Age of Adepts

In just a short amount of time, the disturbance brought forth by Alice had died off.

As a matter of fact, before most of the apprentices within the tower had gotten to the root of this matter, it had passed away into silence. Not to mention that Adept Anderson, who rarely showed himself in front of his apprentices, and even Evil Bugs Acteon, who had witnessed the entire process himself, had become very quiet.

With regards to Greem’s performance, except Mary who didn’t express any surprise, the other two had been struck with awe. It was especially true for Acteon, the degree of his shocking emotion had even elevated to a state where he felt uneasy to even eat or sleep.

Although Greem never publicly exhibited any hostility towards Acteon, as a Bloodline Apprentice who had taken a mutated path and took the initiative to strike at any potential enemy, the guideline Acteon had been practicing all his life was put all his efforts to construct an aggressive position in his living circle, which could bring him all the benefits.

In the past, as he was constrained by his overall strength, he had no choice but to keep a relatively balanced relationship with the other two strongest. But after his breakthrough in the recent training mission, he could no longer hold down his true nature and had stood out, ‘subduing’ both Madwoman and Hawkeye.

If he hadn’t witnessed the battle of that bizarre kid, perhaps, he would have thought the scale of victory had skewed to his side. Mary, who was only an expert in running fast, had nothing worth mentioning in her defensive and offensive ability and was not his opponent. As for Greem, a mere Advanced Apprentice, how big a storm could he bring up?

However, the battle in the bird cage between Alice and Greem had deeply touched Acteon.

From that day onwards, he kept asking himself inwardly. If he and Greem had fought in the bird cage, could he break through the line of defense formed by the group of golems and land his attack onto Greem? Obviously, the answer was something that he didn’t like to hear.

Therefore, since that day, he had become extremely reticent!

…………

Within a dark secret room.

Acteon, wearing a black robe, was sitting within the shadow of a corner, pondering himself while remaining silent.

Throughout the entire secret room, there was only a magical torch lit up, and was placed on a wall in the far distance. Not only was the dimmed, jumping flame not able to bring any significant light to this space, instead, it gave a touch of gruesomeness and fear to the place.

There wasn’t any furniture or decorations in this secret room, not even the commonly seen table or chairs. Even Acteon was sitting on the cold, hard surface of the floor with his legs folded. Behind him, in a corner of the room where light couldn’t reach, a mysterious cocoon was seen hanging down from the roof, and was expanding and creeping in a creepy manner.

Rather than referring to this place as a secret room, it was more like a bug’s nest.

Right beside Acteon, countless black bugs were swarming across the floor like a dark wave. Sometimes they would move to the east, and sometimes they would move to the west, the buzzing noise of their legs scratching the floor was incessantly lingering in the air.

As if affected by these bugs, Acteon’s body which hid underneath the black robe started to move restlessly, as if there were hundreds of thousands of bugs trying to rush out from within, wanting to mix together with their peers which were crawling outside. Right when these black bugs nearly went out of control, finally, Acteon raised his head up, and within the shadow of his hood, two bright green glows ignited.

A sharp, ear-piercing cry of bugs echoed out from within the secret room.

Acteon opened his mouth widely. Right at the center of his mouth, which was formed with layers of lips, a peculiar head of bug suddenly poked out. The bug cry just now was let out from the mouth of this bug.

Upon hearing the cry, the restless bugs had returned to a calm state once again. All the black bugs now surrounded Acteon, like people worshiping their king, they all held their heads low and remained silent, waiting for the order of their master.

Acteon casually picked up a black bug and threw into his mouth, starting to munch on it and producing the crystal clear sound of biting and crushing. The stinking green liquid leaked out from his lips, and the pungent smell of it had made the air in this secret room even more filthy.

“So, this is the path you picked for yourself? It is really unique!” An old voice suddenly rang out from within the secret room.

“Master Anderson, you’re finally here!” Anderson lightly raised his head, as if he wasn’t surprised by the voice that suddenly broke the silence of the room.

“You knew I’ll be here?” The old voice sounded surprised. It was the voice of the master of this Swampy Tower, Adept Anderson.

“Of course! As long as you’re still the true master of this tower, I know you will contact me sooner or later!”

“So, I assume you have also guessed my purpose in contacting you?”

“You wish for my help in dealing with that Greem!”

“Hmph, you’re a clever kid. Indeed! I need you to stand out and get rid of that hateful kid. And, I believe you’re willing to do this!”

“Your respectful master Anderson, can I ask you a question? Do you really need help killing an Advanced Apprentice? Can’t you just kill him straightaway? Could that bring you any consequences, unbearable even to you?” Clearly, Acteon wasn’t an idiot. Without knowing the answer to this critical question, he wouldn’t want to become the gun held in someone else’s hand!

“Because I still want to control that little vampire. She is the key sample to the next step in my blood research. Based on the relationship between her and that kid, if I do this myself, perhaps it would be extremely difficult for me to control her again.” Adept Anderson remained silent for a brief moment, before finally saying the reason.

