Age of Adepts

Sabrina carefully made her way through the rainbow strips of light.

Eight agile metallic appendages floated in front of her, helping her detect those invisible planar law faults. These fault areas were often spots of chaotic gravity, turbulent spacetime, or even just areas of spatial storms. It didn’t matter which they were; they were lethal to a mere First Grade adept.

That was why the metallic appendages that Sabrina held in front of her became talismans of protection of sorts. She would immediately retract them if she sensed any change in the planar laws in front of the appendages. Of course, she couldn’t avoid loss of parts and components in this process. Still, it was much better than actually being caught in a fault.

Greem, on the other hand, followed closely behind Sabrina. He precisely traced her path, not daring to make even a single misstep.

Tens of thousands of pieces of debris slowly floated past their eyes like freeze frames from a roll of film. Among these were wooden casks filled with golden wine, goblin firearms snapped in half, shattered pieces of the metal deck, dirt, plants, and some goblin corpses with faces frozen in terror and shock.

They gathered together and slowly moved towards a point in space as if being dragged by an invisible current. The spatial vortex was slowly devouring everything.

The two adepts carefully avoided all the obvious planar law faults and closed in on the massive remaining half of the ship. The ship had broken clean in half at the center, providing the adepts with a cross-sectional view of its contents. They could even clearly see the places where the metallic deck had distorted and broken off.

They saw the dark tunnels and wrecked cabins through the cross-section. The objects within the ship were still spilling outwards, providing the rainbow lights with even more spoils.

”Let’s go in!” Greem quickly took a look at everything, ”We only have half an hour. We need to get out in time, regardless of whether we find anything. Otherwise, we will be dragged into the spatial vortex along with it.”

Sabrina nodded.

The two adepts wished each other good luck before bending their bodies and diving into the light-filled area.

There was no air inside the rainbow light strip. There was no gravity either. Everything levitated in an almost motionless state. When he had still been outside the piece of lights, Greem had been able to see the objects within floating at an extremely slow speed. However, the moment he entered the strip of light himself, time seemed to have stopped. He couldn’t sense any passing of time.

Of course, such a strange phenomenon was not going to be an issue for the adepts.

Sabrina made her way into a corridor in the middle of the ship using the force from her flame jets. Her metallic appendages grabbed onto the walls on the left and right as she disappeared into the darkness like an octopus.

Meanwhile, Greem stepped on shattered pieces of wood and floating corpses to make his way into the belly of the ship.

Their target was clear. They were aiming for the cabin rooms of the leaders.

Sabrina chose the captain’s room and the warehouse, while Greem was going for the office that Gazlowe had been hiding in.

The ship was slowly spinning due to the lack of gravity. As such, many of the paths they were taking and the arrangement of the rooms differed from usual.

As a Second Grade adept, breathing and eating were no longer necessary for survival. Most of the time, these actions were only habits and a means by which to obtain energy from the external world. That was why Greem tried to place his Ring of Fire just two meters away from him and use it as a sensory device as well as the first line of defense.

Much of Greem’s fire energy had recovered after his downtime. It was not sufficient for a proper fight, but it would be more than enough for him to defend himself.

He was now in the fifth layer beneath the deck.

While the ship wasn’t big, it still took time to comb through it. Greem very wisely decided to start searching from the third floor onwards. The first two floors alone had taken up fifteen minutes of his time.

As he slowly floated past the rooms with his head down and his feet up, he couldn’t help but be intrigued by the arrangement and decorations of the fifth layer.

There were quite a lot of luxury items floating in the cabins here. In terms of beauty and delicateness, the furniture here far outclassed any goblin furniture Greem had seen. More interestingly, Greem also found several highly-secure blast doors. All these seemed to point towards the fact that the goblin who lived here was a vital individual used to a life of luxury.

However, what Greem hadn’t expected was the fact that all these blast doors had been opened. Moreover, they had been opened forcefully.

As there was no air in here, sound couldn’t be transmitted. Consequently, Greem couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. However, he could still sense the light tremors of the ship.

Someone’s in there!

This strange thought caused a shiver to run down Greem’s spine.

Such an occurrence would not be enough to scare a Second Grade adept like himself. Greem slowly floated towards the metal doors that had been tossed aside after being taken down. He seemed to understand something after observing the marks left on the doors.

It was a messy and disorderly lab.

