Age of Adepts

World of Adepts, Ailovis Region.

Fire Throne Tower.

The spoils obtained from Doomsday Castle had been transported back. Eva was organizing the adepts and apprentices to appraise and sort the items.

Such a large sum of wealth couldn’t possibly all be kept in Fire Throne. Be it magical gemstones, materials, equipment, metal ores, art pieces, or some unknown relics, all of them would have to be shared with White Tower.

Technically, as the leader of the clan, all this wealth belonged to Greem.

However, for the sake of supporting the clan’s operations, Greem only took out ten percent of the total spoils as his personal collection. The approximate share of spoils was: ten percent to Greem, ten percent to Mary, thirty percent to Fire Throne, and fifty percent to White Tower.

As the main forces of this hunt, Mary and Greem naturally had the right to choose their spoils first.

Greem chose Third Grade Fire Dragon Philippa, and Mary reserved half a ton of Third Grade fire dragon blood. Though the remaining treasure was split three and five between Fire Throne and White, Eva still wanted to try to keep the best of the spoils at Fire Throne.

It would be best to hand over some of the useless art pieces to White Tower and keep as much of the magical materials and equipment in Fire Throne.

The leader of every region had to fight a little over such clan welfare!

However, Greem would usually not interfere in such insignificant matters.

It wasn’t a good thing if the clan was too united and peaceful on the inside. Necessary competition and the elimination of the weak was unavoidable.

To avoid the entire clan being defeated by an enemy in one fell swoop, it was split into two– Fire Throne and White Tower. They could simultaneously develop in both Zhentarim and the Northern Lands. This way, the two regional headquarters would have their own foundations and their own trajectory of development.

Given the current situation, there were fewer obstructive forces over at White Tower, and the momentum of their development was more ferocious than Fire Throne. Meanwhile, Fire Throne was where Greem resided and received some degree of welfare benefits due to this.

From an overall standpoint, Gargamel was weaker than Meryl when it came to recruiting and managing high-grade adepts. That was due to his own limited strength and humble background compared to Meryl, who had a proper adept upbringing.

Meryl had Greem, the legendary adept, as her teacher, along with a host of adept disciples such as Deserra beneath her. The sly old fox Vanlier also assisted her. Meryl could mobilize far more adept resources within the Crimson Clan than Gargamel.

At the very least, with Vanlier’s connections, Meryl could mobilize the vampire faction to some degree. That alone made her incontestably superior to Gargamel!

Meanwhile, what did Crimson Majordomo Gargamel have on his side?

Most of the subordinates he could command were insignificant small adepts or some old veterans that had been recruited when the Crimson Clan had just been established. These were individuals like Medusa Dana and Charon the Manticore.

These veterans might have some degree of influence in the Crimson Clan, but with the rapid rise of the clan’s authority, they were quickly being pushed out toward the periphery. If they didn’t work harder, their most likely outcome was being sent to some lesser plane or large resource site of the clan where they would be stationed until their death.

It was unavoidable!

Moreover, with the passage of time, Gargamel was getting increasingly older. If he still could not advance soon, no one knew if he could even live for another fifty years.

Meryl undoubtedly had a much more significant advantage in this regard compared to Gargamel!

…………

Inside the secret room.

The severely injured Third Grade Fire Dragon Philippa crouched on the ground, hanging to life by a thread.

Countless runic chains extended from the arrays on the walls around her, binding her securely. Even moving a single finger was tremendously difficult.

As her control over her body had been taken away, the fire dragon could only barely open her eyes to glare at the damned male adept who was looking her up and down.

“Human, what exactly do you want? If it’s a good time you want, there’s no need to be so violent!” Perhaps, because she recognized that there was no helping her situation, the fire dragon finally softened her stance a little. She continued to throw some seductive looks Greem’s way even as she communicated mentally with him.

However, with her size and appearance, she would probably be one obese lady even if she was in human form. Those fawning looks she was giving Greem almost made him throw up.

“I don’t want your body.” Greem shook his head and said.

“…” The fire dragon’s expression froze, “Then you probably have your eyes on my power! I can’t become your dragon pet. However, I am only willing to become your personal pet. That female vampire shouldn’t even think about it.”

“I don’t exactly need you to be my dragon pet.” Greem continued to shake his head.

