Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Fearing the Giant Alligator’s ‘Slow Ray’, Greem restlessly ran for his life. Most of these damn swamp demons had Earth Elementium abilities, and, with their thick skin, powerful bodies, sharp claws, and pointy teeth, fighting with them in this muddy swamp was just asking for death.

  Meanwhile, thanks to a warning from the Chip, Greem learned that there were some underwater creatures sneaking their way toward him.

  Damn it. Why had he decided to come to a nest of these cursed demons?

  While nagging and cursing in a voice only he could hear, Greem followed the cues of the Chip, narrowly dodging the continuous attacks of the horrifying Giant Alligator behind him.

  Rather than referring to the place he stood as the edge of the pond, it was more like a narrow, sloppy dirt ridge in between two muddy ponds. The ground was soft, and each step he took was arduous, as his feet kept sinking down deep into the mud. Thus, it was extremely tough to escape from these Giant Alligators in this environment. Too bad he couldn’t fly like Alice.

  At this very moment, it was too late to regret never trying to learn the Wind Elementium Levitate Spell. Greem struggled forward, doing his best to stumble his way to safety. Watching the quickly approaching movements of the sneaking underwater beasts, his heart was now filled with misery. He had activated the Magical Talisman in his hand multiple times, but it just didn’t seems to have any effect.

  In a more normal situation, the deterrent effect of an Adept enormous on these swamp demons. But the aggressiveness of these demons had been stimulated by the smell of blood, which made it really difficult to scare them away.

  A foul wind caressed his face.

  The surface of the water exploded as two massive Giant Alligators jumped out at the same time, widely opened their huge mouths, which each could swallow Greem whole in one bite.

  Looking at the huge mouths that were well within reach, gazing at the glimmering, disordered teeth, and staring into the throats which lead to a digestive hell… the warning tones of the Chip had gone haywire in Greem’s mind, but it seemed like there was no way he could rescue himself from this dire situation.

  Right as Greem closed his eyes, preparing himself for death, something suddenly slammed into him, then he began to fly through the air.

  A heart-stopping sound came from the snapping of the massive mouths of the Giant Alligators, but Greem had, once again, narrowly escaped their bloody mouths. He opened his eyes as he heard their furious roars coming from far behind him. He was flying an inch above the water surface at an incredible speed.

  Ugh… what was going on?

  His heart was pounding fast, being filled with fear and uncertainty as to his current situation. Greem was able to clearly see something through the reflection on the surface of the muddy water under him, and the sound of flapping wings could he heard from above him.

  He strained his head, struggling to see what was above him. To his surprise, a huge humanoid bat was carrying him while flying strenuously.

  Yes, it was having trouble flying!

  This humanoid bat had a massive pair of fiery red leathery wings, which were about 4 to 5 meters long, but it had a rather skinny and small body. Of course, its wings could carry it perfectly, if it was flying all by itself. But, when flying together with Greem, clearly its strength was insufficient.

  A new species of swamp demon? Of course not. Greem could sense an indistinct magical aura and a familiar smell from its body. With the help of the Chip, and by seeing its strange, yet familiar face, a certain girl appeared in Greem’s mind.

  Chapter 24

  “Mary? You’re Mary!” Greem cried out in shock.

  The huge humanoid bat grinned like a human, then dived and threw Greem to the ground. After rolling a few times, Greem finally came to a stop, then stood up, a pain filled expression on his face. Meanwhile, after circling through the air one last time, the huge bat descended and landed beside Greem.

  Miraculously, when the humanoid bat approaching the ground, its form starting to twist and change in a bizarre manner. The fiery red body hair gradually disappeared, changing into a soft and bright red dress. The thick, protruding cheeks began to squeeze inward, revealing a beautiful and charming face.

  After it finished transforming, it gracefully turned around and walked toward Greem. Mary was back.

  Bat Morphing!

  This… appeared to be a unique ability of Vampires.

