Age of Adepts

Moreover, it was obvious that these two hours of investigation had not exhausted too much of his power.

Freina expressed genuine marvel at this.

With her intermediate Second Grade powers, she could barely remain in the lava sea for fifteen minutes. The few Third Grade adepts of Molten Fire City might be able to last longer, but they too could only barely survive in the lava sea. They wouldn’t be able to use ten percent of their power if they were to run into the Third Grade flaming tiger in that unique environment.

Low-Grade resistance potions did fine against ordinary flame environments, but they were inadequate against an entire sea of flowing magma and a viciously sly flaming tiger.

If it wasn’t for this, the dominant Molten Fire City would never have exposed their weakness and went to the outside world for help.

Thus, Freina was genuinely glad when she saw how free and easily Greem moved through the lava sea.

“I have a basic understanding of the environment here now; let us return!” Greem looked very relaxed, causing smiles to appear on the faces of the Molten Fire City adepts as well.

The two stationed adepts hastily waved their special wands and sealed the entrance to the lava sea once again.

When Greem parted company with Freina, he turned and glanced at the slowly closing stone doors. A faint but meaningful smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

............

In the depths of the lava sea.

The flowing magma was as viscous as jelly. Ordinary adepts would have difficulty passing through this area, even if they had full fire immunity.

Real fire creatures all had their own unique way of moving through such areas!

The lava sea returned to peace and quiet once Greem left. The lava continued coursing ahead according to its usual pattern. The speed was not as fast or ferocious as rivers on the surface, but the flow of the lava was just as unstoppable.

A strange, red, glowing gemstone slowly rolled about along with this stream of lava.

When the preset time had arrived, a single red dot glowed on the surface of the intricately carved gemstone. This red dot appeared to be insignificant in the bright, crimson sea of lava, but the red point of light quickly spread throughout the entire jewel.

The elementium gemstone wildly absorbed the nearly solid fire elementium around it and quickly formed a two-meter tall fire humanoid. As large amounts of fire elementium filled the interior of the fire humanoid, a new ‘Greem’ was born in the depths of the lava sea!

It was a new fire spell containing some basic functions of the Chip, formed with a magical golem core as a base, and combined with Soul Repose as well as a projection spell– Fire Clone.

The fire clone avoided the runic arrays attached around the underground tunnels with the help of the elementium ripples of the lava sea. It quickly swam away into the depths of the sea once it was fully formed.

As this technique was still not fully developed, the fire clone only had the strength of a beginner Second Grade. It might not be suited as an assistant, but it was more than enough as a scout and ‘messenger.’

As a pure fire creature, the clone was able to move freely in the lava sea despite being only Second Grade. Moreover, it transmitted a message to its surroundings with the unique elementium language of fire creatures as it probed deeper into the lava sea.

Cindral...Cindral...Cindral...

It wasn’t a loud voice nor a resounding one, but it could travel very far through the ubiquitous fire elementium here.

All the way until the strange voice was picked up by a certain strange existence.

It was a giant magma rock the size of a hill.

The lava sea had completely eroded the soft dirt and stone on the surface. All that was left was the large metallic ores that even the high heat of the lava could not melt away. From a distance, the surface of the rock was very uneven, filled with honeycomb-like holes everywhere. The surface gleamed with a metallic shine.

It was the existence of these strange metals that prevented the lava sea from further destroying the stone, allowing it to exist in its current form in this terrifying environment.

Yet, at this moment, a strange, three-meter long fire tiger engulfed by raging flames was crouching in a small den carved out within the rock. Its eyes were shut as it enjoyed its sweet sleep. All sorts of metal ores of various sizes and shapes were spread out in the cave around him, along with many more magical gemstones.

There was a purple-red metal ore visible in the flaming tiger’s stomach through its semi-translucent body. A brilliant crimson fire enveloped the metal ore. The flaming tiger would absorb the molten liquid from the ore and assimilate it into its own body.

If Greem were here, he would be surprised to find that the tiger’s aura grew stronger as the purple-gold liquid slowly merged with the tiger’s body.

However, this increase in its aura was extremely slow. Greem would probably never realize without the help of the nano-scanning ability of the Chip in his mind.

