Age of Adepts

How was a Third Grade more powerful than a Second Grade?

If one were to analyze in simple and broader terms, it would be tremendous power, better Physique, higher speed, and frightening Spirit!

However, no adept would possibly increase their attributes in such a roundabout manner. There were always trade-offs and prioritization. As such, the elementium adepts prioritized Spirit, while giving some attention to Physique and altogether abandoning Strength and Agility. Meanwhile, body-refining adepts were split into three different categories. Some emphasized Strength, others Physique, and others, much like Mary, focused on Agility.

On the other hand, the specialization of bloodline adepts depended on what bloodline they had inherited.

If they inherited the bloodline of a Giant Raging Ape, their Physique and Strength would be enhanced immensely, while also making sure Agility didn’t lag behind. Spirit would be their only weak point. If they inherited the bloodline of a fire dragon, all of their attributes would be enhanced to a considerable extent. In particular, their fire magic would be uncontested.

However, such analysis was only a summary of the statistics of the adept and wasn’t sufficiently comprehensive!

One couldn’t forget that, as Third Grade adepts, these individuals had easily lived for several hundred more years compared to an average Second Grade adept. During these hundreds of years, they could use all the techniques and methods available to them to improve their base power and uncover more of their latent potential to walk even further on the path of magic.

That was why Morgana, as a Third Grade Coldwinter Witch, had not only extremely high Spirit, but also very decent numbers for the rest of her attributes.

Morgana. Advanced Third Grade.

Profession: Elementium Adept (Ice Specialization)

Bodily Attributes: Strength 24 | Physique 21 | Agility 16 | Spirit 37.

Profession Skills: Icecold Bloodline…

Even though Morgana was a Third Grade elementium witch, both her Physique and Strength had exceeded twenty points. That also meant she had a sturdy body no weaker than that of a Second Grade body-refining adept.

This way, be it in terms of endurance or regenerative powers, she was at the same level as a Second Grade body-refining adept.

Perhaps the only difference between her and a Second Grade body-refining adept would be their reflexes and close-quarters combat skills. She might not be able to win against a Second Grade body-refining adept in close-quarters combat without her spells, but her superior physical and elementium resistance was already at their level.

If she were to empower herself with some Third Grade spells, she could pick up a massive mallet and fight a Second Grade body-refining adept on even ground for hundreds of rounds.

Sixteen points of Agility also meant that Morgana’s running speed was about the same as Mary when she was at First Grade.

It might still be too slow against Mary, whose Agility was now at twenty-nine points, but it was more than enough in most battles.

In all honesty, if it weren’t for the speed bonus to her cast time from raising her Agility above fifteen points, Morgana would probably not have bothered investing her time into this attribute that had little to no effect on her combat prowess!

Meanwhile, Spirit was related to many things, including spell power, magic effect duration, magical effect trigger chance, and a series of other attributes.

With Morgana’s thirty-seven points of Spirit, any simple ice arrow from her hand, even without the enhancement of magical equipment, could reach three-hundred and seventy points of power. On the other hand, the Second Grade Ice Shield of a Second Grade elementium adept could only defend up to three hundred and fifty points.

Even an adequately defended Second Grade adept was as frail as paper in front of Morgana. Just a few simple instant-cast Third Grade spells would allow her to pierce through their eggshell and turn them into an ice sculpture.

With the physical and magical resistance of a Third Grade witch and the enhancement of other Third Grade spells, Morgana’s defense could easily reach six to seven hundred points. Even if she did not retaliate against a Second Grade elementium adept, the opponent would not be able to do anything against her.

However, all this had yet to factor in Morgana’s magical abilities!

It was important to note that Morgana was a Coldwinter Witch leader who possessed the Icecold Bloodline. All her ice spells were superior to ordinary Coldwinter Witches, be it in terms of power, radius, or effect.

If she were to activate her Icecold Bloodline, all of her ice spells would have no cooldown.

When that happened, she alone would be able to turn everything within five kilometers into a world of ice, void of life, in just thirty seconds.

The power of the Coldwinter Witches was well known even in ancient times!

Meanwhile, Mary, who had fought with Morgana, was a vampire who was close to peak Second Grade. She walked the path of a bloodline adept.

Mary. Peak Second Grade.

Profession: Bloodline Adept (Vampire).

Bodily Attributes: Strength 15 | Physique 17 | Agility 29 | Spirit 18.

