Age of Adepts

It had been half a year since Greem left the clan. With his return, all the accumulated matters and business crashed down upon him.

Greem had to spend five days just to deal with the stuff related to Fire Throne.

The sudden clan war had wrung Fire Throne dry, almost causing the clan to lose all of its accumulated wealth and power along with it. The Crimson Clan might have won the war on the surface, but their lack of strength prevented them from turning the victory into fruits of war.

As such, apart from the twenty-four adept prisoners, the Crimson Clan's profits after the war were nearly zero. In fact, due to the enemies breaking into the tower and inflicting severe damage to the lower levels of the tower, Greem had to invest large numbers of magical crystals for repairs.

If this was an ordinary clan war, Greem, as the victor, could rob sufficient magical crystals and resources from the five adept clans to make up for the losses. However, the enemy had been defeated, but the Crimson Clan did not have any forces to conquer and raid the opponent's territory or resource sites.

Consequently, all these benefits fell into the pockets of other 'outsiders.'

The Kamala Clan that had spearheaded this war had lost this battle. They relied on their relatively untouched forces to devour and assimilate the Magic Forest Hut before going forth to raid the other crippled clans.

The strength of the Kamala Clan increased through this ordeal, and they became even more challenging opponents.

The Crimson Clan had been holding back before this due to Greem's absence as their leader. They weren't aggressive enough and had lost plenty of great opportunities. Now that Greem had returned, the morale of the Crimson Clan instantly soared sky high.

After a discussion with Gargamel, Greem, as the Crimson Clan's leader, declared war against the Kamala Clan. He sent Bug Adept Billis and Mary to conduct indiscriminate retaliatory attacks against all Kamala territories and resources sites.

The adept clans in Zhentarim were not allowed to start large-scale wars without proper reason. Now that the Kamala Clan had just attacked the Crimson Clan, Greem had plenty of reasons to launch retaliatory strikes.

At the very least, the old fogeys of the Zhentarim Association could not object to the war, even if they had a bone to pick with the Crimson Clan. They could only silently watch on as the fire and smoke of war once again rose from the Kamala Clan's territory.

Of course, the Crimson Clan wasn't just starting any war. It was a retaliatory offense.

As such, the Crimson Clan did not make use of any worldly army.

They simply sent six clan adepts. Yet, even these six adepts disturbed the Kamala Clan to no ends and created plenty of trouble for them.

The reason was straightforward- all six of these Crimson adepts were Second Grade adepts. Moreover, some of them were even powerful individuals who functioned similarly to an actual army, like Bug Adept Billis.

If one were to seriously assess the strength of both parties, the only one that could truly defeat Billis and Mary was Third Grade Death Heralding Crow Yurga.

Unfortunately, Billis and Mary did not leave a clear trail to follow. They refused to engage in direct conflict against the Kamala Clan, preferring to move around and take down one resource site and territory after another. If any Kamala Clan adept dared to emerge from their adept's tower, they would be surrounded by a group of Second Grade Crimson adepts.

In just two months, the previously infamous Kamala Clan had lost seven resources sites, three thousand soldiers, and five clan adepts.

For a moment, everyone in the Kamala Clan was panicking. They had lost nearly half of their earthly territory, and the reputation of their clan had been tarnished.

…………

While the clan war was ongoing, Greem left Fire Throne for the Goblin Plan.

Greem accepted the audience from Princess Vanessa and a few dozen goblin nobles in the higher levels of the adept's tower. Accompanying Greem was the Goblin Sage Snorlax.

The goblins of the lower classes might not know the true identity of Snorlax, but there was no deceiving these goblin nobles and merchants of high authority.

The goblins might have been unhesitatingly obedient in the past out of fear of the adepts. However, after such a long time of integration and assimilation with the adepts, they truly understood that there was no point in resisting the rule of the Crimson Clan. Thus, the goblin nobles and merchants instead started thinking about cooperating with the adepts to gain more benefits.

Snorlax, who spent his days in the Goblin Plane, knew very well what these goblins were thinking. Thus, with a bit of work, he contributed to the occurrence of this audience.