The metallic experimental platform floated through the room, along with plenty of oddly-shaped tools and unfamiliar equipment. In front of a warehouse wall by the side of the lab, there was a short figure with a massive chainsaw in their hands. The individual was using the huge chainsaw, that was usually equipped on the logging machines, to cut away at a mysteriously hidden drawer.

It was apparent that the drawer and walls around it had undergone some kind of special treatment. The alloy used to forge them was impenetrable. The wall and the drawer remained unmoved, even as sparks and dust flew everywhere from the revolving chainsaw.

Given the progress this person was making, they would probably be unable to get anything done even after another ten hours.

”Tigule, we meet again!” Greem sent a mental message over when he saw that familiar form.

Tigule, who had been focused on taking the drawer apart, seemed never to have expected seeing someone alive here. His wrist trembled, and the giant chainsaw slipped to his side. He turned its green triangular head frantically, revealing a gas mask on his face.

Ah, so that’s why!

Greem had been somewhat curious about how Tigule had managed to survive in these conditions. He might be a First Grade goblin mechanic and have a body as tough as a First Grade adept, but there was no reason he should have been able to endure this unique environment that had no air. Greem immediately understood everything when he saw that gas mask!

Still, why was Tigule here? Greem still had questions.

If he was an honest goblin, then what he should have been doing right now was gathering the corpses of the dead goblins outside. If he was a greedy goblin, then the warehouse of the ship should be the best place to go. But he was doing none of this. Instead, he had made his way to this secret lab that belonged to Prince Gazlowe and was desperately trying to open that drawer.

That was difficult for Greem to wrap his mind around!

Cold light gleamed in Tigule’s eyes when he turned back and saw the towering Greem shrouded in his fire. Hostile intent bubbled in his glare. However, Tigule quickly realized that he was not in a magical machine as he waved his chainsaw and lunged at the enemy.

Without his magical machine, he was only a First Grade goblin mechanic. He was as frail as a paper person in front of the terrifying Greem. There wasn’t even a need for some large-scale spell. The simplest magical fireball would reduce him to ashes and make him part of this silent graveyard.

”I wish to make a trade with you!” Tigule quickly changed his attitude, seemingly understanding the situation he was in. He shouted at Greem.

Even though his voice couldn’t transmit in this vacuum, Greem still understood his intentions through his spiritual senses.

”I have no interest in trading with weaklings!” Greem smiled coldly, ”Moreover, I don’t think you can come up with anything that’s useful to me.”

”What about the coordinates to a plane world?” Tigule waved his hand. He was hiding a metal shining with an odd light in his left hand, ”These are the world coordinates to another small-sized plane. Are you also not interested in this?”

Greem’s expression at this moment was fascinated!

Who knew… who could have ever known that he would hear news of another world from a low-class goblin of the Goblin Plane? That was even more unbelievable than hearing of a rabbit raping a bear.

However, he immediately started doubting the truth of this information.

After all, Tigule’s identity and history should never have and could never have gotten him involved with classified information like that involving the coordinates of another plane world. Unless... this wasn’t his property!

Greem took a quick look around the room. He seemed to have understood something when he saw the messy quarters that lay at the end of the lab.

Greem silently drifted forward.

”Stop!” Tigule opened his green eyes wide in anxiety, ”You take a half a step forward, and I’ll destroy these world coordinates!”

He took two steps backward and placed the metal ball in front of the rumbling chainsaw.

Judging from the appearance of the metal ball, it was no more than a delicate and well-crafted alchemical item. There was a strange energy aura radiating from within it, and it was not a solid metal ball.

Dammit, it does not feel good to have the enemy’s grip around your throat.

Greem bared his hands and stopped on the spot. He smiled and looked at the opponent, ”Then, what do you wish to get out of this?”

”This hidden drawer,” Tigule tilted his head, ”I want the information inside this hidden drawer!”

”Information?” Greem hesitated for a moment.

”Don’t worry. This information presents no benefit to you,” Tigule hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and laying it out, ”This drawer contains proof of Gazlowe’s collusion with members of the royal family, as well as detailed information about his subordinate forces. I need these things!”

”Ooooh.” A playful smile appeared across Greem’s face.

”Indeed, I belong to the Anderme Royal Family, pledged to her highness Princess Vanessa!” An expression of pride appeared on Tigule’s ugly green face when he mentioned his true background.

It was obvious that he was a passionate fanatic loyal to the goblin royalty!