Age of Adepts

The two-man act with Snorlax was all for the sake of stabilizing the atmosphere within the Goblin Plane.

There was no need to worry about the act falling flat with Tigule’s help and the Royal Family’s compromise. More importantly, the goblins themselves were also leaning toward peace after enduring so much pain and suffering.

Snorlax called for the lower class goblins to actively cooperate with the invaders and avoid more suffering for their brethren under the name of the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Thus, the spark of resistance had been doused before it had even started. Not a single inch of land continued to rage on with the fires of war.

The goblins were forgetful creatures as well.

They had quickly forgotten the great trouble and hurt that the evil adepts had created for the Goblin Plane. Instead, they obediently presented themselves before their invaders, becoming the butlers and accomplices of the adepts in the management and ruling of the Goblin Plane.

Greem had undoubtedly obtained a well-developed world upon receiving this large group of free labor, though it was also a low-magic world lacking in resources.

The resources in the Goblin Plane definitely couldn’t be said to be rich when compared to the World of Adepts. The thin concentration of magical energies in the plane resulted in a lack of magical creature resources, magic gemstones, and magical materials. Comparatively, the Goblin Plane was rich in metal reserves.

These metal reserves were mostly hidden deep underground and were often accompanied by minute amounts of magical gemstones. The plane as a whole could only be considered a resource-poor land for most adepts. However, Greem didn’t think it such.

In fact, Greem very much approved of much of Gazlowe’s development strategies on several different layers.

There were limits to the development of a mechanical civilization. A mechanical culture would have a hard time moving even one step forward once they hit the ceiling.

The greatest limiter that held back mechanical civilizations would be the energy crisis.

A mechanical civilization that wished to expand required some form of energy source that could sustain the entire engineering system. The use of the rare magic gemstones in the plane with high combustion-rate Anthracite was what allowed the goblins to prop up their steam-powered civilization.

The reason the goblin shredders and magic mecha of that time were so large was not to boast of the goblins’ craftsmanship. Instead, it was so that the goblins could store more coal and magic gemstones inside the machines. If the magical machines were too small, they wouldn’t be able to carry sufficient fuel with them to work for extended periods of time.

Things like coal and magic gemstones were a non-renewable energy. Moreover, the energy conversion rate was so low that it was frustrating.

These lowly forms of energy were barely enough for the goblins to defend their plane, let alone crossing planes and going to new worlds in search of new forms of energy.

In all honesty, Gazlowe was truly the one person amongst all the goblin engineers who had the vision and spirit to venture in pursuit of it!

It was because he saw the limits of the goblin mechanical civilization that he had made contact with so many higher planes in search of a way out of their predicament. He had hoped to obtain a path forward for the goblins through these foreign planes.

One had to mention that the space furnace Gazlowe had invented by combining the technology of various planes was unquestionably an epochal invention. It was the one invention throughout the history of the Goblin Plane that most deserved applaud and celebration.

The appearance of the space furnace was what propelled the goblin civilization into the age of magic energy.

From then on, the non-magical goblins could harness and use magic power as they liked!

Sadly, if Gazlowe hadn’t been so ambitious and had instead dedicated himself to his people, things would never have devolved to this point.

It was the age of magic energy that he had personally forged. Yet his own life had come to an end at this crucial moment in the Goblin Empire’s transformation.

Gazlowe could not resign himself to this ending. He had refused to give up just like this. He had wanted to personally drive the revolution, to witness firsthand the rise of the goblin civilization, and to see it grow to become a dominant force feared within the multiverse.

To extend his own life, Gazlowe had secretly put into motion that Project Immortality of his.

The reason he had invited foreign forces into the plane was all for the sake of turning them into sacrifices for Project Immortality. Sadly, the strength of the invaders far exceeded his imagination. The power he held was not enough for him to casually do as he wanted with the invaders.

As such, the conclusion to his story was the adepts biting back. He was buried in the destroyed Steel Capital along with the Third Grade thunder dragon and his group of dragonborn warriors.

The manner in which Gazlowe chose to execute his choice was too impatient and forceful. However, the direction he had decided to go in was not incorrect. In fact, one could frankly claim that he was the wisest and most visionary goblin leader and sage of the entire Goblin Plane!

However, the losers were still the losers in the end. With tremendous explosions, Gazlowe had been cast to the wind, and the world he had left behind became the stage upon which Greem could perform to the best of his abilities.

Greem was not a wastrel who would let something valuable go to waste.

Now that the goblins were as good as his, it was his priority to propel them into the age of magic energy.

Would it be all that difficult for him to invade another planar world if he had a sizeable magical machine army under his command?