The goblins took the opportunity of today's ceremony to express their loyalty to the leader of the adepts to obtain his trust and further their plan of in-depth cooperation.

From now on, the goblins of the Goblin Plane would be able to lean on the working system of the adepts and extend their reach to places beyond their own plane.

This way, the goblins would break free of their status as slaves and become partners and strategic allies of the Crimson Clan.

Greem wasn't opposed to this either!

The trade network of the Crimson Clan in the World of Adepts was still too limited; the main reason for that being their lack of sufficient loyal personnel. Now, the many merchants of the Goblin Plane were gathered here together and expressing their desire to help Greem establish trade nodes all over the World of Adepts.

It was a plan with plenty of benefits and no downsides to speak of!

After agreeing to the goblins' request, Greem sent Snorlax to negotiate with the nobles and merchants while he followed Princess Vanessa to a secret room.

"Greem…Lord Greem, I wish to make a request as the Castellan of the City of Machines. Please approve our use for one additional space furnace. We simply lack too much energy here. It is no longer enough for the City of Machines' continued expansion!"

Greem looked at the princess calmly kneeling in front of him but did not simply agree.

He still remembered back when he scoured the Steel Capital. They had only managed to obtain enough Queyras alloy for five space furnaces. Forging the magic generator furnace of the metal fortress had used up one portion of the alloy. Creating the Second Grade Goblin Shredder used up another, and building the flying ship that crashed at Faen Plane used up yet another.

Before this, Greem had also promised to provide Third Grade Brain Monster Gazlowe with another magic generator furnace since he paid such a huge price to save Fire Throne.

Under such circumstances, Greem only had materials left for one space furnace.

As such, Greem rejected Vanessa's request without much thought.

The space furnace had the fantastic power to supply the user with magical energy endlessly. Such power could only be placed in the hands of trusted subordinates; Vanessa clearly didn't fit the criteria. If she possessed such power, she might start to distance herself from the adepts and hold unnecessary and dangerous thoughts.

Greem did not pity the dejected Vanessa.

He could sense that the princess' hatred and resentment for the adepts had not vanished. In fact, it was showing signs of intensifying and deepening. If she didn't learn her place, then Greem would have to get rid of the unstable factor that was the princess, even if he had to lose a Second Grade subordinate in Tigule.

Greem arrived at White Tower after returning from the Goblin Plane.

As a newly established land, this place was more lively than when he first came here.

The arrival of sixteen new adepts undoubtedly filled in many empty spots within the clan, placing certified individuals in all the various subjects and branches.

Greem spent ten days to meet with these new adepts and establish some degree of rapport.

Though they had only chosen to submit to the clan due to the threat to their lives, it was also true that their arrival was what propped up the Crimson Clan. Without their existence, the Crimson Clan would perpetually be stuck in an awkward situation where the few powerful adepts were the only pillars of the clan, and the others could only watch on.

However, with the increase of clan adepts, the resources within the clan started to become insufficient.

At this moment, Greem had to think about a way to earn more magical crystals and resources. It was the only way to support such a large group of adepts.

Of course, finding a suitable place and constructing a resource site there was what most adept clans would do. However, the operation of a resource site required a substantial initial investment.

The Crimson Clan couldn't possibly come up with such a sum of money after the brutal war they had just experienced!

With no choice left to him, Greem cast his eyes upon Lance.

The last few dragon hunting activities had brought two to three million crystals of profit to the clan. That was something Greem still remembered clearly. Now that his purse was empty, Greem's mind immediately wandered to the dragons.

Greem felt like he had profited immensely after the difficulties he had experienced in the Fire Elementium Plane. In particular, the restrictions on his soul origin had wholly vanished after providing the mysterious witch with the requested item. His power had been increasing rapidly since then.

It had only been twenty to thirty years since his advancement to Second Grade, and Greem was already seeing a slight possibility of advancing to Third Grade.

However, his accumulation wasn't sufficient yet, and his magical knowledge reserve was also lacking. As such, Greem had been spending the past few days traveling everywhere and trying his best to settle the clan's internal matters.

He required more time to think about and reflect upon matters of future development.