Age of Adepts

In all honesty, the core of mechanical adepts–the mechanical heart–was very similar to an animated metal lifeform with its own consciousness.

Not only could it integrate all the surrounding mechanical parts, but it could also wholly assimilate itself into the energy circulation system of the human body, which used flesh and nerves as the foundations of its construction. From this aspect, the mechanical heart appeared to be much more like a parasitic existence, very much the same as the puppet insects that adepts used when creating flesh puppets.

The only difference was that puppet insects parasitized experiment subjects, while mechanical hearts found their homes within the bodies of adepts.

Mechanical hearts were capable of growing, as well.

However, the nutrition they required for growth was entirely different from what the human body needed. It demanded a large number of rare adept resources and magical materials. Moreover, the conflict between the mechanical adept system and the adept’s original body could only be delayed but never eliminated.

A human’s bloodline and nerves were still far too frail compared to machinery. Any impurities introduced into the body could break the delicate balance that had originally existed.

If human bodies were that frail, why was it that mechanical adepts were willing to repeatedly modify themselves upon those weak foundations instead of constructing an actual mechanical body for themselves?

It had to do with a human’s original system of energy advancement!

Animated lifeforms constructed of pure metal might be powerful, but they faced tremendous difficulty in advancing. Moreover, once a human soul was transplanted into a body of steel, their souls would lack the necessary nourishment of life energy and begin to wither with every passing day. That made it even more difficult for an adept to continue improving themselves, unlike if they had a human body.

Their obsession with the mechanical heart gave them great combat prowess, but they had to rely on their flesh and blood organs to sustain these mechanical parts that had such a high demand for energy. Consequently, most mechanical adepts spent much of their time seeking a balance between power and their own human advancement system!

However, the concerns of the mechanical adepts did not apply to Greem.

He didn’t intend to modify himself beyond recognition. The sole reason behind his research on mechanical adepts was to improve the elementium magical machine; to make it stronger and more offensively capable.

After thoroughly researching the Blade Princess, Greem couldn’t help but be impressed by the ingenious ideas of the mechanical adepts.

Katherine’s mechanical eye combined multiple unique abilities, including low-light vision, elementium sight, dynamic movement capture, and many others. She had been able to perceive everything normally under any conditions during battle without needing to cast spells. Moreover, she could use her ‘eye’ alone to observe the flow of elementium around the enemy, along with any more subtle or inconspicuous movements they made.

The metal brain shell she had modified possessed the ability to magnify thoughts and senses, allowing her to freely manipulate the metal blades as if they were part of her body. As long as she wasn’t too far away from the disc-blades, she could use her thoughts alone to alter and control the trajectory of the blades to achieve the effect of explosive strikes.

Meanwhile, Katherine’s body had undergone multiple modifications of compound mechanical spells. All sorts of strange alloy plates could be found beneath her smooth and firm skin. Whenever she was attacked, the first to be damaged would be the metal armor that she wore on the outside.

If the might of the attack exceeded the limits of the metal armor, the remainder of the damage would be split between her flesh and the alloy plates hidden underneath her skin. The impact of the strike would be spread across the surroundings through a strange means of vibration.

That made Katherine’s physical and elementium resistance to be shockingly high. It had allowed her to endure the enemy’s onslaught of spells while she charged to their side and unleashed her fury of steel and metal.

Of course, such a means of attack left Katherine’s body in a constant state of damage that incessantly required replenishment. These replenishments included repairing the metal damage done to the mechanical components, as well as healing the harm to her flesh.

As such, Blade Princess Katherine required large amounts of fresh meat and metal solutions in her daily diet!

A living human adept would have to devour bloody, raw meat and drink pungent metal reconciling agents daily. The life of a mechanical adept pursuing strength was not one that could be endured by those with weak wills.

Greem had obtained quite a few pieces of high-grade magical equipment from the hunter adepts.

However, most of these items were created based on their strengths and weaknesses. Greem would have to return them to the forge and tweak them slightly if he wanted to use them. On the other hand, the auxiliary and support accessories could be put into use immediately.

Most of the magical accessories enhanced the body’s power to some degree. Unfortunately, a human adept could not enhance their physical body or their Spirit infinitely.

For instance, the Sodden’s Holy Ring that Greem wore already provided a +5 bonus to his Strength. As such, the +3 bonus offered by the Fire Throne set would be eclipsed by the Holy Ring. If Greem didn’t find ways to refine his physical prowess and increase the limits of his Strength, then he would not be able to enjoy the tremendous benefits of stacking bonuses from both items.

It was most practical and effective for an adept to improve their own bodily attributes. As for the idea of creating a powerful adept just by arming a person full of high-grade magical equipment? That was no more than an extremely childish and laughable thought.

