Age of Adepts

An advanced Fifth Grade soul partner, or a piece of beginner Fifth Grade Soul Equipment with the potential for evolution? Even Karon knew which was more important between the two.

Karon felt his heart bleed profusely when he saw Greem flash so many high-grade materials and equipment.

Were Fifth Grade resources so easily obtained?

Even a Fifth Grade adept would have to risk their lives to obtain such excellent resources. Otherwise, all they could get their hands on would be irrelevant leftover pieces from the dead bodies of Fifth Grade creatures. If you had to piece all your materials together in such a fashion, how were you ever supposed to create something of genuine quality?

“Alright, alright! With this soul crystal that belongs to the body itself, the chances of creating an advanced Fifth Grade voodoo beast will increase significantly. After I create the voodoo beast, I estimate that it will have a sixty percent chance of being intermediate Fifth Grade, and a forty percent chance of becoming an advanced Fifth Grade. That is, of course, if I can successfully provoke the disaster power within the soul crystal to turn into a disaster aura,” Karon analyzed from his professional angle.

Greem nodded in satisfaction. The Chip’s conclusion after its analysis was very similar to Karon’s own. At Fifth Grade, the difficulty of creating high-grade items was no longer just a matter of compatibility of elements. It was also about the manifestation of the principle powers contained within the magical materials.

The higher the grade of the material being processed, the harder it would be. The adepts had even established a field known as material studies for this purpose. The purpose of material studies was to examine how to preserve and stimulate biological activity in their materials to unleash the principle powers within them to their greatest extent.

If such a high-quality many-armed giant corpse was given to Lich Kanganas, it could turn into a Fifth Grade undead. However, the earth principle powers and disaster power contained within the material were not compatible with death power. There would be a significant loss in combat strength.

The Chip estimated that it would be lucky if the many-armed giant retained beginner Fifth Grade power after being turned into an undead!

Meanwhile, the fact that Karon dared to promise so much clearly meant that he was very confident in his biological modulation and modification skills.

“Since Master Karon is so confident, may I inquire what price I need to pay for your services?” Greem couldn’t help but take on a serious tone.

The difficulty of crafting was incredibly high; an ordinary Fourth Grade adept would have no chance of succeeding. Meanwhile, hiring a Fifth Grade Great Adept would undoubtedly come at a significant cost.

Even Karon couldn’t help but fall into thought at the question.

After a long pause, he finally said, “Thirty million magical crystals and 1,500 siths of origin substances. That’s my final price. It can’t go any lower! Of course, if you are willing to offer a set of intermediate Fifth Grade materials as payment, I can craft the voodoo beast for free. However, if the material is beginner Fifth Grade, I will have to ask for two sets.”

“The magical crystals and origin substance then! I can still afford that much.”

Thirty million magical crystals were equivalent to the Crimson Clan’s total profits over the past ten years. Meanwhile, 1,500 siths of origin substance could only be obtained if you swept the entirety of the Central Lands.

Neither of these was a problem for Greem.

After all, he had lived in the Central Lands for a long time. He had at least that much origin substance in reserve!

Since they had come to an agreement, Karon immediately drew up a magical contract in the air with his finger before placing his soul brand onto it. Greem examined the contract. After ensuring that there was no problem, he also put his soul brand on it.

Given the extent of their powers, even a contract with a planar consciousness as the guarantor would not be able to bind them fully. As such, their contracts were signed with their origin principles as the guarantor. Should one of them violate the terms of the agreement, they would suffer a terrible backlash from their own origin principle.

It meant Karon would no longer be able to harness earth principles, and Greem would no longer be able to harness fire principles. It sounded simple, but such an agreement was tightly-binding for Great Adepts, who relied entirely on principles.

No one would ever joke around with their origin principles, not even as a passing remark!

With the agreement in hand, Greem could rest assured as he handed the body of the giant, its Crystal of Petrification, and its soul crystal to Great Adept Karon. In order for these top-class materials to unleash their full power, just the stimulation of the materials alone would take extraordinary effort and time.

That was why Greem would probably have to wait a few years until he obtained his voodoo beast.

Greem hesitated for a moment when he emerged from Karon’s room. He then confidently walked to the lower layers of the Boulder Fortress. That was where the Third and Fourth Grade adepts were most active and where the fortress market was busiest.

Boulder Fortress. The trading area on the fifth level.

It had been over seventy years since the start of the Beastmen Wars. During this time, the adepts had managed to invade as many as a hundred and thirty-four beastmen planes. Many of the rare resources that were lost from these broken planes fell into the hands of high-grade adepts who participated in the planar wars.

Thus, while many of the adepts were only Third or Fourth Grade, some of them might have managed to obtain some unbelievable treasures, artifacts, and materials by sheer coincidence.

