Age of Adepts

They came into existence through the merging of a magical creature’s soul and the essence of magical plants. Depending on what soul and what essence they sprang from, the forest spirit would possess different magical abilities.

The prowess of an adept-level magical creature had much to do with the abilities they possessed. The difference between strong and weak skills could be massive!

For example, some forest spirits that possessed revival abilities were considered invincible within the domain of the woods. Any damage they sustained would be able to be restored by absorbing the magical energies of nearby plants. It was a powerful ability when you considered the dense reserves of magical energy present in the Black Forest.

It was virtually impossible to capture a forest spirit like this one if you weren’t able to cripple it in a single strike!

The peculiar calls of magical creatures came from the distant horizon.

"Magical creatures are coming this way! We had better hide for now!" Gargamel opened a pouch and took out a handful of yellow powder, sprinkling it all over the two of them.

The outlines of the two adepts quickly vanished as they turned transparent. They had disappeared entirely by the time the magical creature in the distance flew past their heads. Not a single trace of their aura was left.

The other people beneath the cliff didn’t have such amazing tricks up their sleeves, but they still had something as simple as Scent-Elimination Powder. The cover of the trees also kept them from being discovered by the gigantic monster in the sky.

Greem raised his head for a better look.

It was a wyvern with green and gray scales all over its body!

Based on the crown on its skull, and its short tail, this dragon’s innate magic was likely of the acid attribute. It also appeared to be one of the more commonly seen flying magical creatures in the Black Forest.

"Beep. Detecting high-energy magic being. Green-Footed Wyvern. Acid-attribute hybrid dragon. It is rumored to possess the bloodline of dragons and griffins in its body. It possesses leather wings and can fly. Bodily attributes have been detected to be as follows: Strength 7 | Agility 4 | Physique 5 | Spirit 2. Overall evaluation: Adept-level."

The wyvern’s Strength and Agility were two times his own. The creature’s Physique was also slightly higher than his. The only department that Greem was superior in was his Spirit. He had seven points of Spirit, but the wyvern only had two. It was perhaps his only consolation.

Greem tried to calculate the real prowess of the wyvern while he looked at the statistics the chip provided him. After all, the chip’s scan only gave him theoretical data. This data was not an accurate representation of an entity’s real skill in combat.

If one were to single out the traits of the wyvern, they would find that it had no specialties apart from its tough hide and resilient life force. It was one of the hybrid dragons, but the bloodline of the dragons in its body was far too thin. Even the griffins of its ancestral lineage had thicker dragon blood.

That was why most adept clans that possessed dragon bloodlines were prone to exclude wyverns from the likes of hybrid dragons. They might look like dragons, but the dragon bloodline in them was so thin that any random creature might be better. They were useless monsters with only looks and no power to back their appearance!

One wouldn’t consider them fearsome creatures. They might have the ability to fly and technically have a strength that could rival adepts. However, in an actual fight between the two, an adept would have way too many tricks they could employ to crush a wyvern such as this one.

These creatures were deserving of the contempt of adepts! Their intelligence was just far too low!

For a hybrid dragon creature to only possess the instinct to fight and eat was humiliating. They didn’t even possess elementary intelligence. It was easy for an adept to kill them by setting out traps and luring the idiotic monsters into them.

That said, wyverns lived in groups and communities. Usually, they survived in flocks of a dozen. That was also why adepts tended to be reluctant when it came to provoking these idiotic yet rash and vengeful beasts.

This wyvern had apparently come out here to hunt for food.

It unfurled its wings covered with thin scales and soared above the canopy with its massive body. Gusts of wind blew across the forest as it passed by.

The unique stench of hybrid dragons filled the entire area!

The continuous sound of snapping tree branches and rustling leaves echoed out in the woods. All the animals in the area were frantically evacuating. For one moment, the creatures of the forest fell into a frenzy, panicking as if the end of the world had arrived.

The wyvern circled above the forest with its wings extended before suddenly diving headfirst into the trees.

The forest trembled. All sorts of animal cried and howled. Even the tall and ancient trees shook from the commotion stirred up by the wyvern.

A short moment later, a mighty gale blasted into the air as the wyvern returned to the sky. It held a boar as large as a bull in its powerful hind legs.

It let out an excited screech and quickly flew away, disappearing into the depths of the forest.

"Are magical creatures of this level common in the Black Forest?" Greem couldn’t help but ask.

"Not just common. The beasts are literally everywhere!" A sinister smile appeared on Gargamel’s face, "We are only at the edge of the Black Forest right now. You will know how many magical creatures there are in this place once we go past the fifty-kilometer mark! It won’t matter how powerful you are in this place. The endless horde of magical creatures will be enough to send you to your grave just by throwing body after body at you. Do you want to survive in this place? Subtlety and silence is the best way to go about it!"

"No wonder those adepts like to form groups when they venture into the Black Forest. Traveling alone would be unwise."

