been solidified, Greem didn't need to waste time reciting the spell. All he needed to do was to inject his Elemental Energy into the model of Burning Hand in his mind.

This meant that it only took him 2 – 3 seconds to release a complete version of Burning Hand. Moreover, in the future, when he improved his fire elemental mastery, the duration of casting would be further shortened.

But that was not the only good news.

As this was a spiritual model that had been pre-solidified in his mind, it no longer required as much of his Spirit energy to construct it. The result of this was that the Burning Hand spell, which used to deplete his Spirit by 2 when casting, now only depleted his Spirit by 1.

Didn't that mean the number of times he could cast spells in the future had doubled?

This discovery was brought a big smile to his face as his mind was wildly dreaming up many possible uses for this particular ability.

But then the Chip, once again, resounded in his mind.

Beep* "Discovered room for improvement of this spell model. Please confirm if the host wants to optimize? Attention, this optimization will cost 1 Spirit per day, and 100 Experience. Estimated time for the task is 34 hours and 25 minutes"

Huh? Optimize the Burning Hand?

It sounded like something really good. But why did it consume so much Experience? If any operation related to Spiritual models cost him this many Experience points, perhaps all the Experience points he accumulated in the past six years would be used up in the next few days.

Greem calmed himself down and took a moment to ponder this optimization. After a few moments he decided to decline.

First off, Burning Hand was just a close ranged spell. It didn't have much potential combat value in Greem's mind. Sooner or later, it would be replaced by other long ranged offensive or defensive spells which were more valuable, therefore it wasn't worth investing in it now.

Second, taking his current Spirit energy into consideration, he couldn't have more than 3 solidified models in his Spiritual Domain. Under this situation, where only limited slots were available, giving Burning Hand a space in his Spiritual Domain clearly didn't match up with his optimized path.

In fact, Greem himself would've preferred to prioritize the solidification of a long-range attack spell, and he had a specific spell in mind for this very purpose.

This was a fire spell that he had studied and researched for nearly half a year – Fire Arrow.

Fire Arrow, a low-grade fire elemental spell. The spell allowed him to form a magical arrow of Fire Elementium and throw it at his target, causing 7 points of physical damage and 18 points of fire and explosive damage.

With Greem's pitiful 3 Physique and 11 Health Points, a Fire Arrow was more than enough to instantly kill him. Therefore, all this time Greem had been dreaming of learning this long-ranged attack spell.

But too bad, although Fire Arrow was a low-grade spell, it consisted of 34 Spell Words. This was the reason why, even though he had been restlessly studying for half a year, he still hadn't mastered the method of constructing its Spiritual model.

Greem had invested more than 20 Knowledge points and a huge amount of time in learning this Fire Arrow spell. It even delayed his research into Magic knowledge. However, he was still lingering outside the door of success, and far from becoming an elite among the Beginner Apprentice Adepts, mastering more than two spells.

But now, with the help of the Chip, presumably this 'doorway' had come much closer!

Ignoring the fact that it was time for breakfast, Greem hurriedly washed his face, then sat in front of his writing table, excitedly opening up his magic notebook. Everything related to the magical model of the Fire Arrow, the magic words of it, the frequency of the Spirit Energy, and the material of the spell construct; Greem had copied all of them into this notebook.

Real spellcasting was not as simple as ordinary people thought it was.

34 syllables of magic couldn't be recited in one go like how they were written. A spell couldn't be cast just like that. The entire process was an extremely complicated process and required the perfect combination of hand, mouth, heart, and mind. It was the result of them working together.

When reciting each syllable, Greem needed to adjust his Spirit to a matching vibrational frequency, and both of his hands had to perform a specific gesture.

Any mistake or delay in the casting process and the only result would be a… casting blowback.

Although this kind of casting blowback wouldn't kill an Apprentice, it would cause damage to his Spirit, and it would take him a long time to recover. Also, if one's spirit was frequently damaged, there was a possibility that they could suffer a permanent reduction in their Spirit!

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Three days later.

With disheveled hair, a dirty face, and two red eyes, Greem breathed out a long sigh and closed the book sitting on the table in front of him.

A moment ago, the Chip's alert tone, which he had been waiting on for a long time, had finally resounded in his brain.

Beep* "Data Model of Fire Arrow has been constructed successfully!"

Finally!

Thinking back, the Burning Hand was a spell Greem had mastered completely. So long as he could cast it once, the Chip would be able to visualize its model in Greem's Spiritual Dimension via precisely monitoring how he controlled his Spirit Energy and the Spiritual Frequency he had used.

It had been so simple and easy.

But Greem hadn't mastered the Fire Arrow spell… he couldn't even successfully cast it even once. Thus, the Chip's ability to record, store, and mimic his spells were unable to be used.

So Greem had to find another method, and thus he memorized all related magic theories and casting techniques of Fire Arrow. Then he let the Chip proceed with the arrangement and sorting of them, analyzing them to find out the best casting technique that matched him most precisely.

The Data Model the Chip had constructed with this method wouldn't replace a real Spiritual Model, which made this a unique spell experiment, rather than the actualization of a spell.

Greem massaged his forehead and took a few deep breaths. After that, he said, "Let's begin the simulation!"

Beep*

With a crystal clear alert tone, a nearly perfect virtual image of Greem was projected into his mind. Following the specifications of the data model, it started to recite the spell words of Fire Arrow in a sonorous, yet forceful, voice.

Via his connection with the Chip, Greem's mind merged with the virtual image, following along with the reciting of the spell and adjusting the frequency of his Spirit to match that of the Data Model. At the same time, both hands of the virtual image were making small gestures in the air, guiding the attracted elemental energy and molding it into the shape of an arrow.

Too bad, due to his unfamiliarity with the casting, when he was reciting the 14th magic word, its hand gesture was clearly a half second slower. Within Greem's Spiritual World, the half molded Fire Arrow exploded, and a raging fireball instantly swallowed the virtual image.

If it was in the real world, perhaps nearly half of Greem's room would have been destroyed, but in this virtual world, simulated with his Spirit Energy, after the violent wobbling of lights and shadows, the perfectly simulated explosion disappeared, and the entire scene was restored to its initial state.

Although he knew beforehand that everything was just a simulation, Greem still couldn't help breaking into a non-existent cold sweat in his spiritual World.

Witnessing a huge fireball explode in front of his eyes, and seeing his virtual body being ripped apart, even Greem, who was not faint of heart, felt his heart stop for a second.

In order to let himself truly experience the complete process of casting the spell, Greem had placed his entire conscious into the virtual image. Therefore, you could say what happened just now, while not being real, could be described as an unreal reality.

Greem didn't jump right back into practicing, but closed his eyes, meticulously studying his first attempt in his mind. After he confirmed the reason for his mistake, he opened his eyes and began his second simulated casting attempt.

Unfortunately, it was a failure again! This time, he failed at matching his Spirit frequency with the 17th syllable. The half-constructed Spiritual Model exploded once again. As a result, the raging element flames once more swallowed Greem's virtual body.

The digitized wobbling of lights and shadows slowly faded.

Soon, his Spiritual World was restored to its initial state.

Greem let out a helpless and bitter laugh, then he took a moment to calm down. Soon, the sonorous and forceful voice of the simulated Greem's voice once again resounded throughout the empty Spiritual World.

Many explosions occurred…

Every time, his mistake was nearly the same. Either his hand gestures couldn't keep up with the spell's syllables, or his Spirit frequency wasn't right. To put it simply, no matter which part caused the problem, there was be only one result: a massive explosion.

If this had happened in the real world, Greem's weak body would have become powder after the first explosion. But since it was not, he was sitting safely beside his writing table, staring blankly into space.

After practicing it so many times, his Spirit had finally been depleted.

Whenever his Spirit was completely depleted, he would struggle back to his bed and fall asleep. Once he had slept and restored his Spirit, he would then rush to the cafeteria, order himself a huge meal, then return to his room and commence the next round of Spell Simulation practice.

With this incredible persistence and fortitude, finally, during an instance when everything worked flawlessly, Greem successfully completed a simulated casting of Fire Arrow.

When the burning elemental flame formed into a magic arrow and was stably floating between Greem's hands, he nearly couldn't hold back his tears. When he let himself get excited, a massive explosion, once again, devoured his body again.

But he didn't get discouraged this time. Instead, he let out a loud and satisfied laugh while his Spiritual World was destroyed around him.

……

Greem sat up straight in front of the writing table, opening his eyes for the first time in a few hours. A look of joy could be seen at the corners of said eyes.

"Chip, do you have a recording of my last Simulated Spell attempt?"

"Video has been recorded and saved. You can replay it at any time…"

Greem tried his best to calm down and nodded his head, but the way he tightly clenched his fists revealed how excited he was.

This new found function of the Chip was really a huge help to him.

Without the virtual Spiritual world constructed by the Chip, Greem could only practice this Fire Arrow Spell in the Spell Practice Room over and over. He would have to personally endure the backfire to his Spirit and body caused by his casting failures. Every serious casting backfire would require a period of time to heal and rest before being fully recovered. No doubt this would seriously delay the progress of learning any spell or progressing one's Spirit.

This was the reason most of the Apprentices in the Tower only mastered one to two spells.

Of course, there was a possibility that some Apprentices had hidden what they knew, never really exposing their true abilities. After all, the field of research and progress for all Apprentices was secretive, and trying to learn about one's private matters was a huge taboo within the Tower.

There probably were not that many Apprentices hiding what they knew, as the number of unlucky guys who were struggling, even among Beginner Apprentice Adepts, was really quite high, and thus there was very little need to hide one's abilities. In the past, Greem was one of them.

But with the activation of the Chip, Greem felt it was time for him to soar up into the sky.

"Chip, play the recording of the successful casting!"

Beep*… with the appearance of data streams, a 'Greem' who was concentrating on spell casting was projected into his mind. Greem placed his entire focus on this virtual image, repeatedly watching the entire process of spellcasting. He watched every detail of it, not missing the slightest change in his Spiritual energy.

Although it was only a Spiritual simulation, Greem's mind followed the normal spellcasting process and completed it. Therefore, excluding the lack of real elemental energy, nothing was different when compared to casting the spell in the real world.

It went without saying that this recording of a successful spellcasting would go a long way in helping Greem mastered the magic spell. At least, it helped Greem save at least half a year of restless effort, and avoided the painful cycle of being injured, resting and healing, and being injured again.

Since he had a single success out of a hundred attempts, that meant that Greem's knowledge and ability were enough to support the minimum requirement for casting the Fire Arrow spell. Thus, the only obstacle that preventing him from mastering the Fire Arrow was his familiarity with casting the spell.

And this was the strength of the Chip!

After repeatedly reviewing the successful simulated casting, and making sure he had mastered all the key elements of the spell, Greem hurried out of his room and went straight to the Magic Spell Practice Room.

This was also one of the inconveniences that an Apprentice Adept had to face.

Their mastery in magic spells was too low, which made the consequence of practicing an unfamiliar magic spell in their own room too severe. Thus, the only option for them was to rent the Magic Spell Practice Room in the Tower, allowing them to experiment with a new spell. That's why there was a saying, the mastery of a new magic spell was always supported by the huge amount of knowledge… and an incredible amount of money.

……

The Magic Spell Practice Room was located on the third floor of the Tower and was set up to handle any mishaps that a backfiring spell might cause.

Although he was part of the Tower, Apprentice Adepts were only allowed to set foot on the first to third floors. The first floor was mainly for Probationary Apprentices, who had only recently joined the Tower. The second floor was the living quarters and recreational areas for official Apprentice Adepts. The third floor was a public area where they could experiment with magic spells and practice.

The area where official Apprentices were allowed included: The Library, the Potion Brewing Room, the Summoning Room, the Alchemy Laboratory, the Magic Spell Practice Room, the Room of Seals, the Curse Altar, the Magical Plant Cultivation Room… But as a lone wolf who always by himself, the only places that Greem normally visited were the Library and the Magic Spell Practice Room. As for all the other places, he did not have deep enough pockets to waste money visiting them.

It was dinner time when he arrived, hence, there weren't many Apprentices at this place.

After Greem impatiently paid 10 gold coins to Amn, who was the administrator of the Magic Spell Practice Room, he was given a special card. With this card, he had an hour of practicing time in a practice room.

For an Apprentice Adept, an hour of practicing time was considering pretty long. With their pitiful amount of Spiritual Energy, they couldn't last more than half an hour of continuous spellcasting. If Greem didn't control the output of his Spiritual Energy, he could deplete it all within fifteen minutes.

Greem walked up to a stone door that had a number above it that matched the number on his card. He raised up the card and waved it gently in the air. The heavy stone door immediately opened up, not making any noise as it did so.

The so-called 'Magic Spell Practice Room' was, in fact, a simple stone room that had about 40 square meters of space, but there was a gigantic human-shaped target, made of stone, placed on the other end of the room. The dull and dark material showed that it was made from a dark augite stone, which was capable of repelling magic.

With the ability of an Apprentice Adept, the low-grade magic spells they were able to experiment with were definitely not enough to destroy such a solid and strong magic repelling stone target. That's why it was the most suitable target for magic practice.

Of course, for those Apprentices who needed to practice their Curse Spells, or some other unique types of spells, they had no choice but spend money to purchase some suitable demons as their practicing target, or else they would have to sneak outside the Tower, where they could practice those bizarre spells in secret.

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After the stone door closed, the practice room became a soundproof space, and Greem wouldn't have to worry that someone might spy upon what he was doing from the outside.

Greem took two steps forward, positioning himself right in the center of a strange looking spell formation that was about 2 meters in diameter. He couldn't recognize a single spell drawn on it. Clearly, they were far beyond the knowledge of any Beginner Apprentice Adept.

But today he had no time or energy to bother with all these minor details. He turned around and stood with his back straight, quietly recalling the entire casting process of the Fire Arrow spell. After he was certain of the casting process, he started speaking in a solemn voice, "Chip. Pay close attention to the entire process. Correct me immediately if you think I am making the slightest mistake!"

Beep* "New task established, commencing real-time monitoring…"

As a blue light began blinking in Greem's eyes, a digitized scene was projected onto his retinas.

The digitized practice room looked exactly like the practice room, but countless tiny dots of blue nodes had appeared on Greem's retinas, slicing up the entire room into countless tiny regions. Also, the body movements Greem required to perform were divided into countless still virtual images, each staged in such a way as to indicate an order he must follow. Which was exactly what he needed to do: follow the movements of these virtual images.

Finally, Greem, who had been standing still, looking blankly off into space, began to practice.

He started to recite the magic words, and, at the same time, making drawing movements in front of his chest at an incredibly fast speed, These movements made him look weird, but at the same time, seemed to possess a certain flowing grace. As Greem progressed through the spell, his body started to blink red as a huge amount of Fire Elementium was summoned by his spell, slowly compressing and forming into the shape of an arrow in between his moving hands.

Perhaps the process had been too smooth, but right when he was reciting the 32nd magic syllable, Greem heart surged with excitement, and that made one of the nodes of the spiritual model collapse, and the rest of the spiritual model immediately followed. The raging Fire Elementium, which had been summoned and compressed repeatedly, became unaligned, and a ground-shaking explosion of Fire Elementium started erupting in front of Greem.

But, right at the moment when everything started to fall out of order, Greem, who had been prepared for the unexpected, forcefully slammed on the card placed in front of his chest. The card vibrated, and a Magic Barrier surged up from the spell formation under his feet, encasing his body and the exploding Fire Arrow.

Strangely, once the raging Fire elements were covered by the Magic Barrier, their power was reduced by half. Therefore, a potentially ground shaking explosion of elementium was suppressed and came out as a small fireworks show.

After a dull noise, which sounded like a firecracker, Greem was submerged by thick and dark smoke, and a small flame could be briefly seen through the smoke.

A moment later, Greem dashed out from the smoke while continuously coughing.

"Damn it… I thought I was going to succeed…"

His face was smudged by thick smoke, and his clothes were full of burn marks, making him look like a homeless man who had been dragged through a fire.

Although he was caught right in the center of the explosion, the power of the raging Fire Elementium was suppressed by the Magic Formation. Therefore, only his hands and forehead were licked by the flames. He didn't really suffer from any injuries except minor burns.

His first real casting attempt had failed!

And the cause of it was actually Greem's weak control over his own emotions. As he felt he was going to succeed, he let his excitement get the best of him, and that emotional outburst had disturbed the spellcasting process.

After letting the dark smoke clear from the room, he tidied up his appearance and applied some medicinal paste on his wounds. Only then did he step back into the spell formation.

Gritted his teeth tightly, Greem began his second spellcasting attempt.

Perhaps he was being rewarded for all his perseverance in the past few weeks, or perhaps fate had decided it was time for him to master the spell, but the second spellcasting went smoothly and swiftly. After a seemingly unendingly long 13 seconds of casting, Greem finally completed a successful casting of the Fire Arrow spell.

When the raging Fire Elementium had concentrated and formed into a complete Fire Arrow in his palm, the sweet mechanical voice of the Chip once again resounded in his brain.

Beep* "A complete Spiritual Model has been detected. Please confirm if the host wants to solidify it? The solidification process will consume 3 Spirit and 50 Experience!"

"Confirm!" Greem was unable to hold himself back and shouted out loud.

"Please name this Spiritual Model?"

"Fire Arrow!"

"Model successfully named! Solidification task now starting… expected completion time is 14 hours, 37 minutes, and 21 seconds…"

After settling everything with the chip, Greem still needed to handle the 'hot potato' in his hands.

For many exploding spells, the caster only had a buffer of 2-3 seconds after casting the spell to use it. If this time was exceeded, or the caster moved their body, the casted spell would begin to collapse.

If he cast a spell and let it explode within his palm, he could barely imagine what would happen to his body.

Therefore, once Greem was finished with the Chip, he immediately pushed both hands forward, inciting the Fire Arrow to fly forward and slam right into the stone target situated on the other side of the room.

The Fire Arrow erupted as it struck the chest of the stone target. This time, without the suppression field of the Magical Formation beneath his feet, the raging Fire Elementium could finally reveal its brutal and violent nature.

A loud explosive noise was heard.

A fireball the size of a melon suddenly appeared, quickly spreading into a violent fiery shockwave. The raging explosion instantly heated up everything within a 5 meter radius of the stone target to rather intense temperatures.

After the smoke cleared, Greem could see that the chest of the stone target had been burned black, and there was even a nail-sized hole where the center of the explosion had been.

Unexpectedly, a wall on one side of the room began to wobble like the surface of water did when small ripples went through it. After a moment, a few words began to show up.

Obviously, this specially designed Spell Casting Practice Room was very effective at its job. Although, with the help of the Chip, Greem didn't need the limited data detected by the Spell Formation, but all the other Apprentice Adepts couldn't live without it. Only through the evaluation and calculation of the Spell Formation could they have a more direct feeling of control when dealing with the spells they were learning. That, or they would have to experience it directly on a battlefield, where they had to put their lives at stake.

In just 15 minutes of time, Greem had achieved his goal for this trip. He happily turned and opened the door to the Spell Casting Practice Room. When the stone door opened up, a beautiful figure was waiting outside the door for him.

Slender limbs; perfect curves; fair and silky smooth skin; a delicate face… But what excited Greem the most was the flaming red chiffon dress and her equally red luscious lips.

The only difference compared to the last time he had seen her was that her ruby red eyes were gone, having been replaced by a pair of turquoise blue eyes, which made Greem felt like he was staring into a sparkling ocean of blue.

It was Mary, wearing her vivacious red dress!

"Oh, so it seems you really are here!~" Her juicy red lips moved gently, letting out words in a voice that made Greem's heart race. "Alright, since I've found him, you're no longer of any use to me."

The second sentence, which was said in a tone that sounded much colder than the first, was not spoken to Greem.

Only now had Greem noticed that this 'neighbour' of his, who was slim and neither tall nor short, was dragging an adult man with her right hand. It was Anm, the administrator of the Magic Spell Practice Room.

Red-dressed Mary waved her little hand, and Anm was easily thrown over ten meters. He hit the ground with a 'thud', and started groaning, unable to stand back up.

Greem felt his expression change.

Although Anm was not considering a chunky man, his body weight was at least that of the average adult man. However, this Mary had just thrown him a fairly long distance with a single bare hand, and she had done it without even trying that hard. Inferring from what he had seen in front of him, Greem guessed that she had, at least, 10 Strength.

Judging from the swiftness of her movements, her Agility was not low either. Together with her frightening Vampire ability of regeneration, perhaps even the three strongest Apprentice Adepts wouldn't be able to gain an advantage over her in a fight.

Hadn't she been taken away by the master of the tower? How was she here, safe and sound? She…

"Follow me!"

While Greem was still pondering all of this in his mind, Mary stretched out her fair, silky smooth, right hand and grabbed his collar. Then she turned around and strode away, her hand on his neck. Greem did his best to try and avoid her hand, but he was unable to do so.

Although he was only 15 years old, he was actually a little bit taller than Mary. In order to avoid being dragged on the floor, he was forced to stagger along behind her, having no idea what was going on.

……

In the Public cafeteria.

It was dinner time, so most of the Apprentice Adepts were gathered in the cafeteria, sitting in small groups, having their meals, and talking to each other.

From the places they sat and the way that they each talked, it was enough to determine the strength of these small groups and the position of each Apprentice Adept in the group.

After all, those who were lone wolves, like Greem, were actually quite few in number. Most of the Apprentice Adepts preferred to group up and form small gangs, allowing them to work together and fight off those who approached with bad intentions.

But, right when the atmosphere of the place was warming up, a sudden loud noise was heard, as the freshly repaired wooden door was smashed open by someone.

Every single Apprentice Adept stared blankly at two people who had come in, one after the other, their widely opened eyes were filled with looks of disbelief.

Mary?!

Although most of the people here had never seen how Mary looked after her 'mutation', through their own channels, they all knew what had happened that day. Thus, in their mind, even if Mary didn't get sliced by master Adept for his research, she would have been locked up on one the upper floors of this Tower, forced to live life as a captive forever. In stark contrast to everyone's expectations, she actually shown up in this place, as bold as brass!

Ellen, who sat right in the center of the cafeteria, immediately felt his expression turn sober as his eyes were filled with fright.

He had personally witnessed how brutal and frightening Mary was. Even though she had been restored to her harmless look, the horrifying memory left in his mind could never be erased.

Mary stormed in like a whirlwind, soon coming to stand right in the center of the cafeteria with her arms crossed. She coldly glanced around the room, slowly circling it, before her vision finally stopped on Ellen, the newly appointed Apprentice Leader.

"I, Mary, am back again!"

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After proudly announcing her return from the middle of the cafeteria, Mary shifted her little hand forward, pulling Greem forward and placing him in front of her.

"From today onwards, know that he is my subordinate. Anyone who makes trouble for him will have me as your enemy!"

After she finished saying that, she let go of Greem and swept her right hand through the air. Her claws moved so fast that they seemed to leave afterimages in the air. As the faint trails of light faded away, five sharp whistling noises could be heard by the crowd.

What… What insane agility, and what a terrifying slashing force. With such speed and attack strength, who would have time to recite a spell if she attacked them?

After estimating the attack strength of Mary's casual strike, everyone who saw this scene had fear cover their faces.

Greem couldn't help but smile wryly at his current situation. For the first time in his entire life, he felt a headache caused by 'good fortune'.

As much as he could, he was a man who strived to live a low-profile life, but, in the end, he was helplessly dragged into what could only result in a fight between those strongest Apprentice Adepts. Though Mary did this out of good intentions, would a simple threat of violence really be able to hold back those Apprentice Adepts who feared nothing?

