Age of Adepts

Greem returned just as he departed, his movements unknown to anyone else.

In the minds of the Crimson adepts, the legendary Lord Greem had remained in seclusion within Fire Throne. He had never left at all.

Only a few higher-ups within the Crimson Clan even knew of his departure and return.

The first thing Greem did upon returning to Fire Throne was, naturally, hand over the coordinates of Chillfrost Plane to Meryl.

He had already buried a positioning runestone there. With the runestone and these coordinates, the clan’s search party would not need to go through the troublesome process of calculating and triangulating Chillfrost’s exact location.

Chillfrost had an excessively plain and monotonous planar environment, as well as distorted planar laws due to the influence of an artifact. However, it was still a decent small plane, after all. It was the perfect world to be settled by ice adepts.

The Crimson Clan of the present was no longer the ragtag gathering of adepts it had been in the past. It was a mega-clan that was rapidly growing and developing. The massive influx of foreign adepts imposed a significant strain on the clan territory’s hosting capacity. The two largest regions of the clan were already overpopulated at the moment.

Under such circumstances, Greem intended to further open up the limitations on foreign adepts and allow them to participate in certain administrative functions within the clan.

After proper consideration, Greem decided to open up Lance, as well as the clan outpost in space, to the general public. It would further accelerate the development and expansion of these strongholds.

The Crimson Clan had not possessed the foundation to commit to such a decision in the past. Had they opened up any clan locations to outsiders, it would have been effortless for their enemies to obtain essential and classified information, allowing those enemies to conduct targeted destruction and harassment.

However, Lance was now protected by the Fourth Grade Thunder Dragon Arms, while the outpost in space was defended by Third Grade Gazlowe and his Steel Capital. Anyone who tried to stir up trouble in these places would have to consider whether they had the capability and qualification to start anything.

Mary watched over the Crimson Clan’s headquarters in the World of Adepts, while Alice covered their assets in the North. In addition to the legendary fire adept, Greem, who remained hidden behind the scenes, the Crimson Clan had an extremely firm foundation. They were not afraid of being challenged or contested by any worldly or adept forces.

In fact, there were many times where Greem grumbled about his enemies being too tame and quiet. He was wondering if…he should send some people to tug on their whiskers and get them moving again.

Life without enemies was truly an insufferable one!

Having been to the Adept’s Association and witnessed an adept organization of a different structure, Greem’s worldview had significantly expanded. If Zhentarim was a land of small and medium clan-run enterprises, then the Adept’s Association was a massive conglomerate of cooperations that combined the force of a great many people to achieve large-scale industry and economy.

It was obvious which organization was superior at a single glance.

It was truly a miracle that Zhentarim had managed to survive for so long between the three major adept organizations!

Greem could faintly sense traces of manipulation behind this miracle.

However, he didn’t care too much about this manipulation and did not look into it. He was solely focused on the Crimson Clan’s development and future.

If the Crimson Clan were to bare its fangs right now and launch an invasion against all the other clans, Greem might have a decent chance of achieving his ambition. The amount of power he had gathered in his hands was enough to unite the Central Lands.

Even though the Central Lands would fall into a drawn-out war that would last for hundreds of years, it would be an opportunity to unite the scattered clans to form an organization similar to the three major adept organizations.

However, that was only assuming that no external forces intervened in this conquest!

Should any of the three major adept organizations intervene, it would not just be a matter of being thwarted in his conquest. It was possible that Greem’s act of domination would shatter the silent agreement of the Central Lands as a neutral buffer between all the major organizations. Zhentarim would become the battlefield upon which the three major organizations would publicly wage war and expand their influence.

When that happened, the Central Lands would be dragged into a mire of conflict. Any ambitions or dreams that Greem once possessed would be rendered into dust.

From a certain perspective, the incredibly gentle and even friendly attitude that the Adept’s Association held towards him was very suspicious. They were the strongest organization, after all, and perhaps the one that was most invested in the absence of a significant force in Zhentarim!

Perhaps, they had long hoped for Zhentarim to fall into chaos, such that they could finally have a reason to reach in with their dirty claws! When that happened, they could use the protection of their own interests as an excuse to override the agreement between the three major organizations and send troops into the Central Lands.

Considering the myriad of factors, starting chaos in the Central Lands and hoping to profit amidst all the confusion was an entirely implausible plan.

If military conquest was not feasible, then why not diplomacy?

After giving the matter some thought, Greem raised the suggestion of establishing a public adept academy.

There was an incredible number of adept academies throughout Zhentarim. A quick count would yield as many as three hundred. However, the basic model of education for these academies centered around contracts. Outsiders had to agree to a specific duration of contracted service when they joined the academy. That was the condition for obtaining the knowledge and resources belonging to the academy.

Even adept academies that were known as public institutions functioned in the same fashion. The only difference was that these ‘public academies’ were not subordinate to any clan, but the Zhentarim Association itself.

