Age of Adepts

[Editor’s Note: We are changing our translation of ‘beastmen’ when referring to their planar worlds or basic race. It will now be ‘Orcs,’ based on what we believe to be the most faithful translation of the author’s words. However, the Beastmen Gods are not confirmed to be just Orcs. Some may be other races under the catch-all term of ‘beastmen.’ Similar to World of Warcraft’s Horde faction, where you have orcs mixed with other non-human races.]

Four months later.

Greem’s first mission arrived abruptly during his shift in Hall Flower.

“Cloudclear Front has been attacked. Numerous clones of the vassal beast-gods have descended on Plane Gere. The offensive force has suffered heavy losses. We request immediate reinforcement from headquarters!”

An adept suddenly shouted out loud in the boisterous circular hall. His voice instantly caught the attention of all adepts on shift. On the complicated map of stars displayed above the circular hall, one of the stars glowed with a blinding scarlet light and began flickering.

The various Great Adepts stationed in the halls opened their eyes simultaneously. They started to process the reports provided by the fortress spirit as they silently awaited further orders.

Just as expected, combat instructions were relayed to the corresponding halls five seconds later.

This time, three halls were chosen. The total number of forces deployed would be a Sixth Grade adept and four Fifth Grade adepts.

Greem’s Hall Flower was required to deploy a Fifth Grade Great Adept.

Adept Gerritsen’s gaze swept over and landed on Greem.

“Greem, I’ll leave this mission to you!”

“Understood!”

It had only been half a year since he’d been stationed here, and his first mission was already the most dangerous– a combat mission. Greem couldn’t help but complain in his mind. However, he maintained his calm composure and walked toward a portal that had shown up in the corner of the hall.

The portal flickered, and the vision in front of Greem’s eyes flashed. In the blink of an eye, he had arrived in a broader and even busier hall.

Guided by a golem, he soon rallied with the other Great Adepts he was being deployed with.

The Sixth Grade Great Adept was a male adept known as Windstern. The adept’s entire body was formed of twisted shrouds of black smoke. It was impossible to see his real form at all. The other three Great Adepts were composed of one female adept and two male adepts. They all looked very different from each other, and their principle auras were all thick enough to be on the brim of manifestation.

The fortress spirit responsible for deployment immediately started communicating with the adepts once the five-person party had gathered.

“The Plane Gere that you all are heading to this time is a mid-sized plane. The dominant force in that world is the Orc Empire, which has the largest population and most resources of all that world’s creatures. Our vanguard has already established a foothold there and taken over ten thousand square kilometers of the Orc Empire’s territory.

“Now, the enemy has suddenly cast down a large group of beast god clones. It is obvious that they intend to exterminate our vanguard and kick us out of Plane Gere. That is why your mission is to protect the vanguard force and force the beast god clones to retreat or simply exterminate them.

“The minimum requirements of the mission are as follows: One. Protect the orc city of Dun Modr, which we have just recently integrated into our defenses. Two. Protect the adept tower currently being constructed there. Three. Protect the Fourth Grade Adept Kurt, who is the core of the vanguard force. His soul contains the planar coordinates and information required for follow-up planar teleportations and reinforcements.

“The mission will last three months. Once the adept tower is completed and the interplanar portal opened in three months, your mission will be accomplished!

“Alright, I have finished my explanation of the mission. I will now teleport you to the frontlines. Please make your preparations!”

The Great Adepts finally gained a preliminary understanding of the situation after hearing the fortress spirit’s explanation. They looked at each other and suppressed their principle auras before moving closer together.

A short moment later, an unusually large magical array appeared around them as the entire space filled with terrifying spatial fluctuations. This interplanar teleportation was not only of incredible distance. It was also subject to disruption from the planar barrier. Consequently, the risk during teleportation was immense.

However, this risk was no threat to these Great Adepts who had transcended the realm of mortals.

After some momentary dizziness, the Great Adepts opened their eyes and saw that they had appeared in a foreign kingdom of unusual aesthetic.

Countless law chains whipped toward them out of empty air the moment they stepped out of the teleportation array. These chains ignored their elementium defenses and reached straight to their souls. If it weren’t for the principle light stopping these chains, they probably wouldn’t have been able to make contact with their soul origins.

The Great Adepts all frowned. The overwhelming, berserk energy aura within their bodies was instantly suppressed. Low-grade adepts would probably have been so badly suppressed by the hostile world consciousness that they would not have been able to stand.

Everyone here was a Great Adept. Through their principle lights, they could easily keep the law chains of the world consciousness at bay. This significantly reduced the suppression and side-effects that they had to endure.

However, in this world filled with hostility, attempting to replenish their energy from the environment would be exceedingly tricky. It was like being dropped in the middle of a desert. The adepts had no means of replenishing their power from their surroundings and could only rely on their own energy reserves.