“With the combative ability that kid showed us yesterday, do you think I can defeat him?” Anderson was never bothered by Adept Anderson’s answer, instead, he quickly threw out the next question.

“With my judgment, it is extremely difficult. If you’re fighting him alone, you’ll face an inevitable death. But, it seems you have formed an Evil Bugs Alliance. If you can bring in the strength of this alliance, perhaps it will be enough.”

“But, by doing all these, what kind of benefits would I be getting? Instead, I’ll be offending Mary, a Pseudo-Adept for no apparent reason!”

“What if I say I can make you stronger?”

“……”

“I suppose your contracted partner is that Queen Bug? The queen of Carrion Beetle, hehe, you’re really lucky to bump into such a great fortune. It looks like you did have pretty good luck in the past!”

“……”

“Right now, probably you’re worrying about how to improve your overall strength. You have tied your life with that Queen Bug, as the result, not only do you have to fulfill the level up requirement by yourself, you also need to fulfill the level up requirement of the Queen of Carrion Beetle. With that, though the half-bug body has given you an advantage when facing an opponent of the same rank, the speed of progress has also dragged you down.”

“……”

“How many Pseudo-Adepts had you devoured in your training mission? One or two? Without such lucky encounters, there is no way you can become a Pseudo-Adept smoothly. So, what are you going to do after that? In order to level up as an Adept, how many Adepts are you planning to devour?”

“Master Anderson, I’ve understood what you mean. So, with regards to my current situation, do you have any better suggestions?”

“It is no doubt you have to strengthen yourself first!” With a disdainful voice, Anderson gave his lecture, “Although currently, that Queen Bug is your contracted creature, and you two are sharing a life together, however, there is an issue of dominance that resides within your relationship. When you become stronger, naturally, it will be your best servant. But if it evolves faster than you, though there is no risk in terms of your life, but when it comes to the true master of this body, perhaps most of the time it will be controlled by the Queen Bug!”

“Then, how can I strengthen myself even faster?”

“Hehehe… kid, most probably you have forgotten that I turned Mary into her current appearance! As long as you’re willing to participate in my magic spell experiment, I can promise you, I’ll give you an intrepid body that is not weaker than Mary’s!”

“I agree to this condition. What do you need me to do?”

“First, I need a drop of blood from your Queen Bug! Only by obtaining its blood can I accurately concoct the mutated blood most suitable for your body constitution.”

After remaining silent and pondering for a long time, Acteon finally nodded his head in agreement.

And after obtaining Acteon’s agreement, Adept Anderson immediately urged him to hand over a drop of Queen Bug’s blood.

Acteon gritted his teeth and opened his lotus-shaped mouth, the bug resided inside once again poked out part of its body. Upon revealing itself, the bug immediately let out a miserable cry, causing the dark Carrion Beetles surrounded Acteon to become restless and furious. But after forced by Acteon, the Queen bug had no choice but opened its mouth and spat out a drop of strange liquid, which was extremely stinky and sticky.

The air within the secret room briefly vibrated. When the drop of liquid left the mouth of Queen Bug, before it could reach the ground, a spatial ripple appeared at the right time cupping it from below. A bright light of teleportation flashed through the room, the liquid had disappeared in a strange manner.

Acteon’s compound eyes flickered. Obviously, he was frightened by how tight a control Adept Anderson had on the tower.

“Kid, you have made a wise decision! Alright, with this thing, I’ll be able to concoct a mutated blood soon. Once you have also owned the bloodline of a vampire, that will be the moment for you to shine!”

Sensing that Adept Anderson’s powerful Spirit had gradually withdrawn from the secret room, only then Acteon blended himself back into the vast darkness. Within the dark shadow where no one could peek through, the chirping of beetle could be heard without end, no one knew what was the contents of the violent communication between Acteon and the Queen Bug.

The entire space was filled with a ghastly and wicked atmosphere!

…………

After returning to his residence, Greem once again dwelled into the secluded lifestyle he used to have.

Deep meditation, reading books, magic spell experiments… All these boring yet fixed routine had filled up his daily life. For some unknown reasons, a deep sense of danger had been enveloping Greem’s body and soul, urging him to keep accumulate knowledge and strengthening himself.

He had a feeling, if he didn’t put in all his effort to run faster, some frightening events would happen on him. Although it was tough to explain where or who these dangers would come from, Greem believed in his instincts without a shadow of the doubt. And he had put out real action as preventive measures.

Also, the magic spell study he carried out in succession had brought him tremendous benefits. Having been organized and classified by the Chip, all those magic spell books he had read in the past had transformed into the mystical knowledge that he could use at anytime he wanted. The vacancy of his elementary knowledge about Fire element magic spell had now been filled up.

Therefore, unknowingly, both Inferno Shield and Inferno Force Field had become skills in his bag, while the mastery of Inferno Body had increased to 41% from 37%.

Strictly speaking, currently, the fundamental knowledge in Fire element that Greem had was not weaker than that of any official Adept’s!