Age of Adepts

The arrival of the magic surge was a difficult trial for all planar worlds!

Given the scale of the World of Adepts and the power of its inhabitants, no intruder or monster could shake this colossal civilization.

However, just because the safety of the adept civilization was guaranteed didn’t mean that every single clan and organization that made up this civilization would go unharmed. Quite the contrary- in this time of turbulence and chaos, any organization could easily face devastating losses if they made even a small mistake. Their advantage and position that they had built up over the years would be lost to the wind in the blink of an eye.

This fact…was the fundamental reason all adepts were so cautious and wary of the magic surge.

Even a world as powerful as the World of Adepts had to be cautious when dealing with the magic surge, let alone smaller planar worlds that were inferior to the World of Adepts.

When the magic surge arrived, and the planar barriers could no longer protect the worlds within, the natives would have to face the onslaught of spacestorms and vicious monsters. They had no other way out but to throw their lives into the grinder in hopes of reaching that minuscule chance of survival.

Weakness was the original sin in the universe!

…………

The Goblin Plane, Ironstone Wilderness.

It was a desolate and quiet land of red earth.

The earth here was too acidic, contained too many minerals, metals, and far too little organic material. Consequently, no plant life could grow here. The land that stretched for nearly fifty meters was barren. Apart from individual hills and stone pillars riddled with holes from the acid rain, there did not seem to be anything else.

Due to the acidity of the earth, the ground appeared dark red. Under the sun, it almost seemed as if the earth was soaked with blood. Thus, this place was also known as the Devil’s Land.

Due to the inability to grow any plants here, it was only natural that there were no settlements. There were no goblin cities or villages anywhere in sight, let alone any goblin activity.

However, a loud rumble suddenly blared out in this desolate land.

A fully-equipped company of goblin chariots appeared within view. The heavy goblin chariots had tracks of steel that crushed the red earth beneath them. Meanwhile, magic energy cannons rotated on top of the vehicle, pointing here and there at the shadows beneath the rocks.

A goblin wearing an aviator’s helmet and goggles peeked out of the top of the first chariot in the company.

He was holding binoculars up to his eyes and looking at all the hills and stone pillars around him.

The geography here was unusually dangerous, and the environment was incredibly harsh; it was clearly not a place suited for life to thrive. With the magic surge looming just over the horizon, the company did not dare to let down their guard for any reason at all. They surveyed this region of spatial weakness meticulously.

Indeed, the reason Ironstone Wilderness was so desolate was that it was a region of spatial weakness. The chaotic magic energy seeping in from another world had changed the environment here, causing an elementium imbalance that resulted in the red earth.

The goblin company was composed of eleven goblin chariots, each outfitted with magic energy cannons, rockets, and magical machines. Their mission was to patrol this Ironstone Wilderness regularly, ensuring that no otherworldly creatures could sneak into the Goblin Plane during the magic surge.

To better help them with their task, the higher-ups had assigned a goblin helicopter to each company.

As the goblin company rumbled across the red earth, a helicopter codenamed Flying Fish flew past them at an extremely low-altitude. It then curved in an elegant line and flew to a red hill in the distance.

Goblin Commander Pike’s green hair rustled about violently under his leather hat in the wind. He bent over slightly and shouted, his hand pressing the communication crystal in his ear.

“Morris, you bastard. Don’t fly so close to the chariots. Dammit! My eardrums nearly burst from that terrible noise of yours. Remember, fly higher and check out Zone 27. The device indicates that the sealing array there has been triggered. Some nasty things might have slipped in. Be careful.”

“Flying Fish received, Pilot Morris reporting in. Heading to Zone 27 now.”

Commander Pike smacked the chariot loudly and pointed in the direction the helicopter was headed. He raised his binoculars again and continued tracking the aircraft.

The chariot company took a sharp turn and headed toward a forest of stone pillars.

Before the chariots reached within one and a half kilometers of the stone forest, a flock of birds assaulted the helicopter. Fortunately, Morris was quite a skillful pilot. He was able to conduct complicated evasive maneuvers with the helicopter, escaping the birds’ encirclement and turning straight back toward the chariots.

