Age of Adepts

The focusing crystal magnified Spirit.

It was a little unexpected, but this discovery surprised Greem pleasantly.

The upper limit for his Spirit had been increased to 49 points with his advancement to Fourth Grade. He wouldn’t need to be concerned about his Spirit being stuck at a threshold for the next thousand years.

Correspondingly, the speed at which his Spirit increased was tremendously slow now!

Even with the Chip’s aid, the past few years of diligent meditation had not increased his Spirit by even 0.1 points. For the foreseeable future, Greem would remain stuck at the level of a beginner Fourth Grade. He would require at least two to three hundred years before he could advance to the next minor grade.

It was now that he truly understood why some of the Fourth Grade adepts of Zhentarim were still tragically stuck at the beginner level. They had either exhausted all of their potential, or their meditation now had absolutely no effect. Otherwise, there was no reason why they would allow such a state of stagnation to persist for such a long time!

Given the slow improvement of Spirit, wouldn’t the ability to magnify the effects of Spirit with the aid of a tool be an alternative method of becoming more powerful?

After realizing this, Greem immediately started to delve into research on this focusing crystal.

Firstly, the crystal was not a product of nature. It was a biological crystal that naturally formed in the bodies of those galaxy wanderers after their tens of thousands of years of evolution in space. That meant every focusing crystal could only be harvested from the bodies of galaxy wanderers. They were not a resource that could be discovered elsewhere.

Secondly, every single crystal had its own magnification frequency and spectrum.

In other words, the focusing crystal that Greem had obtained had its upper limit of magnification.

It was obtained from the body of a beginner Third Grade galaxy wanderer. As such, beginner Third Grade Spirit was the upper limit of what it could magnify. If Greem were to pour his Fourth Grade Spirit into this crystal, it would instantly shatter once the Spirit exceeded the crystal’s capacity. Of course, it would be no problem if Greem limited his Spirit to the level of a Third Grade and below.

As such, if Greem wanted to obtain a focusing crystal that could be of practical use to himself, he would have to devise methods to hunt down Fourth Grade galaxy wanderers. Moreover, the higher the grade of the galaxy wanderer, the better.

That was a challenging task!

Ever since he discovered the purpose and limits of the focusing crystal, Greem’s mood had been taken on a rollercoaster ride. Up and down, down and up, without stop. First unrestrained joy, then disappointment, then a trace of unwillingness to just give up without trying.

Could this focusing crystal only be used by Third Grade adepts?

Refusing to let this opportunity slip past, Greem immediately gave the Chip an order.

“Chip, search for ways and methods to strengthen this crystal. Furthermore, search if other adepts have discovered this special application of the focusing crystal.”

[Beep. Mission has been constructed. Searching database.

[Beep. The Spirit magnification effect of focusing crystals has been recorded in adept tomes since a long time ago. However, according to the records, adepts are unable to utilize this ability directly.]

“Why?”

[The focusing crystals are a type of biological crystal. They have been attuned to the host’s Spirit frequency and band wave during the process of their formation. Other creatures are unable to utilize the crystals even if they obtain them.]

“You mean to say that the reason I succeeded in using the crystals is because of you tuning my Spirit frequency and band wave to match the crystal?”

[Yes!]

Greem couldn’t help fall silent in thought.

No wonder the adepts paid more attention to keeping the galaxy wanderers’ skin intact while they were looting their corpses, as opposed to these focusing crystals. After all, not every adept could do what Greem could do. Not every adept could freely adjust and change the frequency of their Spirit with the help of a chip.

If that was the case, he might have a chance of obtaining one or two focusing crystals from the more powerful adepts that he could put to use, especially if he put out the word that he was collecting them.

He might not be able to kill those Fourth Grade galaxy wanderers, but it didn’t mean that the Great Adepts couldn’t do it.

At any rate, the focusing crystals were useless in their hands.

Surely, they would be more than happy to trade it for some more practical resources. However, spreading the news like that was very likely to draw unnecessary trouble towards himself.

The Great Adepts weren’t fools either. If they discovered Greem was in a rush to collect focusing crystals, they could easily deduce that he had a way of utilizing them. When that happened, there would be trouble if the Great Adepts came knocking on his door!

Greem hesitated for a moment at this thought. He then tried to contact Adept Martin.

A short moment later, a magical message arrived.

“Greem, your share of the seeds has been prepared. I will have people send it to you shortly.”

“No worries, Martin. You can have my share. However, I would like for you to help me put out a purchase request.”

“What for?”

“One of those light blue crystals inside the galaxy wanderers, from the body of a Fourth Grade galaxy wanderer. The higher the quality, the better!”

“Oh, you must have noticed the unusual effect of that crystal! Let me tell you, Greem, that thing can only be used by the galaxy wanderers. We adepts don’t have any use for it at all. Collecting these crystals is just gonna be a waste of resources for you.”

“Do me a favor! I have a feeling there’s some sort of secret contained inside them. I want a higher-grade crystal for an experiment.”

