Age of Adepts

As expected, Greem obtained information on the Second Grade fire dragon he wanted from Gazlowe.

Bamler Borratec. Second Grade fire dragon. Dragon Lord of the Searing Canyon in the Burning Plains, ten thousand kilometers away from the Stonetalon Mountains where the metal fortress was.

In all honesty, if it weren’t for Philipa inviting the dragon, Greem’s influence would not have extended to such a distant place, even in three to five years. Naturally, he would not have gotten in contact with this Second Grade fire dragon.

Now that they had a clear target, Greem no longer hesitated. He started ordering Gazlowe to gather information on Second Grade Fire Dragon Bamler Borratec as quickly as possible.

At the same time, Greem started to make the proper preparations for this dragonslaying expedition.

Fire dragons like this often lived in extremely harsh environments, such as volcanos or underground lava seas. Neither area was a place that ordinary individuals could set foot.

Greem’s combat power would not be affected in such an environment and would, in fact, increase tremendously. However, the other adepts in the clan would not enjoy such a boon. Their strength would be significantly limited there.

To prevent the clan adepts from being affected by the environment, they had to prepare things like fire-resistant equipment, magic-resistance potions, healing potions, and healing wands ahead of time. Of course, if they could get a map of the Second Grade fire dragon’s den before the fight started, their victory would be much more assured.

Greem handed this reconnaissance task to Old Fox Vanlier and two blood knights.

They would set off from the metal fortress and sneak all the way to the Second Grade fire dragon’s base. They would then have to find a way to abduct a dragonborn servant and obtain a map of the fire dragon’s palace through interrogation.

The task of collecting fire-resistant equipment was left to Snorlax.

As the future manager of the Crimson Clan’s finances, such a minor task was his responsibility to complete!

Meanwhile, anything related to potions was left to Gargamel. He was a potions master, after all. Fulfilling the needs of the Crimson Clan was no problem as long as he had sufficient materials.

The few Second Grade blood elves that had joined the clan had just switched from nature affinity to blood affinity; they were still figuring out how to control their powers for use in combat. As such, they would not be participating in this dragonslaying expedition. Otherwise, they would definitely be the first casualties.

Apart from internal preparations, Greem was also trying his best to recruit external help.

Unfortunately, Third Grade Thunder Dragon Arms had no interest in victimizing his own kind. He firmly rejected Greem’s invitation. However, Greem personally suspected that Arms’ disinterest was purely due to his subordinates being emerald and green dragons. These two types of dragons were nature and forest dragons and wouldn’t fancy staying in a blazing land of fire that had no trace of green.

Even if he helped Greem obtain the Burning Plains and the Searing Canyon, both the spoils and territory would only belong to the adepts. Arms would get nothing.

Though this was a somewhat uncharitable suspicion, Greem believed this to be the actual answer, especially given his understanding of Arms!

After facing rejection from the thunder dragon, Greem could only place his hopes of reinforcement in the dragon-devouring female assassin– Oliven. He promised to retrieve only a suitable amount of dragon hide as well as the dragon crystal after killing the fire dragon. Oliven gladly agreed to this offer and hurried to the metal fortress.

Oliven hadn’t been idling about while Greem and the Crimson adepts were absent from Lance. She had been spending her days roaming near the dens of the various dragon lords. When she met Greem again, she immediately and very firmly requested to exchange this information for the Second Grade fire dragon’s dragon crystal.

After all, devouring the entirety of a dragon was the only way to provide Oliven with a noticeable increase in power. The evolution ability of a dragon devourer would be severely hampered if they couldn’t devour the fairly significant dragon crystal.

Trying to exchange a bunch of non-crucial information for a Second Grade dragon crystal they were bound to get? Greem was amused and almost laughed out loud at Oliven’s naivety.

It couldn’t be helped. Oliven spent her days roaming about in the wild and rarely ever interacted with others. Even though she was talented and intelligent, she couldn’t help but betray her low social skills.

Greem once again smiled and offered his conditions to this dragon-devourer who possessed the title of Dragon Hunter.

Join the Crimson Clan and become an official adept of the Crimson Clan!

As long as she did this, Greem would be willing to offer a Second Grade fire dragon crystal as her pay. Moreover, Oliven would be able to enjoy the same privileges as the other clan adepts from now on.

Oliven didn’t reject this offer immediately like she had last time. Instead, she spent a whole two weeks to think about it. The ruin of her family and the extinction of her kind had made her distrustful of all other people.

However, the temptation of a complete Second Grade fire dragon was too immense. Oliven had practically suffered through these two weeks with minimal amounts of sleep.

