Age of Adepts

Three months later.

In the same Sea of Ashes that stretched for thousands of kilometers, Greem once again met the powerful Fire King Groms.

The entire fire hall almost burst into flames the moment he took out the Lightfire stone.

The law fires burning on Groms' body started blazing furiously. Blue flames shot out of his eyes, like fireworks in celebration.

"Good…simply amazing. I knew you could be trusted…now hand it over to me!" Groms stood up and said in his loud, booming voice.

Greem did not move even after the Fire King extended his fiery hand. He had an odd smile on his face.

"My lord, haven't you forgot a little something before I give you this Lightfire stone?"

Groms couldn't help but shake his head. "You human adepts are all like this. It never feels good to make a deal with you people. What is it? You think us fire creatures would lie and deceive as you adepts do?"

Groms took out a fire crystal from his chest and tossed it towards Greem. He shouted, "The method for extracting origin fire is recorded in there. You can hand over the Lightfire stone now!"

Greem pressed the crystal against his forehead and performed a simple survey of its contents. He nodded in satisfaction. He then let go of his grip and let the Fire King pull the Lightfire stone to his side.

"Very well, the deal is complete. You may leave now!"

Having both obtained what they wanted, Groms was obviously in a hurry to experience the Lightfire stone's effects. He impatiently 'chased' Greem out of the Sea of Ashes.

Greem didn't dare stay in this foreign territory for too long. He immediately opened a portal to Fire Throne and vanished from the spot.

That alone demonstrated the reason why so many high-grade adepts liked to build adept towers belonging to themselves. It didn't matter what foreign plane they were in. As long as long-distance interplanar teleportation wasn't restricted by some magical means, they could instantly cross incalculable distances and return home with the guidance of the tower's coordinates.

Of course, such a technique had very strict preconditions and requirements.

It was only possible with advanced magical knowledge and sufficient power. The ability to teleport great distances in a single moment was something that only adepts of Fourth Grade and beyond were capable of.

The first thing Greem did upon returning was run to his isolated dimension to retrieve the Libram of Wisdom, which had now been fully devoured.

In all honesty, the Libram of Wisdom no longer existed, now that it had been completely devoured by the Scroll of Voodoo.

In its place was a unique magical tome- The Tome of Corruption.

It was a terribly thick and weighty tome. Its cover was made of dragon leather, and the pages were bound together with adamantine hinges with sharp edges. The first thing that came into view upon turning its page was a sickly green doll stuck in the paper. This doll's body was covered in all sorts of unusual magical patterns.

Remi, the Spirit of Pestilence!

As the Scroll of Voodoo evolved into the Tome of Corruption, Remi became a summoned creature of the tome. Greem could still summon him at any time, just like before, and have him aid in battle.

Moreover, with the increase in Greem's power and the evolution of the Tome of Corruption, Remi had unexpectedly advanced to Fourth Grade as well.

He was Greem's Soul Equipment, after all. He was intimately tied to Greem's soul and could not exist independently in this world away from his master.

Greem turned over to the second page and was surprised to find the old hag that Remi had turned into his contracted servant. That said, the old poison hag still remained at Third Grade. She had not advanced like Remi.

Greem continued to turn the pages and realized that this Tome of Corruption might as well be called the Tome of Plague. The entire volume was filled with the various plague creatures that Remi had collected and created.

As Greem continued to flip the pages of the tome, the Chip's notification rang out in his mind.

[The Tome of Corruption. Fifth Grade artifact. It contains a God of Wisdom's understanding and experience on the material planes, space, knowledge, and power. It also includes a vast system of plague creatures.

[Estimates suggest that it can provide Host with +5 Spirit and increase the rate at which host processes and digests knowledge. It will also provide Host with additional knowledge and proficiencies. Host will be able to overcome the limitations of elementium specialization and gain access to spells of other attributes that are two or more grades lower than Host's current grade.

[This artifact also possesses a Halo of Poison. It will allow Host to automatically master all spells of the poison attribute.]

Hssss!

Greem couldn't help but draw in a breath of cold air as he clutched this Tome of Corruption.

Even with the Orb of the Fire God, Greem had only barely been able to control it. He had not managed to wipe out the God of Fire's brand hidden within. However, this Tome of Corruption was different. It was Greem's Soul Equipment. It belonged entirely to him, inside out.

That was why the Fifth Grade Tome of Corruption was able to enhance Greem's powers and abilities to such a frightening extent.

Disregarding everything else, the +5 bonus to his Spirit alone was shocking.

It was important to note that the most powerful Fourth Grade magical equipment could only provide a maximum of three bonus points to any single attribute. Meanwhile, the Tome of Corruption provided five additional attribute points, all of them in Spirit, the most important attribute for elementium adepts.

