Age of Adepts

Grim's return was as simply unknown as his departure had been.

In the perception of the vast number of Crimson Wizards, the great legendary Fire Wizard, His Excellency Grim, had remained hidden within that Flame Throne Wizard Tower, seemingly never leaving.

Even within the Crimson Family, only a few people in the top echelons knew about his departure and return.

After Grim returned to the Witch Tower, the first thing he naturally did was to give Meryl that bit of the Ice World's Waymark.

He had already planted a positioning rune stone there beforehand, and with this bit of surface waymark, the subsequent exploration team would be able to save a great deal of calculations and locking procedures.

That cold world was too homogeneous in its bit environment, though, and the bit laws had been disturbed by powerful artifact forces. But after all, it was also a nice small bit surface, extremely suitable for ice sorcerers to settle there.

The current Crimson Family was no longer the three kittens of the past, but a super family that was growing rapidly. The influx of foreign sorcerers had also put the carrying capacity of the family's territory to a severe test, and the two major regions were now somewhat overwhelmed.

Under such circumstances, Grim has intentionally released the restrictions on foreign shamans, allowing them to participate in the internal operation of the family.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Grim had decided to open up the two family strongholds of the Lance Plane and the Out of Domain, accelerating the development and expansion of these two enclaves.

In the past, the Crimson Family did not have this kind of background, once the ban was lifted, their own background would be easily discovered by the enemy, so they could destroy it in a targeted manner.

But now, the Lance Position was guarded by the 4th ranked Thunder Dragon Ames, and the 3rd ranked Foreign Brain and Steel Capital outside the domain. I'm afraid that any guy who wants to come here and cause trouble will have to weigh his weight and see if he's qualified enough to cause trouble here.

With the family headquarters in the wizarding world watched over by 4th Order Mary, the Northlands estate looked after by 4th Order Alice, and the powerful Legendary Fire Witch sitting behind the invisible curtain, the Crimson Family at this point had enough of a legacy that it no longer feared any challenges on the mundane and wizarding community side.

Even at some points, Grim had begun to complain if the guys who looked down on him were acting too quiet and tame. And should he...send someone to provoke them all back to activity as well.

Life without enemies was really miserable!

On this trip to the Sorcerer's Association and seeing another kind of synergistic development of the Sorcerer's organization, Grim's inner feelings were undoubtedly tremendous. If the Scattered Tallinn was filled with small workshop-style family industries, then the Sorcerer's Association was undoubtedly a large industrial and mechanical system that condensed the power of all people.

The strengths and weaknesses and highs and lows of both sides were clear to see.

It was truly a miracle that Scattered Tallinn had survived for so long in the midst of the three major wizard organizations!

And behind this miracle, a trace of human manipulation could be faintly felt....

But Grim was not willing to delve too deeply into this, and instead simply considered the development and future of the Crimson Family.

If the Crimson Family showed their fangs now and launched an attack on other witches, with the power Grim had gathered, there was a good chance that they would succeed in achieving their wish and turn the entire central part of the country into their own unified kingdom.

Although Central would be embroiled in a centuries-long witch war over this, there was a chance to unite and form a force similar to the three major witch organizations.

However, the prerequisite for success was the absence of interference and intervention from outside forces!

Once the three major witch organizations inserted their hands in, not only would the chances of unification failing greatly increase, but it was also possible that the past 'tacit understanding' would be broken, causing the central part of the continent to completely lose its neutral status and become a battlefield for the three major witch organizations to openly compete and show off their muscles.

At that time, the entire middle of the continent would become a quagmire of war, and all the grand blueprints and monstrous hegemony would become someone else's wedding clothes.

Analyzed from this perspective, the reason why the Sorcerer's Association, which occupied the throne of the strongest power, behaved so mildly towards itself, and could even be called friendly, would be worth playing with!

Perhaps the Sorcerer's Guild that had been trying to snoop its black hand into the middle of the continent had been waiting for the Scattered Tarin to mess up on its own! At that time, they would be able to circumvent the three long-standing agreements to send troops to the middle of the continent in a way that would protect the interests of the established parties....

So, considering all factors, the idea of disturbing the middle of the entire continent and then muddling through from there simply doesn't work.

If you can't do it, then let's do it.

After careful consideration, Grim who had returned to the Witch Tower also took the opportunity to propose the formation of a public wizard school.

There would only be more, not less, witch colleges in the Scattered Tallinn region in the middle of the continent, if you really had to look into it, there would not be less than three hundred. However, their basic model was contractual, which meant that outsiders had to choose to join the academy and sign a service contract for a certain number of years before they could acquire the necessary knowledge and resources from it.

