Age of Adepts

"Daphne, it’s time for you to rest!" The lady walked over and hugged her shoulder, pulling her over to the large, delicate bed, "Get some rest. We still have to go to the palace tomorrow morning!"

Daphne sent her mother away with reassuring words before letting out a sigh. Once she closed the door she turned around, only to see a strange pair of ghostly green eyes staring her in the face.

Leaf lightly put the young, slim girl in the nightdress on her soft bed. She turned and said, "I have hypnotized her. She won’t wake up until tomorrow morning. Hurry up and do what you want to do!"

A tall figure walked out from the darkness in the corner of the room and walked silently to the bed.

He lightly lifted up the girl’s nightdress and stopped when her white waist was exposed.

Greem extended his right index finger and quickly drew a strange fire rune on the girl’s stomach. The entire rune flashed and radiated an evil crimson light. It faded two or three seconds later, disappearing into the girl’s stomach.

"It’s done! "Greem put his hand down and closed his eyes to sense for the fire rune within the girl before nodding in satisfaction, "Let’s return!"

Leaf deftly tidied the girl’s nightdress and covered her in the soft velvet blanket. She then turned and leave.

They silently snuck out of the mansion. Greem turned back and took one last look before turning into a dark alley. He let out a soft sigh before pulling his hood up, covering his face and merging back into the darkness.

This was the power that a diviner possessed!

The same radiant knight, and the only way he could think of dealing with him was how to kill the knight in a direct confrontation. But in the hands of the powerless Diviner Mas, he could use odd and unique ways to solve the problem.

Such as using an opponent’s relatives to draw them away at the crucial moment. In doing so the dangerous battle could be avoided!

Lions and tigers can only talk with their fangs and claws, but a fox was so much more sly.

Greem finally understood how Diviner Mas was able to survive right beneath the noses of the witcher-knights.

The reason Mas was willing to contact him was probably because he saw benefit to be gained through the power of fate. There was no way he could have obtained the fundamental magic books from the Great Adept!

Due to the difference in planar laws, these books were not completely suited for the casters of this plane. However, with a system for reference, they could save hundreds of years of uncertain experimentation. Perhaps, with their current knowledge and power, they could easily construct an advancement system in a mere hundred or two hundred years that completely suited the casters of this plane.

But how would this affect Greem in any way?

Why would it matter if these casters chose to continue serving under Great Adept Sarubo, or started trouble by choosing to go independent?

Perhaps it was because both parties had needs that could be fulfilled by each other, while having no direct clash of interest. Diviner Mas was willing to cooperate fully with Greem and even he had to pay a price in doing so.

Greem was sure that the powerless old man would instantly vanish from his sight if he ever thought of killing him and he would never see Mas again. What came next would most likely be an endless pursuit from the leaders of the witcher-knights.

Diviners indeed had intricate and incomprehensible uses of their powers!

Even though they might not have any strength by themselves, they could utilize the forces around them to achieve their goals. The people being used wouldn’t even know they had become a tool for the diviners. They would continue to believe that this was fate’s choice, and remain willing to be a tool of fate.

Such a utilization of power was extremely interesting to Greem. However every time he thought about the price of manipulating fate, he couldn’t help but give on up the idea. Losing all of your own power was too scary.

Rather than slowly weave a net around your enemies and waiting for them to walk to their deaths, it was much better and more satisfying to burn your way there using blazing infernos and scorching flames to reduce the enemy to ashes with your own hands!

As expected, the more violent and hot-blooded fire elementium adept job was much more suited for him!

............

The afternoon of the second day.

It was almost always the time for the dragon’s raid today.

When the loud dragon’s roar echoed from the distant horizon, all the remaining civilians in Skandre City instantly scattered to the winds. They went into hiding, silently waiting for the dragons’ assault.

It was a sunny day and the sunlight was pleasantly warm.

Three small fellows followed behind the Second Grade Green Dragon Sears. They unfurled their wings and slid across the canopy, gliding rapidly across the mountainous forest.

The three brats behind him were all First Grade young dragons. In his eyes they were all just naughty kids who only knew how to play all day long. It was honestly a rather large psychological burden for him to bring this bunch of kids, who had too much curiosity and playfulness, on a raid.

But what choice did he have!

There were over two hundred human cities of all sizes scattered across the Continent of the Knights. If they wanted to harvest everything before moving Dragon Valley, a lot of manpower had to be put in. The strong and powerful adolescent dragons had to cover tens of thousands of kilometers everyday just to raid the faraway human cities.

