Age of Adepts
chapter-238

The conversation with Diviner Mas was pleasant and delightful!

Mas sensed what was going through Greem's mind to varying extents.

When two smart men gathered together, discussions were easily completed. There was no need for roundabout small talk or probing questions. In a matter of sentences the two of them quickly arranged a possible future frame for collaboration.

Although Greem couldn't make decisions in place of Lord Sarubo, he could recommend this batch of people to him. This was the main reason Diviner Mas was in such a hurry to meet Greem!

It was only after the talk that Greem found out Mas wasn't alone. There was a large group of casters who had potential as adepts gathered around him. On the way here all the people Greem had seen possessed, at the very least, power rivalling advanced apprentices. Moreover most of them had pseudo-adept level casting abilities.

Their leader Diviner Mas was a terrifying Second Grade.

Sadly, the class characteristics of prophets required them to abandon all casting abilities in exchange for the more powerful powers of divination. Even though his Grade was exceptionally high, he did not have much offensive ability. Quite the contrary– most of the time he needed the protection of his followers.

That said, it was clear how powerful his ability was. Mas had been able to gather such a large group of individuals around him and settle in the heartland of the knights' kingdom.

This was mostly because Mas and his followers formed a mutually beneficial relationship.

Mas relied on his followers to protect him, while he was able to provide a blessing of fortune for these people while also allowing them to escape the pursuit of the witcher-knights.

Such a group could only have appeared in the cruel and distorted environment of the knights' plane.

Regardless of what their plans were, Greem was relieved to have these locals to help coordinate the adepts’ actions. The execution of his mission in Skandre city had just become that much easier.

In less than half a day Greem got his hands on the information he wanted. It was information about Runeforge Camp and the location of the king.

Greem bore two missions on this trip to Skandre City. The first was an assassination order personally assigned by Lord Sarubo. Greem was ordered to kill Edward VII as soon as possible to catalyze an internal conflict within the kingdom. The second was Greem's personal mission. The energy merging knowledge he needed was hidden in that Runeforge Camp.

He was determined to get his hands on that knowledge.

Runeforge Camp was, in truth, the largest and most well-hidden weapon-manufacturing facility in the knights' kingdom. The standard runic equipment that all witcher-knights wore were forged at Runeforge Camp.

For a long time, Runeforge Camp had been a special location countless local nobles had tried to infiltrate. The entire world knew of the witcher-knights’ power. The first was the unstoppable charge of their magic colts, and the second was the tough defense and offense that their runic equipment afforded them.

Any noble that had ambitions of taking the throne for themself would think about stealing the secrets of forging runic weapons, then secretly train their own runic warriors.

Sadly, Runeforge Camp was one of the most important and classified locations in the kingdom. Almost none had successfully escaped once they entered. If it wasn't for Mas providing the information, Greem alone would probably not have been able to find the location of the camp.

Late at night.

In a crude and run-down wooden hut.

Greem sat silently by the only table in the room by himself. He used the dim candlelight to read through the information in his hands.

He had just requested this information and already someone had sent it over before nightfall.

The information was very detailed and complete. It not only provided an accurate location of the camp, it even included the spread of buildings within and their separate uses, as well as the strength and numbers of the guards at every spot.

In all honesty, the person who first founded Runeforge Camp was a genius!

They had hidden Runeforge Camp within Mount Mingsu to keep it away from public sight. Which is to say, Runeforge Camp wasn't a place constructed on a large flatland. Rather it was hidden in the belly of the mountain.

There were only two paths that lead inside. One was through the witcher-knight headquarters, located on the waist of Mount Mingsu, while the other was through the back of Mount Mingsu.

The former was the main path, commonly used for transporting materials and supplies. It was always guarded by three to five radiant knights and outsiders had virtually no chance of breaking in through there. The latter was a small cave dug into the middle of a cliff, used for dumping the waste from the manufacturing of the runic weapons.

The cave was three hundred meters above the ground and the cliff it was on was treacherously steep. There was almost no possibility of scaling it. Tough metal railings had been fitted on the entrance of the cave as well. It was only opened temporarily for dumping waste. There would also be guards and patrols securing the area at all times. Ordinary men had no chance of sneaking in.

Having finished reading all the information, Greem quickly started to construct a three-dimensional model of the camp in his mind with the help of the chip. As the numbers of the workers, craftsmen, and guards were slowly entered into the model, a realistic representation of Runeforge Camp came to life.

