Age of Adepts

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After a simple interrogation, the young pseudo-adept managed to pry out the location of that item from the mouth of the dying enemy.

A few days earlier, Lady Mary had led a group of adepts to destroy a second-class resource site belonging to the Kamala Clan. The Kamala adepts stationed at the site had died, but nearly half of the resources stored in the warehouse were gone.

Many Crimson apprentices were sent out to hunt down the Kamala remnants who got away.

He was undoubtedly fortunate to have caught the apprentices that had snuck out of the resource site. According to the clan's rules, he was entitled to one-third of the spoils from this fight. A strange cheerful-yet-pained smile appeared on the pseudo-adept's face when he thought of the massive number of resources from the second class resource site.

The storage ring stuffed full of resources had been hidden in the carriage of one of the apprentices. The young pseudo-adept cut off the golden-haired man's head without any hesitation and strode toward the wagons. Just then, a sinister old man in white robes emerged from the darkness, leaning on a staff taller than himself and cackling as he showed himself.

The maple leaf emblem of the Kamala Clan was pinned before his chest.

"An adept. An official adept!"

The Crimson pseudo-adept stepped backward in terror and mumbled as he looked at the emerging Kamala adept.

The pseudo-adept screamed and turned to run toward the darkness as if he had just remembered the horror of an adept.

However, a dark tentacle emerged from the ground and instantly bound him, causing him to fall into the puddle of blood on the ground.

"Stay there. If I find you doing anything suspicious, you know what will happen!" The sinister old man coldly said to the pseudo-adept.

The old adept walked toward one of the mules and pierced its stomach with his right hand. Naturally, there was no way a mule could endure such terrifying damage. It leaped about for a bit before twitching and falling to the ground dead.

When the old man's right hand emerged from the bloody mule's stomach, all of the undigested substances fell out as well. A gleaming bronze ring rested amidst this waste.

"Hahaha……thank god these kids were smart enough to bring out five years of resource reserves from the resource site. The magical materials shortage of the clan is mostly resolved now, hahaha."

The sinister old man reached forward to pick up the ring.

Suddenly, the earth where the ring had been was broken apart as a swarm of black beetles emerged from below. A tide of insects instantly swallowed the ring!

Dammit! It's the bug adept.

The old adept immediately understood the situation and tapped his staff against the ground. A strange wave rippled in every direction from beneath him. All the black beetles that entered within range of the wave exploded into pieces after a few seconds of painful struggle, turning the old man's surroundings into a scene of carnage.

The old man quickly took out a vial after halting the swarm's advance and drank its contents. As green wings appeared behind his back and took him to the skies, an ear-piercing sound came from his surroundings.

Silhouettes flashed in the darkness.

Three or four invisible shadows dashed past the old man's body.

The sinister adept let out a pained cry before turning into diced flesh and falling from the sky.

The black tentacles the old man had summoned dispersed with his death.

The pseudo-adept climbed up from the ground, hurriedly showing his emblem without any care for the wounds on himself while shouting, "I greet you, Lord Billis! I am Andor, a disciple of Deserra. Thank you for your aid!"

In truth, Bug Adept Billis still hadn't shown himself yet. The swarm of insects was gathering around the pieces of flesh and bringing the storage ring to the crack in the ground. The next second, even more black beetles gathered together and formed a strange humanoid shape.

"You are Deserra's disciple? Mm, the reward for this mission will be yours then. Take this ring to Lady Mary and claim your reward!"

The tens of thousands of squirming beetles formed a lifelike humanoid form. As the man made of insects opened its mouth, a hoarse hissing rang out, and the ring was tossed into the hands of the pseudo-adept.

Andor couldn't be happier to hear this. He carefully stashed the ring without any delay.

"Have the people in the camp been cleared?" The humanoid formed of insects turned to look at the terrified crowd hiding in a corner of the camp.

"Not yet!" Andor hurriedly took out a piece of paper and started reading loudly, "Lord Bug Adept, I have already made some investigations. Two parties in this camp belong to the Kamala Clan."

"Who are they?" The insect humanoid screeched.

"The Red Leaf Trading Group and the Stag Trading Group! The Red Leaf Trading Group belongs to the territory of Kamala noble Count Vanrays, while the Stag Trading Group has over seventy percent capital investment from the Kamala Clan."

