Age of Adepts
chapter-507

The adepts' strange spells made it impossible for the goblins to track them for extended periods of time.

When Greem took out the Demon Alligator Hunter that he hadn't used in a long time and sank into the ground, the goblin mechanics were utterly dazed. Chasing an enemy that had burrowed underground? They hadn't come up with a tool for that yet!

The only thing they could do was assign even more local garrisons to the location and scatter them across every corner of the area in hopes of discovering the enemy's tracks.

In truth, they didn't need to go on a search. At a particular moment five days later, the goblins once again detected that strange spatial ripple. The origin of the spatial ripple was in another goblin province five hundred kilometers away.

Mechanical Girl Sabrina and Poison Hag Endor collapsed to the ground in a well-hidden underground room the moment they completed their interplanar travel. However, the planar suppression that Sabrina endured was inferior when compared to Endor's. Perhaps this had something to do with the fact that she was compatible with the planar laws here!

Due to the racial traits of the Goblin Empire, the ones that ruled over every single piece of land could only be goblins.

On the way here, they had only seen goblins. It didn't matter whether it was the goblin merchants who rode on huge Kodos, or the small villages and towns by the sides of the road; the ones that could become nobles and own large amounts of land, mansions, and mines were goblins. The other races could only take up lowly, dirty, and dangerous employment.

They saw green goblins in luxurious clothing parading through the streets on palanquins while elven and human servants walked along in servitude. Massive trolls and minotaurs carried the palanquins on their shoulders one after another. The adepts couldn't help but feel their spirits grow confused!

The trolls were resilient and possessed great strength. They had become the best miners and slaves of the goblins. The native humans were weak, but their ability to learn and craft was fairly decent. As such, they turned into the goblins' butlers, tailors, and bakers. The wood elves were frail beings, but they possessed exceptional talent with plants and became the gardeners of goblin mansions.

Countless native races had been beaten down by the firearms and artillery of the goblins. They had no choice but to obediently surrender and become slaves and prisoners to ensure the survival of their races.

The real demonstration of the Empire's power was the construction and combat machines scattered across the continent.

On their trips through villages and cities, Greem and his party could tell that the literacy rate of the goblins almost reached a hundred percent. Moreover, the goblin children were all tested for their innate talents at a very young age, before being cultivated in different disciplines tailored to their abilities.

Currently, the most popular job in the Goblin Empire had to be the goblin mechanic!

If one became a goblin mechanic, they would have taken a massive step forward and instantly turned into a noble among the goblins. They would then be able to come into contact with construction and engineering machines of various models. Only those who obtained excellent results while piloting engineering machines were qualified to go further and became the pilots of combat machines.

In the past hundred years, more and more combat machine models had been manufactured as the Goblin Empire's utilization of magic energy significantly improved. The power of the machines was also vastly superior to previous versions. Consequently, every single goblin in the Goblin Empire took pride in being able to become a pilot of a combat machine!

Apart from a goblin mechanic, there were many other branch professions in the Empire. For example, there was the goblin engineer, goblin alchemist, goblin blacksmith, goblin forgemaster, goblin jeweler, goblin musketeer, goblin cannoneer, goblin tank driver, goblin aviators, goblin technicians, etc.

One had to mention how short, small, and weak the goblins were. If it weren't for their mastery of engineering, machines, and alchemy that gave them what they needed to solidify their position, they would never have the strength to conquer an entire plane.

If one wanted to understand the goblins, they had to talk about the most meritorious trait of the goblins– their adventurous spirit!

This plane had plenty of powerful races. Why was it that they couldn't become the rulers of this plane, and were instead upstaged by these frail goblins? The main reason was that the goblins held a twisted passion for knowledge and technique that far surpassed the other races.

The most luxurious building in every town and city had to be the goblin alchemical laboratory. Moreover, you would undoubtedly find row after row of sculptures depicting goblin predecessors erected in front of the doors of the lab.

Those that could be known as a predecessor in the Goblin Empire were great goblin inventors that had accomplished groundbreaking feats in goblin engineering and alchemy.

It was these generations of accumulations that allowed the goblins to grow from their initial alchemical roots to an engineering civilization, before moving on to a steam-powered culture. Finally, they had arrived at their new energy system– Magic Energy.

From his experience, Greem easily concluded that the Goblin Plane would most definitely succeed at becoming a magic energy civilization if they had one or two hundred more years of time to develop. When that happened, it would be time for them to step out of their narrow Goblin Plane and carefully start exploring other planes.

