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

3. 64 - 95

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Just as Greem was feeling proud of Alligator's strong recovery ability, he suddenly heard strange noises. One after another, frightening misshapen corpses suddenly leapt out from the flames, sprinting their way towards the Demon Alligator while letting out terrifying groans.

Damn it! There were too many of them!

Moving as nimbly as squirrels, eleven of the misshapen corpses swarmed up in a fan shaped formation.

Without hesitation, Greem quickly activated his bracelet, which unleashed body armor made up entirely of thorny vines. It blinked with a bright green glow as it covered his entire body.

What happened next was a bloody and savage close-range battle between the Demon Alligator Hunter and the group of misshapen corpses.

Although the misshapen corpses appeared to be attacking Demon Alligator, anyone could tell that their actual target was Greem, who was sitting high up on its back. This tactic was the go-to for most apprentices who primarily used summons as weapons when attacking their opponents.

Compared to the powerful combat strength of a summon who was unafraid of death, the summoner himself had much less defence. Therefore, rather than waste a huge amount of energy trying to defeat the summon, it was easier and far more effective to just defeat the summoner. Thus, after he used his blood essence to create the eleven misshapen corpses and entangled Demon Alligator in the fight, Dark Wood stealthily moved far away to once again start casting the long-range curse spells that he was an expert in.

While controlling Demon Alligator Hunter and trying to deal with the crazy attacks of the misshapen corpses, Greem also needed to focus his mind to defend against the mysterious dark lassoes that Dark Wood kept attacking him with. He was suffering greatly!

Many of the misshapen corpses in close range of the Demon Alligator were being killed, but the death of each corpse would result in a large explosion, which would destroy a large part of Demon Alligator's body. After the third corpse exploded, the front of the Demon Alligator, which had looked so strong and mighty before, was in a disastrous state.

He couldn't let this continue!

A trace of a smile appeared on Greem's lips, then he quickly put something into his mouth and lightly stomped his feet. The Hunter, who was mounting in front of him and kept throwing dirt spears at the enemy, expanded its body and moved backwards, swallowing Greem's body into its own.

In the next second, like a giant whale, the massive Demon Alligator Hunter sank into the ground and disappeared without a trace. The eight remaining misshapen corpses immediately stormed forward, restlessly digging into the hardened ground, but failed to find anything.

Damn…

Instant uproar from the side of the battlefield.

The damn kid could actually travel under the ground? This was going to be fun for Dark Wood!

To be honest, when Dark Wood saw his opponent and the summoned golem disappear from his line of sight, he was also filled with questions and frustrations.

Damn it, how was he going to fight this battle? If he couldn't see his opponent, how was he going to lock down the target with his curse attacks?

While he was looking for a solution, his spiritual senses suddenly discovered something under his feet, bringing a dramatic change to his expression. Without hesitation, he forcefully hit the ground with his staff.

A huge dirt claw suddenly stretched out from the ground beside Dark Wood. With tremendous force it slapped onto Dark Wood and crushed him into a pile of meat paste. After that, the upper body of Demon Alligator Hunter unearthed itself.

Although it was a successful strike, Greem's face on the Hunter didn't show any sign of joy. Instead, he threw his gaze like two lighting beams into the far distance.

He saw a misshapen corpse suddenly thrown itself onto the ground, violently twisting and struggling.

In just a couple of seconds, Dark Wood had replaced the misshapen corpse and was standing where it had once been.

The Hunter's expression changed slightly and it started to squeeze back into the ground, but it was too late.

The pile of meat paste under the Demon Alligator's giant claw suddenly exploded, staining the exposed body of Demon Alligator Hunter with a large amount of a gray-colored substance. Hearing the sizzling sound of corrosion made Greem's heart pound.

Through the Hunter's eyes, Greem viciously gazed at Dark Wood, who was standing up again. Without saying anything, he once again sank into the ground. The misshapen corpses who had fast been approaching once again missed their target.

Fuck… staring at the emptied battlefield once again, except for the remaining seven misshapen corpses and the broken ground, there wasn't any trace of that hateful kid. Dark Wood was furious.

Under the command of Dark Wood, the seven misshapen corpses were stationed around his perimeter. With this, not only could he could instantly block that bastard from retreating the next time he tried to attack, the formation also allowed him the flexibility to shift himself to any of the corpses as needed.

However, just as Dark Wood retracted his spiritual senses to the vicinity of his body, quietly observing every slight change under the ground, the ground under the feet of a corpse standing at a far distance suddenly started to boil. Countless dirt spikes poked up through the ground and turned the corpse into shish kabobs.

Once again, the misshapen corpse exploded. But this time, the gray substance splashed onto the ground harmlessly. As the attack had been launched from beneath the ground, the Demon Alligator was never exposed.

Dark Wood, standing on the battlefield, together with the audience at the side, gasped in astonishment.

Damn it, it was hard to tell the outcome of today's battle!

In the next seven or eight minutes, Greem cunningly stopped launching any attacks at Dark Wood. Instead, he kept moving around Dark Wood's perimeter, finding opportunities to kill the remaining misshapen corpses. Clearly, he wanted to destroy all Dark Wood's minions.

If they were all slaughtered by this kid, how was he going to shift himself to another corpse when he was again faced with danger?

Left with no alternative, Dark Wood called all four remaining misshapen corpses to his side, having them surround him in a circle. With this, if Dark Wood was under attack, he could shift himself to another corpse, but he would still be inside the attack radius of his opponent, which significantly increased his risk!

But under such circumstances, he had no choice but to take this risk. He was trying his best to lure that bastard from the ground, then he'd seek his winning chance, despite the great danger.

At the thought of himself being forced into such a messy state by a Beginner Apprentice, a shivering ghost flame instantly ignited within Dark Wood's gloomy eyes. He wished he could instantly capture the bastard and torture him good.

But too bad, you couldn't always get what you wished for, as it was Dark Wood himself who was being tortured by this mere Beginner Apprentice.

In the second half of the battle, the hateful bastard never showed his face, but instead kept attacking from under the ground using long-range magic spells. Although most of the magic spells were noticed by Dark Wood before they hit him, two misshapen corpses had been miserably killed by the combination of a Quagmire Spell and dirt spikes.

The sorrow of getting attacked but failing to catch the enemy was perfectly expressed by Dark Wood.

As he witnessed one corpse puppet after another, each meticulously made by him to possess the fighting strength of an Advanced Apprentice, be destroyed by the 'enemy,' Dark Wood's emotions moved from anger to frustration to sadness until he nearly burst into loud sobbing from Greem's torture.

When Hulk finally shook his head, sighed, and announced the winner, Dark Wood, who had remained standing through will alone, immediately fainted from anger.

The crowd gazed at each other helplessly. Although they wished to say a few words to comfort Dark Wood, no one seemed to know how to start.

Without the ability to attack underground, no matter who encountered such an enemy, he would land himself in serious trouble. This situation could only be blamed on Dark Wood's bad luck, as he was picked by Hulk to fight with this freak who had brought him such a miserable ending.

Wearing a gloomy expression, Hulk pulled Kevin in front of himself, asking with a ferociously, "I thought you said he doesn't have any special abilities? How did we end up with this kind of result? Tell me honestly, if you are fighting with an opponent like this, can you defeat him?"

"Ugh…" Kevin gulped, then continued, saying, "If it is not a fair match, and the venue is a desolated wood, give me half day and I'll be able to kill him in the dark. But if we were to fight in an emptied field like this, I… I wouldn't have a chance of winning, because I can't cause him any damage."

Right at this moment, Greem carefully poked his upper body out from the ground. Once he determined that he had won, he squeezed out from the ground.

After spending so long underground, all the outer wounds of the Demon Alligator had fully recovered and it looked exactly like it did before the fight began. The crowd felt wonder at the sight, but when they recalled the bets they had placed before the fight, no one could maintain a happy face.

Looking at the young guy striding towards him, Hulk had no choice but to bite the bullet. With a loud voice, he asked, "Mensa, give me the number! I want to know how much we need to pay this guy?"

Mensa wore black clothes and had a noble appearance. Without hesitation, he loudly read out.

"Mister Greem pledged nine magic crystals, two tier-3 magical items, one tier-4 magical item, one tier-1 magical item, and the magic notebooks of the Demon Vine Lady. Estimated total is 417 Magic Crystals. According to ten to one odds, we need to pay him 4170 Magic Crystals. However, combined, we all only bet 3270 Magic Crystals, so…"

"So we still owe this guy 900 Magic Crystals!"

"Yes!"

The crowd stared speechlessly at each other, before they couldn't help it and moved their gazes to Kevin, who had brought this bastard here.

In that instant, the generally calm Kevin had a forehead bathed in sweat.

Greem, who stood beside him, was grinning from ear to ear as he quickly stepped out to ease the situation.

"It's good to have the love of all my Senior Apprentices. As you have given me the chance to prove myself, how dare I collect this debt from you! This amount is more than enough. I, Greem am not a greedy man!"

Upon hearing Greem's rather flattering speech, all the Advanced Apprentices and Pseudo-Adepts shook their head and sighed. In fact, Dark Wood wasn't weak. He could be considered as having middle tier strength within all the Advanced Apprentices in this training camp. But due to lack of preparation, he was defeated by this foxy kid, and fainted on the spot. Everybody really was frustrated.

"Hey, you crafty kid, don't get carried away. The reason you had such an easy win is because your ability naturally oppressed Dark Wood. We'll pay those Magic Crystals we owe you, but do you have the guts to fight again with us? A fight between you and me, what do you say?" The man who said this was the violent burly man who Greem had seen carrying a thunderous axe when he had arrived. Obviously, this man had taken the path of a Body-Refining Adept, and used Thunder Element magic spells as his supplement ability.

Greem grinned, saying, "Why not?! But my golem is damaged from today's battle. I need time to readjust and fix it. Why don't we fight tomorrow?"

Hearing this, the violent burly man became extremely happy. The eyes of the surrounding men also brightened. Clearly, they were tempted as well.

With the time of one night, they believed they could help Mark find a way to defeat this guy. This hateful kid only had a special ability in summoning his golem, which allowed him to hide underground and attack his enemy. As long as they could find a way to stop this ability, how could a rubbish made from dirt be the match of Mark, the man known for a mighty strength? It was simply a silly dream!

Perhaps imagining some scenes that could vent their anger, all of the apprentices couldn't hold themselves back and grinned coldly.

In that moment, a shivering breeze blew through the scene, making one's hair stand on end.

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Finally, as the sky darkened, Greem safely returned to his residence in the Adept Tower.

Upon entering the room, he immediately locked the door. Then, he carefully took out all of the good items in the pouch at his waist and lined them up on the wooden table in his room. Looking at his trophies, he excitedly rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. He felt excited and restless. He was beyond words.

The ten small bottles on the left were Mind Concentrating Potions, which he had always dreamed of having. They were even the high quality products that were only internally available to the elites of the training camp. They provided 20% better results than the potions found on the outside. Each bottle was sold for 200 magic crystals, so just these ten bottles would have cost Greem two thousand magic crystals. Thanks to today's unexpected windfall, Greem didn't have to spend a single crystal of his own to buy them.

These Mind Concentrating Potions were more than enough to allow Greem to break through the barrier of Beginner Apprentice, and would immediately bring his Spirit to the level of peak Intermediate Apprentice. Whether he could easily enter the realm of Advanced Apprentice depended on Greem's personal potential.

His eyes lingered on the Mind Concentrating Potions for a long time before Greem reluctantly moved on to the next item.

It was an azure magic crystal core. After Greem took it out from his waist pouch, he was finally able to see the tiny electric arcs lingering on its surface. It looked like the magical crystal possessed its own unique life force, as it was able to absorb the lightning energy hovering in the air. It produced a mystical realm that perfectly suited for Lightning Elementium.

Judging from this, this was definitely a magical core taken from a Pseudo-Adept level Storm Giant.

Based on their characteristics, Storm Giants should be categorized as Elemental beings. However, the only Storm Giant population that existed in the Adept World had a rather strange bloodline. It was said that in the ancient era, a Great Adept once conducted some extremely risky bloodline experiments. He used some kind of magical method to merge his bloodline with a group of Wind Elementium. He intended to increase the size of his heir, who had the same bloodline.

In the Adept Continent, those called Great Adepts were all Adepts of the third grade and above.

It was worth mentioning that his experiment was a huge success. He managed to create a species new to the World of Adepts: the Storm Giants. They were powerful magical creatures who had the bloodline of an Adept and the body of an Elementium.

Sadly, these Storm Giants experienced an identity crisis. Apparently, they preferred to be friends with their own kind, the Wind Elementium, who were rather simple and biddable. Therefore, a huge number of Storm Giants escaped the control of the Great Adept and gathered together with Wind Elementium found in the natural environment. In the end, they established a small Storm Giant Kingdom in the Emerald Hills at the center of the Adept Continent.

Due to their special identity, and the fact that they possessed the double characteristics of both Adepts and Wind Elementium, they were eventually able to summon countless Wind element creatures from the Element Plane after constructing a huge Storm Altar. As a result, they became a powerful middle-sized clan located at the center of the Adept Continent.

It was likely that the Lightning crystal in Greem's hand was a product from the Storm Kingdom.

The Storm Kingdom and the Zhentarim Association had signed a magical contract.According to the magical contract no clans within the central region of the Adept Continent were free to hunt Storm Giants with intention of obtaining their Elementium core. However, such magical contracts could never prevent the existence of the black market and hunters. Privately, similar rare resources were still secretly traded by many parties.

The Pseudo-Adept level Earth element core Greem obtained last time might only cost 500 Magic Crystals to buy, however, this Lightning element core would cost Greem 1200 Magic Crystals. The reason was simple: it was rare.

Perhaps in terms of pure combat strength, an Earth element core would bring Greem more direct and powerful improvement. But since Greem wanted more diversified combat tactics, he felt it was better for him to have a Lightning element core. Since the Clay Golem brought Greem the ability to travel underground, how about a Lightning Golem? Maybe it would allow Greem to fly in the sky!

To be honest, after he had taken a ride on Socrates Condor and soared freely through the sky, Greem had fallen in love with the feeling.

But, in order to maximize the yield of this Lightning element core, Greem would need the Chip to perform tedious calculations and adjustments and, through the use of magical formations, uncover the true potential of this crystal. So he had no choice but to temporarily hoard it on the shelf and wait until the Chip had finished its calculation. Only then could he consider how he was going to craft a new Lightning Golem for himself.

As for the third item lying on the table, it had been traded for the Demon Vine Lady's magic notebook. It was a powerful Fire element treasure produced from an underground magma volcano: a Fire Diamond. Sadly, a Fire Diamond was a magical item and not the magical core of a Fire Element creature. It was very difficult to use it to craft a Fire Element Golem.

Although it couldn't be used to craft a golem, a Fire Diamond was also a magical item Greem had been eagerly looking for. With this item now in his possession, he was one step closer to the staff of his dreams.

By using a Fire Diamond as the focus gem for his magic staff, not only would it hasten the gathering speed of Fire Elementium, it could also bolster the strength of any Fire element spells Greem cast. Therefore, the benefits it brought were not any less than those a golem would have.

Currently, Greem had found the focus gem and the mithril used to create the runes on the body of his future staff. The only thing left was to find a magic staff that suited Greem the most. In order to craft the magic staff of his dreams, Fire Dragon Wood was the most inferior option, Fire Coral was the second best, while the backbone of a Fire element demon beast was the perfect choice.

But the problem was, such rare resources could only be found accidentally and not by searching for them. How was Greem going to find a backbone of Fire Element demon beast? Greem had been worrying and hesitating recently. He didn't know if he should wait until he found the perfect material, or try to find some Fire Corals to meet his urgent need.

Pondering on such a question would never lead to any real answer.

Left with no choice and with a wry smile on his face, Greem placed all the items back into his storage waistband.

Although he was eager to try out the effect of those Mind Concentrating Potions, he couldn't do it now. He had an important mission to accomplish tonight. The mission was directly related to the other bet he faced tomorrow.

So, after briefly admiring his war trophies, Greem rushed to the third floor of the Adept Tower. He plunged into the Alchemy Experiment Room, only returning to his residence the next morning with a completely burned out body and mind.

Sadly, before he could get even two hours of sleep, someone came knocking on the wooden door of his residence.

It was Kevin.

It seemed like he wanted to keep a close eye on Greem, as if he thought that Greem was afraid and was in danger of running away from the fight.

But when he saw Greem's relaxed face, he couldn't stop himself and asked, "What were you doing yesterday night? Don't tell me you totally forgot you have a very important battle today?"

"Ugh… I was overexcited because of the sudden windfall yesterday, and was having a hard time sleeping." Greem simply made up a reason to explain the dark bags under his eyes.

Kevin's face showed that he obviously didn't believe Greem. But out of curiosity, he asked the following question: "Are you confident about today's battle? Let me tell you, in order to stop you, a kid who suddenly appeared and suppressed the head of those veterans, they spent the entire night working busily. Possibly, they've come up with all kinds of solutions to deal with your Earth elemental golem. You… are you really confident about fighting Mark today?"

"Do you want me to win or lose?"

"That… Kid, to be honest, I see a good future ahead of you. I've never seen any apprentices with abilities similar to yours. If you put them to good use, you'll be do really well in the Underground Cave. And that's why I'm so eager to get you into the elite group! But… your debut yesterday was offensive and conspicuous. Boss Hulk only intended to let you put on a show of your ability and introduce you to the members of the elite group, but… you went straight in and defeated Dark Wood, a veteran member."

"Was it a big deal?"

"More than big! I've never seen the members of the elite group bound by a common hatred for the enemy. Because of you, they've all contributed their strategies and their weapons, and have brought out all of their methods of dealing with an enemy who can travel underground. So, you better be extra careful today. I've reminded Mark; as long as you admit defeat, he'll stop attacking at once. He won't leave you with any permanent damage!"

"Master Kevin, do you trust me?"

"What?"

"No matter how much they've prepared for this battle, I'm still confident about today's battle. So… if you do trust me, why don't you place your bet on me? What do you say?"

Kevin was instantly silent. He stared at Greem, who was looking back at him seriously, and felt puzzled.

Greem's opponent was a unique, strong guy in the training camp: the Thunderous Axe Mark. Unlike Dark Wood, the guy didn't have any significant weakness. After all, Dark Wood was a dark spell caster who spent his days with corpses. Once his curse spells and the army of monster corpses failed, he would have no more arrows left in his quiver. After all, Dark Wood himself was like a skeleton – so weak that couldn't even stand a gust of wind.

But Thunderous Axe Mark was a totally different opponent. His mighty strength was more than enough to fight equally with Greem's Demon Alligator, while his excellent Physique had brought him magic and a physical resistance that caused his opponents to despair. As long as he had ways to force Greem out from the ground, or had the ability to attack him underground, Greem's Clay Golem wouldn't even be able to last for three to five minutes.

Under such circumstances, why was Greem still so confident?

This huge mystery bugged Kevin for the entire journey. He was still pondering the answer even as both men stepped down from the condor and once again entered the training camp.

Staring at the ocean of people, who were waiting at the side of the battlefield, Greem smiled and leaned over to speak into Kevin's ears. He whispered, "Master, why are you so confused? You're the one who brought me to this training camp yesterday, and that means you've also offended every single man in this place. Why don't you place your bet on me today? Once you win, what can they do to you? Who will have all their money? Why are you still hesitating?"

The distressed expression on Kevin's face grew stronger.

He really had boarded a sinking ship! Now, it would be difficult for him to disembark from this situation!

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When Greem stood once more in the middle of the battlefield, he was immediately overwhelmed by Mark's imposing aura.

Back when he was still on Earth in his previous life, being overwhelmed by a person's imposing aura might just only be a metaphor. But in this world of highly advanced magic where even spirit and faith could become some kind of force, one can actually feel the intense spiritual pressure and the aura emanating from another person.

Through the Chip's feedback, Greem realized that his opponent had at least seventeen points in both Strength and Physique with a tiny bit lower amount of Spirit which was at least sixteen points.

It was a powerful aura forged from an intrepid physique and powerful spirit. It made Greem have difficulties in movement making him feel as if he was standing right in the heart of a powerful storm from Mother Nature. He even felt a slight burning sensation of pain on his skin.

Greem knitted his brows in a tight frown.

Looks like he has to improve his Spirit as soon as possible, or else he would have to endure the intense suffocating pressure given off by advanced apprentice whenever he had to face one.

This was all due to Greem's rank being too low. If he had at least the overall strength of an intermediate apprentice, he would be capable of integrating his elemental energy and spirit to form a protective shield similar to that of an energy field. In that case, if he was to face an enemy stronger than him, he would not be like the way he is now who was similar to a man standing naked without any cloth.

Thunder Axe Mark was a burly man who stood at 2.5 meters tall. He had broad shoulders and a muscular body. Although his axe was still strapped on his back and not in his hand, it still didn't reduce the violent aura he was giving off.

At the moment he saw Greem who seemed to have a poor physique, he wasn't able to hold himself back and bursted out in a fit of laughter.

"Kid, you've got guts! You already know you're going to be tortured today but you still come out here and face me, hahaha… I like this!"

Greem narrowed his eyes. While he was enduring the uncomfortable feeling brought by the gap between their ranks, he refuted vaguely.

"It's still too early to tell who will be the winner. I hope master Mark will be nice to me later!"

"Haha… I wish I could. Despite the fact that these guys asked me to break both of your arms and legs and crush half of your bones, I, Mark, am rather fond of you. Good kid, I really didn't expect you to be able to make Dark Wood, that living corpse, faint because of anger. Honestly, it was pretty enjoyable to watch that. Hehe, since I'm really happy today, I'll just break both of your legs then. Take this suffering as the welcoming gift from our training camp!"

"Ugh…" Although having both arms and legs being broken wasn't an injury that couldn't be healed in the first place, one would still have to go through a painful healing process. So, upon listening to how Mark talk about this "painful" topic with a rather 'charitable' tone, Greem simply rolled his eyes taking all of this as a fart.

"Hey, are you guys ready? Once you're done with calculating the bets, I'll start the fight! How long do you want me to wait?" Mark shouted at the side of the battlefield as he rubbed his palms together. Obviously, Mark was a hot-tempered man.

Meanwhile, it was a lively scene at the side of the battlefield.

There were oceans of apprentices and pseudo-Adepts surrounding Messa who was eagerly shouting out their bets.

"One hundred and seventy magic crystals! I bet on Mark!"

"Two hundred and thirty magic crystals! Me too, will bet on Mark!"

"Ninety magic crystals on Mark's victory!"…

A large illuminated stone slab was erected at the side of the field, showing the bets on the fight. The number of magic crystals that had wagered on Mark was stacking up really fast, soon stopping at a total of 3680 magic crystals. On the other hand, below Greem's name, it only showed merely 700 magic crystals.

This actually included Greem's own bet, otherwise, the bet would collapse with everybody only betting on one side.

Today's odds weren't as exaggerated as yesterday. After being carefully considered and agreed on by everyone, Hulk had taken charge and hosted the bet, the ratio he gave out was four to one. With the odds like this, if Greem was defeated by Mark, aside from the pain and wounds he will be receiving, he would also have to owe a hefty debt. In that case, he would have to sell himself out to the camp, working restlessly in order to pay back his debt!

For those fighting maniacs of the training camp, being able to profit or not was just a small matter. But pushing the newcomer off the edge was the entertainment they were all looking for.

However, while the commotion was gradually subsiding and Hulk was about to announce the start of the battle, a deep and hoarse voice suddenly sounded through the scene.

"Three hundred magic crystals, I bet on Greem!"

Although the voice wasn't that loud, it was like a cold breeze suddenly freezing the lively atmosphere. Everyone was stunned for a brief moment and only then did they remember to turn their heads and find out where the voice came from.

Dark Wood?!

It was Dark Wood!!!

In that instant, everyone felt as if their world as they knew it, was suddenly turned upside down. This… how could this be possible? No one would find it strange even if everyone in the training camp had placed their bets on Greem, but it shouldn't be Dark Wood! Didn't he know they were actually helping him to vent out his resentment?

Right when everybody still had their mouths wide open while gazing at each other, speechless, another voice came from the middle of the crowd.

"I also bet on Greem, two hundred and seventy magic crystals!"

Kevin! It was Blackhand Kevin!

Everyone inhaled sharply while showing all kinds of expressions. As the host for today, for the first time, Hulk felt today's sunlight was rather offending to his eyes. The magic crystals piled up beside him didn't look so loveable anymore. Although he never had the time to study the art of prophecy, he still had the feeling that today's wager had gone beyond his control.

He glared at Dark Wood and Kevin then eagerly shouted with a loud voice.

"The bet is decided and so I announce, the fight begins now!"

Following the announcement of Hulk, both men standing inside the battlefield promptly moved.

The burly man named Mark stretched out his arm, pulling out the giant axe from his back and then held it tightly with his giant palm. At the same time, cracking and popping sounds were heard coming from his body as countless blue electric arcs lingered around him.

The electric arcs created a powerful chain reaction, causing Greem who stood a hundred meters away, smell the putrid odor of air being burned by electricity.

Even though he had great confidence in the Demon Alligator Hunter, Greem still did not dare to wait for Mark to gather enough energy for a power strike. He quickly stomped his right foot, rushing the Demon Alligator Hunter to sink into the ground with the fastest speed possible.

Having his strength accumulated to the maximum, Mark threw his head back and let out a raging war cry, striding with steps that shook the earth while charging towards the Demon Alligator Hunter which was descending into the ground. He didn't use too much of his strength on his feet but every step he took would leave behind a shallow crater full of cracks. Also, despite not charging at them with big steps, Mark still managed to arrive in front of Greem before the Demon Alligator Hunter completely disappeared to the ground below.

A strong gust of wind brushed past his face as the Demon Alligator's bulky tail full of spikes and lumps swept by, landing right onto Mark's axe that was covered with raging electric arcs.

A loud boom rang out, immediately followed by dirt scattering in all directions. A mini lightning storm then suddenly exploded.

Greem, who had his body hidden within the Demon Alligator Hunter, sank underground just in time, successfully evading the shower of debris and the lightning storm. However, the crowd clearly saw that before the Demon Alligator was able to completely sink into the ground, a large portion of its long had already disappeared making it look really miserable.

Concurrently, Mark crouched down and forcefully jumped up with both of his legs, borrowing the force from it and leaped high up in the sky. While his body was still in the air, he let out another raging cry. He used all of his strength and threw his axe down, aiming at the very spot Greem had disappeared to.

Another earth-shaking explosion could be heard. Carrying with it a dazzling lightning storm, the axe forcefully struck the surface of the ground, shattering the ground and producing a large crater half a meter deep. The exploding lightning storm kept flaring violently at the the bottom of the crater, burning all the dirt into pieces and shaping the sand into molten glass.

It was such a vicious strike. Let alone resisting it directly, even the shockwave alone would be enough to kill a beginner apprentice.

In the sensitive spiritual senses of the crowd, Greem's life force had significantly dropped. In just an instant, he had already lost two-thirds of it.

Fortunately, the earth had helped Greem block most of the damage, making him suffer only a fraction of the damage from the shockwave. And so, Mark's thunder strike wasn't able to defeat him within a few seconds. This made the crowd feel pity and shock then they all sighed.

If Mark was able to move just a bit faster, or if only he could strike with an even stronger force, perhaps he had already killed Greem who was still in the shallow level under the ground.

A beginner apprentice challenging an advanced apprentice? What a joke! If the strike landed right on the target, Greem wouldn't even be able to withstand a single strike from Mark. Maybe only a useless fool like Dark Wood would be defeated by a mere beginner apprentice!

Enduring the gazes of either wonder, mocking, or disdain, Dark Wood hid his face under the shadow of his hood, showing only a pair of pale green ghastly flames dancing unclearly. No one knew what he was thinking about.

Only Kevin's expression changed following the situation of the fight.

The vicious first strike of Mark nearly scared away Kevin's soul. His bet of two hundred and seventy crystals was his hard-earned savings for two or three years which he had hoped to use to buy a nice, enchanted dagger. If his rash decision caused all of his savings to disappear, he would be crying out loud.

What kind of trump card did that Greem have? If it was that Demon Alligator, once it shows up again, it would only be crushed into a pile of clay by Mark's formidable strength. Kid, oh kid, you better not cheat me, or else I'll go and bother you every single day!

At this time, Greem was hiding underneath the ground and spitting blood.

The enemy's powerful strike had given him serious injuries. If not because he was able to act just in time, hastily diving deep underground, maybe with just the first strike alone would force him out. Even so, the tremendous shockwave that he felt from the squeezing of the ground had him coughing up a few mouthfuls of blood, nearly making him unable to recover.

While he was moving quickly in the darkness of the underground, Greem hid inside a small space created within the Demon Alligator Hunter's body and hastily treated his injuries. After he was done with that, he had a ferocious expression on his face as he tossed out a new golem he had created from the strenuous effort of a whole night. He then drove the Demon Alligator Hunter to slowly ascend to the surface.

Sure enough, Mark had been on guard against Greem's sneak attack from underground. On his foot were a pair of strange leather boots that were able to unleash bizarre magical ripples, enabling him to turn the ground underneath his feet into a hard rock, effectively blocking all the earth element spells casted by the Demon Alligator Hunter.

In the end, Mark simply sat down and crossed his legs while wearing a disdainful look and he shouted, "Kid, from now on, any attack of yours coming from under the ground is useless to me. If you wish to fight me, show yourself now! If you want to prolong this battle, I have no problem doing this with you. I don't believe your golem will be able to let you hide underground for so long!

Before he finished speaking, Mark abruptly stood up and pulled out his axe again.

At a spot nearly a hundred meters away from him, the Demon Alligator Hunter slowly emerged to the surface. Greem stared at him coldly.

"Good kid, so you do know what you should do. Today, let your master Mark teach you what a true battle is!"

After saying that, Mark covered his body again with countless arcs of blue lightning. He wielded his axe and charged towards Greem while howling out loud.

"Didn't you want to see what my trump card is? Fine, I'll show it to you now". Greem grinned. With both hands raised up, he shouted, "Show yourself, my raging fighter!"

Following his summons, the ground on the battlefield crumbled.

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At this moment, the entire battlefield collapsed.

In between the locations of Mark and Greem, a large portion of the ground suddenly crumbled and caved-in, revealing a large and terrifying pit. At the heart of this hole, one could see dirt tumbling violently while clouds of dust rose to the surface. A massive figure could be seen gradually emerging from the depths of the pit.

Mark was forced to give up on his assault. A dignified expression was present on his face as he stared hard at the frightening figure that was slowly coming into view as dust settled down and it revealed its features.

The first thing he saw was a bizarre looking pair of fiery scarlet eyes, and after that he saw that its body was made up entirely of hard rocks. The triangle-shaped snake head which was molded from Adamantine Rock seemed to be indestructible, while a narrow seam can be found on its pointed snout. In fact, anyone blessed with a sharp vision would easily be able to tell that this gigantic snake, which was constructed entirely from rocks, even had a thin tongue and a pair of very sharp fangs.

Beyond the snake head was a strange body made from countless rocks of all shapes and sizes stacking onto each other, layers and layers of this formed the intimidating body of this giant rock snake. Since only a part of this snake's body showed up from the cover of the dust cloud, no one could get a full glimpse of it with most of its body still hiding underground.

But from what Mark could tell from the body parts that were exposed, looking at it from the ground up to its head that was held high up in the air, he estimated it to be at least twelve meters tall. If its entire body was truly made up of those rocks with high metallic content that were commonly found underground, then with just its frightening weight along with its indestructible body would be enough for it to become the greatest nightmare of most of its enemies.

This… was this terrifying Rock Snake one of that guy's golems?

Before he could dismiss his thoughts from his mind, the super Rock Snake had opened up its mouth wide, initiating a long-range attack named Gravel Spray at Mark. A vast amount of gravel and dirt was extracted from the end of its tail, channeling through a long winding tunnel inside its body and afterwards it shot out from its mouth, splashing Mark with a massive wall of dirt. From what they could tell, this Rock Snake didn't bother filtering the things it absorbed from the ground. There were many dried branches, grass and plant rubbish mixed in the dirt that was used in this nasty attack, along with countless underground insects, rats, earthworms and other unknown creatures.

Such a filthy attack made Mark feel stressed out.

While letting out an angry roar, he gathered up all of the thunder energy he has and directed it in front of his chest, forming them into a large web of lightning big enough to protect his body. The spray of dirt full of filth that impacted on the finely and closely woven lightning web produced a hissing noise that resounded throughout the entire place. A pungent odor of something burning lingered in the air afterwards.

In the moment Mark was using all of his strength to hold back the Gravel Spray attack, the audience located at the sides of the battlefield suddenly let out shocked cries.

"Careful…"

"Quickly, put up your defenses…"Since Mark's line of sight was blocked by a huge amount of dirt, he wasn't able to see beyond the Gravel Spray. However, in a small time frame within a split second, his formidable combat instincts and abundant fighting experience allowed him to react quickly, raising his axe and placing it in front of his chest.

Puff!

A muffled explosion sounded out as the web of lightning scattered.

The terrifying and sturdy triangle-shaped snake head pierced through the dirt wall breaking the lightning web into tiny sparks. It then opened its large ferocious mouth and forcefully bit into Mark's battle axe.

An earth-shattering explosion echoed out to the surroundings. The Rock Snake clenched its huge mouth, using the sharp fangs made from tiny pointy rocks to tightly clutch onto the thunder axe, all the while taking advantage of the powerful thrusting force to crazily knock Mark far into the distance.

If it was another advanced apprentice and not Mark, this tremendous body slam alone would be enough to break their bones and crush them into a meat paste. Fortunately, Mark was a rare apprentice Body-Refining Adept of this training camp, his overall strength second only to Hulk, who was a Pseudo-Adept. Therefore, instead of being turned into a human paste, he could be seen letting out continuous wild roars. His body being stimulated by berserk strength resulted into cracking and popping sounds that could be heard coming from his own bones, and his muscles started to expand and become more robust at an incredible rate. Countless thick snake-like blood vessels crazily twisted and crawled under his metallic muscles…

The frantic Mark had one of his legs slightly bent down at the front while the other leg stretched out straight to support him from behind. His burly arm which had suddenly doubled in size held tightly on the axe. He had successfully blocked the full force of the Rock Snake's thrust.

Although he had succeeded in holding his ground, the land underneath his feet failed him.

Following the violent thrust of the Rock Snake, Mark's body kept being pushed backwards. His legs that were like pillars went through the hard ground, producing an increasing pile of dirt being accumulated behind him.

When the violent strike of the Rock Snake finally had its strength depleted, Mark's body had already been pushed back for more than twenty meters. The dirt that had piled up behind him became so tall it nearly drowned out his big burly body. The lower part of his body became completely submerged in dirt though.

"You must have used up all your strength already, huh? Now it's time for you to taste mine!"

Mark suddenly raised his head up staring right in front of him at the frightening head of the snake which was still biting on his axe while making eerie sounds. He roared out loud as fury welled up within him.

He forcefully knocked away the giant Rock Snake, and took advantage of the opportunity when its head drew back slightly. Mark suddenly jumped up with both feet while holding the axe with both hands, brutally chopping into the forehead of the Rock Snake.

Just like before, another loud explosion exploded out which sounded like metal striking metal ringing through the air. The giant Rock Snake had a ring-shaped body with a circumference of two meters which was entirely composed of Adamantine Rock that can be found underground. The snake was forced back by Mark's rapid chopping attacks causing huge amounts of rock fragments, dirt and sand to fall from its body like a waterfall.

Together with the audience, Greem's face twitched after witnessing how a muscular giant of a mere three meters high kept striking down on the gigantic rock monster which was many more times bigger than Mark. If this Rock Snake was a living creature, all of its bones would have been broken by now. It was a rock monster though and obviously not a living organism. Thus, that amount of damage wasn't enough to kill it.

Accordingly, under the long-distance control of Greem, the Rock Snake crazily twisted its body, coiling up into a dirt pillar that towered up in the sky. While that was in action, it retracted its body back into the dust cloud then prepared for another vicious thrust.

Mark, who had been able to attack it unceasingly before, wouldn't just let this go. He roared wildly and formed a lightning storm over his body as a protective shield, bending down and then sprinting right into the dust cloud to continue the intense fight he had with the Rock Snake in a chaotic fashion.

The massive dust cloud was stirred up and wasn't restrained anymore.

The air was full of dust that covered everything, blocking the vision of everyone. The chaotic and violent clash of Earth Elementium and Mark's lightning storm produced disruptions in their surroundings and isolated everything inside from the audience's spiritual senses. No one was able to bypass those by-product barriers which made them unable to find out the actual situation in the heart of the battlefield.

From time to time, large chunks of rocks would shoot out from within the dust cloud and sudden explosions of thunderclaps could be heard as well. Judging from these, the audience could infer indirectly how chaotic and intense the fight must be inside.

Meanwhile, Greem, who was riding on the Demon Alligator Hunter which was standing far from the center of the fight, had a more vivid and direct perception towards the situation inside the dust cloud, compared to the those other people. Under his skillful control, the rapid firing of Dirt Spears from the Demon Alligator Hunter and the Fire Arrows he casted towards the dust cloud would always inflict great damage to the enemy.

The furious roars that continued to sound out from within were the biggest evidence of how effective his attacks were.

It was such a remarkable battle which was like that of monsters fighting. It brought an indescribable sense of shock to the onlookers at the sides. Countless eyes of different colors filled with variety of expressions rested on Greem's face. They had changed their view towards him a lot of times already, previously from disdain to looking down and disregard but now, they had been startled after they examined him to be a rather dignified figure.

This was a fucking beginner apprentice!

Even so, he could still engage Thunder Axe Mark in such a fierce battle!

Although he wasn't fighting directly in person, but a summon was still part of an apprentice Adept's strength!

They couldn't help but try to imagine. If it wasn't Mark, who had a strong physique and muscles and clearly a man with powerful combat power that was fighting right now but them… Many elites among the people in the training camp showed painful and struggling expressions. Even though they didn't want to admit this, but if they were the ones there instead of Mark, maybe they would be struck down on the ground by a mere beginner apprentice, unable to get up anymore.

This mighty Rock Snake was just too strong!

