Age of Adepts

When Greem and Billis got off the carriage, they were instantly stunned by the sight of the majestic tower before them.

Bold, magnificent, mysterious, and profound.

Countless words of praise rushed through their minds, surging through their bodies as a warm rush. They could feel their hearts cheer and their emotions soar.

The Tower of Observation’s walls glowed brightly under the warm sun. The tower’s structure wasn’t the traditional cylindrical shape, but a complex, multi-structure configuration consisting of many other, smaller ‘towers’ that split off from the main body.

Many large runic stones covered in intricate magical lines floated high in the air, orbiting the tower along mysterious paths. The unique, green-golden material refracted the sunlight into gold, deep-blue, violet, red, and many other fantastical colors.

Several rainbow bridges that looked almost solid connected the various sub-towers. A terrifying amount of energy surged within these rainbow ‘bridges.’

The central tower connected with these smaller towers through countless air corridors and flying discs. Countless small balconies and gardens were also scattered across the Tower of Observation exterior, all of them covered by an invisible barrier.

If one were to look from above, you could even see the adepts and apprentices strolling within the barriers.

As the area surrounding the Tower of Observation was covered in an anti-flying barrier, and all unauthorized teleportation was restricted, you could only walk up the tower with your own two feet.

However, as Fourth Grade adepts, they still enjoyed quite a lot of privileges and benefits.

When Greem and the others arrived at the entrance to the tower, a twenty-meter-wide flying disc slowly landed in front of them.

“Let’s go, Adept Greem. Since we’re here, why not let me give you a tour of the Adept’s Association!” Adept Horner was being very friendly.

However, Olivia had clearly become impatient.

“Go on your own little tour! I will go look for a certain someone to settle some business.”

Having said that, her body erupted into a cloud of black mist.

When the mist faded, Olivia was nowhere to be seen.

“Follow me!” Horner led the way and stepped onto the flying disc. Greem and Billis followed behind him.

Horner didn’t seem to make any gestures, but the flying disc already started moving up.

Countless apprentices and adepts were walking busily along the vast plaza around the tower. Upon seeing the disc, they couldn’t help but lift their heads and take a look. These people became smaller and smaller in Greem’s vision until they were finally no more than little black dots.

It was impossible to see their faces and figures without casting Eagle Eye on himself!

As the disc continued to gain altitude, everyone and everything on the ground grew smaller and smaller still. Meanwhile, the tower itself and everything on it appeared larger and larger.

As the flying disc continued to rise, a massive runic stone drifted past them. Greem could sense a powerful, perfect, and utterly self-consistent energy circulation system within it.

These runic stones were probably a part of the Tower of Observation’s defenses.

The purpose of their existence was to continuously monitor for unusual spatial fluctuations and energy reactions around the Tower. Upon detecting any abnormality, the runic stones would instantly transform into terrifying cannon platforms to exterminate any intruders before they could even approach.

Greem might have collected some information on runic security stones, but compared to these true masterpieces, what he had researched were no more than trash!

More importantly, these runic stones were not independent entities.

Greem could sense a large, powerful, and mysterious soul controlling all of these. The runic stones were only some of the eyes and appendages available to this entity.

It was inevitable that the Tower of Observation had its own tower spirit– one that was extremely intelligent!

The entire Adept’s Association appeared calm and peaceful, like the perfect, ideal academy and paradise. However, Greem could see streams of energy cutting across the various areas with his unique Elementium Sight. He saw lines of interlocking energy strands, overlapping energy forcefields that concealed each others’ existence.

If the runic stones were the things on the surface, then these were what was hidden in the shadows.

With these two systems combined, one on the surface and one hidden from the public eye, the Tower of Observation’s powerful and flawless defensive system was formed!

The flying disc passed through all these energy fields, continuously meshing with the defensive systems around it. Meanwhile, a strange energy flux radiated from Adept Horner. Through this flux, the flying disc was allowed to pass through the various forcefields and rise above the smaller sub-towers.

The flying disc was still circling upwards.

When they reached the edge of one of the sub-towers, Horner pointed at it and chuckled, “This is the Breeding Tower. Any special beasts that the Association requires can be custom-ordered here and cultivated en masse. Most of the time, we need these beasts to exterminate the native armies of the planar worlds we invade.”

