Age of Adepts

The 'fierce' and difficult battle lasted for over twenty hours, and the Darkblood Army only lost around thirty First Grade adepts.

The Capital of Steel had not been too severely damaged, either. Apart from the first few layers of metal plates being blasted apart, and some of the watchtowers being brought down, it had not suffered any damage. Meanwhile, over a hundred of the First Grade magical machines had been destroyed, while not a single high-grade magical machine of Second Grade and above had been lost.

These numbers alone were evidence of how gentle the battle had been.

If this had been a conventional war between adepts, the number of casualties could have easily been ten times the current amount!

The energy shockwaves produced by the battle had even drawn the patrols of Exodar Camp here. However, upon seeing the emblem on the Darkblood adepts, the patrol decided not to intervene in the battle. Instead, they sent a report up to their authorities.

This incident involved the Fifth Grade organization, Istanal Clan. Ordinary patrol adepts had no power or authority to be involved in such a fight. Moreover, this was the border region of the Exodar Camp. Strictly speaking, it wasn't part of the camp. The patrols could only watch the battle unfold in silence.

It was precisely because of this that the Fourth Grade adept of the Istanal Clan was so brazen in starting a war. Otherwise, any adept clan that started trouble in Exodar Camp would not escape punishment from the stationed Great Adept, even if they won the battle in the end.

When the battle finally dragged out past the twenty-hour mark, the Fourth Grade adept of the Istanal Clan realized something was wrong.

If…if the Crimson Clan was really sustaining this city with magical crystals, they would have exhausted everything by now. They would be spitting out blood over their heavy economic losses. Yet, even though the Darkblood adepts had already lost a squadron, the enemy metal fortress' firepower was still as ferocious as ever before. There were absolutely no signs of a lack of energy.

"Bastards! There must be something strange with their fortress! We can't drag this out any longer. Zuval, charge into the city with a platoon and establish a fortified point."

"Understood!"

Upon hearing the Fourth Grade adept's order, a Third Grade male Darkblood adept with a sinister expression and a hooked nose laughed wickedly. He patted his owl, and five hundred Darkblood adepts dove down at the city.

"Wenno, you specialize in plant magic. Once Zuval establishes a fortified position, you will summon magical vines and breach this damn rock to its very core."

"Understood, as you wish!"

Wenno was a Third Grade male adept whose entire body radiated a faint, green light. All sorts of vials and bottles hung from his body. He bowed and acknowledged his order, then waved his hand and led his three hundred direct subordinates down at the city.

"Dust, Doria, continue attacking the Capital of Steel with all you have and provide cover for Zuval. Remember, go as hard as you can!"

"Understood! " "Understood!"

Another two Third Grade female Darkblood adepts accepted their orders and led their forces out of the sky.

With the Fourth Grade adept's commands, over two thousand Darkblood adepts joined the fray in a single instant, causing the battle to instantly reached the peak of its intensity.

At the core of the rock, seven hundred meters deep inside, Gazlowe's large brain was submerged in a viscous liquid. He was using his incredible mental powers to control everything happening within the city.

An unusual metal hat of unmistakable goblin design had been placed on his quivering brain.

The shiny yellow surface indicated that this was an unusual hat forged of bronze.

The reason it was unusual was because of its size.

This hat would be small, even for a human. How was it supposed to be placed on the brain monster's giant brain, which measured well over sixty meters in width, was anyone's guess! Moreover, the 'hat' seemed to be an amalgamation of many assorted pieces of circlets, bands, screws, and other components. The soldering craftwork of the device was also incredibly crude. It looked like a mash-up creation made up on the spot.

A thought amplifier device. That was what this thing was.

Obviously, it was one of the many goblin creations produced by the Goblin Research Institute!

Even Gazlowe had to hand over two Motherships in exchange for this product.

Yet, this seemingly shoddy device had enhanced Gazlowe's brainwaves by over three times. It made his mental powers more potent and his reach more penetrative.

Under Gazlowe's control, the entire core region of the rock had been carved out, leaving a large cave that was five thousand meters in diameter. All the magical machine factories, refineries, workshops, and assembly lines had been stuffed in here. Supported by more than sufficient magic energy, these buildings continued to excavate the metal ores of the rock and turn them into magic energy machines and weaponry.

