Age of Adepts

Despite their situation, Brown and Lucia had thoroughly looked past life and death. Lucia was still asking questions, and Brown was still answering her. The two of them were simply immersed in the joy of being able to receive and pass on knowledge inside this tiny and straightforward ‘safe’ space.

The world might end the very next second, and they themselves might turn into dust, but at this moment, they were both hanging on with their humble yet stubborn beliefs and ideals.

It was a conviction they had committed themselves to on the first day they came into contact with arcane knowledge. They were willing to sacrifice everything for this conviction, even their lives.

It was perhaps the fundamental reason why the Arcane Empire was able to rise to prominence in just a mere ten thousand years, becoming a dominant force in the multiverse that could not be ignored by the other factions!

The anticipation and thirst in Lucia’s eyes grew even stronger after she listened to Arcanist Brown’s explanations.

Just as she was about to open her mouth and ask more questions, a loud explosion rang out. The arcane barrier around the knowledge hall could no longer endure the terrifying flames. It exploded into a flurry of sparks and flames.

The boiling heatwave surged into the hall, along with an endless amount of flames.

Lucia felt like she had been thrown into a volcano. Unbelievable heat permeated the scalding air. Her clothes, hair, skin, blood, and even her bones were quickly withering from the heat. It almost seemed like she was going to be turned into dust instantly.

She turned her head with all her strength and looked towards a certain location outside the hall.

A massive flame giant stood tall as he strode into the knowledge hall.

What a looming and towering flame giant this was!

A body shrouded in flames, the sight of fire fairies fluttering joyously everywhere around him, the burning sensation of scorching flames that never ended. The giant’s hulking figure radiated endless heat and light. Even a glance from the flame giant was enough to blind Lucia and cause her body to melt like a candle.

It wasn’t just her. Even the Second Ring Brown could not endure the might of the flame giant at such a close distance. His clothes were the first things that ignited. Blisters began appearing all over his face, his hands, and his skin, miring him in extreme agony.

If he were an ordinary person, he might have turned to dust the moment the Burning Domain engulfed him. However, his powers as a Second Ring arcanist allowed him to struggle for another dozen seconds in the Burning Domain, suffering immeasurable torment in the process.

However, despite his agony, Brown chose not to protect himself. Instead, he poured all of his arcane energy into the barrier around Lucia. He quickly turned to ashes beneath the blazing fire, reduced to a horrifying burnt corpse.

Unfortunately, even all of the powers of a Second Ring arcanist could not allow another person to survive inside Greem’s Burning Domain. Lucia, who had been protected by Brown’s sacrifice, only lived a few seconds longer than he had. The powers of the arcane barrier were quickly exhausted after his death, and Lucia followed in his steps.

“Power. So this is the power they speak about!” Lucia’s eyes had already been completely burned. She faced towards the flame giant aimlessly as she muttered to herself.

At the moment the arcane barrier was burned through, her body was instantly turned to ashes. Even her soul was slowly being consumed by the strange flames.

In the final moment before her soul was completely extinguished, a loud and unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out in the depths of her soul.

“Mm? What a pure soul.”

A strange portal seemed to appear within the flames abruptly. Lucia’s soul was uncontrollably sucked into the portal, and all her sensations ceased right then and there.

Greem weighed the Orb of Shadows in his hands. He nodded in satisfaction when he sensed the weak soul standing still within and put the orb away.

That was a bizarre moment for Greem. He had only casually killed two insignificant people, but the Chip had somehow sensed an aura projected by the planar consciousness on one of them. Moreover, that person was the weaker of the two. They had most likely just been an arcane apprentice.

Supposedly, an individual like that should not have been able to draw the attention of the planar consciousness. Yet, when Greem waved his hand and turned them into dust, the Chip had very firmly sensed the planar consciousness stir, ever so slightly.

It was a strange, indescribable feeling!

It was like Morrian Plane’s planar consciousness had been silently paying attention to this weak arcane apprentice all along. When Greem unintentionally killed them, he had drawn the ire and hatred of the planar consciousness.

Out of curiosity, Greem had taken out the Fifth Grade Orb of Shadows and used its shadow powers to trap the soul within.

Having done all this, Greem shook his body and slowly reverted out of his flame giant state.

There had not been a conclusion to his battle with Lich Kanganas.

When the terrifying fighting between Illhoof and the Fifth Ring Great Arcanist broke out at the arcane palace, Lich Kanganas finally gave up on his battle against Greem. Instead, he turned and hurried towards a battlefield in the distance with his Fourth Grade Iceghost in tow.

It seemed like the lich intended to be the fisherman and wanted to find a battlefield where he could take advantage of the situation to profit greatly.