This Breeding Tower was a dirt-yellow color and covered in a transparent elementium barrier. Greem could see the vast space inside the tower through the barrier.

Supported by unusual spatial expansion magic, the inside of the tower was visibly much larger than it appeared to be. Moreover, several smaller spaces had been carved out with static energy barriers, each of which contained all sorts of different magical beasts and creatures.

Several tiny black dots, the size of ants, moved around the space. These were the adepts in charge of monitoring and breeding the beasts.

The flying disc quickly whisked past the Breeding Tower. Greem could only get a glance at the activities within and could not gauge the depth of the Adept’s Association’s research in that field.

“Adept Horner, could I know what the procedure of events is for the Association when dealing with lesser planes?” A thought rose in Greem’s mind, and he couldn’t help but ask.

“What? Are you interested in this?” Horner laughed. “Then let me take you to the War Tower for a tour!”

Having said that, the flying disc turned and began to fly towards another sub-tower in the distance slowly.

The War Tower was actually a ‘miniature’ tower split off as one of the Tower of Observation’s bases.

It wasn’t exactly small, however. In fact, it would be considered a sizable adept tower if it were built in Zhentarim.

The Tower of Observation had a total of seven hundred and seventy-seven levels.

The base of the War Tower split off of the one hundred and thirty-sixth level of the Tower of Observation.

Thus, when the flying disc slowly landed on one of the War Tower platforms, they were already thousands of meters above the ground. Clouds could be seen leisurely drifting by, making this place seem as if it was heaven itself.

The platform wasn’t large; it was only about a hundred square meters in size. Four five-meter-tall metal golems stood there.

When the flying disc landed on the platform, colorful light shone from one of the metal golems’ head. The other golems stood forward, raising their heavy metal swords and going on alert.

However, when the first golem’s scans reached Horner and sensed the unusual energy flux, all security measures were dispelled.

The metal golems returned to their place and became unmoving statues.

“Let’s go! I will show you around the insides of this place!” Horner walked ahead of them and stepped onto the stone path that led into the tower.

At a thousand meters in the air, it was an incredibly high altitude. Strong gales wailed all around them. Ordinary people would have been scared limp walking on this seemingly unsupported stone path that was only five meters wide.

However, a high-grade adept like Greem could walk calmly and naturally on the path. In fact, he even had the mood to admire the scenery below while he walked.

At the end of the path was a bright door of light that perfectly separated the inside of the tower from the outside.

Passing through here obviously required extremely high clearance, but this could not stop Horner, who was an elder.

The three adepts appeared in front of the door of light, and three holes that were approximately their size opened on the door. When they walked past, the door of light quickly shut again.

The interior of the War Tower was a vast space in every dimension. Metal platforms hovered all over the tower, and a door of light opened onto every one of these platforms. Meanwhile, bright, glowing runes formed rows of numbers above each of the doors.

“…an intermediate rebellion has occurred in Plane JY0367. Reinforcement request has been received. Batserpent Squad, please prepare for battle. The next teleportation shall begin in 25 seconds.”

Greem heard a crisp, female voice reverberating throughout the tower the moment he set foot into the room. A squad of eleven adepts appeared from somewhere and stood on one of the metal platforms.

A large mechanical arm lifted the metal platform through the tower, past countless portals and platforms, and finally stopped at a platform labeled JY0367.

The adept squad, fully equipped, moved onto the metal platform. They stopped for a while before entering the portal in an orderly fashion, led by their leader.

Apart from these sudden teleportations, there were countless mechanical arms in the War Tower that regularly lifted these metal platforms up and down. Adepts could always be seen on these platforms.

When they reached the portal that they wanted to travel through, they would take out a golden bade and press it against the door of light. The door of light would then glow brightly. Once it had wholly stabilized, the adepts would make their way through and vanish.

“This is the War Tower of the Adept’s Association. Every single portal corresponds to a lesser plane we have conquered. Any adept can freely travel to a lesser plane to explore and adventure once they put in an application with the Association. All their spoils will belong to themselves,” Horner proudly explained to Greem.

Greem looked across and was mildly stunned.

There were four or five hundred portals just within his vision.

The size and ferocity of the Adept’s Association potential for war were on full display!