With the aid of the Tome of Corruption, Greem's Spirit instantly shot up to 49 points. That already made him equal to those peak Fourth Grade ultra-powerhouses!

Of course, enhancements from items were not a representation of Greem's real power.

He still had a long way to go to reach peak Fourth Grade. However, when he was engaged in battle, these five additional points of Spirit would push his combat prowess to unimaginable heights!

At the very least, should he ever face off against that Adept of Torture, he would be able to absolutely crush her with overwhelming power.

Furthermore, the second most significant enhancement provided by the Tome of Corruption was overcoming the limits of elementium specialization.

Greem had elementium specialization in fire magic. It gave him destructive offensive power with fire spells, but it also made it very easy for his opponents to counter him. However, with the Tome of Corruption, Greem could cross the threshold of elementium specialization and use spells of other elementium. As long as those spells did not exceed Second Grade, he would no longer be limited by his fire specialization.

The addition of the entire spectrum of elementium magic to his fire spells gave Greem access to a variety of mixed elementium spells. Greem could now have many more possibilities with his attack patterns and techniques.

Moreover, the Tome of Corruption also had a Halo of Poison on its own. It allowed Greem to use terrifying poison magic with no restrictions. Greem only had even more options to choose from in battle now!

As Greem's Soul Equipment, the Tome of Corruption also contained the Fourth Grade Remi and his plague army. If all of them were released in battle, Greem could instantly raise an army of cannon fodder to serve him.

All these benefits alone were enough to demonstrate how overwhelmingly superior a Fifth Grade artifact was compared to Fourth Grade magical equipment.

Greem carefully took out a mithril chain and tied the Tome of Corruption to his waist.

In addition to the Orb of the Fire God, Greem now had two Fifth Grade artifacts in his possession. At the very least, he could no longer be defeated by another Fourth Grade adept now.

The suppression effect that Fifth Grade items possessed over Fourth Grade magic was not something to ignore either.

When Greem fought with another Fourth Grade adept, the fire spells he cast with his Fourth Grade staff would mostly be neutralized by the opponent's forcefield and resistances. However, if he used the Fifth Grade Orb in the casting of his spell, the fire damage would be far greater than if he had used his staff alone.

It was the guaranteed outcome of having an artifact of superior Grade!

After carefully putting away the Tome of Corruption, Greem could finally calm down and examine the fire crystal he got from Groms.

[Beep. Detecting new data stream. Host can receive said data stream. Requesting instructions from Host. Receive data? ]

"Receive!"

The next moment, a searing stream of consciousness surged into Greem's mind, quickly devoured and absorbed there.

Groms had not lied. It was indeed a special technique used to extract origin fires, or the principles fires, as Greem called them.

Moreover, after refining his consciousness core at the Adept's Association, Greem now had a better understanding and grasp of the principles fires. He could certainly bring them to fruition now.

That was something that most other Fourth Grade adepts were still unable to do.

According to the typical flow of advancement for a fire adept, the adept would mostly be busy collecting origin substances to grasp fire laws and to assimilate those law runes with their consciousness core. The principle fire was something that they only formed later on. An adept would first have to gather a sufficient number of fire laws and increase their Spirit to the 49 point limit. Finally, the adept would conduct a special ceremony to merge all the fire laws together to form the principle fire.

After advancing to Fifth Grade, fire adepts could then spread this spark of principle fire throughout their bodies, allowing them to get used to the fire gradually. Then, it would take another few hundred years of hard work to modify their bodies and refine the origin fire slowly.

At this moment, Greem was accessing techniques and secrets exclusive to Fifth Grade adepts as a Fourth Grade himself. Naturally, this brought about a tremendous benefit to himself.

In all honesty, if Greem could forge his own principle fire prematurely, it would significantly empower him. In addition to his two Fifth Grade artifacts, he would be like a Fifth Grade Great Adept with a Fourth Grade's appearance.

Such power would make him a wolf amongst sheep while he remained among the Fourth Grade adepts of the World of Adepts!

However, to forge his principle fire with his current power was still too hasty. After all, his consciousness core had only just recently undergone change. It would not be able to endure much more pressure in the short term.

As such, Greem once again went into seclusion in Fire Throne, silently waiting for his consciousness core to recover.

This wait lasted for five entire years.

This day, a strange fingerbone in Greem's possession started ringing out.

Greem took out the ringing bone, still radiating dense death energy, and frowned.

This thing was the communication token the lich left with him.

The fact that Kanganas was contacting him now…could it be? Was it time for that mission already?