Age of Adepts

Inside an isolated dimension.

As the flames in the corners of the space gathered together, Greem’s muscular figure slowly materialized.

However, the moment his soul aura appeared, a dense and massive fireball shot towards him and crashed into his body.

This fireball was nearly five meters in diameter, filled with liquid fire energy so dense it had almost turned solid. The heat radiating from the edge of the fireball was already enough to destabilize the space. The milky-white barrier that marked the boundaries of this dimension creaked under the tremendous load of energy.

Such a terrifying fireball obviously burned at an incredible heat. Just the surface of the fireball already reached thousands of degrees, while the core of the fireball had hit upwards of ten thousand degrees.

A Third Grade adept wouldn’t even need to be hit by the fireball to turn to ashes. They might roast to death just by standing too close.

Greem showed no signs of panic when he saw such a horrifying fireball crash towards him. Instead, he simply smiled.

“Stop fooling around! Show me your true form!” Greem chuckled as he said. He then reached into the fireball with his hand and pulled out the silently burning orb within.

As his palm trembled slightly, the fireball that had lost its core immediately erupted and dissipated into the sea of fire around him.

The entire space instantly blazed with fire.

Greem did not seem to care. He stood amidst the flames quietly as he toyed with the orb in his hand.

Eighty years. Eighty long years.

Greem had been fighting with this Orb of the Fire God daily all these years.

The brand of that powerful Fire God had fully assimilated with the fire origin of the orb. Trying to erase it completely was an impossible task. Greem’s only solution was to seal the divine brand and cut off its control over the orb.

Such a task was still a monumental one. However, Greem was backed by a Fourth Grade Fate Witch. Suppressed by Alice’s Hourglass of Time and Staff of Divination–two powerful artifacts in their own right–Greem finally managed to project a fire clone into the orb and supplanted the divine brand’s position.

The Orb’s power weakened in doing so, and several of its abilities were also sealed away. However, it ultimately put the orb in Greem’s control.

It was only at this moment that Greem had truly gained control of the Orb of the Fire God!

From now on, this orb truly belonged to him.

Greem toyed with the orb, silently feeling the plentiful and overwhelming fire energy within. He could sense the presence of his soul aura in every strand and every spark of fire energy inside the orb. With a single thought from Greem, the fire energy within the orb would move according to his will, freely forming whatever state he wished, as if it was his own limb.

Greem gripped the Orb of the Fire God tightly as a light flickered in his eyes. The sea of fire inside the dimension gathered and dissipated under his will, sometimes forming into brilliant fireballs soaring across the air, occasionally turning into bright red birds that danced in the sky, and sometimes transforming into a threatening beast.

Greem controlled the flames and played with them. His understanding of fire energy deepened as the flames continued to shift from form to form.

Greem might have been able to control fire in the past and had even mastered four fire laws, but the marks of his manipulation were still too obvious. Unlike now. The fire was him, and he was the fire. The two of them were closely connected and were showing signs of complete assimilation.

The Chip projected the most recent analysis of Greem’s body in his mind.

[Greem. Male. Fourth Grade Principle Adept (Fire Specialization).

Chaos Physique (Excellent Magic Resistance). Starbeast Bloodline (13%). Heart of Principles (56% Mastery).

Bodily Attributes: Strength 31 | Agility 19 | Spirit 44.

Bloodline Talent: Energy Blackhole.

Fire Laws: Increased Fire Range, Increased Fire Effectiveness, Fire Penetration, Invisible Flames, Critical Fires.]

At Greem’s level, even a slight increase in power required a colossal investment of resources and time.

After eighty long years of daily meditations and training, Greem had only managed to increase his Spirit by 4 points. Part of this had even been thanks to the various strange mushrooms.

The mutated mushrooms had now lost all effectiveness on Greem. He would have to find new high-grade resources again if he wanted to accelerate his progress!

The constant battling with the Orb of the Fire God and the Libram of Wisdom over the years had benefitted Greem greatly as well.

His mastery over the Heart of Principles had increased from 48% to 56%. That gave him access to one new fire law: Critical Fires.

Under the effects of this law, Greem could freely enhance an offensive spell with twice the fire damage. The cost of this was double the exhaustion on his magic power.

Greem’s offensive power was already top of the line and exceedingly scary. With this ability to further enhance his attacks, Greem’s spells were devastating.

However, with Greem’s 44 points of Spirit, the unrestrained use of this Critical Fire law would rapidly exhaust his Spirit. Fortunately, the Orb of the Fire God could relieve the strain on his limited Spirit.

