Age of Adepts

Dragon blood?

A commotion rose throughout the market as if everyone had been alerted by the flame giant’s roar.

Several fire creatures gathered toward them, sniffing and sensing the strange dragon aura in the air.

Greem waved with his hand, and an agile mini-dragon emerged from the clay jar at the behest of his powerful fire energy. The dragon circled in the air, spit out a small stream of fire, and slowly dispersed.

“It’s dragon blood! It’s Second Grade fire dragon blood!”

There were some individuals who possessed a good eye among the surrounding fire creatures. There was an unconcealable surprise in their voice when they spoke up as well.

Just as the flame giant’s face lit up with mad joy, the expression of the flaming demon turned dark.

“Trade. I’ll trade,” The flame giant lifted his hand as massive flame halo engulfed Greem and himself, “Hi, little guy, I’m called Mansur. How do you intend to make this trade with me?”

Greem looked around, and his Chip informed him that this fire halo simultaneously possessed the ability to defend and isolate all information. He couldn’t help but be impressed by the godly mastery of fire creatures over fire skills.

“I have two and a half kilograms of fire dragon blood here, and it is blood from a pure-blooded Second Grade fire dragon.”

The joy in the flame giant’s blazing eyes thickened.

The fire dragons were undoubtedly the most ancient and long-lasting among all magical fire creatures. There were very few magical creatures whose blood contained as dense a fire aura as them. If their descendants were to offer fire dragon’s blood during the enlightenment ceremony, Mansur was confident that they would most definitely be able to obtain one or two decent fire talents.

It was important to note that even the descendants of the most powerful of flame giants had a chance of failing when they attempted to awaken into a flame giant. Once they failed, their bloodline would vanish, and they would devolve into ordinary elementium fire spirits.

However, if they used this fire dragon’s blood, the chance of failure would be reduced to its minimum, and there would even be a chance that they would obtain some decent fire talents from the ancestral flame spirit.

As such, the previously cold flame giant Mansur became extremely excited. In fact, he was the one who was afraid that something might happen during the trade.

Greem hesitated for a moment and finally offered a decent price.

“One Essence of Fire for every half a kilogram of fire dragon’s blood.”

Flame Giant Mansur rubbed his hand with a bit of pity. This price might not have exceeded his expectations, but it was still a trade that was well worth it.

It was important to note that Essences of Fire might be valuable, but one could always find them in those fire fields if they were patient enough. Moreover, Essences of Fire did not provide pure fire creatures like themselves with as much benefit as they did to outsiders.

However, a fire dragon’s blood was completely different.

The two might both be Second Grade fire materials. However, the scarcity of the latter made fire dragon’s blood much more valuable than the Essence of Fire in the Fire Elementium Plane. Thus, Mansur was still basically satisfied with the price that this human adept had offered him.

The two individuals exchanged the goods on amicable terms and put away their ‘spoils’ with much satisfaction.

Flame Giant Mansur suddenly reminded Greem before the flame halo dispersed, “You are that human adept from the World of Adepts, aren’t you? Be careful, little guy. There are quite a lot of people nearby who are looking for you. Remember to run faster once you leave the market. Of course, if you run into any trouble, you can seek shelter at my tribe. Remember, my tribe’s settlement is at…”

Greem’s heart trembled.

He had been constantly worried about falling into the enemy’s trap ever since entering the Fire Elementium Plane. However, that had only been conjectures of his own after all. He couldn’t verify the truth that there was a trap set up for him. However, the flame giant’s words were the first time Greem’s guess had been verified.

The mission to assassinate the Fire Lord was indeed a conspiracy. If he directly went to the territory of that Fire Lord as per the agreement, what awaited him would be an entire army of blazing elementals.

Greem sighed softly. He couldn’t help but be concerned for the latter half of his journey.

Once the flame halo had dispersed, Flame Giant Mansur nodded at Greem. The giant then strode out of the fire market and sprinted toward his tribe’s settlement.

Meanwhile, Greem was surrounded by a group of fire creatures that had been waiting the whole time. Among them were some of those fearsome Third Grade fire creatures.

“Human, do you still have fire dragon’s blood in your possession?” An exceptionally large magma giant pushed aside the others and loudly asked.

This magma giant had the power of a Third Grade. Red magma and rolling flames formed its entire body. It was ten meters tall, and the ground rang when it walked. Ordinary small creatures couldn’t even stand straight within twenty meters of it.

“I still have one kilogram left!” Greem didn’t lie to this group of eager fire creatures.

