Age of Adepts

After showing their faces at the banquet, the two sides ducked into a secret room to begin real negotiations.

More of the implications of Milva's visit were actually 'by the way' to convey the mandatory mission of the Scattered Earth Tallinn Association, that 'annihilation of the Austrian Empire' mission that was about to begin in 7 years' time.

Of course, in order to appease Grim, Milva also officially announced the elder status and authority he had obtained after advancing to the 4th rank, as well as a long list of dazzling resources.

As for the Crimson Family's recent actions, Milva had no intention of delving into them.

After all, this mandatory mission had an extremely high mortality rate and was a high-risk mission, and if he didn't sweeten the deal a bit, who would fight to the death on behalf of the Scattered Tarin!

"...to the west you will be bounded by the Tarim River, to the south you will be allowed to expand up to the Blackwood Collar, to the east you will advance another 500 miles to meet up with Elder Musso's hereditary territory, and for the sake of buffering, neither power will be allowed to station their main family forces for the 200 miles in between ...As for the Black Forest to the north, you can expand as much as you like, and any land you occupy will be considered your Crimson Family's territory. If you need lords and slaves, the Scattered Tower Forest will also trade with you at an extremely favorable price..."

Standing behind Grim, Gargamel and Meryl couldn't help but glance at each other, both seeing the surprise that couldn't be concealed in each other's eyes.

According to this Vice President of Mirwa's description, wouldn't this mean that the Crimson Family's direct territory could be doubled again, and the family territory that was directly occupied or indirectly controlled would contain almost two regions. And this kind of special treatment was extremely rare even among 4th rank witches.

What's more, the Crimson Family had the Black Forest at its back, where the space for expansion was almost limitless.

For other sorcerer families, sending their precious sorcerers and apprentices to the dangerous Black Forest to explore their territory was a risk. But for the Crimson Family, which sat atop a huge magic weapon group, it was the lords and slaves used to enrich the territory to dig mines and gather resources that were the biggest headache.

Grim narrowed his eyes and listened with a faint smile on his face, but he never made any statement.

This was something that even that wily Milva could not help but admire in secret.

The great profit currently could see the crisis lurking inside, the great harm currently could see the opportunity bred inside....

Everyone has such thoughts, but when things really come to a head, who can not be confused by the pearly whites of resources and treasures in front of them, and who can normally and calmly look at their own life and death?

This Grim was still only in his early 200s, such an age was like a teething toddler in a 4th rank wizard. But in the few times that he had dealt with him, Milva could always feel the other party's calm and old-fashioned style, as well as his precision and viciousness in daring to take a risk at a critical moment.

Moreover, as soon as he had promoted to the 4th rank of Sorcerer, this fellow had shown an extremely high affinity for the Flame Law. Once he survived the crisis and made another huge breakthrough in his strength, I'm afraid that by then the entire Scattered Earth Tallinn wouldn't be able to find many sorcerers strong enough to contend with him!

However, the reasoning was clear, but to have Milva and the other party swap positions, he would rather give up on that extremely dangerous and compulsory task.

After all, advancing to 4th rank wizard would mean having a life of noble enjoyment for nearly a thousand years from then on. Not to mention other regions, in this Scattered Earth Tower Forest alone, a 4th rank wizard was the supreme power, the supreme human, and had reached the upper limit of power that could be contained within the wizard world, and was even the supreme power within the wizard community.

As long as one lived in peace, power, resources, knowledge, status, beauty... all these would come rolling in, and could not be stopped.

With such a cozy and enjoyable life, who would be too busy living a long life to take part in that terrifying mission to 'annihilate the Austrian Empire'.

Austrian Empire, this term Milva wasn't unfamiliar with.

Seriously speaking, the other side also belonged to the same group of spell casters as the witches.

It was just that the sorcerers used more of a chaotic energy, appearing chaotic and powerful. Also, the witches had a more utilitarian attitude towards knowledge and were more unscrupulous.

In many instances, witches even went so far as to perform all sorts of evil modifications to their bodies, bloodlines and souls in order to strengthen their own combat power. In this way, the High Sorcerers also went further and further down the path of 'inhumanity' and gradually deviated from the origins of their species.

The Occultists, on the other hand, were a disciplined and powerful group of spell casters.

Their approach to knowledge was more disciplined and civilian.

Wizards only cared about pursuing their own power, and there were even bloody and cruel methods like 'compulsion breeding' in the selection and cultivation of subsequent wizards. The Occultists, on the other hand, were constantly refining and breaking down higher-order knowledge, and incorporating it into the knowledge diffusion and Occult use of ordinary individuals.

This also meant that the sorcerers focused more on the individual, believing that it was worth it to consume a hundred lower-ranked sorcerers to gain one higher-ranked sorcerer. After all, the basic combat power of one high ranked sorcerer was far more than a hundred low ranked sorcerers could ever match!

But the arcane masters spent a great deal of thought and effort on spreading the knowledge of the children of the Empire.