It's overall strength was perhaps not weaker than that of an advanced apprentice of the path of Body-Refining Adept. If taken into consideration, the snake's frightening rock armor and its fearless onslaught would probably make even those Pseudo-Adepts in the camp hesitant to face this monstrosity!

At the time when everybody still had their minds filled with troubled and distorted thoughts, a ground-shaking eruption flared up through the air. Mark, who had been transformed into a muscular giant, was thrown out of the dust cloud and flew away like a cannon ball, slamming into the ground with tremendous force.

The crowd was shocked by this and hurriedly turned their eyes over to Mark. They instantly discovered countless frightening wounds covering the entirety of Mark's body.

Mark's left arm was broken and twisted into an unnatural angle while his right arm still looked to be in a good shape, barely able to hold on his axe. The battle axe forged from multiple special alloys had become out of shape while its body was full of deep scratches and bite marks.

Mark's body also had the same type of scratches on his axe.

When he tried to stand up on his feet while ferociously laughing, blood gushed out from the countless wounds he had, making his entire body bathe in blood. A terrifying cut from the bottom of his left eye to his right chin nearly ripped his face into two, of which the exposed flesh turned into a shade of earthly yellow color. A clear sign of being contaminated by Earth Elementium.

If Mark doesn't try to remove this Earth Elementium, a wound like this wouldn't completely heal even with his astounding self-recovery brought by his high Physique.

"Cough… good kid…" Mark stood still at the place where he landed and coughed up blood then said, "This fellow is really strong! If not because I made a mistake of having few of my helpful magical equipment exchanged for all of these rubbish, you wouldn't have been the one that had the advantage today… cough…"

The dust cloud dispersed, revealing the gigantic snake.

The crowd's eyes shrank.

The Rock Snake's condition wasn't any better than Mark's.

The gigantic snake with the size of a normal human house was now left with only one-third of its original size. Debris kept falling apart from its skull which had been crushed by Mark. The surface of the entire snake's body was covered fully with black burn marks resulting from the violent lightning strikes. Many rocks on its body had melted and dripped down like hot wax.

Right in the middle of the broken skull, behind the many layers of Adamantine Rocks, an egg-shaped summoning core could be vaguely seen.

Although the Rock Snake was pretty much in a very bad shape, that didn't hinder or cause any problem to its movement, offensive power, and defensive ability.

Some people blessed with keen perception even saw through the cracks of its body how huge amounts of Earth Elementium carried a lot of rocks and sand all around its interior restlessly fixing up all of the damages it sustained. Even the massive damage that was on the head of the snake could be seen closing up at an incredible pace.

It only took fifteen minutes for this Golem of the earth element to completely fix all of its injuries.

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Looking at the ferocious Mark who was able to remain standing, Greem secretly felt respect for the man but that doesn't mean he eased up his vigilance on Mark.

Clusters of earthly yellow smoke gathered at the severely broken parts of the Rock Snake. Using the Adamantine rocks it got from underground as materials, and the sticky Earth Elementium as the bonding agent, it only took a few seconds for the exposed summoning core to once again be concealed within.

After it completed its self-recovery, the frightening Rock Snake stood erect and coiled up its long tail made from rocks then thrusted itself to the enemy. The broken mouth opened up widely, revealing a pair of sharp fangs formed from pointy rocks, aiming right at Thunder Axe Mark who could barely stand straight.

The distance of under thirty meters took only a split-second of time.

But right before the Rock Snake's ferocious mouth and its sharp fangs reach its target, a taller, burlier and more terrifying human than Mark appeared in front of him.

He had the same human body, the same muscles and bones, but this tall man only briefly clenched his fist and lightly punched the snout of the Rock Snake who approached him with a tremendous force. The Rock Snake which had put up quite a fierce battle with Mark shattered instantly into tiny bits, sending fragments everywhere.

It seemed as if there was an invisible air barrier around this tall man as nothing of the flying debris was able to get close to his body. He was standing right there at the heart of the explosion of dirt and debris but he was still firm just like Mount Tai. He still even had the strength to slowly retract his outstretched right fist that he then pointed at the depths of the dirt storm, performing a grabbing gesture.

A light puffing sound was heard, as the summoning core that dropped down between the slits on the ground was transported by a powerful force and it fell right into the tall man's palm.

The tall man raised his right hand up, and carefully examined the eye-catching core through the light from the bright sunlight.

What was once a brownish crystal clear surface of the core was carved fully with countless micro runes and arrays with each magical rune emanating strong Earth Elementium and glimmered, forming a three-dimensional micro magical array in front of his eyes.

To be honest, he was able to clearly see every single rune there is that was carved with lines a few hundred times finer than threads of hair, and he could also roughly identify each individual magical runes. But when he pieced them all together, Hulk could only scratch his bald head as he couldn't understand how these runes were able to project and shape the incorporeal Earth Elementium into the powerful and ferocious Elementium Golem.

After he spent an ample amount of time but still failed to comprehend the essence of the magical knowledge behind it, Hulk had no other choice but to secretly sigh for his own lack of talent concerning magical arrays. Meanwhile, Greem had led his Demon Alligator in front of Hulk, staring right at him anxiously.

Appropriately tossing the summoning core back to Greem, Hulk wore an expression full of disdain as he said, "Look how panicked you are. Do you think I can break it just by staring at it? Alright, alright already! I'll consider you the victor of today's bout. I'll even help Mark admit his defeat! Now you go and redeem your war trophy."

Greem retrieved the summoning core in a flurry, and then immediately placed it in front of his eyes for a careful inspection. After it suffered violent impacts multiple times, Greem was worried the overpowering shockwave would damage the fragile magical arrays carved on the core.

Fortunately, after having it carefully examined by the Chip, this summoning core which was able to summon a ferocious Rock Snake from underneath the ground, was still intact. This had eased Greem's mind.

As for Hulk's unexpected interference, Greem did not dare sound any dissent.

Although the chief of the training camp could easily stop the battle effortlessly, he deliberately used such a violent and savage method to destroy the rocky body of the Rock Snake. This was obviously Hulk's way of giving a warning towards Greem.

It looks like he had performed too well today, forcing the chief to use that kind of method to warn Greem not to overdo things. It was the 'gentlest' method of cowing Greem into submission.

Nonetheless, the strength of a Pseudo-Adept that Hulk showed truly shocked Greem. The pure power of his muscles and the mastery of such strength, Greem could totally sense something different between Hulk and the other apprentices.

People had always said Pseudo-Adepts were the ones closest to Adepts, could this peculiarity be the origin of an Adept's qualitative change from an apprentice Adept?

Greem silently lowered his head and diligently remembered what he had comprehended into his heart so that he could take his time in analyzing it in the future.

"It seems all of us here had really underestimated you!" Hulk said as he supported the wobbling Mark from the side. He continued, "Looks like you are quite reliant on Golems for most of your battle power. Indeed, this will allow you to gain a huge boost of your overall power. Alright, follow me. A talented man like you is needed in this camp. Let me see if I can find a suitable position for you!"

After he finished saying that, Hulk carried Mark and turned, running towards a large wooden cabin that was quite far. Smiling wryly, Greem touched his nose and followed closely behind Hulk.

Absolute silence was widespread among the onlookers that were on the side of the field, each and every one of them wore complicated expressions. It was clear that none of them was able to accept that kind of a surprising result. There were even a few advanced apprentices donning long faces, showing miserable looks that was as if their parents just passed away.

When Hulk passed through the crowed, he suddenly stopped and turned to Dark Wood who also had a complicated expression.

"Hey dead man, why did you bet on Greem?" he asked loudly.

Dark Wood pulled down his hood and covered his skeleton-like face. A trembling voice came out from within his shadowed face.

"If Mark won, wouldn't that mean I'm useless? Isn't this outcome better? Now, who would dare to say I was defeated because I'm useless?"

Hulk's mouth hung open for a while which seemed as if he had something to say but failed to think of any.

Damn it, although this guy's answer was rather disparaging, it was still an honest answer. It made the chief of this training camp unable to find a suitable reason to vent his anger on this person.

"How about you? Why did you bet on him?" Hulk turned to Kevin and asked.

"This kid told me he was confident in this fight and since I'm really poor, I thought why not try my luck!" Kevin's nswer was also straightforward and honest.

"Ahhh…" Hulk was at a loss for words and finally gave up on his intention of venting his anger on someone. "You two lucky guys, why didn't anyone tell me about this earlier? Hmph. Go and get your rewards now. Hey kid, you follow me, I'll be treating you to a meal…"

Hulk really meant what he said.

Different from what was common formalities where the host would welcome his guests and talk for a bit, a few burly men immediately came in while carrying heavy food boxes in their hands right after Hulk brought his guests in and made them sit comfortably in front of a long wooden table.

An exquisitely made silver tray was placed in front of Greem. It had some simple but elegant decorations and the words carved on it looked quite mysterious as well. But Greem wasn't interested in them at all. Instead, he kept staring blankly at the thick roasted meat that was on top of the tray.

It was a very huge piece of roasted meat weighing at least two kilograms. There were still traces of blood and smoke that could be seen from them. A large glass was placed right beside the tray, the contents of it was some crimson, sticky liquid. Greem tried to sniff it and a pungent smell of blood invaded his nostrils.

"Eat up!" Hulk said with a sinister and hideous smile, "I rarely treat someone to a meal, don't tell me you're not going to be giving me face!"

The severely wounded Mark was supposed to find a quiet place to treat his serious injuries, but strangely enough, he, too, had struggled for the long table. The bloody meat ribs that was placed in front of him weighed nearly ten kilograms, and the wine glass that came together with the meal was replaced by a large copper basin.

Greem then turned his head towards the host of this meal, Hulk. Right in front of Hulk was a large piece of medium rare animal rib and judging from its condition where it still had some blood, it seemed to be quite fresh as if it was just newly sliced from the body of some large wild beasts.

Meanwhile, inside his mind, the Chip gave enlightened him from his silent inquiry.

Underground Fire Dragon!

This was the rib coming from an Underground Fire Dragon!

The Underground Fire Dragon was a type of dragon who lived in the lava region deep within the ground. It possessed a little bit of the bloodline of dragons but didn't possess frightening abilities like those mega dragons. They also loved to eat sulfur and the Dragon Fruit, therefore they were also a kind of Fire Element demon beast.

While Greem was still hesitating, Mark had already started to indulge in his huge meal. He had tossed away the huge silver cutlery and used his bare hands to tear apart the rib, gobbled it while ignoring its raw taste.

Hulk shouldn't use this to harm him!

After he ordered the Chip to give the rib a thorough scan and found that there was no problem, Greem finally took the cutlery and tried to cut through his meal. He wasn't really paying any attention to these utensils but when he grabbed the knife, he realized that this seemingly insignificant silver knife was unexpectedly a magical item. It held two magic effects of Penetration and Sharpen. The silver fork he was holding on his other hand also had the magic effect of Pierce and Strengthen.

Fuck, these were only cutlery used for cutting through the rib but the magic effects they had were so much better than those defensive magical items owned by most of the intermediate apprentices. Greem couldn't help but marvel at the gap between different ranks of apprentices.

Greem sighed and cut out a small piece of meat after considerable effort. He picked it up with the silver fork and placed it in his mouth.

To be honest, for the very first time he tasted the meat, Greem nearly spat it all out. It tasted raw and bitter but Greem still tried his best and gave it a good chew until he felt his jaw become sore and reluctantly swallowed it into his stomach. When the meat had reached the inside of his stomach, a warm sensation then swiftly surged from his lower abdomen, causing his body to have a reaction towards this burning sensation.

It was as if Greem's body suddenly entered into a state of extreme hunger, a strong desire to consume food resonated from his entire body and mind, challenging his will.

"What's happening to me? Chip, activate dynamic body scan!"

"Beep. Dynamic body scanning initiated… traces of Fire Element energy detected… host's body is absorbing them in a high speed…"

Accordingly, a dynamic body attribute sheet was projected in Greem's eyes. Both his Physique and Spirit started to increase slowly. Although the gain was only three to four digits after the decimal point, at least it was still gradually increasing.

Greem's eyes flickered.

Tonic food?

Could this be the tonic food of this world?!

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The meat of Underground Fire Dragon tasted bitter and tough.

Although the thing placed in front of Greem was technically considered cooked meat, he was still having a hard time ripping, chewing and swallowing it. He glanced towards the other two men who were happily gobbling up their own meal. Greem couldn't help but wonder whether these two had enhanced their teeth with a Piercing and Tearing spell. Without it, how could they actually manage to chew this meat, which was tougher than cow leather?

Greem was eating very slowly, but resolutely.

After switching part of his attention to his increasing Physique and Spirit, he became even more determined to finish this piece of meat. However, it seemed that he was the only one who could have done this. After all, not everybody was able to detect such tiny changes to their attributes.

The second piece of meat was served right after he finished the first one. The total size of both pieces was at least three times bigger than his stomach. But he still swallowed them down through clenched teeth. At the end, he had even given up trying to taste the meat. He had to rely on his strong will to force them into his mouth and desperately swallow them into his stomach.

As every single piece of shredded meat and every single chunk of meat cube fell into Greem's stomach, he found that they were all gradually, yet constantly, emanating an Elementium aura that brought Greem joy. It was the taste of Fire Elementium!

Normally, if Greem wanted to increase his Spirit, he would have had to rely on his daily four hours of meditation to slowly absorb the Fire elementium freely swimming in his Spiritual domain. Usually, this process would increase the maximum level of his Spirit. It was as if his Spirit was a small pond, and his daily rest would refill the pond to its maximum level while meditating would help him expand the pond's boundary.

Greem had previously thought that the only way one could expand the upper limit of their Spirit was through some specially concocted Spirit Potions. However, today's 'delicacy' had made him think differently. He now knew that, apart from meditation and Spirit Potions, there was another method which could slowly improve the quality of an Apprentice Adept's constitution.

Although consuming a large amount of these potions could quickly increase the upper limit of one's Spirit, the increase would usually result in some side effects. This method would bring harm to the normal functions of other body attributes. However, the 'delicacy' that he had just eaten came with no side effects. It would increase his Spirit slowly and would show the same results as meditation.

Greem had been told before that the Mind Concentrating Potion, like the one he had just bought, would increase one's Spirit at the expense of one's Physique. Therefore, this potion had to be taken in moderation or else Greem would become like Dark Wood and turn into a living skeleton.

While pondering about how he could combine the delicacy and the Mind Concentrating Potion to yield the best result, a cube of meat suddenly got stuck in Greem's throat. He couldn't swallow it or cough it out, so he just picked up a glass of crimson liquid and gulped it down.

As if a flame had entered his mouth and was flowing into his stomach, Greem's face suddenly turned purple. It seemed as if blood was about to burst from his face.

This… this was the blood of Underground Fire Dragon!

Fire Elementium kept emanating from the meat of Underground Fire Dragon and was absorbed and merged into his hungry body. With great effort, Greem managed to swallow the last piece of meat. He finally couldn't hold up anymore and lay his face on the dining table. His Spiritual conscious had become totally muddled and paralyzed because of the huge amount of Fire Elementium. He found himself being unable to think clearly.

"Hehe, kid, this is the first truth I wanted to teach you." Before falling unconscious completely, Greem vaguely heard the loud voice of Hulk. "Only by knowing how to eat properly, can an Apprentice Adept, become a better fighter! Remember this!"

Green didn't remember a single thing that happened after that. The Fire Elementium exploded in his body like scorching lava melting its way to its destination. It was recklessly rushing through every single blood vessel and vein within his body. The overly-strong Fire Elementium had painted his skin fiery red and made his skin hot enough to burn one's finger when touched. He was like a human shaped furnace that was on full power.

Clearly, these Fire Elementium, that were full of strong bioactivity, were extremely suitable for human absorption. They were present in a huge amount and pounded through every single inch of his muscles, bones, tendons and blood. They continuously merging themselves into Greem's body, bathing his entire body in a grand feast of Fire Elementium.

Greem was drunk! He was drunk off Fire Elementium!When Greem finally woke up, seventeen hours had passed.

The time was accurate to the millisecond, as he had been informed by the Chip.

When Greem awoke, he found that he was lying on a warm, cozy blanket inside of a small single tent.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he felt like he was going to explode.

An unprecedented feeling of satisfaction from his bloodline flooded most of his conscious. Greem felt as if his entire body was trembling and moaning in enjoyment. He felt as if every single bone and muscle were cheering, eager to try out their new strength. His bloodline was fully satisfied for the first time ever. It kept urging him to fight and expel the steady flow of raging strength in his body.

"Chip, what has happened to me? Why am I feeling this way?" Greem had always been a calm man who valued reason before everything else, so he was not accustomed to this unusual impulse.

"Beep. Detected that the Host's body attributes have all reached the upper limit… also detected a large amount of unabsorbed bioactive Elementium within the Host's body… The abnormal feeling the Host is coming from the stimulation of these bioactive Elementium… It is suggested that the Host performs fire spell practice at once so that the accumulated bioactive Elementium can be absorbed…"

Damn, it was all because of the overly low endurance limit of his body. It seemed that he just couldn't bear the excessive nourishment he gained from the delicacy!

Greem instantly bolted up from the blanket. He lightly clenched his fist and immediately felt explosive strength start to gather around his shoulder. For a moment, it made think that he had switched his path to one of a Body Refining Adept.

He lifted the tent flap and exited from it. He realized that he was still in the training camp and had just been thrown in a tent on the west side. It was opposite from the wooden cabin in the east. With his sensitive senses, he could tell that some of these tents were empty, while others were occupied by men who were either meditating or sleeping soundly.

It was the morning of the next day. Many elites in the training camp were conscientiously practicing their magic spells at the edge of the large training field. As Greem watched at the skilful and free way they practiced their instantaneous casting, he couldn't help himself from starting to want to try out his spell too.

As a matter of fact, instantaneous casting was an ability for matured spell casters.

When an apprentice reached to a certain degree of mastery with a magic spell, they would try to compress or even skip a part of the incantation, while still keeping the continuity of spell casting. The final goal of this laborious training was to be able to cast the spell instantaneously.

Some powerful Adepts didn't even need to chant the dozens, or even hundreds, of words in a chant. Instead, a few short incantations were all they needed to say to instantaneously cast the spell.

However, compressing a long chant into a short one required the spell caster to spend hours upon hours of restless practice. In addition, a secret magical spell legacy was required.

That was why an Adept family was so important to an Apprentice Adept. Each Adept family would have their own magic spell legacy. Only an apprentice belonging to that Adept family would be able to enjoy the legacies and techniques that were handed down by generations of senior Adepts. This would result in making their path smoother and easier.

Or else, without the aid of such ancient knowledge, an apprentice would have to grope in the dark for everything he tried to achieve. With that, even an apprentice with extraordinary magical talent would still have to waste the precious time he had.

Take Greem as an example. Currently, if he recited one-third of a magic spell, the spell would enter into an irreversible molding process. If this process was interrupted or he stopped casting midway, he would have to withstand a certain degree of backlash. But, for those apprentices who had the legacy from their family, it was like they were cheating. They knew which part they had to stop, and they knew how to stop casting halfway while avoiding the backlash.

Just this alone wasn't something that Greem could learn by himself. He wouldn't be able to learn it even if he spent countless years practicing spell casting.

Therefore, this was the advantage of having legacies as their knowledge.

Those apprentices who had learned 'Free Cast' could practice their magic spells randomly, and when the spell had almost activated, they would dispel it. They would be able to improve their mastery of the magic spell by repeatedly practicing in this way.

After all, there was a limit to an Apprentice Adept's Spirit. Without using instantaneous casting or free casting, they would find their Spirit depleted after casting a dozen magical spells. After that, they could only sleep in order to restore their Spirit. But, by using instantaneous casting, they could practice a hundred or even a thousand times every single day.

Hence, the progress of an apprentice who had access to a legacy and Greem, who seemed like a feral child, was vastly different.

Right now Greem didn't have the time to feel envious or jealous of these apprentices. He brought himself to a corner of the training field and found a large rock as his target. He started to repeatedly cast the latest solidified spell he had: Flaming Spear.

In comparison to the quiet and calm free casting that was going on beside him, Greem's spell casting practice was like a wild bombardment. Following his loud and clear reciting, he kept firing one Flaming Spear after the other. Things that looked like burning spears kept appearing in his hand and, while making a hissing noise, flew into the large rock that stood a hundred meters away. It exploded and filled the air with loud booms.

The Flaming Spear's swift and violent physical damage, along with its powerful explosion, instantly flooded the large rock target in a fierce and raging sea of flame. The ear-piercing noise of explosion never stopped even for one second.

If the situation was normal, Greem's pathetic nine Spirit points would have been depleted after four Flaming Spears. But for some unknown reason, the violent and raging Fire element energy kept emerging from his body. It was so strong that he even felt like his Spirit was going to explode.

Therefore, Greem had no choice but to keep firing Flaming Spears in order to release the tremendous pressure he felt on his Spirit. This resulted in the entire training camp being shocked by him!

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Countless napping apprentices roared furiously as they jumped out of their tents, dark shadows under their eyes indicating their need for sleep, cursing their inconsiderate peer in loud voices. But when they saw the young man in front of a large rock target, they had no choice but to halt their actions and angrily return back to their tents.

Soon, countless magical glows sprung up on the top of the tents. The sleepless apprentices had no choice but to use magic spells to shield themselves from the disturbance outside in order to return to their sweet dreams.

After a full half hour, Greem was breathing heavily and his Spirit level was very low.

Through his delicate senses, he could feel a steady stream of Fire element energy from the depths of his bone and flesh resupplying him with Spirit. This process was much slower than before, and finally at a rate that he could endure.

"How is it? Do you feel better now?" A deep voice suddenly came from behind him.

Greem looked over his shoulder and found Kevin standing there.

"Do you know how many people in this training camp are jealous about the big feast you had yesterday?" His arms crossed, Kevin spoke with a smile on his face. "What you had yesterday was a grand feast of Underground Fire Dragon, which is something many people in this camp dream of having but never even have a chance of tasting. Being treated to a meal by Hulk is something that you should feel proud of, rather than return like a champion from the Underground World!"

"I suppose that the meat is really expensive?" Greem asked, while scratching his head.

"Expensive? Not really! In the market, you can buy 500 grams of fresh Underground Fire Dragon ribs with 100 magic crystals, and a glass of dragon blood only costs 200 magic crystals."

Though Kevin said in a rather relaxed manner, Greem felt like the man was actually talking through his tightly clenched jaw.

Greem was no longer the same young and inexperienced rookie. He could now clearly understand the true value of magic crystals.

For an apprentice like him, who had come here while carrying out the simple Underground World inspection mission, each trip to the Underground World would bring him a reward of five merit points and ten magic crystals. For an elite apprentice like Kevin, the reward for each mission was roughly ten merit points and 30 to 40 magic crystals.

Taking away the basic expenses of purchasing materials and necessities, an elite apprentice with savings of 200-300 magic crystals was considered a rich man. Otherwise, after yesterday's bet, why had there been so many elite apprentices clenching their teeth tightly and wishing they could devour him alive?

To be plain honest, after two bets, Greem had taken nearly all of the savings of every single elite apprentice in this training camp. If Hulk had not given out his order, perhaps right as Greem stepped out from this training camp, he would be greeted by countless apprentices waiting to knock him out and rob him!

Even though he had won himself a huge sum of 'ill-gotten gains', when Greem heard the actual price of Underground Fire Dragon, he still couldn't control himself and his face twitching violently.

After holding back for quite some time, Greem finally couldn't contain himself and let out a raging roar into the sky.

"If I had known that thing was so expensive, I would've… I would've.. definitely…"

"Definitely not touched it at all?"

"I would've definitely eaten more of them!"After making fun for a bit, when both men looked at each other again, they actually felt closer.

In fact, since the first day they had met, Greem had been in secret awe of these elite apprentices who had gone through life and death training. Though he had defeated two rather famous Advanced Apprentices, they were actually fighting publicly in an open field. If there hadn't been a limitation because of the fighting ground or a restriction to the magic approach they could use, Greem, who was just a beginner apprentice, was still too weak.

He was strong because of his Golems; he himself was just too weak.

If he and Dark Wood had been in a thickly forested mountain, Dark Wood, who was an expert on curse spells, would have thousands of ways to drive Greem crazy. And if his opponent had been Kevin, Greem would have definitely died instantly.

There was no way he could have hidden under the ground all day, trying to avoid the enemy's attack. No matter what, he needed to come back to the surface to eat, drink, and sleep. When he relaxed his vigilance, the enemy would stealthily kill him.

Therefore, though his fighting ability had gained acceptance from most people, Greem knew himself. Maybe he really could pose a threat to most of the people in this training camp, but it would not be fatal, and that's why the members of this training camp could accept him rather leniently.

If Greem had really been deceived by the glory of his own victories and tried to interact with these people arrogantly, all he would end up with is endless hostility and hatred.

For this very reason, when Kevin expressed his kindness, Greem immediately repaid that with ten times the enthusiasm.

Though Kevin was much older than Greem, he was only about twenty-seven, and was still a young man. Hence, they weren't too different from each other.

After talking for some time, Kevin pulled out an old sack and gave it to Greem.

"This is your portion after yesterday's victory. It's inconvenient to carry so many magic crystals, so I exchanged most of them into a magic crystal card. It can be used in exchange of magic crystals in all Adept stations belonging to the Zhentarim Association. This is much better than carrying a few thousand magic crystals and swaggering through the streets!"

Greem was pleasantly delighted and expressed his gratitude fervently.

"It is just a small matter, there is nothing to thank me for. In fact, I should be the one to say thanks to you! If not for you, yesterday I wouldn't have been able to earn a small fortune. Haha, you didn't see how jealous those guys were; it was such an enjoyable moment!"

Greem rubbed his palms, but didn't know how to continue this conversion. Although it was nice to be friends with Kevin, it seemed that Greem had offended many more guys in this camp!

"Don't worry, Hulk's given his order. From now on, you'll be part of my team. But maybe you didn't know that, since when Hulk mentioned this, you had passed out and were being carried away from the wooden cabin." Kevin couldn't help but let out a loud laugh. Though he was teasing Greem, Greem could still hear an undertone of envy from Kevin's words.

"Brother Kevin, can you explain the responsibility and power of a camp apprentice?"

"Haha, no problem! Come, let me bring you back to Adept Tower. I'll tell you the actual situation of this training camp on our way back!"

When Greem took his huge fortune and safely returned to his residence at Adept Tower, he finally had a better understanding of what a training camp was.

The training camp, just as its name implied, was a training camp used to train elite apprentices. But, it was also a collaboration used to maintain the interest of the small size Adept families.

After all, though it was called the Underground Cave, along with the dark and deep Underground World, it also covered the Kerala mountain range and a vast forest full of resources that spanned thirty thousand miles of land. It was also one of the richest regions throughout the entire Dagon region.

Also, the Second Grade Adept who had been sent here by the Zhentarim Association had lived in seclusion inside of the Adept Tower and rarely showed himself in public. As long as it wasn't a major incident, like the Fallen Adepts that had attacked them on the surface, he never really interfered in anything regarding the Underground Cave and only focused his attention on his own magical experiments.

Occasionally, he would secretly venture into the Underground World, but it was mostly to harvest the knowledge and resources required by his experiment. He rarely got involved in the battle between Adepts from the surface and the Fallen Adepts.

Truly, all seventeen of the First Grade Adepts who ran the Adept Tower of the Underground Cave were the decision makers in every single affair. And behind each of them was an Adept family who was significant in the Dagon region.

Of course, the overall strength of these Adept families was insignificant in the eyes of the Zhentarim Association, as they were only considered small Adept families. But in the Dagon region, they were the local villains who controlled everything. Ordinary human nobles and merchants could only seek the protection from the Adept families; only then could they make their living, bringing in endless profit from the Kerala mountain range.

Herbs, woods, special plants, leather, the cores of demon beasts, mysterious demons… no matter what kind of material or resource, you could always find it here. Countless hunter groups, exploration teams that ventured between the steep mountains within the Kerala mountain range, brought a steady supply of precious resources out and gave the lion's share to the investor who had supported them.

But these were low-grade resources. The real items that made the Adept families so filthily rich were the magical materials that came from the Underground World. Dark Grass, Phantom Mushroom, Nine-Eyes Stone – these items that could tempt even official Adepts were the main reason why the Adept families could last for hundred or even thousands of years without decaying.

No ordinary human had the ability to venture into the depths of the Underground World and harvest these resources. Only the mysterious existences who possessed all kind of special approaches, Apprentice Adepts, had the ability to venture into the territory of underground creatures and bring back the rare and precious resources from specific regions.

All seventeen stationed Adepts represented the seventeen top Adept families in the Dagon region. As long as they still existed, no outsider could interfere in the interests of these Adept families. As official Adepts, of course, they didn't get themselves involved in such laborious yet time-consuming task. The junior apprentices from each family acted for them in order to complete this harvesting mission.

In doing so, not only could they ensure the continuity of their family's interest, they could also train the best juniors of their family. Eventually, the training camp was born.

If all of the seventeen stationed Adepts were the representatives of their respective Adept family, then all of the elite apprentices in this training camp were the hatchet men for their respective Adept family. Once something that would hurt the interests of their family happened, they would be the executioners who stood out to protect the interests and the face of their own family.

Of course, if the exploration team who was sent out or invested in by a family discovered a rare demon beast or devil that they failed to capture, the apprentices stationed in the training camp would contribute their strength and provide the exploration team with the powerful support of magic spells.

However, the most important activity for the elite apprentices still lay in the Underground Cave.

Because that place was the lifeline for the Adept families, a resource they would never give up.

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Since the existence of the Underground Cave was very important for all of the Adept families in the Dagon region, foreign elite apprentices such as Greem became their favorite target for recruitment.

First, having some foreign recruits wouldn't cause too much of an impact on their current interests. Without the support of an Adept family, the Apprentice Adepts wouldn't have the guts to offend the official Adepts openly. So, the recruited elite apprentices could become their most capable hatchet men, but were unable to become one of their competitors.

Second, the Underground World wasn't a peaceful place. The rare resources sought after by Adepts from the surface were also the target for the black bastards of the underground. Therefore, the start of every single underground expedition trip and harvesting trip was also the beginning of a chaotic battle between the two parties.

Due to extensive exploration and development, all of the rare resources produced in the Underground World had been excavated and their locations marked down as resource sites. What time these resources were matured and what time they needed to be harvested, these things both parties knew very well. Therefore, whenever it was time to harvest, a deadly slaughter would occur in the surroundings of these resource sites.

Neither party would send out their official Adepts in this chaotic battle, but restricted the battle to the level of Apprentice Adepts. Only the winner of the battle had the right to enter the resource site and harvest the resources. As for the loser, either they escaped with wounds or they would have been killed in the battle.

Like this, a bloody slaughter had been ongoing for more than three hundred years in the Underground Cave, and it had become an unwritten edict in this place. Using their strongest apprentices as their token, both parties would fight for the fixed resources every month. The winner took it all, while the loser got killed miserably. It was an arena where all Pseudo-Adepts could put on a good show.

Now, because of the uniqueness of Greem's ability, he was chosen by the training camp under the lead of Hulk, and was fortunate enough to become a member together with the other elite apprentices. With this, he became busier, as apart from carrying out the apprentice mission organized by the Zhentarim Association every fifteen days, he also needed to join the underground patrol of the training camp intermittently.

With this, Greem's speed of obtaining merit point was definitely faster than all other ordinary apprentices.

After gaining a basic understanding of the situation at the training camp, Greem left Kevin and returned to his residence.

Having entered his room and properly locked the door, Greem made sure his surrounding was safe. Then he started to take out all of the magical and wondrous items from his body.

Circlet of Nobility, Thorn Armor Bracelet, Hasten Boot, Screaming Branch, Gnome Goggle…

When he was sure there weren't any magic spells still affecting his body, he inwardly gave out an order.

"Chip, run a scan on the current situation of my body…"

"Beep. Mission accepted. Commencing scanning of Host's body…"

After the slow yet meticulous spirit frequency spread across his body, Greem's latest stats were projected into his eyes.

As he stared at the statistics, a smile emerged from Greem's face.

Compared to his previously frail body, all of Greem's attributes were now on a new level. Physique was the attribute with the most outstanding improvement, as it had jumped up by two points. After all, just one month ago, Greem had only had three points in his Physique. Compared to the other Apprentice Adepts, he was too frail to stand even a gust of wind.

Though the other three attributes hadn't increased by a big margin, they all had a significant improvement, and were no longer in the stagnant state like the past.

After he browsed through his own attributes, Greem sat comfortably in the chair. He casually pulled out a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion from his storage waistband, held it in front of his eyes, and examined it silently.

The light blue potion was wobbling within the tiny bottle and some tiny blue pellets could be vaguely seen swimming within the liquid. But as their aura was isolated within the bottle, it was very difficult for the Chip to get an accurate analysis of the ingredients contained in this potion.

Greem gently pulled out the cork and a unique smell of the sea instantly came to his nose. Without hesitation, Greem threw his head back and gulped down the potion in one go.

Just as the potion entered his mouth, a light blue mist suddenly sprayed out from his nostril and formed into a thumb-size piteous mermaid in front of his eyes. The tiny mermaid quickly withered and aged in the air, and when its incorporeal body had nearly vanished, a sharp and miserable shriek suddenly resounded throughout the entire room.

The shriek didn't last long, and the image of mermaid quickly vanished, followed by the dissolving of the blue mist. But the mermaid's sharp cry had penetrated Greem's mind with a grieving and pathos curse.

"Chip, what just happened?"

"Beep. Detecting the existence of 'Flesh Curse'… Preliminary estimation shows it is the potion's negative side effect. By dispelling it, the effectiveness of the potion will be lower… Does Host want to use Spirit and dispel this Flesh Curse?"

Greem sighed inwardly.

Before, he had heard that the Mind Concentrating Potion had a strong negative side effect; looked like the rumor was real. In order to increase his Spirit, he had no choice but to endure the ravages of this Flesh Curse.

"Negative. Just keep the dynamic scanning going!"

"Command accepted. The effect of the potion is starting…"

On the attribute sheet projected in front of Greem's eyes, the number representing his Spirit slowly started to rise. At the same time, his Physique also started to drop.

8.43…… 8.44…… 8.47…… 8.53…… 8.62……

4.98…… 4.97…… 4.95…… 4.92……

Fortunately, yesterday's grand feast of Underground Fire Dragon meat had brought Greem plenty of vitality, which minimized much of the pain on his internal organs, though it still felt like being bitten by thousands of ants at the same time. Otherwise, even he himself couldn't be sure if he would able to endure this painful process till the end.

While enduring the heartbreaking pain coming from all over his body, he was only happy because of the ever increasing Spirit.

8.98…… 9.03…… 9.08……

Even in pain, Greem smiled as he witnessed his Spirit finally stepping over eight and successfully becoming nine.

Finally, when his Spirit stopped at 9.27 and didn't move again, Greem let out a muffled groan and gave out a command, "Chip, dispel the Flesh Curse!"

"Command accepted! Releasing Fire Elementium…"

A warm burst of energy started to flow through his entire body and the aching and tingling sensation gradually subsided before disappearing completely. Greem was more focused on the attributes that had changed:

Ugh… this bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion had brought an increase of 0.85 to Greem's Spirit. At the same time, his Physique had dropped by 0.77 and even his Strength had dropped by 0.05.

Greem stood up and exercised his body. Though the feeling of emptiness brought by the reduction of his Physique was still there, it wasn't as strong as he had expected. It seemed like the grand feast he had yesterday brought him some hidden benefits! Meanwhile, the increase of his Spirit brought Greem an improvement of his overall ability. Both the speed of his thought or the profoundness of his spirit senses had significant improvement.

Tempted by the result, Greem hesitated for half a second before he took out another bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion, pulled out the cork, and gulped it down.

Greem strenuously endured the huge negative effects of the potion: the same pain, the same Flesh Curse, the same anticipation. The only focus of his attention was the Spirit, which was constantly increasing.

9.29…… 9.33…… 9.46…… 9.52……Suddenly, the trifling tones of the Chip chimed out, "Warning, Host's muscle damage has exceeded 17%."

"Muscle damage has exceeded 19%."

"Muscle damage has exceeded 21%."

"Beep… warning! Muscle damage has exceeded 21%. Non-interference will result in Host entering a temporary state of decay. Does Host want to interfere?"

Greem lightly clenched his jaw and replied with a deep voice. "Negative!"

The original aching and tingling sensation had turned into a severe pain, like his heart were being sliced through, and beads of sweat started to roll down his forehead. On the chair, Greem twisted and struggled through the pain, relying on his strong will so that he wouldn't pass out. If he passed out, he would lose control and the Flesh Curse would wreak havoc on his body before it dissolved itself. No doubt, that would bring even more damage to his Physique!

So, even if it only spared him losing 0.01 Physique, Greem still tenaciously kept himself awake.

9.87……

"Muscle damage has exceeded 22%."

9.93……

"Muscle damage has exceeded 23%."

9.99……

"Muscle damage has exceeded 24%."

10.03……

"Muscle damage has exceeded 25%."

Sensing that his Spirit had stopped moving, Greem finally shouted, "Dispel!"

As the warm burst of energy once again flowed through his body, the severe pain subsided entirely.

Greem placed both hands on the armrest of the chair and tried to push himself up, but he failed twice in a row. The severe pain numbed his body and stopped it from responding to his control.

Just at that moment, the latest attributes refreshed in front of his eyes.

It finally broke through ten!

As of now, Greem was honored to be an Intermediate Apprentice.

From a Beginner Apprentice, who only had eight Spirit, to an Intermediate Apprentice of ten Spirit, it had only taken Greem one and a half months, but he had spent six whole years in the past just to increase from six to eight Spirit. This was clear evidence of the huge difference between someone with sufficient resources and someone without.

But in order to achieve what he had now, Greem had paid a huge price with his body.

His Spirit had increased from 9.27 to 10.03, a small change from single digit to two digits, but his Physique had shrunk back to 3.17 from 4.21, a jaw-dropping reduction. Along with that was a 0.01 reduction in his Strength and a reduction of 0.08 in his Agility.

The damage caused by the Mind Concentrating Potion increased progressively!

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To be honest, Greem was acting rather impulsive by consuming the Mind Concentrating Potion!

According to the process he had understood earlier, a time interval of at least three to four days was required between each intake of the potion. This was so that he could avoid the cumulation of damage. But, because he thought that he was a young, strong and growing man, he decided to take the second potion right after the first. After all, he didn't have the patience to wait.