  The innate abilities of a newborn Vampire were gaining strength through drinking blood and regeneration. By these two things alone, they were already an extremely frightening species. However, If a newborn Vampire could go one step further, they would gain the ability to morph into a bat. No matter if it was transforming into a single huge bat and flying through the sky, or exploded into thousands of small bats, as a mean of escape, it performed admirably in saving one’s life.

  And, if a Vampire made it to the mature stage, they would be able to start mass-producing Blood Slaves.

  So, in order to fight with a mature Vampire, one would first need to face a massive army of Blood Slaves.

  When his mind ran through all the knowledge it contained related to Vampires, Greem couldn’t help but feel respect, and even a bit of awe, toward Mary’s speedy progress. Only a few days had passed since she had become a Vampire, and she had already awakened her second innate ability.

  “Who is that little girl? Why is she hunting for you?” Mary wasn’t looking at Greem, but at the chaotic battlefield in the distance.

  Their current location was about five to six miles away from the heart of the Ghost Nannies Pond, so the thick fog of the swamp was blocking their vision. However, it wouldn’t matter if they were ten miles away, as there were massive waves of Elementium being released from where Alice and Sinbad were.

  The battle was getting intense!

  “They are intruders! Three Advanced Apprentice Adepts attacked. That little girl, Alice, is focusing on the Principle of Space, which she is very suited to using. She is terrifyingly strong…”

  While Greem was explaining this in a soft voice, a shock wave of Elementium erupted from the direction where the battle was taking place, and then the jarring howls of Ghost Nannies could be heard.

  “Oh no, let’s run!” Greem’s face changed dramatically, “That terrifying little girl got away from Sinbad!”

  He had personally sensed this frightening shock wave before, so he knew Alice was using her powerful spatial attack that could cause mass destruction with space cracks. It was worth noting that using this skill required her to pay a high price, but as long as Alice used it, Greem was sure that Sinbad could never stop her from running away.

  “If we work together, do you think we have a good chance of killing her?” Mary suddenly turned around, her green eyes flashing red as she stared straight at Greem.

  “This… well… if we work together then… perhaps… maybe…” Greem was surprised by Mary’s unexpected question. When faced with this strong Advanced Apprentice, all he cared about was running for his life. The idea of turning around and charging right back at the enemy was simply preposterous.

  After all, with his current ability, even if Alice was severely wounded and dying, she could still easily crush him.

  If he could keep a distance of 50 meters from Alice, Greem was 80% confident that he could dodge her spatial attack, with the help of the Chip. If the distance was shortened to 30 meters, his confidence dropped to 40%, and if he was within 20 meters of Alice, he knew that he would be killed instantly.

  He needed time to respond to the warnings from the Chip. If he didn’t have the Chip, Greem was nothing but a tiny, fragile glass figurine in front of Alice.

  He didn’t have the strange bug-like body of Evil Bugs, who could still stay alive even if his heart was ripped. Thus, once Alice locked onto him with her Spirit energy, he would be dead! Therefore, Greem instinctively wanted to say no to Mary’s question.

  But, when faced with the unstoppable Mary, it seemed he had no
say in the matter.

  Her body started twisting bizarrely again as Mary transformed into a tiny bat, which was only the size of a human fist. She flew toward Greem’s chest, then squeezed herself into his shirt. She looked up at him and spoke threateningly, “You better not reveal I am here! I am determined to get the blood of that fool!”

  Faced with Mary’s hairy, little face covered with a ‘threatening’ expression, all Greem could do was nod his head blankly.

  “Don’t worry, if she really tries to kill you, I’ll find a way to protect you!” Though Mary said that, Greem’s mind barely calmed down. He started to ponder how he was going to sneak up on Alice without alerting her.

  However, when he turned around his pupils contracted, and he was filled with terror at what he saw in front of him.

  A shadowy figure was slowly condensing in the fog about ten meters away from him. Judging from the outline, it was that frightening little Lolita, Alice.

  “Alice!” Right at this moment, Greem felt his mouth become dry and his breath become short.