As a result, a large number of children without magical talent were able to allocate a portion of their resources and thus embarked on the path of using the low-level arcane arts. If they didn't have magical power, they resorted to magic crystals; if they didn't have arcane energy, they resorted to mana pools; if they didn't have the ability to cast spells, they resorted to spell pools; if their bodies were as fragile as ordinary people, then they built arcane towers to protect them....

In the world of sorcerers, only a handful of people are able to become sorcerers and are at the top of the human hierarchy. In the Austrian Empire, as long as you were diligent and willing to learn, and your personal talent was not too bad, then there was no problem in becoming an ordinary Austrian Magician.

It was this attitude of the Austrian masters that also caused the rapid and powerful rise of the Austrian Empire.

Unfortunately, their rise had attracted the interference of several powerful clans and species!

In this mandatory mission, the information known to Milva alone included the Calamity Lords, Titans, Worlds of Gods, Star Beasts, Star Realm Hobbits, World of Darkness, and World of Void.

Among all the predators who coveted the resources and knowledge of the Arcane Empire, the Witch camp was still relatively low on the list, and could even be considered one of the weaker forces within it.

Thus, in this feast that divided the Austrian Empire, the weaker participants and even themselves would become the prey of other predators. Therefore, from the moment he received this information, Milva completely scrapped his plans to participate in the mission and scavenge some resources and knowledge.

It was reasonable to say that this kind of action, similar to overrunning a powerful bit, was the easiest way to obtain source resources.

Unfortunately, the participants' overly large and powerful lineup scared all the 4th ranked Shattered Tallinn Sorcerers, resulting in the ridiculous situation of a new 4th ranked Sorcerer being temporarily 'catalyzed' to fill the ranks.

To be honest, the Scattered Tallinn Association led by Fried and Milva had really put in a lot of effort to keep Grim from giving up on the new 4th rank wizard.

Of course, with that contract signed earlier, the Scattered Earth Talin Association wasn't afraid of Grim's disowning it. It was just that it didn't want to get into too much trouble with a 4th rank wizard, so properly taking out a little bit of inventory to send him 'fiddling' to the front would be just fine.

Putting down the long list of resources, Grim pondered for a moment before saying, "I'm satisfied with the resources in here, but I'd like to add a few more names..."

"What? What else do you need?" Milva's heart suddenly lifted, lest Grim Lion open his mouth. Although Scattered Earth Talin had some family treasure, it was also the hard-earned accumulation of more than a dozen 4th rank wizards over hundreds of years, and it was extraordinarily heartbreaking to lose it casually.

"Quilas Alloy... Life Primordial... Void Stone... Star Sands..." the accent of Grim's recitation was very slow, and the pair of black pupils were even more instantaneous as they waited intently for that Milva.

Every time he spoke out the name, that Milva's eyebrows jumped a little, and when the name Star Sand was also spoken out, even the muscles at the corners of Milva's mouth began to tremble lightly.

Quillas alloy was an essential material for building a magical furnace, and if the Crimson Family wanted to expand the size of the Magical Armament Corps, a steady and continuous supply of Quillas alloy was essential.

The life fluid was even more versatile, whether it was to create a high level life restoration potion or to hold a high level life extension ritual, it was one of the most core raw materials. And it was said that only the Elven Sacred Tree of Life was capable of producing such a Life Liquid.

But unfortunately, the Crimson Family couldn't find any Elves in the two secondary planes they currently held.

The Void Stone, on the other hand, was the core material for creating inter-dimensional teleportation arrays, and was one of the strategic resources that most wizard families and organizational forces had to stockpile.

As for the Star Sands, they were not a resource from within the bit, but from outside the domain.

After many bits of the surface broke and fell, most of the bit material inside would be swept up and eroded away by the endless Void Storm. Only a small amount of the strongest and toughest substances within the bits could be retained, which were commonly known as the Star Sands.

They were also the main material used to create top-grade sorceries and immortal bodies!

It was said that one of the ways for a 4th rank body refining sorcerer to cross the threshold to advance to the 5th rank was to incorporate and quench a certain percentage of star sands in the bones of the body to make their tendons and bones immortal.

Therefore, in the eyes of 4th stage Alchemist Shamans, the Star Sand was no less valuable than those source qualities!

Grim watched Milva carefully and thoroughly as he recited the resources he needed. When it was determined that his requirements had reached the limit of what Milva, the Scattered Tarin Society, could bear, Grim shut his mouth knowingly.

With an exaggerated movement, Milva took out a pair of handkerchiefs and gently wiped the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead with an embarrassed and stiff smile.

"Quillas Alloy... this is something that is only produced in certain quantities at Molten Fire City, so if you want it, I can pull strings on your behalf so that you can talk to that Everard in person. But first of all, I can't guarantee that you guys will be able to talk. After all, there seems to be some kind of feud between that Everard and you..."

"The Life Primordial, the Association still has some in stock and can evenly give you five pounds, enough for your personal use..."

"Void Stones are also in short supply within the Association, and I think with my old face to talk about it, I can find you at most two of them, and they're expensive..."

"As for the Star Sands, it's something no one can get their hands on, otherwise Declan wouldn't have fallen prey to you..."

Although not to his complete satisfaction, it was invaluable that Vice President Milva had allowed it to go this far.

And Grim finally gets the nod!