Age of Adepts

Gargamel stepped into the hall accompanied by the forest demon Ava and the magical woman Emelia.

To be honest, without the support of the two women, the crowd would never have believed that the middle-aged witch in front of them was the famous Crimson Butler Gargamel.

In the past, Gargamel had a face full of wrinkled skin like withered tree bark, loose skin, heavy black bags under the eyes, a hawkish nose, and a bald head with only a faint ring of yellow hairs on the edges, giving people a first impression of cunning and cunning.

But now Gargamel's rickety form had become straight and upright, and the skin on his face had become soft and glowing again, but his complexion was a little dull, and he could faintly see some fine dark green scales that were not yet fully grown.

If the past Gargamel had appeared to be an old man in his twilight years, then the current Gargamel was a heroic and vigorous one, resembling a powerful sorcerer who had just reached middle age.

Apart from the tiny scales on his cheeks and neck, Gargamel's eyes were clearly visible as a pair of greenish vertical snake pupils. As the pupils of the snake rotated, a cold and fierce air was emitted, causing every wizard who witnessed this to feel a slight awe.

The breath on the Gargamel was still of the 1st rank.

However, it had been raised from the original advanced 1st rank to the top of the 1st rank, and was only one step away from advancing to the 2nd rank. It should be known that it had only been a dozen days since he had received the reward from the family master, and he had already manifested some of the superficial characteristics of the Giant Snake bloodline, and had even jumped up a small step, which already fully demonstrated that his compatibility with the Giant Snake bloodline was quite high.

Seeing the arrival of Gargamel, the Fire Dragon Witch Wenliel, who was also in the core layer of the family, welcomed him first. The rest of the witches knowingly did not gather around, but spread out to the perimeter to make room for the two core witches to talk and speak in secret.

But from their slightly shrugged ears, they could tell that they were actually very interested in what the two core witches would talk about.

"Congratulations, Gargamel, it looks like our family will soon have another 2nd stage Core Warrior!" As soon as she came up, Wenliel raised her glass to Gargamel, her face full of joy and excitement.

Gargamel hurriedly lifted a cup of wine from the tray of the maid beside him and drank it all down, only then did he jawed with a smile on his face in greeting, "Thank you, Lord Wenliel, for your concern. I'm in good shape now, and it's all thanks to my lord's grace!"

"Yeah, yeah...we'll have to get closer sometime in the future!"

The two of them congratulated each other with a leathery smile, looking at the two female companions beside them as they fiercely rolled their eyes.

The current Crimson Family had clearly split into two different divisions, the Northlands and the Scattered Tallinn. Not only were they in different regions, even the enemies, environment and development routes they faced were also different.

Originally, both sides were part of the Crimson Family, complementing and supporting each other. But with the gradual development and growth of the Crimson Family, the competition between the two sides became more and more prominent.

Grim originally meant that he didn't want to put his eggs in one basket to avoid being caught in the middle.

But now, whether the Crimson Family's development should focus on the Northlands or the Scattered Tallinn, this debate had already been conducted countless times within the family. The two regions had their own advantages and disadvantages, and it was difficult to rank them first or second.

But this time, with the outbreak of the Sorcerer's War, the Scattered Tallinn Division has once again become the center of gravity of the family's power and resource operations, and has inevitably stolen the limelight and glory of the North Division. And with the victory of the war, the Scattered Earth Tallinn Division was going to usher in an unprecedented development frenzy, virtually suppressing the development momentum of the North Division.

It could be imagined that in the next one to two decades, most of the Crimson Family's resources and manpower would be invested in the Alois region. This, in turn, would invariably increase the authority and weight in the hands of the Gargamel Wizard in front of him.

Although both sides belong to the same family, there is nothing to be faulted. But for those neutral factions who were used to being at the helm of things, the return on their investment in the Gargamel faction would be higher than that of the Winelands.

This...was the difference!

If there was still some personal friendship between the past Wenliel and Gargamel, then at this moment, this insignificant personal friendship was a passing fad. The two gathered together to talk animatedly, but the private rivalry and contest never stopped.

Just as the two of them were enjoying their conversation, the doors of the Tower slowly unfolded, and a few 3rd level sorcerers, who truly represented the Crimson Family's heritage, appeared in front of everyone.

The first one was naturally Grim, who was dressed in a large red witch robe.

Compared to before, Grim's surging and stirring flame breath had become much deeper and more restrained, and his long hair, which was originally dark red in color, had begun to turn black again. Most of the 1st and 2nd stage sorcerers present couldn't help but avert their gaze slightly to relieve their eyes from the stinging pain as they glanced at the nearly transparent flame protection at the edges of his body.

Approaching the peak of the 3rd rank, Grim was like a humanoid volcano capable of walking on its own, and the violent, restrained energy of the massive flames, although not erupting, was able to cause every living being that approached him to perceive a trembling from the depths of their souls.

