Age of Adepts

The Skettis Region.

The City of Oss.

Greem got off the ship at the closest public city to Molten Fire City– Oss, as was agreed in the contract.

Neither the old adept nor the young adept couple could be seen on the ship; they had probably gotten off the ship during the trip while Greem was meditating!

Greem’s massive Spirit swept across the flying ship and instantly picked up on everything happening within. In fact, even adepts who did not activate defensive forcefields could not escape his mental senses.

Ordinary First Grade adepts did not feel his spiritual scan. Only some more spiritually sensitive Second Grade adepts could faintly detect something odd in the air. Still, even these people could not capture the source location of this Spirit.

The adept in charge of the flying ship might have discovered something, but out of fear of the might of a Third Grade adept, he would not take any action as long as Greem didn’t cross the line.

Greem slowly walked off the flying ship on the plank along with the rest of the crowd.

A massive and prosperous adept city laid before his eyes.

Zhentarim, at the center of the continent, was made up of thirty-one different regions.

The smaller regions were approximately seven to eight hundred thousand square kilometers in size, while the larger ones could stretch for millions of square kilometers. Their land was vast and wide, their resources rich and plentiful, and their population made up for over sixty percent of the entirety of the Continent of Adepts.

Under such circumstances, almost every region was a whole new world of its own.

The local rulers might still be mortal humans, but their species, skin color, language, and culture were vastly different from the other regions. However, under the rule and management of the adepts, the language of the adepts, based in the Sendt language, had become the official language of the entire continent.

Ordinary civilians naturally had no right nor energy to learn this unique language. Only the nobles could start learning the adept’s speech at a young age, cultivating their young into excellent talents in the adept civilization.

Of course, if a child of an ordinary human family were found to possess adept talents, then this family would experience an overwhelming change.

The local nobles would fight for the chance to sponsor this child’s study at an adept’s tower or academy. If the child were lucky enough to become an adept, any slight bit of reciprocation would be a brilliant opportunity for the local noble to rise to a higher power.

It was the existence of these situations that made the local nobles willing to go to bloody war to take an apprentice with excellent talent under their wing.

Some more influential nobles even put their children into adept academies while they were very young. If their child had a talent for magic, they could continue studying in the academy. If they didn’t have the ability, they would remain there and try to socialize with as many apprentices as possible to find a suitable target for investment.

The superior group that was the adepts was tightly linked to the massive noble system in this manner, making for an interesting and unique ecosystem seen in every region.

Greem had just gotten off the flying ship when a luxurious and extravagant silver carriage stopped before him.

The person who got off the carriage was a Second Grade adept in a black robe. Pinned to the adept’s chest was a fancy insignia with a black base and red pattern.

Judging from the design of the insignia, he came from Molten Fire City, the people who had invited him here.

“You must be Lord Fire? Lord Karak has already given me orders. I have been waiting here for you for three days. If you have no other business, Lord Karak wishes that you can arrive at Molten Fire City as soon as possible.”

Greem lifted his head and looked at the City of Oss in the distance. He could only regretfully say his farewells to this city in his heart.

“I have nothing else to do. Let us set off now!”

The two adepts boarded the silver carriage and rode out of the landing zone. They turned onto a gray road and quickly hurried northeast under the escort of a hundred strange cavalry.

Greem quickly scanned these riders when he got on the carriage. The attributes of these soldiers promptly appeared before him after the fine spiritual scan.

Lizard cavalry. A select group of armed forces at intermediate First Grade. They were composed of cave lizards and human knights.

These lizard riders were clearly on the frailer side when it came to their physique. Though they were protected by an elegant set of chainmail on the outside, they were ill-suited to ferocious charges on the battlefield. However, there were flesh pads on the feet of the cave lizards they rode. These flesh pads could form tiny suction cups, not only allowing them to travel in absolute silence, but also allowing them to make it across most obstacles. In particular, they excelled at sprinting across narrow and rugged terrain.

These lizard riders all carried custom-made tooth spears in their hands. The handle of the spear was only a mere three feet long, while the blade itself was six feet. The edge was filled with plenty of barbs and spurs, while the tip of the blade had a foot-long blood groove. They gleamed with a cold, blue light.

Be it the chainmail or the weapons; all this equipment was enchanted. They posed a decent threat, even to adepts.

