Age of Adepts

The two parties met again in the tower.

It had only been ten days, and yet it was almost as if this brand new tower had just experienced a hundred years of history. The scars of war remained on the tower’s walls and the Magma Hall that it resided in.

The last time they had seen this place, it had still been draped in pitch-black darkness. There had only been illuminating rocks, nightlight crystals, phosphorescent moss, lichens, and fungi that glowed with dim lights.

This time, what they saw was a Magma Hall that continually shone with a crimson light.

All the stone pillars, dirt, and materials that had been immersed in the sea of lava and couldn’t withstand it had been vaporized and washed away. Only the volcanic rock that could withstand the heat remained.

That was why the geography looked so much different compared to last time. It was barely recognizable.

In particular, the stone walls of the Magma Hall were incredibly striking. They were red below and black on top. The difference in the structures of the wall was pronounced. All the visiting adepts could sense the trials and difficulties that the tower had endured over the past few days.

The three Silver Union adepts couldn’t help but fall silent when they saw the tower’s damaged walls and the severely compromised foundations. They knew very well what this meant. The fact that Greem could sit here talking to them at leisure meant that the magical creatures had lost.

Those invading magical creatures were either hiding in some corner, licking their wounds, or starting to plot their next attacks. Still, either way, this ’small-time adept’ from the Sarubo Clan had won the first move in obtaining dominance over this stretch of the Black Forest.

As long as he performed the follow-up support and replenishment well, this adept’s tower would stick here like a stubborn nail. The magical creatures would hate its existence, but there would be nothing they could do.

After all, an adept with an adept’s tower possessed an overwhelming advantage in every aspect. These advantages were not something that could be overturned by sheer numbers!

However, the three adepts shook their heads when they saw the number of adepts and apprentices inside the tower. The quality and quantity of workforce Greem owned were more than enough to defend, but they wouldn’t be enough to go on the offensive. They would probably have a tough time exterminating the magical creatures.

Those magical creature leaders could come back and strike again at any time if they had escaped.

The main reason the three silver-robed adepts had come to such a conclusion was that Greem had stationed his new recruits away from the tower. Dana, Unguja, Eva, the bird demon, and the snake fiend were all outside.

Only Greem, Gargamel, and Meryl stayed inside the adept’s tower, along with the three pseudo-adepts– Kodar, Am, and Sabrina. The other apprentices were not going to be of much use against an organized stampede! Therefore, they weren’t taken into consideration by the Silver Union adepts.

That was why the three adepts secretly guessed that Greem had used the sea of lava from the lava well to flood the hall and force out the magical creatures.

In doing so, neither side had obtained a real victory. Their hatred for each other would only continue to grow, just as the war would, with no end in sight! Even if this stretch of the Black Forest had any rare resources, they were not going to be able to excavate them under such circumstances properly.

This failure caused the three adepts to lower their assessment of Greem by quite a bit!

”Only three adepts and one of them is a newly-advanced adept. Is the Sarubo Clan incapable of assigning more manpower to help them?” One of the adepts silently communicated with the others using Password of the Mind.

”Don’t you forget, this is his personal tower. It’s very likely that the clan doesn’t support his actions!”

”Then the clan sent him out to die? This is the Black Forest. Build a tower here, and you invite the magical creatures to attack. Could this guy not have known about this beforehand?”

”Who cares?! Our mission is to build and construct an excellent adept’s tower per the client’s specifications. Don’t overthink the other unrelated matters.”

The three Silver Union adepts secretly talked amongst themselves as they discussed the maintenance and repair of the tower.

The tower had suffered extensive internal and external damage during the battle. The cost of putting things back into order was not going to be cheap. Moreover, the magical facilities inside the tower were still incomplete. Greem intended to take this opportunity to fill them in.

Of course, he excluded the teleportation array!

Both sides started a fierce negotiation over the cost of the operations. Finally, after the adepts consulted with their higher-ups, the final price was settled at one hundred and sixty-seven thousand magical crystals. The slaves that Greem had purchased the last time had also arrived in Pinecone Town. They were hurrying towards the tower while escorted by mercenaries. It would take them approximately four days to arrive.

One hundred and sixty-seven thousand magical crystals; this was a hefty fee that even some veteran adepts might not be able to pull out. Meryl and Gargamel’s face flushed white the moment they heard of the news. They had solemn expressions on their faces the whole time as if their hearts were about to give out at any time.

They had all participated in the process of the tower’s construction from nothing.

