Age of Adepts

In all seriousness, Molten Fire City was just a massive underground city built in the belly of a volcano.

Of course, the core building here was a powerful adept’s tower.

However, unlike the rest, this adept’s tower was not built upon the volcanic rock, where the foundation would be stable. Instead, it was built within the flowing magma.

There were only a few fixed points of time during the year when the tower would be revealed as the lava sea subsided. During the rest of the time, the tower would be hidden beneath the boiling and flowing magma sea, cut off from the rest of the world.

Thus, this adept’s tower became the residence of the Fourth Grade city lord!

The other adepts of Molten Fire City–the other deputies included–all resided in the underground tunnels around the tower. The uneven volcanoes, winding underground labyrinths, and many modified voodoo beasts filled this underground world with life. Activity and movement were everywhere.

The entirety of Molten Fire City was split into three levels. The inner core area was the adept’s area.

As the elementium concentration and activity here were shockingly high, ordinary humans could not survive in this environment for extended periods. Only adepts could live and move about in this area.

Naturally, outside the core area was the apprentice area.

With the isolation effect of the energy barrier, the energy radiation here was much less compared to the core. This was the place where most apprentices lived. Be it for study, research, or their daily activities, the central area of operation for the adept apprentices was the outer circle around the core area.

Meanwhile, outside the apprentice area were the small settlements such as villages or supply points. These places were populated by ordinary people who provided service to the apprentices. These included hotels, inns, mercenary camps, underground black markets, and other specialized services. Of course, the maids of these hotels were often involved in more explicit and shadier business as well.

However, these outposts were mostly filled with fearless miners who provided labor for Molten Fire City.

It was important to note that the main reason the Fourth Grade adept had built a massive adept’s tower here was because of the impressive metal vein in the depths of this volcano. The quality of the magical metals stored here was exceedingly excellent. The number of reserves was also shocking. It turned the mines into the largest source of income for the Molten Fire City organization.

Of course, such a colossal metal reserve required plenty of manual labor to excavate.

Molten Fire City spent a massive capital to construct this large underground city, all to gain access to the enormous reserves of magical metals beneath their feet. Thousands of miners of various races toiled daily in these complex, winding tunnels, putting their lives on the line for the profit of Molten Fire City.

The more Greem understood about this city, the more impressed he became.

The size of the population, the scale of it, and the amount of trade alone were a hundred times larger than the Fire Throne of Crimson Clan.

Though he envied the prosperity, Greem did not harbor the extravagant hopes of one day owning such a territory.

Almost all the high-grade resources of the World of Adepts had been divided between the major organizations and high-grade adepts. Such high-grade resources would not bring him massive magical crystal income if they fell into his hands; it would only be perpetual war.

Without the power to intimidate his enemies, the revelation of such resources would draw the covetous gazes of Fourth Grade adepts. Meanwhile, the Crimson Clan had no Fourth Grade adept of their own.

If such resources were to fall into his hands, it would not be a fortune. It would be an affliction, so bad that it could bring about the extermination of the entire clan.

The few waves of adept wars aimed at the Crimson Clan a while ago appeared to have been caused by disagreements between the clans. However, the source of these conflicts was, in truth, the Plane of Lance that the Crimson Clan held in their hands.

It was a decent dragon plane with an inexhaustible source of dragon resources.

Those were not resources that a newly established clan should possess!

The wealth of the Crimson Clan invited the hunt of a pack of multiple small and intermediate clans.

If it weren’t for the Crimson Clan having a fairly good foundation with several tricks up their sleeves, Greem’s newly established clan would have become food for the others. When that happened–having lost the power of his clan and left alone–Greem would have had no choice but to hand over the world coordinates of Lance and become labeled as a loser. He would become the laughing stock of all adepts!

……

As he dwelled on his thoughts, Greem was led through the outer outposts and across the apprentice area, before finally arriving in front of an underground cave.

A dark red barrier stood here, barring his way forward.

The lizard riders that had escorted them reined back their mounts and stood respectfully on either side. Only Greem and the Second Grade adept walked into the barrier of light.

It was like walking through a wall of water. There was almost no resistance.

However, as he walked through the barrier, Greem could feel four or five scan waves of various purpose rapidly and very faintly sweep across his body. Unfortunately, these probes were all kept outside by the layer of transparent flames on Greem’s body.

It seemed the adept had received a magical message from somewhere in the distance. The other adept smiled as he bowed and said, “Lord Fire, please come with me! Lord Karak is already waiting for you.”

