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

2. 32

Read Age of Adepts - Chapter 32 online free - Light Novel Full

Greem left the Alchemy Laboratory. Originally, he had planned on sneaking out and testing on combat strength of the Clay Golem in the Swamp, but he was distracted by a large crowd of people rushing through the hallways of the tower.

Not once in Greem's memory had the Tower been so lively before.

Normally, everyone was busy with their own matters. Those who had been given tasks would carry on with their own business; those who didn't would be meditating, copying books, or working on some magical experiment… Every day in this Tower, except during meal time, very few sounds could be heard. Even when two Apprentices met in a corridor, they would just nod to each other and move on.

But today was an exception, as nearly every single Apprentice Adept was out and about, rushing down the hallway in the same direction.

Greem felt surprised and bewildered. He called out to his 'friend' Benson, who he barely knew, who was also a Beginner Apprentice.

"What's happening? Where are you going?"

Right after Greem asked this, Benson responded in a surprised voice, saying, "You don't know? Haven't you checked your magical talisman? Master Anderson is summoning all the official Apprentices to a meeting in the lecture hall. Don't be late!"

Benson hurried down the hallway after saying that.

Adept Anderson called a meeting?

Greem was struck dumb by this rare event.

According to the unified proposal of the Zhentarim Association of the Adept Continent, as the stationed Adept in this Swamp Tower, Adept Anderson was required to provide a free magic class every three months to the Apprentices in the tower. And, normally, if an Apprentice had any questions regarding magic, they would have to pay knowledge points or magic crystals in exchange for the right to ask Adept Anderson questions privately.

But too bad, in this Swamp Tower, which was nearly cut off from the outside world, Adept Anderson was the ultimate master. Thus, he simply ignored all the rules and regulations set by the Zhentarim Association.

Throughout the past six years that Greem had lived in this Tower, Adept Anderson only held a handful of open lectures… In fact, it couldn't have happened more than four times. The rest of the time, he would hide away on the upper floors of the Tower, rarely interacting with any Apprentices.

Therefore, after receiving this news, Greem was simply amazed.

Hastily pulling out a magic talisman on his neck, Greem noticed it was blinking with a red glow, and felt slightly hot to the touch.

Ugh… it seems that when he was performing the alchemy experiment just now, in order to avoid any interruption, it seemed he had temporarily shut off the communication ability of the talisman. When he turned it on now, a deep, hoarse voice immediately came out of it.

"Every Apprentice Adepts who hears this message must go to the lecture hall at once! If you fail to reach it within fifteen minutes, I'll revoke your Apprentice status!"

Greem violently shuddered. He quickly put away the magic talisman and joined the crowd rushing to the lecture hall.

The seating of this lecture hall was similar to Earth's thrust style theaters from his previous life, but the round-shaped raised stage, located in front of the seats, had been replaced with a tall platform. With this arrangement, no matter where an Apprentice was sitting, he would have to tilt his head up slightly to look at the Adept who was lecturing.

Apparently, the guy who designed this lecture hall refused to allow any Apprentice to sit higher than the Adept, even though it was just a physical position in a space.

The spacious lecture hall could hold more than two hundred people, but the Tower only had around fifty Apprentices, thus, everyone was sitting spread about. Three clear-cut groups were seen, with the three strongest apprentices in the center of each group. Besides that, a fourth group had gathered around the new Apprentice Leader, Ellen. The rest of the Apprentices were sitting alone, showing their status as 'lone wolves'.

If it was in the past, Greem had been one of these 'lone wolves'.

While he was observing the situation in the lecture hall, Greem saw a figure that stuck out from the rest of the crowd.

A striking red dress. A cool and arrogant, yet beautiful and seductive face… The owner of this face was beckoning to him to join them.

Naturally, Mary, sitting alone by herself, was the focus of almost everyone in the hall, and, no doubt, her action had made Greem the enemy of most of the male Apprentices in the hall.

Countless glances were resting on Greem, causing his expression to shift.

This Mary really knew how to stir things up!

But at this moment, he had no room to hesitate. He strode up to Mary and sat beside her quietly.

"Remember, you're my subordinate. Next time come earlier!"

Mary had leaned toward Greem, placed her charming face beside his ear, and whispered her threatening speech. Greem felt a terrifying killing intent as she did so. It seemed Mary was really satisfied with this result. Having an expression similar to that of a cat who just ate a canary, she sat straight back in her seat.

Her green eyes ran down the entire hall, charming all the male Apprentices who met her glance, then causing them to shudder, lowering their heads hastily and avoiding her eyes.

Right at this moment, Greem sensed another 'strong' glance come to rest on his personage, causing his hair to stand on end.

Shocked, he raised his head, and realized who it was!

The man who was staring at him was one of the three strongest, Evil Bugs, whose real name was Acteon.

Two bizarre looking green lights could be seen underneath his hood, coolly gazing at Greem. Although no words came from him, an invisible pressure started to fill the air around Greem.

Facing a guy with 19 Spirit, Greem was, obviously, at a complete disadvantage. If they were to fight, Greem couldn't guarantee that he would be able to complete a magic casting under such powerful spiritual pressure.

But, when he recalled the tough battle that happened yesterday, and the look of panic in Evil Bug's eyes, as he fled for his life from the frightening Alice, the fear in Greem's mind immediately subsided.

"You covered your head and scurried away like a rat to its hole, but I saw her flee before me. Perhaps you haven't even fully healed your injuries! Covering yourself so tightly in that hood, I think you're just trying to hide all the scars on your body, right?"

Inwardly, Greem was giving himself some motivational speech. Whenever he thought of Evil Bug's broken face hiding behind the hood, a proud feeling immediately surged up in his mind, and that boosted his confidence and allowed him to return Evil Bug's glare.

Evil Bug's glance became even cooler.

Although no words were exchanged between them, both of them could clearly sense the slightest changes in the opponent's emotions. Acteon could even see the mocking smile hiding behind Greem's mock stern expression.

In an instant, two shivering green flames erupted under the shadow of Acteon's hood, and condensed Spiritual energy began to violently surge around him, nearly spewing out into the surrounding area.

But in next second, Greem, who was exchanging glares with him, disappeared, replaced by an enchanting face.

Mary stepped in front of Greem and relentlessly glared at Acteon. Her lips moved, but no words could be heard. Although there were a dozen meters between them, but Acteon could still read her lips.

"He is my man! If you dare touch him, I'll kill you!"

It was a short speech, but it clearly portrayed her fierce and overbearing character.

Evil Bug's eyes became even colder.

Judging from all aspects, this Mary, who had just arrived at the level of Advanced Apprentice, was not his match. Most of her abilities were constrained by him. But… apparently Acteon was not at his peak form currently. To be bluntly honest, his combat strength was pathetic right now.

He would need a few more days to restock his dead scorpions. If he was forced to fight Mary now, even if he could win, his vitality would be greatly reduced.

However, Evil Bugs was a patient man who knew when to stay low. He turned his eyes away and avoided Mary's challenging glance, pressed down all thoughts of anger and staying quiet.

"You're a real troublemaker! How dare you to offend Evil Bugs!" Satisfied that she had forced the opponent back, Mary turned to Greem and teased him in a faux-threatening tone.

Greem smiled wryly to himself.

I was forced into that situation, ok?

But, when faced with the domineering Mary, he had no resentment or complaints. Because, between the two of them, he could sense an unspeakable trust and… dependence.

Dependence?

Greem shook his head, once again feeling his thoughts were absurd. Mary depend on him? It must because he had depleted his Spirit in his alchemy experiment. That must be why he had such a ridiculous thought.

Obviously, the delicate interaction between Evil Bugs and Mary had attracted the attention of the other two Advanced Apprentices, as they kept running their eyes between Mary and Greem.

Like a mother cat who was trying to protect her territory, Mary kept showing her fierce and dominating expression to these guys, giving them a look that said she would never give in to any threat.

As the atmosphere of the hall had tensed, due to the interaction between Evil Bugs and Mary, a shadow was suddenly seen swaying on top of the tall platform. Soon, the skinny form of Adept Anderson emerged from the shadows.

Holding the Magical Staff in his hand, Adept Anderson gazed around the hall with his uncaring eyes. After a brief moment of silence, he finally spoke.

"Today, I have good news and bad news for you!"

Everyone in the hall immediately held their breath and focused on Anderson.

"The good news is all of you are going to receive a batch of resources, which will be the most generous gift you had ever received in your entire life." Throwing a wicked glare around the hall, he noticed that these Apprentices stayed focused on him, even though he had said something shocking. Anderson nodded his head, satisfied, then continued saying, "And the bad news is… every single one of you is going to have to take on a compulsory mission!"

Adept Anderson hit the ground with his staff, and a half-transparent image was immediately projected on top of the platform. Numerous green characters were seen flickering on the surface of this projection.Investigate an abnormal creature in Redwood Village.

Acquire a Tower Bell Flower.

Defend Fort Fir.

Guard the Twilight Valley.

Eliminate an enemy of the Humming Hunting Ground.……

Line by line, most of them were the Apprentice level missions within the territory controlled by Zhentarim.

Originally, as the Apprentices of the Swamp Tower, they were only required to complete the inspection mission of this resource site, thus they were considered living in a relatively isolated clique. But now, Adept Anderson had actually opened all the Apprentice level missions of the entire Zhentarim territory to them… Could this mean there were some big changes in store for them?

Some of the more veteran Apprentices couldn't help it, and their eyes clouded over as they became lost in thought.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

After spending so many years facing life or death situations around the tower and when dealing with others, most of these Apprentice Adepts had long understood one thing: pie didn't fall from the sky, and nothing was truly free. If something claimed to be free, it was definitely a trap!

As they looked at the green colored missions in front of them, they smelled something fishy.

As expected, with a wave of Adept Anderson's hand, most of the flicking green colored words instantly disappeared, being replaced with orange text, which represented dangerous missions, and red text, which represented extremely dangerous missions.

"Those green missions, which you saw previously, are Apprentice missions you can take in future. But, before that, every single one of you will have to complete a compulsory mission! You have three months to complete this compulsory mission, and if you fail… hehehe… you'll be punished by losing your status as an Apprentice!"

At this moment, the expressions of all the Apprentices changed.

For those Apprentices who had confidence in their own abilities, no doubt this was a great chance for them to obtain Knowledge Points and resources. But, for those weaker Apprentices, perhaps all that awaited them was death.

Everyone quickly ran their eyes over the list of compulsory missions. At the bottom of the list was the only green colored mission.

Swamp Tower Garrison:

This mission required ten Apprentices, one Librarian, one Laboratory Administrator, one tutor for Probation Apprentices, two Tower Inspectors…

The light of hope had reignited on the faces of the few brand new Beginner Apprentices, who were the weakest of the whole group, and they quickly turned to their Apprentice Leader, Ellen, who happened to have a joyful expression on his face as well. Meanwhile, the four 'good buddies' that surrounded Ellen had triumphant looks on their faces, holding their heads high.

Greem's glance only briefly stopped on that green color mission, then he moved on, starting to seriously and thoroughly examine the list of compulsory missions.

With his abilities and qualifications, he knew that it was impossible for him to become one of those ten lucky guys. Perhaps, after today's meeting dismissed, many Apprentices would immediately start shady negotiations amongst themselves, and some would even meet with Apprentice Leader Ellen privately, submitting themselves to him in exchange for access to the safe mission.

After all, out of 57 official Apprentices on the spot, there were 4 Advanced Apprentices, 21 Intermediate Apprentices, and 32 Beginner Apprentices, including Greem.

Looking back at the list of compulsory missions, an orange mission could be dangerous to even an Advanced Apprentice. As for the blood red mission? Perhaps only a Pseudo-Adept could complete it safely!

No wonder that, after all the Apprentices had seen the list, the room was immediately filled with gloomy expressions.

"Hmm! I'll go to that Ellen and force him to give you a place on that safe mission. If he refuses, I…" For some unknown reasons, Mary had become quite angry. Although she was showing her tiny canine teeth, and had a ferocious look on her face, her actions were cute to Greem, and made him feel warm inside.

Greem grabbed her arm.

"Don't! You've got to have confidence in me. I can handle those orange missions!" Right at this moment, a firm and calm look could be seen in Greem's eyes.

"Well, since you are so confident, then you should just focus and pick yourself a good mission!" Mary was quite good at changing pace, and she continued, saying, "Oh right, what do you think about my skin? Is it delicate and smooth? I can feel the condition of my skin is getting better and better!"

Staring at how Mary gently licked her lips and wore an arrogant expression, Greem shuddered. He hastily let go of Mary's arm and tried his best to focus on the list of in front of him.Cleanup the Great Graveyard (3/10) Orange Mission

Mission details: Elite Grade Immortal Creatures were found at the Great Graveyard, located south of the Tiga region. Ten Apprentice Adepts are needed. During the mission, Viscount Gary will send a squad of two hundred elite guards to assist with the cleanup.

After mission completion, Viscount Gary will issue a mission accomplishment certificate.

Mission rewards: 30 Knowledge Points, 3 Magic Crystals, 10 Zhentarim Association Merit Points.Abnormal Creature in the Lands of the Giant Willow (2/3) Orange Mission

Mission details: Traces of an abnormal creature have been found in the Land of the Giant Willow, located near the south border of the Talion Forest. Eleven local villagers have gone missing. Three Apprentice Adepts are urgently needed for an expedition into the depths of the mountain to find the source of this abnormal creature.

After mission completion, the Zhentarim Association's local base will issue a mission accomplishment certificate.

Mission rewards: 20 Knowledge Points, 1 Magic Crystals, 5 Zhentarim Association Merit Points.

(If the Apprentices who carry this mission can resolve the source of the disaster, based on the evidence provided, the reward will be increased considerably.)Griffin Cliff Domestication Mission (0/3) Red Mission

Mission details: The Griffin Cliff, located in Rahia, urgently needs the expertise of three Apprentice Adepts to help them capture Griffins, assisting Beast Master Hank. The mission will be concluded after successfully domesticating ten Griffins.

Mission accomplishment certificate will be issued by Beast Master Hank of Rahia.

Mission rewards: 50 Knowledge Points, 10 Magic Crystals, 30 Zhentarim Association Merit Points.

(Upon completion of the mission, the Hamilton Company will provide a private reward.)Underground Cave Investigation Mission (4/10) Red Mission

Mission details: Traces of subterranean creatures have been found in the Underground Cave of Nigond. An investigation team, consisting of ten Apprentice Adepts, is urgently needed. The team will be required to venture at least ten miles into the underground, investigating the activity of living creatures in that area.

Status of the mission will be determined by the Zhentarim Association's base in Nigond.

Mission rewards: 70 Knowledge Points, 12 Magic Crystals, 50 Zhentarim Association Merit Points.

(The Underground is well-known for being rich in Dark Grass, Phantom Mushrooms, and Night-Eyes Stones. If any of these materials are harvested during the mission, you may keep them.)……

Line by line, a list of missions, taking place in nearly all the dangerous regions controlled by Zhentarim association, was laid out before them.

In the center of Adept Continent, in order to protect the ecosystem that nurtured the demonic resources of their mother Plane, all the Adept associations and alliances had strictly prohibited high-ranked Adepts from carried out any devastating development to the mainland. Therefore, humans only occupied around 35% of the land, the rest was a boundless savage land with no human activities. Countless demons and strange creatures were living freely in these places.

When faced with some of the more commonly seen wild beasts or demons, locals would be able to defend themselves or chase these creatures away by force. But when they encountered those frightening demons, who possessed terrifying abilities…. Small villages being slaughtered overnight was not uncommon in this world…

Thus, whenever something like this happened, in order to clean up these frightening demons, who intruded into the human world, those local authorities would need the help from the powerful and supernatural Adepts.

Obviously, those lofty Adepts would never travel so far for these kinds of petty issues. Hence, most of these supernatural forces were countered by Apprentice Adepts. Through all sorts of missions, they obtained the resources they needed, training themselves and helping to maintain the safety of human society along the way.

And this was how Adepts maintained this world.

Greem thoroughly examined every single message he found in the list of compulsory missions. At the same time, the Chip, which Greem had ordered to deactivate its scanning features, was sorting and summarized every single mission, quickly copying all the data into it's memory.

Among all these compulsory missions, Greem was only capable of accepting Orange missions. He would never dare touch those Red missions.

A legend, at the top of the list, stated that Orange missions were only suitable for Advanced Apprentices. Apprentices below this rank would have to be prepared to face a certain degree of danger. As for Red missions, they were prepared for Pseudo-Adepts. Perhaps even most Advanced Apprentice would have slim chances of surviving these missions.

But, obviously, this was a bizarre and fantasy world of Adept. There was a huge uncertainty for any of these missions… even for those simple missions with the annotation of 'safe'.

Let's take, for example, the investigation type missions, which were the most common mission type on this list. It was extremely risky to venture deep into a dangerous area, however, those investigation missions in 'safe' regions weren't somewhere you could relax either. The demons that normally appeared around mortal villages were some low-risk creatures, like Swamp Ooze, Gnome, or Stirges. A Beginner Apprentice could fairly easily handle them.

But, if luck was against them, perhaps they would have to face Wyverns, Rock Monsters, or Forest Spirits. All of these were extremely frightening creatures. Even an Advanced Apprentice would be in a life-threatening situation if they really met with these demons.

Thus, picking a mission was like gambling, as no one knew when bad luck was going to strike. Every year, 13% of Apprentice Adepts died while trying to complete missions.

After a quick selection process, the Chip had picked an Orange mission that suited Greem perfectly. It had examined each mission and removed the ones with the most uncertain elements.Apprentice Alchemist of Klage Training Mission (1/3) Orange Mission

Mission details: An Apprentice Alchemist of Klage is in the middle of completing his training mission. He urgently needs three Apprentice Adepts to accompany him into the Well of Treasures.

The mission will be considered complete after the Apprentice Alchemist's training mission has been completed. The mission accomplishment certificate will be issued by the Apprentice Alchemist.

Mission rewards: 20 Knowledge Points, 3 Magic Crystals, 1 Tranquility Potion, 1 Potion of Invisibility.The difficulty of this mission was not high. The Well of Treasures was a training field that all Apprentice Alchemists had to visit. It was a place with countless 'little toy' that had been casually placed by master Alchemists throughout the thousands of years it had existed, awaiting newcomers to dig them out.

Although they were only little toys, no matter what, they were crafted by master Alchemists. Each and every one had great research value. Some might even find the legacy of a master Alchemist in a random object.

Therefore, this Well of Treasures was the traditional treasure hunting ground for all Apprentice Alchemists.

But every Apprentice Alchemist was only allowed to enter that place once. He could bring one item from the place, but also had to leave one item behind. This was the true purpose of the Well of Treasure.

There were all kinds of crafted items in there, and most of them were pretty dangerous. For example, if an Apprentice Alchemist wanted to bring away a crafted golem, the only way he could was by defeating it. As most of the Apprentice Alchemists were really weak at the elementary stage, the Alchemist Association allowed these Apprentices to hire three helpers. But, these three helpers weren't allowed to bring anything out from that place.

It seemed that this was a pretty easy Orange mission, so long as that Apprentice Alchemist wasn't an overly greedy guy, trying to challenge one of those really dangerous items, this mission could be completed easily.

Also, the mission reward of 1 Tranquility Potion had attracted Greem as well. It could increase the Spirit of Apprentice who had less than 10 Spirit by 1. It was considering an ultimate treasure among all Beginner Apprentices! (This item could only be used once. Afterward, it would have no more effect!)

After making up his mind, Greem whispered his decision to Mary, and she, too, felt it was the right choice after evaluating the risks. As for Mary herself, she simply chose the Red mission to investigate the Underground Cave.

Relying on her Vampire characteristics of flying, fighting, and regenerating, she was confident that she could stay alive, even when faced with some rather dangerous demons. Thus, she purposely picked the mission where she had the highest chance to encounter many different species of demons.

It wasn't tough to tell that Mary was in a stage of exponential growth, and what she needed most was the blood of powerful creatures!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Now that he had decided on the mission he was taking, he needed to sign up quickly.

After all, every mission noted how many apprentices were currently applied to the mission, and how many could take the mission total. These were listed in the parenthesis. Once a mission had all its slots taken, it would disappear from the list. If he was too late, his preferred mission could slip away right in front of his eyes.

After making the announcement, Adept Anderson disappeared without saying anything else. Of course, all the secretarial work would be left to Apprentice Leader Ellen.

As expected, Ellen instantly took the garrison mission of the Swamp Tower, which was also the only Green mission on the list. His 'minions' had gotten in on that mission as well. Although the mission could still fit in few more Apprentices, Ellen had taken the dominant position, showing a look that said whoever paid the highest price would get a place on the mission.

Feeling indignant, but not daring to speak out, some weak Beginner Apprentices crowded around Ellen, lowered their voice and tried to bargain with him. Some rather good looking female Apprentices even gave him appreciative looks, squeezing themselves closer to Ellen. But most of the Beginner Apprentices actually gathered around the three strongest, chatting amongst themselves as if they were discussing on something. Obviously, they couldn't make up their minds on what to do.

Mary grabbed Greem and approached the crowd gathered around Ellen. Raising her brows, those soft-speaking fellows immediately moved to the side, revealing Apprentice Leader Ellen, who was sitting comfortably in the middle.

Though Ellen portrayed an aloof look in front of these Apprentices, when faced with the three strongest and Mary, he didn't dare act tough.

The three strongest were Advanced Apprentices, acknowledged by all Apprentices. If a confrontation erupted, Ellen, who was barely an Intermediate Apprentice, even with the help of magical items, would never be the match of them.

As for Mary, Ellen was truly freaked out by her.

Even though he had become the Apprentice Leader, whenever he thought of his previous encounter with Mary, with her ferocious, frightening face and her blood splattered body, Ellen just couldn't stop the shivering sensation that went down his spine. Besides, after being taken away by Adept Anderson, Mary was safely released. Obviously, she was being raised by Adept Anderson in the Tower. Without sufficient excuses and reasons, Ellen would never want to confront Mary.

Staring at Mary, who was now approaching him, Ellen tried his best to keep a calm exterior, but his pale face and wandering eyes betrayed what he truly felt. When faced with this terrifying Vampire, he felt intense fear in his heart!

"I am signing up for the Underground Cave investigation mission. Sign me up now!" Mary never took him seriously, and behaved with a domineering attitude.

Without saying any word, Ellen took out the Apprentice Leader's magical talisman, infused it with his Spirit energy, and a small screen immediately light up on top of it. The content showing on the screen was the Underground Cave investigation mission Mary chose.

Mary took out her magical talisman and pointed it at the screen. Immediately, the number showing how many Apprentices had signed up for the mission had changed from (4/10) to (5/10). It looked like four Apprentices had signed up for this mission before her.

It was now Greem's turn to sign up.

"I would like to accept the Apprentice Alchemist of Klage Training Mission!" Greem spoke in a calm voice.

Ellen briefly gazed at him, then, remaining silent, he adjusting the content on the screen. Following with the swaying of the screen, the mission Greem chose was shown.

Greem didn't say anything either. Without hesitation, he took out his magical talisman and pointed it toward the screen. But, something out of his expectations happened. Right when the magical talisman as about to touch the screen, the mission on the screen suddenly flicked in a bizarre manner, and reverted back to the previous mission, which Mary had chosen.

Not expecting this change, Greem's magical talisman touched the screen.

In next second, the number of participants for the Underground Cave investigation mission had changed from (5/10) to (6/10).

This never seen before occurrence startled everyone at the scene, and even Ellen seemed puzzled by it. With a wry smile, he said,

"Aiyaya… what's going on? It seems the magical equipment broke! What should we do now… Uh…. Do you want to go and see the Master Adept? Maybe he can cancel this mission for you?"

While everybody was still in shock, Mary exploded.

Without warning, Mary's sharp nails started to glow as they piercing through the air toward Ellen's heart with a jarring noise. It was a short distance, and, together with the huge gap between their Agilities, perhaps Ellen wouldn't even realize he was being attacked until Mary was crushing his heart in her hand.

But, when Mary's death-dealing claws were about halfway to Ellen's body, a huge, dark hand, shining like plate mail, suddenly stretched out from the side, both hands instantly colliding.

It looked like the two hands had only collided once, but, for some unknown reasons, in an instant, the huge hand, which looked like the claw of a monster, shattered. In fact, it was sliced into pieces by Mary's razor sharp nails. Although it seemed Mary was in the advantageous position in this exchange, there were no pieces of flesh or blood to be found in the shredded hand, the tiny fragments having transformed into countless black scorpions, quickly clinging onto Mary's arm.

Mary took a step back and swiftly moved her arms, quickly killing all the scorpions that had been trying to attack her. At this moment, Evil Bugs, whose body was fully covered by a cloak, was seen standing beside Ellen.

The huge hand belonged to him.

Flying around while making buzzing noises, the swarm of scorpions soon returned to Acteon's sleeve, like bees to their hive. Over the next few seconds, peace returned to this place. A bizarre scene had played out before them, and it had shown the frightening abilities of Evil Bugs.

The paled-face Greem took one last look at the screen, turned around, pulled Mary, who behaved like an overprotective mother cat, and left quietly. Strangely, the aggressive Mary didn't behave recklessly this time. This was because, with her sensitive senses, she had noticed the other two Advanced Adepts had quietly stood up, and were approaching the scene as stealthily as possible.

No idiot could become an Apprentice Adept, and those Advanced Apprentices were all as crafty as foxes. Except for a few weird guys, most of the Advanced Apprentices knew how to restrain themselves in order to protect their own skin. Mary, a girl who had suddenly skyrocketed to Advanced Apprentice, clearly posed a serious threat to the position of the three strongest. Thus, intentionally or unintentionally, the three of them had grouped up in an attempt to elbow Mary out.Before they separated in front of Greem's room, Mary looked like she intended to say a few words to comfort him, but stopped when she saw his sad smile.

Stepping back into his room and gently closing the wooden door, Greem silently stood in the dark for a long time.

He was clear about what happened today, and it wasn't entirely Mary's fault. If he really thought about it, Greem was sure that it must have been Evil Bugs who had ordered his mission be switched to Mary's. Although he wasn't sure whether this was because of the intruder incident yesterday, or if the three strongest were just trying to cause Mary fear, but, in short, Ellen's little trick must have been authorized by Evil Bugs.

Conflict between the powerful brought disaster to the powerless!

A situation like this was, in fact, the sad reality for the powerless.

Greem totally had no intention of seeking the truth in today's misfortune, because he had decided to work hard for his future.

The red Underground Cave Investigation mission was a dangerous mission. If he was a Pseudo-Adept, it would be a challenging mission. If he had the ability of an Advanced Apprentice, it could be life threatening. But he was only a Beginner Apprentice!

Mixing himself in with a group of Advanced Apprentices while being so weak… although Mary would definitely take care of him, he would still need to have some usable abilities. Yes, maybe Mary did appreciate his kindness during her difficult days, but that wasn't enough for her to risk her life to save him.

Considering all that he was about to face, what Greem really needed was an ability that he could protect himself with.

In the dark, Greem took out the freshly crafted Clay Golem from his waist pouch. The thumb-sized core was shining indistinctly with the glow of Earth Elementium. The four energy nodes carved on top of it could continually absorb the Earth Elementium in the world around them, turning it into usable energy and storing it for future use.

Out of the four energy nodes, two were illuminated, showing that it was 2/4 charged with Earth Elementium, which should be enough to run some tests.

Greem tilted his head to the side and listened for any movements outside his room. Then he gently opened up the door and stealthily left his room.

At this moment, most of the Apprentices were still gathered in the lecture hall, dealing with the frustration of the compulsory mission. Therefore, Greem didn't meet with any Apprentices as he left.

Fifteen minutes later, Greem was, once again, walking along the familiar stony trail outside the tower.

The fierce battle between Advanced Apprentices yesterday had clearly killed many of the demons in this swampy land. Along the way, as he saw the demons scattered about, a rare feeling of pity actually emerged in Greem's mind.

Although these demons look really frightening and evil most days, once they were faced with Apprentice Adepts who were stronger than them, they immediately became trembling cattle, unable to fight against the oppressive forces of the Adepts.

Perhaps, in the eyes of these demons, those Apprentice Adepts were the real monsters, and were even crueler than themselves!

Traveling quickly on the stony trails, Greem soon arrived at the testing field he had chosen – the Muddy Swamp.

Sinbad was dead, having been transformed into the Clay Golem in his hand. Now the Ghost Nannies had no leader, which meant it was the perfect time for him to train here.

Standing firmly at the edge of the Muddy Swamp, five steps away from the filthy and stinking pond, he could indistinctly sense the weak soul ripples of three Ghost Nannies hiding underneath the muddy water.

Greem casually tossed the Clay Golem summoning core at the edge of the pond. When the light yellow core touched the mud, a vague vibration reverberated from it.

Being guided by Greem's Spirit Energy, no activation spell was required, so a huge amount of earthy yellow smoke started to form around the core. Driven by strange forces, the clay on the ground starting to twist itself together, quickly molding itself into a shape that was roughly human.

Greem closed his eyes and sensed the Clay Golem, quickly finding the core he had crafted on the chest of the clay being.

He opened his eyes and gave it an examining look.

He was trusting that this Clay Golem would change his fate!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

The Golem standing in front of him weighed about 90 kilograms and stood 1.7 meters tall.

The earthy yellow surface of the body was constructed from a loose, damp clay. It had four distinct limbs and a head, but all were very coarse. Also, it didn't have as many joints as a real human.

Its legs were two thick clay pillars, which seemed to merge with the soil on the ground beneath its feet. Its arms seemed to be able to move in any direction, and on these arms were a pair of gigantic palms, which would likely be able to tightly clench things. It didn't have a face, but there were some protrusions where a face would normally be.

If looking at it from afar, this Clay Golem would appear to be a bald guy wearing a yellow leather armor. If a robe was put over its body, it could be used to deceive an enemy.

Greem ordered the Clay Golem to walk up and stand in front of him.

This Clay Golem was truly a creature of the Earth, as it could move its heavy body over the soft and damp soil without making a single noise. Its movement was quicker and lighter than a leopard, and no traces of its passage could be found on the ground. However, it did leave strong traces of Earth Elementium in its wake!

When Sinbad's core was obtained, her soul was captured inside it. As a direct result of being made from a high-quality demon core, this Clay Golem possessed an intermediate intelligence, which was not as rigid as other Titans and Golems. Through the Mind Control runes he had carved on the core, Greem only needed to give it a command and it would do its best to smoothly carry out the order.

Staring at the Clay Golem standing in front of him, Greem stretched his arm out in front of him and touched it. Its skin was rough and solid. Although it was constructed from soft clay, it still had a decent defense. He took out a dagger and stabbed the Clay Golem's waist a few times. The dagger simply poked through the skin and left behind some marks, which soon disappeared as a faint earthy yellow glow appeared around the mark as the golem regenerated.

Good, it had a basic defense, was mostly immune to piercing damage, and could heal itself. In brief, the basic defense of a Clay Golem was equal to a human fighter who wore a full set of leather armor. Of course, it couldn't be compared with that of a Stone or Iron Golem, and the only feature worth mentioning was the self-healing ability.

Greem walked in a circle around the Clay Golem. He thought the 1.7 meter height of the golem didn't make it look powerful enough. Thus he tried to make the Clay Golem bigger.

Following Greem's command, the quiet Clay Golem started to grow taller and bigger. However, the once solid clay body actually became soft and light. When it finally reached a height of four meters, its entire body looked like a clump of gray mist. The once solid clay body had become a gas-like Earth Elementium body.

What was wrong?

After communicated with the Chip, Greem finally understood. The demon core used to create this Clay Golem only had the ability of an Advanced Apprentice. Hence, it could only control a total of ninety kilograms of Earth Elementium. Once this weight was exceeded, it would lose any substantial form it formerly had.

The height of 1.7 meters was the most optimized height after extensive calculations performed by the Chip. Being at such a size, the density of the Earth Elementium was at an optimum level, giving it its maximum defense ability. If he attempted to make it taller, the total volume of the Earth Elementium remained unchanged, making the defense strength of Clay Golem drop significantly. So, although it looked taller, its density decreased. As a result, it was going to be difficult to protect the core hidden within its body.

Sighing helplessly, Greem had no choice but let the Clay Golem resumed its former form.

Next, he needed to test the few basic skills that came with this Clay Golem.

Although weakened, the Quake skill that came with this golem was still an offensive ability. When it was activated, the surrounding ground would shake as the Clay Golem moved around. Greem had tested it, and the vibrations had a greater impact on smaller creatures, as they could hardly stand still around the Clay Golem, let alone launch attacks against it. It could also be used decently against middle-sized creatures. As for larger creature, this skill was useless.

The second offensive skill to test was Clod of Mud.

In order to test it, Greem had the Clay Golem lure three lurking Ghost Nannies from a nearby pond. As a result, the Clay Golem and the three Ghost Nannies put on a 'big fight' for Greem.

Strictly speaking, compared to a Ghost Nanny, who barely had any good offensive or defensive skills, the Clay Golem, who was the equivalent of a pseudo-summon demon, could easily suppress them in all aspects. No matter how these three Ghost Nannies kept scratching or biting on its solid skin, all the scratch marks would disappear in the blink of an eye. But when Clay Golem attacked with its heavy fists, the Ghost Nannies would be knocked away, suffering heavily.

Following Greem's orders, Clay Golem grabbed a Ghost Nanny with one of its hands and squeezed it until a cracking noise could be heard. Then it threw it off into the distance. While the Ghost Nanny was still flying through the air, the Clay Golem grabbed at the air above its head and, immediately, a meter long spear of hardened mud appeared in its grip.

It threw the spear through the air, penetrating the Ghost Nanny's weak body and nailing it to a Killer Tree growing at the edge of the pond. As a demon itself, the Ghost Nanny had a strong vitality. Although its body had been punctured by the spear, it still restlessly struggled and tried to free itself.

A second spear was released, slamming straight through the Ghost Nanny's head. It was left hanging motionlessly from the Killer Tree.

At this moment, the two remaining Ghost Nannies hung themselves on Clay Golem's body like two mad dogs clamping onto a meaty bone. With both arms, Clay Golem forcefully pulled them away from its body and threw them onto the ground. While they were struggling to get up, the Clay Golem raised both of its arms high up into the air. In the next second, countless dirt spikes poked up through the ground and turned them into two shish kabobs.

In a brief moment, all three Ghost Nannies had been annihilated, and the Clay Golem remained undamaged.

Throughout the entire process, Greem had remained an indifferent spectator, letting the Chip collect real-time data from the battle so that it could work out a better-optimized strategy for using the Clay Golem in combat.

Soon, detailed battle data of the Clay Golem was projected into Greem's mind.

Through this detailed data, Greem was able to have a better understanding of this Clay Golem he had created.

Judging from this data, the Clay Golem was merely comparable to an Intermediate Apprentice. But, upon considering its self-healing and lack of fear towards death, it could unleash a basic combat strength that was similar to that of an Advanced Apprentice.

According to Greem's understanding, the damage that could be inflicted by a spell cast by an Advanced Apprentice Adept was around 20-30 points, varying based on the caster's Spirit. As for the defensive spells of an Advanced Apprentice, they had a defensive value of around 30-40 points, so two attacks from a similar level opponent would be enough to rip a defensive spell apart.

In this aspect, a Clay Golem's offensive strength was rather weak. If faced with an Advanced Apprentice, the Clay Golem would need offensive support from Greem. Only then would it have a possibility of defeating the enemy. After all, Greem's Fire Arrow spell could inflict 13-18 points of Fire damage and 6-7 points of Physical damage. If he and Clay Golem worked in tandem, they might be able to break the defenses of an Advanced Apprentice in a single round of attacks.

And once the enemy lost his magical defenses, unless he was a Body Refining Adept, he would just be like a tame sheep that Greem could kill easily, not even worth mentioning. So, as long as he didn't have to face someone like Evil Bugs or that frightening little Loli, the combination of Greem and the Clay Golem was enough to threaten even an Advanced Apprentice.

But, too bad, the Underground Cave Investigation mission exceeded the abilities of an Advanced Apprentice. Most likely, he would be working with a group of Pseudo-Adepts, thus, although he had a Clay Golem now, Greem was still too weak.

