Age of Adepts

An adept’s tower.

In particular, the private tower of a Fourth Grade adept. It was a zone of death with innumerable traps and mechanisms!

For most adepts, an uninvited visit to the abode of a high-grade adept was no less difficult and dangerous than a venture into a dragon’s den.

This unidentified ‘bug’ was clearly no pushover either.

She had actually managed to make it through Fire Cave and Fire Hall with ease. She had even managed to slip into Fire Throne when Greem opened the gates of the tower for his two visitors.

The fact that she was able to reach so far already made her much more outstanding than the average adept!

However, even this intruder probably never expected for the layout and construction of Greem’s tower to be so strange and unusual. The first and second levels of the tower were entirely cut off and isolated. There were no paths or entryways that led to the upper levels.

After breaking into the tower and quickly searching all of the secret spaces on the first and second levels, Karin still couldn’t find any way up. It was then that she knew that she had run into a bastard who had unbelievably ridiculous expectations for his personal safety.

If there are no paths upwards, then she would dig her own.

Karin refused to admit defeat. She quickly found a secret room on the second level and stealthily put up a silencing barrier in it. She then started to dig at the ceiling of the room furiously.

This tower was a standard small-sized tower. Greem was poor back then and couldn’t afford to use the most excellent steelstone in every part of the tower. As such, these bricks made of volcanic rock quickly turned into dust under the destructive power of a Third Grade witch. A hole the size of a fist instantly appeared.

Unfortunately, Karin could not feel any aura of the tower coming through this hole. Instead, she had come into contact with a spatial barrier.

It was then that Karin fully realized that the damned fire adept had not only sealed away the upper levels of the tower, but had even separated the second and third level spatially. The two levels might appear connected, but they belonged to two different dimensions of planar space.

Anyone who wanted to reach the upper levels of the tower either had to use a fixed-destination teleportation array or a short-distance teleportation spell, as Greem did. However, the use of a short-distance teleportation spell required the specific spatial coordinates of the upper levels, as well as teleportation authority from the tower spirit. Otherwise, there was simply no way in.

Karin was utterly helpless now!

She might be adept at Shadowstalking, and she could move anywhere there were shadows. However, this spatial barrier in front of her had sealed off all paths of advance. If she teleported aimlessly, she would be tossed around in the interspatial layers by the spatial turbulence instead of reaching the upper levels.

After all, the transit hub of all space magics were the interspatial layers– the mysterious area between the two layers of the planar barrier.

The environment there might be better than space, but it was still a dangerous and lethal environment for an unprepared Third Grade Dark Witch!

While Karin was panicking and trying to figure out a way to reach the upper levels, her actions were recorded by the tower’s spirit.

Greem raised an eyebrow as he looked through the monitoring crystal at the damned ‘thief’ scurrying around his home. He coldly said, “Shadow Demon, bring her back to me!”

Despite saying that, the room remained absolutely silent and quiet.

However, a strange patch of darkness had vanished from Greem’s shadow.

…………

Karin was quickly leaping through the shadows.

Every time she teleported, she passed through several walls and appeared in an unfamiliar room.

Karin would hold her breath and hide in the shadows as she assessed the room.

If there were anything that perked her interest, she would get a little closer and examine it. If there were nothing extraordinary, she would leap away and appear in the shadows of another room.

As a Dark Witch, the shadows were her world!

As long as it was a place unguarded by an energy barrier or a magical dome, she could freely move about like a fish in water, lifting her head above the shadows for a quick look.

However, this leisurely exploration didn’t last for long!

As Karin was slowly moving through a vast magical hall, she suddenly turned and looked towards a corner of the room. She could sense a fluctuation in the shadows beneath a pillar over there.

It wasn’t the elementium flux created by an eruption of shadow energy, but the tiny ripples caused by a creature moving through shadow substance. As an elite amongst the Dark Witches, Karin couldn’t be more familiar with such energy ripples.

Could there be other shadow creatures here?

Karin couldn’t help but wonder to herself.

