Age of Adepts

Beyond the realms.

For most adepts, the place beyond the realms was twisted and unusual.

If the planar worlds were like lone islands lost in a vast sea, then what filled up the space between them were endless energy tides. This magical energy that filled the space of the void was not calm and peaceful. Instead, it was uneven and chaotic, ebbing and flowing, like the tides of the ocean.

The magical energy could even gather into massive energy storms stretching for millions of kilometers in some places.

The areas ravaged by these spacestorms were incredibly dangerous. The energy intensity was tens, even hundreds, of thousands of points in power. Ordinary substances would be broken down into microscopic particles by the energy tides in an instant, even if they were the hardest of metals. These tiny particles would then be scattered to random corners of the multiverse.

However, there had always been some great and mighty adepts who could find a thread of survival in such danger. These adepts went on to establish firm and well-defended bases in the eyes of these spacestorms.

Adepts who have never wandered beyond the realms would assume such places to be extremely crowded and starved of resources. However, should they ever have the opportunity to visit such a camp, they would be shocked to find that this was practically a new world of its own. A world brimming with life and energy.

The Great Adepts that ventured forth from the World of Adepts had founded more than one such locations throughout the multiverse, but Camp Exodar was undoubtedly the largest and most well-known of them all.

In the eye of a massive three-million-kilometer-wide spacestorm, there was a zone of peace and quiet approximately ten thousand kilometers across. Although it was not as safe as the inside of a planar world, it was still much better than the fearsome energy tides ravaging the outside.

Moreover, the eye of this storm wasn’t empty, either.

Barren and uncultivated rock masses floated amidst the distorted space. These rocks varied in size. Some were as large as an entire kingdom, while the smaller ones could still host a human city with a population of twenty to thirty thousand.

Most of these rocks were unpopulated. Dirt, trees, fields, swamps lakes, and of course, adept bases, could only be found on a few sufficiently large stones in the core area.

Substantial magical barriers had been erected around these rocks, blocking out the space energy. It was the only that the fragile ecology of the rocks could be preserved.

Meanwhile, the unpopulated rocks were exposed to the energy tide. The loose dirt and fragile plants had all been blown away by the spacestorm, leaving behind only the toughest of metal ores and stones that could resist the erosion.

They floated lonesomely in the darkness, their carved, colossal structures only revealed for the briefest of seconds when the spacestorms blew across and sent sparks into space.

Exodar was both the name of this storm and the name of the massive adept’s camp on the rock in the center.

Approximately 110,000 people lived in Camp Exodar. Only 3,000 of these people were adepts, while the rest were slaves and servants that they had captured from all over the universe.

It was important to note that one would have to be at least Second Grade or above to survive in Camp Exodar without any worries. As such, while three thousand adepts might sound like a small number, it was, in truth, an exceedingly powerful force of adepts.

Second Grade adepts were the backbone of the military force in the World of Adepts, while Third Grades were crucial to the clans, and Fourth Grades were nuclear deterrents. However, here in this twisted, strange place where energy tides were the only constant, Second Grades were practically babies wailing for help, and Third Grades were barely at the level of new recruits. Only Fourth Grade adepts could qualify as proper cannon fodder.

It was the world of the Great Adepts, a camp they specially created to train and cultivate rookie adepts who had just stepped out of their homeworld.

Space was unlike inside the plane. The way in which combat was conducted and the means with which people fought were all starkly different.

Just like a muscular man could be uncontested on land, yet helpless in water and easily drowned by even the weakest of people, so were things in the realms beyond.

This place was incredibly dangerous!

Hidden energy tides that could elude detection, fearsome space blackholes, seemingly inconspicuous regions of no magic, and locations where galaxy wanderers roamed were terrifying places and extremely dangerous, even for Fourth Grade adepts. One could easily wind up dead should they ever enter these places.

Camp Exodar was located above the largest floating rock in the eye of the storm.

The entire rock was over seven thousand square kilometers in area. It was already comparable to the continental landmass of certain planes.

Not only was there soft soil above the rock, but also living grass, fresh lakes and rivers, and even mountain ranges, valleys, and basins. This most famous adept camp in the universe was located upon a vast plain on the rock.

The first thing one would notice when they set foot near the camp was the series of adept’s tower looming above them.

Some were towers of shadow shrouded in strange black smoke. Some were bright blue towers crackling with layers of electricity, while others were blizzard towers cloaked in wind and frost. Of course, the majority of them were still your ordinary towers of knowledge!

Here in Camp Exodar, only adepts above Fourth Grade were allowed to construct their own tower.