According to the requirements of the mission, they had to set off in half a month in order to arrive at the mission location. So, Greem was left with fifteen days to prepare. Such a short amount of time was, clearly, not enough for Greem to improve his magical abilities. Therefore, he had to keep digging into the potential provided by Golems, so he could increase his strength while he still had the chance.

Greem remained where he was, pondering upon what this meant for him. Finally, he looked off into the distance, to another area of the swamp, which was obscured by thick fog.

He was looking toward the habitat of the Giant Alligators, which he reckoned were also Earth demons.

If he could kill the Giant Alligator King in there, he would likely acquire another handy Earth Elementium core. As for the Water Elementium core, Greem just couldn't think of a demon in this swampy land which fit the requirements.

"Fine, I'll spend the next few days fighting those Giant Alligators!"

With a ferocious look shining in his eyes, he viciously spoke that while facing in the direction where those Giant Alligators lived.

After that, he motioned at the Clay Golem, making the human-sized Golem collapse. Freed from the bounds of the Earth Elementium, a large amount of clay had formed a pile where the golem used to be standing.

Greem grabbed the summoning core, rolled it around in his palms, and examined it closely. Initially, there were two illuminated energy nodes, but now, one of them had slightly dimmed. According to this consumption rate, with all four energy nodes illuminated, perhaps this Clay Golem could only fight in an intense battle for fifteen minutes. If it was not a fierce fight, perhaps it could last longer.

As the energy stored in Clay Golem was not suitable to hunt that Giant Alligator King today, Greem put away the summoning core. Then, using the Burning Hand, he ignited all three broken bodies of the Ghost Nannies. He pulled up his hood and disappeared into the misty fog.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hence, the only way any Apprentice could keep secrets safe was to make sure that these 'spies', who could be found everywhere, were removed from the equation.Greem had no idea of what had just happened behind him. Although his Elementium vision had discovered the Scavenger Crow, he didn't think to relate it to Hawkeye.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beep* "Unknown energy detected in Host's body, unable to predict what changes said energy will cause to Host's vitality. Does Host wish to cleanse it? If no answer is received from Host, cleansing procedure will automatically commence in 5 seconds…""5… 4… 3…"

"Cancel the cleansing procedure!"

"Host's command received, cleansing procedure terminated… Would the Host like to monitor internal body data in real-time?"

"Yes!"

"Host's command received. Commencing real-time monitoring of body's internal data…"

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

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

Where did these points come from?

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

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

So they came from crafting the Clay Golem!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The egg of a Giant Lizard!

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

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

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

As for the last item, which was the fist-sized metallic ore, after taking a moment to identify it, Greem realized that it was Magic Iron.

With proper smelting, refining, and forging, weapons made from this ore would stand out from standard iron weapons by displaying improvements in sharpness or penetration ability. Among mortals, this was an amazing treasure, but among Apprentice Adepts, who possessed supernatural powers, it was just an average item.

After briefly examining all the items, Greem took out a magic book and started reading. Actually, he wasn't in the mood to indulge himself in the atmosphere of researching magic knowledge. But he needed to arduously utilize every second he had.

When his Spirit Energy was full, he would practice magic spells. Although he could solidify useful spells with the help of the Chip, he still needed to practice them. Also, he had the ability to learn a skill. Whether it was 'Spell Casting Mastery', 'Spellwalk', or even 'Wondrous Item Crafting', they were all excellent options for him.

Only by purposely strengthening a specific ability could he obtain skills that would supplement his current abilities, allowing him to survive the upcoming mission.

'Spell Casting Mastery' was a skill that decreased an Apprentice Adept's casting time. He only needed to recite up to 80% of a spell, then it would be cast automatically. Although it only shaved off 20% of a spell's casting time, it was a prerequisite skill for the 'Quicken Spell' skill.

The value of the 'Quicken Spell' skill was enormous for Elemental Adepts. But it was beyond Greem's current abilities.

'Spellwalk', was the Apprentice level skill that Greem wanted the most. It allowed an Apprentice Adept to cast a spell while moving. Without it, no matter if it was an offensive or defensive skill, he could only cast them while standing still.

Therefore, this skill was a must have for all combat Adepts.

'Craft Wondrous Item' was a required skill for those Apprentice Adepts who wanted to concoct magical medicines, artifacts, or equipment. Only by mastering this skill could one further develop their skills in crafting magical items.

As for the process of obtaining these skills, most magic books didn't mention it in detail. However, all of them mentioned the term 'Will of the World of Adepts'. Greem had always been skeptical toward this.

No matter what kind of knowledge or techniques one knew, as long as one could practice them diligently, the body would remember it and it would eventually become second nature. But, depending on the feedback of the 'Adept World's Will' someone could obtain some mysterious ability without doing anything. This was just like a pie falling out of the sky suddenly and landing perfectly in someone's hands. Greem didn't understand how this could be.

Could this boundless world really have its own will? Was there some supreme deity indwelling in this World, paying attention to every individual who lived within its body, and, when the individual did something it approved of, it would reward him at the right time?

If this Will really did exist, what did it looked like? And, where did it hide? Also, what kind of ability did it have that allowed it to overcome everything and control this universe?

However, in regards to this extremely mysterious and abstruse will, Greem couldn't guarantee that it didn't exist. After all, the Adept World, where he currently lived, was a major scale Plane that was surrounded by a vast magical ocean. With such a large amount of abundant magical energy, it wasn't surprising to see all kind of mystical events occur.

So, before he uncovered the forces behind this mysticism world, he had to keep a reverent and respectful manner for everything. And that was the right attitude for an Apprentice Adept who sought knowledge and universal truths.

Greem kept copying the knowledge from the book into his database until he was left with 1 Spirit point. Then he stopped 'reading'. He couldn't use up all his Spirit, as the Fire Arrow spell was in the process of optimization and would use up 1 Spirit point every day.

He looked through the window and saw the dark sky. He quickly realized that it was after midnight.

Greem tiredly closed up the book, stood up, and stretched his body, making cracking sounds as he stretched. Then he got in his bed.

But he was not going to sleep yet because he hadn't completed his daily meditation!

Thus, within his still and quiet room, his breathing slowly became stable as his soul conscious immersed itself in the Spiritual world, which was filled with brightly glowing 'specks'.

This was one of the sad realities that an Apprentice Adept had to deal with.

Every day, from the moment they opened their eyes, they would have to face a full schedule. Even when they finally climbed back into their beds after being completely exhausted, what awaited them wasn't sweet dreams, but boring meditation. And only by meditating every day, could they increase their Spirit bit by bit.However, as the candles within the Tower went out, one by one, eventually bequeathing the tower in a complete darkness, save for the slight moonlight which could penetrate the fog and clouds above the tower, a strange figure suddenly appeared on one of the outside walls of the Tower.

A nearly perfectly perpendicular wall; numerous hidden, mysterious magical formations, yet all of these were no obstacle for it, as it was still crawling around the tower at a speed faster than any ordinary man. From its movement, you could tell it had a target in mind. It continuously passed many wide opened windows, never stopping even once, all the while moving from shadow to shadow at an incredible speed.

She was not a kind of shadow creature who could freely leap between shadows, but her extremely high Agility gave her fantastic mobility. For her, walking on the perpendicular tower wall was like walking on a level road, and she could do it all without making any noise. She was like an assassin who thrived in the shadows.

Finally, she found her target.

With a leap, the figure swiftly hung herself outside of the narrow window, hiding her body in the shadow where no light could reach. It seemed she was listening for something.

No sound could be heard from the room, except for stable, lengthy breathing. Obviously, the Apprentice in there was deep in meditation. An Apprentice Adept who was in a meditative state was defenseless. As long as a thief, or someone of a similar profession, could sneak into his room, he would be able to easily kill an ambitious future Adept.

But, clearly, the figure hanging outside of the window was an experienced person, as she didn't jump into the window impatiently. She closely examined the window.

Quiet! Silent! As still as death!

Everything around her seemed perfectly normal, but, for some unknown reason, a feeling of apprehension was growing inside her.

She didn't sense anything, but she had a gut feeling, from the depths of her strange bloodline, as if there was something really dangerous waiting for inside the window.

Although she really hated this damn bloodline, which had made her partially human and partially inhuman, but, as a Vampire who had gone through the awakening of her bloodline, she had an absolute trust in anything that came from her bloodline.

That bastard had dared to go against her earlier that day, and now he was in a deep meditation, seemingly defenseless. This Apprentice Adept was really careless!

Within the dark shadows below the window, bits of a bizarre smile could be seen in a pair of bright eyes. Mary gracefully waved her arm, throwing a fist-sized round object into the narrow window, then she immediately transformed into a black bat and merged into the dark night, flapping her wings and flying off into the distance.

Right when the round object went through the window, a magic formation, hidden on the inner side of the window, was triggered.

A blue colored 'Stun Thunder' instantly swept across the area that the round object had passed through. As this was electrical energy, even if she doubled her speed, Mary wouldn't be able to dodge this trap. Not only that, within the darkness of the room, a couple of bizarre, colorful magic spells suddenly shot out from an empty place, instantly striking the round object, which had safely passed through the Stun Thunder trap.

After all, the round object was just a hard shell made from ordinary clay. There was no way it could withstand so many magic spells, and thus it shattered immediately!

The outer shell was broken, revealing a jelly-like ooze that was trapped within. In fact, it was a living creature, and a human-like face could be seen on its pale green body, which seemed to be formed from mud, human waste, and stinking water.

"Oh shit, it's the Sludge!"

"Damn it, it's the Sludge…"

"Everybody run…"As they were knowledgeable Apprentice Adepts, all of them recognized this 'frightening' demon, who was really famous within this Magical Swamp. Those who had experienced its terrifying ability would be overwhelmed with sorrow. During normal days, if anyone encountered it in the Magical Swamp, they would definitely keep far away from it. This included the strongest three.

Because it was the most disgusting demon that lived in the swamp: the Sludge.

The Sludge was a super disgusting demon with a soft flexible body. It looked like a weird organic object with soft, slimy tissue, messy teeth, and a pair of eyes. Its pale green body looked like a pile of mud, but it actually more like jelly.

Its offensive strength was so weak, one could simply ignore. But, it had a 'frightening' skill that brought grief to those who faced it: 'Acid Retch'.

This strange creature contained a certain amount of Elementium within its body, but it had been contaminated by a chaotic force. If any object or creature got stained by its 'bile', they would suffer slightly from it corrosive acid… but then there was its incredible, frightening stench.

This filthy smell couldn't be removed by any magic spell. Those who came in physical contact with this 'acid retch', would have to bear it for ten to fourteen days! Within this period, any object touched by the man would also gain the stench as well.

Imagine this, if an Apprentice Adept, who had touched this 'acid bile', tried to have a meal, even if it was the most delicious delicacy in the world, it would smell like shit that had been soak disgusting water for a thousand years. The torture, the ridicule coming from people who avoided him like plague… it would simply make an Apprentice Adept go crazy.

And now the Sludge, who had previously been trapped in a harden clay shell, was broken out by the spells of these Apprentices. So what happened next was a really enjoyable scene!

When the pale green acid liquid splashed all over the room, sounds of vomiting immediately echoed it.

"Ma-… blagh… Mary… urf…, I haven't… urgh… finish with you… braffffff…"

An extremely tragic, furious roar came out from Apprentice Leader Ellen's mouth. But before he could finish, his voice was flooded by the loud noise of vomiting.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

The next day, Greem met two reeking midgets.

Clearly, they were two unlucky guys who had been attacked by the Sludge, which seemed to have hit them with both it's 'Acid Retch' and a 'Shrinking' curse, thus turning them into their current forms. But, before Greem could learn how this had happened, the two, discovering his presence, clenched their jaws shot and glared at him.

Faced with their angry glances, though completely confused as to why they were doing so, he just quickly handed over the list of the items he wanted to trade to Danny, turned around, and left.

Danny was considered to be one of the friendliest guys among all the Apprentice Adept in the tower, and he had established an underground market by selling info on supply and demand. Greem had come by to tell him that he was selling a Giant Lizard egg and Magic Iron Ore. If any Apprentice Adept was interested, they would come to him for a trade. At the same time, he bought a few useful items from Danny at a high price.

Comparing to previous days, the Tower was rather lively today. Most of Apprentice Adepts had left their room, coming out and talking with their familiar 'friends' about all that had happened yesterday. The compulsory mission that Adept Anderson had set for them was like a bomb, bringing a massive storm to the peaceful lives of these Apprentices.

All Apprentices were forced to discontinue their research projects and pay close attention to the latest developments, as their very status as 'Apprentice' was at stake.

After all, only a handful Apprentices had immediately decided on their missions yesterday, and most of them were still hesitating. In fact, everyone could tell that these missions had been put out by then Zhentarim Association. This also meant that they would have to form a temporary team with Apprentice Adepts from all over the Zhentarim region to fight together.

This was a situation that never happened before, so, while the uniqueness of this event in their formerly dull lives was refreshing, it also absolutely terrified and disturbed most of them as well.

Walking slowly in the public hall on the second floor, Greem passed through all these perturbed Apprentice Adepts. When these Apprentice Adepts saw him passing by, they would immediately shut their mouths, giving him a 'your not welcome here' look. Even a few of the 'lone wolves', who normally talked with him, were avoiding him, their faces filled with mixed emotions.

Greem was like a lone wolf who had just been rejected by the pack of wolves, walking slowly in the grasslands. Pulling his hood and covered his head, Greem turned around and left the hall.

Only the strongest three could make everyone stay away from him. Ellen was not capable of doing this.

Greem had no intentions on finding out why the strongest three were being so hostile towards him. In any case, it was probably because of Mary. The thing he was concerned with most was how to improve himself in the shortest amount of time, so he could survive the upcoming mission.

Taking the opportunity, while nobody was watching him, Greem, once again, snuck out of the Adept Tower.

Returning to the muddy swamp, Greem suddenly sensed how desolate this place had become.

Originally, no matter how desolate this place had seemed, Greem could always sense a pack of Ghost Nannies hiding at the banks of the muddy ponds, waiting for their prey. But, now, after performed countless scans, he just couldn't find the red dots that represented Ghost Nannies on his Elementium vision.

Within his line of sight, there were around four to five large stinking ponds. According to Ghost Nannies habits, each pond should be inhabited by a group of them, at most thirty, at minimum seven.

But now, after going through all those intense battles, the largest Ghost Nanny group, who had inhabited the largest of the ponds, had suffered greatly, causing the groups who lived near the borders to weaken, making their lives seem really miserable.

However, this was better for Greem, as it saved him some effort.

Today, Greem purposely came here to slaughter demons, so he really needed a large battlefield. If there were any Ghost Nannies left over from the past few days, they would be slaughtered by him today.

After inspecting the area again and checking all the surrounding areas (he had the Chip record the terrain data), only then did Greem take out the Clay Golem core.

After spending more than ten hours of recovering, all four energy nodes on the summoning core were brightly lit, showing that they had been fully charged with Earth Elementium. The Golem was ready to show its might!

Greem threw the summoning core to the edge of the muddy pond. As before, when it touched the muddy shore, a huge amount of earthy yellow smoke instantly erupted. This was not real smoke, but dense Earth Elementium flaring up around the core.

Earth Elementium rapidly gathered together. Driven by unseeable forces, the wet soil started to rise and twist, quickly forming into a humanoid Clay Golem that was around Greem's height.

Too bad it was not a Stone or Iron Golem, or else it's defense would be strong enough that he could, perhaps, fight face to face with the Giant Alligator King, which was Greem's target today. You got what you paid for! Indeed, the Clay Golem was cheap, but its defense was only on par with that of a human fighter in full leather armor. It could hardly withstand a Giant Alligator's sharp fangs and powerful tail.

But the Giant Alligator did have a weakness, or else, with its formidable strength, comparable to that of an Advanced Apprentice, it would merely be a dream for Greem to fight it.Early in the morning, the muddy swamp was still peaceful.

Less than half a mile from the stinking ponds where the Ghost Nannies lived was a vast area inhabited by Giant Alligators. There were a few frightening Giant Alligators just lying around within grass bushes, sleeping carelessly.

But, while they were enjoying their relaxed, leisurely lifestyle, a loud noise was heard, and a crooked figure was seen jumping into the pond where they lived.

Looking at the disheveled hair, full of moss, the pitch-black, dirty claws, and the skinny yet vigorous body… it was actually one of their neighbors, a Ghost Nanny.

As a native creature of the Magic Swamp, all strong demons had their own fixed territories, and the borders of these territories were distinct. No one was allowed to step over into another's territory. But today, this stinking and dirty Ghost Nanny had dared to intrude into the territory of the Giant Alligators, and this made the Giant Alligators, who had just been rudely roused from their sleep, become extremely angry.

Without making any noise, seven to eight Giant Alligators left the grass bushes, sunk into the water, and disappeared. The only traces of them were some fast moving water lines that led toward the Ghost Nanny.

Somehow the Ghost Nanny had all her arms and legs broken by someone. Thus, even though she had a strong body, she just couldn't do anything to save herself. Soon, a ferocious large mouth broke the water and forcefully bit onto her upper body, dragging her down as it dived back into the water. More Giant Alligators arrived, causing water to splash everywhere and mud to fiercely roll around. Once these Alligators had tasted blood, they went into a blood frenzy and started restlessly tearing the struggling Ghost Nanny apart.

An enormous Giant Alligator appeared on the banks of the pond.

Unlike the other Giant Alligators, it didn't charge in to devoured the outsider who intruded on its territory, but pushed its upper body up, like a true king, and slowly looked around.

Those Ghost Nannies had their own leader, so it was impossible for them to intrude on another's territory without reason. Could that Sinbad be trying to stir up a war between them?

As a demon leader who had gone through a unique evolution, obviously this Giant Alligator King possessed some basic intelligence. Thus it was able to ponder over some simple questions rationally.

But, while it was still wondering, another Ghost Nanny came flying over, drawing a strange line in the air as it fell into the depths of the swamp. After ripped one intruder to pieces, the Alligators had been completely incensed, and the noise immediately attracted those Giant Alligators, making them swarm towards the new 'arrival'.

Only the Giant Alligator King, who stood firmly on the banks, could see that this new Ghost Nanny had been thrown here by someone, and this 'someone' was hiding behind a Killer Tree not far from the pond.

Without hesitating, Giant Alligator King moved its short but powerful legs, beginning to waddle toward the Killer Tree. In order not to alert the 'enemy', it purposely moved around the pond, hiding within dense, waist-high weed fields as it sneaked its way toward the target.

Obviously, it had a massive body, but it still tried to sneak around like an assassin. Hiding behind another Killer Tree in the distance, Greem couldn't help but shake his head.

Although it had evolved and possessed some basic intelligence, it was still a mere demon. Compared to the profound intelligence human had, it's low-grade intelligence was just a joke.

Even with its stomach kissing the ground, the gigantic body of Giant Alligator King was still two meters tall. No matter how dense those weeds were, they could barely cover its legs and stomach. Its gigantic body was fully covered with hard scales, and pointy spines stood high up on its back, able to be clearly seen from far away. Under such a situation, it still thought it couldn't be seen. This situation was simply laughable.

What's more annoying, its enormous body weighed over thirty tons, so the ground would shake briefly with every step it took. But, it still was attempting to sneak around, like it was actually going to launch a sneak attack. It seemed that it had no idea how much it shook the ground with every step it took.Having smoothly moved around a bunch of obstacles, the Giant Alligator King finally discovered a suspicious figure behind the Killer Tree.

It was a hateful human wearing in an Apprentice robe. It also had a few immobilized Ghost Nannies beside 'him'. Every minute 'he' would throw one into the pond in the distance. Thanks to 'him', the once peaceful and quiet swampland had become a lively and noisy bloodbath, where the frightening scene of Giant Alligators ripping apart their food was seen everywhere.

The Giant Alligator King angrily glared at this evil Apprentice, and, in order to prevent this enemy from fleeing, it patiently moved forward, slowly yet surely proceeding toward this Apprentice.

100 meters…

70 meters…

50 meters…

20 meters…

Today was its lucky day.

It almost reached the back of that evil Apprentice, and 'he' still hadn't sensed anything strange behind 'him'.

While praising itself for how well it had sneaked up on its target, the Giant Alligator King lowered its body, making the last preparations for a devastating strike.

Time to die, human! I'm having Apprentice Adept for dinner!

Moving explosively, the Giant Alligator King leaped toward its target.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

When the Giant Alligator King fully opened its mouth, it was even taller than an adult human. Frightening looking teeth were messily distributed on both upper and lower jaw, all of which looked like razor-sharp daggers.

With its incredible jaw strength, perhaps this unprepared Apprentice would have his body immediately ripped in half.

But something dramatic happened. The human Apprentice turned around, throwing the Ghost Nanny in his hand into the Giant Alligator King's mouth. After that, twisting and turning in a strange manner, he escaped the frightening bite of the Giant Alligator King at lightning speed.

The skinny and tough body of Ghost Nanny was instantly bitten in half, pungent, sticky, black blood flowing down from the sharp teeth.

The Giant Alligator King let out a disgusted roar.

As a demon itself, it was never picky about food. However, it would say no to these neighbors without any hesitation. Even from the point of view of a demon, these Ghost Nannies really stunk. Only when food had really run out would it consider eating one or two of these Ghost Nannies.

Giant Alligator King spat the broken body out of its mouth. In the next second, it caught sight of the figure of a fleeing human. It could tell this human Apprentice couldn't run very fast, as he was staggering his way while stumbled over puddles.

It let out a joyful roar, moved its gigantic body, and crashing forward toward its target, like a small mountain.

Due to the terrain of this area, the Giant Alligator King actually moved faster than that human Apprentice, so it quickly reached 'his' back.

Though it kept catching up, the bizarre human would always dodge out of the way of its giant mouth miraculously. This made it even more furious, and it became more and more reckless as this continued to happen.

Finally, in one successful attempt, the Giant Alligator King crushed the human's arm with one ferocious bite. But, strangely, it didn't taste any blood or flesh in its mouth. In fact, it felt like it had just devoured a mouthful of clay. Also, after the Apprentice's robe was ripped apart, revealed that the being in front of it was not a human Apprentice, but a strange humanoid Clay Creature.

The Giant Alligator King immediately realized it had been fooled. Raging, it leaped onto the unfortunate being who had lured it here, preparing to rip it into a thousand pieces.

Since it's true identity was exposed, it was no longer necessary for the Clay Golem to continued its charade.

Tearing off the troublesome robe, the Clay Golem finally could show all of its power. It started to fight this clumsy Giant Alligator King in an orderly manner.

After all, the Giant Alligator King was an aquatic demon, which meant it could move like a fish in muddy swamp water. But when it came land movement, its gigantic body was far too clumsy. With its body fully covered with hard scales, it kept pushing around like a frantic war machine, sending grass flying all over the place, breaking trees, and leaving a deep trail on the ground.

But its attacks were overly focused on its head and tail.

Most of its offensive abilities could strike out in a fan-shaped region around the front of its head. Within this area, its ferocious bite could easily tear apart an enemy. Also, whenever it used its long tail to attack, it would break the enemy's bones.

But, the region between its front and rear limbs was its offensive weak spot, which neither its head nor tail could reach. If an enemy hid within that area, it would have to slowly move its gigantic body to position an enemy where it could strike out at them.

And this damn Clay Golem had obviously found its weakness, as it sprinted straight into that region and kept crazily attacking its body.

Using its heavy and powerful fists, the Clay Golem kept punching on the hard scales that lined the Giant Alligator King's ribs. Besides from attacking it physically, the Clay Golem also used Mud Spear to support its offensive. But all these were useless. Having its body fully covered with thick and tough scales, the Giant Alligator King didn't even care about these ineffective strikes. It just kept turning its body, restlessly trying to chase away this nasty enemy who dared to fight so close to it.

But the Clay Golem always kept pace with Giant Alligator King, making sure it couldn't be attacked.

The thick and tough scale were a defensive mechanism for the Giant Alligator King, but it also limited its range of activity to its mouth. The enemy was so close, but he just couldn't do anything to it.

Although the Clay Golem had dominated from an advantage position, Greem, who was remotely controlling from this distance, didn't felt happy at all.

This wouldn't work!

Without breaking past the enemy's scales, there was no way Clay Golem could cause sufficient damage to it. If this situation went on, the battle would end in a draw, as neither party could do anything to the other. The Giant Alligator King was blinded by its anger now, which is why it kept fighting with the Clay Golem. Once it regained its rational and returned back to the familiar swamp water, there was no way Clay Golem could fight it.

Fortunately, before Greem came here, he had performed a thorough analysis on the strengths and weaknesses of the Giant Alligator, so he had an idea on how to beat it. After received his command, Clay Golem stopped wasting its energy on attacked the opponent's body with its fist, and started releasing 'Spikes' underneath the Giant Alligator King's body.

Most parts of Giant Alligator's body were covered with a thick layer of scales, which were excellent against physical attacks. But, there was a part where these scales didn't cover: its abdomen.

Not only did these spikes do physical damage, but they also did Earth Elementium damage. As Giant Alligator was an Earth Elementium demon, it had a significant resistance toward Earth Elementium damage, so it took no damage from that part of the spike attack.

But even so, the pure physical damage still brought pain to Giant Alligator King, causing it to continually let out pained snorts.

Throughout the entire Magic Swamp, no demon could penetrate its thick scales and attack its weak spot, and this had made it the overlord of this vast swampy land. But today, the nasty golem had really upset this king.

Only after feeling pain did the Giant Alligator King recalled that he had a similar innate ability. Thus, with a furious roar, a thick Earth Elementium immediately started gathering around its body.

"Quagmire Spell!"

Greem clenched his fists tightly as he watched the innate ability of this Giant Alligator King. When he confirmed it was the 'Quagmire Spell', he couldn't hold back his excitement and immediately let out a loud cry.

Excellent! The Giant Alligator King was dead meat now!

To be honest, if this Giant Alligator King had the innate ability of Earth Elemental offensive spells, or those supplementary spells that could bring additional defense, Greem would call back the Clay Golem and leave immediately. But since it was the Quagmire spell, the success rate for today's battle had shot up to 70%.

As expected, as Greem was jumping for joy, a really funny scene occurred on the battlefield.

Within 50 meters of the Giant Alligator King, the ground had transformed into a thick deep muddy pit, which acted like quicksand. If other creatures fought with it, perhaps they would be caught unprepared and trapped by the quicksand. It was a type of restraining spell that covered a large area. This, together with its frightening physical capabilities, had brought the Giant Alligator King the dominate position in this land.

Unfortunately for it, the Clay Golem was an Earth Elemental!

Though other creatures would be trapped by it, the Clay Golem was standing on this constantly moving quagmire like it was flat ground, nothing really happened. It seemed the heavy and solid body of the Clay Golem had suddenly lost all its weight, as it stood easily on the quicksand, showing no signs of sinking.

Therefore, on top of this slow moving quicksand, an intense, yet strange battle of a mouse playing with a cat erupted between two creatures of the Earth.

The Clay Golem had given up on attacking with Mud Spear, which caused no real damage, and kept releasing Spikes underneath its opponent's body. On average, it could cast this once every 11 seconds. After all, Spike was an AOE spell. Although the Clay Golem couldn't see the exact soft spot of the Giant Alligator King's abdomen, nor how effective this attack was, as long as the attack was focused under the Giant Alligator King, it would be enough to hurt it.

After fifteen minutes of this intense battle, it was obvious that the Giant Alligator King couldn't hold much longer, as its movement was slower than before.

Not only was it unable to hit the enemy, it also kept feeling a sharp pain on its abdomen. This depressing battle had made it really angry. As a demon with basic intelligence, it realized that if the situation went on like this, it would really be killed by this fellow.

Thus, the Giant Alligator King decided not to bother with this Clay Golem anymore. It turned its body and started moving toward a pond in the distance.

However, this had been within Greem's expectations. When it started turning its body, it realized that another human was blocking its way back. Also, the human was holding a strange looking object, which resembled a spider.

Relying on its sensitive sense of smell, Giant Alligator King sensed real blood and flesh from this obstacle. It couldn't hold its anger and let out a furious roar. Facing with the real culprit of today's evil plot, it ferociously leaped forward, planning to knock this enemy away and returned to its home territory.

In next second, a white spider web covered its head, sticking onto its short and thick front legs. At the same time, a flaming hot Fire Arrow was shot out, quickly nailing into the upper part of its long, narrow mouth. That's where its head was located, and also the part nearest to its eyes.

Giant Alligator King closed its eyes, and a layer of tiny scales was seen to be on its eyelids as well. It felt a severe pain on its forehead as a raging fire exploded on its face.

As its front legs were tangled by spider webs, and both of its eyes were forced closed by the fire so it couldn't see a thing, it had to slow down. Therefore, the Clay Golem, who had been following along beside it, started to increase the frequency of its attacks.

In order to win this battle, Greem nearly went bankrupt.

These one-time usage spider web items were not cheap. Whenever he used one, his heart would bleed. But in order to prevent the Giant Alligator King from running away, he had no alternative but to kept using them to trap its legs.

The Giant Alligator King had an overpowering Strength. According to Greem's preliminary estimation, it had at least 14 Strength. With this incredible power, each spider web could only trap it for six to seven seconds. If not because Greem also kept attacking its eyeballs with Fire Arrow, causing it to be unable to find its way back, perhaps it would forcefully push through these obstacles and run back to its nest.

Hence, with a careful and accurate planning, after nearly seven to eight minutes of the restless attacks, the Giant Alligator King's abdomen was finally punctured by the Clay Golem's Spike spell.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

The Giant Alligator King had died, and it had done so at the hands of two seemingly insignificant beings!

Greem commanded the Clay Golem to hack into the Giant Alligator King's corpse so that he could harvest some important materials, including an egg-sized Earth Elemental core. After that, before all the other Giant Alligators could bother them, they hastily left the area.

After Greem's form had disappeared at the end of the trail, behind a Killer Tree less than half a mile away from the battlefield, Mary was staring distractedly at the Giant Alligators who were roaring angrily in the distance. On the ground around her, fourteen broken Scavenger Crow bodies were scattered around.

She had witnessed the entire course of Greem's battle just now, and was now filled with mixed emotions.

The Giant Alligator King was a terrifying demon that even she had not dared provoke!

Although the Giant Alligator King was considered to be on the same level as an Advanced Apprentice, this wasn't a good representation of it's true fighting ability. With her high Agility, even if Giant Alligator King was given a pair of wings, it would still not be able to think about catching her. However, the thick and strong scales of Giant Alligator King were not something she could break through either, as she was 'weak'.

If they fought, the Giant Alligator King couldn't do anything about her speed, and she couldn't do anything about its defense.

Mary knew the limitations of her abilities. While they were weak, she might be able to bully most of these Apprentice Adepts. But following their inevitable improvement, her advantage was, in fact, shrinking.

And now this seemingly insignificant Beginner Apprentice 'subordinate' of hers had actually been able to use that strange Clay Golem to kill the Giant Alligator King.

This… this brought her great confusion!

Turning her eyes down to those broken crow bodies, her eyes clouded up, and her mind was drifted away.

He was a 'subordinate' that she had personally subdued! Since when he had become the main fighting force, and she became the slave who was responsible for clearing up the spies on the perimeter? A flame of anger erupted in Mary's mind, and a blood red thread appeared in the middle of her green eyes.

She was the boss, and he was just a little subordinate. This relationship could never be changed! It looked like it was time to teach this smug brat a lesson. Although he treated her nicely in the past, she wouldn't allow him to ride her to the top… Yes, she would teach him a lesson when she got back!

Pressing down the depression and frustration building in her mind, Mary leaped into the air, transformed into a tiny bat, flapping her wings, and flew off towards the tower.

When Mary knocked on Greem's door, raging anger in her heart, she was taken aback when the door opened to reveal Greem's dazzling smile.

Pulling Mary into his room, Greem presented his present to her like he was offering her a precious treasure.

"Mary, look at this! I know you like the blood of strong beings, right? Would this be useful for you?"

Pungent and sticky blood was inside a small pot. With both hands, Greem held it out to Mary. His face was shined with anticipation, his face covered with a look similar to that of a small child begging to be praised.

"This… what is this?" Mary stammered.

Somehow, though she came here to teach Greem a lesson, her anger had instantly vanished, she even stammered when talking to the guy.

"Don't ask. Give it a taste first and see if you like it! I have harvested quite a lot of them this time. If you like it, I'll go to the laboratory and have them purified and get rid of the pungent smell, with that, I'm sure it will taste better!"

Putting on a poker face, Mary criticized him to cover up her surprise at this situation.

"Who would present a gift like this? You didn't even wrap it up nicely. You just placed it in a crude pottery pot. At least, you should pour it in a crystal clear goblet! And, how did you abstract this blood? Don't you know the sweetest blood of a creature is their heart blood? For the sake of your sincerity, I'll forgive your rude manner this time. Remember! Next time prepare your gift properly before you present it to me!"

"Understand… I totally understand… but… Mary! You see, it will take me a lot of time to prepare all of these, and I don't think I have enough Knowledge Points right now…"

Her beautiful green pupils contracted, and a dangerous look flashed through her eyes.

"So… you're trying to borrow from me?"

"No… Well, yes, but only temporarily. Once I have sold all the items I have listed, I'll pay you back." Greem couldn't help it and smiled awkwardly. The quality of the Earth Elemental core he harvested this time was better than the first one, and so he had more space to embed Magical Formations on it. Thus he was troubled with how to fully utilize it.

He didn't have much time left until they had to set off for the mission, yet he still had a few urgent matters that needed to be taken care of.

The freshly harvested Earth Elemental core was definitely one of them.

Greem had thought of a unique plan for this new core. Since it was also an Earth Elemental core, why couldn't he connect the energy of both summoned Clay Golems? When separated, each Clay Golem would work on their own, and when they were connected, they would share their energy. Wouldn't it be better this way?

Upon thinking of this, Greem had the Chip perform some preliminary calculations. What he needed now was to learn about energy connections and soul synergism. Once he had this knowledge, he should be able to craft this new golem.

Greem also still needed to find a suitable defensive magic spell.

Currently, he had mastered two Fire Elemental magic spells, one used for close combat, and with slight defensive usages, and the other was a pure long-range offensive spell. Thus, he still had a huge weakness when dealing with defense. If he didn't solve this problem, he would very likely die on the upcoming mission.

Using his bug fusion ability, Evil Bugs was like an unbeatable cockroach, and he never feared an enemy's attacks. Madwoman had an incredible Physique, and her offensive strength was nearly invincible, thus she never had to worry about her own safety. Hawkeye's abilities were unknown. Mary possessed an inhuman Agility, and the frightening ability of bloodsucking, which provided her with powerful regeneration. Hence, she too was as unkillable as a cockroach.

All these Advanced Apprentices had their own complete and systematic path of magic. No matter it was in offensive or defensive, they possessed their own unique abilities, and thus they differed greatly. But, no matter who he had to face, Greem had no confidence in surviving against their attacks.

This was Greem's current weakness.

Due to a lack of knowledge and resources, Greem was considered an underdog, even among Beginner Apprentices, and hadn't really decided on his development path. Thus, he hadn't developed a systematic way of cultivating his magical ability.

Although he had wished to become a Principle Adept before this, and even learned some Profound Adept skills, the damn compulsory mission had halted his original development plan.

According to his initial plan, he was supposed to pour most of his resources into learning elementary knowledge and theories of Fire Elemental magic spells, trying his best to increase his Spirit so he could reach the same level as most other Apprentices his age, stepping into the rank of Intermediate Apprentice. By his estimations, this process would take him at least three months.

But now this Red compulsory mission was pressing down on top of his head like a nightmare. If he didn't possess any appropriate countermeasures before it started, perhaps he would die in that frightening Underground Cave. Because of this, Greem had no choice but to readjust the allocation of his resources, putting all of them into the golems.

As the direct result of this, Greem was nearly bankrupt!

He didn't have sufficient Knowledge Points to rent the Alchemy Laboratory; didn't have enough Knowledge Points to learn defensive magic spells; and didn't have enough gold coins to purchase suitable items for anything…

Putting aside the gold, without sufficient Knowledge Points to support the crafting of a new summoning core, Greem had no hopes of surviving that cave. If it wasn't for this, he would never ditch his pride to try and get something from Mary.

Mary stared straight at Greem's face with her dazzling eyes. Finally, she nodded her head without saying anything.