The creation of a qualified combat adept in the World of Adepts took a long time, apart from the tremendous amount of resources required. Adepts had to undergo the arduous trial of being apprentices. On the other hand, a Goblin Empire that had entered the magic energy age would only require fifteen minutes and sufficient metal resources to build a magical machine with adept-level powers.

As long as the metal didn’t run out and the space furnace was still functioning, the magical machines would continue walking off the conveyor belts. They would become a terrifying magical machine army that fought Greem’s wars for him in foreign planes!

Greem, one by one, would realize the dreams that Gazlowe had put to pen. However, the appearance of these things had to be in service of Greem’s vision. That was the only precondition!

Sky Patrol Ship, Goblin Golem Dragon, Goblin Mortar, Goblin Pacemaker, Goblin Dragonlance, Dimensional Ripper, Thunder God Titan; these things would not be dreams for much longer.

The goblin magical machine army would become a terrifying force that swept through the multiverse under Greem’s lead!

As such, Greem worked hard on two things after stabilizing the situation in the Goblin Plane.

The first was creating a stable teleportation system to tie the Goblin Plane to his cause more securely.

The second was to start a reparative excavation in the destroyed Steel Capital.

That was a crucial component of Greem’s plan.

He had no choice. Almost eighty percent of all excavated Queyras ore had been transported to the Steel Capital under Gazlowe’s orders. Greem needed to dig up the Queyras metal buried underground if he wanted to build the space furnaces in large numbers.

Moreover, Gazlowe had also helped the dragonborn construct a planar door. That, too, was buried underneath the rubble.

These things couldn’t possibly be untouched after experiencing such a terrifying explosion. However, even if it were only a small fragment, Greem would still be able to obtain unexpected knowledge from another world if he dug them out soon.

In particular, there was a planar door that could be used even with the lowly civilization of the goblins. It was a ’great-quality product’ that Greem had been dreaming of. Greem would be able to strengthen the connection between his headquarters and the Goblin Plane with this, and it would make it easier for him to control the goblins.

Moreover, it was still unknown as to whether that explosion had actually managed to kill Third Grade Giant Brain Gazlowe and Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms. That was why it was best to explore as soon as possible and excavate the rubble as early as they could. Greem could only rest easy once they had confirmed the situation at the site of the explosion!

A radiation cloud a hundred meters in height, spanning five hundred kilometers, hung around the mountains after the explosion. Ordinary goblins would wither and die as their flesh melted off their bones within a matter of thirty seconds. As such, clearing away the radiation cloud was a must if they wanted to investigate the situation underground.

The goblins might be unfamiliar with this substance that was related to spatial energy, but this was no problem for the adepts, who had plenty of experience surviving in the space beyond the realms.

Greem returned to the World of Adepts and purchased Julu Grass from the Silver Union. He then squeezed the juice out of the grass and created a shower of rain above the Steel Capital with the use of magic.

The lingering radiation cloud finally started to fade under the strange scouring rain. Finally, a clean area of fifty meters was carved out within the dense grey sea.

The goblins used the one large flying ship they had remaining to transport supplies and machines to the cleansed area and began to set up a temporary excavation camp there.

Then, the goblins started a tireless dig downward in hopes of digging a hole that connected to the insides of the ruined Steel Capital. The adept representative that Greem had stationed here was Bug Adept Billis. Apart from Endor and Meryl, who had been kept behind to protect the teleportation device, all the other adepts had returned to the World of Adepts.

Greem would never have known the massive costs of ultra-long-range interplanar teleportation without personally experiencing it. Teleporting a single adept cost twelve thousand magical crystals on the part of Fire Throne. A Second Grade adept like Greem even required thirty thousand magical crystals per teleportation.

If he couldn’t find a free and powerful source of energy for the teleportation device on the side of the Goblin Plane, the costs of teleportation alone would be enough to make Greem go broke! And he had only just started amassing a decent amount of wealth!

Of course, Alice’s Tower of Fate could help share part of these costs for Greem. However, Greem’s machismo got the better of him. He gritted his teeth and decided to reject the help.

In truth, Greem also had a clear idea of the difficulties that Alice faced.

She might seem to possess plenty of assets and was supported by the accumulated wealth of the Tower of Fate from the past thousand years, but she did not have it easy either. After all, she had a large group of apprentice witches under her that required her to support, not to mention the one dozen magic fairies who kept a tight hold on the mountain of money that she should have.

A little bit of money here and a little bit there; despite being the leader of the Witches of Fate, Alice’s days were not much more comfortable than Greem’s.

That was why, after some thought. Greem decided to shoulder everything by himself!