In this Adept Tower, where the hearts of men were incomprehensible, and where everyone was scheming against each other, there were nearly infinite methods of killing someone without being noticed. In the library, a wide variety of knowledge of Curse Spells and Poisonous Potions were available. So long as someone willing to put in the effort, it wasn't exactly difficult to make an Apprentice Adept die an 'unfortunate death', with no one the wiser.

Within this eerie and frightening Adept Tower, Greem would never dare let the slightest drop of blood or the tiniest hair on his head fall into someone else's hands. After all, there were countless bizarre spells which could be used against a person. The slightest mistake could end with him become a puppet controlled by someone else.

That was also the reason why most of the Apprentice Adepts lived in the seclusion of their own rooms, rarely having any intimate physical contact with anyone.

Sensing the hostile glances shooting at him from all directions, once again Greem felt speechless, and a bitter smile covered his face.

It seems he had found a great method for making a lot of enemies at once.

In the past, he was just a harmless low-rank Apprentice in other people's minds. Even if he got in some minor arguments, no one would really try to find a method to kill him. But today, he had nearly offended every single Apprentice Adept in the tower without saying a single word.

Without having to think twice, he knew that, from today onwards, he had become a bird of a different feather among all the Beginner Apprentice Adepts. If there was anyone who tried to get in touch with him, either they were probing for Mary's information, or they were plotting his demise.

Although Greem was complaining in his mind, right at this moment he had no other option but to put on a poker face and face these new hardships head on.

After delivered what she intended to say, Mary, who had established her authority, grabbed Greem and left the cafeteria in a rush. A moment later, the prideful and elegant Mary had, once again, appeared in front of Anm, who was still suffering from the shock of being thrown across a room.

"Give me the card of the Arena!"

Mary was showing herself to be a surprisingly domineering and tyrannical person. As she slammed her tiny palm onto the table, everything on it was knocked over. A slimy and ugly frog squeezed out from the pile of books while croaking continuously, quickly jumping onto Anm's shoulder and angrily staring at Mary, who was the culprit of his discomfort.

It was a small frog, but it had a huge head, which was quite strange looking. It's slimy back was full of lumps and blisters, which were all filled with green ooze. It had a huge mouth and its eyes were situated on two protruding tentacles, giving it a really bizarre look.

Frightened, Anm gently patted on the weird head of the frog, turning his head and speaking softly to it. The frog, unwillingly, opened up its mouth and spat out a special card, which was glowing with a golden glaze.

Mary snorted coolly, snatched the golden card off the table, turned around, and then dragged Greem away.

Before they left, Greem couldn't help examining the strange looking frog.

A Companion Beast!

Perhaps this frog was Anm's Company Beast?

Apprentice Adepts, like them, who were still struggling in the lower floors of the Tower, were all restlessly trying to strengthen themselves. No doubt, increasing one's Spirit was the toughest path. Without a Magic Medicine that grew one's Spirit, a top-grade meditation method, and without a formal Adept to answer all their questions, they could only depend on themselves to progress.

Therefore, any method that could possibly help one in improving their own power was worth it, and Companion Beasts were, undeniably, a good supplemental method for increasing one's strength.

Companion Beasts were also known as Parasite Beasts. They were a unique type of demon that had been modified and breed with magic. Through a special magic ceremony, an Apprentice Adept could establish a binding between his soul and one of these beasts.

Of course, a method like this came with its own pros and cons. On the bright side, an Apprentice Adept could borrow the innate abilities of the demon, granting himself some special abilities that others didn't have. On the downside, during the process of establishing the Companionship, the Apprentice had to cut part of his soul and transfer it to the Companion Beast. With that, if the Companion Beast was seriously hurt or died, the Apprentice himself would suffer the same fate.

If the beast was seriously injured, it might cause the Apprentice to suffer a permanent Spirit depletion, as his soul would be injured; There were known cases where an Adepts soul had broken, causing them to become a complete idiot.

It was a rule of thumb that an ordinary Apprentice Adept could only establish a relationship with one Beast. But, as in anything, there was always an exception. Evil Bugs, who was one of the three strongest Apprentices, had taken the path of binding with a Companion Beast. However, he actually broke through the supposed limit, and somehow had a lot of strange insects within his body.

As for how he did that, no one knew. Any Apprentice Adept who was taking the path of binding with a Companion Beast would kill for this knowledge, but none of them had the courage to spy on his secret. Because, in the end, anyone who tried to spy on him would end up dead in an 'accident'.

Anm, who only had the capability of an Intermediate Apprentice, had chosen a Poison Dart Frog, who could, unsurprisingly, shoot poisonous darts, as his Companion Beast. Besides shooting poison, it also had a pretty good regeneration ability. Perhaps, this was the biggest reason Anm had chosen it.

……

When the main door of the stone room had closed up, Mary and Greem were left standing there by themselves in a large room.

This Arena was way bigger than the stone room Greem had rented previously, taking up a whole 200 square meters. Thus, this was not a place for Apprentice Adepts to practice their magic spells, but a miniature fighting arena.

If Apprentice Adepts needed to resolve disputes, usually they would use this Arena as a last resort. Although this place came with a rule forbidding them from killing each other, if an 'accident' really happened, the killer wouldn't have to pay with their own life. All they would have to do was pay a large fee as compensation.

Hence, many Apprentice Adepts had a great fear of this Arena, and, thus, it had earned the nickname of 'Arena of Death'!

Mary's slim figure stood opposite of Greem's. She had an eerie smile on her delicate face, which Greem felt was both seductive and cruel.

"I don't need a good-for-nothing subordinate. Show me what you are capable of!"

After announcing this, and without giving him any time to prepare himself, her delicate looking body swayed, leaving behind a row of afterimages. Her real body was mixed in with these afterimages, sprinting toward Greem at an incredible speed.

She really meant it? This Mary was really a girl of action!

Although Mary had been a rather glacial beauty in the past, she still had held the careful and low-profile character of your standard Apprentice Adept. How did she become so overbearing, arrogant, and aggressive after being let off by Adept Anderson?

Unfortunately, Greem had no time to ponder on this anymore, because Mary's attack was fast approaching.

A series of rapid warning tones resounded in his brain, nearly making him lose focus.

"Warning! Warning! High-speed target approaching… Initial evaluation shows the target has the Agility which is greater than 13. Host, please move two steps to the left. After dodging, counter attack with a Burning Hand spell…"

As the solidification of the Fire Arrow was still in progress, Greem could only use one spell, Burning Hand.

The speed of the attack was extremely fast, and Greem couldn't even see where was the real Mary was. What he could do was to lay all his hope on the guidance given by the Chip, move his feet, and step aside, quickly preparing a Burning Hand spell.

However, as they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Greem clumsily fell to the ground while only half way through dodging. His shirt was completely torn at the chest, revealing three gashes. He struck out with Burning Hand, but his strike hit nothing.

Greem pressed his hand against his wounds, distraught at what had just happened. He raised his head and gave Mary an angry look. Meanwhile, Mary was standing leisurely to the side, sticking out her long flexible tongue, and licking the blood from her nails.

"So it seems you have decent reflexes… But your body is too weak. If this speed is all you have, perhaps you're going to suffer today!" Maybe it was because she had tasted blood, but her eyes, which had been completely blue, started to take on a shade of red, making her seem so much more dangerous. "If you don't want to die, you better move faster~…"

Mary briefly squatted down after she finished speaking, making her looked like a leopard preparing to pounce. In the next second, she was rocketing toward him.

Damn it, if this went on he really would die.

As her eyes began to turn red and her fangs began poked through her lips, warning tones went off like crazy in his brain. Unable to take care of the wounds on his chest, Greem let out a roar. He forcefully slapped both of his palms together. Three seconds later, two massive fireballs erupted from both of his hands, causing Mary to jump back.

"This is what I'm talking about! Hehe… you better watch out!~"

Mary's voice was filled with excitement. She even giggled a bit. In the next second, she leaped forward, turning into a streak of blue.

Even with Greem's dynamic vision, he was still only able to see Mary's afterimages. He was completely unable to find her actual position. Therefore, in order to avoid her getting too close, Greem kept moving his body and adjusting his posture to keep the majority of her after images in front of him. Meanwhile, he was crazily waving his hands, attempting to use the burning flame to block off all the possible paths of attack.

Both fireballs were making sizzling noises while Greem was waving them about, pouring sparks of fire all around his body. Unfortunately, it seemed his attempt at defense was pointless. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't figure out where she was. Instead, from time to time, he would feel a sudden sharp pain coming from a new place on his body, and all these were making him more and more furious.

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As the fight progressed, Greem was realizing, more and more, what his weaknesses were.

His below average Physique was one of the biggest weaknesses. Even with the help of the mighty Chip, he found that he was not as strong as he had originally thought.

His Agility of 4 defined the speed of his reflexes, movement, and the flexibility of his body. Although the dynamic vision provided by the Chip allowed him to roughly guess where Mary was moving, his overly 'clumsy' and 'slow' body was having a hard time keeping up with the guidance of the chip.

Therefore, most of the time, even though Greem knew in advance where the attack was coming from, he was unable to defend fast enough. Often when the sharp claws passed his body, his flame was mere inches away, but he still couldn't even touch the tips of the fringes of Mary's dress.

Hence, within the huge Arena, Greem was restlessly waving two huge fireballs and doing everything he could to land even the slightest blow on his enemy. However, it seemed he was unable to do anything except receive wounds and groan as the pain from all the wounds added up. As for Mary, she was like a red ghost who drifted from place to place, seeming to blink in and out of reality as she dashed around Greem. Quite frequently, the dreadful flames almost touched her body, but they were unable to cause her any harm, as she was moving with great speed and agility.

Fortunately, Mary was just playfully evaluating Greem's fighting ability, so all her attacks were only causing minor flesh wounds. If she had been serious, Greem would have long since been sliced into chunks of meat. But even so, having his body scratched by Mary's blade-liked sharp claws, left Greem with countless scratch marks, and blood all over his body.

Although the wounds on his body wouldn't get him killed, they brought Greem a great deal of anger and humiliation.

A month ago, this Mary was only a beginner Apprentice, and she was not stronger than him. Because of that damn mutation, caused by magical contamination, she was now able to twist Greem around her little finger, like he was nothing. This exploding anger was continually suppressed by Greem, as he knew he was unable to defeat Mary, but he was still doing all he could to chase her flashing red shadow with his raging flame.

Inwardly, Greem's mind was still as calm as a glacier, and he was communicating with the Chip without showing any signs externally. Since he couldn't catch Mary with his dynamic vision, he had to find a workaround.

Greem's spirit was draining fast as he kept waving both of his hands restlessly through the air. The dreadful looking fireballs in his hands were becoming bigger and even more violent. While underneath his eyes, a weird looking blue dot was blinking dimly, marking an interception point which the Chip had vaguely calculated.

When Greem sensed Mary was attacking from his front, he slightly separated his hands, blocked off possible attacks from his left and his right, leaving a half meter weak point in front of his body.

Seeing this, Mary, who planned to attack from the left, simply let out a cold snort, stopped and stood straight, swaying slightly to the side to dodge the flaming red fireball. Not only that, she actually slipped into the slight gap in front of Greem's chest.

"Hmm! What a careless boy, should I leave a mark on your face, or on your chest?~"

Mary, who still had time to spare as she lazily fought Greem, pondered why her instincts had hesitated at this very moment.

All of a sudden, her expression changed drastically, and she immediately retreated with an even greater speed than she had attacked with. Even so, her retreating body still couldn't completely escape from the two fireballs that had suddenly changed their courses.

Two frightening fireballs came from the left and the right, slamming into each other and exploding, sending sparks of fire in all directions and creating a sea of flames in front of Greem's body.

What happened made Mary cry out in shock. In the time it took to blink, she had moved herself 10 meters away from Greem, yet she still felt some pain from that attack. She lowered her head and took a look at herself. To her surprise, she found that her red chiffon dress actually been filled with burn marks, as those randomly flying sparks had fallen on her and burned holes in her dress, revealed what was hiding inside.

"You bastard… how dare you to damage my dress…"

Mary's cold and pretty face became angry. With a cruel glance, she stared straight at Greem, who was dancing in joy.

At this very moment, Greem was struck with unspeakable excitement, as he was finally able to force Mary back. At last, he found out a weakness in this girl's fighting style. When facing with this kind of high-speed enemy, who fought like an assassin, a weaker spell that covered a wide area was effective in limiting where they could move, while powerful, concentrated spells were unable to even touch them…

While immersing himself in the joy of his minor success, Greem suddenly felt an ominous killing intent. Shocked, he raised his head and saw a girl with a ferocious look on her face.

"I…"

Knowing something bad was going to happen, Greem quickly tried to explain his actions, but before he could say anything, a red shadow flashed in front of his eyes, grabbed him, and slammed his head against a nearby stone wall. The brutal and violent force of Mary's hand pierced through Greem's entire body, but, before he could feel the pain, his eyes went black and he fainted.

And the last thought that went through his mind was:

What incredible speed!

…………

When Greem finally regained consciousness, he felt a throbbing pain all over his body, but he also felt a new pain. It seemed he was being dragged by someone.

A little, icy cold hand was holding onto his ankle, pulling him across the floor in a face down manner, which was how he was being brought back to his room. When he finally reached his room, his bare face had been fully covered in blood, which was the result of having his face scraped against the rough floor.

Greem dared not to struggle, as it seems like his last attack had infuriated the moody and petulant Mary. Therefore, all he could do was close his eyes and try his best to endure the pain he felt from all over his body.

Fortunately, he could still feel pain… It was better than having been killed while in a coma!

Greem had the chip perform a self-test, and a huge, frightening, red warning sign showed up on top of the report.

Ugh. He only had a total of 11 Health Points, and he had lost 8 of those. This literally put him death's doorstep. If he lost anymore, he would be in trouble.

Although that damnable Mary hadn't hurt any of his vitals, and just left a few scratch marks on his body in a playful manner, it was more than enough to reduce his Health Points to such a pathetic state. This really showed how huge was the gap between them was.

A moment later, Mary opened up the wooden door of Greem's room and threw him inside. After that, her lovely voice said a very cruel thing, "Rest tonight, we'll continue our training in 17 hours."

So, it seemed Mary had noticed that Greem was awake.

Greem raised his head up, shocked that she had known. What he saw was his half opened wooden door, and the silhouette of the slim, curvy body of a young woman backlit by the candles in the hallway.

17 hours? She expected him to recover in 17 hours?

Greem opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but the wooden door was slammed closed, leaving him in the gloomy darkness of his room.

…………

Half an hour later, with a strong will, Greem finally climbed up from the floor and lit a few candles, so he could take a look at himself.

He took off his short worn-out Apprentice robe and found that his skinny body was full of crisscrossing scratch marks and wounds. Although not deep, they were unexpectedly dense.

Under the dull candlelight, he began to carefully doctor his wounded body.

He had some basic healing medicine in his room. After all, in order to survive in the Tower, medicinal paste and poison antidotes were must have items.

Bearing the pain, Greem applied the medicinal paste to his wounds while grimacing. Immediately, a sensation of tickling that made him crazy came from the wounds, but soon after, it was replaced by a cold sensation that soothed his mind, and the pleasant feeling of having his flesh regenerating followed. Hence Greem started the slow process of healing.

After he finished applying the medicinal paste, Greem decided to look over the other parts of his self-test report.

Surprisingly, the torture he had gone through, just now, had increased all of his attributes, and it even increased his Experience by 12. Greem couldn't help breathing out a long sigh. Did this mean his path to becoming strong was going to be filled with misery?

After wallowing in misery and slightly suicidal thoughts, Greem took a deep breath, then lay down on his bed and started his daily meditation.

Once again, he had arrived in the Spiritual Dimension, which was filled with countless bright specks of light. This time, the light orb representing Greem's consciousness transformed into a ferocious monster which had hundreds of tentacles from its body. Under Greem's control, these Spiritual tentacles kept poking and swimming around, reaching out and grabbing at all the Fire Elementium swimming nearby.

In the past, Greem had only passively absorbed the Fire Elementium that came close enough to him. How could that be compared with his current efficiency, as he was actively absorbing them? With his current speed, one round of meditation would yield ten times what previous meditation had.

It had been a long day for him. So many things had happened and he was too busy to attend to them all. This was the first time he had been able to catch his breath all day and he found himself to be exhausted. Therefore, before he could check the results of his meditation, he fell asleep.

…………

At dawn the next day, Greem woke up to the sound of heavy knocking at his door.

"Who's that?"

"It's me, Tony. It's time…"

Greem's lips twitched. He realized that six days had passed since his last inspection trip, and that it was time for them to do it again!

As he was getting up, he quickly glanced at the results of last night's meditation. He was filled with joy as he saw that his Spirit had increased from 8.07 to 8.15. A single night of meditation had increased his Spirit by 0.08…. Didn't that mean that, even if he didn't spend any time studying Magic books and just did basic meditation, his Spirit would reach the level of Advanced Apprentice Adept in three months?

This wasn't the only good news.

His Fire Arrow spell would be solidified in 1 hour. In 1 hour, he would become a beginner Apprentice who had mastered more than one Magic Spell. He would no longer be a rookie who could be bullied by anyone.

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Following the same route as the week before, Greem set out on his inspection trip.

Greem quickly noticed that things were quite different today.

When he set his foot on the stone paved path, Greem immediately felt things were wrong. Today, the demons were strangely excited and were behaving in unusual ways.

The first stop of his inspection was the grove of Ghost Trees.

Before he even reached the grove, Greem was freaked out by what he saw in front of him.

Hundreds of Scavenger Crows were standing on top of those skinny and wrinkled Ghost Trees, and every single one of them had their beady red eyes focused on Greem. Oddly enough, none of them were making any noise, which was totally different from how they normally behaved.

Honestly, being stared at by a few hundred Scavenger Crows at the same time would make even the bravest Apprentice Adept's spine crawl. But what made Greem feel even more baffled was how quiet they were. If they were behaving normally, the noisy caws of the Scavenger Crows could be heard from a mile away.

But today…

Judging from their quiet manner, it looked like they were all anticipating having a big feast.

From the knowledge Greem had in his mind, these Scavenger Crows would only be so quiet and patient when they were waiting for their food. It was said that these birds could follow a dying traveler for days without sleep or rest, just waiting for the moment when the traveler finally fell.

Under the 'welcoming parade' of a few hundred Scavenger Crows, Greem slowly began walking down the stony trail. As he proceeded, he knew that he was completely surrounded by creatures who came with bad intentions.

"Chip. Perform a scan the surrounding area. I want to know what is happening here!" Greem could no longer stand the oppressing atmosphere and whispered an order to the Chip.

Beep* "Commencing real-time scanning task… establishing dynamic monitoring for surrounding area…" *Beep* … *Beep* … *Beep* … "Source of disturbance is -unknown smell- … Direction: South East… Distance: 500 meters…"

Unknown smell?

After noting the Chip's report, Greem took a deep breath and tried to smell this 'Unknown Smell'. After a moment, he was able to sense the mild smell of blood mixed with the rotten smell of the fog. No wonder all these demons looked so excited today! If he was able to smell the scent of blood, of course these creatures, who had tens or even hundreds of times more sensitive senses, could smell it!

However, today was not the monthly 'open day', when the tower would purposely lower the swamps defences to entice outsiders to come and 'feed' the 'wildlife'! Could it be someone had really sneaked into this place?

With questions filling his mind, Greem poured an entire bottle of 'Alan Grass' potion into his mouth, pulled up his hood, and started running towards the South East.

An Alan Grass Potion was a special magic potion decocted from Alan Grass. It was able to close every single pore on a human's body, suppressing the drinker's body odors. But it only lasted for 30 minutes.

…………

In the Garden of Whispers.

The garden, which was usually dead silent and completely empty of life, had turned into a terrifying battleground.

As he approached the site, he could hear the horrible screams of Demon Babies and the cries of wandering souls. He also heard loud human voices, cursing with rage and fright. Apparently, this was the source of the pungent smell of blood that had attracted his attention. Using the trees and grass as cover, Greem slowly moved closer to the battlefield. Soon, he found a place with a good view, which allowed him to watch what was happening.

There were two groups fighting at the scene.

The attackers were, of course, the horrible Demon Babies and the other wandering souls who lived here. Then there were 17 mercenaries struggling to hold off the horrifying creatures in front of them.

It seemed to be a group of skillful and experienced mercenaries. They looked strong and vigorous, and were not lacking in physical strength or courage. Also, their equipment was pretty good. They had large thick shields made from solid wood, arm and shoulder guards, and each of them had a bow with them. This made them capable of hunting many of the ordinary demons in this swamp.

But, unfortunately for them, the demons who surrounded them were some of the most frightening creatures within the swamp: Demon Babies.

Demon Baby had no legs, and crawled across the ground with a pair of sharp claws, dragging a long organ, which looked like an umbilical cord, behind them. They were ugly and had twisted bodies, yet looked remarkably similar to human infants. However, their faces were not made of smooth youthful flesh, but of wrinkled dead skin, and their facial features were squeezed together, giving them extremely ugly faces.

Within the knee-deep bushes, these small demons were crawling back and forth, letting out curses and screams that echoed throughout the area. Whenever a baby's cry was heard, it would immediately cause those human mercenaries to yell in fright.

Although these Demon Babies had small bodies, each of them had a Strength of at least 5, which equaled that of your average adult human. Not only that, but they also had a pair of deadly claws. Whenever they leaped forward and struck the large wooden shields, they would leave deep scratch marks behind.

However, their deadliest weapon was their Curse.

When Greem arrived, these Demon Babies were trying to break through the defensive shields with their bodies.

One after the other, the Demon Babies rushed through the bushes, launching themselves into the air and trying to land behind the defensive shields of those mercenaries, but every time, those mercenaries, who were prepared, would knock them back with their arm guards. There was even a Demon Baby who couldn't escape in time, and found themselves nailed to the ground with an arrow.

Although it had its body nailed to the ground, the Demon Baby was still very fierce, crazily digging the dirt with its claws. Then it raised its body and let out an irritating baby cry toward a closest human mercenary.

The cry was sharp and ear-splitting, but while it was just an unpleasant noise for other people, but when the cry hit the mercenary who was standing closest to it, it instantly struck him with the frightening 'Curse'.

The muscular mercenary suddenly threw away his shield and placed both of his hands tightly against his ear, screaming out, "Help me! … I can't see anything! …"

Right after he screamed, tears of blood spilled from his tightly closed eyes, terrifying the rest of the mercenaries.

Before anyone could do anything, another two Demon Babies dashed out from the bushes, ferocious smiles on their ugly faces. They opened up their mouths and screamed at the mercenary who had been previously struck by 'Blind'.

Blind Insanity Confuse!

Even an official Apprentice Adept would have a hard time in defending against a Demon Baby's curse, let alone these mercenaries, who were only ordinary humans. Before his fellow mercenaries could knock him out, this mercenary crazily pushed away everything around him and rushed out of the defensive formation.

"No! … Bazar, come back!…"

A middle-aged man, who looked like the leader of the group, immediately shouted from within the formation. But it was too late.

If someone could have looked down from above, he would have seen some crazy movements within the bushes around this team of mercenaries, as many fast moving grass lines shot toward the mercenary who was fleeing in confusion.

"Bazar!" A bold looking man threw away his own shield, grabbed an ax, and started charging out to rescue his friend. However, he was forcefully pulled back by his leader.