After obtained an 'investment' from Mary, and unaware of the beating that he had narrowly escaped, Greem eagerly rushed off to the Alchemy Laboratory and, like an extravagant man, rented out the high-quality Alchemy Station for seven hours.

The Earth Elemental Core obtained from Giant Alligator King was as big as a pigeon egg. According to the Chip's designs, besides a few basic controlling magical formations, he could place a few more energy nodes on the extra space. Thus, while the previous summoning core could only have four energy nodes, this one could have nine.

More energy nodes meant a more complex magical formation and numerous modifications to the entire structure. So, since the moment Greem had obtained the core, the Chip had been busy calculating and testing the design.

When Greem had finally prepared all the magical materials, the Chip had completed the task.

Beep* "The latest structural design for golem summoning core has been completed. Commence data transfer?"

"Transfer!"

After the data finished transferring, Greem closed his eyes and saw the custom three-dimensional design of the magical formation.

After on these calculations, he needed to carve fifteen magical formations of all sizes on the surface of the pigeon egg sized summoning core. He also needed to connect them all together, forming them into a larger, more complex magical formation. A design task like this could only be completed by the Chip in such a short amount of time. For Greem, he could barely recognize any of the rune structures on it.

After spending a few minutes trying to understand it, Greem stopped trying and turned his attention to the issues he had to face later during the carving process.

With the help of the Chip, Greem could totally avoid the problem of insufficient knowledge and skill, and was able to divide the entire complex crafting task into countless simple and straightforward operations. Through these trivial, small operations, Greem, who was only a rookie in Alchemy, could complete the complex rune structures in one go, while this would usually only be possible in the hands of those Master Alchemists.

Therefore, at this moment, what Greem worried about was not whether he was competent enough to complete this project, but if his Spirit was sufficient to support the massive strain he was about to put on it.

But he didn't have any alternatives.

He had to construct his Golem army as quickly as possible in order to optimize his offensive ability. Then had to find the time to learn one defensive magic spell in order to give himself both the offensive and defensive advantage. And this was the key to his survival in the compulsory mission!

Greem took a deep breath, and once again stood in front of the Alchemy Station. He rid himself of any distracting thoughts and fully focused on crafting the brand new summoning core.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Editor Note: So life is getting busy for me on May 1st, and I will be unable to continue editing AoA. (Don't worry, FruitFly is still translating). However, all of this just goes to say that UntouchableFly will soon be in need of an Editor. If you have any interest in this, please either leave a comment below, or email me at

Several hours later, when Greem exuberantly rushed back to his room, he found an Apprentice Adept was waiting for him.

To his surprise, after putting out the 'item for sell' notice, the first person who came to see him was actually Anm, the administrator of the Magic Practice Room. Though Greem barely had contact with anyone, he had heard that this Anm hadn't managed to squeeze himself into the ten man list for the mission of guarding the Swamp Tower.

This also meant Anm, who was an Intermediate Apprentice, had to face the risks brought to him by the approaching compulsory missions.

"I heard you have an egg of a Giant Lizard in your possession?" Upon meeting Greem, Anm didn't hide his objective of being here. As the clock was ticking, all beginner and intermediate Apprentices were filled with a sense of crisis, thus they were seizing every second they had to strengthen themselves. As a result, the items which were very useful for small scale battles between Apprentices, such as potions and scrolls, had their prices skyrocket. They were so expensive that even the richest Apprentices felt a heartache when purchasing them.

If not for this, Greem wouldn't have nearly gone bankrupt just because he purchased a few one-time use spider webs.

But this was not a bad thing either.

From the 'blackmarket' list provided by Danny, Greem saw many rare materials that he could hardly find during normal times. These items were definitely the treasures of other Apprentices, many of which had been set aside to be used when they broke through to the next level in the future.

But too bad… due to this compulsory mission, which was a matter of life and death, they were forced to give up their futures, selling these treasures in exchange for items that would instantly increase their combat abilities.

Greem politely invited Anm into his room.

As Anm came into the room, the strong smell of blood and the pungent smell of formalin filled his nose. Glass jars of all sizes could be seen placed on a shelf in the corner of the room. They were filled with light green liquid, and all kinds of demon organs could be seen floating in these jars. Hearts, gastric pouches, brains, eyeballs… many of them still had blood in and on them. Clearly, they were freshly harvested.

An excited frog croak rang through the air, which came from Anm's companion beast, the Poison Dart Frog as it suddenly appeared on his shoulder, restlessly croaking at these materials. When Anm finally calmed it down, it crawled beside his ear and starting to whisper something.

"Looks like you have come across some fresh materials. Why don't you sell them to me?" Anm quickly threw out a demand.

"All of these materials were harvested from the Giant Alligator King. I think that there are guys who can't wait to improve their ability that wouldn't mind implanting the heart of the Giant Alligator King in their body. If you really want to buy it, you better give me a good price!" Greem remained calm and reminded Anm.

In this unique period, anything that could improve an individual's battle ability could no longer be traded at a reasonably normal price. As for how much the price was increased, it was actually proportionate with the quality of the item, and also dependent on how much of a hurry the individual who trying to purchase it was in. Therefore, when faced with an urgently needed item, anyone would have to prepare to go bankrupt.'

"The Giant Alligator King? That's even better!" What Greem said made Anm feel his heart burn with desire, but then he stopped, baffled. He stared at Greem, asking, "You were able to kill the Giant Alligator King?"

Greem briefly shook his head and pointed his finger at the wall between his and Mary's room.

Anm quickly realized what this meant and nodded his head.

When a Beginner Apprentice tried to challenge the Giant Alligator King, it was no different than courting for death. But if it was an Advanced Apprentice, who was also a Vampire, trying to do so, that was a whole different story. Although he still felt uncertain, it wasn't something that was difficult to accept.

Over the next few minutes, the two Apprentices bargained hard with each other. Although one of them was eager to purchase, and the other was impatiently trying to sell off his items, neither was willing to give up their bottom line so easily. Finally, after two hours of intense negotiations, Greem sold all his organic materials in exchanged for seventeen Knowledge Points, three Magic Crystals, one 'Screaming Tree Branch', and one Invisibility Potion (weak).

As for the back scales, fangs, and claws of the Giant Alligator King, Anm showed no interested in them. Nonetheless, Greem considered selling them to some of the Apprentices who were preparing to take the path of Body Refining Adept.

If not because times were so rough, Greem had actually planned to extract the backbone and tendons of the Giant Alligator King, as both of them were in great demand among Body Refining Apprentices. But if he really rushed back to the scene, perhaps the corpse of the Giant Alligator King would have long since been cannibalized by the other Giant Alligators.

It took Anm a few trips to move all the materials, and once he was done, Greem immediately rushed to the library with his freshly obtained Knowledge Points.

He was looking for a good Fire Elemental defensive spell.Inferno Force Field, a basic Fire Elemental defensive magic spell capable of forming a high-temperature field around the body, toasting any enemy that entered the region, and causing them to suffer a rapid loss of body water content. Effective circumference: 10 meters. (Note: This is a prerequisite magic spell for Ring of Fire, an advanced Fire Elemental defensive magic spell.)Fire Blast, a basic Fire Elemental defensive magic spell capable of laying Elementium orbs that spin around one's body. Any enemy who touches the Elementium orbs will suffer a Fire Blast that inflicts 3-5 Fire damage. Effective circumference: 8 meters. Numbers of Elementium orbs: 17.Inferno Body, a basic Fire Elemental defensive magic spell capable of temporarily transforming part of one's body into Elementium to avoid a deadly offensive attack. Significantly improved Fire Elemental resistance for the caster. Effective circumference: 0 meters. (Note: This is a prerequisite magic spell for Fire Elementium Modification.)Fire Shield, a basic Fire Elemental defensive magic spell capable of forming a small fire shield in front of the caster's body. It is able to block most long-range magic spells and melee attacks. Any enemy who attacks the shield will receive 1-2 Fire damage. Effective circumference: 3 meters. Defensive strength: 35 points. (Note: This is a prerequisite magic spell for Inferno Shield.)Inferno Shield, an intermediate Fire Elemental defensive magic spell capable of forming three spinning fire shields around the caster's body. Before the shields are broken, it is able to block all long-ranged and melee attacks. Inflicts 3-5 Fire damage to melee attackers. Effective circumference: 5 meters. Defensive strength: 80 points. (Note: Requires Fire Shield as a prerequisite magic spell.)Ring of Fire, an intermediate Fire Elemental defensive magic spell capable of using a large amount of Fire Elementium to form a ring of fire around the caster's body. Inflicts 5-7 points of fire damage every second to any enemy who enters the ring. Effective circumference: 15 meters. (Note: Requires Inferno Force Field as a prerequisite magic spell.)……

This dazzling array of Fire Elemental defensive spells posed a difficult choice for Greem. All these magic spells had their own pros and cons, hence, in order to pick a suitable spell, he needed to carefully identify their differences and measure them against each other.

Also, as most of the defensive magic spells came in a set, some intermediate and advanced defensive magic spells required a caster to master certain prerequisite basic defensive magic spells. So, if he chose the wrong spell, and wished to learn other advanced spells, it would take him more time and energy.

Inferno Force Field and Ring of Fire were each a part of sets, and they were both field control spells. They didn't provide any substantial defense to an individual, hence they couldn't block against any long-ranged attack. But when faced with melee attacks, field control was pretty effective.

Especially the intermediate spell, Ring of Fire, which could inflict 5 to 7 Fire damage every second, for those enemies who only possessed melee ability, it was nearly impossible to face. Take Greem as an example: currently, he only had 14 Health Points. If he entered the Ring of Fire, perhaps he would be burned into a charcoal within three seconds.

And, what could he do within three seconds? If he hadn't solidified any magic spells, perhaps, before he could cast any spell, he would be killed by the fire damage.

Imagine this: within a group of Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices, a Pseudo-Adept who had mastered Ring of Fire suddenly appeared, cast the Ring of Fire magic spell on these rookies, putting them in intense pain. Not only that, he might not even need to attack personally, as just the Fire damage would be enough to kill all rookies who had no Fire elemental resistance.

Whenever he thought of this breathtaking scene, Greem just couldn't control himself and trembled in excitement. But, when he recalled that Ring of Fire couldn't stop an enemy from attacking, his excitement quickly turned to dislike.

By contrast, Fire Shield and Inferno Shield were rather low profile.

Forming a shield of dense Fire Elementium and making it hover around the caster's body in order to block any possible direct magic spells and melee attack, and if there was an enemy that dared to get closer before the shield completely broken, it could also inflict some nasty Fire damage.

Generally speaking, it didn't have any obvious offensive abilities, but possessed excellent defensive abilities.

Therefore, as expected, Greem borrowed two magic spell books: Fire Shield and Inferno Shield.

In this place, it required fifteen Knowledge Points to purchase the Fire Shield magic spell book, but it only cost three Knowledge Points to borrow it once. So, most Apprentices preferred to borrow it a few times and take their time copying it rather than spending so many of their precious Knowledge Points purchasing a book.

It was time for the Chip to shine.

Greem just needed to borrow the book once, and the Chip would be able to scan all the content it and store it in his mind. Then, he could spend his own sweet time studying them, thus saving a huge amount of Knowledge Points, which he could use to borrow more books.

Also, he couldn't master a defensive magic spell by reading just this. He still needed to do a lot of preliminary studies. Gritting his jaw tightly and steeling his mind, Greem borrowed all the required books in one go.'The Influences of Fire Elementium Density Toward the Effectiveness of a Magic Spell'

'Elementary Fire Control Techniques'

'Analysis on the Usage of Fire Shield'

'Characteristics of Fire Elementium Distribution'……

Carrying a tall stack of borrowed books, Greem once again rushed back to his room. As he reached his room, he heard the door of his neighbor open up and saw Mary's cool and elegant face poke out from behind the door.

"Where is my present?"

"Ugh…"

Suddenly, Greem was struck dumb and felt glued to the floor.

As he was busy with his summoning core, he actually completely forgot about Mary!

Staring at Mary's gloomy face, and realizing she was going to rampage soon, Greem quickly let out a loud cry.

"One hour… just give me one more hour. The present is going to be ready soon!"

After that, he ran into his room.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

After making sure Mary was appeased, Greem was finally able to finish preparing for the upcoming mission.

In order to better protect his life, Greem had nearly used up all his resources adding all kinds of items to his inventory, each capable of helping him handle different situations.

The 'Screaming Tree Branch' that he had received when trading with Anm was one of them.

The Screaming Tree Branch was a unique item produced by nature. If one cut a branch from it and tied it to their skin, it would let out a shrill scream when the holder was struck by a curse. The one Anm traded with Greem could still be used three times, and was vital for the mission.

Before leaving the Tower, he had to prepare quite a lot of similar items.

Blood coagulating medicinal paste, which made wounds heal more quickly; Purple Wistaria, which could reattach an amputated limb; basic antidotes for common poisons; Absinthe Powder, which could repel insects and snakes in the wild; a talisman that could detect spiritual creatures…

Being away from the tower, besides forgetting all those strange and unpredictable demons, beasts, and monsters, the most troubling of all were other Apprentice Adepts. who possessed all sorts of fanciful abilities. The more thoroughly he prepared, the more likely he could save his own life at a critical juncture. Therefore, during the preparation of these items, Greem tried his best to take into account all possible situations so as to be ready for anything.

Most importantly, as the mission was taking place underground, Greem purposely studied the information related to the Underground Cave. So he had gained a basic understanding of the location.

To Greem's surprise, the underground of the Adept Mainland was not entirely hard rock and soil, but included vast networks of underground caverns and karst caves, and twisting tunnels that connecting them together. In this underground world, one could find glowing rocks, crystals, and phosphorescent mosses, lichens and fungi. Compared to the world above, strange plants were very common in this place. Without using any magical methods, it would be impossible to identify which of them were poisonous and which were edible.

However, these mutated plants and creatures weren't the most frightening things in this underground world, but the countless monstrous, evil, dark creatures and Fallen Adepts who had separated themselves from the path of official Adepts.

Most of these Fallen Adepts had committed serious crimes against the Adept Mainland. In order to escape being hunted down by Adept Associations, they were forced to hide in the underground, choosing to live among all those ugly and twisted creatures. Some said that these Fallen Adepts had actually built a small city for themselves. It was a lawless place where evil ran rampant, a true city of crime.

As the underground world had a complicated terrain and countless tunnels, although the major Adept Associations had organized numerous clean-up operations, never once had they been able to completely wipe out these dark Adepts. Thus allowing these criminals to grow stronger. By now, this underground city of sin had several hundred official Adepts, and were considered an abnormal branch of official Adepts: the Fallen Adepts.

The Underground Cave, where Greem going to investigate, was just one of the entrances to the underground world, of which there were dozens. Although an Adept Tower had been built there, and was guarded by an official Adept, they still couldn't stop those Fallen Adepts from trying to sneak through this cave with all kind of methods.

With the abilities of Apprentice Adepts, such as Greem, there was no way they could fight with those Fallen Adepts. Thus, they were only required to investigate the distribution of demon creatures within ten miles of the surface. Also, they needed to report if they found any traces of Fallen Adepts.

The first mission was easy, but the second one would bring them great danger. If they actually ran into Fallen Adepts during their investigation trip, even those Pseudo-Adepts would find it hard to escape.

Therefore, knowing he might face such a situation, Greem had to specifically prepare some unique items.

Since the place was filled with rough, twisting tunnels and caverns, any creature from the surface world would find it hard to see things in the dark. So, the first thing Greem had to solve was how to maintain his vision when traveling underground.

In order to solve this problem, there were two solutions.

The first solution was to purchase some crafted items which came with the effect of Low-light Vision. Of course, it would be better if it carried the function of Dark Vision. But taking his finances into consideration, Greem had no choice but to lower his expectations.

Low-light Vision allowed the bearer to maintain normal vision in a dusky environment, and Dark Vision was an enhanced version of it, allowing the bearer to have a perfect vision, even in total darkness.

The second solution was to implant an 'Eye of Void' or 'Thousand Eyes Bug' in his body.

Using some techniques from biological modification, replacing one of his eye with an 'Eye of Void', which was an eyeball modified with a magical spell. With that, he would possess the ability to see invisible objects and vision in total darkness. But as this method involved biological modification, the purity of his bloodline risk being contaminated.

As for the latter, he had to swallow a 'Thousand Eyes Bug'. After that, the bug would live in his body, and a compound eye would grow on his forehead. After the Thousand Eyes Bug integrated with a body, it would form a symbiotic relation with the host and thus the host would gain its special vision: Infrared Senses.

This parasitic method did bring an amazing effect, but, at the same time, it came with some irritating side effects. Every day, the host had to consume moth larvae, which was the favorite food of the Thousand Eyes Bug. Without it, from time to time, the parasite bug would feed on the host's blood essence and flesh. According to the description in the book, those larvae looked nearly identical to silkworm in his past life, which made Greem nearly thrown up when reading about it.

After taking all situations into consideration, Greem felt his priority would be on those supplementary crafted items. If he really couldn't find anything, then he would have to force himself to use the Thousand Eyes Bug.

After taking care of his vision problem, Greem started to ponder about the issue of mobility.

That place was underground, fully surrounded by wet soil and hard rock. Any intense fights could cause a devastating collapse. How was he going to rescue himself if he was trapped in a pocket cavern?

Greem's mind was deeply troubled by this question. However, the Chip gave him the answer. The Clay Golem!

Greem's elemental affinity was Fire Elementium, but the Clay Golems he owned now both had an affinity for Earth Elementium, and all Earth creatures were experts in traveling underground. With help from the Clay Golems, there shouldn't be any earthen place that could trap Greem.

But after all, this supposed to work theoretically. In order to get first-hand information, he had to test it out himself. Therefore, after meeting with Danny and telling him he was looking for a Low-light Vision talisman, Greem once again snuck out from the Tower.

To be honest, after the compulsory mission was announced, most of the Apprentice Adepts were busy preparing. Hence, the inspection mission of the tower had temporarily been halted. With that, Greem didn't have to worry that someone would disturb his practice.

Following the familiar path that led to the outer perimeter of the swampy area, Greem found himself a flat field, planning to practice the offensive model he envisioned. The reason he chose this pace was because Sinbad, the leader of Ghost Nannies, had been killed. Without their leader, and with all the recent deaths, no Ghost Nannies would come and disturb him.

He casually threw out the two Clay Golem summoning cores. When they touched the ground, two totally different looking Clay Golems immediately appeared in front of Greem. The core obtained from Sinbad summoned a human-shaped golem that was nearly two meters tall, and the newly crafted Giant Alligator King core actually brought forth an alligator shaped golem. Aside from being smaller than the real Giant Alligator King, they looked nearly identical.

Greem narrowed his eyes and pondered on this for a brief moment.

Both cores were extracted from demons heads, so it wasn't surprising that they contained part of the demon's soul. So, when the summoning core gathered Earth Elementium and formed a body, the conscious of the former demon, before they were killed, decided the final shape of their body after being crafted into a golem.

Of course, as this body was formed with Earth Elementium, as long as Greem gave a precise order through the Mind Control Imprint System, the golems could still change into any shape Greem wanted, by adjusting their distribution of Earth Elementium. But this process would consume a certain amount of their energy reserve.

Staring at his two subordinate golems, standing side by side in front of him, Greem couldn't control the excitement growing in his mind. Three days ago, he was still a lone wolf that no one seemed to care about, but now he had completed the first steps of building a loyal army of golems. Although the number of his subordinate was still small, he still took heart in his progress.

The Chip had gathered statistics on this new golem, so Greem focused his attention on the data.

As expected, as the Giant Alligator King was way stronger than Sinbad, as the attributes of the Clay Alligator Golem totally surpassed his first Clay Golem, excluding Agility. Also, all its fighting skills were perfectly matched with Greem's abilities. At a glance, it looked like it was perfect for melee battles.

But Greem didn't bring them out to show off their muscles, as he wanted to practice the first combat tactics he had envisioned in his mind.

Taking a brief moment to calm his mind, Greem howled, giving a battle command to both golems.

"My golems! Use your braveness and fearless to open up the path to victory! Now, follow my command! Combine!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Following Greem's order, the humanoid Clay Golem trembled, like a statue that had its internal supports taken away, and collapsed. At the same time, an earthy yellow dust exploded from the back of the Clay Alligator Golem, which quickly molded itself into the shape of the humanoid Clay Golem.

Therefore, the previously separated humanoid Clay Golem and the alligator Clay Golem merged, transforming into a strange looking 'Demon Alligator Hunter' form.

From a far distance, they looked like a masculine hunter riding on a nearly three meter long demon alligator, holding a dirt spear in his hand. As the summoner of both golems, Greem was able to clearly see this newly formed golem. Actually, the hunter was not riding on top of the alligator, but its entire lower body had merged with the back of the alligator.

A Clay Golem could never detach themselves from the ground, or else they would lose their endless supply of Earth Elementium. Now that they had merged, most of their abilities had been combined. The dense Earth Elementium had formed a layer of sparkling and crystal-clear Earth armor on their body, showing some signs of being similar to stone armor.

Demon Alligator Hunter!

Through extensive calculations performed by the Chip, and the merging of magical formations, two Clay Golems, with nearly identical sources, had been merged together, giving birth to a brand new golem.

Greem strode forward. Following his arrival, the Demon Alligator lowered its body, gently coiling its long tail around Greem's body and lifting him onto its back. The spikes on its back wriggled, transformed into the shape of a chair.

Placing his body firmly into the clay chair, Greem lightly tapped his feet.

"Let's go!"

Following his command, the Demon Alligator opened its mouth and let out a deep howl as it began to waddle its huge body toward the Ghost Nanny's nest in the distance.

Actually, those Ghost Nannies resting in the muddy swamp not far away had noticed their presense. But after going through two devastating mass killings, they had become like birds which jumped at the mere twang of a bow-string – badly frightened. Thus none of them dared to come out and look for trouble. However, having such a large Demon Alligator intrude into their territory and begin to wreak havoc to the muddy swamp they lived in, no matter how weak they were in comparison, these Ghost Nannies had no choice but to force themselves to face this foul intruder.

Sharp, shrill howls, like night owls call, started ringing through the air of the muddy swamp. Skinny, yet surprisingly strong, figures kept squeezing out from the muddy pond, one after another one, letting out sharp cries and crowding in from all directions.

Their hair was dirty and disheveled; their bodies pale and wrinkled; their nails pitch-black and razor-sharp… Like frightening ghosts, these demons charged toward the intruders while letting out terrifying howls. If an ordinary Apprentice Adept was here, perhaps he would have scurried away at this frightening scene, but Greem was just the opposite.

Today, he was testing the strength of his newly combined Golems. How could he be scared at such a small scene?

After ran his eyes over the swarm of Ghost Nannies storming in from all directions, Greem had a cruel smile come over his face as he stomped his feet.

"Kill! Kill them all for me!"

Upon receiving Greem's command, the seemingly stiff and dumb Demon Alligator Hunter suddenly 'woke up'. Although it didn't have clear facial features, a strange 'roar' actually rang through the air, causing ripples to spread across the water.

Biting with its mouth; ripping with it's sharp claws; swinging around its long and powerful tail, the Demon Alligator dashed into the swarm of Ghost Nannies while launching frightening attacks. Though walking on the muddy, stinking water, its gigantic body moved like it was walking on flat ground. Shock waves could be seen spreading out from underneath its body, causing any Ghost Nanny that came within 5 meters of Demon Alligator to tremble, barely able to stay on their feet.

Any Ghost Nanny who fell into the sharp claws and gigantic mouth would be ripped into a bloody mess in an instant, staining the water with their stinking, black blood. But even so, wave after wave of Ghost Nannies still broke through Demon Alligator's head and tail attack, successfully squeezed themselves into both sides of its body, restlessly climbing up onto its back, trying to pull Greem and the 'Hunter' into the muddy pond.

Faced with few hundred black, dirty hands clustered below its body, the Hunter showed no fear at all. Holding the spear in its hand, the Hunter kept piercing through the heads of Ghost Nannies. Since the Ghost Nanny was a demon and not an immortal creature, once their head was pierced through by the spear, they would die. Thus, ugly, twisted bodies of Ghost Nanny continuously fell off from Demon Alligator's back, sinking to the bottom of the muddy pond.

When the fight became furious, the Hunter would wave its arms, unleashing countless Spikes in a 10 x 8 meter area, puncturing the bodies of Ghost Nanny on the ground.

On his side, Greem clapped his palms before separated them, shooting out two frightening flames. In an instant, the Ghost Nannies, who had nearly reached his pant legs, were drawn into the scorching flame.

Burned by the intense heat, the Ghost Nannies started screeching. For a moment, countless flaming bodies rolled off the back of the Demon Alligator, struggling in the muddy pond while letting out miserably cries, turning the entire muddy swamp into a living hell.

Moving forward while growling aggressively, the Demon Alligator ripped apart everything that got in its way. Located at the highest point of its back, the Hunter attacked anything that got too close, while occasionally throwing its spear at a long range target. If there were too many enemies, it would unleash a Spike spell, causing Ghost Nannies to shed blood like fountains.

Even though both Golems had combined their strength, they were nowhere near as flashy as Greem, who had transformed fire wielding maniac. He sat firmly on the rear end of Demon Alligator's back, both arms slightly stretched out, shooting two frightening flames out a few meters, causing any Ghost Nanny who got too close to be caught up in a terrifyingly hot inferno.

Following the reckless charging of Demon Alligator in the Ghost Nanny army, Greem's frightening flame had nearly set the entire muddy pond on fire. Moments ago, these Ghost Nannies were still leaping to them crazily, but they were now filled with great terror, each and every single one was screaming and swimming away from the battlefield.

Within the blazing, scorching hot muddy pond, the putrid smell of burnt flesh filled every inch of the air, making anyone who smelt it feel like throwing out. Greem had transformed into a frantic demon lord, controlling his frightening flames arbitrarily, killing every single enemy he could found on his way, totally had no idea that all the enemies around him had been turned into charcoal.

When the blazing flames formed by Burning Hand finally died down, Greem finally woke up from the satisfying slaughter. After waking up, the first thing came to his attention was the pungent smell that filled his nose, which nearly made him suffocate.

Stamping his right foot a few times and giving the golem a mental command, the Demon Alligator moved. Though it looked slow, it actually left the muddy pond at an incredible speed. When they finally left the pond, Greem looked over his shoulder, a miserable scene immediately revealed in front of his eyes, and he was filled with a great shock.

Just a brief moment ago, when he was recklessly killing all those 'weaklings', countless terrifying, horrible consciouses had swarmed into his mind, making him frantic and crazy. Although it had been satisfying, it went against the elementary Adept teachings, which said all Adept had to keep calm and rational at all times.

"Chip, activate Elementium Vision!" As if Greem had sensed something, he gave out his command with a soft voice.

Beep* "Elementium Vision activated."

The multi-colored Elementium Vision projected into Greem's eyes. Looking around, he found the entire sky above the muddy swamp was full of broken souls, who were howling and groaning endlessly. No wonder his conscious had been occupied by something else just now. It was all because of these broken souls!

If he was an Apprentice Adept who had an affinity Darkness, he would definitely have been struck with a wild joy, skipping around as he gathered all these broken souls. For them, these high quality broken souls were the best materials for their experiments. But Greem was unable to do these things.

Without protection from Dark Elementium, if he got too close to these broken souls, who mainly comprised of negative energy, his Spirit and body would suffer a certain degree of corrosion. If this situation persisted, his body would become skinny, as his blood and soul were slowly corrupted by the negative energy. Therefore, Greem always kept a safe distance from any souls.

Just now, he was immersed in a satisfying emotion of slaughter, forgetting his original purpose in coming here. Now, thinking back, he started to ponder on the combat performance of his Demon Alligator Hunter.

Overall, the Demon Alligator Hunter possessed the ability of an Advanced Apprentice, thus it had no problem suppressing an Intermediate Apprentice. Greem even had the confidence to fight the strongest three, but, of course, it was tough to tell if he could actually beat them in a fight.

Among all the Advanced Apprentices Greem met before, perhaps only the frightening Loli, Alice, would be able to suppress his Demon Alligator Hunter. As for the other Advanced Apprentices, he could only evaluate their abilities after fighting with them.

Actually, the real weakness of this Demon Alligator Hunter was Greem.

As the Demon Alligator Hunter was summoned by Greem, as long as the enemy took care of Greem, it would no longer be a threat. So, when a real fight erupted, perhaps most of the enemy's offensive attack would be aimed at Greem. If he couldn't withstand another adept's massive firepower, no matter how tough was his Demon Alligator Hunter was, he would have no chance of winning a fight.

Therefore, Greem had to find a way to solve this weakness, and this was also the second test would run today.

"Demon Alligator Hunter! Dive down!"

Following Greem's command, the small 'throne' he was sitting on started to move forward. At the same time, the Hunter golem in front of him started to expand as Greem slowly merged with it.

When Greem's body finally disappeared into golem's body, the Demon Alligator underneath let out a short growl, and an earthy yellow smoke started emitting from its body. In next moment, the entire Demon Alligator Hunter disappeared without a trace.

As if suddenly he had sunk into a pitch black abyss. Greem's breath suddenly stopped, being replaced by the strong smell of dirt. All of his senses had vanished, but there was a massive external force pressing onto his body. The force was so strong, it nearly made all his bones start to crack.

But following the dispersion of Earth Elementium around Demon Alligator Hunter's body, this external force started to subside, eventually disappearing.

Although he couldn't see with his eyes, nor hear with his ears, Greem slowly sent forth his Spirit energy, using it as a replacement for his eyes and ears, allowing him to sense everything around himself.

He was traveling underground! Although he was not moving at an incredible speed, Greem still felt like he was riding on the clouds. It was like Demon Alligator Hunter was floating within a pool of sticky, heavy liquid, continually consuming the Earth Elementium energy stored within its body and breaking through the dirt around him, traveling by slipping through the earth.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Greem was 'swimming' three meters underground, like a fish in the water.

His Spirit energy went through the dense fog of Earth Elementium surrounding him, showing him the surrounding earth. Twisting roots of old trees; coarse sand and rocks; wriggling insects; gophers hiding in their nests; rotten tree branches, and some other unidentifiable things…

It was only a short journey, but it allowed Greem to glimpse a completely different world that had always been right under his feet. In this secret world, Greem was like an untouchable king overlooking his kingdom, not caring about anything. If he really wanted to do something, with just a command, Demon Alligator Hunter would be able to wreak havoc in this place.

Although he wished he could spend a little longer traveling underground, but after merely seven to eight minutes, he could no longer stand it anymore.

It was not because he had depleted his Spirit, but because he was out of breath.

As an Apprentice Adept who worked with supernatural forces every day, no matter if it was resistance or endurance, Greem's body was way stronger than an ordinary mortal. Any ordinary human would go into a coma after holding his breath for a few minutes, but he was able to hold his breath for nearly eight minutes before needing to catch his breath.

Following his command, the Earth Elementium around the outside of the Demon Alligator Hunter's body started to vibrate, pushing away the thick and heavy soil above its head and slowly squeezing its way to the surface.

The sudden arrival of the Demon Alligator Hunter had shocked the surrounding demons. Numerous sharp cries rung through the air, as curses poured onto them like rain.

"Damn it! We surfaced in the nest of the Demon Babies!" Greem cursed, driving the Demon Alligator Hunter forward and breaking his way out of the swarm of Demon Babies.

Although the Demon Babies' Curse spell was unpredictable and hard to defend against, they were just low-ranked demons. Faced with the Elementium formed Demon Alligator Hunter, the success rate of their curses was not very high. Instead, two Demon Babies were killed by spears thrown by the Hunter, causing the rest of them to scurry away, hiding in nearby bushes and daring not to move the tiniest bit.

At this moment, Greem had dimly tasted the mentality of Alice and the other two Advanced Apprentices when they intruded into the Magical Swamp. Once a person possessed the abilities and resources of an Advanced Apprentice, ordinary low-ranked demons were no longer a threat to them. As they were only faced with a bunch of 'ants' they could kill easily, no wonder that, even they knew this was a forbidden place, they could still behave so recklessly.

To be honest, if Adept Anderson hadn't done anything, with just the Apprentice Adepts and demons of the Magical Swamp alone, there was no way they could've stopped the trio.

As for Alice's sad encounter, it was completely by accident.

Just because Alice possessed an overpowered skill and a frightening ability, it had forced Evil Bugs to fight her with his life. Then she had chased Greem all over the swamp and suffered a great loss at the hands of Mary.

In the past, these hateful Demon Babies were a group of frightening and hard to deal monsters. If he had been surrounded by them, even with the protection of his magical talisman, he would have faced miserable consequences. But now, with the help of the Demon Alligator Hunter, Greem could actually kill them easily, and no longer feared them.

Unknowingly, Greem's mentality had started to change.

Use one's strength to bully the weak; the weak are easy prey to the strong; be pushy and overbearing… all these phrases sounded nasty to the ear, but, now that he was in the position of the strong, it was rather an enjoyable experience.

Driving his Demon Alligator Hunter forward and rushing out from the Garden of Whispers, Greem came to the stony trail and jumped off his Golem. He dispersed the Earth Elementium and picked up the two summoning cores. He was quite close to the entrance of the Tower, thus, Greem decided to try to appear like his former weak self.

Pulled his hood up and covering his face, Greem stealthily returned to the Tower.

The experiment had been successful, and Greem's confidence had grown. But, at the same time, it had exposed some problems, the most serious of which was how to handle long periods of time underground.

Perhaps the Demon Alligator Hunter didn't need to breathe, but Greem did! Deep underground, protected by the Earth Elementium emitting from the Demon Alligator Hunter, Greem had been given the ability to travel through the Earth. However, there was no air underground. If he didn't solve this breathing problem, he would never be able to stay underground for more than 8 minutes.

Hence, after returned to the Tower, for the next few days Greem spent most of his time running between different Apprentices, searching for a solution that would allow him to have dark vision and breath underground. When he had some spare time, he would sneak out from the Tower to hunt for suitable demons that he could use to craft new Golems.

But too bad, up until the last day before he had to set off, he still couldn't find any suitable demons.

After all, this Magical Swamp was just an extremely common resource site of an Adept family. It was all ordinary demons and plants being raised and planted here, where they were all easy to maintain and harvest. Therefore, it was just a fancy dream to harvest a large quantity of demon cores from this place. In fact, both Sinbad and the Giant Alligator King were rare advanced demons of the Magical Swamp, which only leveled up in the past hundred years. If not because of this, Greem would never have found any demon cores he could use.

But though he didn't find any new demon cores, Greem still harvested a bunch of magical materials and ingredients for magical medicine. Using these materials, Greem was able to exchange for some rather useful items from other Apprentices.

Out of these items, Greem was most satisfied with an exquisitely made Circlet of Nobility.

Wearing the Circlet of Nobility on his head, the crystal clear diamond socked right in front of the circlet was pressed against Greem's forehead. Besides making him look a little regal, it also increased his Spirit by one.

For an Advanced Apprentice, this circlet was unable to supplement their Spirit. But for Greem, who only possessed 8 Spirit, it brought him a rather significant improvement.

Also, his dark vision problem had been solved.

The solution? A pair of Gnome Goggles!

According to the explanation he had received from the Intermediate Apprentice who had sold this item to Greem, the goggles were a product from another Plane. It was made from combining a black leather belt with two transparent crystals. Wearing it, Greem had clear vision in low-light environments.

Greem had the Chip run an analysis when he returned. This strange object was supposed to be a product of a mechanical civilization. The Chip couldn't sense any Elementium ripples coming from it, as if it was just an ordinary item used by mortals. It was made from a type of underground crystal and was polished using a special method. This allowed the wearer to pierce the veil of low-light environments.

The Chip had also performed an analysis on the composition of the crystals. They were not a product that could be found in the World of Adepts, and should be a unique material that only existed in the plane of that mechanical civilization.

As a major scale Plane, the World of Adepts had conquered countless small and middle sized Planes. These Gnome Goggles most likely came from a secondary Plane that had been conquered.

It was common knowledge in the Adept World that only those who were official Adepts were qualified to travel between Planes. Anyone below this level, even those Pseudo-Adepts who possessed extraordinary talent, were not allowed to participate in the conquering war for other Planes. Therefore, Greem could only let his mind run wild as he tried to imagine what this mechanical civilization was like. Meanwhile, he carefully placed this Gnome Goggle in his waist pouch.

