Age of Adepts

However, how could Mary have mastered such top-tier spacetime magic as a vampire? Greem quickly realized his mistake after a moment of surprise.

It wasn’t actually Time Freeze; it was a strange spell whose effect was similar to Time Freeze. When Mary started to burn her Spirit to boost her pace, reflexes, and mental speed forcefully, her personal speed crossed a certain threshold that allowed her to obtain this strange power.

That said, this magical effect appeared to exhaust her Spirit tremendously. Mary had lost half of her Spirit from just escaping Greem’s Coldflame trap. If it weren’t for her Spirit increasing immensely from her Third Grade advancement, the exhaustion from the move would have been enough to empty her Spirit and cause her to fall unconscious.

“Can you freely control this state of yours?” Greem couldn’t help but ask softly.

“It’s difficult!” Mary’s Spirit had shriveled after half of it was exhausted. She appeared to be lethargic even while answering Greem’s question, “When I enter that state, I can clearly feel everything around me suddenly slow down, moving at a snail’s pace. Meanwhile, my...my Spirit starts to burn rapidly.”

“What about your control over your body?” Greem immediately cut to the critical issue.

If entering the hypersensitive state could allow Mary’s speed to exceed the senses and mental speed of other adepts, wouldn’t she be invincible at that moment?! She would be the only one able to freely move while others were frozen in time. As such, the crux of the issue was the degree of Mary’s control over her own body while in this state.

Mary paused to think for a moment before shaking her head slowly: “It’s very, very difficult. In the moment, it feels like the entire world has turned static. Even the air seemed to have frozen and turned solid. Moving in that state requires me to use a hundred times more energy than usual, and it takes a huge toll on my stamina.”

“The move relies on your Agility, burns your Spirit, and exhausts your stamina. It seems like from now on, all three of these factors will be your priority if you want to master this state of hypersensitivity.”

“What do I need such high stamina for? I’m an Agility-type assassin!” Mary appeared a little dispirited.

“What do you know? Your hypersensitive state is a very decent means of attack. It is only because your Agility, Spirit, and Physique aren’t at a qualifying level that the ability is so inconsistent. If you can improve all three of these attributes, you will have a much easier time controlling this state. At the very least, it won’t be like today, where escaping a single trap took more than half of your power.”

“Hmph! If I really had this ability, I would definitely carve my name on your chest.” Mary was somewhat disappointed at being unable to suppress Greem even after becoming a Third Grade.

“Ha. that will have to depend on whether you will be able to break the defensive spells around me in such a short time. If you could do that, I would definitely surrender...haha...ow!”

Seeing as Mary had lost her interest to continue fighting, Greem also slowly retracted the burning Domain and the layers of Inferno Shields around him. Mary instantly appeared beside him the moment the fire spells around him disappeared. She extended a slender finger, pinching the meat at his waist and turning it left and right.

Greem immediately drew in a breath of cold air. For the first time, he felt like he had withdrawn his defenses far too early!

“Come on, bring me back! It’s been a long time since I bathed. I feel like my body is already starting to smell.” While Greem gritted his teeth in pain, Mary suddenly let go and leaned to whisper in his ear.

“Alright, alright. We will go back and shower now!” A smile instantly appeared on Greem’s face.

The next second, flames erupted in mid-air as the two figures vanished from the spot.

As the magical flames slowly extinguished, the land once again returned to deathly silence!

............

News of Mary’s successful advancement to Third Grade caused a rather large commotion in the Crimson Clan once more. The second Third Grade of the clan had emerged, which meant that the foundations of the Crimson Clan were even stronger than before.

Apart from the few mega-clans backed by those old elders, the Crimson Clan could be considered one of the most powerful of the new clans in Zhentarim and the Central Region.

Even though the Crimson Clan already possessed two Third Grade adepts–and the majority of the Ailovis Region–they were still looked down upon as an upstart force in the eyes of most adepts. That was because it had not even been a hundred years since the establishment of the clan. They were still a long way off from competing with the actual large clans when it came to the number of total accumulated resources.

Even if they were unstoppable for the moment, they could run into the risk of collapse at any moment if they provoked the wrath of a Fourth Grade adept!

Without a Fourth Grade adept within the clan, or supporting the clan in the World of Adepts, it was impossible to become a ruler and tyrant over a region. One still had to remain as low-profile as they could, and as careful as they could. The ones who truly possessed the right to speak in this world were the powerful Fourth Grade adepts.

