Age of Adepts

Meryl's breathing grew stagnant.

Her teacher's dun teachings shook her like a twilight drum and made her reflect deeply on what she had done over the years.

For the sake of the family and her own unspeakable vanity, Meryl had invested an inordinate amount of energy and time in directions other than witchcraft. Although family affairs flourished under her own impetus, her own power within the family had fallen from first tier to second tier and now even more so to third tier.

But for this, Meryl also had a hard time talking about it inside.

From the time she became a Sorcerer Apprentice, she knew clearly that her talent as a Sorcerer wasn't that good. With a qualification like hers, she was already lucky to be able to advance to the 1st rank by a fluke, and it was almost impossible to advance to the 2nd rank.

It was precisely because of this knowledge that she had also given up the arduous study of witchcraft knowledge and the tedious day-to-day witchcraft experiments, betting most of her energy and time on the tedious handling of the family's affairs.

What she gained, however, was great authority, and the false aura of power that enchanted and delighted her at every call, and to this very moment she still did not feel that her actions were wrong.

Instead of spending her time in day to day witchcraft studies and boring witchcraft experiments to gain a possible future, she would rather actually take advantage of the present and live each day to the fullest.

It was hard to say that she was wrong about such a thought, but when an earth-shatteringly huge turn of events was presented to her, Meryl did show the performance of a competent witch.

"Fire Dragon Bloodline?" When Meryl saw with her own eyes the mysterious rune that was suspended in a transparent bubble, rotating slowly and emitting a dark red luster, she finally couldn't help but cry out in shock.

"Yes, this is the mysterious rune that was condensed from the Fire Dragon's bloodline that I told you about. If you're willing, I can implant it into you, allowing you to possess the Fire Dragon bloodline talent within half a year, which is far more powerful than your original elemental talent! Would you...be willing?"

Without any thought or hesitation, Meryl was immediately busy nodding her head in succession.

For a sorcerer to have a stronger bloodline talent, possess a deeper knowledge of sorcery, and be able to inspire incredibly powerful sorcery, this was something that almost every sorcerer dreamed of, and how could they hesitate or refuse!

Meryl's previous confusion and uncertainty was more because her own Sorcerer qualifications were so poor that she couldn't help but give up. If she could have a strong fire dragon bloodline, why would she waste her time on these 'boring' mundane matters?

Grim nodded in satisfaction at Meryl's leap of faith and determination.

"Then take off your clothes and lie down on the lab bench!"

Without the slightest hesitation in response to her teacher's order, Meryl quickly removed her witch's robe and underwear and obediently lay flat on the brightly lit lab bench.

Meryl was already a beautiful witch with good posture, her body was not as sexy as Mary and others, but she was also rugged and full of exquisite body. At this time lying flat on the lab bench, a head of long silver-gray hair like satin spread out on the stone platform, not wearing half a strand on her whole body, legs tightly together, arms gently folded in front of her chest.

Despite not exerting any charming sorcery, there was an indescribably hazy and ambiguous atmosphere!

In fact, with the status and power of the shamans, the relationship between men and women is not as rigid and harsh as in ordinary society. As long as they were willing, there were plenty of handsome men and women in the apprentice shamans willing to throw themselves at them. As long as they hooked their fingers, the worldly aristocrats were even willing to send beautiful women to their homes by the carloads to seek political blessings.

Therefore, most of the private lives between male and female shamans were very lascivious, and some of them even had their extravagant desires and interests at a perverted level!

However, as a witch that Grim had promoted, Meryl was still doing well in the cleanliness department. Although she was no longer a virgin, she could tell from her beautiful skin, her full and pert breasts, and her fragrant shade that she was still very strict about her private life.

The most secret body parts were exposed in front of the teacher, but Meryl did not have the shyness and reserve of an ordinary girl, just a calm and steady look averted her head to look at the teacher.

"You just arrived today, it's impossible for me to transplant the bloodline runes to you so quickly. Therefore, I now need to conduct a full examination and sample of your body for some preparatory work before transplanting. You should relax and cooperate with me..." explained Grim gently, and waved his hand to light up the various witch formations attached to the lab bench.

Immediately, a bright, but not dazzling, soft array of light emerged, reflecting Meryl's beige skin in an almost transparent way.

Grim also sat back down in front of the lab bench, the black pupils of his black eyes quickly flickering their bursts of blue mane, driving a witch array to slowly pour over Meryl's body.

Meryl, Level 1 Intermediate, Occupational Status: elemental witch (earth-based), Body Base Data: strength 4 physique 8 agility 5 spirit 14....

