Age of Adepts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Swamp Tower Garrison:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greem grabbed her arm.

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

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

Staring at how Mary gently licked her lips and wore an arrogant expression, Greem shuddered. He hastily let go of Mary’s arm and tried his best to focus on the list of in front of him.

……

Cleanup the Great Graveyard (3/10) Orange Mission

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

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

Mission rewards: 30 Knowledge Points, 3 Magic Crystals, 10 Zhentarim Association Merit Points.

……

Abnormal Creature in the Lands of the Giant Willow (2/3) Orange Mission

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

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

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

(If the Apprentices who carry this mission can resolve the source of the disaster, based on the evidence provided, the reward will be increased considerably.)

……

Griffin Cliff Domestication Mission (0/3) Red Mission

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

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

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

(Upon completion of the mission, the Hamilton Company will provide a private reward.)

……

Underground Cave Investigation Mission (4/10) Red Mission

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

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

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

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

……

……

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

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

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

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

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

And this was how Adepts maintained this world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After a quick selection process, the Chip had picked an Orange mission that suited Greem perfectly. It had examined each mission and removed the ones with the most uncertain elements.

……

Apprentice Alchemist of Klage Training Mission (1/3) Orange Mission

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

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

Mission rewards: 20 Knowledge Points, 3 Magic Crystals, 1 Tranquility Potion, 1 Potion of Invisibility.

……

The difficulty of this mission was not high. The Well of Treasures was a training field that all Apprentice Alchemists had to visit. It was a place with countless ‘little toy’ that had been casually placed by master Alchemists throughout the thousands of years it had existed, awaiting newcomers to dig them out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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