Age of Adepts

Time flew by quickly.

In the blink of an eye, it had been three months since Greem arrived at Camp Exodar.

Today he was sitting in front of a wooden table, carefully examining a strange metal shining with magical blight with the help of a lamp. Just then, a magical message from outside startled him.

It was from Martin.

Greem accepted the message from Martin while continuing his deep scans on the meteorite he had just collected from the Camp.

Meteorites could be found in most planar worlds; they were a somewhat common adept resource. However, the piece of meteorite that Greem had found was very different from the usual kind. It seemed to have undergone some unknown mutations, having been soaked in the magical energy tides a long time. Even the data obtained by the Chip was unusually chaotic and random.

“Greem, are you busy over on your end? If you’re not, could you help me with something small?”

“What kind of help are you talking about?”

“A descendant from my clan found a batch of Ysera’s Seed in the wild. A group of galaxy wanderers intercepted the party while they were harvesting the seeds. They just sent me a request for help, but I have to do second modulations on my Purplegold Potion in an hour’s time. So……”

“So you want me to go bring them back?”

“Yes. Don’t worry. I won’t let you do it for nothing. You can have one-third of the Ysera’s Seeds they retrieved.”

“How should I deal with the galaxy wanderers?”

“If it’s not too much trouble, just kill them all. It’s better than having to keep looking at their faces day after day after capturing them!”

Greem licked his lips.

Ysera’s Seeds were the main ingredient in brewing Whispered Pact Potions. Those potions gave adepts the ability to cast spells in silence. It was a very practical potion that could be used in many scenarios.

A Ysera’s Seed could quickly sell for three to four thousand magical crystals in the World of Adepts. A successful Whispered Pact Potion could even go for twenty to thirty thousand magical crystals.

As such, even Greem was moved by the offer when he heard it.

“Alright. I don’t have anything particularly urgent at hand anyway. I’ll take the trip for you! Send the coordinates of their location to me.”

A short moment later, a fireball erupted as Greem vanished from the spot.

Sparks flickered in the skies above the tower. Greem gathered the flames to form his body, quickly identified the cardinal directions, and immediately sped to a certain location inside the Camp.

There was a teleportation array there that led straight to the edge of the storm’s eye. It would save Greem quite a lot of travel time.

Small markets and settlements composed of large, colorful tents were everywhere between the forest of towers. All sorts of otherworldly beings of various forms and races were walking in and out of these tents.

Quite a few people lifted their heads and looked when the fireball that Greem had turned into flew across the sky. They pointed in curiosity, mumbling something to one another.

The so-called Camp Exodar was, in fact, made up of these hundreds and thousands of small markets, settlements, and the array of adept’s towers. The market that Greem was heading to was created by the Zhentarim Association. As such, the number of adepts in the market was far higher than the others.

After landing near the entrance to the market, Greem reverted from fire into his human form and walked into the crowd.

As a public market, there was quite a lot traffic here.

There were elementium adept in robes holding staffs, body-refining adepts wearing enchanted armor and carrying large swords on their backs, as well as bloodline depts with all their strange manifested characteristics. Mixed among them were otherworldly creatures of odd shapes and sizes.

It was apparent that the relationship between the otherworlders and the adepts was reasonably harmonious. It seemed like everyone had formed combat parties of different races and professions.

Most of these people were Third Grade, with very few Second Grades among them. Even the occasional Second Grade was extraordinarily powerful or possessed incredible racial talents.

Greem had already been here for three months.

He had seen and heard far too many unusual and unfamiliar things. Thus, he was used to the sight of all this and couldn’t be bothered.

These ‘little fellows’ were very surprised to see Greem arrive. They hurriedly moved aside from the road, placing their hands on their chest and offering their greetings.

Greem walked past them, nodding at the few Third Grade adepts he was acquainted with. He arrived at a large leather tent.

A muscular man with rough features and an axe on his back stood guard at the tent. He hastily walked forward to greet Greem when he saw him walk over.

“Lord Greem, where do you intend to go?”

“Exit Five. Put the fee on Lord Martin’s tab!”

“Alright, I will connect you immediately.”

A short moment later, a white light flashed, and Greem arrived at the edge of the eye of the storm.

Exit Five was in the asteroid region.