That was why the lofty Great Adepts would often disguise themselves and go to these lower-grade markets in hopes of picking out some cheap-yet-valuable resources.

Greem disguised himself with his fire principles, turning into a muscular bearded man. He then mixed into the crowd and started wandering around the market.

In all seriousness, the higher grade the material, the more primitive it often looked.

Basic materials and resources were all recorded within the information tower of the fortress. Therefore, the more mysterious and unrecognizable items could only be sold in individual stalls.

Many adepts put up stalls in the market, placing a few unusual objects there as they waited for buyers to appear. Finding a true ‘treasure’ amidst all the garbage was a real test of the buyer’s eye.

Greem smiled as he walked down the street as if indifferent to the merchandise around him. However, blue light flickered in his dark-red eyes, continually scanning the items in the stalls.

Energy radiation intensity, elementium remnant, surface patterns and marks, analysis of fundamental substance makeup, forcefield fluctuation frequency- with all these detection methods, the Chip would be able to pick up on any unusual traits that these items might possess.

After walking for a short while, Greem finally came to a stall by the roadside.

The owner of the stall was a Third Grade elementium adept. He was holding a book in his hands and flipping through it listlessly. Three very unusual objects had been placed on the black cloth of the stall. It was hard to tell their purpose from their appearance.

One was a piece of metal that seemed to have fallen off some armor. There were blurry magical patterns and faint elementium fluctuations remaining on it. According to the Chip’s analysis, this was an armor fragment. However, it wasn’t a core piece of the armor and was, therefore, not very valuable.

Apart from the metal itself having some research value, it wasn’t particularly useful.

The second item was a darksteel longsword. The body of the sword was long, and there was no edge to it at all. No magical patterns had been engraved onto the item, nor any gemstones embedded. It looked ordinary and mundane, as if it was just plain iron.

For some reason, it gave off an incredibly sharp sensation when Greem laid eyes on the sword. It was as if the edge was pointed right at Greem’s brow.

The third item was a pitch-black stone the size of an egg. It was smooth as a rock. Similarly, no elementium aura could be sensed from it.

Perhaps sensing Greem’s gaze wandering between the three items, the stall owner quickly put away his book and greeted his customer with a smile.

There were no idiots among the adepts here. Greem might have changed his appearance and retracted his principle aura, but the adept that owned the stall could not sense his grade level at all.

That was enough for him to make certain assumptions!

The only people here who could put on airs were either Fourth Grades or the occasional Great Adept. That was why the stall owner quickly composed himself and started introducing his merchandise enthusiastically.

“My lord, these things are all from the beastmen planes. Which one might you be interested in?”

Greem picked up the longsword first. He brought it close to himself for better examination. He really couldn’t sense any elementium aura from it. However, that pressing and chilling aura unnerved him. There were no bloodstains on the sword, but it radiated an overwhelming aura of bloodthirst and murder.

“What is this sword? It doesn’t seem to be a magical weapon.”

The adept smiled as he explained, “It’s not a magical weapon at all. It’s a vicious sword that possesses ‘bloodthirst.’ Its owner was once a peak Fourth Grade Sword Saint who had managed to infuse most of his consciousness into the longsword. That is why it seems so extraordinary.”

Sword Saint?

Greem frowned slightly.

That was a common combat profession in the beastmen planes. Only elites among the beastmen warriors could advance into Sword Saints. Their weapons were usually single-handed swords with no elementium power. They were known for their tremendous explosive power that made the barriers of spellcasters as fragile as eggshells before them.

“And this black stone?” Greem put the longsword down and cast his eyes toward the black stone.

The Chip had actually managed to detect traces of principle aura on this stone. Anything that possessed principle aura of its own was an excellent object.

“I don’t know either,” The stall owner scratched his head and replied in a somewhat dejected tone. “I got all this from the body of a Sword Saint. My party went to great lengths to kill him, and these three things were all I got. As for what this black stone is, precisely? I wanted to appraise it, but the information tower’s appraisal fee was three hundred thousand magical crystals…so, I had no choice but to give up!”

Greem listened closely as he flipped the black stone over and over in his hand.

In the end, he was certain that this was a seed!

The problem now was whether the principle aura on the seed was because it had been in a certain location or if it was something inherent to the seed itself. If it was the latter, then this seed could also be categorized as a Fifth Grade material.

“Tell me, how much do you intend to sell this thing for?” Since Greem had his suspicions, he acted without any hesitation.

“Since the appraisal fee of this object alone is 300,000 magical crystals, I believe that its actual value should be…no less than 1,200,000!” Upon seeing a whale of a consumer arrive, the stall owner quickly declared a bold price. It was so bold of a price that even he couldn’t help but blush a little when he said it.

One million two hundred thousand magical crystals? That didn’t seem too expensive at all!