Age of Adepts

Starfell gems across history had various properties with no pattern to them. Thus, the appraisal of a starfell gem was more often like an exciting gamble.

Place your bets, big or small!

No one knew what unique attributes an appraised starfell gem would have, and yet, these properties would undoubtedly affect the value of the gem tremendously.

The starfell gem that Greem had obtained also had peculiar properties– it was known as the Cursesinging Crystal. The holder of the gem had a chance of triggering a Phantom Curse when attacking an enemy. This curse would attack indiscriminately and bypass magic resistance entirely.

Another indiscriminate cursed item!

If Greem equipped this gem known as the Cursesinging Crystal, he could trigger a curse when attacking an enemy. This curse would simultaneously and indiscriminately affect the holder of the gem and the individual being attacked.

Just imagine, hit the enemy once, and both you and the enemy would be cursed; that incredibly weird scenario would surely make the battle even more strange and dangerous.

That was why Greem was furious the moment he appraised the Cursesinging Crystal. He wanted to destroy it on the very spot. However, after a while, he thought otherwise.

This strange crystal might not be a good fit for him, but it might be excellent high-grade equipment for another person. For instance…Mary!

Mary had already advanced to Fourth Grade. The origin abilities of vampires made her naturally immune to most curse magic. If this Cursesinging Crystal were in Mary’s hands, the Phantom Curse would only affect the enemy and not her.

What other Fourth Grade items could be more valuable for her!?

Moreover, the Chip detected that the chance of the crystal’s curse triggering was around 8%. It was a little on the low side for Greem. However, for Mary and her incredible Agility and attack rate, an 8% trigger chance was already incredibly high.

Thus, Greem could only regretfully order the Cursesinging Crystal sent to Mary instead of keeping it for himself.

The Watersoul Jade. It was an incredible trump card that could save his life in moments of crisis. Naturally, Greem had to take excellent care of it.

Meanwhile, the Primal Water’s attributes were too mysterious. Even with the Chip’s aid, the progress of Greem’s research was exceptionally slow. He could only remain patient and work on it slowly.

On the other hand, the strange warhammers he had taken from Gorefist were revealed to be Fourth Grade weapons of high power after the Chip’s appraisal.

Greem didn’t know what material Gorefist had forged these warhammers out of, but they each weighed over 1,600 kilograms. Greem couldn’t even swing them with his 28 points of Strength, let alone use them in combat.

With this, it wasn’t hard to imagine how shockingly strong and powerful Gorefist was!

[Gorefist’s Warhammers. Fourth Grade weapon.

Use requirements: Strength 41 | Physique 38 |

Offensive power: 760 – 980 points.

Abilities: Return, Berserk Strikes, Whirlwind.]

One had to admit that these two warhammers that Gorefist had committed all his resources into creating did indeed possess decent power. Greem even saw traces of principles in the abilities possessed by the warhammers.

However, compared to the high-grade equipment created in the World of Adepts, this pair of warhammers was still too crude and simple!

In particular, that annoying requirement of 41 Strength kept most elementium adepts from using it. Only pure body-refining adepts and certain bloodline adepts could meet the base requirement of using these warhammers.

After examining their attributes, Greem could only regretfully put them away as part of his collection. He would have to see if he had the opportunity to trade it away for other items in the future. Otherwise, equipment with such strict usage requirements will have to gather dust in his personal collection.

[Bleeding Spear. Fourth Grade weapon.

Use requirements: Troll Bloodline.

Offensive power: 600 – 780 points.

Abilities: Energy Projection, Split Attack.

[Energy Projection: Form a spear of light with the user’s power and hurl it at the enemy. Projected spear will have 70% of the Bleeding Spear’s power. Cooldown: 5 seconds.

[Split Attack: Attacks from the Bleeding Spear will split off upon hitting its target, dealing diminishing damage to other nearby targets. Total targets of split attack: 3. Diminishing damage: 70%, 50%, 30%.]

This Bleeding Spear was obtained from the small plane of Seawoods. It was a ritual item of the trolls and their national artifact. Unfortunately, it was a Third Grade voodoo doctor who had been wielding it. He had not even been able to use even one-tenth of the spear’s real power.

That was why Shadow Demon had so easily killed him and why the Bleeding Spear had come into Greem’s possession.

Unfortunately, the conditions of usage for the Fourth Grade Bleeding Spear were even stricter. Only individuals with a troll bloodline could use it. It was a waste of its two powerful offensive abilities since Greem could not use them at all.

