Age of Adepts

Right as Alice was staring expressionlessly at Greem, her mind filled with various fancies and conjectures, a green-skinned goblin suddenly poked its head from behind the man, throwing a puzzled and alert glance over at her.

"Alright, Snorlax, this is the Alice I told you about. From today onwards, she will be an exclusive servant-girl for me. Your task is to teach her the proper manner of a servant-girl, I hope I can see her carrying her duty as soon as possible. Now, bring her with you!"

What he said was like a sudden thunderbolt out of a clear sky that struck right into Alice's mind and caused her to feel giddy, as sparks flew before her eyes. Was this guy serious? He really planned to make a Pseudo-Adept who possessed a rare innate talent of spatial his servant-girl?

A moment ago, Alice had tried her best to keep a calm exterior, yet her face was blushing right now, as she fiercely gazed at this bumptious… master.

"What's wrong? Do you have any opinions of your own, Alice?" The smile on Greem's face becoming weirder and weirder. "Before we agreed to our bet, you had said it clearly that you'll make me your master. So, don't tell me you can't even carry out the duties of a servant-girl?"

"You… fine…" Alice spewed out a few words from her tightly clenched teeth, furiously pulling the blanket and covering her body, before stepping down from the bed.

When her feet touched the floor, Alice felt a severe pain coming from every part of her body. This had made her lose her balance and stagger her steps, nearly falling to the ground. However, though she was a little loli with the pretty face of an angel, Greem wasn't moved a tiny bit at all and didn't show any signs that he was going to stretch his arms out and help her stabilize herself.

After all, Alice was a Pseudo-Adept who took the element path, thus her Physique was far weaker than that of Greem, who had his body transformed into Elementium. So far, Alice's Physique hadn't reached more than 10, and this had even caused her ability of body recovery to be inferior than those of Advanced Apprentices who had a high Physique.

Gnashing her teeth and holding the severe pain, Alice left Greem's residence, and came to Snorlax's room located next to Greem's.

Upon entering Snorlax's room, all her expressions of pain, resentment, and mortification immediately disappeared from her face. They were replaced by the same old arrogant and overbearing look. Even her frail and weak appearance was gone, as if the injuries and pain all over her body couldn't even affect her a tiny bit.

"I need some better healing medicines and Asun Water which can remove scars. Also, I'm hungry, get someone prepare me a set of mushroom trout fish rolls, golden roasted goose and Schiffman tea. Remember, the trout fish must be those devil trouts caught from the Abyss of Darkness, and can only have three whiskers below its jaw… also, the honey applied on the skin of golden roasted goose must be from the Snow Bee's honey from the East Coast, in addition to that…"

As the true owner of the room, Snorlax had its mouth opened wider and wider. In the end, it was so angry that it simply jumped to its feet, waved its fists and let out a furious roar. "You're dreaming! You wildly arrogant little human! This place is the territory of the great Snorlax, and you're just a servant-girl newly recruited by the master! I came here before you, and you must…"

Snorlax hadn't finished its lecturing, because Alice had ripped open a tiny spatial crack and kicked it inside.

Nearly ten minutes later, when Alice reopened the spatial crack and let Snorlax out, the robe clad on its body had turned ripped like those wore by street beggars, and its skin was covered with scratch marks as a result of being attacked by some sharp fangs and claws. From the other side of the spatial crack, one could even hear the savage howls of wolves.

Just looking at the wounds that were only found on the Snorlax's back, Alice had instantly drawn a conclusion to its character. She casually dismissed the spatial crack and with a cold voice, she said, "Now you should know who the boss in this room is, eh? If the pack of Carnassial Tooth Wolves just now can't satisfy you, I can always send you into the nest of Two-legged Flying Dragons!"

Though Carnassial Tooth Wolves could only be considered as Beginner Apprentice level demon beasts and didn't possess formidable offensive strength, but for Snorlax, a goblin who didn't own any offensive ability and could only escape by relying on a handful of disguising abilities, they were no doubt dreadful monsters. If thrown into the nest of Two-legged Flying Dragons, a type of demon beasts who had an incredible sense of smell, it would be impossible for it to make its return!

In next second, Snorlax simply went down on its knee, hugging Alice's silky smooth legs and crying out loudly, "Boss! Boss! Boss! You're the boss here… I'll obey everything you tell me to in future…"

Alice gave it a kick in disgust, furrowed her brows and said, "Go now! Prepare me some clothes, foods, and healing medicines. When I'm having my meal later, I want you to tell me everything between you and that ras… that guy!"

The backlash coming from the magical contract imprinted in her soul made Alice halt for a brief second, she had no choice but to change the way she addressed that 'rascal' into 'guy', a rather neutral way of addressing him. If she didn't do that, even if she was a Pseudo-Witch, she too couldn't be immune from the severe pricking she felt at the depths of her soul.

Only the heaven or ghost might know why it happened. In order to have a better control over that 'guy', she specifically picked a magical contract with the best binding force from the private treasures of her granny. But now… she had actually trapped herself into this awful situation, and it simply made Alice feel frustrated and furious!