"Don't go, Tark! It is too late now…" The leader grabbed the bold looking man's arm while gazing helplessly after the departing man.

As if proving his words, Bazar, who was running amok, got pushed down by a swarm of Demon Babies. His pain filled and shrill screaming only lasted for a few more seconds before coming to a complete stop. Then all that could be heard was the noise of those Demon Babies tearing into his flesh and munching on his bones.

Although it was half covered by the knee-deep bushes, no mercenary could stand to witness the scene of those Demon Babies feasting on their friend. Just by looking at the constant moving dried grass and listening to the terrifying and eerie noises, it was still enough for them to envision the extremely dreadful scene that must be happening in those bushes. Therefore, their long-standing determination and morale began to fall.

Suddenly, a human head sized fireball shot out from the center of the mercenaries, creating a long trail of dark smoke. It fell right into the center of the area where those Demon Babies were happily feasting.

In next second, together with a deafening explosion, the terrifying Fire Elementium expanded and turning everything in an area of ten meters into a raging sea of flames.

With just this one single strike, more than twenty Demon Babies were killed. Fourteen of them, who were at the center of the explosion, had been turned into ashes in an instant. Those who at the edges of the explosion were all injured by the raging flames. For a moment, the shrill cries of Demon Babies reverberated through the skies!

A Fire Spell?!

Greem, who was watching from the dark, was startled for a moment. He quickly looked around, soon finding three suspicious targets, who were standing in the center of the mercenaries. There were all dressed relatively similarly to himself.

Their black cloaks and hoods completely covered their bodies so that not even an inch of their skin was exposed, but, judging from the size of their bodies, he supposed that they were two men and a girl.

Three Apprentice Adepts who had left their nest for experience?

As he couldn't directly see them, there was no way for Greem to obtain the specific attributes of these people. Hence, he didn't dare act recklessly. He quietly took out his Magical Talisman and reported what was happening here to the Adept Tower.

During this period of time, the Demon Babies, who had suffered great losses, actually called upon all the wandering souls to aid them.

As these wandering souls were capable of living among other demons, of course they were not low-ranked creatures, like those zombies or skeletons, but, rather, were actually a conscious body that was formed from strong resentment and evil intentions. Although they had human forms, they didn't have physical bodies, and their innate ability to freely shift between the ethereal and the physical allowed them to ignore most physical attacks and defenses.

Their bodies looked like blurry shadows. Comparatively, their heads were much clearer, and they had facial features similar to that of a human. They had a pair of arms with sharp claws, yet where their legs should be was just a vague shadow. If looking from afar, it was like their legs had merged into the air.

When this group of wandering souls dashed out from the woods, the entire place was immediately filled with the eerie cries of ghosts, which could make one's soul shiver. The temperature also significantly dropped.

When attacked by this, seemingly endless, group of frightening wandering souls, the mercenaries defensive formation immediately collapsed.

The wandering souls, who had shifted their bodies into their ethereal forms jumped into the group of men without fear, as they could totally ignore the weapons and shield held by those mercenaries. With their icy cold ghost claws, these wandering souls were busy leaving deadly scratch marks on their target's bodies. There were even some wandering souls squeezed themselves into the bodies of the mercenaries, taking control over their bodies and launching attacks against the other mercenaries.

Now that a breach had been created by the wander souls, the evil Demon Babies, again, joined the battle, using their horrifying curses to destroy the wills of these mercenaries. After that, they dragged the cursed bodies into bushes and started feasting on them.

The scene had become even more chaotic and bloody.

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As they looked out and saw the massive crowd of demons and wandering souls overwhelming the mercenaries around them, the three Apprentice Adepts were, finally, forced to remove their cloaks and join the battle, revealing their faces to the world.

The leader of the three was a muscular young man. He had a head of disheveled gold hair that hung down to his shoulders. Just under his hair, a mysterious circlet adorned his forehead. It was clearly not an ordinary item. He was wearing a delicately made leather jacket and carrying a broadsword on his back. Judging from the size of the sword, it would weigh too much for the average man to even swing it.

The other man was dressed like nobility. The delicate and luxurious clothes on his body were quite impressive, but what was even more impressive was his head. He had dark green skin, a long narrow mouth, and a thin tongue that kept flicking in and out… He, unexpectedly, had the head of a snake.

Meanwhile, a little girl stood in between these two men. She had a face like an angel and was wearing a long light yellow dress. She was of average height and was holding a gold colored birdcage in her hands. Strangely enough, not only she did not show any sign of fear towards the bloody scene in front, but she was actually glancing around with a cute smile on her face, which made her simply look like a curious young girl.

Greem's eyes suddenly went wide.

Via his Elementium Vision, he saw very bright glowing Elementium, and Spiritual ripples that looked like tidal waves, coming from all three Apprentice Adepts.

By the Chip's evaluation, these three were either Pseudo-Adepts or elites among the Advanced Apprentice Adepts. No matter who they were, they were not something Greem, a beginner Apprentice Adept, could ever think of handling.

Why had such strong people come here like this? This place was the private property of Master Anderson, and a resources site of the Sarubo Family. With the exception of the annual resource shipment, this place was not open to outsiders.

All of this made Greem really curious about the motives of these foreign Apprentice Adepts.

But, after witnessing their immense abilities, Greem's curiosity instantly died, leaving him completely alert, and feeling a little fear.

The human mercenaries were capable of dealing with demon beasts, but once they were faced with Demon Babies, Wandering Souls, and other similar demons, they were like sheep being led to the slaughter. When the simple defensive shield was broken, the swarm of demons began to massacre the mercenaries.

Demon Babies were jumping and leaping all over the place, crying out terrifying curses to reduce their prey's fighting abilities. Using the bushes as cover, these monsters launched sneak attacks and knocked the mercenaries to the ground. Thus, it was a scene filled with mercenaries in the throes of death. Also, those dreadful Wandering Souls were circling around in mid-air, seeking chances to pull a mercenary into the skies. When that happened, the other demons would storm in and rip the helpless prey to pieces.

Right in the middle of this chaotic scene, a Wandering Soul, who had an ugly and twisted face, dove down from the air, targeting those three casual and strange looking Apprentice Adepts.

Before the lead man and the little girl could do anything, the snake-headed struck.

Striking with great force, a pale green looking poison, shaped into an arrow, instantly penetrated the Wandering Soul's body, immediately exploding. The intense corrosive poison melted the 'Resentment Core' hidden inside of its body, turning it into a pile of ashes with a horrifying and painful sounding scream.

Greem noticed that the poison 'arrow' wasn't created with normal spellcasting, but was launched from the mouth of that Snakehead Apprentice.

And that attack was just the beginning. The Apprentice didn't stop what he had started, and opened his mouth widely, continuously spitting out poison 'arrows'. With each strike, he accurately eliminated one of the horrifying Wandering Souls, which were rated as possessing the power of an intermediate Apprentice.

Bloodline Adept!

He was definitely one of those Bloodline Adepts that the basic Adept book had mentioned!

Within the vast and complicated development hierarchy of the Adept World, there were four branches that stood out: Bloodline Adepts, Body Refining Adepts, Principle Adepts and Profound Adepts. It could be said that most of the other Adept branches were matched up to these four major branches.

Bloodline Adepts were a bunch of lunatics who craved having the purest bloodlines. They used the power of said bloodlines to improve their own strength. Usually, they would choose some incredibly strong creatures from another world as the source for their bloodline, then they would improve the purity of their own blood, generally using a method which could be traced back to some ancestor. After doing all of this, they would gain incredible abilities that aligned with that of ancient powerful creatures. In general, their ultimate goal was to relive the glorious life of these ancient creatures.

As for Body Refining Adepts, they were another group of lunatics who went all out in the pursuit of strengthening their own bodies. In their eyes, all resources were just a medium, a consumable supply that could be used to make their muscles stronger. In order to stimulate their muscles, they might soak themselves in a container full of poisonous chemicals, or implant a deadly, highly radioactive meteorite into their body. They might go out and endure the most extreme and deadly environments… and they would do all of these to make their bodies strong so that nothing could hurt them.

In all honestly, Principle Adepts were the most common type of Adept in the Adept World. No matter it was the Elementium Adept, who chased after the peak powers of their Elements, the Curse Adept, who used strange abilities to kill people unseen, or even the Black Adept, who just enjoyed using violent killing abilities, usually utilizing the force of souls and emotion; all of them belonged to the branch of Principle Adepts. Although it seemed that there was a tremendous difference in what they did, when they arrived at the advanced stage, they would try their best to master specific Principles or Rules of the Universe.

They were the people who grew by mastering Elemental Laws Principles.

As for Profound Adept, they were the purest type of Adepts. They were not willing to 'contaminate' their own bloodline just to obtain powerful ability, and they refused to coupled with Principles of Planes and became the 'Slaves of Principles'. They gathered knowledge, immersed themselves in the world of knowledge, and used the knowledge they learned as their weapon. Thus, they became a weird group among Adepts, who only cared about gathering and expanding their knowledge, but totally ignored their own development.

With these four major branches as the backbone, an infinite variety of strange Adepts were born into this world. They conquered different worlds, looting resources and knowledge, and enslaving thousands of Planes. They were the dominating force of the entire Adept World when fighting, or conquering, other worlds.

This was the information regarding the Adept Hierarchy which Greem had obtained after the Chip spent time gathering and organizing the mass of raw data he had input into it. As he only knew a handful of people, the data he gathered was not complete, and there was, probably, a huge discrepancy in it. Although he only had this small amount simple information, it drew the outline of the massive and ferocious Adept World he was now a part of.

If he hadn't known of these branches, he wouldn't have been able to correctly guess the details of that Snakehead Apprentice a second ago.

But, right as Greem was guessing which species of snake the Snakehead Apprentice had inherited a bloodline from, something even more surprising happened.

The cute little girl joined the fight!

A Demon Baby, who was quickly moving across the ground, had placed its eyes on these three people, setting them as its target and dashing in their direction. At the same time, it kept letting out irritating cries from its mouth, which was twisted and full of sharp yellowed teeth, launching its Curse attacks at the three of them.

No doubt, its behavior had provoked the little girl.

However, not only did her immature face not show any signs of anger. Instead, it bloomed with a sweet smile. She raised up the birdcage in her hands, which looked like a toy, pointed it toward the Demon Baby, and shook it a few times. Though not a single sound was heard, lights and shadows flickered, and the Demon Baby, who had previously been dashing toward them, disappeared from where it was.

At the same time, Greem, who had sharp vision, noticed that a miniature Demon Baby had appeared inside of the birdcage the little girl carried. It was only the size of a human hand, and looked exactly the same as the Demon Baby who had just disappeared.

Obviously, this Demon Baby had no idea what had caused its sudden transformation. After being stunned for a second, it became extremely fierce and let out a jarring cry toward the little girl outside of the cage, repeatedly slamming the cage with it's body. But, no matter how hard it tried, there was no way it could escape from that simple looking birdcage.

Space Magic?!

Greem placed a hand tightly over his mouth to prevent himself from screaming out loud.

Out of the many Principle Magics, although every Principle would bring an astonishing power at the ultimate level, if someone really wanted to define their ranking, the Principles of Time and Space Magic were among the very top. But, according to Greem's knowledge, these two top-level magic branches were among the weakest of all the branches in the Adept World. This was simply because these two magic branches could only depend on one's innate talent.

Even the most powerful Adept, who could destroy a world with the wave of his hand, could never make time stop for one second. However, some people were born with this ability, and, although they might not learn any knowledge related to Magic, they could still achieve something that even the best Adepts couldn't.

And yet, just because these magics were so bizarre and unpredictable and could only be used by someone who had the talent, those Adepts who didn't possess such talent, no matter how much of a genius they were, it would be impossible for them to come out with great results through experimentation. Therefore, without a huge and solid foundation, it was really tough for those who focused on the Time and Space Magic Branches to produce top-tier Adepts.

Greem was having issues deciding whether this was the little girl's innate ability, or some bizarre Magical item that allowed her to catch any enemy, regardless of distance.

Although Greem thought he had a deep understanding of this bizarre world of advanced magic, right at this very moment, he had to admit one thing: the real world of Adepts was much more crazy and bizarre than his wildest dreams and nightmares. These three outsiders were either Pseudo-Adepts or elites among advanced Apprentice Adepts. If Greem was forced to fight them while only having access to his two low-ranked spells, he would probably die.

For this reason, he didn't dare continue watching anymore. He turned around, followed the trail, and quietly returned to the Adept Tower.

When he arrived at the main door of the Tower, the newly appointed Apprentice Leader, Ellen, was here along with the three strongest: Hawkeye, Evil Bugs, and Madwoman.

Greem threw a puzzled glance at Ellen, but soon realized why they were here.

The warning he sent via the magic talisman could only be received by a special magical item, which was currently held in Ellen's hand. When Ellen heard there were three powerful Apprentice Adepts in the Magical Swamp, he knew that, with his abilities, there was no way he could chase off or capture these outsiders. Therefore, before Greem had returned, Ellen had asked the three strongest for help.

It, obviously, cost him something in order to obtain help from the three strongest… but only he knew what that cost was.

Recalling to what he witnessed just now, Greem didn't have too much confidence in the 'Strongest Three'. No matter how he compared them, those three outsiders were stronger than them. Perhaps Ellen was wishfully thinking he could capture all of them?

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In less than ten minutes, the mercenary group, which had been employed by the three Apprentice Adepts, had almost been entirely wiped out.

The last four of them were covered from head to toe with blood. They were standing back to back, barely able to defend themselves against the attacks of the surrounding demons. On the other side, their employers, the three Apprentice Adepts, were casually standing there and watching the mercenaries get killed with a cold indifference. Unless they were attacked by the demons, they didn't interfere the battle between the demons and the mercenaries. It was as if the deaths of these mercenaries meant nothing to them.

As the last four mercenaries were fighting for their lives, the three Apprentice Adepts were leisurely chatting with each other.

"The Elementium aura we sensed just now should have belonged to one of the local Apprentices. Why didn't you let me capture them?" The cute and chubby faced girl grumbled at her large muscular companion.

"What's the point of capturing him?" The man shook his head and continued, "Clearly this place has a well-built Magical Formation. We have been roaming around here for three days and are still unable to find the way to enter it. Without one of them leading us there, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to find that Adept Tower even if we spent another three days searching."

"That's exactly why we should've captured him!" The little girl spoke furiously. Perhaps due to the fact that her opinion was not accepted, she began to release her anger onto the creature she had captured in the birdcage.

As she muttered something under her breath, the internal space within the birdcage began to squeeze in on itself, shrinking. The compression of the space soon reached the body of the Demon Baby, and some cracking noises started to issue from its body. Hearing the sharp and pain-filled cries coming from the demon baby, the smile on this little girl's face became filled with joy.

When the poor little Demon Baby finally imploded and crumpled into a pile of meat paste, little girl immediately waved her arms in the air and stamped her feet in joy, a look of extreme excitement covering her little face.

Seeing that the little girl had relieved her anger on her 'toy', the other two Apprentice Adepts breathed out sighs of relief.

The Snake Headed Apprentice shook his head and moved closer to the muscular leader, asking, "Are you sssure it wasss alright to let that ssscout get away? I'm sssure he'll bring more guardsss here!"

"Guards?" The muscular leader laughed grimly, "This swamp is just an ordinary resource site. Do you think the Sarubo Family would really be willing to waste an official Adept to guard it? In my opinion, with the exception of Adept Anderson, all that's left in this place are Apprentice Adepts. You really think we should be afraid of the Apprentice Adepts we are likely to find in this place?"

Snakehead Apprentice laughed hideously, his forked tongue flicking in and out through his lips, creating a gruesome sounding hiss.

"Thisss place doesss have quite a lot of rare materialsss that I need. In any cassse, it'll take a while before those guardsss get here. I think I'll just do a little sssightssseeing while I wait."

After saying that, the Snake Headed Apprentice simply walked toward another swampy area in the distance.

Something really strange was occurring. Although the stony trail was not that far away from him, he didn't notice it and walked right past. This was, in fact, one of the many defensive mechanisms of the Adept Tower. Only those internal Apprentice Adepts, who wore a Magical Talisman, could see the stony trail, while, in the eyes of any outsider, the trail was just another part of the swamp, no different in any way.

Watching as one of his partners disappeared into the fog, the muscular leader hesitated for a moment, then he just turned around and walked off in another direction. It was a rare opportunity to be in the private resource site of an Adept family. If he didn't get himself something good before he finished his official business here, that would be quite a waste.

As for that bizarre little girl, either intentionally or unintentionally, they left her in the middle of those violent and bloody demons. Would she be hurt? This question never crossed the minds of these two male Apprentices. Honestly, perhaps the biggest and most brutal demon in this swampy land was the little girl.

Therefore, when Greem brought Ellen and the 'strongest three' here, what they saw in front of them was a cute little girl with a golden birdcage, standing right in the middle of a crowd of blood-covered demons.

At this moment, there was not a single member of the entire mercenary company that had not been torn into chunks of meats and scattered all over the place. While their broken corpses were being pulled apart by an army of Demon Babies, the little girl was standing right in the center of these demons. Oddly enough, no demons dared to get within ten steps of this little girl.

Not only that, but when the little girl bounced and skipped from place to place, those Demon Babies, who were busy eating, would roar at her in anger, then they would move aside and make way for her, not daring to really get in her way.

A mercenary, who had bloody stumps for legs and a single broken arm, was being gnawed on by dozens of Demon Babies. Barely alive, he raised his bloody and broken arm, waving toward the little girl, who was approaching him, and said, "Save me… save… me…"

With a sweet smile on her face, the little girl squatted in front of him and asked, in a soft voice, "I can save your soul from these demons. Are you willing to let me save your soul?"

The dying mercenary was surprised to hear that and immediately nodded his head. However, he didn't notice that the girl had said the word 'save' in a vague and weird tone. If he had known the other languages the girl knew, he would have found out that when these weird tones fit together, she had actually said a word meaning 'Consume', which was from the Ancient Andes language in the Adept Continent.

After obtaining the approval of this mercenary, the smile on little girl's face became even sweeter. She swiftly took out a milky white crystal ball from her pocket and placed it against the mercenary's forehead. With a short and simple spell, the mercenary's body trembled, and then the tiny flame of hope, which had just appeared in his eyes, died off.

A white shadow came out from his forehead and disappeared into the crystal ball.

The life force of the mercenary evaporated, and his bloody arm collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.

The Apprentices of the Tower had watched this all happen and were standing there, appalled at what they had just seen.

Their arrival had attracted the little girl's attention. She walked straight up to Greem's group, raised her head, and gently asked, "Hi! I'm the adorable Alice! Are you guys from around here?"

Greem and the others glared at this little Lolita, who seemed to be trying to make herself familiar with them, and didn't get deceived by her disguise. Within the population of Apprentice Adepts, friendship, love, and humanity were all just beautiful words that had long since be thrown away. All that was left inside them was the desire for knowledge, resources, and power.

Those Apprentices who were naïve would die before ever reaching intermediate Apprentice. The thought of such a person reaching the level of Advanced Apprentices was simply too impossible to even be conceived.

Noticing that they were eyeing her crystal ball and birdcage, Alice quickly hid both of them behind her, quirking her lips and saying, "All of these things belong to Alice. You wouldn't think of taking them away from me, would you?"

Ellen looked all over the place, then sternly whispered to Greem, "I thought you said that there were three Apprentice Adepts? Where are the other two?"

"Kerry went that way… he's a big guy, and good at fighting… if he meets with this big sister, I'm sure something lively will happen…" the little girl pointed her finger to the East and spoke in an innocent manner. Clearly, she was referring to Madwoman, who was also carrying a huge sword on her back. "Jeffrey went that way… I think he said he wanted to look for some materials…"

What she said shocked the five of them, and their eyes took on ghastly looks.

No matter how many demons were killed, none of them would feel even the slightest bit of pity about it, but if those secret medicine plantations and gardens were found by these outsiders, perhaps all the Apprentices of the Tower would be punished by Adept Anderson.

Madwoman's loud, braying voice instantly exploded.

"I'll go that way and stop that guy!"

After saying that, Madwoman's bulky body started sprinting toward the East. As she ran, she crushed the few Demon Babies who got in her way under her feet, making others screaming angrily, though none dared to move closer to her.

"I'll go this way!" Hawkeyes said coolly, pulling up his cap and dashing towards the West.

For some unknown reasons, the caws of Scavenger Crows were heard from the sky, though they were hidden by the thick fog. The noise immediately followed behind Hawkeyes. Apprentice Leader Ellen rolled his eyes and murmured, "I'll go and help him!" After saying that, he simply followed behind Hawkeyes and left.

In the end, only Evil Bugs, Greem, and the strange, unpredictable little girl were left at the scene.

"Are you going to fight me?" The little girl tilted her head and stared at the remaining two men. "Before we fight, don't you guys want to know where we came from?"

"There is no reason to ask you anything. You have caused mayhem here, and you shall be punished for it. If I capture you, you'll have to tell me everything. If I can't defeat you, I'll bear all the losses here. Now, show me what you can do!"

It was rather rare to hear Evil Bugs say so much.

But, right as he finished speaking, the black soil underneath the little girl's feet exploded, and a huge amount of black scorpions burst from the ground. Each of these scorpions was the size of a human palm, had a pure black body and a pair of claws, and on their backs was a tail with a poison needle. The stinking smell of poison filled the air near these scorpions.

Although there was a distance of twenty meters between them, it was impossible to tell when Evil Bugs had sent these scorpions out, sneaking their way underground to hide near the little girl.

This little girl shouldn't have a strong Physique. Thus, as long as she was poisoned, she should quickly lose the ability to cast any of her bizarre spells.

Before they had come here, Greem had emphasized the strange abilities of this little girl, therefore, Evil Bugs had no plans of experiencing it himself. He just wanted to knock her out as quick as possible.

But what happened probably made Evil Bug's mouth drop.

An invisible barrier was created between the little girl's feet and those scorpions. No matter how they slammed into it or pricked it with their tails, there was no way they could get past it. Slowly, when more and more scorpions gathered together, a wall of bugs was built up against the invisible wall.

One after another, scorpions stacked on top of each other, crazily attacked the invisible barrier in front of them, but, no matter how they tried, they just couldn't break through it.

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"Protection Barrier!"

Evil Bugs kept repeating this phrase in a hoarse voice, as he was struck dumb with amazement by what he saw in front of his eyes.

Protection Barrier was a spell which could divide space and was considered one of the sturdiest shields in the world. Even an official Adept would have a hard time breaking through this paper-thin barrier.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Evil Bugs lost control and let out an angry roar, "Your barrier must be fake! Else that would mean you are as strong as an Adept! March, my children! Use your numbers and overwhelm our enemy's defenses!"

Under the control of Evil Bugs, thousands of scorpions immediately burst out from underneath his cloak, forming into scorpion armies that marched toward the little girl who was standing in front of them. At the same time, Evil Bugs opened up his mouth, spitting out countless flies, which looked like clumps of dark clouds, quickly blotting out the sky and the land as they flew towards the little girl.

No beginner Apprentice could interfere in a battle between two Advanced Apprentices. So, from the time the battle began, Greem had been slowly backing away, doing his best to get out of the way, so as not to get hit with a wayward spell.

Judging from the current situation, Evil Bugs had established a dominant position, as the little girl was trapped under a mound of his scorpions. As soon as he could find a way past the Protection Barrier, this battle would be over.

