Age of Adepts

As Greem made his choice, four law runes circling the red crystal fell apart without a single sound.

Greem felt a stinging pain in his mind as the runes disintegrated. The fire laws correlating to these runes were wiped away by a mysterious force. The laws were wiped away thoroughly. All of the knowledge and experience that Greem had concerning those laws vanished as well.

Increased Fire Effectiveness, Fire's Fragility, Critical Fires, Fire's Resilience; these fire laws that other fire adepts would die to get their hands on vanished, just like that.

Not a single trace of them remained!

Meanwhile, the four remaining law runes represented Increased Fire Range, Fire Penetration, Invisible Flames, and Fire's Blast. They continued to circle around the red crystal formed from his consciousness core. They continued to tremble and struggle, refusing to be bound and assimilated in this fashion.

However, at this moment, a blinding sun suddenly appeared in this blazing world, slowly sinking from the crimson sky above.

The Orb of the Fire God.

No, more accurately, the energy projection of the Orb of the Fire God!

Controlled by Greem, the Orb had projected its powers into his soul consciousness and was slowly approaching the red crystal that represented the consciousness core.

The law runes refused to be bound. They were still struggling with all they had, making it difficult for Greem to merge them with his consciousness core. However, the power of the Orb of the Fire God was completely under Greem's control. It joined with the red crystal without any hesitation.

Aided by this incredibly powerful ally, the red crystal's control over the four law runes increased tremendously. The four law runes trembled slightly and let out a whimper, like that of a beaten dog. However, they could not change their fate of being slowly drawn towards the red crystal.

The law runes finally calmed down. They approached the red crystal obediently and branded themselves upon it.

The assimilation of the law runes with the consciousness core was an extensive modification to the soul. The pain and agony of the process were incomprehensible to someone who had not experienced it for themselves. Most adepts assimilated these law runes one by one, with at least a hundred years of adjustment between each attempt. Consequently, they would not have to suffer such a severe impact on their soul.

However, Greem did not have three or four hundred years to deal with these runes slowly. That was why he summoned the orb's energy projection and used its powers to bind the four law runes, forcing them to merge with his consciousness core obediently.

The impact on the soul in the process of assimilation was also mostly shouldered by the orb's projection. Otherwise, there was no way Greem could have endured that kind of pain!

The modification to his consciousness core represented an improvement to the strength of his soul.

Even though Greem's combat prowess would suffer in the short term due to the loss of a few fire laws, this process would have tremendous benefits for his potential and his future path.

Moreover, Greem was assisted by the Chip and the Orb of the Fire God. It was a hundred times easier for him to grasp new laws compared to the average elementium adept.

However, since he had decided on his future path, he could no longer recklessly develop any fire law he chose to, as he had in the past!

This process of assimilation took Greem twenty-seven days to complete.

Even with his 34 points of Physique, Greem felt dizzy when he finally stepped out of his room. However, his soul's ascension after the assimilation of his law runes made Greem's mind feel clearer and more powerful than ever before. That long-awaited sense of strength he could feel from the depths of his soul was intoxicating.

His Spirit was still at 44 points, with no increase whatsoever. However, his soul's control over his body and his mental consciousness had improved by leaps and bounds.

At this moment, it was almost as if Greem had the soul of a principle adept, stuffed in the body of an elementium adept. His body was still the same body, and his mind was still the same mind. However, his soul's control over fire and his understanding of fire's secrets had improved by a whole level.

In truth, the strength of Greem's soul was still some distance away from that of a true Fifth Grade adept. However, it was still more powerful than the average Fourth Grade adept. These benefits were not obvious or visible, but they would significantly impact Greem's future development!

After an entire month of remaining completely motionless, without resting or eating anything, Greem's Spirit had undoubtedly weakened. However, his somewhat pale but handsome face had joy written all over it. A startling red brilliance glowed in the depths of his black eyes.

Several sparks outside the magical barrier caught his attention when he stepped out of the room.

Magical messages!

Greem hesitated for a moment before waving. A small opening appeared in the magical barrier, and these stray sparks of light immediately rushed towards him.

Greem reached forward with his hand as the messages landed on his palm, turning into immaterial consciousness streams that merged with his mind. An unfamiliar voice rang out in his mind.

