Age of Adepts

The corridor was dark and silent.

The somewhat old wooden floorboards creaked beneath his feet.

A thick, suffocating shadow aura masked the air.

The closer Greem got to the shadow core, the more suppressed the flames around him became. They could only extend fifty centimeters out of his body, barely enough to protect his body and his clothes.

The corridor in front of Greem was like a haunted house in his double vision of material and immaterial. Traces, strands of nearly solid shadow energy dissipated from the second room to the left, slowly but surely dancing across the corridor.

The aura was so thick that these shadows were showing signs of coming to life.

They wandered and squirmed down the narrow corridor in clusters of darkness, continually twisting and morphing into all sorts of unusual shapes. From a distance, these shadows look like horrifying demons awaiting their prey with bared fangs.

Greem had just stepped into the corridor, into the swarming darkness, when the closest shadow to him immediately transformed into a large mouth with vicious fangs. The mouth bit furiously at him.

Greem let out a furious grunt. His right hand shot forward, enveloped in flames, and pierced straight into the mouth. It didn’t matter how the shadow bit or tore; it simply could not penetrate the fire to injure him in the slightest. Greem’s hand probed around the large mouth. When he finally retracted his arm, there was a dark, gleaming crystal in his palm.

Having lost the black crystal, the mouth quickly dissipated, roaring and howling ferociously as it did so.

Greem lifted the black crystal to his eyes as the Chip quickly projected its information.

[Substance Name: Shadow Shard

Substance Category: Dark Energy Crystal

Item Grade: First Grade

[Item Applications: Enchantment (Used to enchant weapons with shadow damage). Alchemy (Basic material for dark attribute magical equipment). Potion-Brewing (Necessary material for anti-shadow-damage potions). Summoning (Basic material for summoning shadow creatures).

[Special Applications: Used to synthesize Shadow Crystals (100 Shadow Shards can be converted into a single Shadow Crystal).]

……

A series of broader applications for the Shadow Shard was listed below, but Greem couldn’t be bothered to read it any longer. It was just a First Grade adept material. It wasn’t worth his time at all.

He casually tossed the Shadow Shard into his storage ring and prepared to move forward.

Perhaps sensing the might of the enemy, these natural clusters of shadow rapidly gathered together. They formed a single strange shadow creature the size of a dwarf, but with vague, indistinguishable facial features.

The moment the creature formed, a dangerous and unpredictable aura radiated from its body.

The Chip’s warning blared out in Greem’s mind instantly.

[Beep. Detecting the biological flux of a Fourth Grade shadow creature. Initial analysis suggests the creature is a shadow assassin. Threat level to host has reached Dangerous. Advising host to remain cautious!]

So fast?

Greem paused for a moment. His gaze couldn’t help but fall on the door behind the shadow creature.

Dark Witch Shani couldn’t have spawned a Fourth Grade shadow creature in such a short time, even if she was the literal God of Adepts herself. Unless…there was some unusually powerful shadow treasure in the shadow core. Otherwise, it would be impossible to achieve such a feat through the might of a single adept.

If she did possess such a powerful artifact, why did she not just use it against him? Could it be that the item has some sort of restriction, or that it was no more than a support item?

Greem glanced at the quickly forming creature while his mind rapidly analyzed and assessed what secrets lied beyond the door.

He was about to fight the Fourth Grade Dark Witch momentarily. The best way to gain an advantage on the battlefield was to figure out her trump card before it even began. It was something that a high-grade adept should do prior to every battle!

However, Greem didn’t have much time left to think or analyze.

The strange energy flux from the shadow core in the room was getting increasingly intense and distinct.

It didn’t matter if Shani was brewing some powerful attack or summoning some terrifying creature. Greem had no obligation to idle around like a gentleman and wait for her to be done. At this moment, there was only one thing he needed to do. Regardless of who stood before him, Greem would have to eliminate them with the momentum of lightning and immediately interrupt the Dark Witch’s action.

At the thought of this, Greem stepped forward without any hesitation. The Fire Dragon’s Breath pendant on his neck glowed as an overwhelmingly oppressive stream of fire emerged from his mouth, rushing down the dark corridor in the shape of a fan.

Of course, the Fourth Grade shadow assassin was well within the range of this attack.

When the breath of fire burst through the barrier of darkness and approached the shadow assassin, it vanished instantly.

Indeed. It had vanished, not teleported.

Greem had fought against all sorts of shadow creatures in the battle from earlier. These shadow creatures might excel at shadow magic and possess some strange shadow powers, but their every movement was accompanied by weak, nearly imperceptible traces of elementium flux.