In comparison, bringing a couple of dragon babies to a familiar place five hundred kilometers away for some light training was already an easy job!

Even though he called them baby dragons, these were already terrifying demons in the eyes of the humans. They were five meters from head to tail with a wingspan of four meters. Wicked and terrifying fangs, powerful hind legs, sharp dragon claws, and that inviolable dragon’s aura of might... perhaps they could only be considered weak and immature babies in the eyes of adolescent dragons!

As the dragon flight continued forward, Sears bent his body and looked down proudly upon the forest beneath him. A wave of powerful aura instantly covered the entire stretch of land.

Under the gaze of his sharp eyes, the entire forest had already fallen into chaos. Countless creatures escaped from their dens, running into the distance without ever looking back. For one moment the creatures of the forest were in a frenzy, panicking as if the end of the world had arrived.

The three young dragons behind him were extremely excited. They followed Sears example and raised their necks to let out bellowing roars that rang throughout the forest.

All of a sudden, the whelp at the rear of the formation turned and looked behind. He lifted his snout and sniffed before excitedly beating his wings and diving downwards.

The animals in the forest fell into even more chaos. All sorts of screeching and howling filled the woods as the beasts ran into trees and sent branches snapping and flying everywhere.

Amidst this chaos, the lunging whelp sunk his powerful hind legs deep into the back of a razor boar as large as a calf. His sharp dragon fangs clamped on the boar’s neck the very next second.

One large shape and one small one rolled about the forest in the dense foliage. Their large rolling bodies crushed all the bushes in their way into the ground.

Razor boars were violent and ferocious animals, fierce creatures even within the woods, but even they were prey when faced with green dragons. Even if its opponent was a little green dragon less than a hundred years old!

Just as the whelp bit its prey to death, and was bending its body to tear at the boar’s leg, wind blew in the sky above. Sears showed its wicked and terrifying body once more.

"Little Chelsea, stop being so greedy. There’s still a human city ahead waiting for us!"

The whelp was enjoying its feast and wasn’t willing to give up on the food before it. It growled sharply at Sears before continuing eating.

Sears turned back and looked at the two other whelps who were eyeing the meat greedily and reluctantly said, "Remember, don’t stay for too long. We will head for the human city first. Remember to catch up after you are done!"

Having said that, he took the skies and circled the it with the two whelps. Then he beat his wings and flew forward, disappearing past the hill in the distance in the blink of an eye.

Six silhouettes wrapped in black cloaks silently watched the scene unfold from a low hill five hundred meters away.

"It worked, Sir Greem!" Diviner Mas still looked as powerless as usual. He held a staff longer than his body in one hand and spoke in a soft voice, "That little dragon fell for it! We can begin the operation now."

The shapes cast aside their cloaks, revealing fit bodies under leather armor and cloth robes. They leapt off the low cliff and rapidly moved towards the area the green dragon was feeding at.

Greem slowly pushed his hood back and nodded at Diviner Mas, "Your ability is impressive! I hope there will be a pleasant conclusion to our cooperation!"

Greem’s silhouette vanished in a massive blast of fire as he said that.

Boom.

Greem’s body disappeared from the spot.

Then flames burst forth in the distant woods as a tall and imposing man of fire suddenly appeared there. It roared and charged at that green dragon whelp.

The suddenly exploding wave of fire ravaged the cliff, but all of the flames and the shockwave were blocked by a translucent defensive barrier.

A young girl with a light blue mark on her face stood before Diviner Mas. Her hands were raised high and that barrier was erected by her.

"Was that intentional? He needs our help yet he acts so hostile towards us?" The girl stabilized the energy output from her hands while complaining at Mas.

"It doesn’t matter whether it was intentional." Mas shook his head as he sighed, "He’s a smart man. He understands that we both need each other’s help. In a fair trade, there is no such thing as someone asking for a favor from the other! It is a fair trade."

"Then did he intend to intimidate us with this?"

"No! This is only the nature of them adepts. They might claim to be a group of individuals pursuing knowledge, but it doesn’t fundamentally change their evil, cruel, and dark nature. They worship knowledge, but are not humble in any way. Their knowledge is vast but they are never compassionate. More accurately, the reason the World of Adepts is so powerful is because it gained power through the continuous robbing and exploiting of other planar worlds!"

"Then will we be able to escape their control in the future?"

"There is a chance in the future! But now, if we do not wish to forever be servants and slaves to others, we must learn what we can from the adepts!"