Age of Adepts

He had only mastered three fire laws?

The very idea of that was laughable.

As a veteran adept that advanced over three hundred years ago, there was no way that Schreiber had only mastered three laws. The ones he was showing now were only the less crucial ones he had selected!

Greem smiled as he listened to Schreiber's explanation and assessed the three runes hovering in front of him. Naturally, without Schreiber's permission, he couldn't extend his Spirit into the law runes to investigate their structures. He could only faintly and vaguely make out their law auras.

Greem might have created fire runes countless times in the past, but those were low-grade runes: magical circuits constructed with a series of energy nodes to simulate specific effects.

However, ever since he reached the level of planar laws, Greem felt like he was starting to fall behind when it came to runecraft. The Chip had created every rune he now grasped through a long sequence of calculations. He didn't do anything apart from using the runes once they had been constructed.

His power had always been built upon the Chip's robust calculation and simulation abilities, as well as the multiple pieces of powerful magical equipment he had. His understanding of the law powers was still, in truth, lacking.

In all honesty, before Schreiber showed him the law runes, Greem had never realized that something as immaterial as the fire laws could be materialized in this fashion.

This small move was like thunder on a sunny day. It showed Greem an utterly new path down the road of law cultivation.

Greem brooded in silence, quickly running through his seven fire laws to judge which was best for a trade.

Increased Fire Range, Increased Fire Effectiveness, Fire Penetration, Invisible Flames, Critical Fires, Fire's Fragility, and Fire's Resilience.

Schreiber already had Increased Fire Range. Naturally, that law had to be excluded.

Critical Fires and Invisible Flames were incredibly significant to Greem's system of combat. As such, he couldn't offer them up for trade either. The others weren't all that valuable and wouldn't affect Greem negatively even if the opponent got ahold of them.

As such, Greem settled on three fire laws to be traded.

Greem's right hand quickly moved through the air, the fire energy at the tip of his finger drawing a strange and unusual law rune. When the law rune finally took shape, a mysterious flame ignited, and the rune burned silently in the air.

These flames were no ordinary fire. They glowed with bright golden color and required no fuel at all. It burned silently and peacefully even though it was in a vacuum.

The flames also radiated no heat or light.

They looked like a pretty still image. It would have been impossible to pick up on their presence if you didn't see the flames with your own two eyes!

These were law flames. Naturally, drawing upon law powers made them thousands of times more potent than ordinary fire. Fire magic constructed with such flames would have a shocking effect and force.

In truth, Greem did not have any mental image of these law runes in his mind when he started drawing. However, when he immersed his mind in the corresponding fire law, a strange power began to move in his mind.

What he drew was not a law rune, but his actual understanding of this one particular law. His dense mental consciousness moved and bent in midair according to the fire energy, which caused him to unconsciously materialize the fire laws into this unusual rune form.

When he put his arm down and turned to look at the three law runes he had drawn, an odd feeling rose in his heart. Those fire laws that were once vague and unfamiliar to him now appeared so crystal clear. They even started to turn into law runes in his mind and were slowly being branded onto the core of his consciousness.

[Beep. Detecting abnormality in Host's mental consciousness.

[Warning. Warning. Abnormality occuring in the core of Host's consciousness. Said abnormality is incredibly beneficial to Host. Degree of improvement unclear. Requesting instructions from Host. Halt abnormality?]

"Don't stop it!"

[Beep. Order received! Beginning dynamic observation.]

Greem opened his eyes, only to see Schreiber's look of surprise and puzzlement.

Upon seeing Greem come to consciousness, a strange smile appeared on his face, "Sir Greem, could it be…that this was your first time forming a law rune?"

By the end of his sentence, it seemed like Schreiber was holding back some disbelief in his tone!

"Well, yes. I've always been too busy with other experiments in the past. I've never tried to materialize my fire laws. It wasn't until I saw you do it today that I actually tried to materialize them!" Greem explained, somewhat awkwardly.

However, the more he explained, the more interesting the expression on Schreiber's face. It was as if he was struggling between belief and disbelief.

