Age of Adepts

The leaders of the Crimson Clan got onto a small flying ship and traveled through one hundred kilometers of forest.

They passed through the winding tunnels of Fire Cave and entered Magma Hall, where they finally arrived at Fire Throne. It was guarded by large numbers of fire creatures and high-grade magical machines.

Greem met them in the magical hall on the second level of the tower.

The massive hall was about ten thousand square meters in size, with a large obsidian long table in the center. Intricate stone chairs were arranged on each side of the table. At one end were three tall seats, arranged in a triangle. Naturally, seated at the very front was the mysterious legendary fire adept who had forged this Crimson Clan with his own two hands– Lord Greem.

Two equally tall chairs were arranged behind him to his left and right.

Seated on the left was Bloody Queen Lady Mary, who held the most authority of the clan. Sitting on the right was Lady Alice, the mysterious leader of the Fate Witches, who was rarely seen by the rest of the clan members.

The three of them were undoubtedly the true heart of the Crimson Clan!

It had been a long time since they had met. The clan members first bowed before the three leaders of the clan before carefully taking their respective seats. Their eyes were all stealing glances at this mysterious yet powerful clan leader.

Greem was wearing a bright-red robe today. Plenty of magical runes and patterns glowed on his intricate and extravagant gown as the radiant aura of fire danced around it. His entire body was covered by the loose cloth, revealing only his slightly pale face.

Greem was a handsome man. His black hair had been tied up with an intricate band. His eyes were deep, and his nose was tall. His thin lips were pressed together tightly, a trace of coldness at the corners of his mouth.

After the countless trials of blood and fire, all the childishness and immaturity had been washed away from him. The only thing left was a mysterious, contained aura of wisdom and power.

However, Greem’s face was oddly pale today. It was different from his usual appearance when his skin was filled with vigor and the overwhelming aura of life. He looked like someone who had only just recovered from a terrible sickness.

The clan members couldn’t help but start asking questions in their minds when they saw this.

Could the rumors that the clan leader had returned with grievous injuries be true?

Greem put his fist over his mouth and coughed softly when he saw that everyone was seated. He then lifted his head and looked at his subordinates. His gaze finally landed on Gargamel, who was seated in the first position to the left of the table.

“Now that everyone is here…Gargamel, you shall begin with a report on the clan headquarters for the past few years!”

“Understood!” Gargamel hurriedly stood up and bowed. With a nod of acknowledgment from Greem, he took out a stack of thick checkbooks and started reading their contents.

“At the moment, the clan only has direct control of Ailovis in Zhentarim. The other regions we indirectly control through subordinate clans and organizations include the Crimson Cloud Mesa, the Silent Pastures, Crow’s Ravine, Hunter’s Shore, Mena Lake, and several others.

“The Crimson Dynasty’s territories have expanded another one hundred and fifty kilometers to the northwest and are now bordering the outer territories of the Dener Clan. The Third Magical Machine Army has marched north and is two hundred kilometers deep in the Black Forest. They are currently establishing a forward base there. Given the information last relayed to us, the attacks and assaults organized by the magical creature lords have intensified. A war is expected to break out soon. The commander has already requested reinforcements from high-grade adepts from the clan headquarters.

“Ailovis is now completely controlled by the clan. At the moment, we have 7 First Class resource sites, 22 Second Class resource sites, and 106 Third Class resource sites.

“There are now 97 adepts in the clan headquarters: 5 are Third Grade, 26 are Second Grade, and 66 of whom are First Grade.

“As for the clan’s resource income, we have had total revenue of 2,179,780 magical crystals, and expenditure of 1,463,600 magical crystals. The specific list of resources is as such……”

One by one, category by category, item by item; Gargamel listed all the clan matters of concern to the people at the meeting in a simple and straightforward fashion. However, he did not announce the more comprehensive details.

After all, these details involved many core affairs of the Crimson Clan and could only be addressed in a personal meeting with the leaders!

It was Fire Dragon Adept Meryl’s turn to report after Gargamel. She was the leader of the northern branch, after all.

The Crimson Clan’s development in the Northern Lands was not going too well. They were seemingly being oppressed and bullied by the various witch factions. The clans who were most obviously doing so were the Dark Witches and the Deceit Witches.

That made it very difficult for the Crimson Clan to extend their influence anywhere out of Icewind!

However, since White Tower bordered the Black Forest, there was plenty of land and an abundance of resources. Even if they were forced to stay within their territory, the clan could still secure a considerable amount of resource income from the area.

