Age of Adepts

The ‘Dao’ was the path of development he chose for himself and was also the ultimate goal he would spend the rest of his life with in restless exploration. While ‘Technique’ was merely the tricks used in order to achieve some smaller goals, it was just an auxiliary method.

Although Greem only mastered a handful of fire element magic spells at this point of time, and their power wasn’t sufficient to deal with the current enemies he had to face, but that was still Greem’s ‘Dao’. In order to avoid any deviation happening in his future Adept path, Greem had to spend a huge amount of time immersing himself in studying them, trying his best in mastering the characteristics and rules of the Fire element. Only by doing so, could he get hold of his very own ‘Dao’.

As for the Golem, for a short period of time, maybe it could allow Greem to rise above his peers, bringing him limitless glory with its formidable power. But after all, something like this was just a trick, it did not conform to his ‘Dao’. Therefore, he could use it to his heart’s content or use it to seize the resources he needed, but if he really wanted to become an Adept in future, he couldn’t slack in his research of Fire element magic spells.

For most people, it was tough to have both the Dao and Technique in their path, thus they could only choose one. But for Greem, there wasn’t any problem at all. After all, he had the help of the Chip. The most time-consuming task in magic spells research was the accumulation and analysis of data, which he could leave for the Chip to handle. What he just needed to do was wait for the final essence of knowledge derived by the Chip, and merge them into his own path of magic.

Therefore, the difference between the Dao and Technique wasn’t that obvious when it comes to Greem.

Greem’s Spirit had reached the level of an Intermediate Apprentice, which allowed him to have six solidified magic spell models in his Spiritual Domain. Currently, he already had four solidified magic spells: The Burning Hand, Fire Arrow, Flaming Spear, and Fire Shield.

Therefore, it became difficult to decide which way he should go in researching Fire element magic spell. Currently, Greem took fancy to two magic spells, Flame Body and Molten Ball.

Flame Body allowed Greem’s body to house more Fire Elementium, while it would greatly improve his Fire element resistance, it was also the only path which leads him to the advance magic – Fire Elementium Modification. But in order to master this spell, besides from the continuous research of Fire element magic, he also needs to learn the knowledge of anatomy and its variation.

Molten Ball, as the name implied, was a magic spell that merged a huge amount of Fire Elementium and Earth Elementium together, forming into a huge fireball of one meter in diameter. It could inflict Earth element damage to the enemy during its flight, and had the effect of knockback. And once it was detonated by the spell caster, it could also inflict a massive Fire element damage. Thus, it was an AoE, dual element damage magic spell.

But in order to master it, Greem also needs to have some understanding of the Earth element.

If only taking the offensive aspect of a magic spell into consideration, no doubt Molten Ball was the most appropriate choice. Greem had already mastered the Burning Hand, which was a close-ranged magic spell, while he had Fire Arrow and Flaming Spear that covered his long-ranged offensive ability. Unfortunately, both of them were magic spells that only attack a single target, that’s why he really need an AoE spell to supplement his lacking offensive strength.

But considering his future, if Greem really wanted to have some achievements in the path of a Fire element Adept, he would need to have both Focused Wizardry and Elementium Body sooner or later. Thus, laying a proper foundation now could bring him greater help in the future.

With just a slight hesitation, Greem made up his mind and chose the Flame Body.

If it was any other Apprentice Adept, when faced with a similar situation, aside from considering their future, they also had to take their current situation into consideration. Flame Body could bring an improvement to his Fire element affinity and also a rapid increase of his Fire resistance, but it didn’t bring any notable help to magic battles between apprentices.

Once an apprentice is killed in battle by an enemy of the same rank, there would be no future left to consider. That’s why even though the right path of magic was clearly in front of them, in order to survive in the endless battles many apprentices were forced to give up on their future, choosing to maximize their battle power.

But this wasn’t a problem for Greem at all.

Because of the Chip, crafting Golems which seemed profound and difficult to master to others was a piece of cake for Greem. So, with the protection of his Golem army, he could totally ignore the threat brought by his enemies, while optimizing his path of magic as much as he like.

Since he had made up his mind in learning Flame Body, Greem had to pay a visit to the library of Adept Tower, and purchase some books for elementary knowledge of anatomy and variation. Fortunately, this type of knowledge were only the elementary subjects for Necromancer, so long he had enough magic crystal, he would be able to purchase them. If it involved the more profound and advance knowledge of Spiritual Mutation and Spiritual Elementium, perhaps Greem would have to pay a visit to those official Adepts, and only then could he gather the relevant knowledge he needs.

Throughout this hectic process, Snorlax had been reverently holding all magic spell books its master purchased, following behind Greem like a loyal servant. Though some Apprentice Adepts who passed by were greatly puzzled by the presence of this green-skinned goblin in the Adept Tower, but when they saw the glittering collar worn on Snorlax’s neck, they immediately understood its status.