As such, in Camp Exodar, every tower meant the presence of a Great Adept.

The towers stood like a forest, side by side. Even a rough count would yield a total of two to three hundred towers!

As for Adepts of Fourth Grade and below? They either resided in the towers of a Great Adept, or they developed a small territory of their own. If they did neither of these things, then their only option was to camp out in the wild.

Due to the unique environment of the realms beyond, ordinary creatures could not even survive here.

Those who could remain in Camp Exodar were either powerful individuals from lesser planes or of a race with unusual abilities. Though the adepts were the rulers and administrators of this land, the weaker Second and Third Grade adepts still had to be extremely careful while they were here. They did not want to become targets of these foreign wanderers.

Greem arrived at this place three years prior to the compulsory mission.

Based on what he knew, the Great Adepts had seven other camps similar to this one throughout the galaxy. The administrators of these camps were all Seventh Grade adepts. Meanwhile, Eight and Ninth Grade Great Adepts who could genuinely represent the adept faction all had mystic realms of their own. They would never be cramped in such a crude and barren space with all the other adepts.

When Greem arrived at Camp Exodar through the special long-ranged teleportation array in Kerslin Castle, he was stunned by a completely distinct environment.

The wealth of resources here, the diversity of races, the variety of threats and danger had all exceeded his imagination.

If the inside of a plane depicted a mature and enjoyable way of living, then this place represented a primal and undeveloped livelihood. Of course, the Second and Third Grade adepts were the primal ones. Fourth Grade adepts like himself already had sufficient status and qualification to reside within the towers.

As the strongest alliance of clans outside of the three major forces in the World of Adepts, the Zhentarim Association had its own tower in Camp Exodar. The host of this tower was Fifth Grade Adept Sainz, who had stepped out of the World of Adepts 1,300 years ago.

As an adept of Zhentarim, he had lived in this tower since he stepped into the realms beyond. He received and kept an eye over all the weak little adepts that came out here to experience life in space.

Of course, Sainz was not the strongest among all the adepts from the Zhentarim Association.

Quite the contrary, he was the weakest of all Great Adepts from Zhentarim.

In the past few millennia, a total of five Great Adepts had emerged from Zhentarim to the realms beyond. As their powers continued to improve, they left this barren and crowded region behind to secure hidden shelters for themselves in other places.

Only Sainz remained stuck at Fifth Grade despite a thousand years passing by. His power had not increased substantially, either. As such, he had no choice but to remain in Camp Exodar, serving as the protector of rookie Zhentarim adepts.

…………

The dizziness from the interplanar teleportation did not fade for a long time.

It wasn’t until seven minutes later that Greem managed to suppress the frustration and discomfort in his mind with the help of the Chip. He opened his eyes and took a slow look at the crude teleportation array he had arrived in.

There was a skinny and withered old man who appeared before Greem. He wore a dirty old robe, the original color of which was long since indistinguishable. He had short black-and-white hair, so messy it looked like a tangled bush.

The old man’s face was filled with wrinkles, with a tall, red nose that curved down at an odd angle. If it wasn’t for the terrifying and constrained energy aura he radiated, Greem would have easily mistaken him for a low-grade adept barely just trying to get.

When Greem walked out of the teleportation array in a daze, the old adept lifted his nose and sniffed. He then cursed furiously.

“Freed, that damned bastard. He’s getting better at brushing me off. I wanted him to send over a more experienced adept, and he gave me a newly advanced brat. Hmph! It seems like he doesn’t want the next hundred years of resources.”

Obviously, this was the first time Greem had met a legendary Great Adept in person. He hastily bowed and greeted him, while trying to introduce himself, “You must be Lord Sainz? I am—”

“Alright, alright, no need for the rubbish. I don’t know how that brat Freed tricked you into coming here, but you had better surrender to your fate now that you’re here. Go to Room 706. That will be your room for the moment. Look for a fellow called Martin if there’s anything you don’t understand. Don’t come and bother me no more.”

Having said that, this scruffy old man walked away in a fury before Greem could ask anything.

However, he continued to mumble to himself even as he walked away, “Weird, how weird. This newly advanced brat must have a pretty decent Physique. He managed to get over the teleportation daze so quickly. Hopefully, he can survive until the mission starts.”

The old man turned the corner and vanished from Greem’s sight in the blink of an eye.

Greem was speechless. He lifted his right arm and let it slump down helplessly after holding it in the air for a good while.

As expected of the realms beyond! Not only was the environment unusual, but even the adepts were also oddballs!

Greem suddenly felt his head hurt at the thought of this.