Age of Adepts
chapter-602

The Crimson adepts led by Greem had perfectly witnessed the battle from the side.

They had seen the massive body of the Third Grade dragon. They saw its powerful and thick dragon breath. They saw her transform into a human and slaughter with her lithe figure. All the Crimson adepts felt their hearts tense up as they watched the events unfold.

Fortunately, Gazlowe wasn't weak either. Moreover, this was his home ground. He had managed to repel the fire dragon's attacks and drove her away into the depths of Stonetalon Mountains.

It seemed like the female fire dragon had now established hostilities with the metal fortress. She wouldn't be leaving Stonetalon Mountains in the short term. Similar battles would also continuously happen. Given that case, it would become a lot more dangerous for the Crimson adepts to continue activities near the metal fortress.

After all, First Grade adepts would simply be exterminated if they ran into the fire dragon in the wild. They won't even be able to keep their lives if they didn't have some special tricks up their sleeves. On the other hand, of the few Second Grade adepts in the clan, Mary would be able to escape without a scratch with her exceptional Agility. Greem, on the other hand, would also barely be able to survive if he paid a certain price. Only Dragonborn Zacha would have no different fate than death if he ran into the fire dragon.

Even though there was also Second Grade Dragon Devourer Oliven hidden inside the fortress, it wasn't practical to count on her to defeat the dragon. She might have a high chance of ambushing and killing a Second Grade dragon, but it was still quite impossible for her to attempt to attack a fire dragon, who were known for their powerful combat abilities. Especially one that was Third Grade.

If she failed to kill Philippa, then the fire dragon would spread news of the existence of the dragon devourer. The ordinarily lazy and selfish dragons would then immediately gather together and come to raid Greem's metal fortress. When that happened, they could only run but not hide. The metal fortress might have insanely powerful defensive capabilities, but how many dragons could it fend off?

Disregarding everything else, just the five Third Grade dragons alone would cause the massive energy of the magic energy furnace to run out slowly. They would no longer be able to amass large amounts of magic energy as they were currently doing.

The dragons would only need to be slightly smarter to make it past the metal fortress. They could merely take turns and bait the metal fortress into constantly firing those powerful waves of cannon shots. The metal fortress couldn't possibly support such extended periods of firepower with its current magic energy reserves.

Without the support of the massive surge of magic energy, the metal fortress was no more than a large lump of metal. The walls of the metal fortress couldn't handle the powerful dragon breaths and sharp claws of the dragons, regardless of how tough they were.

That was why the Crimson Clan were still unable to excavate Lance on a larger scale with their own name, even now. All operations had to be hidden within the metal fortress to avoid attracting fearsome enemies that they couldn't deal with.

The Crimson Clan was like a ferocious beast that had hidden their fangs and claws. They didn't dare show their ferocious side to the world. Greem hesitated several times in the face of this powerful fire dragon lord. In the end, he could only choose to allow her to continue her rampage.

He had no choice. The Crimson Clan didn't have absolute certainty in killing the female fire dragon with its current power, even with the full cooperation of Dragon Devourer Oliven. To avoid startling the enemy, Gazlowe controlled the metal fortress and made it seem as if it only had the power to defend themselves, without the capacity to launch any offensive strikes. It was to trick that arrogant and wild fire dragon.

The auction that had been held in Fire Throne earlier might have ended on a sour note due to Adept Sanazar's actions, but the name of the Crimson Clan had still spread far and wide. The dragonborn and dragon that Greem sold away already had the coordinates of Lance wiped from their minds. They would not result in any potential negative influences on his attempt to conquer Lance alone.

The Crimson Clan also took this opportunity to turn some of the resources they had robbed from the Goblin Plane and Lance into more practical magical crystals. For the first time, the usually thrifty Greem felt like he was rich.

In all honesty, Greem had held his breath for a very long time when he saw the mountain of two million magical crystals pour out of his spatial ring. The magnificent and shining scene stunned even him.

That was actually a pretty decent reaction.

After all, he had seen an even more massive mountain of magical crystal back in the Tower of Fate. Moreover, that place had been a closed environment that gave birth to nature spirits.

However, the other Crimson adepts all turned into idiots with magical crystals for eyes. They rushed up to the magical crystals, touching the jewels, caressing them and laughing madly. The only thing they had yet to do was start rolling in all that wealth. That precious baby girl of Gargamel and Eva even dived right into the magical crystal mountain and couldn't be dragged out of it when Eva pulled on her ankles.

However, Greem could see what was happening. The little girl known as Emelia was furiously stuffing the magical crystals in her mouth and feasting without stop. That crunching sound…

Greem was utterly speechless at the sight of this.

