Age of Adepts

"The Flame Monarch Gromus is looking for the Light Flame Godstone..."

"It's an exceptionally rare magic material that will only be born in places where the power of light and fire are both strong..."

"I reckon that Gromth's search for the Light Flame Divine Stone is to use its power to amend a part of its flame laws. If it can convert a portion of its flame power into light power, its movement speed will undoubtedly increase greatly..."

"Not long ago, an expedition team from the Sorcerer's Association discovered an ancient relic in some foreign realm, and the Light Flame Divine Stone was one of the spoils of war... Now, the Light Flame Divine Stone has fallen into the hands of a 4th rank witch named Olivia from the Sorcerer's Association... ..."

After hearing Alice's explanation, Grim couldn't help but frown, "If that Misha wanted to blackmail Gromoth with the Light Flame God Stone, why didn't she take control of the stone in her own hands and let it drain out instead?"

"Because that's just the way she does things!" Alice smiled indifferently, "She's a 7th Order Grand Witch who has controlled the power of fate for tens of thousands of years, and the web of relationships woven from this must be so complex and dense that it's hard for normal people to imagine."

"It's common knowledge that a Fate Witch doesn't have much combat power! And by what means does Misa mobilize and dominate as many bit-powered people? By the subtle and magical power of fate!"

"She uses the power of fate to spy on the privacy of those powerful people, and once she finds out what the other party needs, she tries to push fate to make it unattainable by all means. That way, if the other party doesn't get what they want, they can only turn to her for help, and then they can only do what Misa wants..."

"Relying on similar means to weave a terrifying web that envelops a multitude of bit-powerful people, each of whom is merely a puppet, a node on this web of hers..."

"I dare say that the reason why that expedition team from the Sorcerer's Association was able to discover the ancient relics, there was definitely no less than Misa's push. Thus, she only needed to give out a slight hint of information, and without even having to do it herself, she 'hid' the Light Flame Divine Stone that Gromus wanted to obtain in a place that it was powerless to reach."

"The Witch World, the Witch Association... Don't look at that Gromus as a 5th rank Flame King, but such a name definitely won't scare that witch named Olivia. So, Gromus knew where the Light Flame Stone was but couldn't get it at all, so that it would have to go back and beg that Misa..."

"It's so complicated," Grim listened quietly and sighed under his breath, "Alice, you're not going to become such a voyeur of fate in the future, are you!"

"Where were you thinking..." sighed Alice, "If her tactic had worked, it wouldn't have triggered the will of the wizarding world to turn on her. Those who play with fate are doomed to be spurned by it!"

"So, you became her gravedigger, upholding the will of the wizarding world against her?"

"Dealing with her won't be enough, but at most it will only ruin her plan to continue controlling the fate of the Wizard World. Within the Sorcerer World, I will be protected by the World Will from her underhanded plans. But once I step outside of the Wizard World, many things will become more and more complicated and difficult to control."

Grim shook his head and lost his smile, "That's probably the common problem with you Fate Witches. Any one thing must have all the ins and outs, control all the variables and unknowns, and reduce the danger to zero before you're willing to take action yourself. In fact, for me, having a seventy to eighty percent certainty would be worth a pavilion!"

Alice said sternly, "Grim, you mustn't entertain such thoughts! We like to control things to 100% before we do anything, not because we want perfection, but because we know how treacherous fate can be... For you, even if 99% of the one thing that can succeed, if it falls into the hands of us Fate Witches, we can ruin the whole thing with the 1% that is left. "

"For us Fate Witches, there is no such thing as 99% or 1%, either 100% or absolutely no possibility... there is no room for an intermediate state!"

"That good?" Grim couldn't help but gape, "But I don't feel like that Misa is so powerful that she's unbeatable!"

"That's because we were blessed by the long river of destiny of the wizarding world, and that's why the other side never got a glimpse of our hidden secrets. And many of those things she thought she saw were distorted or obscured by the Long River of Fate. That's why she kept misjudging your strength, and not only did she not succeed in cutting you out, but she allowed you to grow while she could..."

"What about this one? How do we go about capturing that Light Flame Divine Stone?" Despite hearing many unbelievable and unacceptable things, Grim remained optimistic.

"I don't know!" Alice spread her hands.

"No?" Grim's eyes widened and for the first time he heard the words from Alice's mouth, "How could you not know..."

"Because there are many suspicions and dark clouds behind this matter, and I can't get a glimpse of many places."

"First of all, that Misha definitely has dozens or even hundreds of ways to hide the Light Flame Divine Stone from Gromse. But she has sent the divine stone to the Wizard World, and it has also fallen into the hands of the Wizard Association... I can detect a strong smell of conspiracy in this!"