The consequence brought about by his reckless decision was obvious.

After the first potion, his Physique was only reduced by 0.85, but the second potion had brought it down by another 1.05. If Greem had taken the third potion, perhaps his Physique would've taken a nose dive of nearly two points.

After all, the parameters calculated by the Chip were just the digitized representation of his body's attributes. All four major body attributes weren't isolated but supported and influenced each other. For example, Spirit and Agility influenced the hitting accuracy of long range attack and the frequency of attacks. Spirit and Strength together influenced reflex and explosive force. Meanwhile, Physique was the foundation for all attributes. It worked with other attributes and influenced a person's amount of health, their physical and elemental resistance, evasion, and many other aspects.

When Greem's Physique dropped from 4.98 to 3.17, the reduction of two points not only lowered his health points, but also caused a decay to his entire life system.

At this moment, Greem felt as if his entire body was empty.

The feeling of emptiness and hunger brought by the quick decay of his Physique kept bugging him. It was a really uncomfortable feeling and made all his internal organs feel like they were being burnt by fire.

As he was left with no other option, and temporary had no strength to stand up, Greem reached his hand to a small copper bell on his table and rung it.

Following that, a unique soundless wave rippled through the air, and a wooden, human-like face suddenly protruded from the empty surface of the table.

"Mister Greem, may I know what special service you need?" Surprisingly, the wooden face spoke.

"Food! I need food right now! Now, immediately, right away!"

"May I know what grade of food you need? We offer an ordinary set meal of nobility. The degree of luxury is guaranteed to be the ultimate enjoyment among human noble. Each set only costs one magic crystal. We also provide a magical energy set meal. All the ingredients are taken from intermediate to advanced level demon beasts found in the depth of Kerala mountain range. Each set only cost five magic crystals."

"Magical energy set meal. I want it right now!"

"Understood! Your order has been accepted, please place the meal fee inside of my mouth!" Following what it said, the protruding face opened up its mouth.

Greem took out five magic crystals from his waist pouch and placed them into the mouth of the human face. It was originally a solid wood carving, but now it had turned into a crack that led to a secret place. It quickly swallowed the magic crystals.

After the wooden human face swallowed the magic crystals, it suddenly expanded and transformed into a square wooden box. When the wooden box finally exploded into countless wooden fibers and retracted back into the table, a steaming hot rib placed on top of a silver tray was revealed in front of Greem.

A set of exquisite cutlery lay next to the meal. The meal consisted of an appetizing fried rib, garnished with red, blue and white vegetables along with some tasty sauce. It was paired with a glass of fragrant grape wine.

As Greem wasn't a picky man, he didn't pay too much attention to his meals. However, he had to admit that for the Apprentice Adepts who had been immersed in a boring routine, a meticulously prepared meal like this was considered a huge mental compensation.

Wasting no time on table manners, Greem savagely exterminated the fried rib like a hungry ghost rushing for his food. When the entire rib finally rested in his stomach, the burning hunger had finally subsided.

"Chip, can you identify what this meat is?"

"Beep. The possibility of Iron Rhinoceros is 87%, Berserk Beast is 10%, Gray Pocket Beast is 2%…"

The Chip showed Greem a long list, but the possibility of the last seven to eight were so low that they could simply be ignored. Only the first few had the highest possibility.

Greem moistened his hungry lips, threw his head back and gulped down the grape wine.

He could clearly felt that the magical energy meal he had just now was far inferior to the Underground Fire Dragon meat he had yesterday. Also, the Iron Rhinoceros, who the meat had the highest possibility of coming from, should've just been an intermediate Earth element demon beast. The Elementium contained within the meat was totally unmatched with his elemental affinity. Although it could still bring him a huge amount of health points, it didn't provide any benefit to his Fire element innate ability.

It looked like if he wished to replenish both his health points and Fire element innate ability at the same time, he should choose meat from those Fire element demon beasts. The higher grade, the better.

Therefore, urged by his hunger, Greem once again rung the copper bell.

As expected, when Greem mentioned straight away that he wanted the Fire element demon beast as his meal, the wooden face immediately offered him a long list of delicacies.

Flaming Tiger – 15 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

Fire Lizard – 20 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

Inferno Hound – 25 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

Fire Swallowing Sparrow – 30 Magic Crystals per 500 gramsGreem quietly listening with his eyes closed. From time to time, he would ask for more information. Soon, he made up his mind and picked a delicacy that suited him the most: Fried Heart of Inferno Hound.

After paying 25 magic crystals, the wooden face quickly swallowed the dishes on the table and revealed another luxurious meal.

This time it was not a rib but a fresh heart that was still pumping lightly. It seemed there was a fire source concealed within the fist-size heart. It was still raw and fresh when it appeared, but following an explosion of the fire source, a scorching hot flame soared up to the roof before disappearing in an instant.

When the enshrouding heat finally vanished into the air, a fresh and fragrant fried heart of Inferno Hound was revealed in front of Greem.

Greem first used the table knife and poked a small hole on the surface of the heart, then suck all the warm blood inside of it in one go. When the warm and appetizing liquid flowed through down his throat and reached his stomach, a raging and explosive sensation made Greem so happy that he couldn't help but close his eyes in enjoyment.

Soon after wolfing down everything in his mouth, Greem sliced the heart of Flaming Hound into small equal sizes and tucked in one after another. Whenever a piece of heart exploded in his stomach and began to emanate a raging Fire element energy, Greem had the impulse to moan because of the pleasure feeling.

The raging Fire element energy kept flushing throughout his entire body. Although it made him drenched in sweat, it was an extremely refreshing.

After he finished two sets of Flaming Hound meals continuously, he finally managed to replenish part of his Physique, which had been reduced a lot. In addition, there was a slight increase to his Spirit.

Strength – 4.04, Agility – 4.30, Physique – 3.34, Spirit – 10.07

After the wooden face cleared up the leftover dishes on the table, Greem placed both palms on his big belly. He struggled his way to his bed, before starting his daily meditation routine.

After experienced a targeted food tonic, today's deep meditation had brought Greem's Spirit the unprecedented increase of 0.11, which was an additional 0.03 comparing to the normal 0.08 increase. Judging from this alone, if he was able to increase the density of Fire element energy in his body or his surroundings, it would also increase the efficiency of his meditation.

Greem ordered the Chip to record this finding, so he could use his free time to research for the best meditation formula. After finishing with all these, Greem breathed out a long sigh of satisfaction and sunk into a deep slumber.It was a good sleep!

After a long hour of sleep, when Greem finally woke up from his sweet dream, he found that his entire body was filled with a powerful yet inexhaustible strength.

Of course, this was only a sensation of fullness after his Strength had reached the maximum level. After all, he only had 3.34 of Physique and 4.04 of Strength. For a Beginner Apprentice, numbers like this weren't considered a shame, but if it was an Intermediate Apprentice, it was considered rather 'frail'.

Even though an Intermediate Apprentice didn't take the path of Body Refining, he should also make his Strength, Agility and Physique reach the minimum level of five. It was only a body quality like this that wouldn't hinder their Spirit, placing themselves in an unbalanced course of development. Of course, those like Evil Bugs and Dark Wood were extreme examples and couldn't be judged by this standard.

For people like them, their bodies could no longer be judged by normal standards, as they had transformed into completely different body constitutions. The bug's body of Evil Bugs clearly showed the miraculous signs of vitality and damage sharing, and he could be considered an undefeated cockroach.

Meanwhile, although Dark Wood's Physique was extremely low, he obviously possessed some unspeakable special abilities. At least, Greem's Demon Alligator had attacked him multiple times with Paralyze Gaze during their battle, but it seemed like he wasn't affected at all. Clearly, his strange body constitution had an immunity toward such spell.

Greem briefly exercised his body. Right when he decided to pay a visit to the library in this place, someone came knocking on his door.

It was Mary.

When Mary strode into his room with rather charming steps, her eyes were instantly filled with unconcealed puzzlement.

"You… your Spirit has reached ten?"

The strange feeling coming from Greem's body made Mary think that there was something wrong with her senses, as it was obvious that the spiritual ripple could only be owned by an Intermediate Apprentice.

"Yes, I just made a breakthrough yesterday. Oh, right. I suppose you're here for the war trophies? Let me tell you some good news, I successfully sold all those war trophies, and I got us these treasures!" While saying that, Greem took out a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion from his waist pouch.

Mary took over the potion and gave it a closer look. An expression of sudden comprehension emerged on her face. She then gave it back to Greem.

"You can keep this yourself! A low-grade potion like this has no effect for me, but it can still provide some benefits to you. Remember, don't consume them continuously, and don't forget to recuperate after having it. Or else, the condition of your body will become really bad!"

Greem was startled.

Although he did expect that Mary wouldn't care too much about this potion, but her indifferent attitude of giving it back still surprised him. After all, a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion was five merit points and five magic crystals in this Adept Tower. Anyone who went to the Underground World at least once would understand how valuable a merit point was.

Therefore, Greem was left speechless.

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Unlike the eternal darkness, the Underground Cave was never a calm place.

Because most of the regions had only been vaguely surveyed, even the native underground species who had occupied this domain for a long history, didn't own a completely reliable map.

The underground tunnels could stretch for miles; sometimes they expanded into massive caverns more than a thousand meters wide and sometimes they narrowed so even the Cave Dweller couldn't squeeze through. The biggest cavern was like a miniature surface world: there were hills, valleys, an underground river, and lakes. In this three-dimensional environment, most of the species could utilize the cavern ceiling and walls, using their innate ability or a magic spell to fly, hover, or even ride on some of the creatures who could walk on walls (like the giant spiders or some kinds of lizards) and travel freely in this domain.

As the only city built in the Underground World by the exiled Adepts, the location of Elysium City was top secret. The rock stratum, rich in metal, could easily isolate any ill-intentioned probes from the outside world, and, together with the dark and deep caves scattered across the entire Underground World, the creatures of darkness hiding in the tunnels, Golems, and underground natives, made it so no outsider could distinguish the single passage that led to Elysium City from countless winding tunnels in the darkness without being led by an Elysium City resident.

Some said the mighty Second Grade Fallen Adept of Elysium City had set up a massive formation of illusion outside of the city, and it was able to wipe out every single trace of Elysium City's existence. With that, even if an enemy really did find his way to the area, he still wouldn't be able to identify the exact location of the city, even if he left no stone unturned.

Elysium City, Catsear Tavern.

When the huge firestone hanging high up on the cavern ceiling started to go off, the tide of darkness flowed on.

For the Fallen Adepts who lived in the dark Underground World, there wasn't a clear difference between day and night. Without using something to reference the time, their life would become muddled and it would become tough to arrange everything in a regular manner. Thus, having inherited some habits from the surface, the Fallen Adepts with powerful abilities and a bagful of amazing tricks mined a huge number of firestones from the underground and used a magical array to make them light up according to the time on the surface world.

Thus, Elysium City finally attracted a large group of Apprentice Adepts who had been driven into a corner and made them the city's first batch of loyal residents.

When the night screen was down, the streets and alleyways of Elysium City lit up with torches and bonfires and a dimmed oil lamp hung on the door of Catsear Tavern.

Pushing the dilapidated and dirty door open, a long-faced Langdon came through the door. Having entered, the noisy and lively atmosphere immediately brought a frown to his face.

It was only seven in the evening, but the tavern was fully packed with drunkards of all species. Basically, all of the famous underground species had representatives here. Of course, this didn't include the lower class species.

Inferior species like Hooked Horrors and Petrified Lizards would definitely not have the status of an Elysium City resident. Instead, there were mostly demi-human or intelligent species, who looked human. For example, Lizardmen, Gnolls, Dwarves, and Ratmen.

As he stared at a group of large-size rats walking upright in front of him, looking at their ugly hairy faces, Langdon's mind filled with disgust. He was a genuine human being, after all.

Of course, an ordinary human wouldn't be able to survive in Elysium City, which was dominated by demons and monsters, but Langdon had no fear at all. He even ferociously kicked away a Ratman who got in his way. He could do this because he was an Apprentice Adept, a Pseudo-Adept.

In Elysium City, aside from the Master Adepts who rarely showed themselves in public, a Pseudo Fallen Adept like him was considered a supreme existence. Wherever he went, countless underground natives would give way to him in a rather flattering manner.

His light blue apprentice robe was decorated with countless mysterious and undecipherable golden runes that blinked sometimes as he moved, giving him a magical and mysterious air. Combined with a handsome appearance and his cultural and elegant bearing, Langdon looked like a noble. But too bad, the once elegant face looked extremely gloomy right now.

After he kicked away the Ratman who got in his way, and totally ignoring the squeaking protest, Langdon strode to the counter, forcefully slapped the counter-top, and let out a raging roar.

"Give me a bottle of Flaming Wine!"

The noisy and lively tavern suddenly became dead silent.

Old John, who was leisurely cleaning wine glasses on the other side of the counter, rolled his eyes, murmured, and pulled out a bottle of wine from under the counter and slid it over the smooth counter top.

Once the bottle was uncorked, the strong, spicy smell of wine immediately filled the air inside the packed tavern. Countless hairy faces poked their nose into the air and their shining saliva started to drip from their lips.

Breathing heavily and with a pair of bloodshot eyes, Langdon, who rarely drank, threw his head back and ferociously gulped down a few mouthfuls of the hard liquor. The spicy liquor rushed into his stomach like raging flames and made it so he couldn't hold it and burst out with a few dry, hoarse coughs.

A splash of liquor danced in the air.

Most of the liquor he had drunk was coughed out.

The Ratmen, who dressed in old cloth, mimicked humans, and walked upright, immediately flocked up, lay down on the floor, and stick out their big wet tongues, savagely licking the liquor spilled on the stone floor. Though normally they behaved like humans, once they saw something that was good and cost nothing, they would immediately throw away their deceiving behavior and once again expose the true instinct as low-intelligence creatures.

Elysium City was under strict governance: only intelligent creatures were allowed to become its residents, and they had to appear human. In order to get themselves status in the city, many Ratmen, Gnolls, Lizardmen had no choice but to dress in dirty cloth which they simply picked up from piles of rubbish, stand upright, and walk with strange and staggered steps, as if pretending they were some demi-human.

In this mini city ruled by Fallen Adepts, these creatures had no means or methods to earn their living. They ate the rubbish of the Adepts. Of course, sometimes they would resort to dirty businesses like stealing from someone; only by that could they gain a better life.

Looking at Ratmen punching and biting each other for his vomit, Langdon clenched his jaw tightly and wished he could kill them all with an Acid Pool spell.

He was a distinguished Pseudo-Adept; how he had he ended up spending his days with a group of demons and monsters?! An unspeakable feeling of grief and hatred filled his mind with anger that couldn't be vented. Langdon threw his head back and gulped the remaining Flaming wine in a swallow, casually tossed out a magic crystal, and staggered out from the tavern.

"What happened to master Langdon? I think this is the first time we've seen him behave abnormally like this?" In a dark corner, two shadows whispered to each other.

"What? You don't know?" Another shadow said under its breath. "I heard that his partner is dead."

"Demon Vine Lady?" The first shadow let out a shocked cry. "You said the Demon Vine Lady is dead?"

"Quiet…" The first shadow looked around uneasily, realized no one was watching them, and then warned with a low voice, "You just came back from the west, that's why you don't know. The east region was rather lively in the past few days. I heard quite a few Pseudo-Adepts were having a fierce fight there. They even collapsed a few tunnel levels."

"Just now you said the Demon Vine Lady was dead? Who killed her?"

"Who else? Of course she was killed by those bastards from the surface. I hear those Adepts on the surface had nothing else to do, so they sent a group of apprentices to our world to seize our resources. The Demon Vine Lady was killed by this group of rookies. Rumor says…" The shadow paused and looked around, lowered its voice, and continued, "Rumor says that she was killed by a Beginner Apprentice whose name is Greem! She…"

Before the shadow could finish its words, a ground shaking boom drowned out its voice. The rock wall beside them had been punctured by a frightening fist and a large hole was left.

A huge figure, over three meters tall, dashed through the large hole. With both hands, he forcefully pulled up the two shadows, who had been conversing secretly in the darkness.

Light from the blazing stove in the room shone onto these two shadows. They were Gnolls.

"You damn inferior creatures, who gave you the audacity to secretly talk about the matters of me, Langdon? I hate hearing the name of Greem. Whoever dares mention it again, this will be an example!"

After the angry roar of the huge figure, an azure ice energy started to gather within his palms. Within the time of a breath, the two Gnolls froze into two ice statues. Right after that, the huge figure used all his strength and threw both ice statues onto the ground, shattering them into tiny pieces and splashing throughout the entire floor of the tavern.

"All of you damn dregs, hear my words and remember. Nobody mention that damn name again! Anyone fails to obey this, I, Langdon, will remind them with their own death!" Langdon, who had transformed into a frightening giant, roared out furiously.

"Greem! You damn bastard, I'll be waiting for you in the darkness of the underground…"Having no knowledge of what happened in the remote Underground World, Greem was extremely busy for a few days.

He had finished reading all the books from the Swampy Tower. Only the long-drawn-out process of magical knowledge accumulation and magic spell model analysis were left.

For the first defensive magic spell he was going to possess, Greem poured in a hundred times the enthusiasm.

Fire Shield, that was the first defensive magic spell he chose for himself. But, in order to truly master it, Greem first had to master four to five elementary subjects and a huge amount of magic spells. From the to the , and to …

Greem was required to master dozens of magic spells knowledge and techniques before he could learn Fire Shield. Though he was assisted by the Chip, it was still an extremely tough mission in order to thoroughly master them one by one.

But according to the calculations and estimations of the Chip, Greem was delighted to learn that he would be able to bag this Fire Shield magic spell before his next trip to the Underground World.

This was a great news!

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After discovering that the food tonic could bring great benefits to an apprentice Adept's body, the magical energy meal which he only eats once a day became an essential part of his daily life.

After being inspired and guided by him, it didn't take too long for Mary to become a slave of this "delicacy" as well, accompanying him in indulging in a frenzy eating spree. If not for having to carry out appropriate 'exercises' after each meal to help in the digestion of bioactive element substance, Greem would surely change all of his regular meals into magical energy meals.

For the following days, every morning was spent on studying for magic knowledge, be it rain or shine. Greem utilized fully the help of the Chip, instilling the huge amount of knowledge he learned into his brain, then saved them in a systematic manner.

Noon time was the most important time of the day, being the time to enjoy the various delicacy available to them. Both of them had already tried every single one of the magical energy meals that was provided by the Adept Tower, but chose to eat the one that suited them the most. Greem still preferred the Fried Heart of a Flaming Hound while Mary enjoyed drinking the blood of a Wyvern.

The insanely high daily meal expenditure of fifty magic crystals had caused their Physique to skyrocket. Currently, Greem would have daily increase of 0.3 to his Physique. As for Mary, although she didn't experience such an incredible development, she was still euphoric, showing a look of satisfaction and contentment.

After they finished eating, it was finally time for appropriate "exercises" where Mary would give Greem a good beating. Greem practically turned into a high quality human punching bag, brutally tortured by Mary.

Facing Mary who had used her full speed from the get-go, Greem was forced to wear his Circlet of Nobility and only then can he barely make out her flickering figure. Whenever his palms holding scorching flames moved slower, he would be rewarded with five bloody shallow scratches on his body.

For the first three days, Greem's body would be full of wounds after every fight. His body which had just grown a bit sturdy looked like it had been used as a scratching post by more than a hundred catwomen at the same time, was full of crisscrossing scratch marks.

Greem had a sorrowful discovery that, without the help from his Golems, fighting Mary all alone was as if he was inviting torture. Mary could even use the gentlest 'touch' to reduce his health points to one, while his flaming palms couldn't even touch the corner of her dress.

Initially, he thought of suddenly changing the direction of his flames to give Mary a surprise attack, but the same technique had become useless the second time around when dealing with Mary, who was an agility type assassin Adept. Without a suitable defensive magic spell, Greem would never be able to withstand Mary's attack just with the Burning Hand alone.

As for the reason why he didn't want to use Fire Arrow and Flaming Spear, the answer was too obvious. Even the Burning Hand, the type of magic spell that could be casted with just a thought, couldn't intercept Mary in such a close distance, how much more for the Fire Arrow and Flaming Spear which required three seconds of casting time.

In order to save a little bit of his face, Greem was forced to break his personal vow, secretly ordering the Chip to perform a scan and save Mary's attack pattern and habits. After that, he asked the Chip to construct a mini battlefield spellcasting assist system. With the help of this system, the Chip could capture Mary's movements, using its incredible calculation speed to derive possible positions she would appear, and also the possible spots she would attack.

Later, Greem followed the calculations of the Chip and finally caught Mary.

Unfortunately, Greem's temporary success angered Mary, and he received a continuous and brutal beating from a red figure who suddenly rampaged. Greem didn't even last for five seconds with his body fully bathed with blood.

Greem couldn't help but admire Mary as she could actually control her attacks at a very precise level without the help of something like the high-precision Chip. This… this shows fully how perfect her control over her enemy's life is, and her aggressiveness that can overwhelm the enemy with grief.

The Adept Tower's arena also comes with various functions beyond an outsider's imagination. Any apprentice Adept who fought inside it could choose between two modes: Training Match or Death Match.

Under the training match mode, once an apprentice Adept had their health reduced to a dangerous level, any attack from their opponent would immediately trigger a defense mechanism of the arena, putting up a strong protective barrier that would protect the wounded apprentice inside. Meanwhile, the death match mode didn't come with any life-preserving defense mechanism.

This was where Mary's remarkable control stand out. Every time they fought, she could make Greem be covered in blood all over with her ferocious attacks, while never triggering the automatic defense mechanism of the arena. This really frightened Greem!

Therefore, every afternoon had become the hardships of Greem's painful journey. The match would always end with him being covered in blood and being dragged out from the arena by Mary. The only difference was how long he could last.

The first day, he lasted for seven minutes.

The second day, he lasted for fifteen minutes.

The third day, he initially had a chance to last for much longer but since he provoked Mary, he was defeated close to five minutes.

The fourth day, he lasted for half an hour. It was also the first time he and the Chip worked together flawlessly.

The fifth day, he managed to last for one full hour without being hurt at all because his Fire Shield had finally appeared.

That's right, it was really a surprise!

Under the tremendous pressure from Mary, the frightening Blood Queen, Greem actually managed to master all of the preliminary knowledge required for Fire Shield one day ahead of schedule, and he was also successful in casting it before the match began.

The Fire Shield was a shield-shaped defensive magic spell that was composed entirely of Fire Elementium. When successfully casted, it would automatically revolve around Greem's body in a radius of one meter. The area the spell can defend covered 1.5 meters tall and 1 meter wide. Not only does it provide an excellent physical and magical defense, it also has the Reflect Damage effect during a melee battle.

Mary had once tried it. Using her super high agility, she came closer to Greem from the side but no matter how hard she tried, her razor sharp claws couldn't break through the defense of Greem's Fire Shield. The small Fire Shield actually had its own intelligent sensor capable of automatically moving by itself to the appropriate positions to block all attacks.

So far, Mary hadn't master any close combat skills that had a name. Her offensive methods were primitive, mostly relying on her high agility, attacking the enemy with her strong body. If we were to talk about any special ability that was worth mentioning, it would be the the ability to infuse her blood element magic energy into her claws, making her every attack draw blood from her enemy that can also replenish herself.

But the damage inflicted by that kind of offensive method would never be great. In fact, each strike would always inflict just nine to thirteen points of damage. Meanwhile, the defensive strength of the Fire Shield was thirty five points, making it obvious that it would take more than a single strike from Mary's attacks.

That's why when Greem mastered the Fire Shield, he was able to turn the tables of the battle to his favor.

Originally, it was Greem who tried hard to defend, having his health reduced bit by bit from the raging attacks of Mary. The situation would've been better if he didn't try to counterattack since he could last longer. But once he gave up on his defenses in order to have a chance to hit Mary who moved swiftly like a ghost, he would be defeated by Mary instantly, resulting to a miserable ending for himself.

But now with the help of the Fire Shield, not only did Mary fail to break through his defenses even after multiple tries, she also had her claws burned by the sudden explosions of flames from the Fire Shield. Her dress which didn't come with any defensive magic wasn't spared from being burned causing it to have a few large scorched holes.

Finally! He finally got the upper hand for once and this brought great joy to Greem.

While comfortable appreciating Mary's hot and seductive body, he was reciting the chant of Fire Arrow with a loud voice, manipulating the explosive flames to chase after her. For the first time ever, he never had to worry about suddenly getting scratch marks appearing on his body.

Greem's relaxed method of attack greatly angered Mary. That's why, after thirty seven seconds of complacency, he was once again bloodied all over after receiving the furious attacks of Mary. Surprisingly, the defense mechanism triggered this time. A transparent protective barrier tightly covered around Greem's body. Mary was knocked away by it, showing her skin that had turned black because of the flame.

Looking at the bloodshot eyes of Mary who kept gazing at him savagely through the transparent barrier, Greem couldn't help but sigh deeply.

As always, Mary would never let herself be outdone by someone else!

With the current strength of Mary's melee attacks, there wasn't any possibility she could pierce through the Fire Shield. It was at least correct according to theory!

But when Greem met Mary, a girl with a tremendous desire to excel over others, even the theory calculated by the Chip had become unreliable.

Driven by anger, Mary actually withstood the fire element damage from the Fire Shield and didn't even back off. She also withstood the double fireball attacks from Greem's Burning Hands and used an attack that was beyond anyone's imagination. Forcefully hitting thrice on the same spot of the Fire Shield and took advantage of the cumulative damage to successfully break through Greem's tough protective shell.

What happened afterwards was a terrifying experience for Greem!

The pain of having one's flesh burned by elemental fire wasn't something anybody could endure. Although Mary could use her incredible regenerative ability and blood sucking to restore her health, there was no way she could avoid the pain from using those methods, and thus, she could only endure using her strong will.

It was all due to her stubbornness, not wanting to let Greem suppress her in their daily practice. Even if it was just once, she refused to accept that. This mentality made her willing to endure such a tremendously painful torture, her firm and outrageous attitude had deeply moved Greem.

Looking into his own heart, if he was in her position, he would definitely be unable to achieve this!

Having to face this firm girl who was fierce to her enemies but even fiercer to herself, Greem could only secretly admire her inside his mind!

But at the same time, Greem secretly gave the Chip another research topic to work on.

How to manipulate the Fire Shield using his Spirit, so that he would be able to avoid the cumulative damage caused by the enemy's multiple attacks on the same spot?

Unfortunately, ever since the fifth day of their training, Mary had stopped dragging Greem over to the arena. Contrary to her normal behavior, she immersed herself in the public library of the Adept Tower, spending every day and night reading through books, searching for the possible methods of breaking through Elementium magic shields.

This made Greem's heart fill with anxiety once more!

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Once again Greem returned to the Underground World. He was no longer nervous like the first time, instead, he was filled with anticipation.

For all the elite apprentices of training camp, every single progress they made on the path of maturity was made by stepping on the bones of those Fallen apprentices. Therefore, if Greem really wanted to rise up in rank as soon as possible, he needed to feed on the flesh and blood of his brethren who lived in the Underground World. This was the only way he could make himself stronger.

After grouping up in the mission hall, the team of nine members once again set out on their dangerous Underground World journey.

The accidental death of Matthew and the severely wounded Leo had let the team to realize how dangerous the Underground World really was. Thus, while having a temporary rest at the front line camp, the team had an intense quarrel over how to accomplish their mission.

Currently, Leo was still burdened with injuries.

Of course, those flesh wounds had long been recovered. But, some of the treacherous curses were deeply rooted inside his body. These had caused him to suffer badly. Nevertheless, after spending the last couple of days healing himself, he had finally dispelled all the curses. But still, it was tough for him to restore his severely damaged body to its peak in such a short period of time.

This also meant that the team had one less Advanced Apprentice. In addition, currently, Pseudo-Adept Leo could only be considered as an Advanced Apprentice.

The weakening of the team's overall strength had shaken their courage. A few of the conservative members kept voicing their desire of finishing the mission as one whole team. Even though it would mean tripling or quadrupling the time to finish, it would no doubt be the safest approach.

Presumably, those underground black bastards wouldn't have the courage to ambush a mission team consisting of three Pseudo-Adepts, and five Advanced Apprentices.

This suggestion was voiced by Isaac, and the majority of the Advanced Apprentices immediately agreed.

The dancing light of the temporary bonfire shone onto the faces of each team member, leaving behind patches of shadows on their finely chiseled features. Everyone was hiding their facial expression behind the shadows, leaving Isaac alone expressing his opinion in an impassioned tone.

"… We cannot take any more reduction in our overall strength again. If we lose another team member this time, our situation would be worst next time. So, wasting some extra time is necessary. It is only with that that we have a guarantee of finishing this mission properly! …"

"Agreed!"

"I think Isaac is right!"

"Agreed!"

Three Advanced Apprentices, Shila, Leander and Bruce quickly approved the suggestion. Meanwhile, the only Advanced Apprentice who hadn't voiced her mind was Mary. She was standing soundlessly and motionlessly in the shadow of a large rock, where the light of bonfire could never reach.

Hence, everybody couldn't help but turn their glance to Sabrina, who had been acting as the team leader.

Sabrina raised her head and looked around. As she rolled her eyeballs, mechanical noises could be heard.

Compared to last time, it was rather obvious that some minor and strange transformations had occurred to her. They could be traced to her head, which had gone through some mechanical magic spell modifications. However, no one seemed to be able to identify where the transformation was, and which part brought them the strange feeling. It was more of a subtle feeling they had!

Sabrina retracted her glance. Just when she was about to announce something, a rather strange voice suddenly rang throughout the temporary camp.

"If you wish to carry out the missions in a big group, go ahead. But Mary and I will only carry out a single mission."

The voice was clear and firm, but, when everyone turned their eyes to the source of it, they were all struck dumb. This was because the speaker was a burden they had never regarded as one of the team. It was Beginner Apprentice Greem!

No, they could no longer address him as Beginner Apprentice Greem. It should now be Intermediate Apprentice Greem.

In regard to Greem's improvement, no one seemed to be bothered at all.

In this gloomy and bizarre Underground World, even an Advanced Apprentice couldn't keep himself safe when facing a dangerous situation. Let alone an Intermediate Apprentice who just broken through. Perhaps he couldn't even escape the shock wave coming from the battle between those stronger apprentices. That's why the group had always excluded him from the discussion.

Mary, who hid in the darkness, still didn't say anything. It was clear that she had tacitly approved Greem's answer. No doubt, this had puzzled the rest of the team members.

"Are you sure you know what you're saying?" The deep, strange voice of Sabrina rung through the scene. Although what she had said didn't sound menacing, but it was clearly accompanied by a tyrannical aura.

"Kid, keep your mouth shut and stand aside. This is no place for you to talk. If you really wish to carry out the mission alone, why don't you go to the deepest cave?" Isaac wasn't as reserved as Sabrina and roared at Greem in a threatening manner.

"Fine, we'll go to the deepest cave!" Greem's answer was simple and direct.

"You… what did you just say?" A bewildered expression emerged on Isaac's face.

"I said, Mary and I will complete the mission in the furthest cave. We'll return to Adept Tower straightaway after completing the mission. You guys can take your time and slowly visit all the other four mission sites!"

"You…"

Now not only Isaac, but even the other two Pseudo-Adepts had raised their heads. They once again carefully examined this Intermediate Apprentice who was shamelessly bragging. But, no matter how they probed with their senses, the spiritual ripple feedback from this young kid seemed pretty weak. It was totally not like the disguise of a random strong man.

Was there something he could rely on, or was there something strange with that Mary?

Finding no answer from Greem, everyone couldn't help but turn their glances towards Mary, who was hiding in the shadows.

'Hmph. This bastard only know how to put up a show, using me as his cover every single time!'

Deep inside her mind, Mary was roaring furiously, but on the outside, she still looked calm and peaceful. Nevertheless, it was hard for the three Pseudo-Adepts to see under her foggy, blood red aura, and was near-impossible for them to use her blood element magical energy to see her overall strength.

"You agreed to his suggestion?" Although Sabrina was sitting on the floor, an aggressive aura began to emanate from her and began crushing towards Mary.

"Yes! Give us the mission object!"

Mary left the shadows and moved towards the Pseudo-Adept, Sabrina. She spread her dazzling, pale right palm outward.

After remaining silent for a brief moment, a magical item, that looked like a magic wand, was tossed into Mary's palm.

Mary focused her mind and verified the genuineness of the item, before nodding her head satisfyingly. She put the item away, turned around, and walked towards the dark, winding tunnel in front of her.

"Hold on! Take this as well."

What Sabrina gave her this time was a crystal ball.

Mary once again focused her mind and verified it. But, upon realizing what it was, her beautiful face startled. She nodded her head at Sabrina with a meaning only both of them could understand.

"Thanks! I owe you a favor." Saying nothing else after that, Mary brought Greem and dissolved into the darkness in the far distance.

As the left side of her face was covered by a silver mask, no significant expression could be found on the other side of her face. Despite this, a scorching hot glow was seen shooting out of the left eye that had been modified with a mechanical eyeball.

"We should be moving now! There's a long way ahead of us."

After a long moment of silence, the deep voice of Sabrina once again rung throughout the scene.

At the same moment, Greem and Mary were traveling the Underground World in a total darkness.

For the first time, the Demon Alligator Hunter actually swallowed both of them at the same time, before submerging itself into the total darkness found underground. Following the indication given by the magical item, it started traveling through the numerous dark caverns and tunnels.

Fortunately, Mary wasn't someone with an oversized body. Instead, after holding her in his arms, Greem actually felt that Mary was overly slim and soft. Nevertheless, the silky smooth feeling came from his touch, and the fragrance that filled the darkness brought him an amazing experience.

What to do? The Hunter could only create a limited space inside of its body, thus both Greem and Mary had no choice but to tightly hug each other.

Perhaps their current posture might seem romantic and erotic to an outsider, but in fact, Greem was unable to take advantage of it. All ten of Mary's razor sharp nails were moving around his back. In addition to this, her tiny yet frightening fangs were placed against his neck. If Greem had any evil intentions, Mary would probably move without thinking and definitely leave Greem with a profound memory permanently engraved in his mind!

Perhaps, this was the personal code of conduct which Mary had been implementing on herself: I can flirt with you, but, if you tried to move recklessly, I'll leave you with a bone-deep memory!

So, although their bodies were tightly pressed against each other, Greem had to clench his jaw tightly. He was scared that slightly losing control would bring about an undeserved catastrophe. But, thankfully, there were plenty of things that could distract his focus. Therefore, when he focused solely on the unique vision of the Demon Alligator Hunter, he was able to temporarily forget the awkward position he was in. In addition, he was able to devote himself to controlling the traveling direction of his Golem.

The crystal ball, Sabrina had given Mary before they left, stored the route she had verified in their previous trip. It also stored the underground creatures they might bump into and the distribution of demons.

With the help of this clear three-dimensional map, along with the precise direction control from the Chip, the trip was uneventful. Most of the time the Demon Alligator Hunter would travel through underground holes, and, if there was a rock in-between, it would choose to travel through the dirt. It was only when they bumped into a large area of solid rock would they would consider taking a longer route.

Therefore, the mission site that took Sabrina twenty-seven hours to arrive last time, only took Greem four hours this time.

The Demon Alligator emerged from the ground within a small, dark and quiet cave. Greem scooped Mary up in his arms and jumped down.

They used the magic item once to verify the exact location of the mission site. They only set their minds at ease when they realized it was indeed only two hundred away from them. But, soon after that, both of them quickly returned to a vigilant state.

Those underground black bastards knew countless strange and bizarre magic spells. Who knew if they had set up some traps around the mission site? If Greem's trace was noticed by them, then his return trip would be ten to a hundred times more dangerous.

But Greem was rather unperturbed by this.

For today's trip, besides from the completion of the compulsory mission given by the Adept Tower, there was another more important mission he needed to accomplish.

The elite mission of training camp!

Besides from fighting each other for rare underground resources, the elite Apprentice Adepts would normally try to ambush and kill the opponent's other teams.

Within the deeper region of the underground, apart from rare resources, there were many other unique metals that were rarely found in the surface world. However, most of these mines and resource sites were controlled by Fallen Adepts, with each site being heavily guarded by five to ten apprentice teams.

Today, the elite apprentice mission Greem received was: 'Raid the mine pit number seven!'

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The mine number seven was a Blood Stone mine that was located deeper than the deepest mission site.

The most abundant resource in that place was a unique mineral called a 'Blood Stone'. By itself, a Blood Stone didn't have much use, but it was frequently used as a catalyst in all kinds of magical experiments. The powdered form of Blood Stone was highly sought after in the black market, since it purified and extracted magical medicine.

However, apparently, the training camp wasn't looking for Blood Stones. The ambush planned by Kevin's team was actually for the gem that accompanied Blood Stones: the Blood Garnet. As a kind of gem, once Blood Garnets were given to Master Jewelers, they were modified into all sorts of magical accessories. The jewelers did everything possible to draw out the mysterious energy contained inside of the gem, which provided the magical accessories with marvelous power.

For example, the Resuscitate Earring which Greem had found previously was crafted from Deep Peridot, which was another kind of magical gem.

Blood Stone, even if it was only the elementary Blood Stone that went through the initial extraction, would sell for 10 magic crystals per kilogram in the black market. In order to become rich by trading it, the elite apprentices of the training camp would have to hire a large group of underground merchants. Only then could they carry them away.

The accompanying gem, Blood Garnet, was only the size of an egg, but was sought after by swarms of merchants and Adept families, who were willing to purchase it at the price of 200 magic crystals per kilogram. So, after evaluating the profit, Hulk decided to launch an ambush to the mine number seven and set their goal as looting the Blood Garnet supply, which had been stockpiled for nearly half a month, but not the overly heavy and cheap Blood Stone.

In the past, the battle of the Underground World was more like a chess game.

The resource sites and mines occupied by both parties were almost fixed, and both parties had a clear understanding of each other's overall strength. Therefore, it was like 'you brought your team and ambushed one of my resource sites today, tomorrow I'll bring my men and ambush your team on their way back.' The roles switched sides every time and both parties fought savagely in the dark underground tunnels, shedding blood like water.