Only by gaining a better understanding of the enemy, could one defeat the enemy with the minimum cost!

Alice had made up her mind, from now onwards, she would never underestimate that hateful rasca… ouch… guy. She would take her time in patiently and meticulously understanding everything about that guy, after that… hmph, he better not has the wishful thinking of using a rubbish contract to confine a great… ouch, ouch! Pain, it was really painful!

As the loser of the bet, every word and action of Alice was restricted and bounded by the powerful magical contract. Once a disrespectful thought or intentions of hurting her 'master' arose in her mind, her soul would have to suffer from different degrees of backlash by the magical contract. If such backlash occurred too rapidly, it could cause a frightening and irreversible damage to her soul.

At that point in time, her future path as a Witch would have to come to a premature end!

…………

Unavoidably, the spiritual ripple happened on the other side of the contract had also affected Greem.

It had been less than fifteen minutes since that little girl left his residence, yet he had sensed seventeen strange ripples coming from the magical contract. Most of them were mere ripples of curses or disrespect, so Greem had simply handed over the executive right of the contract to the Chip, then he had just cut off the spiritual connection between him and the contract.

With the arrogance and wild pride of that little girl, if she wasn't taught a hard lesson, she would never stop from continuing to do what she did. Therefore, the order Greem gave the Chip was to have a full feedback to all the spiritual ripples, any disrespectful thoughts would be punished through the contract, no delay was allowed, and no indulgence would be given as well.

Right when he finished settling that nasty little girl, a fragrant scent wafted from behind, before a warm, soft body cuddled onto his back.

"Greem, why don't you hand me that Alice and let me teach her? I promise I'll make her into an obedient servant-girl and guarantee it'll be more effective than that magical contract." The seductive and charming voice of Mary resounded beside his ears, it was even mixed in with a subtle nasal voice of moaning.

Aww, here came another one!

Greem nearly couldn't hold onto himself and rubbed his forehead.

"Mary, let me give you a grave warning, you better give up the idea of turning Alice into your blood slave!" Greem said solemnly. "The true identity of Alice is still a mystery, but I'm certainly sure that she is connected with those witches from the North. Although you can have a strong binding force to those blood slaves created after you 'embrace' them, but it doesn't mean there is no weakness at all. As long as the source of the bloodlines is killed, which is you, your control over Alice's soul would vanish. So, if this Alice does have a serious background, then you're just asking to get killed!"

"I Understand, I understand! I'll not be that silly and fight a girl with you. But…" Mary licked her red lips excitedly, continuing to say, "I don't think it will be a big problem if I suck a little bit of her blood?"

Greem sighed softly.

"Don't tell me you can't see it? This Alice must have just become a Pseudo-Adept, and she couldn't wait any longer so she came straight to fight with me. She didn't even nurse her body and Spirit to the best condition. If you suck her blood now, perhaps she would drop back to the level of Advanced Apprentice immediately. Don't be silly, we need to cultivate her properly! Her abilities play a very vital role in my plans!"

"You just don't let me suck anyone's blood! Then how am I going to improve my overall strength? No way, I need to find a suitable apprentice mission, I have more freedom outside than I do in this place!" With Mary's hot-temper, she meant what she said. She turned around and left Greem's residence, rushing to the Mission Hall.

Greem sighed again, turned around and took out a magical spell book, placed it on the table and started to read it quietly.

…………

On the fifth floor of the Swampy Tower.

Inside of a dark and gruesome secret room, Anderson waved his hand and dispelled the magical mirror in front of him. A pondering and hesitant expression was on his face.

"Adept level element golem? How did that kid do it? In my memory, there is never an Apprentice Adept that could bypass the threshold and control an Adept level golem or magical beast. If anyone tried to do it by force, perhaps just the requirement of summoning would instantly draw all his Spirit to the last drop, turning him into an idiot who had all his brain power depleted. Yet, that kid had done it with ease! Maybe, I should find an Automata Master and get him to verify if there is anything special on his summoning cores?"

After pondering for some moments, Anderson waved his hands again in front of his face, revealing a mirror that showed him the image of another secret room.

It was a magical secret room that was nearly isolated from the outside world. Countless complicated runes and secret magical arrays were carved on the floor at the center of the room. They consisted of numerous strange symbols and characters which looked like tadpoles, and many of them were in the mysterious knowledge that never appeared in the outside world.

Although the magical array looked complicated and mysterious, but all the runes, arrays and magical rings were pointing to the three core nodes. At these three core nodes, one could see three objects that looked rather similar to a torture chair.

Judging from the overall design and structure, this should be a vicious magical array with the mixed functions of official Adept Advancement Ceremony and vitality extraction. The two torture chairs placed at the outer perimeter were the source of energy that drove the entire magical array, and it seemed they were prepared for Acteon and Mary. As long as they forcefully advanced into official Adepts with the help of a special magical ceremony, then the magical array would extract all their vitality and injected the energy into the center magical ring.

At that moment, with the nourishment from the flesh, blood, and innate talent of two new Adepts, it was highly possible that Anderson could breakthrough the threshold that was holding him back for a long time, and eventually, make him into a formidable Second Grade Adept.