Greem might not be afraid of this lich in the slightest, but out of consideration of his own abilities, he decided to just look for loot on the outskirts of the inner circle. Meanwhile, Mangus and Cherisha had endured fairly heavy injuries in the fight against the Iceghost. They had no choice but to find someplace else to treat their wounds.

As such, Greem decided to remain in this arcane academy and roam around.

After passing through several collapsed corridors and turning a few corners, Greem found a black wooden door at the end of a hallway. It was a door that faintly radiated elementium flux.

Greem pushed the door with his hand, but it did not budge.

A strange human face carved out of copper was attached to the black wooden door. Yellow light flickered, and the human face opened its eyes.

“Password…password. This is the secret library of Dorndale Arcane Academy. Outsiders are not allowed. Please provide the password if you wish to enter!”

A sharp look of impatience appeared in Greem’s eyes as he listened to the strange mechanical voice. Golden flames surged forth, burning a large hole in the wooden door, enough for him to pass through.

It was just an arcane door. It couldn’t possibly stop a Fourth Grade adept from breaking and entering.

[Beep. Detecting unusual alert message.] The Chip quickly provided feedback.

Obviously, Greem’s forceful entry had triggered some sort of defense mechanism in the library. Under ordinary circumstances, large armies of arcanists would be marching over to arrest him already.

Sadly, at this moment, the floating city was an absolute mess.

Even the arcane palace at the very center of the city was under attack by Illhoof. Any arcanist with the ability to fight would be doing something else. No one would be here in such a rural place to find trouble with Greem.

As such, Greem ignored the alarms and stepped into the library. He silently looked around him at everything.

It was an extensive and brightly lit library. Golden bookshelves with row upon row of books were everywhere. These books were all thick tomes that glowed with a faint arcane light. Judging from the ornate design of their covers and the soft arcane light they radiated, these tomes were not ordinary books.

Greem couldn’t help but frown at the sight of all this.

Seals. Too many seals!

Clearly, all of the arcane tomes had been sealed to prevent anyone from reading them without being authorized to do so. They were all protected under their own powerful, individual, and independent arcane arrays.

Even though arcane energy supply had been cut off throughout the floating city, these arrays were still untouched. This library was most certainly powered by a small elementium pool beneath the ground.

However, Greem had no interest in destroying that elementium pool.

He slowly browsed the titles of these books, shelf by shelf. Whenever he found a tome he was interested in, he would fire two red beams from his eyes and forcefully shatter the arcane array. He would then reach into the shelf, grab the book, and put them in his Elder’s Ring.

Due to the urgency of the situation, Greem had no time to slowly decipher every arcane array. As such, he had to deal with the seals in the most clumsy way possible.

Of course, if Greem did not care for the damage to the tomes, he could have tossed out a Scarlet Firestorm, and most of the arrays would burn to a crisp. However, in the same vein, most of the arcane tomes would be damaged as well.

With all the elementium explosions that could be heard outside and all the intense tremors that spread through the city, it was easy to imagine how chaotic and devastated the city was.

Greem had given up his plans on all the other things. He started to concentrate solely on scouring and collecting the arcane tomes here.

In contrast to Greem’s casual stroll, two unusual figures hurried to the arcane academy by tracking the fire aura he had left in the air. They soon arrived at the completely collapsed and molten knowledge hall.

In the place of the hall was a terrifying pool of lava. All of the stone in the walls, pillars, and the debris had vanished. Only fearsome, bubbling, liquid lava could be seen.

“I have already sensed that bastard’s aura. He’s inside a secret room not far behind us. Let’s go and kill him!” The one who was speaking was a mysterious black shadow standing at the front.

Even though it was still bright outside, no amount of light could dispel the shadows over this person’s body. One could only faintly make out that it was a woman, and an unusually powerful woman at that.

Meanwhile, the individual following behind had anger and dejectedness written all over his face. Yet, he obviously couldn’t do anything to the person in front of him.

“You will keep your word? I help you kill Greem, and you will let me free?” Judging by the voice, it was Adept Holly who had disappeared from the battlefield prior to this.

At this moment, he was in a silver adept’s robe. However, a strange black rune had been branded onto his exposed forehead, throbbing with an unusual magical flux.

“Hehehe. A Seed of Darkness has already been planted in you. Ordinary magic cannot dispel that Seed. As long as you obediently help me kill Greem, I swear in the name of Origin Darkness to remove the restriction on your person.” Naturally, the shadowy figure was the newly revived Dark Witch Shani.

Even though she had revived, and her powers had returned to Fourth Grade, all of her magical equipment had been lost to Greem’s hands. As such, she could only try her best to find accomplices to deal with that damned fire adept. Otherwise, she no longer had confidence in killing Greem alone.