Age of Adepts

Silver Union, the Castle in the Sky.

As the core location of the Castle in the Sky, every action from the Diviner’s Tower would tug on the strings and minds of the Silver Union leaders.

News of the complete mobilization of the archivists’ Eagles reached the Union senate leader’s desk in less than five minutes. His expression turned solemn.

Union Senate Head Salvini had a humanoid form, but his skin gleamed with a light golden color resembling that of metal. His every action appeared somewhat stiff and slow, and a strange noise could be heard when the magical machinery within his body moved.

As a Fourth Grade mechanical adept, Senate Head Salvini had mechanically modified his body to a shocking extent. At this point, it would be more accurate to call him a new form of metallic lifeform than a mechanical adept.

“The Eagles. Complete mobilization.”

Salvini pushed open the scroll with his stiff fingers and slowly read the report that appeared on the parchment.

“Those rigid bookworms of the Diviner’s Tower. They always reject our applications to access the information they have. They keep saying that Fate’s secrets can’t be revealed or that the information we are requesting is too sensitive. All of our attempts to obtain any information have failed. Hmph! The Union provides them with so many magical crystals every year, yet they refuse to contribute a single thing. How utterly ridiculous!” Vice-Senate Head Melone, who had also modified himself with all sorts of magical machinery, complained resentfully.

Salvini shook his head and smiled bitterly. “There’s no point in complaining! The two of us are higher-ups of the Silver Union and rulers of the Castle in the Sky. We might seem to be on top of the world, but only the two of us know that all this is fake. At the very least, the three most important locations in the Castle in the Sky aren’t even in our control: the Diviner’s Tower, the Vortex Tower, and the Obelisk. If it weren’t for the previous senate’s insistent and reckless demands, we probably wouldn’t even have access to the Mystic Realm of Machines.”

Melone was still furious. He gritted his teeth and said, “Why don’t we pause all magical crystal supply to the Diviner’s Tower and force them into a compromise?”

Salvini shook his head even harder when he heard this horrible idea.

“The Diviner’s Tower is a mysterious place left behind by the older generations of the Silver Union; it’s completely out of the Union Senate’s jurisdiction. You should know that the last senate head repeatedly warned me not to cut off the supply of resources to those few locations when he handed over the position to me, no matter the conditions. We are also not to intervene or interfere in their affairs in any manner.”

That was the first time Melone had heard of such a thing.

He was stunned and stuttered as he said, “Then what he means is—”

“The previous senate head’s meaning couldn’t be more clearly expressed. What is essential in the Castle isn’t us or all the things out there, but those few key locations. The reason the first Union Senate had expended such tremendous resources and human resources to construct the Castle in the Sky wasn’t to boast of the Silver Union’s power, but to protect these places.”

“Thus, in all honesty, we are not the owners of this place. We are little more than guardians!”

“……”

A period of silence sank in.

After a long while, Melone finally spoke again.

“Then what do you think of the incident this time?”

“Those archivists have always been this mysterious. They keep their mouths tightly shut. The only things that could interest them are the significant events that occur all over the plane, especially events that can affect the world’s future development. So, the fact that they are mobilizing so many of their forces means something big is bound to happen soon. Speaking of which, have you figured out their destination yet?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. They seem to be headed to the Central Lands!”

“The Central Lands? What has happened there recently? Have Lodin immediately bring us all information on the Central Lands in recent years. We need to assess everything. Perhaps we can find a clue in there.”

“Understood, I will call for him now.”

…………

Fire Throne.

Greem, who had never liked being involved in worldly affairs, hid in his tower after leaving all the academy administration to his subordinates. He started a new series of magical research.

At his level, all research could not avoid the strange existences that were the principles. However, as a Fourth Grade adept, it was a little too early for him to research the principles themselves. He could only lower his standards and began an in-depth analysis of the various planar laws that made up the principles.

Moreover, the research of laws could bring him an innumerable number of benefits.

Disregarding the fire laws’ unique effects could provide his spells with, the fire laws themselves were his stairway to Fifth Grade.

Greem had been too unfamiliar with the law powers in the past. Naturally, this meant that he treasured every one of them and tried to grab hold of every fire law he came across, refusing to give up even a single one. However, having experienced the formation of the law runes and having obtained the method of extracting principles fires from the Fire King, Greem finally had a comprehensive understanding of the law powers.

Not all fire laws suited him.

If he wanted his future path to be smoother and his power to be greater, the only choice was to carefully select the appropriate fire laws!

