Age of Adepts

The corridor was dark and silent.

The somewhat old wooden floorboards creaked beneath his feet.

A thick, suffocating shadow aura masked the air.

The closer Greem got to the shadow core, the more suppressed the flames around him became. They could only extend fifty centimeters out of his body, barely enough to protect his body and his clothes.

The corridor in front of Greem was like a haunted house in his double vision of material and immaterial. Traces, strands of nearly solid shadow energy dissipated from the second room to the left, slowly but surely dancing across the corridor.

The aura was so thick that these shadows were showing signs of coming to life.

They wandered and squirmed down the narrow corridor in clusters of darkness, continually twisting and morphing into all sorts of unusual shapes. From a distance, these shadows look like horrifying demons awaiting their prey with bared fangs.

Greem had just stepped into the corridor, into the swarming darkness, when the closest shadow to him immediately transformed into a large mouth with vicious fangs. The mouth bit furiously at him.

However, while the assassin’s movements appeared light as a feather, they were as fast as lightning in the eyes of an objective observer. Moreover, though the daggers were dark, lightless, and void of any elementium aura, they gave off the impression of lethal weapons.

Greem’s mind turned in the face of the shadow assassin. The fire coral staff in his hand gleamed, and yet no defensive magic had been cast. Instead, he chose…offense.

The two pitch-black daggers pierced the barrier of flames and the armor of magma, diving straight into Greem’s back. The blades wove between his flesh and moved through the fire, swiftly slicing and cutting to inflict as much damage to Greem as possible.

Greem endured the terrifying agony and instantly hit the shadow assassin’s body with a red beam of light.

The next second, dense fire elementium in the air gathered into nearly solid chains of fire, firmly binding the shadow assassin to Greem himself.

Flame Shackles!

Binding fire magic.

It could bind the enemy to the caster, forcing them to endure three times the constant fire damage of the spell if they attempted to flee.

The shadow assassin could not be bothered to attack Greem any longer at the sight of this. It flickered, attempting to flee from Greem’s side. Unfortunately, before its black body could merge into the darkness, the Flame Shackles on its body dragged it back out again.

It tried to teleport another two times. Failing to do so, it started to wave its daggers furiously in an attempt to sever the Flame Shackles.

However, this was enough of a buffer for Greem to lock on to its soul flux and elementium aura thoroughly.

Greem reached out with his left hand and cuffed the shadow assassin on the neck. Violent golden fire immediately flowed along his arm and onto the assassin’s body. The shadow assassin started howling and flailing about violently, slicing up Greem’s arm badly.

However, regardless of how badly wounded he was, Greem did not loosen his grip at all. The golden fire continued to surge into the assassin’s body without end.

Finally, eleven seconds later, the shadow assassin could no longer endure the effects of the law fire. It exploded with a loud bang and turned into scattered black mist. A dark black gemstone fell out of the fog, and Greem caught it in his hands.

A Shadow Diamond. A Fourth Grade Shadow Diamond!

Greem couldn’t be as calm as before now.

After all, a Fourth Grade Shadow Diamond was very rare, even in the World of Adepts.

A Shadow Shard was only a First Grade adept material, and a hundred Shadow Shards could be synthesized into a Second Grade Shadow Crystal. A hundred Second Grade Shadow Crystals could be synthesized into a Third Grade Shadow Stone. Finally, a hundred Third Grade Shadow Stones were required to synthesize a Fourth Grade Shadow Diamond such as this.

It was said that a Shadow Diamond was already a top-grade adept material!

If Adept Holly got his hands on a Shadow Diamond, he might be able to create a shadow puppet that could freely travel between the material plane and the Shadow World. It would be a Fourth Grade dark-attribute metal golem that could hide in its master’s shadow and protect them at all times.

If the Shadow Diamond fell into the hands of a summoner, they could use it to summon a Fourth Grade shadow dragon. A shadow dragon was a monstrous creature with a pitch-black body, sharp fangs, and wings of darkness. They had a fearsome shadow breath and were an unusual species that was somewhere between a dragon and a shadow creature.

If the Shadow Diamond fell into the hands of a high-grade alchemist, they could easily forge a Shadow Staff capable of summoning an entire shadow army. Of course, the power of the army would directly correlate to the alchemist’s skill.

……

The Chip immediately provided Greem with hundreds of logical suggestions to maximize the utility of the Shadow Diamond. However, this was not the time to discuss the matter. After all, there was still a terrifying Dark Witch to deal with.

Greem put the Shadow Diamond away happily and took out a purple healing potion. He flicked off the cork and drank the contents of the vial in a single gulp. Once the massive gash on his back had healed under the effects of the potion and his own impressive Physique, he stepped forward and pushed apart the wooden door.

There was boundless darkness before him!