Age of Adepts

Five days wasn’t a long time, but it wasn’t short either.

For Bug Adept Billis, it was only a small game that he played with the goblins while leading his bug soldiers. However, for the poor goblins of Beta Town, that small game meant the deaths of over a thousand people. Of these victims, there were one hundred and twenty-five goblins and nine hundred slaves of various other races.

Billis had broken free of the goblin’s pursuit the moment he sensed the brimming energy of his metal ball on the fifth day. He made his way deep into the forest under cover of night.

When the metal ball opened up silently in an empty section of the forest, the stars in the skies turned dim and lightless. Several dazzling beams of light that could compare with the radiance of the sun shot out of the metal ball’s core. The beams illuminated the entire forest so brightly that it was hard to keep one’s eyes open.

The intense radiance even pierced through the dense layer of leaves above, casting several pillars of light towards the pitch-black night sky. It was so bright it was practically daytime. This fantastic scenery could be easily seen from several dozens of kilometers away.

Several terrifying spatial ripples that shook the planar barrier accompanied the brilliant lights. As the spatial ripples intensified, the spatial flux became even more frequent. The entire forest started to be affected by the wormhole that was about to form.

Almost twenty kilometers away in Beta Town, Bazzek and Naaru hurriedly scrambled onto the observation platform. They gazed at those terrifying pillars of light that shot into the skies, completely stunned.

They didn’t have any talent or affinity for elementium and, naturally, couldn’t sense the presence of the spatial ripples in the air. Still, the inexplicable sense of danger made their hearts beat quicker and quicker. If they hadn’t been pressing against their chests with their hands, their rapidly beating hearts felt like they might break free of the constraints of their flesh and burst forth from their torsos.

”This feeling; I seem… to be somewhat… familiar with it. That…that’s… ” Deputy General Naaru was a scrawny goblin. His iron-straight uniform, paired with his elegant golden-frame glasses, gave him a distinguished look.

At this moment, all the color had been shocked away from his face. He pointed at the pillar in the distance and stuttered, struggling to form a complete sentence.

”That’s a long-range spatial teleportation, and it’s even the interplanar kind.” General Bazzek’s face was just green. His beady eyes stared into the distance as he gritted his teeth and uttered the words that Naaru didn’t dare utter.

It hadn’t even been five days, but two instances of such shocking abnormalities had already occurred near Beta town. If they hadn’t realized what was happening, then they were not fit to be the generals that led ten thousand goblins.

Beta Town; no, this plane that they lived in was now in the sights of some terrifying enemy. The anomaly last time was much smaller compared to this one. It proved that the intruders from last time were only small in number. However, this time it was a considerable commotion. The intruding enemies had to be far stronger than earlier.

The entire Karlmek Area was under the garrison of Bazzek’s Seventh Land Corps. According to the flow of battles in the past, whenever enemies that the local defense force could not deal with popped up, only General Bazzek had the authority to gather up all the soldiers stationed in the various cities. Only he could organize them and send them into battle.

The Seventh Land Corps only retained this mobile squad of four hundred goblins to make it easier to exterminate the slave rebellions that happened all over the place. They alone were enough to squash those unorganized rebellions!

However, at this moment, Bazzek’s heart felt like it had fallen into a bottomless pool of icy water. It was cold and dark. More importantly, he could feel himself perpetually sinking, not able to find any way out of this predicament.

”The goblin zeppelin? Where’s our goblin zeppelin? Have them move out now. I want them to reach that location as soon as possible to get the first strike on the enemies.” In this instant, Bazzek was like a gambler that had gone mad from all his losses. He anxiously roared and yelled from the observation platform.

A goblin officer immediately ran to issue the orders.

Seven minutes later, that massive zeppelin took off from northeast of the town. It blew its horns and cut through the sky rapidly as it flew in the direction of the pillars of light.

Fifteen to twenty kilometers of distance was only a matter of minutes for the balloon.

As the thousands of goblins in town waited anxiously, the zeppelin closed in on the forest where the anomaly was proceeding. Just as it was descending to spy on the situation within the woods, a meteor shot out of nowhere and hit the massive balloon.

The next moment, a huge fireball appeared in the skies above the forest. The frightening shockwaves from the explosion even blasted away all the trees and plants in a quarter-kilometer radius.

Even from that much of a distance, the goblins in the town could feel the oppressive heatwave. Under their wide-eyed and slack-jawed gazes, the goblin zeppelin that had always been thought of as an aerial chariot instantly exploded into a fireball and fell towards the ground in tens of thousands of sparks.

