Age of Adepts

The atmosphere of the entire banquet hall reached a peak in an instant!

Every adept present ceased their conversation and looked towards this powerful fire adept of legend with passionate eyes. It was almost as if they hoped to discover on Greem’s tall and muscular body the secrets to his tremendous power and rapid advancement.

However, when Greem stepped into the hall, his seemingly ordinary black eyes slowly swept across the entire place. Every adept who crossed eyes with him felt a strange stinging sensation on their skin, and their whole body felt extremely hot all of a sudden. It wasn’t until they placed their hands on their chests, lowered their heads, and paid their respects that the burning sensation quickly faded away.

Ordinary adepts might not realize anything and still be confused by the sudden appearance and disappearance of the unusual sensation. However, the faces of the high-grade adepts turned slightly. They no longer dared to stare at Greem as brazenly as before.

Their spiritual senses had very clearly picked up on what happened earlier.

During that one instant when their eyes met, the fire adept had projected some strange power into their bodies. If they had locked eyes for slightly longer, this peculiar power could have turned into a terrifying fire spell at any time.

It was nothing much if it was a single adept that felt this. However, every adept present at the banquet had felt the fire adept’s suppression. If this feeling was not an illusion, then Adept Greem’s power was genuinely shocking and fearsome.

If they were not mistaken, it should be some sort of unusual law power!

Law powers were not something they could defend or shield against with their low-grade magical defenses and elementium barriers. That meant the legendary fire adept didn’t even have to lift a single finger to kill any of them. He only needed to stare at them.

Adepts had always admired knowledge and power!

And the only reason they valued knowledge was for their pursuit of ever greater power!

When faced with a powerful adept that they could never match up to, the only thing they could do was bow and pay their respects, offering up deep reverence and humility before him.

Mirva accompanied Greem to the center of the hall. Along the way, he greeted many of the Third Grade adepts in the crowd. He would even point at and introduce to Greem to the clan leaders he was more familiar with.

Greem only smiled politely at Mirva’s warmth and passion.

However, Meryl, who followed closely behind Greem, was memorizing each and every action of Vice-Chairman Mirva’s. Who he nodded towards, who he greeted, who he introduced– Meryl made sure to memorize every single one of them with the power of her Spirit.

As a Fourth Grade adept and leader of the clan, Greem had no need to keep an eye out for these Third Grade ‘juniors’ of his. However, as a Crimson leader, Meryl was in charge of planning the next series of clan expansions. Naturally, she had to start planning way ahead of time.

The clan had already done a thorough investigation of their targets and ensured that the major adept clans, as well as those with Fourth Grade adepts, would not be involved in their conflicts.

Even so, one could never be too careful.

Who knew if those Fourth Grade adepts would have some mysterious, unknown relationships with any of those minor clans and organizations? If they dragged such a clan into a war, it was very likely that the clan would face intervention by a Fourth Grade adept.

The ‘performance’ that Vice-Chairman Mirva was putting on today was very likely a subtle hint for the Crimson Clan. He was pointing out all the adept clans that had some degree of connection or relations with himself. Meryl, who was now well-versed in such interpersonal matters, caught onto Mirva’s intentions. She immediately memorized all these adepts, as well as the emblems of their clans.

Later, she would personally remove these clans from the list of the Crimson Clan’s targets.

This action was a form of respect and acknowledgment of a Fourth Grade adept’s power!

“Kid, this advancement celebration of yours is far grander and extravagant than my own. Look, look. Even the storm giants of the Emerald Hills are here for the occassion,” Mirva explained with a smile on his face.

Greem paused for a moment when he heard Mirva’s words.

He couldn’t help but turn and look in the direction where Mirva was looking. Five unusual Storm Giants stood in a corner of the hall, silently staring at him.

There were both males and females among the five giants. Every one of them was three to four meters tall. Even though they had large adept’s robes draped over their bodies, their exposed hands, feet, and heads were all bright blue. Tiny vortices could faintly be seen beneath their translucent skin, crashing against each other and occasionally letting out blue lightning that crackled across their entire body.

The leader of the group was Third Grade, while the rest of them were First and Second Grade.

They obviously couldn’t get along with the other adepts. They stood in the corner on their own, barely talking to any other people.

The Third Grade Storm Giant in the lead put his hand on his chest and bowed when he saw Greem’s gaze directed at them. The other younger Giants behind followed his example and bowed as well.

