Age of Adepts

The battle of the Beast God temple ended abruptly.

The magical machine army stayed in the ruins of Makren for two days. Some simple repairs were done to the damaged and destroyed magical machines to replenish their numbers. Greem also took this opportunity to conduct a thorough scan of the Beast God temple, as well as all the magical patterns and divine runes carved in it.

Once he had done all this, the magical machine army once again set off on their journey. Of course, the Beast God temple was destroyed in a hail of cannon fire before they left.

The magic energy chariots advanced toward the next orc city under the protection of the Archers. Meanwhile, Greem and Alice hid in a small cabin on a chariot and started to work together on researching their spoils from the Beast God temple of Makren.

Regardless of whether Greem believed it, his greatest spoil from the destruction of Makren City was that tribal flag that the Third Grade orc berserker had planted on the battlefield.

With the Chip’s detailed and comprehensive scan, Greem confirmed that this flag of the Warhammer Tribe possessed the abilities to catch souls. The souls of all the orcs of the tribe that died in battle were attached to this flag, turning them into strange existences that were much like earthbound spirits.

Naturally, the spiritual strength of a typical orc made it impossible for them to retain complete memories and soul consciousness upon leaving their physical bodies. As such, the only things that they still possessed were pure instincts and an intense passion for battle.

After hundreds and thousands of years, the souls of countless orcs had gathered in this flag, and their combined consciousness had given birth to some strange spirit existences. These orc spirits were known as heroic spirits in the orc tribes.

Such heroic spirits had no real form. They could only maintain their existence by attaching themselves to tribal totems, and the key to their continued existence was the power of faith as well as new soul energy. They could absorb faith power and the souls of newly dead orc warriors from around the flag.

Of course, the faith power that they absorbed would be taken in by Beast God Aruger once it reached a certain level. Some of the most exceptional heroic spirits would also be chosen to enter Beast God Aruger’s god kingdom. There, they would have a new body forged for them with the use of divine power and serve the great Beast God in battle in a different world.

These tribal totems with heroic spirits within them could also provide the orc tribes with great magical blessings. The mysterious aura of the tribal totems allowed the Physique, Strength, Agility, Spirit, limb flexibility, and reaction time of all orcs to improve drastically.

As such, the stronger the heroic spirits of an orc tribe, the more mighty they were in combat!

Meanwhile, in large orc tribes that had endured for over ten thousand years, there existed spirit beings that were superior even to heroic spirits– the ancestral spirits. Not only could these ancestral spirits increase the fighting power of the orcs through an aura, but they could also temporarily leave their tribal totems and possess the body of the champion of the tribe, allowing the champion’s power to increase several fold.

It was a special ability that only god messengers were capable of in the past!

Due to the interception of the Great Witches, Beast God Aruger had yet to cast down any clones or incarnations in Strongwoods Plane. However, he was still able to transfer some degree of power through the channels of faith. Should a Fourth Grade god messenger use such a method of possession in battle in the future, then even a few Fourth Grade witches together might not necessarily be able to deal with them.

Thus, the more he understood of the secrets of Strongwoods Plane, the more careful Greem became.

His current power was at a very awkward level, where it was insufficient to deal with more powerful enemies and too much for weaker enemies. When he transformed into the Flame Fiend of Terror, the Fire Throne set always allowed him to crush opponents of the same grade. However, while his attacks could inflict a certain amount of damage against Third Grade opponents, his own body was somewhat frail in comparison.

It was fortunate that he had Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms as his bodyguard. Arms helped him deal with the mightier Third Grade opponents. Otherwise, the magical machine army would already have been turned to scrap by the countless orc powerhouses.

Still, the one that benefitted most from this trip wasn’t Greem. Instead, it was Mary, who had sat by and reaped the spoils of every single battle.

Be it the Third Grade orc shaman they killed in the first battle, or the Third Grade orc blademaster they caught along the way, or even the orc berserker they had killed in Makren City; not a single drop of their blood had gone to waste. Mary had consumed all of them.

That caused Mary to be in a state of constant sleepiness, much like someone in a food coma from overeating!

The four surrendered adepts that had followed along this expedition were no longer as conflicted with the Crimson Clan after all these days of working together. It didn’t matter if it was the daily scoutings or working with the magical machines; they behaved in an extremely helpful manner. Though there were no outstanding performances, they did their job well.

With these subordinates sharing the burden of all these jobs, Greem had a lot more free time on his hands.

He no longer needed to deal with the small orc assaults along the way personally. All of it was left to the Crimson adepts to deal with. It was only when some excessively powerful Second Grade or Third Grade orcs appeared that Greem would drag along Arms and appear on the battlefield to make quick work of the enemy.

