Age of Adepts

Grim soon re-meeted President Freed in the Keslin Castle.

Along with him, there were three other 4th level witches who received Grim, including the Elder Nicholas who had met him once. The remaining two, one was a middle-aged witch with a decent appearance, named Clara, who was the current head of the Denel family where Shattered Face Gallo was from. The other was an old scholarly-looking male witch, whose face was already old and unrecognizable, named Milva, who was the vice president of the association.

In the presence of the three 4th ranked witches, that Freed President softly chanted a mysterious and weird witchcraft spell. As the incantation sounded, large puffs of black smoke escaped from the surrounding walls, floors and ceilings, gathering in front of Grim to coalesce into a mysterious contract with gold letters on a black background.

The material of the contract was composed of mysterious black smoke, but the dazzling gold floating on it was a blur, and only when Grim extended his mental energy into it slowly, a text of the contract with a terrifying binding force somehow surfaced in his mind.

"Drop, detecting the remnants of the ancient contract... Once the subject leaves his soul imprint on the contract, he is also bound by it along with other souls. The contract has no soul enforcers, it is a symbiotic type of soul contract, and the subject will not be harmed by the soul as long as they do not violate the agreement agreement of all soul branders."

"Upon testing, three verbal agreements were found on the remnants of the ancient pact, as follows."

"One, this contract is a common agreement of all 4th ranked witches in the central scattered area of the continent, Tallinn, all participants of the contract shall not attack each other, shall not violate each other's interests, and violators of the contract shall have their souls demoted."

"Two, those who join this pact must safeguard the interests of the overall witches in the Scatterland Tallinn region, and follow the assignment of the Scatterland Tallinn Association to resist the infiltration or invasion of foreign forces without threatening their own safety and personal interests!"

"Third, first-time members are required to enforce one Association task assigned to them by all Compact participants. Refusal of that assignment will be considered a refusal to serve the Diaspora Tallinn Association and will result in expulsion of all Compact participants!"

Grim narrowed his eyes and silently pondered the text of the contract in front of him, understanding something vaguely in his heart.

Seriously speaking, this contract was actually a way to gather all the high ranking witches (mainly 4th rank) in the middle of the continent together to resist the invasion and infiltration of the forces of the three great witches' organizations. In essence, it would be a good thing for the entire Scatterland Tallinn!

At the very least, with this contract binding them, it was impossible for the various witch wars in the middle of the continent to extend to the 4th rank level. Without the participation of 4th tier witches, the intensity of the witch wars became manageable, not causing all sorts of terrible deadlands or infinite wars in the middle of the continent.

Of course, the association's higher-ups weren't foolish enough to ban all tier wars.

After all, a certain degree of witch fighting could better cultivate and filter out stronger wizards, as well as being part of the internal competition mechanism for the survival of the fittest.

Therefore, what the association banned was actually only conflicts between 4th tier witches.

As for those below 4th rank, as long as the competition doesn't harm the operation of the whole system, the association will not stop the war between wizards' families. Because only in this way, those newly emerging powerful witches could suck the nourishment from the losers and step by step reach the pinnacle.

In this regard, Grim and the Crimson Family he had formed were actually the beneficiaries of this lenient policy.

After reading through the entire text of the contract, Grim understood it very clearly.

The entire association was still very loosely bound to 4th Order Sorcerers.

After all, all the 4th rank witches in the middle of the continent had joined together to create such an association, the purpose of which was only to bind themselves against the invasion and infiltration of the forces of the three surrounding witches' organizations.

Therefore, in addition to that mandatory task when he first joined, once he became a 4th rank elder within the association, it was only natural for Grim to have a great deal of say in the development of the entire Scattered Tallinn region. But the constraints that the Association placed on him were few and far between.

All 4th Order Association Elders have the power to submit Association issues.

When an important event or issue comes up, the Chairman of the Association will often call a meeting to discuss it and vote on the content of the disagreement. There are currently fourteen 4th Order Wizards in the Association, with the exception of the President, Wizard Freed, who has two votes, and the other 4th Order Wizards each have one vote.

It only takes one vote to bring up a proposal, but more than half of the votes are needed to reject it.

Therefore, within the Association, as long as it didn't incur the opposition of more than half of the Association Elders, the will of any 4th Order Elder could be implemented without any hindrance.

This... was perhaps one of the main reasons why all the 4th ranks in the middle of the continent were willing to join the Scatterland Talin Association!

"I'm still a 3rd rank..." asked Grim, looking up at the Freed Chairman who was staring at him intently, somewhat confused.

The contract in front of him was clearly for a 4th rank wizard, and he was only a 3rd rank now, and the association was so eager to have him sign this contract now, it was obvious that there was something seriously wrong within.