But, there was one rule both parties followed strictly; never once had they broken this rule. No matter how they fought, no one was allowed to maliciously destroy any resource site or mine!

Strictly speaking, for both Adepts from the surface and Fallen Adepts, a large portion of their interest depended on the constant supply of these resources and minerals. Once somebody set an example by maliciously destroying the opponent's resource site, it would also be hard to keep their own resource sites from being destroyed at the same time. Therefore, in order to avoid a total disaster, through the constant battles over more than few hundred years, both parties had developed a kind of unspoken rule.

'You can seize my resources. As long as your elite apprentices can defeat my defenders, then the resources are yours. But, you can never destroy the environment of the resource site!' Once any malicious destruction of a resource site was found, the apprentice who did that would be hunt down by Adepts from both sides.

Hence, taking the opportunity of the last 200 meters, while proceeding with high vigilance, Greem told Mary everything he had learned so far regarding the situation of the Underground World. By pulling Mary into Kevin's team, he wanted to use this trip to the Underground World to make her one of the elite apprentices as soon as possible.

But in order to accomplish this, he had to let Mary distinguish herself in this mission. From what he heard from Kevin, the training camp had started to get in touch with the other Pseudo-Adept of their team, Sabrina. As for the other team members, before they showed any outstanding performances, they were only on the observation list, as they still hadn't attracted Hulk's interest.

After all, there were three Pseudo-Adepts in their team!

For now, Greem was considered one of the members of the training camp, while Sabrina was in the process of getting in. As for the other two Pseudo-Adepts, Leo and Marcus, none of them had hit Hulk's liking. Therefore, in order to get Mary into the training camp, she had to show an outstanding personal performance on this ambush mission.

To be honest, Greem didn't need to encourage or instigate Mary. After knowing that damn training camp had made Greem one of their members without her, Mary was already in a state of tantrum. But for someone like her who had an uncertain temper, the angrier she was, the brighter her smile.

Perhaps, only at the very moment she was hunting for prey would she show her true color!In a serene, deep underground cavern:

The peace had just returned not long ago, but five strange figures of all shapes had once again intruded into the place.

The leading man was a tall, intrepid man. A pale blue ring of light made up of ice crystals hovered around his body. Wherever he walked, the wet air would freeze through the sudden drop of temperature and turn into ice crystals that fell to the ground.

Clearly, he was the leader of the five man team. As he looked at the emptied underground cavern, the once silent atmosphere instantly filled with echoes of his angry roars.

"Where are they? Someone told me they discovered some intruders here? So, tell me where are those damn intruders?"

Judging from his deep, hoarse voice, he was the Pseudo-Adept Langdon.

"Langdon, calm down. Since we promised to help you in your revenge, we won't give up halfway. Something's not right today, so we need to think," a black robed man said.

"That's right! This is rather abnormal. Since we got the news, we've been waiting for them. No matter which route they take to this mission site, there is no way they could hide from our probe. But…" The other man in black robe voiced out his doubt.

"But they bizarrely bypassed our intercept. Gary, could he be the beginner apprentice you mentioned last time, the one who can freely travel in the ground?" The third black robe man questioned calmly.

Upon hearing what he said, Langdon's body shook briefly and the temperature of the air dropped by a few more degrees. Right after that, Langdon's cold roar rang through the cavern. "I can still sense the aura of Elementium in this place, which means they just left. So long as we move faster, we might be able to intercept them. Philip, we'll count on you now!"

Philip was also a Pseudo-Adept. In fact, all the members of Langdon's team were Pseudo-Adepts.

Being able to gather four Fallen Pseudo-Adepts to help him in seeking revenge, Langdon was a man with extraordinary ability. But, to be more precise, these men were helping him because of the face of his master. That was why they willingly accepted such a dangerous mission of revenge.

Respected and feared by a group of Pseudo-Adepts, obviously, his master was one of the few well-renowned Fallen Adepts in Elysium City!

Dark Light! This was the name known by every single being in Elysium City. As a mighty Fallen Adept, even in the Underground Cave region, Dark Light was an illustrious name. As his disciple, Langdon too was a man who had a strong calling power among the apprentices in Elysium City.

Called out by him, though Philip was rather reluctant, he still stood up from the group.

"Stand around me!" Philip instructed coolly. Then he lightly poked the staff in his hand into the hard rock under their feet.

After the injection of a steady stream Earth element energy, the fist-size, earthy yellow crystal on top of the staff started to emanate a dazzling Elementium halo. Meanwhile, covered by this Elementium halo, a vague, mysterious looking magical array emerged on the floor underneath their feet.

"Come closer to me, we're going to be teleported soon!"

After Philip's reminder, the group quickly moved closer to him, placing themselves within the boundary of the mysterious magical array.

"Prepare yourself! Don't resist the Earth element teleportation energy. Let's go!"

Following a loud shout from Philip, a copious amount of Earth Elementium suddenly burst out from the mysterious array underneath their feet. The Earth Elementium was so dense it looked like a thick cloud of dust hovering around them. Soon, a bizarre earthy yellow ring of light flickered, the dust suddenly solidified, and the men turned into clay statues in an instant.

When the mysterious magical array disappeared, the five clay statues shattered immediately, breaking into dirt debris that scattered across the floor. Not flesh nor bone could be found among the debris, and the five Pseudo-Adepts had completely vanished from where they had been standing.Langdon had guessed wrongly by thinking Greem would rush back to the surface after he completed his mission, which eventually led them in the wrong direction. They were now on their way to bumping into Sabrina and the other team members.

Using Philip's Stratum Teleportation magic, the five Fallen Pseudo-Adepts went straight to the upper-level tunnels close to the surface. Greem and Mary were hiding in a place near the mine number seven, which was much deeper.

The rest of Kevin's team members hadn't arrived, so working together, Greem and Mary started to put their capabilities to use and investigate the situation surrounding the mine.

Greem worked as transportation by using Demon Alligator Hunter's ability to travel under the ground and send Mary into the mine. Mary transformed into a bloodsucking bat that flew without noise and surveyed the entire mine without alerting anybody. Surprisingly, Mary, who flew around openly, even noted down every single tunnel, miner, and the position of every defending team of Fallen Apprentice Adepts, and she stored the information into a crystal ball.

When Kevin and the other five team members arrived at their secret rendezvous point, they were greeted by this extremely accurate three-dimensional image of the mine.

The miners were all comprised of Ratmen, and there were more than two hundred of them within the entire mine number seven. Meanwhile, the defending force was made up of seventeen underground mercenaries and six Fallen Apprentice Adepts. During the battle, the Ratmen would never get involved, so they only needed to consider the defending force in their plan.

After all, for the Ratmen, no matter who controlled the mine, would always obey commands. So long they were provided with sufficient food every day, they didn't care who they served!

Staring at the panoramic image of the mine pit provided by the two new recruits, Kevin couldn't help but feel a chill run down his back.

Greem's ability was a total cheat. In the Underground World, so long as a place wasn't protected by any magical arrays, he would be able to infiltrate it in a way that was nearly impossible to guard against. Mary's ability of Bat Morphing made her able to come and go like a shadow, as no one could be on guard against a cold-blooded creature who could roam freely on the cavern ceiling. Through the infrared vision and life force sensing ability of the vampire, any arrangement of the enemy was transparent.

With these two new recruits in a team, if the opponent didn't have a way to guard against them, they could even find out what color underwear their opponent was wearing!

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Aside from the meager garrisoned force, Kevin was also concerned about the overall might of the Fallen Apprentice Adepts.

According to their standard practice, out of six Fallen apprentices there would be at least two to three Pseudo-Adepts, with the rest being Advanced Apprentices. However, today's situation was a bit abnormal. Out of the six Fallen apprentices, there was only one Fallen Pseudo-Adept. This seriously puzzled Kevin.

After all, the circumstances surrounding the Fallen apprentices was completely different from the orthodox Adept Tower. The number of apprentices from the tower was basically a pyramid shape. In order to cultivate a Pseudo-Adept, it required at least five to ten advanced apprentices as backup. Advanced apprentices, on the other hand, also needed five to ten intermediate apprentices, and so on…

The Adept Tower relied on a method of allocating more resources to those who showed more potential. When they combined this method with the vast amount of apprentices, it allowed them to cultivate elite apprentices out of the hundreds and thousands of apprentices. These elite apprentices possessed extraordinary potential and innate talent, and could be further trained and cultivated.

However, for Fallen Adepts who hid in the Underground World, the structure of their apprentices was completely different.

In the Fallen Adept camps, there were next to no Beginner or Intermediate Apprentices. In their eyes, they didn't need trash like this, as they weren't worth wasting resources on. All of their resources could instead be focused on those apprentices who had potential, resulting in a strong overall strength. Many were eliminated by this law of the jungle, which was inherently cruel and savage. Therefore, the ratio of the Pseudo-Adepts among the Fallen Apprentices was really high. Sometimes, they could even reach the ratio of one Pseudo-Adept per every Advanced Apprentice!

This was also one of the things that brought the most headaches to those elite apprentices of training camp!

When both parties came across each other, they could still put up a fight if the number of Pseudo-Adept was similar. But, once their Pseudo-Adepts were outnumbered, then the battle would become a lopsided loss. After all, for any Advanced Apprentice from the surface, a Fallen Pseudo-Adept, who wasn't tied up by an opponent at the same level, was like a fierce wolf. When facing this fierce wolf, the surface Advanced Apprentices found thay were like tame sheep. No matter how well the sheep equipped themselves, and even though they had twice the number of the fierce wolf, they still found themselves unable to resist when facing the fearless wolf.

But surprisingly, out of six Fallen Apprentices in this mine today, only one of them was a Pseudo-Adept. This allocation was obviously lower than their normal standards. On the contrary, there were two Pseudo-Adepts in Kevin's team of six people, while the rest were all strong Advanced Apprentices.

With their overall strength, it was more than enough to easily suppress the opponent!

As for those seventeen underground mercenaries, besides a few who appeared to be strong and needed special attention, the rest could be simply ignored by these apprentices. If a battle between Apprentice Adepts really erupted, no matter how many mercenaries there were, they would just end up as a bunch of suicidal corpses.

According to Greem's assumption, when a battle like this happened, where one side had a clear upper hand, it would probably be a battle filled with ambushes, assassinations, and all sort of treacherous approaches. But when the battle truly erupted, he was dumbstruck.

So, this was how a battle was carried out in the Underground World!

Without concealing their suppressive force, Kevin brought five of his team, including Greem and Mary, and quickly blocked off the mine. After that, they threw two deterring Elementium fireballs into the mine, causing all the defending forces of the enemy to be ejected from the mine pit.

It was a natural cavern that was nearly the size of three football fields. It was the perfect battlefield for slaughtering.

It wasn't tough to tell this place was well used. The place was cluttered with broken stalagmites and stalactites, and the cavern wall was marred with black burn marks. In addition, the ground was stained with old patches of blood that had never been washed off.

At either ends of the cavern, both groups hastily arranged themselves in their own respective formations. They faced each other with a distance of two hundred meters in between.

Naturally, it was the group of underground mercenaries who stood before the Fallen Apprentices.

Most of these mercenaries didn't even wear a complete set of leather armor. They simply walked into the battlefield with their shabby cloth. Out of these seventeen mercenaries, three of them were Gnoll assassins, two were Lizardman Beastmasters, one was a Soul Hunter, and eleven were Werewolves.

The only ones that required some extra attention were the three Gnoll assassins and the Soul Hunter. The rest of them were just used to attract the attention of the enemy. They were just flesh targets used to absorb the firepower.

The Fallen Pseudo-Adept, who hid behind the formation, was a dark, skinny middle-aged man. When he saw two Pseudo-Adepts from the surface standing on the enemy's side, his expression turned gloomy and dark.

'Damn it… Damn it… Damn it! That bastard Philip! He's the one who said there wouldn't be any problems even if he was away for one or two days! If that was truly the case, then how did this strong team break through the upper tunnel interception and reach this depth? Philip, you bastard! If this garrison mission fails, you'll be the one who shoulders all the responsibility!'

Although inwardly he was furiously roaring, this Fallen Pseudo-Adept still remained calm on the outside. He began to give out battle commands.Different colors of Elementium shields sprung up on the bodies of these Apprentice Adepts. There was a bright red Fire Shield, a Lightning Shield, that kept sputtering violently, a powdery dust that hovered around someone's body, a set of freezing Ice Crystal armor, and a vibrant green armor of thorns…

In just split second, all Apprentice Adepts had covered their body with Elementium protection that came in all different colors, shapes, and effects.

Of course, this was a luxury that belonged only to apprentices. Those mercenaries, who served as flesh shields, wouldn't able to enjoy it at all.

Unnoticed, three enemy Gnoll assassins had managed to vanish from where they were. Two Lizardman summoners were loudly reciting some hard to understand chants in their language. They quickly summoned four Petrified Lizards, who had muscular bodies and tough skin. The eleven Werewolves fighters had their bodies covered with broken leather armor, a flail or wooden club in one hand and a crude wooden shield in the other. They savagely yelled as they charged their way towards the enemy.

Behind them, after the Fallen apprentices had completed their personal defensive spells, they quickly followed with another round of loud chants of magic spells. But this time, all of them were reciting magic that would unleash offensive magic spells.

"Greem, you can handle those trash!" Although Kevin was an Advanced Apprentice specializing in melee combat, he, after giving Greem an order, immediately joined his peers and began countering the enemy by using long-range offensive magic spells.

After Mary had mutated into a vampire, it seemed that she had forgotten all the magic spells she had learned in the past. She now only owned some innate passive abilities from her own species. Therefore, when faced with such a situation, she simply dissolved into the surrounding darkness and disappeared without a trace.

Numerous colorful offensive magic spells flew past each other in the midair of this spacious cavern. They intercepted and clashed with each other, turning the scene into a glorious sea of Elementium. The raging and unregulated Elementium exploded and swept across the center of the battlefield, flooding the group of Werewolves who were charging the enemy.

Less than half of the eleven Werewolf fighters managed to survive this devastating explosion. Even the remaining five of them could be seen to have suffered different degrees of injuries. A shocked expression covered their faces. However, they were just too unlucky. Before they could regroup and initiate the next charge, a massive figure suddenly revealed itself in front of them.

With the rapid firing of Dirt Spears and a large area of Spikes, all of them were sent to meet their maker in an instant. This was how fragile these common underground creatures were when facing a spell caster.

Greem sat on his Demon Alligator and remained on the spot. He didn't dive right into the enemy.

The formation of the Fallen Apprentices on the opposite looked rigid and disciplined. If he recklessly charged into them, all it would take was a simultaneously-casted magic spell for him and his Demon Alligator to instantly shatter into pieces.

Greem had learned something new today. It was no wonder Apprentice Adepts used the formations, that even ordinary humans used, in their battles. The offensive strength of the Elementium spells was just too terrifying! Even though those Pseudo-Adepts could act lofty and slaughter a couple of Advanced Apprentices in a small scale battle, they couldn't when they fought this kind of battle. No matter how conceited or unbridled they were, they didn't have the courage to run into the enemy's formation.

The basic defensive strength of those Pseudo-Adepts' personal defensive magic spells mostly hovered between eighty to one hundred points. A strength like this could be easily broken with just a simultaneous firing of magic spells from three Advanced Apprentices. Therefore, before advancing into the realm of an official Adept, where their bodies could resist this simultaneous attack, none of them dared to take the risk.

So, even though they had outnumbered the enemy in terms of their Pseudo-Adepts, Kevin still opted for suppressive combat tactics. This was the safest approach and involved using the overwhelming advantage of their magical power to crush the enemy's team.

After two round of exchanges in magic spells, the gap between both side's magical strength was evident. Although many of their magic spells were still being intercepted halfway, the number of magic spells that landed in the enemy's camp was clearly more than theirs.

As they were flooded by waves of glorious magic spells, the team of Fallen Apprentices started to panic.

Most of the defensive barriers surrounding the Fallen Apprentices' body had faded. Some of them were even wounded. Contrary to them, Kevin's team still maintained a neat formation. All their defenses were still intact and they looked rigid and impenetrable.

Sitting high up on Demon Alligator, Greem ordered the Hunter to keep firing Dirt Spikes at those Petrified Lizards who were slowly crawling in his direction. As he ordered, he also followed Kevin's command and contributed a Flaming Spear. It hit an enemy Advanced Apprentice and made him miserably scream.

As he was sitting high up, he had a clear sight of the entire battlefield. Soon he noticed Mary's whereabout.

At the edge of the battlefield, within a patch of dark shadow, a muffled snort suddenly exploded.

Right after that, a vague image of a Gnoll assassin suddenly emerged from the darkness. It held clutched its throat and staggered a few steps forward, before finally collapsing onto the ground. Blood kept bursting through its fingers, despite how hard he tried to stop it from leaving its body.

Right when it was struggling to catch its last breath, a few clanging noises rang out from the darkness next to it. Soon, another Gnoll was forced out from the shadows. Both of its eyes were blinded and its body was fully covered with frightening scratch marks. Unwilling to admit defeat, it furiously swung its dagger into the air, while letting out wild roars. But, unfortunately, it could no longer see the enemy.

When nearly all of the blood in its body was drained, it finally collapsed while groaning under its breath.

The continuous death of its two peers had frightened the third Gnoll. This last Gnoll suddenly revealed itself and turned around to flee into a far direction, with the fastest speed it could. But, before it could reach the distance of ten meters, a dazzling red light flashed out. As it flashed out, the Gnoll's head flew up into the sky, and the headless body was left running. It managed to run a few steps more, before falling to the ground.

The skinny and ugly body twitched unconsciously a few times, before lying motionlessly in the dark.

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Beautiful, beautifully done! Vampires truly deserved to be known as the nobles of the dark night! They could even kill in such a graceful and elegant manner, making it full of artistic flair. Magnificent!

Greem couldn't help but mutter some praise under his breath. He then refocused his mind and threw out the Flaming Spear in his hand. This time, his target was an apprentice who had five skulls hovering around his body!

The Flaming Spear that suddenly exploded destroyed two skulls of the target. It also managed to trigger the apprentice's anger. He kept waving his pitch-black staff at Greem, throwing curse spells one after the other at Greem. These spells were all invisible to the naked eye.

After receiving the order from Greem, the Hunter took his position and blocked off all the curse spells. With the Hunter taking care of this, Greem focused his mind and kept launching attacks at the apprentice who appeared to be a necromancer.

All kind of curse spells were launched. There was Scavenger Bugs, Voodoo Skulls, Bone Spears, and even Unnerving Gazes. The magic spells this necromancer apprentice demonstrated had really widened Greem's horizons. If not because of the fact that he had activated his Elementium Vision, he knew he wouldn't be able to match this apprentice. He wouldn't be able to even if he was given nine lives.

Meanwhile, the only threat he brought to his enemy was his Flaming Spear and the Hunter's Dirt Spear. The lack of long-range magic spells had made Greem realize something. Maybe he should find some time to develop a Golem which specialized in long-range attacks.

Even though Greem's overall strength was insufficient to break through the necromancer apprentice's defense, the team members behind Greem could do that. After establishing an advantageous position in this battle, the reckless bombardment of magic spells had brought about tremendous pressure to those Fallen Apprentices.

A few of these Fallen Apprentices started to slowly fall back, as they found it hard to withstand the massive suppressive force.

This was also the basic pattern of the battle between both parties in the past.

They started the battle by lining up in their formation. Both sides would launch long-range magic spell attacks, just like normal human soldiers did. They kept doing this until one side couldn't withstand the attack and showed signs of defeat. Next would be a small scale of pursuit and annihilation. Small battles would normally occur between two to three Apprentice Adepts anywhere in the surroundings.

Finally, following the powerful sweep by two Pseudo-Adepts from Kevin's team, the team of Fallen Apprentices fell apart!

Losing all their confidence in victory, the wounded Fallen Apprentices turned around and scurried into the surrounding underground tunnels. It wasn't tough to tell they were all fleeing in a disorderly manner. Each of them just went their own way, with no one trying to cover their peers or trying to support each other.

Also, all six Fallen Apprentices had actually fled in separate directions. They showed no signs of fleeing as a group.

The distance between this place and Elysium City was long. Perhaps they found their peers with ulterior motives much more frightening than the enemy chasing behind them!

Kevin whistled, splitting eight members of his team into smaller teams. They started to fiercely pursue those fleeing Fallen Apprentices.

Kevin and a Pseudo-Adept had set the enemy's Pseudo-Adept as their target. The other Pseudo-Adept in their team remained solo, while the rest of the team members had split into a few smaller groups. They all started to chase the enemies' butt into the darkness.

Greem didn't team up with anybody. He wore a ferocious smile as he drove the Demon Alligator into the tunnel. He began to chase down the same opponent he was fighting with just now.In the darkness of the tunnel, there was a perfect silence.

Aaron once again activated the Hasten Ring on his right pinkie, desperately trying to make his fleeing speed faster.

The rough terrain in the darkness was never an obstacle for him. It seemed his skinny body never ran out of stamina, supporting him in rushing through cave after cave.

The underground passage was forever winding and twisting. It came in a very complicated formation. In every single smaller cave or cavern, there were always countless narrow tunnels that could barely allow a person to squeeze through.

Utilizing his knowledge of the surrounding terrain, Aaron had fled three miles in just ten minutes. He had travelled through dozens of tunnels and caverns.

When the glow of the Hasten Spell was dismissed from his body, Aaron finally stopped. He leaned against a large solid cavern wall, panting for breath. His skinny chest was seen pumping rapidly, as he breathed like broken bellows.

Although he was surrounded by silence, Aaron still had his hand tightly clenched around his pitch-black staff.

So long as any noise or movement happened around him, he would be able to launch the bone spear that was stored in the white crystal on top of the staff within half a second.

After catching his breath for a few minutes, Aaron finally managed to regulate his breathing. He listened for any sound that might be audible from the passage he had just come from, but he heard nothing abnormal.

Could he be really so lucky as to not have an enemy following him?

Aaron smiled coldly in self-mockery.

After becoming a necromancer apprentice, his luck had never been good. It was as if the Will of the Adept World hated him, turning him into a sad child abandoned by destiny.

Although he didn't sense any unusual activity, Aaron was still overwhelmed by anxiety. He felt like a ferocious monster was hiding somewhere in the dark, eyeing him greedily. It was only waiting for the perfect moment to devour him in one brutal bite.

No way! He had to get out of here as quick as possible!

Right when Aaron had made up his mind to leave, he realized the wet soil underneath his feet had turned into a slow moving acid pool. Both his legs had sunk into it without his knowledge.

Damn it, it was an Acid Pool spell!

Aaron forcefully patted his neck, making the bone necklace on his neck flicker. He unleashed two skulls who hovered around his body. These skulls provided him with both offensive and defensive effects. When he was fleeing just now, in order to avoid attracting any attention, he had shut this personal defense mechanism down. This was why he was now caught in the trap by that enemy who hid in the dark.

After he went through the tough battle previously, his defensive skulls were now at the lowest level of performance!

As it was corroded by the strong negative energy, hissing noises was heard coming from the acid pool underneath his feet. This helped Aaron to quickly free himself from it.

Two muffled booms were heard coming from the darkness not far away. A shadow that looked like a small hill started to march forward. The strong aura of Earth Elementium could be vividly identified from afar.

Damn it! It was that bastard who rode on a clay alligator!

What a brave kid. He was only an Intermediate Apprentice, yet he dared to chase after an Advanced Fallen Apprentice!

A hideous smile emerged on Aaron's face. He opened his brownish, dirty mouth and sprayed out a huge clump of black bugs. They turned into a large black cloud in an instant and swarmed towards the location of that large shadow. After that, he quickly recited some magic spell chants with his hoarse and jarring voice. He revealed fist size skulls in his hand from time to time and promptly them at the enemy.

These were the Voodoo Skulls that he had made himself. They would explode violently when coming into contact with something. They would not only inflict massive physical damage to the enemy, they also carried a magical poison. This frightening magical poison was a type of mixed poison that could even melt down hard rocks.

Yet, while he was waiting for the enemy's miserable shriek, something happened. A flaming spear, that suddenly lit up the dull cavern, appeared on the opposite side of the cavern. A handsome young man, surrounded by raging flame, smiled at him. He carried the deadly flaming spear in his hand.

"No… please don't kill me, we can talk…"

Aaron's face was covered with panic. He watched how the Flaming Spear shot towards him and nailed one of his defensive skulls into the wall. It exploded violently and flooded him with dazzling flame and scorching heat.

Three seconds later, Aaron staggered out from the sea of flames. He looked extremely miserable right now! The thin skin and flesh of his were burned by the flame and charred. Half of his remaining magical items were destroyed, and the white crystal socketed on top of his staff had shattered, releasing all the souls trapped by the Soul Spell.

"Hmph. Kid, do you really think you can kill me like this? We're not finished today. Wait until the next time we meet again, I'll…" While cursing furiously, Aaron used his charred hand to slowly start digging into the ground. His pinkie started to emanate with a white glow.

It was the glow of an Escaping Spell!

This magic spell, which he had hidden inside of his pinkie, might have been his last life-saving trick.

In two more seconds, he would be able to escape from this place. A ray of hope suddenly burst out from Aaron's bleary eyes. But right at this moment, he suddenly felt the rock wall beside him move.

When he turned around in astonishment, he was horrified to discover a pair of huge eyes gazing coldly at him. It had a huge triangle shape snake-like head, a wide, ferocious mouth, crisscrossing fangs, and a tongue that kept darting out. All of these were entirely made up of rock! Cold hard rock!

When he finally realized this, the giant snake had opened its mouth and devoured him in one gulp.

After a long time, peace finally returned to this cavern.

Greem quietly stood at a corner of the cavern. He didn't ride on the Demon Alligator. Just now, he had used the Demon Alligator Hunter to lure most of the enemy's attack. While this was happening, he took the opportunity to break through the enemy's defense with a sneak attack. However, the one who finished the enemy was his Giant Rock Snake, who made its first debut.

A light vibration came from the dark. The Demon Alligator Hunter came to him with its body charred black. Half of the Hunter's body was melted down by the enemy's attack. On the other side, the giant Rock Snake crawled on the rock wall and crawled towards him. It opened its mouth and spat out a broken body.

Haha! He had pocketed the head of an Advanced Fallen Apprentice!

But the corpse of a necromancer was also very frightening. Therefore, Greem didn't do it himself. He waited until the Hunter fixed itself, before letting it search the enemy's body for any possible loot. After that, he let Demon Alligator swallow the dead body into its stomach, before swaggering back to the previous battlefield.

Some of his teammates had returned. Only a few of them had actually come back with fruitful results. Most of them just returned empty-handed.

What to do? The environment of the Underground World was perfect for fleeing. All they needed to do was cause a collapse in a random place. This was enough to cause the pursuer to fail. Also, all Fallen Apprentices were experts in staying alive. Thus, although it was easy to defeat them, it was far tougher to kill them.

The Pseudo-Adept and Kevin had failed to capture the enemy's Pseudo-Adept. However, the other Pseudo-Adept had managed to bring back an enemy's head. All the remaining Advanced Apprentices harvested nothing. Therefore, when Greem's Demon Alligator spat out an enemy's corpse, everybody couldn't help but look at him with different eyes.

This was different from the battle in their training camp. Although Greem utilized an opportunity where everybody was unfamiliar with his abilities to 'luckily' win two battles, this didn't mean that he was really strong. But the appearance of this Fallen Advanced Apprentice's corpse had caused the way these guys looked at him to completely change.

This… this meant that he possessed enough strength to kill an Advanced Apprentice! This was a trait that everybody valued the most!

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Right when everyone was praising Greem, a red figure flashed by. Mary had returned.

Upon her arrival, she forcefully flung an ugly and haggard head in front of everyone.

Although Kevin was just an Advanced Apprentice, he was able to command two Pseudo-Adepts. This showed that he was a man who possessed special abilities. However, today's situation had put him in a rather awkward situation.

The elite apprentices, who were specifically trained by the training camp, had only managed to get one head. This was out of all six of them. However, both new recruits had brought back one each. This made Kevin, the elite leader, secretly remark about the new recruits' aggressiveness!

Half of the six Fallen Apprentices who were guarding on this mine pit had been eliminated. This was a rare result and deserved praise. However, as they had spent more than an hour in battle, they didn't have much time left to plunder the resources in this mine.

After all, this mine number seven was located deep in the Underground World. It was tough for them to protect it. Once reinforcement from Elysium City arrived, perhaps a new round of catch and kill would occur.

In regards to the arrival of Kevin's team, those Ratman miners showed no sign of fear. Their queen even flung herself at the team for negotiation, suggesting that if any apprentice was willing to spend the night with her, she would exempt all of the mining fees, and even give them a small 'treasure' that the Ratman tribe had saved for one whole year.

But when they stared at the small and furry face of the Ratman queen and eyed her plump body and pair of big, saggy breasts, all these elite apprentices couldn't help but feel disgusted. When her bean-sized, flirting eyes rested on any apprentice's body, the apprentice would instantly feel a chill run down his back. They couldn't help but feel like vomiting.

As the result, after Kevin paid a double price of five hundred magic crystals, they finally received twenty-six Blood Garnets from the Ratman queen. Each of these Blood Garnets was the size of a chicken egg. They had an estimated worth of about four thousand and eight hundred magic crystals. If they could bring them back smoothly, each member would be able to receive two to five hundred magic crystals.

The amount they earned was directly proportionate to the contribution of the person. People like Greem, Mary, and the other Pseudo-Adept, who had each brought back an enemy's head, would have their income definitely be more than others.

After Kevin and the other two Pseudo-Adepts had a discussion, they quickly decided on a solution. Pseudo-Adept Grimm received three Blood Garnets, Kevin two, Greem two, Mary two, and the remaining three Advanced Apprentices received one each. As for the remaining twelve Blood Garnets, they had to be submitted back to the training camp. Hulk would have the Turlock Merchant who supported him purchased all of them. The profit would then be equally split amongst the team members.

As for the Blood Garnet they received, they could settle it by themselves. Presumably, those filthy rich Adept families would definitely find them to discuss purchasing these precious treasure.

Since they had completed the mission, it was now time to worry about how they would safely return to the surface.

According to their past experience, the return journey would be the most dangerous journey. Most of the casualties the mission team had suffered were from this period. Thus, whether they could stay alive to enjoy their hard-earned fortune was still a very cruel question!

Should they traveled together in a big group and returned to their camp? It was a rather objectionable thought, as there was no doubt that they would be ambushed by the enemy. No matter if it was those treacherous underground devils or the Fallen Apprentices who had gotten wind of their arrival, all who would make their return journey would have to face risks and obstacles.

Therefore, the best solution was to split up and return to the surface using their own means. If they failed to return, they could only blame their own lack of strength. By doing it this way, it was no one's fault but your own!

Hence, once they were done with sharing their loot, they wished each other luck and went their own ways. After all, there were plenty of passages that led to the surface. So long as they were not struck by bad luck, their chances of bumping into the enemy would be low.Once everybody dissolved into darkness, Mary leaped onto the Demon Alligator. She gazed around with her bloodshot eyes and shouted impetuously, "We better get moving quickly! I keep feeling that there are some risks to this mission. It's as if someone is keeping an eye on us. We better be careful during our way back!"

Greem's heart suddenly sank. He couldn't help and knitted his brows in a tight frown.

In this era where sense topped everything else, Greem never dared to neglect any symptom of danger. Especially one from Mary, who inherited her ability from a mutated bloodline of an ancient species. Her grasp of the Principle of Plane was much more profound than his. If even she had a bad feeling about the mission, then it was almost determined that something bad going to happen.

Greem once again carried Mary in his arms and merged into the body of the Hunter. He controlled the massive body of the Demon Alligator and slowly sunk into the ground, disappearing without a trace.

By utilizing the Earth element magic energy of the Demon Alligator Hunter, Greem gave the surrounding terrain a brief scan. But he didn't find anything suspicious. After eliminating the possibility that this mine number seven was a trap, Greem had no choice but to half skeptically drive his Demon Alligator Hunter towards home.

If he followed how they came here, Greem would travel through the underground tunnel at a high speed. He would only travel in the ground once they bumped into terrain which required a long detour. With that, he could minimize the consumption of the Demon Alligator Hunter's Earth elemental magic energy.

But since he was warned, he didn't mind wasting more magic energy. He chose to travel underground for the entire journey, stealthily ascending to the upper layer.

As their journey back was full of large stretches of metal ore or solid rock, they were required to keep making detours. This made it so they couldn't travel at a high speed under the ground.

Three hours later, they had traveled more than half of their journey. Greem finally relaxed his mind a little bit.

But, right when he drove the Demon Alligator Hunter through the soil between two huge rock layers, he felt as if the body of the Demon Alligator Hunter had just passed through a quiet water surface. The Earth element magic energy that ran through its entire body suddenly became berserk.

It's a trap!

He felt something amiss almost instantly. But, right after the Earth element magic energy started to rampage, the pressure coming from the huge amount of soil around them suddenly became stronger.

Greem's expression suddenly changed dramatically. He quickly drove the Demon Alligator and squeezed into the nearest underground tunnel.

It was a dark, quiet and oppressive tunnel.

The tunnel meandered gently into the darkness. It was as if it was the intestinal canal of an enormous monster and full of unknown danger.

Most of the tunnel was excavated between the rock layers. Only a tiny portion was made up of wet and black soil. But right at this moment, this patch of soil wall suddenly began to boil. With a loud boom, a massive object invaded this quiet tunnel. It came with a large amount of dirt that splattered around.

Soon, two human shaped shadows dashed out from this massive object.

"What's wrong? What happened to your Golem?" Mary's urgent voice came through the darkness.

"We're being ambushed! There is a special magic array in the region we passed through just now. It messed up the Demon Alligator's Earth element magical energy! We have to get out of here as soon as possible!"

Mary was stunned, her bloodshot eyes looked dazzling in this total darkness.

"Which way should we go?"

"…" Greem's eyes flickered under the cover of his goggles. He glanced over to the ends of the dark and unpredictable tunnel. He couldn't make up his mind.

"Hmph!" Mary snorted coldly, saying, "Let me do this!"

She suddenly stood up with her back straight. She faced one end of the tunnel, took a deep breath and let out a loud roar. Her voice was piercing and sonorous. Greem felt a buzz strike his brain before he lost his hearing totally.

Following the strange sound wave that quickly rippled through the tunnel, Mary stood quietly with her eyes closed. It was as if she was focusing her mind on listening to something.

"The tunnel's length is three hundred and twenty-seven meters, heading upwards. There is a small cavern at the end of it, and inside of the cavern…" Mary paused for a brief moment, before her voice suddenly turned shrill, "Two men! There are two men coming our way at high speed!"

Greem's eyes instantly turned fierce and aggressive.

Two men? They were rushing their way here brazenly? Needless to say, they must be thinking that they got two easy targets. Even without meeting them face to face, Greem was sure that they must be the two Pseudo-Adepts.

Since the enemy was so well-prepared, it was highly possible that the few surrounding tunnels weren't safe either. Greem waved his hand and disintegrated the Demon Alligator Hunter. He picked up both summoning crystals from the dirt pile and turned around. He then sprinted towards the other end of the tunnel while dragging Mary.

The ground of the tunnel was always rough and wet. The uneven surface and small rocks that were scattered around made Greem, a guy who had less than five Agility, stumble along his way. One would be able to slip even when walking at a steady pace in a passage like this, let alone running at full speed.

In fact, not only the ground was uneven, there were also obstacles that came from above.

Numerous stalagmites of all sizes hung down quietly from the roof. If someone was only looking at the ground, it was very easy for him to knock his head into one of these obstacles.

Therefore, for the first half of their fleeing journey, it was Greem who dragged Mary and ran at full speed. But before they reached a ten-meter distance, it became Mary who carried Greem in her arms while running full speed.

The wet and cold air brushed against his face. It entered his mouth, nose and reached his rapidly pumping lungs through his windpipe. It brought down Greem's body temperature, yet made his mind calm down. Under his low-light vision, the dark passage flashed by in an incredible speed. One after the other, stalagmites appeared right in front of Greem's eyes, however, before he could cry out, Mary dodged them.

Mary had transformed into a ghost who traveled through the darkness. All it took was a brief step with her soft and agile feet to make both of them glide through the air at an amazing speed. Every single overhanging stalagmite and every narrow passage was like a broad, smooth highway. She could always pass through noiselessly and agilely with just a gentle step of her feet.

Perhaps Mary had gotten used to such a high speed. However, for a rookie who only had less than five Agility, Greem's mind was filled with panic. This panic was stronger than the type one gets by riding on the craziest and riskiest roller coaster. If not for the wind pressure that filled his throat, he probably would've vomited by now!

Right when both of them were running through the dark underground at high speed, the tunnel in front suddenly contracted. It became so narrow that only one person could pass through. And, at the narrowest part of the tunnel, a lightning web suddenly appeared and stopped them from moving further.

This lightning web covered the tunnel from the top to the bottom. It completely sealed up the entire passage. At the part where the lightning web connected with the cave wall, dazzling arcs of lightning could be seen dancing around violently.

The popping noise of the electricity was clear and audible.

It was a dead end!

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With just a brief moment of hesitation, the tunnel behind them started to fill up with a cloud of dust, a strange-looking magic array could be seen vaguely surfacing on the ground.

Soon, two tall figures emerged from the magic array.

It was a Teleportation magic spell, not underground travel!

A blue light flickered in Greem's eyes, and with just one look, he already identified the method that was used by the enemy.

Even though they used a Teleportation magic spell, there were no traces of spatial ripples. But he could sense a strong Earth element magic energy instead. It was as if this Teleportation magic spell was driven by Earth element magic energy!

But this was not the right time to give it a thorough analysis. Currently, they were being chased by someone at their backs, while there was an ambush in front, this was a nasty situation!

"You're Mary, am I right?" One of the men that were behind them slowly walked forward, saying with a cold voice, "Excellent. So the two who murdered Grier are here. I'm going to pull your souls out from your bodies, imprison them in the Soul Trapping Corpse and let the both of you howl painfully for more than ten thousand years!"

The one who talked was a noble youth, tall and handsome. His light blue robe shimmered with multi-colored runes in the dark, while the frightening energy of frost started to spread throughout the entire tunnel.

"Grier? Who's that?" Mary was perplexed.

