Age of Adepts

The trade route in the Black Forest is a safe passage that countless wizards have explored with their lives over millions of years.

But this so-called security, after all, is only relative, and no one can guarantee absolute security.

After all, most of the woodland roads cross the gap between the territories of some powerful monsters, who, when hunting, are unlikely to act entirely along the borders delineated by the map. So once you encounter a high-ranking monster on your journey, losing some goods and resources is still a minor matter, and often an entire merchant team mysteriously disappears as a result.

So as the guardian witch of the merchant team, every time you leave the community, you pay a special visit to the wise people or prophets in the community, and you become a must do.

Although most wise men and prophets do not have a high rank, even high-ranking witches dare not take their ‘advice’ lightly. After all, that's an important reminder of your life!

I don't know if it's the blessings of the Dark Witch, or if there are too many candidates for the Destiny Witch on the team, and this merchant team led by the Witch Kara has gone smoothly. Although some wild monsters were also attacked on the journey, they were still within the control of the witches.

So, after a long journey of 87 days, the merchants finally got out of the area covered by the black forest.

The blue-white trail gradually began to widen and spread a number of forks in different directions. Along the way, the flow of people comes and goes.

When he first left the Black Forest, he met most often a team of hunters dressed as mercenaries. Every team sees more or less witches. And when they saw the merchants, they waved their greetings and paid tribute to these brave men who dared to cross the Black Forest.

As you can see, witches from all factions are still getting along in a more harmonious atmosphere. At least in low-level witch exchanges, Grimm did not find signs of excessive hatred and obscenity.

From the moment they crossed the Black Forest, they stepped on the territory of the Northern Witch.

And the first city to greet them is Dean City, which is run by the Witch Council.

Dean City is not affiliated with any witch branch, but is managed directly by the witch council, some of which resemble public cities in the central part of the continent.

Here, all witch factions are subject to the authority of the Witch Council and cannot disobey the decrees of the Witch Council. As for the city administrators, they were drawn from the various witch factions, where they sat in the town on a rotating basis.

And the Dean City administrator for the decade was a third-degree sorceress from the agony sorceress family.

Before entering Dean City, the unaccompanied witch jumped off the carriage and left the merchants without turning her head. And a moment later, the couple of wizards claiming to be brothers and sisters also secretly left the team.

Depending on their direction of departure, which is no different from the witch's route, you can see what happens next.

For this scene, the dark sorceress in the merchant team looked in their eyes and shook their heads for the first departed sorceress.

As long as she remains in the merchant corps, the Dark Witch has a duty to assist her due to contract considerations. Even entering Dean City, the sorcerers killed each other on land under the direct control of the sorcerers. So there will be some guarantee for her safety.

But she left alone and ‘took' the two sibling wizards. What happens later, everyone can imagine with their eyes closed.

Hmm, a Destiny Witch candidate who can't be helped by destiny, die!

Most unexpectedly, however, just off the entrance to Dean City, the remaining wizards and wizards also lodged their farewells, and the crowds blended in and left.

Without looking at the strange gaze behind them, Grim and Alice did not enter Dean City, but followed the wall west, then north, along the main road towards the heartland of the Northern Witch.

While walking, you can almost hear the conversation whispering between them.

“Why don't you go into Dean City? Don't you know those three guys are waiting for us outside?” Listening to sounds like Alice's voice.

“They're waiting for us, why don't we wait for them! If they do come, beat them to pieces! Anyway, your fighting skills should have been sharpened long ago...”

…………

Three days later……

Dark Night Time.

An open wooded area just off the main road.

Due to easy access and a small spring eye nearby, there are really a lot of business travelers lodging here for camping.

By nightfall, four or five dialers had chosen to stay here and rest. And their arrival quickly made the small camp extraordinary.

It belongs to the territory of the witches and there are no bandits and bandits at all, so even if they are strangers to each other, the conversation seems friendly and enthusiastic.

First they wash their faces, fill their water, prepare dinner, then just step into the camp and someone greets them warmly and invites them to dinner together. The crowd raised a pile of bonfires and boiled their own food, with strong aromas and cheerful laughter floating over the camp.

And as Grimm and Alice slowly followed the scent into this tiny camp, the travelers gathered by the campfire stared stunned.

Though Grimm wore a traveler's cape outside to cover the gorgeous Wizard's robe, the smooth satin and golden roll of the black cape alone amply illustrated the two. And Grimna has a strong body and a steady, abysmal temperament, and with Alice dressed so deliberately, the identities of the two wizards cannot be concealed.

