Age of Adepts

The Wizard World, the Flame Throne.

Still within that chamber.

Grim sighed grudgingly and slowly withdrew his mind from the Otherworld.

The battle in the distance had just begun, and it would not be easy for the Shadow Demon to escape that Cersei's pursuit. However, with Grim's knowledge and experience, it would be a thousand times more difficult to play a role in this battle of the Dark Kings.

So, he simply let go of everything and gave all his autonomy to the Shadow Demon.

Presumably with the Norse Hexen Plane as their battlefield, this war would be difficult to end in the short term!

After letting go of his worries about the Shadow Demon, Grim calmly pondered on the Crimson Family's development with a hint of worry.

In the conceivable future, after the great victory in the Hazen Position, the vampires would definitely experience a promotion frenzy. Among the several major forces of the Crimson Family, the vampire one would also rise, overshadowing the other several side branches and becoming the backbone of the family's core strength.

Although this was not necessarily bad, it would obviously make the family's development biased.

The only one that can compete with the vampire one will be the foreign brain Ghazluvi that line.

Having gained a firm foothold outside of the domain on this trip, and having obtained the addition of that Demonic Puppet Dragon, the Steel Capital's power instantly soared, and it wasn't the least bit weaker than the vampires. However, the limited loyalty of that Ectobrain Ghazluvi was of great use, but wanting to reuse it made it a bit difficult for Grim.

If it wasn't for the extra-territorial crisis, and if there wasn't a glimmer of that great weapon of the Crimson Family, Grim would have preferred the Steel Capital to fall rather than send that magic-armed puppet dragon into Ghazruvi's arms.

With the rapid rise of these two branches, mirroring each other, the goblin power and human sorcerer aspect was a bit outdated. The 'old people' who had followed Grim on his expedition to the Otherworld and built up unearned merit for the rise of the Crimson Family, however, had been reduced to second- and even third-tier members.

This was also especially lamentable to Grim!

As the patriarch of the Crimson Family, Grim had to consider the future development of the family at this moment.

At this time, only he, the patriarch with a transcendent status, had the qualifications and credentials to suppress the two branches that couldn't hold back their hearts, and tilt the family's resources to a few 'weak' branches accordingly a little.

And that, too, was the only thing he could do.

After all, the wizard community was born chasing the strong.

All the resources, all the power would naturally converge on the hands of the strong.

The stronger the Blood and Steel Capital was, the more resources, materials, knowledge, and talents within the family would converge towards them as well. This was also a kind of internal 'survival of the fittest' ending.

In such a situation, the weak had no power, status or voice whatsoever!

Therefore, if one wanted the family to develop in a balanced manner and blossom on all sides, then Grim would also have to select some sub-strong candidates in terms of the goblin camp and human sorcerers, so that they could also successfully transition into the Crimson Family's core circle.

On this aspect, Grim did have a few good candidates in mind.

In the goblin camp, the ones who were currently doing well were Cappy, Locke, Duhira Lazare and that Gunga.

Among them, Kabi was the 'old man' who had followed Grim the longest, and was also the highest in terms of loyalty.

It was just that this guy's talent was really mediocre, and even after taking a lot of high level witch pills and strange treasures over the years, he had only barely managed to get himself to 2nd rank advanced. If it didn't have any external intervention, it wouldn't be able to advance to 3rd rank on its own in this lifetime.

Magic Armorer Locke was, instead, a 'man of the hour' that had suddenly appeared over the years!

With a singular talent that far surpassed its counterparts, it was now a Tier 2 Advanced Magic Artificer. Moreover, according to the chip's projection, the limit of its potential was a 3rd-rank intermediate. This meant that with some serious cultivation, Locke could easily become a Tier 3 Sorcerer.

A Tier 3 Wizard might be nothing to the current Grim. It could be broken with the flick of a finger and destroyed with the wave of a hand! But for any wizard family, Level 3 could still be considered the most core main battle force!

In all kinds of wars between wizarding families, the main warriors were still the powerful 3rd ranked witches. As for the 4th rank shamans, they are basically nuclear warriors. If they were deployed, it would usually mean a bloodbath or a battle to exterminate the clan without leaving any room for error!

So, for any wizard family, an extra 3rd rank would be a big thing to celebrate!

As for the two remaining goblins, Dushila Lazare, the leader of the Tyranny of Blood, and Gunga, the demonic goblin leader of the Goblin Institute. Their talents, seriously, were worthless.

The leader of that Tyranny Blood Group was only at the peak of 1st rank so far, and advancing to 2nd rank seemed so difficult.

