Age of Adepts

Zhentarim. Kerslin Castle.

A varied group of adepts was gathered in a quiet and mysterious room. Their eyes were fixed upon the radiant magical mirror on the meeting table. The images within the mirror shifted and morphed as it radiated magic energy. On display was the earthshaking adept clan war taking place outside of Pinecone City.

These adepts chattered amongst themselves in boredom while the Crimson Clan’s magical machine army and the Fabres Clan’s subordinate armies tore each other to bloody pieces, as if the dozens of lives being lost on the battlefield wasn’t even worthy of their attention.

It wasn’t until the most powerful forces of both clan appeared, and the battle between the Fourth Grade body-refining adept and the Fourth Grade magical golem controlled by the Third Grade fire adept, that these fire adepts finally pulled themselves together and seriously paid attention to the battle.

“It’s said that the Crimson Clan has been hoarding a Goblin Plane full of metal reserves. It seems like that’s true.” A male adept with a grim face spoke out in admiration as he watched the hill-sized metal golem, “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to find this much magical alloy, even if they were to empty the entire Ailovis region!”

“Who would’ve thought that a Third Grade adept could last this long at Declan’s hands? Declan’s stepped on a nail this time.” A middle-aged female adept with a veil on her face laughed at Declan’s misfortune.

The other adepts also voiced their opinions and assessment of the battlefield in the distance, but most of them were criticisms and mocking words directed at Declan.

As the battle started to increase in intensity, and both parties started to use some of the more impressive techniques up their sleeves, these adepts finally began to assess the Third Grade fire adept seriously.

“Can anyone tell what magic it is that the kid is using? Why can his attack penetrate Declan’s defensive forcefield? It isn’t very logical,” someone finally asked.

An elderly adept wearing tortoise-shell glasses who looked like the scholarly type brooded for a moment before speaking, “This must be some sort of extremely pure light elementium! It is precisely because it’s too pure that the forcefield has ignored it. It is being treated as naturally-occurring magical elementium and, therefore, not isolated outside of the forcefield.”

The other adepts took a better look at what was happening, and all agreed with the elderly adept’s analysis.

Light elementium. It was an extremely niche and unusual natural energy. It was understandable that the forcefield would treat it as background elementium.

If Declan knew that the Third Grade fire adept had such a technique, he would definitely have found a way to mitigate light energy damage. He wouldn’t so passively endure the Third Grade adept’s constant attacks.

Moreover, the Third Grade fire adept’s attacks seemed to be a bit too powerful!

“Is that Greem kid really a Third Grade adept? Why is his offensive power so shockingly high? I made a rough calculation. His base attack power has already reached nine hundred points, and that is a constant output. That seems like it’s beyond the range of a Third Grade elementium adept.” One of the adepts couldn’t help but frown and comment.

“Indeed, the base attack power of most Third Grade adepts should only be around four hundred points. Even those with elementium specialization can only increase it by another hundred points or so. How did he manage to raise it to nine hundred points? Doesn’t that make him almost equal to us Fourth Grade adepts?” Someone immediately chimed in.

“It might be the equipment he’s wearing! Some of the things he’s wearing look very suspicious,” someone else mused.

“You guys, look carefully at that ring on his right pinky finger.” Finally, someone seemed to have discovered something.

The point of view of the magical mirror was from top-down. At this moment, Greem was standing high on the golem dragon’s head, quickly weaving signs with his hands and chanting spells to guide a beam of white light shooting towards Declan.

A mysterious ring with a strange and ancient design on his exposed right hand flickered with an intense magical aura. The adepts could very clearly see that the magical halo radiated by the ring was purple.

“A Fourth Grade magic ring.”

“It’s Fourth Grade.”

All the adepts let out a gasp of surprise.

It wouldn’t be strange if a Fourth Grade adept owned a Fourth Grade magic ring. However, when the Fourth Grade ring was in the hands of a Third Grade adept, they couldn’t help but be amazed.

Everyone here knew the difficulty of crafting Fourth Grade magical equipment.

The dozen adepts here might be Fourth Grade, but the amount of Fourth Grade magical equipment they each possessed could be counted on a single hand. It couldn’t be helped. Crafting magical equipment that was perfectly compatible with their soul origin and affinity was simply far too complicated.

Moreover, Fourth Grade magical equipment would never be so easily given away!

Consequently, even though almost every single high-grade adept was a qualified master alchemist, high-grade magical equipment was still in incredibly short supply. Naturally, the Fourth Grade adepts were feeling all sorts of emotions now that they had discovered a Fourth Grade magical ring in the hands of a Third Grade adept.

