Age of Adepts
chapter-261

The experiment was extremely successful.

Even more so than Greem estimated. In fact, much more so.

Toril finally stumbled out of the room with a stack of scrolls in his arms. Apart from his pale face and his slightly dazed appearance, he seemed to be fine.

Greem passed Toril the three books he had promised him and sent him back to rest. He then started to examine the scrolls Toril had passed him.

As expected, two of the ten scrolls were completely blank, despite having runes inscribed on them prior to the experiment. Toril didn't seem to have realized this.

Greem thought for abit. He did a quick reorganization of the eight verified runes and tried out their effects, successfully getting eight whole new runes that had never appeared in the runic system of the adepts.

With these eight runes, today's experiment was not a complete failure. At the very least, didn't Greem manage to get something out of it?

However he was still extremely curious about the two runes that had disappeared for no reason. He had a vague feeling that the direction of his research had gone off-track.

In all seriousness, the new runes that had been engineered by the chip were all auxiliary lesser-runes. Not a single rune crucial to the merging of runic energies had been uncovered yet. As if… there was a deeper layer of secrets hidden within these runes that he hadn't grasped.

What were runes?

In the end runes were just a form, a manifestation of planar laws!

The earliest recorded origin of runes began in the research of magic patterns. Some powerful magical creatures were able to unleash supernatural powers despite being ignorant of the knowledge and reason behind it. Magic patterns would naturally form on the bodies of such creatures.

Adepts were originally an ordinary group of mortals. They started to notice the existence of magic patterns while battling against the magical creatures, and slowly started to use the patterns for their own might. First, they carved these same magic patterns onto their own bodies, allowing them to possess some unique supernatural powers.

The encouraged adepts started to collect more and more of these patterns, accumulating them and starting to simplify and modify the patterns. After tens of thousands of years of groping in the dark, they finally managed to forge the runic system of the current age, indirectly reinforcing the dominance of the adepts in the process.

Thus, in truth, runic studies could be said to be the subject of study that was closest to the true form of planar laws!

These otherworldly runes from the knights' planes had yet to be deciphered after such a long time, especially those core to the entire runic system. Even basic rewritings of these runes had not succeeded. This was a clear sign that there was something deeper to the creation of the core runes.

What was it?

How profound could the runic knowledge be when it came from a group of low-level natives of a lesser plane? A lesser plane that hadn't even formed a functional system of magic casters!

Wait a moment…

Greem paused all of a sudden.

Not all of the creatures in the knights' plane were low-level lifeforms… there were still high-level lifeforms from the outside… the green dragons.

Greem's eyes gleamed. He felt like he had just discovered something important.

He had brought plenty of valuable information and history texts back from the Runeforge drafting room. However, all of his attention had been focused on the rune-related content, never ever really reading through the kingdom's history.

Now that Greem realized the potential link, he immediately corrected his mistake and spent the entire night rearranging the so-called 'history' of the knights' kingdom.

As expected, Greem uncovered some hidden secrets behind the back of the kingdom's history.

The profession of witcher-knight had only appeared after the green dragons became the patrons of the kingdom. Moreover, high-grade witcher-knights always seemed to be related to the dragons in one way or another.

This gave Greem sufficient reason to suspect that the true source of the runes weren't the natives of the plane, but the dragons of the Dragon's Plane.

Having suddenly understood this, Greem didn't give it a second thought. He immediately used his right as an adept to move all the information and books that the Sarubo Clan had about dragons back into his room. This tireless study might have been an arduous process, but it greatly completed his knowledge of the dragons.

As a powerful race that dominated many material planes, the adepts kept a detailed research record on the dragons. As a result, the chip's progress on deciphering the runes became even smoother after the inclusion of this data.

The chip could churn out some whole new runes almost every day by reverse-engineering these otherworldly runes. As for which of these runes were valuable and which of these were useless, that was a job left for Toril to determine.

As expected of an advanced apprentice that had illusion affinity, he had extremely powerful illusion resistance. Even though the fragmented runic illusions often put him in a daze, and certainly had on one occassion nearly trapped his spirit consciousness in an illusory dimension, he still managed to pull through.

Moreover, the large number of books and free resources that Greem had provided him with spared him from the trouble of running everywhere to scavenge for resources. He could stay within the safety of the tower and calmly progress with his research. However, the price he had to pay for this was the testing of four or five new runes every single day!

That said, as Adept Greem's experiment collaborator, he had the opportunity to meet Greem almost every day. Thus, he was no longer limited to a certain number of questions per week. If one were to speak just in terms of his treatment, Toril's status was almost equal to an actual disciple of an adept.

