Age of Adepts

Goblin Plane, City of Machines.

The gigantic goblin laboratory beneath the adept’s tower.

The scaffolds wrapped around the giant magical machine constructs had mostly been taken apart now. Only one or two platform elevators were left for the convenience of goblins moving up and down the machine.

The outer construction of the golem dragon had been completed. The remaining tasks were all being performed inside of the construct. The twenty-meter-square magic generator furnace had already been placed in the appropriate location yesterday. Currently, a large group of goblin technicians was gathered in the narrow and winding metal corridors of the golem dragon. They were banging and hammering away as they put on the final touches for the energy circulation system that would go on a test run soon.

An ordinary magic generator furnace was insufficient for powering a golem dragon as massive as this. Only a large magic generator furnace such as this had a possibility of achieving such a task. The intensity of the magical energy being put out by the magic generator furnace near the core was shockingly high. It was a difficult test and burden for the magical alloy that was supposed to carry the energy throughout the machine.

If a single pipe were to break due to the pressure from the magic energy, the chaotic magical power would spill into the narrow and sealed metal corridor, killing any goblin that was not wearing a special suit.

The goblins had to perform a large number of tests and practical combat simulations to discover hidden flaws, even after the magic generator furnace was placed in the machine.

“Caution, caution. Magical machine golem dragon energy circulation system load test Number 116 is beginning soon. All unrelated personnel leave the danger zone. All unrelated personnel leave the danger zone.”

The hoarse yet somewhat excited voice of the old goblin Gonga rang out from a distinctive horn.

Some goblin technicians and engineers hurriedly climbed out of the golem dragon and left the machine through the elevators after hearing this warning.

After repeating the warning three times and confirming that all unrelated staff had left the machine, Gonga picked up the intercom and gave the goblins in the core cabin the order to increase energy load.

“Preparing load increase test Number 116. Caution, initial load intensity is 3%. Increase load by 3% every time I give the order. Do not exceed this energy limit.”

“Understood, understood. Core Energy Cabin Goblin Technician Gagamu is ready. Long live goblins! The golem dragon has no equal!” The fervent roar and hail of a goblin technician rang out from the other side of the intercom.

It couldn’t be helped. If any leaks were to happen in the pipes, the most severe of magical pollution and radiation would occur in the core energy cabin. More than a few dozen goblins had already died in the cabin over the hundreds of days. Even the ones that somehow managed to survive had been polluted and corrupted into unidentifiable monsters.

Even so, there were still swarms of goblins volunteering themselves for the task due to their passion for magical energy and their hopes for the rise of goblins.

With Gonga’s order, a young goblin wearing a special quarantine suit in the core energy cabin passionately connected the pipes and slowly pushed the energy valve to where the number three had been etched.

A small gap opened up in the energy pipes, which were forged from special magical alloy. The wild, magical energy that had been gathering in the magic generator furnace rapidly surged into the pipes as if it had found an outlet. The surge of energy recklessly charged outward.

The mysterious runes carved along the pipes quickly lit up and slowly extended through each part of the golem dragon along the complicated pipes.

The strange creaking sound of energy channels under pressure immediately started ringing out in the corridors inside the dragon. Several monitoring sites spread throughout the golem dragon quickly started giving their reports.

“Monitoring Site JYN037 has detected energy information. All facilities operation normal.”

“Left Ventricle Monitoring Site facilities have started operating. Current condition: Excellent.”

“Distributed Energy Storage Center 5 has started operating. Currently monitoring status.”

“Turret 97 has started charging, all operations normal.”

“……”

Of course, it wasn’t impossible for flaws or problems to occur in such a sizeable magical machine. While Gonga and the advanced engineers awaited for condition reports anxiously, an urgent call came from the intercom.

“Calling headquarters; slight energy leaks detected at Monitoring Site 129. The rescue team has started emergency repairs. Requesting for all higher-order energy circuits to be cut off.”

After so many tests and simulations, Gonga already had the thousands of energy pipeline diagrams and energy monitoring sites committed to heart. He could instantly give the goblin stationed near the higher-order nodes of the energy pipelines the order the shut the valve based on the location of the leak.

Soon, the energy leak was under control, and the goblins had barely suffered any losses.

The 3% energy supply quickly filled all the pipelines of the golem dragon and activated some of the basic runic arrays. The giant, brown golem dragon looked as if it had gained life. It now looked much more active and filled with vigor.

However, 3% of energy was not enough to power such a vast magical machine. Gonga immediately gave Gagamu the order to increase the energy supply after all conditions had stabilized.

