Age of Adepts

East of the continent. The Tower of Observation.

The scrawny Maztan was lying comfortably in his extravagant bed on the highest floor, snoring.

All sorts of lavish and expensive furniture could be seen all over his room. The walls were covered with pictures of curvaceous and beautiful women. A full set of gold cutlery sat on top of the dining table in the corner of the room. A bright, magical light kept the place illuminated with fantastical lighting.

If anyone were to break into this place by accident, they would not have believed that this was the room of a Fourth Grade adept. That was because the entire room was filled with the boorish air of extravagance and debauchery common to nobles. It was utterly unlike the mysterious and transcendent air of high-grade adepts.

Moreover, not a single item related to magic could be seen in the entire room. Instead, there were adult toys littered all over the place, covered in expensive silk undergarments.

While Maztan was sound asleep with a big pillow illustrated with a naked woman in his arms, a space in the room’s corner started to ripple. An unusual magical eye appeared, blinking a few times as it began to examine the room curiously.

The magical eye somehow appeared both real and illusory, but it did indeed exist here in this space.

The eye was a blurry silhouette the size of a fist. It drifted around the room, seemingly curious about everything in here.

Finally, its gaze landed on Maztan’s loathsome and naked figure. The eye then started to approach the Fourth Grade adept, taking every inch of his body into full view.

Maztan was truly one ugly creature!

There was barely any flesh on his bony body. His loose muscles draped limply over his prominent bones. From a distance, he looked just like a still-breathing skeleton.

His gray skin was covered in spots. Messy, thick, black hair grew all over his chest, armpits, the soles of his feet, and many other places where hair wasn’t supposed to grow. Meanwhile, his head only had a few thin, yellow strands of hair.

As a Fourth Grade diviner, Maztan obviously didn’t care much for his personal hygiene. His ugly body was covered in filth, and the entire room was filled with a pungent odor.

Maztan was deep in sleep, and the magical eye was very close to him now.

Most other people might not be able to pick up on the profound flux of Fate radiating from the eye, but he couldn’t be more familiar with it.

Maztan angrily cursed as he stirred from his slumber. He opened his eyes; what met them were a pair of pretty, crystalline eyes. They were so large and so crystal clear, and they took up most of his sight.

Maztan had no choice but to take a few steps back before he could see the entirety of the magical eye hovering in front of him. The pair of pretty eyes silently stared at him through that magical eye.

“Bastard, it’s you again, you little rat!” Maztan cursed viciously with his crooked mouth and waved his arms about furiously, trying to chase the magical eye away.

Unfortunately, the magical eye only moved back half a meter before moving to where he couldn’t reach and continuing its ‘spying’ mission.

“Uggo, is this your room? Just as I expected, it’s smelly and ugly, just like you.” The magical eye caused the air to vibrate as a strange mental flux radiated outward. “You always say you’re a Fourth Grade adept, but why can’t I find a single thing related to magic or divination in your room? Can you take me on a tour of your lab? I am really interested in the experiments of Fourth Grade adepts.”

The eye seemed to be intent on bothering Maztan. It circled around him, observing everything as the person behind the eye continued to talk. Anger and helplessness were written all over Maztan’s ugly face now.

“Shut up!”

Maztan shot out a beam of golden light from his palm, blasting the magical eye into pieces.

However, the moment the magical eye dissipated, ripples appeared in the nearby space again. A new magical eye appeared.

“Why did you destroy my Fate’s Eye? Don’t you know reforming it costs Fate power? You already destroyed seventy-three of my Fate’s Eyes yesterday. I haven’t even settled that score with you yet!”

Maztan’s actions did not seem to have any effect on the person behind the eyeball. It let out a bombardment of words the moment it appeared, leaving a true-blue Fourth Grade diviner so frustrated he couldn’t even fall asleep again.

Maztan reluctantly climbed off of his luxurious bed. He randomly grabbed a silk robe from the carpeted floor, draped it over himself, and stumbled towards the bathroom.

“Brat, stop following me. I’m going to shower. You’re welcome to come in if you want to see what an old man looks like in the shower!” Maztan shouted angrily before he entered.

