Age of Adepts

This was the first situation Greem was forced to throw away everything and flee by something other than Fallen Apprentices; a frightening Adept level Fairy had forced him scurry out of the demonized forest.

Obviously, that frightening Fairy was a demon who was very territorial, so it just gave up the pursuit after Greem left the demonized forest. With that, Greem was fortunate enough to keep all three Rock Snakes of his, and hadn't suffered any unrecoverable losses.

Looking over his shoulder into the dense forest, Greem's eyes couldn't help but twitch. With a deep voice, he commanded the Chip, "Chip, create a mission file for Transvestite Fairy, find out the feasibility of defeating or killing it!"

"Beep. Mission accepted… Mission File Name: Transvestite Fairy… Drafting feasible solution…"

"Predicted offensive strategies to inflict substantial damage to Transvestite Fairy include:

Curse Magic Spell;

Group Attacks;

3: Activate Project Lightning Giant;

Destroy the True Form of the Fairy."

Greem wrinkled his brows, then whispered, "Explain the practicality of these strategies."

"Beep. First strategy, Curse magic spell. The target, Transvestite Fairy, is still a life form, curse magic spells can partially reduce its fighting ability. With that, Rock Snakes would have more time to break through its personal defense protecting its body.

Second strategy, attack in a group. With the current fighting strength of the team, it is insufficient to defeat the Adept level Transvestite Fairy. In order to defeat it, it is necessary to have team members, who have strong overall strength, fighting it with each individual's strength. The predicted combat mode is as follows…

Third strategy, activate Project Lightning Giant. In order to stop the Transvestite Fairy from dodging Rock Snake's attack with its incredible speed, it is necessary to have team members pin it down from close range. The members with whom this is possible include: Bloody Queen Mary and Lightning Giant. If we choose Bloody Queen Mary, based on the pre-battle evaluation, her mortality rate is more than 89%. Suggest Lightning Giant as the first choice.

Fourth strategy, destroy the frue form of the Fairy. The Transvestite Fairy that appeared this time was just a parasite form. Its true form hadn't shown up. Based on the biological characteristics of such demons, so long as the true form of the Fairy is found, with the support energy cut off, the fighting ability of the Fairy will decrease significantly."

Greem closed his eyes and listened carefully, and kept throwing out questions after he thought about it.

"With regards to the project Lighting Giant you mentioned, what stage are we at now? How long does it take to complete?"

"Beep. The design of Lightning Giant has been completed. We currently lack the necessary magical materials to craft it."

"What else do we need?"

"Five Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores!"

"After being successfully crafted, what will be the overall strength of Lightning Giant?"

"Based on all the Apprentice Adept levels we know so far, upon completion, the Lightning Giant will possess the basic overall strength of a Pseudo-Adept."

"How about in comparison to Hulk?"

"According to results derived from basic statistics, out of one hundred matches between the completed form of Lightning Giant and Hulk, Lightning Giant would be defeated and killed in seventy-three matches, defeated and severely damaged in eleven matches, and end in a draw in sixteen matches. Based on preliminary estimates, the complete form of Lighting Giant can only use guerrilla tactics. Only by keeping an appropriate offensive distance with Hulk and attacking with lightning in between will the possibility to inflict sufficient damage to the enemy exist."

"That means it totally can't defeat a top level Pseudo-Adept!" Greem muttered to himself, then quietly recalled the short moment when Hulk struck.

Though the battle was very short, but with the Chip's function of image saving and replaying, Greem could still clearly and directly felt the frightening fighting strength Hulk showed. Extremely tough muscles and their brutal aggressive strength had given Hulk unapproachable power.

With just one strike, he had broken Rock Snake's base defense like it was nothing, and transferred extremely violent and powerful force into the inner body of Rock Snake. Otherwise, it was impossible for him to shatter Rock Snake's body with just one punch and capture the summoning core straightaway.

To be honest, after the Chip had scanned the Transvestite Fairy today, though its overall strength was Adept level, if it was to fight against Hulk, Greem wasn't sure if the Fairy could still keep its dominating fighting style.

If he had someone who was as strong as Hulk and could stand in front as the shield, and pulled together another four to five Pseudo-Adepts who specialized in long-range magic spells, then the percentage of winning this battle would be around 20-30%. Of course, if Greem included all of his three Rock Snake Golems, the percentage would straightaway climb up to 50-60%.

Therefore, the key to the battle was how to inflict sufficient damage to the Transvestite Fairy effectively and in a timely manner. Otherwise, if he just fought with his three Rock Snakes, the enemy would be able to rip them into pieces easily.

It wasn't that he couldn't get the help from Hulk, but if he did that, maybe he would have to give away most of the profits he found to someone else. According to Snorlax, there were several magical treasures that Greem was determined to get. Therefore, after giving the idea some thought, Greem decided to rely on his own strength for this mission.

Since he couldn't get the help from Hulk, he would have to find something else to substitute for Hulk's position.

The Lightning Giant project was a summoning core enhancement project that had been tailored to the Storm Giant core he obtained previously.

