Age of Adepts

Kirthlin Castle is nominally a castle, but in reality it's a huge living area covering thousands of kilometres.

A beautiful manor house and a fine villa can be seen everywhere around.

The farmers dressed in sackcloth were busy in the fields, and the wagon drivers with their wagons loaded with harvest could be seen with happy and plain smiles on their faces.

After all, this was a land that had not experienced war for thousands of years, and any witch family wars would be far away from here, unlikely to affect the people of this land. So, many times, this life was undoubtedly a blessing as well!

The black carriage that Grim and Laurion were riding in seemed to have the logo of the Scattered Tallinn Association on it, so any cargo-carrying or commercial wagons they encountered along the way ducked to the side of the road and waited until they clattered past before daring to get back on the road.

Those walkers who saw the black wagons, on the other hand, curtsied and bowed in respectful admiration.

Looking at the way they carried huge bows and carried long swords, they seemed to be a group of mercenaries who made their living from adventure. And in their ranks, there were always some apprentice sorcerers wearing short grey robes and holding sorcery books or short-handled wands.

They were in groups of three or five, and their faces, bodies, and hands all bore the marks of battle, while the packages or waist pouches on their backs were bulging, as if they had made a great gain.

As for where they were headed, it was those scattered small towns on the outskirts of Keslin Castle.

There, there were some small wizard towers or a large number of secret shops waiting for them to come and trade.

Although both Grim and Laurion had the great means to instantly cross millions of miles to appear before that tall castle in the distance, when they arrived here, they could only honestly ride in a black carriage moving slowly at a 'normal human' speed.

Choo....

There was a sudden and strange hissing in the sky.

Grim lifted the curtain and had a good look at it, seeing three unusually magnificent and stealthy two-headed eagles slicing rapidly across the sky. On the eagle's back sat a wizard in black or white robes.

They seemed to be the monitoring witches sent out by the Central Castle to inspect the place, unable to stop leaning over to explore everything below them. When they saw this strange black carriage, they couldn't help but drive the giant eagle to circle in the sky.

However, they were relieved when they took out a clear crystal and contacted the far side with a few words, turning the eagle's head and streaking off in another direction.

"It's the Enforcement Witch of the Ministry of Surveillance! They are responsible for monitoring all unusual movements in the area around Keslinburg..." hearing the strange hawk call, Laurion could guess who the person was even without peering in to watch, and briefly explained a few things to Grim.

Grim nodded silently.

The moment the giant eagle wizards had crossed overhead just now, he had seen them clearly, and they all had an open eye pattern painted on their chests, which should be the unified logo of that Ministry of Surveillance.

As an alien world, the environment here was undoubtedly very well protected.

Apart from the very few human cities, villages, towns and settlements, there were large tracts of cultivated farmland and the vast forests that filled in between them. However, compared to the Black Forest, this vast area of forest and sea had obviously been cleared, and apart from some small animals like wolves, foxes, sheep, goats and rabbits, there were very few large beasts that were too fierce, not to mention the terrifying demons that were incredibly deadly.

In this regard, the rise of the Wizard community had indeed brought great blessings to the humans in the Wizard World.

And the people living in such a quiet and peaceful environment were undoubtedly happy and contented!

The magic colt pulling the black carriage seemed to be some sort of witch beast, tame and quiet, and fast on its feet. Carrying both Grim and Laurion, they drove through the dark green sea of woods, over small stone bridges laid over a babbling stream, past manor and villa after manor house, and finally slowly approached the tall castle that stood on a small hilltop.

The castle was surrounded by high walls, and a mirror clear and gentle moat flowed through it.

As they passed through the outer gates, a group of black-armored guards simply took a quick glance and let it go, allowing the black carriage to clatter through the doorway.

Inside was a huge grey-white square surrounded by some tall stone buildings, while the main body of the castle was facing the doorway, appearing tall and majestic, as if it was a beast soundly sleeping.

The mercenaries and apprentices could not be seen here anymore, and those who came in and out were all Association Sorcerers who wore uniform clothing and had various strange logos on their chests. The vast majority of them were 1st rank official sorcerers, and there were quite a few 2nd rank sorcerers, but 3rd rank sorcerers were rarely seen.

Therefore, when Laurien accompanied Grim as he stepped down from the black carriage, those Association Sorcerers who saw them immediately rushed over to greet them.

Standing for a moment at the huge entrance of the castle, looking at this tall antique building that was five stories high above and below and almost entirely made of stone, Grim was in awe.

