Age of Adepts

Battles between high-grade adepts were quickly decided, but it was incredibly difficult to kill an opponent.

If the enemy wasn’t completely cornered, it was nearly impossible to kill a Third Grade creature.

Thus, when Greem, Karak, and Yunid all stepped forward to surround the flaming tiger, the beast immediately turned and ran without hesitation.

If the mine were in its proper condition, the three adepts would have had more than enough means to deal with this damned tiger. However, all of the tunnels were now filled with thick and swirling lava. Greem was still doing fine, his speed almost unaffected, but Karak and Yunid could only be slowly left behind.

The three adepts and one tiger ran through the winding tunnels, playing their game of cat and mouse.

Seeing that they wouldn’t be able to catch the tiger, Greem let out a roar and shouted, “You guys keep chasing, I’ll run ahead and intercept it!”

Having said that, his body of flames exploded as he vanished.

Large amounts of fire elementium quickly gathered at the entrance of a cave somewhere in the distance and Greem slowly appeared.

The fleeing tiger immediately turned upon seeing his path blocked by his enemy. He turned and slipped right into a smaller tunnel by the side.

After a hundred years of constant excavation and digging, Mine Three was filled with tunnels that led everywhere like a spiderweb. It might be beneficial for the slave miners when they traveled down into the mine, but these tunnels had currently become the paths of escape that allowed the tiger to come and go as he pleased.

Greem teleported ahead of the flaming tiger several times to intercept it, but his efforts were always in vain due to Karak and Yunid’s failure to catch up in time.

Karak and Yunid were still waiting for Dorian to activate the arrays and trap the tiger in the tunnels. However, after fifteen minutes of pursuit, they still saw no signs of the arrays being activated and instantly knew that something had gone wrong on Dorian’s side.

Karak tried to contact Dorian while they continued their chase, but he got no response.

After several attempts, Adept Yunid also became frustrated at the situation.

“Greem, bring me along with you! We can split up and intercept the tiger.”

As Third Grade adepts that belonged to different factions, it was difficult for them to have perfect synergy and cooperation.

Yunid had only requested Greem’s help due to how furious she was. Otherwise, she would never let an unacquainted adept touch her body.

“Understood!” Greem responded. The elementium in the air instantly gathered, and he appeared beside Adept Yunid. He grabbed her by her left shoulder and immediately appeared in front of the flaming tiger’s path with Fire Teleportation.

Yunid freed herself from the disorientation of teleportation with her powerful Spirit the instant she appeared. The white staff in her hand quickly wove a tight golden web in the air that wrapped toward the tiger.

Cindral was terrified.

He easily sensed that the webs woven from golden lines faintly contained the aura of planar laws. They seemed thin and flimsy as if a single strike would tear the web to pieces. However, Cindral knew that if any part of his body were to touch the web, he would unable to escape today.

He leaped mid-run, and his body shimmered in the lava, vanishing from the spot much as Greem had. When he once again appeared, he was behind Greem and Yunid, sprinting once again.

Naturally, there was no reason the flaming tiger wouldn’t know how to use Fire Teleportation when Greem himself knew how to!

Dammit!

It was easy to cast the golden web, but it wasn’t so easy to take it back.

It would take at least two to three seconds to pull the web back into the staff. Obviously, Yunid couldn’t move during this time.

Greem had no choice but to abandon her and teleport to Adept Karak’s side, grabbing him and disappearing once more.

The tiger seemed to be prepared for Greem’s consecutive teleportations now.

He changed directions and ran without hesitation upon seeing Greem and Karak disappear. It caused Karak to start cursing furiously after appearing from the flames.

“Greem, only you can keep the tiger here now. Don’t bother with the two of us. First, catch up with the tiger and stall for time. We will arrive right after.”

Karak finally understood the situation at this point. Only Greem could fight with the flaming tiger in this harsh environment. The other adepts probably couldn’t catch up even if they tried.

To maximize Greem’s chances of success, Karak waved his hand, and a crimson orb flew toward Greem.

“This is the topographic map of the underground map. Keep the tiger here.”

Greem looked at the orb, and the Chip’s notification instantly rang in his mind.

[Beep. Data stream port detected. No security problems detected upon scan. Requesting instructions from host: Allow connection?]

“Connect!”

Greem brought the orb of light under his nose and sniffed. The light then seeped into his body.