If it weren’t for the Chip, even Greem himself would not be able to capture Shadow Teleportations and Shadowstalk of this level.

However, when the shadow assassin disappeared, Greem could not pick up on any elementium flux, no matter how he tried. It was almost as if it had just blended into the background, making it impossible for anyone to track it based on changes in the elementium flux.

The fire dragon’s breath pierced through the black afterimage that the shadow assassin had left behind and ignited the entirety of the corridor.

However, the shadow assassin was nowhere to be seen nor sensed.

Just as Greem’s fire breath came to an end and his Spirit was in a momentary state of recovery, a short black figure slid out of the space behind him without a sound. The two black daggers in its hands stabbed towards Greem’s heart without stirring the air in the slightest.

As a Fourth Grade fire adept, there was no way that Greem could not have picked up on the abnormality behind him.

However, while the assassin’s movements appeared light as a feather, they were as fast as lightning in the eyes of an objective observer. Moreover, though the daggers were dark, lightless, and void of any elementium aura, they gave off the impression of lethal weapons.

Greem’s mind turned in the face of the shadow assassin. The fire coral staff in his hand gleamed, and yet no defensive magic had been cast. Instead, he chose…offense.

The two pitch-black daggers pierced the barrier of flames and the armor of magma, diving straight into Greem’s back. The blades wove between his flesh and moved through the fire, swiftly slicing and cutting to inflict as much damage to Greem as possible.

Greem endured the terrifying agony and instantly hit the shadow assassin’s body with a red beam of light.

The next second, dense fire elementium in the air gathered into nearly solid chains of fire, firmly binding the shadow assassin to Greem himself.

Flame Shackles!

Binding fire magic.

It could bind the enemy to the caster, forcing them to endure three times the constant fire damage of the spell if they attempted to flee.

The shadow assassin could not be bothered to attack Greem any longer at the sight of this. It flickered, attempting to flee from Greem’s side. Unfortunately, before its black body could merge into the darkness, the Flame Shackles on its body dragged it back out again.

It tried to teleport another two times. Failing to do so, it started to wave its daggers furiously in an attempt to sever the Flame Shackles.

However, this was enough of a buffer for Greem to lock on to its soul flux and elementium aura thoroughly.

Greem reached out with his left hand and cuffed the shadow assassin on the neck. Violent golden fire immediately flowed along his arm and onto the assassin’s body. The shadow assassin started howling and flailing about violently, slicing up Greem’s arm badly.

However, regardless of how badly wounded he was, Greem did not loosen his grip at all. The golden fire continued to surge into the assassin’s body without end.

Finally, eleven seconds later, the shadow assassin could no longer endure the effects of the law fire. It exploded with a loud bang and turned into scattered black mist. A dark black gemstone fell out of the fog, and Greem caught it in his hands.

A Shadow Diamond. A Fourth Grade Shadow Diamond!

Greem couldn’t be as calm as before now.

After all, a Fourth Grade Shadow Diamond was very rare, even in the World of Adepts.

A Shadow Shard was only a First Grade adept material, and a hundred Shadow Shards could be synthesized into a Second Grade Shadow Crystal. A hundred Second Grade Shadow Crystals could be synthesized into a Third Grade Shadow Stone. Finally, a hundred Third Grade Shadow Stones were required to synthesize a Fourth Grade Shadow Diamond such as this.

It was said that a Shadow Diamond was already a top-grade adept material!

If Adept Holly got his hands on a Shadow Diamond, he might be able to create a shadow puppet that could freely travel between the material plane and the Shadow World. It would be a Fourth Grade dark-attribute metal golem that could hide in its master’s shadow and protect them at all times.

If the Shadow Diamond fell into the hands of a summoner, they could use it to summon a Fourth Grade shadow dragon. A shadow dragon was a monstrous creature with a pitch-black body, sharp fangs, and wings of darkness. They had a fearsome shadow breath and were an unusual species that was somewhere between a dragon and a shadow creature.

If the Shadow Diamond fell into the hands of a high-grade alchemist, they could easily forge a Shadow Staff capable of summoning an entire shadow army. Of course, the power of the army would directly correlate to the alchemist’s skill.

……

The Chip immediately provided Greem with hundreds of logical suggestions to maximize the utility of the Shadow Diamond. However, this was not the time to discuss the matter. After all, there was still a terrifying Dark Witch to deal with.

Greem put the Shadow Diamond away happily and took out a purple healing potion. He flicked off the cork and drank the contents of the vial in a single gulp. Once the massive gash on his back had healed under the effects of the potion and his own impressive Physique, he stepped forward and pushed apart the wooden door.

There was boundless darkness before him!