Age of Adepts

Just as Greem was about to fly off in a tantrum, a loud rumbling in the distance defused the awkward situation.

The orcs had arrived!

The Great Adepts looked at each other and stepped out of the city hall in unison, slowly flowing toward the city’s northern wall.

The orc powerhouses that had arrived from afar met with the Great Adepts one and a half kilometers outside of Dun Modr.

The trail of dust finally came to a rest.

As the dust slowly settled to the ground, five orcs of various appearances and professions were revealed.

Two beastsoul warriors, one shaman, one sword saint, and a beast tamer.

The distribution of professions was quite logical, though there were still a few too many fighters and too-few elementium attackers. However, that wasn’t a problem for this party of orcs. Instead, it was simply a natural characteristic of orcs to lack the ability to wield elementium powers.

Within Plane Gere, the upper limit of power for both orcs and adepts was peak Fourth Grade. However, the orcs could call on the blessings of the gods to obtain tremendous divine power, while the adepts had their own unique means to break the plane’s upper limit of power.

In an actual fight, there was hardly any advantage for either side. Victory or defeat rested solely upon the individual might of the combatants!

Greem hovered in the air, resisting the planar laws with his principle powers as he silently evaluated the five orcs across from them.

These orcs were truly mortals, with mortal bodies that had yet to transcend.

However, a blinding golden light hid deep within their souls. Nearly imperceptible consciousness fluctuations radiated from these golden lights.

God Summoning…consciousness projection.

These two familiar words instantly flashed across Greem’s mind.

The five orcs in front of them were no longer fully ‘themselves!’

Having undergone a special God Summoning ceremony, the orc gods in their distant god kingdoms had projected a trace of their consciousness into the souls of these orcs. The gods could now see, hear, and feel everything that the orcs felt.

These five orc powerhouses wouldn’t be the only ones fighting the adepts in a while. They were backed by five eager consciousness projections hidden in their souls.

In all honesty, the Great Adepts’ desire to fight plummeted the moment they realized that only consciousness projections were hidden within the orcs, rather than orc god clones that would be their opponents.

It couldn’t be helped. Fighting against these consciousness projections wasn’t exactly worth it. Even if they were fortunate enough to win, the adepts wouldn’t be able to obtain those invaluable divine authority fragments. Upon realizing that the opponent’s reinforcements came in the form of God Summoning, none of the Great Adepts could find the motivation in themselves to fight anymore.

Most gods hid their true bodies within their god kingdoms to prevent being surrounded and attacked by their enemies. They had numerous means to project or extend their powers from their god kingdoms. The most common way to project their power into a planar world was through God Summoning or clones.

Both of these were means of projecting consciousness, but the foundation of the medium was completely different!

God Summoning was projecting the power of the soul with the actual bodies of believers as a medium. The god could then control the believer’s body by means of assimilation or possession. In doing so, the gods would gain a host for their consciousness to traverse the planar world freely.

Apart from this option, the gods could also cast down their consciousness without relying on a believer’s body. However, a descent in this fashion required a divine authority fragment to serve as the host of their power. That was why this method was also known as a god clone.

Both of these options had their pros and cons, which was why there was no saying which was superior!

God Summoning might allow the gods to cast down their strength at little risk, but the power they could unleash would be greatly limited by the possessed individual’s attributes and might. If the possessed individual did not hold sufficient power, they wouldn’t be able to unleash the full might of a god’s consciousness projection.

God clones did not have such problems, but they provided enemies with the opportunity to steal a divine authority fragment from the gods!

The World of Gods and the adept faction had been at war for a very, very long time. Both parties knew each other’s abilities intimately at this point, and they both had plenty of means by which to weaken their enemies.

Divine authority fragments were a crystallization and manifestation of pure principle power. They were an irresistible temptation to both adepts and gods.

Even the smallest divine authority fragment could save an adept a thousand years of studying the principles. That made divine authority fragments no less than tiny miracles for adepts, who had always revered power above all else.

For the gods, a single divine authority fragment could elevate even the most humble of mortals to the level of a demigod; or in other words, peak Fourth Grade. Ten divine authority fragments merged together could then give rise to a true divine authority. That divine authority could allow an individual to ascend and become a genuinely immortal god.

A god’s grade was determined in such fashion.

Those with only one complete divine authority were low-ranked gods (Fifth Grade). Those with two complete divine authorities were mid-ranked gods (Sixth Grade). Those with four complete divine authorities were high-ranked gods (Seventh Grade). Those with eight complete divine authorities were powerful True Gods (Eighth Grade), while those with sixteen complete divine authorities were Major Gods (Ninth Grade).