Fighting against enemies of the same grade under such circumstances would undoubtedly magnify the risk and danger by several factors!

“Welcome! Welcome! We are overjoyed to see you all! You have just arrived here, so why don’t you take a momentary rest in the camp,” Just as the Great Adepts were silently adjusting to their current conditions, a few Fourth Grade adepts who were in charge of this forward base gathered around them. They bowed in unison.

“I am Melora, the commander in charge of this attack on Plane Gere.”

“I am Dutar, in charge of the voodoo beast armies.”

“I am Kurt, in charge of the construction of the adept tower and the teleportation arrays.”

“……”

The Fourth Grade adepts stepped forward one by one and introduced themselves. However, the Great Adepts were hardly concerned with who they were. It wasn’t until they heard Kurt’s name that the Great Adepts immediately turned over and looked at him. They made sure to carve the name of this person mentioned in their mission deep in their minds.

Kurt was an inconspicuous-looking middle-aged adept. He had long brown hair, a rather skinny figure, and his body radiated a dense aura of wind elementium. He was only a beginner Fourth Grade and clearly had a substandard Physique. The adepts couldn’t sense any signs of powerful magical equipment around him, either.

An individual like this could step on such an important battlefield, but he was clearly not here in a combat-adept capacity. Rather, he had probably been sent here due to his unique profession of array master.

In a single instant, the Great Adepts had managed to uncover every last detail about Kurt. Kurt felt immense pressure from being stared at by several Great Adepts at once. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.

“Go ahead and do whatever it is that you usually do; no need to always stay around us. Melora and Kurt stay behind. The rest of you may leave now!” The Sixth Grade Great Adept Windstern was a straightforward person. He quickly waved the irrelevant individuals away and kept the only two critical figures behind.

The party of Great Adepts walked toward the city hall of this massive orc city, led by this Commander Melora. Greem took this opportunity to properly assess this firm stronghold filled with the orcs’ aesthetics.

Large, tall, crude, and barbaric.

These were the words that naturally appeared in Greem’s mind after scanning this orc city of Dun Modr with his Spirit.

The entire city was built out of giant rocks, each one as tall as a whole human. There was no need to carve any reinforcing runes on these rocks, as the material itself was of shocking hardness.

Crude towering city walls, watchtowers, and battlements built upon those walls, thick wooden stakes planted along the walls and the streets, tattered beastmen flags fluttering in the wind– it was obvious that this orc city had only recently fallen into the hands of the adepts. Many of the orc decorations and banners had not even been taken down.

At this moment, the entire city appeared to be a giant work site. Work crews were taking apart buildings everywhere, along with adepts instructing golems and voodoo beasts cleaning up debris and corpses.

Apart from buildings of stone and rock, the orcs also had many leather tents and wood architecture constructed here and there. However, it was hard to tell their original purposes before the war, given their crude appearances.

The terrifying fires of war had burned through this city. Every corner of it had been a battlefield upon which the combatants spilled blood. Not many buildings had survived the carnage. The city hall was likely the exception among exceptions.

Along the way, Greem could see that every single building was covered in the scorch marks of fire and deep gouges left behind by weapons. Orc corpses that had not been dealt with simply lay in the roads and alleyways, their bodies covered in bite marks from voodoo beasts that had gnawed upon their flesh.

Strangely enough, while dominant intelligent species like the humans, orcs, elves, and dwarves differed in traits from plane to plane, it was still possible to immediately distinguish one from the other based on the obvious aesthetics of their culture.

A wooden cage filled with captured orc warriors could be seen around a street corner that the Great Adepts passed by. These orcs were all muscular hulks standing over two meters tall.

Specifically, they were orcs with tough bodies and light-green skin. Their bodies were covered in explosive muscles and rough skin. Their pores were large, and their veins bulged and ran all over like tiny serpents.

Even more terrifying were their ugly and vicious faces. They had large mouths filled with protruding teeth set right below their equally gigantic eyes. Their appearances made it hard to think of them as intelligent life. Most people would only regard them as magically-modified magical creatures.

Perhaps only the Beast God Arugel could accept such ugly and horrible creations as his followers!

Just as Greem and the others were about to arrive at the city hall, a fearsome and powerful principle fluctuation rippled from the distant horizon. The snake-eye ring on Commander Melora’s finger glowed with a blinding green light.

Melora rubbed his snake-eye ring and communicated with someone in the distance for a moment. He finally couldn’t help but sigh.

“My lords, the beast god clones seem to know of your arrival; they have hastened their extermination of our forces. Just earlier, another one of our armies was wiped out.”

“What are the losses?” Windstern asked.

“Three thousand men. It was an adept force that possessed First, Second, and Third Grade forces. Completely exterminated!”