It wasn't fear or cowering, but an instinctive reaction of a weak animal sniffing out an unknown danger!

With Grim's current spiritual pressure and the lingering flame force field around him, there was an unpredictable danger for Sorcerer Apprentices to come within a hundred meters of him. As for those mortals, if they didn't have the courage to leap into the sea of lava, it was better to hide as far away as possible.

Even those formal sorcerers were unable to look directly at him and could only scan the transparent flames around Grim's body with the corner of their eyes. Once one stared at the flames for too long, there was a risk of both eyes being burned.

The only ones in the arena were those few Level 2 Sorcerers who could barely look directly at Grim with their eye pupils protected by their sorcery energy. However, all they could see was still a blazing humanoid flame, unable to see Grim's true face through the flame force field.

And as soon as Grim showed himself, the entire hall of molten fire, the witches immediately stopped all conversations and social activities, facing him and stroking his chest in respectful salute.

"Meet the Lord of the House..."

"Meet the Lord of the House..."

A voice of greetings and salutations resounded throughout the hall, the fanaticism and admiration contained within can be perceived by anyone.

The Crimson Family could develop to its current state, and it could be said that it was all due to Grim alone. Although it was said that everyone could make a difference, it was still the personal power of the powerful sorcerer at the center of power that determined the level and status of a sorcerer.

Without Grim, even if the Crimson Family had more 3rd rank, they would be defeated by that 4th rank Body Tempering Sorcerer individually and then wiped out. As for the 4th stage Demonic Armament Puppet Dragon, without Grim's cooperation and command, it would be difficult to stop the opponent from finding a gap and advancing if he wanted to face that Declan Sorcerer on his own.

So, it was Grim's existence that covered up the defect of the Magic Puppet Dragon's slow movement and slow attack, forcing the 4th stage Body Tempering Sorcerer to give up his strengths and play hardball with a War Magic weapon, playing wound for wound.

And the end of such an exchange was naturally abnormally tragic!

To be honest, the magical motion furnace inside the Magic Puppet Dragon that provided a constant stream of magical energy was beyond the scope of sorcery knowledge that ordinary sorcerers understood and grasped. Perhaps a similar magic 'perpetual motion' could only be found in the top-level database within the Silver Alliance.

And only when such a thing fell into the hands of Grim who controlled the entire Goblin Plane could it take advantage of the huge metal resources at his back!

Without the Magical Motion Furnace, the Crimson Family, with just this reserve of resources, could not support such a large regiment of magic weapons at present, nor could it turn a war magic weapon that should only exist on the drawing into a reality. If they lost the large number of battle magic weapons that enriched the bottom of the family, the Crimson Family would be back to its original form in no time.

With less than a hundred family sorcerers, such a bottom level wouldn't be able to support the framework of a 4th level power. If it wasn't for the large number of battle magic weapons and goblin organ warlocks that replaced the family sorcerers, this number of sorcerers wouldn't be able to withstand the consumption of two or three wars.

So, to put it bluntly, it was the astonishing number of battle demons that had held up the Crimson Family's situation and conquered this huge 'territory' for the Crimson Family!

Following closely behind Grim were the Fate Witch Alice, the Blood Queen Mary, the Demon Breaker Assassin Olivine, the Plague Poison Spirit Remy and the Ames and Aretina couples. As for the Elemental Magic Arms and Old Poison Woman, they could only be considered some sort of 3rd level sorcery creation and could not be included in the official witch ranks of the Crimson Family.

Looking at a 3rd rank witch and foreign elder who had different forms, but represented the future of the family, the Crimson Witchers were all smiling with joy, once again feeling the bright and broad future of the family.

"For the family...for the future...for the ideal!"

With Grim's current level of life, there was nothing more to talk about with these little guys in front of him. So after raising three glasses of wine in one breath, Grim also went straight back to the upper level of the Witch Tower.

However, Alice and Mary did not leave, but stayed behind to start announcing the internal rewards offered by the family to the family witches who had performed well in this war.

...Serpent Bloodline Reconstruction Potion, Bloodline Purification Potion, Petrifying Mask, Purifying Chalice, Invigorating Armor, Mechanical Heart, Abyssal Scepter, Sage's Stone....

A series of strange and bizarre names, although their basic effects were not known for the time being, just the fiery word '3rd rank item' was already enough to drive the Crimson Witchers crazy.

In addition to the 'Tier 3 items' that enticed the crowd, the family also took out numerous Tier 1 and 2 items in one go, covering almost all areas of witchcraft, witch medicine, scrolls, wands, and witchcraft knowledge, all of which were open for family members to freely exchange.

Family members only needed the contribution points they had gained from the war to exchange the higher-tier items they had longed for.

For a time, the atmosphere in the Molten Fire Hall was explosive, and the passion of all the witches was quickly mobilized!