Building the tower had cost two hundred thousand magical crystals. Defending the assault of the magical creatures had cost one hundred and ten thousand. If they were to add all that to the cost of one hundred and sixty-seven thousand this time, it would mean that Greem had spent nearly five hundred thousand magical crystals in the span of a mouth! All for the sake of constructing his own personal adept’s tower!

This number gave Meryl, the newly advanced adept, and Gargamel the wandering adept an oppressively suffocating feeling.

No wonder most adepts were willing to spend their entire lives managing their towers. In the end, it was because they had no choice. An adept’s tower was practically a money-eating monstrosity. If left alone without any management, the sheer crystal cost was enough to reduce an adept to tears!

Of course, Greem couldn’t produce so many magical crystals at once. He only had thirty thousand on hand. He would pay the rest with 1,100,000 magical stones and large numbers of magical gemstones.

Just handing over the magical stones and the appraisal of the gemstones took a whole day.

The Silver Union adepts couldn’t help but change their impression of Greem when they saw the mountains of magical stones in the tower’s warehouse. It didn’t matter how they looked at it. To have obtained so many magical stones meant that this had been an overwhelming victory.

Had this Adept Greem truly fought off and exterminated the core of the magical creatures’ army with just three adepts? The truth was hard to swallow, but the magical gemstones in front of them were as real as they could be. If those magical creatures hadn’t been crippled, how would they possibly have allowed the adepts to go in and out of the Black Forest in search of resources?

It couldn’t have been that all those magical creatures were dead, could it?!

Little did they knew that their wild exaggerations of a guess were the most accurate answer! However, this answer was just too unbelievable. Even they refuted it the moment they thought of it.

With the help of the Silver Union adepts, the magical facilities of the tower were being filled in at a rapid pace. The numerous fine cracks in the body of the tower had also been easily patched up by the adepts.

Specialists were the best at their work after all!

One had to point out how amazing esoteric adepts were at the field they specialized in; they were gods of their craft. Impossible tasks in the eyes of outsiders were no harder than the flip of a palm for them.

The tower was completely restored in just three days under their ceaseless efforts. The six slaves that Greem had purchased also arrived at the tower on this day.

As the original landmark of Plaguewood was now gone, Greem decided to rename things. After some consideration, he named his adept’s tower Fire Throne, and the new underground tunnel as Fire Cave. Once the surface was properly developed, he didn’t mind building a city of humans known as Magma City!

Once construction had been completed, Greem handed over the money, and the three Silver Union adepts left Fire Throne, accompanied by a party of mercenaries. Greem threw the two halfling gourmets into the kitchen, the two dwarven smiths into the golem factory, and the two fairies in the magical garden.

The halflings were approximately one meter in height and fifteen kilograms in weight. Their skin was a healthy red shade, while their hair was black and straight while their eyes were brown.

The Silver Union had sent male and female pairs for all the slaves.

The male halfling had longer sideburns, while the female was more slender than the male. Male or female, they possessed excellent cooking skills for preparing food so delicious that it would make you choke on your tongue. Everyone throughout the tower agreed on this!

As for the dwarves... apologies, but Geem couldn’t differentiate which was the male and which was the female, even after extensive visual inspection. Both of them were short, stout, with a coarse face and a big beard.

Their bodies were tough like a mountain. Their muscles were hard as a rock, and their temper was just like their looks; stubborn and rough.

That had exceeded Greem’s expectations. Who would have known that even female dwarves sported a thick brown beard? It sounded like thunder when their gravely voices boomed out loud.

Greem couldn’t help but shiver in disgust when he imagined a dwarven couple like this climb into bed at night.

The fairies were the exact opposite of the dwarves.

They were only fifty centimeters in height, and both of them were female.

They had frail and slender bodies, pretty faces, pale skin, green eyes, and sharp ears. If they were just a little smaller and had thin wings on their backs, they would look just like the elementium fairies Alice had in her Tower of Fate.

However, the elementium fairies radiated with powerful magical energies. This pair of fairies were letting out a fragrant smell of grass and wood instead.

They were considered plant-attribute magical creatures, and they were skilled at dealing with all sorts of magical plants. That was why they were irreplaceable gardeners that every magical garden needed.

Greem seemed to recall reading something about these fairies in a book somewhere. These small fairies were actually a product of flower fairies and elves that the adepts had kidnapped from an ancient elven empire.

They were a type of lifeform created by magic!