The rest of the time, Greem remained in his room, silently researching that tribal flag under Alice’s guidance. The Chip’s deciphering work was going very smoothly. It had mostly deciphered the strange runes found in the Beast God temple, and the rest was likely to be done before they returned to the World of Adepts.

The reason that the Chip’s deciphering job was progressing so quickly had to do with Greem’s increase in Spirit, as well as the stupidity and straightforward nature of the orcs.

It was important to know that, even in the World of Adepts, only sixty to seventy percent of the runes in most arrays had actual meaning. The remainder of the runes were only put into the array to trick and confuse the enemy. Many arrays would intentionally make use of complicated and elegant decoy runes to hide the real purpose of the array.

However, the novel arrays and divine runes that Greem had scanned from the Beast God temple had not undergone any obscurement or falsification. If one could decipher the function of the corresponding rune, they would instantly understand much of the workings behind the array.

It indirectly lowered the workload of the Chip and its need for trial and error, saving a lot of time for Greem!

These orcish runes seemed to cover nearly thirty percent of the arcane realm of Strongwoods Plane. If Greem could gain a full understanding of these runes, it would propel his runic studies to the next level. At the very least, the enhancement provided by Greem’s Flame Fiend Transformation could still be higher.

The next orc city was Andorhal, four hundred kilometers away from here.

The magical machine army charged through the intercepting parties along the way and arrived at Andorhal in just two days.

From a distance, this looked like a small city that was distinctively orcish.

The towering walls were made of stone slabs. Several sharpened wooden stakes had been placed into the wall, and several skeletons were pinned onto it as well. Judging from the clothing of the skeletons and their size, these were individuals of other races that had been defeated in battle.

Countless bastions unique to the beast tribes stood upon the wall along with watchtowers.

These bastions were low and had tiny entrances. Countless small slits had been opened on these bastions, allowing the short and little mousepeople warriors to stab with their spears from within.

All the buildings within the city were exceptionally tall and magnificent.

However, their surface had not undergone any careful polishing, giving it a wild and rough look.

It seemed as if the orcs of Andorhal had known of the arrival of the magical machine army since a long time ago. Just a single look from a distance and one could see many orcs within the city. One could also see several orcs and wolfriders on the towering walls.

“How do we fight this battle?” Several Crimson adepts gathered near Mary and silently waited for her instructions.

Mary stood atop a magic energy chariot. She started laughing coldly as she looked at the embattled city of Andorhal.

“Eudy, you bring along a hundred Archers, thirty Shield Defenders, five magic energy chariots, and set up a formation on the left; the wolfriders hiding two and a half kilometers away might try and assault our ranks from there when the battle starts. Their numbers could well be in the tens of thousands. Remember, not a single one of them is to be let past you.”

“Understood!”

“O’Neal. You bring fifty Archers, twenty Shield Defenders, five magic energy chariots, and set up on our left flank. According to the reconnaissance of the eyeball machines, approximately seven thousand orc warriors are hiding in a dense forest one and a half kilometer away from there. You keep them inside that forest.”

“Understood!”

“Deserra, I’ll leave the frontlines to you. You will have a hundred Archers, thirty Shield Defenders, and ten magic energy chariots. Blast this city with all your strength and raze everything within it to ashes.”

“Yes, Lady Mary!”

“Everyone else stays by my side. We will wait and strike at the enemy once their main forces show themselves.”

“Understood!”

“Understood!”

Medusa Dana and Berserk Witch Sofia acknowledged the order, as did the other two new adepts. Meanwhile, Split-Off Brain Gru and Goblin Tigule loafed about by her side.

It couldn’t be helped. The three of them were all Second Grade, each with their own factions and background. Those two had no obligation or need to listen to Mary.

As the leader of this party, Greem had yet to show himself for this battle. Instead, he released the Spirit of Pestilence and the Stitch Ghost Golem that he had so painstakingly raised. The enemies they had run into over the past few days had been too powerful. They were easily Second and Third Grade existences, leaving the two peak First Grade dolls without any chance to go on a slaughter.

It was an opportunity to let them feast!

As the giant fireballs from the magic energy cannons flew into the city of Andorhal, a new battle started!

Taking the painful lesson of Makren City in mind, the orc commander of Andorhal did not keep all his forces huddled within the city. Instead, all of them were lined up outside the walls. Once the enemy started attacking the city, the wolfriders and orcs hiding in the distance began to rush at the magical machine army from their left and right flanks.

Another large army of winged people took to the skies from inside the city. They intended to break through to the center of the magical machine army and drag this lone witch force into a grueling up close fight.