"If the name Grier is unfamiliar to you, then how about Demon Vine Lady?" The handsome face of the noble youth started to contort, showing a ferocious expression.

"Demon Vine Lady!"

"Demon Vine Lady!"

Both Greem and Mary let out cries of shock at the same time. They couldn't help but feel that their unexpected calamity wasn't just an accident after all!

So they actually bumped into an old enemy! Judging from his age, he was most probably the companion of Demon Vine Lady. Things have now become interesting!

"What's that Soul Trapping Corpse he just mentioned?" Mary wasn't able to dispel her curiosity and whispered.

"That's an undead creature created using a living person. Before the enemy is dead, they will draw special magic arrays on the enemy's body, so when the enemy is finally dead during the sacrifice ceremony, the soul would be trapped within the undead body, becoming the eternal slave of the spellcaster." Greem quickly answered her question.

With the help of the Chip, Greem was gifted with an extraordinary retentive memory, thus he was able to remember a lot of elementary knowledge and seldomly used topics of this magical world.

The noble youth strolled forward, and supplemented Greem's answer by saying, "What you said is just the lightest punishment. Once both of you become Soul Trapping Corpses, I'll find a remote place rarely visit by everybody. I will then bury the both of you deeply in the soil, and let you maintain your consciousness while painfully spending the next hundred years in complete darkness! Don't worry, I'll pay the both of you a visit from time to time, making sure your souls will stay forever intact, your memories stay clear, and your mind can't become insane! Hahaha…"

Ugh… Greem couldn't help but feel a chill run down his back. He had underestimated the level of enemy's evilness and madness!

"Which way?" Taking advantage of the opportunity while the guy was still laughing wantonly, Mary whispered to Greem.

"In front!" Greem replied with a low voice, "There are two Pseudo-Adepts behind us. But I only sensed one soul aura in front of us, that's where we're going!"

"Alright!"

Right after they ended their conversation, a raging flame bursted out from Greem's body, revealing a Fire Shield shrouded in scorching flames. Mary spread her arms and clung onto Greem, pressing her body closely with his. Without any hesitation, they turned around and propelled themselves into the lightning web that kept producing buzzing noises of electricity.

"Still trying to run away from me?"

The blue-clothed noble youth roared furiously. His body suddenly expanded a few times bigger than it was, and he stretched out his thick hand full of wiry hair and forcefully grabbed towards his enemies.

The giant hand of the blue-clothed noble youth missed his targets. However, his fingertip touched the lightning web, and was instantly turned black by the noisy Paralyzing Lightning.

Struck by the pain, the blue-clothed noble youth roared furiously again and retracted his giant hand. Within a split second, the giant hand which looked similar to a stone pillar returned to its original shape. Only a trace of burn mark could be seen on his fingers which emitted black smoke.

"Damn it, Hegel, retract your lightning trap at once!" The blue-clothed noble youth roared out loudly, and obviously, the target of his roar wasn't standing in front of him.

Meanwhile, Mary and Greem were about to throw themselves into the lightning web, and once they did, the violent and raging electricity immediately came surging through their bodies.

Of course, the first target who bore the brunt of all these was the Fire Shield summoned by Greem.

The violent electric arcs hit the Fire Shield producing countless dazzling sparks, the frightening electricity which had enough power to burn an ordinary human into charcoal caused the Fire Shield to keep making buzzing and crackling noise. The overly dense energy of electricity even gathered into some frightening blue plasmas, hovering at a distance less than a meter from Greem's head, slowly moving toward its target.

An ordinary Fire Shield only had thirty-five defensive strength, but as Greem's element affinity was Fire, he was able to increase the defensive strength of his Fire Shield to fifty points. But this was still insufficient to protect them through their short journey of ten meters.

10 meters!

With Mary's extraordinary Agility, she could actually flash through this ten meters of distance within a blink of an eye. But right at this very moment, this short distance seemed so long and dangerous!

The Fire Shield vanished into thin air before it could last for half of the distance. The scorching plasmas which had been waiting around them immediately swarmed their target. It would only take half a second before Greem would be turned into a thread of smoke by them. Since Mary's Physique was higher than Greem's, she actually had a higher chance to survive the second half of a lightning-filled passage.

Everything happened within just a split second of time! Right when Greem's body trembled violently, closing his eyes and waiting for his death to come, Mary suddenly shouted out, unleashing a vast amount of blood from her body that instantly covered both of them.

No matter how pure was these Blood element energy, they just couldn't withstand such a violent and raging plasmas. Both of them were like the raw meat placing on top of a roasting pit, countless Blood element energy that hovering around them were instantly devoured by the ferocious plasmas. At the end, the thin Blood element energy could no longer provide them with a full protection. Unexpectedly, Mary clenched her jaw, shifted most of the Blood element energy to Greem, allowing most of her body exposed to the electricity and plasmas.

The frightening noise of flesh being burnt by electricity could be continuously heard at the scene. The exposed parts of Mary's body quickly turned into charcoal, before crumbling into ashes that flew in the air.

On the other side of this narrow tunnel, a short midget was staring in bewilderment, a look of disbelief present on his face to what just happened in front of him.

What happened inside of the lightning web was clearly seen by him. Although he had witnessed it personally, but he was still unable to believe what he saw.

Someone really had the courage to run through his lightning death trap!

This… how could this be possible?

Whether he believed it or not, this just actually happened. And right in front of him, a large charred object dashed out of the lightning web, forcefully slamming onto the ground.

"Little kid, you're pretty tough, huh! But this is better, as Langdon would owe me two big favors later!" Although the short midget looked skinny and ugly, he was surprisingly an actual human. When he saw the preys that brought themselves in front of him, he quickly leaned forward and tried to catch them using his hand.

His palm could be seen being covered with a glove made up entirely from a dense layer of tame electricity.

If any living being was touched by this Paralyzing Lightning, they would lose all their strength for fifteen minutes.

An indistinct noise rang out in the air, as a crystal clear Elementium core fell on the ground.

The midget became startled for a brief moment but decided to pick it up. But before he could get close to it, a dense cloud of Earth Elementium suddenly bubbled up and covered the core.

"Eh, what is this thing?"

The midget was struck with curiosity. At this time, Langdon's loud roar could be heard through the lightning web and was heard by this midget.

The midget hesitated, wondering if he should capture these two preys first or turned off the lightning web. A loud rumble suddenly came from the place where the thick cloud of Earth Elementium appeared. And a massive monster suddenly squeezed its way out from under the ground, moving its huge and long body, thrusting it ferociously into the midget.

Its body was made entirely of rocks, a rocky snake head, tongue, and fangs… this… this was clearly a Rock Snake!

With just a flick, the midget suddenly vanished from where he previously stood, only to reveal himself again behind a huge rock some twenty meters away. Meanwhile, with the use of its rock-solid mouth full of sharp fangs, the frightening Rock Snake forcefully slammed on the ground where the midget once stood at just mere moments ago. In just an instant, a powerful quake spread throughout the entire tunnel, causing the rock bed to shift, causing huge amounts of rocks to fall from the ceiling.

The Rock Snake pulled out its head from the piles of stones, and once again held its head up high. With not even a second had passed by, it's earthy yellow eyes had already locked down on midget located not far away from it, and readied itself to violently thrust again to its target.

Damn it! What exactly was this?

Taken aback by the surprise attack, the midget stamp with rage and cursed. He quickly rubbed his palms and unleashed a raging lightning, striking onto the snake head who was coming fast in his way, trying his best in holding it back. The wantonly splashing electricity burned the snake head of Rock Snake, producing a thick cloud of smoke, while the skin made from tough rock had also starting to melt like hot wax.

However, the Rock Snake's strength was on it's tough skin. It wasn't bothered by these damages and still charging toward the enemy savagely.

Left with no alternative, the midget once again used his Lightning Jump ability and brought himself to another spot.

"Hegel, what the hell are you doing there? Quickly turn off the lightning trap!" On the other side of the tunnel, Langdon became even more impetuous when he heard the violent rumbles.

After not receiving a response from his peer after a long time, his eyes turned bloodshot. Langdon turned around and asked furiously, "Philip, can you bring me over there?"

Holding his staff firmly, Philip, who stood behind Langdon, focused his mind and sent out his senses. Soon, he shook his head, saying, "The changes of terrain are really intense on the other side. The aura of the rock layers aren't stable. I can't establish a stable stratum node!"

Damn it…

The angry Langdon couldn't wait any longer. He let out a furious shout and once again transformed into a giant three meters tall. A crystal clear blue armor was seen forming outside of his body. After that, he crazily shot himself into the lightning web.

The raging electricity kept wreaking havoc on his body, while the blue plasmas restlessly destroying his ice armor. However, he used his hands and protected his eyes and face. In addition, with the help of the copious Ice energy that kept bursting out from his body, he managed to withstand the attack of the lightning. He then strode out from the lightning web.

Revealed in front of his eyes was a broken tunnel with many parts collapsed. The original cavern was no longer there. Only broken ruins were left after the intense battle. An enormous rock snake was seen lying on the ground, motionless. Thick and pungent dark smoke was seen lingering around the over thirty meters long body. The position of the snake head was now replaced by a pool of flowing magma, while a crystal clear, earthy yellow core flashed a few times, before finally dimming down completely.

The midget was squatting beside the snake head. It seemed as if he was examining something.

"Where are the enemies I asked you to intercept? Where are the two bastards!?" Langdon, who had transformed into a blue giant, roared crazily.

"Aren't they there?" The midget turned around and pointed to a spot. "Eh? Where did they go?"

The midget had finally realized that both charred humans had vanished without a trace!

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Within the soil, the Demon Alligator Hunter was traveling at high speed.

After they went past the lightning trap, the unusual interference affecting the Earth Elementium had disappeared.

In order to save their life, Greem had no choice but to give up his Rock Snake. He had ordered it to trap the super frightening Thunder element Pseudo-Adept, while he secretly summoned the Demon Alligator Hunter. He then brought Mary and fled for their life.

Currently, Mary couldn't be referred to as a human. She seemed to be more like dark charcoal just pulled out from the fire.

All of her skin was charred. Countless ashes would peel off with just a slight touch. Once the charred ashes had peeled off, her steaming hot, half-baked flesh was exposed. Apparently, the high heat brought by the raging electricity had killed most of Mary's bones and flesh.

If it was any other ordinary human, a severe injury like would have long since killed the person!

However, Mary had proved herself as a Bloodline apprentice who had gone through a mutation. Her vampire bloodline had gifted her with an amazing ability. As long as her heart core wasn't destroyed, her soul would be maintained intact. Within her charred and cooked body, a weak soul aura could still be sensed.

"Chip, scan Mary's current condition. Provide me with the most reliable treatment!" Although Greem's heart was trembling, his voice was still calm and cold.

"Beep, scanning commence… Warning! Warning! The survival rate of the target is less than 7%. The core consciousness has shown signs of damage… Warning! Warning! Target's life aura is deteriorating. If this is not treated then the heart core will start to break down…"

"Don't tell me all this crap! Just give me the best solution!" Greem interrupted impatiently.

"Blood, a huge amount of blood… The target has the body constitution of a mutated vampire. As long as the target is provided with sufficient blood, it will survive. Even if the entire body is disintegrated, as long the target's core consciousness touches fresh blood, they would be able to rise once again!"

"Blood?"

Greem shook his head, cursing inwardly at his own stupidity. Mary was a vampire, what else could save her apart from blood?

"Change our course immediately. Find me a region where there are abundant underground creatures. Quick!"

A couple of minutes later, at a colony of green-skinned Goblins, the giant body of Demon Alligator Hunter suddenly emerged from the ground.

Green-skinned Goblins were a subspecies of demi-humans and had the average height of one meter. Their green skin was as tough as cow leather, and they had a pair of donkey-like big ears. Their diet consisted of everything and anything. To be specific, in this Underground World, apart from rock and dirt, they could eat almost everything.

But, as their individual strength was extremely weak, they had the habit of living in groups.

In this Underground World, these Goblins were at the bottom of the food chain. However, they were widely distributed and had the largest population out of everything. Their biggest characteristic was their ability to eat anything. They also had an incredible rate of reproduction.

Normally, such weak creatures wouldn't be able to survive in this harsh environment. Despite this, they could be found in every region of the Underground World. The reason was actually rather simple.

Food was a rare resource in Underground World, and it was extremely tough to find a stable source of food. Therefore, these Goblins were bred like livestock by the other underground creatures. When they lacked food to survive, they would come to a colony of Goblins and eat one or two in order to cure their hunger.

To be honest, the meat of these Goblins was tough and bitter. It also came with a stinking smell that was hard to get rid of. Therefore, unless the hunger really drove them nuts, no underground creature would be willing to torture their stomach like that.

Perhaps, this was the main reason why Goblins never went extinct.

But today, this colony of Goblins had been struck with a great misfortune!

Within a narrow cave, over one hundred Goblins were gathered in their camp cooking some 'delicacies'. The shabby condition of this camp looked absolutely hopeless. Besides from the crushed rocks scattered around the place, the only other things present were countless piles of dirt. Even though there was a tent found in this place, it was just a dirty cloth. It was supported by a wooden stick, and no one could tell its original color.

This was a tent that even the homeless guys in the human society wouldn't step into. But it was, in fact, the home of the Goblin who had the most prestigious status: the clan chief!

It was dinner time for these Goblins. Goblins, who had gone out hunting, had returned to their base. They chattered on their way and threw their spoils (which were things like wall lizards and other small insects) into the large stone pot in the middle of the camp. The fire was burning brightly under the stock pot. The color of the liquid inside of the pot looked green and muddy. In addition, countless strange objects were seen floating inside of this nasty liquid.

There were bones of unknown origin, strange-colored chunks of meat from unknown creatures, sharp teeth of demon beasts, small bugs that were struggling and crying violently and pale white eyeballs that looked really frightening…

A few Goblins were standing on a platform, holding a wooden stick in their hands. These goblins kept stirring the bottom of the stone pot, bringing up many unknown objects from it. This was a pot of meat filled with poison and harmful ingredients, however, to these goblins, it was the most sought after 'delicacy' of the day.

Countless Goblins held a stone bowl in their hands and gathered around the bonfire. There were pushing each other and trying to fight for the forefront position while waiting for the arrival of their clan chief. As the chief of Goblins, it was natural that he held the right of enjoying this 'delicacy' first.

Therefore, right in the middle of this noisy scene, the Demon Alligator Hunter made its debut.

Greem carried Mary in his arms and squeezed out from Demon Alligator. He coldly gazed at this ugly scene, saying with a low voice, "Kill them all!"

After saying that, he ignored everything and walked away.

After finding a rather clean place, Greem gently placed Mary on the ground.

Just this gentle movement alone had made countless pieces of ashes fall off from Mary's charred body.

Greem pulled out a dagger from his waist, poking it into Mary's chest without hesitation. He cut away her half-baked flesh while paying no attention to the steaming heat. Greem pushed aside her flesh, exposing the dying 'heart' within her chest.

This was Mary's heart and was also where her core conscious stayed.

As long as her core conscious was still intact, even if her body was badly mutilated, she could still regenerate through the method of rising from the blood.

After exposing Mary's heart, Greem cut his wrist without the slightest hesitation. As soon as his blood dripped onto the withered heart, a small amount of vitality was instantly brought to it. The once pale and earthy yellow flesh instantly turned red. Tiny blood vessels started to regrow like tree branches from the flesh, stretching out crazily.

Soon, these blood vessels formed into a thin layer of blood film and covered the entire heart. They kept stretching outward, following the dripping of Greem's blood, and moved to all the other parts of her body like some strange-looking tentacles.

With incredible speed, Mary's heart soon restored its original look.

The blood was still dripping. Whenever each drop of blood hit her heart, it would be absorbed instantly. Finally, following a light pumping sound, Mary's heart had once again resumed its pumping motion.

"Blood, I need more blood…"

Mary's charred lips moved, exposing the dark and red flesh inside her mouth.The hungry moaning of Mary could be heard coming from her throat.

His blood was far from enough!

"Why is it taking so long!?" Greem roared with a deep voice.

Meanwhile, the Goblin camp was in a state of chaos. Blood was being spilt everywhere.

Using its Quake spell, the Demon Alligator had collapsed the entrance to this cave and was moving its massive body around. It was using the Spike spell to slaughter these green-skinned creatures. The Hunter had separated itself from Demon Alligator and strode to Greem. It was carrying a long dirt spear in its hand, which had two Goblins hanging off the tip of it.

The Hunter waved its hand. It revealed a half a meter deep hole in the ground. It then it ripped apart the Goblin's body and threw it into the edge of the hole. Following that, a huge amount of blue blood sprayed out from the broken body of Goblins. The bottom of the hole started to turn wet and muddy.

The Demon Alligator handled the task of slaughtering, while the Hunter worked on draining blood from the Goblins. Within just a few minutes, the hole was fully filled with blue colored blood. Meanwhile, a large pile of dead bodies was seen at the edge of the hole. It was made up of all sorts of strange-looking Goblin corpses.

Greem carefully placed Mary's body into the blood pool. Soon, her body was completely covered, and the pool of blood started to boil violently.

The level of blood pool was lowering fast.

"Hurry! I need more blood!"

Urged by Greem, more Goblins were thrown to the edge of the pool. The blue colored blood flew over the ground like water. The blood that was being injected into the pool was just enough to support the consumption of Mary's resurrection.

Fifteen minutes later, the sound of water splashing rung throughout the hole. A naked and perfectly-curved female body flew out from the blood pool and started hovering in the sky.

An obvious look of confusion appeared on Mary's face, who was just raised from the dead. She suddenly opened up her greenish eyes, looking around in a confused manner. Her fair and silky smooth skin radiated with a brilliant glow. Her sexy body looked tender charming, seductive and delicious, all at the same time!

She blinked her eyes and spent a few moments trying to recall her memories. Soon, Mary had remembered everything.

"You… You're Greem? I… I'm Mary!"

Within just three seconds, the same Mary had returned.

"Damn it, how can you use such dirty blood to resurrect me!? Bastard! Don't you know I hate the blood of low-grade creatures the most?" Before Greem could come forth and greet her, Mary sniffed and immediately began screaming and complaining.

Ugh… fine, Greem had no choice but to admit that he had too little understanding regarding the Vampire. He found that the combination of both vampire and woman made for the most frightening combination under the heavens. It made it a mysterious creature that was extremely hard to predict!

"Welcome back! Thank you!" With utmost sincerity, Greem stepped up and bowed. His words carried two meanings, and the actual meanings could only be understood by the both of them.

If it were not for Mary protecting the fragile Greem in the previous battle, Mary would have been able to go through the lightning trap by herself easily. However, she chose to use everything she had to protect Greem. This caused her to gain the most severe injury she had ever had. It was so serious that even her core consciousness was nearly broken.

Greem wasn't a cold man whose heart made from stone. He was truly touched by Mary's action. But, as an Apprentice Adept who had to maintain their calm and merciless behaviour at all times, he preferred to hide his true emotions deep in his heart. He would only bring them out when they were alone and lonely.

Therefore, with regards to Mary's decision of saving his life with her own life, Greem could only express his true feelings with two simple words: Thank you!

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Regarding Greem's gratefulness, Mary expressed her disdain.

Mary lightly snorted, then the remaining pool of blood entwined her body fully, transforming into an exquisite red dress.

Greem called back his Demon Alligator and decided to rush back to Adept Tower but Mary, who had just recovered suddenly turned her head and stared at a random direction with her emerald green eyes.

"Wait, what is that thing?"

Greem was startled for a moment. He followed Mary's line of sight and his glance moved over. He saw a yellowish green rock with a circumference of 1 meter, placed right in the center of camp.

Ugh… a rock?

Greem's eyes scanned the surrounding area. Aside from the small and shattered ones that scattered across the entire camp, there wasn't any large rocks that could be found. But now, a large rock suddenly appeared beside the only broken tent in this camp. It was rather strange and and abrupt.

Previously, Greem had all of his focus on saving Mary therefore he didn't really bother paying attention to anything that was present in this place. But since what they noticed is clearly abnormal, he quickly activated his Elementium Vision.

Under the observation of the Elementium Vision which allowed him to see through every Elementium, the handsome face of Greem twitched a few times for reasons known only to him.

Damn, this isn't a rock, but it's a…

After his careless mistake of being deceived by the enemy, Greem angrily snapped his finger and commanded the Demon Alligator Hunter to stride towards the 'rock'.

The 'rock' clearly knew it's trick was already exposed, that's why before the dirt spear of the Hunter impaled it, this 'rock' instantly disintegrated. Actually, it wasn't disintegrated, but just a Goblin, slightly over one meter tall, putting away its cape, revealing its true form.

"Spare my life, oh great one! Mighty master Adept, please spare my life! Please forgive this Snorlax! This Snorlax is willing to be your slave! Just please, don't kill Snorlax!"

Upon revealing its true self, the Goblin quickly threw itself onto the ground and kowtowed again and again, begging for his life while miserably howling to no end.

"Ugh… wait!" Greem stopped the Hunter, and said, "You know how to speak in human language? A low-grade creature such as goblin possesses intelligence?"

"Master, Snorlax is no ordinary goblin! Snorlax is the smartest goblin in the world, Snorlax can serve you tea and meals, prepare your sleep bed, and Snorlax can even guard the door for you. Snorlax is the most capable creature!" Realizing this young 'malefic' person showing interests on it, the goblin quickly promoted itself.

"What was the trick you used just now? If not because of my sharp vision, I would have been deceived by you."

"That's one of the tricks I secretly learned, a combination of a camouflage spell and a partial transformation spell, they are nothing much, really."

"You know how to cast magic spells?" Greem's face was plastered with astonishment, "Moreover, you know two magic spells!"

"A-Actually, I-I know three magic spells!" The goblin who called itself Snorlax stammered.

"Three? What's the third spell you know?" Greem felt the world as he knew it, had turned upside down.

Even a mere goblin could master three magic spells, but he… up until now, he seemed to have only mastered four, no, the Flaming Spear was just a variance of Fire Arrow. Therefore, strictly speaking, he only mastered three magic spells!

Not knowing the complicated thoughts this young apprentice had on his head, Snorlax said under its breath with an embarrassed tone, "I… I also know I-Invisibility."

Greem was completely speechless!

A goblin, which was regarded by the entire Adept world as the weakest demon beast, could actually possess its very own intelligence, and even master three magic spells. What were all these spells? Invisibility, Camouflage, Partial Transformation… these skills made it an expert in stealth. If not because Greem had the Elementium Vision, and Mary had the ability to sense life aura, perhaps this little guy with the name of Snorlax would really be able to avoid today's unexpected calamity!

Greem cupped his hand under his chin, and contemplated.

At the time when he was still pondering what should he do to this strange goblin, Snorlax became frightened by Greem's serious expression and quickly waved its hands around and exposed a bigger secret.

"Your mightyness, you don't want to kill Snorlax! Snorlax knows a secret treasure of a master Adept. Snorlax can bring you there!"

If there was still anything that could move Greem today, what Snorlax said just now was definitely the one.

Greem's pupils contracted, and he clenched his jaw tightly and said the following words with a cold voice, "Looks like you are an escaped magical slave from an Adept Tower. Tell me, which Adept Tower did you come from?"

Greem finally understood. How could a wild goblin suddenly be blessed with basic intelligence? Even if it did have it, from where could it get in touch with the mysterious and profound magical knowledge it possessed? Therefore, putting all those clues together, Greem came to the conclusion that this must be a magical slave who accidentally escaped from its Adept Tower that belonged to an unknown official Adept.

Snorlax hesitated for a few moments. Its tiny eyeballs could be seen moving around, but seeing the razor sharp dirt spear of the Hunter pressing against its shoulder, it realized there wasn't any possibility of escape from this situation.

Probably thinking that it didn't have any chance of surviving if it didn't tell the truth, Snorlax bowed his head down in sorrow and said out a name.

"Elysium City! Master Adept Pridka!"

"Adept Pridka from Elysium City? This name sounds unfamiliar! Greem, have you heard it before?" Mary asked, perplexed.

Greem had a cold face, squeezing out shivering words from his tightly clenched teeth.

"Mary, you really should pay more visits to the library. Understanding our enemy is essential to protect oneself."

"Is this Pridka really famous?"

"Of course. Because Adept Pridka is a Second Grade Adept!" Greem spewed out the last few words with great force.

Hearing this, Mary immediately drew in a sharp cold breath.

Although Mary behaved willfully and unscrupulously in normal times, but there was still a limit to her unbridled personality. When faced with an official Adept, she wouldn't be as reckless as how she used to be, but instead, she would offer her respect wholeheartedly. Because she knew how frightening the existences known as an Adept are. They could easily kill her with just a wave of a single hand.

As for a Second Grade Adept, perhaps that would be a frightening existence even an official Adept would tremble with fear upon meeting!

Mary and Greem exchanged glances, and understood each other's thought with just a look.

They have to make this Snorlax fall under their control!

This was a goblin who once served a Second Grade Adept! Any magical knowledge or special information dug out from its mouth would be enough to bring great benefits to both of them. As for the secret treasure of the Adept mentioned by Snorlax, they simply forgot about it and never bothered again to ask any further.

They weren't idiots! Could a frightening Second Grade Adept really tell a mere goblin about the whereabouts of their treasure? This was a joke to an intelligent and experienced mighty Adept! Maybe this Snorlax had taken those magical experiment wastes the Adept casually threw away as treasure!

With his mind filled with endless speculations, Greem held Mary in a princess carry and climbed up to the Demon Alligator, also bringing along the goblin whose name was Snorlax. They, once again, submerged into the ground.Within the broken-down tunnel.

Three figures of varying heights could be seen squatting in front of the remains of the Rock Snake, silently examining what's left of it in front of their eyes. The broken core that had lost all its light and Elementium was now held in Pseudo-Adept Philip's hand, as he gave it a thorough observation.

"How is it? Did you find anything?" The short Pseudo-Adept, Hegel, yawned and asked impatiently, "You have spent the last half an hour just looking at it, just tell me what's so unusual about it?"

"This is an Elementium core taken from a Pseudo-Adept level Earth Giant!" After pondering for a long time, Philip finally voiced out his findings with a deep voice.

"Garbage! Anyone can tell that easily. If that's the only thing you can tell, why do we still need you, an expert in Earth element, to give us your insights about this thing." Hegel rudely said.

Meanwhile, Langdon was standing quietly on the side. His eyes were filled with a frosty glow. It's obvious he still hadn't gotten rid of the anger caused by letting his enemies escape.

"There's a total of fourteen special rune arrays engraved on it, most of them are magical arrays used to absorb and store Earth element energy, while the rest have the purpose of Elementium Grant Life, Elementium Summoning, Mind Control Imprint System, and Elementium Tempering. Through a unique method, all these independent arrays are interconnected, transforming into a brand new three-dimensional magical array! This is the reason why this Rock Snake possessed such an incredible strength, able to trap a Pseudo-Adept which enabled their escape."

Hearing the mocking words of the guy, Hegel was lit with the flames of anger.

"Damn it, can you really blame me? You told me to stop an Advanced Apprentice and a Beginner Apprentice from leaving this place, but you never told me that guy owned a large beast like this! Hey Philip, with your amazing magical knowledge, do you know any Beginner Apprentice who can control a Pseudo-Adept level Golem? Do you think this is logical?"

"Hmph. He's an Intermediate Apprentice now!"

"Alright, alright! Even if he's an Intermediate Apprentice, don't you think this situation is rather abnormal?"

"This is nothing abnormal. If he can find a master Alchemist, drew out enough power from the core and utilized it, the amount of Spirit he will need in order to control it would be greatly reduced. It isn't something unbelievable for a Beginner Apprentice to control a Pseudo-Adept level Golem. It's just that with his Spirit, it's very difficult to fully unleash the combat strength of the Golem!"

After listening to the conversation of the two, Langdon finally spoke.

"If these Golems were crafted by that Greem himself?"

Philip was stunned for a brief moment, but shook his head before saying, "Then he must be a genius alchemist of this generation! If not, then I can't think of any other method that can utilize an Elementium core up to such an incredible level."

"As for the answer, we will know the next time we meet him again. No matter what, he still has to come back to the Underground World. And at that time, we'll know all the answers we want after capturing him." Hegel said with a carefree manner, "Oh right, Langdon. Since I followed you for this mission, Mine No. Seven that I was supposed to guard had been robbed by those bastards from the surface. I'm afraid you will have to recompense for the losses! Also, if we are questioned by master Adept Puner, I hope you can calm down his anger!"

Upon hearing what Hegel said, the handsome face of Langdon had twisted once again.

The temperature of the cave dropped down by a few degrees!

[Edited by: DragonFly]

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.

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Note: We'll release two chapters today, making up for that day when we didn't release a chapter. Hope you enjoy it! Also, if you can, do support us on here. That really helps! Thanks!

Half a day later, Greem and Mary finally returned to the Adept Tower.

Upon their arrival, they were notified that their compulsory task force had lost another member, Shila, while the rest of the team were all wounded. The team suffered a great losses.

What caused all of this was four Fallen Pseudo-Adept who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

After they were ambushed, Sabrina and the other two Pseudo-Adepts fought against three of the enemies, but the remaining Fallen Pseudo-Adept put up a fierce fight with Shila, causing them to be at a disadvantage. Because of that, Shila and the other three had to flee in desperation. Shila was killed during their escape by her enemy.

Before those Fallen Pseudo-Adepts attacked them, they were told that they were here to seek revenge from Greem and Mary. Therefore, after they managed to escape to the surface, the team members who were still suffering from the shock had pushed all the blame to the both of them. A few Advanced Apprentices even kept asking them to be responsible for Shila's death, wanting the duo to bear all of the responsibility for their failure in completing their mission.

Thus, when Adept Angus, who came to receive the mission item, arrived at the main hall, Isaac started to jump up and down furiously.

"Master Adept, it's all because of them… they insisted on leaving the team, which eventually attracted the revenge of four Fallen Pseudo-Adepts, that is the reason why we failed in this mission. You have to punish them!"

Leander and Bruce were also yelling out loudly, filled with righteous rage.

As for the other two male Pseudo-Adepts in the team, both of them were having long faces while not saying a single word. Even though they didn't try to pin the responsibility to others, in their minds, they were still filled with dissatisfaction towards Greem and Mary. Due to the difference between their levels, they were defeated in a fair fight with those underground Fallen Pseudo-Adepts, and returned with bodies full of wounds.

The only team member who was able to return unscathed was Sabrina.

"Hahaha…" Adept Angus responded with a cold sneer then said, "Stop playing your childish tricks in front of me. I've seen too many internal discords between team members all these years, I have no time for your petty thoughts and plots. What I really care is, what have you brought back to the Adept Tower?"

Everyone's heads turned to Sabrina at the same time.

Wearing an indifferent expression, Sabrina stretched her hand out and handed over four mission items. Out of all four of them, only one mission item was lit.

"You only completed one mission? Where's the other mission item?" Adept Angus's expression turned cold in an instant.

"It's with me!" Mary took a step forward and extended her palm.

A brightly lit mission item was revealed in front of everyone.

"Out of five missions, you only completed two. According to our agreement, you're spared from the punishment of failing the mission. But you can also forget about the rewards."

When they realized that they were spared from the punishment, some of the Advanced Apprentices of the team relaxed their expressions. But what Adept Angus said afterwards came as a shock to them.

"Also, I want to announce an internal decision of the Adept Tower Council. Considering that Greem and Mary showed outstanding performances in the elite mission of the training camp, the council had decided to transfer them into the training camp. From now onwards, they don't have to participate in any more compulsory missions."

Although Adept Angus said it with a deep and hoarse voice, it sounded like a sudden thunder clap in the ears of all team members, greatly stupefying every one of them.

"This… how can this be?" Seized by terror, Isaac yelled out loudly, "Master, this is unreasonable! Our team is left with only eight members, if you transfer two of them away, how are we going to complete the remaining missions? We want to protest…"

Before he could finish his words, a black chain suddenly shot out from the void, tightly tying Isaac up in a bundle.

"What? Is there anyone else who dares to challenge the authority of the Adept Tower Council? Kid, let me tell you, no matter what, don't challenge the authority and dignity of an Adept. This is a lesson for you, next time, I will not be as nice today and won't spare you as easily!"

Following Adept Angus's stern warning, the black chain suddenly turned red, transforming into a long chain of scorching hot metal, burning Isaac's skin and flesh making them produce hissing noises. When Angus's voice turned louder, the chain started to tighten, digging deep into Isaac's flesh, causing his bones to produce cracking noises as well.

It was as if Isaac's magic resistance had suddenly disappeared, making him unable to withstand the fire chain punishment from Adept Angus. After letting out a few miserable shrieks, Isaac fainted as a result of severe pain.

With a snap of a finger, the fire chain vanished out of thin air, just like how it appeared.

Adept Angus then moved his dazzling eyes across everybody's faces. When he did that, every team member felt a sharp pain in their eyes, and couldn't help and lower their heads.

"This is just a small punishment to all of you. Your purpose here is to train yourself and complete missions assigned to you, not blaming each other and putting up a stupid show of internal discord! If you're lacking in strength in order to crush those black bastards, then be smarter, use your strategies and unite to defeat the enemy to complete your task. You don't have enough manpower? Then go to the main hall in the first floor and get some new recruits! See for yourself if any fools are willing to be hired by you!"

After a rare long-winded speech, Angus turned his eyes to Greem.

"Kid, I heard you're really good in hiding your ability! Haha, looks like you know how being lowkey is important in keeping your life safe. But sometimes, burying your strength too deep isn't good as well. A strong man should show his bearing and dignity. If you showed your ability earlier, perhaps all the members of this team are now your minions, and the girls would've been your exclusive sleeping buddies, isn't that more meaningful than laying low all by yourself? Come, show me your loot this time!"

Ugh… Looks like Adept Angus was also a restless guy when he was still an apprentice.

While helplessly complaining inwardly, Greem and Mary took out their war trophies from their underground trip. Two people brought back two heads of Fallen apprentices, and both were at the level of Advanced Apprentices.

An unsightly expression surfaced upon the faces of the others who were watching quietly beside them. Only Adept Angus laughed out loud in satisfaction.

"Not bad, not bad at all! You only visited Underground World twice, yet you brought back two heads already. Indeed, you possess the magical ability that is suited perfectly to the Underground Cave. Kid, you have a bright future, I have confidence in you! Now tell me, what kind of reward do you want to exchange for these heads?"

The near death experiences of this trip had filled Greem's mind with great anger. A Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake he just crafted had been destroyed by the enemy. This, without a doubt, deeply angered him!

"Elementium core with life aura, it's better if it's of the Earth element, and it should also be at Pseudo-Adept level." Greem gritted his teeth and decided not to hide his talent in crafting golems. After all, he had already exposed the Rock Snake previously. So long as someone paid enough attention to him, that alone was more than enough for them to make some assumption.

If he still laid low like how he did previously, perhaps he wouldn't be as lucky on his next trip to the Underground World.

"Hahaha… two heads, you can exchange them with two Pseudo-Adept level Earth element cores, here you go…" Angus grabbed the two heads, and casually tucked them into a bowl-sized spatial crack that suddenly opened up in front of him. He then pulled out two Earth element cores flashing brightly and tossed them over to Greem. After doing all that, he turned around and left.

The host was now gone, leaving behind the group who were gazing at each other awkwardly.

Greem nodded his head to Sabrina, pulled Mary away, and returned to his very own residence.

Their last journey had made Greem and Mary realize their weakness. Therefore, for the following days, both of them started to get busy on their own, trying all they could in order to supplement their weaknesses.

What Greem could do now was feed himself with the best food, strengthen the foundation of his constitution, and consume a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion every three to five days so that he can restlessly increase his Spirit. As for the two Pseudo-Adept level Earth element cores, they had long ago turned into two brand new Rock Snake Golems.

Mary on the other hand, felt the lack of power behind her attacks and the vulnerability of her resistance. Thus, she spent a huge amount of magic crystals to purchased a pair of 'Cruel Claws', using it to improve her offensive power.

This pair of Cruel Claws was a set of melee finger-cot magical items. The effect attached on the left hand was tearing, while the right hand gave her attacks the effect of bleeding. They were considerably a perfect match to Mary's current abilities. In the middle of a fight, Mary could inject her Blood element energy into these finger-cots, giving them a 2 effect of sharpness.

Besides that, Mary was also wringing her brain out concerning her magic resistance.

It would take a long time for her to train to increase her magic resistance, that's why Mary purchased some small decorative items that could bring her additional magic resistances. If she had an Electric Resistant Necklace which could bring her 2 in electricity resistance, she wouldn't be burned into a big piece of charcoal when she forcefully penetrated through the lightning web in the Underground World.

Greem had given all his magic crystal cards to Mary, therefore Mary, who had her desire of spending unleashed completely, used this fortune and brought back a lot of magic resistance jewelries and magic potions. While Mary was crazily spending Greem's magic crystals, Greem was having a 'passionate and friendly' conversation with the Snorlax in his room.

Snorlax still looked like a green-skinned goblin. The only change it had was a magical collar on its neck, which a few runes could vaguely be seen on top of the collar. It was a special magical item used specifically for imprisoning those demi-humans who refuse to obey its master's command.

A ring of runes was engraved on the inner side of the collar. Three tiny needles that poked into the wearer's neck were present, slowly drawing the magic energy of the wearer in keeping the collar's normal functionality. Any action that causes any damage to the collar would immediately trigger a powerful lightning attack. The same effect applies to the wearer if it moved too far away from its master.

The only way to remove this collar was for the caster to recite a magic spell according to a specific order.

Therefore, after putting the collar on Snorlax upon their return, Greem finally had his mind relax.

It was clear that this extremely intelligent goblin named Snorlax had long gotten used to the life of being a slave, and for that reason, it didn't show any resistance to what Greem had done to it.

[Edited by: DragonFly]

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This was an extremely clever little guy who knew how to understand people's thoughts.

Upon entering Greem's room, it quickly carried out its duty. Taking care of the room's cleanliness, organizing books on the table, wiping off ink stains, washing the quill pen and cleaning the remains of magical experiments, and even helping Greem take off his thick and heavy traveler robe…

In short, all the tasks that a magical slave could do, it had completed them within a very short period of time after it came into the room. After that, it stood politely beside the table, awaiting Greem's command.

Carrying a smile in his eyes and watching how Snorlax completed all these tasks, Greem finally gave out his order in a rather cold manner.