The meeting location was a gray underground stone hall. A Third Grade and two Second Grades were already waiting here. Smiles appeared on their faces when they saw Greem arrive.

The Third Grade Lord Karak looked just like he did in the Spirit Illusion Realm: tall and skinny with a jade green gemstone embedded in his forehead. He was very welcoming to Greem.

“You must be that legendary fire adept clan leader from the Ailovis Region, aren’t you? So honored to meet you, Lord Greem!” There was a smile on Karak’s face as he nodded slightly at Greem.

The two Second Grade adepts were a pair of male and female adepts. They looked young and were secretly assessing Greem as they stood behind Adept Karak.

Everyone who could become a high-grade adept had excellent talent and exceptional luck. Still, being able to advance to Third Grade before he was two hundred years old meant unbelievable talent.

That was why these two Second Grade adepts of Molten Fire City couldn’t help but be excited when they saw this legendary fire adept whose name had been the talk of Zhentarim for a while. In particular, the young female adept’s eyes dazzled when she saw Greem’s handsome look and muscular body.

Greem wasn’t at all surprised that they had managed to investigate his identity.

He had already done some research before he came here. Molten Fire City was a famous major organization of the Center Region and was a mighty force. This much was evident from the fact that they could monopolize a vast region all for themselves.

The Skettis Region where Molten Fire City was located was simply too far from the Crimson Clan. The two parties couldn’t possibly have any conflicts over welfare and resources and, thus, there was a minimal possibility for any sort of unresolved resentment and hostility. Greem need not worry about his safety here.

That was why Greem was not at all surprised or concerned when Karak revealed his identity.

“I am also very honored to be able to visit Molten Fire City. Everything here is simply so breathtaking. It is obvious that your organization’s monopoly over the Skettis Region is no sheer luck.”

“Haha, Sir Greem, you praise us too much!” Adept Karak chuckled slightly, before shifting the topic of conversation, “We have invited two adepts for the mission we gave out. The other adept should arrive two days from now, so I will have to bother you to stay here at our place for that time. So, for these two days, I believe I should let Adept Freina accompany you and bring you on a tour!”

The Second Grade female adept standing behind Lord Karak stepped forward and smiled as she said, “Lord Greem, why don’t I bring you around for a bit first?”

This Adept Freina had pretty looks and a fairly hot figure. Her well-cut white robe further emphasized her pale skin and thin waist. However, Greem quickly looked at her and could sense slight energy radiation on her face and body.

It seemed her looks and figure had all been processed with magic.

Such a situation was prevalent among low-grade adepts. After all, beauty amongst female adepts was also a resource that could be taken advantage of. However, similar situations were rarely seen among high-grade adepts. Those who could become high-grade adepts were all individuals with strong will and determination. Such female adepts were often even more potent than male adepts in many aspects. How could they possibly ever do something as lowly as to offer their body in exchange for resources!

“Thank you!” Greem smiled and followed Freina out of the stone hall.

Once the sound of Greem and Freina’s footsteps vanished into the depths of the tunnel, the other Second Grade male adept asked, “Lord Karak, what should we do over at the mines? If Lord Greem intends to go into the mines with the mission as his excuse, should we stop him?”

The tall and skinny Kara lowered his head and thought for a moment before slowly speaking, “This Greem is here for the Queyras ores. As such, you must keep a close eye on Mines 2 and 3. When necessary, you can let him enter Mine 4 freely, but he must never approach Mine 2 and 3. Speaking of which, has that flaming tiger been around to cause trouble over the past few days?”

“It hasn’t attacked the mines ever since it was injured by Lord Dorian with the array last month. However, there have been signs of its activity around Mine 2 for the last two days. I suspect it is secretly scheming something.”

“Assign more people to Mine 2. We must not give it the space to break in. The last time it broke into Mine 3, it killed far too many miners. It’s already severely affected the production of eternium ore!”

“Understood, I will make the arrangements myself!”

“Mm. Do it well and make sure no incidents happen again. In addition, the sealing master we hired is arriving soon. Once all the people have arrived, we will immediately set off to capture and kill that flaming tiger. Before this, you will have to find a way to track that tiger’s location. It will be best if you can find out the location of its den.”

“This…” An expression of hesitance and reluctance appeared on the face of the adept. However, he quickly gritted his teeth and said, “I will make sure to do so!”

The two adepts left the stone hall, and the place returned to silence once again.