Age of Adepts

”Welcome back, my master!”

A somewhat deep voice rang out from the side.

”What is with these dragons? Are they all your slaves?”

”That’s enough, Gazlowe. We can talk about that later. Let’s start with a report about the situation on Lance since I’ve been gone!” Greem hastily interrupted the brain monster and changed the topic.

”Er, master. The situation here seems like it’s possible…that it isn’t too good!” Brain Monster Gazlowe was stuttering with every word as if they were something he was having trouble mentioning.

Before Greem could pursue the matter, he felt the floor tremble and the mountain itself shake. A resounding dragon’s roar penetrated through the thick stone and metal walls, reverberating above the skies of the fortress.

A dragon is attacking the metal fortress?

Greem frowned again.

”Master, ever since you left the metal fortress, those dragons have been attacking the place like they have gone crazy. They come here to stir up trouble every two to three days, always coming in flights of six or seven dragons. Their grades range from First to Third Grade. It seems they are determined to duke it out with us!” With the backbone of this place having returned, Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe immediately went into grumbling mode.

It was clear that he’d had quite the hard time from these uninvited flying lizards over the past few days!

”Project an image from the outside and let me see!” Greem solemnly said.

Lance was a rare treasure trove of dragons. It wasn’t dragons that you could find in here, but mountains of moving magical crystals. That was why Greem would never, under any circumstance, abandon this forward base: this impregnable metal fortress.

The safety of the metal fortress was undoubtedly his most significant concern in situations like this!

A metal platform slowly rose in front of Greem, and a white crystal embedded in it projected a giant light screen in front of him that perfectly displayed the situation outside the fortress.

It was evident that the perspective of the image was from the top of a mountain approximately five kilometers away. One could very clearly see everything happening outside the metal fortress from this angle.

Seven dragons were soaring in the blue skies outside the mountain where the fortress was located, rearing their heads and letting out earthshaking dragon roars. Every so often, one of the dragons would suddenly fold its wings and dive against the dozens of energy beams to unleash a terrifying breath of dragonfire against the stone and metal walls.

These black fires of fury were like roiling pillars of flame. They turned into massive fans of destruction as the dragons swung their heads from side to side. The viscous black flames continuously assaulted the stony exterior of the mountain, and the heat was so intense that it even caused the rocks to melt.

In the blink of an eye, the parts of the stone wall where the dragonfire had swept past started to drip toward the ground like molten liquid, revealing the dark-golden metal wall beneath.

A metal fortress managed by Gazlowe naturally wouldn’t just sit around and allowed itself to be breached. Several terrifying beams of energy shot toward the dragon in a barrage. Even the tough scales and excellent magic resistance of the dragons couldn’t endure magical attacks of this intensity.

The dragon only managed to unleash its breath a single time before its massive body was shot full of holes. Blood sprayed into the air and soaked the dragon in a layer of its own blood.

The dragon winced in pain and let out a painful cry. It flapped its wing wildly and pulled itself up into the sky as it struggled to escape the radius of the energy beams.

Greem couldn’t help but sigh internally. These attacks were something only dragons could do. Any other magical creature would have been turned into skewered meat from that rain of energy beams that measured at two hundred and ten points of power. How could they possibly have escaped alive from such a terrifying attack!?

That was probably a First Grade dragon!

To think that even a First Grade dragon could survive a volley from the metal fortresses’ cannons. Those Second Grades…

The very thing that Greem was concerned about happened before he could complete his thought.

A Second Grade dragon roared at the sight of a companion being wounded. It flew to a nearby mountain and picked up a half-ton boulder with its claws. It then flew as high as it could before folding its wings and diving downward.

Seeing that the situation was turning sour, a dozen black cannon barrels immediately extended out of the fortress once more. Magical light gathered within them as they fired at the diving dragon.

Like watching a high-definition fantasy animation, the Second Grade dragon used its dragon breath to clear the path, neutralizing most of the energy beams. The remaining shots hit its shining scales, and though they managed to leave a few wounds, they were far from being able to threaten the dragon’s life.

The dragon was diving at lightning speed now.

The cold winds howled as they passed by the well-defined spikes of the dragon. It used its excellent flying technique to continue accelerating as it dragged the boulder along with its claws, smashing toward the fortress like a crashing meteor.

Once its speed and momentum had reached its peak, the dragon loosened its grip and barrel-rolled to a side. Meanwhile, the stone that had been accelerated to its limit whistled and crashed into the wall of the fortress before everyone’s eyes.

Dong!

An earthshaking sound rang out as a massive indentation impacted the metal wall. The loud metallic bang left Greem’s ears ringing, and he couldn’t hear anything for a moment.