Tragically for them, Greem and the adepts had arrived right when the goblins were undergoing the painful transition from a steam-powered civilization to a magic energy civilization.

Perhaps this was the fate of the Goblin Plane!

It was because of Greem that the Goblin Plane had an opportunity for a leap in power. However, it was also because of Greem that the Goblin Plane faced the intrusion and coveting of the domineering World of Adepts.

If the Goblin Plane were a little more fortunate and succeeded at exterminating Greem and his companions, then they would receive a 'present' from the distant adept civilization. If that happened, everything in the minds of Greem and his companions would become the strength used to boost and propel the leaps in the development of the goblins' power.

However, there were always tradeoffs. Benefits and drawbacks were two sides of the same coin!

The goblins first had to pay the price if they wished to get what they wanted.

The price they had to pay was the uncertain fate of the Goblin Plane.

Were they to kill the intruding the adepts and raise the strength of the plane to a whole new level, or were they to be defeated by the adepts and turned into a satellite plane of the World of Adepts? This was the fate that the Goblin Empire had to face!

When Sabrina and Endor arrived at the Goblin Plane, they brought with them Alice's message for Greem.

"Be careful of Gazlowe!"

A simple sentence, but it immediately gave Greem clarity and understanding of the situation.

It was only now that Greem was sure that this trip of theirs into the Goblin Plane had been a trap set up by Duke Gazlowe.

He didn't know what it was that forced Gazlowe to make this decision, but he was confident that the goblin had intentionally leaked the coordinates of the plane to Snorlax and agreed to accept the batch of problematic magical stones.

If things had gone according to plan, Greem and the others would have teleported to the Goblin Plane with the silver spacestone as the coordinates. What would have awaited them then was a cage trap with a sea of combat machines that surrounded them like an iron wall.

Perhaps it was because of the trace of unease that she felt that Alice gave up on the coordinates of the spacestone. Instead, she turned to random teleportation to toss Bug Adept Billis into the world ahead of everyone else.

That choice had gone beyond Gazlowe's expectations!

The moment Gazlowe realized that the adepts of the other plane hadn't appeared in the trap according to his set script was also the moment news of a spatial intrusion reached him. It was then that he knew his plan had fallen apart. He had led many of his subordinates right out of the capital in an attempt to hunt down the adepts before their strength got out of control.

Yet, when they finally came into contact with the adepts, Gazlowe made a surprising discovery. The reason that the adepts had managed to become slave owners and intruders feared by the multiverse was truly due to their abilities and strange spells.

The first three adepts were all difficult to deal with. Gazlowe could hardly get any advantage against the adepts, even after bringing the most elite magical machine squads of the Empire with him.

Consequently, when Gazlowe once again picked up on the strange spatial ripple, he promptly assembled troops and charged towards the source of the spatial ripple. But this time, he brought with him two flying ships and over a thousand magical machines.

…………

In a cave by the edges of the Kezanla Mountains.

They had started a campfire inside the black cave. The dancing flames illuminated the tiny space and placed a red tint over the people by the fire.

Large pieces of bear meat were being roasted on the fire after having been treated and skinned. As expected of a witch that spent her days outdoors, Poison Hag Endor was well-versed when it came to cooking and roasting meat. Golden oil seeped from the fat and thick flesh, sizzling as the fire continued to burn. Endor occasionally took out colorful powder from a bag of spice, causing the bear meat to release even more fragrance.

The individuals present here might all be adepts and possess entirely different bodily structures from ordinary humans, but most of their human nature had still been preserved.

Take, for example, Mechanical Girl Sabrina. Alchemical machines had already replaced the primary organs of her body and most of her limbs. Her stomach had also been turned into a miniature furnace that was capable of instantly disintegrating anything she ate into their most basic nutritional components and waste. This method of digestion efficiently utilized energy and generated very little waste.

As such, cooking food was an entirely unnecessary process for Sabrina!

Most of the time, directly eating the bloody meat might have given her more energy than roasting it beforehand.

However, as a former human, Sabrina still retained many of the habits and instincts of a human.

She sat elegantly by the campfire, gracefully putting the delicious sliced bear meat pieces into her mouth. The juicy, fresh taste of meat could still provide her with enjoyment. As for the minor reduction of energy gained? It was something of little concern to her!