Age of Adepts

"The source material..."

Grim mouthed the name in his mind, and though his mouth didn't speak, his shining eyes betrayed his heart.

Source quality, of course he knew.

It was an extremely rare object, and a top-tier resource exclusive to 4th rank witches.

Specifically, source mass was a strange resource born from the combination of a bitmain law manifesting under special circumstances and a certain substance.

In a normal world, the Origin hides behind the world structure and the laws of the plane, and is part of the rules of the world that are flowing all the time, so there is no way to capture it.

It is only when the world suffers a great trauma and it is difficult to maintain its integrity and stability, so the boundary membrane breaks and the Void Storm invades the interior of the locus, that a part of the locus origin will be dispersed due to the shattering of the world's rules. One of the main reasons why those star beasts like to invade the surface world so much is because they want to devour these 'sweet and delicious' bituminous sources.

Star Beasts could break the balance by tearing through the bitumen barrier, thus devouring those stray bitumen sources.

And this, too, was an inevitable part of the Star Beast's growth and expansion!

Therefore, it was not without reason that the Star Beast was called the enemy of the bit plane and the enemy of all living beings.

The number of ancient sorcerers in the past who had been able to cross the rule level was extremely rare, and one of the main reasons was that the ethereal nature of the laws of the bit plane was so elusive that one could only rely on amazing talent and luck, spending a lot of time to slowly comprehend them bit by bit.

And this process was the most difficult to grasp!

Even if you are incredibly gifted and powerful, if you are stuck in the understanding of the laws of the surface, the most likely outcome is that you will end up with no progress after hundreds of years and eventually die of regret.

In the hundreds of thousands of years that have passed in the world of Wizards, there are countless talented people who have been stuck at the peak of the 4th level, unable to grasp the power of the rules and thus becoming a fleeting meteor.

Most of the sorcerers were talented and clever, and they had racked their brains to solve this huge problem. Finally, in some broken worlds, the adventurous sorcerers accidentally discovered the source material, a strange resource, and then analyzed the mechanism of their formation.

From then on, those powerful sorcerers started to destroy some of the bitworlds to induce the birth of source material. The appearance of a large amount of source material also made it a hundred times easier for sorcerers to comprehend the laws of the locus plane than ancient sorcerers.

This was what eventually led to the number of great sorcerers being more than ten times greater than in the ancient times.

However destroying a formed bitworld and indirectly killing tens of billions of bitbeings within it for nothing more than some source material. With more such evil deeds being done, the sorcerer community was gradually being loathed and hated by other races.

In many of the bit world's texts, witches were classified in the evil camp along with the demons of the Abyssal World and the natural calamity lords of the Calamity World. This was also directly related to the fact that everywhere the witches went, they readily performed large-scale blood sacrifices or concocted source substances.

It was only with the emergence of great sorcerers over the years that, in order to improve the external image of the sorcerer camp, they were forced to ban the deliberate destruction of the Bit World to collect source material. This had also led to a dramatic shrinkage of source material resources in the last few thousand years.

In the Wizarding World, no matter what type of source material was classified as a 4th rank item, it was incredibly expensive.

Due to the scarcity of the source material, it had become a top-tier resource that 4th ranked witches had to fight for, and it was impossible for a 3rd ranked wizard to obtain a single cent of it.

Thus, for this Freed Sorcerer's sudden mention of source material, Grim's heart couldn't help but bang rapidly, vaguely strange.

"It seems that you already know about the source mass, so I won't repeat its function." The Fried Wizard had a wry smile on his face, "Then, Sir Grim, I wonder if you would like to obtain some source mass?"

"Lord Freed, if you have anything to say, just say it! As long as it's within my power, I will definitely not refuse!"

"Well, well..." hearing Grim's reply, the Fried Wizard's face immediately beamed, "It's been a long time since we've had some new 4th Order Wizard faces in the Scattered Tallinn over the past few hundred years. Therefore, the association is preparing to gather several of the most vociferous 3rd rank wizards in the middle of the continent for a fair competition, and then select a winner!"

At this point, the Freed Wizard paused for a moment before continuing with narrowed eyes, "And the winner's reward is to join the association, enjoy the benefits of a 4th rank wizard, and receive 500 Sith of Source Material."

Grim's heartbeat suddenly stagnated, and it took a long time for it to start pulsing again.

Sith was a unit of measurement for source prime.

Due to the peculiar nature of source mass, it had no weight or volume and could be attached to any substance. Therefore, it can only be absorbed as an attributeless crystallization, thus ensuring that its law properties are not 'contaminated' by bitmatter.

In the auctions and private transactions of high-ranking sorcerers, source matter had always been a tight commodity.

However, most of the ones that could be brought out for auction and trading were inferior source matter that had been contaminated by bituminous substances, and the law attributes inside had been tainted by the ubiquitous magical elements. The true superior source quality, on the other hand, never existed in the private collection of a high-ranking sorcerer, secret and would never appear in public.

