Age of Adepts

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.