Age of Adepts

Year 32,856 of the Era of Adepts. The 12th day of the 5th month of the year.

The first group of goblin apprentices that had been recruited passed through the interplanar portal and appeared in the public teleportation room on the first floor of the White Tower.

Little Locke was the youngest among these goblins.

Short statures half that of a human’s, wide feet, coarse, dark green skin, crooked noses, and large, limp ears; this was how green goblins ordinarily looked.

Little Locke might have been more handsome than most, but all goblins looked the same to other races. He didn’t appear to be any different from his peers.

Sadly, even with the forcefield barrier of the tower, most goblins were still pressed against the cool floor by the vast and profound planar consciousness the instant they appeared in the World of Adepts. Many frail goblins had even fainted without a sound already.

The individuals in charge of the teleportation seemed to be prepared for such a scene. Several young men and women in apprentice garb walked into the teleportation array and fed the goblins some sort of blue potion. Meanwhile, they did not do anything to those who were still conscious.

Little Locke had always been an individual with a healthy body since he was a kid. Though he also felt that ubiquitous and constant heavy pressure crushing down on his body and spirit, he still managed to endure it successfully and did not fall unconscious.

When he saw a young human girl feed a companion beside him that blue potion, causing the companion to wake up immediately, Little Locke couldn’t help but lick his lips in envy. He asked softly, ”I…can I also…drink…have a drink?”

Little Locke was stuttering, but he was using the common language of the World of Adepts.

Ever since the adepts had conquered the Goblin Plane, the language of the adepts had become a higher language that all upper-class citizens of the Goblin Empire had to master. Little Locke was very fortunate. His brilliance and intellect allowed him to be one of the first chosen to travel to the World of Adepts.

The apprentice was a young and pretty female. Her slender figure was visible under the thin cloth robe. Her personality also appeared to be very gentle and kind. She was not showing any signs of discrimination against these ’lower’ slaves from another plane.

”You don’t need to drink it. The fact that you can resist the suppression of the planar consciousness with your own Spirit is more than enough proof of your excellent Spirit potential. Try your best to etch this odd feeling into your heart. It will be the key to your future development.”

The female apprentice’s voice was gentle and sweet, causing Little Locke’s panicking heart to once again calm down.

It was a whole seven minutes later before all the goblin apprentices were slowly moved out of the teleportation array under the instructions of an adept. Soft sobbing could be heard from the party. There were still five of their companions who had not managed to endure the planar suppression and had died.

It was only a result that had come to be due to the tower’s forcefield weakening part of the suppression. Without the tower, a good half of these goblins would have died immediately.

After all, the World of Adepts was a major plane that was several tens of thousands of times stronger than the Goblin Plane. The high-magic environment and planar pressure here were no different from putting these lifeforms of a lower plane on a roller coaster. Those with slightly weaker Physique would be instantly eliminated!

There were as many as forty goblins that had been teleported over this time. Not counting the five that had just died, there were still thirty-five goblins. There were some among them who were experienced veteran goblin engineers, as well as some well-trained goblin technicians. However, the majority of them were still intelligent, bright, and talented young goblins.

As adept servants that had been chosen to serve here, they were allowed to live on the bottom floor of the tower. There, groups of five goblins were assigned a stone room. There was nothing else in there apart from some simple wooden beds and a shared wooden table.

The young female human apprentice that Little Locke had just become acquainted with was Eco, and she lived on the second level of the tower. The treatment of the apprentices was far better than the young goblins. They had their rooms to themselves, and there were far more places in the tower that they could go.

As adept servants that had just joined the clan, the first thing that Little Locke and the other goblins had to do was systematically learn the language of the World of Adepts. They would also have to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the situation of the World of Adepts, along with its ores, plants, and animal resources.

In all honesty, having this large group of goblins sit on towering stools where their feet couldn’t touch the ground and follow along the language teacher’s lesson to learn a new language was a different kind of struggle and suffering. Outsiders could hardly imagine how tough it was. Moreover, there were many old goblins with white hair and muscular goblin technicians in this group.

Having such a group of goblins of different ages, backgrounds, and professions enunciating the language of the adepts in their strange accents was truly a hilarious scene.

Though the learning ability of most goblins caused plenty of trouble for the human scholars who had come to teach them, brilliant young goblins like Little Locke still won the unanimous praise of all the teachers.