"Tell me about that Adept Pridka!"

The goblin's body trembled slightly, raising its head and taking a peek at the young apprentice who stood opposite to it, but its gaze was caught by Greem's cold and calm glance. This made it shudder, quickly lowering its eyes and began to speak in a stuttered manner.

The story was more or less as what Greem had been expecting. This green-skinned goblin who had the name of Snorlax was indeed a very lucky escaped slave.

In order to tell the whole story, it had to start from fifteen years ago.

To put it simply, that Second Grade Adept Pridka wanted to carry out some kind of soul experiment, so he captured a large group of underground creatures to serve as his magic spell experiment subjects. Like most of the magic spell experiments, this soul experiment was extremely dangerous and difficult to control, thus most of his test subjects eventually died painfully, while only this green-skinned goblin survived.

With regards to the soul experiment, Snorlax didn't have many memories, and most were not complete. But through its brief description, Greem suspected that Second Grade Adept Pridka was trying to perform a soul transfer experiment.

As soul transfer was the only lead to immortality, it was a magic topic that must be researched privately by most of the Adepts who wished for immortality.

As for the Adept's treasure mentioned by Snorlax, it was just one of the many laboratories Adept Pridka built in the Underground World. Since Snorlax accidentally awakened its intelligence during the soul experiment and managed to survive, in order to better observe any changes to its soul, Adept Pridka promoted it to become his personal slave. And out of curiosity, he taught it some magical knowledge.

So, that was when Snorlax learned all three magic spells it knew.

Despite only having the most basic intelligence, Snorlax was actually smart in its own unique way. The reason why it chose these three spells was so that it could escape from the Adept! Even though it didn't have a brilliant brain and vast knowledge like an Adept, but it also knew as a test subject, sooner or later it would have to be cut open on an operating table.

Since the day its intelligence awakened, it had been preparing for its grand escape.

After listening to Snorlax's story, Greem couldn't help and speculate how this goblin must be a very lucky creature that was blessed by the Will of Adept World. After it served the Adept for eleven years, it finally found an opportunity for its great escape.

It happened five years ago during an Underground World clean up mission. The Zhentarim Association sent a large group of Adepts and ambushed Elysium City. Adept Pridka was forced to bring most of the Fallen Adepts and moved to a deeper place underground, while Snorlax was abandoned in the laboratory.

According to normal circumstances, Snorlax would disappear together with the self-destruction of Elysium City. But surprisingly, this lucky fellow was able to escape before the city was destroyed. And so, not knowing anybody, Snorlax had once again become a wild creature that roamed the Underground World.

As for its situation after that, it was rather easy to guess.

Despite the fact that Snorlax mastered a few peculiar magic spells that didn't have much fighting ability, it was not something that could be easily captured by ordinary underground creatures. After wandering in the wild for some time, through its peculiar abilities, Snorlax actually gathered a large group of goblins and established a camp in the shallow region of Underground World, becoming the leader of a goblin colony.

After he listened to Snorlax story, Greem sighed emotionally inside of his heart. This was simply a motivational story of this strange world. But too bad, no marvelous or extraordinary story could move him now. Greem snapped his finger angrily, causing the tiny needles that poked into Snorlax's neck to inject a powerful electricity into its body.

In next moment, dark smoke started to billow out from Snorlax's body, as it fell to the ground, its body twitching.

"Hmph, your story is indeed motivational, and is pleasant to hear. But tell me, what benefits can I get after putting all that effort to save you? Do you think I just want to listen to your fucking fantasy story?" The enraged Greem kept roaring at Snorlax, showing a look that seemed as if he was about to rip this goblin into pieces.

"Mas… master… I.. I can… I can give you a magic spell laboratory of a Second Grade Adept!" Snorlax proved itself to be a tough creature who had both thick skin and strong guts, even though it was facing a threat to its life, its eyes and mouth twitching due to the electricity, it was still able to smoothly say its life-saving statement.

"Where's that laboratory?"

"In Elysium City!"

"Fuck! Damn you, goblin! Do you think a surface apprentice like me can freely enter Elysium City, the place where all Fallen Adepts come together in crowds? Do you want to taste electricity again?"

"Master, I was referring to the ruins of the old Elysium City, not the current one!" Greatly terrified by Greem, Snorlax nearly used up all of its strength in yelling out this sentence.

"Oh? Give me more details!"

"I didn't really understand what the exact scenario was, but all I know is one thing, Elysium City had been destroyed three times before. Whenever the surface Adepts came to the Underground Cave, the Elysium City would be destroyed. After that, those Fallen Adepts will find another location and rebuild a brand new city. The Elysium City I mentioned to you just now is the ruins of the previous Elysium City after it was destroyed in the last war. The current Elysium City is built after that."

"After it went through a massive self-destruction, would there still be anything left?" Greem pretentiously said in a disdainful manner.

"Master, master! The laboratory built by Adept Pridka was protected by the strongest magical arrays. Although it's impossible for it to remain completely intact, but I'm sure there will be some leftover resources. The resources that can be found there are left by a Second Grade Adept, though it might just be in a small quantity, but it's still worth the risk!"

Greem quieted down.

"Chip, analyze the truthfulness of what Snorlax said."

"Beep. Data analysis completed… Preliminary results show what it said is true… The reference data included: 'The Chronicles of Underground Cave', 'The Secrets of Underground Creatures', 'Bibliography of Fallen Adepts'… Note: When the creature mentioned the laboratory in the ruins, an abnormal spiritual ripple was detected. The analysis shows there is something it needs in that place…"

"Hmph, it can also be the chance for it to once again escape from the hands of someone else!" Greem had this thought in his mind.

Of course, all these were secrets that was hidden within Greem's mind. Externally, he had his face covered with a bright smile and raised Snorlax from the ground, vowing solemnly that, so long as it could bring Greem to the laboratory, he would set it free and reward it with a huge sum of magic crystals.

In order to win over the heart of this new minion, Greem spent a big sum of his fortune and ordered the daily noble meal set for it. Therefore, while Greem was happily enjoying his magical energy meal set, Snorlax was also squatting at a corner of the room, devouring the delicacies like a wolf.

After both of them came to an agreement, Snorlax had also 'committed' itself to become Greem's servant. After it was promoted, the first thing Greem did was threw it into the bathroom and gave it a thorough wash.

In the Underground World, all resources were rare and precious, and these goblins had no habit of washing themselves regularly. That's why Greem wasn't able to stand the stinking smell that continuously emitted from its body. In order to get rid of this pungent smell, Greem had purposely purchased a bottle of deodorant, using it to thoroughly wash Snorlax from top to bottom.

Afterwards, when Snorlax stood in front of Greem, it actually looked cute and adorable like those green-skinned cartoons in Greem's previous life.

"Alright, now show me all of your abilities!"

"Master, which one do you want to look at first?"

"Show me your Camouflage Spell!"

Snorlax pulled out a small old wooden stick from its waist, then quietly recited some magic spells, and afterwards used the stick to point at its own body. Following the radiant glow of magical rays, the skin color of Snorlax turned exactly like the color of the floor. When it lied down on its stomach at a corner of the room, one could easily overlook its existence.

"How about the Partial Transformation spell?"

Hearing what Greem said, Snorlax made its ears stand erect as they slowly twisted and transformed into a withered flower. Although it wasn't flawless, but it still looked like the real thing. It wasn't easy to tell the difference with just one look.

"Good!" Greem nodded his head, and then said, "Invisibility?"

Snorlax shook its body, dismissing all abnormal transformations present. Following a murmur of an invocation, its wooden stick flickered as its body suddenly turned incorporeal. Five seconds later, it simply vanished into thin air.

Greem turned his head over and gave it a careful observation. If he didn't have his Elementium Vision and if Snorlax could move more nimbly, the result of this Invisibility spell would be pretty good.

"Take a few steps!"

A row of marks of water suddenly appeared on the floor. Snorlax took a bath previously, and that's the water that remained on its body.

Tracing its movement, Greem could vaguely see an abnormal reflection of light. But when it stopped, the abnormality instantly disappeared.

"Here, hold this book!" Greem directly grabbed a book and gave it to Snorlax.

Initially, the book floated all alone in midair, making it look really bizarre. But after five seconds passed by, it started to turn intangible and finally vanished without a trace.

"Oh? You can also hold foreign objects and make them invisible as well! Are there any limitations to such foreign objects?" Greem asked curiously.

"Firstly, it can't be a living object. Secondly, its size cannot be bigger than one fifth of my body size." Snorlax's answers didn't go beyond Greem's expectation. A magic spell with such excellent results always come with very strict restrictions.

Greem hesitated for a moment, and then finally decided to give up the idea of learning this Invisibility spell.

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The most orthodox path that was directly in front of Greem was doubtlessly furthering his research on the magic spell knowledge related to his elemental affinity – Fire. Understanding this knowledge could help him when he breaks through the threshold of an Adept in the future. Meanwhile, the ability to craft golems, which currently was the greatest help to him, was considered unorthodox, as it deviated from the right path he chose.

The relationship between them was like the relation between 'Dao' and 'Technique' in his previous life.

The 'Dao' was the path of development he chose for himself and was also the ultimate goal he would spend the rest of his life with in restless exploration. While 'Technique' was merely the tricks used in order to achieve some smaller goals, it was just an auxiliary method.

Although Greem only mastered a handful of fire element magic spells at this point of time, and their power wasn't sufficient to deal with the current enemies he had to face, but that was still Greem's 'Dao'. In order to avoid any deviation happening in his future Adept path, Greem had to spend a huge amount of time immersing himself in studying them, trying his best in mastering the characteristics and rules of the Fire element. Only by doing so, could he get hold of his very own 'Dao'.

As for the Golem, for a short period of time, maybe it could allow Greem to rise above his peers, bringing him limitless glory with its formidable power. But after all, something like this was just a trick, it did not conform to his 'Dao'. Therefore, he could use it to his heart's content or use it to seize the resources he needed, but if he really wanted to become an Adept in future, he couldn't slack in his research of Fire element magic spells.

For most people, it was tough to have both the Dao and Technique in their path, thus they could only choose one. But for Greem, there wasn't any problem at all. After all, he had the help of the Chip. The most time-consuming task in magic spells research was the accumulation and analysis of data, which he could leave for the Chip to handle. What he just needed to do was wait for the final essence of knowledge derived by the Chip, and merge them into his own path of magic.

Therefore, the difference between the Dao and Technique wasn't that obvious when it comes to Greem.

Greem's Spirit had reached the level of an Intermediate Apprentice, which allowed him to have six solidified magic spell models in his Spiritual Domain. Currently, he already had four solidified magic spells: The Burning Hand, Fire Arrow, Flaming Spear, and Fire Shield.

Therefore, it became difficult to decide which way he should go in researching Fire element magic spell. Currently, Greem took fancy to two magic spells, Flame Body and Molten Ball.

Flame Body allowed Greem's body to house more Fire Elementium, while it would greatly improve his Fire element resistance, it was also the only path which leads him to the advance magic – Fire Elementium Modification. But in order to master this spell, besides from the continuous research of Fire element magic, he also needs to learn the knowledge of anatomy and its variation.

Molten Ball, as the name implied, was a magic spell that merged a huge amount of Fire Elementium and Earth Elementium together, forming into a huge fireball of one meter in diameter. It could inflict Earth element damage to the enemy during its flight, and had the effect of knockback. And once it was detonated by the spell caster, it could also inflict a massive Fire element damage. Thus, it was an AoE, dual element damage magic spell.

But in order to master it, Greem also needs to have some understanding of the Earth element.

If only taking the offensive aspect of a magic spell into consideration, no doubt Molten Ball was the most appropriate choice. Greem had already mastered the Burning Hand, which was a close-ranged magic spell, while he had Fire Arrow and Flaming Spear that covered his long-ranged offensive ability. Unfortunately, both of them were magic spells that only attack a single target, that's why he really need an AoE spell to supplement his lacking offensive strength.

But considering his future, if Greem really wanted to have some achievements in the path of a Fire element Adept, he would need to have both Focused Wizardry and Elementium Body sooner or later. Thus, laying a proper foundation now could bring him greater help in the future.

With just a slight hesitation, Greem made up his mind and chose the Flame Body.

If it was any other Apprentice Adept, when faced with a similar situation, aside from considering their future, they also had to take their current situation into consideration. Flame Body could bring an improvement to his Fire element affinity and also a rapid increase of his Fire resistance, but it didn't bring any notable help to magic battles between apprentices.

Once an apprentice is killed in battle by an enemy of the same rank, there would be no future left to consider. That's why even though the right path of magic was clearly in front of them, in order to survive in the endless battles many apprentices were forced to give up on their future, choosing to maximize their battle power.

But this wasn't a problem for Greem at all.

Because of the Chip, crafting Golems which seemed profound and difficult to master to others was a piece of cake for Greem. So, with the protection of his Golem army, he could totally ignore the threat brought by his enemies, while optimizing his path of magic as much as he like.

Since he had made up his mind in learning Flame Body, Greem had to pay a visit to the library of Adept Tower, and purchase some books for elementary knowledge of anatomy and variation. Fortunately, this type of knowledge were only the elementary subjects for Necromancer, so long he had enough magic crystal, he would be able to purchase them. If it involved the more profound and advance knowledge of Spiritual Mutation and Spiritual Elementium, perhaps Greem would have to pay a visit to those official Adepts, and only then could he gather the relevant knowledge he needs.

Throughout this hectic process, Snorlax had been reverently holding all magic spell books its master purchased, following behind Greem like a loyal servant. Though some Apprentice Adepts who passed by were greatly puzzled by the presence of this green-skinned goblin in the Adept Tower, but when they saw the glittering collar worn on Snorlax's neck, they immediately understood its status.

For the sake of offsetting their magic spell weakness, some apprentices would gather and enslave some demon beasts or demons. But most of them were creatures with powerful combat ability such as the Nightsaber Leopard, Rock Tortoise, Flaming Tiger, Socrates Condor, etc. It was rare for someone to have a green-skinned goblin as his servant.

As Snorlax had been the servant of a Second Grade Adept, clearly it had the experience in facing such situations. Thus, not only did it not look nervous, instead, it immediately put itself into the position of a loyal servant. It even went as far as helping Greem negotiate the price with the vendor, and find pleasure in it.

After having experienced a similar situation a few times, Greem was surprised to find out that not only does Snorlax have a good grasp of the market prices, it also had a very good eloquence, both abilities could absolutely make it into an outstanding profiteering merchant.

Since the discovery, Greem simply delegated his authority to Snorlax. Whenever he had anything he needs, he would just give Snorlax a list of items and his magic crystal card, asking it to be fully in charge of the purchase. After that, Greem would shut himself in his room, spending all of his time in studying the magic knowledge transferred to him by the Chip.

Also, in order to improve its enthusiasm, Greem even had an agreement with Snorlax, he would pay all the items he needed according to the market price, and any discount Snorlax obtained after the negotiation with the merchant would become its personal reward.

With this reward scheme, Snorlax who never owned anything personal had instantly turned crazy, transforming itself into the greatest profiteering merchant in this Adept Tower. Everyday, it would spend all of its time befriending with a group of Beginner Apprentices.

Surprisingly, Snorlax did have its own unique ideas and innate talents with regards to the price fluctuations in the market. Buying at a low price and selling at a high price, hoarding and profiteering, jacking up prices… all these complicated commercial approaches only a human could master, it had learned them within just a few days, using them to thrive in its own business.

Soon, all of the Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices in the first level of Adept Tower were aware of this goblin merchant whose name was Snorlax, and it even carried an array of unique items that can hardly be found by ordinary people. Consequently, it had further set off its mysterious and strange background.

What to do? Both underground guys killed by Greem and Mary were Advanced Fallen Adepts, thus their equipment and magic items weren't something ordinary Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices would normally see. So when Greem gave all these items to Snorlax and asked it to settle them itself, it became even more confident in running its business.

Yes, after Snorlax became well-known in the apprentice market located on the first floor, it had bought itself a full set of costume using the magic crystals it earned. An exquisite, luxurious magical robe, a full set of glittering magical equipment, though they were mostly equipment of low quality primarily used by Beginner Apprentices, but having a full set of this costume could still dazzle the eyes of the general public.

Together with a finely made magic wand and a magic cape that trailed behind its body. Whenever it appeared in the apprentice market, it would always attract waves of greetings.

The reason why so many Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices became its fans was because of the Third and Fourth Grade magical items it took out occasionally. As these were all premium wares that no ordinary apprentice could easily find.

During the course of running its business, it was naturally greeted by a few market enforcers that came aggressively and asked Snorlax to pay taxes. But when Snorlax hinted at them the name of its master, the guy named Ryan had no other choice but to go away in dejection. Obviously, through the family that supported him, that Ryan learned the glorious story of Greem in the training camp. That's why so long as Snorlax don't push things too far, Ryan wouldn't find fault with it as he didn't want to let the family behind him offend an elite apprentice who was rising fast like a rocket.

But there was no way ordinary apprentices could have known this. Instead, Ryan's unusual behavior further attracted the curiosity of the public, making them continue finding out who master behind Snorlax was. But no one seemed to know the answer.

Consequently, a rumor suddenly spread secretly between apprentices, that this Snorlax might be the servant of an official Adept. Hence, encouraged by these strange rumors, Snorlax's business became extremely prosperous!

Greem, who knew nothing about all of these, was currently shutting himself in his room, seriously working out on his future path.

Since he had decided to study Flame Body first, thus in the short run, there wouldn't be any notable improvements to his combat strength. If he wanted to maintain his advantage in the Underground Cave, he has to fully dig out the combat potential of his golems.

Serving as his ride, Demon Alligator Hunter's excellent ability to travel beneath the soil had let Greem established his competitive advantage. But the lack of offensive ability was still its weakness. It was more than enough to deal with an Intermediate Apprentice, but when it comes to an Advanced Apprentice, its ability falls short. And if were to face a Pseudo-Adept, the overly loose body structure made it unable withstand even just a single blow.

Now, the arrival of the Rock Snake had made up for the weakness of having insufficient offensive power. A Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake alone might not be enough to fight with an agile Pseudo-Adept, but how about two Rock Snakes? Or maybe three?

With a great determination and effort, it only took Greem three days to turn two new Pseudo-Adept level Earth element cores into two brand new Rock Snakes. With the protection from both of them, if he were to face with the very same Fallen Pseudo-Adepts from the previous encounter, he wouldn't be beaten into such a sorry state like last time, which nearly cost him his life in the Underground World.

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After a period of research, Greem had roughly discovered some new techniques in using his Golems.

The Demon Alligator Hunter was an Advanced Apprentice level Golem; using it would occupy two points of his Spirit. Such occupancy would last as long as the Golem is still in use. Meanwhile, the Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake would occupy three points of his Spirit. This also meant that if Greem go all out in battle, with his eleven points of Spirit (Circlet of Nobility gave him 1 in Spirit), he could only maintain one Demon Alligator Hunter and two Rock Snakes in the battlefield.

After all, he still needed to conserve some Spirit in order to cast necessary magic spells.

This was the best result after extensive calculations of the Chip and the advantage brought by the unique magical arrays, which had greatly reduced the Spirit requirement of the golems. If it was some other magical golem that was ordinarily made, with Greem's current Spirit, he would only be able to maintain a single Rock Snake for his battles.

One of the main reason for such situations is often caused by the unique characteristics of a Golem.

Golems and those commonly seen Titans were different.

Titans were human-liked creations with a fixed body created using huge amounts of rare resources. Because they have massive builds, there's plenty of space on their bodies allowing the creator to draw all kinds of magical runes and special magic arrays. Naturally, a creation produced with this method had the Spirit requirement for its user reduced to the minimum level.

In most cases, during a battle, the user only needed to give the Titan the simplest commands which it will follow unless otherwise ordered, and then the user could relinquish his control afterwards.

But Golems were different. Before they were summoned, they didn't have a fixed body, its manifestation was similar to magical summoning, with the only difference of having a Golem replacing the random outworld creature that would have been summoned. This was the reason why a Golem would consume Greem's Spirit when it was in use.

Also, a Golem doesn't have a massive body that could let its creator freely put his talent in magical arrays to use. In order to carve a sufficient amount of control-type magical arrays and energy system in the chicken egg-sized Elementium core, it was simply an extremely strict challenge to the skill of the Golem creator.

To be honest, with the help of the Chip, Greem being capable of creating powerful Rock Snake Golems was already a jaw-dropping achievement.

Comparing the combat strength of both creations, the Titan, which possessed a unique body was no doubt stronger than a Golem who was summoned temporarily. But since the beginning, Greem could only create Golems but not a Titan, the main reason was… Titans occupied a huge amount of space, and it was not convenient to carry around.

Take the cheapest Clay Titan as an example. A Clay Titan which wasn't equipped with any magical equipment already weigh three hundred kilograms, standing at 2.4 meters tall. A giant like this was indeed powerful, but how was Greem going to bring it into a battlefield?

Even in non-combat mode, a big guy like this was near impossible to pack and carry around. Also, its massive weight would mean a consumption of a lot of magic energy, thus, depending on the Titan's ability to absorb the magical Elementium in the air wasn't dependable as it wasn't enough to supply its need in combat.

Therefore, a Titan which possessed a fixed body was more likely to be used as a guardian for an Adept Tower or some important magical equipment. During normal times, they would be hidden in a secret spatial void, motionless. Making their magical energy consumption be at the lowest level. Whenever they were needed for a battle, the preset alert mechanism would then activate them, and then churn them out from the void in order to repulse the enemy or annihilate the intruder.

To achieve all these, it required the support of a massive energy storage inside of an Adept Tower.

With all these characteristics, it has been decided that Greem could only fight with the help of Golems. After all, bringing an egg size core everywhere he went was so much easier and concealable than bringing along a Titan which could shake the earth with every step it takes.

As a result, in order to maximize the help of the Golems, while Greem continued to improve the fighting potential of his Golems, he's also trying his best in increasing his Spirit. After all, his Spirit was directly related to the number of Golems he could use in his future battles.

That's why, on the fourth day after his safe return to the Adept Tower, and after his Physique increased to 3.82, he consumed another bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion. This time, it added 0.7 to Greem's Spirit, slightly lower than the previous increase of 0.75.

By continuously consuming the same type of magic potion, the result it yielded the next time would be lesser, until it had no more effect to its consumer. This was a normal phenomenon that had been thoroughly researched by Adepts, and no one could do anything about it.

The reason behind this phenomenon was because of the body's natural resistance to drugs. After consuming the same type of magical potion for a long period of time, the residue of the drug that was hard to remove would accumulate in the body, reducing the magical effect of the same drug. Though this was a progressive process, but it did exist.

So, after consuming the Mind Concentrating Potion, Greem's body attributes were as below.

Compared to last time, Greem's Spirit had gained an increase of 1.07. 0.70 was gained through the Mind Concentrating Potion, while 0.37 was earned through the magical energy meal set and his daily meditation. Based on a rough calculation, if this 1.07 of increment was exchanged into magic crystals, it would cost around 350-400 magic crystals.

This numerical figure had made Greem believe that a successful Apprentice Adept was indeed fostered by a huge amount of magic crystals.It was noon time. After finishing a tiring business deal in the morning, the most successful goblin merchant in the Adept Tower could be seen walking at a brisk pace toward its own room.

Ever since it earned its first barrels of gold from Greem, Snorlax had rented a room beside its master's residence as its own cozy home. Every day, it was only to report the daily result to its master at the evening, then it could spend the rest of the day at its leisure.

Having a good night's sleep, counting the money until its hands cramp.

To be honest, a pleasant life like this was the perfect lifestyle it had always dreamed of. However, this dream was never realized when it was following the Second Grade Adept, it also never came true when it was still roaming in the Underground World, but instead, its dream was actually realized after it became the follower of an Apprentice Adept.

For that reason, for the past few days, it had become totally insane, spending all its day bustling around.

During daytime, it would spend all of its time in the apprentice market, using its eloquence and innate talent to earn a steady stream of magic crystals. At the evening, after enjoying its meal, it would dwell inside of its simple room, counting all the magic crystals it earned during daytime over and over again. In fact, every night it was sleeping in the middle of all the magic crystals it earned.

But the smart Snorlax also knew one thing, it was that mysterious master behind it that gave it all these. Without the financial support and total delegation of this mysterious master, it was just a green-skinned goblin that was looked down by all Apprentice Adepts. It wouldn't even have the right to yell in the middle of these apprentices.

Despite spending all day and surrounding Snorlax with honeyed words, it could still see that deep inside of the Beginner Apprentices' eyes, there was still a hint of disdain that cannot be hidden by them. What they respected was not Snorlax, but the mysterious master was behind it.

Despite having extraordinary talent, without a powerful master as the clever goblin's backup, the only ending for it would be being pushed onto the ground, having its face branded with the mark of a slave, then thrown into the dark and wet dungeon, feeding on the leftover food of humans, yet carrying out tedious and laborious jobs.

Snorlax was aware of all these, because before it was chosen as the test subject by the master Adept, that was the life it went through!

Compared to that, although its current master wasn't as powerful as the previous one, but after indulging in such a lifestyle, it had never even thought of escape anymore. Most of the time, it even kept hoping that a lifestyle like this could last forever!

Filling its mind with endless fantasies, it used the rune talisman tied around its waist and a magical password to open up the door of its room. But upon entering, it was immediately stopped by a strong smell of blood.

In just one morning, its room had transformed into a bloody and frightening slaughter house. Meanwhile, its lovely yet mysterious master was seen standing in front of a bloody autopsy table, seriously examining a strange body that had been dissected completely.

He was seen holding a dissecting knife, wearing a pair of deerskin gloves fully stained with blood, and a long white robe that was covered in blood as well. It wasn't hard to tell that he was busy working on an autopsy experiment.

It looked like its master was a rookie in the biological autopsy.

Even though Snorlax never personally dissected any creature, but it had spent a long time in the laboratory of a Second Grade Adept. Influenced by what it saw during that period of time, Snorlax actually possessed a richer knowledge in autopsy than Greem. If it was a necromancer apprentice, he would never make an autopsy experience into such a bloody scene.

Which part to cut, how to avoid the blood vessels of the creature, all these were the basic skills of a necromancer apprentice, thus it was impossible to drag himself into such a messy state. Therefore, Snorlax was sure that it must be the first time its master carried out such an autopsy experiment.

As the loyal servant of its master, how could it just sit back and ignore the awkward situation its master was facing right now?

Moving over a small stool, Snorlax climbed up on it and started to passionately give advice and suggestions to its master, it wasn't even afraid of being dirty and personally helped out to move the body of Lizardman so that its master could dissect the creature on a better position.

Surprisingly, Snorlax actually turned into a tutor who possessed an excellent magical knowledge, wittingly or unwittingly starting to guide Greem on his first ever autopsy experience. Of course, because of the patience of the teacher, and the devoutness of the learner, none of them actually felt anything wrong with their current roles.

Therefore, with the 'assistance' of Snorlax, Greem smoothly completed his first autopsy exercise.

It was right until Greem satisfyingly removed his deerskin glove, throwing them together with his long white robe into a dustbin beside the autopsy table, did Snorlax suddenly realize its 'rude' behavior. It quickly rush off the small wooden stool, squatting down beside the stool and waited for the punishment of its master.

"You've done great today. It looks like you learned quite a lot of things from that Second Grade Adept. I'll have you as my assistant in my future autopsy exercises." Greem gave Snorlax a warm smile, and then continued saying, "Get up! Do you really think I'll punish you for something that you never did wrong, just because of my pride? Alright, clean up the place, it's time for lunch!"

Conveniently tossing away the rubbish in his hand, Greem turned around and returned to his own room, leaving behind Snorlax who had a blank expression.

Looking over its shoulder at the bloody 'slaughter house', it sniffed the pungent smell of blood and after thinking for some time, Snorlax finally understood why its master didn't want to put this autopsy station in his own room.

He must be afraid the smell would affect his appetite!

This was a really special master. Snorlax murmured inwardly.

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The Underground World had been in turmoil recently.

This was the message that Kevin had specifically brought when he had paid Greem a visit.

Of course, Kevin hadn't visited him just to inform him of this message, but to also bring along the chief officer of Lothar Merchant who had been stationed in this place. The purpose for their visit was to purchase those Blood Garnets that had been awarded to Greem and Mary in mine number seven.

Having spent some time identifying them, Greem determined that these Blood Garnets were rather special magical materials. Those that were mainly used in crafting some types of unique magical items, however, they were of no help to the Golem that he needed now. Perhaps because of this, Greem briskly gave all six Blood Garnets that he and Mary had owned to the Lothar Merchant and let them handle the sale.

As for the fee, Greem had not asked for magic crystals, but instead had requested them to exchange all the profits into Pseudo-Adept level Elementium cores. In response to his request, the chief officer had agreed with a smile all over his face.

Since Greem had been willing to give away his Blood Garnet, the chief officer was able to complete his half-yearly target. Additionally, since Greem didn't accept the magic crystals and was willing to exchange them for Elementium cores with Lothar Merchant, the chief officer was able to complete two transactions in one go! How could he not be happy?

The reason why Greem had acted so briskly earlier was because he had found out that this Lothar Merchant was supported by the Adept Angus whom he had been dealing with this entire time and that both Kevin and Adept Angus had belonged to the same family – the Byron family.

Due to these two reasons, Greem had agreed to the request of this chief officer without any hesitation, as it would also serve as a friendly gesture towards the Adept Angus.

To reciprocate Greem's friendly gesture, before leaving with satisfaction, Kevin showed a warmer attitude to their friendship. Secretly, he told Greem that if there was anything in the future that Greem wasn't able to solve by himself, Greem could definitely pay a visit to Adept Angus. Regardless of whether it was the purchase of knowledge or exchange of resources, Adept Angus would be sure to give him the best discount!

In less than half a day, the Pseudo-Adept level Elementium cores that Greem had requested were delivered to him. There was a total of four Elementium cores, one of the Earth element, two of the Water element and one of the Wind element. In addition to the cores, he also received map of the entire Underground World which clearly marked every detail that had been discovered so far. However, this map could only be used as a reference, because it was very tough to perfectly line it up with the actual terrain and one needed to consider the changes in terrain.

Greem had finally understood that the only thing that could help him establish the competitive advantage in future battles was a large quantity of Golems. There were many benefits that the Golems brought: they were convenient and fast, easy to hide, and could be owned in large quantities. If the conditions permitted, Greem even wished that he could build an army of Golems that would obey his every single command.

If anyone so much as looked at him the wrong, he wouldn't need to take care of them himself. With just with a signal from his eyes, a swarm of Golems would flood the enemy in an instant.

Of course, such fantasy could only be realized in the distant future. As for now, however, he could only continue carefully crafting his team of Golems.

Yes, Greem had already had a tentative idea – using a variety of Golems and combining different tactics to effectively use the full combat force for each type of Golem. Since he had spent most of his time in the Underground World recently, he preferred to craft more Earth element Golems. However, considering the potential changes to the future battlefields he would encounter, he would have to prepare in advance.

The Water and Wind element Golems were in preparation for his future.

Especially a Wind element Golem, owning one of them meant that Greem would had a free flying demon pet, thus he would no longer have to worry about traveling long distances anymore.

After the Chip had scanned those Elementium cores, Greem ordered it to start drafting the most suitable design for the Golems. Once this had commenced in an orderly fashion, Greem took the crystal ball and quietly gave the data and records stored inside a thorough study.

Within the dark screen, he could only see bright dots on the uppermost layer. Even though it was just the uppermost layer, it had still been completely formed by numerous winding and twisting tunnels, cracks, secret passages, valleys, and water channels. Countless caves and caverns were marked in between making them look like the dazzling stars in the night sky. While there were innumerable passages that connected all locations, most of them were impassable by normal human beings.

On this map, the spaces where one was only allowed to stay temporarily were marked in green, while the passable passages were marked with tiny blue lines. In between those dense and complicated arrays of blue and green were countless glowing red dots. These were the rough distribution of the currently known underground creatures, colonies and demons.

Of course, in this three-dimensional map of the uppermost layer of Underground Cave, Greem wasn't find any information related to the ruin of Elysium City.

For this reason, Greem called upon Snorlax and asked it to point to the exact location of that Adept treasure. After spending half a day seriously studying the map, Snorlax finally pointed to a region. Greem didn't see any indication of a city in that region. Instead, he saw a large patch of red that represented danger.

In the Underground World, there were many regions filled with dangers that made no outsider want to step into them. Usually, either those regions had a harsh natural environment that no apprentice would be able to endure or they housed some extremely dangerous demons. No matter the reason, they were all dangerous regions that all Apprentice Adepts had to handle with extreme care.

Looking at the dazzling red glow on the map, Greem couldn't help but start to hesitate.

Judging from the brightness of the color, the region was a dead zone where even Pseudo-Adepts would be faced with danger. Hence, when Snorlax pointed at it without the slightest hesitation, it seemed rather logical that it was the right place.

Since the ancient era, Adepts liked to build all sorts of laboratories in their own residence. From Snorlax's description, Greem could tell that this Second Grade Adept had been an expert in biological modification. However, once his laboratory was abandoned, there was a very high chance that those mutants, golems and the magical energy that had been stored in the laboratory could irreversibly contaminate that particular region.

It would have been fine if those mutants or modified creatures had died, but if a powerful fellow was lucky enough to have survived, those Apprentice Adepts who went to explore the region would be facing a frightening monster similar to an Adept. Though Snorlax claimed it knew the magical password for some of the laboratories, the potential risk still held Greem back.

While Greem was hesitating, a message from Snorlax boosted his confidence to take the risk.

A Fire Lord's Scepter!

There was actually a Fire Lord's Scepter in a secret chamber of that Second Grade Adept!

For others, this Fire Lord's Scepter was merely a powerful magical item that could summon three Pseudo-Adept level Fire Spirits every day. But for Greem, it had an inexplicably special use.

With Greem's elemental affinity of Fire, he could totally use this scepter to construct a Teleportation Gate to get to Fire Elementium Plane. By doing so, he would have an endless supply of Fire element cores. And once his overall strength reached a powerful stage, he could even try to occupy a territory in the Fire Elementium Plane and become a true Fire Lord himself.

Putting aside everything else, just take those Elementium cores that Greem had been gathering. Perhaps most of them weren't even produced in his own plane, but were harvested from those other Elementium Planes.

The entire multiverse was boundless and deep. It was completely filled with elemental energies that came in all forms, which would eventually compose into a vast ocean of energy. Meanwhile, different planes were like islands – isolated from each other and floating in this vast ocean of energy.

Each plane was a completely different world of its own – from earth, mountains, rivers to oceans, sky and living beings, nothing was lacking. But, when each plane was born, they were mixed with an imbalanced Elementium energies, thus making each plane show a totally different and unique characteristic.

The plane where the world of Adept resided was a major one that was extremely suitable for the survival of living things. However, when the control of the plane fell into the hands of Adept who rose abruptly, the characteristics of the plane had changed as well and deviated towards the chaotic yet powerful energy of magic.

And as for the Elementium Planes mentioned just now, when they were born, they resided in a region where a single Elementium gathered. Hence, when these planes had matured, they became a plane with a single Elementium.

In an ordinary material plane, the distribution of Elementium matters would be nearly balanced. Earth Elementium gathered together forming mountains, hills, plains and different terrains. Water Elementium gathered together to form into streams, lakes, and ocean. Wind Elementium brought clouds, rains, thunder and lightning to material planes, while Fire Elementium brought lava, volcanoes, and life.

Due to the collection of these Elementiums, it gave birth to numerous perfect material worlds that flourish and became the breeding ground for all living things.

Elementium Planes, on the other hand, weren't like these worlds.

Take the Fire Elementium Plane that attracted Greem the most. Although there were mountains, hills, oceans and lakes, the basic Elementium that constructed them all were Fire Elementium. Inside of that plane, the mountain, the ocean, even the sky was on fire.

Of course, a world like this was not suitable for the survival of normal living things, but it actually gave birth to Fire element creatures that used Fire element energy as their source of life: Fire Spirits, Fire Giants, Lava Hounds, Fire Deities, Fire Hawks, Magma Core Giants, Fire Demons, Fire Element Elders, Fire Lords, Fire Kings… It was a world ruled by Fire element creatures and similar to the human world, they also had a well-structured ruling hierarchy, based on the overall strength of each individual.

If Greem really wished to have a great achievement in the Fire element, then sooner or later, he would have to visit the Fire Elementium Plane.

The World of Adept was, after all, a major plane in itself. As invading and occupying was an Adept's second nature, an Adept loved to search for new material planes in the vast ocean of stars. Once they found one, they would invade them straightaway, pulling them onto the bandwagon of planes that kept expanding at a rapid rate.

Even with the cruel and ruthless characteristic of Adepts, though they had long found the coordinates of these Elementium Planes, not even one Adept ever dreamt of conquering an Elementium Plane and making it into an auxiliary plane of the Adept World. The reason was that all these Elementium Planes were frightening major planes. Just judging from their overall strength alone, if the Adept World really connected these Elementium Planes, perhaps the happiest party would be those unambitious Elementium creatures.

At that point in time, perhaps it would not be not the Adepts who would happily carve up the massive resources of Elementium Planes, but the countless Elementium creatures who would swarm into the Adept World and turn this place into a brand new Elementium Plane.

Therefore, in the rules of the Adept World, all Adepts held a very careful attitude when managing the Teleportation Gate that connected to any major plane. Because even the slightest mismanage could have devastating consequences!

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Although it was impossible to verify in the meantime if the treasure of the Adept that was mentioned by Snorlax was real, it was still totally worth it to take some risks just for it.

After all, for Greem who was giving his all in becoming an official Adept, an item which a Second Grade Adept turned his nose up might be a priceless treasure that he couldn't even buy with a hefty price. Therefore, after roughly determining the location of that ruined Elysium City, Greem started planning on how he could go there and find out the actual situation on site.

Judging from the location displayed on the map, it was located in the innermost area of the shallow layers in the Underground Cave. The distance between it and the surface was just seventeen miles as the crow flies, but it was deep within core area with abundant underground creatures. According to the data on the map, there existed a few large colonies of underground creatures that could be found at the surrounding area of the suspected site, including many powerful underground creatures which wandered around in the Underground World.