After all, the so-called Goblin Organists were just a group of small goblins that possessed a hint of elemental talent and could skillfully manipulate magical machinery. They were not talented enough and could only win with numbers, and were typical 'cannon fodder' professions.

Along with that, there was really no way to select a single talent in there that could make Grim look at them differently!

The demonic goblin leader, Gunga, on the other hand, was a researcher and was not good at fighting or managing. Therefore, its rank so far was only 1st rank advanced, and that seemed to be the limit of its potential.

Thus, thinking about it, and combining it with the optimal use of resources, Grim ended up targeting the cultivation of Cappy and Locke.

After studying the goblin camp, Grim shifted his attention to the human sorcerers.

In all seriousness, the Crimson had both succeeded and failed at cultivating the native witch aspect of the family.

There were a good number of leaders on the local witch side, with Meryl, Gargamel and Billis occupying the core position of the family alone. However, of the three, only Worm Witch Billis belonged to the combat sorcerers, while the other two were more focused on the management of the family's affairs.

Other than that, most of the local human witches cultivated by the Crimson Family were 1st ranked witches, and it was impossible to find a 2nd rank out of them. Therefore, their overall voice was on the low side, and they all belonged to the dominated within the family, but couldn't enter the ranks of the dominators.

However, to put it bluntly, it is precisely these local human shamans with low status within the Crimson Family who should be considered the orthodox of the shaman system.

If the Crimson Clan had too many foreigners and aliens and too few native human shamans, it would be difficult for them to be considered as one of their own in the eyes of other shamans, as it was at best a foreign power.

This would undoubtedly be detrimental to the Crimson Family's long-term development!

For one day Grim is in the family, this problem may not be so obvious. But once Grim left the family, then the future of the family would become precarious.

On this issue, one could refer to the several fae forces currently in the middle of the continent. Be it that small Storm Giant kingdom, or several vampire clans, they are under the deep caution of other wizarding families.

If their families wanted to develop and expand some mundane territories, they would face the siege and joint resistance of the surrounding wizard families. It was so difficult to develop a step.

The Crimson Family, which Grim had established, also faced the same problem.

As for the solution, of course, the solution was to increase the power to cultivate the local human sorcerers within the family.

On this point, Grim had also selected a few good candidates.

Red Dragon Witch Meryl, Worm Witch Billis, and Demoness Emelia.

Red Dragon Witch Meryl was his disciple and had no problem with loyalty, and her personal talent potential had skyrocketed after obtaining the Fire Dragon bloodline. As long as the Crimson Family's dragon resources acquired in the Lance Dimension are slightly tilted towards her, there's no problem in raising Meryl to Level 3.

Demoness Emelia, on the other hand, was a perfect candidate to replace Gargamel.

Gargamel's natural potential was low, and even though he was already receiving preferential treatment from Grim, his natural potential was limited to Tier 2, with no possibility of advancing to Tier 3.

In contrast, the daughter he had with the forest demon Ava, Emelia, had exceptional potential for development. At a young age, she was now a rank 2 advanced plant-based sorcerer.

As for the magic spore princess shadow that enveloped Emelia, after Alice's tasting, there was no threat to the Crimson Family. Thus, Grim was only relieved and ready to activate this rare talent.

The Worm Wizard Billis, was an old man of the family that Grim intended to put on his last consideration.

He was overly cruel and murderous, and his actions were abnormally evil, and the route he chose for his sorcerer bloodline was so bloody and cruel that it was unbearable.

Even when Grim was using him, he was often worried that he would not be able to handle the strange Insect Mother and would instead be completely assimilated into the inhuman Insect Race.

Seemingly sensing Grim's worries and boundaries, that Insect Mother didn't dare to completely devour Billis' soul even if she held a great advantage. This was what caused the human soul and the Worm Mother's soul to be in a strange state of both struggle and compatibility at all times.

And this was the very reason that limited the advancement of Worm Witch Billis!

So, in order to help Billis advance, Grim would have to find a way to completely fuse Billis' and the Worm Mother's souls. And, a fusion that was dominated by Billis' human soul, rather than the unilateral devouring of the Worm Mother.

The difficulty of trying to do this was undoubtedly huge!

In the previous days, although Worm Witch Billis had repeatedly asked for Grim's help, Grim had been too busy and had let the matter drop. Now that he was recovering inside the family with a traumatized soul, he had more time and energy to focus on the internal affairs of the family.

As a result, all those long-delayed matters from the past now needed to be resolved one by one.

The family members had worked so hard to save him so much trouble in managing the family's affairs, and had gathered so much wealth and resources for him.

Now, it was also time for Grim to look for opportunities to give feedback to the family!