High-Grade adepts would often breed and keep all sorts of ferocious and strange beasts or summoned creatures to protect their property and their safety. It wasn’t out of the question for there to be shadow creatures among these guards.

Karin couldn’t help but become nervous at these thoughts. She hid in the shadows, silently observing the deep darkness over there.

She could sense the shadows there to be unusual. It was like a boiling pot of water. The shadow substance there was more active than usual. A massive shadow creature was hiding in the shadows, baring its fangs as if it was about to devour its enemy at any moment.

Karin held her breath and focused. She silently cast a shadow spell to test the opponent. However, before her spell could fully take effect, her face changed color. Her silhouette flickered as she vanished from the spot.

Almost at the very same instant, a strange creature several times her size appeared in the depths of the darkness. Several metal claws gleaming with a dark light slashed past her original position. Even the dark shadows were sliced to several distinct pieces where the claws passed through. They did not meld together afterward. It wasn’t until that extraordinary power had wholly disappeared that the shadows returned to normal.

Karin emerged from another shadow, her heart beating wildly. She had managed to identify the opponent in that one terrifying and crucial moment.

A Shadowsteel statue. Dammit! It’s a Shadowsteel statue!

These unusual lifeforms that were somewhere between a shadow creature and a construct were not unfamiliar to Karin. After all, these strange creatures existed in the small kingdom that the Dark Witches had built in the Shadow World.

They possessed the powerful defensive capabilities of metal constructs and the agility of shadow assassins. In actual combat, a Shadowsteel statue could easily fight off two to three Dark Witches of the same grade.

However, Shadowsteel statues cost way too many resources to create. The Dark Witches only used them to defend important treasures or entrances to mystic realms. They couldn’t afford to use them as cannon fodder in battles.

As an elite Third Grade witch, Karin had often fought against these shadow creatures to hone her skill. She was more than familiar with their techniques and could fight against them even with her eyes closed.

Thus, when Karin sensed the shadows around her tremble again, she immediately leaped away without hesitation.

It was different from last time. Karin did not use Shadowstalk to leave the shadow she had been hiding in. Moreover, when she leaped away, she stepped lightly on the shadow and cast a spell.

Shadow Demon was not affected at all by its failed ambushed. It quickly locked onto the direction the Third Grade witch had escaped in and lunged over immediately.

Strangely enough, when it emerged from the shadow, the initially calm shadow suddenly became thick and viscous. Several unusual chains of shadow surged from all around it, binding Shadow Demon and restricting it to the spot.

The Dark Witch appeared once more, choosing to retaliate this time.

A series of shadow arrows crackled as they crashed into the Shadow Demon’s skeleton-like frame. Meanwhile, two incredibly sharp and piercing waves of shadow aura were mixed within the barrage of arrows. They targeted Shadow Demon’s right eye and its spine.

If Shadow Demon were only Third Grade, it would have suffered tremendously at the vicious counterattack of the witch. However, it was a powerful machine that Greem had devoted an incredible amount of resources and effort into constructing. Naturally, it was not at the same level as an ordinary Shadowsteel statue.

Shadow Demon struggled only slightly before every piece of the shackles around it shattered and broke into countless pieces.

Obsidian light gleamed in its eye sockets as it turned into a shadow shockwave and blasted against Karin’s body. It opened its palms wide, and four sharp claws cut through the air, slicing towards the witch’s slender figure.

Dammit! This is a Fourth Grade Shadowsteel statue.

Karin immediately determined the golem’s grade based on its aura the moment her lightless blade clashed with its claws.

Unfortunately, this revelation came too late!

If she had identified the golem as a Fourth Grade Shadowsteel statue at the very first moment, she wouldn’t have attempted a pointless counterattack. Instead, she would already be on the run.

As Karin’s blade clashed with Shadow Demon’s claw, the overwhelming force from the golem knocked her away, causing her to cough up blood in the process.

The witch was blown out of the shadows and crashed into the hard stone floor.

Before she could break free of her dazed state, another shockwave of shadow blasted into her face.

Karin felt her head turn heavy as her body collapsed limply onto the ground.