Age of Adepts

Long convoys roam the dark woods.

The trees on both sides of the road are straight and tall, each more than 30 to 40 meters long, and can be hugged by four people. Plus the deep leaves of the forest, the huge umbrella cover extends over the road, leaving only a fine white line over the head.

It is obviously daylight, but the forest road is already dim and requires torches to see everything around it.

The convoy was like walking into a dark, closed, silent corridor, where no other sounds could be heard except the wheels and the vibrations of the beast walking forward.

Silent!

Very silent!

You can't hear the chirping birds of the common forest at all, and you can't see jungle creatures like rabbits and coyotes running around.

As soon as you step into the Black Forest, Grimm can clearly perceive that the faint magical energy flows slowly between the woods. Elemental particles are also much more active than outside the forest by one or two frequencies!

“Chip, gather environmental data from the Black Forest!” Grimm thought about it and couldn't help but give the chip a command.

“Di, the task has been established… Continuous collection of environmental data…”

Seriously, the Black Forest of the Wizard Continent occupies up to 60% of the area, while Sandhitalin and the three major wizard organizations together occupy only 40% of the total area of the Wizard Continent.

It also means that there is still a great deal of unexplored land on the Wizard's continent, and it is these endless black forests and vast savannahs that keep humanity from moving forward.

With the immense weight of the wizard world and an almost perfect high demonic environment, occupying 60% of the black forest and savage grasslands, even if only a thousandth of the creatures have been infected with magical creatures, the horror created is enough to discourage ordinary wizards.

So if the wizards want to expand their territorial boundaries, they need to keep pushing their tentacles deep into the black forest.

Cutting trees, levelling roads, building settlements, erecting towers of wizards to guard them...

Such a propagation process has never been smooth!

Every step in the human life zone toward the black forest brings a powerful backlash of tough jungle creatures, horror monsters, mutant monsters, and polluting creatures.

If it's just a sporadic monster invasion, it's fair to say that at most it can cause only small scale loss of resources such as people and buildings. But if it's a massive demon outburst, or if some powerful demon drives the tide of the beast, the newly established settlement could fall.

There have been countless massive attacks on black forest monsters in the history of the enclave. Every time it happens, it means that tens of thousands of ordinary people who have just moved into the settlements have fallen victim to stronger efforts on both sides. Perhaps only the Wizard Tower will be able to survive the entire newly developed area, and everything else will be razed to the ground.

So every step forward in the human survival space will require so many complex pulls that it will be possible to deplete the patience and number of forest monsters and force them to move their territory into deeper forests.

As a result, a vast territory that covers a hundred miles, from the start of expansion to stability, where ordinary people thrive, usually takes decades to become possible, over and over again. In the process, it is common to consume thousands of people and up to two digits of wizard life.

So every wizard who chops thorns and leads his followers and slaves to rob the living space from the Black Forest is truly powerful enough to be remembered by future generations forever!

For ordinary people, the Black Forest stands for mystery, evil and power, and more for death!

But for the wizards, this is the biggest repository of resources!

Magical plants that grow everywhere, a wide variety of jungle creatures, well-stocked metal deposits, and mysterious and powerful monsters...

Many of the rare resources that have been extinct in the witch world can be found in the depths of the black forest.

So in addition to landscaping, 35% of the team of wizards went deep into the black forest to explore ancient ruins and hunt monsters, which also became the fastest and most convenient way for them to gather resources.

The preconditions for landscaping are too stringent for all sorcerers to meet, so exploring the Black Forest is the best option for them to go out and collect resources.

Grimm raised the curtains and looked at the dark forests in the distance.

Even in his sight, without witchcraft, it is difficult to get far. After all, the magic energy here is too active, and it is also a huge interference with the spiritual perception of the wizard!

Grimm picked the curtain a little higher, and on a tall tree not far from the convoy, he saw an owl covered in black feathers. And the other side is staring at the huge eyes and watching the movement around the forest, and from time to time makes a grunting strange noise to the convoy.