The rock upon which the teleportation array was located was the size of a football field. All sorts of black stones of numerous sizes floated around the area.

There was an elderly Fourth Grade adept stationed at the teleportation array, seated in front of a small table. He was reading an ancient tome while casually sipping tea.

He looked back when he heard the commotion from the array. He said nothing when he saw Greem and the adept’s tower’s emblem on his chest and continued to read his book.

There was a ten-meter-tall metal golem standing behind him. The compound eyes on the golem’s head emitted a series of red lights that shone onto Greem’s body. After confirming Greem’s identity, it came out of alert mode and retreated back into the stone wall where it had walked out from.

It was evident that this was a Fourth Grade golem master from the Silver Union.

Greem had no time to make small talk with this colleague of his. He took two steps out of the array and immediately vanished in a blast of flames.

At the same time, flames ignited on a small rock in the darkness. Greem’s body reappeared on the distant horizon.

Two seconds later, a cluster of flames rose, and Greem teleported away once more.

Greem was moving at an incredible pace with the fast and convenient Fire Teleportation.

Once he had left Teleportation Array Five, the Fourth Grade golem master lifted his head and looked at his quickly disappearing silhouette. He couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “That should be Greem, the newly advanced kid from Zhentarim. It hasn’t been ten years since his advancement, yet he’s already venturing out into the realms beyond? Heh, quite bold!”

Greem was oblivious to these words. He was still teleporting through the dark and twisted space.

Leaving Camp Exodar meant losing the shelter of the protective barrier.

Naturally, there was no natural light source in space.

There were only tumultuous magic energy tides and the endless darkness in this vast space.

It was only when the magical tides washed against the floating rocks that sparks would ignite, illuminating a small area for a short time. As such, physical sight was an outdated method of seeing in this region. The only way to know what was in the endless darkness was by using one’s powerful spiritual senses.

However, the magic energy tides here ebbed and flowed, always in turbulence and chaos. They would often warp and disperse any spiritual appendages that were extended outwards. An adept who could easily sense everything within a few kilometers in a planar world could only sense up to a few hundred meters here.

The terrifying thing while exploring beyond the material realms wasn’t running into powerful alien creatures, but losing one’s direction and getting lost in the void.

Greem quickly flew through the empty space.

The pervasive tides wrapped around him, blew against his body, and continuously inflicted 210 points of energy damage against him.

The Chip’s notifications constantly updated in Greem’s flickering black eyes as well.

[Host body has been corroded by space energy, of which 17% of said energy has been converted into magical energy, 41% has been isolated, 36% is being resisted, and 7% is inflicting minor damage on the body. Host body is regenerating.]

Greem was not an actual starbeast, after all.

He might have assimilated starbeast bloodline and now possessed the ability to absorb the chaotic energy of space, but this process of absorption was accompanied by minor physical damage. Greem’s Physique was now at 33 points. Such minor injuries were easily healed with a bit of magical energy. As such, there were no visible wounds at all.

Of course, if Greem had no Chaos Physique, he would not be able to absorb the chaos energy of space. He would eventually be exhausted of all his power if he remained in this harsh environment for too long. Now that he had starbeast bloodline, he could absorb the chaos energy to replenish his reserves.

In doing so, he possessed the ability to survive in space!

As long as he didn’t venture into the regions where the magical tides raged like a storm or fought at high intensity for an extended period, he would be able to survive in space, even without any supplies.

The darkness slowly expanded in front of Greem’s eyes as he leaped from rock to rock. He was gradually getting further away from the central continent.

After three hours traveling through the darkness and crossing over five thousand kilometers, Greem finally arrived at the region where the incident had occurred.

It was a large rock floating alone in the darkness. The closest rock was over a hundred kilometers away, making this one stand out in particular.

At this moment, two groups of fighters from different factions were battling on the surface of the rock. Bright flashes of magic illuminated half the sky, even from a distance away.

When Greem appeared above the rock in a fiery burst of flames, both parties stopped their fighting and looked up at him.

“It’s an adept. It’s the human’s Fourth Grade adept. Retreat!” One side started shouting in a panic.

“It’s our people. Everyone, push forward. Don’t let them leave!” The other side also shouted after some cheering.

The battlefield instantly approached its climax!