“It seems like he got this ring from a foreign plane, and it allows him to convert his magic energy into pure light energy,” the old scholar adept couldn’t help but elaborate.

“Apart from conversion, I believe that the ring can also enhance his spells with additional light damage. Otherwise, his base attack power can’t be that high,” another adept added.

Everyone here was a Fourth Grade adept. They were knowledgeable arcanists with incomparable wisdom. One by one, they gave their analysis and quickly estimated the strange attributes and effects of the Fourth Grade ring to astounding accuracy.

The few hundred points of additional damage provided by the magical ring wasn’t much in the eyes of these adepts. However, the ability to convert magic energy into high-penetration light energy was incredibly useful. Used at the right time, it could injure an enemy severely at a critical moment in a battle.

Greed appeared in the eyes of several of the adepts as they continued to observe the fight.

However, at this moment, someone finally interrupted, “It seems like the destruction of the Crimson Clan won’t be coming to pass. Given so…with what kind of attitude should we be treating this fire adept from now on?”

For a moment, the adepts fell silent.

After a long pause, someone finally spoke.

It was an old adept whose beard and hair had all turned white. Judging from the respect given by the other adepts, he was the one with the most authority and was the most senior of them all.

Freed, Fourth Grade Adept, Chairman of the Zhentarim Association.

“We will decide based on the result of the fight! If Declan wins, we will chase both the fire adept and his Crimson Clan out of Zhentarim. If it’s a draw, we will hand over the entirety of Ailovis to him.”

“And if he wins?” Someone couldn’t help but pursue the question.

“Is that possible?” Freed said casually, “Don’t forget, Declan advanced over seven hundred years ago. There’s no way he will be defeated.”

“I’m just saying if…”

“If that fire adept really manages to defeat Declan, I suggest we give him the status and authority of a Fourth Grade adept while recruiting him into the Association.”

“No, I object.” A sinister and dry male voice rang out.

The adepts turned to look and realized that it was Molten Fire City Lord Alfred that had spoken up.

“Why, Alfred? Do you bear a grudge against the kid as well?” Someone asked in surprise.

“Hmph! There was an otherworldly beast invasion in my Molten Fire City a few dozen years ago. This fire adept participated in the extermination as outside help, and I didn’t know much about the brat back then. Now, it seems like that beast invasion from before was his handiwork. If he wants to join the Association, we will have to settle that score first!” Alfred grunted unamusedly and gave a few words of explanation.

“Then, does anyone else object to the fire adept joining the Association?” Chairman Freed started to look around the room.

“I object as well!” It was the elderly scholar adept who spoke this time.

“Matthew, I didn’t expect it to be you.” Freed couldn’t help but pause for a moment.

“I am not objecting on my own behalf, but on behalf of the Sarubo Clan. They gave me quite a lot of resources, so I have no choice but to step forward and object for them!” Adept Matthew did not hide anything and simply explained everything with a smile on his face.

“Very well, since people are opposed to it, then the matter of recruiting the fire adept into the Association will be put aside for the moment. We will see if he can advance to Fourth Grade first.”

While the adepts engaged in their discussion, some unexpected changes occurred in the image within the magical mirror.

…………

The battle outside Pinecone City was still going on.

An exceptionally handsome hunting eagle was soaring high above the skies, hidden above the thick layers of clouds.

Beneath the eagles was the battlefield where the two Fourth Grades were fighting viciously.

If the hunting eagle were an ordinary magical creature, it would already have fled far away upon sensing the waves of horrifying magical flux. It would not stay in such a dangerous place.

The hunting eagle clasped a magical crystal between its two sharp claws, pointing it straight down at the battlefield. Under its gaze, this three-hour-long battle was finally nearing its conclusion.

Adept Declan was actually on the verge of being defeated!

Indeed, faced with the powerful combination of the Third Grade fire adept and the Fourth Grade magical golem dragon, Fourth Grade Body-Refining Adept Declan was running out of steam to continue the fight. The main reason for his extreme exhaustion was that strange white light being that the legendary fire adept kept shooting out.

Every time Declan was hit by the white light, his flesh would be burned while a portion of his magic energy was also burned away.

Declan had attempted to take Greem out several times, but the Chip’s support systems always captured his movements. Greem would then gather the three energy beams and blast them at Declan. Even with his outstanding Physique, Declan could not endure energy attacks of such intensity and constantly had to back off with injuries.

For the sake of healing these injuries, Declan had no choice but to expend a significant amount of his magic energy.