Age of Adepts

While Scarface Gallow stared in the direction the machines had vanished, a particularly muscular warrior in black armor rode up beside him.

The two ferocious magical horses showed no signs of intimacy next to each other. Instead, they growled and roared, trying to intimidate each other.

After all, all magical horses were created through magical methods. The shadow of various magical creatures such as earthlions, shadow panthers, and unicorns could be seen in their bodies. It was because of their complex genesis and chaotic genetic sequence that there were only males among them. These creatures could not procreate naturally.

Moreover, they only had a short lifespan of ten years. They were considered cheap voodoo beasts that could be manufactured en masse!

However, cheap didn’t mean weak.

Because of how short their lives were, the adepts went all out in wringing out every bit of combat potential they had within them. The beasts became even more ferocious and vicious than what was possible for creatures born in nature.

Gallow’s magical sword was tied to his back. He reached out a large palm and knocked the horse lightly on its head. “Silence! If you alert the enemy’s scouts, I will roast both of you for dinner.”

His tone was light, but there was terrible intimidation behind it. The two magical horses immediately lowered their heads and became much less ferocious.

“Boss, do you think our ambush will succeed?” The warrior in black armor was a body-refining adept as well. His bulging muscles almost seemed like they would cause his armor to burst apart. He had a long scar across his face, which he had not bothered to do away with. The scar made him appear like a cruel and savage bandit.

However, this intimidating man was as gentle as a rabbit in front of Scarface Gallow. In fact, he had a fawning smile on his face as he talked to Gallow.

“That is none of your concern!” Gallow rebuked coldly. However, he quickly instructed in a soft voice, “The Swamp of Tragedies that we are invading this time is a restricted Crimson Clan area. It’s said that this is where they grow their mushrooms.”

The warrior’s face lit up when he heard this. He licked his dry lips with his long, red tongue; excitement was written all over his face.

The Crimson Clan’s mushrooms. That was one of the best resources in the Central Lands that everyone had been seeking recently.

It was said that these unique mushrooms from another world could effectively increase the Physique of an adept. High-grade adepts could improve their Physique by around 1 point, while intermediate adepts could improve it by an average of 2 points.

As for low-grade adepts? Heh. At this point, there had not been a low-grade adept lucky enough to get their hands on such an excellent resource.

The warrior, who was only beginner Third Grade himself, once believed that he would never set eyes upon such a valuable treasure. Who knew that the clan’s assault mission this time was to raid and destroy that restricted area of the Crimson Clan– the Swamp of Tragedies.

With a little bit of luck, even he, the vice-commander of the Bloody Spears, could get his hands on some decent loot.

The warrior started licking his lips even more voraciously at the thought.

“Keep your guard up. Our operation might not go too well this time! If we run into the more infamous bastards of the Crimson Clan,” Even Gallow couldn’t help but narrow his eyes at this point, “Pray for yourself!”

“It will be fine. We have you, don’t we, boss?” The warrior in black armor didn’t seem to worry. “Boss, you are a peak Third Grade adept! The Crimson Clan might have quite a few Third Grades, but I have never heard of anyone whose might could rival yours!”

Scarface Gallow shook his head dejectedly and said, “Rumors are not to be trusted! If rumors were all true, then I would never have lost at the hands of Greem.”

Gallow had to squeeze Greem’s name out of his mouth when he said it. It had already been a hundred years, but the defeat still weighed on him.

That might have been the one moment in his life where he had been closest to Fourth Grade!

Without origin substances, he could only rely on his bloodline talent to slowly accumulate the energy required for his advancement. The difficulty and risk in this process was not something that others could ever understand.

“Don’t worry, boss! There can’t be more than a few legends like the legendary fire adept. Perhaps……”

A commotion came from within the magical horses’ ranks scattered throughout the forest as the warrior chattered on.

The commotion gradually grew in scale, and it almost seemed like total chaos was about to break out.

“What’s happening? You bastards, don’t you know we are undertaking a covert mission? What’s with all the noise?” The warrior in black shouted in a restrained voice.

“Bugs…bugs……”

“Boss, there are bugs!”

Scarface Gallow’s heart sank when he heard the panicked cries of the knights.

The Bloody Spears was an adept army that he had personally built up. Every member of the party was a First Grade adept at the very least. The knight leaders spread throughout the army were also required to have the might of an intermediate Second Grade.

Meanwhile, as the commander, he was peak Third Grade, while the vice-commander was beginner Third Grade.

