Age of Adepts
chapter-239

During the night, Skandre lost the rowdiness and liveliness it had in the past.

With the exception of some sparse light near the palace and the city center, the rest of the city had been plunged into a deep and heavy darkness.

Once night fell, a light rain washed over the city.

Very few people could be seen on the broken streets. The homeless civilians shivered in unstable houses, using what remained of their roofs as shelter.

This was the eleventh day since the dragon raid started on Skandre City.

For the first few days, the dragons had only set their sights on the rich and powerful in the upper city area, rarely ever harassing the lower city and civilian areas. However, once they had robbed the wealthy of all that they had, their vision fell on the civilians. The civilians that formed sixty percent of the entire population of the city.

The dragons that had raided on the first couple of days had been adolescent dragons. They had used their powerful strength to crush the guards of the merchants and the nobles, then smashed apart the cellars and storehouses that were filled with resources and wealth.

Skandre City might have the most powerful land army on the Continent of Knights, but the weakened Edward VII had commanded and reassigned all of the high-grade knights to the palace surroundings and forbid them from having any conflict with the dragons.

Thus Skandre City lost all military protection it had, turning into a hunting ground for the dragons. Everyday, dragons flew thousands of kilometers here just to rob and steal.

As the cities the dragons needed to raid slowly increased, the adolescent dragons in Dragon Valley eventually weren’t enough for their raiding needs. Even some whelps on the verge of adolescence had been sent out, following behind the larger dragons to practice their hunting techniques and sharpening their fangs.

Under such cruel devastation, Skandre City was like an injured patient at the brink of death. Every day it struggled at the edge of life and death, waiting for its last breath.

Greem was wrapped in a thick black traveller's robe, like a phantom in the darkness. He followed behind Leaf and Razor, silently weaving through the pitch black alleys of the lower city area.

Leaf was the teenage boy that had previously brought him to Diviner Mas. No. Teenage girl! Due to severe malnutrition at a young age, the fourteen year old girl Leaf was extremely thin, making it hard to distinguish any gender characteristics from her appearance. When she was found by Mas, the innate talent she awakened was similar to the Thought Manipulation mastered by curse adepts.

Due to the lack of a systematic cultivation system, as well as proper resource utilization, Leaf didn't manage to find a caster who could teach her after her talents had awakened. This caused her to have no spells, other than the few innate spells she awakened naturally.

Greem couldn't help but shake his head and sigh after a serious appraisal of her body condition. A little girl that had immense innate casting talent combined with a powerful pseudo-adept level Spirit, yet all her other attributes were so poor they couldn't even compare with ordinary civilians.

The thirteen year old teenage boy Razor was also in a similar condition.

Razor's talent was the extremely unique metal affinity. He was naturally able to manipulate and control some metal weapons. He also had pseudo-adept level powers, but had not mastered a single spell. Moreover, the quality of his physique was also in shambles.

As a previous street urchin that was even lower than livestock, he had no relatives or even a name of his own. Even the name he had now was given to him by Diviner Mas, when Mas gave him shelter.

However, even though they weren't very good in combat, their understanding and familiarity with Skandre City was incomparable to outsiders. And what Greem needed was locals exactly like them!

They turned down countless alleys in the dark, even going above two or three abandoned civilian homes. Soon a three-level tower appeared before them.

They had to pass by such towers if they wanted to sneak into the upper city area from the lower city area.

Looking from a distance, they could see three city guards gathered together and making small talk under a dim torch st a small arch-shaped gate.

While Leaf went forward to deal with the guards, Razor went up to Greem.

"Hey, big guy. Is your world really that powerful? I heard from the old man that you adepts are powerful fellows who can conquer most the multiverse!"

Two shrouds of flame burnt silently under the shadow of his hood. He wasn't upset at all by this overly curious brat. In fact he even felt an indescribable closeness with the kid due to how similar in age they were.

A lot of the time, Greem couldn't help but feel relieved that he had been born in the World of Adepts, where adepts had a dominant social position. If he had unfortunately fallen into a terrifying place like the knights' plane, he wouldn't have so easily made a name for himself, even with the help of the chip.