Even those witch colleges under the public banner were like this, except that they no longer served a certain witch family or branch school of witches, but rather the Scattered Tallinn Witch Association.

To compete for the favor of wandering witches and free witches from them, they would have to offer better and more favorable terms than them.

And Grim's plan was to change the contractual style to a fee-based one.

This public wizard academy established by the Crimson Family no longer forced outsiders to sign service contracts, but instead sold knowledge and resources at a marked-up price. This also weakened the resistance of wandering witches and free witches towards the academy.

Furthermore, the Crimson Family possessed a large number of 4th ranked witches and strongmen, using them as a golden sign to recruit apprentices and then teaching public classes every now and then... This was something that many middle and low ranked witches would never have dreamed of!

Mary is able to hold up a large bloodline, Alice is able to reap the benefits of all the prophets, the strange Ghazluvi is suited to the spirit department, Emelia is a perfect choice for the dean of the plant department, Remy is definitely venomous, Gunga is magical, and Billis is mutant....

If we also capture Ames to set up a dragon line, and then the soon to come Wraith to set up an undead line, and Grim to lead his own fire line....

To be honest, the appearance of so many high-ranking instructors would definitely cause a stir in the academy and send the wandering witches and free witches scrambling.

It was the attraction of knowledge, resources, and powerful people, as well as the spontaneous choice of the witches.

In such a situation, even if those who had their hearts set on it, they would not be able to accuse the Crimson Family of being wrong. If they dared to look for trouble, the Crimson Family's long-hidden butcher's knife would be just in time to show its face.

Those outside forces couldn't even deprive the Crimson Family of the right to 'defend themselves'!

But for such an idea to come to fruition, first, the family's golden sign should be attractive, second, the family's knowledge and resource reserves should be sufficient, and third, there should be a core cadre of people who are strong and obedient enough....

And the Crimson family already pretty much has all of those points!

Just for this grand idea, Grim began to constantly go and talk to Alice and Mary, and convened countless secret meetings at the family's core level, pushing and debating every detail and every step of the establishment of the Public Witchcraft Academy.

Finally, after a year and a half of meticulous preparations, the Horton Witchcraft Academy was officially established in a place called Ironwood City.

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Ironwood City, Horton Witchcraft Academy.

Ever since that eye-catching tower of witchcraft towered high above the city, the place had become bustling and noisy.

Since the urban area of Ironwood City was too small, the Horton Witchcraft Academy was chosen to be located on the banks of the Roy River, in the vast area surrounding the Horton Witch Tower. There were thick and dense magical jungles, dense and damp eerie swamps, huge mausoleums built underground, and magic weapon towns where the furnace roared all day long....

The entire Horton Witchcraft School could be roughly divided into more than a dozen different witchcraft divisions, and the one with the name of director was the legendary fire witch Grim, who was also the minister of the fire division.

Side by side with Grim, the names appearing on the list of divisions were each so blindingly bright that they made every witch who came to learn about and explore this new academy feel intimidated.

Bloodline.

Minister: Mary (4th degree)

Sub-Ministers: Soros (step 3), Rother (step 3)

Divisional Tutor: Issa (3rd order), Spara (3rd order), Dolores (3rd order), Severus (3rd order), Winlier (3rd order)....

The entire division contained a total of thirty-three foreign professors and external instructors, almost all of whom were High Bloods of the 2nd rank or higher.

Their activities are mainly concentrated at the Old Blood Castle, Horton Witch Tower, and Serpent Bird Cliff, and the internal faction members' chosen places of training include the Hazen Position and the Black Forest.

Fireline.

Minister: Grim (4th order)

Sub-Ministers: Sindar (3rd class), Montagu (3rd class)

Divisional Mentors: blyth Shabini (2 steps), Durban Pusey (2 steps), Vincent Gower (2 steps)....

There were a total of seventeen professors and instructors in the entire Fire Division, Grim was only the titular Honorary Minister, and all specific matters were handed over to the Flame Tiger Sindar and the small lord Montagu, who had been recommended by another Flame Monarch, to co-chair.

Their places of activity are mainly focused on the Horton Witch Tower, the Throne of Flame, and the Lance Plane, with the Fire Elemental Plane chosen as the place for their adventures.

Department of the Dead.

Minister: Congenas (4th degree)

Ministers: knight of the plagues Shattered Face (4th level), high level corpse wizard Vol (4th level)

Divisional Mentors: corpse witch Gers (3rd class), undead banshee Thaylin (3rd class), zombie lord Kensi (2nd class)

It could be politely said that the entire necromancy department was supported almost entirely by the high ranking dead spirits recommended by the Witch Kangonas. And any witch or apprentice who was able to study here had the opportunity to travel to the Skeleton Plane to find a suitable wild undead there.

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