It was a fundamental index by which the gods were divided.

However, the gods were often narcissistic as well!

Those who had established a massive pantheon and possessed a large following of vassal gods would sometimes title themselves Major Gods, despite not having reached Ninth Grade. These things were not all that uncommon within the World of Gods.

There were even gods who monopolized all the faith power of a single large planar world without communication with the outside world. They dared to declare themselves Major Gods despite only being Sixth Grade. The Faen Plane that Greem had once visited was one such case.

It was fine if they were tiny pantheons in remote regions. However, should they open up their worlds and join the World of Gods, their arrogant, overstepping actions would immediately invite punishment and invasion from the other powerful pantheons.

That was the reason why Faen Plane’s elven pantheon did not request aid from the outside world despite the prolonged invasion of the Pale Witches.

These complex intricacies and knowledge of the god pantheons quickly flashed through Greem’s mind. It made him lose any faith in obtaining divine authority fragments during the coming battle. At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel fortunate that he had so easily obtained a divine authority fragment back in the World of Adepts.

However, none of the orcs could understand the feelings of the Great Adepts.

They were already beyond excited the moment they saw the Great Adepts.

They could clearly see that countless planar law chains still weighed down the Great Adepts and their souls. The energy level within the adepts’ bodies had also been suppressed to an extremely low level.

Strike while they were down!

The five orcs roared and immediately lunged forward.

These foolish idiots.

Greem and the other Great Adepts couldn’t help but curse in their minds. They did not want to fight with these ‘broke’ and ‘poor’ losers. However, the enemy was already rushing at them. They had to fight even if they didn’t want to.

The Great Adepts had no choice but to strike in response, their bellies filled with resentment.

The enemy that Greem had chosen for himself was the beast tamer.

Compared to the unstoppable edge of the sword saints, the wild barbarism of the beastsoul warriors, and the layered spellcasting abilities of the shamans, the beast tamers were probably the most average profession of them all!

However, while Greem’s belief was idealistic, the development of reality often deviated from one’s imagination and expectations.

This two-meter-tall orc, who wasn’t even all that muscular, took out the dark green vine whip at his waist the moment he saw Greem.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

As he lashed out with his long vine whip, space itself cracked. At the same time, the beast tamer chanted something in a deep and profound language that Greem could not understand.

The next second, a series of spatial ripples appeared in the air. Silver light flashed as a dozen-meter-tall behemoth appeared.

These were powerful war behemoths that the Orc Empire had specially reared and trained.

When the one-meter-long soles of its feet landed on the ground, the earth itself quaked violently. Every part of its body was incredibly thick and muscular, and it had a bloodthirsty gleam to its red eyes.

It had five-meter-wide shoulders with deltoid muscules that rose like tiny hills. The muscles hidden under all that hair could only be described with the word ‘horrifying.’ At the ends of its thick arms were hundred-inch long claws, each one comparable to lances used by the dragon knights of human kingdoms.

The true terror of behemoths lay in their ferocity and fearlessness!

Behemoths were known as creatures without equal on the land. When fully grown, they could even hunt dragons of the same grade.

Greem couldn’t help but feel a little dizzy.

He had never expected that the first thing this inconspicuous beast tamer would do was summon such a ferocious and barbaric behemoth. Moreover, judging by the silver light glimmering around the behemoth, it was a deviant even amongst behemoths. It certainly possessed unusual and unknown powers.

The behemoth stood on its hind legs the moment it was summoned and let out an intimidating battlecry. It crouched over and tackled Greem like a moving mountain.

Before the behemoth even got close, its rumbling steps caused quakes to ripple across the earth. Dun Modr trembled from its movements.

Greem charged into the air without any hesitation, flying a hundred meters into the air.

Just as Greem believed himself to be safe, the dozen-meter-tall behemoth leaped and slashed at Greem with its hundred-inch claws.

Damn! How could such a heavy-looking beast jump so high!

Greem appeared another hundred meters higher in the air with Fire Teleportation and barely dodged the behemoth’s sharp claws.

Szzzz!

The air cracked and ruptured as space itself quivered.

Ten slashes lingered in the air at Greem’s previous position, refusing to dissipate even after a long while.

Dong!

A tremendous impact sound could be heard.

The behemoth landed on the ground, smashing a hundred-meter-wide and ten-meter-deep crater into the earth. It only shook its head lightly before getting up from the hole as if entirely unharmed. It raised its front legs and roared at Greem, as if annoyed and trying to provoke its opponent into a fight.