Magical crystals might not be as durable as magical equipment, but they were not something that ordinary mortals could simply break.

Yet, they had been chewed and crunched by a six-year-old girl as if they were little candies. There was no way Greem could get past that strange and bizarre scene. The girl was most definitely not human. She might look no different from a human girl, but her behavior and actions were very similar to that of a magical creature.

Human adepts usually held the magical crystals in their hands and slowly absorbed them. Only powerful magical creatures would absorb the pure energy within the magical crystals through direct consumption.

After all, humans were not magical creatures. They needed a gentler and slower way to absorb this energy to weaken the impact and magic-infusion effects from the foreign magic energy. These magical creatures were also closer to the plane origin and had stronger bodies than humans. Consequently, they had a far higher tolerance for magic compared to humans.

Emelia's behavior was solid proof of the nature of her soul– a magical creature.

Maybe because they had already accepted this reality, Gargamel and Eva didn't seem to be fazed by Emelia's actions at all. In fact, they pampered her and showered her with just as much love as before. Greem couldn't help but be rendered speechless by this. Still, the growth potential of Emelia was shocking. It had only been a short time since he had last seen her, yet Greem could tell that her Spirit had improved considerably.

Given the rate at which she was improving, the Crimson Clan could look forward to the addition of a new adept in a few more years.

For a few more days, the Crimson Clan continued to recruit wandering adepts to maintain the day-to-day functions of Fire Throne. The tower was being managed and guarded by Gargamel and Eva. The addition of Charon the manticore, Unguja the three-headed demonhound, and fifty new magical machines ensured the safety of the tower.

This way, the Crimson adepts would be freed up from their duties and could be placed in Lance and the Goblin Plane to expand the clan's assets in these locations further.

First Grade adepts mostly stayed within the Goblin Plane. On the one hand, they could intimidate the goblin royalty, and on the other, they could trade with the goblin merchant groups from all across the continent.

The adepts could provide them with magical items and all sorts of mysterious products that were not available in the Goblin Plane. Though these items would experience slight magic loss in the Goblin Plane and have their effects reduced, they could still function to some extent.

Meanwhile, the goblins could provide all sorts of strange metals and common metallic ores that the goblins used. They could also trade with unusual plants and animals found on the Goblin Plane.

The rate of exchange was fairly casual due to the lack of a common currency as a point of reference. For example, the blood sacks and blood crystals that the adepts brought back from the World of Adepts were hailed as amazing products that could save lives due to their ability to infuse a lifeform with large amounts of blood energy instantly.

Every single blood sack could be traded for several kilograms of special metals, or even a hundred tons of ordinary metal ores. Every high-quality blood crystal could be traded for several dozens and even a hundred ogres. These rare resources could be exchanged for over a thousand magical crystals for the Crimson Clan if brought back to the World of Adepts. These one thousand magical crystals could then be used to purchase even more cheap blood sacks and blood crystals.

As long as the core of the planar trades remained in the hands of the Crimson Clan, a large amount of magical crystal would flow endlessly into the wallets of the adepts. That was why being stationed in another plane could cause the stationed adepts to become wealthy while being a boring and dull task at the same time.

The Crimson Clan had even specifically pushed out a life-extending potion within the Goblin Empire with the help of Goblin Sage Snorlax and Goblin God of War Tigule. This potion immediately caused a massive commotion within the Empire.

The Life Extension Potion was only an intermediate potion in the World of Adepts. Any potions master could easily concoct this potion. Its main ingredient was a strange plant that came from the elves– the Fruit of Nature.

This Life Extension Potion could only extend one's natural lifespan by three to six years. Moreover, it couldn't be consumed repeatedly. As such, it wasn't a cost-effective product and wasn't viewed too importantly by the adepts. Even in the World of Adepts, this potion only had a market amongst the social circles of the more impoverished local nobles.

However, in the Goblin Plane, these 'cheap' Life Extension Potions had become miracle potions fought over by all the goblin nobles. The price had increased to a height that rendered even the adepts speechless.

It was bound to happen. Most human adepts in the World of Adepts already lived for two to three hundred years. Another three to five years were of no significance to them. However, the goblins of the Goblin Plane usually only lived for fifty to sixty years. That was less than half of a human's lifespan.

The cost-effectiveness of five years of lifespan was naturally much higher under such circumstances.

In particular, the leaders of those large merchant groups and corporations all over the Goblin Plane were all dying old men. If one told them at this moment that they could live for another five years, and that they would be as strong and spirited as they were in their younger years…

Pray tell, which powerful goblin could resist such intense temptation?

That was why the Life Extension Potion instantly created massive waves in the Goblin Plane upon being introduced!