“That's an owl that the intern witches raised.” Alice clumped up next to Grimm and looked boringly at the window: “It's just some harmless little animal that can act as their eyes. ”

“Why not choose a more powerful little monster?” Grimm asked puzzled.

“Cut...” Alice couldn't help but roll her eyes: “Do you think everyone, like you, is never worried about the Crystal? They're poor, they can't afford it, they can't raise monsters! ”

“What good is it to feed them? ”

“Usually serving as an ear and eye is a good flying sentry. Also, a manipulated owl can possess a faint invisible talent and is best suited to serve as a guard. More importantly, of course, feeding them does not put much pressure on the spiritual strength of apprentice witches. ”

“So what kind of pets do witches have? ”

“The most commonly used are black cats, flower snakes, red manta crows. Black cats can bring hidden and agile boosts to hosts, flower snakes have infrared sensations, red bats come with light-headedness and sonic positioning, and crows have dark vision... anyway, witches love to turn themselves into these messy things! ”

“What about you? How come I've never seen your pet? ”

“Humph...” Alice snorted: “I've always wanted to catch a Hell Hound, but it never worked! ”

“Hell hounds?” Upon hearing the name, Grimm automatically emerged in his mind a strange abyss creature that looked like a porcupine and was covered in black, red and hard skins.

This abyss creature, ugly in all its aspects, is Alice's dream pet of choice, which makes Grimm feel speechless.

“Why?” Grimm couldn't bear to ask.

“Thus, a witch once captured a hellhound as a magic pet and gained the ability to ‘block magic'. And the Hellhounds are the best magic pets that can give a host a spiritual boost.” Alice immediately spoke with two glances.

“But don't you think the hell hounds are ugly and ugly? And, as far as I know, they all stink, filled with stench characteristic of lower realm abyss creatures! ”

“Does it really stink?” Alice's face changed and asked Grimm carefully. And when she got the definitive answer, she couldn't help but frown with her little face: “So I peeled it off and spiced it on, and it should cover its smell, right? ”

Grimm sucked in a cold breath and couldn't help but start worrying about Alice's future spoil.

…………

The convoy is moving slowly in the Black Forest.

By the time they left Ibes City for more than 30 miles, they could already see small animals in the dark forest along the way.

However, there were ex-mercenaries on the periphery, and the jungle beasts dared not approach the convoy, but to roar a few distant shouts, and then sneak back into the forest.

Although the road is not as crowded as it is, more than a dozen merchant teams continue to travel and have almost driven away dangerous monsters in the vicinity. The rest of the ordinary beasts, if they dare to approach the convoy, will instead become a delicious meal for mercenaries to festive their teeth.

On the way, the ‘whistle' released by the intern witches was one of the busiest groups.

They fly in dense forests that are difficult for humans to penetrate, avoiding dangerous beasts and birds and searching everywhere for rare plant figures.

Once discovered, three or two trainee witches would storm deep into the forest with more than a dozen mercenaries, picking up the rare plants found in the shortest possible time. And that will undoubtedly bring them an impressive income.

Sometimes, of course, there are fierce monsters found near rare plants, and this is the moment when some of the witches in the convoy set off their horses.

Half-way through harvests like this, but not in the merchants' accounts, belong to the witches' private trophies. The private harvest of each accompanying witch is so much more than the rewards of the merchant team that these women are so passionate and excited about this treasure hunt.

It's just not possible for the merchants to stop waiting for them to find treasure, so they use the area that the Magic Pet can search for, which is a small area within 120 miles of each side of the woodland road. Farther afield, even if discovered, they do not have enough time to harvest.

And this area, after years of repeated searches, has almost harvested resources of some value. So some of the witches in the convoy gave up this spiritually damaging ‘game’ and handed it over to the trainee witches who came out to practice.

For these ‘poor’ apprentices who do not qualify for family service, even if it is just 'mosquito meat' that some witch adults cannot see, it is enough to feed them a full stomach, so they become more and more tired!

So, on this seemingly slow, very fast journey, the convoy arrived at its first camp on a long journey.

And at this time, it's only noon!