Age of Adepts

Even though Greem wanted to engage in a more in-depth discussion of the goblin political intrigues with Tigule, the reality of the situation didn’t allow for it.

As the ship wreckage slowly drifted closer and closer to the spatial vortex, the entirety of its structure was affected by the area of chaotic gravity. The ship was being pulled in different directions by hundreds and thousands of gravitational forces. The wreckage would probably have disintegrated and split apart if not for the goblins sturdy craftsmanship.

Even so, as more and more gravitational pulls started acting on the wreckage with increasing strength, the hull began to creak and tremble.

There wasn’t much time left for this remaining half of the ship!

”Move away. We don’t have much time left!” Greem didn’t have time to engage in more complex negotiations. He shouted under his breath and dove towards the hidden drawer.

Tigule carefully dodged to the side and kept a tight grip on the metal ball in his hands.

Greem arrived in front of the warehouse wall where the hidden drawer sat. He then smacked the wall hard with his hand and silently sensed the shape and size of the drawer using the vibrations in the wall.

The things in the hidden drawer were obviously significant to Gazlowe. Yet, the process to open the drawer was also extremely complicated and drawn-out. That was why Gazlowe himself hadn’t been able to take it away with him when he escaped the ship using the teleportation device.

This safe that Gazlowe had personally created employed some sort of new high-quality alloy in its creation. Not only was it incredibly resilient, but it also possessed the magical resistance that all other goblin alloys lacked. It wasn’t easy for Greem if he wanted to burn his way through. First, it would take time. Second, it would be hard for him to manage the intensity of the flame.

If the fire accidentally spilled into the drawer, all that information regarding ’traitor of the crown’ and ’Gazlowe’s subordinate forces’ would be destroyed. The deal from earlier would be off the table.

Greem no longer hesitated once he thought of this. Fire blasted forth from his palms pressed against the walls and quickly spread out through the entire wall. The ravenous fire incinerated everything around the drawer, leaving behind an outline of the hidden drawer and a three-meter zone around it.

The entire wall was about seven to eight meters wide, and the metallic base and the hidden drawer took up about half of that width. Under ordinary circumstances, it would have been pure fantasy for a thief to pry the secret drawer open. However, under this environment of zero gravity, taking the hidden drawer away along with its metallic base was undoubtedly the most convenient method.

Tigule, who was coldly watching from aside, couldn’t help but sigh. If he had thought of this method earlier, he wouldn’t have needed to spend so much time trying to break this special alloy. He wouldn’t have been caught by Greem then.

After the fire illuminated the outline of the metallic base, he put in even more power. The flames crashed against the drawer and the bottom. Finally, Greem managed to pry the whole thing out of the wooden deck. It was a strange metallic box that was five meters long, three meters wide, and five meters deep. If it weren’t for the lack of gravity, Tigule might not have been able to bring it out of this place, even if he was operating his magical machine.

The size of the whole thing was more than enough to serve as a coffin for the goblins!

”Go!”

Greem conjured a flaming hand to carry the metal ’coffin’ as he shouted at Tigule. He went ahead and rushed out of the ship. All the corridors and decks that stood in his way were blasted apart by Greem’s ferocious fireballs.

One man, one goblin, and one coffin flew out of the ship in an odd turn of events. They lunged towards the edge of the column of rainbow lights.

The three of them had just left the strip of lights when the metal coffin crushed the hand of fire under the force of gravity. It rolled and crashed into the ground below.

”Why is this guy with you?” Even though the place that Sabrina had headed for was even deeper into the ship, she had made it back quicker than Greem.

”It’s a long story!” Greem sighed and turned to speak to Tigule, ”I have brought the thing out. However, before we make our exchange, I’ll need to check if the thing inside the ball is what you claim it is. Don’t even think of leaving this place if you lied to me!”

”Sabrina, I’ll leave this matter to you!”

Tigule seemed to have expected this. He took a few steps backward nonchalantly and bared his hands and let Sabrina do her work.

Greem’s flames were not suited for such delicate work. That was why he very wisely left the task to the mechanical girl. He also quickly gave her an explanation.

Despite her calm and steady nature, even Sabrina couldn’t help but get excited when she learned that the reward for opening the metal coffin would be the world coordinates to a plane.

The spatial coordinates of a plane world. Those are spatial coordinates to a plane world!

Even if they weren’t going after the benefits that could be found in that plane, just auctioning off the spatial coordinates in the World of Adepts would allow them to gain a million magical crystals easily. That was an irresistible temptation for a First Grade adept.

Sabrina charged towards the metal coffin without another word. Her seven or eight metallic appendages temporarily turned into drills and started whirring as they wildly took the box apart.

