Age of Adepts

Since the path of Bloodline Adept was so tough to get into, and the fact that, though they could grow quickly, their growth was limited from the start, Greem decided to eliminate this possibility.

So, all he had left in front of him was to become a Principle Adept or a Profound Adept.

Between these two choices, Greem strongly preferred Principle Adept. Whenever he envisioned those powerful Elementium spells that were capable of such vast destruction, and the bizarre and frightening curse spells, Greem wished for that power, and really wanted to master some incredible spells.

But, the path of Principle Adept was also the hardest, as it was without any short-cuts. In order to climb up to the top rungs of the Adept hierarchy, a Principle Adept had to take one step at a time, diligently improved their elemental affinity, and then mastering any related Elementium spells. Then they had to have a strong understanding of the core Plane Principles. Only when he became the master of a principle could he proudly announce that he was a Principle Adept.

This was, usually, something that could be achieved after reaching the Seventh Grade.

If he didn’t have the Chip, Greem wouldn’t ever choose this path. Because, if he did, that also meant he had to spend a huge amount of time meditating and improving his elemental affinity. In fact, in order to make oneself have a better elemental affinity, many Adepts would try their best to replace their body with the Elementium that they had the highest affinity for, even if that would eventually transform them into an Elementium life form.

Analyzing from all aspects, no doubt the path of Principle Adept was an obvious choice for any Adept, as it was the path that had the highest possibility of reaching the pinnacle of the Adept world. So, with the plan laid out by the Chip, Greem felt this was the best path for him.

However, before he became truly strong, Greem would have to find ways to compensate, as he was currently weak, or else, how could he make his way out of the intense and brutal competition among Apprentices?

So, after decided he would make Principle Adept his primary path, Greem also planned to learn some of the skills of Profound Adepts to support the slow growth of his primary path. And, no doubt the ‘Golem Creation Manual’ he obtained before was one such Profound Adept method that could help improve his current fighting ability.

“Chip, what’s the progress of organizing the data of the ‘Golem Creation Manual’?”

*Beep* “The copying of magic spell book ‘Golem Creation Manual’ had been completed… the data has been optimized, and useless content has been removed. The list of suitable golems has been constructed…”

Greem’s eyes instantly brightened when he heard the message.

“Send me all the data!”

*Beep*… A stream of data was immediately transferred over. Closing his eyes, he silently looked over the additional magic knowledge that suddenly popped up in his mind.

Strictly speaking, it was a list of items.

……

……

It had, previously, been a long list, but after the Chip removed those golems that were beyond Greem’s current abilities, and other useless content, all that was left were these two elementary golems, which had been repeatedly optimized.

Yes, the Chip recommended a Golem, rather than a Titan.

Comparing their fighting ability, no doubt a Titan, who had a fixed body, was stronger than a Golem, which was more like a summon. But, with the lackluster resources that Greem currently possessed, perhaps it was not realistic to hope he could gather enough resource to create a Titan.

Take the most basic Clay Titan as an example.

An eight foot tall, six hundred pound Clay Titan was made entirely of soft clay. This took no account of the crafting cost in building it. Just the soft clay alone would cost him nine thousand gold coins. For everything he would need to make one Clay Titan, the basic price was twenty-one thousand gold coins.

Compared to that, the Golem suggested by the Chip was way cheaper, as the only required raw material was an Advanced Apprentice level demon core. Although it required a lot of magic knowledge in order to successfully create one, the total cost was around seven thousand gold coins.

By his calculations, Greem would be able to save up that much money, which was a huge relief to him.

Greem couldn’t create an Acid Golem now, because he lacked a suitable Water Elementium Demon Core. But the Clay Golem was a perfect choice, as he just obtained the head of an Earth Elementium demon, which would be a perfect core for the Clay Golem.

When he thought of that, Greem quickly walked to the wooden rack in the corner of his room.

A large glass jar was placed on top of a wooden tray. It was covered with a black cloth so that no one could see what was inside.