And this seemed to be the main reason he was willing to stay, despite the risk!

Alice, on the other hand, had quickly become the boss of Greem's apprentices. Moreover, after bringing her group of lackeys to beat up the other apprentice groups in the tower, she quickly became the boss of all of the apprentices in Feidnan's adept tower.

Alice's terrifying space affinity ensured that all the other apprentice adepts, even powerful pseudo-adepts in their ranks, would not be able to the beat her. Apart from the actual adepts, who could crush her with absolute strength, there was no match for Alice's powers. She had undoubtedly entered the ranks of the most powerful pseudo-adepts.

Meanwhile, the goblin merchant Snorlax, that had succeeded with Greem’s blessing, continued to lean more and more towards him as his fame as the Flame Demon continued to spread.

The World of Adepts was also a chaotic world where strength ruled supreme!

Most businesses such as trade companies, trade unions, and arcane shops were owned by adept clans and forces of all sizes. As a lonely outsider, Snorlax had to endure being pushed about by these organizations even as he tried to set up shop.

Thus, Snorlax only dared to maintain his business within Feidnan City. If he took even a single step out of this area, his small business would instantly be devoured by his competitors.

However, with Greem’s increasing status in the Sarubo Clan, Snorlax had increased his efforts to butter up to his apprentices.

Greem's apprentices enjoyed the cheap resources Snorlax provided them with, while Snorlax indirectly drew a large group of bodyguards and martial power around himself. The two parties benefited from each other and quickly formed a symbiotic little group.

Greem didn't really about all of this and left them to their own devices. He himself was completely devoted to the deciphering and verification of the runes.

Two months quickly passed by and Greem had successfully deciphered six of the twenty-eight new runes. This sounded like a very small amount, but it was more than enough to extend his knowledge on merging runic energies to the level of the Second Grade radiant knights.

This meant that Greem had completely mastered the secrets of the Second Grade radiant knights. He could start forging an army of powerful runic knights if he so wished.

That said, the strength of the Second Grade radiant knights was found in themselves. The runic system only served an auxiliary role. Thus, even if Greem had forged a set of runic equipment with capabilities that matched the Second Grade, he still wouldn't have the men to unleash its powers and use its powerful offensive abilities.

Even without this, Greem seemed to have plenty of Second Grade-level resources at his disposal!

The Second Grade Molten Giant core he got from the Underground Lava Ocean, the Flame Fiend's Heart that Lord Sarubo had bestowed upon him, and the corpse of the radiant knight he had killed in the knights' plane. Unfortunately, Greem wasn't a professional Necromancer. Otherwise creating a couple of powerful Undead would be a simple matter.

With this runic knowledge in his hands, Greem started to get busy.

The resources he asked Snorlax for were already here and his treatment of the Flame Fiend's Heart was quickly underway. There were still four adept-level elementium cores and a Second Grade molten giant core waiting to be dealt with. Meanwhile, upgrading the Flame Fiend Transformation runes on his body with the new knowledge he’d acquired had become his top priority.

Even if Greem somehow managed to squeeze out some free time, he still had to use it to design and forge some runic equipment that suited his abilities and talents…

All of these tasks completely filled Greem's daily schedule. There was absolutely no time to rest!

The four adept-level elementium cores that he used to practice crafting golems failed twice. In the end, Greem only managed to craft two golem cores. One was the Decayer, while the other was the Roaring Monster.

The Decayer was an adept-level golem completed by using a poison elementium core. It looked like a slime monster made entirely of viscous green matter. It had some unique abilities, such as Acid Spray, Poison Halo, and Splitting Multiplication.

The acid that the Decayer spewed possessed extreme corrosiveness and toxicity. It could corrode the enemy’s defenses very effectively. Its splitting multiplication also allowed the Decayer to split into two smaller Decayers, after receiving excessive amounts of damage. This would allow it to output even more firepower.

As of now, the Decayer could split up to three times!

This also meant that the Decayer could potentially turn into eight adept-level, acid-spewing cannons after some time on the battlefield.

The Roaring Monster, on the other hand, was forged from an earth elementium core. On the outside, it looked like a five-meter-tall giant stone humanoid. Its unique abilities included Trembling Earth, Stone Toss, and Rock Armor.

In all honesty, Greem particularly loved these kinds of golems with immense defensive abilities. They allowed him to fully display the destructiveness of his fiery talents.

And this Roaring Monster was undoubtedly the meat shield and bodyguard that Greem so desperately needed!