Age of Adepts

Boulder Fortress. Great Adept living area.

This place was an independent living area completely separate from the other regions of the fortress. The only ones that could enter this place were the Great Adepts.

Greem traveled through the wide and brightly lit stone corridors alone. He took a few turns and finally arrived before a wooden door.

Deng! Deng! Deng!

A long time after Greem knocked on the door, a middle-aged adept opened the door. The adept’s face was dark, and a mean-looking green lizard lay on his shoulder.

He glared at Greem with a hostile look before coldly saying, “What is it?”

“You are Adept Karon from Mountainshade Plane, aren’t you?”

“Indeed, that is me! You are…?”

“I am Greem from the World of Adepts. I came here today because I have a favor to ask of you,” Greem’s face was full of smiles.

“Greem…World of Adepts……never heard of you,” Karon mumbled to himself. It was obvious he didn’t like being disturbed during his leisure time. However, seeing as Greem was an adept from the homeworld, he suppressed his anger and let him in.

As the adept faction’s top-class fighting force, a Great Adept’s rooms were naturally quite well-furnished.

With spatial expansion magic, the rooms that were only one or two hundred square feet in size were easily expanded to over ten thousand square feet. The interiors were then arranged into different areas and furnished according to the preferences of the Great Adepts.

Apart from the large living room, study room, bedroom, and bathroom, there was also the meditation room, sealing room, elementium altar, alchemy lab, and other magical facilities.

The Great Adepts could basically complete any experiments they wanted here in their room without setting foot outside.

This Adept Karon was an earth-principle adept with a natural affinity for earth elementium. That was why stepping into his room was like instantly showing up in the depths of a dry and harsh desert. Drifting sand particles filled the entire room except for a folding chair and a parasol placed underneath a palm tree in the middle of the desert.

Apart from these, not a single thing could be seen in the entire desert.

Adept Karon led Greem along, and the two of them instantly came to the palm tree after two or three steps.

“Since you’re already here, why don’t we sit down and talk!”

Karon leisurely lay on his chair and waved his hand. The sand under Greem’s feet quickly formed into the shape of another folding chair. The next second, the yellow sand peeled off as a soft, brand-new rattan folding chair appeared.

Elementium simulation was possible even for Fourth Grade adepts.

However, Fourth Grade adepts could only simulate the most basic of substances. They couldn’t simulate materials with more complicated structures. A simulated rattan chair was clearly more complex than a wooden chair.

Greem smiled and sat down.

As Greem sat, a surge of fire burst forth from deep underground, instantly reforging the rattan chair into a black-and-red magma chair.

“I feel more comfortable sitting in this chair,” Greem smiled as he said.

“Feel free to sit on whatever you like, as long as you’re comfortable,” Adept Karon replied with a smile, as if indifferent to Greem’s actions. However, the yellow storm spinning deep in his eyes was not as calm as before.

This was his room. The arrays, runes, energy, and wandering elementium in this room were all under the direct control of his mental consciousness. Greem was actually able to use his own elementium principles to forcibly change the room’s environment and ‘steal’ a bit of elementium control from out of Karon’s hands.

That…already indirectly demonstrated Greem’s masterful principle-manipulation ability and power!

Adept Karon was somewhat upset still, but he treated Greem more seriously upon seeing that.

“What is it that made you come find me, Sir Greem? Something special?”

“Not really. I only heard that Adept Karon was exceptionally skilled at the modification of living creatures, which was why I paid you a visit.”

“You want me to create a voodoo beast for you?” Adept Karon appeared to be extremely proud of his craft. His face was filled with pride when he heard Greem’s request. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. I’ve been working on the creation of a peak Fourth Grade voodoo beast, so I’m afraid—”

Adept Karon suddenly fell silent before he could finish. He looked at the seven-meter-tall corpse that had appeared before his eyes with horror and shock.

“…a many-armed giant, and a Fifth Grade one and that. The body is so well-preserved too……”

Adept Karon leaped up from his chair and lunged at the corpse of the giant. He ignored the grime and burn marks on the body and softly caressed the thick hairs of the giant as he carefully examined it.

“Fifth Grade…it’s actually a Fifth Grade. If I’m not wrong, this many-armed giant used to be advanced Fifth Grade in life, with an earth affinity. What a shame…you didn’t know how to preserve the body in battle properly. Over 35% of its body is damaged…fortunately, the magical organs in its body are still there.

“Wait, where is its heart? That’s the most important organ in its body! Wait, and its head? If it’s advanced Fifth Grade, it must have managed to crystallize a Crystal of Petrification. Where is it? The Crystal of Petrification? You didn’t lose it, did you?”

The Crystal of Petrification?

