Chapter 71
Since the existence of the Underground Cave was very important for all of the Adept families in the Dagon region, foreign elite apprentices such as Greem became their favorite target for recruitment.
First, having some foreign recruits wouldn’t cause too much of an impact on their current interests. Without the support of an Adept family, the Apprentice Adepts wouldn’t have the guts to offend the official Adepts openly. So, the recruited elite apprentices could become their most capable hatchet men, but were unable to become one of their competitors.
Second, the Underground World wasn’t a peaceful place. The rare resources sought after by Adepts from the surface were also the target for the black bastards of the underground. Therefore, the start of every single underground expedition trip and harvesting trip was also the beginning of a chaotic battle between the two parties.
Due to extensive exploration and development, all of the rare resources produced in the Underground World had been excavated and their locations marked down as resource sites. What time these resources were matured and what time they needed to be harvested, these things both parties knew very well. Therefore, whenever it was time to harvest, a deadly slaughter would occur in the surroundings of these resource sites.
Neither party would send out their official Adepts in this chaotic battle, but restricted the battle to the level of Apprentice Adepts. Only the winner of the battle had the right to enter the resource site and harvest the resources. As for the loser, either they escaped with wounds or they would have been killed in the battle.
Like this, a bloody slaughter had been ongoing for more than three hundred years in the Underground Cave, and it had become an unwritten edict in this place. Using their strongest apprentices as their token, both parties would fight for the fixed resources every month. The winner took it all, while the loser got killed miserably. It was an arena where all Pseudo-Adepts could put on a good show.
Now, because of the uniqueness of Greem’s ability, he was chosen by the training camp under the lead of Hulk, and was fortunate enough to become a member together with the other elite apprentices. With this, he became busier, as apart from carrying out the apprentice mission organized by the Zhentarim Association every fifteen days, he also needed to join the underground patrol of the training camp intermittently.
With this, Greem’s speed of obtaining merit point was definitely faster than all other ordinary apprentices.
9.29…… 9.33…… 9.46…… 9.52……
……
Suddenly, the trifling tones of the Chip chimed out, “Warning, Host’s muscle damage has exceeded 17%.”
“Muscle damage has exceeded 19%.”
“Muscle damage has exceeded 21%.”
“Beep… warning! Muscle damage has exceeded 21%. Non-interference will result in Host entering a temporary state of decay. Does Host want to interfere?”
Greem lightly clenched his jaw and replied with a deep voice. “Negative!”
The original aching and tingling sensation had turned into a severe pain, like his heart were being sliced through, and beads of sweat started to roll down his forehead. On the chair, Greem twisted and struggled through the pain, relying on his strong will so that he wouldn’t pass out. If he passed out, he would lose control and the Flesh Curse would wreak havoc on his body before it dissolved itself. No doubt, that would bring even more damage to his Physique!
So, even if it only spared him losing 0.01 Physique, Greem still tenaciously kept himself awake.
9.87……
“Muscle damage has exceeded 22%.”
9.93……
“Muscle damage has exceeded 23%.”
9.99……
“Muscle damage has exceeded 24%.”
10.03……
“Muscle damage has exceeded 25%.”
Sensing that his Spirit had stopped moving, Greem finally shouted, “Dispel!”
As the warm burst of energy once again flowed through his body, the severe pain subsided entirely.
Greem placed both hands on the armrest of the chair and tried to push himself up, but he failed twice in a row. The severe pain numbed his body and stopped it from responding to his control.
Just at that moment, the latest attributes refreshed in front of his eyes.
It finally broke through ten!
As of now, Greem was honored to be an Intermediate Apprentice.
From a Beginner Apprentice, who only had eight Spirit, to an Intermediate Apprentice of ten Spirit, it had only taken Greem one and a half months, but he had spent six whole years in the past just to increase from six to eight Spirit. This was clear evidence of the huge difference between someone with sufficient resources and someone without.
But in order to achieve what he had now, Greem had paid a huge price with his body.
His Spirit had increased from 9.27 to 10.03, a small change from single digit to two digits, but his Physique had shrunk back to 3.17 from 4.21, a jaw-dropping reduction. Along with that was a 0.01 reduction in his Strength and a reduction of 0.08 in his Agility.
The damage caused by the Mind Concentrating Potion increased progressively!