Soon, the energy valve was raised from the 3% point to the 6% point.

The roaring magical energy thrashed through the metal pipes, the majority of which raced towards its destination, while the magical alloy absorbed small portions of it. This share of magical energy caused the metallic muscles of the golem dragon to swell and grow in size, one by one.

The metal pipes filled with magical energy were like dirt soaked with water. They possessed some degree of ability to resist the corrosion of the magical power now. As the energy valve was slowly raised, this one hundred meters tall and three hundred meters long golem dragon finally came to life!

The fierce magical energy surging throughout its body formed a strange energy resonance effect. It engulfed all the metallic muscles and construct components in a violent yet orderly energy field. Part of the energy even spilled out of the golem dragon, forming a barrier similar to an energy forcefield.

Most of the goblins were scratching their heads in confusion at this strange turn of events. Only the adepts stationed at the lab betrayed expressions of extreme joy when they investigated the forcefield with their spells.

An anti-magic forcefield!

It was a variant of high-grade energy fields. It could effectively isolate or weaken the intensity of magical energy, even destroying spell constructions that had yet to be fully formed.

The golem dragon possessed a layer of an anti-magic barrier, so trying to exterminate it with magical power was going to be exceedingly tricky. The most effective way of dealing with the magical machine golem dragon would be through physical attacks!

However, would a one hundred meters tall, three hundred meters long magical machine construct made entirely out of metal fear physical attacks? It was the coldest joke in the entire world!

The very thought of the enemy being unable to faze the magical machine dragon with their spells, while the dragon could bombard its enemy with all the magic energy cannons on its body; how amazingly awesome would that be!?

With this Fourth Grade magical machine dragon, they could easily siege any enemy headquarters or adept’s tower. Of course, it still wouldn’t be much use against those Fourth Grade monsters. Meanwhile, the protection of the Fourth Grade magical golem dragon meant that the Crimson Clan now could negotiate and gain leverage against Fourth Grade adepts.

Nightfall.

As the stationed adept of the Goblin Plane, Wind Adept Deserra–who had witnessed the entire activation process of the Fourth Grade dragon–immediately wrote a detailed and comprehensive inspection report for clan headquarters.

Moreover, he subtly submitted a report at the end of the document as well: “With Regards to the Possibility of the Evolution of Magical Goblins!”

As the highest-ranking adept of the Crimson Clan in the Goblin Plane, Deserra had sensitively noticed the fact that some goblins participating in the construction of the golem dragon were showing signs of magic-infusion.

Their bodies were stronger, their strength greater, and their personalities more impatient and intense. However, their bodies had decent compatibility with the violent magical energy surging out of the magic generator furnace.

Of course, such a change was not apparent at the current moment. It was so slight that an ordinary adept would not pick up on the difference unless they were at Deserra’s level.

However, with the activation of the golem dragon, the goblin engineers and technicians that would accompany the machine were very likely to be polluted by the excessively rich magical energy and mutate in some degree and manner.

It was undoubtedly an issue that fascinated the adepts immensely!

…………

Lance, the Capital of Eternity.

The core hall in the steel tower.

The brain took up half the space in the hall, squirming about while Gru stood in front of the glass vat and communicated with it.

“We just got the news that the golem dragon in the Goblin Plane has been successfully activated!”

“Hmph! What does their magical machine golem dragon count for? All its attributes are shockingly low. It is no more than intermediate Fourth Grade trash despite having such a powerful magic generator furnace. Hmph! If those resources were in my hands, I would have created a peak Fourth Grade masterpiece!”

“Is there any point in saying this? Greem is always cautious of us. He would never invest large amounts of resources in our Capital of Eternity. If it weren’t for wanting to borrow our technique of creating large magical machines, he would never even have handed over the Motherships for us to create.”

“That’s right! How far is the progress on the six Motherships? When will the six magic generator furnaces he promised arrive?”

“The six Motherships are off the production line. They are now being outfitted with magic energy weapons in the assembly workshops. The construction should be completely done in another two days. When that happens, I will personally go and insist on the magic generator furnaces.”

“Do you think that Greem will allow us to forge the Iron Titan?”

“Don’t even think about it! Permitting us to build the Motherships was already Greem’s bottom line. After all, the Motherships are no more than auxiliary combat magical machines. However, the Iron Titan…I doubt whether he has enough Queyras metal on hand to support such an enormous project. If we were the ones to build the Titan, we would not have enough metal with the amount we are secretly excavating from Lance. Do you think he would provide us with large amounts of magical alloys from the Goblin Plane?”

Cough!

The hall once again returned to silence after a drawn-out sigh.