As the witch array ran and the chip's depth scan, the basic data of Meryl's witchcraft surfaced in Grim's mind. Such data was indeed somewhat weak among the 1st rank witches, and Meryl also rarely fought or practiced, so her combat killing skills were almost nil.

Ten percent of an ordinary academy witch's qualification!

A rookie like Meryl, even if Grim retreated back to level 1, was confident that she could fight five at a time. If there was no limit to the battlefield, a dozen of Grim would be fearless.

In addition to her basic body data, Meryl's Sorcerer qualifications were 'ordinary' to the extreme!

To be honest, there was indeed a large element of luck in her being able to advance to 1st rank.

If there was no external intervention, 1st rank advanced would have been the limit of her potential development. It was nearly impossible to advance to rank 2.

But it wasn't Meryl's Sorcerer qualification that caused Grim's headache, but her elemental affinity.

Meryl was promoted as an Earth Elemental Sorcerer, and the highest elemental affinity was of course the Earth Element.

In the feedback spectrum scanned by the chip, Grim saw clearly that the earth element was a standout in the first place, occupying seven squares of the talent scale, the second was metallic, occupying two squares, the third ranked was the plant spectrum, occupying half a square, and as for the rest of those spectrums, they jointly occupied half a square....

In her elemental affinity chart, there wasn't even a shadow of fire elemental affinity at all. This was to transform her into a fire dragon bloodline, it was really no less than changing her body to cut the marrow, the difficulty of which was so great that even Grim couldn't help but scratch his head when he thought about it.

From Meryl, Grim couldn't help but think of his other sorcerer disciple, Ammu.

If Amm hadn't been lured by the Sarupo family and become a traitor, I'm afraid that with his fire elemental affinity attribute, he would be the most suitable to receive this Fire Dragon Bloodline Rune.

Unfortunately....

I wonder if he would run headlong into the ground in frustration if he knew what a great opportunity for advancement his stupidity and ignorance had cost him....

Grim brainstormed as he carefully and cautiously examined Meryl's body.

The results of the preliminary examination were that Meryl was not suitable to become the heir to the Fire Dragon Bloodline. If she was forced to do so, it would most likely result in a huge depletion of the potential of the Fire Dragon Bloodline.

One had to know that that former Calamity Star, Philippa Ehrhardt, was a powerful existence of advanced 3rd rank, and there was a possibility of advancing to 4th rank as well!

If the fire dragon bloodline rune was transplanted to Meryl, the chip's estimate of Meryl's optimal development limit would be 3rd rank beginner. This also meant that Meryl could potentially advance to 3rd rank in her lifetime, as long as she put in the hard work.

However, 3rd rank beginner was the limit of her potential.

After becoming a 3rd rank, it would be impossible for her to progress at all as her potential was cut off!

Grim didn't hold back anything about her situation, and informed Meryl of his detection and estimation of the situation in every detail. And Meryl lay pale on the lab bench, her body trembling slightly as she listened to it all.

To be honest, listening to an outsider solemnly proclaiming the limits of her potential, Meryl's heart was simply overwhelmed with mixed emotions. Although she already knew that her qualification was bad, the feeling of being told her 'deadline of death' to her face now was still bitter and despairing.

However, for a Sorcerer's Qualification Limit to be able to increase from 1st rank Advanced to 3rd rank Primary was already a great gift!

Thus, with tears in her eyes, Meryl nodded heavily to her teacher.

Then the matter is settled!

Grim also made up his mind completely in his mind.

As for the fire dragon's bloodline rune losing some of its potential, it wasn't too much of a concern to Grim.

Even if he found a sorcerer that was extremely compatible with this bloodline rune, so what? The hope of advancing to the 4th level is still so slim! Even the bloodline's rightful owner, Philippa, was having such a hard time advancing to the 4th level that her heir would be able to perform better than her?

So, what's the harm in losing some of the potential of the bloodline runes in exchange for Meryl's loyalty and a surge in strength?

Now that he had made up his mind, Grim stopped thinking about it and instead concentrated on starting to think about how to successfully transplant this bloodline rune into Meryl's body.

Such a direct transplant would definitely not work!

The fire dragon bloodline in the bloodline rune was definitely at odds with Meryl's current earth elemental talent. If it was forced and triggered a rejection reaction, it would be a small matter for the bloodline rune to collapse, and Meryl's elemental talent would be contaminated and thus lead to death, which would be more than worth the loss.

Therefore, before transplanting, it was imperative to first modify Meryl's body to some extent, so that the conflict between her earth elemental talent and the fire elemental talent at a later stage would not be so intense.

For such a challenge, the chip scans the database and immediately gives three viable implementation options.