  This Alice was like a vengeful ghost. No matter where he ran, she just kept finding him. After being forced by the Ghost Nannies and unleashed a second space crack spell, which covered a huge area, not only she did not take the time to find a place to recover, but she came right after him. Did she not know that resting was a necessary part of life?

  Recovering from his shock, Greem realized he should be running right now.

  But, before he could lift his feet, a shivering, pre-pubescent voice rang through the air.

  “If you dare to take even one step, I promise I’ll teleport your heart into your stomach… I dare you to try me…”

  Greem raised his head and watched as the shadowy figure gradually became visible. In the end, he didn’t have the courage to take that one step.

  Damn it, she was too close!

  After thinking that, he was stunned by Alice’s visage.

  In her previous battle with Evil Bugs, Alice had lost one of her eyes and suffered many cuts and bruises, but this time, the little Lolita was in an absolutely terrible state.

  The hole that was her right eye was still empty, but now, stretching from the bottom of her right eye to the left corner of her lips were three frightening looking scars. The skin near these scars was turning black, and the exposed fleshed had was showing obvious signs of rotting. Whenever Alice spoke, or did anything that moved her face, black blood would drip from these nasty wounds.

  Also, the number of injuries on her body had multiplied, and there were many parts bite marks on her exposed skin. The tiny, cute looking little Lolita had been replaced with a twisted looking voodoo doll-esque being.

  An indistinct vibration of spatial energy filled the area. After struggling for a moment, Alice managed to finish her spatial energy construction, teleporting herself from one area to another. Normally, she could easily complete this simple spatial jump, but now she had to strain every last drop of her strength to barely make it.

  Right after she got out of the spell matrix, Alice’s remaining eye was shown to be filled with a flaming blaze of rage, gazing ferociously at Greem, who was wearing a blank expression. Although she barely came up to Greem’s chest, her brutal and overbearing presence was crushing Greem.

  Greem’s heart started racing even faster when he saw a large head hanging from Alice’s waist.

  Judging from the vicious and ugly looking face, it had to be Sinbad’s head. It looked like even the leader of Ghost Nanny was unable to escape from the brutal Alice.

  “You’re good… you’re really good…” Alice murmured. Clenching her jaw tightly glaring at Greem. It was easy to see that she was unable to express all the rage and frustration she felt with Greem right now.

  When she had first stepped into this Magical Swamp, she was in high spirits and filled pride. In her mind, with the exception of those exalted, venerable Adepts, all other people were just a drab assortment of trash, not even worthy of carrying her shoes. Relying on her indestructible Protection Barrier, and her mysterious Spatial Cut, she was even qualified to stand up to a Pseudo-Adepts.

  But who would have thought that, inside this seemingly insignificant Magical Swamp, which was a common resource site of a Third Grade Adept family, she would actually suffer such a heavy loss? Right at this moment, nobody could understand how depressed and angry she was! She was like an ancient brutal beast who devoured all men before her. All she wanted to do was to peel the skin off this slippery rat and pluck out all the sinew between his muscles, smashing all his bones one after the other and crushing his flesh into a pile of meat paste.

  Perhaps, only by doing all this, she could ease the anger in her heart.

  “Boy, tell me honestly, how did you find the loophole of my Protection Barrier?” Alice ferocious-looking face grinned as both her hands began grabbing at the air in front of her. A constantly stretching spatial crack appeared in between her hands, like a tamed snake. “As long as you tell me the truth, I promise, I’ll not do anything to you today. I, Alice, will always honor my words!”

  “Only dead man would trust you! Even if you don’t attack me personally, you might simply throw me into a swarm of demons, and that would kill me. Hmm, it’s obvious that I know more of dirty tricks and sinister plots than you…”

  Greem started complaining in his mind, then he realized that he was staring at a spatial crack was behaving like a tamed snake in Alice’s tiny hands. He was not brave enough to say even a single word in front of such a feat of power. Although he looked calm on the outside, on the inside his mind was overheating.

