Age of Adepts

While Gazlowe and Zacha secretly negotiated, Alice and Greem also privately talked to each other in the corner of the hall.

”Greem, you had best prepare yourself!” Alice’s voice suddenly rang out in Greem’s mind, ”We might be facing the joint attack of the dragonborn and the goblins.”

Greem was slightly surprised. He immediately asked, ”Haven’t we already reach an agreement with that giant brain? What reason does he have to go against his word suddenly?”

”Because I currently hold the means to threaten his life in my hands,” Alice replied in a tone of helplessness, ”A selfish lifeform like him would never allow his life to be held in the grasp of someone apart from itself.”

Greem lowered his head and thought for a moment before asking another question out of curiosity, ”Alice, tell me the truth. Do we have a chance of winning this war?”

If the dragonborn hadn’t appeared, Greem would never lose hope for victory regardless of how savage the goblins were or how harsh the battle became. However, the appearance of the dragonborn had caused a delicate change to the nature of the war. The actions of the adepts in the past had always been a straightforward invasion of a foreign plane. All they had to deal with were merely a group of laughable monkeys that had put on the clothes of humans!

The adepts had always regarded the natives of lower planes with disdain.

Any plane that the adepts had set their sights upon could never escape the fate of being enslaved and conquered. Their struggling would only delay the eventuality and bring even more suffering for the native citizens. The conclusion would never change.

That was due to the massive disparity of power between the two planes!

However, the appearance of the dragonborn had turned the planar invasion into a contest of strength between two invaders. The World of Adepts that Greem and his subordinates represented might be infinitely stronger than the plane the dragonborn came from, but that didn’t mean that Greem and the others could defeat them.

”A Third Grade has appeared on the side of the enemy. It is currently guarding the planar door and slowly getting used to the planar laws here. Giant Brain Gazlowe’s control over the Steel Capital is also slowly increasing. If his mental consciousness can completely assimilate with the Steel Capital, it is very likely that he will ascend to Fourth Grade, becoming a unique and never-before-seen alchemical lifeform.” Alice was still smiling as she revealed the information she had gotten through her powers of Fate as if this wouldn’t terrify or shock Greem at all.

Greem fell silent for a second and insisted, ”I don’t care how severe the situation has become. All I want to know is if we have a chance of victory! Sabrina’s death has already caused us to lose an adept. I do not wish to launch me and my subordinates into a battle that we are destined to lose.”

It was now Alice’s turn to fall silent.

A short moment later, she spoke firmly.

”There is. We do have a chance of victory! You can leave the rest to me as long as you can bait the giant brain away from the space furnace for a short moment!”

Two clusters of fire ignited in Greem’s calm eyes when he heard Alice’s reply. He turned and cast his gaze upon the giant brain floating high above the space furnace.

It was clear that Giant Brain Gazlowe was keeping a tight guard over the space furnace to ensure Alice didn’t continue tossing unhealthy stuff into it. He was using his massive and strict mental consciousness to guard the area around the furnace firmly. Any external attacks were unlikely to reach the space furnace with this psychic barrier of his. Of course, this also included Alice’s short-distance spatial teleportation.

While Gazlowe might no longer need to worry about Alice’s tricks through this method, his body was also rooted to the spot. He couldn’t risk leaving the location for even a single moment. Otherwise, there was no reason that a Third Grade monster like himself needed to lower himself to negotiation with Second Grade Zacha just for the sake of killing a First Grade witch.

As such, Alice required the constant accompaniment of a bodyguard now. Giant Brain Gazlowe would always be on the lookout for an opportunity to strike and eliminate this damned witch that represented the biggest threat to him. As for the verbal agreement they had just established; placing faith upon an individual’s integrity in a situation of power imbalance was a laughable act in and of itself!

Perhaps because he sensed the strength in Greem’s eyes, the giant brain floating above the space furnace brandished his dozen brain nerves and laid down a few more mental barriers around himself. He cut off all possibility of teleporting into the interior of the space furnace.

As a new surge magic energy flowed into the planar hall via the pipes, Second Grade Dragonborn Zacha assembled his seventeen subordinates into a formation and led them in an assault towards Greem and his adepts. It seemed they were trying to rely on their overall strength to force the adepts out of the hall.

The adepts who were slaughtering the army of goblins promptly retreated in the face of these new enemies. They set up a simple perimeter in front of Greem. Greem also stepped forward and transformed into a giant flame humanoid in an instant. From a distance, he stood off against Second Grade Zacha from Rance.

