Age of Adepts

The outcome was well and truly beyond everyone’s expectations.

When Greem walked out of the arena while tossing around the strange red eye in his hand, the stands were utterly silent.

The spectating adepts watched him silently with complicated looks in their eyes. For a moment, not a single person walked forward to congratulate him.

In the end, it was Mary and Billis who, all smiles, gathered at Greem’s side and offered their blessings.

A trace of a smile finally appeared on Adept Laurent’s face. He strode to Greem’s side and loudly said, “Very good! I never expected you to be hiding such a special trick. Good…very good.”

Greem knew that Laurent was probably cursing him somehow in his heart right now. As such, he showed no courtesies.

“Lord Laurent, according to the contract of the duel…”

“You don’t need to say anymore. Everything will go according to the contract!” Adept Laurent’s face turned extremely ugly when Greem brought this up, “As the victors of this fight, the Crimson Clan has the right to take away a suitable portion of war compensation from the Kamala Clan. As Yurga is dead, this compensation will be shouldered by all members of the Kamala Clan.”

Laurent took out a yellow parchment and handed it over to Greem.

Greem took the paper and looked at it. It was a long list of all the territories and resources belonging to the Kamala Clan.

With the help of the Chip, Greem managed to find problems with this list after a single look.

“Lord Laurent, according to what I know, the Kamala Clan seemed to have two First Class resource sites. Why are they not on this list?”

“Hmph! Yurga pledged those two First Class resource sites to the Zhentarim Association before the contract was signed. What? Do you want to take them back from the hands of the Association elders?” Laurent had a nasty expression on his face.

He hadn’t managed this thing well enough and allowed this brat to turn the tables. If news of this got back to the Zhentarim Association, he would be scolded by the elders. It was only natural that he bore such a sour expression.

Those who could become Association elders were all famous Fourth Grade adepts in the Zhentarim area. Greem was smart enough to shake his head immediately.

Laurent’s face finally relaxed when he saw Greem leave at last.

“Three Second Class resource sites and seven Third Class resource sites. In addition to several stretches of noble’s land that make up over two hundred square kilometers of territory; brat, don’t you be too greedy!”

As the Kamala Clan was located in the Ailovis area, many of their inherited territories were not far away from Fire Throne. Consequently, the Crimson Clan immediately rose to become one of the most influential adept clans in Ailovis after taking over these resource sites and territories.

With Fire Throne as the clan headquarters, the fundamental influence of the Crimson Clan stretched north to the Black Forest, south to the Ironstone Highlands, west to Stopwater Lake, and east to Morgan Stonecastle. This stretch of land, mines, civilians, and resources measuring as much as three hundred square kilometers would become the direct territory of the Crimson Clan.

Moreover, these places had already become notably developed. They only needed to go through the formalities with the Kamala Clan and change the noble management at these places. The Crimson Clan could then easily take this territory under their control.

Apart from some local nobles that needed to be cleansed for being too close with the Kamala Clan, there wasn’t much else to be worried about. These nobles had no loyalty to the Kamala Clan. They were only a bunch of pug dogs living at the will of the adepts.

One or two bones would be enough to make them change their banners and become ‘loyal’ subjects of the Crimson Clan!

After obtaining the duel pact, Greem handed it off to Billis and had him deal with the handover from the Kamala Clan. The only Third Grade of the Kamala Clan had already died at Rhein. The remaining First and Second Grades had best stay honest if they wanted to live. Greem didn’t mind cleaning them up should any of them dare bare their fangs.

Greem might have obtained a flawless victory after this forced duel, but he had also exhausted his entire reserve of high-grade magical golems that he had been accumulating for the past hundred years. At the moment, he only had one Flame Fiend summoning core left.

As such, there was no way Greem could sleep tight if he didn’t manage to get back these losses from the Kamala Clan.

The Kamala Clan was now a toothless tiger. The remaining Second Grade adepts couldn’t even do anything about Bug Adept Billis. Thus, Greem didn’t need to worry about the Kamala going against the agreement.

After the matter at Rhein had concluded, Greem led Mary back to Fire Throne, while Billis hurried to the Kamala headquarters.

When Greem returned to Fire Throne, all the Crimson adepts and apprentices had gathered at the hall on the first floor. They immediately cheered loudly when Greem entered and bowed in respect, “Long live the clan leader!”

Even the submissive adepts who had just joined the Crimson Clan were exceedingly happy and excited.

