Age of Adepts

It was deep into the night.

The Cedrac Mountains appeared particularly quiet under the lightless curtain of night. One could almost say it was void of life.

It had only been three days, and Greem and Katherine had fought each other nine times, creating nine death zones throughout the Cedrac Mountains.

The beasts and magical creatures of the Cedrac Mountains might not be all that intelligent, but even they became incredibly cautious and sensitive to their environment when under the constant threat of death. A disastrous stampede would break out wherever the two adepts set foot.

Whether beast, bird, or powerful magical creature, all the living beings would scramble to escape the area. None of them dared to remain near the two adepts for even a brief instant.

Moreover, over time, the two adepts’ analysis of Henvic’s planar laws progressed. The power they could unleash increased, and the destruction of the environment around them became increasingly terrifying.

During one of their battles, Greem’s Flamegate summoned thousands of fire creatures. They forcefully turned a valley in the mountains into an apocalyptic world of flowing lava and smoldering magma.

Combined with the unique geography of the valley, the Flamegate was likely to exist for a long time to come. The fire creatures that had traveled to the valley through the Flamegate would become the guardians of the location, stopping any creatures from approaching it.

Meanwhile, the two adepts that had created this new hazardous area paid no heed to the tremendous damage their reckless actions inflicted upon the Cedrac Mountains. They were still immersed in their intense fight.

They fought in the day, but there was no peace to come in the night either. Both parties would find all sorts of sinister and wicked means of assassinating and ambushing each other. Unfortunately, all of their attempts until now had failed!

Neither of the two adepts could end this war quickly. They had no choice but to turn it into an exhausting back-and-forth!

It was hard for both of them!

Greem started a bonfire at the foot of a snowy peak once night had fallen.

A wild boar that had unintentionally run into him was roasting above the fire.

Greem personally did all the work of skinning, gutting, cleaning, seasoning, and placing it on a spit above the fire. With the Chip’s assistance, he could come up with hundreds of recipes for roasting, cooking, and frying the boar at any time, turning himself into a world-class chef and the boar into a mouthwatering dish.

As Greem turned the spit and coated the boar with layers of sweet sauces, he lifted his head and looked toward the other spot of fire in the distance, his face filled with unconcealable joy over his opponent’s misfortune.

Another campfire was also burning furiously at the top of a mountain five kilometers away.

Unfortunately for the Blade Princess Katherine, it was not boar meat or wolf meat that was roasting above her campfire. It was snake meat. Moreover, judging from the colorful scales that had yet to be completely removed from the snake, Katherine was cooking a poisonous snake.

It wasn’t that Katherine disliked boar or wolf meant, but that she could not find any of them.

Though she had washed off all the tyrannosaurus feces on her, the unique stench had yet to vanish. It caused Katherine to be utterly unable to find any large creatures within five kilometers of her, regardless of where she went.

No large creatures meant no source of food. Though Katherine had brought some nutrition pills with her, those could only maintain her stamina and would not allow her severely exhausted Strength to regenerate quickly enough.

Adepts were powerful compared to an ordinary person, but their immense power also demanded replenishment through extravagant eating habits. Katherine might be as petite as the girl next door, but her appetite easily outmatched ten muscular men after a long day of work.

To make up for the lack of proper food over these days, Katherine had almost eaten all the rats and snakes in the mountains.

She wasn’t an elementium adept and could not naturally recover elementium power through meditation and sleep. She was a mechanical adept. The source of all her strength came from her Physique, and the recovery of Physique could not be divorced from the consumption of food and excellent sleep.

Consequently, her energy reserves had continuously been falling since she had entered the Henvic Plane. She had also suffered immensely over these few days of constant fighting against that damned male adept.

After devouring a few half-burnt snakes and slightly relieving the burning sensation of hunger in her stomach, Katherine took out a bit of her time to repair the magical weapons she had with her.

She took out some spare metal blades from her storage ring and replaced the ones that had been damaged during the day. Katherine also took out some magical materials and used the light of the campfire to repair her damaged parts and body slowly.

In all honesty, a pretty and petite girl taking out parts of her body like they were mere components to clean and maintain them before placing them back into her body under the flickering light of the campfire in the night was a horrifying sight to behold.

It sent shivers right down the spine!

Meanwhile, Greem was enjoying his feast while relying on the wind spirits he had sent out to spy on this powerful mechanical witch.

She was not a witch of the Northern Lands from the modern era!