As for the problem of breathing underground, Greem had also solved it by employing a biological method.

Within the Tower, some Apprentices were experts in biological modification. Using 'Snake Vine' and 'Purple Left Flower', together with 'worm ointment', toad poop, and some other bizarre items, an Apprentice had produced a bulbous looking breathing organ. When Greem needed to travel underground, he just had to place this biological apparatus into his mouth and he would gain the ability to breathe through his skin.

As it was only a supplementary organ, and not a replacement for his own organs, the risk of having his bloodline contaminated was non-existent.

After solving all these problems, Greem could finally put his heart to rest. He spent all his day on either meditating or restlessly researching those magical books he had just copied.

On the fifth day after signing up the compulsory mission, Greem finally received the message he had been waiting for from the Chip. The optimization of Fire Arrow spell had finally been completed!

Beep* "Optimization for the spiritual model of Fire Arrow has been completed. Does the host wish to see the optimized content?"

"Show me!" Greem yelled out in impatience.

Following a long stream of data, the look of his long-ranged offensive spell, Fire Arrow, after extensive optimizations done by the Chip, was projected into Greem's mind.

If the look of Fire Arrow before this was a magical arrow, it had now transformed into a flaming spear. The seemingly tame flame had formed into a blazing spear. With a thought from Greem, it would shoot out with an incredible speed, dealing twice the damage the Fire Arrow had.

While wearing the Circlet of Nobility, Greem had a total of 9.37 Spirit, giving him a little less than 94 Adept energy. As the Flaming Spear used 24 Adept Energy every time it was used, his Spirit would be depleted after using it four times. Thus, a skill like this would have to be reserved, only being used at the most critical moments.

After all, with the offensive strength of the Flaming Spear, he could easily break apart an Intermediate Apprentice's magical defenses. Even if he had to face an Advanced Apprentice who had mastered defensive magic spells, the Flaming Spear would still be able to put a dent in it.

To be honest, only now did Greem feel that he had finally mastered a good skill. With it, he felt a slight bit of confidence in surviving the mission he was going to undertake.

Finally, after a nerve-wracking few days, it was time for the mission.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

To Greem's surprise, it was not a long parade of coaches that came to pick them up, but a flying ship that descended from the sky.

Of course, it was not the same as a ship that sailed on the ocean.

It had a wide, flat bottom and an exquisitely built and spacious three floor tower, but there wasn't any mast or sail to be seen. This meant it was not an air powered ship. When the hundred meter long, thirty meters wide ship came thundering down, all the Apprentice Adepts waiting in front of the Tower were filled with fear, their breath catching at the sight of, seemingly, impending doom.

Greem had no idea what any of the other Apprentices were feeling. Through his Elementium Vision, he saw the bottom of the ship had been carved with runes and strange magical formations, and a massive magical energy was flowing rapidly between these lines. From what he saw, the Elementium was no longer a singular and isolated particle, but had been kneaded together by a mystical and majestic force, transforming into a mighty magical melody of energy that could no longer be differentiated into different elements.

The reason why Greem paid so much attention to it was that this magical energy had mysterious and strange characteristics. As they came out of the runes, they showed no specific attributes, but when they passed through certain magical formations, they started showing signs of specific Elementium.

For example, the billowing wall of air that was surrounding the flying ship had been shot out after the energy passed through a magical formation. Carried by this powerful wind, the flying ship could gracefully and firmly land on the large empty area in front of the Adept Tower.

Adept Anderson, who rarely showed his face in public, was standing in front of the Tower. Wearing a resentful expression on his face, he was staring at the flying ship landing in front of him. When he saw a figure flying off from the flying ship, his expression became even more incensed.

"It really is you. I was still wondering why we suddenly have to visit one more mission site, but now I understand. Now you can't hide from us anymore." It was a burly man who came flying from the ship. His defining features were a pair of thick eyebrows and the shining, luxurious, golden armor he was wearing. His bulky muscles were so large they looked to be trying to burst from his armor.

Waving the magical staff in his hand angrily, Adept Anderson let out a raging roar.

"You bunch of damn thieves! You bandits! I have emphasized it many times… this is my private territory and place of residence, you have no right to turn it into a mission site… Regarding this, I'll keep complaining to the Zhentarim Association…"

Disdainfully, the masculine guy saying,

"What are you scared of? Afraid your petty tricks would be discovered by the association? Hahaha… don't forget, you've just been stationed here and this piece of land is still owned by the Sarubo Family. Now that the head of the Sarubo family has agreed to open this place up, can you stop him? Let me give you a friendly reminder, you better hurry up and clean up your mess. Don't let those inspection Adepts find your dirty secrets!"

After saying that, the masculine man turned around and swept his eyes over the Apprentices waiting in front of the Tower. An 'as expected' expression appeared on his face.

"So, this is the result of you garrisoning this place for twenty years? Three half-Advanced Apprentices and not a single Pseudo-Adept! En, that little Vampire does seem to have potential, but why is her foundation so weak? I can smell that she is still acclimating to her bloodline!" With his sharp vision, the masculine man ran his eyes over the few Advanced Apprentices. Those who met his eyes would feel a prickling pain and quickly lower their gaze.

The guy had briefly looked at Mary, said a little, and moved on. He didn't even look at Hawkeye and went straight to Evil Bugs. The moment he saw Evil Bugs, a disgusted and disdaining expression covered his face. Only after he saw Madwoman, a girl with a similar body structure to him, did his expression relax.

As for all the other Intermediate and Beginner Apprentices, the guy simply turned a blind eye to them, not showing the slightest interest in checking on them.

"Looks like the association should've made this place a mission site long ago. Look at you. After being stationed here for so long, and you were only able to cultivate three advanced Apprentices?"

"Let me emphasize this one more time. This place is my private territory. According to the agreement signed between me and the head of Sarubo family, I…" The gloomy faced Adept Anderson was still raging.

"Haha… you better tell that to the association! My mission is to bring all the Apprentices of various mission sites to their respective destinations. I am not troubling with any other matters. Oh right, I heard you had taught a lesson to Deborah's apprentice a few days ago? That woman said she is not finished with you…" Delighting in Adept Anderson's future misfortunes, the guy grinned evilly.

"That crazy woman, Deborah? She dared to say that? Her apprentice intruded on my resource site and wreaked havoc. If not for Deborah's sake, I would have used that little wretch as an experimental specimen… I only gave her a petty punishment, and that crazy woman still wants to look for trouble…" As he mentioned this, Adept Anderson's face filled with rage.

"A petty punishment? I heard that you planted a Blood Worm in her body, and nearly sucked all that little girl's blood essence out? She is a valuable individual that possesses an innate talent for spatial magic, and also the only one who has been found in the past hundred years of the House of Fragrance. Why would Deborah not be angry with you? Also, they said you had given a good torture to the other two apprentices, which made their mentors very angry. In my opinion, you'd better be very careful the next time you leave this swamp!"

"You think I'm afraid of them? If they are capable, let them come to this Magical Swamp! I, Anderson, have never feared anybody!"

The masculine guy laughed, then ignored 'tough guy' Anderson and turned to face the awaiting apprentices.

"This ship is going to Erathia, Bracada, and Dagon. Apprentices who are going to attend missions in these places, board the ship now. If you miss this ship, you're going to travel by foot. For those apprentices who don't arrive at their respective mission site on time, the association will revoke their Apprentice status!"

Greem was shocked, but he quickly calmed himself.

The mission he 'chose' was located in the Dagon region. It looked like he was among the first batch of apprentices to leave this Magical Swamp.

After the masculine man waved his hand, a couple dozen apprentices started hurrying towards the flying ship, carrying simple luggage on their backs. Walking along a wood plank lowered from the ship, the group boarded this mystical vehicle in an orderly manner.

The spacious deck of the ship was crowded with people. Judging from their dress, all of them were Apprentice Adepts as well.

As late comers, when the apprentices of Swampy Tower boarded the deck, they were welcomed with countless demeaning gazes and criticisms. Although none of them could hear what was said, but, just from their disdainful expressions and exaggerated tones, clearly they were not saying anything positive.

Since all three destinations of this ship were advanced mission sites, the majority of the passengers were Intermediate and Advanced Apprentices. There were even a few Pseudo-Adepts with extraordinary bearing hidden among them. On the flip side, most of the Swamp Tower apprentices who boarded the ship were Intermediate Apprentices, and only three of them were at the Advanced Apprentice level: Madwoman, Evil Bugs, and Mary.

When Greem followed the group and boarded the ship, the crowd suddenly heated up.

"What? A Beginner Apprentice is going to an advanced mission site? Is he looking to die?"

"Yeah… I bet he must be an idiot that performed too many experiments on himself!"

"Perhaps he will piss his pants when we arrive!"Countless discussions were resounding across the deck. Anyone who saw Greem would have a disbelievable expression come over their face, as if they had suddenly discovered an underground dwarf in a kingdom of giants.

Greem's expression went rigid for a second, but he had no choice but to lower his head and followed the group to a corner of the deck.

Intentionally or unintentionally, even the apprentices of the Swamp Tower, including Madwoman and few others, kept a distance from Greem. Mary didn't move away, and she still stood firmly beside Greem, responding to those ill-intentioned gazes with her normal, overbearing manner.

For some unknown reasons, Hawkeye actually chose an orange mission. Thus, he hadn't boarded this flying ship.

As the crowd was measuring up the newcomers, the masculine man boarded the ship once again. Throwing a fierce gaze at all the Apprentice Adepts, he saw Mary and Greem being isolated by the crowd, and his gaze paused.

"Why is there a Beginner Apprentice here? Didn't those old men who released the compulsory mission label them correctly?" Muttered to himself, then, with a serious expression, he continued speaking, "I don't care which institute or region you are from, as long as you are on this ship, you better behave for me. Arriving at your destination safely is the only request I have for you. If anyone dares to cause trouble on the ship, don't blame me for being cruel!"

As a powerful Body Refining Adept, when the masculine guy made no effort to hide his strength, a powerful aura came from his body, making all the Apprentice Adepts tremble.

"You live on the deck, and no one is allowed to step into the cabin. Anyone who disobeys the order will be thrown off the ship. You hear me?" Sweeping his fierce gaze around, when the masculine man saw the crowd remaining silent, like cicadas in cold weather, he felt satisfied. He retracted his aura and entered the cabin.

Following this, loud yells from dozens of boatmen, who dressed like sailors, the flying ship trembled, and a loud buzzing noise came from the bottom of the ship. At the same time, a pressure started building on all the apprentices.

The ship gradually ascended into the sky.

Looking at the people on the ground getting smaller and smaller, Greem was struck with a brief thrill. He was finally going to the outside world.

There was no hypocritical affection between Apprentice Adepts, hence, Greem had no intention to wave goodbye from the side of the ship. But he saw a female apprentice of the Swamp Tower rushing alongside the ship, continually waving her hand at someone down below while crying.

This made all the Apprentices on board look at her with disdain.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

The flying ship streaked through the air, leaving a cloud-like trail of Wind Elementium behind it.

Anything on the ground, no matter if it was a human, a beast, or a tree, had become a tiny little black dot. Even the magical swamp, which Greem had spent the past six years in, just looked like a filthy pond covered by a dense fog.

After staying in the magical swamp for so long, Greem felt that the outside world was quite strange.

After the ship ascended to cruising altitude, Greem walked over to the ship's side to have a good look at the land below. Asides from the magical swamp, Greem saw a few human villages and a small city.

There were pale yellow wheat fields everywhere, each decorated here and there with thumb-size windmills. On the road, which stretched on and on like a silver belt, he could also see some ant-sized coaches.

The flying ship was heading South.

The further South they got, the greener the earth became, but human activities were still rare. Whenever they approached a human colony, Greem could always see vast, thick forests around it, and the lively activities of the wild beasts within them.

This was the current situation on the Adept Mainland.

Every human colony was surrounded by a boundless virgin forest and savage woods. Countless wild beasts, demonic beasts, and demons were living within them. The human forces of the colony could deal with those ordinary wild and demonic beasts, but when they were forced to face those strange and unpredictable demons, they would have to rely on the help of more powerful forces.

And these forces were, obviously, Adepts.

As powerful individuals possessing supernatural powers, Adepts were the true masters of this land. Although they had ceased to be normal humans, most official Adepts were willing to contribute part of their strength to allow ordinary humans to continue live and multiply in this land.

Ordinary human society was like the sheep living in captivity, and the Adepts were the shepherds who looking after these ranches, looking forward to new blood joining their ranks. In the eyes of ordinary humans, Apprentice Adepts like Greem had powerful, mystical, and bizarre abilities, but in the eyes of official Adepts, they were still just ants.

As long as they hadn't crossed the threshold and become an official Adept, these apprentices were still creatures that couldn't be mentioned in the same breath with official Adept.

As he saw the world unfolding in front of his eyes, his desire to become stronger rose in Greem's mind alongside a sense of urgency.

Although he had poured forth a lot of effort recently, that was more because of habit and had been required for survival. But today the desire of becoming stronger actually came from the bottom of his heart.

This was a mysterious, profound, and strange world, totally different from the Earth, where he had come from. Back on Earth, the strength of an individual was insignificant, and one could only grow stronger by relying on the strength of the masses. But in this world, which had an ocean of magical energy, the strength of an individual had great meaning. Things that couldn't be achieved on Earth were possible here.

For the first time, Greem couldn't restrain his desires. He wanted to stand at the pinnacle of this world with his own strength, so he could the real shape of the world. Perhaps this was the why the mighty Will of the Adept World had drawn him from Earth, a world where no magic existed, into this world of advanced magic.

A bitter wind scraped it way up the side of the ship.

Although the deck was protected by a Barrier, sparing these apprentices from the brunt of the gale-force winds, the temperature was still very low on deck.

Greem only had a Physique of 5. Obviously, he couldn't withstand the changing temperature with his body alone, thus, he pulled his robe tight to keep warm. Mary was still wearing her same iconic thin red chiffon dress, exposing a large amount of her fair skin, yet she didn't seem to feel the chilling breeze.

With more than 10 Physique, an Apprentice Adept would never be affected by the temperature changes caused by the seasons. For Greem, it was a freezing wind, but for Mary, it was just a rather cool breeze. When an Apprentice Adept had more than 15 Physique, those ordinary harsh environments would no longer be impossible places to live.

Beyond 20 Physique was a frightening level that only Body Refining Adepts could attain. If someone really reached that level, he would be tough to kill even by being thrown into a pit of lava or an extremely cold abyss.

Although much weaker than Body Refining Adepts, Principle Adepts would also gain some resistance to the elements when became official Adepts.

As it was his first time seeing it, the scenery outside of the ship was indeed breathtaking, and was too beautiful to be absorbed all at once. But after looking at it for quite some time, it became boring. Thus, Greem laid out a cloth and invited Mary to sit together with him, stealthily measuring the crowd with his eyes as he did so.

He had a feeling when he boarded the ship that he was the only Beginner Apprentice on board. Now, through the passive probing with his Elementium Vision, he was able to get a clearer understanding of the situation.

Striking red glows, which represented danger, were spread out amongst the crowd. There were even a few people who glowed purple, which meant extreme danger.

The Chip quickly presented the actual statistics of the crowd to Greem.

There were a total of 317 Apprentice Adepts on board. 11 Pseudo-Adepts, 92 Advanced Apprentices, and the rest were Intermediate Apprentices. Greem was excluded from the statistics.

Those Pseudo-Adepts were the big shots among the population of Apprentices. Each of them was surrounded by a large group of opportunists. But, the relationship between these Pseudo-Adepts was cold and detached, as if there was a clear distinction between them, and no one wanted to communicate with the other.

Actually, this was understandable.

At their current level, as long as they could break through the frightening barrier, they would be able to have a meteoric rise, becoming supreme existences that stood out from the crowd. At that point in time, these opportunists surrounding them would become disgusting flies, which they would never take seriously.

They were not willing to spend time in making friendly contacts with other Pseudo-Adepts at the same level. After all, there was a huge risk they had to face during the ceremony of becoming an official Adept. If the Pseudo-Adept they had established a friendly relationship failed in breaking through the barrier, then the previous investment of affection would be wasted. At that point in time, one person was an official Adept, while the other was still an apprentice, and so they wouldn't be able to communicate as peers.

As for a true relationship, they could totally have it after both became official Adepts. Presumably, no newly promoted Adept would reject a friendly relationship with same level Adepts!

Therefore, influenced by such proud and aloof, yet narcissistic mentalities, all eleven Pseudo-Adepts had divided into their own factions, each showing no intention of communicating with others. The lively communication between Advanced Apprentices was in sharp contrast with the Pseudo-Adepts.

Across various groups of all sizes, Advanced Apprentices were the group had the liveliest and most frequent communication. While the Intermediate Apprentices, who was also the largest group, kept silent or simply agreed with what other people said. They were like green plants that accented the beauty of red roses, insignificant and unworthy of being mentioned.

By contrast, Mary, who quietly sitting beside Greem had become the perfect target for a friendly relationship. Even a few male Pseudo-Adepts were peeking at her.

A female Advanced Apprentice who excelled in both appearance and body shape, even though she always wore a cold and aloof expression, she still attracted frequent glances from many male Apprentices.

"Don't you want to make a few friends?" Trying hard to hold his smile, Greem continued whispering, "I can tell many of them really wish to get to know you!"

Mary opened her green eyes and swept across the crowd. She chuckled disdainfully, then said, "Too bad, I have no interest in their filthy blood. If they bother me, I'll let them know how the Bloody Queen handles annoyances!"

"Bloody Queen? Is this a nickname you came up with yourself?" Greem chuckled, "That's rather appropriate. I wonder when I will have the honor of experiencing it?"

"You?" Mary coolly gazed at Greem's face with her beautiful eyes, saying, "You'll have to work really hard for that!"

After that, she stretched her curvy body, laid on her side, and placed her head on Greem's lap, started her daily meditation.

Greem sighed softly.

After hearing her words, he realized that had definitely come from Mary's heart.

From the day they stepped onto the path of becoming Adepts, strength became the only measurement of status. When looking for a lover, even if Mary had a favorable impression of Greem, the huge difference between their strengths had become a gap, and Mary didn't want a 'partner' who was too weak.

Greem had a feeling that, if he had pushed for it, Mary wouldn't mind playing with him in bed. But if she was truly looking for a partner to spend the rest of her life with, Greem was only a weakling in her eyes, and would never be a candidate in his current state.

This cold reality watered down the joy of having a beauty sleeping on his lap. Greem shook his head and smiled wryly. Then he took a book out from his luggage and started to read.

In the current situation, where everyone was talking, meditating was rather rude. Therefore, Mary had used meditation to isolate herself from the crowd, avoiding the trouble that came from rejecting their invitations. It was actually a rather brilliant method, but now Greem had become her temporary guardian, and had to endure hostile glances from the crowd.

Evil Bugs had sat down cross-legged near Greem and Mary. His face was covered with a hood, making sure that nobody could see his current expression.

No matter what, there was no serious resentment between him and Greem. He set the trap for Greem out of a dispute caused by personal feelings. If not because he had promised Ellen, the new Apprentice leader, that he would protect his safety, Ellen would never have had the guts to provoke Mary.

Regarding how he felt about setting this trap, perhaps Evil Bugs had no feelings at all.

In his mind, Greem was just a roadside ant that he could kill at anytime. Not worth his time remembering. Perhaps, when he returned to the Swamp Tower after finishing his compulsory mission, the person with the name 'Greem' would have long since vanished, never to be seen again.

Therefore, For Evil Bugs, Greem had never been his enemy. Only Mary was qualified to be his enemy.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Life on the flying ship was monotonous and boring.

Though there was magnificent scenery underneath, it eventually got boring, causing some to even turn a blind eye to it.

As the deck was packed with over three hundred apprentices, it was not a comfortable place to stay. But fortunately, around noon the next day, the flying ship had arrived at the first mission site, in the Erathia region.

It was a stronghold built in the middle of the mountains, fully surrounded by dangerous high peaks that stretched far into the sky. Clouds were floating within deep valleys, making sure no one could peak through them and get a glimpse at the ground below. The flying ship docked at a massive thirty-meter-tall tower in the center of a stronghold.

The entire tower was built with huge logs, all of each were at least half a meter thick. Although it looked rough and simple, it had a touch of solidarity that would give one the feeling that nothing could destroy it.

The flying ship didn't land on the ground, but hovered on the side of the tower. A wood plank was placed between the ship and the tower, allowing apprentices to leave the ship. Wind Elementium was swirling around the flying ship violently, creating a small windstorm. Therefore, all apprentices who needed to disembark here would have to withstand the strong wind as they walked along the trembling wood plank before arrived at the top of the tower. As the result, when each and every single apprentice walked on the wood plank, their heart was trembling just like the wooden plank.

Lying on the side of the ship, Greem glanced down beneath the flying ship. He saw numerous hardworking figures within the stronghold.

No matter whether it was the masculine guy carrying huge wooden logs and walked through the empty field, or the guards who had bows and arrows on their back and spear in hand as they patrolled the top of the outer wall, the majority of them were not human. Some had the heads of lions, some had the heads of tigers, and others the heads of wolves. They were not human.

Humans only accounted for a small portion of the population of this place, and most of them were supervisors.

Looking at these weak human supervisors, a few of whom were waving their whips and yelling at a ferocious looking 'beast man', who was far larger than them, Greem couldn't help but be impressed with their courage. Judging from the muscles of these beast-men, perhaps even without using any weapon they could easily squeeze and crush these supervisors' head with a single hand! However, these supervisors showed no signs of fear, instead, they held their heads high, yelling and scolding these beast men as if they were lowly ants.

Also, from time to time, people wearing the gray robe of Apprentice Adepts would appear around the stronghold. Their status was clearly higher than the human supervisors. Wherever they went, those human supervisors would bow to them act in a flattering manner, while the masculine, tall beast men would have frightened expressions appear on their faces as they clumsily bowed to the Apprentice Adepts.

Most likely these beast men were slaves brought from some secondary Planes which had been conquered by Adepts! No wonder they were acting so tame!

Greem suddenly realized something.

Although these beast-men had great physical strength and constitution, and tall, muscular bodies, they didn't possess any supernatural powers. So, they didn't have any way of countering apprentice Adepts who had mastered mystical forces. Perhaps, even a beginner apprentice could kill dozens of beast men without too much trouble. That's was probably the reason why they were so respectful to apprentice Adepts.\

Actually, this place was considering a small mission site, and only around twenty to thirty apprentices left the ship. Most of them were intermediate apprentices, and two were advanced apprentices. No Pseudo-Adepts left the ship.

Soon, under the submissive yet numbed glances of countless beast men, the flying ship once again ascended into the sky, flying along the steep and rough mountains as it continued heading South.After passing countless mountains and rivers and a vast virgin forest that stretched tens of thousand miles, the flying ship finally arrived at another human colony. The slope of the terrain gracefully flattened out, and large scale of human activities could be found around the place. But too bad, as most of the mission sites picked by Zhentarim Association were at the borders of the colony, the ship never went too deep into the heart of the Erathia region. Instead, it turned its nose, started to fly along the edge of the colony.

Over the next two days, the ship visited five mission sites. Nearly half of the apprentices had left the ship by this point. The third day after Greem boarded the ship, it adjusted its course to South West and left the Erathia region, quickly approaching the Bracada region.

Compared to the warm sunny days in Erathia, Bracada was simply a world covered by freezing snow.

As the flying ship entered the region, the greenery started to diminish, being quickly replaced by a boundless land of white snow.

Pure white snowflakes were swirling in the air as the temperature started to drop significantly.

Some apprentices with high Physique still had their shirt loosened, happily exposed their ripped muscles. On the flipside, those with low Physiques had pulled their robes tight, using all kind of methods to keep warm.

As Greem only had a Physique of 5, he hadn't reached the level where he could ignore this extreme cold. Hence, he summoned Fire Elementium and had it hover around his body, warming him up.

But fortunately, the flying ship never visited the deepest area of this realm of ice and snow, but kept flying along it's edge. It visited three snowy remote towns along its way, and, by the end, had dropped off most of the apprentices.

As the flying ship turned its nose and adjusted its course to fly East, there were less than fifty apprentices left on the deck. Five Pseudo-Adepts, twenty-seven advanced apprentices, thirteen intermediate apprentices, and the one and only beginner apprentice, Greem.

After spending a couple of days on the ship, with regards to the world outside the Magical Swamp, Greem was no longer as ignorant as before.

The world Greem was currently living in was an Adept World named 'Lethon'.

Throughout the entire multiverse, the Plane of Lethon was a rather rare major scale Plane. It was a Plane with a single political system, led by Adepts, which made it a pure Adept world. Their enemies were other major scales Planes. For example, the Plane of the Gods, which was guarded by deities; the Plane of the Dragon, which was protected by Divine Dragons; The Plane of the Gnomes, which was a highly advanced mechanical civilization; The Dark Plane, which was filled with foul demons and evil spirits…

All major scale Plane had mature civilizations. The Adept World of Lethon had established a complete framework for Adept development, with it, batch after batch of qualified and powerful Adepts were cultivated. Afterwards, they used these new Adepts to expand their territory, invading intermediate and small-scale Planes.

In order to seize the resources and intellectual property of different Planes, there would be violent conflicts and wars between all major Planes. Therefore, if one wanted to describe it, the Adept World was a powerful and aggressive civilization that loved engaging in wars.

This was the current state of the Adept World's foreign 'policies'. Internally, there wasn't a single clan powerful enough to unify all the Adepts. Thus, according to territories and regions, many clans of Adept had formed. Among them, four of them held the most dominate positions.

The Northern Witches occupied the northern region of the Adept Mainland, controlling a land that covered more than six million square kilometers, which was then divided into dozens of human kingdoms of all sizes. The rulers and nobles of these kingdoms were ordinary humans, but they all recognized the Northern Witches as the guardians of their kingdoms.

In fact, whenever a mighty female Fourth Grade Adept came into power amongst the Northern Witches, she would call upon a group of followers and venture out into the vast wilderness, blazing her way through all manners of obstacles and established a great kingdom that would only belong to her.

Relying on the constantly emerging, powerful female Adepts, the Northern Witches were constantly fighting for living space in this savage world. Whenever a new kingdom was born, and a magnificent Adept Tower was built, it also meant that another Female Adept has risen to power.

The Northern Witches were experts in Curses and Prophesy, thus they were all Principle Adepts.

The South West side of the Adept Mainland was mainly the territory of the Silver Alliance.

Strictly speaking, it was the haven for Profound Adepts.

The Silver Alliance was made from a group of Profound Adepts who were notable for always wearing silver robes. Using alchemical knowledge and resources gathered from countless Planes, they constructed a magnificent and majestic floating city in the sky and countless fortresses which they used to invade new Planes.

In brief, most of the crafted weapons used by the Adept World when invading new Planes were supplied by the Silver Alliance. They were like a group of crazy, yet amazing, engineers, machinists, and alchemists. Using massive amounts of resources and tremendous knowledge, they invented all sorts of creatively crafted machines, providing the Adept World with powerful devices.

The eastern region of the Adept Mainland was the territory of the United Adept Association. Nearly all kinds of Adepts could be found in this association. By utilizing a systematic cultivation road map, and a shareable knowledge system, it had attracted many Adepts who possessed powerful abilities. These Adepts had formed an association governed by strict rules, yet emphasizing impartiality.

Aside from these three major Adept associations and clans, within the center of the Adept Mainland, which was also the region with the densest population, there was a rather loosely organized Adept association: The Zhentarim Association. Honestly speaking, unlike the other three major Adept forces, the Zhantarim Association didn't have a clear direction of development or core bond between its members. It was more like a consortium of Adept families.

Actually, it had something to do with how Adept forces were distributed in the center of the Adept Mainland.

The center region of Adept Mainland was a vast land with abundant resources, but the human colonies here were scattered. Each human colony was a small kingdom, usually guarded by at least one Adept family. Therefore, the center region was made up by many Adept Families.

In order to counter the invasion from all three major Adept forces toward the center region, Adept families of all sizes had grouped together and formed the Zhantarim Association, combining their might to ensure they maintained their place in the world.

Therefore, the Adept forces that Zhentarim Association could call upon were definitely stronger than the other three surrounding forces, making them the strongest of the three. But, unfortunately, as the internal workings of the Zhantarim Association were quite loose, and there were too many different families, which prompted many internal rivalries, whenever they were in a battle, the Zhentarim Association could never be as effective as the other three major forces.

In light of this, the newly elected top management of the Zhantarim Association had decided to strengthen the intensity of their Apprentice Adept training, and thus Greem was forced to face this dangerous training mission.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

According to the annals of the Adept Mainland, the Zhentarim Association controlled thirty-one regions. The smallest region covered seven to eight hundred thousand square kilometers, while the largest occupied more than a million square kilometers. It was a boundless area rich in resources. These areas contained 60% of the entire Adept Mainland's population.

Greem's mission site was located in the Kerala mountain range, northeast of the Dagon region.

After discovering an entrance to the Underground, the Zhentarim Association had constructed an Adept Tower nearby, and sent a powerful Second Grade Adept to guard it. Ninth Grade was the highest rank in the Adept hierarchy, so a Second Grade Adept sounded like a weak entity, hardly capable of shouldering such an important task, but, as a matter of fact, within the Adept Mainland, which was the source of most of the Adept population, the highest grade Adept one could get in touch with, or even hear about, was a Fourth Grade Adept.

Even for Zhentarim Association, the highest grade Adepts on duty were Fourth Grade Adepts. As for all the higher graded Adepts, rumors said they had left the Adept World, to explore and conquer worlds in the vast ocean of stars.

This had led to the current power structure of the Adept Mainland: First Grade Adepts were crazily gathering knowledge and enriching themselves so they could grow, and were the most numerous grade of Adept across all the major clans; Second Grade Adepts were the backbone of all different institutes, and most of them were able to undertake tasks alone; Third Grade Adepts could gather a group of followers and build themselves a small Adept clan or family.

As for Fourth Grade Adepts, they were powerful entities that all major clans wanted. Of course, if a Fourth Grade Adept had the will, he could always explore a new region and establish an Adept kingdom that belonged to himself.

Therefore, the ranking of all Adept associations and clans were based on the number of Fourth Grade Adepts they had.

As for the Fallen Adepts in the Underground, Second Grade was as high as they went. Thus, by sending a Second Grade Adept to stand guard at the Adept Tower, it was more than possible to resist surprise attacks from those Fallen Adepts.

No matter what, the war between these official Adepts was not something an apprentice adept like Greem could involve themselves in. So, this mission was more about investigating the distribution and activities of the underground creatures, and noting signs of Fallen Adept activity.

Whether intentionally not, within the shallow area of the Underground Cave, the most active Adepts presence were the apprentice adepts cultivated by the Fallen Adepts. Also, the Zhentarim Association rarely sent official Adepts into that area. The missions were mostly carried out by apprentice adepts.

Therefore, not surprisingly, this place had become a slaughterhouse for apprentice adepts, as brutal battles happened nearly every day. A lot of Apprentice Adepts had gone through life and death battles here, hardening themselves for their futures.When the flying ship started descending to the mission site, Greem was shocked by what he saw.

Their mission site was actually a small city.

Considering their proximity to the Underground Cave, from time to time, rare resources from underground would be found and traded here. So, upon introspection, it wasn't actually that strange for so many merchants and black market 'tradesmen' to be found in this place.

As the flying ship landed on a large square outside of the city, a man could be seen waiting for them. He had an uncaring expression on his face, and reeked of the smell of blood. Judging from his Spirit Energy, he was an Advanced Apprentice.

While staring at the five people coming down from the ship, this man wore a strange smile on his face, portraying a disdainful and proud look, like an experienced veteran looking down on some weak rookies. But when he saw the masculine Adept jump off the ship, he retracted all unnecessary expressions and bowed respectfully.

"Alright, alright! Save yourself the trouble. This batch of apprentice adepts is for you. You guys better use them carefully. The next batch will come in two months time. If you kill them all, it will cause trouble, and you will have issues with the Association!" The masculine man waved his hand unconcernedly, pushing the last five Apprentices off the ship, like shooing chickens.

"Don't worry, master Sammir. The underground activities have been rather calm lately, and it has been more than two weeks since our patrol team has encountered any of those black bastards. Oh, the 'Black Wood Lotus' and 'Night Eyes Stone' you ordered have been prepared, and are waiting for you." The ferocious looking male apprentice smiled politely as he said this.

Finally, Greem and the other apprentices knew the name of this Body Refining Adept, Sammir.

"En. You go ahead and settle these new apprentices, I'll make a trip to the city. After you are done with them, find me at Old Kerry!" Without waiting for the male apprentice to reply, Adept Sammir strode off into the distance.

As the rest bowed as master Sammir left, only the ferocious looking male apprentice stood tall.

"All of you, follow me!" The male apprentice quickly ran his eyes over these five apprentices. His expression didn't change when saw the two Pseudo-Adepts, but frowned when he saw Greem, "My name is Kevin. You can call me Black-hand Kev."

It was a rather simple introductory, but judging from his proud undertone, it seemed he preferred his nickname over his real name.

"Black-hand Kev? Don't tell me you have a brother called White-hand?" A young man laughed. He was wearing a short yellow robe, and numerous magical items could be seen on his exposing skin. He was one of the Pseudo-Adepts, and, obviously, he was dissatisfied that this 'Black-hand' Kevin didn't respect him.

Surprisingly, the Pseudo-Adept started preparing a spell to strike out at the 'rude' Black-Hand Kev.

Nearly at the same moment he began to chant, Black-hand Kevin disappeared. In next second, a vague figure appeared behind that young Pseudo-Adept. Each of his hands held a dagger. Black-Hand Kev aggressively leaped toward the Pseudo-Adept.

As a Pseudo-Adept with 20 Spirit, even the slightest changes in his surroundings could be detected. Although he was shocked by Kev's sudden strike, that didn't stop this young Pseudo-Adept from reacting.

A series of zapping noises rang through the air, as a blue colored electrical defensive web appeared behind his back. The Pseudo-Adept remained calm and turned around, shooting out two thick lightning beams from both of his palms, aiming right at the advanced apprentice who was surrounded by an electrical web.

Right at the very moment when he was launching the attack, this Pseudo-Adept hesitated.

This was the first time here, and he was about to kill a 'teammate'? That might get him into trouble!

When he was wondering whether he should reduce the strength of his 'Electro Charge', a sharp pain suddenly came from his back, and a pitch-black dagger came out from his chest. Only now the vague figure who was struggling in the electrical web transformed, shattering, like glass in front of them. At the same time, a cruel and hoarse voice spoke into his ears.

"In this place, Pseudo-Adept means nothing! Remember, next time, don't make fun of that which you don't know!"

Finished speaking, Black-hand Kevin pulled the dagger out from the young Pseudo-Adept, took two steps back, and coolly gazed at him.

The Pseudo-Adept's face was bathed in sweat, due to pain. He was shocked by Black-Hand Kev's great dexterity and preternatural swiftness. Suppressing the intense pain, he took a purple potion from his waist pouch, drank half of it and poured the other half into the wound on his chest. Strangely, in few seconds the punch-through wound healed, leaving nothing but bloody crust.

The young Pseudo-Adept wiped off the blood crust, revealing smooth and fair skin underneath.

"Hell!" Kevin whistled, "A Bloody Mary? You Pseudo-Adepts do have a lot of good stuff, don't ya! I should've given you a bigger wound just now! Now you know why they call me Black-hand Kevin, because I always like to attack the enemy's back. Next time you are looking for trouble, remember to watch your back!"

The suffering young Pseudo-Adept clenched his jaw tightly, but had no intentions of provoking him again. On the other side, the other Pseudo-Adept furrowed his brows, obviously, he too was startled by the aggressiveness of this place.

But what really frightened these two men was not Kevin's aggressiveness, but his bizarre ability.

Firstly, he was not using any sort of spatial attack, or else, they would have sensed the ripple of the spatial. Secondly, it was also not a shadow clone technique, because there was no sign when Kevin revealed his true self at the end, and they could still sense the spirit ripple of him from the vague figure which served as a lure. How could that young Pseudo-Adept be deceived so easily?