Unfortunately for Evil Bugs, the situation was overturned in the next second by a seemingly unintentional counter-attack from the little girl.

The Little girl, who was seemingly trapped by countless scorpion, still wore the same sweet smile on her face, as if she had nothing to fear from those crawling scorpions around her. Looking Evil Bugs through the rising wall of scorpions, she raised the birdcage in her hand and shook it in Evil Bug's direction.

At this moment, Evil Bugs felt his heart go cold.

Greem had told him about how bizarre was this little girl was, so Evil Bugs had been paying extra attention to any movements the girl made. When he saw little girl shake the cage, although he didn't notice any attacks falling on his body, Evil Bugs still dodged to one side as fast as he could.

A pained cry came from Evil Bug's mouth.

His body had, indeed, moved away from where he had previously stood, but, for some reason, he nearly fell down after dodging movement. Then he noticed that his right leg had mysteriously disappeared. In next second, his missing right leg appeared in the birdcage, looked extremely tiny.

The little girl stared at him in astonishment. She never expected that her enemy would be able to dodge so fast.

Before the enemy could do anything to his limb, Evil Bugs let out a furious cry, causing the tiny leg trapped in the birdcage to explode into countless scorpions. The scorpions transformed into a thread of dark smoke and disappeared. At the same time, his black robe started to ripple and flow. This was caused by the movement of scorpions, which had started to cling to each other to form a brand new leg.

"Biological modification?" For the first time, the little girl's smile disappeared. Her grim-looking little face had a somber expression that didn't match her appearance. "What a surprise, so you have given up your human body and modified yourself to be entirely made of bugs. Hmm! Don't assume you can be immortal like this. I, Alice, will let you taste real terror today!"

After that, the little girl stretched her cute little hands and performed a grabbing gesture toward Evil Bugs. In next second, Evil Bug let out an angry roar, pressed his hand against his chest, and staggered back, almost falling to the ground. At the same time, out of nowhere, a beating heart appeared in the little girl's hand.

If it was any other person, perhaps this would have killed them. But, obviously, Evil Bugs had gone through thorough body modifications and had gotten rid of several organs which were vital for normal human beings. When he saw his heart had been stolen by the little girl, he simply let out a shrill cry.

Following this cry, just like his right leg, the heart in little girl's hand exploded into countless scorpions, quickly turning to ash.

"It seems you were quite thorough with your modifications!" The little girl spoke savagely. With a reedy, grating voice, she continued, "I don't believe you have replaced all of your organs. I'll definitely find the core that maintains your bug infested body!"

Finished speaking, the little girl began to recklessly attack with both hands, continually grabbing at Evil Bugs' body. Although some of her attacks were dodged, under her continuous attacks, she would still successfully hit her target every few attacks. And whenever she succeeded, some weird object would appear in her palms. Bloodily, sloppy, and sticky, no one would be able to identify where these organs came from in his body.

But no matter what kind of organs appeared in little girl's palm, in the end, they always exploded into scorpions and then faded to ashes.

While she was happily pulling his organs out, Evil Bugs was filled with a raging inferno of anger.

While moving at high speed and continuously dodging the bizarre, mysterious, long ranged attacks from the enemy, Evil Bugs kept attacking little girl with his scorpions. However, no matter how carefully he tried, he still couldn't completely dodge the bizarre spell attacks, which gave no warning and put off no Elementium ripples.

At the same time, when faced with the indestructible Protection Barrier, he actually felt a sense of helplessness, as he couldn't find the opportunity to attack the little girl. If this kept going on, even if he had a high confident on his own modified bugs body, perhaps he would have to admit defeat to this little girl.

Right when the thought of retreating was growing in Evil Bugs' mind, Greem suddenly shouted out to him.

"Sir Evil Bugs, attack the back of her head…"

Eh? Attack the back of her head?

Evil Bugs groaned in his mind. He had already tried the back of her head. In fact, he had tried attacking from all possible angles and positions, even from underground. But no matter what he did, the paper-think Protection Barrier had dissolved all of his attacks. No matter how he tried, he just couldn't find any weak spots in her invisible Protection Barrier.

But something surprised him, as when Greem's shout was heard by Alice, she unconsciously turned rigid for a second. At the same time, her pair of big, purple eyes glared at Greem, who was hiding in a far distance, and she started secretly gnashing her teeth in anger. Although no much emotions could be seen on Alice's rigid face, Evil Bugs still noticed a small bit of panic in her eyes.

Could that really be her weak spot?

Though he was still skeptical about what Greem had said, Evil Bugs' heart was filled with anger, as he had most of his internal organs plucked out by this little girl. Hence, without giving it a second thought, he initiated a close ranged attack.

Without making any noise, Evil Bug's body collapsed. His black cloak fell to the ground after losing its support, revealed nothing but emptiness underneath it.

At the same time, a dark figure suddenly appeared at Alice's back.

It was a dark figure completely formed from countless scorpions, an amorphous bug body which had been assembled into a human form. A face could be barely seen on the head of this figure.

Right after it stood up, the humanoid figure immediately leaped forward, pressing its body into the invisible barrier that he had been having a hard time in breaking through. In the next instant, the scorpions around them turned into a black tidal wave, crazily slamming themselves against the regions behind Alice's head.

Somehow, a fist size ripple finally appeared on the Protection Barrier, right at the position where all those scorpions were slamming into.

In fact, that region was not a Protection Barrier, but a mini size Air Barrier, which had perfectly connected with the Protection Barrier.

Evil Bugs instantly widened his eyes, and his heart was filled with an unspeakably wild joy. Indeed, there was a flaw in the enemy's defense, and the flaw was this Air Barrier.

Although they were both Barriers, there was a vast difference between their magical characteristics!

Protection Barrier was a Space Type Spell, the top Principle among all Adept Principles. It was also referred to as the strongest defense within the Planes. On the other side, Air Barrier was formed from a variant usage of Wind Elementium.

If no one spotted this weakness, perhaps it would be extremely difficult for anyone to discover this small 'backdoor' that was hidden in the Protection Barrier. But when Evil Bugs used all his effort and hit on this particular spot, the only unstable part of the Protection Barrier instantly exploded.

After a heart-stirringly loud crash, the scorpion army broke the 'mirror' and swarm into the Protection Barrier like a black tidal wave. In an instant, the small cute body of Alice had been covered by the rolling and creeping tide of scorpions.

Unexpectedly, a sharp grating cry resounded throughout the scene, and a ground shaking explosion suddenly rippled from within the scorpion army, which had piled up like a small black hill of scorpions.

Broken pieces of black scorpions flew in all directions, as terrifying looking cracks of space stretched out in a spider web pattern. Whenever a scorpion touched by these space cracks, its body part would immediately disintegrate without making any sound. No matter how thick their shell was, none could escape from the devastating attack. This perfectly showed the matchless ability of space spells.

A raging shockwave repelled all the scorpions that had piled up on her body. Then the 'space cracks' swept the area, violently crushing and disintegrating any scorpions which got in their path, revealing Alice's small form within the mound of bugs.

Right in the center of suddenly the web of space cracks, Alice was floating in mid-air, her long waving hair flowing out from her head. She let out a terrifying and extremely angry roar into the sky.

Using space as her weapon, disintegrated all the scorpions around her. Once this little girl, who possessed a great innate talent of space, became angry, she was capable of launching such terrifying and deadly attacks. This made Greem, who was hiding a few hundred meters away, feel his heart tremble with fright.

Was the gap between Beginner Apprentice and Advanced Apprentice this huge? Although he kept reminding himself that this Alice belonged to the top tier of Advanced Apprentices, he couldn't hold down the fear and shock growing in his heart. This group of people was simply too powerful!

Even though they were still not official Adepts, or even Pseudo-Adepts, they possessed terrifying abilities which were beyond belief!

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With just one single terrifying attack, Alice had covered a huge 50-meter area with a 360º destructive spell that no one could escape. Within this area, space shattered as the deadly space cracks swept across nearly every inch of the region.

When faced with the devastating space cracks, which could shear through anything, Elementium Resistant was simply a joke. No Apprentice level Personal Protection spell would provide any protection against the destruction caused by the space cracks. Without any unique life-saving abilities, even if ten Pseudo-Adepts tried to resist Alice's attack together, they would all probably die.

At this moment, Greem really felt a bit of pity for Evil Bugs, as he had been right in the center of that area, hence he had probably been killed. Also, Greem would have to immediately run for his life if Evil Bugs was dead.

Right when Greem was about to give up on Evil Bugs, his eyes suddenly saw something near the battlefield.

Dirt was being pushed up at that place, revealed a big hole underneath. A swarm of black scorpions burst out from it, quickly forming together and becoming Evil Bugs.

Fortunately, Evil Bugs was still alive!

But, just as a wild joy had begun to surge up in Greem's mind, he forced himself to push it back down.

Something was not right. It seemed that this Evil Bugs had really suffered from that destructive space spell.

At this moment, Evil Bugs had lost all his arrogance and high-spirits, which he shown at the beginning of the fight. The army of thousands of horrifying scorpions had shrunk to a mere hundred, which was barely enough to form up his body. The newly formed body was shorter than before, and his Elementium Aura could hardly be sensed. Clearly showing that he had lost much in that last clash.

On the other side, Alice, who had just lashed out with that deadly attack, had lost her calm and indifferent attitude as well. Although those scorpions had only been able to attack her body for a few seconds, but during that short period of time, she had been fully covered by more than a thousand scorpions, crawling and biting on every inch of her skin. This…, it simply made her rage with extreme anger.

As her floating body returned to the ground, Greem finally saw how miserable her appearance had become.

The cute little Lolita had disappeared. The right side of Alice's eye had turned into a huge and bloody hole, with blood dripping down on her silky smooth skin. The dreadful poison of scorpion had made numerous black and purple patches all over her body. All of that together with her nearly insane and eerie grin… She looked like she was about to go berserk.

Run!

Greem was no idiot. When he saw Alice was staring straight at him with her remaining evil looking eye, without giving it a second thought, he turned and ran away.

With his ability, there was no way he could fight this Alice. Also, Evil Bugs was half-crippled and had no way to stop this Lolita who was about to rampage. Therefore, without saying anything, Greem fled the scene.

Initially, Acteon was waiting, hoping the scorpion poison would be able to kill this formidable Lolita. But when he saw the enemy slowly turn her remaining eye toward him, he immediately dispersed his scorpion body, transforming back into a swarm of scorpions and squeezing underground, disappearing without a trace.

Soon, a furious little girl was the only one left at the scene.

The rampage started.

She floated up into the air, and began to soar like a bird, flying in the direction that Greem had run, and quickly disappeared into the thick fog.

When everything had been quiet for a moment, the dirt under a skinny Killer Tree was pushed up, revealing Evil Bugs, who had been hiding while waiting for the little girl to leave.

He looked off towards where Alice had disappeared and hesitated for a moment, but, in the end, he just couldn't gather his courage to chase after the terrifying girl. Although that little Lolita was badly injured as well, she still looked like she had energy spare. He just didn't have the confidence to face such a frightening enemy again.

After a long moment, he clenched his teeth, turned around, and ran off in the direction that Hawkeye had gone. As for that Alice… it would be better to let someone else deal with her.

…………

Meanwhile, Greem was having a hard time.

Unexpectedly, that Lolita who went rampage hadn't chased after Evil Bugs, but had her eyes on him, who had only said a few words in the earlier battle.

He covered his head and scurried away from her, like a rat to its hole. Behind him, the little Lolita was floating up thirty meters in the air, holding the bizarre birdcage and continually waving it in Greem's direction.

However, something was really puzzling Alice. It seems like this rascal had a pair of eyes the back of his head. Whenever her spatial attacks approached him, he would speed up and turn in another direction, making her attempts at targeting him come to nothing.

If it was only one to two times, perhaps he was just having a lot of luck today. But with her continuously failing, Alice was certain that this Beginner Apprentice could sense the existence her spatial energy, hence, she wished, even more, to kill him.

It appeared that him finding the weakness of her Protection Barrier was not a freak accident, but he could really see the entire structure of her Barrier by seeing through her spatial energy.

In fact, this was a weakness of Alice's innate Spatial abilities.

Although her Protection Barrier was nigh invulnerable, it had a huge disadvantage. Once she used spatial energy to warp the fabric of space around her into a barrier, she became trapped in a relatively small space. Although that would spare her from suffering any damage from an enemy, she couldn't launch any attacks while the barrier was intact.

Therefore, in order to allow her to attack, she had to leave a 'hole' in her Protection Barrier, so she could manipulate her Spirit Energy to target an enemy. To avoid this hole being noticed, she purposely used invisible Wind Elementium and created a weaker barrier at that spot.

The full covered, invisible Air Barrier with about fist-sized, and, as long as an enemy knew nothing about it, no one would ever think that there was actually a hole on this Protection Barrier.

No ordinary enemy could defend themselves from Alice's bizarre and frightening long-ranged attacks while probing the Protection Barrier inch by inch. That's why she was able to keep this big of a secret, and had earned herself the aplomb of being nearly invincible.

But today, unfortunately, she had met with two special Apprentice Adepts at the same time.

One was an Advanced Apprentice who had completely modified his body and was able to transform into countless scorpions. He also possessed a nasty and weird attack method. In the end, he was simply a cockroach who was nearly impossible to kill. The other one was just a weirdo. Although he was just a Beginner Apprentice, he was still able to expose her biggest secret… Also, it seemed like he could really see her spatial energy.

In order to capture this weirdo, Alice had drawn on the highest energy she could use and, in the shortest amount of time possible, she had placed an invisible Space Trap in his path. But, seconds before this rascal ran into this invisible trap, he suddenly changed directions and dodged her ambush.

Now, Alice had no doubts about his ability.

Thus, her drive to catch him increased even more!

…………

After running for so long, Greem had become extremely tired.

Due to his lack of training and cultivation, his Agility and Physique were very low. If he had not covered his body with Wind Elementium to increase his speed, perhaps he would have long since been captured by that terrifying Lolita. He had a feeling that, if he really was captured by her, something extremely horrifying would happen to him.

Thus, even though he was gasping for breath, he still clenched his teeth tightly and kept running for his life.

The graceful Wind Elementium carried his body, reducing his weight by half, and allowing him to move through the muddy swamp at a relatively high speed. Sensing his Physique was dropping fast, Greem's face kept twitching as he began to panic. In his panic, he came up with a dangerous plan. Making up his mind, he turned to the right and sprinted into the depths of the swamp.

He would never be able to escape by running, so Greem decided to lure Alice to the habitat of Ghost Nanny.

This area of the swamp was a bit different from the others.

The rotten, stinking sludge and the slow moving muddy water mixed together, and clumps of messily growing grass and other dirty waste were floating all over the place. The water in this muddy and filthy pond was not completely still but was flowing at an extremely slow pace. From time to time, bubbles and half rotten tree branches would come to the surface.

Indistinct wailing and moans of doom were sung above this misty pond, resembling the cries of the damned, and causing ice to go down the spine of any who heard this hallowing tune.

There was trail went across this swampy area, but the dark trail and the muddy water had mixed together, so, for those outsiders, it was really tough to find the ruined trail in the midst of the filthy swamp.

Within this swampy area, which covered nearly thirty square miles, there lived many different groups of Ghost Nannies. The smaller groups only consisted of seven to eight members and normally lived in the more remote regions this area. Meanwhile, bigger groups could have up to a hundred members, and they occupied the largest region right in the center of this part of the swamp.

As demons, Ghost Nanny only had basic intelligence. Usually, they were transformed from those humans who had accidentally drowned in the swamp. Although they had previously been humans, their minds were filled with an intense hatred and resentment towards all of humanity.

For months, or even years, they would lie in ambush at the banks of the swamp. Once a living human came nearby, they would jump out, biting the flesh of their target, and dragging them to the bottom of the swamp, in order to drown them. With this method, they ensured their population kept growing.

Their appearance closely resembled a skinny human lady. However, most of their muscle was missing and their skin became pale as the result of constantly soaking in muddy water. Add this together with their wrinkled and moldy bones, and they looked like a living corpse. While most were naked, those who had lived better lives as humans might be wearing a broken dress, though it was always so faded that it was impossible to tell what the dress had fully looked like, or even what color it had been.

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Disheveled, dirty hair; pitch-black, crooked claws; extremely sharp fangs. All of these were typical features of a Ghost Nanny.

On land, their fighting ability was weaker than that of Ghouls, but when they were in muddy swamp water, their combat strength doubled, and they were able to fight on par with those Giant Alligators. Also, within certain, larger Ghost Nanny populations, which had survived for a long time, there might even be a leader, who had mastered the certain Elementium abilities. These unique Ghost Nannies actually had an advanced intelligent that was on par with that of Apprentice Adepts.

Put it this way: If human Adepts were willing to give these Ghost Nanny Leaders leeway, it was possible for them to give birth to a couple of Ghost Nanny Adepts.

Too bad for them, this was an Adept world where human Adepts had seized the dominating position. Thus, the evolution and development of all other species had been stamped down into nothingness. So, no matter how clever or how wise a Ghost Nanny Leader became, when faced with an Adept who held the superior position, they were just a precious experimental target or a source of materials that could be recklessly slaughtered.

Today, the peace of this Ghost Nanny's habitat had broken by two outsiders.

A young man and a girl had intruded on the swampy area, one after the other one.

The young man who came first was obviously an Apprentice Adept of the Adept Tower. Ignoring his striking Apprentice cloak, he also carried with him the distinct magical ripple of the talisman, which could only be owned by Apprentices of the Tower. However, this foul minion of the Adepts was really an unlucky guy, as he was being chased by someone today. With his weight being reduced by Wind Elementium, he stumbled his way through the muddy water, yelling out something recklessly while running for his life.

"Sinbad! … You pitiful creature who only dares to hide in the mud… come out here quickly… Sinbad… you're a pathetic slug… a squishy monster…"

Thus, the entire Swampy area became all muddled by this crazy young man who was being hunted by someone.

Ordinary Ghost Nannies were not intelligent enough to notice what was going on. When they sensed the aura of a human approaching, they quickly struggled to get out from the mud, trying to catch Greem, who skimmed over their territory, and pull him down into the mud.

Therefore, behind Greem, numerous arms exploded to the surface of the water, waving crazily. One after the other, Ghost Nannies were being lured from the bottom of the pond, staggered about, then chasing after him.

But Greem's target was not them. No matter how many these stupid and low-ranked Ghost Nannies he pulled, there was no way they could bring any threat to the frightening Lolita who was chasing behind. Throughout the entire Swamp area, perhaps the only existence that could pose a threat to Alice, and that was… Sinbad!

With the help of her innate ability, Alice was floating in the air twenty meters above the ground. Staring at the turbid mud and stinking water that was splashing all over the place, the anger on her face was building up more and more.

"Hey you! Guy! Listen… stop running around… as long as you bring me to the Tower, I promise I won't hurt you!"

With a loud voice, Greem replied without turning around.

"Right! You won't hurt me… Don't use these kind of childish lies on me… You just want to chop me into small pieces of meat… Catch me if you can!"

After that, he continued forward, repeatedly yelling 'Sinbad' as he did so.

"You're courting death… Rascal, don't you dare let me get you… If I catch you…"

"What are you going to do? Steam me? Roast me? Or maybe you'll just clean me up and eat me alive? Anyway, all of you female demons are just freaks… yesterday, that Mary just tortured me, and today I'm being chased by you, a Lolita who never grew up… I'm just so unlucky…"

Before Greem could continued speaking, he felt something tightly grip his feet, as a rattan suddenly shot out from the pond and coiled around both of his legs. With that, he lost the support of Wind Elementium and fell into the stinking swamp water.

As Greem was struggling desperately, a huge Ghost Nanny slowly rose up from the center of the pond, riding on an even bigger creature, which resembled an alligator.

Messy, dirty hair; claws with pitch-black pointy nails; a ragged and torn dress; pale but tough skin; a skinny and withered body… This Ghost Nanny Leader who had suddenly appeared had a simple whip made from rattan carried in her hand, and she was riding on a fierce-looking demon. All of this gave her an appearance that was slightly valiant.

"Sinbad! Oh Sinbad… you're finally here… hurry up and take me away! From now on, I belong to you!" When Greem, who barely floating on the stinking water, saw this ferocious looking leader of the Ghost Nannies, he immediately leapt toward her in excitement, as if he had just seen his best friend.

Apparently, this young human, who always came and kidnapped her own kind, had gone crazy. Sputtering with rage, Sinbad had come to the surface to chase this Apprentice Adept off, but she ended up being startled by his actions. Maybe those ordinary Ghost Nannies had no idea who this Apprentice Adept was, but as their Leader, Sinbad knew everything.

After that Tower was built in the middle of this Swamp, the natives here had lost control over their territories, and the place had become one of the resource sites of the human Adepts. Under the domination of the master of this swampy area, the natives here had become the watchdogs for the human Adepts, working for them to chase away those intruders who tried to visit this place.

Despite feeling aggrieved for their new status, they knew, quite well, how frightening those human Adepts were. Therefore, they were forced to grimly endure the fact of having their territory frequently visited by human Apprentice Adepts. That wasn't all. Occasionally, the Apprentice Adepts would kidnap a few Ghost Nannies for their experiments, and Sinbad was forced to turn a blind eye to it.

But, today, this Apprentice Adept in front of him had gone too far, because he actually came straight to the heart of the swampy area, where most of the Ghost Nannies lived. This filled Sinbad with a raging maelstrom of anger.

Staring at this young, delicate, and tender human who came to her, Sinbad could no longer hold back her hatred toward living creatures and her desire for fresh meat. Stretching out her pitch-black claws, she reached for his heart, intending on having a hearty bit of finger food.

Right as her fingers began to reach out, Sinbad suddenly felt a strong and deadly killing intent. She raised her filthy head and stared straight at Alice with her faintly glowing red eyes.

For some unknown reasons, when Sinbad saw this little girl, she couldn't control herself and drooled. A strong desire made her wanted to hug this little girl tightly, and to then use her sharp fangs to gently poke through the little girl's fair, delicate skin, and let that warm, fragrant, sweet fresh blood flowed into her cold body.

Especially when she sensed the sweet aura of soul that was hidden within the tiny little body. It brought her an ecstasy beyond description.

She had no courage to challenge a human Adept, but when an Apprentice Adept, who had such a strong aura of soul, was standing right in front of her, it filled her with desire.

A little Apprentice Adept… If she ate one secretly, presumably that human Adept in the tower wouldn't turn hostile to her? But, if he really got mad because of this, Sinbad could still use those useless fools at the outer perimeter as an excuse. As long as she could get a taste on such a delicious Apprentice Adept, five… no, ten… no, twenty. Sinbad was willing to sacrifice that many of her subordinates for this juicy Apprentice in front of her.

Compared to the floating Alice, Greem was like old hard cheese next to a platter filled with the richest and freshest of foods and was no longer of any interest to Sinbad.

Sinbad raised her right hand and forcefully slapped on the back of the giant lizard under her. This tame demon opened its mouth and let out a loud roar, shooting a grayish beam from its yellow eyes onto Greem's body.

Eyes of Petrification!

This was the innate ability of the Giant Lizard. Getting hit by it at a close distance could turn a mortal into a pathetic stone figure forever. As an Apprentice Adept, Greem did have some resistance toward magical attacks, but when faced with the mount of the Ghost Nanny Leader, he, inevitably, turned to stone.