"Kehkehkeh. It’s suicidal to try venturing into here alone! Those Second Grade magical creatures have territories and very rarely walk beyond them. But still, who knows what might happen!? Nothing’s for certain here in the Black Forest. A lone adept wouldn’t even have a chance to escape if they ran into a wandering Second Grade creature here!"

"It isn’t that easy to run into one, is it?"

"Kehkehkh. The chance of running into a Second Grade magical creature around the two hundred and fifty-kilometer edge line of the forest is minuscule. Only those who have lost their territories to new challengers would travel this far out of the forest. But once you make it five hundred kilometers into the Black Forest, you will see nothing but Second Grade magical creatures. Every piece of territory there belongs to one of those monsters."

"How intelligent are they?"

"Hmph! Don’t underestimate them. Those magical creatures won’t lose to us adepts when it comes to smarts. Their only disadvantage is their lack of knowledge and legacy systems. That’s the only reason we have managed to keep them locked up here in this Black Forest."

"Why can’t the magical creatures gather together and form a massive organization to fight back against us? They should be able to accomplish that with their intelligence!"

"Kehkehkeh. Of course, they could accomplish something like that with their intelligence. However, when you add their ambition and desires into the equation, things become far more complicated. After all, there are far too many different races of magical creatures. They don’t have the same ancestral roots as we humans do. Moreover, magical creatures have always respected power. The only way to get someone to obey your orders would be to make them submit through raw strength. Even if there were one or two powerful magical creatures with the thought of forming a united front, they wouldn’t possess the power needed to make everyone else kneel before them."

The two adepts started a conversation on the cliff while the mercenaries were busy preparing dinner.

Greem might have collected a lot of data through the chip, but he still needed to talk and communicate with other adepts to turn this knowledge into experience. It was the only way that academic knowledge could be turned into primary sources of information to increase his understanding of the World of Adepts.

Dinner was roasted rabbit.

The meat probably came from those ferocious rabbits that had attacked them earlier. Those things were as large as hound dogs.

These ordinary magic-infused beasts had absorbed plenty of magical energy. Not only was their meat soft and sweet, but a warm feeling would also surge through your body when you ate it. The faint traces of magical energy emanating from the pieces of meat could nourish those who ate it. It had beneficial properties for the body.

Greem’s Physique had already reached four points. He also had three points in Strength. These attributes were superior even to the swordsman Love, who had dedicated his life to training his body. Why was this the case? Precisely because of the nourishment from Greem’s daily magical energy meals.

With how powerful his Physique was at the moment, the meat of such low-level magical lifeforms was no longer capable of bringing him any improvements. The best it could do was help replenish the energy he had exhausted on the trip here.

If he wanted to continue strengthening his body through food, he would have to find ways to capture higher-grade magical beings such as wyverns. Otherwise, he would have no other option. The price of the magical energy meals served within the adept’s tower back in Feidnan City was exorbitant, even for an ’elite’ adept like himself.

Setting up his future adept’s tower near the Black Forest would make it very convenient to hunt magical creatures!

After they had settled dinner, the two adepts entered their tents and sealed them with simple spells. It was only then that they started their daily required meditations.

As they were still out in the wild, neither of them dared to go into a state of deep meditation. Naturally, this meant that the effects of their meditation were minimal. Still, however minuscule the improvement was, it was still an improvement. This constant and arduous grind was necessary precisely because of how hard it was for them to improve their Spirits any further at this point. Thus, meditation would always be an essential and fundamental daily activity for all adepts.

An adept’s meditation required absolute silence. Thus, everyone else stopped all other activities that could disturb the two adepts. They silently moved around and packed their bags.

Rhodes the Rogue slipped out of camp without a word and started to place traps around the place. Rogues like himself might not be much in a fight, but they were very good at setting traps and hiding.

Sabrina sat by the campfire and stared into the flames after dinner. Anthony, the intermediate apprentice, could only shrug and hurry to the perimeter of the camp to set up alarm arrays.

He might be a potions apprentice, but he was at the intermediate level. Ordinary arrays like this were no big problem. At the moment, he was the weakest person in the camp. Naturally, he had to be the one to do all the dirty and tiresome chores!

Three hours later, when the darkness of night had utterly swallowed the land, Greem and Gargamel ended their meditation sessions and emerged from their tents.

"Sir Greem and I have some business to attend to. The few of you stay here and keep guard. Don’t go wandering anywhere." Gargamel tossed a small pouch to Anthony, "Scatter some powder into the campfire every other hour. This will keep the low-Grade magical creatures away. You, come with us!"

Gargamel pointed at Sabrina.

A pseudo-adept might not be much help in capturing an adept-level magical creature, but she could still qualify as a meat shield!

Sabrina’s body trembled, but she obediently stood up and followed the two adepts into the pitch-black woods.