"Are you saying that she has foreseen this and therefore wants to cause a conflict between us and the Coven?" Grim's eyes narrowed and he looked solemn.

"That's the obvious one! Because of the last self-destruct attack, the Sorcerer's Association has already had a conflict with you. Coupled with the fact that the Crimson Family is now rising too fast, it has already triggered the attention and vigilance of the three major sorcerer organizations. If you come to your door at this time, I'm afraid that those association sorcerers will definitely not give you a good look..."

"Will they besiege me?" Grim scratched his head.

"That's not true! After all, the Sorcerer's Association is one of the three well-known Sorcerer's Organizations, and openly rounding up high-ranking Sorcerers from other organizations or regions, such a thing is a big taboo!"

"Then what am I afraid of?" Grim sprinkled a smile, his words filled with strong confidence, "Solo or contest and cut, the amazing thing is these tricks, as long as they're not afraid of losing face, I'm all next..."

Alice sighed leisurely, reached out and gently stroked the corners of Grim's flying eyebrows as she said, "Grim... Grim... what gave you such confidence that you don't even have a behemoth like the Sorcerer's Association In the eye of the beholder?"

Grim said proudly, "Of course it's my strength...plus your support!"

Alice still sighed, "It's better not to fight if you can avoid war... A good war will kill you, and the more enemies you erect, the more you'll suffer backlash one day!"

"I understand all of these truths. Don't worry, I will properly handle the Crimson Family's relationship with the Sorcerer's Association!"

Having received Grim's assurance, Alice nodded silently at that.

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

After returning from the Northlands, Grim only stopped at the Flame Throne for a few days before embarking on a floating airship to the eastern region.

Before he left, he threw all those 3rd level Flame Cores he had obtained from the Fire Elemental Plane to Meryl, making the latter jump for joy as well. In order to deal with any possible changes that might occur, Grim had piggybacked on the Worm Witch Billis who had already advanced to Level 3.

In this way, all the big and small troubles he might encounter along the way were left to Billis to deal with, while Grim concentrated on studying the 5th level Flame Creature Template that had the slightest outline. And in his free time, he also incidentally transformed that 4th-ranked molten fire crystal into a molten fire giant beast demon puppet.

Although its combat power was far inferior to that of the Shadow Demon, it was still a 4th-rank creation, and it was more than enough to deal with an ordinary scene.

It was a floating ship belonging to the Sorcerer's Association, and it was equipped with a 2nd rank Sorcerer and five 1st rank Sorcerers according to the basic rules. Together with the rune formation etched on the hull, it was more than enough to deal with the occasional Black Forest demon encountered on the way.

The black and brown sailing ship rose up from the dock of Minsaer Air Port, and slowly plunged into the Black Forest, buoyed up by a strong wind current.

Ralph, the Association's Level 2 Sorcerer in charge of protecting the floating airship, patrolled the flight deck as was his custom, and did not find anything unusual, before he was satisfied and prepared to return to his room.

However, as soon as he turned around, his eyes unintentionally swept two black figures standing quietly on the aft deck of the ship, and he couldn't help but stop in his steps towards the entrance of the cabin.

Those who were able to travel to and from Diaspora Tallinn and the Association's territory by floating airship were either official sorcerers, or some extremely high-ranking human nobles. However, no matter which one it was, it was impossible to escape Ralph's spiritual perception.

But for some reason, when Ralph's gaze fell on those two shadows, he always had a strange feeling of dread. It was as if it wasn't the two witches standing there, but two desperate beasts that were able to devour him without leaving even the scraps of bones....

Ralph was stunned, and the right hand hidden in his sleeve immediately gripped the rune crystal that could control the ship's witch formation, and silently accessed the information inside.

With his 2nd rank wizard's mental power, he almost instantly filtered through the list of wizards who had boarded the ship at Mincer and quickly found the registration information of the two passengers.

Grimm and Billy...two very common and unremarkable names.

But on the notes beneath the two names, Ralph saw a glaring word: Crimson Family!

The Crimson family? This family can be very strong in Diaspora Tallinn these days... What are they doing in the Association territory at this time?

Being able to evade their own mental perception and not trigger the energy scan of the witch formation, they were most likely all high ranking witches who had hidden their identities... but the Crimson Family's high ranking witches themselves seemed to be able to count them....

Ralph pretended to be browsing the scenery and landscape below him, but secretly he was secretly observing the two.

For some reason, he always felt somewhat familiar with one of the strange and twisted figures.

Woodland's eyebrows jumped as he realized who the other was.

Worm Witch Billis... One of them was actually the guy who was recognized as the toughest of the Crimson Family's 3rd rank wizards.

What was he doing in the Witchcraft Association?

Ralph couldn't help but frown again.