Feeling the gradually numbing and stiffening of his body, Greem quickly took out a tiny potion bottle and chucked it into his mouth, gathering the last of his energy and waving his hand at Alice, who flew just above him. After that, his entire body turned to a grayish color, becoming hard as a stone as it sunk towards the bottom of the muddy swamp.

Four Ghost Nannies turned around and dived into the muddy water, dragging this war trophy toward their nest, located at the bottom of the pond.

Floating in mid-air, Alice's beautiful and finely made dress was waving in the air. She couldn't do anything as she witnessed that detestable rascal wave his hand at her and disappear into the muddy waters. Indeed, her spatial ability was extremely powerful, but it could only show its strength after she targeted a specific space with her Spirit. As the rascal had disappeared into the muddy water, there was no way she could target him anymore.

When she realized that in order to catch that rascal she would have to get her dress smeared by the dirty water beneath her, another flame of fury exploded in Alice's mind.

That rascal would rather let those demons capture him than to surrender himself to Alice… he must have some way of escaping the demons. There was no way she would let him off so easily… she had to catch him, and question him on his ability to see her spatial energy!

Filled with a boiling anger, Alice stretched her right arm forward and grabbed in the air, aiming at the chest of that mighty looking leader of the Ghost Nannies. Under the disbelieving eyes of her target, a stinking, withered, lifeless heart suddenly appeared in Alice's palm.

Her fair, delicate palm gently clenched, crushing the lifeless and rotten heart. As old black blood dripped from her hand, she stared at the Ghost Nanny Leader with indifferent, cruel looking eyes, and then spoke softly with a threatening tone of voice.

"Give me that Apprentice Adept, or else…" Alice paused, then continued, saying, "Next time, it will be your brain that gets crushed!"

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As they were an undying demon, Ghost Nannies hearts, throats, chests, and stomach were no longer held any vital points. But, their brains held their broken souls. If a Ghost Nanny's brain was destroyed by an enemy, they would face the risk of having their soul disintegrated.

Therefore, upon sensing the sensation of emptiness and weakness coming from her chest, a vicious expression of hatred flashed across Sinbad's ugly face, and her ferocious-looking facial features became even more twisted and brutal.

With her tough, tensile skin and poisonous sharp claws, and her army of subordinates, Sinbad was capable of fighting on par with a Giant Alligator. Her deadly teeth and claws could easily tear apart half-inch thick armor, and just by touching an enemy's flesh, the poison hidden in her pitch-black nails could instantly paralyze most living beings.

But, just like most of the other demons who lived in this swamp, she didn't have any good long-ranged attacks. The Ray of Enfeeblement and Sleep Spell were very short ranged attacks, and could hardly penetrate basic defensive spells. Therefore, when she was faced with Alice, who could fly and attack from long range, although Sinbad's overall attributes were suppressing this little girl's, her lack of a long-range offensive skill made her unable to fight back.

Having fear toward the enemy's traceless magical spell, Sinbad tapped her feet against the beast beneath her, and the Giant Lizard immediately dived back into the muddy water, leaving only Sinbad's head on the surface. She viciously glared at Alice, yet showed no signs of backing off.

Alice furiously unleashed all her attacks, but Sinbad, who had hidden most of her body underwater, managed to dodge all of them. After all, Alice's body movements were too obvious. As long as one paid attention, and moved away from the target area on time, it was actually pretty easy to dodge her spatial attack.

Even after striking at the Ghost Nanny Leader many times, Alice's hands still only contained muddy water, which only made her even more upset. In her fury, she ripped eight noxious rotting brains out of some of the weaker Ghost Nannies, who were just standing around, causing the rest of them to panic and immediately dive down towards the bottom of the muddy water. Soon, only Alice and Sinbad were left in this large swampy area.

After furiously venting her anger, Alice took a moment to ponder her weakness.

Indeed, her Spatial Spells were mysterious and powerful, but they were all single target offensive skills, with the exception of her last ditch space crack ability, she had no large area of effect spells to speak of. Although she was nigh invincible when in 1-on-1 battles with Apprentice Adepts of a similar level, but when she was met with her current situation, her ability fell short of her wishes.

If she had mastered a Magma Fireball spell, she would be able to turn this stinking pool into a huge pot of boiling water in a few seconds, cooking all the foul demons that were hiding inside. But, because of her passion toward, and confidence in, her Spatial Spells, she refused to study or research any of those 'simple' Elementium Spells.

As the result, there was nothing she could do in her current situation. She actually felt helpless about how she would handle that evil Ghost Nanny Leader, who refused to get out of her way.

If her muscular partner was here, perhaps with the advantage of his bulky and strong body, he would be able to brutally break into the nest of this Ghost Nanny Leader. But Alice was a long-range Apprentice Adept with a weak Physique. Once she was trapped in a close fight with a multitude of Ghost Nannies, she had no confidence that she would be able to escape from this place in one piece.

However, she had decided that she was going to capture or kill the weird beginner apprentice who could see through her spells today. After a short moment of hesitation, she unleashed her spatial Protection Barrier. Then, like a shooting star, she simply threw herself into the muddy water.

Apparently, Sinbad never expected this little human Lolita who had lost one of her eyes would be so courageous. She quickly controlled the Giant Lizard and dived deeper into the water, letting out a weird and ultra high-frequency sound from her mouth, and calling all her subordinates to help.

The muddy water started to roll, as the stinking water began flowing violently. The calm swamp pond immediately started boiling like hot water.

Numerous moving object could be seen swimming crazily toward Alice. Those objects were actually Giant Lizards kept by Ghost Nanny. They were over 5 meters long and covered in a layer of tough scales. Aside from their sharp claws, they could shoot out a Petrification Beam at a target within 5 to 10 meters. Also, one after another, Ghost Nannies could be seen swimming down into in the stinking water, restlessly attacking this valiant intruder who attacked their home.

Under the surface of this stinking pond, where human vision was reduced to nothing, Alice was fully covered in an indestructible Protection Barrier. Her remaining eye was flashing with hatred as she used her unique spell to slaughter every single approaching enemy she could sense.

There were plenty of spells that would allow her to regenerate her eye that the scorpions had torn out, but she just couldn't swallow her anger from receiving such a wound in the first place. Although it was that hateful bug man who did this to her, the real culprit was this weird low-grade Apprentice who had led her to this accursed stinking pond.

No matter whether it was some innate ability of his, or some kind of magical spell that allowed him to sense the spatial energy, there was no way that Alice could let this leak out to the public. If her enemies learned of this, the reputation Alice had made for herself would be at risk.

Following the eruption of a bloody and chaotic war under the muddy pond, the entire swampy area had turned into a fierce battlefield. Yet, the culprit of all this, Beginner Apprentice Greem, was currently having his petrified body being dragged into the nest of the Ghost Nannies.

After the fight began, the four Ghost Nannies had dragged the completely petrified Greem to the bottom of the pond. Then they dug a hole in the stinking and filthy mud, revealing an underwater tunnel. With Greem dragging behind them, they squeezed into the hole. The tunnel was filled with a sticky, pungent mud, but that didn't slow down their speed at all.

They swam straight for a couple of meters, then upward. Soon, they burst to the surface of the water, revealing themselves to be in a damp tunnel under the swamp. Right when these demons started crawling forward, dragging Greem through this dark, damp tunnel, they heard the dulled and hoarse roar of Sinbad from the swamp above them.

The intense battle had caused Sinbad to start roaring furiously, calling all the Ghost Nannies in the entire area to aid her. Her voice was so loud it even made the tunnel walls vibrate violently.

Because of their hot tempers and low intelligence, the two Ghost Nannies following behind Greem became restlessness and let out a few short cries, quickly turning around and diving back into the mud. Obviously, both of them were answering the call of their leader and going out to fight the enemy. As for the other two Ghost Nannies, they too let out angry cries, but could only hold back their desire for the fight and continue their task of dragging Greem along the tunnel.

This muddy swamp pond was a home for the Ghost Nannies. They could soak themselves in the stinking mud and water, year in and year out, waiting for their prey to come. But, undeniably, they too needed a place to store the things they considered as treasures. Rotten and stinking dried meat, worn-out leather armor, weapons that showed a lack of maintenance and were full of rust, and the stinking roots of plants that they had harvested…

If these items were placed left in the fetid swamp water they lived in, they would quickly rot away into nothingness, so Sinbad dug out a horizontal tunnel beneath the bottom of her swamp, drilling out to place far from the wet swamp and making a relatively drier cave to store things in.

And now, the petrified Greem was being escorted to this cave.

Although his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose were covered by sticky mud, and his body was as hard as a stone statue, Greem's mind was still functioning as it did before. He was still able to sense everything that was happening around him.

It seemed that those two monsters had finally started to fight!

Through the indistinct vibrations and roars coming from above, Greem could imagine how intense and bloody the fight was. Although the army led by Sinbad far outnumbered her enemy, and they were fighting in their own territory, Greem still didn't think they could defeat that frightening little Lolita.

Having mastered no Elementium Spells and only fighting with their tough bodies, when facing with Alice's nigh invincible Protection Barrier, their fighting ability was a joke. As long as they couldn't find the hidden 'back door' of the Protection Barrier, even if they kept attacking until their heart and lungs gave out, they could never break through that Protection Barrier.

Unless they could force Alice to use up all her Spirit Points, they would surely lose the battle. Hence, while they were busy fighting amongst each other, Greem should do his best to escape from the place.

Although Greem's body had become petrified and couldn't move the slightest bit, he was still capable of manipulating his Spirit Energy. Reaching out with his spirit energy, he undid the stopper on the little bottle hiding in his mouth, disgorging a spicy and strong potion, which quickly flowed down his throat and arrived at his stomach.

After many years of inspection trips around the Tower's perimeter, Greem knew the in's and out's of the abilities of the swamp demons. Would he really go on inspection trips without preparing himself for the possibility of being inflicted with a strange status? This 'Freedom of Movement' potion was an item he paid a high price for and bought from another Apprentice Adept of the Tower. It was effective in removing Petrification and Paralysis of any type.

After the potion starting to take effect, a tickling sensation gradually spread across Greem's rigid body, and his body slowly returned to his control.

After being dragged for nearly a hundred meters, they finally arrived at a rather dry cave with a good bit of flat ground. A moldy smell filled the narrow cave and nearly made Greem suffocate.

After throwing Greem into a pile of messily placed objects, the two Ghost Nannies started to yell and roar at each other. It seems like they were arguing about whether they should go and help in the battle or stayed here to guard their 'food'. But, right when both of them were busy arguing, two crackling noises sparked up behind them. It was the sound of two fist-size Elementium Fireballs coming to life.

The two Ghost Nannies were startled for a moment. Then they noticed the petrified human had stood up, and there were two small fireballs dancing in his palms.

Possessing only basic intelligence, these Ghost Nannies had no idea what was going on, but when they sensed the fresh smell of flesh and blood, they immediately let out aggressive roars and leaped toward Greem.

In the next instant, the two small fireballs exploded and turned into two blazing flames, burning their way toward two Ghost Nannies. Both parties brushed past each other, with Greem soon falling on the floor, panting for breath. His shirt was torn, a four frighteningly deep wounds could be found on his chest.

On the other side, the two Ghost Nannies continued on their way and slammed into the dirt wall behind Greem. Smoothly controlled by Greem, the two burning flames traveled through their huge mouth, and burned off anything that contained in their heads. As a result, both of Ghost Nannies died.

The air was thin in this cave, and it was only made thinner after being burned off by the Fire that had just happened. Greem was gasping for breath for quite some time.

Stars were dancing in front of Greem's eyes, and he felt really unwell. He didn't felt any pain coming from the wounds caused by the Ghost Nannies, but instead felt a strange tickling sensation. This made Greem's heart sink. Damn it, he had been poisoned by the Ghost Nannies attack!

He searched around on his person, found a bottle of antidote, and poured it into his mouth. Only now did Greem let himself calm down.

He held his breath in deep concentration and listened to the violent vibrations coming from the tunnel. This was a sign that the battle wasn't over yet, and he still had a chance to escape, so Greem set his mind to rest and gathered his courage. Then he began examining the nest of the Ghost Nannies.

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There was a saying, no thief left empty handed!

He only arrived in this place after much risk to his own life. If he just turned around and left, wouldn't that be a waste of Sinbad's 'wonderful hospitality'?

Greem initiated his Elementium Vision and started to scan the cave.

Within the odds and ends that were piled up like a mountain, Greem only found a few items he thought were useful. For these Ghost Nannies, who were trapped in the swampy area, there weren't that many opportunities for them to find any good loot, hence, although it seems like there were quite a lot of 'treasure' gathered here, only a handful of it was valuable.

Seven to eight high-grade blood sacks, which looked like red beads; 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… without thinking twice, he took all of it and tucked it into his waist pocket.

All of them were accurately picked up by Greem, as he could sense indistinct Elementium ripples they gave up. As for the other dirty and messy items, he simply ignored them. After all, he was in the middle of running for his life. If he carried too many things, the chances of him escaping would become much slimmer.

As the hidden nest of the Ghost Nannies, there was more than one tunnel that led to this cave. Clearly their leader, Sinbad, knew the saying 'a cunning rabbit has three holes into its burrow'. However, this clever arrangement benefited Greem, the part-time thief, greatly today. He took a brief second to orient himself, then squeezed into a wet tunnel that led away from the muddy pond.

Quite a while later, a weird looking human-head emerged from a small muddy pond in the swamp. As the slimy mud slowly slid off his head, Greem only exposed the upper part of his head, silently watching for movement in the distance.

Originally, there should have been some Ghost Nannies living in this muddy pond, but, obviously, they had been drawn to the massive battle happening in the distance, answering the furious and angry calls of Sinbad and joining the fight. Hence, Greem could freely move around and no one was around to put up a resistance. He took a breath and started making his way to get out of the pond.

As the battle in the distance was happening underneath the thick and slimy mud pond, the only signs were the roars and cries of Ghost Nannies and the bubbles exploding to the surface. Greem never wanted to see that frightening Little Lolita ever again. He turned away from the battle and swam toward the banks of the muddy pond.

He bet the Ghost Nannies were suffering under Alice's bizarre and unpredictable Spatial Attacks!

But, just as he had almost reached the edge of the pond, and was getting ready to climb out, an explosion occurred in the muddy water behind him, revealing a Giant Alligator with its mouth wide open, biting down at Greem. Everything happened so suddenly, and the harsh environment was the best cover for the Giant Alligator, thus, until the very moment before it struck, the only warning Greem received was a sudden beeping from the Chip.

After performing a series of flailing rolls and twists, Greem barely managed to avoid the deadly bite of Giant Alligator by a matter of millimeters. The massive mouth, filled with sharp teeth, slammed forcefully together beside his waist, creating a small breeze that sent forth a rotten smell which made Greem's hair stand on end.

If he had not been warned by the Chip, with just one bite, this ferocious Giant Alligator would have easily broken his body in half. If that really happened, all of his great ambitions would have been for nothing.

Taking the opportunity when his enemy missed its attack, Greem crawled on his hands and knees and rushed to the edge of the pond. He turned around and quickly summoned a Fire Arrow, striking right at the massive mouth that had just opened up for the second time.

The 'Fire Arrow' spell, which had previously been going through a solidification process, was finally ready, thus he was able to smoothly complete his attack.

The Fire Elementium Spell exploded, swallowing the entire head of this Giant Alligator. The fiery explosion was followed by a heavy downpour of broken teeth and chunks of flesh around the edge of the pond. Suffering from intense pain, the Giant Alligator's body thrashed around crazily, creating a mud wave that was a few meters tall and turning the surrounding area into even more of a muddy mess.

The main reason why Greem chose Fire Arrow, and not Fireball, as his first long-range offensive spell was because it also caused physical damage when it hit something. This characteristic was especially significant when he was dealing with wild creatures who had a high-resistant toward Elementium based attacks.

Of course, Greem would never admit it, but the real reason he gave up learning the Fire Ball spell was the extremely difficult 54 Magical Syllables he would be required to memorize and intone correctly to cast the spell.

Going back to his current situation, Greem's attack had, obviously, exposed his current location.

"Oh. So you were hiding there! Don't you even think about running away from me again…"

A jarringly high-pitched female voice suddenly came from the distance. Inside her Protection Barrier, the frightening Alice struggled her way out from the muddy pond and let out a furious roar in Greem's direction.

Unfortunately for her, in next second a long whip, made from some native vine shot up from the water and coiled tightly around Alice's invisible barrier. Thus, the little Lolita only able to show half of her body, and was trapped in the pond, unable to leave the surface of the water.

Countless Ghost Nannies kept slamming into the Protection Barrier, like wild beasts. However, their sharp claws and aggressive attacks could do nothing to the Protection Carrier, hence, more and more Ghost Nanny simply hung themselves on the barrier, trying to use their body weight and drag this foul human, who had slaughtered many of their sisters, back into the muddy pond.

Like pouring dumplings into a pot of boiling water, one after the other, Ghost Nannies kept swimming around the invisible barrier, stepping on their allies bodies and leaping out from the water, crazily and recklessly knocking at Alice, who was struggling to free herself from the horde. All of this only made Alice become even more furious.

Not caring anymore, numerous Spatial cracks, which could be seen with the naked eye, appeared, slicing up everything that came closer to the barrier. Whenever a Ghost Nanny touched these Spacial cracks, no matter whether it was their arm or their tough and strong body, whatever encountered these cracks would be cleanly sliced in half, causing sticky, black blood to be thrown all over the place.

Even so, these Ghost Nannies still rushed in, wave after wave, never showing any signs of stopping.

Not only that, but even Sinbad's Giant Lizard rushed forward to attack Alice. Using its massive tail, it slapped down onto the indestructible barrier, forcing most of her body to sink back into the muddy water again. The massive impact transferred to Alice, causing blood to come out from her nose and mouth.

Thus, a fierce battle once again erupted between Alice and Ghost Nannies, who rushed in like a swarm of hornets. Meanwhile, Greem was trapped in a dangerous fight with the Giant Alligator.

Although his Fire Arrow just now had severely injured the Giant Alligator's mouth and caused a bloody mess inside, it was a ferocious demon who possessed a very strong vitality. This kind of damage was far from taking its life. As a result, the furious Giant Alligator channeled all of its pain into fury, and focused all that fury on Greem, pulling its massive body, which was covered with hard scales, from the mud and continually launching attacks at Greem.

Fearing the Giant Alligator's 'Slow Ray', Greem restlessly ran for his life. Most of these damn swamp demons had Earth Elementium abilities, and, with their thick skin, powerful bodies, sharp claws, and pointy teeth, fighting with them in this muddy swamp was just asking for death.

Meanwhile, thanks to a warning from the Chip, Greem learned that there were some underwater creatures sneaking their way toward him.

Damn it. Why had he decided to come to a nest of these cursed demons?

While nagging and cursing in a voice only he could hear, Greem followed the cues of the Chip, narrowly dodging the continuous attacks of the horrifying Giant Alligator behind him.

Rather than referring to the place he stood as the edge of the pond, it was more like a narrow, sloppy dirt ridge in between two muddy ponds. The ground was soft, and each step he took was arduous, as his feet kept sinking down deep into the mud. Thus, it was extremely tough to escape from these Giant Alligators in this environment. Too bad he couldn't fly like Alice.

At this very moment, it was too late to regret never trying to learn the Wind Elementium Levitate Spell. Greem struggled forward, doing his best to stumble his way to safety. Watching the quickly approaching movements of the sneaking underwater beasts, his heart was now filled with misery. He had activated the Magical Talisman in his hand multiple times, but it just didn't seems to have any effect.

In a more normal situation, the deterrent effect of an Adept enormous on these swamp demons. But the aggressiveness of these demons had been stimulated by the smell of blood, which made it really difficult to scare them away.

A foul wind caressed his face.

The surface of the water exploded as two massive Giant Alligators jumped out at the same time, widely opened their huge mouths, which each could swallow Greem whole in one bite.

Looking at the huge mouths that were well within reach, gazing at the glimmering, disordered teeth, and staring into the throats which lead to a digestive hell… the warning tones of the Chip had gone haywire in Greem's mind, but it seemed like there was no way he could rescue himself from this dire situation.

Right as Greem closed his eyes, preparing himself for death, something suddenly slammed into him, then he began to fly through the air.

A heart-stopping sound came from the snapping of the massive mouths of the Giant Alligators, but Greem had, once again, narrowly escaped their bloody mouths. He opened his eyes as he heard their furious roars coming from far behind him. He was flying an inch above the water surface at an incredible speed.

Ugh… what was going on?

His heart was pounding fast, being filled with fear and uncertainty as to his current situation. Greem was able to clearly see something through the reflection on the surface of the muddy water under him, and the sound of flapping wings could he heard from above him.

He strained his head, struggling to see what was above him. To his surprise, a huge humanoid bat was carrying him while flying strenuously.

Yes, it was having trouble flying!

This humanoid bat had a massive pair of fiery red leathery wings, which were about 4 to 5 meters long, but it had a rather skinny and small body. Of course, its wings could carry it perfectly, if it was flying all by itself. But, when flying together with Greem, clearly its strength was insufficient.

A new species of swamp demon? Of course not. Greem could sense an indistinct magical aura and a familiar smell from its body. With the help of the Chip, and by seeing its strange, yet familiar face, a certain girl appeared in Greem's mind.

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"Mary? You're Mary!" Greem cried out in shock.

The huge humanoid bat grinned like a human, then dived and threw Greem to the ground. After rolling a few times, Greem finally came to a stop, then stood up, a pain filled expression on his face. Meanwhile, after circling through the air one last time, the huge bat descended and landed beside Greem.

Miraculously, when the humanoid bat approaching the ground, its form starting to twist and change in a bizarre manner. The fiery red body hair gradually disappeared, changing into a soft and bright red dress. The thick, protruding cheeks began to squeeze inward, revealing a beautiful and charming face.

After it finished transforming, it gracefully turned around and walked toward Greem. Mary was back.

Bat Morphing!

This… appeared to be a unique ability of Vampires.

The innate abilities of a newborn Vampire were gaining strength through drinking blood and regeneration. By these two things alone, they were already an extremely frightening species. However, If a newborn Vampire could go one step further, they would gain the ability to morph into a bat. No matter if it was transforming into a single huge bat and flying through the sky, or exploded into thousands of small bats, as a mean of escape, it performed admirably in saving one's life.

And, if a Vampire made it to the mature stage, they would be able to start mass-producing Blood Slaves.

So, in order to fight with a mature Vampire, one would first need to face a massive army of Blood Slaves.

When his mind ran through all the knowledge it contained related to Vampires, Greem couldn't help but feel respect, and even a bit of awe, toward Mary's speedy progress. Only a few days had passed since she had become a Vampire, and she had already awakened her second innate ability.

"Who is that little girl? Why is she hunting for you?" Mary wasn't looking at Greem, but at the chaotic battlefield in the distance.

Their current location was about five to six miles away from the heart of the Ghost Nannies Pond, so the thick fog of the swamp was blocking their vision. However, it wouldn't matter if they were ten miles away, as there were massive waves of Elementium being released from where Alice and Sinbad were.

The battle was getting intense!

"They are intruders! Three Advanced Apprentice Adepts attacked. That little girl, Alice, is focusing on the Principle of Space, which she is very suited to using. She is terrifyingly strong…"

While Greem was explaining this in a soft voice, a shock wave of Elementium erupted from the direction where the battle was taking place, and then the jarring howls of Ghost Nannies could be heard.

