Age of Adepts

The Crimson Clan appeared to be unusual among all the adept clans!

In total, it had only been less than six decades since they went from an unknown to a rising star.

And how long did five or six decades mean to an adept clan?

For a worldly kingdom, it might mean the end of a dynasty, but for a low-grade adept, it was only an increase in a minor grade. For a high-grade adept, it was only enough time to complete a major magical experiment.

Yet, these five or six decades were enough for the Crimson Clan to grow from an unknown small clan to a massive force that was rivaled only by the major clans.

This process would take other adept clans up to hundreds and even thousands of years to complete.

Even more miraculous was their legendary clan leader.

He had barely become an apprentice adept with his lowly talent, and he suffered arduous days in a low-level resource site of the Sarubo Clan. Yet, with one compulsory mission from Zhentarim, this completely ordinary apprentice ascended into the skies, rapidly growing in strength and power.

The legends even claimed that he had been a beginner apprentice when the mission started but had turned out to be an advanced apprentice when it was completed.

Jumping two minor grades in a single mission was enough to demonstrate his extraordinary and legendary background, even if it was only two minor grades as an apprentice.

From then on, his momentum was unstoppable, advancing to a pseudo-adept not long after returning to the resource site, thereby earning him the attention of the Sarubo Clan.

However, no one had any idea how it was that Greem came to be an adept.

Even though some adept organizations had expended significant efforts in their investigations, they could only barely figure out that some accident had occurred at the resource site that Greem was stationed at. Even the stationed adept had died an unnatural death. Greem, Mary, and another adept who manipulated bugs benefited from this misfortune to advance and become adepts successfully.

Half a year after advancing, the three of them were tossed into a planar war by the Sarubo Clan. It was said that Greem’s performance there was exceedingly outstanding, earning him the favor of Great Adept Sarubo. He had successfully made his way into the circle of higher-ups of the Sarubo Clan.

Moving forward, Adept Greem appeared to have multiple disagreements with the leaders of the clan. Stories of internal arguments and conflicts were often heard.

Thus, Greem and Mary officially left the Sarubo Clan once their contract of service was up. It was said that this event caused an internal split in the Sarubo Clan. A substantial number of adepts and apprentices followed after the two of them and left the Sarubo Clan.

However, this was when Greem finally started on the legendary path of his life!

In less than a hundred years, Greem had managed to establish the Crimson Clan with his small personal tower as its headquarters and had even made multiple ventures into other worlds. He advanced once again, less than a hundred years after he first advanced, to become a famous Second Grade adept.

It was during this time that the name of the Crimson Clan became more and more widely known!

However, the incident that truly spread the name of the Crimson Clan was the existence of the dragons.

The Crimson Clan seemed to have forged a path to a dragon plane and were able to continually obtain dragon resources as well as the enviable treasure hoards of the dragons. These two elements were the springs of wealth that allowed the Crimson Clan to rise to power as quickly as it had.

With the wealth and resources they stole from the dragon plane, the Crimson Clan immediately multiplied their assets and rapidly went from an insignificant, tiny clan to a small clan.

It was the excessive speed of their rise to power that attracted a pack of ‘wolves’ to them.

Five adept clans and organizations led by the Kamala Clan united and found an excuse to launch an adept war against the Crimson Clan. However, the results of the war were simply unexpected. The Crimson Clan was able to beat back the allied forces of the five adept clans with an army of metal golems while their legendary clan leader was absent from the World of Adepts.

It was this miraculous turning of the tides that allowed the Crimson Clan to feed upon the blood of the defeated and grow even faster. They broke free of the constraints of Fire Throne, grabbing much of the land in the Ailovis region and threatening to become a medium clan in the span of a single night.

To suppress the continued growth of the Crimson Clan, the Third Grade clan leader of the Kamala Clan–veteran high-grade adept Death Heralding Crow Yurga–chose to issue a clan challenge. It was the unbelievable battle that forged Greem’s identity as a legendary adept.

A Second Grade fire adept and clan leader of a newly risen clan had killed a veteran Third Grade adept in front of the public using his miraculous means.

Such an unprecedented incident in the history of the World of Adepts passed just like that!

After devouring Kamala and a few other clans, the Crimson Clan quickly established their footing in the Ailovis region and started to extend their influence to the territory of the Northern Witches.