At the personal interruption of an adept from the higher floors of the White Tower, seven goblins–Little Locke chief among them–were chosen. They were moved to the second floor of the tower and started a life of apprenticeship much like the other human apprentice adepts.

At this time, it had only been one and a half months since Little Locked had arrived at the White Tower. The second batch of forty goblins arrived at the teleportation array.

…………

The Magical Hall of the eighth floor of the White Tower.

Meryl was staring into the monitoring crystal on the wooden table along with Snowlotus. It was the scene in the teleportation array on the first floor that was being displayed in the crystal. Old Fox Vanlier, as the aide to the majordomo, dutifully waited to the side.

”Cough, another six goblins died again.” Mery looked at the collapsed goblin in the array, swept across with her Spirit, and gained precise knowledge of the outcome.

”It can’t be helped. After all, they don’t have an actual adept’s tower over on the Goblin Plane. Without the ability to reduce the power of the planar teleportation, it is only natural that the goblins who have weak bodies or Spirits die!” Snowlotus’ cool gaze swept across the monitoring crystal as well. She then asked curiously, ”What is it that that teacher of yours is planning? Having these goblins learn alongside our witch apprentices; this…if the Witch Council learns of this, the conservative old hags would not rest until they came here and razed White Tower.”

A faint smile appeared on Snowlotus’ face as she said this. It seemed she was already imagining the furious and exasperated looks on the faces of those conservative witches.

”My teacher was quite clear in what he meant! Goblins who pass the test and meet the Spirit requirements will be trained as apprentice adepts for a moment. Meanwhile, those who did not meet standards will be expelled from the tower and be made to go work in those…in those high-energy food processing plants.”

The intent to smile grew even more in Snowlotus’ eyes when she heard the tower’s majordomo pronounce these odd words with such difficulty.

That odd male adept always came up with fantastical ideas. For example, the magic-energy food processing plant that Greem was pushing for this time targeted those ordinary mortals with no supernatural powers. More specifically, it was targeted at middle to low-class human nobles.

The White Tower neighbored the Black Forest. It had an unprecedented wealth of magical creature resources!

The adepts and apprentices in the past only needed to hunt enough to fulfill the food requirements of the White Tower itself. As for specially processing some of the magical creature meat to provide for the human nobles, there was no such precedent.

After all, the World of Adepts centered around the adepts. All considerations of benefits were also based on the adepts. Setting aside the adepts and providing ordinary human nobles with high-energy magical creature meat was something that no one had ever attempted.

After all, there was practically no interaction between adepts and mortals in the World of Adepts!

The adepts were rulers, whereas the mortals were ants and sheep resting beneath their feathers. The human nobles were no more than shepherd dogs helping the adepts manage the sheep. To have a noble adept lower their minds and think from the perspective of nobles and mortals, was something practically impossible!

Though some low-grade adepts in desperate situations might lower themselves to be magical advisors to major nobles, they were few and far between. Fellows like them that had lost their dignity as adepts were also excluded from the social circles of mainstream adepts.

However, an up-and-coming Second Grade fire adept and rising clan leader like Greem was not thinking about socializing with other adepts and was instead thinking about how to ’serve’ those lower human nobles? This was truly somewhat beyond Icelady Snowlotus’ expectations!

What did the nobles have?

Wasn’t it just some shiny gold coins, ugly oil paintings, vases, and animal hides? What use was it to obtain this ’trash’ from them through trade? It was important to note that the only real currency among adepts was magical crystals.

That was why Snowlotus couldn’t help but be confused by Lord Greem’s thoughts, so much so that she even found them ridiculous and funny. Still, the Crimson Clan was his. The White Tower was his. Whatever it was that he wanted to do, she should just let it be.

Snowlotus was basically watching every development of the White Tower with the curious attitude of a bystander!

”Lady Snowlotus, how are the civilians you have been recruiting on your side?”

”Don’t worry about it, Adept Meryl. Leader Alice has been very concerned with the plan after I sent news of it back to the Tower of Fate. She has already started conscripting civilians from the few nearby subordinate territories. The first group of civilians to migrate over will arrive in two months; they will number three hundred. You guys had best have the preparation work completed by then.”

”Three hundred people? Two months?” Meryl couldn’t help but mumble and repeat the numbers. Old Fox Vanlier, on the other hand, immediately started moving his brush and recording the numbers.