For some reason, Arms, the emerald dragons, and the green dragons had all gathered behind Greem, curiously watching everything that was happening through the screen.

”The fire dragons!” Arms bent down with his gigantic body and moved to Greem’s side. He said with a bit of self-satisfaction at the adept’s misfortune, ”It’s Philippa and her army. You are in trouble!”

Philippa was that Third Grade female fire dragon staying in Doomsday Castle.

She had agreed to Second Grade Wind Dragon Cherkes’ request and sent out her dragonborn army to assault Greem and his fortress without much consideration. Unfortunately, this three-hundred dragonborn army had been exterminated by the adepts in the depths of the Swamp of Sorrows, along with the two hundred Dragon Cultists.

The female fire dragon had gone utterly berserk ever since then!

She had personally attempted to attack the fortress the first few times and suffered quite a few injuries under the concentrated attacks of the magic energy cannons. She didn’t give up in spite of this. In fact, she even went back to the Doomsday Volcano to gather manpower for the express purpose of attacking the fortress.

All the male dragons that had at one point been her guests were summoned to follow her in constantly harassing and attacking the fortress. Thanks to the efforts of these dragons, the energy reserves of the metal fortress had not increased but had instead started to dry up. It immensely frustrated Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe.

One couldn’t think too highly of Gazlowe because of his high grade; his actual offensive and defensive powers were extremely weak. Most of his powers were invested in the magic generator furnace and the metal fortress.

One could say that the magic generator furnace was his heart, the fortress was his body, and Gazlowe was no more than a brain monster that coordinated all of that!

Gazlowe had also tried to send those magical machines to chase away the dragons.

Sadly, this was like sending sheep to a tiger’s mouth. Gazlowe had sent out a hundred-men army, yet less than ten managed to crawl back. The rest had all been smashed to pieces by these violent lizards!

Ever since then, Gazlowe had no longer dared to send anyone to challenge these dragons. He simply relied on the strong fortress, its endless supply of magical energy, and its magical cannons to forcefully maintain his position.

However, this caused Gazlowe to ultimately fail at executing the operation of excavating Lance that Greem had entrusted to him.

These dragons had also learned to deal with the fortress. They were sturdy and tough, and thus, acted as the leading force in dealing with the fortress. Meanwhile, their subordinate dragonborn and associated troops were stationed nearby, forming a strict perimeter and wholly sealing the metal fortress within it.

In all honesty, Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe had always been proud and arrogant.

Even after he became Greem’s contracted slave, he still believed that he had only lost due to a moment’s carelessness. Deep in his heart, Gazlowe would never admit that this Second Grade male adept was smarter and more capable than himself.

However, the torture he had to endure over the past few months forced Gazlowe to painfully admit that he had no methods to deal with these ruffian dragons. He could only rely on the cannons to keep the dragons out of the fortress.

Gazlowe had no means of dealing with the perimeter and was forced to stay turtled up inside the fortress.

That was why Gazlowe’s long tortured soul started to burn with passion when he suddenly saw Greem return once more, especially with such a massive flight of dragons behind him.

For the first time, Gazlowe hoped from the bottom of his heart that this ’weak’ adept master of his could come up with a way of chasing these dragons out of his territory as soon as possible.

Greem did not respond to Gazlowe’s passionate request. Instead, he turned to look at Arms.

”Lord Arms, what do you think about the situation before us?”

”Kehkehkeh. Brat, does this count as you asking me for help?” The eyes of the Third Grade thunder dragon lit up. He immediately became a sleazy merchant, ”You two really extorted quite a lot out of me for this trip back. Now you want me to fight your fights for you for free? Two hundred thousand magical crystals. I won’t do it for even a single crystal less.”

One had to admit that even the usually proud dragons became extremely stingy and seedy after associating with the adepts for so long.

Greem smiled as an unconcealable teasing expression appeared on his young and handsome face.

”Lord Arms, you’ve brought so many dragon companions back with you this time. I was wondering where you intend to settle them? It can’t be that you intend to squeeze them all into your own territory, can it?”

Arms’ face froze for a moment. His smile dissolved and he finally started pondering this troublesome question.

As a Third Grade dragon lord, Arms’ land was only three to four hundred kilometers wide. Such a piece of land would be enough for twenty to thirty human lords in the human world. However, it was far, far too small for dragons.

He had suddenly brought eleven dragons back with him this time. It would truly be very cool to show them off with him in the lead and invite the envy of all other dragon lords. However, settling them in his tiny territory didn’t seem entirely appropriate. It was too shabby.

Arms couldn’t help but narrow his eyes in thought.