Age of Adepts

“Halt!”

Greem shouted sternly.

“Hand over the Primal Water, and I will leave immediately. This place will still be your territory.”

“Dream on…intruder!” The podling hissed. “I will tear you to pieces and water my endless well with your blood!”

“Then, we fight to the death!”

Greem was enraged by the podling’s stubbornness. He roared and transformed into a dozen-meter-tall flame giant. His entire body became shrouded in a blaze of golden fire, and two blazing fireballs burned in his hands.

The flame giant might be inferior to the podling in size, but his terrifying and intimidating flames were undoubtedly the greater threat. In particular, when Greem let out a battlecry, fearsome torrents of fire that were several meters long burst forth from his eyes and mouth, making him appear like a god of fire descended upon the mortal world.

Even as fierce and arrogant as the podling was, it could not help but be intimidated by this display of power.

Meanwhile, energy bubbled silently in the podling’s shadow, and a ferocious aura erupted. Shadow Demon’s strange silhouette slowly surfaced from the darkness as he stared coldly at the opponent with his red mechanical eyes.

It was obvious that once the battle started, there would be no stopping until a victor was decided!

The podling was nervous, having to face Greem and the phantom-like Shadow Demon at the same time. It had over seventy-percent confidence in handling these two enemies, but…that was only seventy percent, after all. There was still a thirty percent chance it would die to their combined force.

For a Fourth Grade being with a very long lifespan, a thirty percent chance of death was already unacceptably high.

“I created this Primal Water by extracting over twenty percent of the water from the Marsh Wetlands. It is my guarantee for advancing to Fifth Grade. Don’t even dream about taking any of it.” The podling shook its stem violently, all hundreds of meters of its length twisted about like a snake.

Its tone was still cold and severe, but its attitude was softening.

“We won’t take all of your Primal Water. All we want is one-third of it!” Greem raised the increasingly unstable Blazing Fireball in his hands and continued to put on the pressure. “At any rate, if you remain turtled in this cave, those people of the Marsh Wetlands will have no means of exiling you. You will have plenty of time to collect the water source and lives of the Marsh Wetlands slowly. Certainly, that is a better option than a fight to the death here today!”

“Hmph! Bastards, you have no idea how difficult it is to collect water here. I only managed to achieve what I have today after four hundred years, and you are demanding one-third of the fruits of my effort. Dream on…it will never happen!”

“And what about one-fourth, then? You don’t really believe that the weight of two Fourth Grades is not equal to one-fourth of your Primal Water, do you?”

“No, too much! If I give you one-fourth, then I will have trouble increasing my power.”

“One-fifth, then, and no less! If you won’t even agree to one-fifth, then we only have one choice.” Having said that, the Blazing Fireball in Greem’s hands had turned from red to golden yellow. The violent fire energy contained within was horrifying.

The podling did not reply. Instead, it used its sensitive spiritual senses to observe the expressions of its enemies.

Unfortunately, one was a magical machine, and the other was a sly fire adept. One couldn’t read the expression of a machine, and the other one was an absolute expert and negotiator. They were far better at diplomatic negotiations than an inexperienced ‘rookie’ like itself.

Finally, threatened by the enemy’s martial power, the three of them came to a reluctant agreement.

Greem provided over a million magical crystals and a large number of resources unique to the World of Adepts in exchange for one-fifth of the Primal Water in the podling’s possession. One-fifth of the Primal Water amounted to 750 grams, while only 500 grams were needed to save Alice.

Thus, Greem could conduct some special research with the remainder!

If Greem had a small material plane at hand, this 250 grams of Primal Water would be enough to instantly create several rivers stretching for hundreds of kilometers in that world.

That was the true meaning and significance of having Primal Water!

…………

Outside the sacred land of the sporepeople.

The intense earthquake had lasted for over half a day.

The mountains where the sacred land was located had collapsed amidst some deafening rumbling and in front of the eyes of everyone. The massive cloud of dust and smoke had utterly obscured the ruins.

Eight short sporepeople stood on their toes somewhere in a forest close to the Sporeborn Woods, trying their best to see what was happening.

Naturally, they had witnessed everything that had happened in the sacred land.

However, with how weak they were, there was no way they could involve themselves in the fighting!