“Then what do you want? You…you won’t kill me, will you? I am the powerful Star of Disaster Philippa. You…you won’t waste a treasure like me, will you?” Seemingly thrown into a panic by the male adept’s mysterious behavior, the fire dragon could no longer remain as composed as before.

“I want your bloodline talent. Can you give me this?” Greem smiled sinisterly.

“What exactly are you trying to do? You have no dragon bloodline in you. The bloodline legacy of us dragons can’t be transferred either. You…”

Just as the fire dragon was roaring about in exasperation, Greem waved his hand as a metal cage locked up in the corner of the room with a series of runic arrays slowly opened. A small beast shuffled and climbed out from within.

It was a strange beast that resembled a small mastiff.

The reason it was said the be strange was that its size was utterly different from the usual evolution pattern of powerful magical beasts.

Its skinny and frail body was only the size of a mastiff. Its skin was smooth and without any fur. It had a pair of powerful hind legs that allowed it to run rapidly, but no front legs to go with them. There were no tough scales on its smooth head, nor sharp horns, or even eyes, ears, or nose. It only had a single terrifying, fanged mouth.

This mouth took up nearly two-thirds of its entire head.

There was no acid-spitting ability, no poisonous saliva, no tough scales, no powerful body, no tremendous strength, no elementium powers.

Yet, it was this seemingly ordinary, odd beast with no special powers that caught all of the fire dragon’s attention upon its appearance.

“What…what is this? What…what are you trying to do with it?”

For some reason, the fire dragon felt a shiver run down her spine. An inexplicable feeling of danger caused her heart to race wildly!

However, the suppression and bindings of the tower made her incapable of performing any movements. The fire dragon’s tightly shut mouth silently opened up as the silver chains pulled backward.

The strange beast extended an agile tongue from its large mouth. The tongue vibrated lightly in the air and quickly detected the existence of Greem and the fire dragon. The two equally delicious scents of food caused the beast to prop up its body with its hind legs and run towards Greem.

Greem frowned slightly.

Dammit! Has his current elementium talent already eclipsed the bloodline talent of a Third Grade fire dragon and made the Sourcestealer choose him as the target?

The thought appeared in his mind and translated into action.

A sharp killing intent emanated from Greem, causing the temperature of the around him to rise slowly.

Perhaps because it sensed the dangerous aura around Greem, the Sourcestealer stopped in its tracks. It carefully sensed its surroundings for a bit longer before reluctantly switching targets and leaping into the fire dragon’s slightly open mouth.

If the fire dragon had possessed any ability to resist, she would have been able to deal with this creature. She wouldn’t even have needed her dragon’s breath or her powerful claws. A single sneeze would have wiped out a whole horde of these useless, defenseless beasts.

However, as she was currently, the fire dragon could only watch as the beast lunged into her mouth.

She might not know what the beast was and how it would hurt her, but that terror from the very depths of her soul frightened her immensely.

The fact that a low-grade beast with no elementium talent or special powers could make her feel such an incredible sense of danger was more than enough proof that it possessed unique powers beyond her understanding!

Moreover, would that damned male adept ever use a worthless beast to threaten her?

“Make it stop. I will agree to whatever you say…quick…make it stop…guhuhguh…”

As Philippa roared with all her might, the beast dove into her mouth, stepping over her tongue and sliding down her gullet.

The fire dragon roared with all she had, attempting to gather a cluster of flames in her throat to burn the beast to death. Unfortunately, the mental flux she gathered was instantly shattered to pieces by the silver chains around her. That cluster of fire vanished before it could grow larger than a small flame.

Without Greem’s permission, this Third Grade Philippa would not be able to gather even a spark of flames in Greem’s tower.

Just as Philippa roared and struggled, the beast had entered her body and started to move about. For some reason, the fire dragon’s extremely corrosive stomach acid did nothing to the creature. It opened its mouth and began tearing at her stomach, ravaging within.

Philippa had a feeling that the beast was aiming for her heart and spine!

Unfortunately, this revelation came a bit too late. Philippa’s entire body trembled in agony as her Spirit shuddered furiously. A series of mental messages asking for mercy surged toward Greem.

“I admit defeat. I was wrong. I surrender!” Philippa was in tears now, “As long as you make the beast come out, I will agree to anything…anything you want.”