  “Damn, she is indeed a genius, she is playing with a spatial crack with her bare hands! That’s a spatial crack! A SPATIAL CRACK! Even the sharpest weapons in the world can’t compare with it! No matter if it is faced with a shield made from pure steel, or an iron that went through thousands of tempering steps, as long as they don’t have any magical protection, then it will be cut through like was a sheet of paper!”

  Although it was an extremely dangerous spatial construct, this little Lolita was handling it with her hands as if it was a cute little puppy. This was the proof of how important innate ability was to an Apprentice Adept.

  “I can’t see the Spatial Energy around you at all!” Greem hesitated for a brief moment, then decided to tell her the truth.

  “Nonsense!” Alice cried out in rage, saying, “If you can’t see them, then how did you find the exact location of my Wind Barrier?”

  “You should know that Spatial Energy doesn’t have any specific Elementium characteristics. It is part of a Planar Principle. Those who don’t possess an innate talent for a principle can never see it with their naked eyes. But don’t forget this, there is a huge repulsive force between opposing Elementium, and the Spatial Energy you are using is incredibly harsh and solitary….. So…”

  “So you determined the shape and position of my Protection Barrier by sensing the area where no Elementium is present and, as a result, were able to see that they were repelled by Spatial Energy? Then…” Mary drew inferences from what Greem said and soon she found the source of the loophole, saying, “Damn it, I shouldn’t use a Wind Elementium spell to cover that hole. Next time I will use the Force Field spell that has no Elementium in it.”

  Chapter 25

  Note from the Translators: We of UntouchableFly hope you have enjoyed the first 25 chapters of Age of Adepts. Starting at Midnight CST tomorrow, March 30th, we will begin releasing a chapter a day. However, if you enjoy this novel, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Both of us, FruitFly and VeggieFly, would love to translate this for a living. So, if you enjoyed reading this so far, please consider supporting us, and if you have any issues, concerns, questions, you can email me at [email protected]

  Thank you for reading this far, and I hope you will stick around, I know we plan to. ????

  Alice deserved her status as an Advanced Apprentice Adept. Although Greem had only said a few words, she was able to immedia
tely figure out what her weakness was.

  Her innate Spatial talent was still worthy of being called ‘invincible’.

  At least, she was invincible when faced with foes that were at the same level.

  So long as one was unable to break through her paper-thin Protection Barrier, her body was completely safe. No matter what was thrown at her, there was no way you could penetrate that invisible shield and hurt her. At the same time, she could always casually torture her enemy with her Spatial Cut and Telekinesis.

  But, no matter how sturdy a shield was, there would always be a weak spot, and Alice’s Protection Barrier was no exception.

  In order to not be completely isolated from the world when Protection Barrier was up, she had to leave a hole that allowed her to ‘communicate’ with the outside world. This hole was how she was able to launch attacks at her enemy while her Barrier was up.

  So, in order to cover up this ‘loophole’, she purposely studied Wind Elementium spells. After that, using invisible Wind Elementium, she patched the hole. The invisible Protection Barrier was mixed with the invisible Wind Elementium barrier creating a combination that had previously deceived all her enemies, giving them an impression that her Protection Barrier was perfect and flawless, and that no weak spot existed.

  But she never would have thought that today, in this obscure place, she would meet with a group of such strange beings who defied her invincible status. One was a disgusting man who had modified his body and turned himself into a bug man, another was a Beginner Apprentice who could actually see Elementium in the world around him with his naked eyes. Having encountered of this two strange men had brought her to the unluckiest day of her life.

  If that bug man had, instead, been some other Advanced Apprentice, perhaps the enemy would be killed by her unpredictable Telekinesis ability. How could she have known she was going to encounter someone with such a strange body modification, which gave them the time to find the loophole on her defense. Also, without this Beginner Apprentice who was able to see Elementium with his naked eyes, how could her Protection Barrier have been broke through, forcing her to taste the pain of a thousand scorpions bites?