Age of Adepts

Since taking the assignment at the hands of that Moat Wise Man, Grim and the three of them have been operating separately.

Grim ran to investigate the blight, while Emelia snuck off to the spore forest, and as for Remy, he was idly wandering around the wetland swamp.

Of course, before breaking up, Grim had warned it that in this Spirit Realm it couldn't be like those secondary planes that were recklessly releasing plague germs at every turn. Otherwise, even Grim wouldn't be able to vouch for being able to retreat intact if it provoked those 4th-order bigwigs.

After all, even in the Scattered Earth Tallinn region of the Wizard World, there were only a mere thirteen 4th ranked witches. And yet the Wetland Swamp, which was ten times smaller than the Scattered Tallinn, had eight rank 4 creatures. Therefore, within the unit territory, the number of higher ranked creatures in the Spirit Realm was far greater than the Wizard World.

In such an unfamiliar environment, if one continued to act as recklessly as before, it was feared that they would sooner or later be besieged by the local natives. It was out of this consideration, and out of the convenience of action, that Grim had agreed to that Swamp Wise Man to investigate that so-called blight on its behalf.

But now, it seemed that the swamp wise man's suspicions weren't unreasonable.

The so-called blight was actually not a natural disease formed after the degradation of the water source, but rather some kind of terrifying poisonous bacteria that was bred using special means.

After seeing the true nature of these black smoke, Grim did not hesitate to hold his wand in his hand, and a ring of fire rose in front of him, detaining that Remy who was wandering in the distance right over.

"Boss, what do you want again?" As soon as his eyes blinked, Remy, who had suddenly appeared in front of Grim, immediately complained, "I just found an interesting little fisherman, and then you... Hey, what's this?"

Remy quickly sniffed out the scent of those poisonous germs trapped and bound in the fireball, and a pair of small green eyes immediately opened wide.

"There's the smell of ectoplasmic transformation, the smell of deadly poisonous bacteria, and the smell of microscopic spores... Boss, it looks like there's also a guy here who's good at mixing and manipulating plague spores. Where did you get these things?"

"It's inside these blighters... How about a professional analysis of where they came from, in your professional opinion?"

"You let them all out! Without devouring them, I can't get any further informational information..."

Grim waved his hand casually, and the ball of fire abruptly and directly disappeared.

The black smoke that was trapped within it tried to take advantage of the opportunity to escape, but it was all swallowed by Remy's open mouth with a suction.

After sucking up the black smoke, Remy smacked his mouth, his eyes lost in a dream-like murmur, "Feed... infect... drive away... "

A full half a quarter of an hour later, Remy snapped out of his sleepy state.

"I know how these guys contract diseases! Come with me..."

Remy had brought Grim to a clearing in the central area of the Death Mire, where a shallow puddle of water no more than a hundred meters in size remained, and thus was the most densely populated area of Death Mire creatures.

Here, there was a large number of swamp creatures gathered, some of the guys had visible withered limbs and a group of lingering and terrifying flies lingering on the surface of their bodies. For these blight infected creatures, other creatures were also circling around, not daring to approach them in the slightest.

"Boss, do you have a way for us to hide? I expect we'll be seeing a good show soon!" Remy's Piglet-style face smiled grimly.

Grim's witch staff in his hand was in action, and a diffuse ring of fire caught the two men in it.

As the flames spread through, the two of them disappeared abruptly.

In the midst of a strange golden flame, Remy looked around and his body curiously, his eyes like a bright red scarf, red and red, and everything he saw was somewhat distorted and illusory, not as real and reliable as before.

"Is this one of the Laws of Flame that you have mastered? It really is amazing..." and Remy looked around enviously, even running up to a lumbering fungus giant to open his teeth and claws until he was sure they couldn't see him.

"What are we waiting for here?" Grim asked.

"Waiting for a good show to start!" Remy smiled sardonically, "That disease-causing poisonous germ was intentionally castrated of its airborne properties by them, and can only be spread through direct contact. It seems that they also don't want to allow this poisonous bacteria to spread indefinitely..."

"So what?"

"So the best way for them to infect whatever area they want to infect the creatures is to poison it. It's the only way to keep the infection in the area they want without spreading to themselves!"

"What time will they come?"

"Soon...at least the taint I perceive in these infected has been within the last few days!"

"Well, let's take our time then!"

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

The wait was long, but very rewarding.

Remy ran off to collect the vomit and excrement of those infected with blight, while Grim began to collect some of the locally produced exotic spores, as well as an assortment of odd mushrooms up.

He could sense that the unique climatic and spatial environment here in the Wetland Swamp was related to these strange and exotic mushrooms. And some of the mushrooms had contents within them that interested Grim.

While the two of them were busy and in high spirits, an inconspicuous and obscure figure sneaked into this area.