"Oh no, let's run!" Greem's face changed dramatically, "That terrifying little girl got away from Sinbad!"

He had personally sensed this frightening shock wave before, so he knew Alice was using her powerful spatial attack that could cause mass destruction with space cracks. It was worth noting that using this skill required her to pay a high price, but as long as Alice used it, Greem was sure that Sinbad could never stop her from running away.

"If we work together, do you think we have a good chance of killing her?" Mary suddenly turned around, her green eyes flashing red as she stared straight at Greem.

"This… well… if we work together then… perhaps… maybe…" Greem was surprised by Mary's unexpected question. When faced with this strong Advanced Apprentice, all he cared about was running for his life. The idea of turning around and charging right back at the enemy was simply preposterous.

After all, with his current ability, even if Alice was severely wounded and dying, she could still easily crush him.

If he could keep a distance of 50 meters from Alice, Greem was 80% confident that he could dodge her spatial attack, with the help of the Chip. If the distance was shortened to 30 meters, his confidence dropped to 40%, and if he was within 20 meters of Alice, he knew that he would be killed instantly.

He needed time to respond to the warnings from the Chip. If he didn't have the Chip, Greem was nothing but a tiny, fragile glass figurine in front of Alice.

He didn't have the strange bug-like body of Evil Bugs, who could still stay alive even if his heart was ripped. Thus, once Alice locked onto him with her Spirit energy, he would be dead! Therefore, Greem instinctively wanted to say no to Mary's question.

But, when faced with the unstoppable Mary, it seemed he had no say in the matter.

Her body started twisting bizarrely again as Mary transformed into a tiny bat, which was only the size of a human fist. She flew toward Greem's chest, then squeezed herself into his shirt. She looked up at him and spoke threateningly, "You better not reveal I am here! I am determined to get the blood of that fool!"

Faced with Mary's hairy, little face covered with a 'threatening' expression, all Greem could do was nod his head blankly.

"Don't worry, if she really tries to kill you, I'll find a way to protect you!" Though Mary said that, Greem's mind barely calmed down. He started to ponder how he was going to sneak up on Alice without alerting her.

However, when he turned around his pupils contracted, and he was filled with terror at what he saw in front of him.

A shadowy figure was slowly condensing in the fog about ten meters away from him. Judging from the outline, it was that frightening little Lolita, Alice.

"Alice!" Right at this moment, Greem felt his mouth become dry and his breath become short.

This Alice was like a vengeful ghost. No matter where he ran, she just kept finding him. After being forced by the Ghost Nannies and unleashed a second space crack spell, which covered a huge area, not only she did not take the time to find a place to recover, but she came right after him. Did she not know that resting was a necessary part of life?

Recovering from his shock, Greem realized he should be running right now.

But, before he could lift his feet, a shivering, pre-pubescent voice rang through the air.

"If you dare to take even one step, I promise I'll teleport your heart into your stomach… I dare you to try me…"

Greem raised his head and watched as the shadowy figure gradually became visible. In the end, he didn't have the courage to take that one step.

Damn it, she was too close!

After thinking that, he was stunned by Alice's visage.

In her previous battle with Evil Bugs, Alice had lost one of her eyes and suffered many cuts and bruises, but this time, the little Lolita was in an absolutely terrible state.

The hole that was her right eye was still empty, but now, stretching from the bottom of her right eye to the left corner of her lips were three frightening looking scars. The skin near these scars was turning black, and the exposed fleshed had was showing obvious signs of rotting. Whenever Alice spoke, or did anything that moved her face, black blood would drip from these nasty wounds.

Also, the number of injuries on her body had multiplied, and there were many parts bite marks on her exposed skin. The tiny, cute looking little Lolita had been replaced with a twisted looking voodoo doll-esque being.

An indistinct vibration of spatial energy filled the area. After struggling for a moment, Alice managed to finish her spatial energy construction, teleporting herself from one area to another. Normally, she could easily complete this simple spatial jump, but now she had to strain every last drop of her strength to barely make it.

Right after she got out of the spell matrix, Alice's remaining eye was shown to be filled with a flaming blaze of rage, gazing ferociously at Greem, who was wearing a blank expression. Although she barely came up to Greem's chest, her brutal and overbearing presence was crushing Greem.

Greem's heart started racing even faster when he saw a large head hanging from Alice's waist.

Judging from the vicious and ugly looking face, it had to be Sinbad's head. It looked like even the leader of Ghost Nanny was unable to escape from the brutal Alice.

"You're good… you're really good…" Alice murmured. Clenching her jaw tightly glaring at Greem. It was easy to see that she was unable to express all the rage and frustration she felt with Greem right now.

When she had first stepped into this Magical Swamp, she was in high spirits and filled pride. In her mind, with the exception of those exalted, venerable Adepts, all other people were just a drab assortment of trash, not even worthy of carrying her shoes. Relying on her indestructible Protection Barrier, and her mysterious Spatial Cut, she was even qualified to stand up to a Pseudo-Adepts.

But who would have thought that, inside this seemingly insignificant Magical Swamp, which was a common resource site of a Third Grade Adept family, she would actually suffer such a heavy loss? Right at this moment, nobody could understand how depressed and angry she was! She was like an ancient brutal beast who devoured all men before her. All she wanted to do was to peel the skin off this slippery rat and pluck out all the sinew between his muscles, smashing all his bones one after the other and crushing his flesh into a pile of meat paste.

Perhaps, only by doing all this, she could ease the anger in her heart.

"Boy, tell me honestly, how did you find the loophole of my Protection Barrier?" Alice ferocious-looking face grinned as both her hands began grabbing at the air in front of her. A constantly stretching spatial crack appeared in between her hands, like a tamed snake. "As long as you tell me the truth, I promise, I'll not do anything to you today. I, Alice, will always honor my words!"

"Only dead man would trust you! Even if you don't attack me personally, you might simply throw me into a swarm of demons, and that would kill me. Hmm, it's obvious that I know more of dirty tricks and sinister plots than you…"

Greem started complaining in his mind, then he realized that he was staring at a spatial crack was behaving like a tamed snake in Alice's tiny hands. He was not brave enough to say even a single word in front of such a feat of power. Although he looked calm on the outside, on the inside his mind was overheating.

"Damn, she is indeed a genius, she is playing with a spatial crack with her bare hands! That's a spatial crack! A SPATIAL CRACK! Even the sharpest weapons in the world can't compare with it! No matter if it is faced with a shield made from pure steel, or an iron that went through thousands of tempering steps, as long as they don't have any magical protection, then it will be cut through like was a sheet of paper!"

Although it was an extremely dangerous spatial construct, this little Lolita was handling it with her hands as if it was a cute little puppy. This was the proof of how important innate ability was to an Apprentice Adept.

"I can't see the Spatial Energy around you at all!" Greem hesitated for a brief moment, then decided to tell her the truth.

"Nonsense!" Alice cried out in rage, saying, "If you can't see them, then how did you find the exact location of my Wind Barrier?"

"You should know that Spatial Energy doesn't have any specific Elementium characteristics. It is part of a Planar Principle. Those who don't possess an innate talent for a principle can never see it with their naked eyes. But don't forget this, there is a huge repulsive force between opposing Elementium, and the Spatial Energy you are using is incredibly harsh and solitary….. So…"

"So you determined the shape and position of my Protection Barrier by sensing the area where no Elementium is present and, as a result, were able to see that they were repelled by Spatial Energy? Then…" Mary drew inferences from what Greem said and soon she found the source of the loophole, saying, "Damn it, I shouldn't use a Wind Elementium spell to cover that hole. Next time I will use the Force Field spell that has no Elementium in it."

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Alice deserved her status as an Advanced Apprentice Adept. Although Greem had only said a few words, she was able to immediately figure out what her weakness was.

Her innate Spatial talent was still worthy of being called 'invincible'.

At least, she was invincible when faced with foes that were at the same level.

So long as one was unable to break through her paper-thin Protection Barrier, her body was completely safe. No matter what was thrown at her, there was no way you could penetrate that invisible shield and hurt her. At the same time, she could always casually torture her enemy with her Spatial Cut and Telekinesis.

But, no matter how sturdy a shield was, there would always be a weak spot, and Alice's Protection Barrier was no exception.

In order to not be completely isolated from the world when Protection Barrier was up, she had to leave a hole that allowed her to 'communicate' with the outside world. This hole was how she was able to launch attacks at her enemy while her Barrier was up.

So, in order to cover up this 'loophole', she purposely studied Wind Elementium spells. After that, using invisible Wind Elementium, she patched the hole. The invisible Protection Barrier was mixed with the invisible Wind Elementium barrier creating a combination that had previously deceived all her enemies, giving them an impression that her Protection Barrier was perfect and flawless, and that no weak spot existed.

But she never would have thought that today, in this obscure place, she would meet with a group of such strange beings who defied her invincible status. One was a disgusting man who had modified his body and turned himself into a bug man, another was a Beginner Apprentice who could actually see Elementium in the world around him with his naked eyes. Having encountered of this two strange men had brought her to the unluckiest day of her life.

If that bug man had, instead, been some other Advanced Apprentice, perhaps the enemy would be killed by her unpredictable Telekinesis ability. How could she have known she was going to encounter someone with such a strange body modification, which gave them the time to find the loophole on her defense. Also, without this Beginner Apprentice who was able to see Elementium with his naked eyes, how could her Protection Barrier have been broke through, forcing her to taste the pain of a thousand scorpions bites?

The more she thought of this, the angrier Alice became. She wished she could immediately rip his skin off and crush his bones, but she hadn't got the information she was most concerned with yet, so she could only press down her anger and continue, "Is it a magical eye or some kind of special magic spell?"

"It's a spell!"

"Give it to me, and I'll spare your life today!"

"Can I trust your words?"

"Hmm! It seems to me like you don't have a choice! Don't force me to pull your soul out. If that happens, I'll tortuously dig through your entire brain!"

Though Alice's personal image had been completely eroded by the day's events, her pride was still present, and the threatening, dominating manner of her words told Greem that she was not taking no for an answer.

Greem quickly examined Alice's current state.

Either because she had taken so much damage, or that her Protection Barrier was in a latent status, but the Protection Barrier wasn't anywhere to be found around Alice.

Wasn't she afraid of a sneak attack?

I'll just do it!

Being over-cautious and indecisive in front of this extremely strong Advanced Apprentice was simply asking for death.

A moment later, Greem flicked his sleeve, throwing out a small dark green bottle toward Alice's face. Not needing to be activated any spell, once the bottle smashed to the ground, and the green substance was unconstrained by the bottle, a strange looking smoke exploded from the point of impact. A second later, an ugly slime man, who was around one meter tall, slowly stood up from the ground.

This low-grade humanoid puppet was just a temporary product, as it could only last for seven minutes at most, and it's only method of attacking was to surround the enemy, causing them to suffocate within its soft clay body. Of course, using such a temporary slave to attack an Advanced Apprentice was a joke, but it could keep even a powerful enemy occupied for a second.

Meanwhile, Greem swiftly took a few steps back, both hands moving extremely through the air while reciting magical spells out loud. A Fire Arrow began to form in front of him. After the solidification of the Fire Arrow spell was completed, compared to it's former casting time of more than 10 seconds, Greem could now cast it within 5 seconds. It was obvious that this was a huge advancement in combat power for him.

But, too bad, what he did made no difference in front of this terrifying little girl. An invisible Protection Barrier instantly appeared between the slimy puppet and Greem, cutting off the Spiritual connection between them. In the next second, the slime man splashed to the ground and then simply disappeared.

This was the biggest weakness of Summoning Magics.

Once the Spiritual connection between the caster and the summon was lost, under the effect of this world's Principles, no matter how strong the summon was, it was forced to return to where it came. Therefore, before this cheap slime puppet could do anything, it had turned into a pool of acidic liquid.

As for the Fire Arrow Greem cast with great effort, Alice simply responded with an expression of disdain, she didn't even try to stop him from casting.

Right after the Fire Arrow left Greem's hand, it instantly slammed into a tiny 'Mirror Space' hanging in the air in front of him. Blocked by this tiny Protection Barrier, which reflected energy, the Fire Arrow simply exploded.

Clearly, this explosion was going off too close to Greem. In the next instant, the raging flame was reflected by the 'Mirror Space' and sent spewing towards Greem, swallowing the body of the young Apprentice.

Although Greem could sense any changes in the area with his Elementium Vision, he was unable to react to this kind of sudden change in the space around him. He could cast a familiar magic spell in 3 to 5 seconds, but Alice could unleash her innate spatial magic in less than a second.

The massive gap between them allowed Alice to sit down and watch as Greem completed his spell casting process. She had plenty of time to decide if she wanted to block it or launch a counter attack. Not only that, if she wanted, Greem would never be able to finish casting any spell that took longer than 3 seconds.

As she watched the flame envelope the Beginner Apprentice in front of her, a scornful look appeared in Alice's single remaining eye.

How dare a Beginner Apprentice take the initiative to attack an Advanced Apprentice. This guy was simply asking for death!

She suddenly felt something was amiss.

An egg-sized pebble suddenly shot out from the rolling flame, rushing in Alice's direction. At the same time, Greem also dashed out from the flame, both hands covering his head.

The raging flame, obviously, didn't distinguish between friend and foe, and thus Greem had suffered a great deal of pain when forcing his way out of the inferno. His body had been severely burned by the flame, and both of his exposed arms were covered with burn marks and blisters.

With a cruel and hideous grin on her face, Alice gently waved her fingers, sending a few barely visible streaks flashing through the air. The flying pebble was sliced into four pieces when it came into contact with streaks. Violent blue-colored lightning spread across the air for a second and then disappeared.

His attempt at using the Lightning Stone to attack had been a complete failure.

Without hesitation, Greem pulled out another blackish object and threw it towards Alice. After that, he simply turned around and ran, as if trying to escape another explosion.

"Didn't you hear what I said before? You're forcing me to chop off your legs! Well, if that is what you really want…" Alice spoke while sneering, but before she could finish, her expression suddenly changed and she immediately turned to face the approaching object, as it had just avoided one of her casually cast Spatial Cuts.

A tiny bat had performed a swift turn in the air and avoided the Spatial Cut that came at her, flipping its wing at an incredible speed. She quickly arrived above Alice's head.

A summon? Was it a contracted creature or some kind of demon?

Alice couldn't immediately identify the source of this weird bat that came to her. Shrugging, she waved her hands, unleashing a couple of Spatial Cuts and completely sealing off any paths that the palm-sized bat could take. After doing this, she felt at ease, thinking that the bat would not be an issue anymore.

But, in next second, something happened that made her cry out in surprise.

Transforming rapidly, the tiny palm-size bat bloated up like a balloon, turning into a tall, slim human girl wearing a striking red dress. Not only that, she didn't perform any dodging movements, and simply fell straight toward the Spatial Cuts, aggressively leaping onto Alice's body.

Relishing in Alice's greatly terrified expression, claws appeared on the fingers of this red-dressed girl, becoming extremely sharp and pointy and indistinctly glowing like molten metal. Also, as she fell, the look of this young girl changed dramatically, as her green eyes turned bloody red, looking as if blood was going to drip out of them.

As the red-eyed girl fell through the Spatial Cuts, the sound of flesh being torn apart by the spatial attack sizzled through the air.

A huge amount of blood splashed out from the back of the red-dressed girl, and numerous crisscrossed holes could be seen on her body. The series of cuts had turned her body into a human mesh.

But this red-dressed girl didn't pause or back off as her bright red lips were opening wider and wider, and two frightening looking fangs poked through her lips. When she finally reached Alice, she simply bit into her exposed neck.

Damn it, she was a Vampire!

She, like everyone, had heard of these bloody beasts before, but, as an Advanced Apprentice Adept, Alice immediately realized what was faced with.

Like a mosquito biting on her neck, a tingling sensation was felt, which quickly turned into a pleasurable feeling that made her feel like she was walking on clouds. Following the drawing of her blood, she clearly felt her life force was quickly fading away. Her body felt drowsy and was so comfortable that she just wished she could let go of everything and fall into a deep slumber.

But no matter what, Alice was an Advanced Apprentice who had a strong will, and she had high resistance toward the paralytic poison being injected into her body via the Vampire fangs. After being dazed for only a brief moment, she managed to regain control of her will.

For the first time in her life, Alice felt like death was knocking at her front door.

In her previous two battles, though he had managed to damage her, Evil Bugs was not her match. As for Sinbad, if they hadn't fought in her swamp, the leader of Ghost Nanny would have been instantly slaughtered.

But at this moment, Alice really felt the threat of death.

If she didn't properly manage her current situation, she, who would very likely become a great Adept, would die in this filthy land.

Having no alternative, Alice gathered the very last drops of her strength and, once again, let out a frightening scream that shook the world around her.

In next second, space shattered, and everything around her was crushed into powder!

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This was the third time Alice had used her Spatial Shatter skill.

As she had an innate talent for using space magic, although she was still an Apprentice, she was able to unleash frightening and devastating spells. However, obviously her body was not strong enough to withstand repeated usage of these high-level spatial magics.

Therefore, after ripping apart and shattering everything within a fifty-meter radius, part of her body disintegrated as well, showing just how much damage she had taken over the day's events.

Taking the opportunity to escape while the red-dressed girl was being sliced apart by her devastating skill, Alice struggled and squeezed into a spatial tunnel that suddenly appeared behind her, disappearing without a trace.

While blood was spewing from every inch of her body, Mary remained standing at where she was, her body broken. There wasn't a single patch of undamaged skin on her body. In his enitre life, he had never seen anyone in such a miserable state.

It was like she had just been thrown through a turbine, as all her skin was split and her flesh badly mutilated. Blood was flowing continuously from more than hundred wounds, of all sizes, dying her pale white skin a deep red. Underneath her feet, a small pool of blood was forming.

Greem slowly moved closer to the battlefield.

"Hey… are you still alive?" Greem asked in a shaky voice.

The bloody figure trembled, moving her blood red eyes and stared at Greem. An extreme thirsty look fully filled her eyes, which were had become as crimson red as her blood.

"Blood… I need blood… quickly give me blood…" The figure spoke with a deep and hoarse voice. If Greem hadn't been paying extra attention, he wouldn't have heard what she said.

Just by speaking these few words, the movement of her lips made the muscles on her face tear again, causing more blood to gush out.

"Don't tell me you want my blood!" An unsightly expression immediately emerged on Greem's face.

Judging from the severity of Mary's injuries, even if she drank every drop of the blood in his body, it would probably still not be enough for her to make a full recovery!

Right when Mary nearly couldn't control herself, and was preparing to leap on Greem, he recalled something. Without hesitating, he took out eight blood sacks, which looked like red beads, from a pocket at his waist. These were something he had 'acquired' from the Ghost Nanny's nest.

Mary instantly grabbed the blood sacks and started crazily swallowed them, one by one, proving how frightening Vampires, a species that inherited from the ancient era, could be. The terrible wounds all over her body starting to heal at an incredible speed, and the whole process was so miraculous Greem simply couldn't believe his eyes.

A second ago she was dying, looking like she could collapse at any time, but now, it was as if someone had just cast a magic spell that could turn back time. She was recovering at an unbelievable speed.

After devouring three blood sacks, all the tiny and small wounds on her body had disappeared, and those bigger wounds had started stitching themselves together. After swallowing the fifth blood sack, not a single one of the dreadful looking wounds on her body remained, and, once again, her skin, albeit blood covered, became smooth and fair. After the seventh blood sack, her entire body started to glow blood red and, finally, Mary came back to life.

When she was about to swallow the last blood sack, she hesitated, then turned around and threw it back to Greem. She had now fully recovered, so it seemed unnecessary to waste another blood sack. Looking at Greem's heartbroken face, it was easy to tell that these blood sacks were, likely, very valuable.

After throwing the blood sack, a multitude of tiny cracking noises came from her body. This was the sound of the crystallized blood on her body starting to crack, falling off from her slim and fit body and revealing her perfect, curvy, seductive, and incredibly naked body to Greem.

Even though he had lived two lives, at this moment Greem blushed.

Although he had tried his best, turning his face to the side and pretending he was coughing, the image of her breathtaking, magnificent form had been burned into his mind.

Accident, this was totally an accident! This was in no way intentional!

… Though it seemed that she really didn't care….

For some unknown reasons, the Chip actually completed a deep scanning process by itself. Although Greem only took a short glimpse at the report, every single piece of data related to Mary had been saved in his mind. Also, the 'thoughtful' Chip had saved a 100% accurate and realistic model of Mary's current appearance…

Ugh… just by reading these ridiculous numbers, Greem felt his heart was going to stop beating.

Her Agility was 17, meaning she had extraordinary reflexes and was why she was able to move so fast. It was no wonder that, even if she wasn't moving that fast, she could still produce numerous afterimages to confuse her enemies.

In contrast to that, her Strength was her weakest stat, but it was still quite strong.

With a Strength of 9, she could easily wield a two-handed bastard sword in a single hand, and could send a large man flying with a single punch.

While Greem was immersing himself in the world of data, Mary had put on her striking red dress. In fact, her method of dressing herself seemed impossible. With just a snap of her finger, the blood underneath her feet started to coil up her body, moving around, like a wave flexible snakes. When they finally stopped, a gorgeous red dress had appeared on her body.

A round object thumped against Greem's chest.

Startled, Greem lowered his head and looked at the object. He was instantly taken aback by the twisted, ugly, frightening looking face in his hands, and nearly threw it away, out of fear. But, in the next second, he realized that it was Sinbad's head.

"That girl had to make a hasty retreat, but she left this behind. Let it be the compensation for all those blood sacks you gave me!" Said Mary, showing a carefree expression while curled up her lips like she didn't care.

"You… after suffering such a huge loss, did you even get what you were looking for?" Greem couldn't hold himself from asking. When he thought of how body and disfigured she had been a few seconds ago, his heart almost stopped out of shock.

"Hehehe…" Mary burst out an extreme pleasure laugh when Greem mentioned this, blinding him with an incredible smile and saying, "I devoured some of the blood essence of that little girl, so it will take her at least two to three months to recover! Besides, I have a feeling that the blood of that little girl will help me make significant progress… haha…"

Greem was shocked, he was finally gaining a clear understanding of why Vampires were considered so incredible.

From what the Chip had detected of Mary's attributes, her Physique was 10/11, and here Spirit was 17/18. The first number was her current attribute, the second value was its potential. Originally, Mary had a maximum of 10 Physique and 17 Spirit. Now that she had fed on the blood of that frightening Alice, she was able to quickly raise these stats.

Although they were currently still the same, as long as she continued her training over the next few days, she should be able to make both her Physique and Spirit reach her potential maximum, and only then would today's harvest be considered complete.

A female Vampire who could increase her personal attributes just by sucking other people's blood… Just thinking about this made Greem feel dizzy. Once again, it proved how powerful innate abilities were!

Judging from her appearance, that terrifying loli, Alice, was, at most, thirteen or fourteen years old. At this age, if she didn't have an innate talent for Spatial Magics, perhaps she would just be a rookie who had just stepped into the level of Beginner Apprentice. But reality was quite different, as she was a frightening little loli with a high intelligence, but low emotional control. Because of her innate talent for Spatial Magics, she became an elite among all other Advanced Apprentices.

If not because she was at the bottom of fortune's wheel, and thus met with freaks like Evil Bugs, Greem, and Mary, with her abilities, perhaps she could easily sweep through all the apprentices in the tower.

It was same for Mary.

