Age of Adepts

After a period of research, Greem had roughly discovered some new techniques in using his Golems.

The Demon Alligator Hunter was an Advanced Apprentice level Golem; using it would occupy two points of his Spirit. Such occupancy would last as long as the Golem is still in use. Meanwhile, the Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake would occupy three points of his Spirit. This also meant that if Greem go all out in battle, with his eleven points of Spirit (Circlet of Nobility gave him +1 in Spirit), he could only maintain one Demon Alligator Hunter and two Rock Snakes in the battlefield.

After all, he still needed to conserve some Spirit in order to cast necessary magic spells.

This was the best result after extensive calculations of the Chip and the advantage brought by the unique magical arrays, which had greatly reduced the Spirit requirement of the golems. If it was some other magical golem that was ordinarily made, with Greem's current Spirit, he would only be able to maintain a single Rock Snake for his battles.

One of the main reason for such situations is often caused by the unique characteristics of a Golem.

Golems and those commonly seen Titans were different.

Titans were human-liked creations with a fixed body created using huge amounts of rare resources. Because they have massive builds, there's plenty of space on their bodies allowing the creator to draw all kinds of magical runes and special magic arrays. Naturally, a creation produced with this method had the Spirit requirement for its user reduced to the minimum level.

In most cases, during a battle, the user only needed to give the Titan the simplest commands which it will follow unless otherwise ordered, and then the user could relinquish his control afterwards.

But Golems were different. Before they were summoned, they didn't have a fixed body, its manifestation was similar to magical summoning, with the only difference of having a Golem replacing the random outworld creature that would have been summoned. This was the reason why a Golem would consume Greem's Spirit when it was in use.

Also, a Golem doesn't have a massive body that could let its creator freely put his talent in magical arrays to use. In order to carve a sufficient amount of control-type magical arrays and energy system in the chicken egg-sized Elementium core, it was simply an extremely strict challenge to the skill of the Golem creator.

To be honest, with the help of the Chip, Greem being capable of creating powerful Rock Snake Golems was already a jaw-dropping achievement.

Comparing the combat strength of both creations, the Titan, which possessed a unique body was no doubt stronger than a Golem who was summoned temporarily. But since the beginning, Greem could only create Golems but not a Titan, the main reason was… Titans occupied a huge amount of space, and it was not convenient to carry around.

Take the cheapest Clay Titan as an example. A Clay Titan which wasn't equipped with any magical equipment already weigh three hundred kilograms, standing at 2.4 meters tall. A giant like this was indeed powerful, but how was Greem going to bring it into a battlefield?

Even in non-combat mode, a big guy like this was near impossible to pack and carry around. Also, its massive weight would mean a consumption of a lot of magic energy, thus, depending on the Titan's ability to absorb the magical Elementium in the air wasn't dependable as it wasn't enough to supply its need in combat.

Therefore, a Titan which possessed a fixed body was more likely to be used as a guardian for an Adept Tower or some important magical equipment. During normal times, they would be hidden in a secret spatial void, motionless. Making their magical energy consumption be at the lowest level. Whenever they were needed for a battle, the preset alert mechanism would then activate them, and then churn them out from the void in order to repulse the enemy or annihilate the intruder.

To achieve all these, it required the support of a massive energy storage inside of an Adept Tower.

With all these characteristics, it has been decided that Greem could only fight with the help of Golems. After all, bringing an egg size core everywhere he went was so much easier and concealable than bringing along a Titan which could shake the earth with every step it takes.

As a result, in order to maximize the help of the Golems, while Greem continued to improve the fighting potential of his Golems, he's also trying his best in increasing his Spirit. After all, his Spirit was directly related to the number of Golems he could use in his future battles.

That's why, on the fourth day after his safe return to the Adept Tower, and after his Physique increased to 3.82, he consumed another bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion. This time, it added 0.7 to Greem's Spirit, slightly lower than the previous increase of 0.75.

By continuously consuming the same type of magic potion, the result it yielded the next time would be lesser, until it had no more effect to its consumer. This was a normal phenomenon that had been thoroughly researched by Adepts, and no one could do anything about it.

The reason behind this phenomenon was because of the body's natural resistance to drugs. After consuming the same type of magical potion for a long period of time, the residue of the drug that was hard to remove would accumulate in the body, reducing the magical effect of the same drug. Though this was a progressive process, but it did exist.

So, after consuming the Mind Concentrating Potion, Greem's body attributes were as below.

Compared to last time, Greem's Spirit had gained an increase of 1.07. 0.70 was gained through the Mind Concentrating Potion, while 0.37 was earned through the magical energy meal set and his daily meditation. Based on a rough calculation, if this 1.07 of increment was exchanged into magic crystals, it would cost around 350-400 magic crystals.

This numerical figure had made Greem believe that a successful Apprentice Adept was indeed fostered by a huge amount of magic crystals.