"Adepts aren't as powerful as you think. There are countless other races and planes that are superior to even the adepts in the entire multiverse. You should be glad that we adepts were the ones invading your plane. If it had been the Scourge Lords of the World of Disaster, your entire plane added together wouldn't even be enough for them to devour in a single bite!" Since they had plenty of time, Greem didn't mind entertaining the kid.

It was only when Leaf waved her hand that the two quickly walked over to the dimly lit gate.

The three city guards were still wearing their old standard leather armor. They held their spears in one hand and leaned against the wall, still retaining their postures from when they were conversing. Their eyes were opened wide but their gazes were unfocused and lifeless. They didn't even react when Greem and Razor walked by.

Greem could very clearly see a strange rune flashing on their foreheads.

The three silently passed through the gate. When they disappeared into the darkness in the distance, Leaf cancelled the runes, allowing the three city guards to wake from their stupor. However, that short pause earlier had not disrupted their conversation. They were still engaged in their small talk as if nothing had happened.

"Quite an impressive ability!" Greem gave a rare compliment.

This little girl was able to discover such a unique way of using her talents even without any guidance. It was clear that she was also an extremely talented individual. It was unfortunate that she had been born on this knights' plane. If she had the fortune of being born in the World of Adepts, she might have become a powerful adept!

"Of course." Razor clearly admired Leaf and immediately spoke in excitement when he heard Greem's compliment, "Sister Leaf is an irreplaceably important character amongst us. Her ability is the strongest, apart from that old man and the few instructors!"

"Shut up, Razor!" Leaf, who had been walking in front, suddenly scolded quietly, "If you can't control your mouth, I'll make you unable to speak for the rest of the night!"

With her unique ability to manipulate thought, all she needed was a simple psychological attack to the subconscious and she could temporarily rob others of their ability to speak. After all, the people of this world didn't have such simple and practical defensive thought magic accessories like the Soul Brooch.

The young Razor stuck his tongue out at Leaf and quickly shut up.

Instructor?

Greem smiled slightly and silently contemplated.

Leaf was already a pseudo-adept level thought manipulator. If that was the case, the instructor Razor spoke of could only be an actual adept-level existence. How unbelievably powerful were these guys' talents? To be able to successfully advance into real casters while under the cruel oppression of the witcher-knights?

Once they passed through that gate, they had made it into the upper city area.

Compared to the low buildings and old wooden huts of the lower city area, almost every building in the upper city area had gardens of their own and were all magnificent mansions. Their target this time lived in a mansion close to the palace. It was natural that it would be difficult to sneak their way in there.

Greem's terrifying magic abilities might allow him to easily turn this place into a sea of fire, but it was extremely hard for him to sneak his way into the heart of the enemy's place without drawing attention. Fire Teleportation was a decent mobility spell, but that blast of fire and sudden explosion of the halo was far too conspicuous.

If he didn't want to draw the attention of every guard in the upper city area, he had to rely on the power of these locals!

The three stopped at times, plunging into dark alleys to avoid well-armed patrols.

After a dozen days of raids, the upper city had been badly damaged. Fallen walls and broken beams were everywhere; crumbling buildings could be seen all around.

This area, set between the upper city area and the palace area, was a place that only the most powerful and respected of Skandre City could live in.

Right now, dim candlelight pierced through the second floor window of a delicate mansion. This meant that the owner of the bedroom hadn't slept yet, despite the night’s rainfall.

Daphne lightly pushed apart the wooden windows and leaned on the lattice. She gazed silently into the dark night sky.

It was only at this time of day that those accursed dragons wouldn't come whistling in and disturb her peaceful and fulfilling life.

The street next to hers had just been raided by the dragons. Greena's house was razed and a dozen of her servants had died. John's home, on the street to the right, had also been visited by the dragons. Everything of value inside had been completely taken away.

Every day, she and her other young companions would have to gather in the palace to avoid being hurt by the dragons. It was only at night that they were allowed to return to see if their homes were still standing.

Such an oppressive life was just way too terrible!

Daphne was filled with resentment every time she thought of her father having to constantly stay in that rowdy Runeforge Camp. He wasn't even able to stay by her mother's side!