[Item Name: Orb of the Fire God

Item Categorization: Elementium Orb (Artifact)

Item Attribute: Fire

Item Grade: Fifth Grade

Basic Attributes: +3 Spirit | +2 Physique

Enhancements: 300% increase in power to passive and summoning fire-spells.

Unique Item Effects: Fire Breathing, Fire Mending, Blazing Berserker, Fire Immunity (Intermediate)

Item Abilities: Scorched Earth (Fifth Grade divine fire spell, sealed), Inferno Armor (1700 points of defensive power), Dimension of Flames (Self-contained fire dimension, capable of containing up to three fire creatures)]

As the Orb of the Fire God slowly fell under Greem’s control, its attributes were gradually revealed.

Compared to Fourth Grade magical equipment, the Fifth Grade Orb’s power was obviously on another level.

Disregarding everything else, just its unique effects alone made Greem overjoyed.

While Greem remained within flames, he would gain the abilities of Fire Breathing (passively absorb surrounding fire energy to replenish exhausted energy), Fire Mending (absorb surrounding flames to heal wounds), Blazing Berserker (300% increase in movement speed while walking in fire), and intermediate Fire Immunity.

All these effects combined made Greem possess fire abilities as diverse as a Fire Lord!

Moreover, the Orb had a self-contained fire dimension of its own that could store three fire creatures. Greem could commit to cultivating three powerful fire creatures as his subordinates. He could keep them in his Orb and release them as a hidden ace at crucial moments in battle.

The enhancement provided by the Orb of the Fire God was also impressive.

It was 300%. Even though this enhancement was limited to passive and summoning spells, it was still a tremendous improvement to Greem’s combat prowess. The most obvious change was to Greem’s Burning Domain, which had been gradually getting less useful as his enemies increased in power. Burning Domain’s strength had increased from 200 points to over 600, and even 700, points of power.

Such power was more than enough to pose a threat to an ordinary Fourth Grade adept!

Greem’s favorite Flamegate spell could also now summon a great deal more fire creatures. It was an increase from 500 to 1,500 fire creatures. In a certain sense, Greem was now even more terrifying than adepts that specialized at summoning.

Unfortunately, the Fifth Grade divine spell contained within the Orb of the Fire God was now useless due to the divine brand being sealed away. It was basically a missed opportunity for Greem to gain access to Fifth Grade fire spells before he reached that level. It was a huge shame!

Once he was done appraising the Orb of the Fire God, Greem took out the Fire Coral Staff from his Elder’s Ring.

He gently placed the orb at the tip of the staff. The orb clicked as the fire crystal that had been fixed in place by four coral tendrils fell off. Greem put the Orb of the Fire God in its place, and the four coral tendrils converged once more, wrapping around the orb and fixing it in place.

Greem then lifted the fire crystal that fell off and put it away.

In all honesty, this crystal was a potent item as well. Sadly, it was utterly inferior when compared to the Fifth Grade Orb of the Fire God.

After dealing with the Orb of the Fire God, Greem turned and left this isolated dimension. Instead, he went to the dimension where he had placed the Libram of Wisdom.

A small altar silently functioned here. The Libram of Wisdom was placed here, stacked with another unusual book. The energy projection of the two books was somewhat merged together.

As the Orb of the Fire God was compatible with Greem’s origin attribute, it had been possible to suppress the divine brand with the might of the Fate artifacts. However, the Libram of Wisdom was the primary artifact forged by the God of Wisdom for his personal use. There was almost no chance of suppressing the divine brand inside.

Since there was no chance of erasing the divine brand, the only option was to simply destroy the Libram.

Greem was decisive, as well. He immediately summoned Remi and returned him to his former state– his scroll form. However, Remi still kept his intelligence and consciousness.

Through the power of the Bloody Altar and Greem’s aid, the Scroll of Voodoo started to devour the Libram of Wisdom slowly.

This process was exceedingly slow and difficult. A backlash had almost occurred several times.

Fortunately, the Libram of Wisdom was only a ‘dead’ object. Without Hierro’s control, it was quite hard for a Fifth Grade artifact to resist the corruption of the Bloody Altar with its instincts alone. Additionally, with Remi’s intervention as an artifact spirit, it was a relatively smooth process of assimilation.

Remi’s weak soul projection appeared above the books when he sensed Greem’s arrival.

“How is it? How deep is the assimilation now?” Greem asked.

“87%,” Remi replied lethargically. “I need resources. I need energy…this is a really tough nut to crack. You are going to have to find something to replenish my power!”

Was it 87%? That meant it would take a minimum of another twenty years for Remi to devour the Libram full.

“I understand. I will collect the resources you need as soon as possible and bring them to you. Just stay here and finish the task without any worries!”

Greem examined the assimilation progress. After confirming that there were no problems, he finally left the isolated dimension.