…

It was noon time. After finishing a tiring business deal in the morning, the most successful goblin merchant in the Adept Tower could be seen walking at a brisk pace toward its own room.

Ever since it earned its first barrels of gold from Greem, Snorlax had rented a room beside its master's residence as its own cozy home. Every day, it was only to report the daily result to its master at the evening, then it could spend the rest of the day at its leisure.

Having a good night's sleep, counting the money until its hands cramp.

To be honest, a pleasant life like this was the perfect lifestyle it had always dreamed of. However, this dream was never realized when it was following the Second Grade Adept, it also never came true when it was still roaming in the Underground World, but instead, its dream was actually realized after it became the follower of an Apprentice Adept.

For that reason, for the past few days, it had become totally insane, spending all its day bustling around.

During daytime, it would spend all of its time in the apprentice market, using its eloquence and innate talent to earn a steady stream of magic crystals. At the evening, after enjoying its meal, it would dwell inside of its simple room, counting all the magic crystals it earned during daytime over and over again. In fact, every night it was sleeping in the middle of all the magic crystals it earned.

But the smart Snorlax also knew one thing, it was that mysterious master behind it that gave it all these. Without the financial support and total delegation of this mysterious master, it was just a green-skinned goblin that was looked down by all Apprentice Adepts. It wouldn't even have the right to yell in the middle of these apprentices.

Despite spending all day and surrounding Snorlax with honeyed words, it could still see that deep inside of the Beginner Apprentices' eyes, there was still a hint of disdain that cannot be hidden by them. What they respected was not Snorlax, but the mysterious master was behind it.

Despite having extraordinary talent, without a powerful master as the clever goblin's backup, the only ending for it would be being pushed onto the ground, having its face branded with the mark of a slave, then thrown into the dark and wet dungeon, feeding on the leftover food of humans, yet carrying out tedious and laborious jobs.

Snorlax was aware of all these, because before it was chosen as the test subject by the master Adept, that was the life it went through!

Compared to that, although its current master wasn't as powerful as the previous one, but after indulging in such a lifestyle, it had never even thought of escape anymore. Most of the time, it even kept hoping that a lifestyle like this could last forever!

Filling its mind with endless fantasies, it used the rune talisman tied around its waist and a magical password to open up the door of its room. But upon entering, it was immediately stopped by a strong smell of blood.

In just one morning, its room had transformed into a bloody and frightening slaughter house. Meanwhile, its lovely yet mysterious master was seen standing in front of a bloody autopsy table, seriously examining a strange body that had been dissected completely.

He was seen holding a dissecting knife, wearing a pair of deerskin gloves fully stained with blood, and a long white robe that was covered in blood as well. It wasn't hard to tell that he was busy working on an autopsy experiment.

It looked like its master was a rookie in the biological autopsy.

Even though Snorlax never personally dissected any creature, but it had spent a long time in the laboratory of a Second Grade Adept. Influenced by what it saw during that period of time, Snorlax actually possessed a richer knowledge in autopsy than Greem. If it was a necromancer apprentice, he would never make an autopsy experience into such a bloody scene.

Which part to cut, how to avoid the blood vessels of the creature, all these were the basic skills of a necromancer apprentice, thus it was impossible to drag himself into such a messy state. Therefore, Snorlax was sure that it must be the first time its master carried out such an autopsy experiment.

As the loyal servant of its master, how could it just sit back and ignore the awkward situation its master was facing right now?

Moving over a small stool, Snorlax climbed up on it and started to passionately give advice and suggestions to its master, it wasn't even afraid of being dirty and personally helped out to move the body of Lizardman so that its master could dissect the creature on a better position.

Surprisingly, Snorlax actually turned into a tutor who possessed an excellent magical knowledge, wittingly or unwittingly starting to guide Greem on his first ever autopsy experience. Of course, because of the patience of the teacher, and the devoutness of the learner, none of them actually felt anything wrong with their current roles.

Therefore, with the 'assistance' of Snorlax, Greem smoothly completed his first autopsy exercise.

It was right until Greem satisfyingly removed his deerskin glove, throwing them together with his long white robe into a dustbin beside the autopsy table, did Snorlax suddenly realize its 'rude' behavior. It quickly rush off the small wooden stool, squatting down beside the stool and waited for the punishment of its master.

"You've done great today. It looks like you learned quite a lot of things from that Second Grade Adept. I'll have you as my assistant in my future autopsy exercises." Greem gave Snorlax a warm smile, and then continued saying, "Get up! Do you really think I'll punish you for something that you never did wrong, just because of my pride? Alright, clean up the place, it's time for lunch!"

Conveniently tossing away the rubbish in his hand, Greem turned around and returned to his own room, leaving behind Snorlax who had a blank expression.

Looking over its shoulder at the bloody 'slaughter house', it sniffed the pungent smell of blood and after thinking for some time, Snorlax finally understood why its master didn't want to put this autopsy station in his own room.

He must be afraid the smell would affect his appetite!

This was a really special master. Snorlax murmured inwardly.