Such a powerful army of magical knights would not panic, even if they were thrown into a horde of magical creatures. They would show no signs of fear or hesitation, no matter how perilous the path before them. They would pave a road of blood with their spears and swords, only stopping their endless slaughter when the heads of all their enemies hung by their saddles.

An army like this would be afraid of mere bugs? Either the person who made this claim had gone mad, or…those were no ordinary bugs!

Scarface Gallow was truly an elite adept that could serve as the leader of the Bloody Spears. The image of a terrifying adept instantly came to mind when he heard of the bugs.

He could only hope that it wasn’t that bastard.

Gallow prayed to himself and patted his horse, diving straight towards the area where the commotion was the greatest.

The magical horse was not only able to bound rapidly across flat land. It could even scale steep cliffs and climb tall trees with its sharp, clawed limbs.

Gallow soon arrived at the location after a few quick leaps. The scene that came into sight made his and the vice-commander’s hearts to sink.

Several half-meter-tall dirt mounds had risen from the black ground near the roots of a tree. The dirt had broken apart, and countless terrifying black beetles were swarming up from below.

These black beetles were all the size of mastiffs, their shells gleaming with a terrifying sheen under the forest’s dim light. Apart from their tough shells, they also had four pairs of sharp limbs gleaming with a metallic shine and a giant pair of pincers in front of their mouths.

These black beetles might not look monstrous apart from their size, but they were incredibly challenging to deal with.

Their shells were thick enough to resist ordinary magical weapons, while their limbs and pincers were sharp enough to slice through leather armor three fingers thick. Even the magical armor of the knights glowed when the beetles bit at them. Terrifying scratches and cuts were left on the metal surface.

The appearance of the insect swarm had been too sudden. It had emerged directly beneath where the knights had been resting and instantly drowned three of the knights in a sea of black.

The other knights could no longer care for the gag order by then. Their runic spears pierced forth, each lunge accompanied by a glowing explosion of magic.

As members of the Bloody Spear, each and every one of them were qualified adepts. They were protected by magical armor, and the runic spears in their hands could unleash an elementium attack of their choosing, depending on the enemy’s elementium attribute.

Naturally, against the tide of insects, they chose fire attacks, which had the largest radius of attack and the most damage.

Unfortunately, these flaming spears that could quickly exterminate all life within a dozen meters barely worked on the insects. The ferocity of the flames and the sharp spears themselves could only kill the few beetles that were at the core of the explosion.

The other black beetles were only injured and recklessly attacked the three unfortunate knights caught in their midst.

The three figures roared endlessly amidst the swarm, unleashing shocking elementium explosions. However, they couldn’t break free of the encirclement of insects. The magical horses that had been caught in the tide were still valiantly resisting thanks to the scales on their bodies. An unbearable grinding, cracking sound of snapping teeth could be heard as they struggled.

Sadly, there were too many insects attacking them. A little hill of insects had already gathered around them. The insects squirmed. Each wave of resistance from the knights would only cause a layer of black beetles to fall off of the hill.

However, it didn’t matter how they fought with all their strength. The hill of insects was as thick and firm as ever, leaving them with no hope of escape. The beetles that continued to swarm approached the army of knights, seemingly intent on devouring every last one of them.

Bug Adept Billis…this was most certainly the work of Bug Adept Billis!

The only one in the Crimson Clan who could cultivate such horrifying insects was the intermediate Third Grade bug adept, Billis.

“Rezai, go save the three of them!”

Gallow drew the magical sword from his back, his cold, murky eyes scanning the battlefield for all movement.

The warrior’s name was Rezai.

He acknowledged the order and pressed his thighs together, instructing his horse to charge towards the squirming pile of insects.

Just as he was halfway across, Gallow roared, and his magical sword tremored. A shapeless, invisible thread of power sliced across the air, instantly beheading the two Voidreavers that had snuck to Rezai’s side.

The thread of force cut across the forest. Nothing could stand in its way.

Trees and vines alike were severed at the waist.

It passed through a seemingly empty clearing, and tragic insect cries could be heard immediately. Blood splattered as two heads went flying while their owner’s insectoid bodies crashed out from the trees onto the grass.

The death of the two Second Grade Voidreavers seemed to have signaled the start of an odd banquet of slaughter. The cries of insects could be heard everywhere in the forest, loud and blaring.

Countless unusual insectoid silhouettes started to appear between the trees.