The increase in power might be slow, but it was guaranteed.

If this flaming tiger had enough time and enough of the purple-golden ore, it might just be able to increase its power to peak Third Grade through this method.

That was already very shocking!

Over the past two years, ever since he had realized that the mines contained the eternium ore that he required, Cindral had stayed here, refusing to leave. Every so often, he would run over to the human’s outpost and take some of the stuff he needed.

Unfortunately, eternium ore was also something that the adepts needed badly. Though Cindral had managed to obtain quite a lot of metal ores during his raids, there were very few of the eternium ores that he so badly needed.

Cindral had no choice but to excavate a hidden den near the human outpost and start a guerilla war against the human adepts.

Yet today, while Cindral was pleasantly absorbing the molten eternium liquid, an unknown elementium flux scanned across his body.

Cindral...Cindral...

Cindral stood up abruptly, his flaming face filled with an expression of disbelief.

Why...why does it seem like someone’s calling my name from outside?

Could it be a conspiracy of the human adepts?

But how did they know my name? Was an environment as harsh as the lava sea insufficient to prevent the divination spells of the human adepts?

Cindral was suspicious and surprised, but he had no intention to stay here any longer.

As the fire roiled, Cindral slipped out of the den silently and slowly moved toward the source of the strange elementium flux in a roundabout manner.

This feeling...why did it seem familiar?

............

Inside the lava sea.

Greem’s fire clone quickly traveled through the lava, constantly stirring the lava and transmitting his message through the medium, letting it spread out through the massive lava sea.

It had already been an hour, and he had still found nothing.

Oh? Could the flaming tiger have hidden somewhere even further?

The fire clone frowned and turned to continue spreading its voice in a different direction.

However, just as the fire clone turned, Greem was shocked to find a giant flaming tiger of pure flames standing behind him, sizing him up with curious eyes of golden fire.

They were so close to each other that they could hear each others’ breathing.

The sulfuric flames exhaled from the tiger’s nostrils was so hot that they could almost ignite the skin of the fire clone.

“We know each other?” Flaming tiger Cindral asked curiously.

He was indeed very curious.

This fire humanoid gave him a faint sense of familiarity, but the method used to solidify its form was very advanced. It was difficult to sense the mental flux hidden within the humanoid without first destroying the humanoid itself.

Cindral only seemed to know one adept in the World of Adepts, but that person was just a Second Grade adept. He couldn’t possibly create a clone and travel so far just to find himself!

While Cindral was stunned in suspicion, the face of the fire clone shimmered and turned into Greem’s face.

“Cindral, we’ve only been apart a few years, yet you’ve forgotten me?”

“I knew it was you!” Cindral paused for a moment before lifting his snout and started sniffing about the fire clone. He then said with utter shock, “You...you advanced?”

“Thanks to you, Cindral, my travel to the Fire Elementium Plane was incredibly bountiful. I only just advanced to Third Grade a few years ago!”

“You won your bounty with your own ability; no need to pin it on me.” Cindral’s golden eyes suddenly shone, “You came here this time because the adepts at the outpost above invited you?”

“Indeed!”

“Then what do you intend to do? Help them deal with me?” Cindral betrayed a fierce and savage expression when it said this.

“Do you think I would have sent my clone here if I wanted to deal with you?” An amused expression appeared on Greem’s face.

This flaming tiger might be smart and sly, but his personality was just as straightforward as the other elementium creatures. He didn’t overthink like the human adepts tended to.

“Then what are you here for?” Cindral couldn’t help but be confused now.

“Before we start negotiating, I think its best we figure out what we want out of this. May I know what Lord Cindral has been staying here for?”

Cindral hesitated for a moment.

He sensed no hostility from Greem. After a bit of hesitation, he told the truth.

“I need the eternium ores here!”

An enchanting smile immediately appeared on Greem’s face when he got this answer.

“Good. Very good.”

“What is good?”

“Our goals aren’t in conflict, because what I need here is Queyras ore.”

The flaming tiger probed, “You mean we can work together?”

“We must! Perhaps we can come up with a brilliant plan that benefits both of us if we carefully discuss the matter.”