Age of Adepts

Green Dragon Ohgu was exceedingly furious!

These wicked evildoers were boldly marching into his den, slaughtering the kobolds, and wrecking every single magical trap. Green Dragon Ohgus' heart burned in agony even as he watched the event unfold through the mirror.

For the sake of realism, and to avoid the Fate Witch from even sensing the tiniest of shifts in the river of Fate, the elven commander had requested Ohgu not to move away any bit of his wealth. The Staff of Divination was one of the most valuable and precious items of his 'tiny' collection.

However, to avoid alerting the enemy, Ohgu had no choice but to leave the Staff back in his den and wait for the robbers to raid his home. Though the elves had promised to double the compensation for all of his losses…that was a pseudo-artifact! Were the elves capable of compensating him twice over if it were to go missing?

The more he thought, and the deeper he considered, the more frustrated Ohgu became!

He thrashed his dragon tail against the ground again and again. The long tail covered in beautiful green scales smashed against the crystalline ice, sending shards of ice into the air and causing cracks to appear in the ground.

The dragon's hoard was the most inviolable right of every dragon!

Even the Great Dragon God had no right to make a dragon surrender his hoard. That was why Ohgu had left so many magical traps in his den to protect this wealth. Yet, they were merely traps in the end. It wouldn't have mattered against these prepared thieves even if there were ten times as many traps.

Ohgu watched as magical flames and frost blasted out of the den, aware that the wicked enemies were furiously wrecking his snares. Even an ordinary group of thieves would have retreated in the face of so many magical traps of such quality.

These people had no such reservations!

They had no time to disable every one of these annoying traps. As such, they were all using the most foolish and violent of ways to destroy the traps: having the magical golems go 'minesweeping.'

All of the metallic golems were large and sturdy cans of iron. They had outstanding physical defenses and decent magical resistance. These golems only needed to run across the winding corridors to trigger most of the magical traps.

Flame Shockwave: capable of unleashing three waves of fire in succession.

Magical Barrage: capable of firing eight magical arrows in every single direction.

Acid Splash: capable of firing a powerful acid ball (the acid of which was provided directly by Ohgu himself. Even a First Grade adept and his shield would be turned into mush if the acid was to land squarely upon him).

Frost Breath: capable of sealing the entire corridor in a two-meter-thick ice crystal. Any enemy hit by the frost would most definitely suffer death.

Finger of Death: capable of firing the Finger of Death spell. Living beings with insufficient soul toughness would instantly die. All defenses were ignored.

……

……

One had to admit that Green Dragon Ohgu had expended a large amount of effort and resources to protect his home and his hoard. Ignoring the treasure itself, just these magical traps alone would cost upward of several tens of thousands of magical crystals when put together.

Yet now, they were only wasted upon these cheap iron lumps.

One metal golem fell over, but a second metal golem instantly took its place.

The second metal golem fell over, and the third took its place.

It was through such barbaric and violent methods that the magical golem squad continued to advance into the den. Meanwhile, the blaring magical alarms kept going off in Ohgu's mind.

For a dragon, magical traps did not represent all of the defenses of their dragon den.

The only one that could genuinely defend a dragon den was naturally the owner of the cave itself– the dragon!

That was why so many magical traps and magical alarms filled the inside of the den. As long as an outsider broke into the cave, the dragon would be alerted by the magical alarm the very first instant, regardless of where they were. When that happened, the dragon would rush back to their den to trap the damned thieves, even if they were hundreds of kilometers away.

Now, Ohgu had no choice but to allow the magical alarms to blare wildly in his mind. He could not do anything about the situation.

Ohgu couldn't help but start turning restless!

"Ohgu, tolerate it!" The slender and elegant Third Grade Emerald Dragon Iritina turned to console him, "Those evil adepts have yet to enter the den. If we were to attack them now, we would very likely scare them away. It will be hard to catch them all in a single strike then! Just tolerate it for a little bit more!"

Ohgu was finally slightly calmer after being consoled by his crush.

Before he could approach Iritina to flirt with her, she gasped from a scene in the magical mirror.

That…that damned male adept had summoned a mighty Third Grade thunder dragon. Moreover, that thunder dragon had risen and left in the direction of the Dragoncliff shortly after appearing.

What was it planning? What was the Third Grade thunder dragon going to Dragoncliff for?

The more she thought about it, the more she panicked. Even Iritina couldn't stay calm any longer!

