Age of Adepts

The same path in the forest.

The bright light from Benija’s purple eyes slowly faded away as an intangible mental flux spread outward with her at its center.

“What is it? Did you discover anything?” Serpentine Adept Natagu was walking at the forefront. He stopped his footsteps and asked softly.

Benija had the strongest Spirit of the team. Thus, she understandably became the guide and scout of the party. The reason they had managed to track Greem all the way from Hakans to here was due to Benija’s strange mental sensing ability.

“I just exterminated a wind elemental. It didn’t seem like a wild elemental, so it’s very likely a monitor the target placed there.” Benija replied quickly while her mental flux still quietly scanned for all movement around her.

Nothing on the entire path, be they squirrels or birds hiding within tree hollows, or snakes and rats crouching beneath the dirt, could hide from Benija’s mental senses.

Any creature that still had life signs in the area would appear in her mental consciousness as unique points of light. Benija chose to ignore those extremely tiny dots. Meanwhile, her mental flux would cause the larger creatures to avoid their strange party unknowingly.

The world in Benija’s purple eyes was pretty, swirling, and colorful. Apart from the material image before her, she could see the distribution and flow of magical elementium in the air through her elementium sight.

The fire adept had come through here two days ago; it was obvious from the density of the faint red fire elementium particles left in the air. Elementium adepts were massive elementium reactors, after all. Even if they tried their best to restrain their energy radiation, they would still change the elementium particle density of the places they traveled through.

That was why Benija could see a faint red ribbon stretching all the way from Hakans into the distance. The path the fire adept had taken was as bright as a bonfire in the night to her. She couldn’t even overlook it if she tried.

In fact, through the fire elementium particles left in the air, Benija could faintly estimate the fire adept’s basic power, condition, and rough emotional state.

It seemed the fire adept had obtained a plentiful bounty from the local city. Even the fire elementium particles he left behind carried a faint trace of joy and excitement. Through the aura of the particles, Benija could genuinely tell that this was a young adept full of talent, whose body contained fiery and vicious power.

He was young, very young. He was so young that it even exceeded Benija’s expectations.

The elementium aura he left behind carried with it the warm taste of youth, so dense that it made Benija envious. It was like the sweet and enticing smell of a newborn baby!

“You mean the enemy has already discovered us?” Natagu’s ghostly green eyes stared coldly at Benija. She felt as if her entire body had been wrapped in the slimy, cold forked tongue of a snake. It was a terrible sensation!

“Yes. When I crushed that wind elemental, I vaguely felt a strange spiritual energy watching over us. However, this spiritual energy doesn’t seem to belong to a lifeform, which is what is throwing me off.” Benija bit her lower lip and replied in frustration.

“Hmph! It might be one of that fire adept’s magical techniques!” Natagu said coldly, “The Lady’s information did state that he excelled at golem creation. He is always followed by powerful elementium golems at the same grade as himself. It seems like we are getting very close to his hiding spot! Let’s go; pick up the pace. Don’t let him escape!”

The old, hunchbacked witch Guinevere lifted her head and sniffed the air before shaking her head in disappointment. It appeared the fire adept had not released the Spirit of Pestilence. Otherwise, she should have been able to smell that unique elementium aura that belonged to a Spirit like that.

The three had a simple discussion but did not delay for long before continuing their pursuit.

…………

Inside a vast and massive forest.

Greem stood on a tall cliff peeking above the sea of trees and gazed into the distance.

A massive mushroom cloud of fire was rising there, accompanied by a rumbling halo of dirt and dust that was spreading outward.

“How is it, Chip. Did you detect anything?” Greem asked silently in his mind.

[Beep. Strange energy has engulfed the trap area. Unable to detect specific bodily attributes.]

The Chip’s feedback undoubtedly disappointed Greem. He couldn’t help but follow up with another question, “No specific bodily attributes, but what about their rough energy level? There should be a rough estimate for whether they are Third Grade or Fourth Grade, isn’t there?”

[Third Grade. Judging by the intensity of the energy feedback from the trap area, there is no Fourth Grade energy reaction present. The three target creatures are currently estimated to be Third Grade. Accuracy of judgment is 76%. More data required for correction.]