Being indiscriminate and pursuing sheer numbers in the number of planar laws possessed was probably a common mistake among all elementium adepts.

After all, not everyone had such excellent talent that they could pick and choose what elementium laws they wanted. Even though the grasp of the elementium laws greatly correlated with the direction of an individual adept’s research and understanding, there were still many uncontrollable factors involved in the process.

Consequently, most elementium adepts had incredible trouble improving their Spirit to 50 points and merging sufficient elementium laws to form their own unique principle power before their lifespan ended.

Most Fourth Grade adepts were incapable of accumulating so much knowledge and could only rely on unique resources like origin substances to shorten the process of grasping the laws. However, the law powers provided by the origin substances were often random and uncontrollable.

Elementium adepts that managed to reach Fifth Grade out of sheer luck and the accumulation of origin substances would be the weakest of Fifth Grade Great Adepts.

Most of the Seventh and Eighth Grade Great Adepts were actually ancient adepts. There were simply far too few new adepts that could reach that level in the past ten thousand years. The ultimate reason for that was the origin substances.

Adepts sought to hasten their growth and take shortcuts. The consequence was a tremendous exhaustion of their innate talents and potential at the hands of origin substances.

The duality of origin substances caused adept camps all over the realms beyond to put a strict restriction on the supply and flow of this resource. It was to prevent too many adepts in the World of Adepts from relying on origin substances to push them to Fifth Grade, simply because they couldn’t bear the dull and monotonous process of grasping the laws.

In the eyes of the Great Adepts, the birth of a single Sixth Grade Great Adept was more significant than the appearance of ten Fifth Grade Great Adepts that barely achieved their advancement.

Greem stood in front of an alchemy platform in a brightly lit laboratory. He was carefully mixing the alchemical liquid in front of him.

Bluesteel, Illuminas, sparkling stones, solar flowers, Serpenthemp, Blood of the Old God– a dozen incredibly valuable magical materials were processed and then mixed into the liquid.

“Serpenthemp, crushed and squeezed for juice…filtered and purified thirteen times to be extracted into 50 grams of liquid. Await heating processing.

“Sparkling stones, crushed and sifted…grind into powder after removing all impurities. Mix with Serpenthemp liquid, add a small amount of energy modulation agent, and mix.

“Blood of the Old God……

“……”

Alchemy in the World of Adepts was a series of unique chemical reactions of magic energy. Unlike chemistry on Earth, magical particles of all sorts were involved in every step and every reaction.

The combination of magic energy with chemistry is what formed the unique field of alchemy!

Greem had gone to great lengths to mix this liquid. Every hundred grams of the fluid would sell for at least thirty thousand magical crystals. Its purpose was to imitate the drop of Geraldine’s origin blood, the data of which Greem had stored in his mind.

Geraldine, Fourth Grade elementium adept of the Adept’s Association, light affinity.

His origin blood had disintegrated into countless tiny data points and was stored in Greem’s mind after it was analyzed. Right now, Greem was trying to rely on the Chip’s powerful replication abilities to recreate that drop of origin blood through the use of magical materials.

Even though he had the data and the Chip itself was sufficiently powerful, there were still tremendous difficulties replicating a drop of origin blood from a Fourth Grade elementium adept.

The most challenging thing was the choice of blood!

After half a year of repeated experiments and countless selections, Greem finally had a decent test result. When the milky-white liquid hovered in front of him, excitement flushed on Greem’s face.

“Chip, analyze the final product!”

[Beep. Comprehensive scan begun.

[Liquid is an amalgamation of light elementium of high purity.

[Cell activity of liquid meets expectations.

[Energy traits meet expectations.

[Energy density is slightly reduced at 3% below expectations.

[Radiation slightly higher than expectations, but within acceptable ranges.

[Energy law aura is dense. Liquid is estimated to possess 76% of the power of the original model.]

“……”

A series of data and information filled Greem’s mind as the scan proceeded. However, he ignored everything and looked at the final conclusion.

[Liquid possesses the might of light elementium laws. Able to achieve 76% power of the original sample. To achieve an independent and complete energy circulation system, an estimated 7200 grams has to be produced. Requesting instructions from Host: what should liquid be named?]

“Sun’s Water!”

[Beep. The new liquid, ‘Sun’s Water,’ has been named. Mass production in progress. Estimated time until completion: 72 hours, 34 minutes, 58 seconds.]

The first drop of Sun’s Water was the hardest to create. However, once that was successful, the rest of the manufacturing could be done by the tower spirit.

Greem let out a long breath of air and turned his attention to other experiments.