At the very least, Greem had never heard of such a mechanical witch in the Nothern Lands!

Yet, she clearly bore the smell of an adept from the World of Adepts.

As such, Greem deduced that she was likely a stationed adept of the Nothern Witches in one of their many lesser planes. Moreover, she was an adept that had been specially trained for slaughter and assassination.

In all honesty, if Greem’s abilities had been even the slightest bit average, he would have been shredded to pieces by this mechanical witch. However, with the continued increase in his progress in analyzing the planar laws, Greem could unleash even more power.

Finally, a clear beep could be heard as Greem finally got the notification that he had been waiting so long for.

[Beep. Planar analysis complete. Progress 100%. Host’s basic power has recovered. Highest potential combat power will be 78.21386291% relative to the World of Adepts.”

Greem was not interested in the long series of numbers that came after the first two digits. Though the amount of his unlocked power did not reach the expected eighty percent, seventy-eight percent was still more than enough for him to work with.

He had always fought alone in the battles before this instead of using the elementium magical machine. It wasn’t because he wanted to train himself. Instead, his severely restricted Spirit was far below the required threshold to command the Third Grade elementium magical machine. Releasing it would have instantly drained him of all his Spirit.

Exposing such a glaring weakness to a mechanical witch that specialized in killing would have been akin to purchasing a ticket straight to hell! As such, Greem had no choice but to grit his teeth and use his unrefined combat techniques to battle against the mechanical witch.

Fortunately, the years of planar warfare had provided him with quite a lot of training. The excellent magical equipment on him further improved his power, just barely allowing him to remain a match for the witch instead of being her prey.

Still, a fire had been burning in Greem after all these days of bitter fighting. When he heard the Chip’s notification, he cast aside the ribs in his hands without hesitation and strode toward the bonfire in the distance.

The mechanical witch seemed to have her own unique means of tracking and investigation, as well. She immediately stood up in confusion when Greem started to move and gazed into the dark forest.

The two of them had been indiscriminately fighting all this while, regardless of location or time. However, night battles were still few and far between. After all, both of them needed time to recover their Spirits and heal their wounds.

Neither side was willing to force the other into a dead-end before they had utter certainty at victory. Doing so would only make them suffer terrifying and irrecoverable damage. As such, nighttime became an unspoken time of truce between the two. Though assassinations, poisoning attempts, harassment, and all sorts of tricks continued uninterrupted, full-frontal confrontations had yet to occur.

That was why Katherine couldn’t help but be on her guard when she saw the male adept’s strange actions.

Given the current circumstances, she was still the one that held the advantage. She still had superior combat power. Most of these skirmishes and battles ended with her victory and his retreat. When it came to battle cunning and smarts, however, Greem was still a cut above her.

Most of the time, Katherine found herself having trouble turning her combat advantage into an opportunity for victory, all due to Greem’s sly and sinister tricks. These factors were what made this otherworldly hunt turn into such a tedious and dangerous affair.

Given Katherine’s understanding of the male adept, the reason he was so impatient to fight her must be due to him obtaining an opportunity to turn the tides.

What would that be?

While Katherine was thinking to herself and preparing for battle, Greem had already charged out of the woods.

“Brat, was the beating you took from me a few days ago not enough for you? You were scurrying about like a rat. Why would you come and seek your death today…”

Katherine didn’t manage to finish her words. Greem had released the elementium magical machine without any pause.

Katherine’s face instantly turned green at the sight of this two-meter-tall magical machine rising from the ground. Violent magical energy was radiating from its gleaming alloy body.

Third Grade. Dammit! It was a Third Grade magical machine!

The Blade Princess’ crimson mechanical eye quickly determined the magical machine’s combat power based on the intensity of the magical energy and the destructive aura it radiated.

Dammit, dammit, dammit! Apart from Agility, this magical machine was slightly stronger than her in Physique, Strength, and Spirit. Katherine could barely maintain a sixty percent chance of victory against a giant like this.

However, her body would be significantly damaged, and her power weakened even if she won.

If she were to fight this giant while dealing with the male adept at the same time? Katherine felt a chill run through her heart. The chance of victory she calculated was no more than three percent.

Blade Princess Katherine let out a roar, and five metal blades spun forward, intercepting the assault of the two enemies. She turned and fled without any hesitation, quickly vanishing into the darkness of the forest.

Reputation, dignity; what were those?

They seemed like things that only living people would require.

Just like that, a massive battle prematurely ended before it could even begin!