All the goblins went silent at that moment!

Even the furiously shouting Bazzek suddenly seemed as if he had lost his soul. His head that had always been held high tipped downwards.

A powerful enemy had finally descended!

…………

Greem retracted his right hand.

It was him that had cast a spell and shot down the goblin zeppelin that dared to parade before them. He had done that even before he’d adjusted his Spirit, right after came through the wormhole.

The price he paid for this was immense.

A fireball of no more than two hundred and twenty points of power had caused his Spirit to decrease by one-third. It had even triggered the planar oppression that now entangled with his body and soul. He couldn’t help but lean against his staff as he started coughing intensely.

Mary, who had come here along with him, hadn’t gotten used to the planar laws here either. She appeared to be in low spirits and had trouble fully controlling her body.

The spatial wormhole created by the metal ball couldn’t support even more manpower coming across. Having exhausted the spatial energies, it quickly collapsed.

As the wormhole shrunk, the forest on this end of the wormhole rapidly experienced a reverse spatial tide. Dirt, branches, grass, rotting leaves, small insects, and other things were all dragged into space by the spatial wave due to their lack of magical protection.

Then, with a light pop, the singular point vanished under the impressive regenerative powers of the plane.

The entire forest regained its peace.

However, if one stood here and looked around, they would find that the place looked as if a horrifying meteor crash had just ravaged it. All the trees in a quarter kilometer radius had snapped and fallen down. The part of the forest in front of the wormhole had been neatly cleaned up. Not one speck of debris remained there. Even the loose surface soil of the ground had all been sucked into the singularity, revealing the dark earth below.

As a bloodline adept, Mary’s physical condition should have been far above Greem’s. However, as Greem advanced to Second Grade, his Physique exceeded Mary’s, making him stronger and quicker when regenerating.

He thought back to the first time he had traveled through planes. Even with a Sixth Grade Great Adept protecting him, Greem had still almost suffocated from the power of the plane. Even walking had been a problem. This time, even without a Great Adept protecting them, Greem was able to shield himself and Mary from the spatial forces during the journey and enter the Goblin Plane without any damage.

Moreover, Greem managed to start moving freely after adjusting his breathing.

While he still couldn’t cast spells as freely as he liked, he was still in a much better condition than Mary’s complete exhaustion.

”I hate this world!” Mary leaned powerlessly upon Greem as she cursed, ”The damned planar laws here make me feel like a fish thrown into a desert. I’m almost completely suffocating.”

Greem put on a bitter smile, even as he felt the same.

Adepts could be considered high-energy creatures with the bodies of humans. Their bodies perpetually called out to the environment and communicated with it. The magical energy scattered throughout the plane constantly nourished their bodies, allowing them to maintain a state of high-magic.

When they arrived on this low-magic Goblin Plane, the concentration of magical energy in the space was so low that it was almost unbelievable. The magical power here was inert and a lot less lively than the energy back in their homeworld. It wasn’t as fresh.

That was why the adepts had this terrible feeling of needing to exert themselves just to get air into their lungs.

Another dozen seconds passed by before Mary was able to get somewhat used to the ’filthy’ and ’inferior’ air of the Goblin Plane. She left Greem’s embrace and could finally move about freely.

”Billis, you did extremely well!” Greem picked up the exhausted metal ball and turned to look at Bug Adept Billis, who was bowing to him, ”Now, bring us to your hiding spot! I need more comprehensive first-hand information on the Goblin Plane.”

”Sir, everything has been prepared!” BIllis’ bug head under the shadow of his hood revealed the traces of a wicked smile, ”Please follow me!”

Billis turned and walked towards the forest.

Greem and Mary also donned their cloaks and pulled the hoods over their heads. They then followed along without a word.

They had no choice but to keep such a low profile to avoid being surrounded by the natives.

They’d had a Sixth Grade Great Adept helping them when they entered the Knight’s Plane in the past. That was why the spatial ripples hadn’t spread out that far. However, this time, they were practically traveling without hiding their tracks. Without an adept’s tower to conceal the commotion, the intense spatial flux could spread as far as several thousands of kilometers away.

Trying to hide this teleportation from the natives was only a pipe dream. It would only be possible if all the goblins in a radius of thousands of kilometers were blind and deaf. Therefore, Greem couldn’t wait to relocate the moment they arrived and head to the hiding spot that Billis had prepared in advance.