Age of Adepts

A plague of terrifying proportions erupted in the woods!

Even though there were voodoo doctors in the army to perform treatment, over half of the troll warriors were still infected by the plague spores. They turned into unfortunate victims rolling on the floor in agony as they scratched their bodies with their nails until they were bloody.

The trolls weren’t idiots.

They might not be as smart as human adepts, but they were still the rulers of Seawoods Plane.

After many tests, they finally discovered some of the plague cloud’s weaknesses.

Specifically, it was weak to fire!

The plague cloud wasn’t an inanimate object. It was an amalgamation of billions upon billions of tiny plague viruses. Even these creatures were afraid of fire.

After discovering this, the trolls quickly lit several torches and used them to burn away the lingering clouds of poison. As expected, when the flames surged by, the plague clouds would crackle with muffled sounds of explosions.

Nightfall.

The entire forest fell into an unusual silence.

The wind blew, and the branches creaked. The river waters lapped against the shore, over and over.

Who knew how many people were silently moving, hiding, and watching beneath this calm.

A large, bright bonfire had been lit on the outskirt of the troll camp.

At the moment, a troll commander of beginner Third Grade stood alone between two bonfires. He shouted furiously into the dark forest.

A row of wooden javelins was stuck into the ground in front of him, while five large metal darts rattled on his waist.

In the distant darkness, Mary hid in the thick canopy of an ancient tree. She looked through the swaying branches and examined this bold troll commander. Finally, she couldn’t help but say, “Who knows what that bastard is yelling about?”

Upon arriving in a foreign plane, finding a planar native and taking their knowledge and memory to understand the plane’s basic situation was standard procedure for an adept. It was something that every qualified adept should be able to do.

Extracting memory fragments and language was a common magical technique in the adept’s system!

Unfortunately, Mary seemed to have no intention of learning the crude and primitive language of these natives.

To Mary, the troll commander, covered all over with red and green paint, appeared no different from a gorilla beating his chest when he shouted into the forest.

Intelligent life.

Hmph! Them?

“Master, this troll seems to be issuing a challenge for glory.” Vanlier, who was promoted to Second Grade by Mary’s grace, explained by her side.

“Challenge for glory?”

“It’s an unusual rule in the Holy Edicts of the troll empire. Any troll noble has the right to issue a challenge for glory at their opponent. This challenge is limited to the two people involved. No one else is to intervene or be seen as challenging the authority of the Feathered God.”

“Oh.” Mary was somewhat interested when she heard this. “How is victory decided?”

“The victor takes all, and the loser becomes the servant of the opponent!”

“Seems like this troll empire is a society of the survival of the fittest. The ones who can stand on top are undoubtedly the most powerful individuals of their group. They like deciding positions of authority through martial power. No wonder their knowledge system is so pathetic!”

“Indeed, master! Seawoods Plane only has primitive and crude hunting techniques. Not even large-scale farming or breeding techniques have been invented. No wonder they are unable to reach the heights that an empire civilization should have achieved. Master, seeing as there’s a Third Grade troll here, should we go elsewhere and see if we can break through there instead?”

Mary’s pretty, long eyes narrowed slightly, as if she was considering something.

Finally, she spoke up.

“Vanlier, say, if I accept this troll’s challenge, do you think their Feathered God will project its power over?” Mary’s eyes had narrowed into a single slit as she said this. Terrifying killing intent shone from her eyes.

“This…master, the trolls rely on a system of faith worship. Seeing that the troll commander’s power is at Third Grade, he is most certainly a renowned individual in their empire. It is almost certain that he will be able to borrow some degree of the Feathered God’s power. It will be difficult to keep the battle within our control if we engage an opponent like this in combat!”

“So the Feathered God will appear? Hmph! We are gonna cross swords with that pretentious bastard eventually. Rather than fight it in its den, I would rather get to know it here and now. Wait here. I will go and meet that arrogant fool down there!”

Having said that, Mary leaped and flickered towards the battlefield like a crimson phantom!