“Finally, good news!” Greeem licked his lips and narrowed his eyes, “As long as there isn’t a Fourth Grade, I won’t be afraid, no matter how many Third Grades there are. The worst case is all of us playing a game of hide-and-seek in here! I don’t believe that they will risk the danger of attracting a Fourth Grade native to fight me to the death.”

Flames erupted around Greem, and he appeared a few hundred meters away in the air. The fire around him formed into a pair of wings, carrying his body as he flew across the sky. After just two hundred meters, Fire Teleportation came off cooldown, and Greem’s blazing body flickered away once again.

This alternating use of Fire Teleportation and Wings of Fire allowed Greem to make his way to the southwest of the Zambez Empire as fast as possible.

Naturally, his brazen actions exposed him thoroughly to the people of Henvic.

The citizens living in this ancient kingdom finally had the luck to witness the terror of an otherworldly adept!

The Zambez Empire, in the northwest region.

The sky appeared as if it was burning, the roiling clouds of fire staining it a bright red color.

The sound of thundering flames could be heard everywhere.

Greem flew through the sky several hundred meters above the ground, flickering forward every five seconds. The red and radiant Wings of Fire left a path of blazing clouds behind him. Every time he teleported, a slowly spreading halo of fire would be left on the spot.

To travel as fast as he could, Greem no longer cared if his actions disrupted the civilians below. He drew upon the Flame Fiend’s Heart as hard as he could, causing it to ferociously beat and howl as it sent pure fire energy to every part of his body.

The fire energy that surged through his body possessed temperatures up to three to four thousand degrees. The energy level was also terrifyingly high. Even so, the maximum output of the Flame Fiend’s Heart was still barely enough to support Greem’s wild actions.

After traveling for seven hundred kilometers, Greem finally found a massive lake and dove into it.

…………

Cascara Lake.

It was the largest lake in the central region of the Zambez Empire, with the clearest waters and the most bountiful aquatic resources.

The coursing River Bain and the Fenris River that wound throughout a good half of the Empire met here, forming a region of lake and marsh that stretched for dozens of kilometers.

As this was the inner region of the Empire, it had not experienced a baptism of fire and blood in hundreds of years. Even the witch invasion in the south of the Empire had not had any effect here.

As they say, you eat by where you live!

Most of the civilians here were fishermen. Though their daily routine was hard work, it was still a much more peaceful and casual life than those who lived in the borderlands, where fire and war were constant.

Even though this place did not have the prosperity or liveliness of a large city, it had its own unique peace and quiet.

However, today, massive clouds of fire had started burning on the distant horizon, accompanied by deafening and continuous rumbling.

A gigantic flaming meteor cut across the sky and crashed into the depths of Cascara Lake.

The fearsome flame shockwave clashed with the pillars of water that had been blown into the air, causing steam to cover much of the lake. As the lake started to boil, countless half-cooked silver barracuda floated to the surface of the water. Meanwhile, the strange meteor had already sunk to the bottom of the lake.

Countless people who made a living in Cascara Lake had personally witnessed this apocalyptic scene, but their primitive and humble minds could not comprehend what terrors that lay behind it.

Half an hour later, Greem walked out of the lake from a spot where the seaweed grew in dense patches, his entire body steaming as he did so. He had not taken two steps onto the shore, yet his robes were already dry from the fire elementium’s heat.

Greem turned and looked at the path he had taken as a wicked smile appeared on his young and handsome face.

He had traveled so brazenly and recklessly across the Empire. What would the three hunters choose to do?

Would they do as he did and charge across the country? Or would they sprint across the land on their own two feet with faces filled with resentment? Neither option was a choice they would like to make.

Even with his power, Greem couldn’t help but feel a wave of exhaustion after fleeing such a long distance in a single journey.

He quickly restrained the fire energy he was radiating and disguised himself as an ordinary traveler before turning and walking to the east of Carasca Lake.

According to information that the Chip had gathered, there was a human city of moderate size there. It was perfect for hiding his tracks and collecting information on the witches.