The threat seemed to have a little bit of an effect. The eyeball hesitated for a moment and did not follow Maztan into the bathroom. Instead, it simply drifted around the bedroom.

Obviously, the personal quarters of a Fourth Grade adept were not so simple. It might appear like the lavish home of a useless noble, but defensive arrays were hidden all over the place. Beneath the wooden floorboards, above the ceiling from which the chandelier hung– all of these places were covered in magical arrays.

Moreover, several subtle, hidden spots in the room also radiated faint elementium fluctuations. These were hidden drawers and secret rooms.

These secret rooms were covered by layers upon layers of defensive arrays that prevented scrying through divination, as well as keeping most other supernatural powers from entering.

Unfortunately, this magical eye wasn’t sustained by ordinary, worldly magical power. It ignored all these magical defenses and freely roamed the rooms.

Seven minutes later, Maztan walked out of the hot shower refreshed, only to see the magical eye casually floating out of his secret magical room.

That room was filled with all his most precious and treasured items!

Maztan’s face instantly became twisted and distorted.

Ever since the last time, when he scryed on that Witch of Fate in the Northern Lands, he had been bothered by that Daughter of Fate apprenticed to the Witch of Fate. That girl seemed to be adored by the Fate powers. She possessed seemingly incomprehensible means of manipulating Fate.

Ever since she unintentionally captured the Fate’s Eye that Maztan invented, she had managed to learn how to do it herself without any guidance. From then on, she had become Maztan’s nightmare that couldn’t be dispelled!

Seemingly curious over this strange old man that possessed tremendous power of Fate, the girl started to use Maztan’s own Fate’s Eye technique to observe him constantly and from every possible angle.

When Maztan meditated, she would be there. When Maztan divined, she would be there. When Maztan dined, she would be there. When Maztan slept, she would be there. When Maztan hid in his room protected by Fate power, she would be there.

Either way, even though Maztan’s Fate power could perfectly shield him from the Witch of Fate’s notice in the north, these defenses were utterly ineffective against this daughter of Fate.

Maztan had tried countless means of protecting himself, but there was simply no way he could shield himself from this girl’s constant scrying.

For six months, this annoying eyeball floated around him every second of every day, monitoring his every action. He did not have any privacy left to himself.

Moreover, he was the only one who could see this strange magical eye. The other adepts, even the Fourth Grade adepts of the Association, could not see this damned thing with their naked eyes.

In all honesty, Maztan had always been doing such things to other people, peeping on others’ private lives.

However, he had never experienced such a situation himself. To be bothered for six whole months without pause! Moreover, the terrifying part was the fact that the girl seemed to be able to instantly summon a new Fate’s Eye whenever he destroyed it.

Perhaps, maybe, it was possible…that the Fate powers favored this girl so much that she felt no burden at all when drawing on Fate powers.

That was what made Maztan truly despair!

“Girl, what exactly is it that you hope to get from me? Please, I beg you, let me go! If you keep bothering me like this, I will go mad.” Maztan instantly charged over and grabbed the magical eye. He pressed his face against it and shouted with all his might.

“I already said it, didn’t I? Teach me all the Fate magic you know, and I will leave you alone. I have already asked Alice, but she won’t teach me even a single Fate spell. She even said that I’m the daughter of Fate and I can only get everything I want from Fate. Hmph! She’s just being stingy. That’s why she has all these excuses!”

Upon hearing that her demand was his Fate magic, Maztan’s expression instantly changed. He crushed the eyeball and turned to walk out of the room.

A short moment later, a new eyeball appeared behind him as the girl’s sweet voice rang out again.

“Old man, you destroyed another one of my Fate’s Eyes. If you keep playing rough, I will display your ugly body for everyone to see and let everyone witness your ugly side. Hurry up, teach me Fate magic, or I will start broadcasting the images I have.”

Maztan was furious. He started to curse and insult this monstrous little girl with all the crude swear words he knew.

The girl seemed to have been infuriated by this. A strange spiritual flux radiated from the eyeball and rippled outwards.

The ripple silently spread throughout the Tower of Observation. The image of an ugly, naked man’s body appeared in the minds of every being that the ripples touched, regardless of what they were doing at the moment.

The tower instantly flew into an uproar!