And the source quality that Wizard Freed was talking about in front of him was definitely referring to those superior source qualities!

According to Grim's understanding, 500 Sith of Source Matter was actually not that much.

According to the past statistics of the Wizard World, if a 4th level wizard wanted to understand and grasp the rules of the world by using source material, the amount of source material consumed would be affected by the individual's aptitude and talent. Those with strong talent potential might need 7,000 Sith of Source Material, while those with inferior talent might need to consume 20,000 to 50,000 Sith of Source Material.

And the total amount of source matter that the witches could obtain by forcibly destroying a small bit was only 100,000 Sith!

Therefore, the cost of the resources needed to cultivate a great sorcerer that crossed the 4th stage was simply incredibly high, and simply not something that an ordinary sorcerer family could afford.

500 Sith Source Mass might be far from enough for a 4th stage sorcerer to ascend to 5th stage, but for a 3rd stage sorcerer who had already reached their peak state, it was enough for them to successfully cross the threshold and become a hot 4th stage powerhouse!

With Grim's confidence in himself, even without these source qualities, he was confident that he would be able to smoothly advance to the 4th rank within one to two hundred years. But to have these source qualities, his advancement time would be shortened to an unbelievable point.

Thus, the temptation of these 500 Sith Source Qualities was still immense!

Athletics...source material....

Grim listened carefully, savoring it in silence, always having some questions about the Association's motives.

In the hands of the Association's 4th ranked witches, there must be source quality reserves more or less. Who would be so kind as to take the source material they had worked so hard to collect as a gift to reward their juniors?

That doesn't sit well with the selfish nature of witches!

Therefore, there must be some ulterior motive behind the Association's appearance this time to hold the 3-stage Wizard Tournament. It was just that with Grim's current status and position, there was no way to understand and dig into the inside story.

"Who are the people participating in the competition this time?" Grim asked quietly.

"Originally there were only three veteran 3rd rank wizards, Gallo of the Denel family, Dante of the Annemado Academy and Sanaza of the Sarupo family... Given your outstanding performance in the last wizard family war, a number of elders in the association have proposed adding you to the competitive list. How about it, little one, are you willing to participate in this tournament?"

At this moment, even with the chip's high-frequency computing, it was impossible to fully calculate all the pros and cons, and everything could only rely on Grim's personal analysis and judgment.

A crisis definitely existed.

But the existence of a crisis could only foreshadow danger and opportunity.

For those who were prepared, a crisis was an opportunity, a good point in time to break the rules and allow themselves to take advantage of the opportunity to overtake the enemy. But for the unprepared, crisis is a real danger, and will push themselves into a dilemma, the situation in which they have no choice.

The reason why they are in this place, Alice's attitude is undoubtedly very important.

From Alice that faint hints before departure, Grim faintly understand a little something.

Grim lifted his head and met that Lord Freed's gaze, nodding heavily.

"Lord Freed, I would like to join this tournament!"

"Good, very good..." the Freed wizard nodded in satisfaction and turned back to command, "Laurien, you've heard Grim's answer, go down and make arrangements."

"Yes, my lord!" Laurion looked complicated as he had a look at Grim and turned to leave.

"Well, in the meantime, you will rest and adjust in Keslin Castle. The association will notify all the wizard families or organizational forces in Scattered Tallinn of the tournament by announcement, inviting them to send representatives to participate in this event together. It was expected that the start time of the Athletic Assembly would be three months later. This way, even those sorcerer families in the most remote areas will have a chance to arrive!"

Oddly, President Freed explained many more questions before waving Grim off.

When Grim's figure disappeared from the room, President Freed twirled his beard and smiled, silently.

And the light and shadow in the room changed, and the two wizard figures of a man and a woman emerged.

"Well? You have observed this Grim as well, what do you think of him?" Fried seemed unsurprised by their appearance and asked directly.

"His body data is a bit odd, he seems to be a bit too high..." the new male witch who appeared was thin and hale, also an elderly witch of advanced years, and it was the vice president of the association, the Milva Witch.

As for the other female witch, she was a 4th rank Clara Witch, and she was also the current head of the Denel family. The shatter-faced witch, Gallo, who participated in the tournament, was a member of the family under her.

"In addition to his body data, I see that there is something wrong with his soul fluctuation, which seems to be mixed with something strange..." the Clara Witch said icily.

President Freed and Vice President Milva pondered, and couldn't help but nod their heads at the same time, silently expressing their agreement.

Yeah, this kid's soul fluctuation had a hint of something completely idiosyncratic and odd within it, it was very elusive....

"No matter how weird his soul is, as long as it doesn't affect this tournament. Don't forget, that time is less than 30 years away, and if a scapegoat isn't elected, then the unlucky one will be one of you or me!" The Freed Wizard gritted his teeth and squeezed out these cold words from his teeth.

The other two wizards frowned slightly and could only nod in silence.