Now that Greem had the +5 bonus Strength from Sodden’s Holy Strength, all the magical accessories that improved Strength were meaningless. Meanwhile, the +3 points of Physique provided by Sodden’s Holy Ring left Greem with some space for more enhancement.

However, this space was quickly filled by the Physique enhancement of the Fire Throne set.

Moreover, now that Greem’s Spirit had reached 37 points, any additional equipment bonuses would no longer be effective past 39 points. Thus, he took off one or two pieces of accessories that improved his Spirit to reduce the burden on his mind.

In doing so, his Strength, Physique, and Spirit had all reached the limits of his current body. Agility was the only attribute that still had significant room for improvement.

“Chip, display my current bodily attributes.”

[Beep! Scan starting. Host’s bodily attributes are as follows:

[Greem. Advanced Third Grade.

Profession: Elementium Adept.

Bodily Attributes: Strength 18+5 (13) | Physique: 21+4 (11) | Agility 11+1 (7) | Spirit 37+2 (32).

Profession Skills: Body of Flames, Flame Fiend’s Body, Fire Clone.

[Host’s body condition: Severely Injured. Note: Attributes in brackets refer to the upper limit of host’s current capabilities!]

These attributes were nothing compared to the more powerful of the high-magic species, but they were first-rate amongst adepts of the same grade.

Twenty-three points of Strength meant that he could match a beginner Second Grade body-refining adept in a contest of power. That said, if he were to engage a body-refining adept in a melee fight, his terrible fighting skills would cause him to lose horribly. After all, eleven points of base Agility might be barely enough for a Third Grade elementium adept, but it was utterly inadequate in a proper melee.

Power, amongst the adepts, was, is, and always would be relative. There was no such thing as absolute power!

Such Strength and Physique made Greem a fearsome primordial monster when compared to an ordinary human. However, compared to a body-refining adept of the same grade, Greem would be like an infant whose baby teeth had yet to all fall out.

Greem shook his head at the thought of this. He then gathered all the equipment scattered across the floor and stood up to exit the cave.

There was a small stone platform outside the cave. A thick layer of scattered bones lay atop the platform. It was obvious that this was where a powerful magical creature once enjoyed its meals. If one were to stand upon the platform and look into the distance, they would find that this place was located in a vast and endless sea of ancient trees.

Only a stretch of green could be seen no matter where you looked.

Unfortunately, ever since this place became the home of the plague army, the sounds of singing birds and insects could no longer be heard. There was only silence apart from the whistling of the wind through the trees.

However, Greem didn’t seem to care about this. He stood at the edge of the platform and closed his eyes to listen for that strange, vague sound in the distance.

He wasn’t listening for the winds or the rustling of the leaves, but the faint message transmitted back from thousands of kilometers away by his fire runes.

“Remi.”

“Here!”

As Greem called his name, Spirit of Pestilence Remi silently appeared beside him.

“Take your plague army and go east!” Greem gazed at the distant horizon with brooding eyes, “Keep heading east and destroy all cities and villages along the way.”

“What is the target of my attack?” Remi asked out of curiosity.

“Jymeria City!”

“Jymeria? That’s the capital of the Zambez Empire!”

“Yes, the capital. Make as much of a commotion as you can, but be careful. Remember, you are allowed to abandon the mission and flee when you run into a Fourth Grade Holy Knight. Until them, your mission is to expand the plague army as best as you can and draw the attention of the enemy.”

Remi’s ghostly green eyes rolled about. He basically understood Greem’s intentions fully now.

He giggled at Greem and summoned his giant plague beast. He leaped on top of the creature along with the old poison witch and charged down the cliff.

The trees surrounding the cliff started to tremble, and the leaves began to sway. A horde of plague creatures silently started sprinting through the woods, instantly forming a horrifying tide of plague beasts around Greem.

Once the plague creatures had left, Greem pulled his robe up to hide his face before turning and striding southeast.

Supposedly, an adventure and exploration of Henvic Plane should have lost all meaning after Greem obtained the corpse of the starbeast. He should have returned to the clan as soon as possible. However, considering the nourishment that the strange holy lights provided his Spirit, Greem felt like it wasn’t too late to make a big haul before leaving.

It was important to note that Greem would need at least two to three hundred years of work to increase his 37 points of Spirit to 39 points after he returned to the World of Adepts. On the other hand, he only needed to slaughter some harmless holy knights here to be able to accomplish the same thing. Why wouldn’t he do that instead!?

The reason he had sent out Remi and the plague army was to distract and draw away the two damned Fourth Grade Holy Knights. He would take this chance to slaughter the low and intermediate-grade holy knights to collect sufficient holy light for his advancement to Fourth Grade.