In the end, Oliven could not resist the urge and desire to grow stronger and agreed to Greem’s conditions.

Unbeknownst to the outside world, the Crimson Clan had recruited yet another strange Second Grade– Dragon Devourer Oliven.

In all seriousness, Oliven’s Second Grade power was very much inflated!

If she was fighting against a dragon, there was no doubt that she would be able to unleash the strength of an advanced Second Grade. However, if she weren’t dealing with a dragon but a Second Grade adept, Oliven would be no more than a beginner Second Grade female assassin.

Moreover, according to the employment agreement signed between the two parties, Oliven refused to leave Lance. She was only willing to provide the Crimson Clan with the necessary fighting power on that plane. Greem didn’t push too hard on this matter. After all, the Crimson Clan was not facing an imminent threat of war in the World of Adepts. Currently, most of their efforts were still invested in Lance. As such, their goals were essentially the same.

…………

Burning Plains, Searing Canyon.

It was a land that was perpetually burning.

Everything on the ground that could ignite had already been burned to ashes. The only things left were a field of red-hot rocks and a thick layer of ash.

Dense volcanic clouds floated two hundred meters above the ground, turning the sky dark and gray. The sun hanging in the sky was like a dark red fireball, slowly radiating heat and light without any of its usual warmth and gentleness.

Walking on this scorching land that could catch fire at any moment was an intolerable experience. Even the air that one inhaled was unbearably hot and scalding. An ordinary person would probably have all of the water in their bodies drained away by the heat in less than half an hour, leaving only a dry and cracked corpse behind.

The only things that could survive in this land were fire magical beasts or elementium creatures. All other living beings had either migrated or turned into someone’s lunch.

Either way, there was no point in living in a place like this without exceptional fire resistance!

Newcomers to this land often thought of the Burning Plains as a dead zone where life could not bloom and where deathly silence reigned supreme.

However, when they entered the Plains, they would be shocked to find countless creatures living in this harsh environment. There were large groups of intelligent lifeforms among them, like the Blackiron Dwarves, the Firethroat Dragonborn, Flamebelly Ogres, Blackstone Orcs, and countless other magical creatures such as Magma Beasts, Lava Beetles, Magma Elementals, and many other elementium creatures with limited intelligence.

As the subordinates of the Second Grade Bamler Borratec, the Firethroat Dragonborn were the undisputed rulers of this place. Meanwhile, the Blackstone Orcs and the Blackiron Dwarves were only subordinate forces of the Firethroat Dragonborn, helping them maintain their rule over the Burning Plains.

Meanwhile, Second Grade Fire Dragon Bamler Borratec hid deep within the Searing Canyon.

The so-called Searing Canyon was just a fissure that had opened up in the center of the Burning Plains.

A long and narrow fissure had been opened in the ground here. Looking down from above, one could still see the roiling lava a thousand meters below. Bamler’s den was constructed in the side of a wall just one hundred meters above the sea of lava.

Under the oversight of the dragon, the Blackiron Dwarves had only managed to dig out a winding labyrinth there after losing a hundred of their own. The bedroom of the fire dragon lord was located at the end of the labyrinth.

In all truthfulness, Old Fox Vanlier had not been able to obtain a map of the fire dragon’s labyrinth, even after he had tried his best. According to the dragonborn guard they had captured, the Second Grade fire dragon lord had devoured all Blackiron Dwarves and dragonborn guards in charge of constructing the labyrinth once it was completed.

Moreover, Bamler had set up a fearsome number of magical traps and alarms inside the labyrinth.

It was to completely prevent the possibility of outsiders trying to get at his hoard!

Sadly, regardless of how many traps and murder weapons Bamler had prepared, he could not extinguish Greem’s determination and resolution to kill him and take his hide.

However, the only flying ship they possessed been lost in Faen Plane. That caused the Crimson Clan to lose their ability to drop magical machine squads. Marching tens of thousands of kilometers to the Burning Plains with an army of magical machines and crossing through seven or eight dragon lord territories while they did so was an impossible task.

That was why Greem quickly gave up on the idea of a war. He instead chose to carry out this dragonslaying expedition as a rapid execution with an elite group!

The participating adepts were naturally the current Second Grade main force of the Crimson Clan.

As the leader and commander of this operation, Greem was naturally taking part. The other participating adepts included Mary, Zacha, Tigule, Oliven, Bug Adept Billis, and the two blood knights.

This group could be said to be the strongest force that the Crimson Clan could bring out!