Pike, who had been watching on anxiously, was overjoyed to see this. He immediately ordered the company to establish a defensive formation. The magic energy cannons creaked and quickly adjusted their angles. The metal clamps used to support the chariots on both sides embedded themselves into the ground. A light blue barrier then engulfed the entire company.

The helicopter flew straight at the company. Just as it was about to pass within the chariots’ radius of fire, it barrel-rolled to the side, curving away and revealing the unusual birds squawking behind.

It was a strange flock of birds that the goblins had never seen before!

They resembled giant ducks, but they had no hair on their long necks. They had a strange red sac on both sides of their heads. These birds weren’t exactly massive, had red feathers, and flew at a mediocre speed.

If it weren’t for the fact that the helicopter was trying to lure them into firing range, it would have been able to leave them in the dust a long time ago.

The Goblin Plane of the present was no longer the Goblin Plane of the past!

Having experienced the depths of the adept civilization, the goblins had gained a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience; Commander Pike was able to identify these ‘monsters’ in just two seconds.

Fire Crows!

Birds with the ability to spit fire!

The two sacs near their mouths were where they stored their saliva. Their saliva would combust when it came into contact with air, allowing them to shoot out fireballs just by spitting. The ferocity of these fireballs was about half that of an average one from a human adept. However, the flames themselves had an odd adhesiveness, allowing them to continue burning on the enemy for a long time.

It was the most troublesome aspect of fire crows!

It was not very difficult to deal with an individual fire crow. The problem was that fire crows were flock animals. They lived in flocks, the smallest of which consisted of two to three hundred fire crows, while the largest could go up to tens of thousands of crows. The size of the flock depended on whether there was sufficient food where they lived.

According to Pike’s knowledge, there were no fire crows in the Ironstone Wilderness and not very many across the Goblin Plane, either. That was why he was certain that this flock of a thousand fire crows must be intruders that had snuck in through a spatial rift.

They were sure to migrate to a place with more ‘food’ once they adapted to the environment and geography here. Goblins were most certainly on their list of prey.

To ensure the safety of the Goblin Plane, these fire crows could not be allowed to roam freely.

Consequently, the moment the fire crows flew into their firing range, the magic energy cannons of the chariots immediately fired.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

A series of energy fireballs flew into the sky, crashing into the fire crows and causing seas of fire to erupt everywhere.

The fire crows might be able to breathe fire, but that was due to their special saliva; they weren’t actually fire creatures themselves. The cannon fire of the goblin chariots instantly inflicted devastating damage to the flock.

The battlefield was filled with the pained and furious cries of the fire crows, along with the sound of exploding fireballs. Numerous fire crows were blasted into bits, while others were burned black and crashed to the ground as scorched corpses.

The few crows that survived the gauntlet quacked and dove downward, blasting the light blue energy barrier with their fireballs.

Unfortunately, as their individual might was too insignificant, they were incapable of shaking this barrier sustained by all eleven goblin chariots.

The air around the barrier moved around turbulently as the fireballs exploded. However, the flames did not simply dissipate, but turned into a red liquid that slowly dripped down the barrier. This red liquid would instantly ignite the moment it was exposed to air again, rapidly corroding the energy barrier.

There were still far too few goblin chariots here. Their first wave of attack had halved the number of fire crows, but their attacks after were far more ineffective against the now scattered and disorganized fire crows. It was like trying to hit mosquitos with a cannon.

After a dozen volleys, they had only managed to shoot down a few more fire crows.

That was far too few compared to the five hundred fire crows still left in the air.

The crows flew up and down, trying their best to spit fireballs at the energy barrier.

Judging from their actions, they intended to burn through the barrier and rush in to fight the goblin chariots.

Since the magic energy cannons were ineffective, Pike gave an order, and the magical machines hanging from the back of the chariots prompt;y leaped off. They formed a row and started to shoot at the fire crows with energy beams.

With their near-instantaneous projectile speed, the energy beams were far more effective than fireballs in this scenario. They were a little weaker, but given the countless guns on each magical machine’s body, they more than made up the difference.

Bzt! Bzt! Bzt!