Greem frowned as he casually took out the many-armed giant’s eye from an alternate dimension. He tossed it in his hand as he asked, “You talking about this?”

Adept Karon turned his head and looked at the yellow crystal. He immediately ran over, grabbing it with his hands as he looked it over and over. It seemed like he didn’t trust his eyes, so he grabbed the Crystal of Petrification with both hands and activated a trace of the petrification powers within.

A thread-like beam shot onto the hand rest of the rattan chair. The next second, unusual petrification power spread within the folding chair, even transmitting to the sand beneath it. The chair, tree, parasol, and all the sand within a dozen meters turned into gray rock.

“What pure petrification power! Adept Karon couldn’t help but admire. It was apparent that he loved this Crystal of Petrification immensely. If Greem weren’t of the same grade as him, Adept Karon would probably rob him already.

“Adept Karon, you haven’t given me a reply! Can you help me turn this into a Fifth Grade voodoo beast with these materials?” Greem couldn’t help but speak up and interrupt Karon’s frenzy.

“Difficult…very difficult…almost impossible,” Karon couldn’t help but mumble.

“You can’t do it?” Greem’s face turned dark. It was somewhat beyond his expectations.

“Not that I can’t do it. Rather, the damage to the body is quite severe, so the body’s power will regress to some extent after it has been turned into a voodoo beast. Without the Crystal of Petrification, I’m only confident in turning it into a beginner Fifth Grade. With the crystal, the odds of making it intermediate Fifth Grade are quite high!” Karon was still mumbling. His eyes were filled with deep pity.

He might be a Fifth Grade Great Adept now with excellent biological modification abilities, but he was having a hard time finding Fifth Grade living materials. As such, he could only piece together Fourth Grade parts for his projects.

The fact that he could still create peak Fourth Grade voodoo beasts despite being limited by his materials was already a testament to his exceptional ability!

“Intermediate Fifth Grade,” Greem brooded in silence.

He had just advanced to beginner Fifth Grade. Being able to obtain an intermediate Fifth Grade voodoo beast was excellent. Moreover, it would be an earth voodoo beast that excelled at defense.

However, Greem wasn’t satisfied yet. He thought for a moment and took out a soul crystal from an alternate dimension, then asked, “What if you had the soul of the many-armed giant as well?”

“The soul? You have the soul of the many-armed giant?” Karon was surprised. He then realized something. “The body, the Crystal of Petrification, and the soul are all in your hands. Could it be that you killed this many-armed giant alone?”

It was no wonder Karon asked.

For Fifth Grade Great Adepts like themselves, it was impossible to kill an advanced Fifth Grade magical creature solo. It typically required the work of an entire team and, even then, it would be a trial of life and death.

If they were fortunate enough to succeed, the spoils still had to be shared between the entire party. Under such circumstances, being able to obtain one-fifth or even one-sixth of the spoils was already impressive.

Yet now, Greem had obtained almost all the spoils for himself!

That seemed like it was only possible if he killed the many-armed giant through his power alone.

Greem only gave a few nondescript explanations in response to Karon’s question.

“It isn’t all that surprising. There was a surge in the magic tide a while ago, wasn’t there? This many-armed giant was a minor Scourge Lord who was dumb enough to come into the World of Adepts to make trouble. Hehehe, taking advantage of the fact that he was greatly weakened within the planar world, I went to great lengths to finally kill it!”

“Hss,” Karon couldn’t help but inhale as if he had an aching tooth.

This Adept Greem was a little too lucky! To think he was able to run into such a fortunate occasion.

Karon’s face filled with envy.

However, he had no idea that Greem had only been peak Fourth Grade when he killed this many-armed giant. If he knew that, he would probably be ten times as shocked!

“Alright, Adept Karon, you still haven’t told me. Can you create an advanced Fifth Grade voodoo beast with the many-armed giant’s soul?” Finally, Greem couldn’t help but ask this question he was most concerned about.

“It is very likely!” Karon lowered his head and thought for a moment before saying, “With the Crystal of Petrification, and a few more resources, the damaged portions of the giant’s body can be regenerated. However, you must be prepared. Without the most important head and heart, the product’s final quality will be inferior to the original thing.

“Moreover, with the soul of the giant, the voodoo beast will be able to gain some unusual abilities. It might even have a chance of becoming your contracted soul partner.”

“I already have a soul partner!”

“Give it up! You must know that this could be an advanced Fifth Grade soul partner. It has got to be—” Before Karon could finish speaking, Greem released the Fifth Grade Spirit of Pestilence from a tome-shaped divine artifact. The Great Adept’s face twisted up.

“Goddamn! Bloody hell! what in the…you…you aren’t the bastard of some super high-grade Great Adept, are you!?”