(DragonFly: As the crow flies means the shortest path between two points in a map, disregarding the vagaries of intervening terrain)

If he really wanted to explore the area, lacking a proper preparation wouldn't be anything different from putting himself on a silver plate and placing in front of those evil and cruel creatures!

For the past few days, Mary was quite busy in strengthening and improving her overall strength, and had been running her feet off all day. When Greem finally found an opportunity to tell her about his plan, unlike her usual impulsive temper, she didn't jump on board and agree to Greem's idea. Instead, with a very calm manner, she told Greem that she had found herself a way to improve her combat strength, and was currently busy working on it, thus she couldn't join him in this mission.

Therefore, Greem naturally handed over the control of Snorlax to Mary, asking her to keep an eye on this cunning little guy, while he focused all of his attention on preparing the resources he needed for the Underground World expedition.

When he finally had everything ready, Greem paid a visit to Kevin, informing him that he was going to find some Dark Grasses in the Underground World, using it as an excuse to sneak into the Underground Cave.Honestly saying, the Underground Cave wasn't a place suitable for travel and sightseeing.

For any surface creature who were still mentally sound that stepped into the Underground Cave for the first time, the biggest change in behavior they showed was an extremely oppressive emotion. Whenever they thought of the possibility that there were thousands of tons of dirt and rocks above their head which might collapse and flood them at any moment, no creature could remain calm as they usually do in the surface. Meanwhile, in the Underground Cave, any irrational behavior would have the possibility to expose one's whereabout, which in turn would attract a swarm of predators.

For the sake of this trip, Greem had gone all out. Besides from the Demon Alligator Hunter he was riding with, he also had three Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snakes placed in his waist pouch. If he really bumped into some enemies that he need to fight, he would risk his life and unleashed all three Rock Snakes at once. With that, he didn't believe there would still be any enemy that could stop him from fleeing with his life intact.

As for the two Water element cores and two Wind element cores, Greem was still in the process of refining the design for their magical arrays. He estimated that he would have some results after the end of this trip to the Underground World.

Upon entering the boundary of Underground Cave, Greem immediately summoned the Demon Alligator Hunter and sunk into the soil, following the direction shown on the map and kept venturing deeper into the ground. Every time after he traveled for some distances, Greem would always drive Demon Alligator Hunter to squeeze out into a random dark tunnel, making sure he was still on the right course.

Using such method, in just slightly over three hours, Greem had already reached the depth of about ten miles under the ground. But the deeper he went, the slower the speed he could travel underground.

Huge chunks of metal ores, large stretches of rock formations, all these had become the obstacles that Greem couldn't penetrate through while he was traveling in the soil. Inside the soil where no light was present, Greem's spiritual sense could, at most, cover a distance of nearly twenty meters. Trying to find a path that led straight to his destination under such circumstances was no doubt extremely difficult.

Therefore, after running into rock walls several times, Greem had no choice but leave the soil and enter into a random tunnel. What to do? When traveling in a totally unfamiliar region like this, using the ready-made tunnels that were excavated by the underground creatures was so much more easier than poking his nose randomly in the pitch-black sea of soil.

Inside the dark and wet tunnel, Greem took out his crystal ball, and used it to once again confirm his current position. After that, he continued his journey following the path of a tunnel descending into a path of darkness.

Sitting high up on the flat back of the Demon Alligator, Greem could be seen wearing a thick and sturdy traveler robe, with the Circlet of Nobility mounted on his forehead, while his eyes were hidden behind a pair of strange looking Gnome Goggles. Through the night vision of the goggles and his Elementium Vision that could see through all Elementium, the tunnel had turned into a totally different and bizarre world inside of Greem's eyes.

The background color of his entire field of view was green, and even though everything seemed dark, he could still have a very clear vision on every single object. Within his field of view, everything that had the Elementium aura would glow with their own unique Elementium color, even though they were hiding behind a big stalagmite, or stuck inside some rock cracks. Physically, they might have an excellent disguise, but there was no way they could hide their colorful glows from Greem's eyes.

According to the brightness of their glow that was represented in the Elementium Vision, Greem could easily estimate their strengths even from a very far distance.

Those weaker creatures would be handled by Demon Alligator Hunter. With just a few dirt spears, their concealed bodies would be instantly impaled. When their warm blood burst out of their broken bodies, the last trace of their life aura would soon vanish from Greem's vision. If they bump into stronger creatures, Greem would summon his Rock Snakes, using their extremely strong body to crushed their enemies into meat paste.

That's why along their journey, those underground predators that were scattered around had finally met their slayers. Before they could wait for their prey to get closer, every single one of them would be killed at the place where they were hiding for an ambush.

Although these solo predators were relatively easy to handle, but the underground colonies which gathered in a large group around the passage Greem must pass through were much tougher to deal with. For example, the Tunnel of Gnolls, the Nest of Lizardmen, even Greem wouldn't dare to provoke them easily. Or else, if they come out in full force, even though he could still defeat them, he would have alerted all the monsters who lived in this region.

Yet, without Greem's knowledge, when he stealthily passed through the Tunnel of Gnolls, right at a dark and wet shadowy corner where he just went passed, a skinny body suddenly stood up from the ground.

This was an old Gnoll who had one foot in the grave already. There wasn't much muscle that could be found on its skinny body, and an antique looking black dagger was hanging down on its waist, while its old body could barely stand straight. But when it narrowed its murky yet cold eyes and looked into the direction where Greem disappeared, an awe-inspiring aura of a strength gradually emanated from its body, nearly freezing air in the surroundings.

"Leader, that human has headed towards the direction of the ruins!" A dark figure suddenly emerged from the shadows.

"Let him be! He is just merely an Intermediate Apprentice, there is nothing much he can do there." Two tiny flames could be seen igniting within the bloodshot eyes of the old leader of Gnolls. "Further down is the territory of the Lizardmen. Using their advantage in numbers, these damnable fellows kept us from getting close to the ruins. We'll let this small bug in, perhaps he could cause some troubles for them!"

"I understand! Your subordinate will make the necessary arrangements now, I'll let our brothers at the sentry post to let him pass." The dark figure bowed, and soon dissolved into the darkness again.

Greem was still slowly moving further down in the darkness. For some unknown reasons, he kept feeling a chill on his back, as if a shivering breeze was able to penetrate through his thick coat and entered his body, which caused him to tremble slightly.

Damn it, where did this bad omen come from?

Never once in his life did Greem wished something very much. He wished he knew some magical knowledge about predictions and whatnot. Even if he just knew the tiniest bit of it, he would be able to briefly predict which direction the danger was coming from. That would allow him to make some preparations beforehand.

Greem even secretly took out the Screaming Branch and examined it a few times but he didn't find anything unusual on it. This meant the danger was on its way, but the target wasn't necessarily him. Could the danger come from inside the ruins?

While he was pondering quietly, Greem put up an even more rapid scan at his surroundings that was hidden in darkness.

By right, with the see through ability of his Elementium Vision, no Elementium user could get near him without alerting him. But in this Underground World, besides from those frightening demons, what kind of creature could pose a threat to his life?

Greem's brain was spun at high speed as he kept pondering about his situation. Various data of powerful underground creatures that was stored in the Chip flashed through his mind one after another. Suddenly, a few creatures aroused Greem's vigilance.

Gnoll Hunter… Lizardman Assassin…

It seems that this region is part of their territories. As these two bizarre underground creatures weren't classified as demons, that also meant there wasn't any Elementium energy present in their bodies. However, in the list of dangerous underground creatures of Underground Cave, their names were still listed at the top. This meant even without relying on the power of Elementium, they still possessed enough fighting ability that could make just about anyone tremble in fear.

Greem's heart became heavy.

With regards to these creatures who became excellent fighters just by using their intrepid bodies, it was very difficult for the Elementium Vision to detect them, while night vision fared even worse. Perhaps even Mary's infrared vision would not be of too much use here. So, how could he detect these bizarre and nasty fellows?

When Greem was panicking, the Chip finally came out with useful information.

The ability of Full Matching Field of View!

This was a method of using spiritual sense that only Greem could achieve.

For every short distance he traveled, Greem could always make a backup of the terrain feedback coming from his night vision and Elementium Vision. After that, using the incredible Field of View Matching ability of the Chip, he could find out the slightest difference in two terrain images that were captured in different times.

If there was really a cold-blooded assassin hiding around Greem, so long as it moved along with him, there would be a slight difference in the shadow where it was hiding. Nobody could detect such difference with just their naked eyes, but nothing could escape from the Full Matching Field of View provided by the Chip.

So long as he discover them, the threat they posed to him would be reduced by at least 80%.

At that time, it would not be them who can create trouble from the dark, but instead, Greem would be able to give their arrogance a fierce punishment!

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The darkness was filled with twisted shadows, stalagmites, stalactites and rocks of all shapes and forms that occupied nearly every part of one's vision. Inside the spacious and quiet cavern, even the slightest of noise would ripple through the winding tunnel and reach a very far distance.

From high up on the back of the Demon Alligator, a grim blue light could be seen flicking through Greem's eyes.

Though he had been surrounded by complete silence, Greem's mind was filled with a streak of warning tones. It seemed that a large group of enemies were approaching!

An indistinct crackling sound rang through the air, as the fiery red Fire Shield made its dazzling appearance and started to hover around Greem's body. The Chip was busy calculating in Greem's mind and matching countless real-time images with each other. Numerous tiny differences that no naked eye could ever detect were found by the Chip's incredible ability and projected onto Greem's retina one after another.

Greem turned his head towards a hanging stalactite on his left. He saw a shadow there that seemed thicker than before. Following a gentle stomp of his feet, the Hunter who was mounted in front of him raised its hand into the air and formed a razor sharp, earthy yellow dirt spear in its grip.

With a twist of its body, the Hunter threw out the dirt spear in its hand using all its force. The spear instantly turned into a yellow bolt of lightning and nailed into the shadow in an instant.

From Greem's field of view, he hadn't noticed anything at that spot, neither any reaction of Elementium nor any life aura. However, following the piercing of the dirt spear, he heard a muffled sound of flesh being pierced through, immediately followed by a shrill cry that rang out through the once dead silence.

A commotion broke out through the darkness, as a human-like figure with tiny dark green scales completely covering its body suddenly showed up. The dirt spear had pierced through its chest and nailed it onto the stalactite.

Warm blood was dripping down from the tip of the dirt spear. The human-like figure started to struggle restlessly. However, the more it struggled, the bigger the wound formed by the piercing of the dirt spear became and the fiercer the blood burst out.

Pop!

A second dirt spear sliced through the air, piercing through its head straightaway.

The movement of the figure came to a complete halt instantly. It was now hanging on the stalactite motionless, leaving behind only the crystal clear sound of blood dripping down in this quiet cavern.

In the next moment, Greem raised his head and looked up at the ceiling of the darkened cave.

The height from the ground to the ceiling was over tens of meters long. Due to the lack of light, even with him vision, Greem could only see a vague image. However, following the Hunter's throwing of two dirt spears, another skinny, yet robust figure was seen falling down from the ceiling.

The two dirt spears had pierced through its right chest and left leg, but hadn't been able to claim its life. However, as it was lying on the hard cold ground painfully giving its dying kicks, the gigantic foot of Demon Alligator suddenly appeared in its line of sight.

A muffled boom broke out through the silence, followed by the sound of a watermelon being crushed was heard in the cavern.

Leisurely and slowly, the Demon Alligator continued its movement and strode away. Once its leg left the ground, the place where the human-like creature had been lying was instead replaced by a pile of crushed meat, making it impossible to identify its original shape, species or even gender.

A sharp whistle suddenly echoed in the darkness.

When the whistle resounded throughout the entire cavern, from the far-reaching darkness, countless shadows approached him at high speeds. Judging from the size of the group, perhaps there were more than hundreds of them.

Twangs of bowstring burst out through the darkness, as noises of sharp object piercing through the air rang out from all directions. The arrows sliced through the air and were targeted at Greem who was covered by a raging flame all over his body.

Aww! So they were going for a gang fight!

Greem dared not underestimate his enemy. Without any hesitation, he dispelled the Fire Shield that was hovering around his body and then merged himself with the gigantic body of Demon Alligator – it looked as if he was sinking into a muddy swamp.

Right when Greem had disappeared, countless sharp arrows instantly struck at the back of Demon Alligator where he had been previously standing. All the arrowheads were flickering with a greenish glow; clearly, the arrowheads had some unknown poisons applied onto them.

Like the Demon Alligator, the Hunter's body had also been stuck by multiple arrows, however it showed no concern at all. With both hands continuously grabbing into the air over its head, it kept forming one dirt spear after another. Each spear had a length of one and a half meter. Without stopping its movements, it fired these dirt spears into those Lizardmen who had shown themselves in the far distance.

Some of the spears were dodged by the Lizardman hunter and assassin, some shattered after hitting the stalagmites that blocked their path, and some hit right on target, eliminating the enemy in the total darkness.

It was worth mentioning that the bodies of the Lizardman were overly delicate and slender. In order not detract from the agility and speed of their movement, their body hadn't evolved with thick and dense hard scales like some of those huge size demons. Instead, they were given layers of tiny, light, dark-green scales, whose function was only to prevent the leaking of their body temperature.

This evolution had given them with the incredible ability to move stealthily in the darkness of the Underground Cave, but it also made their defense so weak that they couldn't even withstand a single blow. Regardless of which part of their body had been pierced through by the cup-sized dirt spear, it would instantly become a frightening injury. Their delicate bodies just weren't able to withstand an attack like this.

As they were facing of against an Elementium Golem, made entirely of clay, the poison arrows they usually used couldn't bring them their desired effect. Left with no other option, these Lizardman hunters were forced to pull out their short daggers and run through the rock walls and stalagmites to leap onto the giant Demon Alligator that kept pushing its way forward.

At this moment, their weakness – the lack of a magically enhanced weapon – had become clear.

Though the weapon produced from the unique underground metal was extremely sharp, most of them were overly thin and short. A weapon like this could never break through the clay armor of Demon Alligator. Numerous Lizardmen surrounded the Demon Alligator and kept attacking it, using their dagger to shed off countless dirt chunks from its clay armor. However, within seconds, following the flash of an earthy yellow light ring, the clay armor had once again been restored to its original condition.

They weren't to defeat Demon Alligator, but Demon Alligator could easily kill them off.

Though the attack frequency of Demon Alligator was rather slow, every time it cast an AoE Spikes spell, it would always claim the lives of three to five Lizardmen. The Demon Alligator was like a massive tank that kept moving forwards, while the Lizardmen were like a group of ignorant natives who carried bamboo sticks in their hand and bamboo arrows on their back. The gap between their strengths was simply huge. Thus, the massive casualties caused by this gap was reasonable.

Finally, after more than half of the Lizardmen were either wounded or killed, a shrill whistle once again echoed out in the far distance from the darkness.

Following a few deep and hoarse roars, the Lizardmen began to retreat.

After peace had once again returned to the surroundings of the Demon Alligator, from under the covering of its thick coat, Greem finally emerged. He hesitated for a brief moment and decided not to drive Demon Alligator to pursue after the Lizardmen.

Apparently, all of the underground populations had a very strong sense of territory. Perhaps it was because he had come too close to their habitat, that caused the Lizardmen to orchestrate their violent attack. Having suffered such a huge loss, it looked like these Lizardmen had returned to their nest to focus on defense.

However, right when Greem drove Demon Alligator to continued his journey, he, due to his sensitive hearing, heard the miserable shrieks of Lizardmen coming from the far distance. It seemed as if a new round of battle had erupted in the darkness.

Nevertheless, Greem showed no interest in this. He just stood up on Demon Alligator's back, threw a few glances over into the far distance, before continuing his journey.

Amidst a pitch-black shadow, the old Gnoll leader was hiding behind a rock pillar, looking at Greem as he strode away into the far distance. His skinny, gray, furry face showed an unconcealed expression of shock.

Behind him, one after another, the vigorous Gnolls ran through the dark and rugged cavern as if they were on a flat surface, before leaping fiercely onto the group of defeated Lizardmen. Both parties were chasing and slaughtering each other within the darkness filled with countless rock pillars and stalactites. The muffled sounds of daggers slicing through throats kept ringing in the air.

If this ambush mission had been carried out smoothly, maybe they would have at most been able to chase away that damn Lizardmen tribe from this region. At that point in time, all the profits found in the ruins would have belonged to the Gnolls.

However, Gray Ear's mind was still felt with scruples in regards to that surface apprentice who had suddenly intruded onto the inner area of the ruin.

It waved its hand and a minion of the same species emerged from the shadows behind him.

"Go and inform Cracked Tooth in Elysium City to pass a message to his master Fallen Adept that someone is trying to enter the ruins. Tell him that the tribe of Gray Ear had failed to stop the enemy and that we've suffered a huge loss, while the Lizardmen tribe of Dark Scale had been totally wiped out by the enemy!" From within the darkness, a shivering gleam flickered in the bloodshot eyes of that old Gnoll, with its pale white fangs looking extremely frightening.

"Understand. Your subordinate will carry out your order now!"

After slightly bending its body and bowing, the dark figure turned around and dissolved into the vast darkness.The further inside he went, the stronger the worry in Greem's mind became.

Front and back, left and right, even above his head and under his feet, the metal contained within the soil was getting denser and denser, while the exposed soil was becoming lesser and lesser. This also meant that if he encountered a frightening enemy in this area, it would be tougher for him to escape like how he usually did.

For him, this was bad news that he really didn't want to hear.

But Greem had to admit, this was the perfect region to build a city.

In order to build a city once and for all in the Underground World, in addition to taking into account living resources, mineral resources and water source in the surrounding area, the most important factor to consider was the stability and toughness of the geological structure. It was really rare to find a region like this in the Underground World, which was surrounded by countless metal ores and large stretches of stable rock stratum.

Being able to find metal ores meant that the place would had a constant supply of resources which could attract the wandering merchants. The existence of a water source meant the place could support more lives. However, none of these are comparable to a stable 'sky'. No one wished to be crushed into meat paste by millions of tons of rock and sand during his sleep!

Thus, when Snorlax had pointed out that this area was where the ruins of the previous Elysium City were, judging by just the terrain alone, it made perfect sense.

Greem had passed through several habitats of different underground creatures. Perhaps as a result of the Lizardman's defeat, all these underground creatures gathered in the far away darkness, but no one recklessly launched an attack.

Under this intense threatening situation, the Demon Alligator had finally reached the end of its long and tiresome journey.

When Greem passed through a huge arched door riding the Demon Alligator, the space in front of him suddenly expanded, revealing a gigantic cavern filled with bizarre and fantastical colors in front of his eyes.

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A Forest!

There was a forest in this Underground World!

When Greem first saw this flourishing green forest, he felt dumbfounded.

His first reaction was to use a spell to check whether it was actually real. The result assured Greem and confirmed that what he saw wasn't caused by any illusion, but was instead an actual, genuine space within this Underground World.

Greem stood at the cavern entrance and scanned the boundless and dense forest. He instinctively sensed a strange and twisted smell lingering in the air. He was standing on the dividing line. Taking a step back would bring him to a hard rock layer that was painted with darkness and a weak glow of metal; while taking a step forward would let him be greeted by greenish grass that touched his ankle, and tall trees and dense vines that tightly barricaded the passage. In addition to this, there were also rose and fruit bushes.

Vaguely, through the greenery, Greem could even see the shadows of small, tiny animals that were sprinting through the forest. In the far distance, within the depths of the forest, tree branches and leaves were swaying up and down, and the howls of monkey and roars of tigers echoed across the place. This resulted in an extremely vigorous atmosphere in the forest.

However, behind this flourishing scene, a strange energy aura could be sensed. This aura made Greem's heart tremble.

After three seconds, Greem had come to a conclusion. This place must be the ruins of the previous Elysium City that was mentioned by Snorlax. After the Adept Tower was destroyed, a huge amount of magical energy leaked. This frightening leakage was the direct cause of what was presented in front of Greem's eyes.

Every Adept Tower had an Elementium Pool built within it. It served as the source of energy for all their magical equipment. But once the Adept Tower was destroyed, the leakage of these energies would cause a tremendous and irreversible contamination to the surrounding environment. The abnormal energy level in this region was so strong that it had even caused the birth of this mutated forest.

Yes, this was a mutated forest. However, but not those virgin forests which could be found everywhere on the surface world.

When infected by such a strong energy, any plant or creature would violate the natural law, and grow at an incredible speed, before mutating into a totally different species. Therefore, although the forest looked normal on the outside, it was just a disguise.

This place had become the paradise for demons!

Greem took off the thick and sweltering traveler's cloak from his body and wiped the sweat off his face. He took out his water bag and replenished his body with some water. After that, while sitting high up on the back of Demon Alligator, he slowly and carefully continued his journey by entering the forest.

From the first step into this forest, anything around him could no longer be trusted.

In fact, this seemingly blooming, evergreen demonized forest was far more fearful than the dark underground tunnel. There were far more menaces that lurked everywhere. Yet, Greem had no idea what kind of demons were waiting for him inside of this forest. However, since he had come this far, no matter what was hiding in this place, he still needed to give it a try!

It was worth to mention, that, with the support of three Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake Golems, Greem's heart had become bolder.

No doubt, walking in a forest that never been explored before was really tough.

The ground was choked with weeds and wildflowers. Shrubs could be seen everywhere, roses and vines climbed wantonly and some of the large tree branches stretched many meters long! All of these plants grew disorderly, tightly knitted into each other. These plants filled up every single gap between the tall and old trees. Without the Demon Alligator, it would be difficult for Greem to move even a single step in this forest.

But now, relying on the gigantic body and powerful muscle strength of the Demon Alligator, Greem was like someone who just had joined a demolishing team: crushing and ripping everything in his way. This resulted in a smooth and flat path being made in this densely grown forest.

With every step the Demon Alligator took, wildflowers, weeds, shrubs, and bushes would turn into powder. As long as a tall and old tree got in the way of the Demon Alligator, it would be knocked down and crushed. Old trees were falling down, vines began to break off and colorful leaves flew in the air.

However, countless bizarre scenes were hiding behind this seemingly normal situation.

Whenever the huge feet of the Demon Alligator crushed a patch green grass, countless indistinct and strange noises could be heard coming from underneath its feet. They sounded like the cries of a baby, yet also resembled the shrill howls of bizarre demons. It was rather unsettling and forced people to cover their ears.

When the Demon Alligator raised its feet again, Greem could see dozens of emerald green sprouts in the disc-shaped hole that was made. All the other weeds and wildflowers were crushed into a pile of greenish liquid, yet they were the only thing that survived. Not only did they survive, they even coiled up their green sprouts, like a living creature, and began to change into mouths full of sharp teeth. They began to tightly cling to the Demon Alligator's feet and started biting like crazy.

Under their insane attack, pieces of dirt kept falling off the Demon Alligator's feet. In addition, its feet had started to suffer some damage.

Meanwhile, right in front of Demon Alligator, some towering old trees were seen arduously pulling out their roots. They slowly ran away from the path the Demon Alligator would take later. However, there were still some fearless mutated plants who valiantly launched attacks at the Demon Alligator.

These mutated plants strongly resembled a sunflower. The only difference was the middle of the petals. At the end of the thin stalk, where the bright yellow petals were blossoming, a woman's face could be seen mounted right at the center. Their method of attack was rather primitive, as they kept spraying out venom from their tiny mouths. This venom was not only acidic, but was smelly and sticky as well.

Many overhanging vines started to twist crazily. A frightening large mouth suddenly broke out from the end of these vines. It was full of countless tiny teeth that look frightening and sharp. If any creature passed by them, it might only take a single leap to bite off the creature's head.

A disgusted expression emerged on Greem's young face.

This forest was just like a gigantic beast in disguise. Once the Demon Alligator intruded, it instantly triggered all the snakes hiding in the bushes. If someone without sufficient strength came here by accident, they would probably find it difficult to keep even their corpse intact!

Imagine this: without the Demon Alligator, those mutated sprouts, that hid between the ordinary grass, would cut through the soles of one's feet. They would then squeeze into the body of the creature and begin to feast on the delicious flesh. Those old trees, who could walk freely, were most probably the Dryads who existed in the legend. Once an ordinary creature was entangled by their roots, their only ending would be suffering through the pain of having their flesh devoured by these frightening trees.

As for those terrifying plants and snakes in disguise, they were just the companions of the Dryads. Although their individual strength wasn't worth mentioning, there were a lot of them. It would be rather troublesome if Greem was caught by them.

Greem slightly tilted his head upward and pointed with his finger. Beside him, a long vine, that hung from a tall and old tree, was nearly touching him. However, with this point of a finger, a flame suddenly broke out and coiled up the vine. Within the towering and scorching flame, the vine kept twisting and struggling violently, while its ferocious mouth started letting out a strange hissing sound that made one frown.

But it was too bad. No matter how crazily it struggled, it just couldn't escape the fate of being annihilated. The scorching flame soon devoured its body, transforming it into ashes that fell from the sky.

Perhaps realizing this intruder was tough to handle, indistinct whispering noises could be heard coming from the depths of the forest. With great effort, countless mutated plants started to flee from the area around the Demon Alligator.

After efficiently frightening these demonized plants, who had no idea of their limits, the Demon Alligator slowly and leisurely continued its journey into the depths of the forest.

After they continued for a short distance, Greem looked over his shoulder. The path they came from had once again been blocked off by those strange plants. It looked like these demonized plants were not willing to let their food slip away. They still wished to feast on Greem's corpse.

The next wave was coming from the demons who lived in the demonized forest.

The species who were affected by the environment the most were creatures of the forest. When they absorbed the Elementium energies that lingered in the air, they would evolve into frightening demon beasts who possessed the ability to use Elementium. However, demons and demon beasts were different. Demons weren't the result of natural evolution. They were more like monsters created by the abnormal contamination in the environment.

Their species were complicating and confusing and their abilities were wild and mystifying. So far, no Adept could slam their chest and brag that they understood every single demonic species. So to speak, in every unexplored virgin forest, there was a possibility of finding some new demon species.

And usually, compared to demon beasts, they were much more frightening and bizarre!

The first wave of attackers that dashed out from the depths of the forest was a pack of mutated wolves.

The bodies were as large as an adult cow and was dark red and bizarre looking. Most of their hair had fallen off, exposing countless lumps and dark spots. Even more strange was the fact that all of them had two heads. These heads were gruesome and frightening. They had pale white fangs and gigantic mouths. Green slime kept dripping down from the edges of their mouths, and a strange glow could be found at the end of its throat.

Their movements were vigorous and agile, while their burly body could be compared to tigers and lions. When they leaped out from the forest in a large pack, howls that sent chills down one's back immediately rung throughout the entire sky.

A chain of half-transparent Wind Blades and a rain of snake-shape lightning instantly flooded the huge body of the Demon Alligator.

Some of these double-headed wolves were prowling the outer perimeter. They kept casting spell after spell at the Demon Alligator. Some would howl and dash to the side of the Demon Alligator and use their half-inch long, sharp nails and their glowing fangs to crazily attack the clay armor of the Demon Alligator.

Greem's face turned slightly pale.

With just one round of attacks, a large portion of the Demon Alligator's clay armor had broken. If it were not for the protection of the Hunter, Greem would probably have had to face enemy's attack directly.

The individual overall strength of these double-headed wolves wasn't too strong. They were, at the most, at the level of Intermediate Apprentices. But when more than a hundred giant wolves came together in a massive army, even the Demon Alligator Hunter, who had the overall strength of an Advanced Apprentice, would find it hard to defend against this frightening enemy!

Greem gritted his teeth, pulled out an Elementium core and gently tossed to the ground.

When it touched the ground, a Rock Snake, that was more frightening than the Demon Alligator, squeezed out from underneath the soil.

The robust body of the Rock Snake was formed entirely from rocks. The internal diameter alone was slightly over two meters. When a massive object like this jumped into the pack of wolves, it signified the start of a reign of terror.

Although the elemental and physical attacks of the double-headed wolf could shatter the Demon Alligator's defense, they just couldn't move or bite off anything from the rock solid body of Rock Snake. Thus, the battle between them was more like a one-sided slaughter, with the wolf pack having the miserable fate of being completely wiped out!

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Right at the heart of the forest, the ruins of an Adept Tower could be seen, the previous majestic building has now turned into a huge pile of rock fragments and debris.

The once seven floors tall Adept Tower was now left with only the bottom three floors intact, and the collapsed brick fragments had buried all of its entrances. Meanwhile, large wild vines and flower bushes had littered all over the ruins, blanketing the entire place under a dense green foliage.

Even so, wisps of light green smoke still rose continuously from under the debris, and the demonized plants present here in this area had become so much thicker and stronger than those outside.

The muffled sound of footsteps came from the end of the street. Afterwards, a giant alligator appeared and strode forward, the green vines that blanketed the streets and the roof of houses could be seen retracting, revealing the traces of human activity in the past in front of the intruder.

Following the noise of collapsing houses, an even more larger and stronger Rock Snake broke through these dilapidated houses and slithered away all over the place. Various things left a mark on its body, there were corrosive traces due to the green acid, burn marks caused by lightning strike, scars that was cut by Wind Blades, charred marks left by a fire burn… all these traces could still be evidently seen by one's eyes, and they were the proof of how tedious and frightening the five miles journey was in the forest!

If not because the Chip learned the elementary knowledge of Golem creation prior to this excursion, and enhanced the core of the Earth element Golem with a tempering magic array, thereby making the Earth Elementium dense enough to form hard solid rocks, just with Demon Alligator Hunter alone would be impossible for Greem to fight his way out, eventually arriving safely in the heart of this area where the ruins of the Adept Tower was situated.

Behind their backs, the continuous roars of demons could still be heard from the forest. But strangely enough, as if they were frightened by the ferocious slaughter of Rock Snake, none of them dared to step into the innermost area of the ruins where Greem and his Golems are.

Greem furrowed his brows, a gloomy expression surfacing upon his handsome face.

Those were the type of demons which aren't afraid of death. They would never allow any outsider come to this place and disrupt the source of magic energy which could give them a tremendous benefit. So the reason they dared not to pursue further was not that they were fearing at Greem's group, but…

Greem turned his head over and sent his glances towards the ruins blanketed in layers of demonized plants and his heart suddenly started to feel heavy.

Could there be several stronger demons hiding in the ruins, which is why those fellows at the outer perimeter dared not to intrude in this territory? Even though it was just a speculation, but deep within Greem's mind, he had a hunch that this was the most logical reason!

Looking at the wisps of light green smoke, Greem suddenly had an idea.

Although the Adept Tower looked like it was thoroughly destroyed, but part of its Elementium Pool still hadn't completely lost its functionality. Many years had already passed but it was still working properly tenaciously. It's a pity though that the Elementium energy gathered by it couldn't be stored properly, that's why they dispersed in the surrounding area, causing a tremendous transformation.

"Go, dig out that place for me!"

With Greem's order, the Rock Snake moved its massive body and darted into the collapsed tower.

Suddenly, an explosive sound burst out of nowhere, followed by a green beam piercing through the air and forcefully nailing the Rock Snake's in the forehead. The sudden explosion of green energy quickly corroded away a fist-sized hole at the point of contact. Furiously, the Rock Snake let out a loud hiss, retreating to where it was with an incredible speed and coiled up its body.

Greem was briefly overcome with panic. Tracing back the faded trail left in the air by the green arrow, he quickly found the attacker.

It was a beautiful girl with a pair of translucent wings of light on her back. She had a perfectly curved body, a short dark green hair, and a small face with two emerald eyes. She was naked, with only her important body parts covered with brilliant rose branches and green vines, barely hiding her seductive figure.

Right at this moment, she was hovering above the collapsed Adept Tower, a magical bow engraved with strange patterns held in her hands, she was staring angrily directly at Greem.

Greem slowly gulped his saliva.

An extremely strong green Elementium glow had flooded his Elementium Vision. If not because he had reduced the brightness of it, perhaps he wouldn't be able to stare right at this extremely beautiful yet frightening demon.

"Chip, can you detect the source species and overall strength level of this creature?"

"Beep. Gathering energy aura…"

"Analysis of the data is as follows:"

"Source species of the demon: Fairy – 70%, Flower Spirit – 17%, Forest Genie – 9%…"

"Overall strength level: Adept level."

"Elementium spectrum: Plant Element."

"Scan results of magical item: Green Magical Bow. Able to unleash Elementium arrows that inflicts 30-40 points of damage. Attack Method: Single target. Also able to unleash Elementium Arrow Rain which inflicts 8-10 points of damage. Attack method: Area of Effect (30-50 meters)."

"Scan of magical item: Armor of Rose. Seven mysterious flower branches were found growing on it. Each is capable of defending 60 points of physical damage and 40 points of elemental damage. When the damage is beyond the defending limit of the mysterious flower branch, it will be destroyed and vanish. Only when all of the flower branches disappear will the creature suffer the external attacks itself. Note: When mysterious flower branches are destroyed, a new flower branch will regrow every five minutes. Note again: Fire Elementium and Negative energy can inflict double the damage to the creature."

When the data flowed into Greem's mind like a waterfall, he finally couldn't hold it in and drew in a few sharp cold breaths.

This was extremely frightening; this was a formidable demon who had reached the level of an Adept! Also, judging from her powerful aura, perhaps even among all other demons in the area, she could be considered the most supreme existence.

Especially when Greem found out the powerful AoE offensive ability that the magical item in her hand had, his mind was immediately filled with a raging storm, making him feel like abandoning this mission.

Different from the magical items crafted by Apprentice Adepts, the magical items that grew together with demons were the most frightening weapons. When an Apprentice Adept crafts a magical item, he would be constrained by the lack of materials and resources, thus it was impossible to use all ingredients that suited their innate elemental affinity. As a result, the final product would have limited power and doesn't possess the characteristics of continued growth.

As for the magical items used by demons, most of them were produced using part of the demon's body and some rare resources. Not only were they powerful, they could also keep growing stronger following the improvement of the demon's overall strength.

Thus, it was pretty obvious which was a better weapon when comparing them together!

Right when Greem was still hesitating, the powerful 'Fairy' hovering in the sky suddenly spoke.

"Hehehe… What a surprise, after so long, there's still an Apprentice Adept who dares to seek his doom here! Little guy, could your master have forgotten to tell you there are some places you just can't simply visit? But it's too late to regret now. Be nice and surrender your flesh and soul, it has been a long time since I tasted the delicious flesh of humans… hehehe…" Upon speaking, it immediately revealed a mouth full of sharp fangs, exposing the true nature of a frightening demon.

Damn, although it had an appearance of a beautiful woman, but it actually had a masculine and hoarse male voice. Within a split-second of time, the last bit of liking Greem had for it had vanished into thin air.

However, before Greem could give out a response, the Fairy with indistinguishable gender had already pulled back the bowstring with its right hand, gathering the surrounding green plant element energies onto the string in an incredibly fast speed. In the next moment, more than thousands of glowing green Elementium arrows had rushed towards Greem like a raging storm.

Not even three seconds had passed by, the Fire Shield that came out from Greem's body and the clay armor outside of the Demon Alligator's body already shattered from the spine-chilling attack. If not because the Rock Snake darted back to where Greem was standing and used its large and strong body to block in front of Greem, perhaps just this attack alone would bore through thousands of holes on Greem's body.

But even so, a glowing arrow still pierced through Greem's shoulder. There were even some faint green energies attached to the finger sized wound, corroding his flesh and producing hissing sounds, making his forehead covered in sweat because of the severe pain.

Greem endured severe pain and produced scorching hot flames from his fingertip, poking it in his wound. The strong Fire Elementium quickly neutralized the green energies that was left behind on the wound. After that, with his jaw tightly clenched, Greem pulled out bottles upon bottles of magical potions and medicinal paste, pouring them directly on his wound.

The dizziness caused by the loss of blood, the feeling of weakness brought by the corrosion of green energy, the severe pain coming from the burn he himself inflicted, and the tingling sensation brought by the regeneration of his flesh as the result of magical medicines… all kinds of strange sensations mixed together, restlessly attacking Greem's mind.

Not daring to hide his true power anymore, Greem crazily tossed out the other two Elementium cores. Following a frightening loud boom that shook the earth, two brand new Rock Snakes squeezed out from the ground.

Currently, Greem had 11.19 Spirit. Together with the 1 enhancement brought by the Circlet of Nobility, he had a total of slightly more than 12 Spirit points. Meanwhile, summoning a Rock Snake would consume 3 Spirit points, while the Demon Alligator Hunter would take 2 Spirit points. With the total Spirit he had now, he was barely able to support his troops.

The Demon Alligator Hunter was carrying Greem and slowly retreated, while three gigantic Rock Snakes crazily rushed into the enemy, using their strong bodies and incredible physical damage to fight with the frightening Fairy.

As if the sky was falling and the earth was opening up, the entire place was shaking violently!

As usual, the Rock Snakes fought savagely and brutally!

Their wicked attacks had made the ruins of the city deteriorate in a speed faster than normal.

But even so, three powerful Rock Snake Golems were still not enough to overcome the terrifying ability of the Fairy. No matter if it was the glowing arrows that attack a single target or the AoE Arrow Rain, they always inflicted heavy damage to the bodies of the Rock Snakes.

And it was clear that the Fairy was a demon possessing great agility. While flapping its wings, it was flying in between the three Rock Snakes with an incredible speed. No matter how they tried to bite or slam their foe using their bodies, they always failed to touch even slightest trace left behind by the Fairy. The only attack that could inflict a huge amount of damage to it was the AoE Sand Spray.

Nevertheless, with the blossoming of beautiful roses on the Fairy body, a mass of green light continued to emerge around its body, helping it to block all of the physical and element damage it was supposed to receive.

Also, this Fairy had a pretty strong melee ability. Whether it be punching or a palm strike, its tiny hands covered in a layer of greenish halo could always shatter the solid rock armor covering the Rock Snakes' bodies easily, as if those rocks were made from tofu.

Therefore, under the suppression of such an imbalance combat power, soon all three Rock Snakes had their bodies fully covered in scars, while you could see through the countless holes in their bodies!

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This was the first situation Greem was forced to throw away everything and flee by something other than Fallen Apprentices; a frightening Adept level Fairy had forced him scurry out of the demonized forest.

Obviously, that frightening Fairy was a demon who was very territorial, so it just gave up the pursuit after Greem left the demonized forest. With that, Greem was fortunate enough to keep all three Rock Snakes of his, and hadn't suffered any unrecoverable losses.