The camp people obviously did not have any psychological preparation for the arrival of the two witches, and one apprentice witch in the crowd was nervous and helpless and hurried to stand up and salute the two.

In the North, although the status of a witch is far higher than that of a male witch, a small, uninvited apprentice witch is not qualified to recite in front of two witches.

“We just got here from the middle. We need to know what's going on here. Can you tell us?” When we got here, Grimm stopped showing up, and Alice came out and talked to people.

After all, Alice is a witch, and she obviously has more respect in the North than this man, so she tends to be more effective.

“It's a pleasure to serve you, Naya! Please come and sit down, my lords!” The intern witch immediately entertained two people with enthusiasm.

A relatively leeward area inside the camp was similarly lit by a pile of bonfires, a position occupied by a small team leader, who saw two wizards arrive and hurriedly gave way to this best position.

In status, the leader of this small merchant team may be slightly higher than the apprentice witch, who was hired by their merchant team after all. But when faced with this situation, only the apprentice witch is qualified to sit down with the two official witches.

Shortly after the merchant team moved to another campfire, they sent in fresh mushroom soup and roasted lamb chops. The three of us sat around a small campfire, eating and talking, and the atmosphere was peaceful.

“Don't know what the two adults want to know?” Apprentice Naya curiously measures two strange wizards, politely asks.

These two wizards, tall and short, big and small, look like fathers and daughters traveling from the outside. It's just that this handsome, harsh witch inevitably looks too young, and that ‘little’ witch is not only petite, but also talkative and divine like a seven- or eight-year-old girl.

But knowing that there are no ordinary people who can become a sorcerer, can an eight-year-old girl become a sorcerer? This is a joke about the profession of wizard. So the ‘little’ witch in front of her looks young, but the ghost knows if she's hundreds of years old!

Knowing that Naya, an apprentice who cannot make a human face, can only honor two wizards with respect.

“We just want to know what's happening in the neighborhood and what special resources are around!” Alice didn't touch the lamb chops, tasted the mushroom soup and thought it tasted okay, so she sipped and said.

“Then I'll introduce you to the adults! ”

“We are now located between Dean and Ancona. Dean City is a must-see city to and from the North, and the two adults must have visited it by the time they arrived. Just a half-day north of this road, you'll leave Dean City and enter the land of the Dead Witches. ”

“If adults march west, there will be about three days of journeys into the land of bitter witches. If you go east for 2 days, you will enter the land of the fraudulent witch. ”

“The resources around here are also quite abundant. Dean City is the meeting place for all cross-border merchants, and almost all resources in the North will be found there. If you two want to collect some resources, it's easier there. ”

“In our North, besides the towers of wizards in the major cities, there are many wizards who like to find a secluded place to build a magic hut where they can do their favorite research. If a wizard visits, they will be happy to exchange some knowledge with you. ”

“In a place called Nora, 200 miles northwest of this mall, there is an unscheduled 'Lucky Springs’, which I hear will bring me a year of good luck after drinking the spring water inside...”

“300 miles east of here, there is an ancient witch's legacy Square Spire, which brings a unique spiritual awareness to the witch who touches it...”

“XX miles southwest...”

“XX miles northeast...”

Grimm and Alice listened quietly and kept in mind the memories of everything Naya the apprentice said. Alice was born here, but was taken out of the North at a very young age, so most of her memories here were blurred.

Hearing all this now, some childhood memories come back to life.

After Naya had said it all, Grimm nodded satisfactorily by taking out another map of the North, allowing her to identify all the locations of the witch huts she knew.

Alice grasped ten magic crystals from her arms and handed them to Naya, who took them with joy.

Naya had only the strength of an intermediate apprentice and had been hired by a small merchant team to run this trip, running back and forth for more than a dozen days with only eight magic crystals. Now she can earn ten magic crystals just to say a few words, which makes her immediately overjoyed.

At this time, Grimm frowned slightly and turned his head towards the southeast.

Looking back at Alice, they stood together.

“You will inform the people in this camp not to take a half-step step out of this camp tonight. Don't go out and check it out for a while. Give this to the merchant team leader, it's dinner money tonight!” Alice took out two more crystals and threw them into Naya's arms, then turned around and walked into the dark night with Grimm silently.

Naya's heart pounding violently, holding the crystal, staring in the direction of the disappearance of the two wizards, seemingly feeling that tonight may not be calm again!