Moreover, judging from their standard-issue armor and weapons, Molten Fire City must command tremendous influence around the local area. Otherwise, there was no reason they could have sustained such large-scale biological modifications on the lizards.

Meanwhile, the Second Grade adept responsible for receiving Greem showed no signs of fear or hesitation when meeting with a Third Grade adept like himself. Instead, he started talking and communicating very confidently.

From his introduction, Greem learned more about this strange adept organization known as the Molten Fire City.

The headquarters of Molten Fire City was located in a stretch of volcanoes in the northeast area of Skettis.

Much like the Crimson Clan, they were a large organization that ruled over the entire Skettis Region.

The lord of Molten Fire City was a Fourth Grade adept who had three deputies beneath him, all who were at Third Grade. Meanwhile, there were over two to three hundred contracted and hired adepts living in Molten Fire City.

This organization known as Molten Fire City was larger than the Crimson Clan in terms of scale alone. Moreover, the Skettis Region they ruled was a vast region with a massive area and plenty of resources, even when compared to the entirety of Zhentarim.

The Ailovis region that the Crimson Clan ruled was one of the small regions at the borders of Zhentarim. They could not possibly compare to the significantly developed Skettis Region in any aspect.

Greem couldn’t help but let out an internal sigh when he recognized this fact.

In all the adept wars of the past, the forces that had been devoured by the Crimson Clan were only small organizations. Even the Kamala Clan was barely at the level of a mid-tier organization.

Defeating an opponent like this had made Greem gloat to himself for a bit. Now that he had ventured out of his own territory and compared his own power to other veteran forces, the juxtaposition caused Greem to develop a sense of danger.

There was much more to be done with regards to the development of the Crimson Clan!

…………

Molten Fire City.

After five days of continuous travel, Greem and the party finally arrived at the border of the volcanoes.

It was hard for ordinary carriages to travel through here. The Second Grade adept invited Greem onto a cave lizard, and they dove into a natural underground cave that had been further expanded upon.

Compared to the dark caves that Greem had been to in the past, it was clear that this place was highly developed.

Though there were large and small caves all along the way, obtrusive stalactites and stalagmites had been destroyed and taken away. Still, the rugged and uneven terrain made it extremely difficult for an ordinary person to travel. Only local creatures like the cave lizards could freely move through such an area with their unique abilities.

These cave lizards could even rapidly run across the ceiling and walls when they reached especially uneven areas. It was, perhaps, the main reason why Molten Fire City had tamed and modified cave lizards on such a large scale!

Greem could feel the temperature of the environment rapidly rise after he entered the cave.

In fact, he could even smell the suffocating scent of sulfur through the cracks and rifts all around them.

As a fire adept, Greem felt no disgust toward such a harsh environment; only an instinctual excitement and joy.

The Molten Fire City had modified the formerly dark underground area. Plenty of glowstones had been installed along the way, illuminating the cave with a dark red glow. There were nearly no subterranean creatures to be seen anywhere.

That was understandable.

As the main entrance and exit of Molten Fire City, it was only natural they would send adepts and apprentices to clear out the underground creatures regularly. As long as no underground creatures set up home nearby, there would be no large-scale activity around the area.

After traveling through these winding and uneven tunnels for two days, Greem and the other adept finally arrived at Molten Fire City. Of course, the organization had also set up four or five small outposts along the way. Judging from the population, they were almost at the scale of ordinary human villages on the surface.

Greem’s group had run into at least thirty or forty merchant groups along the way.

Their wooden chests and packs were filled with local products of Molten Fire City, from animal hides to herbs, ores, and ingots.

Unfortunately, there was no Queyras ore.

Greem was not surprised by this at all.

The value of Queyras ore was far, far beyond that of ordinary magical gemstones. If they were to be carted out for sale, Molten Fire City would never hire such a simple group to be responsible for it. Thus, the merchant groups he saw were only selling and purchasing inferior byproducts dug out from the mines.

The truly valuable Eternium and Queyras ores must have been kept in the hands of Molten Fire City. This ‘trash’ that came attached with the ores then became the precious products that the nearby human organizations would fight over.

It seemed Greem had to properly make contact with the leaders of Molten Fire City if he wanted to obtain Queyras alloy!