Age of Adepts
chapter-242

Chapter 242 A Sudden Assault

A sorrowful roar echoed throughout the mountains.

The green dragon, along with the two whelps that returned to search for their missing companion, dove into the woods. A short moment later, a mournful roar that caused even the ground to shake rumbled across the forest. The dragons took to the skies with their lithe bodies, circling above the trees as if they were looking for something.

But no matter what they did, they couldn’t accept the reality that their companion had died.

Finally, amidst a wave of sorrowful dragon roars, the adolescent green dragon dove into the woods and picked up the whelp’s corpse. It beat its wing and flew to the horizon with no hesitation. The two other whelps followed closely behind him, bringing the two spellbreaker knight corpses with them.

It wasn’t until after the woods had regained their peace that Greem and the others walked out from the bushes.

“Just like that?” Greem gazed into the horizon and spoke with disbelief, “Those dragons are not stupid. Would they really believe such simple misdirection?”

“The dragons are not stupid. They are just too reliant on their prophecies!” A strange smile appeared on Diviner Mas’ pale and elderly face. At this point, Greem really thought he had a lot of potential to be a scammer on the streets. Mas continued, “As long as I’m around, everything they see through their prophecies will only be what I choose to let them see. Moreover, the dragons have also been looking for an excuse to raid the palace. It’s just that the excuse they’ve got this time is a little larger than they expected!”

Greem nodded in agreement after quickly thinking about it.

Due to the existence of the Dragon Covenant, the green dragons were not shameless enough to outright rob the palace. However, the fact that most of the dragons raiding Skandre in recent days had been dragon whelps, that caused havoc and massive deaths with every appearance, was enough to reveal the dragon’s plan to create an excuse.

If the witcher-knights couldn’t resist the urge to fight back against the green dragons, they would have a proper excuse to tear apart the Covenant and horde a lot more wealth before retreating from this plane.

Sadly, they didn’t expect that the excuse they were looking for came at the price of a whelp’s life.

This might have been their only miscalculation!

“When will they come to take their revenge?” Greem followed with a question.

“Before the break of dawn tomorrow!” Mas spoke with utter certainty, “So if Sir Greem has anything he wants to do, you best use tonight’s time to its fullest. Otherwise who knows what will be left of the kingdom in the all-out fight tomorrow!”

“Very good! If all works out well, I’ll leave tomorrow after completing the two tasks. I’ll lift the magic seals on the scrolls before I leave!”

“Then… let’s hope for a successful and pleasant cooperation!”

“I also look forward to working with Sir Mas in the future!”

This last sentence was Greem’s sincere thoughts.

Greem had truly felt the benefit of having a Diviner as an ally over the past few days of cooperation. No matter what they did, things almost went down well. Even the few risks they had to take were within their control and expectations. If he wanted to have massive plans for development in the future, cultivating a loyal prophet was a must.

That Alice seemed to be a very good candidate!

Witch of Fate? A witch bearing the name of Fate. It was certain that they walked down the same path as Mas. Mmm. When Greem returned, he would most definitely take his time to train Alice.

…………

The back of Mount Mingsu.

Mount Mingsu was deathly silent and dreary when night fell.

Ever since the construction of Runeforge Camp, the back of Mount Mingsu had turned into a restricted area. The witcher-knights sealed all the entrances into the mountain and constantly patrolled the place to ensure there were no trespassers. Along with the steep and dangerous geography of the place, with its many dangerous cliffs, no man or creature travelled this area.

Greem had only managed to sneak in with the cover of nightfall. Two other casters had followed behind him. One was the transforming ‘adept’ Cobalt, and the other was that plant-attribute ‘adept’ Flower.

Greem had witnessed their abilities in the fight earlier.

Their Spirits were slightly stronger than pseudo-adepts of the World of Adepts, but their use of spells and magic was far more inferior. In an all out fight it was uncertain if they would be able to beat the most powerful pseudo-adepts.

Their prowess, in fact, matched their identities.

A small plane with no knowledge or resources. How could they possibly hope to cultivate any kind of powerful individuals?!

It hadn’t been long since night had fallen. Greem kept a tight count of the time. He drew a small magical array in the cave they were hiding in and silently triggered the fire rune in the distance.

Almost at the same time that Greem cast his spell, Daphne, who had just returned home, fell to the ground in pain. She felt like seven or eight burning furnaces had been crammed into her body. An endless wave of heat radiated from within her, slowly boiling every bit of her blood.