“Uncle, did we make the right choice? The princess has…has changed, after all! ”

“Indeed, Uncle Naru. The princess is a human adept now. Will…will she still treat us as she did in the past?”

The shortest and most elderly of the sporepeople stroked his shriveled beard and replied sorrowfully, “This has always been the fate of us sporepeople. We are always bent to the will of the powerful! The sporepeople are most certainly going to undergo drastic changes after this battle. Our fates are not going to end well if we remain here.”

“What about the princess? Has she managed to establish herself in that other world? Can she protect us?” A slightly younger sporeperson couldn’t help but mumble.

However, before Naru could reply, a crisp male voice rang out behind them.

“If you can’t believe Emelia’s promise, then certainly you should at least be able to believe the words of a Fourth Grade adept!”

The sporepeople’s faces flushed white when they heard the unfamiliar voice. They turned back with beating hearts to see who was speaking.

It was only then that they realized a human adept in red robes was standing behind them. Meanwhile, standing beside the human adept was the Spore Princess Emelia that they had been talking about.

Of course, none of them paid attention to Remi.

“Princess, you managed to escape from the sacred land. You didn’t…didn’t run into Fahssn in there, did you? Thank god you escaped quickly enough. Otherwise, you won’t have been able to escape Fahssn’s evil claws. Look! Fahssn went on a rage, and the mountains are already collapsing.”

Emelia unamusedly interrupted Naru when she heard him go on an incoherent rant.

“Naru, stop mumbling! Come here and greet Lord Greem! He is my clan leader. He just came out of the sacred land, and he has already killed Fahssn! Even the sacred mountains were destroyed by his hand.”

The sporepeople couldn’t help but draw in a breath of cold air when they heard Emelia’s words. When they looked at Greem once more, their eyes were filled with fear and admiration. In particular, when they saw the shriveled head hanging from Greem’s waist, their expressions turned into one of horror and uncertainty.

A head. The head of Fahssn, the leader of the magical sporepeople!

Even though the head was shriveled, that unusual skin color and vicious eyebrows indeed belonged to the Fahssn that they were all familiar with.

With this head as evidence of his deeds, the sporepeople no longer had any doubts. They collapsed onto their knees and didn’t even dare stare directly at Greem.

“Wait here with them until I return. Remi will protect you all!” Greem did not even cast a second glance at the sporepeople. Instead, he gave his instructions directly to Emelia.

“Clan leader, are we not leaving immediately? Where…do you intend to go?” Emelia asked in surprise.

“Settling some dues!” Greem gritted his teeth and said, “There are some dues I need to collect from some people.”

Having said that, he turned and left the Mushroom Forest.

…………

Two days later.

The World of Adepts, the Tower of Fate.

White light shimmered around the teleportation array. The interplanar teleportation finally completed after several minutes.

When the white light faded, Greem, Emelia, Remi, and eight short figures appeared in the array.

“You’re back. So, did you bring any Primal Water back with you?” Helen, who had been staying in front of the teleportation array all this while, quickly flew before Greem. She circled around him nervously as she asked. Her voice trembled.

Greem did not say anything. He simply took out a flat wooden jug and shook it. The jug sloshed with the sound of water.

“It’s all good if you got it…all good.” Helen was almost breaking down into tears. “Alice has almost exhausted her lifeforce. The time poison seems to be constantly accelerating.”

“How do we use this thing?” Greem asked solemnly.

“Leave it to us! We have already prepared the items required for the ceremony. We were only waiting for you to return with the Primal Water. Let’s go; we will begin immediately.”

A short moment later, bright light once again shone from the Tower of Fate after days of silence. This beam of white light pierced through the shroud above Dragonblight, making for a wondrous, brilliant sight.

The profound and mysterious River of Fate appeared above the Tower of Fate as a projection. Countless stars fell from the river, crashing towards the Tower of Fate.

The moment the stars crashed, a tall and pretty silhouette appeared and opened her arms, letting the stars freely enter her body.

As the stars continued to fall, the form of the pretty witch started to become increasingly real.

Finally, when the River of Fate faded away, the witch turned around. Her thousand-meter-tall body towered over the land, and her pretty, brilliant, star-like eyes glowed with blinding, shocking radiance.