Age of Adepts

If Adept Holly was merely fearful, then Cherisha was despairing!

Though she and Mangus had managed to advance to Fourth Grade by combining both their powers, their existence was still incredibly flawed.

Currently, they could only be considered a qualified Fourth Grade adept while they were in their transformed awakened state. Most of the time, they were only in a transitory state somewhere between Third and Fourth Grade.

They could simply crush any Third Grade adepts by transforming into the two-headed adept. However, against an actual Fourth Grade, they would be as frail as rotten meat. All their opponent had to do was delay until their transformation was over.

Moreover, their most significant problem at the moment was insufficient defense!

Both their Physique and magic resistance were significantly behind that of an ordinary Fourth Grade. They also had no powerful defensive magic, which made them even more vulnerable targets.

There wasn’t even a need to consider joining a battle between Fourth Grades! Even the ‘tiny’ flame shockwave from Greem’s reinforcing meteor had managed to break through their physical defenses and resulted in friendly fire. That alone was more than enough evidence of their weakness.

The defenses created by the combined power of Cherisha and Mangus could barely defend against elementium damage of 1,200 points. They had to endure all remaining spillover damage.

The three adepts, who were all injured to some degree, exchanged looks. Clearly, they had no idea what was happening.

Greem strode forward with his giant body. He stared at Illhoof and shouted with his booming voice, “May we know what your ‘cooperation’ refers to?”

The other two adepts slowly backed behind Greem as well and got into formation.

However, the three adepts’ powers were non-synergistic and even detrimental to the others’ abilities. They could hardly trust each other, either. Therefore, even in formation, they kept a safe distance of two hundred meters between each of them. No one dared to step within the range of an another adept easily.

It was a common sight among high-grade adepts in battle. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Since you’ve come here, you are probably aiming for that floating city as well, aren’t you?” Illhoof continued.

Greem and the others looked at each other. Holly and the two-headed adept said nothing and seemed to be deferring to Greem entirely.

In truth, there was no need to keep their objective any secret.

After all, they were otherworldly adepts that had snuck into Morrian Plane during this time of crisis. Saying that they had no ill intentions when they were silently approaching Reisin Garden would be an insult to Illhoof’s intelligence.

Upon seeing Greem nod silently, Illhoof’s mouth started to vibrate even more intensely.

“Since our targets are the same, and since neither of us can exterminate the other, why don’t we work together!” Illhoof pointed his ugly mouth towards Greem. “What I need are the lives and souls of the people in the floating city. You lot shouldn’t need these, do you?!”

“And what I need are the rare resources and high-grade knowledge of the Arcane Empire stored within the city. If you don’t mind, I am very interested in the energy core as well.” Greem fell silent for a moment but quickly explained his objectives as well.

Illhoof expressed no objections or dissatisfactions.

“I want to obtain the secrets to creating high-grade arcane golems.” Adept Holly also cautiously mentioned what he wanted.

He actually wanted much more than that, but speaking up brazenly in this situation and provoking the Scourge Lord was not a wise idea. In cooperation like this, what one could potentially obtain was directly related to their ability.

He had managed to produce power enough to make Illhoof fearful in the battle earlier. Naturally, this meant that he could not raise any requests.

“I also want—” The two-headed adept was happy to see how things had turned out. They opened their mouth, but a chilling and fearsome Spirit instantly engulfed them. They were smart enough to shut up immediately.

Illhoof did not regard them as a threat at all. Their power was simply too insignificant. That they could even be part of this collaboration was entirely thanks to the other two adepts.

Naturally, an inconsequential component like themselves had no right to make any requests.

At any rate, the floating city was large enough. They could find plenty of leftover loot even after everyone was done.

After all, in the eyes of a disaster creature like Illhoof, everything rested on power.

If you had no power, then you were prey!

“It seems like there is room for cooperation between us. The floating city is not easily invaded anyway. There is still a Great Arcanist there. Why don’t we work together to kill that arcanist? The body and soul will be mine, while the rest of their equipment belongs to you. How about it?” Illhoof’s suggestion was overbearing and left no room for questions, but it still incited the adepts’ interest.

A Great Arcanist?

That had not been mentioned in the mission report provided by the main party. Was that an oversight, or intentional?

Greem smiled sinisterly and nodded for the party.