Before this, she was only a Beginner Apprentice who had merely mastered two magic spells. But, after she was mutated into Vampire, her overall ability immediately skyrocketed, and she had become one of the strongest Advanced Apprentices.

Analyzing the data, Mary had 60% chance of beating Hawkeye and a 30% chance of beating Madwoman. As for Evil Bugs, Mary had a less than 10% chance of defeating him.

After all, no matter how incredible her vampirism ability was, it would only be effective when she had a supply of blood. Also, her desperate fighting style could be used against Hawkeye. If she broke through his defenses, no matter what kind of injuries she suffered, she would be able to recover.

But if she used the same method when facing Madwoman or Evil Bugs, Greem didn't see any hope of her winning.

Madwoman's frightening looking metal sword was not just a decoration, and, with her Strength of 15 and her Physique of 16, she had more than enough to unleash brutal physical attacks. Maybe her 8 Agility was her weakness, but, with the help of magic spells, it would be really tough for ordinary enemies to use this weakness against her.

And, although that Evil Bugs didn't fare so well when faced with Alice, that didn't mean his real fighting ability was weak. Also, since his body was formed of scorpions, didn't that mean there wasn't any blood for Mary to use her vampirism on?

Thus, in conclusion, while Mary had gained strong abilities, but she hadn't reached the incredible stage that Alice had.

Since Mary was willing to protect him, Greem didn't hide anything and, like a loyal military adviser, told all of his analyses to Mary, so she could give up any unrealistic fantasies she might have.

After becoming a Vampire, Mary's temperament had changed tremendously. It wasn't hard to tell that the force of that alien bloodline had deeply affected her mind and conscious. She was being nice to Greem, but that was mostly because, during the mutation of her bloodline, he had shown compassion to her.

But feelings didn't last forever, and they would quickly fade from the cruel, rational, hard daily life of an Apprentice. Therefore, he had to show his skills to avoid giving the impression that he was simply hiding under Mary's wings.

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Greem needed time to grow.

Though he firmly believed that, with the experience of having lived a life before this one, and help from the Chip, his growth speed should not be less than those geniuses who were born with extraordinary innate talents, he needed time in order to grow. Just like a juvenile beast, even if Greem was given a pair of wings, his growth would still require a huge amount of time and the investment of a vast amount of resources.

Currently, he was weak. If he had someone to protect him, he could grow much faster in the safety provided by that person. Therefore, when Mary took her own initiative and spread her wings to offered him shelter, although troubling in the way she did so, he now happily accepted this protection.

But Greem wished he could show his value, trying his best to make this 'relationship' appear more like a form of alliance that benefited both partners, rather than just himself.

Greem took a long look at Sinbad's head, which was sitting in his hand. If he was right, Sinbad's soul was still trapped in this head, and, if he didn't properly manage it, perhaps the quality of his prize would be reduced.

Anyway, this was the head of a Ghost Nanny's Leader who could be compared to some Advanced Apprentices. Thus, no matter how he might use it, this was an excellent material for experimenting on.

There was a total of three outsiders who had intruded on the Magical Swamp. Although they didn't kill Alice, at least they had made her suffer. At this moment, that arrogant and cocky girl was either dead or in really bad shape. As for the other two intruders, Madwoman and Hawkeye should be dealing with them, so it was not something Greem needed to worry about.

As for Mary, clearly she was more interested in the blood of the other two intruders, because, without saying goodbye to Greem, she transformed into her bat form and shot away, into the misty fog. In the end, Greem was left standing by himself in the swamp. After recovering from the shock of finally having a calm moment in this hectic day, he snuck his way back to the Adept Tower, wanting to safely get his loot back to his room.

…………

A dazzling light show was flashing in front of her eyes. At the same time, an intense dizziness made it hard for her to identify directions, or even which way was up!

But, with the help of her spatial senses, Alice arduously freed herself from the chaotic spatial storm, ripping open a spatial crack and returned back to the physical world.

A wriggling spatial crack appeared in mid-air, and, right after that, Alice came out from it facing upside down.

"Ouch!"

Alice, who utterly exhausted, had hit her head on the hard and cool surface of a rock, so she cried out in pain and surprise.

Damn rascal. Damn Vampire. You better not let me fully recovered. Once I have fully healed, I'll definitely…

While crazily cursing in her mind, Alice suddenly went completely still, With her reminding eye wide open and filled with a great fear, she stared straight at the frightening figure that had suddenly appeared in front of her. The fear made her pause, forcing her not to do anything recklessly.

Alice examined her surroundings in confusion. Only now did she notice that she was in a dark, closed off stone room. This place was not the safe zone that she had set up in advance, and the person who stood in front of her was not any Apprentice Adept she was familiar with.

Looking at the man's skinny and almost dried-up body, his gray Adept long robe, his old wizard's hat, and that vicious, eerie smile…

Alice finally realized who was in front of her, and couldn't keep herself from letting out a cry of shock, "Adept Anderson!"

The skinny old man who stood in front of her was none other than the master of the Tower, First Grade Adept, Anderson.

He was the highest authority of the Tower. Hence, right when Alice used the Teleportation spell and retreated, her destination was modified, bringing this little loli, who had already suffered so much, straight to his front door.

The frightening ability of a real Adept was not something any ordinary mortal could understand.

Honestly, right from the beginning of their apprenticeship, many Apprentice Adepts started modifying their bodies. In their minds, the appearance of their body and their face was far less important than their overall power.

If someone thoroughly examined everyone in this town, out of over fifty Apprentice Adepts, perhaps less than half of them was still had pure human bodies.

Bloodline modification, biological modification, spell contamination… all these were the direct results of their restless efforts to become stronger. The boundary between human and inhuman was not all that significant in this world of Adepts.

Knowing that even Apprentice Adepts were heavily modifying their bodies, one can only imagine what full Adepts must do to their bodies.

Able to endure the cruel and painful modification process, able to persevere in the lonely lifestyle of knowledge seeking, able to use all means and make themselves become stronger… After going through all this suffering and finally becoming an official Adept, do you think they would still have a kind and compassionate personality?

When mentioning these Adepts in the world of Adept, what most ordinary people thought of was powerful, insidious, evil beings, who are level-headed in all scenarios. Although they claimed themselves to be slaves of knowledge, forever walking in the path of knowledge-seeking, their methods of gathering said knowledge would never be described as merciful or moderate.

In the entire multiverse, being on of the rare, large scale planes, it was inevitable that the World of Adepts had enslaved more than a thousand middle and small scale planes. They brutally 'appropriated' all the resources and knowledge from those planes which they conquered, using them to arm and strengthened themselves. If an Adept family didn't have their own private plane, they weren't even considered to be in the lowest rank of Adept Families.

The core strength of the army which represented the World of Adepts was made up of members of these Adept Families. If a First Grade Adept, like Anderson, was placed in the boundless battlefield of the endless conquering expedition, he would simply be cannon fodder.

Yes, the entry requirement to be in the army of World of Adept was to be a First Grade Adept. As for Apprentice Adepts, they were merely rookies who were not experienced in the Principles of Planes. They were not even qualified to be cannon fodder.

Thus, after meeting with so many Adepts, Alice held a deep fear and respect toward these powerful people.

Although her innate Spatial ability made her be considered an extraordinary talent, when faced with these official Adepts, even with her amazing protection barrier, she was merely a canary who could be killed by them anytime. In the World of Adepts, innate talent represented your potential, not your strength. Throughout the past millions of years, countless geniuses lost their lives to stronger Adepts with lesser potential.

Therefore, when Alice realized she was facing an official Adept, her arrogant and violent attitude immediately vanished. Even though the severe injuries on her body made her feel an intense amount of pain, such that she was soaked with a cold sweat, she still acted like nothing was wrong, slightly bending her body forward, and patiently waiting for the man to question her.

"I'm in a really bad mood today. It seems that a few bugs slipped into my garden when I was busy with experiment. So, little girl from the House of Fragrance… Who gave you permission to enter my territory?" Adept Anderson's insidious looking face was completely emotionless, and his cold voice made shivers run down Alice's spine.

"Honorable Adept Anderson, my mentor, the great Deborah, sent me here to deliver a message." Alice didn't hesitate and immediately stated her purpose of coming here.

"Deborah, the crazy woman?" Anderson frowned, "So, you're that genius Apprentice that Deborah got three years ago? Now what? Are you trying to show off in my place after learning a few tricks from her? Hahahaha… little girl, didn't your mentor tell you that I don't like to be disturbed? Oh right, so are the other two little bugs from the House of Fragrance too?"

Cautiously standing up while keeping her back straight, Alice quickly replied, saying, "No. We met at the outside of Swampy Area. All of us are here for our own respective missions. One of them is from Mandasor Academy, the other is from the Black Glove Association."

"Mission? All of you came to my Magical Swamp for a mission?"

"Yes! We each received training missions from our own organizations. That's why we came here uninvited!"

"Damn it, damn it… I knew those damn Zhentarim guys would never stop trying to get this place. This is The Magical Swamp! My private territory! How dare those guys set this place as one of their mission sites. In the next Adepts gathering, I'll definitely report their damn behavior to the council…"

Perhaps what Alice said had been a sensitive subject for Adept Anderson, but, though he has already behaved crazily, when he heard about the situation he became even more frenzied. Almost screaming, he began to venomously curse at someone in some distant land. At a certain point, Anderson started speaking in a couple of different languages, and Alice could only identify not more than three of them.

At some point, Adept Anderson calmed down and suddenly became quiet. Once again, his insidious looking eyes stopped on Alice's face.

"Because you have shown respect, I'll not keep you here. But, as you have intruded on my garden and wreaked havoc, I can't let you go without punishing you. This will serve as your lesson!" Adept Anderson gently pointed his staff into the air and unleashed a tiny glowing green dot, which shot right into Alice's empty eye socket.

At the same time, a bizarre looking ring suddenly appeared under Alice's feet. After blinking a few times, a bright light flashed, and Alice disappeared from the stone room.

At almost the same time Alice was expelled, the same teleportation ring also appeared under the feet of the other two Apprentice Adepts, who were still searching through the depths of the swamp. With a flash, they were expelled from the Magical Swamp as well.

…………

At the entrance of Magical Swamp.

It was a small, desolated, miserable looking hillside.

Facing the hillside was the Magical Swamp, covered with a thick fog. When looking out from the hilltop, besides the numerous muddy ponds, one could only see some light mangled foliage. Otherwise, nothing seemed abnormal.

After a dazzling flash, Alice was thrown to the ground from empty space.

Before she could struggle up, another two light flashes occurred, and two familiar figures appeared in the space around her.

While whining, Alice stood up from the ground, hastily taking out all sorts of bottles from her waist pockets and beginning to restlessly heal herself. Although she had left the boundaries of the Magical Swamp, she dared not utter any curses toward that Adept.

Who knew if that damn Adept had some way to spy on them. If he heard her say anything bad, perhaps he would strike them down where they stood…

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Moaning and groaning, the two newcomers staggered to their feet.

Comparing to the spatially talented Alice, both of them rarely teleported, therefore, aside from the normal dizziness that accompanied teleporting, both of them felt sick, almost to the point of throwing up. However, both of them had extraordinary Physiques, which made them very adaptable. Thus, after a brief moment of rest, they had recovered.

Apparently, before being teleported to this place, these two had been in fierce fights, as both of their bodies were covered with scars. Even now, they were tightly gripping their weapons, as if thinking they might be attacked at any moment.

When they saw Alice, who was looking incredibly miserable, both men exchanged glances, incredulous looks in their eyes. Before they had entered the Magical Swamp, the three of them had spared, trying to determine who would be the leader of this temporary team.

Although both of them were very confident in themselves, they were both defeated by Alice's mysteriously Telekinetic ability. If they were being honest with themselves, this Alice definitely had the ability to kill them instantly.

But, unexpectedly, after splitting up for only a short time, Alice had suffered very severe injuries. Compared to her, their wounds were nothing worth mentioning.

"Alice, who were you fighting with? Was it a Pseudo-Adept?" Hesitantly, the muscular man with a huge sword on his back asked the terrifying loli what was wrong. The Snake headed man, who was standing beside him, also showed an expression filled with concern, quietly awaiting Alice's answer.

"Kerry, my business is my own…" Alice didn't deem to answer the question, and simply kept focusing on healing her own injuries.

Alice secretly felt a great fear in her heart. She was not worried about her injuries, she had suffered severe injuries before this. What she feared was whatever Adept Anderson had done to her when he threw that bizarre looking green light into her eye. No matter how she examined herself, she couldn't find anything unusual in her body, so she had no choice but to focus on healing her wounds.

After drinking all sorts of potions, the wounds on her nearly disintegrated body finally stopped leaking blood. Then Alice started to apply a dark purple, pungent smelling, medicinal paste onto her wounds.

Strangely, the result of this seemingly insignificant mud-like paste worked really well. No matter how awful a wound was, as long as it was covered by the paste for a short period of time, her skin would be restored to its former fairness and smoothness.

After she finished healing all her wounds, Alice starting to heal her right eye.

If a normal human lost a body part, it would be a lifelong scar that could never be healed. But for these Apprentice Adepts, who had set foot in the field of mysticism and supernatural forces, restoring lost body parts was quite possible.

From a black clay pot, Alice carefully picked out a strange looking creature, which looked like a tiny snake. Pinching its tail, she carefully placed it into her empty eye socket. This weird creature was being pinched by Alice so it couldn't move, causing it to keep twisting in the air while making a jarring, sharp hissing sound. It had a head that looked like a meatball, and a mouth that opened up like a flower. Within this odd shaped mouth were many tiny, sharp teeth.

"Snake-Sakura Grass!"

Obviously, the muscular man knew about this creature, and he couldn't help but sigh at its value.

"What is this thing?" The Snake headed man had never seen anything like this before.

"It is a holy healing medicine, able to replace any missing important organ in the body. Don't judge by its ugly looking appearance. It is a mutated plant that was specifically cultivated for this purpose. It's basic price of it is around 70 Magic Crystals." The muscular man briefly explained. At the same time, his face was filled with envy.

"70 Magic Crystals?" Snake headed man was shocked, and he was instantly able to understand the value of this item.

Numerous major-scale Adept associations existed in the World of Adepts. There were simply too many to count. Internally, each of these organizations and associations would implement the system of knowledge points or exchange points, of which none were exchangeable. Therefore, in an effort to solve cross-organizations trading, the Magic Crystals was born.

This was an advanced-magic universe with countless planes.The entire space of each of these planes was filled with a magical energy. Usually, these magical energies were equally distributed throughout the space, but, on rare occasions or in some unique environments, very dense clusters of magical energy could be found.

Therefore, in these unique environments, the overly dense magical energy would infest the surrounding minerals, turning it into a crystal. This crystal was a unique item that allowed Adepts to quickly replenish their Elementium consumption. Hence, it was an item that had gained the acceptance of all casters in every single major plane.

As a result, the Magical Crystal had become an important strategic resource for the Adept World, as they were constantly conquering other worlds. Thus, it was used as the basic currency for the entire World of Adepts.

The Snake headed man couldn't help it and gulped.

For example, in the Black Glove Association he came from, after he successfully completed this training mission, he would get 15 knowledge points and 30 Magic Crystals. To get 70 Magic Crystals, he would have to complete two 'Dangerous' missions, seven 'Difficult' missions, or thirty-five 'Normal' missions.

Hence, when he saw Alice unhesitatingly use the Snake-Sakura Grass, which cost 70 Magic Crystals, the muscles on his face starting to twitch uncontrollably.

Although it had a ferocious and strange look, the Snake-Sakura Grass was just a special mutated plant. After Alice placed it into her emptied eye socket, it immediately coiled up its body and centered itself. Its slimy body started to break down, turning into tiny threads that looked like micro-sized snakes. Countless threads began twisting and weaving into each other, soon forming into the shape of a human eye.

But, a moment before the eyeball formed by the Snake-Sakura Grass was about to be finished, a bizarre green light suddenly flashed around it. In the next second, the Snake-Sakura Grass suddenly went berserk.

Countless tiny tentacles started poking through Alice's eye socket, and kept growing bigger, swinging violently. Soon, a few of these tentacles expanded to the size of Alice's arm, and then continued to stretch further and further.

After going through a long period of healing herself, most of Alice's wounds had fully recovered. Hence, her cute loli look had returned.

But, in this moment, a gigantic and terrifying 'living octopus' was sticking out from the eye socket of the tiny, cute Lolita, No matter who it was who witnessed this, that person would definitely shiver in disgust at the scene in front of them.

Alice's flesh stimulated the disorderly growth of this Snake-Sakura Grass.

Under the influence of a mystical curse, the freshly recovered body of Alice starting to started to quickly wither, and nearly half of her flesh was devoured by the rapidly expanding Snake-Sakura Grass.\

Without hesitation, and using all her strength, Alice was able to forcefully pull out the Snake-Sakura Grass, which currently occupied her right eye socket. Lifting the crazily twisting octopus-like monster up into the air, Alice let out a deep and hoarse roar into the sky as blood spewed from her eye socket.

"Curse you… you bunch of damn rascals… I'm going to kill you all!"

The unusual situation that occurred had frightened the other two male Apprentice Adepts. Although they had no idea what this little Lolita had experienced in the Magical Swamp, they could still clearly feel a deep hatred in her furious roar.

Judging from what happened, it must be the Adept who did this personally.

That Adept Anderson who lived a sedentary life in this Magical Swamp and didn't even show respect to Adept Deborah, who was Alice's mentor, how could he let them off so easily? Because, both of them were expelled by Adept Anderson personally! Who knew what he had cast on their bodies?

Right when they were struck with these doubts, a young woman's lustful moan suddenly came into their ears. Soon, two vague, elusive Enchanted Souls squeezed out from the ground underneath their feet, turning into two magnificent girls, that perfectly fit their tastes, that clung tightly to their bodies.

Well, things would be better if these were just two illusive souls, but, as soon as they were grabbed by the soul beings, their Spirit started to gradually deplete.

"Spirit-Sucking Devils!"

The Snake headed man was the first to identify these enchanting spirits, and his loud cry was full of unconcealed fear.

Spirit-Sucking Devils were very frightening souls. They consumed a person's Spirit, which was gained from meditation. As long as one's Spirit wasn't depleted, they could survive being attacked by these frightening devils. But, once their Spirit Points were depleted, the foul devils would start to consume the life force of their target.

The Snake headed man went berserk.

He started to roar and yell, and his skinny body began to stretch longer and taller, quickly being covered with dark green scales. In the blink of an eye, he had transformed into a huge, raging serpent, which was nearly ten meters tall.

But, too bad, no matter what he transformed into, the bizarre Spirit-Sucking devil still clinging tightly to his body, continually draining his Spirit Points.

Roaring, slamming, swaying, rolling… he tried all sorts of highly difficult movements, wreaking havoc to this small hillside with his massive body. He even turned his head backward and spat venomous liquids onto its own body, but all its attempts failed to get rid of the Spirit-Sucking Devil.

No magic spell could do anything, no physical attack could touch them, it was as if this devil was just an illusion that didn't exist. It was like it was all his own fantasy. However, his Spirit was really being depleted. And with the restless and brutal movements of the giant serpent, his Spirit was being reduced at a fast rate.

The muscular man didn't recklessly try to remove the devil from his body, as his high Physique Points gave him a better magic resistance than the Snake headed man, therefore, by avoiding unnecessary movements, he lost Spirit at a lesser rate.

When dealing with a curse cast by an official Adept, these Apprentice Adepts had no way to remove it. Hence, he dared not to stay here any longer and started running off into the distance.

Only by returning to his own organization as soon as possible could he get help from his mentor, or else he would die to this terrifying devil.

After countless failed attempts, the Snake headed man had no choice but to return to his human form. Only then did his Spirit depletion slow down. He angrily cursed in his head, then took out a Magic Crystal from his pocket, absorbing the energy from it. Then he did as the muscular man did, using only his muscle strength, and ran of into the distance.

He also realized that, as long as he didn't use any magic spells, the speed of the devil sucking his Spirit Points would be slower, and, with the replenishment of the Magic Crystal, he could sustain himself for a longer period of time.

After the two male Apprentices plunged into the wilds and fled, Alice used her Spatial Energy and crushed the monstrous creature in her hand. But, she immediately felt a subtly prickling in the back of her eye as, once again, a brand new tentacle poked out of her empty eye socket.

In the moments before this, perhaps Alice had only felt hatred and anger, but now an unspeakable fear emerged at the bottom of her heart.

With an explosive noise, Alice disappeared from where she was, re-appearing in a distant place. And right when her body solidified, she disappeared again…

She was running out of time.

If she allowed this terrifying curse to stick around, she would soon run out of flesh. She had to return to her mentor as soon as possible, only then could this frightening curse be removed.

Therefore, even if this would totally deplete her Spirit Point, Alice still had to try her best and rush back to the House of Fragrance.

Soon, peace had once again returned the hillside next to one of the entrances of the Magical Swamp.

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Greem was completely ignorant to the events that occurred after he went back to the tower.

As to be expected, anytime something good happened to him, it was almost always accompanied by misery.

Before today, he thought he would have time to slowly and quietly developed himself, but, after the day's event, he realized that things would not be so easy for him.

His previous peaceful life had made him think that his life as an Apprentice could carry on forever at a gradual pace. But, after today's heart-pounding encounter, he had realized the huge gap between a Beginner Apprentice and an Advanced Apprentice.

As he had witnessed the extraordinary potential of Advanced Apprentices, and how they utilized magic spells that worked perfectly with their talents, Greem realized how slow and backward his progress was.

Following his original development path, perhaps it would take him three to four years of daily meditation, and ceaselessly pursuing the accumulation of magical knowledge, before he could become an Intermediate Apprentice. To become an Advanced Apprentice would take Greem at least another ten years of work. As for becoming a Pseudo-Adept? With Greem's current potential and innate talent, he didn't have much hope for reaching that level.

As an Apprentice Adept, every tiny increase of his Spirit was unimaginably valuable to him, and it only resulted from hard work. His innate talent was no better than the others, thus, if he wanted to grow faster than the rest of the Apprentices, the only way was to seize more resources and to get sufficient magical knowledge.

Aside from these, there was no other workaround.

And, in order to improve the power of his magic spells, his first priority was to increase the quality of his body. All magic spells, no matter whether they were support spells or long-ranged attacks, were supported by the body of the caster. Magical spells could only unleash their full strength when used by a caster who had increased the quality of his body.

After safely returning to the Tower from the jaws of death, Greem immediately locked himself up in his room and starting to ponder on his future path.

Thinking on the four major branches of Adepts, Greem carefully weighed the advantages and disadvantages of each, associating them with his own ability and quietly evaluating his future.

Body Refining Adept.

To become a Body Refining Adept, the first requirement was a dauntless will, which was as firm as steel. In order to stimulate and strengthen the body, these Body Refining Adepts had to be willing to do anything.

As an example of a training method for a Body Refining Adepts, they would soak themselves in a container full of toxin all days. Venoms from scorpions, snakes, spiders, Septmortem Flower, Nightmare Grass, Zombie Powder… In short, no matter where the toxin came from, they would use anything they could get their hands on. From mild to strong, from weak to powerful, using all sorts of deadly toxin they kept stimulating every single cell in their body over and over again, forcing the body to release its potential, and strengthening it bit by bit.

Of course, when they were doing this, surviving was definitely the most important thing. They would have to figure out the maximum amount of toxin they could endure, so they wouldn't die from the toxin.