For the moment, the group was pondering what just happened in front of them, but no one had any clue on how Kevin did that. Though he was just an advanced apprentice, he was able to easily defeat a Pseudo-Adept. Of course, it was partially because it was a surprise attack, but more was because of Kevin's unpredictable and strange magical ability.

Before getting to the root of Kevin's abilities, the young Pseudo-Adept decided not to agitate him anymore.

Although Mary was an assassin who fought in close combat with her high speed, she was unable to see how Kevin had done that. This made her knit her brows in a tight frown.

While she was frustrated by this, Greem gently nudged her arm and mouthed the word: 'Illusion'.

Perhaps only Greem could clearly saw the entire process of that extremely short battle.

The Kevin's ability was the rare 'illusion'.

While all the other apprentice adepts were going after for more powerful magic spells, Kevin was emphasized on combining his innate magical ability and his own combat ability. Just now, using his illusion to deceive the enemy's five senses, he never moved, but simply covered himself with an illusion.

While the young Pseudo-Adept was deceived by the illusive figure, which looked like a real human, and turned his body around, he had exposed his defenseless back to Kevin, who was also an assassin who fought with his high Dexterity. Judging from the swiftness of his movement, Kevin's Dexterity was just slightly lower than Mary, perhaps around 13 to 15.

If a guy like this was moving with his full speed, without Elementium Vision, perhaps Greem couldn't even find out where he actually was, let alone counter the full force of his attacks.

Thus, among all Body Refining Adept, a high agility assassins like Mary and Kevin, were the biggest threat to apprentices who fought with offensive magic spells.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Led by Black-hand Kevin, the group of Apprentices soon arrived at a rather shabby stone room located on the first floor of the Adept Tower. There, they finally met the other mission members.

Out of ten apprentices who signed up for the Underground Cave investigation mission, three of them were Pseudo-Adepts. They were Leo, from the Mushroom Forest of the Rofen region, Sabrina, from the Tracy family of the Woodrow region, and Marcus from the Black Forest Institute of the Sidney region. Leo was the young Pseudo-Adept who was wounded by Kevin previously.

As for the six advanced apprentices, Shila, Matthew, Leander, Mary, Isaac, and Bruce, four were male and two female, and they all came from different regions and families. The magical spells they studied were different in a thousand ways, but now, because of the mission, they were grouped together in this room.

As for Greem, the only beginner apprentice within the group, he was elbowed out from their interactions, as if he never existed. As one of the members of a ten man team, no doubt Greem's existence would lower their overall strength. Thus, when facing Greem, no one would give him face.

And there was no way Greem could explain why he was here. So, he just kept his mouth shut and listened to their conversation, all the while secretly having the Chip gather basic information on these people.

All ten apprentices were brought here via three different flying ships. The earliest had arrived two days ago and, after spending a few days in this Adept Tower, they were rather familiar with this place. Hence, they were now briefly talking about the details of the mission site.

But as they were talking, a middle-aged male Adept wearing a white robe and a pointy hat, rushed into the stone room.

"Looks like all of you are here. This is perfect, I don't have to explain this for the second time. Wait, why there is a beginner apprentice here? Alright, alright, this must be the mistake by the old fools of the association. Heh… since all of you are here, you will have to resign yourself to your fate! Those Hooked Horrors in the Underground are going to have a lovely feast…"

A vicious grin followed his words, sending chills up everyone's spines. But obviously, no one would dare refute his terrifying comment.

"Fine, fine… apparently you're a group of boring fellows, none of you even dare to get declare otherwise… but this may not be a bad thing, as you, likely, won't get yourself killed in the dark underground because of your arrogance. The duration of this mission is six months, and the ten of you will be a team. Every ten days, you need to patrol the underground, and you'll have to visit five inspection sites every time. They are all located in different locations."

"Therefore, if you don't want anything bad to happen to you, you'd better move in a full group of ten, following the provided route and inspecting these five mission sites in order. If you're quick, you can complete it within five days, and then you'll have five days to rest. Of course, you can split your team up, and that way you might even finish the inspection trip within two days. But if you bump into those black bastards in the underground area, you're on your own. Hehehe…"

The explanation of the mission brought unsightly expressions to all ten apprentices, but at this point, the middle-aged Adept introduced himself.

"My name is Angus. You can come to my residence to complete the mission later. Remember, no matter what kinds of dangerous situations you encounter in the Underground, you're on your own. No one will be there to save you. If you're lucky and kill some stupid black bastards, remember to bring their heads back. You can exchange them for rewards from me!"Faced with a group of silence apprentice Adepts, this Adept Angus had no interest in providing further explanations. He turned around and quickly left.

Now, there weren't any outsider remaining in the room. The ten apprentices, who were thrown together by the compulsory mission, had no choice but to sit down together, beginning to discuss how were they going to complete the mission.

The young female Pseudo-Adept, Sabrina, who had arrived two days earlier, became the primary source of information for the group. She began to explain the mission in greater detail.

She had long dark hair, which flowed down to her waist. The left side of her face was covered with a silver mask, but the other side of her faced showed that she was a fairly pretty girl. But strangely, under the silver mask, her left eye was replaced with a mechanical mechanism. Her left arm was also mechanical. When she moved, metal noises could be heard coming from her body.

All five mission sites were located fairly close to the surface, and the furthest one was around ten miles away from the entrance. If this distance was on the surface, it wouldn't take more than seven to eight minutes for these few Pseudo-Adepts to complete the patrol. But when it was in the underground world, this distance amounted to quite the challenge.

From the entrance of the cave to the last mission site, the linear distance was ten miles. But, between them were rough mines, tunnels, rift valleys and large cracks. Asides from some rather safe routes, which had been found, the underground was filled with twisting and turning tunnels. If they followed the safe route, they should only bump into lesser underground creatures. But if they struck out in a random direction, perhaps all that would await them would be something nasty.

"The first patrol will start in three days, so we need to come up with a detailed plan today. With that, we can prepare ourselves." Sabrina concluded her explanation of the mission with this, which brought deep frowns to everyone's faces.

Three days? This was such a short amount of time to prepare!

"Did you guys forget that we have a burden on our team?" One of the male apprentices, Isaac, gazed at Greem discontentedly. Clearly, he wasn't happy that Greem was dragging down the strength of the entire team.

"I brought him here, I'll be responsible for his safety!" Mary's green eyes brightened suddenly, glaring at Isaac as she spoke with a cold and stern voice.

"If that is the case, I suggest we'll split up for the mission. Let this beautiful lady bring her knight along. With this, we'll be more efficient in completing the mission, and we'll have more spare time to study and rest!" Isaac spoke with a cold grin.

"Are you sure about this?" Sabrina shook her head, then said, "Don't think that we can just ditch this burden. Since we're a team, we need to take the whole situation into account and plan accordingly. Every time we patrol, if we miss two sites, our earnings will be cut in half, and if we miss three, we won't receive any earnings at all. If two people are assigned to a mission site, of course we can complete the patrol quicker. But if a small team is too weak, they might not come back…"

"What's wrong? Are you feeling sorry for the rookie?" Obviously, Isaac had decided that someone on the team had to be the realist.

"It's not that I feel sorry for him, but, if we follow your suggestion, that also means we might need to complete the ten men mission with just eight of us the next time. And the time after that, we might need to complete it with just six of us. With this, even if you are strong individually, in the end, you might still end up getting killed while between all mission sites!" Sabrina spoke with a cold tone.

Obviously, for the past two days, she had thoroughly studied their mission, and had clearly analyzed all the possible traps hidden within it.

She felt she this was a dilemma!

If they carried out the mission as a team, as all five mission sites were scattered in different locations, it would take them extra time to travel between them. But there was strength in numbers, and they could face all possible dangers with ease. If they split up, unavoidably, their overall strength would be diluted. If they were unlucky and had one or two small teams annihilated, they would suffer over the next few months!

For the moment, everyone was lost in deep thought, and even Isaac, who was upset of Greem's presence, kept his mouth shut.

For any simple task flow, not only did they had to consider the time efficiency, they also had to give consideration to the balance of strength. Even if some Pseudo-Adept thought he had a superb ability and left his companions to die, he alone wouldn't be able to complete the patrols by himself, and would tire out before the end of the mission.

They had to carry out their mission underground, so no matter how strong an individual was, there was no way he could spend seven to eight days without resting. Wandering through the underground alone would never be as relaxing as having a group of people together. That's the reason why the Adept association created this mission, not only was it was an assessment of their teamwork, but it also served as an examination of their individual combat abilities.

"I think we should split up! All of us are here to train and improve ourselves. We're not here to relax and enjoy ourselves. I'll team up with Mary, we should be able to handle one mission site, I have confidence in this." Greem spoke.

Hearing what he said, many people silently breathed out sighs of relief.

After all, if they had to bring a burden into the dark and bizarre Underground, even those three Pseudo-Adepts would be troubled.

"Alright, so be it. Everybody use the next two days to rest and prepare yourself with the items needed for our mission. Three days from now, we'll meet up here." All three Pseudo-Adepts couldn't help but look at Greem, once again reconfirming that he was only a beginner apprentice. Obviously, that Sabrina intended to become the leader of this team, which is why she promptly concluded the meeting.

Silently, everybody nodded their heads, then left the stone room one after the other.

When they were the only ones left in the room, Mary teasingly asked, "Why are you so sure I'll team up with you?"

"Heh. You want blood; I want demon core. We'll split up any other materials we find later. There is no conflict in this, so it's a win-win situation for the both of us." Greem stretched his right hand out towards the blood-loving girl with the green eyes.

"Hmm! I want first pick of the loot!" Mary placed her soft, fragile-seeming palm into Greem's and shook his head. Then she turned around and left the room.

They only had three days, and she needed to prepare a few more items. After becoming an apprentice Adept, this was the first time they had left the Magical Swamp, so Mary decided to go for a walk…

After the room became completely quiet, Greem closed his eyes, pretending he was thinking about something, while, in fact, he was communicating with the Chip in his mind.

"Chip, have you gathered all the data on those people just now?"

Beep* "Data sampling has been completed. Transmitting…"

Following a series of beeps, data starting flowing into his mind.……

This data really showed him nothing…

Left speechless, Greem breathed out a long sigh. It looked like, without witnessing them actually fight, it would be really difficult for him to get data on the actual abilities of his teammates.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Within the dark underground tunnel, a perfect silence prevailed.

Originally, there weren't any routes in the Underground world. Only irregular rock fractures and water channels formed after thousands of years of water erosion. However, through the endless excavating efforts by many generations of underground creatures, the winding cave system with many chambers, large and small were interconnected by tunnels of all length, forming an awe-inspiring three-dimensional tunnel system that extended in all directions.

There weren't any straight paths down here, like the ones back on the on the surface. All the passages were meticulously excavated along rock fractures. Stretching through those ancient water channels, twisting and turning. Sometimes, when the walls between caves were relatively thin, you could hear sound from other passages, but they were still forced to travel a long, winding passage of tens of miles in complete darkness, before reaching their destination.

Countless stalactites were hanging from the ceiling of caverns; stalagmites protruded unevenly from the damp floor. Water continually dripping down through the uneven rock formations, allowing for the ground to be damp and covered with moss.

To be honest, when traveling in such an isolated and quiet environment, it was very easy to feel a creeping sensation. Thinking that just the few hundred tons of rocks and soil on top of your head could collapse at any time, and in turn, crushing you.

Everyone was holding a torch in. The group of ten, including Greem, were formed in a long line, walking slowly and difficulty in the underground tunnel.

The glow of their torches could only light up a region of five meters. From time to time a bone chilling breeze would squeeze out from some unseen cracks in the rock wall, causing the torches to flicker in the wind. The flickering projected their shadows on the other side of the rock wall.

Although they had tried their best to keep complete silence while walking. But the indistinct noise of their footsteps and the sounds that came from their bodies scratching against the rock wall, all of them were still echoed far away in this dark and quiet tunnel. And, this would bring them so much more unexpected dangers in their journey later.

After walking continuously for three hours, the team finally arrived at their first stop on the inspection route.

Strictly speaking, the first three hours journey was just a small assessment before they truly entered the Underground Cave. The real starting point of their investigation and inspection mission started here.

"Alright, this is where we split. Try your best to complete the mission as soon as possible, then we'll meet back here again. I wish you all the best!" The clear and melodious voice of Sabrina became hollow in this oppressive cavern.

Ten Apprentice Adepts split into five small teams. All traveling to different sites to complete their own mission. The deepest mission site was taken care by Sabrina and Shila. Of course, no one would have any objection when she volunteered for the most dangerous mission, thus, they too had tacitly approved her leadership.

As for the team of Greem and Mary, although everyone was jealous, but they had no choice and gave them the easiest mission. Because if the rest of the group sought momentary satisfaction and gave Greem's group a tougher mission, which eventually brought them to death. Next time, they would have to complete the ten person mission with only eight members.

Every single person was wearing a thick black robe, which fully covered every single inch of their skin. This was to prevent their aura and body temperature from exposing their positions in the eyes of those underground creature who possessed infrared vision. After whispering wishes to each other, five small teams disappeared themselves into the darkness, heading to their respective destination.

After split up, Greem and Mary continued walking in the dark tunnel for nearly seven to eight minutes, then they stopped.

Greem listened for any sound that might be audible. When he finally confirmed there wasn't anything nearby, he casually killed off the torch in his hand. When the last glow of light faded into the darkness, a mystery and bizarre world was made revealed in front of Greem's eyes.

The illuminating mosses on the cave walls were glowing coldly in the dark. Drawing out a completely different yet bizarre scene in Greem's eyes, which had temporarily been granted with the ability of low-light vision. Lit up by this faded glow, darkness gradually retracted, replacing by a mysterious world of glittering.

The color of the cold, gruesome-looking cave wall was black, and the region where water gathered was gray. Within Greem's Elementium Vision, besides from a large patch of green illuminating glow, the world in front of him was full of black and gray colors. However, hidden in a dark corner not far from where he stood, he could barely see a few creepy moving red dots.

Red dots represents the leaking life force.

Judging from the size of the red dots, they should be some tiny creatures. Perhaps Rock Scorpions or wall lizards.

Greem turned around and saw Mary. She was still wearing the same bright red chiffon dress, exposing a large area of her fair skin. But strangely, even though Greem was only three steps away from her, but he couldn't sense any temperature that all living beings had. If just looking at her with infrared vision, perhaps Mary was no different from a human shaped stalagmite.

Alright, a Vampire's ability was indeed unpredictable.

With infrared vision, able to hide her vitality aura, and together with her supreme agility, the dark Underground was a perfect place for an assassin like her.

Greem pulled down his hood, took up the lead and resumed their journey, walking along the winding rough slope in front of him.

Their mission site was near an underground pond located seven miles away. They might pass by a couple of Underground creature habitats along their way, but there wasn't too much of a risk to worry. As long as they paid more attention to their surroundings, they should be able to walk passed them without any issue.Although both of them possessed powerful magical abilities, yet when traveling in The Underground world where dangers were everywhere even Mary, who was an advanced apprentice, was still like a toddler who just started learning how to walk.

Greem thought he had been well prepared, but before he reached one hundred meters from starting point, he was met with the first ambush in this Underground world.

Yes, an ambush!

When Greem was passing by a rock crack, a Rock Python who was hiding within it suddenly darted out, opening its stinking and ferocious mouth, biting toward his neck.

He was caught off guard.

The cold, hard rock wall had provided a well cover for this Rock Python's indistinct vitality aura. So, when Greem saw a red dot suddenly jumped into his vision, the venomous fangs of Rock Python had nearly reached his face.

If Greem had 10 or above Agility, perhaps he could respond on time. But, his 4 Agility had severely limited his instinctive reflex, forcing him to shut his eyes in great fear while waiting for the brutal bite to hit him.

A Rock Python wouldn't kill him, but a painful wound was inevitable.

A shrill whistling sound of object piercing through the air beside his ear. Mary, who was apparently walking behind of him second ago, suddenly jumped in front of him. With her fingers pointing like a blade, she sliced through the air with incredible speed. In just a split second, the Rock Python had been sliced into seven pieces.

A pungent smell of blood filled the air within the tunnel.

Greem took a few deep breathes, finally making his racing heart beats returned to normal. His body was wet with cold sweat. Damn Underground creatures, they sure knew how to pick a perfect spot to ambush!

Although the tunnel was dark, Greem felt his face was burning.

He was overconfident. A theory was always just a theory. He thought he had stored a huge amount of skills and experiences required for the adventure, but in real life there was always traps that he could never predict.

After the first setback, two people exchanged their position.

Nimble and noiseless, Mary took the lead. No Underground creature that tried to ambush them could escape from her sharp magical weapon-like nails. Even if it was an extremely close range ambush, she could always slice the enemy into pieces with her supreme Agility.

Thus, within just an hour, eleven Underground creatures were killed by her.

Indistinctly, Greem heard the noise of creatures fighting from the tunnel far behind him. It seemed like a small scale of war was inevitable. In this Underground world, no matter how loud noise was or how small of a wound is, they were both a huge taboo. As both could easily lure bigger and more aggressive Underground creatures.

Although with Mary and Greem's overall strength, they had no fear in these weak creatures, but they could still bring Greem and Mary unnecessary troubles for their journey.

The first real trouble occurred at the seventh hour after they entered the Underground world. A group of eleven Hooked Horrors struck them.

Hook Horrors were widely distributed in all parts of Underworld world. They looked rather similar to a small dinosaur with its body fully covered in hard scales. When they stood straight, they reached the height of two meters. Although they weren't considered a large creature, but they had a strong bone, and a mouthful of big, shining, sharp fangs. Their sticky saliva was dripping down from this brutal mouth, looking like they were going to have a big feast.

Unlike other smaller creatures, they didn't use ambush as their strategy, but patiently waited until Greem and Mary entered their encirclement, only then did they steadily walked out from the darkness. Before seeing their body, Greem was greeted with pairs of pale yellow eyes.

A hard-skin creature like this was tough to deal with, at least, Mary's sharp claws couldn't penetrate their strong scales. Without hitting their armpit, eyes, or neck, the weak spots of their defense, Mary's attack was harmless to them. On the opposite, their slim but sharp upper limbs, located on their chests, could cause her devastating damage.

Together with the tremendous slamming force that came from its heavy body, plus the Paralyze and Slowing effect that was innate to all Earth Elemental creatures, this all made it really tough for an ordinary Apprentice Adept to escape safely with such limited space.

A wry smile emerged on Greem's face, he shook his head, quickly took out two summoning cores and threw them onto a nearby dirt patch.

Although majority of the underground tunnel was excavated on the solid rock wall, utilizing the hardness of the rock to prevent the tunnel from collapsing, but there was always dirt and sand to be found everywhere. Thus, Greem never lacked the material to shape his Clay Golems.

A soundless roar rang through the air. The Demon Alligator Hunter gradually took its shape beside Greem.

"Oh, good kid! You have a hidden trick!" Mary's voice came from the darkness.

With Mary's 17 Agility, freeing herself from these Hooked Horrors was a piece of cake. If not because of Greem, it would just take her five seconds to pass through the enemy's rather shabby encirclement.

After a few failed random attacks at those Hooked Horrors, Mary gave up trying. She returned to Greem, started to give an examining look at this new, strange golem.

This… it seemed different from the one she saw last time! Could this clay alligator a new golem he obtained, after killed the Giant Alligator King? Apparently, this kid wasn't as weak as she imagined!

Filling her mind with countless questions, Mary saw Greem walk up to the clay alligator's back and sit down. Following a mild vibration, the clay alligator moved its huge body, crushing its way to those Hooked Horrors who starting to tighten up the circle.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Note: As VeggieFly is leaving us, we have got ourself two new editors: FlashFly and KiwiFly. This chapter is edited by both of them.

The clay alligator charged forward, and, with the breeze it caused sweeping up dead leaves, it looked as if it were invincible.

It was worth mentioning that the build of the Demon Alligator Hunter had entered the scope of large creatures. In comparison, the ferocious Hooked Horror was only considered a medium size creature.

Fights between demon beasts always came down to strength, and no doubt, the size of their bodies was the most direct method of showing off their strength.

Facing the charging Demon Alligator Hunter, the Hooked Horrors, who even Mary couldn't harm, had transformed into a group of terrified little bunnies putting up a deathbed struggle. One after another they were thrown to the ground by the Demon Alligator, who used his powerful jaw to shred them into little pieces. At the same time, the hunter, who sat up high, kept throwing spears down. Each spear pinned the Hooked Horrors, who tried to leap onto the Demon Alligator's back, to the ground.

Although Hooked Horrors were also Earth Elemental creatures, which granted them immunity from the Earth Elemental damage brought by the Dirt Spear, they couldn't escape from the brutal physical damage. Hence, while charging towards their enemy, many Hooked Horrors were nailed into the ground by the spear, putting up a useless struggle.

A few of the lucky Hooked Horrors managed to land beside the Demon Alligator. They vented their anger by using the most powerful attacks they could muster. They tirelessly hit the thick, tough clay armour covering the top of the Demon Alligator's body. They attacked aggressively. Their scratching and biting caused dirt chunks to fall off continuously. But from time to time, an earthy yellow ring of light would burst out from the Demon Alligator's body, bringing the Demon Alligator another layer of new clay armour.

The hunter who sat high up would never let the enemies who tried to destroy the body of the Demon Alligator go. The dirt spears, that were fired from close range,

penetrated the Hooked Horrors' skulls instantly, making them fall to the ground while letting out miserably cries.

In just ten minutes, this group of Hooked Horrors had been wiped out completely by the Demon Alligator Hunter.

Once the battle was over, Greem started to clean up the battlefield. But the result, once again, made him scorn these Hook Horrors who died miserably. Even amongst this rather large group of wandering creatures, there wasn't even a single demon core to be found. Greem hastily harvested some of the still intact razor sharp claws. After harvesting, Mary and Greem climbed back up onto the Demon Alligator and ventured deeper into the Underground World.

In around half day, the broken bodies of the Hooked Horrors they had left behind would be digested by other Underground creatures. The other creatures would be lured in by the smell of the dead bodies. Within the Underground world, there were plenty of 'natural scavengers', as food was extremely scarce, and anything that could be eaten would not go to waste. These 'natural scavengers' would wander around the dark and quiet Underground world all day looking for food that would cure their hunger.

However, something happened that Greem hadn't considered. Not long after they left the battlefield, a short stalagmite in a corner of the cave suddenly trembled and transformed into a weird-looking human figure who had, what seemed to be rock-like skin. It was staring blankly in the direction in which Greem and Mary disappeared, seeming like a lifeless object. The creature then sent a strange wave forth and, by using a secret message, transmitted it far into the distance.

Only after transmitting all the information, did the stone figure difficulty and slowly merge back together with the short stalagmite, leaving no trace that it was ever there. It was such a strange life form, that, even if Greem had the intention to find it, he would find it really hard to differentiate it from other ordinary stalagmites.Deep down in the Underground world, within a secret cave.

A bonfire was brightly burning in the centre of the cave, spreading its toasty warmth throughout it. Four bizarre-looking figures, covered in black cloaks, were standing in a circle around the fire. They remained quiet, as if they were waiting for something.

In order to prevent their aura from leaking out, the placed a thick, transparent barrier at the entrance of the cave.

All of a sudden, a strange croaking sound was heard from one of the members.

Apparently, this figure was female, as her arm, that stretched out from underneath the black cloak, was very slim. An extremely ugly toad was squatting in the middle of her palm. It kept letting out jarring, croaking sounds by squeezing and expanding its huge yet half-transparent stomach.

"There is also activity detected in sector seven! Including sector four and five, which were triggered moments ago, this makes three sectors in total. We can be sure that they're from the outside," The lady finally spoke.

"Jajaja… We had just received the news that a group of delicious prey are coming from the outside, and now we've finally detected their whereabouts. What a bunch of fearless rookies! Since the triggering time of these few sites are so close to each other, they must have split up. Jajaja… this is the best news we've heard all day!" A sinister laugh came from another man in a black cloak.

"Can you find anything out about the overall strength of each small team? I heard that there are a few Pseudo-Adepts in this group? I just need one more Pseudo-Adept soul to complete my corpse puppet!" Another man in a black cloak spoke. From his lofty and domineering voice, it wasn't hard to tell that this guy was the leader of this four-people group. This man also had the strongest treacherous undertone.

"It is really tough to tell! After all, any overly aggressive spying methods would be easily detected by them. Therefore, the message I received only tells me that some

creatures, who have fulfilled the preset requirements, passed by. However, we can't confirm their actual strength and numbers," The same lady replied.

"Hmm! Once they split up, they are not far from meeting their death. According to their tradition, most of them will probably form a two-person team, and, at most, a three people one. We have four people here and three of us are Pseudo-Adepts. Can't we capture one of their small teams?" Grinning hideously, the black cloak leader continued saying, "Let's go to site number four first, as that's the closest site from here. If everything goes smoothly, we can visit a few more sites afterwards, and try our best to capture few more teams!"

"Let's go!"

The group put their words into action immediately. They were a group of people who handle things with resolute and cruel means. After a short discussion, they had given up this temporary camp and started squeezing their way out of the cave, relinquishing themselves to the eternal darkness outside.At the same time, Greem was enjoying a relaxed journey. He absolutely had no idea that great danger was approaching from a far distance.

He and Mary had become indifferent spectators who did nothing. The Demon Alligator Hunter alone was able to make a clean sweep of all Underground creatures who kept leaping out from the darkness. Marching and crushing all in their way, they had virtually turned this extremely dangerous mission into a relaxed and peaceful sightseeing trip.

But, a discovery had brought all sorts of feeling to his mind. The Underground world was a place where all dirty things hid, and a place where different species crossbred with each other. All sorts of messy bloodlines could be found here.

The aggressiveness and cruelty of these Underground creatures were stronger than those on the surface. Sometimes, even though they knew they were not the match of Greem and his minions, they still launched an attack on him. They

attacked in such a way that they seemed to not take their own safety into consideration. In fact, some hunters only needed to throw their spear at the weaker charging creatures in order to kill them. As for those stronger creatures, before they could break up Demon Alligator's tough clay armour, it's sharp and powerful front legs would have crushed them into meat paste.

Facing such an enormous creature, who could absorb Earth Elementium from the surrounding environment and continuously self-heal, these creatures' attacks could never bring any threat. If they really wanted to defeat the Demon Alligator, they would have to use a devastating magic spell and crush the summoning core that was buried deep inside its body in one go. The only other option was to use a continuous amount of super energy to smash its tough shell. But, obviously, none of these small Underground creatures was capable of achieving either one of the options.

Actually, this was related to the environment they were living in.

The Underground world was full of long, narrow tunnels, caverns with protruding stalagmites on the ground, and countless stalactites that hung from the ceiling of caverns. Living in such environment, an overly grown body brought two major harms. Firstly, it was very hard to find sufficient food to sustain their life, and, secondly, it was very difficult to pass through all the narrow tunnels without getting stuck.

Therefore, in order to adapt to such an environment, the majority of the Underground creature had evolved. Although they became cruel and aggressive, their bodies were short and flat. This meant that they when faced with the Demon Alligator, who was clearly a massive monster in this Underground world, were suppressed in both Strength and Physique.

As the golem was moulded from Earth Elementium, the size of the Demon Alligator was controlled directly by the summoning core. When it was required to face battle, it would charge in with its biggest form. However, when it was required to travel underground, it would adjust its body shape according to the shape of the tunnel.

For example, when travelling in some really narrow and rough tunnels, it could even adjust itself into the shape of huge Rock Python, which allowed it to squeeze through the tight space more easily. The two 'masters' who owned this self-moving golem, who was capable of changing its shape, needed only to sit on its back and allow the golem to do all the work. Was there anything else that could be more relaxing than this?

In order to see throughout their long and boring journey in the dark, Greem and Mary even lit up their torches on the back of Demon Alligator. They tried to overcome their own boredom by studying their own magical topic. As for those Underground creatures, who had eyes but failed to see Mount Tai, they just let their dedicated Demon Alligator Hunter handle them!

Therefore, the mission which initially required them to embark on a tiring seventeen-hour long journey, only took seven hours before they arrived at their destination.

It was an enormous limestone cavern and was filled with all kinds of strangely shaped stalactites. In a lower region in a corner of the cave, water fell off the cavern wall and formed a small pond. The pond made this place become one where surrounding Underground creatures always visited.

The team stopped in this dark limestone cavern. Lit up by the dancing flame of the torch, the huge body of the Demon Alligator appeared even more frightening and ruthless. Frightened by it, most of the Underground creatures who came here for water immediately scurried away, and only a handful of creatures who didn't possess sufficient intelligence initiated their attack. Of course, these poor fellows were all killed on the spot.

Greem's soft, thick and waterproof black deerskin boots stepped onto the muddy and slippery stone path. As Greem climbed down from the Demon Alligator Hunter, he pushed back his hood. He quickly started scanning the mission site through his strange goggles.

It was unexpectedly calm, a mission like this was considered an Orange mission?

But, before he could continue pondering this strange occurrence, an extremely gentle and lovely female voice suddenly rang out from behind him.

"As an elegant gentleman, don't you think you should help the beautiful lady get down from the vehicle?"

A cold shudder suddenly went down Greem's back. He was taken aback by Mary's 'frightening' voice. To be honest, Mary always showed him the brutal and aggressive side of hers during a fight. By suddenly portraying the look of a gentle lady, clearly, because of boredom, she was once again trying to fool him.

After knowing her for a long time, he now had a clearly understood Mary's temper.

She was an extremely dangerous girl; she was a wounded girl who lacked trust in the outside world.

Greem had absolutely no idea how Mary endured all those frightening magical experiments done by Adept Anderson. However, Greem was sure of one thing: the current Mary was showing signs of having split personalities. One was the original Mary, who was a shy and introverted girl, while another was the cruel vampire Mary, whose mind was twisted. The two totally opposite personalities were placed in the same body, producing a Mary who always felt insecure.

She was like a mind twisted dowager. On one hand, she wanted to use her beautiful and sexy appearance to make everyone crazy about her. Whilst, on the other hand, she couldn't restrain her desire for fresh blood and wished she could rip every single human into pieces, pouring their blood onto her beautiful body.

Therefore, her behaviour swung between seduction and cruelty. Even a slight mistake would trigger the pain hiding deep within her heart, causing her to transform into the 'Bloody Queen' that she always dreamed of!

In brief, it was extremely rare to see a perfect human being to walk on the path of Adept!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Edited by: KiwiFly

Translator's note: Guys, we urgently need new editors for this project. If you know someone who can help, send me an email at .

The biggest benefit of owning the Chip was the near encyclopedic knowledge it granted him.

After searching through its database, the Chip transmitted the most appropriate action into Greem's mind.

After receiving this data, Greem bowed like a noble. He bent down on one knee and offered Mary his hand, allowing Mary to use his knee as a way to dismount the Demon Alligator.

Mary was obviously satisfied with Greem's sweet and considerate behavior. She gracefully turned, her soft, striking red dress contrasting vividly against her delicate and fair skin. Under the reflection of the dim torchlight, she seemed to become the most dazzling object in the eternal darkness.

"I like this place and wish to take a bath here. So, I'll need to trouble my honorable knight to stand guard for me!" Mary gave her wish, once again portraying the lofty manner of a noble lady.

"As you wish!"

Clearly, when compared to Mary, Greem seemed much more familiar with these types of role-playing games. Greem placed his arm on his chest and bowed. He then grabbed the Demon Alligator Hunter and left to patrol the surrounding area.

They were sent here to complete their mission and, coincidentally, the mission site was located in the middle of that water pond. So, after leaving Mary behind, Greem couldn't refrain himself from starting to search for the biggest benefit of this trip.

There was a reason why this Underground Cave was so famous. This Underground Cave produced some rare and special resources that couldn't be found anywhere on the surface. An example of one such resource was the Soul Mushroom.

The Soul Mushroom was a kind of white mushroom, which existed in two different forms: its incorporeal form and its corporeal one. It was one of the main ingredients used to produce Invisible Potion and Shadow Perish Enchantment. They grew in shady and cool places and were able to feed off of negative energy. Therefore, Soul Mushrooms were frequently found growing near evil spirits. This was the reason why normal people couldn't see them. Only apprentice Adepts who possessed supernatural power, like Greem, were qualified to harvest them.

Before they left, Adept Angus had told them about these Soul Mushrooms, promising that if anyone was to find some on their mission, he would purchase them off them for a good price. From his desire for the mushrooms, Greem believed that Adept Angus had decided to become a pharmacist.

It was because of this that Greem showed great enthusiasm for this additional job, as he could easily accomplish it. After all, in order to prepare himself for this mission, he had depleted nearly all of his accumulated resources and savings. Right now, apart from some necessary spell casting materials and travel kits, the only things left in Greem's waist pouch were three Magical Crystals.

With just this meager wealth, it was impossible for him to buy anything good in this place.

As Greem was traveling further and further away, Mary had just reached the edge of the pond.

Here in the Underground world, everything was covered in an oppressive, eternal darkness. From time to time, indistinct noises were even heard echoing throughout the caves.

If any ordinary human had found themselves in this place, perhaps they would have long screamed their lungs out by now, frightened by the terrifying and gruesome environment. But, Mary was the complete opposite to them. She inserted her torch into a crack in the wall, and, while humming a joyful tune, she slowly peeled the thin red dress off her body. She tested the temperature by

placing her perfectly shaped leg into the water, and, finding it to her liking, she cheered and dived in.

The water splashed in all directions, presenting a barely visible beautiful body. If this sight was not seen in the Underground, it would definitely be called a seductive and magnificent wonderland.

But, whilst Mary was happily swimming in the water, at the ceiling, where the light of the torch couldn't reach, a pair of bizarre eyes lit up.

Clearly, those pair of eyes belonged to an intelligent creature. They were fluttering from side to side, looking puzzled and undecided.

To be honest, this Underground world was a land where darkness was eternal and slaughter and blood were as common as flies. Nothing in this land could be related to the words 'beautiful' and 'warm'. Although he had learned about the free and peaceful life on the surface from books and knowledge shared by wandering travelers, he had never believed in any of those fairytales.

He knew that the surface was cruelly and brutally ruled by frightening and evil human Adepts. Since this was the case, how could the humans on the surface live a free and peaceful life? Those fairytales must be the lies that the evil Adepts used to deceive the weak-minded humans. From what he could tell, they had seemed to work, as the foolish humans had fallen hook, line, and sinker, into believing them.

This was something that he firmly believed in, so, when suddenly seeing a beautiful naked girl bathing in his hunting zone, he was struck with uncertainty.

The numerous ferocious actions, performed by apprentice Adepts, had caused a wariness to develop in him. Thus, without making any noise, he started to crawl along the ceiling, inching closer and closer towards the beautiful girl.

His delicate and flexible body enabled him to perform extraordinary movements, so, even if he was moving along a surface covered with slippery moss, he was still able to move as if it was flat ground. He moved silently, and, like a spider

creating its web in darkness, he slipped down a crack in the wall. He hid behind the various stalagmites and stalactites, and, unseen, he approached the edge of the pond.

Mary had just finished swimming and was now sitting on a rock at the edge of the pond, slowly and gently squeezing out the water from her hair. Her long, dark hair flowed down her body and reached just below her perfect asset. Her hair covered her body perfectly, preventing anyone from witnessing the ultimate beauty. What a sad moment!

The perfectly hidden humanoid figure stealthily arrived at Mary's red dress. After searching for a while, he found nothing that seemed to be a storage pouch or a magical weapon.

Could this beautiful girl not an apprentice Adept?

After stealing a glance at the barely visible beautiful body, he couldn't help but gulp. As he watched her an evil thought arose in his mind.

Regardless of whether she was an apprentice Adept or not, shipping such a high quality 'product' to Elysium city would definitely result in a high profit. If he could get that profit he would be able to live a nice life; he wouldn't have to run around in the oppressive tunnels all day trying to make his living

The person who had left earlier was definitely an apprentice Adept. A man who was able to control such a frightening Golem monster was obviously something that he, as an Underground Rogue Hunter, could possibly deal with. However, since the beginning, this lady never showed any special ability. It was likely that she was just a mistress the male apprentice had brought along. If she was really a normal human, then it was possible that he could successfully abduct her.