“Well, I can certainly get you one. That said, even though they aren’t suitable for adept use, you’re still asking for a Fourth Grade item. You will have to pay a hefty price for it. Moreover, the Great Adepts are probably the only ones who will have a Fourth Grade crystal. They won’t even take a look in your direction if you are trying to purchase with magical crystals. Here in Camp Exodar, most items above Fourth Grade are traded on a barter system. You will probably have trouble obtaining a Fourth Grade crystal if you can’t offer them something they are interested in!”

He needed a Fourth Grade item, and something even Great Adepts would be interested in!

Greem thought for a moment before finally speaking again.

“I have a perfectly preserved body of an otherworldly Fourth Grade holy knight with me.”

“The body of a Fourth Grade knight? That’s not worth much, at least in the eyes of the Great Adepts. The Great Adepts hunt plenty of Fourth Grade creatures. Perhaps they might be slightly interested if your holy knight was still living. But a dead corpse? Hmm……”

“I have some Empowered Magic Essence on hand!”

“Empowered Magic Essence is a Third Grade item at the very best.”

“The materials used to make these are a little special. Consumed in sufficient quantities, they can even allow an ordinary person to gain elementium affinities.”

“What? How is this possible? Has the effect been verified?”

“Without a doubt!”

“……”

Perhaps shocked by this news, Adept Martin only replied after a long pause.

“Greem, I have already put out news of your offer. There’s a Great Adept who wishes to speak with you right now. I—” Before Martin could finish, his magical message was cut off by another strange voice.

It sounded like that Adept Sainz.

“Kid, I heard from Martin you have something unusual in your hands? Those Empowered Magic Essences of yours can actually bestow ordinary people with magical power?”

“Indeed, Lord Sainz. The method I used to extract this batch of Empowered Magic Essence is slightly different compared to how the other adepts do it. That is why it has this unique effect. An ordinary person would be able to obtain an elementium affinity if they consumed fifty grams of this Empowered Magic Essence for ten consecutive days.”

“Good…good…good…simply brilliant.” Adept Sainz was obviously beyond overjoyed on the other end of the communication, “Tell me, how do you intend to trade for this Empowered Magic Essence? I can pay five million magical crystals. That should be a fair price, isn’t it?”

“Er…Lord Sainz, in truth, I would rather trade them for a galaxy wanderer’s crystal!”

“What are you collecting those things for? Many adepts have already tried putting them to use, but those crystals have already been completely attuned to the galaxy wanderers themselves. No one other than the galaxy wanderers themselves can use them.”

“I wish to research the principles behind their formation and see if it is possible to artificially cultivate focusing crystals of my own.”

“Hmph! Why do I care what you are using the crystals for? Prepare the Empowered Magic Essence for me. I will be back soon. I know perfectly who amongst those old geezers has those focusing crystals here in Camp Exodar. If I find out that your Empowered Magic Essence doesn’t have the effect you claim it possesses after this trade, kid, you will be in big trouble.”

Martin’s voice once again rang in Greem’s ears after Great Adept Sainz cut off communications.

“Congratulations, Greem! You found a good buyer this time!”

“Why is Lord Sainz in such a hurry to obtain these Empowered Magic Essence? Could it be…?”

“Heheh, do I even need to explain it? It’s already been 1,300 years since Lord Sainz left the World of Adepts. The bloodline he left behind in Zhentarim has since waned and fallen from grace. Even though the Zhentarim Association keeps an eye out for them and makes sure that his bloodline isn’t broken, not a single adept has appeared amongst his descendants for the past three hundred years.

“At the rate at which this is going, the status of that adept clan will be revoked in another hundred years. They will be reduced to ordinary, worldly nobles. Lord Sainz has plenty of resources and magical crystals on hand, yet he can’t find a single apprentice adept in his entire clan. Of course, he’s in a hurry!”

Greem drew in a breath of cold air.

That was the real reason why so many adept clans fell from grace in the World of Adepts!

They might have a Great Adept for an ancestor looking over them from the realms beyond and ensuring that the clan’s development would proceed without a hitch. However, the lineage of the clan’s bloodline would regress over time, until they became an ordinary, non-magical clan.

This phenomenon of the weakening and regression bloodline was a problem with no solution!

After all, the birth rate of adepts rapidly decreased with their increase in grade.

Both male and female adepts had too overwhelming a life force. It was incredibly disadvantageous for procreation.

If one partner were far too weak, then the terrifying radiation from the other person’s life essence would be enough to kill any and all unqualified ovaries or sperm. If both partners were powerful, then the life essence would inherit their power as well. The life essence of the two partners was very likely to treat each other as hostile entities and engage in a deathmatch for the dominant position in the new lifeform.

Moreover, this was all instinct. It was not something that the adepts themselves had any control over!

As such, when adepts attempted to have offsprings, luck was the only thing they could rely on. Ungodly luck!