The next second, a three-dimensional map of the weblike tunnels of the mine appeared in his mind.

Got it!

Greem was overjoyed.

All the circus and monkey act with Cindral was for this one moment.

Without the complete topographic map of the underground mine, he would not be able to know the exact location of the resource warehouses of Molten Fire City.

The mines?

What was in there?

Unprocessed and unrefined raw ores, gemstones, scrap, and a whole bunch of waste.

How could these things be of any use, regardless of how much Greem managed to steal?!

From the moment he arrived in Molten Fire City, Greem had set his sights on the ‘resource warehouses’ that very likely existed in the city!

It was a large underground mine. The daily amount of ore excavated from this place had to be tremendous. Transporting them to the surface for refinement and extraction and transportation them back to Molten Fire City for storage was very unlikely.

That was why there had to be an alchemy lab somewhere in Molten Fire City. It was very likely that metal ingots that had already been refined could be found there.

If metal ores were only small change that Greem couldn’t be bothered to work for, then these refined ingots were the precious treasures of Molten Fire City!

However, with Greem’s identity as an outsider, he would never have been able to get access to information such as the location of these warehouses, even if he were to scour all the famous locations of Molten Fire City. To avoid alerting or alarming Molten Fire City, Greem couldn’t attempt to get the information through Freina. As such, he had to rely on force.

As he turned into fire and chased after Cindral in the tunnel, he waited for further analysis results from the Chip.

Since Karak was willing to hand over the topographical map of the mines, he must have wiped away some extremely crucial information. However, Greem didn’t mind him doing so. With the Chip, he could find anything he wanted on the map as long as there were any slight traces left behind.

Mines One through Four looked like dense spiderwebs on the map. However, outside the spiderwebs, apart from the few tunnels leading toward the surface of Molten Fire City, there were three more subtly hidden tunnels.

The alchemy lab had to process a large number of metal ores daily; it couldn’t be too small. Moreover, the path to and from the lab had to be fast and easily accessible. There should also be a hidden path that led to the surface.

Combining all of this information and data, the approximate layout he got from his observations, and the topographical map before him, the Chip quickly and effortlessly locked onto an empty spot on the map.

With this information in hand, Greem instantly sent a message to Flaming Tiger Cindral, who he was still pursuing.

Cindral immediately turned back and started a fight with Greem.

The two of them ravaged the depths of the mine with their Fire Teleportations, flickering about like apparitions as they blasted each other with their attacks. Finally, they arrived at the location where Cindral had dug into the mines. Both Cindral and Greem charged into the sea of lava, moving further and further away as they tussled with each other.

The ripples and shockwaves from the depths of the lava sea caused the entire region to go into turmoil.

Karak and Yunid stopped at the point of entrance and looked at each other.

Keep chasing? With their speed in the lava sea, they would never be able to catch up to the two who were fighting inside. Give up on their pursuit? Greem was fighting for their sake now; giving up as the master of Molten Fire City was…

“Lady Yunid, I will have to trouble you with the task of helping Greem. I need to return to see what has happened to Dorian. It seems like something has happened on his end as well.” Karak quickly made up his mind, “Don’t worry, Lady Yunid. We of Molten Fire City promise that item will be delivered to your hands regardless of the results of the battle! You can trust our Molten Fire City to uphold that reputation.”

At this point, Yunid had no reason to object.

Moreover, with Greem holding back the flaming tiger, the risk she had to undertake was well within control. It was worth a risk!

“Good, don’t forget what you’ve said!”

After agreeing to Adept Karak, golden light spread out from Yunid’s staff, diverting the lava away from her. She then quickly charged into the depths of the lava with the barrier of light around her.

Though it was impossible to see anything in the lava sea, and even Spirits couldn’t search too far forward, the shockwaves from the battle in the distance still guided her way.

However, what Yunid didn’t know was that the two ‘battling’ in the lava sea were no longer Cindral and Greem, but Cindral and Greem’s fire clone.

At any rate, the distance between them and Cindral’s Third Grade power was more than enough cover to conceal the true identity of the Second Grade fire clone.

Meanwhile, the real Greem had turned into a cluster of flames, sneaking back into the mines. He avoided Karak and Yunid and quickly made his way to the location he had uncovered.

This intense battle instantly turned into a strange and unpredictable fight!