Chapter 174
Warm sunshine pierced through the spotty canopy, spilling onto Mok and making him feel a little relieved.
Some birds nesting in the trees nearby were startled and let out calls high above the canopy, breaking the peace of the woods.
Even though his head was bruised and the corners of his mouth were swollen from an entire night of running frantically and blindly through the dim woods filled with branches, vines, and bushes, ultimately he succeeded in escaping the nightmare that was in the woods.
Mok kept turning his head to look, even though nothing had been pursuing him, as if some invisible demon was following right behind him.
Suddenly, it was bright. The massive forest ended right before a green grass field below a gentle slope. Mok could see the sharp corners of a village’s wooden houses and the chimney smoke from afar.
Mok felt relieved when he saw this.
Stumbling out of the woods, Mok ran towards the small mountain village without another look back.
That was the village of Colca!
Just as Acteon was racking his brains for an explanation, a mental flux was transmitted from the wind critter that was high in the skies now. “Oh right, Acteon. Do you always neglect to check your targets’ bodies before turning them into bugmen?”
Having said that, the wind critter dashed to the woods without even looking back.
Just then, the temperature of Mok’s body started rising rapidly. Almost instantly, his entire body was converted into a human bomb. When his blood and flesh heated up to the critical limit, he exploded with a bang.
Most of the “bugged” hunters were standing close together in the house, causing Mok’s explosion to drag the other seven bugmen to their deaths. They melted in agony, riddled with holes by the bone fragments and boiling blood that went flying everywhere.
Acteon had placed a heart-devouring bug, that he bred personally, inside each of the bugmen. In that instant, eight heart-devouring bugs had died. It was easy to imagine the Spiritual pain Acteon felt at that moment.
The very next moment, Acteon’s angered screams and curses filled the skies.
Sadly, the wind critter had already escaped!
…………
When Greem brought his prisoners back to the adepts’ base, the teenager followed beside him.
The teenager’s name was Edwin. His hometown was in a faraway place known as Clyde. There, they produced fragrant grape wine and were famous for having breathtaking scenery. Unfortunately… after he awakened that odd talent, he was forced to leave his hometown and lead a life of vagrancy and hiding.
Even if he hid in the depths of the Greenland Forests, he would still be tracked down and trapped by the witcher-knights, who were as crazed as mad dogs. Six of the seven people with whom he had lived together for half a year were now dead. He was the only survivor. The witcher-knights had only spared him because they wanted to publicly execute him in the city.
However, his life had completely turned around after last night. From now on, he was on a completely different path!
It had only been two or three days, but the base had undergone great change once again.
Standing tall was a stone tower three levels high. A dozen robotic beasts were levitating on the outside of the tower, carefully carving unique rune patterns on the walls of the tower.
This was not a true adept’s tower yet, but after being strengthened with Runes of Toughness, Runes of Magic Resistance, and Runes of Divination-Obscuring, it sufficed as a temporary residence for the adepts. The crafting of higher quality magical items and potions required the use of alchemy labs and alchemy stands.
That was why the construction of an adept tower was of utmost importance!
Upon returning this time, Greem realised that the voodoo beasts in the outer rim of the base had doubled. Furthermore, Greem found traces of the beasts he had delivered previously on some of the stronger adept-level voodoo beasts.
These included the Bloodthirsty Man-eating Demons, the Wild Giant Apes and the Toxic Giants……
These powerful adept-level voodoo beasts were very crudely crafted. Their biological systems were unstable. Just one look, and Greem could tell that these were inferior products created on the spot. Although these beasts would not suffer any loss to their strength and would easily reach the level of adepts, their life force would only sustain them for one to two months before failing.
Just as Greem was passing the prisoners over to Keoghan, the teenager Edwin was looking over everything in the base with feelings of worship.
This was the holy land of spellcasters of his dreams! This was a place he was willing to defend with his life!