For a simple Elementium core, due to its size, there was a limitation to the magical arrays that could be accommodated. It was impossible to add more powerful magical arrays on it without restriction. Therefore, currently, all the Golems that Greem crafted using Pseudo-Adept level cores were rather weak. Though they were enough to bully lower ranked opponents, once they were to face a similarly ranked opponent, the fighting strength they put out was just not satisfactory.

In light of this, after being prompted by Greem, the Chip started enhancing the procedure of Golem crafting by trying to split the magical arrays that were all crafted on one single core to multiple cores. At a point in time, one core would serve as the bearer of the Golem's conscious, while, using the method of energy sharing and magical arrays distribution, the rest of the cores would serve as the key nodes that constructed a brand new type of Golem.

With this method, Greem would be able to maximize the limited space on each core by fitting more enhancement magical arrays onto each one of them, and eventually produce an even more powerful Elementium Golem.

Of course, in this way, it was impossible to summon a complete Golem with an individual core. A Pseudo-Adept level core of a Storm Giant plus six Advanced Apprentice level Wind element cores; each of them would bear part of the functions, and would use the method of consolidated cores and three-dimensional magical arrays to construct the Lightning Giant.

However, though this project had been worked on for half a month, the Chip was busy calculating the distribution and connection between the primary core and node cores, so it hadn't come out with a specific design solution. But since the Chip had included this project in the strategy today, it meant the calculations had completed, and the design solution of the Lighting Giant was done.

This place was, after all, not rest stop. Thus, after having a short break, Greem quickly resumed his return journey. While he was leaving, some ignorant Gnolls actually tried to intercept him, which made Greem, who was filled with pent-up anger, explode. He commanded all three Rock Snakes to crush their nest straightaway.

Faced with three near invincible super monsters, the arrows, daggers, and short spears of the Gnolls were useless. If not for the fact that Greem had no desire to continue fighting, with a single charge, this renowned Gnoll tribe of Gray Ear would have lost thirty percent of their members.

Hence, when the two Pseudo-Adepts sent by Elysium City, Langdon and Philip, arrived hurriedly later, all they saw was dead Gnolls and the Lizardman tribe who had been completely wiped out. Greem was long gone.

With a gloomy expression, Langdon listened to the bloody story told by the leader of the Gnolls. He didn't pay any attention to the story's fishy details, but instead, focused all of his attention on the other side of the demonized forest.

There many strange rumors were told in the Elysium City in regards to that place. Even his master, Adept Dark Light, once warned him not to simply try to seek the treasures inside of the ruin, as if there were some secrets hiding in it. As a result, he only had a superficial knowledge about the demonized forest, as he hadn't spent any time trying to understand or explore it.

Impatiently, Langdon interrupted the weepy complaint of the Gnoll leader, and asked with a cold voice, "Have you entered this demonized forest before? Is there anything inside of it?"

He was not an idiot.

In regards to the completely wiped out Lizardman tribe, many of their adult fighters had been killed by element damage caused by a throwing type of attack, which made Langdon think of the Clay Golem of that bastard. But the rest of them had been killed by sharp weapons at close range. Also, he didn't believe that kid from the surface would have the patience to venture deep into the nest of Lizardmen, slaughtering every single woman and juvenile of the tribe.

This place was the best habitable area closest to the demonized forest. For the underground creatures, having control of the magical materials harvested from that place would bring them tremendous benefit. Thus, it was understandable what kind of role the Gnoll had in wiping out the entire tribe of Lizardmen.

But Langdon wasn't interested in being the judge on this. He only wanted to find out why that bastard had been in the demonized forest.

Could that guy intruded on this place by accident? Or, did he come here with a purpose and was searching for something?

Having these questions in mind, Langdon invited Philip to explore the demonized forest. Therefore, the two Fallen Pseudo-Adepts who thought they were strong enough simply walked into the demonized forest. But, not even half an hour later, both men were forced to run out from the forest in a sorry state.

Their bodies were full of bloody holes, pierced through by the element arrows. Infected by bizarre and nasty energy, the blood dripping out from the wound had turned green. While they were fleeing, many lower grade demons had taken the opportunity to attack them as well, leaving more scars and wounds on their body.

After Philip left a Teleportation mark at the edge of the forest, both men rushed back to Elysium City.

Obviously, they had found some clues in the demonized forest. Judging from what they had found, they believed that the bastard must have gone straight to the ruins of the Adept Tower located in the depth of the forest. And since that guy had such a clear and precise target, clearly he wouldn't abandon what he was looking for just because the place was guarded by a frightening Adept level demon.

So, both men arrived at the conclusion that the kid must have temporarily withdrawn after learning of the difficulties, and would return once he got more help.

That was why Philip had left a Teleportation mark behind. With that, they would be able to launch a surprise attack once Greem returned to the forest. If they were able to intercept them on their way back, with an advantage in the number of Fallen Apprentices and that frightening demon who lived in the demonized forest, it was highly possible they could destroy every single person in the surface team in one clean sweep.

Even in the bloody battle history of Elysium City, that stretched more than hundred years, a result like this was extremely rare!