Greem gently lifted the black cloth, leaned forward, and quietly stared at Sinbad’s head, which was soaking in a yellowish liquid. Perhaps noticing Greem’s glance, some indistinct twitching movements could be seen on Sinbad’s face, and he felt the weak soul was begging for mercy.

A strong smell, similar to formaldehyde, was lingering near the jar.

Scientifically speaking, the Ghost Nanny was not considered an immortal creature, so their organs had to be carefully stored away after being taken from their body, or else the usable value would quickly diminish. Although Sinbad’s head had not been originally acquired by Greem, it was clear that Alice had taken a good care of this head. She also trapped Sinbad’s soul within it.

Of course, Greem had no idea whether this was because Alice wanted to vent her anger by torturing Sinbad, or if she had other plans, but, no matter what, this had given him a huge advantage. At least he had no complaints about not getting Sinbad’s heart.

In order to maximize the benefits brought by this head, Greem even went to some Apprentices who were experts in anatomy and borrowed a complete set of tools.

In order to safeguard his secret, Greem was forced to use his room as a laboratory.

A couple of minutes later, Greem had prepared everything for the operation. He put on a sterile, non-magical white cloth and stood in front of the operation table. Sinbad’s head had also been taken out from the liquid, and was lying flat on the table with her eyes wide open, angrily cursing at the human in front of her.

Since Greem had been working toward becoming an Adept for the last few years, he had long been mentally prepared for this kind of surgical operation. Even though it was the first time he carrying a biological experiment, he was calm, in control, and well prepared.

Ignoring Sinbad’s evil glare, Greem calmly gave a command to the chip.

“Chip, perform a deep scan of Sinbad’s head!”

*Beep* “Mission has been received.. Beginning scan…”

With the flashing of blue light in his eyes, a unique spiritual wave started scanning up and down on Sinbad’s head, revealing the secrets hidden inside, inch by inch.

Most demons, as they had a strong life force had mixed together with their bizarre innate abilities, had formed an energy field that similar to a shield. Thus, Greem nornally couldn’t scan beneath their skin with Elementium Vision and Spiritual Vision, which made it nearly impossible to analyze what was inside.

But, because Sinbad had lost all her strength, and her life force was nearly depleted, the energy field, which would have formerly blocked Greem’s vision, no longer had any effect. After probing and scanning multiple times, a three-dimensional image of Sinbad’s head had been constructed in his mind.

A tough skull was wrapped around a deflated brain. The cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem were hidden deep within the cranial chamber. This complete model of Sinbad’s brain was presented right in front of Greem’s eyes. And, right in the center of the deflated brain, a thumb-sized, yellowish crystal could be seen.

As Sinbad was a Ghost Nanny Leader, and had mastered some Elementium abilities, a unique core had grown in her brain. Thus, her heart, brain, throat, and stomach were no longer vital organs. As long as this core and her soul still existed, her damaged organs could always be restored.

Without hesitation, Greem stabbed his razor sharp scalpel into Sinbad’s head. As the skull opened up, a stinking, dark purple blood instantly sprayed out, staining Greem’s clothes. But, he didn’t even took a look at them, and just kept adjusting the depth and angle of his cut. With the help of the hammer, chisel, and other tools, Greem carefully dismantled the skull.

With dozens of large candles lit, the room was ablaze with light. Covered in sweat, Greem stood firmly in front of the operation table. With the sound of a chisel cutting flesh and bone spreading thoughout the room, he slowly broke apart Sinbad’s skull.

Finally, under the swaying light of candle, Greem took out a light yellow, half transparent crystal, which smelled like dirt, and held it up to the light to gave it a closer look.

At the same time, a message from the Chip resounded in his mind.

*Beep* “High energy demon core detected. Type: Earth Elementium creature…”

A smile of relief finally emerged on Greem’s bloody face.

He now had a core from which he could create a Clay Golem!