After this battle, there would no longer be an adept group that could compare to the Crimson Clan in Ailovis. From here on out, the Crimson Clan would step into a historic period of explosive development.

Those weaker clans of Andorra, Cenas, Layton Academy, and the Magic Forest Hut that had merged with Kamala would all have to face the pressing offensive of the Crimson Clan.

They could either give up on all worldly territories and resource sites, pulling back all adepts and apprentices to their headquarters, and holding in there in hopes of a miracle, or they leave far and wide, giving up everything they had in Ailovis and find some way to plant their roots in a public adept city to preserve their adept legacy.

Both of these paths were difficult and harsh!

Should the core figure of a clan fail to keep control over the situation, it was very likely for clan members to defect.

As expected, once the news of Yurga’s death had spread throughout Ailovis, Layton Academy was the first to announce their seclusion from all external matters. They sealed the gates of their academy and transitioned into a semi-reclusive state.

Meanwhile, though Layton Academy did not expressly say so, they had already cut off all contact with their resource sites and territory, as if anyone who wanted them could take over.

Meanwhile, the Andorra Clan, which had the worst relationship with the Crimson Clan, had no choice but to pack their bags and move their clan headquarters into Rhein. As for those worldly territories and resource sites that they couldn’t take away? They were left empty and became places without owners.

Only the Kamala Clan had been doing well in the region due to their assimilation of the Magic Forest Hut.

Before they could even catch a breath, the only Third Grade of their clan, Clan Leader Yurga, had mysteriously died at the hands of that Second Grade Crimson Clan leader. Such a heavy blow caused the entire Kamala Clan to fall into a state of ruin.

After becoming the Kamala Clan leader, the most powerful Second Grade adept could only suppress his anger and humiliation to hand over much of the clan’s property to the visiting bug adept. In particular, the handing over of the already developed resource sites caused the Kamala Clan’s power to be cut by seventy to eighty percent. From then on, they had become a weak and powerless small clan of Ailovis.

With the protection of the agreement, they did not need to worry about the continued devastation of the Crimson Clan for the moment.

However, when the entire Ailovis region had become the land of the Crimson Clan, the Kamala Clan would still have an exceedingly hard time trying to continue living in the gaps between the Crimson Clan’s influence.

Without resource sites, they lost their spring of adept resources. Without worldly territories, they lost their source for new apprentices. These two things were the foundation for any adept clan to last long.

Now, the Kamala Clan had lost both!

Following Layton Academy’s announcement, the Kamala Clan also announced their retreat into their headquarters, no longer involving themselves with any of the local matters in Ailovis.

Thus, with the stepping down of one adept organization after another, the Crimson Clan truly started rising!

Greem immediately hid within his room once he returned to Fire Throne. Mary and Gargamel were the ones to give the order for three dozen Crimson adepts to walk out of the tower and be stationed in various resource sites across Ailovis.

For a time, the Crimson Clan had a total of one First Class resource site, seven Second Class resource sites, and sixteen Third Class resource sites. The number of worldly territories and human cities was uncountable.

After five busy years, the Crimson Clan finally finished its initial distribution for the worldly territories and the change in management. The Crimson Clan’s lands took up over sixty percent of Ailovis. It was an area of over two thousand square kilometers that was split into one dukedom, three marquisdoms, four counties, and plenty of viscounties and baronies.

There were a total of seventeen human cities in this massive territory, along with two hundred and sixty-three towns and villages, one million subjects, and seven mines and quarries.

The Crimson Clan’s adepts were simply far too insufficient after gaining all this land. Thus, they started to hire and recruit a group of wandering adepts as well and barely managed to keep the entire area running.

In terms of just the number of adepts and the area of their territory, the Crimson Clan had already far surpassed their old masters– the Sarubo Clan. They were now a sizeable adept clan that couldn’t live up to their name.

The only thing that the Crimson Clan was lacking now was presentable high-grade adepts.

It was fortunate that they had a Third Grade thunder dragon and a Third Grade emerald dragon as their ultimate fighting force. That was the only thing that kept the Crimson Clan’s highest military power from being too lacking. Otherwise, such a ‘bloated’ and ‘fat’ body would have attracted the scheming eyes of the outside world.

During this period of change and turbulence, the Crimson Clan leader that obtained the first victory ever in the World of Adepts against an adept of a grade above him had been hiding in his tower. He had not shown his face at all.

Thus, the years passed by just like that, one by one.