"Adept Greem, I am interested in something in your possession. I am looking forward to meeting you in person.

"Adept Greem, I also have something in my possession that you might be interested in. Why don't we arrange a meeting?

"Adept Greem, I am Obiola. I urgently hope to see you.

"What is the matter, Adept Greem? A meeting between us is certainly going to be beneficial for you. Please give me a reply as soon as possible.

"I'm going mad already. How could you have gone into seclusion now? This is Obiola. I am still waiting for news from you.

"It's been fifteen days. Why haven't you come out yet?

"Remember to contact me once you're out.

"……"

All these messages were from an adept called Obiola. Greem could see the change in their emotions from the messages: from composure to concern, and, finally, to anxiety.

It seemed like Greem's unexpected seclusion had almost driven a Fourth Grade adept insane!

Obiola?

Greem frowned slightly. The Chip instantly projected the basic information on this Adept Obiola into his mind.

Adept's Association elder. Fourth Grade adept. Summoner.

Even though the information available was crude and simple, Greem could already guess at Obiola's purpose in meeting him.

The only item of all those he had revealed since he arrived at the Adept's Association that could have attracted this summoner was that……

In all honesty, Greem wasn't too eager about a trade like this.

After all, at his level, there were very few things that could attract his desire. Moreover, he already had the Orb of the Fire God and the Libram of Wisdom, which he had yet to devour fully. These two Fifth Grade items alone made him far more powerful than most Fourth Grade adepts.

Greem would not be afraid even if he ran into a peak Fourth Grade powerhouse.

Even here, at the heart of the Adept's Association, Greem was confident in being able to escape, as long as the Association wasn't ultimately openly hostile against him. He could escape alive as long as he wasn't swarmed by dozens of Fourth Grade adepts while suppressed by a top-class adept tower.

That was the real reason why Greem was so fearless in coming here!

Greem's wasn't exactly passionate about this request for a meeting.

He lifted his arm and sniffed his slightly smelly robe. He turned and headed to the bathroom without any hesitation.

Four hours later, the refreshed Greem opened his barrier, hungry and looking for food. He summoned the servants of the tower and had them deliver a sumptuous feast of magical meat.

Fourth Grade adepts, in particular elementium adepts, had mostly accomplished the elementiumization of their bodies to some extent. When necessary, they could simply devour magical crystals to maintain or replenish their energy reserves.

Compared to magical crystals, there was simply too little energy contained in food.

For a Fourth Grade adept to fill their terrifying energy reserves, they would have to eat several tons of food. Moreover, most foods contained only fragments of life energy. The energy required to convert the food into high-energy substances through the inefficient human digestive system was tremendous.

Fourth Grade adepts could only recover their exhausted energy by consuming the flesh of high-energy magical creatures. It was also quite difficult and tiring to hunt such animals.

However, as the largest adept organization of the World of Adepts, the Adept's Association had numerous resource planes. Since the Black Forest's magical creatures were too powerful and hard to capture, they simply moved to a lesser plane and bred weaker magical creatures as livestock.

An entire plane dedicated to breeding these magical creatures allowed their numbers to increase exponentially.

Obviously, there were adept parties responsible for harvesting these specially bred magical creatures. An entire system of gathering high-energy food was constructed in this manner.

If Greem had not established an outpost in Lance and obtained a steady supply of dragon meat, he would not have been able to build such a sturdy Physique.

However, just as Greem was digging into his feast, an uninvited guest showed up outside his door.

"Adept Greem, this is Obiola. You should be able to see me now, right?"

Greem hesitated for a moment when he sensed Obiola's message. Finally, he opened the door of the room.

This room belonged to the Tower of Observation. It was a property of the Adept's Association.

However, as a guest of the Association, this room was regarded as Greem's personal territory as long as he stayed here. Even with the title of an Association elder, Obiola could not enter by force.

That was basic courtesy between adepts!

The door opened suddenly, and a muscular man strode into the room. He saw Greem stuffing his face and froze momentarily. An expression of understanding then appeared on his face.

"Perfect timing. I was getting hungry as well! How about it, Sir Greem, could you treat me to a meal?" Obiola was clearly a straightforward person. His loud voice rumbled throughout the entire hall.