If this were an ordinary enemy he was dealing with, Greem would have spared the small talk and immediately started the fight. However, the attitudes of adepts drastically changed when facing an individual that might be of a higher plane as well.

At the very least, the adepts demonstrated absolute rationality and restraint before these dragonborn!

”We are adepts of the Sarubo Clan of the Zhentarim Area of the World of Adepts. This world belongs to us. If you, sir, do not wish to start a planar conflict, then you had best remove yourself from this world immediately!” Greem didn’t seem to have any intention to retreat, even though this was his first time dealing with a situation like this. He displayed the usual arrogance and forcefulness of the adepts in his words.

Greem had intended to use the Greem Clan as their title, but in the end, he chose the Sarubo Clan for a better intimidation effect. After all, the Sarubo Clan still had a Sixth Grade Great Adept as their leader. Things would be much simpler if the enemy also recognized the Sarubo Clan.

However, if he claimed to be of the Greem Clan and allowed the enemy to immediately know that the ruler of the clan was only a Second Grade adept, the enemies would be a lot less apprehensive. They might even think of utterly exterminating his party!

Greem’s arrogant proclamation immediately evoked the rage of the dragonborn. They raised their electric spears in anger and roared in the slow and heavy-sounding Dragontongue to express their fury at the adepts.

Second Grade Dragonborn Scout Leader Zacha blinked with his four amber eyes of two different sizes; he carefully sized up the adept leader in front of him.

This was an elementium adept with the same grade as himself.

However, considering the low-magic environment of the Goblin Plane, the effects of the planar suppression should be a lot harsher on him. After all, the Dragonborn preferred to use their muscular bodies to crush their enemies, aside from their use of elementium powers. The adept, on the other hand, used only elementium as his means of attack. His physical strength wasn’t all that much and was much more affected by the environment they were in.

Even though they were both Second Grade, Zacha was extremely confident he could beat the adept while they were in the Goblin Plane.

It was because of this factor that Zacha still possessed a tremendous psychological advantage when facing off with the domineering Greem.

Zacha might be one of the smarter individuals among the Dragonborn, but his understanding of the mysterious adepts was still extremely limited due to his narrow world view. All he knew about the World of Adepts was that it was a terrifying large-sized plane populated with evil and villainous adepts.

They knew not what was mercy and justice was.

They would step out of their plane, endlessly going in search of weak lower planes before sending their evil and terrifying adepts to conquer those planes.

They exploited and robbed resources from every place they visited, taking the land for their own, scouring the civilizations for their knowledge.

They proclaimed themselves as the servants of knowledge, wandering everywhere in search of the truth of the world.

They were all knowledgeable and powerful individuals. However, the most fearsome factor about the adepts were their attitudes towards other races.

In the eyes of the adepts, there was no such thing as friends or companions.

The only thing that could keep adepts together was the promise of benefit and a common goal.

They could be wise sages debating with eyeglasses resting upon their noses. They could be butchers that slaughtered an entire race of tens of millions without batting an eye. They could be hardworking scholars spending their lives in tedious research and experiments.

Because there were so many mysterious facets to the adepts, Zacha couldn’t help but be on his guard when he first came face to face with an adept from the World of Adepts.

The Zhentarim Area? Sarubo Clan?

What were these?

He had only vaguely heard of three powerful adept organizations existing on the World of Adepts. The Zhentarim didn’t seem to be one of them. And who was this Sarubo person? Was he a Third Grade adept or a Fourth Grade?

However, these questions only lasted for a single second in Zacha’s mind before being answered by a ’Samaritan.’ Gazlowe, having stolen all the information from Sabrina’s mind, made the kind gesture of sending all information he had on Greem to Zacha. It was all to drive away Zacha’s fear and doubts.

A newly established adept clan that had yet to determine their name. The strongest of their group was the young Clan Leader Greem that stood before them right now. He was only Second Grade.

Dragonborn Scout Leader Zacha’s attitude towards Greem immediately changed with the introduction of this information.

”You want us to retreat and hand this world over to you? Kehkehkeh,” Zacha let out an unrestrained laugh, ”That will have to depend on whether you have the power to make us do so!”

Greem’s face forged of fire shone brilliantly. A terrifying and blinding red light spilled out of his eyes.

”If that’s the case, then let us battle to our heart’s content!”