The entire castle building was built with a strange pale golden stone of indistinguishable material. In Grim's perception, the pale golden boulders were imbued with threads of obscure magic breath. They were like streams flowing through the interior of the boulder, using a strange torrent of magical power to outline an unusually large mysterious witch formation.

Here, every inch of space was imbued with an indescribable mysterious energy.

It was different from any elemental energy, nor was it pure magic energy, but a strange energy that was completely independent of the existing witchcraft system!

Here, subjected to the full suppression of the strange energy, Grim's spiritual perception was limited to a difficult and far distance of 3 meters around him. This made Grim, who normally relied heavily on his mental perception, feel extremely uncomfortable. However, the good news was that his eyes had not been affected yet, and he could see normally without any problem.

As soon as he stepped into the castle hall, Grim had a strange feeling of suddenly being in a different dimension!

"Don't be surprised, it's a defense mechanism carried by Keslin Castle itself, and all outside witches are suppressed here. But it will be fine for a longer period of time... "Laurien explained briefly with a smile on his face.

But after listening to the other party's explanation, not only did Grim not feel relieved, he became even more puzzled.

Within Grim's powerful and mysterious elemental vision, not half of the sorcery runes and magical lines could be seen on the surface of this castle, yet it was able to smoothly and freely guide the magical energy to and from the walls and boulders. And... most importantly, in this mysterious energy that lingered around him, Grim was vaguely aware of a hint of the elemental rhythms unique to living beings.

"Alchemical beings... you've revitalized the entire Keslin Castle?" Grim gave a low cry of surprise.

And at Grim's words, Laurion's surprised mouth grew wider and wider as he asked back incredulously, "How...did you...know?"

To be honest, the fact that Keslin Castle was revitalized into an alchemical life two thousand years ago was something that ordinary Association witches didn't even know about, and only the higher-ups within the Association knew a little bit about it.

There were countless high-ranking shamans who had been visiting Kesling Castle for thousands of years, but there had never been anyone who could judge the state of Kesling Castle as soon as they entered like Grim. So it was no wonder that Laurien wasn't surprised!

What Laurien didn't know was that Grim was far more surprised and mentally shaken at the moment.

This wasn't an ordinary nobleman's castle, but an oversized building that covered several hundred acres and hosted a huge stone castle on top. To try to revitalize such an oversized building and make it give birth to spirits and minds like humans, this... this was so unexpected for Grim.

He had originally had a slight doubt about the conclusion he had reached after the chip's scanning and perception, but now, seeing Laurien's expression, he was completely convinced.

What a masterstroke, what a bizarre tactic... Those 4th rank wizards were truly not to be underestimated!

As if his identity had been revealed, the mysterious energy that had been calmly surrounding Grim began to vibrate and resonate, buzzing in a strange voice that only Grim could hear, "Welcome, human sorcerer. You are the 3276th visitor since my consciousness was born, but you are also the only sorcerer who can directly see through my identity. In you, I seem to detect a scent of my own kind!"

The voice was dull and noisy, with an odd smell of boulders vibrating the air as they rubbed against each other.

"Barring outside interference, I like you very much, human sorcerer. To show my affection, I have decided to grant you first-class status privileges. This order is overruled by 27 opponents and 0 ayes... Kathryn has decided to grant you second-class status privileges, 119 opponents and 0 ayes. However, the granting of second-class authority falls within the scope of Kirthlin's autonomy, those opposed are invalid, and this order is immediately enforced!"

With a series of words from this strange activated life, the mysterious energy around Grim's body boiled like boiling water.

"Drop, perceived link of foreign energy, belongs to an open energy channel without attribute. Tested, no mental attachments, no safety hazards, please instruct subject whether or not to link?"

"Connect!"

When the linking order was given, the mental energy that was originally compressed within three meters of the body and could not be extended out suddenly loosened, and the mental perception was once again fluent enough to take in everything within a hundred meters of the body.

And along with the exotic energy came some fragmented and complicated messages, which also seemed to contain certain witchcraft communications within the association.

"...Has Kirthlin gone mad? Why give an outsider second-class access? ......."

"I'm contacting Master Klinsmann urgently, he'll give us an explanation..."

"Stop contacting us on the low secret channel, that guy has second class access, he might be able to listen in on our conversation..."

"Damn damn damn damn... This time, that bastard has more authority than me!"

In a panicked yell, the sorcerous connection that filled Grim's ears was abruptly broken.