After making up his mind, the shadowy figure hid behind the rock that the naked lady was sitting on. He quietly pulled out the leather pouch that was tied onto his waist. A palm-sized green object climbed out of the leather pouch and quickly moved onto the rock, climbing towards the naked lady.

After a brief moment, Mary cried out. As soon as this happened, the shadowy figure instantly bolted out, like a lightning strike, and placed his two bent blades against her neck.

The tiny green lizard opened its mouth, draping itself over Mary's naked body and sticking its tongue out. It had actually bitten Mary's sexy butt! Greenish liquid oozed from the small wound, and Mary seemed to be paralyzed, looking as if she could hardly stand by herself.

The shadowy figure had no use but to use one of his hands to hold up Mary's body. He had to do this in order to prevent Mary from slipping into the pond.

"You better make sure to hold her tight. If you tear any of her skin then you'll suffer some nasty consequences." A deep and steady male voice suddenly rang out throughout the cave, scaring the shit out of the shadowy figure.

Somehow Greem had returned from patrolling and was leaning against a stalagmite. He was watching the scene with a smile on his face. Behind him, the frightening Demon Alligator Hunter walked out of the darkness. The noise it made as it walked was comparable to a giant.

The shadowy figure seemed not to have expected this situation. He stepped back and positioned his body behind Mary's. He then raised one of his bent blades to Mary's throat and gripped her arm with his other hand. He looked like he was holding Mary hostage.

However, the figure was puzzled, as the male apprentice didn't seem to want to rescue his companion. On the contrary, he seemed to be preparing himself to watch a good show.

'Her… life… is in my hands, don't…try… anything rash!" The shadowy creature was speaking in the Salus language, which was different from the universally used human language. However, this didn't stop Greem from understanding what it was saying. Language, with the help of the Chip, was perhaps the easiest thing for Greem.

Greem, still leaning against the stalagmite, watched the scene before him.

The perfectly curved, seductive body of Mary was a magnificent view and Green would never miss such a good opportunity to enjoy it. Also, as Greem was extremely interested in this creature, he ordered the chip to scan it.

"Beep! Scanning of creature completed. Found a matching species in the living beings database. Does the host wish to view it?"

"Yes! Show it to me!"

After Greem's agreement, the detailed information on the creature in front of him was sent into his mind.

The Lizardmen race are intelligent creatures found in the Underground. They possess the bloodline of both a lizard and a human. They are mutated creatures and are able to move stealthily, and control their body temperature. In the Underground world, they are found in every major region working as assassins.

Lizardman?

While studying the information, Greem quietly matched the shadowy figure in front of his eyes with the one in his mind.

The creature had a skinny, human-like body and wasn't wearing any clothes. Dark green lumps could be found everywhere on its rough, thick skin. It only had four fingers, and its hands were like webbed like a frog. It also had long and curvy nails, which looked like razor-sharp blades.

The creature seemed to have human-like facial features, but, as its skin was too dark, no one could clearly see its expression. Its transparent eyelids kept blinking, allowing its protruding eyeballs to focus freely and turn in any direction it wanted.

Judging from its voice, it should be a man, no, a male.

However, this was beside the point. In any case, it was an ugly fellow who made Green feel disgusted after just one look.

Especially, after it recklessly abducted Mary!

Inwardly, Greem gave out his final verdict.

If it wasn't for the advantage it had in this environment, it would only be able to, at most, match up to an intermediate apprentice. Greem scoffed. With this little ability, it still dreamed of abducting the frightening Mary?

A faint smile emerged on Greem's face. He really didn't know whether he should give a three-second tribute for its unfortunate encounter.

Greem only hoped that it wouldn't come to regret its decision.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Greem's overly calm attitude had caused the Lizardman to start to doubt the value of the hostage he held in his hands.

But, before he could do anything, the frail Mary moved first.

With just a few twists, her fair and slippery naked body was freed from Lizardman's control. Mary then dodged nimbly, suddenly appearing behind the Lizardman. Greem could see that the Lizardman's arms were hanging limply by his sides, and he seemed to have lost the ability to defend itself.

Blood was oozing out from the joints of the Lizardman, dying his dark green scales red. It seemed that Mary had cut his muscle tendons using her sharp nails.

Any ordinary human, when getting wounds like these, wouldn't be able to fight, however, Lizardmen were different. They had a strong vitality and excellent resistance, so, to them, it was simply a minor injury. After all, although the Lizardman couldn't move his limbs, he still had a mouth full of sharp fangs.

But, because Mary was hiding behind him, all of his attacks had failed.

As he was trying to detach himself from the frightening lady, his body turned numb and, like a robot losing power, he stiffened. A smile graced Mary's features as she slowly pulled her long, sharp nail out of the Lizardman's back.

In close combat, by using the gap between the Lizardman's scales, Mary could sever his neck instantly. At this moment, the Lizardman was completely powerless and had no way to fight back.

"What? Are you going to stay here and watch?"

After ridiculing Greem, who was in a rather embarrassing situation, Mary draped herself over the Lizardman's body, gradually moving her tender lips towards his fragile neck.

"Beauty and the Beast!"

"Little Green Man Fighting the Vampire!"

It was such an erotic drama, that Greem hoped he could enjoy it close-up. He wanted to clap excitedly.

However, whenever he imagined the potential scene that was going to unfold, he felt that it was better to just avoid it. Unlike those vampires who, in his memory, would gently poke their sharp fangs into their lover's necks, Mary obviously preferred to ravage her meal and enjoy it completely.

Greem felt that if he saw the scene of fresh blood mixing with organs, he would lose his appetite. Therefore, he just spun around and sulkily left.

As he passed by a stalagmite, he heard the frightening sound of muscle ripping, followed by Mary's excited moans. As Greem heard the weak cries of a creature in the throes of death, he couldn't help but shudder and increase his speed.

After nearly half an hour, Greem saw Mary fixing her dress as she walked out of the cave. It seemed that she had enjoyed her 'restaurant'.

Anyone looking at her beautiful face brimming with energy, wouldn't be able to tell what had just happened.

"Have you taken the sample from the mission site?" Greem closed up his magical book and asked.

"This is just a small matter, so obviously it's completed!" Mary said contentedly. After agreeing, she casually tossed a Rune Crystal to Greem.

Greem cast a verification spell, and, after finding it suitable, he placed it into his waist pouch.

Every pond located in the mission sites had a small magical formation placed at the bottom of it. These formations helped the Adepts on garrison duty grasp the situation in the Underground Cave. It enabled them to observe the terrain without leaving their Adept Towers.

The duty Greem and the other apprentices were given was to collect the information stored in the formations by using a custom-made Rune Crystal. After completing this duty, they were free to use their spare time to harvest some rare Underground resources.

The team, after splitting up, had agreed to reunite in three days. Thus, they had plenty of time to harvest all the resources located around the mission site. Since both of them had completed their mission in half a day, they had some spare time they could use to leisurely travel around.

However, while both of them were traveling around, a heart-pounding battle was occurring in another cave just five miles away!

Leo, the apprentice Adept from the Mushroom Forest in the Rofen region, was fleeing. Two black-robed Pseudo-Adepts were chasing after him. Matthew, the other advanced adept in Leo's team, was nowhere to be found. It seemed that he had been struck with great misfortune.

Leo truly deserved to be the young Pseudo-Adept his family had high hopes for. It could be seen that he had extraordinary talent in Thunder Elemental magic spells. Although he didn't have great Agility, he could move freely thanks to the layer of white Wind Elementium surrounding his body. In fact, one could even liken his speed to that of a feather or a fast stallion. If it wasn't for the winding tunnels and stalagmites, Leo probably would've already escaped his pursuers by now.

Whenever he ran by some narrow areas, he would stretch both his hands outward and form an arc of blue electricity, allowing it to dance violently between his palms. Then he would toss it over his shoulder and, without even bothering to check the result, continue onwards. After throwing it, within ten seconds, a loud boom would ring out from behind him, followed by a bunch of cursing.

Following that, two sorry-looking, burnt figures would emerge from the dust. This happened so often that, every time they exited, the small Lightning Storm would've ripped off a bit more of their black robes. Their robes were falling off like butterflies.

After one of the black robes was completely torn to pieces, it revealed a man wearing pitch-black, soft leather armor. He carried a snake-headed staff and had bloodshot vertical pupils. He was absolutely terrifying.

"Are we still going to chase? This guy is a tough nut to crack!" A middle-aged man asked through clenched teeth.

The figure on the left pulled off his hood, revealing a malicious and cruel looking face.

"Chase! This guy isn't familiar with the surrounding terrain, and, once he runs into a dead end, we'll teach him a slow lesson."

"Where are Anna and Gary? Why aren't they here yet? Do they really need to take so long just to settle an advanced apprentice?" The man with bloodshot eyes asked, looking over his shoulder.

"They changed their route! They've already sent me the details about the enemy team's situation. They sent me all the information they got from that advanced apprentice. I think that they're on their way to sector seven right now in order to search for the weakest team." It seemed that judging by the way he gave orders, the middle-aged man was the leader of the group.

"Damn it! I knew this was going to happen! It looks like we have to try harder. If we let this guy go, then we'll have to return empty-handed." The man with bloodshot eyes cursed with clenched teeth. After hitting the ground with his staff, he transformed into smoke and merged with the cave wall, disappearing without a trace.

The black-robed leader grinned somberly, and a ring of black light flickered out from his body, doubling his running speed.

A moment later, a ground shaking boom echoed out from a tunnel far away.

The brutal and violent shock wave swept across the winding tunnel, crushing everything in its way. Anything that stood in the way of it, be it stalagmites, stalactites, sand, stone or dirt, was all swept up and thrown in a random direction. The residue magic energy caused the debris to act like sharp arrows, shattering the cave in a violent explosion.

The battle of life and death that had occurred between the Pseudo-Adepts had brought about devastating damage to the Underground tunnel. It had even caused widespread damage within a two-three mile radius. A large amount of the area had collapsed, causing rocks to shift positions and block tunnels. This caused many tunnels to become unavailable for usage, however, at the same time, new passages were being formed. The old saying "When one door shuts, another one opens" had never been so true before.

Of course, such a massive commotion could never escape from the eyes of the apprentice adepts in this region. After witnessing the destruction, they all quickly found themselves a stable spot and hid. They were all quietly wondering what had caused this huge turmoil.

Within a dark, quiet and broken cave, a soft popping sound was heard, and a huge, dark figure suddenly emerged from underground. The figure nearly occupied the entire space in the cave.

"Damn it! Why is there suddenly an earthquake? Could those other Adepts have stumbled upon an active region during their inspection? Damn it…" Mary's sweet and seductive voice echoed throughout the darkness of the cave.

"I'm afraid this earthquake isn't a natural one!" Greem's stable and calm voice quickly followed. His eyes flickered with an intelligent expression as he continued saying, "The source of the quake is located five miles to the south-east of us, and is around twenty metres deeper than us. If this was a natural earthquake, the focal point wouldn't be so close to the surface, so…"

"So… someone caused it!" Mary looked over her shoulder at Greem. Obviously, she was surprised by the fact that Greem could still remain calm in such an situation. She was also surprised that he could have such an accurate sense of direction, even though they were in an underground area with no light. After thinking these thoughts, she continued with her speech, "Are you saying one of our teammates has met with enemies?"

"That's highly possible!" Greem analysed. "Firstly, because the source of the quake is so close to us, it is unlikely that it has no relation to our team. Besides, you know the strength of the Underground creatures in this place, and, except for a few rare creatures, it is impossible for any of them to harm us. Therefore, the earthquake cannot be because of a Pseudo-Adept going all out against a creature. Since that isn't a possibility, there can only be one logical explanation!"

"En!" Mary nodded her head in agreement. "It should be those black-clothed bastards from before. The only thing is, is that we have no idea who bumped into them. Truthfully, I really want to test out their ability. I mean, with your golem we can travel underground, so maybe we can launch a sneak attack!"

"We were overconfident on this mission. After all, this is our first mission and the first time we've come to the Underground. Hence, before we understood the unique environment and the new style of fighting here, we shouldn't have split up. We should've completed our mission together and waited until the next mission to split up. Also…"

"Also what?"

"Also, don't forget that we're the weakest team amongst all of them. If the enemy really wants to ambush our group, we're the most likely to be targeted!"

"So what? I really want to test out their ability. Since you claim your Earth Elemental golem is so amazing, can you sense the surrounding enemy's activities? I'll tell you what, if you help your sister catch one of those bastards, I'll spend the night with you. What do you think?" Mary trailed her finger across Greem's lips and giggled carefreely.

For some unknown reason, Greem suddenly shuddered. He couldn't help but feel heartache due to Mary's naughty behaviour.

Mary's interest in teasing men had grown stronger, and she never forgot to keep flirting with Greem. However, after noticing that her bloodshot eyes would grow darker when she got excited, Greem had no choice but to use his powerful will to suppress his lust. He did this because he didn't want to become Mary's lab rat and someone she could just toy with whenever she wanted.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

After trying his best to get rid of the thoughts brought about by Mary, Greem used the chip to connect his mind with the controlling core of the Demon Alligator Hunter.

Greem's surroundings seemed to suddenly dissolve into complete silence, and, by using the golem's crystal core, Greem found himself looking at a whole new world. In this strange new world, Greem could see the all of the Earth Elementium in his surroundings. By using this feature, Greem could observe any movement made on the ground, as even a slight movement would cause ripples in the surrounding Earth Elementium.

However, these ripples were extremely weak, and only occurred in the Earth Elementium. So, anything that wasn't an Earth Elemental creature would find it extremely difficult to sense movements happening far away.

But, Greem had actually done it!

While he was immersed in that strange world, he could sense movement from as far away as a hundred metres! Not even the sounds of snakes crawling or scorpions nesting could escape his notice. He could sense all of these movements through the delicate spiritual connection between each Earth Elementium. He could then project these movements into his mind, forming an image that looked almost identical to the real world.

As he was limited by his Spirit, the maximum distance he could sense was only one hundred meters. If he tried to sense anything beyond one hundred meters, he could only roughly sense the direction where the vibration originated. In addition to this, he couldn't picture the exact scene in his mind like he could when it was within his range.

When on the surface, observing a distance of one hundred meters was an easy thing to do. In fact, any apprentice Adept could see dozens of miles by simply standing on high enough ground. If the apprentice was capable of flight, then they could see over an area of nearly one hundred miles. However, when this one hundred meters was placed within the Underground world, where everything was coated in thick rocks, sand and dirt, it became really impressive.

After all, whilst in this Underground world, even if two men were separated by a ten meter thick rock wall, it would still be very hard for them to discover each other. The Underground Cave was a strange place, because there was more metal the deeper you went. This metal greatly interfered with spiritual sense and detection magical spells. Therefore, unless a special method was used, it was near-impossible that these two men would discover each other.

Either way, the ability to move stealthily and to see in the dark were basic abilities for all intelligent Underground creatures. Without these abilities, it would be very hard for them to earn their living in this eternally dark place.

Like a man talking in their sleep, Greem kept muttering things under his breath, describing everything he was sensing. Suddenly, his body trembled violently and he whispered urgently into Mary's ears.

"There are two human-like creatures located one hundred meters down, at an angle of seventeen-degrees south-east. I'm sensing a strong Elementium aura. It is highly likely that they are both apprentice Adepts."

Mary's body went stiff, and her bloodshot eyes narrowed.

The source of the quake had originated from that same direction, and, now there were two apprentice Adepts emerging from there. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. They both knew that there was a higher possibility of it being a bad situation than a good one!

"Can you identify who they are? It would be best if you could get a clear sense of their strength!" Mary whispered, placing her lips beside Greem's ears.

It seemed that Greem hadn't heard what she said, as he continued immersing himself in his detection. "They are heading in our direction right now, but there is a four-degree deviation… between us, there are three tunnels and two caves. They are ninety-three meters away… they have arrived at the first cave, however, the cave has collapsed. There is no tunnel leading to where we are. Wait… it seems that they are casting some kind of spell, as I can sense a strong Elementium ripple. It seems that they're holding something in their hand that can pinpoint our location… that is…"

Greem suddenly opened his eyes, a shocked expression emerging on his face. He whispered, "It's a communication crystal! They have the communication crystal we were all given before we split up! They're using it to track us!"

After arriving in the Underground Cave, each person, in order to make communication easier, had exchanged their respective personal auras. The fact that the enemy had gotten hold of a communication crystal meant that one of their group members had already been caught by them.

Greem took out a fist-size blue crystal from his waist pouch and prepared to toss it far away, but before he could, Mary stopped him.

"If they are really locating us through the personal aura in the communication crystal, then why don't we just prepare a trap for them…?" Mary asked. It seemed that whenever slaughtering was involved, a strong killing intent would always leaked from her eyes.

Both of them were scheming and merciless people, so, after a short discussion, Mary took Greem's communication crystal and hid in the darkness. Greem grinned evilly before kicking the Demon Alligator and sinking into the soil.Anna lead the way as they wormed their way through the broken and winding tunnel.

Before entering the next cave, she quickly scanned the surrounding area.

Her eyes swept across the silent tunnel before stopping. She looked far into the distance. Broken rocks and stalagmites were scattered around at the edge of the winding tunnel. Dimmed light, coming from unknown sources, was shining through the gaps between them, resembling the sharp fangs of grinning devils.

She tilted her head slightly and listened to any audible sound. She heard a muffled rumbling coming from the beneath her. Sprays of mist were constantly bursting out from the cracks in-between the rocks; while the glow of illuminating fungus shone onto these mists, created a strange and unusual illusion-like scene.

In such an environment the difficulty of hunting enemies was huge.

The battle that had happened previously had caused a lot of damage to the surrounding terrain, resulting in many passages becoming hard to recognize. This caused the natives' advantage to weaken, as they no longer had a solid grasp over the area.

As the enemies they were hunting were very cunning, Anna made sure not to leave too many traces in the air. It was because of this that, after travelling a certain distance, she had to reconfirm the enemy's location.

Anna placed the blood-stained communication crystal on the ground and began to softly recite some strange, unintelligible spells. After she had finished casting, a pale, long-haired women, who didn't have any facial features, manifested itself in front of her.

"The great ancient banshee, please show me the location of our enemy!"

After hearing her request, the faceless banshee, who was hovering above the communication crystal, slowly turned her head before stopping when she faced a certain direction.

"Looks like they're moving towards sector eleven!" Gary, the black-robed Pseudo-Adept, who was following behind Anna, said excitedly.

Gary's interruption had clearly caused the summoning ceremony to rebound. The faceless banshee's head turned around until her gruesome face faced Gary. A mouth appeared and opened up on her face. It seemed like she was preparing to let loose a howl and devour Gary's soul.

Anna, who was an advanced apprentice, abruptly bit the tip of her tongue. She immediately spat out a mouthful of warm blood. An extremely miserable cry rang through the air as the banshee instantly disappeared.

At the same time the banshee disappeared, Anna gave out a muffled grunt. It was clear that she too had suffered some backlash.

Gary, showing no remorse for his reckless actions, flapped his robe and transformed into a strong wind, disappearing from where he was. His voice rushed into Anna's ears and lingered there for a while.

"I'll go ahead and hunt for those enemies. Take your time and catch up quickly!"

As soon as Gary had left, a hateful and venomous expression leaked out from Anna's cold eyes. However, she knew, that with her status of only an advanced apprentice, there was no way she could offend those Pseudo-Adepts. If not for their need for her 'summoning' abilities, perhaps these Pseudo-Adepts would never even have allowed her to join in their hunting group in the first place.

Their target was only a beginner apprentice and an advanced apprentice. Why did they dare traverse this Underground world with such weak strength? Sometimes Anna really wondered whether there was something wrong with the brains of the Adepts on the surface. How could they send such weaklings to the Underground world? This was no different than sending them to their death!

Anna hastily grabbed the things she had left on the ground, before pulling her black robe tightly against her and rushing through the dark tunnel. If she was late, then that Gary would never leave anything good for her. Now, Anna's only wish was that the enemy's advanced apprentices could hold on for a little bit longer. If they did that, then she might have a chance to capture the beginner apprentice.

In Elysium City, the city of Fallen Adepts, resources were extremely scarce. The resources she could get in exchange for a beginner apprentice from the surface could let her relax for nearly a year.

The abyss-like tunnel didn't seem to have an end. The winding passages full of obstacles made it difficult for her to run at full speed. Fortunately, there was still some residue Wind Elementium, left behind by Gary, in the tunnel. This not only prevented Anna from getting lost but also saved time.

Anna had almost arrived at the huge cavern in sector eleven, however, she stopped in the middle of the last tunnel.

For some unknown reason, her intuition was warning her that there was danger.

Rumble…

The ground suddenly shook, causing Anna to be terrified, as she felt that the source of the quake came from right under her feet.

The violent quake caused the tunnel ceiling to collapse and huge amounts of sand and rocks to pour down from the ceiling. Soon, Anna was forced to retreat to the cave she had previously entered.

In the dark and cold cave, a bizarre human figure silently waited for her.

For any outsider, the darkness was the source of terror. However, Anna had lived in this Underground world for her entire life, so, for her, it was the best source of protection. But, right at this moment, she couldn't help but be shocked. She stared at the apprentice Adept, who was standing far away.

Anna used the enemy's spiritual ripples to quickly identify them.

It was actually that advanced apprentice! She couldn't believe that he actually dared to confront her face to face!

"Just let your companion show themselves!" Anna's clever mind had quickly analyzed the whole situation. She continued by saying, "I can't believe this! A beginner apprentice actually has the ability to travel through the earth! It looks like he really is suitable for living in this kind of place!"

The mild earthquake just now had happened at the perfect time. It executed just the right amount of force to it had utilize the surrounding terrain and separate Garry and her. It looked like her enemies had chosen to ambush them and had picked her as she was the weakest. She scoffed. They actually dared to try and seek advantages over her, an advanced apprentice.

A cruel grin lit up Anna's face. She bent down and charged towards the girl in the red dress.

Small announcement: As both new editors are busy with their life, I have decided to pause the release until next chapter is edited. New editor will start editing on coming Saturday. So, most probably I'll release chapter 55 on Sunday. However, if you become one of my , you can still have early access to unedited chapters. Latest unedited chapter on is chapter 58, and chapter 59 will be released on within 2 hours from now.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

As Anna was charging towards the enemy, she quickly tossed a few bizarre magical rings onto Mary's body.

Confusion spell!

Slow spell!

One spell could confuse the target's mind and cause there to be a delay in their reactions, while the other one could reduce the target's movement speed by nearly half. If the target didn't have immunity or couldn't quickly dispel them, then these two simple curses could lower their strength by more than thirty percent.

But, Anna wasn't done yet! She cried out and stretched her arms out, facing her palms towards the sky. A strange-looking, glowing green rune soon appeared on each palm. Almost as soon as those runes appeared, the lower section of Anna's arm began to transform into green vines. These vines brought about a fierce gale and began to whip Mary, who was standing there, motionless.

It was Spirit Summoning.

However, Anna's Spirit Summoning spell was quite unique and could massively enhance her combat ability. This was because she could actually let a part of her body merge with the summoned spirit.

The powerful whip smashed into the ground, causing two large cracks to branch out like a spider web. As the debris shot in all directions, Mary's body suddenly turned into a series of after-images, and, within a split second, she appeared beside Anna.

Anna couldn't help but be shocked by Mary's ghostly speed.

In actual fact, Mary's after-images were formed under the effect of the Slow spell. Anna shuddered as she realized that if the Slow spell wasn't activated Mary probably wouldn't even have left after-images at all. As soon as she realized that she was facing an opponent who possessed super speed, Anna couldn't help but curse at her reckless and impulsive actions.

Damn it! She shouldn't have tried to start a melee fight with an opponent like this!

However, it was too late to pull back the whip now. Anna cried out loudly as she unleashed a dazzling ring of green light that started to spread around her body. Soon, the light transformed into a thorny set of armor that perfectly covered her well-rounded body. After ensuring that she had a proper defense, Anna restlessly swung the whip above to protect her head, shattering all the after-images that had appeared in front of her.

Although Anna had a nearly impenetrable defence, ripples still continuously appeared on the surface of her armor. A few crisscrossed scratches were seen on the armor near her chest and ribcage. Also, after suffering a few hits from the enemy's sharp nail, a long strand of the vine had been cut off from her left arm. Despite the fact that only green liquid was oozing from the wound, Anna couldn't stop herself from taking a step back and letting out a painful groan.

Anna crazily forced a new strand of the vine whip to regrow. After regrowing, it once again began swinging violently in all directions, brutally attacking every possible enemy that appeared.

As a matter of fact, she had absolutely no idea where the true form of the enemy lay. The only thing she could catch was the bizarre after-images that were left behind by the enemy attacking at their top speed.

It was clear that Anna wasn't familiar with melee fighting, and she could only decently attack by using the summoned spirit. Thus, when comparing Anna, a beginner-level melee fighter, with Mary, who was a master of melee combat, it was obvious that she would suffer a tragedy today!

Her whip vine, that she crazily swung from side to side, couldn't touch Mary at all, and her body armor could only barely spare her from Mary's attack. However, despite this, she was still hanging on. At least, under Anna's crazy offensive strikes, Mary found it rather tough to get close and attack the body armor. Although from time to time, Mary could successfully attack it, it still wasn't enough to deal a deadly blow.

At the same time, far behind them, sudden, rapid booms were heard from the other side of the tunnel. This tunnel had been clogged up by countless rocks and sand. It was obvious that the black-robed Pseudo-Adept, who was led down the wrong tunnel, had discovered that something was amiss. The rapid booms were probably caused by him crazily attacking the clogged tunnel.

The raging magic spells that the Pseudo-Adept was unleashing caused a large amount of rock debris, and countless stalagmites and stalactites to fall down and break into pieces. They were falling apart in haphazardly, filling the entire battlefield with smoky, rock dust.

If that Pseudo-Adept was given sufficient time, it was likely that he could really break through the cave wall and open a new temporary passage.

Anna knew that her reinforcement would soon arrive, so she gave up on attacking and just focused on defense. Anna ignored the fact that Mary kept leaving bloody scratch marks on her body and just kept crazily swinging her whip.

Indeed, it seemed that none of these advanced apprentices could be taken lightly.

Although the magic spells they had mastered hadn't yet reached an extravagant stage, they still covered all the aspects of combat: offensive, defensive, distraction and self-enhancement. This meant that the outsiders barely any weaknesses to exploit. This eventually led to the outsiders gaining a quick win.

Anna and Mary were both advanced apprentices, but, judging from the situation, Anna was clearly weaker than the quick and aggressive Mary. Although Mary wished to end the fight as soon as possible, it was something that was easily said but not done. At the very least, Mary couldn't do it without paying a price!

Mary's attacks had caused the cave wall to be on the brink of collapse, with many cracks decorating it. After seeing this, Mary gave up on killing Anna alone.

"Rascal! Don't just hide there and do nothing! Quickly come over and help me!"

After dodging the vine whips attacking her sides, Mary once again waved her hands. She then left two deep, bloody scratches on Anna's body. However, as Anna had quickly regained the initiative and had begun to attack again, Mary was unable to attack any more. She quickly dodged the vine whip that curled backwards. When she once again broke Anna's defence and managed to move closer, she found that both the wounds had been completely covered by the thorny armor.

It had happened again and again. Eventually, Mary couldn't tolerate anymore and called for help.

Anna's face turned pale in an instant.

Anna was already struggling with fighting Mary alone. She was absolutely convinced that, if she had to face the combined attacks of two people, she would face disaster.

Anna didn't dare to neglect this thought, so she immediately bit off half of her tongue. As she spat out a mouthful of blood, her body suddenly became taller.

Before this, only a small part of her arms had been transformed into green vines. But now, her body started to expand and her skin started to break apart, exposing countless green vines worming in between.

By forcefully increasing her summoned spirit's level, Anna had completely transformed her body into a frightening Man Eating Flower. Her feet had transformed into green roots that dug their way into the ground, her arms were fully transformed into whip-like green vines, and her body played the part of the thorny flower stalk. However, her head, the only thing left that resembled a human, was surrounded by a countless number of huge flower petals.

After transforming into the carnivorous, violent "Flogger", all of her vital organs had disappeared from her body. She knew that as long as she could hold on until Gary arrived, all the energy spent on performing the secondary transformation of her summoned spirit would be worth it.

Greem, who had been hiding in the dark, dared not to neglect the fight anymore. He finally made up his mind and got himself involved in the battle between the two advanced apprentices.

A vibration suddenly resonated through the ground. The ground underneath the Flogger's feet had turned into a slippery, muddy swamp-like area. Before Anna could flee from this area, a huge and frightening figure emerged beside her. It opened up its huge mouth and bit on the flower stalk that made up her waist.

Anna let out a jarring shriek as the pain hit her. She violently waved her two thick, long vine whips, hitting the Demon Alligator's clay armor over and over again. Debris and clay flew across the room, turning the cave into a violent battlefield. At the same time, behind the heavy protection of the huge petals, she opened her mouth and spat out a clump of sticky, stinking, green, acidic vomit.

The acidic vomit sprayed at the Hunter who was riding on the back of the Demon Alligator. The vomit instantly corroded and melted its upper limbs and skull. If the crystal control core of the Hunter wasn't located at its chest, it would have likely been completely destroyed in this attack.

Greem, who was lurking in the shadows, was struck by terror.

It was as expected. The battle between advanced apprentices was not something he, a beginner apprentice, could easily get involved with. If it wasn't because he was being cautious, and only let the Demon Alligator Hunter ride on the Demon Alligator instead of him, he probably would have been killed.

He hadn't mastered a defense magic spell, so, when facing a furious counterattack by an advanced apprentice, he had no trump cards that he could use to bring him out alive.

But, the Demon Alligator Hunter, controlled by Greem, only needed to briefly restrain Anna's attacks. That was more than enough to turn the tides of battle.

Before Anna could save herself from the Demon Alligator's gaping jaw, Mary's attack had arrived.

The sound of flesh being cut rang through the air. Mary bent over and stared at Anna's head. She reached out and, using her sharp nails, she sliced through Anna's firm skin. Then, she sunk her fangs into the area where the head and the stalk met.

The quick, sucking motion made Anna go berserk. She struggled desperately, waving her arms and using them to violently whip Mary's mutilated back. However, no matter how hard she tried, there was no way to stop the vampire from wildly sucking her blood.

As more of her blood essence was drained, the power behind Anna's whip began to shrink. Finally, her arm dropped and her body began to quickly dry up. Her eyes, hiding behind her petals, began to hopelessly close.

As her life force was quickly departing from her body, Anna could no longer maintain her summoned spirit body transformation. Her body kept shrinking

and transforming and finally returned to her original human form. Just as she died, Greem ordered the Demon Alligator to open its huge mouth and swallow Mary and the dead body into its body. It then turned to Greem and did the same before quickly descending into the earth again.

The moment after they had disappeared, a loud boom was sounded out from a cave wall on the far side. Parts of the cave wall crumbled, resulting in a huge hold. A Pseudo-Adept, whose black robe was covered in a mist of green, illuminating light, sprinted into the cave.

As he stared at the remains of, what seemed to be, an incredibly tumultuous battle, and smelled the stinking vomit that had spilled all over the cave, Gary unintentionally let out an extremely angry roar.

He didn't roar because he was heartbroken about Anna's death. He simply hated the fact that the enemy had used the simple method of luring the strong and striking at the weak to eliminate his partner. This… this action simply displayed contempt towards him!

"You bastards! Come out and fight me now, damn it! I've remembered your auras. You better not let me bump into you again. I…"

After spending a long time furiously roaring into the cave, Gary had never sensed any abnormal auras. Left with no choice, Pseudo-Adept Gary turned around and dissolved into the darkness of the tunnel.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

[Editor DragonFly here! We've decided to change the term "Elemental" to "Element" when talking about a specific element to avoid any confusion. For example, Saying Fire Elemental could give an entirely different meaning which could mean a being made of fire. So in this case, Fire Element or the Element of Fire is going to be used. Also, we've changed "Blood Clotting Medicinal Paste" to "Blood Coagulating Medicinal Paste". Sorry for the inconvenience and enjoy the chapter below. :D]

After travelling for nearly two hundred meters underneath the earth, Greem was forced to resurface.

After all, traveling underground underneath the earth's surface wasn't as easy as it is on the surface. Areas full of rock formations and random patches of sand had brought no small amount of trouble for the golem. For this very reason, Greem had immediately ordered the Demon Alligator to resurface by making their way out of a random tunnel just after they had left the danger zone.

Greem closed his eyes and used his senses to probe things out. Inside the Demon Alligator's stomach, Greem found Mary breathing rapidly, her body as hot as boiling water. As for Greem's reaction to this, he just shook his head and sighed.

The ancient bloodline of the vampires was, as expected, quite incredible. Just by sucking blood alone, their strength would continue to soar into greater heights.

During the previous battle, Mary had forcefully sucked the blood essence of the enemy advanced apprentice, filling her body with great amounts of blood energy enabling her to, once again, undergo another round of evolution.

Due to the lack of necessary information pertaining to Mary's situation, Greem did not dare to disturb her natural evolution. What he could do, however, was to find a relatively safe place, he then made the Demon Alligator spit her out and placed her on a warm and cozy blanket. After that, he excitedly started to search the dead body for treasures it won't need anymore.

Before he started, he clasped both of his hands together forming a posture of a prayer, closing both of his eyes as he prayed to all of the gods he could think of. After he finished praying, Greem rubbed his palms excitedly, kneeling besides Anna's miserable-looking body and started to conduct a search for possible loot.

Being an advanced apprentice, she must have some magical items she carried with her. No matter how poor she was, she should at least have some magical books or notes containing valuable magic insights. Even if she didn't brought those with her, Greem still hoped he could at least find some magic crystals or magical materials.

When Anna was still alive, she was beautiful while also having a well-developed body which added another level of attractiveness towards her. Unfortunately, the last battle was incredibly violent, resulting in most of her skin being torn into bloody scars, making her current looks a far cry to her previous one. Despite her body being in such a state, most of her clothes and equipment were still intact.

The very first item that Greem looted from her body was a bracelet Anna had worn on her right wrist.

Through his Elementium Vision, he could see that the bracelet emitted a bright green glow making it obvious it was indeed a unique magical item. Greem spent quite some time in identifying it and found out that the bracelet could swiftly unleash a plant element armor made of countless thorns.

Although the plant element was not in line with Greem's elemental affinity, as long as there is energy stored in the bracelet, Greem could still forcibly use it. Having mastered not even one defensive magic spell, being able to use it as a substitute for such spells brought him a great sense of happiness. He even gave the bracelet a few kisses out of joy and wore it on his wrist with not an ounce of hesitation.

The next item Greem looted was Anna's leather boots.

After going through identification, Greem found out it was a pair of magical boots made from Lantern Grass and the leather from a Demon Flower. The boots had the magical effect of being unhindered when walking through a forest. When wearing them, one wouldn't be stopped by the bushes,vines and brambles when walking through a virgin forest. Even if it was in an impassable forest that no one could walk through, these boots would allow the wearer to pass through it as if he was walking on flat ground.

Unfortunately, it was a lady's boots!

Greem had tried putting it on a few times, but it clearly wasn't suitable for him. Left with no other choice, he set it aside for now and decided to go and ask Mary in the future to see if she has any interest in them.

The third item he discovered was a pair of magical earrings.

It had the effect of self-recovery magic of the plant element. By wearing these earrings while standing still in a place filled with lush vegetation, the wearer would recover approximately ten health points every fifteen minutes. Although it comes with a strict condition, it could still help during certain types of situations.

After all, just using Blood Coagulating Medicinal Paste would only heal external wounds but not provide any restoration to health points. For this very reason, wearing these earrings might be able to save his life in precarious situations.

With Anna's status of an advanced apprentice, owning three magical items was considerably good. Soon, Greem stripped off her waistband and quietly identified it while holding it within his hand.

It was a well-made and luxurious-looking waistband. A bunch of bizarre runes were engraved at its inner side. Greem spent a decent amount of time reading them but he could only recognize four of them from the eleven runes present.

Feeling hopeless, Greem borrowed the strength of the Chip.

"Chip! Scan these runes!"

"Beep. Scanning of storage waistband completed… discovered eleven Ancient Adept Runes, initial result shows they are the activation spell of the waistband… the content of the spell is…"

Following the data transmitted by the Chip, Greem furrowed his brows and imitated the pronunciation of the eleven Ancient Adept Runes.