Greem’s academy would have to offer better and more favorable terms to obtain the favor of free and wandering adepts seeking a proper education.

Greem intended to establish the academy based around a tuition system, rather than a contract system.

The public adept academy, founded by the Crimson Clan, would not force any outsiders to sign servitude contracts. Instead, the school would offer knowledge and resources at a clearly demarcated price. That would weaken the unwillingness of free and wandering adepts to join the academy.

Moreover, the Crimson Clan had numerous Fourth Grade adepts and individuals. These people’s reputation could be used to attract students, especially if they occasionally gave public lectures. Such lectures were unimaginable events for most low and intermediate-grade adepts.

Mary could lecture on blood magic while the diviners would flock to listen to Alice. Gazlowe could teach about mental magic, Emelia was the best choice for the Dean of the School of Plants, Remi for the School of Poison, Gonga for the School of Magic Energy, and Billis for the School of Evolution and Mutation.

If Arms was made to teach in a Draconic School, and Kanganas established a School of Necromancy, while Greem himself taught the School of Fire……

In all honesty, the appearance of so many high-grade lecturers in a single academy would cause a massive commotion in the World of Adepts. All the wandering adepts and free adepts would want nothing more than to come to such a holy place of knowledge.

There was the attraction of knowledge, resources, and powerful adepts. All of these adepts would come to the Crimson Clan’s academy of their own free will.

Given such circumstances, no enemy of the Crimson Clan would be able to criticize them in any fashion, as upset or frustrated as they might be at such a situation. If they dared to stir trouble, the Crimson Clan would have the perfect excuse to take out their long-hidden butcher’s knife.

The three major organizations couldn’t exactly strip the Crimson Clan of their right to self-defense, could they?

However, for such an ideal to be materialized, it required several conditions to be fulfilled. Firstly, the name of the Crimson Clan had to hold sufficient power to draw the masses. Secondly, the clan’s reserves of knowledge and resources had to be plentiful. Thirdly, it required a core group of individuals that were both sufficiently powerful and obedient.

In truth, the Crimson Clan had already fulfilled all of these conditions!

For the sake of this ambition, Greem held many discussions with Mary and Alice, even having multiple secret meetings with the higher-ups of the clan. They went through every single detail and structure in this public adept academy.

Finally, after a year and a half of busy preparations, the Horton Magic Academy was officially founded in a place known as Ironwood City.

…………

Ironwood City, Horton Magic Academy.

Ever since the eye-catching adept tower was constructed, this place had become a bustling hub of activity.

As Ironwood City was a little too small in size, Horton Magic Academy was built in the vast area surrounding Horton Tower, right by the Roy Rivers. There were dense magical woods here, as well as swamps shrouded in mists and tombs constructed underground. There were even towns filled with magical-machinery, where the gears ground and the furnaces huffed without stop.

Horton Magic Academy was approximately divided into a dozen schools of different attributes. The mysterious and legendary fire adept, Greem, was the Dean of the academy and the head of the School of Fire.

The names listed alongside Greem’s as the heads of the various Schools were equally as shocking. It made the hearts of every adept that came here to learn more about the academy beat uncontrollably.

School of Blood:

Head of Department: Mary (Fourth Grade)

Assistant Heads of Department: Soros (Third Grade), Rothers (Third Grade)

Department Instructors: Isa (Third Grade), Spalla (Third Grade), Dolores (Third Grade), Severus (Third Grade), Vanlier (Third Grade).

The entire department consisted of a total of thirty-three individuals, almost all of which were high-grade vampires above Second Grade.

The School of Blood’s activity was centered around Bloodcastle, Horton Tower, and Serpentfowl Cliff. The trial locations of inner members of the School included Seawoods Plane and the Black Forest.

School of Fire:

Head of Department: Greem (Fourth Grade)

Assistant Heads of Department: Cindral (Third Grade), Montague (Third Grade)

Department Instructors: Bresse Sharpini (Second Grade), DeVon Purcell (Second Grade), Vincent Goyle (Second Grade).

The entire School of Fire consisted of seventeen instructors and professors. Greem was the department head in name only. All the administrative work and lecturing had been left to Flaming Tiger Cindral and Minor Fire Lord Montague, who had been recommended into his service by Fire King Groms.

The School of Fire’s main area of activity was focused within Horton Tower, Fire Throne, and Lance, while their land of trial was the Fire Elementium Plane.

School of Necromancy:

Head of Department: Kanganas (Fourth Grade)

Assistant Heads of Department: Scourge Knight Shatterface (Fourth Grade), Higher Lich Vaulx (Fourth Grade)

Department Instructors: Lich Gyers (Third Grade), Undying Banshee Ethelyn (Third Grade), Zombie Lord Kans (Second Grade)

In truth, the entire School of Necromancy was supported solely by high-grade undead recommended by Kanganas. Apprentices and adepts that studied in this department would have the opportunity to travel to the Skeletal Plane and find wild undead suitable to their needs and bind them to their service.