Age of Adepts

Kerslin Castle, headquarters of the Zhentarim Association.

Inside a secure magical room.

The two individuals who represented the Association’s highest authority sat face-to-face, worry and concern wearing heavily upon their faces.

After a long silence, Chairman Freed finally spoke.

“How is the situation within the Association, currently?”

Vice-Chairman Mirva sat on the opposite couch with a dark expression on his face. His eyes glimmered. It was obvious that he was in a pretty bad mood as well.

“Things are generally stable at the moment!” Mirva replied in a coarse voice, “Most Association adepts have signed contracts of servitude. They won’t take any rash actions until their contracts have been fulfilled. On the other hand, it’s…”

“It’s what?”

The number of individuals within the descendants of a Fourth Grade adept who had the potential to reach the same level were very, very few. To raise all of them to Fourth Grade successfully would also consume an exorbitant amount of resources.

While a Fourth Grade adept’s future was still uncertain and not yet doomed, they would first guarantee resources for themselves before providing their descendants with whatever leftovers they had.

This situation undoubtedly further reduced the possibility of magical geniuses appearing among their descendants!

That was why there were very few examples of high-grade adepts emerging from within the same clan and inheriting the clan’s legacy. Most adept clans faced uncertain futures. It was all laughter and joy while they were on the rise, but those times wouldn’t last forever. When the dark times came, they would live in poverty and struggle to survive.

Many adept clans simply fell to ruin without a single surviving descendant.

Take Chairman Freed, for example. The Sidmund Clan he belonged to had three thousand members. Four hundred of these members were direct descendants of his. Among them, only one hundred and twenty-seven had a talent for magic, while only two of them had managed to reach Third Grade.

However, even these two individuals were not worth investing in or training. That was because they didn’t have sufficient talent to begin with. They had only managed to reach their current heights thanks to the pile of resources available to them.

Of Freed’s direct descendants, there was a reasonably talented granddaughter. She was only two hundred years old, but she was already advanced Second Grade. Still, helping her reach Fourth Grade within another one to two hundred years was a difficult task.

That was why Freed felt his heart ache at the thought of his clan declining after his death.

He knew very clearly what would happen if he offended Greem too much now. Greem might not be able to do anything at the moment. However, once Freed had died of old age, Greem would certainly take bloody and terrifying vengeance on the clanspeople and descendants he left behind.

That was the cruel reality of the World of Adepts!

Usually, everyone treated the Sidmund Clan as an ancient and noble clan, out of consideration for him. However, once he was gone, his clan would not be supported by a single Fourth Grade adept. They would be like fish on a cutting board then– no happy fate awaited them.

Freed lifted his head and looked at Mirva, his gaze filled with pain and hesitation.

He knew that Mirva’s clan was in the same situation as his. There were no capable individuals among his descendants who could support the clan after his death. Mirva’s grandson had done quite a good job recently and had a fairly talented child.

However, that child was only intermediate First Grade at the moment. To help him reach Fourth Grade within two hundred years was a hundred times harder than doing so with his own granddaughter.

They were both in the same boat and were facing the same difficulties.

“There’s no way we can keep fighting with Greem. However, Kerala and Alfred are still young. They still have three to four hundred years left to live. They aren’t going to be willing to be suppressed by the Crimson Clan, are they? Perhaps we should win them to our side!” Mirva stroked his beard and said.

“Alfred. His Molten Fire City has allied with the Crimson Clan now. He’s making a killing out of selling those rare ores mined from his city. There’s no point in hoping that he’ll be the one to stand forward and make trouble.” Freed got upset every time they mentioned that lord of the Molten Fire City.

However, his thoughts quickly shifted to another person. “Kerala, on the other hand, is someone we can win to our side. Her clan territory neighbors the Crimson Clan. She must be feeling even greater pressure than us. If some sort of conflict could occur between them, we might be able to suppress Greem’s arrogant ambitions slightly.”

Mirva’s eyes gleamed as he chuckled coldly, “Isn’t that easy? I will go and arrange the matter immediately. I will make sure to have their two clans fight very soon! Hehehe, with Kerala as the vanguard, we can get Matthew, Nicolas, and Gaia on our side as well. At the very least, we will be able to slow down the Crimson Clan’s development and buy ourselves more time.”

Having said that, Mirva promptly left the room in great spirits.