In the extreme cold of the north ruled over by the witches, the Crimson Clan had somehow managed to gain favor with the Fate Witches and took over a large piece of territory in a place known as Icewind. It was said that the Crimson Clan’s development there went smoothly, not at all inferior to Ailovis of the Central Region.

In fact, there were quite a lot of adepts privately spreading the rumor that the legendary fire adept of the Crimson Clan appeared to have an intimate relationship with the leader of the Fate Witches– Alice. That seemed evident from the breadth and depth of their cooperation.

That dissatisfied many of the old fogeys of Zhentarim!

From their perspective, this meant that the Crimson Clan had become vassals and vanguards of the Northern Witches, eventually bringing the forces of the Northern Witches into the entirety of Zhentarim.

Over these years, the influence of the Crimson Clan was limited within the Ailovis region and other new territories they carved out of the Black Forest. Attempts at expanding into other regions were met with severe retaliation from the local adept organizations and clans.

It caused the goblin faction of the Crimson Clan to be able to only extend their influence to some neutral cities, despite all their efforts. Those personal territories and lands did not welcome their arrival.

There were even multiple incidents of goblin merchant groups being robbed and exterminated halfway on their journey.

With the increasing growth of the Crimson Clan’s forces, their enemies started to become more subtle with such operations and became better at cleaning up all trails they left behind.

Unfortunately, with the assistance of the Fate Witches, the Crimson Clan were always able to find the perpetrators and the forces behind them, regardless of how they tried to wipe away their tracks. After a few medium adept organizations collapsed beneath the Motherships and magical machine armies of the Crimson Clan, no other organization dared to haphazardly strike at them anymore!

While some Fourth Grade adepts gradually shifted their attention onto the Crimson Clan and let out word that they would keep the clan in line, the legendary fire adept brought a Fourth Grade giant metallic golem dragon back from one of his lesser planes.

It immediately silenced all the waves that were starting to rise on the outside world!

Though dark undercurrents were still surging beneath Zhentarim, no adept organization dared to continue opposing the Crimson Clan on the surface.

It was fine if the Crimson Clan had no Fourth Grades; dealing with them would have been a simple matter. However, now that a Fourth Grade golem that seemed to possess tremendous power had appeared in the Crimson Clan, the Fourth Grade adepts immediately fell silent and extinguished any thoughts of stomping the Crimson Clan out of existence.

Even some of the Fourth Grade adepts that had a significant chance of beating a dull Fourth Grade golem were not willing to take such unnecessary risks.

With their power and reputation, the adept organizations and clans they represented would never fall as long as they still lived. No Fourth Grade adept would make enemies of an adept of the same grade. No amount of wealth or resources would tempt them into striking at another Fourth Grade adept.

That was because no adept clan or organization would be able to stand the all-out retaliation of a Fourth Grade adept, even if they were protected by another Fourth Grade adept.

Once an adept advanced to Fourth Grade, the difference in personal ability and techniques between those of the lower grades reached an incomprehensible level. A bloodline curse or a death spell could cause a clan to spontaneously fall apart, suffering from an incredible number of casualties.

That was why those Fourth Grade adepts were not willing to provoke another Fourth Grade adept over small numbers of resources if not necessary.

The Fourth Grade golem of the Crimson Clan might not have the same level of destructive power as a Fourth Grade adept, but who knew what other terrifying trump cards that Greem fellow might still be hiding under his sleeve? That was why, with their longevity and composure, the Fourth Grade adepts were not willing to run into this steel wall unless the Crimson Clan was the first to provoke them.

…………

Northern Lands, White Tower.

An elegantly-designed Mothership, the shape of a cigar, slowly floated across the skies of White Tower.

Due to its use of magic energy as a power source, the Patrol Mothership did not emit the same metallic grinding of other vessels that were caused by gears.

Mothership Chiwa silently crushed the clouds in her way, elegantly cruising across the sky. Goblin Magical Mechanic Little Locke stood at the edge of the ship on his toes, looking excitedly at the dark black forest, the towering trees, and the rugged mountains racing by below.

As a newly advanced clan adept, Locke had neither the power nor experience to take control of such a powerful Mothership. However, considering his background as a goblin, Meryl assigned him to Chiwa, serving as a subordinate under Second Grade Knight Soros.

Soros was the captain of Chiwa, while Little Locke was only one of three adepts aboard the ship.

Their mission was to patrol the stretch of Black Forest between White Tower and Doverand City.

Of course, the daily resources and construction materials of the newly established Doverand City were all provided by Chiwa.