For the sake of offsetting their magic spell weakness, some apprentices would gather and enslave some demon beasts or demons. But most of them were creatures with powerful combat ability such as the Nightsaber Leopard, Rock Tortoise, Flaming Tiger, Socrates Condor, etc. It was rare for someone to have a green-skinned goblin as his servant.

As Snorlax had been the servant of a Second Grade Adept, clearly it had the experience in facing such situations. Thus, not only did it not look nervous, instead, it immediately put itself into the position of a loyal servant. It even went as far as helping Greem negotiate the price with the vendor, and find pleasure in it.

After having experienced a similar situation a few times, Greem was surprised to find out that not only does Snorlax have a good grasp of the market prices, it also had a very good eloquence, both abilities could absolutely make it into an outstanding profiteering merchant.

Since the discovery, Greem simply delegated his authority to Snorlax. Whenever he had anything he needs, he would just give Snorlax a list of items and his magic crystal card, asking it to be fully in charge of the purchase. After that, Greem would shut himself in his room, spending all of his time in studying the magic knowledge transferred to him by the Chip.

Also, in order to improve its enthusiasm, Greem even had an agreement with Snorlax, he would pay all the items he needed according to the market price, and any discount Snorlax obtained after the negotiation with the merchant would become its personal reward.

With this reward scheme, Snorlax who never owned anything personal had instantly turned crazy, transforming itself into the greatest profiteering merchant in this Adept Tower. Everyday, it would spend all of its time befriending with a group of Beginner Apprentices.

Surprisingly, Snorlax did have its own unique ideas and innate talents with regards to the price fluctuations in the market. Buying at a low price and selling at a high price, hoarding and profiteering, jacking up prices... all these complicated commercial approaches only a human could master, it had learned them within just a few days, using them to thrive in its own business.

Soon, all of the Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices in the first level of Adept Tower were aware of this goblin merchant whose name was Snorlax, and it even carried an array of unique items that can hardly be found by ordinary people. Consequently, it had further set off its mysterious and strange background.

What to do? Both underground guys killed by Greem and Mary were Advanced Fallen Adepts, thus their equipment and magic items weren’t something ordinary Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices would normally see. So when Greem gave all these items to Snorlax and asked it to settle them itself, it became even more confident in running its business.

Yes, after Snorlax became well-known in the apprentice market located on the first floor, it had bought itself a full set of costume using the magic crystals it earned. An exquisite, luxurious magical robe, a full set of glittering magical equipment, though they were mostly equipment of low quality primarily used by Beginner Apprentices, but having a full set of this costume could still dazzle the eyes of the general public.

Together with a finely made magic wand and a magic cape that trailed behind its body. Whenever it appeared in the apprentice market, it would always attract waves of greetings.

The reason why so many Beginner and Intermediate Apprentices became its fans was because of the Third and Fourth Grade magical items it took out occasionally. As these were all premium wares that no ordinary apprentice could easily find.

During the course of running its business, it was naturally greeted by a few market enforcers that came aggressively and asked Snorlax to pay taxes. But when Snorlax hinted at them the name of its master, the guy named Ryan had no other choice but to go away in dejection. Obviously, through the family that supported him, that Ryan learned the glorious story of Greem in the training camp. That’s why so long as Snorlax don’t push things too far, Ryan wouldn’t find fault with it as he didn’t want to let the family behind him offend an elite apprentice who was rising fast like a rocket.

But there was no way ordinary apprentices could have known this. Instead, Ryan’s unusual behavior further attracted the curiosity of the public, making them continue finding out who master behind Snorlax was. But no one seemed to know the answer.

Consequently, a rumor suddenly spread secretly between apprentices, that this Snorlax might be the servant of an official Adept. Hence, encouraged by these strange rumors, Snorlax’s business became extremely prosperous!

Greem, who knew nothing about all of these, was currently shutting himself in his room, seriously working out on his future path.

Since he had decided to study Flame Body first, thus in the short run, there wouldn’t be any notable improvements to his combat strength. If he wanted to maintain his advantage in the Underground Cave, he has to fully dig out the combat potential of his golems.

Serving as his ride, Demon Alligator Hunter’s excellent ability to travel beneath the soil had let Greem established his competitive advantage. But the lack of offensive ability was still its weakness. It was more than enough to deal with an Intermediate Apprentice, but when it comes to an Advanced Apprentice, its ability falls short. And if were to face a Pseudo-Adept, the overly loose body structure made it unable withstand even just a single blow.

Now, the arrival of the Rock Snake had made up for the weakness of having insufficient offensive power. A Pseudo-Adept level Rock Snake alone might not be enough to fight with an agile Pseudo-Adept, but how about two Rock Snakes? Or maybe three?

With a great determination and effort, it only took Greem three days to turn two new Pseudo-Adept level Earth element cores into two brand new Rock Snakes. With the protection from both of them, if he were to face with the very same Fallen Pseudo-Adepts from the previous encounter, he wouldn’t be beaten into such a sorry state like last time, which nearly cost him his life in the Underground World.