With the firsthand information on Runeforge Camp now in his hands, what he needed to do now was think of a way to break in and make his way to the drafting room, located at the heart of the forging area. All of the information and parchments regarding the runic equipment was stored there.

On the other hand the force stationed there was enough to make Greem wince.

Normally, there were always five radiant knights guarding the camp. Three of them were responsible for defending the knights' headquarters, while the other two were stationed within the camp a single room away from the drafting room.

However, with the frequent raids on the capital by the dragons, many radiant knights had been reassigned to ensure the safety of the palace. The number of radiant knights stationed at Runeforge Camp was currently at its lowest. Just two. One stayed at the knights' headquarters, which was near the entrance of Runeforge Camp. One was stationed inside Runeforge Camp.

This was undoubtedly already great news for Greem!

Still, a fully-armed and prepared radiant knight was a massive mountain he had to cross.

He had to sneak into the drafting room without alerting anyone. If even a single guard spotted him, the radiant knight would be alerted.

Greem might have been able to rely on the complex geography back in Greenland Forest, along with the mobility of his spells to toy with the radiant knights. However, trapped within such a narrow underground path, he would lose most of his mobility. The moment he met a radiant knight would likely be the moment he died in his pursuits as an adept.

Though he might have personally killed a radiant knight before, the circumstances were different. The radiant knight was worn out, while Greem had been preparing to kill the knight. It was a valiant result that he had only achieved after giving up so many of his golems. What he had to face now was a fully intact radiant knight with a home field advantage!

He quickly simulated up to hundreds of break-in attempts in his mental space, but every attempt ended in a failure due to the radiant knight's interference. The chip was left with one final conclusion. If Greem didn't find a way to eliminate that radiant knight, his plan of robbing the drafting room would remain a dream.

Besides this extremely troublesome problem, the assassination mission tasked him by Lord Sarubo was also a tough one.

Edward VII was hidden in his palace at the peak of Mount Mingsu, protected by a large group of radiant knights and spellbreaker knights. That was the only place left untouched by the dragon flight, and consequently it had complete and intact defensive facilities.

To defend against the possibility of a dragon attack, the amount of military force amassed there was truly impenetrable. The possibility of Greem breaking through all that defense and killing the king was miniscule.

The more he read the parchment, and the more he understand about the palace, the more helpless he felt about his task.

His power as a First Grade adept might have been enough for him to live a good life in the World of Adepts, but it was still a difficult and dangerous thing to walk about a planar battlefield. It was like walking on thin ice. A slight misstep and he would die!

Just as Greem was engulfed in frustration and hesitation, footsteps sounded from outside the wooden hut, quickly followed by light knocking.

Diviner Mas personally came to visit him!

"I'm sure you have seen the information. What do you think about your odds for the two missions?" Mas had just sat down and already he couldn't help but ask.

Greem was honest as well. He spoke frankly, "If it's just me alone, there is no possibility of completing either of these tasks!"

"Do you intend to give up?"

"No! Not at all!" Greem smiled slightly as he said, "If it's just me, it's not possible. But if I had Sir Mas' help, I'm sure things would be different!"

Greem could clearly see how unbelievably detailed the information provided to him was. There was no way that this was information those half-ass casters obtained on their own. The only way this could have been obtained was through the prophecy powers of the diviner before him.

If he had such a powerful ability, he might be able to use his amazing prophetic powers to find loopholes and flaws in this sturdy defense that outsiders were not privy to. Wasn't this what he was the best at?

That said, Greem probably needed to give something in exchange for using Mas' powers. After all, the information provided by Mas was more than enough for Greem to recommend them to Great Adept Sarubo.

If he wanted the full cooperation of Diviner Mas, Greem had to offer something new and of value!

For the rest of the night, the two negotiated within the wooden hut.

Starting from the next day, Greem never took a single step out of the hut. He remained within the building, furiously writing on parchment after parchment. In just three days, he had completely transcribed some of the more common magic books from the World of Adepts.

This included the meditation techniques provided to the apprentice adepts, methods to train the Spirit, the branches and paths of the adept system, as well as basic templates of some apprentice-level spells.

With a complete magic system as reference, Diviner Mas could continuously cultivate more and more casters in this plane as long as he could survive the impending disaster. This was something that Lord Sarubo would never give him.

Of course, in order to ensure Mas upheld his end of the agreement, Greem had sealed most of the content when he transcribed the scrolls. Without him personally undoing those seals, all the parchments would turn into ash in a blazing fire.

Now with the full cooperation of Diviner Mas, Greem finally had a small chance of successfully completing the missions!