Mary received an invitation to the Winds of Freedom not long after her advancement, as was the custom.

According to Greem’s understanding, no more than three people in the Crimson Clan had received an invitation from the Winds of Freedom: himself, Mary, and Billis. Though Zacha, Tigule, and Mary’s blood knights and blood elves were all Second Grades, none of them had received an invitation from the Winds of Freedom.

Judging from this, the Winds of Freedom also very strictly abided by some ancient rules. They were mostly composed of native local adepts of the Central Region and were extremely selective of outsiders.

Mary had not been outside for seven years. She was already somewhat unfamiliar with the clan’s internal matters and development.

Over the next few days, she was shocked to find that the development of the Crimson Clan had been unusually fast.

Currently, the clan was obviously split into four distinctive factions: the vampires, the goblins, the brain monster’s group, and the local adepts.

In terms of strength alone, there was no doubt that Mary’s vampires were the strongest. They made up more than half of the clan’s Second Grade fighting force. Now, with Mary’s advancement to Third Grade, the power of the vampires was sure to follow and become even more eye-catching.

However, none of the other factions could compare to the goblin faction when it came to numbers, scale, and degree of penetration. In particular, over the past few years, the number of goblin adepts had noticeably risen due to the sponsorship of goblin nobles and moguls.

Right now five goblins within the Crimson Clan had advanced to become magical mechanics, with three others had advanced to become alchemists. Their power might be mediocre, but when they gathered together, it was not a force that could be ignored.

Moreover, all these goblins were backed by Goblin War God Tigule and Goblin Sage Snorlax. They had decent influence even within the clan itself!

That was especially the case recently, as the clan had been actively expanding their influence and constructing their own information and resource collection systems. The goblin merchants and moguls spread all over the continent provided the clan with immense support in this aspect. Consequently, the higher-ups of the clan had intentions to promote some goblins into the core of the clan. That was also the key to the goblin faction’s rapid development.

The other major faction of the clan was naturally the brain monster bloc led by Gazlowe. Their main range of activity was in Lance, with the Capital of Eternity as the center of their operations.

With the Capital of Eternity as their headquarters, the brain monster bloc had more than enough power to crush the other factions within the clan. They might not look like much, but they were protected by tens of thousands of magical machines and were sheltered beneath the impenetrable Capital.

Greem and the Crimson Clan had gone to great lengths to keep the brain monster bloc on their side over the years. Still, their work had not gone to waste. The leisurely and ambitious Third Grade brain monster did not act selfishly and keep Lance to himself. He instead opened up the Capital of Eternity to the Crimson Clan.

From a certain perspective, the brain monster bloc wasn’t entirely an internal faction of the Crimson Clan. Instead, they more resembled a neutral force that leaned toward the clan.

Finally, the last faction was the local adepts who propped up the very backbone of the Crimson Clan.

It was only the difficulty of raising adepts and having them advance that caused them to lag in terms of developmental speed. It made them incapable of competing with the other three factions.

However, the Crimson Clan’s roots were in the World of Adepts. As such, the status of adepts was immovable, regardless of the circumstance.

This organization of native adepts might be weak, but they still possessed the mainstream ruling position within the clan.

It didn’t matter whether it was Crimson Majordomo Gargamel, Meryl of the White Tower, or even Deserra in the Goblin Plane; they all held authority in the Crimson Clan despite their low grades and insignificant power.

Naturally, the one that stood behind them all was Greem, the legendary Third Grade fire adept!

Though Greem had rarely left Fire Throne for the past few years for the sake of protecting Mary, his power was apparent for all to see. Even though it hadn’t been long since he advanced to Third Grade, he was considered one of the most powerful Third Grade adepts of the Central Region due to that powerful elementium magical machine of his.

The Crimson Clan had also run into some crises over the years.

However, ever since the Crimson Clan brought the Fourth Grade metallic golem dragon back from their lesser plane, all of these dangers and hidden currents vanished quickly.

What was real power in the World of Adepts?

Fourth Grade!

As long as a clan was protected by a Fourth Grade adept, it meant that they would never collapse for all eternity. No one would dare to challenge their dignity.

It was the same even when it was a Fourth Grade magical machine golem dragon!

For a moment, even those famous Fourth Grade adepts couldn’t help but cast their attention toward this rising Crimson Clan.