Profession Skills: The Embrace.

It could be seen from their basic attributes that the distance between Second Grade Mary and Third Grade Morgana was vast. They weren’t even on the same level!

Of course, part of this had to do with Mary’s own profession abilities.

As a vampire adept, most of Mary’s profession skills manifested in the Embrace.

Unlike other adepts, Mary had the ability to create lesser descendants rapidly.

That was why those vampire descendants had to be taken into account when estimating her real combat power.

Currently, Mary had two advanced Second Grade blood knights, three beginner Second Grade blood elves, and an intermediate Second Grade blood dragon that was still in the process of recovering. Apart from these, she also had thirteen First Grade blood elves and nearly a hundred ordinary vampires.

If she could put all these subordinates to battle, Mary would be one of, if not the most, powerful individual among Second Grade adepts.

Still, though Mary’s power was immense, she was no more than an insignificant side character. She could be vanquished with the flick of a finger when compared to Third Grade Coldwinter Witch Leader Morgana.

However, with Mary’s extraordinary Agility, Morgana would have a hard time catching her without the use of geography or some outside force. After all, the twenty-nine points of Agility had given Mary extreme movement and reaction speed. Unleashed to their limits, most creatures in the world were static before her eyes.

That said, Mary had a hard time remaining in that intense condition for an extended period with her eighteen points of Spirit.

Judging from her short encounter with Morgana last time, Mary could only maintain that condition for five seconds. Five seconds later, she would be forcefully disconnected from this strange, ultra-sensitive state due to her Spirit being exhausted.

Otherwise, in a completely motionless world, even a mighty witch would not be able to escape death at her hands.

That short encounter with the Third Grade witch had taught Mary a lot. At the very least, she believed she had found a path of development that was extremely suitable for her. If she could make improvements to this ultra-sensitive state, her combat power would definitely improve exponentially.

Thus, Mary hid in her room after returning to the Tower of Fate and did not show herself again.

It seemed that she would not leave until she had completely figured out this strange new ability of hers!

…………

Silent Swamp.

The once terrifying magical swamp had now changed completely.

Massive storms ravaged the swamp, leaving piles of snow and shivering creatures wherever they went. Everything in the world was frozen into thick ice crystals.

The ferocious magical creatures gathered throughout the swamp had all turned into shivering lambs before a berserk Third Grade witch. Every single one of them was turned into an ice sculpture without the chance to retaliate.

The Silent Swamp now truly lived up to its name. It was an utterly quiet place with no life to be seen anywhere!

A destructive storm circled Morgana as she stood alone at the entrance to Dragonblight. She looked at the mysterious tower in the distance, unable to conceal the fury and anger in her heart.

A bunch of rats and they dared to use schemes and tricks to play around with her. Morgana’s humiliation was incomparable.

This month of defeat and failure was like a slap across her face every time she thought of all the insults she had hurled toward Alice during the Witch Council two months ago. Morgana could even imagine the disdainful looks of scorn the witch leaders would give her the next time she appeared at the Witch Council.

The pride of a Third Grade witch could not be tainted!

Morgana roared in her heart, and her eyes, filled with thundering fury, mysteriously turned a milky-white, much like the storm raging around her.

“Leader, you can’t go!” Cerro hurriedly led the other witches to Morgana. An expression of concern finally appeared on her cold and expressionless face.

Yet, when she saw Morgana’s terrifying eyes that had turned pure white from fully unleashing her magical power, Cerro knew that she could not stop what was about to happen.

Morgana had triggered her Icecold Bloodline now. If she didn’t unleash this fury within her, she might even hurt her own body.

The Coldwinter Witches looked at each other and had no choice but to step aside and watch as Morgana turned into a massive snowstorm and slowly walked into Dragonblight.

“Ryl, have the third Frost Guardian squadron come over from Enmis. Ceanas, you return to the clan headquarters and bring all the snow beasts over to Dragonblight. Circa, you lead the rest of them and stay by the leader’s side. Also, make sure to keep yourselves safe.”

The other witches quickly went into action with the orders of Deputy Leader Cerro. They got onto their brooms and hurried toward all the locations of their assignments.

They might possess the ability of temporary flight as Second Grade witches, but using magical flight equipment was still faster and more convenient for long-distance trips.

Meanwhile, Cerro herself continued to stand where she was. Finally, she let out a sigh and slowly vanished from the spot.