Age of Adepts

”This truly is a lowly and filthy world. The whole place reeks with a disgusting stench.”

Ashendrake Thunderlight shook his massive dragon-like head. The strange reptilian pupils in all four of his wild, beast-like eyes expanded and contracted as an amber light flashed in them. His powerful spiritual senses were far superior to lifeforms of the same grade. The Dragonborn could hear every word of the goblins despite the distance between them.

Once all the goblins had exited the hall, the Dragonborn wiped away all traces of arrogance and impatience on his face. Instead, the light of reason unique to intelligent lifeforms shone through his rolling eyes.

Most Dragonborn were very much foolish creatures with excessive strength and no brains to match. However, the fact that Ashendrake Thunderlight was sent here by the Duke himself as the vanguard army’s scout meant that he possessed his own unique abilities.

Ashendrake Thunderlight raised his four thick limbs and walked around the hall, carefully examining everything of note. Finally, after ensuring that there were no major problems, he took out three thunderlight stones and tossed them towards the door of light.

A terrifying surge of electricity blasted out of the gray stones when they came into contact with the door of sky-blue light. When the three thunderlight stones embedded themselves into the metal door in a triangle formation, another triangular spatial passage formed in the middle of the portal.

Once the spatial passage had stabilized, ripples spread across the black screen of light. Almost three dozen mighty dragonborn of the same size as Ashendrake Thunderlight emerged from within.

The vast hall appeared to be reasonably spacious. It could fit over a thousand goblins without being too crowded. However, just these thirty-five dragonborn already made the place seem tight.

The black spatial passage started trembling intensely after all thirty-five members of the Dragonborn Vanguard had arrived. It was almost as if a humongous entity was stuck within the passage, unable to exit or retreat from it. Just like that, the spatial corridor slowly started to expand, and a strange sound rang out from the tremendous force being exerted upon space.

Finally, a dragonborn larger and more muscular than Ashendrake Thunderlight broke free of the confines of space with a muffled boom. He finally started to appear in this world.

”Praise thee, our leader, Lord Zacha.”

”We welcome your arrival, Lord Zacha.”

The dragonborn scouts immediately bowed before their powerful leader the moment he stood straight. Their right arms, covered in green scales, pressed against their chests as they bowed in unison.

The ones chosen as scouts for the Vanguard Army were all First Grade at the very minimum. On the other hand, the last one that had been teleported over as the Scout Leader was a Second Grade powerhouse. When he appeared in the hall, cloaked in blinding blue light, an intangible planar power surrounded his body and caused this Second Grade powerhouse to grunt involuntarily.

As creatures from a different plane, the Second Grade lifeform needed to endure far harsher planar suppression compared to First Grade lifeforms.

Fortunately, apart from the innate dragon abilities inherited from their bloodline, Dragonborn also possessed the powerful and muscular bodies of the dragons. Even if their innate magic was temporarily unavailable, their powerful bodies alone were more than enough to crush most of their enemies!

”Brat of the Ashendrakes, what’s the situation here like?” The Scout Leader still betrayed fearsome power even as he endured terrifying planar suppression.

”Leader Zacha, that goblin is untrustworthy, just as we expected. The construction of the planar door used the most inferior of magical materials. It is entirely impossible for it to sustain long-term use. Moreover… ”

”Moreover what?”

”The energy source of the planar door seems somewhat strange. It contains traces of superficial knowledge from the World of Adepts. As such, I am worried that our invasion this time might be met with some unexpected enemies!”

”The World of Adepts… ”

The dragonborn scouts present couldn’t help but frown when they heard this name. Scout Leader Zacha’s expression soured slightly. A blinding electrical radiance shot out of his amber eyes.

”What about the goblin that traded with us?” Leader Zacha’s mood was utterly spoiled when he heard such unpleasant news. He couldn’t help but roar in a chilling tone.

”He has already been expelled from the hall. I am worried they will fiddle with the energy source of the planar door. They can cut our path of retreat just by cutting the energy source.”

Ashendrake Thunderlight was a rare intellectual amongst the Dragonborn. Even though he was young at the age of only a hundred and three years old, logic and reason lied behind every one of his judgments.

As if rushing to prove his deduction, the lights in the hall suddenly extinguished. The energy surging into the planar door also rapidly subsided. The large door of light inside the metal door was rapidly dimming. Only the triangular spatial passage supported by the thunderlight stones still radiated a faint glow.