Looking over his shoulder into the dense forest, Greem's eyes couldn't help but twitch. With a deep voice, he commanded the Chip, "Chip, create a mission file for Transvestite Fairy, find out the feasibility of defeating or killing it!"

"Beep. Mission accepted… Mission File Name: Transvestite Fairy… Drafting feasible solution…"

"Predicted offensive strategies to inflict substantial damage to Transvestite Fairy include:

Curse Magic Spell;

Group Attacks;

3: Activate Project Lightning Giant;

Destroy the True Form of the Fairy."

Greem wrinkled his brows, then whispered, "Explain the practicality of these strategies."

"Beep. First strategy, Curse magic spell. The target, Transvestite Fairy, is still a life form, curse magic spells can partially reduce its fighting ability. With that, Rock Snakes would have more time to break through its personal defense protecting its body.

Second strategy, attack in a group. With the current fighting strength of the team, it is insufficient to defeat the Adept level Transvestite Fairy. In order to defeat it, it is necessary to have team members, who have strong overall strength, fighting it with each individual's strength. The predicted combat mode is as follows…

Third strategy, activate Project Lightning Giant. In order to stop the Transvestite Fairy from dodging Rock Snake's attack with its incredible speed, it is necessary to have team members pin it down from close range. The members with whom this is possible include: Bloody Queen Mary and Lightning Giant. If we choose Bloody Queen Mary, based on the pre-battle evaluation, her mortality rate is more than 89%. Suggest Lightning Giant as the first choice.

Fourth strategy, destroy the frue form of the Fairy. The Transvestite Fairy that appeared this time was just a parasite form. Its true form hadn't shown up. Based on the biological characteristics of such demons, so long as the true form of the Fairy is found, with the support energy cut off, the fighting ability of the Fairy will decrease significantly."

Greem closed his eyes and listened carefully, and kept throwing out questions after he thought about it.

"With regards to the project Lighting Giant you mentioned, what stage are we at now? How long does it take to complete?"

"Beep. The design of Lightning Giant has been completed. We currently lack the necessary magical materials to craft it."

"What else do we need?"

"Five Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores!"

"After being successfully crafted, what will be the overall strength of Lightning Giant?"

"Based on all the Apprentice Adept levels we know so far, upon completion, the Lightning Giant will possess the basic overall strength of a Pseudo-Adept."

"How about in comparison to Hulk?"

"According to results derived from basic statistics, out of one hundred matches between the completed form of Lightning Giant and Hulk, Lightning Giant would be defeated and killed in seventy-three matches, defeated and severely damaged in eleven matches, and end in a draw in sixteen matches. Based on preliminary estimates, the complete form of Lighting Giant can only use guerrilla tactics. Only by keeping an appropriate offensive distance with Hulk and attacking with lightning in between will the possibility to inflict sufficient damage to the enemy exist."

"That means it totally can't defeat a top level Pseudo-Adept!" Greem muttered to himself, then quietly recalled the short moment when Hulk struck.

Though the battle was very short, but with the Chip's function of image saving and replaying, Greem could still clearly and directly felt the frightening fighting strength Hulk showed. Extremely tough muscles and their brutal aggressive strength had given Hulk unapproachable power.

With just one strike, he had broken Rock Snake's base defense like it was nothing, and transferred extremely violent and powerful force into the inner body of Rock Snake. Otherwise, it was impossible for him to shatter Rock Snake's body with just one punch and capture the summoning core straightaway.

To be honest, after the Chip had scanned the Transvestite Fairy today, though its overall strength was Adept level, if it was to fight against Hulk, Greem wasn't sure if the Fairy could still keep its dominating fighting style.

If he had someone who was as strong as Hulk and could stand in front as the shield, and pulled together another four to five Pseudo-Adepts who specialized in long-range magic spells, then the percentage of winning this battle would be around 20-30%. Of course, if Greem included all of his three Rock Snake Golems, the percentage would straightaway climb up to 50-60%.

Therefore, the key to the battle was how to inflict sufficient damage to the Transvestite Fairy effectively and in a timely manner. Otherwise, if he just fought with his three Rock Snakes, the enemy would be able to rip them into pieces easily.

It wasn't that he couldn't get the help from Hulk, but if he did that, maybe he would have to give away most of the profits he found to someone else. According to Snorlax, there were several magical treasures that Greem was determined to get. Therefore, after giving the idea some thought, Greem decided to rely on his own strength for this mission.

Since he couldn't get the help from Hulk, he would have to find something else to substitute for Hulk's position.

The Lightning Giant project was a summoning core enhancement project that had been tailored to the Storm Giant core he obtained previously.

For a simple Elementium core, due to its size, there was a limitation to the magical arrays that could be accommodated. It was impossible to add more powerful magical arrays on it without restriction. Therefore, currently, all the Golems that Greem crafted using Pseudo-Adept level cores were rather weak. Though they were enough to bully lower ranked opponents, once they were to face a similarly ranked opponent, the fighting strength they put out was just not satisfactory.

In light of this, after being prompted by Greem, the Chip started enhancing the procedure of Golem crafting by trying to split the magical arrays that were all crafted on one single core to multiple cores. At a point in time, one core would serve as the bearer of the Golem's conscious, while, using the method of energy sharing and magical arrays distribution, the rest of the cores would serve as the key nodes that constructed a brand new type of Golem.

With this method, Greem would be able to maximize the limited space on each core by fitting more enhancement magical arrays onto each one of them, and eventually produce an even more powerful Elementium Golem.

Of course, in this way, it was impossible to summon a complete Golem with an individual core. A Pseudo-Adept level core of a Storm Giant plus six Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores; each of them would bear part of the functions, and would use the method of consolidated cores and three-dimensional magical arrays to construct the Lightning Giant.

However, though this project had been worked on for half a month, the Chip was busy calculating the distribution and connection between the primary core and node cores, so it hadn't come out with a specific design solution. But since the Chip had included this project in the strategy today, it meant the calculations had completed, and the design solution of the Lighting Giant was done.

This place was, after all, not rest stop. Thus, after having a short break, Greem quickly resumed his return journey. While he was leaving, some ignorant Gnolls actually tried to intercept him, which made Greem, who was filled with pent-up anger, explode. He commanded all three Rock Snakes to crush their nest straightaway.

Faced with three near invincible super monsters, the arrows, daggers, and short spears of the Gnolls were useless. If not for the fact that Greem had no desire to continue fighting, with a single charge, this renowned Gnoll tribe of Gray Ear would have lost thirty percent of their members.

Hence, when the two Pseudo-Adepts sent by Elysium City, Langdon and Philip, arrived hurriedly later, all they saw was dead Gnolls and the Lizardman tribe who had been completely wiped out. Greem was long gone.

With a gloomy expression, Langdon listened to the bloody story told by the leader of the Gnolls. He didn't pay any attention to the story's fishy details, but instead, focused all of his attention on the other side of the demonized forest.

There many strange rumors were told in the Elysium City in regards to that place. Even his master, Adept Dark Light, once warned him not to simply try to seek the treasures inside of the ruin, as if there were some secrets hiding in it. As a result, he only had a superficial knowledge about the demonized forest, as he hadn't spent any time trying to understand or explore it.

Impatiently, Langdon interrupted the weepy complaint of the Gnoll leader, and asked with a cold voice, "Have you entered this demonized forest before? Is there anything inside of it?"

He was not an idiot.

In regards to the completely wiped out Lizardman tribe, many of their adult fighters had been killed by element damage caused by a throwing type of attack, which made Langdon think of the Clay Golem of that bastard. But the rest of them had been killed by sharp weapons at close range. Also, he didn't believe that kid from the surface would have the patience to venture deep into the nest of Lizardmen, slaughtering every single woman and juvenile of the tribe.

This place was the best habitable area closest to the demonized forest. For the underground creatures, having control of the magical materials harvested from that place would bring them tremendous benefit. Thus, it was understandable what kind of role the Gnoll had in wiping out the entire tribe of Lizardmen.

But Langdon wasn't interested in being the judge on this. He only wanted to find out why that bastard had been in the demonized forest.

Could that guy intruded on this place by accident? Or, did he come here with a purpose and was searching for something?

Having these questions in mind, Langdon invited Philip to explore the demonized forest. Therefore, the two Fallen Pseudo-Adepts who thought they were strong enough simply walked into the demonized forest. But, not even half an hour later, both men were forced to run out from the forest in a sorry state.

Their bodies were full of bloody holes, pierced through by the element arrows. Infected by bizarre and nasty energy, the blood dripping out from the wound had turned green. While they were fleeing, many lower grade demons had taken the opportunity to attack them as well, leaving more scars and wounds on their body.

After Philip left a Teleportation mark at the edge of the forest, both men rushed back to Elysium City.

Obviously, they had found some clues in the demonized forest. Judging from what they had found, they believed that the bastard must have gone straight to the ruins of the Adept Tower located in the depth of the forest. And since that guy had such a clear and precise target, clearly he wouldn't abandon what he was looking for just because the place was guarded by a frightening Adept level demon.

So, both men arrived at the conclusion that the kid must have temporarily withdrawn after learning of the difficulties, and would return once he got more help.

That was why Philip had left a Teleportation mark behind. With that, they would be able to launch a surprise attack once Greem returned to the forest. If they were able to intercept them on their way back, with an advantage in the number of Fallen Apprentices and that frightening demon who lived in the demonized forest, it was highly possible they could destroy every single person in the surface team in one clean sweep.

Even in the bloody battle history of Elysium City, that stretched more than hundred years, a result like this was extremely rare!

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After smoothly returning from the Underground World, Greem busied himself once again.

However, different from his usual, currently he was busily working towards a goal and was well-directed.

After he returned, the first thing he did was pay a visit to the Lothar Merchant. By the time he left them, he had five Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores in his waist pouch. Nevertheless, a big purchase like this would mean a sharp decrease in Greem's stash of crystal cores.

In the blink of an eye, he had spent more than half of the over 3000 magic crystals he had won from the bet previously. Currently, Greem's magic crystal savings had dropped below 800. Considering that he and Mary had become ravenous beasts who had to have the daily magical energy meal set, he had to save the remaining magic crystals to support their daily consumption. Therefore, earning a lot of magic crystals in a short period of time had presently become a pressing matter.

After he returned from the Underground World, the trio who had temporarily formed a treasure hunting alliance gathered together and had a meeting. When Greem briefed the team about the situation he had seen in the ruined Adept Tower, both Mary and Snorlax were stupefied.

An Adept level demon!

This… was this something their small team could ever handle?

Although Mary had a high opinion of herself, in the end, she was just an Advanced Apprentice Vampire. If she were to fight that frightening Fairy, she would be instantly killed by it. As for Greem, so far he was still just an Intermediate Apprentice, even though, under the double tonics of the magical energy meal set and the Ming Concentrating potion, his Spirit was rising quickly every day. If they really were to fight an Adept level demon, not only could he not provide any help, it was possible that even the shock wave of the battle would cause him deadly injury!

As for the mighty Goblin merchant Snorlax, though its unconventional ability of invisibility and ability to stay concealed was pretty amazing, they could not fight. Therefore, besides what little bit of help the memories that reside in its brain could provide, there was nothing it could do to help.

Noticing the frightened expression on both his teammates' faces, Greem let out an understanding smile. He then soberly analyzed the advantages and disadvantages between themselves and the enemy. Following his lead, both his teammates gradually overcame their fear towards the Adept level monster, and started to seriously and carefully plan out how to defeat the frightening Fairy.

First of all, the three of them were sure of one thing. If they allowed that Fairy to keep its overall strength at Adept level, planning this treasure hunting mission was no different than planning their own death. Therefore, they had to find ways to weaken the overall strength of that frightening Fairy.

There were two possible ways to do so. First was using curse magic spells, and secondly, targeting the true form of the Fairy.

Greem could find a way to purchase some curse magic wands or one-time use magic spell scrolls. But they didn't know if the inferior products produced by Apprentice Adepts could penetrate the magic resistance of the Fairy. So, they couldn't place too much hope on this.

While they were discussing the issue, Greem secretly hinted that he could get in touch with Adept Angus, and maybe he could obtain some Adept level magic spell scrolls from him. But in order to trade with an official Adept, Greem had to produce something that could attract his interest.

Therefore, Greem had to figure out this new problem!

As for the true form of the Fairy, Greem's predicted (actually it was the Chip's prediction) that there was a high chance it was hiding close to the broken Elementium Pool. At this point, Snorlax finally came into play. Its familiarity with the Adept Tower let it quickly draw out the inner structure of the place, and it was able to precisely point out the location of the Elementium Pool.

According to its description, the Elementium Pool was located in the second underground floor beneath the ruins of Adept Tower. In order to get there, they had to go through numerous magical secret doors and arrays. Though it was highly possible that most of these mechanisms had stopped working, if there were still a couple of them still functioning, it would cause immense problems for Mary's infiltration. So, upon Greem's request, Snorlax had to follow Mary when she snuck into the ruins of Adept Tower.

In regards to this, Greem showed an unprecedented firm attitude. Left with no room to argue, Snorlax fearfully agreed.

In order to achieve the above two things, Greem needed to have the overall strength to fight or pin down the Fairy. Being able to do so would heavily rely on the near completed Lightning Giant. Only when the Lightning Giant had the expected strength would Mary and Snorlax have more confidence in this treasure hunting mission!

With that in mind, in the following days, Greem, Mary, and Snorlax became really busy. Greem lived night and day in the Alchemy Laboratory, crafting his new Golem, while Mary would go out early and came back at dusk, covered in scars and wounds. Even with the extraordinary regeneration of Vampires, she still had so many scars. This showed how incredibly dangerous her training was, that it had gone beyond what even her body could endure.

Snorlax, who dreamed of becoming the greatest Goblin merchant, was rarely seen in the public hall on the first floor of Adept Tower. Instead, it was wearing old and torn thief equipment, and spent all of its time in the Magic Spell Practice Room, practicing its stealth. As for its original glittering magical equipment, it had no choice but to lock it away in a wooden chest while crying.

During this period, Greem and Mary managed to find some time to participate in an Underground World ambush mission organized by the training camp. However, after the miserable defeat last time, the Fallen Apprentices had strengthened the defending forces in all of their resource sites. This caused the team, led by Kevin, to get entangled in a bitter battle.

In this tough war, when two of the Pseudo-Adepts from Kevin's team became locked in combat with the Fallen Pseudo-Adepts, Greem was forced to send out Rock Snakes in order to defend against the bombardment coming from an extra Fallen Pseudo-Adept.

In the situation where the number of their Pseudo-Adepts was outnumbered by the opponent, and the overall strength of their Advanced Apprentices wasn't too strong compared to the enemy, for the sake of avoiding an ambush by the enemy's reinforcements, Kevin had no choice but to abandon the mission.

Even with such an ending, all of the team members had a calm attitude. In their usual battles with the Underground World enemy, a result like this was perfectly normal. With regards to Greem's performance in the battle, no one seemed to have any opinion. With the overall strength of an Intermediate Apprentice, he was able to withstand bombardment from a Fallen Pseudo-Adept for more than fifteen minutes. A result like this could simply shut anyone's mouth.

It was because his firm standing that Kevin's team hadn't been defeated from a shortage of Pseudo-Adepts. Otherwise, once their team had been scattered by the attack, among all of the Advanced Apprentices, who dared say he could escape from the enemy's pursuit? As a matter of fact, it wasn't rare for many ambitious and genius apprentices to get themselves killed in the dark and quiet underground tunnel.

Every year, there were always more than a couple of Advanced Apprentices who died quietly in some random dark corner of the Underground Cave. Even an incident as big as the death of Pseudo-Adept wasn't rare news. In fact, the root cause of the destruction of the previous Elysium City by the surface Adepts was because a surface team consisting of six people bumped into a Fallen Adept while they were patrolling in the Underground World.

No one knew what exactly happened, because all of the two Pseudo-Adepts and four Advanced Apprentices were killed silently in the Underground World. With reinforcements sent by the Zhentarim Association, the raging surface Adepts stormed into the Underground World and forcefully destroyed the stronghold of the enemy – Elysium City.

But too bad, the Second Grade Adept of the enemy, Adept Pridka, had self-detonated the Adept Tower, taken some of Fallen Adepts, and escaped from Elysium City, which allowed them to escape from the catastrophe. Consequently, within just a few years, a new Elysium City had been built up once again.

The more understanding they had about this history, the more alert the elite apprentices were for a major scale conflict. Once either side pushed too far, it was highly possible that it would attract a strong reaction from the other side.

In the unique environment of the Underground Cave, no matter how talented or how strong an Apprentice Adept, once they provoked their opponent's Adept, the inevitable result would be death. Therefore, after bringing back three Fallen Pseudo-Adepts' heads in their previous mission, Kevin's team had anticipated danger in every sound. Thus, their latest mission's defeat had instead let both Pseudo-Adepts in the team breathe out a long sigh of relief.

As a passing traveler in the Underground Cave, Greem wouldn't spend too much of his time in this place, so he didn't really understand the petty thoughts behind their action. The only reason he didn't fight with everything he had was simply that his Spirit and Physique were in a weak state.

A few days ago, Greem had consumed another bottle of the Mind Concentrating potion, which only brought an increment of 0.51 to his Spirit. In relation to that, his Physique had dropped below 3. As a result, the Chip had revised his body's status from healthy to weak.

Under the circumstances, Greem had to temporarily stop consuming the Mind Concentrating potion and focus on tuning his body. With the vigorous vitality of a fifteen year old youth and the strengthening effect from the Spirit to his muscles, the normal level of his Physique should be between 4 – 5.

But this was a common failing for all apprentices who took the path of Elementium, as they usually only focused on cultivation and training their Spirit, either they were meditating or studying magical knowledge, spending long hours copying magical books, and exposing themselves to dangerous magical materials which could harm their body in the long-term. These unhealthy habits led all the Elementium apprentices to have the same unhealthy appearance. They always looked skinny and sick.

If they were able to advance and become official Adepts, they would have plenty of time and countless methods of finding some miraculous items that could remedy the weakness of their body. But for now, they could only clench their jaw tightly and endure with a strong mind. They kept damaging their body in exchange for every little bit of increase in their Spirit.

The failure of the mission didn't affect Greem. Upon his return from the Underground World, he immediately rushed back into the Alchemy Laboratory. He spent most of his time in there, meticulously and carefully crafting his number one Golem – the Lightning Giant.

Finally, after torturously working for dozens of days, Greem waved his hand and killed the magical flame on on the Alchemy Station, brought the primary core that he used as the bearer of the Golem's conscious in front of his face, narrowed his eyes, and gave it a thorough look over.

Right at this very moment, he finally breathed out a long sigh of relief, because…

The Lightning Giant was born!

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This was a magnificent piece of art that would subvert the knowledge of all the Magical Automaton Crafters!

The dazzling primary core looked nearly transparent under the bright light. On its irregular surface, countless magical micro runes that looked like tiny spider webs were engraved following the shape of the core, making them look like natural blood veins of the core. Following the rippling of the surrounding Elementium energy, tiny golden electric arcs started to appear, moving around on its clean and sparkling surface.

For every rotation these electric arcs made, more roaming electric Elementium were absorbed in from the surrounding environment and the bigger these golden electric arcs grew, interlocking with each other. Finally, the crackling and dazzling lightning storm started to roll up around the primary core. Though the aura didn't carry a strong force, anyone would be frightened by the concentrated aura emanating from it.

Greem held the primary core with two fingers. The more he looked at it, the more he liked this core. Meanwhile, a vast amount of pride flooded his mind.

This primary core was the key to constructing the Lightning Giant. For the sake of leaving more space for both tempering and strengthening arrays, the energy storing and energy forming magical arrays had been shifted to the other five Wind element cores. Even so, when the primary core was exposed in the air, those roaming Lightning energies still couldn't be controlled and were absorbed, leading to the strange scene that was happening now.

Greem clenched his right palm and conveniently dispersed the disorderly lightning energy. Then, he placed his right hand which was holding the primary core in front of his forehead, quietly connecting his mind with the Mind Control Imprint System on the core. From the entire primary core, it could be said that this Mind Control Imprint System was the most important part, as this was the magical array that Greem would use to take control of the future Lightning Giant.

Greem's Spirit energy smoothly penetrated into the Mind Control Imprint System, resonating with the tiny thread of Spirit energy that he placed there while crafting the core. Once he had finally finished with this action which was similar to 'consecration', the Mind Control Imprint System on the primary core had officially been activated. From this point onwards, no one would be able to seize the control of it from Greem.

Of course, this was a compulsory process for all privately owned Golem. On the other hand, for those Titans or other automatons crafted by a Magical Automaton Crafter, as the person who controlled them frequently changed, most of them had their Mind Control Imprint Systems replaced with Rune Controls. The Automaton Crafter would then craft the Controlling Rune into something that was easier to transfer and carry around – for example, a plaque or talisman. Then, they would sell them to the public, so that, anyone who held the Controlling Rune in their hand would be able to give commands to the Titan or Automaton.

As a result, a Titan's 'loyalty' was far less than that of a Golem's!

Right when the fully satisfied Greem had arrived at the entrance of his room, he bumped into Mary who had also returned looking worn out. Though covered by her red dress, the frightening scars and wounds on her body could still be clearly seen; even her pretty face was covered with crisscrossing wounds.

"You… what happened to you?" Greem had been busy working on his Golems in the past few days. Thus, he just hadn't had time to pay close attention to Mary's every move, which was why he was so shocked seeing her condition.

"Hmph. These are just some small wounds, that bastard is suffering from injuries worse than mine! If not for the fact that it could help me master magical combat skill, I would have long turned him into dried meat!" Mary waved her hand fiercely, cursing through her tightly clenched teeth. Though she sounded like she had had the advantage, as Greem was very familiar with her character, he was sure that Mary must have been defeated by someone in a match.

"Mary, since you always seem to visit the Kerala mountain range recently, perhaps you could find me an appropriate training opponent? Preferably a Pseudo-Adept level opponent and more importantly, someone who can keep a secret!" Greem said hesitatingly.

"You've successfully crafted the Lightning Golem?" Mary's eyes flickered.

"Yes! But I haven't run a field test yet, to test its overall strength…"

"Excellent. Let's go, you can also help me get revenge!"

Mary had been suffering a lot recently, as her mind was consumed by the flames of revenge. Nevertheless, she had never had the idea of bringing a group of men and fight the enemy as a gang. So, after suddenly hearing Greem's request, she simply gave up all intentions of healing herself in her room and instead, turned around and dragged Greem out of the Adept Tower.

Completely ignoring the strange glances coming from the surrounding Apprentice Adepts, Mary immediately transformed into a giant blood-sucking bat upon rushing out of the Adept Tower. She, then, grabbed on Greem's shoulder and soared into the sky.

It was late in the afternoon, the dusky sky could seen filled with the last orange rays for the day. The Kerala mountain range in the far distance looked like a sleeping giant, as it stood in the darkness and in the far end of the sky.

Mary was flying deep into the mountain range.

After Mary had sucked Alice's blood, her Strength and Physique had experienced a significant improvement. Back in the days, it was rather laborious for her to carry Greem while flying and she could only fly nearly at the altitude of treetops. But now, while restlessly flapping her leather wings, she was actually able to carry Greem up to the altitude of nearly hundred meters in the air, and was able to fly forward like a sharp arrow piercing through the air.

The wet and cold night breeze fiercely slapped Greem's face, the strong wind pressure forcing him to narrow his eyes and making it difficult to maintain his normal vision. Left with no other alternative, he once again put on the Gnome Goggles and only had he felt much better.

With the help of low-light vision from the goggles, he looked downwards at the earth and saw that at the edge of the dusky forest, there were long lines formed by countless torches rushing towards the Adept Tower.

These were probably the expedition teams that ventured deep into the mountain range every day, hunting demon beasts and harvesting magical herbs.

While Greem was pondering, Mary had carried him and streaked through the night sky at an incredible speed, passing over those expedition teams.

The sky had yet to turn completely dark and obviously, some expedition teams had discovered the abnormality in the sky. Following their shouts, a few of their leaders had also tilted their head up and looked into the sky. But, before they could spot the tiny black dot, it dissolved into the dusky night sky as Mary and Greem squeezed into the depths of the forests of the mountain.

The distance between Mary's destination and the Adept Tower as the crow flies was about seventy miles. If they had traveled by foot through the forests, it would have taken them more than half day to reach their destination. However, when it came to Mary, it had just been a forty-five minute journey.

Their destination was a small hill that connected to a huge mountain range. When Mary and Greem approached the hill, she slowed down and started to descend. On top of this small hill, there was a flat and emptied field the size of two football fields. Though there were some wild bushes and weeds growing on top of the field, they were scattered around and one could tell with just one look that this place must have gone through a great amount of torture.

Casually throwing Greem onto a patch of grass, the blood sucking bat exploded into a clump of blood mist and transformed into the red dressed Mary within a blink of an eye.

"Toril, you bastard! Show yourself quickly! I, the red-dressed Mary, am back for revenge again!" Upon being restored to her human form, Mary stood there with her hands on her hips and let out a furious roar. Her shrill voice kept echoing through the dusky mountain forest. Indistinctly, the reverberation of her voice could be heard coming from a far distance.

What was she doing?

At this moment, Greem's mind was fully bewildered and he found it funny to see Mary acting like that.

He had long heard that Mary had been searching everywhere for an appropriate opponent to train her melee combat skills with. However, no matter how pressing the matter was, she wouldn't have come to a remote and desolated mountain forest like this to try and search for the right candidate! In this place, besides those wild animals and demon beasts in the forest, what else could she find? Could she had been training with a demon beast?

Having his mind filled with endless fantasies, Greem shook his head and let out a wry smile. Right as he was about to ask Mary to stop making fun of him, a deep sigh rang out, followed by a robust and burly body squeezing itself out from the forest and revealing itself on this small hill.

Dark clouds hovered in the sky, while the silver moon jumped out from behind these clouds, pouring its bright light onto the body of this figure.

This was a strong man with a perfectly fitted and well-balanced body. He had a pair of dark green eyes, a somber face, and was wearing a full set of green armor on his body. With just one look, one could tell he must be a strong man who focused on melee fighting.

The guy came out with a warmth smile on his face, clearly, intending to have a good talk with Mary. However, when he realized that Mary wasn't the only person on this hill, his expression immediately turned cold. He threw his glance over at Greem from a far distance and remained silent, looking like he was pondering over something.

"Toril, I have told you before, if you want me to be your woman, you have to truly defeat me! I've found you an opponent today. As long as you can defeat him, I'll agree to your request! What do you say? This isn't too strict of a condition, right? Don't tell me that you're scared of an Intermediate Apprentice?" With her hands on her hips, Mary clamored in high spirits, totally ignoring Greem who had an expression showing that he didn't know whether to cry or to laugh.

Since when had Mary had an admirer? Judging from the look of that guy, he should also be an Apprentice Adept, but Greem had no idea why this guy wanted to live in this wilderness. As for his overall strength level…

Greem couldn't help but furrow his brows.

The wave of this guy's spirit was rather strange, but from the information feedback from the Chip, he was verified as a genuine Pseudo-Adept.

As Greem stared straight at this guy and kept examining him, the green armor guy was also silently giving Greem an examining look.

"You kept telling me that you already have a boyfriend, could he be that little guy who can't even stand a gust of wind? The wave of his Spirit is so messy and heterogeneous, I supposed they were forcefully increased using some kind of medicinal potions, huh? I don't see anything how this weakling could be worth your love. Can he endure your enchanting kiss? With his weak and frail body, how many kisses can he even withstand…" The more the guy spoke, the angrier he became. By the end of his rant, he could barely control his anger.

Awww, so this guy was his rival in love! Bah! This was absurd, what was this nonsense about a rival in love? At most, he and Mary had a little bit of dubious relationship; they couldn't even be considered a pair of lovers. So, where had him being a rival in love came from?

Wearing a strange smile on his face, Greem stared at this green armor guy. But, before he could tease the guy, an unbelievable, miraculous transformation started to happen on this guy.

His body started to expand slowly, pushing the loose armor on his body causing it to produce cracking noise. Countless dark hairs squeezed out from underneath his skin, while his face started to twist and protrude. Two razor sharp fangs had poked out from his lips. The most attracting part was his eyes, as the two dark green glows became brighter and brighter. By the end, they had even become brighter than the silver moon in the sky, making Greem feel a tremendous pressure.

Within just five seconds, the green armor guy had transformed into a giant raging ape with an extremely masculine body that stood more than four meters tall.

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Bloodline Transformation?

He was a Pseudo-Adept who had taken the path of a Bloodline Adept!

It would have been a lie if he said that he wasn't nervous at this moment. After all, in the eyes of all apprentices, the overall strength of a Bloodline Apprentice was considered the strongest among all other similarly ranked apprentices.

Take the guy in front of him as an example! According to the records of history, the Giant Raging Ape was a powerful Grade Five demon beast. This also meant that as long as this guy kept purifying the bloodline of Giant Raging Ape in his body, then he would have the potential to become a Fifth Grade Adept.

If he really was fortunate enough to reach Grade Five Adept, perhaps he would have to worry about his future development. But as for now, he could enjoy the tremendous benefits that were brought to him by the bloodline body transformation. The intrepid physique, strong strength, tall and masculine body, and a fighting style that would that let him fight continuously, only stopping once he was killed, without any fear of death…

Stimulated by the bloodline of the Giant Raging Ape, the consciousness of the green armor guy had become rather disordered and confused. He kept slamming into his chest with both of his huge hands, while letting out a series of furious roars at Greem.

Alright, perhaps this was the only weakness that was brought upon by the path of the Bloodlines. The person could rather easily be immersed into a restless state by his bloodline, causing him to lose the proper sense and calm sober mind. Of course, there was some bloodline fanatics that didn't regard this as a weakness. In their minds, the raging inner state could further stimulate their desire for a fight and would allow them to unleash an even more powerful combative strength. When compared to that, losing a little bit of sense didn't mean anything!

"Don't you need to prepare yourself? Be careful, once this guy transforms, he will attack anyone he sees!" Mary chuckled and left the hill, while saying, "I am looking forward to your great performance!"

Greem raised his head upwards to look at the Giant Raging Ape who stood tall in front of him and shook his head, letting out a wry smile on his face. Finally, he took out a small leather pouch from his waist and tossed it onto the ground. Once it hit the ground, the neck of the pouch opened up, as a dazzling magical glow shot out from inside the pouch.

Five crystal clear Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores flew out from inside the pouch and gradually hovered in midair. When they revealed themselves in the air, shrill sounds of wind suddenly rung through the air on this small hill. Drawn in by a mysterious force, a huge amount of Wind Elementiums started to swarm into the hovering Elementium cores crazily, surrounding them as they started to revolve around the cores while continuing to produce shrill noises.

Wind was invisible.

And Wind Elementiums couldn't be seen with naked eyes as well.

But when such a massive amount of Wind Elementiums gathered together, a green vortex had become visible to the naked eye.

These Wind Elementiums came at an incredible speed, causing the night sky to be sliced into thousands of tiny threads. Soon, with the five Wind element cores as the center, the gathered Wind Elementium formed into a human-like body with four limbs.

A green body, green hands, and green legs.

When the body of this green giant was successfully formed, a new element core flew out from inside the pouch and threw itself into the broad chest of the giant. In next second, a green head struggled out from the top of this burly giant. Nevertheless, it didn't have a vivid facial appearance – no eyes, no ears, no mouth, and no nose.

If the previous five Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores had been used to construct the body, then this Pseudo-Adept level Wind element core was used to support the entire body, as the bone of this green giant.

But, this was not yet the end.

A mini sun gradually rose up from the pouch.

The Elementium let out a dazzling glow, while the lightning barrier let out crackling noises. When this last primary core merged into the body of this green giant, it brought about an incredible and mystical transformation to the Golem.

The giant which had looked rather lifeless previously, in this moment, had become alive!

It had a massive body that stood five meters tall and brilliant green skin, covered by a layer of golden armor. Though its limbs didn't look as slim and agile as a human's, it had arms, palms and fingers. Even so, when the two mini golden suns on its face lit up, a magical shield entirely constructed by static electricity emerged on its giant left hand, while a dazzling lightning spear had appeared on its right palm.

Counting the Wind Vortex Shield and Lightning Armor outside of this giant's body, the personal defense mechanism of this Golem could make anyone's jaw drop.

The Lightning element was in fact, a branch of the Wind element. Thus, there weren't any obstacles stopping the both of them from merging with each other. The five Wind element cores that scattered across the body and limbs of the giant kept drawing Wind Elementium to the body. Besides using some to form the physical Wind body, all the other Wind Elementiums had been used by the primary core to strengthen and temper. The core turned them into lightning energy to supply the bottomless energy demanded by the Lightning Giant.

On one side was the Giant Raging Ape who stood four-meter-tall and on the other side was the Lighting Giant who stood five meters tall. Two massive objects stood facing each other with a distance of nearly forty meters in between.

Though the green armor guy who had transformed into the Giant Raging Ape had appeared to be savage, when it came to facing a formidable opponent whom he had no idea of the true overall strength of, he showed a rather dignified and good control of himself. Nevertheless, the tremendous pressure that the Lightning Giant brought to him had also further stimulated him and made him even more maniacally. White gas could be seen spraying out from his nostrils, as he kept slamming the ground with both giant arms and making loud noises.

Finally, unable to contain the near boiling fighting spirit in his body, the Giant Raging Ape let out a furious roar that echoed throughout the forest and moved its gigantic body, charging towards the opponent while roaring violently.

Greem kept backing away from the battlefield. While he was doing so, he continued staring at the Giant Raging Ape, with his eyes flickering with bright blue light. Rows of numbers were pouring down in front of his eyes, flooding his vision with a vast amount of data.

Soon, most of the irrelevant data had been removed, leaving behind only the data that was provided by the Chip after having scanned the Giant Raging Ape.

"Target: Toril. Gender: Male. Adept path: Bloodline. Body attributes: Strength – 20 (2), Physique – 20 (2), Agility – 11, Spirit – 17(-3)"

Upon reading Toril's body statistics, Greem was struck with awe inspiring envy.

20 points of Strength! A Strength like that could probably defeat every single demon beast who was well-known for its Strength in this Kerala mountain range!

20 points of Physique! With such Physique, even if this Toril didn't wear any armor, just the strength of his muscle alone, he could defend himself from all the common weapons used by normal humans in this world. Those common weapons that don't possess any supernatural force could no longer inflict any damage on him.

Greem even speculated that with 20 points of Physique, even if there was really someone who could chop off one of Toril's arms, he would probably be able to regrow it in just a few days, because it seemed as though all creatures who had their Physique reach the level 20 would possess the passive ability to regrow their limbs.

Analyzing the data provided by the Chip, the normal body attributes for Toril should be: Strength – 18, Physique – 18, Agility – 11, Spirit – 20. Once he had completed his bloodline body transform, then his Strength and Physique would be boosted to 20, however, it was surprising that his Spirit had dropped to 17.

Perhaps, this was one of the weaknesses of the bloodline of Giant Raging Ape!

Though it seemed as if Greem had spent a long time in thinking all this, in reality, it had all happened within a split second.

While Greem was backing off, the Lighting Giant chose to charge at the Giant Raging Ape.

With a wave of its hand, the Lightning Spear held in the right hand of this Lightning Golem had disappeared, flying out with a speed that no naked eye could detect and nailed into the broad chest of the Giant Raging Ape. The spear suddenly exploded and the mini Lighting Storm instantly flooded the body of the Giant Raging Ape.

From the projection of Greem's vision, the basic strength of this mini Lightning Storm was 21 points.

However, a lightning damage of this level was insufficient to stop a powerful magical creature who had both its Strength and Physique reach level 20. Through the body transformation, Toril was temporarily given the intrepid body and magic resistance of the Giant Raging Ape. Besides bringing him intense pain, these crackling electric arcs would never be able to halt his movements.

A loud boom rung in the air, as the massive body of the giant ape pierced through the Lightning Storm, spread out its large palm and forcefully waved toward the Lightning Giant. Compared to the savage and brutal manner of a giant ape, though Lightning Giant had a bigger body, its movements were rather nimble.

With just a slight dodging movement, the Lightning Giant avoided the large palm of the Giant Raging Ape and reappeared behind its opponent within the blink of an eye. It then shook its right arm and unleashed a lightning whip that coiled around the Giant Raging Ape's waist. Through the lightning whip, streaks of brutal and violent high voltage electricity instantly transmitted over to every single corner of the giant ape's body, causing it to continuously let out a furious roar into the sky. Soon, the smell of burning flesh emitted from the point of contact.

The failure in executing its first strike and the severe pain coming from its body both greatly agitated the Giant Ape, causing it to become even more maniacal. It stretched out its hand, grabbed the long whip on its waist and with just some light force from its hand, it simply shattered the whip into pieces. Having freed itself from the trap, the Giant Ape turned around and punched out both fists at the same time that came crushing towards the Lighting Giant, while producing two loud booms that pierced through the air.

Though it had a double the defense from the Wind Vortex Shield and the Lightning Shield that carried in its left hand, under the heavy blow of the extreme raging force of the Giant Ape, the outer defense of the Lightning Giant was shattered in an instant.

A loud boom rang through the air.

The Lightning Giant sailed through the air and drew out a pale green trail in the sky, flying away nearly hundred meters before it could stabilize its body once again. At this very moment, the end of its left arm had disappeared, while a huge dent could be seen on the chest part of its golden armor.

Greem, who had back off to the edge of the forest in the far distance, knitted his brows with a tight frown.

Compared to the bloodline transformation which possessed a physical body, the body of Lightning Giant formed by pure Wind Elementium was rather fragile. Therefore, during the a melee battle with a big guy like this whose body emphasized Strength and muscles, obviously it was at a disadvantage.

But because of the two-layer defenses, the iron fists of Giant Raging Ape couldn't penetrate the basic defense of the Lightning Giant, or else, it would have been too troublesome for it to recover.

Within a few blinks of an eye, followed by the golden flashes on the huge dent on the Lightning Giant's chest, it was once again restored to its original shape.

And right at this moment, the raging and furious Giant Ape had once again charged towards it with tremendous momentum.

"Don't fight it in such a close range, keep a distance of thirty to fifty meters and attack it with lightning!"

From the far distance, Greem transmitted his thoughts to the primary core of the Lightning Giant.

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