In the past, Gazlowe would not have been able to support such a large-scale operation on such a massive rock, even with the ultra-magic generator furnace as his power source.

Now that Greem had successfully established trade with Molten Fire City, the Crimson Clan could obtain a steady supply of Queyras alloy. This unusual alloy was only a rare adept resource in the hands of others. In Greem's hands, it could be turned into an unimaginable source of magic energy.

Since Gazlowe had so bravely chosen to stand on the frontlines of the clan's expansion into space, Greem naturally would not let him down. Over the past month, the Capital of Steel had been reinforced with five magic generator furnaces.

With the tremendous amount of energy from all the furnaces, and the constant supply of excellent ores from the boulder, the Capital of Steel had not stopped expanding since the moment it took root.

All the ores dug out from the rock were sent to the workshops where they were separated, selected, filtered, smelted into metal, refined, synthesized into alloys, and subjected to many other processes. After being turned into the alloys required by the Capital of Steel, they would be used to create legions of magical machines to fill the never-ending ranks of the city's guardians.

With energy and metal in hand, the Capital of Steel had the foundation required for ceaseless expansion.

In all honesty, the Capital of Steel had built countless mechanical eyes and probes in the past few weeks. These machines were sent all over space.

The probes had visited every floating rock in the area.

Their locations, the composition of the rocks, the nature of the metals, the number of reserves, and the ratio of rare ores were all precious pieces of information that gathered within Gazlowe's mind.

In all seriousness, Gazlowe might have a more comprehensive and thorough understanding of the distribution of the rocks in this area, as well as their composition, than even the stationed adepts of Exodar Camp.

If the enemy hadn't arrived suddenly and so quickly, Gazlowe would probably already be considering where he should be establishing his second base.

However, Gazlowe had sealed away this thought for the moment. Instead, he focused all his efforts on dealing with these uninvited foes!

Not only did twenty hours of low-intensity fighting not exhaust the Capital of Steel's reserve of magic energy, but it even allowed Gazlowe to gain an additional three hundred tons of alloys, four hundred First Grade magical machines, and over two dozen Second Grade machines.

If it weren't for the sake of tricking the enemy, Gazlowe would not need to leave the exterior of the Capital of Steel as tattered and bruised as it appeared to be. With all the power he had at his command, repairing all of the damage sustained by the city so far would not take more than a few minutes.

When Gazlowe's pervasive mental powers picked up on the enemy's grand invasion, he immediately activated the two magic generator furnaces he had kept on standby. They increased the magic energy supplied to the city by an incredible amount.

A torrent of magic energy surged through the metal pipes and was transported to every corner of the city. The fallen towers and buildings were lifted as if they were liquid metal, then reshaped and reformed.

The damaged and destroyed cannons were quickly replaced with new weapons fresh off the assembly line.

Of course, all this happened within the Capital of Steel. No one could see this happening from the outside.

When the armies of Darkblood adepts activated their shields and dove down against the rain of cannon fire, numerous magic energy cannons emerged from the metal towers that had risen from the ground. All of them fired simultaneously.

The dark space of the galaxy instantly turned as bright as day!

The excessively concentrated and violent magic energy attacks were like a massive web of destruction. They enveloped the Darkblood adepts and rained down upon them.

The ferocity of the attack, and the surprising intensity of the magic energy, caused the faces of all the adepts to turn white.

Dammit! What a terrifying attack!

Just as the heart of the Fourth Grade adept plummeted, a massive cluster of fireworks went off in the center of the battlefield. A horrifying energy tide immediately devoured the first few hundred Darkblood adepts to arrive in the city.

Beng! Beng! Beng!

Such concentrated fire could not be defended against, even with defensive shields ten times more powerful than what the adepts had.

As their magical shields shattered, wild magic energy surged in, devouring the one hundred Darkblood adepts charging at the forefront.

Energy ripples, elementium explosions, severed limbs, and splattered bodies.

A hundred First Grade Darkblood adepts and eleven Second Grade Darkblood adepts had become the first sacrifices of the Capital of Steel's retaliation. Most of the owls beneath the adepts had been riddled with holes and torn up by the energy blasts. Their ripped-up bodies and blood fell from the sky like rain.

Some of the adepts who were the focus of the attacks had been vaporized completely. Not a single trace of their existence remained!

The atmosphere of the battlefield froze over in an instant.