Right after the spell was recited, Greem sent out his senses and discovered the existence of a small spatial space from the waistband. Within this tiny space, dozens of unknown items floated around.

A storage waistband! It really is a storage waistband!

Greem had long coveted a convenient treasure like this one.

Although the storage waist pouch was quite common among apprentice Adepts, it wasn't a spatial item, that's why it wasn't capable of eliminating the weight of the items stored within and it was also unable to isolate the magical ripples emitted by magical items. While the waistband was considered to be of the lowest grade of spatial items, anything stored inside would no longer weight anything and no outsider would be able to sense the magical ripples inside.

Therefore, he was pleasantly surprised for being able to harvest a luxurious treasure such as a storage waistband. For his very first battle in the underground world, it was considered to be really good.

Greem carefully looked over his shoulders and realized Mary was still in a state of deep meditation. He immediately put on the storage waistband carefully hiding it beneath his waist pouch.

This precious treasure cannot be exposed!

This was an incredibly amazing item. Greem already had one even though not all pseudo-Adepts have the fortune to own one!

After glancing at Anna's corpse several times, making sure there weren't any leftover magical items on this Fallen Apprentice Adept's body, Greem went on to inspect the contents of the storage waistband, taking them out one by one.

Inside, he found seven magic crystals, a notebook about magic spells, a Croaking Frog used for special magic spells, a communication crystal, a crystal green wooden stick which was as long as his arm, a magic mythril the size of a thumb, and a wooden statue normally used by priests.Including today's loot, Greem currently owns a total of ten magic crystals indicating how rich he had become with this small fortune of his.

The notebook about magic spells recorded Anna's insight and her experiences on her learnings of plant element magic spells. It also contains incomplete knowledge concerning the use of summoned spirits to possess and strengthen the summoner's body. Unfortunately, all of these weren't of much use to Greem because of his magical affinity towards fire which contradicts the element of plant. It looks like he has to find a way to trade it for something else of use after his return.

The Croaking Frog was a common magical material. It's primarily used for setting up alert-type magic arrays which belongs to the auxiliary magic array type.

The communication crystal Greem found was obviously from one of his groupmates who was captured by Anna. By sensing the personal imprint stored inside it, he knew the unlucky owner of it was in fact, Matthew, an advanced apprentice.

Both the crystal green wooden stick and the magic mythril were rare magical materials. The former was a semi-finished product, a plant element magical item Anna was crafting but only managed to finish halfway. The latter was a high-grade material used for crafting magical staves, which could greatly improve the conductivity of magical energy. Effectively reducing the loss of energy when casting spells.

The amount of magic mythril Greem has on hand was enough for him to craft a small-sized single-handed magical staff.

Greem was uncertain about the purpose of the last item, the wooden statue. A magical aura exuded from it but there wasn't any magical runes or characters engraved on this item. It looks like he has to return to the Adept Tower and have an expert appraise it for him to know what exactly it is used for.

While Greem was observing the wooden statue and silently pondered, a soft and warm body suddenly assaulted him from his back.

"Hehe, my dear, handsome Greem! Since you treated me so nicely, how do you want me to repay your kindness?" A sweet and seductive rang beside Greem's ears. After that, Mary squeezed her arms beneath his armpits, gently stroking the area around his chest.

Ugh…

This sudden and unexpected lustful development instantly made all of Greem's hair on his body stand on ceremony, also causing his body to become as stiff as a stone statue.

"Do you want me to give you a kiss?" Mary's sweet voice lingered in his ears.

"I…"

Just when Greem was about to say something, a fragrant but sloppy tongue forced its way inside his mouth.

It was as if a Magma Fireball spell suddenly exploded in Greem's mind, blowing all other thoughts away! His mind lost on cloud nine, losing himself over the blissful moment of the present.

A fairly long time had passed by, and only then did Greem finally struggled to get his mind out of this dream-like state. At this moment, Mary could be seen sitting beside him, holding a pair of magical leather boots in her hand.

"Chip, tell me what happened just now? Why does Mary affect me so deeply?" Greem secretly asked the Chip this question.

"Beep. Detected traces of a magic spell… Host might have been charmed by a spiritual magic spell. Judging from the experience the host went through just now, it should be the 'Natural Charm' spiritual spell…"

Natural Charm?

Greem couldn't help having his lips twitch.

Damn! This particular one is extremely effective!

Ultimately, most magic spells of the spiritual type would show obvious spirit ripples when being casted. So long as one paid close attention, it's rather easy to guard against them. But, what makes Natural Charm a cut above the rest lies in the word 'Natural'.

This spell cannot be learned at all, as it only awakens in a limited number of species. Once it was awakened, it would bring the host a tremendous but hidden benefit.

Whenever a creature possessing the ability of Natural Charm entered a dangerous region, it would not gain the hostility of those neutral creatures as long as the creature didn't have any destructive behavior.

If Mary does indeed possess this ability, then every word and action from her would be more seductive and charming compared to before, making it harder for enemies to be on guard against her.

Greem couldn't help but start to doubt, did Anna possessed some kind of special bloodline in her body, for example, that of a Demon Flower or a Demon Tree? If not, how could she bring out such a weird ability by having her blood absorbed by Mary?

"You're awake now, Greem?" Marry seemed to be fully satisfied by how the situation turned out.

"I never thought just a single kiss from me could bring your head up in the heavens! Looks like you really have to temper your willpower more often!"

Greem stared at Mary with a distressed expression. He noticed that Mary is still unable to properly control her newly obtained ability, that's why each and every word and action of hers carried a strong power of suggestion and seduction.

"We already killed an advanced apprentice Fallen Adept, should we continue looking for more resources or return back as soon as possible? Greem can only try his best and divert Mary's attention.

"Let's go back!" Even though Mary was an overenthusiastic, her mind was still clear and logical saying, "We have created more than enough of a racket here. Maybe the other teams are already rushing back to our base as we speak. And so, I've decided we should be heading back too! I don't want any more of this underground world place crawling with those black-robed Pseudo-Adepts!"

"Yes!"

Greem nodded his head, fully agreeing to Mary's suggestion.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

When Greem and Mary finally arrived to where the groups had split apart, there were four people waiting for them already.

Noticing the weakest team had successfully returned safely, a relaxed smile simultaneously appeared on the faces of Marcus, Leander, Isaac, and Bruce as their hearts finally felt at ease. If something happened to the Greem and Mary duo, someone would have to do investigation missions all alone.

But before they could ease their blooming smiles, they were slack-jawed after seeing the dead body Mary had brought back with her. Seeing the black-colored Adept robe with distinct characteristics from the ones they're wearing, they all came up with an idea… this apprentice Adept's corpse belonged to a Fallen apprentice Adept.

While the three advanced apprentices could still remain impassive, the Pseudo-Adept Marcus sported an unnatural expression on his face.

"Did that body belonged to an advanced apprentice or a Pseudo-Adept?" Marcus asked in a deep voice.

"Of course she's an advanced apprentice. If she was a Pseudo-Adept, we won't be standing here before you, safe and sound." Mary said naturally.

Hearing her answer slightly relaxed Marcus' stiff expression, but he was still unable to get rid of his unnatural expression. If he didn't experienced going to the underground world himself, he might not even be the slightest bit interested regarding this kind of result. But if there was one thing the cruel experiences of the underground world had taught him, it would be that using any kind of elemental magic spell in a place like this would be catastrophic. He knew their victory didn't come easy as most apprentices only know a few elemental magic spells.

Elemental magic spells could inflict a massive amount of damage within a large area of effect, thus making them stand at the very forefront among all other kinds of magic. This made apprentice Adepts who mastered elemental spells to be likened to a magic cannon with frightening firepower, able to bombard the battlefields with magic spells and cause mass slaughter. What limited their potential was not the number of enemies but the very little amount of magic energy they had.

However, in this underground environment, all of these skills would no longer be of much use.

In the event of an unexpected fight occurring underground, the fiery elemental spells would destroy not only the enemy, but also the area around them. With that said, immeasurable amounts of dirt and sand would pour down from above. Even if it was a Pseudo-Adept, once he's trapped in this dreadful situation, escape would have an extremely slim chance.

What apprentice Adepts want in this location was not some kind of magic spell that has a highly destructive power, but one with just enough power to defeat their foes. An apprentice Adept can only be called a qualified spellcaster when he/she is able to both control the power and effect of the spell, and efficiently cast it towards the enemy accurately.

Put it this way, a swarm of Rat Men ambushed you amidst the darkness, it's not them that is more likely to kill you, but the explosive fireball you nonchalantly sent to the enemy. After being viciously swarmed by the underground creatures and being ambushed by strange demon beasts of the darkness, apprentice Adepts who had gone through this stressful and miserable situation would slowly adapt, shrugging off their previous arrogant and pretentious attitudes. Becoming someone ruthless but calm, yet smart and shrewd.

These few apprentice Adepts experienced firsthand how painfully hard it was to fight an enemy of the same level in this underground world making them feel shock over the corpse of an advanced apprentice brought by Mary.

Not one Body Refining Adept was present among the apprentices who signed up for the Underground Cave exploration mission. But why is that? It is because the deep and narrow underground tunnels aren't suitable for Body Refining Adepts who fought with pure strength. When fighting in this kind of environment, mini magic spells with moderate power and quick casting speed would be preferable.

In a fight between apprentice Adepts, the two parties need to constantly change their battleground and slowly accumulate advantages to devour the enemy one bite at a time. Once either side realized the situation wasn't looking good for them and decided to flee, it would be incredibly difficult for the chasing side to entrap the enemy without having any special ability.

But this red-dressed Mary could actually accomplish this feat, showing that she must have some kind of strange magic spells that are extremely suitable for use in this types of places. What would that be?

The group couldn't help but ponder upon this.

At this time, thirty-four hours had already passed since they decided to split up. From what they could infer from the distances from here to the paths each of them took, even Sabrina's group who took the toughest mission site should have returned by now. When they connected the dots between their absence and the violent 'earthquakes', the group was struck with worries.

Fortunately, the worst case scenario never happened. After three hours of waiting, Sabrina and Shila returned in a relatively bad shape.The mission site they chose was located nearly ten miles deep beneath the ground, thus being greatly affected by the violent earthquake earlier. If it wasn't for Sabrina mainly studying mechanical spells, having replaced a few of her vital organs with powerful magical machinery, perhaps it would be very difficult for them to break through the collapsed underground passages that led them back to the surface.

Out of the five teams that had gone here, only four had returned safely. Hence, it was painfully obvious who among them were attacked.

Right when the group was about to bitterly accept the loss of two fellow members in their very first trip to the underground world, the young Pseudo-Adept named Leo fled back to their camp, bathed in blood.

His gray apprentice robe had torn apart here and there, his skinny body full of crisscrossing wounds. Dark smoke emanated from these wounds, staining the flesh around them in pitch-black color. Leo's face had also been hit by an Acid Arrow, with half of his face making a sizzling sound resulting from the corrosive effects of the strong acid. If not for his distinct spiritual ripple revealing his identity, the group would've treated him as an enemy.

Although he was severely wounded, Leo still refused his teammates' treatment. Especially because they were yet to truly establish trust between each other. He does not want his body's secrets to fall into the control of any outsider.

Hiding in a corner alone, Leo hastily treated his wounds. He then came back to the group with a gloomy expression, prepared to be questioned by his teammates.

When they heard there were three black-robed Pseudo-Adepts and one advanced apprentice attacked Leo and Matthew's group, even Sabrina couldn't help but ponder in silence. If she was the one who bumped into the enemy group, maybe she herself wouldn't escape uscathed. Seeing Leo was able to preserve his own life, it meant he possessed good enough ability to do so.

"How was the overall strength of the enemies you guys encountered?" Sabrina asked Mary after she was done with Leo.

"We met two enemies, one Pseudo-Adept, and one advanced apprentice. We set up a plan and lured away the Pseudo-Adept then ambushed this advanced apprentice. Greem and I cooperated to kill her!" Mary described lightly.

Although she told them it was her and Greem together that killed the enemy, whether it was intentional or not, the group naturally ignored Greem's existence.

No way, a beginner apprentice who had less than ten Spirit points and only mastered a spell or two, could a guy like this really participate in a battle between advanced apprentices? The group had a hard time imagining this.

It was only at this time that Leo noticed the female corpse lying besides Mary's feet. Immediately after, he shrieked out loudly.

"S-she… she was among the four who attacked us. After Matthew and I split up and fled on our own, two Pseudo-Adepts went after me while this girl and the other Pseudo-Adept chased after Matthew. I only managed to escape from their pursuit after a bitter fight."

Although Leo spoke evasively, the group didn't really care much.

Split up and flee separately? Hmph. Under such perilous circumstances, would a mere advanced apprentice like Matthew even have the courage to flee on his own? Leo must have realized the situation wasn't looking too good, thus he ditched Matthew and ran for his life. By doing that, he divided the enemy's strength and attention.

Although everyone had already guessed what probably happened, no one blamed Leo for his actions. If they were in his shoes, they might have done the same thing as him.

Matthew's inability to escape can only be blame to his own lack of ability. Who gave him the audacity to take on this Red Mission without any life-preserving methods?

After gathering information from both teams, Sabrina finally concluded the intelligence gathering about the enemies.

There were three Pseudo-Adepts. The first among them took the path of Bloodline Adepts possessing the frightening bloodline of the Demonic Serpent; the second one took the path of Profound Adepts able to summon some corpse puppets with powerful battle power; the last Pseudo-Adept walk the path of Principle Adepts having an elemental affinity with Wind Elementium.

With this intelligence in their hands and the dead body of an enemy advanced apprentice, the group received rewards from Adept Angus when they returned to the Adept Tower. Although Leo was ambushed on his way back, he was still able to return and complete his mission, thus he also received his share of the reward.

As for Mary, the girl who got lucky and was able to kill an enemy of the same rank all alone, she obtained a special reward from Adept Angus. But no one knows what kind of reward she actually received since the process of giving out rewards was done with utmost secrecy.

At the time the group was about to leave, Adept Angus warned them in a ghastly voice saying, "Little apprentices, you better not regard yourselves as veterans already after only one successful trip from the underground world. In the upcoming mission you will have, you'll be met with more difficulty with the frequency of attacks from the enemy will rise. Only those who are cautious and prepared will live longer lives. So take advantage of the few days of rest you have, otherwise, you won't be as lucky as you are now in your next trip."

"Moreover, the intelligence you brought back is useful. I'll pass them onto the hunting team here. I assure you, the ones who attacked you wouldn't have a peaceful trip back towards their base. Jajaja…"

From the hidden meaning faintly revealed by Adept Angus' words, the group finally understood the importance of the few apprentice teams that only consisted of pure veterans.

If we were to talk about it figuratively then, them, the new team would be the bait to lure out the prey. While the team of Blackhand Kevin would be the harpooner that strikes down the enemy. One acting as a prey to lure out the strong enemy apprentices, while the other acted as the hunter, specialized in hunting down these black-robed Pseudo-Adepts who took the bait and exposed themselves.

In fact, when those black-robed Pseudo-Adepts failed to kill Leo and Mary, they had also exposed their whereabouts. With just a send of a message, the hunting group who had roamed the underground world for many years would immediately pursue them.

Upon imagining the possible cruel fates the ones who ambushed him and made him flee in desperation, a savage smile emerged on the Leo's half-festered face.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

The reward they received was directly tied to the difficulty of the mission they turned over.

The mission that Mary and Greem completed together had the lowest degree of risk, so the reward they received was much lesser compared to the others. But the special reward they got from bringing back an enemy's body made them smile widely.

After they returned to their residences, Greem was planning on having a good rest in his room. But Mary stopped him and threw an object at him.

It was an Earth Element Crystal Core the size of an egg. An earthly yellow halo can be seen floating around the brownish yellow core with bits of tiny bright specks of light emitted from it. When he was holding it in his hand, It shined beautifully like a bright and shimmering star!

Greem could not help but hold his breath.

Through the rhythm of the undulating elemental ripples, he could clearly see that it was a Pseudo-Adept level Earth Element Crystal Core.

"You deserve this. I had already savored my reward by sucking dry all the blood essence of the enemy. Let this be the reward for your hard work!" Mary was still as generous as always and with that said, she turned towards her own room and went in.

Greem was pleasantly surprise and hesitated for a while but finally decided to keep the gift and went back to his room.

Greem waited for a bit to ascertain the surroundings were safe and calmed his mind. He remained silent as he started communicating with the Chip.

"Chip, can you digitize Mary's attributes?"

"Beep. Data collection has been completed… Detailed information is as follows…"

Ugh… She does indeed have a powerful ability that allows her to evolve just by sucking blood. Greem wondered what kind of magical experiment Adept Anderson, one who had resided in the Swamp Tower all these years, did to Mary. How is he able to create such a frightening magical puppet?

If Greem guessed correctly, Adept Anderson must have placed some kind of controlling mechanism in Mary's body, deeply rooted in her Vampire bloodline. Although Adept Anderson might be lenient towards Mary now, once she matured sufficiently to his taste, perhaps that will be the time he will come and harvest what he had fostered.

What was the limit of Mary's growth? Pseudo-Adept or official Adept? Could it be, Adept Aderson is planning to use some kind of method to create an Adept-level magical puppet?

Most importantly, once Mary becomes a Pseudo-Adept, she would have the terrifying ability to produce blood slaves. At that time, if Adept Anderson really wants her to, Mary could give him a loyal army of blood slaves. For a first grade Adept like him, this would be an excellent trump card against his enemies!

Mary might already be aware of her own situation which is why she was rather self-indulgent in both her actions and words. She did everything arbitrarily, unrestrained by her own natural instincts. She probably isn't able to distinguish whether her thoughts was coming from her true self or from the will Adept Anderson planted deep within her soul using magic.

That's why even though the relationship between Greem and Mary had been rather good as of late, he still harbored vigilance deep within his heart because he did not know when the trigger hidden in Mary's body would be activated.

But this was a 'small problem' that can be solved with time. So long as Greem successfully become an official Adept, that Adept Anderson would no longer be a superior existence he couldn't reach. Perhaps he could even solve Mary's problem through exchanging benefits or other means.

Greem sat comfortably in front of the wooden table in his temporary shelter. He took out the spoils of the previous underground trip examining them one by one.

Naturally so, the thorny armor bracelet and the storage waistband he looted from Anna had to be kept for his own use. As for the earrings that has a self-healing effect, he would put it up for sale in exchange for magical equipment that's more suitable for him. Since he already scanned and copied the contents of the notes about magic spells, it was no longer valuable to Greem. He would sell it too and see if anyone was interested.

The crystal green wooden stick and magical Mythril looked like the materials Anna had prepared to craft her future magical staff. Too bad though, as she hadn't collected all the required materials, so she had to carry them with her which ended up as loot for Greem.

After having Adept Angus identify the crystal green wooden stick, he found out it was a tree branch from an Adept-level Treant that boosts the power of all Plant Element magic spells. Regarding the magical Mythril, it was a native product of the underground world, unable to be found above the surface. The thumb-size Mythril Greem found can easily fetch a price of more than a thousand magic crystals. It's also quite rare and highly demanded that once it was sold, it can't be bought back with the same price.

This is only natural as magic Mythril is a high-class consumable product and those who already got it after spending a hefty amount of money will also soon use them up. So a situation of high demand but low supply persisted.

Therefore, if Greem really wanted to craft his first-ever magic staff, he doesn't have to find magic Mythril anymore. Though he needed to replace the material used as the main body of the staff. In the end, Greem's elemental affinity was Fire and not the Plant Element.

Concerning the last item, the wooden statue, Adept Angus identified it as a spiritual beacon used to communicate with creatures from other planes. According to Adept Angus' explanation, that female apprentice Fallen Adept that they killed could establish a stable and strong connection with an unknown powerful being from another plane through the ritual of Spirit Summoning. And it seems that from time to time, they would exchange items from the other's plane that they needed.

However, for this matter, Adept Angus expressed serious contempt.

The World of Adepts itself is a major plane that attracted the universe's attention, dominating more than thousands of small and medium-sized planes. And thus, no matter what kind of resources one needed, anyone could obtain it through the local trading system. There wasn't any need to use the backward method of communicating with other planes. Because each and every one of these planes have their own respective principles, added to that the severe interference caused by the tidal waves of energy from the oceans of stars, the resources consumed by a successful long-range item exchange would be three to five times higher or more, in contrast to the cost to get it via the normal method.

If it wasn't for some extremely rare types of resources, no one would use such a primitive method anymore. As for the reason why that female apprentice still kept this communication beacon, it is most probable that she wanted to exchange knowledge with that existence.

And this was strictly forbidden by the entire Adept society!

Most importantly, if a native Adept carried out such scornful behavior that betrays the Will of the Adept World, then it would essentially reduce the beneficial response that person gets from the Will itself. As a result, it would become progressively harder for the Adept to advance to a higher grade compared to others.

That's why there are not that many official Adepts who would do something like this, an act that would give them more losses than what they would gain. Probably only those Fallen Adepts that were banned by official Adepts would be willing to use this inefficient and harmful method similar to quenching thirst with poison.

Being just a mere beginner apprentice, Greem still haven't qualified to get in contact with the Will of the world in a direct and clear manner. So, regarding the Will that Adept Angus had revered in utmost respect, Greem's mind was filled with curiosity. Even though he has no specific plan to use it for magic experiments, he still kept the wooden statue with him.

Maybe, just maybe, when his ability has improved a bit allowing him full control of his own life, he might consider exchanging something that he's interested in with the powerful beings that existed in other magical and mysterious planes.

As for the Pseudo-Adept level Earth Element Crystal Core he got unexpectedly, Greem did not dare to deal with it carelessly. He ordered the Chip to give it a full scan then have it draft a plan for a custom golem modification.

After Greem was done with all these, he took out a magic book and began his daily routine of studying while working with the Chip to run simulated experiments within his spiritual domain. When his Spirit was at the brink of depletion, he lied down on his bed and started to go in a state of deep meditation.

Now, with the help of the Chip, he could enter into a deep meditative state whenever he wanted. Every meditation would give him an increase of 0.08 Spirit and four experience points. This was very important for any Adept since it could increase their maximum level of Spirit. While there are many Adepts who would consume magic medicines or special potions to increase their Spirit, this isn't an option for those ordinary apprentices without the support of a wealthy family who would offset the astronomical cost of the said special consumables.

For example, the 'Mind Concentrating Potion' which was very effective in increasing the Spirit of any apprentices below the level of advanced apprentice. The list price for it in the Potion Hall of the Adept Tower was five merit points plus five magic crystals for every bottle. A bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion could bring an increase of 0.5 to 0.7 Spirit to a beginner and intermediate apprentice. Despite the fact that the number wasn't that remarkable, it was still a precious item for those ordinary apprentice Adepts.

After all, before Greem had the help from the Chip, he could hardly enter into a deep state of meditation. Besides, normal meditation could only bring an additional increase of 0.01 to 0.02 to Greem which was vastly inferior to his current rate of growth from his deep meditations.

Strictly speaking, merely a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion could save two full months of strenuous meditation for an apprentice Adept. By looking at its wondrous effects, even if the price of Mind Concentrating Potion was rather expensive, it was still sought after by countless apprentices.

Merit points is used to purchase most of the resources in this place. It was completely different from the knowledge points Greem gained back in the Swamp Tower. The knowledge points he knew of were merely a currency implemented by Adept Anderson solely for use inside the Swamp Tower. On the other hand, merit points implemented by the Zhentarim Association could be used in any area that was under them.

As for the other three major Adept associations, they also have their very own independent currency system. There is clear dissimilarity between them and they also couldn't be exchanged with one another.

After risking his life through the completion of his very first underground inspection mission, aside from the rewards he got, Greem also received five merit points which was just enough for him to buy one bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion.

It was already midnight when he was done meditating. After verifying the results from his meditation, his body was wracked with exhaustion. Greem shook away all other thoughts and went to a deep slumber.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Built by the Zhentarim Association, the Adept Tower garrisoned in the Underground Cave was considered a small one. It had seven floors aboveground and two floors below, making it a building that consisted of nine floors.

It's worth noting that the structure of the building was also similar to the Swamp Tower which Greem had stayed before.

The first to third floors above the ground was a public area. They were open to all apprentice Adepts, functioning as the main area of activity for them. The public facilities available for them covered nearly every field of study an apprentice could ever be involved in. On the other hand, the fourth to seventh floors were only available to official Adepts, serving as their living quarters and a site for experimentations. If any apprentice intruded in these places without special permission, they would be mercilessly attacked by the defensive mechanisms of the Adept Tower.

Currently, Greem was out on a stroll around the public hall located on the first floor of the tower.

Unlike Swamp Tower, the Underground Cave was an open territory, allowing apprentice Adepts to form their own items to visit different areas in search of materials and harvest resources. That's why the materials and resources available in this place was many times more abundant compared to the Swamp Tower.

In addition to the gloomy and dark underground world, there's also the resource-rich Kerala Mountain Range in the surface. Within the confines of these steep mountains, countless exotic flowers and rare herbs can be found growing healthily. While numerous powerful magic creatures were hiding in their respective nests deep within mountains.

Actually, the surrounding area of the Underground Cave was perfectly suitable in nurturing apprentice Adepts.

For beginner apprentices, they could team up together and venture into the wild forest around the Adept Tower to harvest the resources they need. They could even practice their magic spells while they were at it at the animals that can be commonly found in the woods. Intermediate apprentices could venture deeper, able to set foot into the depths of the mountain range and go for solitary training. As for advanced apprentices, they could journey to the upper regions of the underground world, fighting Ratmen, Hooked Horrors and many more undead creatures.

An apprentice Adept who honed his skills through these methods would be far more brutal and strong-willed than an apprentice from the Swamp Tower who only know how to grow with time through long-term meditation. In other words, Greem gave off the impression of a typical apprentice that came from a low-tier Adept academy, while the others seemed to be battle hardened apprentices who learned from real combat. There was too much of a difference between them that they cannot be compared at all.

Early in the morning, the public hall had already been packed to the brim with apprentice Adepts who are seeking for new additions to their teams. Most of them were beginner and intermediate apprentices with a small number of advanced apprentices can be found among them. Even more apprentices were on the corners of the hall with black cloth spread out on the floor, with a couple of strange looking items on top of it, all the while holding a book in their hands. When an apprentice came up to them, only then would they lazily answer a few words. They would just read their books quietly most of the time.

This lifestyle was completely different from the Swamp Tower making Greem feel envy but helpless before it.

After all, before they entered Swamp Tower to learn, all apprentice Adepts were required to sign a magic contract with Adept Anderson, making them lifetime apprentices of the tower. In order to break free of this contract, there were only two methods: Either obtain Adept Anderson's permission or become an official Adept.

If any apprentice bound by the contract secretly escapes from the Adept Tower he belonged to, he would lose his status as an apprentice, becoming a traitor that will be sought after by hunters. Truth was, among those Fallen Adepts living in the depths of the Underground Cave, majority of them were traitors before they became Adepts. However, with their status as an Adept not being approved by the Zhentarim Association, they could only conceal their identities and become stray Adepts.

Although Greem envied the lifestyles of apprentices in this place, he could only shake his head and sigh as he felt sad for his fate.

Taking cover within the crowd of apprentices, Greem browsed through the stalls located on the sides of the road while secretly examining these apprentice Adepts of the Underground Cave.

From the apprentices who were recruiting members in the center of the main hall, Greem found out something about them. He noticed that even a beginner apprentice here would be fully equipped with decent magic equipments and magical items. The magic wand that can hasten casting speed, a waist pouch full of magic scrolls and potions, a dazzling display of tiny decorations… each and every one of them here was considered a mini arsenal. Although their individual battle power wasn't strong, but with the help of so many items to supplement them, they would be able to bombard the enemy with a plethora of magic spells.

In Greem's eyes, these apprentices were walking human gold coins. From top to bottom, inside and out, every single inch of their body was giving off the strong smell of money. Comparing himself to them, Greem can't help but feel ashamed of his own unbecoming, quickly erasing the proud feeling he had after the small victory he accomplished.

Possibly only the beginner apprentices who ran stalls while reading books would be the only people as poor as Greem. Anyone can easily tell they just became beginner apprentices, the rookies who are still unqualified to venture into the wild.

Greem circled around the public hall and when he had stored enough information, he stopped and came to a rather lively stall and interacted with the owner.

The owner of the stall was a young man. He looked quite heavy, donning a poorly fitted short apprentice robe provided by the Adept Tower. This gave him a funny appearance. Together with his facial features that kept changing while he was talking, all of these had made his stall the liveliest place in this area.

"Hello, my name is Greem!" Greem walked up to the owner and introduced himself.

"That… hello to you too, my name is Sam." The fatty responded with humorous atmosphere. He continued, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Hello, Sam. I would like to inquire, is there any special procedure that I have to go through to become a vendor here?"

"Ugh…

Sam stared at Greem from top to bottom and asked curiously, "You're a new beginner apprentice here, aren't you?"

"That's right! I just came here two days ago." Greem replied vaguely. He didn't want to waste any energy in explaining why he, a mere beginner apprentice, would come to this place and carried out a deadly mission here in the Underground Cave.

"You poor thing! You must be a newcomer who was ditched by your mentor. I knew it at first sight! But don't worry, just follow your big brother Sam and sooner or later, you'll be like them, armored to the teeth with all kinds of magical equipment.." Unexpectedly, Sam was actually a warm-hearted person, as he quickly activated his enthusiastic brother mode.

But when Greem had glanced on this guy's face, he was left speechless after seeing the data detected from Sam in his mind.

This person who proclaimed himself as big brother was actually a super rookie, a beginner apprentice who only has six Spirit points. This had nearly driven Greem insane.

"Ugh…Sam, I just wanted to ask you… Can I also put up a stall here to sell a few items?"

"No problem, it's not a problem at all! I, Sam, is known for taking good care for all newcomers. Come here… I still have some extra spare space here, you can just place your things here!"

After he obtained Sam's permission, Greem quickly paced a tray-sized black cloth on the ground then took out five items from his waist pouch, placing them on top. There was the Plant element self-healing earrings, the crystal green wooden stick used as the body of a magic staff, leather boots that has the ability of "Jungle Walk" that enables the user to walk unhindered in jungles or woods, the Croaking Frog and lastly, the notebook of magic spells he got from the enemy.

The leather boots were here too, and the reason why made Greem angry. The reason was simple, Mary didn't like it as the magical pattern on top of the boots wasn't exquisite enough for her taste. So, early in the morning, she simply threw them back to Greem asking him to get rid of it himself.

Greem totally could not understand this reason at all. And thus, he labeled Mary as one of the most incomprehensible creatures of this world.

Watching how Greem had made a fuss while setting up his stall, Sam, who sat beside him wasn't able to hold his laughter. He gave Greem's shoulder a pat and warmly said, "Yo brother. Don't blame your big brother for not reminding you. You're going to have a hard time selling your item by doing that."

"Take a look at me! My stall is so big while yours is very small. With what are you going to attract people's attention? Look, my stall even has a superb collection of beautiful things, but you only have… wait, what's that?"

No matter how weak Sam's Spirit was, he was still able to quickly sense the distinct magical ripples from the items that Greem took out. Good heavens! He had a total of five items, and four of them were obviously magical items! From the design of those items and the magic runes carved on them, they clearly looked like items from the underground world.

Puzzled, Sam stretched out his arm and picked up the pair of magic earrings and carefully gave it a look. In an instant, he let out a cry full of shock, "Recovery Earrings! This is a pair of Recovery Earrings!"

Although his voice wasn't that loud, it still alerted a few apprentice Adepts who happened to pass by. One after another, they stopped by the stall and turned their eyes to the earrings held in fatty's palm.

"Fatty, what are you shouting at? Can you really get yourself a pair of Recovery Earrings? Don't try to bluff with us!"

"That's right! Sam, you must have gone mad from wanting a pair of Recovery Earrings! Can a poor vendor like you really find yourself a pair of Recovery Earrings? Hahaha…"

Ridiculed by the surrounding crowd, Sam's face flushed with embarrassment but he never loosened his tight grip on the pair of earrings.

Among the crowd, a girl with delicate features and a sweet smile suddenly walked towards the stall.

"Sam, can you let me have a look at those earrings?"

"This… the muscles on the fatty' face twitched as he showed a look of wanting to give himself two slaps on his face.

In the end, he had no choice but to helplessly open his palm revealing the beautifully crafted earrings in front of this female apprentice.

Curious, this female intermediate apprentice picked up the pair of magical earrings and examined it. After that, a pleasantly surprised expression was portrayed on her face. Under her skillful control, a bright green glow quickly and flashily emitted from this seemingly unimportant looking magical item. A faint fragrance of vegetation spread out and filled the surrounding air.

A series of gasping sounds could be heard.

"There really was a pair of Recovery Earrings!"

"Heavens! Someone is selling a tier-3 magical item in the main hall…"

"No way! I have to inform Lina quickly! She had always wanted a pair of Recovery Earrings!"

"You're right! I have to inform my boss too…"Within the crowd, many people hastily took out strange looking communication devices. In an instant, sounds of frogs croaking, birds chirping, insects calling, wolf howling… all kinds of weird animal noises reverberated in the entirety of the main hall.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

Greem rubbed his nose, clearly taken aback by the massive uproar. On the other hand, the fatty Sam couldn't help but keep whispering to himself.

"This is bad… this is really bad… if I knew beforehand that it was truly a pair of Recovery Earrings, I wouldn't have shouted out loud with my big fat mouth! If boss Kern knows about this, he'll surely give me a good scolding…" after he finished saying that, he also took out a round crystal ball and used it to call someone.

The messy situation made Greem's brows furrow. He had no idea what had caused this commotion. It was just some ordinary self-healing earrings, how was it able to cause such a commotion? However, through the help of his sensitive senses, he soon heard a keyword from the conversations between the surrounding apprentices.

Tier-3 magical item!

Greem had only read a few books of Alchemy before and had never comprehensively learned or researched much about the classification of magical items. That's why he was totally unfamiliar with the term of Tier-3 magical item.

Right when he was hesitating while thinking, the delicate looking female apprentice finally asked her question.

"Pardon me, between the two of you, who is the owner of these Recovery Earrings?"

Meanwhile, fatty Sam had gloomily set aside his communication crystal and with a discouraged look, he pointed his finger at Greem.

Left without any choice, Greem nodded his head and rubbed his nose saying, "I own this item!"

"How much are you selling it for? How many magic crystals?" The female apprentice asked, full of anticipation.

"I'm not selling it!"

"Not selling? Then why did you display it?"

"Instead of selling, this item can only be traded. Items of the plant element doesn't suit me, so that's why I planned to exchange it with…:"

Before Greem was able to finish his words, an uproar suddenly broke out from the crowd. Soon, a few men covered in sweat pushed through the crowd and arrived in front of him.

These men were shocked to see each other in front of the stall and glared at each other furiously.

"Boy from the Patton family, it's you again? One of my man saw this item first today, don't you go on thinking you can seize it from us!" A burly man said in an imposing manner. He was also carrying a broadsword strapped on his back, wearing a finely made leather armor.

On the other hand, while showing a sinister expression and unwilling to be outdone, an apprentice in a gray robe who had rushed here responded disdainfully, "Your man saw it first? Hmph. Just with that childish thinking alone makes you unworthy of my time. Whoever bids the highest price will get the item, this is the rule of this place. If you're so great as you say, why don't you buy everything you see here?"

Apparently, both men were team leaders of two established teams with both possessing the ability of advance apprentices. Therefore, when they started to challenge each other, the raging killing intent they exuded gave made everyone suffocate to the pressure. Since this place was the inner area of the Adept Tower, none of them dared to start a real fight. What they could do, however, was to keep pressuring the other side using their powerful spirit.

"Alright, alright! Why are you two doing this every time you meet? Since all of us came across the Recovery Earrings together, let's name our prices. We'll see who get's it at the end!"

The voice came from a young man dressed in a red robe who pushed his way out through the crowd.

Although he looked young, he had a calm and cold expression, like someone who had been through many things. He didn't have a handsome face but he wasn't ugly either, his looks were quite common, a faint smile formed from his slips.

"What a surprise, Boss Kern is here too!"