”Haha, these sly and shameless goblins. Do they really think they can cut off our retreat path by just cutting the power?” Leader Zacha roared, ”Thunderlight, you take five men and guard the planar door. You must not let it shut or be destroyed. Here. These are the three hundred thunderlight stones I specially brought for this occasion. It’s enough to sustain the planar door for a month!”

Zacha removed a large leather sack from his back.

The sack fell on the ground, and the free opening came unwound. Hundreds of brilliant and blinding blue light shone out from the bag.

”Understood, Leader!” Ashendrake Thunderlight waved his hand, and five members of his team swarmed towards the metal door. They pulled out electric spears from behind them and went on alert.

Just then, a loud metallic clanging came from the entrance of the hall. Rows of magical machines in formation, hordes of intimidating tanks, and squads of fully-armed goblin soldiers poured in like a tide.

How could the dragonborn still not understand the intentions of the goblins with such a turn of events!

”Dragonborn Warriors, charge!” Leader Zacha raised the three-meter-long electric spear in his hand and roared at the top of his lungs, ”Blast these lying and shameless goblins to pieces!”

Following Zacha’s orders, several dragonborn scouts shook their large bodies and charged towards the goblin army with electric spears pointed forward.

Even though the charging dragonborn scouts only numbered thirty men, it felt as if an entire army was throwing themselves at the enemy!

Each dragonborn was approximately thirty tons in weight. Thirty dragonborn together would be over a thousand tons.

Can you imagine a horrifying monster made of one thousand tons of solid flesh, tough bones, and hard scales charging towards you with thunderous steps?

The loud rumbling echoed through the belly of the mountain, melding with various other sounds. It was almost deafening.

Unlike the direct charge of the dragonborn scouts, the goblin army was very orderly.

The ones standing at the very front were the undefeated magical machine squads. They took up three rows, with each row comprising of five three-meter-tall magical machines. Once the dragonborn came within shooting distance, these magical machines immediately fired their guns, attempting to use their terrifying barrage to stop the enemy’s advance.

Ordinary metal bullets didn’t do much damage to Dragonborn.

After all, the green scales around a Dragonborn’s body was more than enough to resist any physical and magical attacks below twenty-five points. However, the force that each of the bullets carried with them was not so easily negated. Even the mightiest of the soldiers had to slow down when seven or eight streams of bullets crashed upon their scales. Advancing forward became a difficult task.

Occasionally, one could even hear the grunting of dragon soldiers when their scales were penetrated!

However, the fearless dragonborn warriors did not shy from the challenge. They raised their left arms and blocked their exposed faces while roaring and summoning a water-blue electric shield in front of themselves.

With the electric shields to negate the force behind the bullets, the dragonborn once again started to pick up speed.

Behind the magical machine squad, the goblin chariots and tanks quickly swerved to the side of the formation. They slowly unfolded their metallic supports before a black gun barrel one meter in diameter emerged from within the machines. The fully metallic magic cannon was composed of special alloy materials. The entire cannon itself glowed a deep crimson as magic energy filled the device.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Several fireballs containing violent magic energies fell in a graceful parabolic arc before landing at the frontlines. They then exploded and turned into sizeable clusters of fire.

Any enemy would have to back down temporarily against such ferocious and concentrated energy attacks. However, the dragonborn warriors became even more fearless and courageous when faced with the storm of energy fireballs.

They roared in the strange Dragontongue that outsiders could not comprehend. Once they closed in on the first row of magical machines, terrifying white chain lightning shot out of the electric spears in their hands. The savage chain lightning would bounce between the magical machines, dealing incredible damage to the metallic machines with every jump.

The ten magical machines in the two front rows of the formation turned into clusters of blinding fire without any resistance. The goblin mechanics within were also instantly reduced to cinders.

The goblin army hadn’t expected the Dragonborn to possess such overwhelming powers of lightning and electricity. It was the first time they were fighting the Dragonborn. The tragedy was in the materials used to construct the magical machines. All the devices were made with high-quality alloy materials, yet none of them had been subjected to non-conduction treatment.

Consequently, as the best conductors of electricity, not only did the magical machines fail to protect the goblin mechanics, they were even the cause for the effectiveness of the chain of lightning.

The magical machine squad of Gazlowe’s goblin army was decimated at first contact!