After consulting many doctors–to no avail–the news of her daughter’s condition finally spread to the ears of that radiant knight stationed in Runeforge Camp. Naturally, faced with the bad news that his daughter’s life was hanging by a thread, he unhesitatingly rushed out of the camp and returned home.

This news quickly found its way to Greem as well, with Diviner Mas’ lookout spotting the radiant knight walking into his house.

The assault started almost immediately!

Below a cliff at the back of Mount Mingsu.

The metal waste falling from above had piled into a mountain a dozen meters high. The smoking waste sizzled against the wet ground, causing the entire place to be filled with a pungent odor and thick mist.

In the past, some scavengers and wanderers would sneak here in the dead of night to scavenge for valuable things amongst to waste to sell for money. However, with the start of the dragon raids in Skandre City half a month earlier, no one came here anymore.

Greem and the two others easily found their way to the bottom of the mountain using the dark of the night as cover.

Greem raised his head and looked up through the mist. He could vaguely see a cave on the cliff three hundred meters above. The entrance was only four or five meters wide, with the edge of the cave gleaming from the light reflecting off its metal fence.

Greem did a quick calculation. A single Fire Teleportation wasn’t enough to get him to the cave. If there wasn’t a foothold somewhere in the middle, he would have to find another way up.

According to the plan they had agreed on, the plant-attribute ‘adept’ Flower found a spot beneath the cliff. She dug a hole in the ground and buried the seed of an Ironthread Vine. A single frail vine as thick as a finger quickly grew against the cliff as she chanted.

As Flower’s chanting proceeded, the vine continued to grow and its roots started to grow thick and large in size as well. In a matter of seconds it had formed into stairs that reached into the sky, crawling all the way to the bottom of the cave on the cliff.

“It’s done! Get up!” Adept Flower whispered under her breath.

Under her orders, three massive leaves grew from the vine. The three stepped onto a leaf each, and they shot straight up through the mist like a modern elevator.

Soon the three found themselves right before the cave.

The three adepts could very easily sense any movements inside the cave using their Spirit.

No one was there.

This was expected.

It would be weird if the knights expected enemies to break in from such an impossible location. Thus the guards in charge of this place’s security didn’t have a fixed station at the opening of the cave. Rather, they were supposed to check this location every once in awhile. Moreover, with the chaos in the capital, it was unclear if the guards would even come to patrol on a fixed and consistent schedule.

The leaf slowly lifted Greem to the side of the cave, allowing him to get a clear look at everything inside.

Inside of the cave was a small tunnel. There were specialized sliding rails on the ground covered with dust and metal waste.

The only thing blocking Greem’s path were several metal fences that were thick as a child’s arm. Rust and cobwebs covered the entire structure, but it was clear it had been installed to keep out any trespassers.

To avoid alerting any possible guards, Greem didn’t choose to jump inside with his Fire Teleportation. Instead he gripped the upper portion of two metal bars tightly and silently drew from the fire powers within his body.

No flames appeared; only terrifying and intense heat.

The two metal bars quickly turned red and liquified in Greem’s grip, before flowing down the cave.

A path appeared before their eyes!

“Come in. Let’s finish this quickly!” Greem softly ordered before going into the cave.

Runeforge Camp, without a radiant knight’s protection, was like an unsecured playground in Greem’s eyes. He could do whatever he wanted. Those spellbreaker knights stationed within were not even worthy of being put on his list of enemies.

A dozen steps into the tunnel, in the side of the wall, was a small stone resting room for three guards. Greem casually threw a fireball into the room as he strode by before continuing on his path.

Before the vicious fireball exploded behind him, Greem had already walked out of the waste dumping area and had progressed towards the entrance of the Runeforge Camp through a large and wide tunnel.

Indeed, he was not rushing towards the heavily guarded forging area or drafting room. Instead he headed towards the camp’s entrance.

There were no more radiant knights in Runeforge Camp, but there was still one stationed in the knight’s headquarters outside. If he caught wind of the raid and rushed over, he would very likely stop Greem and the others from escaping. Thus Greem, who was already planning to go all out on the troops in the Camp, walked unhesitatingly towards the entrance. The first thing he had to do was to cut off all connection the camp had with the outside.

When the first fireball exploded behind the camp, every single guard in Runeforge Camp had been alerted. Countless guards surged out of their shelters and camps, and after a chaotic scrambling they finally managed to find the source of the explosion.

Under the orders of the camp commander, scores of guards grabbed their weapons and headed into the stone tunnel, running towards the location of the explosion.