"This is going to become lively!"

"Don't push me aside! I still want to see what will happen!"…

The crowd's commotion was getting louder and louder.

The man in the red robe turned around, sweeping his eyes over the crowd that had gathered. They quickly settled down when his glanced passed by them. Afterwards, he gave the crowd a warm smile.

"Alright, let's stop making a racket. It's quite rare to encounter a pair of Recovery Earrings here, and we all know everybody would want to get their hands on it, but we'll see who has the fortune of becoming its owner in the end!"

Being suppressed by the man in the red robe, the two team leaders had no other choice but to retract their spiritual pressure. Together, they all went in front of Greem's stall, casting greedy looks towards the earrings resting on the female apprentice's palm.

This female apprentice was clearly a team member of the guy with the broadsword as his brows quivered with extreme pleasure when he saw her.

"Heidi, you truly have a good pair of sharp eyes. How is it? Are you able to buy this pair of earrings? If you don't have enough magic crystals, the few of us together can go gather more. You have to buy it, no matter what!"

The man in the gray robe and Kern furrowed their brows at the same time.

"But he doesn't want to sell, he only wants to trade it with something else!" Heidi couldn't help but stomp her foot.

"Trade?" All the three leaders were struck dumb and immediately asked, "Trade with what?"

"Trade it with fire element magical items!"

The three men simultaneously became silent.

Where was this place? It was the Underground Cave!

Fire element materials were extremely rare in this place. As a result, all Fire element magical items were considered a rare commodity.

However, all three of them were obviously not someone who would give up easily. One after the other, they all secretly communicated with Greem through Spiritual Whisper, seeking for an alternative deal but Greem was firmly turned them all down.

Right when the three leaders were calling their men to help out and look for fire element magical items, Greem found a chance to ask fatty Sam and learned the main reason why Recovery Earrings was a sought after item by many people.

For most of the beginner and intermediate apprentices here, although the resources and materials found in Underground Cave had a high value, the risk from obtaining them was consequentially enormous. So most of their training and the areas of activity were carried out in the Kerala Mountain Range. Catching demon beasts, harvesting magical medicines, exploring secret places, all of these were always accompanied with unpredictable dangers. Therefore, if a team could have a member with them who was well-versed in healing during their trip, it would definitely bring massive benefits to any apprentice team.

That's because if they only use Blood Coagulating Medicinal Paste and Health Potions in healing their injured team members, the expenses they would incur would be too much, cutting down their earnings. Under such circumstances, a plant element Recovery spell would definitely help them save a large amount of additional expenses. Also, one advantage of the Recovery earrings was that, once the plant element energy stored within it ran out, they only have to stay within a place filled with lush vegetation for a period of time and the energy would be refilled automatically.

This, without a doubt, gave it a higher value!

As for the so-called tier-3 magical items, it was actually a classification of magical items given by apprentices. Magical items that could provide an effect 10 to 20 energy points were classified as tier-1. Most small decorative items crafted by apprentice Adept belong to this category.

Meanwhile, items that could provide 20 to 30 energy points of effect were tier-2 magical items. Sometimes, a few top quality items that were crafted by apprentices would be able to reach this tier as well.

As for the tier-3 magical items, their effects had reached an outstanding 30 to 40 energy points. Most of these items were crafted by official Adepts, usually as the products of their alchemy training. But when it falls to the hands of an apprentice Adept, it would become their trump card that can increase their strength.

After listening to fatty's explanation, Greem was confused and said, "This is impossible! I have tested it myself and these earrings can only provide me at most 10 green life energy. It can't be a tier-3 magical item!"

Hearing what Greem had said, fatty couldn't help but pat his shoulder.

"Don't tell me you were using your own energy to test it? In order to activate the Recovery Earrings' maximum healing effect, there are two conditions. Firstly, you have to use it at place filled with vegetation like for example, a forest. Secondly, the user must also be a plant element apprentice. Since you're a fire element apprentice, the effect would surely be reduced!"

At last, Greem was lit with a flame of comprehension.

No wonder these earrings gave him such a weak response when he tested it. Although the female apprentice only gave it a brief test, it instantly showed a distinct green glow. Apparently, he had used the wrong energy for it!

Glancing at the noisy scene, fatty shook his head while saying, "This have become such a mess… if this continues, those bastards of the enforcement force might be drawn to the commotion here soon…"

Maybe fatty was truly a real jinx or bad things were really just supposed to happen. A commotion broke out from the crowd once again as two intermediate apprentices wearing blue uniforms rushed in through the audience.

"Who was the one? Who dared selling tier-3 magical item in this place? Who gave you the audacity to do this? Don't you all know tier-2 and above magical items and equipment can only be traded by us, the Murphy Association?" Showing a fierce expression, the young apprentice who was in the lead viciously glared at fatty Sam upon his arrival, convinced that the guy was the culprit.

"Sure enough, it's you again! Sam! How dare you!"

His face covered with fury, Sam refused, "Ryan, you better not speak without knowing the truth. This thing doesn't belong to me. No matter how unreasonable you are, you can't incriminate an innocent man!"

The enforcement guy named Ryan moved his somber glance away from Sam's face and came to a stop on Greem who was wearing a calm and relaxed expression. He was suddenly hit with uncertainty.

Although there were many apprentices in this Adept Tower, he knew who possessed strong abilities among them. However, he never once saw this beginner apprentice before, and from where did this guy found a tier-3 magical item?

"Kid, I think you don't probably know the rules in this place!" Ryan stood loftily in front of Greem and continued, "As I said earlier, in this Adept Tower, any tier-2 and above magical item can only be sold to us, the Murphy Association. This is the magic contract that was signed between our association and Adept Howard. If you don't obey the rule, you'll risk having your apprentice status being revoked! Hmph…"

After he finished saying that, he timely snatched the earrings away from the female apprentice's palm and held it in front of his face. After inspecting it, he nodded with satisfaction.

"The quality of this earrings is pretty good. According to the rules of Murphy Association, I'll buy it from you using the market price. The price is…" Ryan rolled his eyes and added, "Fifteen magic crystals!"

Ryan actually only wanted to say twelve magic crystals but he realized there were too many apprentices gathered around. He had no choice but increase it by a tiny bit.

But even so, when the price of fifteen magic crystals was heard by the crowd, an uproar quickly ensued.

"Why don't you go and rob someone else?"

"Heavens! Only fifteen magic crystals! This price can't even buy a mere tier-1 magical item!"

"That's right, this is robbery in broad daylight!"…

The agitated replies of the apprentices obviously made Ryan angry from embarrassment.

"Shut up! This is the agreement between our association and the master Adept himself! Who dares to question me? If any of you still make irresponsible remarks, I'll immediately report you to the Adept on duty!"

His blunt threats eventually quieted down the crowd. Even the three leaders who were standing in front of the stall were wearing annoyed expressions, suppressing their fury.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

After finding out that the crowd had become quiet, Ryan nodded in satisfaction.

Right at this moment, a servant who had followed him here suddenly pulled on his sleeve from behind, pouting his lips at Greem's stall.

"Master Ryan, why do I have a feeling that those other items aren't ordinary things too?"

Ryan leaned his face forward and gave those items a careful look. Indeed, it was as the servant had said. He discovered some rather uncommon characteristics among them.

"Croaking Frog, Elven Boot, Treant Branch…"

For every name he called out, the crowd would gasp in amazement. And when the name of Treant Branch was called out, a few apprentices who were experts in plant element magic spells couldn't help but place their palms against their chests, as if they couldn't withstand the intense shock with their heart breaking into pieces.

At the same time, fatty Sam was wearing an unsightly expression. He was portraying a look as if his heart had died, much like the look one would have if their father had just passed away.

As for the other few team leaders, they had totally given up their intention of owning these treasures. They called their men back and walked away from the stall, becoming one of the bystanders instead. They had a clear judgement. If a beginner apprentice was struck by luck, it was possible that he could find himself a tier-3 magical item. But if this beginner apprentice was able to take out a couple of tier-3 magical items together, then it wasn't luck anymore.

Only a beginner apprentice who was backed by a powerful clan or one who was exceptionally powerful could do so. Either person was not someone they could afford to offend. Perhaps it was only Ryan, who was blinded by his own greed, who could not see such a simple fact!

Indeed, upon seeing so many tier-3 magical items, Ryan could no longer maintain his calm. He immediately stretched his arms forward and tried to snatch all of them away.

Pap!

A large hand reached out from the side and grabbed his wrist.

"Mister, I don't think you have the right to forcibly buy my items!" Greem could no longer stand the lousy show this clown was putting on, so he decided to stop this man from continuing to behave recklessly.

"Why? You dare to disagree with me? Every single apprentice who lives in this Adept Tower knows that all tier-3 magical items are traded solely by us, the Murphy Association. You've already violated the rules for trading in this place, so you better be careful or else I'll put you into custody!"

"Haha, mister. I think the agreement signed between your Murphy Association and master Adept himself is only limited to the members of this Adept Tower, right? However, I'm not an apprentice of this place. Furthermore, these items weren't produced by your Adept Tower. Therefore, what gives you the right to forcibly buy them off me?"

"Kid, don't try to fool me. If you're not a part of this Adept Tower, how did you enter this place? Hmph. You better let go of your grip, or else…"

"Or else what?"

"Or else, I'll take you to Enforcement Quarter and teach you a good lesson!"

"Hehe, if you really plan to do so, you should prepare to be humiliated!" Greem laughed through clenched teeth. He was finally unable to take it anymore and was completely pissed off by this idiot.

"What? Are you going to assault me?"

While saying that, Ryan slapped on his waist. In that instant, black and thick hairs suddenly burst out from his once fair and clean face, and his body vaguely started to expand.

Beastialize!

A frown appeared on Greem's face. He took two steps back, and swiped his fingers across his waist pouch, taking out two summoning crystal cores.

Right when he was hesitating about whether or not he should really fight, a cold voice could be heard from the middle of the crowd.

"Stop right there!"

The voice sounded familiar to Greem.

Greem immediately recognized him after being hinted by the Chip.

A thought came over him, so he clenched his right palm tightly and didn't throw the summoning crystal cores out.

To be honest, this place wasn't suitable for the Demon Alligator Hunter to fight. Firstly, there wasn't any clay in the public hall. The only way to get the Earth Elementium was to try and absorb it from the surrounding air, however, this wasn't an easy task. Also, as the Demon Alligator Hunter was his trump card, the better he kept it a secret, the better the result would be in a real fight. Thus, unless it was a critical moment, he didn't want to expose this secret.

Right when both men were confronting each other aggressively, a man strode out from the crowd. Judging from the way the crowd parted to make way for this man, it was obvious he was quite well-known.

"Master Kevin!"One after another, the apprentice Adepts bowed and greeted the man. Soon, Blackhand Kevin, the advanced apprentice who Greem had run into once, arrived next to both the men.

"Master Kevin, why are you here?" Ryan, the blue-robed law enforcement, nodded while bowing towards Kevin.

The young, yet prestigious, Kevin wouldn't even bother responding to Ryan. Instead, he nodded his head at Greem. He then squatted in front of Greem's stall and examined the items.

"Elven Boot, Croaking Frog, Treant Branch… good stuff, they're all tier-3 magical items. No wonder these guys are so crazy about it. But, I thought I heard someone say that there was a pair of Recovery Earrings here?"

"That… that… master, the Recovery Earrings are here!" Ryan hesitantly handed over the Recovery Earrings.

"Alright!" Kevin took over the earring and tossed it back to the stall. Then he assumed a serious attitude and grabbed the magical notes. He gave it a few flips and briefly read through.

Finally, Kevin raised his head and lightly sighed.

"Just as I came back, I received news that the Demon Vine Lady was killed in the underground world, but I didn't believe it. I'd never have thought that you'd even brought back her notes about magic spells. I suppose these items are taken from her, too? You're really one of the younger generation who is worthy of respect!"

"Demon Vine Lady? Are you referring to the girl who can transform her body? She was killed by Master Mary, and it was her who ordered me to sell these equipments!"

"Mary? The girl who can transform into a vampire?" After pondering for a few moments, Kevin chose to believe Greem's explanation. After all, no matter how he looked at it, it was impossible to believe that a beginner apprentice would have the ability to kill a notorious advanced apprentice Fallen Adept. "Pack up all your things and follow me! You won't find anything you want here. I'll bring you to the place you're supposed to go!"

After finishing speaking, he helped Greem roll up the cloth before striding away. Throughout the entire process, he simply ignored the existence of Ryan.

After both men finally disappeared from the sight of the crowd, an uproar once again broke out from the public hall. The few team leaders even dragged fatty Sam to a corner to thoroughly question him about the background of that mysterious young man.

But those questions had lost all meaning to Greem. He was totally struck dumb by what he saw now.

Kevin had brought him to a small training camp outside of the Adept Tower. In order to reach the camp, they had to fly. Therefore Kevin led him to a flying demon beast. For the first time in his life, Greem had the chance to ride on a flying demon beast. The demon beast Kevin had led him to was referred to as a 'Socrates Condor'.

Socrates Condor was an advanced apprentice level Wind Element demon beast. It stood three meters tall and had a full wing span of five meters. It had a big, strong body and possessed the ability to cast Wind Blade, Wind Vortex and a few other basic Wind Element magic spells. It was a rare flying creature that dominated the forest region.

Because of its great physical strength and incredible flying speed, they were often captured by Adepts and tamed into excellent flying vehicles.

It was the first time he had the opportunity to fly on a demon beast, so he was rather nervous about the experience.

When the majestic looking condor soared up into the sky, its golden feathers sparkling in the sun, Greem couldn't help but grip the soft feathers behind the condor's neck. He felt like his heart was beating so fast it would jump out of his chest.

Whilst riding on the other condor, and leading the way, Kevin looked over his shoulder. He saw Greem's nervousness and simply let out a loud laugh. Clearly, this wasn't the first time he saw someone behaving like this.

Greem had his eyes closed tightly. It was only when the condor stopped its acceleration, and started to cruise steadily in the bright blue sky, did he finally let loose of his sweaty palms and tried his best to open his eyes.

For the first time, Greem felt like he was so close to the sky. Those pure white, fluffy clouds were hovering over his head like cotton candy. Below him were steep and tall mountains, valleys and woods that rolled through the land, and a dense forest littered with wild animals. From time to time, he could even see some birds chirping on treetops…

All of these had brought light to Greem's mind, who had been spending too long in a dark and treacherous world. To be honest, after staying for a while in that gloomy and bizarre Swamp Tower, Greem had felt his body and mental state become rotten. He could no longer retain the relaxed and easy-going attitude he had when he just arrived in this world.

Following the relaxation of his mind, the feeling of nervous he felt from his first time flying gradually subsided. Greem folded his legs and sat on the back of the condor. He started to enjoy the magnificent scenery he saw underneath the condor.

It was lucky he wasn't afraid of heights! Or else, if a future great Adept was afraid of heights, it would become lasting stain on his mighty reputation.

The training camp wasn't far and was located approximately thirty miles from the Adept Tower. It was situated right in the middle of a serene valley.

The two Socrates Condors flapped their wings and slowly descended from the sky. Although Greem still had a pale face, his performance descending was much better compared to when he was ascending.

After getting off the condor, Kevin casually tossed out a magic crystal. His condor immediately grabbed it with its mouth and swallowed it. At the same time, the condor ridden by Greem was staring at him with a cold gaze.

This was probably the fee for riding this flying creature!

Greem copied Kevin and tossed out a magic crystal, which made the condor previous anger turn to joy. After swallowing the magic crystal, it slowly walked to an empty field beside them.

"Let's go. I'll bring you to a real circle of friends. We and those people in the public hall are from two different worlds! You'll get nothing good by hanging around with them. Besides, what you really want can never be found in that place!" Kevin spread out his arms and said, "Only here can you find the true value of yourself. And this place is the future that belongs to all combat Adepts!"

Ugh… what a dramatic opening speech! But too bad there wasn't a round of applause. Instead, there was a rather awkward silence.

But before Greem could think of a way of handling such a situation, a haughty laugh was heard coming from a far distance.

"Cheesy Kevin, you're giving the same speech again. Who are you trying to fool into your team? Quickly bring him to me, the bald Hulk, and let me have a good look!"

The fervent and excited Kevin's enthusiastic expression was completely crushed. While cursing under his breath, he and Greem walked towards the man who just undermined him.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

The entire training camp occupied a vast tract of land, however, there weren't many buildings that could be found in this place.

On the east side was a row of solidly built wooden cabins. They were all built with huge logs. Although they looked simple and primitive, they were extremely sturdy. While on the west side, a number of tents were found scattered around. Judging by the size of them, each could only house one to two people and were used for resting.

In the entire camp, the thing that drew one's eyes the most was a large area occupied by a training ground. Countless apprentice Adepts were using this training ground and were seriously fighting each other. Yes, they were all apprentice Adepts. They weren't some ordinary human fighters. Looking at those bowl-size fireballs that dashed through the air like shooting stars and the frightening figure of a man, covered in raging lightning, raising his axe high up, made Greem's heart, once again, start to pound fast.

All this while, the impression Greem had toward apprentice Adepts was rather dark and crafty, with many of them having a twisted mind. Thus, this was the first time he saw something like this. Out in the broad daylight, these apprentice Adepts were fighting each other, face to face, with their raging magical spells.

At the edge of a large training ground, a group of men could be seen gathered together, watching the fight between two advanced apprentices.

One was like Greem, a long ranged spell caster who had mastered Fire Element magic spells.

The other took the path of a Body Refining Adept, a frightening god of war who possessed the powerful ability of thunder.

Both men were exchanging attacks in the field, locking themselves in a fierce battle.

Three Inferno Shields were spinning around the body of the Fire Element apprentice and helped him block most of the dirt and sand that splashed into his direction. The thunderbolts flew towards the Fire Element apprentice like huge silver serpents. At the same time, a strange magical array could be seen flickering under his feet.

Apparently, this magical array had some sort of quickening effect, which allowed him to run at a speed not slower than those apprentices who had high Agility. In addition to this, a fireball, which was enshrouded between his palms, kept spitting out continuous fireballs. He was bombarding his opponent like the pouring down of a heavy rain of flames.

On the other hand, the wrathful Body Refining Adept, with the help of his intrepid physique and the lightning web that covering around his body, had withstood the continuous bombardment of fireballs. He kept letting out raging roars before charging forward, trying his best to follow after the Fire Elemental apprentice.

Frightening thunderbolts kept bolting out from his giant axe. If he was allowed to get closer to his opponent, even if it was just by a little bit, then he would be able to throw out the thunderous axe and instantly inflict severe damage on his opponent, as they had a weak physique.

Following behind Kevin, Greem came to the edge of the battlefield. Before he arrived, he could already smell the pungent smell of lightning burning through the air. His ears were also filled with loud booming sounds coming from the explosion of those fireballs.

Although the field was large, it appeared to be too small to accommodate the overly brutal and violent magic spells. Previously, a few fireballs even flew out from the battlefield and shot towards the crowd of bystanders. Whenever this happened, everyone would cheer like it was a great party.

Some would take out their magical staffs, shooting out freezing beams to freeze the fireball into an ice cube. Meanwhile, some would jump up in the air and slash through the fireball that passed besides them, breaking it into small fireworks. No matter who stood out and showed off their incredible magical ability, the crowd would always respond with loud cheers and applause.

The man who had jeered at Kevin was seen standing in the middle of the crowd. He was a bald man with a burly body, with chunks of muscles that looked like pieces of metal filling every inch of his body. Although he was standing there bare-handed, he was releasing a mighty air of indomitable spirit.

He was a Body Refining Pseudo-Adept. The enormous pressure he gave off had almost turned into a physical pressure. Standing right beside him, Greem felt that he was having a hard time breathing normally.

His mind had been bombarded by a series of warning tones given by the Chip.

"Warning! Warning! A high-frequency spiritual radiation is detected… The host needs to leave the source of said radiation immediately, or else, signs of Spirit decay will appear in three seconds. Countdown started: 3… 2… 1…"

Greem couldn't help but wear a bitter smile on his face.

In this Adept World of advanced magic, all apprentice Adepts had accumulated magical Elementium in their body by constantly meditating and consuming magical medicine. The more Elementium that was in one's body, the stronger their spirit radiation would be. For them, perhaps this was something normal, however, for ordinary humans, this spirit radiation was the equivalent of the nuclear radiation that could be found on Earth in his previous life.

Apprentice Adepts could only be considered as nuclear material or nuclear waste, as, although they were dangerous, there was a limit to the damage they could inflict. However, those official Adepts had crossed the line of qualitative change and had transformed from nuclear material to a nuclear reactor. Thus, their hazardousness was brought to another higher level.

This burly bald man who always wearing a smile on his face was definitely a Pseudo-Adept who could break through the line of official Adept at any time. Even though Greem had just gotten a little bit closer to him, as a beginner apprentice, he nearly couldn't withstand the frightening spirit radiation he unintentionally emitted.

After greeting Kevin, the bald Hulk's eyes rested on Greem's face. However, after a brief gaze over at Greem, his metal-like square face showed a curious expression.

"How come he is only a beginner apprentice? Don't tell me that those black bastards of the Underground world were fed with Corpse Worms, which caused them to be defeated by a mere beginner apprentice? You, Dark Wood, go and test him out!" Clearly, Hulk was the true leader of this training camp, as he simply picked an opponent for Greem without asking for anyone's permission.

"Hey, both of you, don't you feel tired after jumping around in the battlefield for so long? Hurry come over here, we have a new game now!"

Soon, following Hulk's shout, both advanced apprentices left the battlefield. They were bathed in sweat and their bodies were full of wounds. You could tell this wasn't the first time they had fought each other. It seemed that both of them had fully understood each other's ability. Although, before their opponent revealed any significant weakness, both of them did have the chance to defeat each other. However, it wasn't easy to grab hold of this winning chance.

The burly man who possessed thunder elemental ability had his body fully covered in burned marks of all sizes. While receiving treatment from someone, he asked with a loud, hollow voice, "Where does this beginner apprentice come from? Chief, are you trying to get him killed by asking him to fight? Look at his tiny body that is as weak as a bean sprout. I'm scared he won't be able to withstand this torture!"

Hulk threw his head back and let out a ground shaking laugh.

"Mark, you better not brag without feeling shame! Do you have any idea what this little guy did? This tiny beginner apprentice is the guy who killed the Demon Vine Lady. So, among all of you advanced apprentices, who of you dares to slam their chest and guarantee that they can defeat that Demon Vine Lady?"

Hearing what Hulk said, the confused crowd instantly threw their glances over to Greem, who was currently smiling wryly. They tried to figure out what made this tiny man so strong.

Greem opened his mouth, wanting to say a few words to cover his secret. However, Kevin immediately patted his shoulder lightly. He moved closer to his ear and whispered, "Little man, let me teach you a lesson today. If you don't want others to spy on your secret, then, next time, remember to destroy your enemy's soul!"

Greem's mouth hung open for a minute before he finally realized what gave himself away.

Damn it, the dead body of that Demon Vine Lady.

Indeed, he and Mary had killed her, but they never extracted and destroyed her soul. After submitting her body to the Adept Tower, those Adepts must have learned his secret by studying the memory that remained in her broken soul.

Fuck! Damn!

Right at this very moment, Greem wished he could give himself a really good slap. He wanted to cry and shed bitter tears for his thoughtless mistake. At the same time, he felt a sense of powerlessness when he thought about the bizarre magic spells that existed in this strange world of Adepts.

There were all kinds of magic spells, and, while no one could really tell how many spells were out there, their bizarre results were simply impossible to guard against. It looked like his plan of hiding behind Mary and earning his fortune secretly had just burst. Today, in this place, he had to show out his true ability.

Fortunately, his strongest ability was something that none of these guys could ever spy upon. In actual fact, the ability that they thought he possessed was actually the tiniest part of it and was not worth of mentioning.

After making up his mind, Greem decided to give up the idea of concealing himself anymore. A wicked smile emerged on his face.

"Alright, since you guys want to see my true ability, then send your fighter now! Let him show himself. I wonder who my opponent will be?"

"Err… excuse me. I'll be your opponent! My name is Dark Wood!" A rather deep, hoarse voice came from the crowd. After that, an old, skinny hunchback, walked out from the crowd. He was carrying a staff made from black wood.

He had loose and wrinkled skin, a skinny and shriveled body, a somber and ferocious expression and a head full of dried and yellow disheveled hair. His hands and legs looked dark and dirty, and his pitch-black curved nails looked like the sharp claws of an eagle. He gave Greem a gruesome smile, revealing a mouthful of brown, broken teeth.

On top of the black wood staff, he carried in his left hand, were chains of teeth and miniature skulls. Whenever a shivering breeze blow by, they would produce a rattling sound that sent chill down one's back.

Judging from his appearance, he seemed to be approaching the end of his life, as he looked like a skeleton with one leg already in the grave. But, upon seeing this man, Greem's pupils contracted, and his expression gradually turned dignified.

Although this guy only had the spiritual ripple of an advanced apprentice, the threat of death he brought to Greem was distinct and straightforward. If Greem's guess was correct, this frightening guy must be someone with the elemental affinity of negative energy. The only thing he didn't know now was whether this guy was one who played with dead bodies or a frightening one who played with curses.

Perhaps, in order to understand his real ability, Greem would have to experience it personally on the battlefield!

"Hehe! Don't you think it's unfair to let an advanced apprentice, fight with a mere beginner apprentice like me? Since you guys wish to see my real ability, you'll have to pay a price. Before we start the match, I need to know what I'll be earning when I win the match?" Greem folded his arms in front of his chest, portraying a look of confidence.

"Kid, you're pretty cocky!" Dark Wood once again showed his insidious smile, saying, "Initially, Master Hulk only wanted to see how long you could hold out when facing my attack. So, do you still think you have the chance to win this match? Jajaja…"

"What if I really win this match? Do you dare to bet with me?" Greem took the opportunity and counter-checked the guy.

"Why not? For the sake of your courage, I can give you odds of ten to one. No matter how many magic crystals you bet, as long as you can defeat me, I'll pay ten times back!" The insidious smile of Dark Wood, along with his skeleton-like head, made him looked really frightening.

"Who else wants to bet with me? Come on, show me your courage!"

Greem yelled out loudly and tossed out all his belongings.

He offered all the contents wrapped in that black cloth and the last nine magic crystals he had.

He had instantly kindled the atmosphere of the scene!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter

They had seen many arrogant people before, however none were as arrogant as this guy!

How dare a mere beginner apprentice provoke and challenge a group of elite enforcers who were, at the minimum, advanced apprentices? No doubt this was an act that truly provoked the ire of the crowd.

While grinning viciously, one after another elite apprentice accepted this bet. At the same time, they kept cheering, encouraging, threatening and teasing Dark Wood, wanting him to teach this unbridled rascal a good lesson. Following the piling up of the bet, the crowd became more excited. Eventually they even pushed Hulk aside, and started clustering around both men to escort them into the battlefield.

Watching his enthusiastic peers, Hulk's expression couldn't help but turn strange. He secretly pulled Kevin into a corner.

"Kid, you're the one who referred this guy here. You better not give me trouble. Do you think he has a chance of winning?"

"Ugh… according to the memory that Adept Angus extracted from her soul, this Greem owns a pretty powerful Earth Element Golem. Perhaps… maybe… if he brings all his ability into play, I think there is a possibility he can save himself from losing. However, it is absolutely impossible he can defeat Dark Wood!"

After obtained a satisfying answer, Hulk couldn't help but feel excited too.

"Guys, get your ass out from the field and leave them alone! I don't want that kid to have any excuse for his defeat later. Mensa, come here and help me calculate the total bet. Don't forget to include my bet. I'll bet two hundred Magic Crystals on Dark Wood!"

Hulk's loud roar resounded throughout the entire place and further ignited the atmosphere of the scene.

Weird yells and roars of the name 'Dark Wood' echoed around the field and lingered in the air.

Right at this moment, Greem and Dark Wood had entered the battlefield. They facing each other with a distance of a hundred meters between them.

While he was staring at how Greem calmly and unhurried began preparing for the battle, Dark Wood grinned broadly, exposing his broken and brownish teeth. He grinned and said, "Kid, you do have guts! But I hope later you won't be howling sorrowfully of your own blood, with a rotted body. Don't worry, as long as you are willing to lie flat on your face and admit your defeat and ignorance, I'll consider sparing you! Jajaja…"

In regard to his opponent's offensive remark, Greem simply responded with a cold gaze, before continuing his preparation and tossing out the summoning crystal core.

It was a perfect battlefield for him. Although the ground he was stepping on a was made by magically hardened dirt, it they was still dirt!

In next moment, a huge amount of Earth Elementium gathered around the summoning core. It gradually revealed a vague, mammoth figure in front of the crowd.

Ugh… wasn't this a little too oversized?!

Staring at the huge Demon Alligator Hunter who slowly making its debut, the exciting clamor from the edge of the battlefield starting to subside, while a feeling of doubtful starting to rise in the heart of these bystanders.

Was this kid a summoner? Why did he summon such a huge creature?

Following the condensation of Earth Elementium, the body of Demon Alligator Hunter became firmer and sturdier. It continued like this until its massive body and ferocious appearance had finally revealed itself in front of everyone. Greem strode forward and climbed on top of the Demon Alligator's back, sitting there comfortably.

Damn it, this kid surely had remarkable skill!

Dark Wood cursed inwardly and quickly preparing his own magic spells.

As this was a battle under the watchful eyes of the crowd, both parties were allowed to prepare themselves with some supplementary magic spells. However, they were forbidden from launching an attack in advance. Thus, the magic spells Dark Wood prepared were mostly assisting and summoning type spells.

When Dark Wood waved his black wood staff in the air, the little decorative items tied on top of the staff hit with each other and produced a clanking noise. Numerous white illuminating balls burst out from the sharp teeth and miniature human skulls. They soon formed into two frightening bone shields that floated beside his body.

The bone shield was assembled by countless pale white bones, and there was even a ferocious-looking skull protruding on the surface of the shield. Two pale green flames were floating in the eyes of the skull and the skull kept moving its jaw, portraying a frightening look of being constantly ready to devour someone.

At the same time, Dark Wood was reciting some magic spells quickly. A bizarre- looking dark halo, whose purpose was unknown, began emanating from his right palm.

"Have both of you prepared?" Hulk's loud roar echoed throughout the entire battlefield.

Upon seeing both men quietly nodding their heads, Hulk then yelled out loudly, "Then, I hereby announce that the battle has begun!"

Right at the very moment when the announcement was given, the dark halo floating in Dark Wood's palm trembled in a strange manner. On the other side, Greem, who had been on full alert, immediately noticed the incoming attack through his Elementium Vision.

It was a curse attack!

Only a curse attack could be so incorporeal, making it hard to defend against.

Greem sat high up on the back of Demon Alligator. His apprentice short robe began to wave lightly in the breeze. Below his exquisite Circlet of Nobility was a pair of eyes, flicking with a blue glow. These eyes stared at Dark Wood, who was standing a hundred meters away.

If it was another apprentice, perhaps he would've been hit by Dark Wood's dirty trick without knowing anything prior. But Greem's Elementium Vision allowed him to see all magical Elementium, so he could see this dirty trick vividly. An incorporeal, bizarre-looking dark lasso coiled out from the dark halo in Dark Wood's palm and flew towards him.

At this moment, the Screaming Tree Branch, which Greem had brought along, was sounding a constant alarm.

But Greem's mindset wasn't disturbed at all by the Screaming Tree Branch. Instead, he had all his attention focused on the hints that the Chip was transmitting into his mind.

"Warning… warning… A hostile Spiritual lockdown is detected… Host, please move away from this spot immediately… Failure to do so will result in host being attacked by any subsequent curse spells… Upon matching the spells with current magic spells database, possibility of Spirit Confusion is 71%, possibility of Spirit Slow is 26%, possibility of Soul Borers is 3%…"

Apparently, all curse spells needed to first lock down on the victim with spiritual energy, before they could establish the hidden spiritual tunnel that allowed the curse spells to reach the body. This method saved the time, as the curse spells no longer needed to fly through the air. Perhaps this was the main reason why all curse spells were so difficult to intercept or counter!

Greem soon understood this fact. As soon as the Demon Alligator's mind was interlinked with Greem's, it instantly took a step back, dodging the curse by a split second. Greem used the Hunter as a replacement for himself and let the black lasso trap it.

In next second, the dark halo in Dark Wood's palm vanished after a flash. As soon as it disappeared, a clump of smoke bursted out from Hunter's body, transforming into a black skull that flew a half circle around its body, before finally penetrating into the Hunter's body.

Damn it, it had failed!

That guy had summoned an Elementium Golem.

Through his Spiritual Sense, Dark Wood instantly realized his curse spell had never actually hit an actual Spiritual entity. This led him to curse under his breath. Without hesitation, he raised his right arm, which looked like a ghost claw, and began to draw in the air, preparing himself to cast his next spell.

But, right at this moment, Greem's attack had approached him.

The Hunter mounted on top of Demon Alligator kept waving its arms, and threw out strong spears made from Earth Elementium onto Dark Wood. This caused his bone shields to violently tremble. Right after that, a Fire Arrow, which contained pure, high-concentrated Fire Elementium, broke through the air and pierced the bone shield.

In the next second, the raging explosion of Fire Elementium had flooded the tiny region where Dark Wood was standing.

"Eh…"

At the same moment, the elite apprentices outside of the battlefield couldn't help but exchange an astonished expression with each other. The strength of the attack and the attack pattern of magic spell didn't look like something a beginner apprentice could do! The spell was casted quickly and had an offensive strength that was as high as 32 points. Were all these something a beginner apprentice could achieve?

No sound could be heard coming from the crowd, as they started to treat this half playful battle with a more serious attitude.

Even those apprentices outside of the battlefield could sense something. Dark Wood, who was being attacked by Dirt Spears and Fire Arrows. had an even stronger feeling. Damn it! It was a combined attack of Earth, Fire and Physical damage! The trembling bone shield, that was being burned by a raging flame, started to show signs of collapse.

A gloomy expression emerged on Dark Wood's face. Using his conscious, he quickly drove away the other bone shield and replaced the one that was defending all the attacks. Meanwhile, clenching his jaw tightly, he took out a few chunks of black, stinky, rotten meats. He conveniently tossed them beside his feet.

In next moment, Greem drove the Demon Alligator and strode forward. He planned to use the massive body of the Demon Alligator to crush his opponent. Suddenly, a bizarre figure dashed out from the raging flame and threw itself on the ground. It used a totally weird style of running and sprinting around Demon Alligator.

It was a frightening corpse that stood two meters tall. It had a pale body, two heads, five arms and seven legs. The entire body looked like a monster that had been messily pieced up together using a few broken human bodies. It crouched on the ground and moved forward using all five arms and seven legs. This made it move in an unpredictable pattern. It swiftly dodged a few dirt spears that were aimed at its body and soon approached the Demon Alligator who was coming in its way.

The heavy front legs of Demon Alligator pounded on the ground forcefully, causing the ground to keep violently shake. The misshapen corpse, who had just arrived in front of him, was affected by this immediately. It staggered and seemed like it could no longer stand firm.

The Demon Alligator moved aggressively and opened up its huge mouth. It leaped forward and pulled the corpse into its mouth. With a powerful clench, the razor sharp fangs instantly crushed its target into meat paste.

But, a muffled boom suddenly rung through the air. The corpse surprisingly exploded into a huge amount of black blood, which stained the Demon Alligator's head. After that, under the shocked gaze of Greem, the Earth Elementium that had molded with the Demon Alligator's head collapsed within a split second. Tons of dirt lost their bond with the Demon Alligator and splattered all over the place.

Damn it! What powerful corrosive black blood. It could even corrode and neutralize Elementium!

But obviously, the controlling crystal of Demon Alligator wasn't located in its head. If it was, then, perhaps Greem's trump card would've been destroyed in an instant.

Although it lost its head, the Demon Alligator still moved forward vigorously. Strong Earth Elementium once again gathered in front of its body, revealing the outline of a new head.

The self-healing ability of Demon Alligator was pretty convenient, as, as long as its body was still in touch with earth, it would be able to heal 10% of damage every minute. This was one of the biggest reasons why the Demon Alligator Hunter was so hard to defeat!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know report chapter so we can fix it as soon as possible.

Report chapter