The metal coffin might have been composed of excellent alloy materials, but it still couldn’t resist the wild destruction wreaked upon it by a mechanical adept. In just fifteen minutes, Sabrina had drilled a large hole into the surface of the hidden drawer. The objects within had also been retrieved.

There were no gemstones or coins inside. Instead, there were only engineering blueprints and a thick register of names.

Greem quickly flipped through the documents. On the engineering blueprints, he saw plenty of names that shocked him: Sky Patrol Ship, Goblin Golem Dragon, Goblin Mortar, Goblin Pacemaker, Goblin Dragonlance, Dimensional Ripper, Thunder God Titan, and even more.

These were, without a doubt, designs and ideas that Gazlowe had for more complex uses of magic energy with his elementary grasp of magic energy.

In all seriousness, the Sky Patrol Ship should be the strengthened version of the flying ship. They were also flying battleships explicitly designed for travel in space, beyond their realm. After all, regardless of how powerful the goblin plane became, the goblins themselves were still frail and weak creatures. Without suitable flying ships, they wouldn’t even be qualified to step out of their own plane.

Goblin Golem Dragons. One could tell from the designs and functions denominated on the blueprints that these were meant to be powerful magical machines designed for land combat. Their appearance seemed to be imitating those of hydras. The golems would be equipped with goblin mortars, goblin dragon lances, goblin cannons, and all sorts of terrifying magic energy weapons.

Siege was undoubtedly its only strength!

The two designs were still barely well-thought out enough for Greem to imagine their abilities. However, the Dimensional Ripper and Thunder God Titan were much closer to pointless fantasy.

According to Gazlowe’s thoughts, the Dimensional Ripper would be a particular sort of anti-space furnace.

It couldn’t absorb energy for space, but it could use the energy stored within itself to rip apart the space in plane worlds and create terrifying spatial vortices.

The spatial vortex created by the explosion of the space furnace this time was only about ten meters in diameter. However, its existence had already caused indescribable damage to the geography within a fifty-kilometer radius. The environment within a five hundred kilometer radius was also severely affected.

However, the Dimensional Ripper that Gazlowe envisioned could easily create a spatial vortex that was a kilometer in diameter.

If such a massive spatial vortex were allowed to appear inside a plane, the very foundation of that plane world would be shaken!

That was why Gazlowe wouldn’t even need to call his concept a Dimensional Ripper if it actually worked. It would be much more accurate to call it the Plane Ripper.

Just think of it. Send a suicide soldier into the enemy’s plane world and detonate a Dimensional Ripper- no, ’Plane Ripper,’ right in there. The outcome of it would be astounding.

On the other hand, the Thunder God Titan was meant to be a mighty and terrifying magical machine that rivaled the Fourth Grade in Gazlowe’s mind. It had a towering humanoid body and impenetrable metal shell. It would have a perpetual source of magical energy and wield ferocious and violent lightning storms.

Of course, the greatest obstacle to Gazlowe having all this was the miniaturization and functionality of the space furnace. After all, all magical machines needed a perpetual source of magical energy if they wanted to engage in sustained combat. The current version of the space furnace was too crude and rough for that purpose.

That was why the foundation for all large magical machines would have to be a magic energy furnace!

Greem flipped to the end and looked at the half-complete blueprints of a magic energy furnace. Blue light flashed in the depths of his eyes.

The Chip could only store the data in its information library with such a short glimpse. It didn’t have enough time to evaluate and make calculations based on the content. However, just by instinct, Greem could tell that Gazlowe was walking on the right path; as expected of the top goblin engineer and inventor of the Goblin Empire.

If he just had one or two hundred more years, all of these wild delusions and fantasies might slowly become a reality.

However, with the average lifespan of goblins, would Gazlowe have that much time on his hands?

Even Greem felt moved by the blueprints. He couldn’t help but start wondering if Gazlowe’s recent activities were related to the fact that he was about to die.

”Human Adept. As per our agreement, I will take all of this information with me.” Tigule could feel his heart rise to his throat when he saw Greem staring at the blueprints. He quickly reminded the adept of their deal.

He might possess a deep hatred for the two adepts before him, but it was far more important for him to complete the task that her Highness the Princess had given to him.

”Oh, you meant those registers.” Greem came back to the present and started flipping through the registers by the blueprints. As expected, lots of goblin names were written on it, along with trade records that took place in various places and times.

Greem intentionally kept count and found that the significant last name of Anderme showed up often.

It seemed this was the critical information that the goblin royalty so badly wanted!

The other register contained the records and staff roster of a goblin financial group known as Risk Investment Company. The names listed at the front all had impressive titles like Mayor, Commander, and General attached to them.

Greem casually assessed the thickness of the register. All of the members of the Risk Investment Company were probably recorded in this book!

”According to our previous agreement, you can only take these registers away with you!” Greem smiled coldly as he said, ”These blueprints will be my spoils!”