Apart from the direct territories in the World of Adepts, the Crimson Clan also possessed two lesser planes of great wealth and resources. Wind Adept Deserra and Split-Brain Sock, who represented the Goblin Plane and Lance respectively, also gave a simple report of the situations in their domains.

During the time Greem had been gone, the magical alloy stockpile in the Goblin Plane had reached 670,000 tons in weight. It was more than enough alloy to manufacture another twenty to thirty thousand magical machines, twelve Motherships, or two magical golem dragons.

However, Greem’s stockpile of Queyras alloy was almost entirely exhausted. These alloys and metals could only be stored for future use until he got his hands on more Queyras alloy.

Meanwhile, with the Third Grade brain monster being the master of the Capital of Eternity in Lance, the base was a city of steel that would never fall to enemy assaults.

The dragon lords had already suffered enough from their attempts at invasion, but could not defeat all the magical machines. As such, they chose to distance themselves from the invaders as much as possible.

Many of the dragon lords migrated further away, forming small alliances along the way. That made it difficult for the Crimson Clan’s hunting parties to find any prey and reduced their profits significantly.

However, over the past two decades, the Capital of Eternity still managed to hunt eleven dragons, five of which were sold, and six that were still imprisoned in Crimson Wing awaiting magical modification or taming.

Once these ‘leaders’ of the various branches were done with their reports, it was the subordinate force’s turn to report.

Gonga, leader of the magical goblins and Dean of the Goblin Research Institute, was the most excited. He practically shouted out the three most important pieces of news he had.

Firstly, the Goblin Research Institute had succeeded in inventing a true magic energy amplifier.

This device had been the most significant roadblock holding back the Crimson Clan from constructing the Thunder God Titan.

The so-called magic energy amplifier was simply a magic-mechanical version of an elementium energy resonator. It could allow the elementium energy flowing in the magical machine to form resonance with wandering elementium in the surroundings. In doing so, it could amplify the effect of magic energy attacks.

The success of the Goblin Research Institute had much to do with the focusing crystal that Greem discovered prior to this. However, Gonga revealed that this success had only been verified in the laboratories. It would take a long period of experimentation and refinement before it could be perfected and applied to the Sixth Grade Thunder God Titan.

The second piece of information was the magical machine exoskeleton combat assistance system.

The adepts could use magical equipment to assist them in combat. Meanwhile, the goblins had no elementium affinity and could not use elementium attacks even with the aid of a magical machine.

However, the newborn magical goblins were somewhere in between. They might not have elementium affinity, but they could use their natural magical patterns to obtain some control over magic energy.

To enhance the power of these magical goblins, Dean Gonga had invested considerable resources and created this exoskeleton combat assistance system. These devices were like magic-mechanical equipment. They could be equipped on the bodies of magical goblins and used to assist them in unleashing elementium attacks.

Greem was highly interested in this topic when he heard it.

If these magic-mechanical exoskeletons were modified for a human adept’s size and elementium affinity, it might just be beneficial for human adepts as well!

Greem immediately ordered Gargamel to assign some adepts and apprentices to work with Dean Gonga. He wanted to figure out if the magic-mechanical exoskeleton’s function was universal.

Thirdly, the blueprint of the Thunder God Titan was almost complete.

Dean Gonga excitedly requested Greem’s permission to construct the prototype and to begin experimentation.

Thunder God Titan was a powerful war machine that could theoretically reach the levels of Sixth Grade. The number of high-grade materials and rare resources consumed in constructing such a device was astronomical, not including the countless number of technical problems waiting to be solved.

In all honesty, the energy core of a single Thunder God Titan would require three to five magic generator furnaces to power it. For the Titan to fight at full efficiency, Greem would have to make another mega magic-generator furnace.

Greem gave Gonga’s request some thought after hearing it. He then took out a knowledge crystal from his storage ring and slid it across the table to the old goblin.

“Don’t be in a hurry to construct the Titan. We can talk about it once you have digested the knowledge in that crystal!”

“Clan leader, what…what is this?” Dean Gonga lifted the crystal in confusion.

“The fundamental theory of the Arcane Empire’s energy core,” Greem calmly said. “When it comes to the advanced application of basic energy, the Arcane Empire’s knowledge is the most well-established and effective above them all. I believe that your mastery and application of magic energy will improve by leaps and bounds once you understand their arcane theories!”

The next second, every single adept in the room looked at the crystal with passionate, gleaming eyes.