"You'll be a 4th rank soon!" President Freed looked at him with a smirk, "I have faith in you!"

Grim was still hesitant.

The black-mouthed, black-faced Elder Nicholas beside him said coldly, "What? You want to refuse this contract? I can warn you, think carefully about the consequences of rejecting this contract!"

President Freed smiled and waved his hand at Elder Nicholas.

"Don't scare him...His Excellency Grim will make a wise and correct choice!"

When the word 'wise' was spoken, President Fried visibly intensified his tone a bit.

But Grim wanted to hit him in the face with a fireball as he looked at his benevolent smile as if he was a smiling tiger.

One red face and one black face only!

While Grim was still hesitating, a faint fly's familiar female voice rang out clearly in his mind.

"Sign it! I'll explain it to you later..."

It was Alice's voice.

The moment Alice's voice sounded, the Freed Chairman who was standing opposite Grim seemed to be aware of something and looked up sharply to the north.

Grim also no longer hesitated, extended his right index finger, condensed a tiny cluster of bright yellow flames, and gently pressed on the mysterious contract. The moment the flame touched the contract, Grim's name written in the universal language of witches strangely surfaced on it, and then the entire contract exploded into a boundless black mist that blended into the surrounding air with a bang.

Grim was able to perceive that this mysterious contract had not dissipated, but had been stored straight into the core of the activating consciousness in Keslingberg.

Seeing that Grim had signed that contract, the faces of the several rank 4 witches in front of them instantly became vivid. The Clara Witch and Elder Nicholas who existed as witnesses nodded and smiled at Grim, and after saying a congratulations also silently dissipated.

Within the secret room, only Grim, Freed and Milva were soon left.

Although Grim wasn't a 4th rank yet, looking at the smiling faces of the two sorcerers, they seemed to have completely treated him as a fellow rank.

"Here you go... this is the reward you deserve!"

President Freed threw over a distinctive and beautifully shaped magical ring with the logo of the Scattered Tallinn Association set in tiny fire diamonds on its face.

"This is your Elder's Ring, and with it you also have free access to the Keslin Keep, as well as limited access to the wizarding forces within the Association. There is also a small storage space inside the ring, which promises you 500 Sith Source Material already in it..."

Even with Grim's steady heart, the moment he caught the ring, he couldn't help but tremble a little.

After all, the power and will represented by this ring was heavy in the middle of the continent, and its weight was definitely higher than that of most wizard families. To put it bluntly, with this ring on, when Grim vowed to destroy a Sorcerer Family, he wouldn't even need to do it himself, there would be a large number of Sorcerer Forces willing to do it on his behalf.

After all, there were thousands of Sorcerer Families in the middle of the continent, but only fourteen 4th rank Sorcerers.

There was simply no question as to who was heavier and who was lighter on both sides!

"Don't rejoice too soon, until you become a 4th rank wizard, your elder powers are still frozen for now. It's only when you actually become a 4th rank wizard that all of this officially belongs to you! But I'm sure that day won't be long..." a strange smile appeared on President Freed's face.

"Besides, if I were you, I would teleport straight back to the Crimson Family and stay one step ahead of advancing to the 4th rank. You have to know how great the temptation of these source qualities is for a 3rd rank wizard. And the extreme temptation will make countless people desperate..."

...................

The Flame Throne.

As the dense teleportation light slowly dissipated, Gargamel, who had already changed his form greatly, piled up at the door of the teleportation room with a respectful look on his face and bowed.

"Welcome back, my lord!"

The news from afar had already been transmitted back to the Crimson Family.

At this moment, the entire Crimson Family was completely boiling within, filled with excited and celebrating people, thus as the Crimson Grand Steward, Gargamel's tone was also filled with endless joy and uncontrollable excitement.

"Alright, alright... stop playing with these empty heads, the lord of the house you waited for didn't come back, it's us who came back!"

Hearing that familiar voice, Gargamel looked up sharply this only to discover with embarrassment that the only three women pinned up in the teleportation array were Mary, Winrielle, and Emelia, and there was no sign of Grim at all.

"Mar...Mary-sama...where's the head of the house?"

"Well, I don't care where he went! You can keep waiting here if you like!" Mary was full of anger at the mention of this and stalked off in a huff.

"Lord Gargamel, you can just wait here!" Wynrielle, however, was clearly in an excellent mood and left while smiling coquettishly.

Seeing that her father had made a scene, the last of the fallen Emelia pulled on the sleeve of her Gargamel robe and leaned in to whisper, "The master of the house has gone to the Tower of Destiny!"

"Oh? ... oh!"

Gargamel was oh-so-clever.