As they progressed through their body refining process, as they stepped over the beginner threshold, they would gain resistance to some toxins, and perhaps no ordinary toxin in the mortal world could harm them. If they wanted to go further, the only way was to restlessly search for rarer, more powerful magic toxins.

Therefore, as a Body Refining Adept, perhaps the first half of their life would be used up figuring out the maximum amount of toxins their body could take and hunting for those rare magic toxins that worked best for their bodies.

Of course, there were also some Body Refining Adepts that used objects with frightening radioactive characteristics to stimulate and refined their body, and there were some who would specifically search for harsh natural environments, using the terrifying forces of nature to push themselves forward.

All in all, there were a variety of methods to train in this branch. But no matter which method one used, a Body Refining Adept would have to endure constant pain and hardship. Only then they would have a frightening body that no ordinary man could ever compare with.

If Greem wanted to become a Body Refining Adept, first he would need to find a complete method of body refining. After that, he would have to search for all the poisonous items he would need to use in the long period of hardening himself. Also, during the process of body refining, he would become extremely weak, thus he would need better, more nutritious meals to nourish his weakened body.

Also, he would also need to find some suitable fighting techniques, so he could unleash the power of his improved Physique and Strength.

After analyzed these basic situations, Greem felt extremely dubious about becoming a Body Refining Adept. Putting aside the extreme difficulty of body refining techniques, acquiring the precious nutritious foods required to match up with the body refining process would be tough.

Bloodline Adept.

Obviously, this was the easiest choice to gain a strong short-term fighting ability.

When talking about Bloodline Adepts, biological modification was quite a common topic, as it was the most popular method among Apprentice Adepts. With just a 'small' magical ceremony, they could transplant a highly efficient organ from a powerful demon, possibly giving them special abilities in the process.

Most of the Apprentice Adepts would never say no to such a simple method of strengthening themselves, wherever conditions permitted, and they would always carry out certain degrees of modification to themselves. However, this was easier said than done! This came with the risk of having your bloodline contaminated, losing vitality, or transplanted a crappy organ that didn't provide good abilities.

For Apprentice Adepts like Greem, who lived in the Magical Swamp, isolated from the outside world, what kind of powerful demons could they find? With their ability and status, it was just impossible for them to acquire organs those real frightening demons. Therefore, if these Apprentices could find a usable piece of a demon that matched up to the rank of an Advanced Apprentice, that would be incredibly valuable.

It was said that Hawkeye Clutha, one of the three strongest Apprentice in the Tower, had transplanted the eyeball of a 'Red-eyed Rex Mari', which gave him the ability to control Scavenger Crows.

Greem felt this decision was short-sighted.

Maybe this demon organ allowed him to attain a higher level in one swift step, becoming one of the Advanced Apprentices, the elite among all the Apprentice Adepts in the Tower. But, at the stage where he was now, the potential brought by biological modification had come to an end. If he was lucky, he might be able to become a Pseudo-Adept in five years and start his preparation for breaking through the rank of official Adept. But if he was out of luck, perhaps he would never be able to become an official Adept.

After all, for anyone who had their bloodline contaminated, the difficulty of becoming an official Adept would become exponentially harder!

So, compared to a Bloodline Adept, biological modification was a wasteful path that led to nowhere, a deceiving power, which would ruin one's future.

However, in comparison with biological modification, the path of a Bloodline Adept was much, much tougher.

In order to become a Bloodline Adept, one would have to find a creature with ancestral bloodline, using a large amount of their blood, and a process called blood purification, to obtain the inherited power that hidden in their blood.

If he chose this path, there were many challenges he would have to solve.

First, many of the known powerful bloodlines were controlled by different Adept families.

These Adept families were descendants of some original Bloodline Adept, who had become mighty in the past. As the descendant of someone who possessed a strong bloodline, naturally, they had inherited the superior bloodline of their ancestor. In order to ensure the continuity of their family bloodline, they refused to marry to anyone outside of their own family, maintaining an enclosed circle to protect the purity of their family bloodline.

Asides from these known powerful bloodlines, if any other Apprentice Adept wished to tackle the branch of Bloodline Adepts, they could only try their luck on the bloodlines of other, untried, demons.

If they happened to get a Third Grade bloodline, perhaps their descendants wouldn't even become Second Grade Bloodline Adepts, and those Second Grade Bloodline Adepts would be lucky if their descendants became First Grade Bloodline Adepts.

So, for those juniors from strong bloodline families, if they didn't possess powerful abilities, once they left their home, they would be preyed upon by others. Some rogue Apprentice Adepts would happily capture them, attempting to squeeze out the essence of their bloodline, in turned giving them some powerful abilities.

But, to accomplish this, a huge amount of blood from the bloodline apprentice was required, and the success rate was pretty low. Another thing to consider was that it was a huge taboo for those bloodline families.

With the incredible and strong resources of these bloodline families, would they just sit back and let their bloodline be obtained by others? Thus, even if they had to pay a huge price, they would hunt down the culprit and kill them. So, in the history of the World of Adepts, there had been many incidents of massive turmoil brought about by the stealing of a bloodline of a powerful bloodline family.

In fact, perhaps the Snake Headed Apprentice from earlier today was also a descendant of a bloodline family, or else he wouldn't have shown such distinct characteristics of a demon. Perhaps Greem could have obtained his blood… but he didn't.

Of course, he didn't regret this.

This descendant of a Bloodline Adept was only an Advanced Apprentice, so he wouldn't have too strong of the bloodline inherited in his blood. In order to guarantee Greem becoming a Pseudo-Adept, perhaps he would need at least a dozen of these descendants. Only then could he extract enough blood to purify his bloodline.

This would be as difficult for Greem as fighting a Mega Dragon!

Besides that, according to what Greem had learned from books, currently, among all Bloodline families that were still active in the center of the Adept Continent, the highest level among them was only at the Seventh Grade. The Ninth Grade was the current pinnacle of the Bloodline Adept structure.

As a Bloodline Adept, one was not required to do too much cultivation or accumulation of knowledge. All they needed to do was to keep purifying their own bloodlines, and, eventually, they would be able to obtain the abilities of their ancestor's bloodline.

For example, let's say that an Adept was the inheritor of a Fifth Grade bloodline, just by being a Bloodline Adept, he would be able to rank up with the speed that was tens to hundreds of times faster than that of the other branches. This allowed him to press forward with an indomitable spirit for the first half of his life, and live a life of glory. Besides that, Adept who possessed unique bloodline might have some special abilities too, letting them have the advantage when fighting with a same grade Adept.

However, the pinnacle of the source bloodline was also the end of their Adept path.

When Adept with a Fifth Grade Bloodline finally became a Fifth Grade Adept, he would be forced to face the fact that the road ahead of him was completely cut off. He would never be able to proceed further after reaching Fifth Grade.

This was the saddest thing about these Bloodline Adepts!

Once they chose to walk this path, and picked a wrong bloodline, the chances of them reaching the top of this World of Adepts was forever lost.

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Since the path of Bloodline Adept was so tough to get into, and the fact that, though they could grow quickly, their growth was limited from the start, Greem decided to eliminate this possibility.

So, all he had left in front of him was to become a Principle Adept or a Profound Adept.

Between these two choices, Greem strongly preferred Principle Adept. Whenever he envisioned those powerful Elementium spells that were capable of such vast destruction, and the bizarre and frightening curse spells, Greem wished for that power, and really wanted to master some incredible spells.

But, the path of Principle Adept was also the hardest, as it was without any short-cuts. In order to climb up to the top rungs of the Adept hierarchy, a Principle Adept had to take one step at a time, diligently improved their elemental affinity, and then mastering any related Elementium spells. Then they had to have a strong understanding of the core Plane Principles. Only when he became the master of a principle could he proudly announce that he was a Principle Adept.

This was, usually, something that could be achieved after reaching the Seventh Grade.

If he didn't have the Chip, Greem wouldn't ever choose this path. Because, if he did, that also meant he had to spend a huge amount of time meditating and improving his elemental affinity. In fact, in order to make oneself have a better elemental affinity, many Adepts would try their best to replace their body with the Elementium that they had the highest affinity for, even if that would eventually transform them into an Elementium life form.

Analyzing from all aspects, no doubt the path of Principle Adept was an obvious choice for any Adept, as it was the path that had the highest possibility of reaching the pinnacle of the Adept world. So, with the plan laid out by the Chip, Greem felt this was the best path for him.

However, before he became truly strong, Greem would have to find ways to compensate, as he was currently weak, or else, how could he make his way out of the intense and brutal competition among Apprentices?

So, after decided he would make Principle Adept his primary path, Greem also planned to learn some of the skills of Profound Adepts to support the slow growth of his primary path. And, no doubt the 'Golem Creation Manual' he obtained before was one such Profound Adept method that could help improve his current fighting ability.

"Chip, what's the progress of organizing the data of the 'Golem Creation Manual'?"

Beep* "The copying of magic spell book 'Golem Creation Manual' had been completed… the data has been optimized, and useless content has been removed. The list of suitable golems has been constructed…"

Greem's eyes instantly brightened when he heard the message.

"Send me all the data!"

Beep*… A stream of data was immediately transferred over. Closing his eyes, he silently looked over the additional magic knowledge that suddenly popped up in his mind.

Strictly speaking, it was a list of items.

……

……

It had, previously, been a long list, but after the Chip removed those golems that were beyond Greem's current abilities, and other useless content, all that was left were these two elementary golems, which had been repeatedly optimized.

Yes, the Chip recommended a Golem, rather than a Titan.

Comparing their fighting ability, no doubt a Titan, who had a fixed body, was stronger than a Golem, which was more like a summon. But, with the lackluster resources that Greem currently possessed, perhaps it was not realistic to hope he could gather enough resource to create a Titan.

Take the most basic Clay Titan as an example.

An eight foot tall, six hundred pound Clay Titan was made entirely of soft clay. This took no account of the crafting cost in building it. Just the soft clay alone would cost him nine thousand gold coins. For everything he would need to make one Clay Titan, the basic price was twenty-one thousand gold coins.

Compared to that, the Golem suggested by the Chip was way cheaper, as the only required raw material was an Advanced Apprentice level demon core. Although it required a lot of magic knowledge in order to successfully create one, the total cost was around seven thousand gold coins.

By his calculations, Greem would be able to save up that much money, which was a huge relief to him.

Greem couldn't create an Acid Golem now, because he lacked a suitable Water Elementium Demon Core. But the Clay Golem was a perfect choice, as he just obtained the head of an Earth Elementium demon, which would be a perfect core for the Clay Golem.

When he thought of that, Greem quickly walked to the wooden rack in the corner of his room.

A large glass jar was placed on top of a wooden tray. It was covered with a black cloth so that no one could see what was inside.

Greem gently lifted the black cloth, leaned forward, and quietly stared at Sinbad's head, which was soaking in a yellowish liquid. Perhaps noticing Greem's glance, some indistinct twitching movements could be seen on Sinbad's face, and he felt the weak soul was begging for mercy.

A strong smell, similar to formaldehyde, was lingering near the jar.

Scientifically speaking, the Ghost Nanny was not considered an immortal creature, so their organs had to be carefully stored away after being taken from their body, or else the usable value would quickly diminish. Although Sinbad's head had not been originally acquired by Greem, it was clear that Alice had taken a good care of this head. She also trapped Sinbad's soul within it.

Of course, Greem had no idea whether this was because Alice wanted to vent her anger by torturing Sinbad, or if she had other plans, but, no matter what, this had given him a huge advantage. At least he had no complaints about not getting Sinbad's heart.

In order to maximize the benefits brought by this head, Greem even went to some Apprentices who were experts in anatomy and borrowed a complete set of tools.

In order to safeguard his secret, Greem was forced to use his room as a laboratory.

A couple of minutes later, Greem had prepared everything for the operation. He put on a sterile, non-magical white cloth and stood in front of the operation table. Sinbad's head had also been taken out from the liquid, and was lying flat on the table with her eyes wide open, angrily cursing at the human in front of her.

Since Greem had been working toward becoming an Adept for the last few years, he had long been mentally prepared for this kind of surgical operation. Even though it was the first time he carrying a biological experiment, he was calm, in control, and well prepared.

Ignoring Sinbad's evil glare, Greem calmly gave a command to the chip.

"Chip, perform a deep scan of Sinbad's head!"

Beep* "Mission has been received.. Beginning scan…"

With the flashing of blue light in his eyes, a unique spiritual wave started scanning up and down on Sinbad's head, revealing the secrets hidden inside, inch by inch.

Most demons, as they had a strong life force had mixed together with their bizarre innate abilities, had formed an energy field that similar to a shield. Thus, Greem nornally couldn't scan beneath their skin with Elementium Vision and Spiritual Vision, which made it nearly impossible to analyze what was inside.

But, because Sinbad had lost all her strength, and her life force was nearly depleted, the energy field, which would have formerly blocked Greem's vision, no longer had any effect. After probing and scanning multiple times, a three-dimensional image of Sinbad's head had been constructed in his mind.

A tough skull was wrapped around a deflated brain. The cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem were hidden deep within the cranial chamber. This complete model of Sinbad's brain was presented right in front of Greem's eyes. And, right in the center of the deflated brain, a thumb-sized, yellowish crystal could be seen.

As Sinbad was a Ghost Nanny Leader, and had mastered some Elementium abilities, a unique core had grown in her brain. Thus, her heart, brain, throat, and stomach were no longer vital organs. As long as this core and her soul still existed, her damaged organs could always be restored.

Without hesitation, Greem stabbed his razor sharp scalpel into Sinbad's head. As the skull opened up, a stinking, dark purple blood instantly sprayed out, staining Greem's clothes. But, he didn't even took a look at them, and just kept adjusting the depth and angle of his cut. With the help of the hammer, chisel, and other tools, Greem carefully dismantled the skull.

With dozens of large candles lit, the room was ablaze with light. Covered in sweat, Greem stood firmly in front of the operation table. With the sound of a chisel cutting flesh and bone spreading thoughout the room, he slowly broke apart Sinbad's skull.

Finally, under the swaying light of candle, Greem took out a light yellow, half transparent crystal, which smelled like dirt, and held it up to the light to gave it a closer look.

At the same time, a message from the Chip resounded in his mind.

Beep* "High energy demon core detected. Type: Earth Elementium creature…"

A smile of relief finally emerged on Greem's bloody face.

He now had a core from which he could create a Clay Golem!

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It was impossible to create the equipment to summon a Clay Golem in Greem's room. So, he left and hurried up to the Alchemy Laboratory, located on the third floor of the tower.

After paying three Knowledge Points and thirty gold coins, Greem was allowed to use the most sophisticated alchemy station available for three hours. This was nearly half of Greem's saving, so, if it wasn't that he wanted to have the highest success rate for this first Golem, he would never willing to pay this much money.

The floor was clean and tidy and the walls were smooth and shiny. There were wooden racks against the walls, on which laid all sorts of items. There were labeled containers for all the commonly used magical materials, and there were Elementium sticks, which were used to detect the Elementium characteristics of an item. There was a full set of metal armor, which was used to test the strength of a magical item… besides all these, there were many items of which Greem had no idea what their usage was.

But Greem's didn't care about any of these. What he was most interested in was the shining Magical Alchemy Station in the center of the room.

There were metal chains hanging from the ceiling. A brightly glowing stone was hanging on the end of each metal chain. Eight metal chains; eight bright stones. They made a perfect circle around the Alchemy Station. With this, the operator could put all their focus into crafting a magical item without being disturbed by shadows.

These were basically magical versions of an astral lamp!

And the Alchemy Station was, in fact, a magical version of an industrial crafting table.

The Alchemy Station was an 8 x 4 meter object with some raising platforms and indentation on its surface. It was covered with mystical equipment that was beyond ordinary people's imaginations. To be precise, the surface of the station was divided into sixteen working areas, and each area was capable of accomplishing some specific crafting task.

For a master Alchemist, who was familiar with the process of crafting, they would be fully competent with all this equipment and be able to smoothly accomplished a well-planned experiment. But for someone who was new to this Alchemy Station, perhaps just getting used to this magical equipment would take several days.

However, this was not an obstacle for Greem, who had the help of the Chip.

"Chip, begin scanning this Alchemy Station. Analyze the procedures of a crafting experiment!"

Beep* "Mission has been created… Beginning scan…"

As a flashing blue light appeared in his eyes as all the equipment placed on the Alchemy Station, and magical mechanisms and formations hidden within the Alchemy Station, were scanned by the Chip and stored in Greem's mind.

Combining previously analyzed data and the on-site scanning task, the equipment placed on top of the Alchemy Station was quickly stored in the Chip's database. Afterward, they were projected into Greem's retina.

Now, whenever Greem glanced around the Alchemy Station, whenever a strange or mysterious item came into his vision, a clear annotation would appear near them.

To put it simply, the Alchemy Station was an amalgamation of many of earth's crafting and forging machines, all fused into one convenient platform.

A magnifying glass was mounted on a movable mechanical arm. It was not using the same concave-convex lens, which he had back on Earth, but a glass that had been etched with a special magical formation. Greem had chosen the highest standard Alchemy Laboratory, so this glass could give him a magnifier power of 300-500x. If it was a normal Alchemy Laboratory he chose, perhaps the maximum magnifier power would just be 150x.

This was so important because, when crafting most magical items, a microscopic carving was required. Usually, on a specific region of the magical item, one would need to carve a few independent, yet tightly interconnected, magical formations. For some expert Alchemists, they could even carve more than hundred magical formations on a fist sized ruby crystal.

As a beginner, Greem wasn't capable of accomplishing this, but he only needed to carve seven magical formations on a thumb-sized demon core.

The Summoning Rune was a must have, as it was the most integral rune, which was required to summon the Clay Golem. It was found in every single magical summoning item.

The formation of Elementium Body Construction was also a must have, as it would weave the magical forces of this world to construct an Elementium body for the Golem. His current project would construct a body of soft clay.

The Mind Control Imprint System was the most important among all the formations, as, during the crafting process, Greem had to leave an imprint of his own soul in the formation. This was what would make the Clay Golem obey his commands.

In order to let the Golem freely control the Elementium constructed body, the necessary energy nodes and circuits would have to be carved as well, because this directly affected the mobility and combat ability of the Golem. Obviously, he couldn't afford to make any mistakes on them.

Of course, Greem didn't understand these highly difficult runes at all, but, fortunately, he had the Chip, which helped him complete the design and optimization. Hence, all he needed to do was just followed the plan laid down by the Chip.

But even with this, the difficulty of Greem's work was still beyond imagination.

In the past six years, Greem had only performed a handful of alchemy experiments, and he had just done some common experiments, such as Elementium purification and extraction. Honestly speaking, he was still a rookie in the field of alchemy.

But today he didn't have the resources for a test run, because he only had one demon core!

If he failed, his dreams of a Golem army would come crashing to a halt.

…………

Greem stood still in front of the Alchemy Station for nearly fifteen minutes, not moving a bit. In his mind, using a simulation, the Chip was repeatedly showing him the procedure of crafting the Golem core. He only stopped doing that after he could recant every single detail by heart.

Greem after standing still for over fifteen minutes, he finally moved.

From his waist pouch, he took out a bar of Black Magic Iron and threw it into a crucible. In next second, he sent his Spirit energy into the controlling magical formation of the Alchemy Station. A popping sound was heard as an Elementium fire was ignited below the crucible.

If he worked without this magical Alchemy Station, he would need to create his own Elementium fire to heat and melt this Black Magic Iron. Throughout the entire process he had to maintain a stable output of Elementium fire for more than fifteen minutes, or else it wouldn't melt it correctly.

And now, with the help from this Alchemy Station, he only needed to activate the magical formation hidden underneath it and the equipment would automatically heat up and melt the crafting material according to the temperature and time he set. And while waiting for the Black Magic Iron to completely melt, he could have time for some other preparations.

This alone fully demonstrated the benefits of using a Magical Alchemy Station.

After carefully placing the core took out of Sinbad's head on top of the Alchemy Station, Greem adjusted the magnifying lens to an appropriate position and correct power level. Only then did he start preparing the equipment for a microscopic carving.

The tool used to perform a microscopic carving was a special magical item. Depending on the strength of magic energy injected into it, this tool could produce a laser-like beam of heat as tiny as a mosquito's leg. This heat beam was specifically modified and adjusted by master Alchemist. Although it was small, it was excellent at cutting.

Let alone those commonly used magical metals, even the Eighth Degree Gold, Underground Wrought Iron, and Kryptonium Steel, which were all unique metals which possessed a hardness beyond any ordinary man's imagination, were easily carved by this heat beam.

What Greem needed to do now was to use this equipment to carve the required seven magical formations on the thumb-sized core, one Summoning Formation, one Mind Control Imprint System formation, one Elementium Life Granting formation, four energy nodes, and a few extra energy circuits…

This was all easier said than done. Greem calmed his mind, then he leaned forward and placed his eyes above the magnifier lens, finally starting to work on the project he had been preparing for.

Under the 300x magnifying power, the crystal clear, thumb-sized core had become a massive object with its surface fully covered by coarse pellets. Following the Chip's instructions, Greem controlled the magical formation, adjusting the core to the perfect position and angle. Only then did he activate the heat beam.

A heat beam, the size of one-tenth an ox hair, hit right onto the core, making the spot red and soft, gradually etching an indentation the size of a quarter of a human hair. After that, Greem moved the heat beam with his Spiritual energy, slowly traversing the surface of the core. As this happened, a straight and narrow line appeared.

Everything, from the position of the beam, to how deep each cut should be, all of these were marked with different colors in Greem's mind. All he needed to do was control the heat beam with his Spirit energy and draw according to the layout and speed given by the Chip, carefully completing this highly focused task.

One after another, magical runes, which looked like scribbles, were engraved in a crisscrossed pattern and surrounded with magical formations. Leaving all four corners empty so he could carve the necessary energy nodes, and carve an energy circuit in the center to connect all of them…

After an hour and a half hour of concentrated effort, all seven magical formations had been interweaved on the surface of the core, becoming a flawless magical formation as a whole.

The first step had been completed.

The next step was to connect these magical formations, which also required patience and precision.

The microscopic carving only produced the lines of these magical formations. The magical energy would never flow in this indentations by itself, hence a medium that could respond to the magical energy and allowed the energy to flow freely was needed.

And this medium was the Black Magic Iron that had been melted into a liquid form.

Of course, if it was an official Adept who was filthy rich, the medium would be replaced with Mithril. But Greem didn't have such resources or money, thus, he could only use the Magic Black Iron, which was the lowest grade medium he could use.

Although using it would cause a significant energy loss as it conducted magical energy, for a simple Clay Golem that didn't require advanced skills to craft, it was more than enough.

Therefore, Greem had to go through another hour of restless consumption of his Spirit energy. Although he was using only a tiny bit of it every second, after an hour of constant consumption, blue veins had started popping out on his forehead.

With help from the magical formation, Greem slowly poured the Magic Black Iron molten into the indentations carved out by the heat beam. He had to be careful not to leave any cracks or allow any to spill out of the carvings. For a Beginner Apprentice, this extremely difficult task was simply a mighty miracle that seemed impossible to achieve.

But, with the help of the powerful Chip, Greem actually turned this impossibility into a reality.

When the last thread of Magic Black Iron liquid merged into the indentation, Greem cut off the magical formation, pushed away the magnifying lens, and quietly stared at the Golem core, which was floating on top of the Alchemy Station. Right at this very moment, his mind was rocking with roaring waves, and he felt himself tearing up.

His first Golem was complete!

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