An ominous feeling rose in the heart of both dragons out of nowhere.

"Don't worry, Iritina!" The Fourth Grade Storm Sword Saint Agassi seemed to understand the dragon's concern. He consoled her with gentle words, "Several Fourth Grade emerald dragons are guarding Dragoncliff. A mere Third Grade thunder dragon can't do any damage!"

It was the truth, but both dragons still could not suppress their concern and worry.

They had an intuitive feeling that an unpredictable turn in Fate would happen to the forest dragons if the Third Grade thunder dragon were allowed to reach Dragoncliff.

"Lord Agassi, we must immediately expel that thunder dragon from this plane. If you are unwilling to lend us a hand and intercept him, then I will have no choice but to hurry back to Dragoncliff and rally the elders of the clan," The pretty female dragon roared anxiously, "Ohgu, we are leaving for the dragoncliff, now!"

Iritina could no longer care about alerting the adepts. She quickly climbed to the entrance of the ice cave and used a ferocious soundwave breath to shatter the clear crystal barrier before taking to the skies.

Grene Dragon Ohgu hesitated for a moment and finally followed Iritina into the air, unfurling his wings and flying toward Dragoncliff.

Dammit!

At this moment, all the elves in the cave were cursing the reckless actions of the dragons. However, they had no choice but to follow them out of the cave.

The crystal sealing the cave had been carved with God of Luck Visenna's divine emblem that could prevent them from being discovered by the witches' divinations. Now that their ice crystal had shattered, their location had been exposed, and there was no longer any value in remaining hidden.

"I will go ahead and stall them. You people hurry over as soon as possible!" The Fourth Grade Storm Sword Saint was decisive and immediately gave the order to attack.

He turned into a speeding tornado and charged down, hurrying toward the cave fifteen kilometers away with a speed that was unrecognizable to the eye.

The other elves either started running, transforming, or jumping onto their flying magical beasts and charged out of the cave with a series of battlecries.

…………

Fifteen kilometers away at the green dragon's den.

Greem and Uzzah stood upon the flying ship and could very clearly see everything that had happened on the peak of the snow mountain.

Seeing that everything was moving forward as prophecized by Alice, their anxieties and doubts were mildly calmed.

"Don't worry. Now that you have paid me, I will be certain to help you until the very end," A wicked smile flashed across Uzzah's sinister face, "As long as this flying ship is as effective as you described, I will help you stall that Fourth Grade Sword Saint. Hmph! A barbarian that only knows how to swing a blade. How could he possibly be a match for us noble adepts?"

"Then I'll leave it to Lady Uzzah!" Greem smiled when he heard this. He then lifted his leg and lightly stomped on the flying ship.

Several magical messages were transmitted into the flying ship, and this giant metallic monster floating in the sky started to descend rapidly. It crushed the surrounding trees and smashed pieces of rock off the tall mountains.

The flying ship did not flee but instead started to descend and seal off the entrance to the den with its massive hull.

The Fourth Grade Sword Saint who was using Windwalking to hurry to the den was shocked. A solemn expression appeared in his calm and intimidating eyes.

That wasn't right. Something had to be off when things were going against their usual expectations!

The strongest one amongst these adepts was no more than an intermediate Third Grade. Why were they not trying to escape when they saw the elves running at them? Why were they fortifying themselves on the spot instead? Could there be something wrong with the situation?

Before he could put in more thought, a massive tide of black mist suddenly surged out of the half-exposed hull of the metallic ship and quickly formed into the shape of a middle-aged witch with a sinister look and a black staff in her hand.

The Fourth Grade Storm Sword Saint Agassi slowly stopped as he sensed the sinister and chilling aura. He looked at this six-meter-tall Dark Witch with an expression of shock and terror, even as he hovered in the air on an oak branch.

With his sensitive instincts, Agassi could clearly feel that this odd witch's grade was also Fourth Grade! Though the enemy's power was far too chaotic for him to determine if she was a beginner or intermediate, there was no denying that she was Fourth Grade.

Agassi couldn't believe this.

It didn't matter whether it was all the battles at the start or the holy decrees given to them by their gods. All these pointed to the fact that the enemy's most potent force was no more than a Third Grade Dark Witch.

If that was the case, then where had this Fourth Grade Dark Witch appear from?

Agassi couldn't help but howl from the bottom of his heart.