Liar, liar, liar. He has to be a liar!

If this was his first time forming law runes, then what had he been using to control the fire laws in battle?

Liar. This Greem fellow is just a big, fat liar. Not a single word of his can be trusted!

Schreiber howled in his own mind.

However, the unusual aura that rose from Greem when he formed the law runes was obviously an external manifestation of the law powers merging with his consciousness core.

There was no way he could fake such a thing!

What Schreiber had just seen led him to believe Greem completely, but Greem's explanation just went against everything that he knew. That was why Schreiber was all worked up. He stared straight into Greem's eyes, trying to discern from his face or movements any reason he would be lying about this.

Unfortunately, all he could see was honesty!

Goddamned honesty.

Schreiber squeezed out a ghastly smile and forced himself to forget what he just saw. He then spoke with a hoarse voice, "Sir Greem, why don't you introduce these three runes of yours!"

Any law runes belonging to an elementium adept was a vector that carried their consciousness and will. Otherwise, they would not be able to command it with perfect accuracy as they did. Without Greem's permission, Schreiber could not penetrate the law runes' aura to figure out their specific effects.

"These are the three fire laws I have mastered so far: Fire Penetration, Fire's Fragility, and Fire's Resilience.

"Just as its name implies, Fire Penetration allows me to penetrate the fire resistance of a target creature, causing them to be further damaged by my flames!"

Greem called the Fire Penetration rune to his fingertip as he explained, allowing it to spin in place.

Schreiber looked at the rune, calm and composed. It was obvious he was not moved by its effect. Instead, it was most likely that he had already mastered this fire law himself, which was why he appeared so calm.

Greem's wasn't frustrated. He waved his hand, and the Fire Penetration rune returned to its original spot. Another rune then floated to his finger.

"With Fire's Fragility, I can reduce a target's fire resistance below zero at the cost of nullifying all of my defenses. In doing so, I can inflict greater fire damage than what is possible!"

Schreiber narrowed his eyes when he heard this. It seemed like he was thinking about the applications of this fire law in combat.

In all honesty, nullifying your defenses wasn't the smartest thing to do in combat. However, when you needed to apply extreme pressure on the enemy at certain moments, this could be a very good way of doing so!

Greem glanced at Schreiber but did not pause. Instead, he started introducing the last rune.

"Fire's Resilience; the flames that I have ignited on my enemies will never extinguish on their own. If my enemies don't take the time to put out the fires on themselves while engaged in combat, they will have to constantly endure the flames' damage."

Schreiber's eyes finally glowed when he heard the effect of this fire law.

Even though Greem's explanation was vague, he still quickly figured out the viciousness of this fire law. He was a veteran fire adept, after all.

Ordinary elementium flames would often burn out by themselves in battle, even when lit upon the enemy, simply due to a lack of constant energy supply. However, magical flames enhanced with this special law would burn perpetually unless countered with law magic of a similar level.

It was a very cost-effective and efficient way of slowing the opponent down, especially in a high-grade adept battle where every second mattered.

A fire law like this was a proper representation of what it meant to be a principle adept!

Schreiber's breath couldn't help but become more rapid.

Even though these were all fire laws, there were still differences in quality between them. Laws like Increased Fire Range, Increased Fire Effectiveness, Fire Penetration, and Fire's Frenzy were of the lowest quality. Meanwhile, Fire's Fragility, Fire's Blast, and this Fire's Resilience were obviously of a higher level. Their power and effects were far superior.

In all honesty, even though Schreiber already thought plenty of this legendary fire adept Greem, he never expected he would be able to produce such powerful laws so easily.

Moreover, these were obviously not his real hidden aces!

Schreiber couldn't help but become even more excited at the thought of those invisible fires and the unique double-damage effect that Greem had displayed in his fight against the Adept of Torture.

Unfortunately, those two fire laws clearly formed the core of his combat style. He would never trade them away!

As such, Schreiber could only turn his attention back to Fire's Fragility and Fire's Resilience.