Like a declaration of death, Andor's words caused the members of these two groups to shiver in fright. The people around them rapidly fled from them.

"Kehkehkeh. You dare work with the people of the Kamala Clan? Die."

The bug adept hissed, and the swarm instantly engulfed these defenseless mortals. The tide of insects weaved through the crowd, not harming the irrelevant and only dragging the members of these two parties into the sea of insects.

By the time the sound of crunching bones had vanished, and the black swarm retreated to the bug adept's side, two dozen sets of white skeletons were left in the camp. No trace of flesh remained.

After clearing up the camp, the bug adept split into tens of thousands of black beetles and dove underground once again. The victorious Crimson Pseudo-Adept Andor no longer dared to remain here. He leaped onto his magical horse and galloped into the darkness.

The area regained its peace and quiet, and the people hiding in the woods finally dared to return to the camp. A chill struck their hearts when they saw the bloody, scattered corpses on the ground.

As mortals with no supernatural power in a world ruled by adepts, they did not qualify to become involved in fights between adepts. Regardless of how intense the battle between two adept clans might be, there would always be a day when it came down to negotiations and compromise.

However, there was no other possibility aside from death for mortals like themselves.

Tonight's circumstances were direct evidence that the newly established Crimson Clan had the distinct upper hand. They had not only conquered the Kamala's resource site but were daring enough to pursue and hunt down the Kamala's apprentices and adepts. That was a clear sign of the massive difference in power between both forces!

It was said that the Crimson Clan didn't even have a Third Grade adept, while the Kamala Clan at least had a Third Grade adept to defend them in the worst case scenario. Why was it that the fighting power of both parties appeared to be the inverse?!

These people who barely knew anything about the secrets of the adepts could only sigh as they packed up their bags and prepared to leave this temporary camp, even if they had to travel at night.

Now that the Kamala Clan had lost an adept here, they would be sure to send people to investigate this place.

If they remained here, then there was no doubt that they would become targets of investigation and revenge for the Kamala Clan. As such, most of the travelers and merchants fled the camp and left this battle-ravaged land without any hesitation.

…………

Werning.

This place was the location of the Northern Witches' Witch Council.

Alice was smiling as she talked with the few influential witch leaders in a magical room.

Supposedly, those who appeared here were all Fourth Grade witch leaders. Someone with such meager power like Alice shouldn't even be seen here.

However, the strange ability of the Witch of Fate was far too significant. No witch leader dared to ignore or look down on any word that came out of Alice's mouth.

After all, the might of a Witch of Fate depended on her compatibility with the powers of Fate, rather than her own prowess. Of course, the higher her power, the more immense the power of Fate she could wield. It made her an existence that no witch leader could afford to offend, only befriend.

In all seriousness, during the peak of the first Fate Witch's reign, she could provide any witch leader with a powerful +3 Halo of Fate. That witch leader would become favored by the powers of Fate for the next year and remain in a state of extreme luck and fortune.

How terrifying was the might of +3 Luck?

With +1 Luck, you could find gold nuggets while eating rice, gold bars while you were drinking water, allies when you went outdoors, fox spirits that wished to repay your debt when you went into mountains, and powerful teachers desperate for a disciple when you tried to jump off a cliff and end your life.

WIth +2 Luck, you could stroll through a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, sleep soundly in a rain of bullets and arrows, or discover yourself to be the descendant of a legendary adept when you looked at your family tree.

And +3 Luck? You would win every gamble, regardless of how poor the chance to win. When you fought against powerful enemies, they would either bite their tongue while chanting or incite a magical backlash out of nowhere, causing them to be crippled for life.

Either way, a witch that obtained a luck blessing would become uncontestably powerful!

Though Second Grade Alice didn't possess such terrifying blessing abilities yet, the witch leaders were willing to wait for her growth, given her immense potential for greatness.

Meanwhile, today's gathering was a result of Alice's invitations. As such, when the powerful Fourth Grade Death Witch Leader Khesuna, Dark Witch Leader Circe, and Pale Witch Leader Silvia appeared in the secret room, the atmosphere suddenly tensed up.