It was a male spore man of less than half a meter in size, with a sharp beak and a sneaky, invisible look. And it was carrying a bulging leather pocket on its back, carefully slipping into Grim's perception range.

Ordinarily, with the feeble scent of power on this Spore Man, it was feared that before it could even approach the heart of this death mire, it would have been torn to pieces by the violent swamp creatures. However, it had slipped in with all of its beard and tail intact, seemingly without any attack.

The reason for this was also simple: the male spore man also had a stench unique to blight on his body, causing the swamp creatures to dodge. It was just that no matter how much Grim observed and scanned, he failed to find any of the limb shrinkage on this male spore man after the onset of the blight disease.

Looking around and seemingly finding nothing unusual, this guy carefully approached a lumbering fungal giant, then felt a fist-sized white mushroom from his back hide and threw it at the other.

The white mushroom continued to roll on the ground, finally attracting the attention of the fungus giant.

Seemingly sensing the fragrant smell on the white mushroom, the fungus giant swooped in like a madman, rolled up the white mushroom with his thick tentacles and threw it into his mouth.

A few moments later, the fungus giant that ate the white mushroom trembled all over, desperately shouting in the sky. On top of its body, the original thick and strong body began to wither and shrivel up at a visible speed, and large swarms of black flies poured out from its mouth, surrounding it with affection.

Seeing that the fungus giant had been hit, the thieving spore man immediately sneaked towards a second target not far away.

However, just as it pulled out another white mushroom to make a move as it did, a faint male voice suddenly came from behind, giving it a good scare.

"Who told you to do that?"

The Spore Man suddenly looked back, and what he saw was Grim who slowly emerged from the void.

Grim was dressed as a human sorcerer, but his body did not have that terrifying and frightening magic fluctuation, and his appearance was no different from an ordinary human. But that Spore Man was obviously not an ignorant person, and was naturally able to recognize Grim's extraordinary nature.

Coupled with the fact that what it was doing was something 'ugly' that was completely out of sight, it jumped three feet in fright and turned around, intending to run away.

However, with its feeble strength of being no more than an advanced apprentice, it also wanted to escape from the hands of the Legendary Fire Witch. Such an idea was undoubtedly too nonsensical!

Snapping a finger, a ring of fire inexplicably appeared beneath the other party's feet, from which extended a shackle of flames that was as solid as substance, binding the spore man tightly and making it difficult for him to move a bit.

Grim stepped lightly on the soft mud and arrived at the side of the spore man, his right hand shifted in front of the other party's eyes, and the tip of his index finger condensed a small cluster of golden fire. The other was in a state of great trepidation, and its attention was instantly drawn to the small flame.

And when its gaze was fixed on the small flame, its entire mind and thoughts simultaneously fell into a state of stagnation, no longer able to organize an effective thought or response.

Compulsion... a simple to the extreme flame sorcery only!

"Where are you from? Why did you come here to poison it? Where did you concoct these carriers?" Grim launched into the interrogation without hesitation.

"The Magic Pod Cave...the Magic Pod Cave...the Magic Pod Cave..."

For some reason, the spore man seemed to have lost his mind, remembering almost nothing else other than repeating the words 'Magic Pod Cave'.

"Your Excellency Moat, how do you see things being handled here?" Grim interrogated several times unable to get any other answers, but turned his head to communicate with a strange eye attached to his shoulder blade.

Through this eye of nature, the Moat, who was hundreds of miles away, also observed Grim's capture of the Spore Man and the whole process of the Spore Man's feeding.

The swamp wise man was clearly upset to the extreme right now, and the voices transmitted through the Eye of Nature were thick with murderous anger.

"The Magic Pod Cave is the Holy Land of the Magic Spore Clan! There were terrifying traps and numerous guards there, and even my spiritual will was having trouble extending into it. From the current signs, these germ-carrying bodies were concocted by the Magic Spore Clan in the Magic Pod Cave in order to force the rest of the races and creatures out of the wetland swamp. Hmph, these bastards, they've gone too far this time!"

"Then what do you mean... "Grim, being an outsider, naturally had no concern about whether the creatures here were dead or alive. But after hearing Moat say that the Magic Pod Cave was the sacred place of the Magic Spore Clan, he Woody's heart leapt a bit.

"You tell the Spore Flying Bats to send back this Spore Man and those germ-carrying bodies. I'll contact the Hydra King and the Flying Bat Chief and discuss with them the expulsion of the Demonic Spore Clan. In the meantime, if you can produce more and stronger evidence, I will not hesitate to unleash the power of the entire Wetland Swamp to deal with the Demon Spores. At that time, by attacking the holy land of the Demonic Spore Clan, you will naturally be able to obtain those Source Life Waters."

"Furthermore, I count you as having completed the task of finding the person behind the Blight Disease! The due reward will be delivered to you as soon as possible..."