There was a Second Grade female Giant amongst them, the only one in the group. Even though the color of her skin and her size were somewhat unusual, her facial features were almost the same as any other human. In fact, she was extremely handsome and pretty. Perhaps it was the courage of youth, but she curiously snuck a look at Greem when she bowed.

However, she couldn’t help but cry out in surprise when her eyes met Greem’s. The sky-blue storm energy within her body suddenly turned dark red, and her aura became chaotic and disorderly.

The leader’s expression turned as he hastily pulled at his companion. He made her lower her head and avoid Greem’s eyes, preventing the fire energy within her body from igniting.

Such unintentional energy radiation would not kill a Second Grade Storm Giant. That said, a little embarrassment was unavoidable.

The main reason Greem was still spending most of his time isolated in Fire Throne was because of his overwhelming power. As one of the most powerful individuals in the World of Adepts at the moment, he could inflict irreversible damage on low-grade adepts if he did not carefully rein in his fearsome fire energy.

To avoid tragedy, there were very few people who were allowed to stay by Greem’s side for extended periods, even among the core members of the clan. Even when he slept with the peak Third Grade Mary, Greem had to be extremely cautious. Otherwise, a slight moment of inattention could result in tragedy.

Greem was only curious when it came to these Storm Giants.

Back then, when he had yet to achieve his current status, he had obtained a pseudo-adept level Storm Core. It was with that core that he made a magical golem that helped him deal with crisis after crisis. As such, Greem couldn’t help but take a few curious glances at these Storm Giants when Mirva mentioned their presence.

If he didn’t remember incorrectly, these Storm Giants seemed to have an incredibly powerful storm altar in the Storm Kingdom. If there was an opportunity, Greem really wanted to appraise and examine this altar up close.

After all, a storm altar was the same kind of magical creation as a fire altar. If, with this storm altar, the Storm Giants could establish a massive kingdom where even the adepts only dared to befriend but not invade, then there was undoubtedly something mysterious and profound about that altar.

In all honesty, Greem hoped to enhance the fire altar in Fire Throne through understanding these mysteries.

If he could extend his fire altar to the depths of the Fire Elementium Plane, he might be able to recruit a group of powerful fire creatures for his purposes.

After all, the Flamegate was a temporary construction and could only summon weak, minor fire creatures to serve as fodder. If Greem could anchor the Flamegate, he could dedicate time and effort to recruiting and training a group of Fire Lords. In doing so, the summoning fire spell Flamegate would immediately rise in power to become one of Greem’s hidden aces.

When the two of them reached the center of the hall, Greem extended his hand. Naturally, Vice-Chairman Mirva stepped forward in front of him as he was supposed to do.

“Adepts from all over Zhentarim. Today, we are very proud to gather here to celebrate Adept Greem’s successful advancement to Fourth Grade. I shall also represent Chairman Freed in extending an official invitation to Sir Greem to join the Zhentarim Association. He shall also be bestowed with the status and authority of an Association Elder!”

Vice-Chairman Mirva took out a short black wand from his storage ring and waved it in Greem’s direction. Three seconds later, an unusual beam of green light shot in from outside the hall, landing right on the elder’s ring on Greem’s right hand.

As the green light continued shining, a series of light projections appeared above the ring. Runes flickered as well, as if establishing some sort of special connection with someplace in the distance. After a short moment, the green light faded, and the Elder’s Ring of Authority finally revealed in its true form.

Apart from being a massive storage ring, there was also an incredibly powerful spatial magic inscribed upon the ring– Soul Return.

Greem could hide an organ of his in a safe and hidden place somewhere ahead of time using the ring. If he suffered a lethal attack in the outside world, and his soul was on the verge of dissipating, he could draw upon the power of the ring to project a portion of his soul back to that organ.

Though losing most of his soul and body was unavoidable, the soul that projected back to his organ would still have a chance to regrow to its former peak.

As such, Soul Return was a very decent means of self-preservation!

At the very least, when it was between death and losing most of their power, there was no adept who would choose the former.

Apart from Soul Return, the Elder’s Ring of Authority also bestowed Greem with the status of an elder, equal to the other Fourth Grade adepts. With this authority, Greem could mobilize the Association’s resources and adept forces to a limited capacity.

Moreover, Greem also had the right to intervene and interfere in most affairs in Zhentarim.

As long as his actions did not affect the other Fourth Grade adepts or seriously damage the order in Zhentarim, he could freely extend his influence throughout the area.

“Congratulations, Elder Greem! From now on, we are family.”

Mirva’s old face was filled with smiles as he ‘sincerely’ congratulated Greem.

Greem could only respond in kind.