Fire creatures might have been violent, impulsive, and prone to fight at any time, but they had a certain stubbornness for obeying the rules of trade that outsiders couldn’t easily understand. Though they were extremely anxious, they would not interfere before they finished the deal. That was why the Third Grade magma giant had waited until the flame giant was done, despite being significantly more powerful.

From this aspect, fire creatures seemed to emphasize the holy rules of trade much more than most intelligent beings. At the very least, one could not see any robbery or forced trades happening within this fire market.

“One kilogram…very well, it’s a bit less than what I wanted, but it’s still enough for my purposes!” The magma giant grumbled in resignation, “Little guy, look at this thing. Do you need it?”

The magma giant stuffed his large hand into his body and retrieved a two-meter-long fireplace poker from within.

Greem looked at the object carefully, and the Chip very quickly determined its true nature based on the information it had gathered.

Fire Coral Magma Staff!

It was an elementium staff that could significantly enhance a fire caster’s offensive power. Due to its body being forged out of fire coral magma, its toughness was even superior to some heavy weapons. Using it to smash enemies during close quarters combat was not a bad choice.

According to the Chip’s estimate, this fire coral magma staff could provide a 15-25% bonus to offensive power. That was already an excellent effect!

Greem thought for a moment but shook his head in the end.

The magma giant didn’t give up either. It chuckled and stuffed the staff back into his body. It then took out a handful of Second Grade fire cores. There seemed to be five of them.

Greem shook his head even quicker this time.

Second Grade crystal cores might be valuable, but he had all the time to collect them while he was in the Fire Elementium Plane. He didn’t need to exchange them for the precious fire dragon’s blood.

The magma giant started to get more nervous as if knowing that it was almost hitting the bottom of his reserves.

The third time, it took out a magma talisman from his chest.

“Little guy, this is a magma talisman that has been etched with my soul aura. As long as you hold this talisman, you can summon my soul projection to fight for you. Each magma talisman can only summon a soul projection once. The projection will last for fifteen minutes, and its Strength will be approximately Beginner Third Grade. This…should be enough for all your remaining dragon blood, eh?”

Greem’s eyes lit up as he shouted, “Two magma talismans! I want to exchange for two magma talismans!”

The magma giant started to laugh, “Human adept, don’t be too greedy. Your dragon’s blood is a Second Grade material at best. Meanwhile, my magma talisman, that’s a Third Grade item.”

Greem took out another jar without hesitation, “Two kilograms for two talismans. That’s fair now, isn’t it?!”

The magma giant was stunned for a moment before breaking out into laughter, “You outsiders, always so sly and greedy! Very well, very well. Two it is then!”

The magma giant took out a firestone from his body, shaped it into a talisman, and then blew a sliver of pure golden fire into the thing. A short moment later, a new magma talisman had been completed!

Greem passed the two kilograms of fire dragon’s blood to the magma giant and took the two heavy magma talismans. He then had the Chip perform a quick scan of both of them.

[Beep. Two strange soul brands discovered. Initial estimates suggest these to be soul projection equipment. Said talismans are 8.5 kilograms heavy, while the soul projections are 825 points strong. These talismans allow the summoning of a weakened magma giant to fight for you.

Duration: 15 minutes.

Soul Projection Grade: Beginner Third Grade.]

A Third Grade item; this was an authentic Third Grade item!

Though it was a one-use item and it only lasted for fifteen minutes, a Beginner Third Grade magma giant’s soul projection could help Greem with a lot of things. For instance– instantly crushing a certain annoying Fire Lord.

After obtaining what he needed, the magma giant left the fire market.

Greem could only regretfully explain to the remaining fire creatures that he had no more dragon’s blood left. Everyone only reluctantly scattered then.

Just as Greem turned to leave the fire market, the flaming demon’s hoarse voice rang out by his ear.

“Hey human adept, do you want to make a trade with me?”

Greem stopped and slowly turned to stare at the abyssal demon clad in hot flames.

“What can you give me? And what do you want to get out of me?”

The flaming demon’s attitude was extremely enthusiastic, “Human adept, there’s no need to be so guarded. You should know that we all came to this rural place because we are looking for the rare fire materials here. It’s rare that I get to meet a friend from the World of Adepts here. Why not we take the opportunity to trade for what we each need?”

Greem hesitated for a moment and finally dispersed the flames covering his face and revealed his true face. He proudly said, “Let’s officially get to know each other. I am Greem from the World of Adepts and the Clan Leader of the Zhentarim Crimson Clan!”

The flaming demon chuckled, “I, Guard-Captain Kzoyde of Prince Gerobarrick, am at your service!”