Of course, if Greem was willing to put it some effort and make a pair of gloves with the bloodline and skin of the trolls, there was a chance he could wield the Bleeding Spear. However, Greem was a legendary fire adept, after all. Waving a spear around like a warrior instead of his staff wasn’t exactly the right priority!

Thus, Greem could only shake his head, sigh, and put away the Bleeding Spear as another item in his ‘collection.’

It was, in fact, a common situation for most adepts after otherworldly wars!

Every plane had its own unique laws and strange races. The equipment and weapons raided from those worlds would have their own individual usage requirements. For a high-grade adept to fully unleash their potential and power, they would have to spend decades and hundreds of years exhausting massive amounts of resources to create custom-made magic equipment for themselves.

Fourth Grade equipment that naturally suited an adept was incredibly rare and valuable.

Take Greem, for example. Despite having gotten his hands on so many Fourth Grade items and weapons, there were very few among them that were compatible with his origin attribute. At this point, he only had the somewhat average Fire Coral Staff.

Even Sodden’s Holy Ring was barely utilized with Greem’s power. He was not a holy knight, after all. He could not draw out the full potential of Sodden’s Holy Ring.

The only thing that could move him among his items was the Orb of the Fire God.

It was the only artifact in all his items that possessed fire origins. It was perfectly compatible with his attribute. Sadly, the Orb of the Fire God had an owner. It would be a tough battle for Greem to wear away the divine brand that the Fire God had left within it!

Apart from the Orb, the Libram of Wisdom was also an item to look forward to!

As the God of Wisdom’s artifact, it possessed the mysterious ability to enhance the host’s Spirit, while providing an incredible amount of knowledge. All spellcasters, not just Greem, would covet such a treasure.

If Greem could successfully turn the Orb of the Fire God and the Libram of Wisdom to his own use, his power would skyrocket.

The Chip had performed some basic calculations. With his power as a fire adept and the aid of the Orb and Libram, his fighting power could match that of a peak Fourth Grade adept.

With such power, Greem would become a real powerhouse in the World of Adepts. No one could stop him, and no one could defeat him.

There were undoubtedly other similar individuals in the three major adept organizations. However, those people were busy meditating in an attempt to advance, break out of the world, and become truly immortal. Very few individuals were like Greem, having free time to travel the world, stirring up trouble, and managing his own organization.

If Greem were to possess such power, it would be a far easier matter to unite the forces of Zhentarim into a single organization. At the very least, no adept clan or Fourth Grade adept would ever dare to disobey the will of a peak Fourth Grade on the surface.

The divine crystals that Greem had obtained were also precious resources.

Sadly, the Feathered God possessed lightning as its attribute. The divine laws contained within the crystals were also of the lightning attribute. They were clearly incompatible with Greem.

If Greem forcefully assimilated these crystals, he could gain a basic grasp of the lightning laws.

However, he would greatly waste these divine crystals in the process, resulting in a considerable loss of the divinity within them. Furthermore, assimilating the lightning laws through such a method was more of a contamination to his fire laws.

It was simply not worth it. It was a short-sighted idea that would yield no proper benefit in the long run!

Since they couldn’t be used on himself, he would have to trade it away.

Inevitably, there were intermediate-grade lightning adepts who would fight with their lives over these divine crystals. After all, if a Fourth Grade lightning adept absorbed these divine crystals, he could only slightly improve his affinity with lightning while gaining access to one or two unknown lightning laws.

However, in the hands of a Third Grade lightning adept, they would be able to access the lightning laws for the first time in their lives. That would increase their odds of advancing to Fourth Grade by twenty to thirty percent. With the aid of other materials, their chances of advancing would be a whopping sixty to seventy percent.

Anyone would laugh out loud at such incredible odds!

Even as generous as he was, Greem wasn’t willing to trade away such a rare adept resource. There were one or two famous Third Grade lightning adepts in the central lands. If these crystals were to fall in their hands, then the Crimson Clan would be creating competitors for themselves!

That was why most Fourth Grade organizations kept a tight hold on all strategic adept resources. They would rather the resources gather dust in their warehouses than for them to go onto the market. It was to avoid making more ‘enemies’ for themselves.

He couldn’t use them, and he couldn’t release them on the market. Was he supposed to just let them sleep in the warehouse then?

Greem couldn’t help but start thinking, trying to find a possible owner for these crystals within the clan. The Chip flashed images of the clan members through Greem’s mind. Finally, when a particular image appeared, Greem’s eyes lit up. He had a vague idea of what he could do.