Age of Adepts

However, a price like that was still acceptable.

After all, Greem had already scoured four dragon's dens clean. The resources and gemstones he had gained would be more than enough to support the construction of this new tower without any problems.

Moreover, he had already gathered the materials and resources required to forge the two set pieces of Fire Throne during this time. Greem would naturally need to take this opportunity to reorganize his resources and power.

Due to how remote the place was, there were no suitable stone materials for the construction of a tower, making it take as long as two months for this medium tower to be completed. To avoid trouble from the Coldwinter Witches, Alice specially sent Icelady Snowlotus over as the overseer.

One had to admit that the Silver Union had its own unique perspective on golem creations and tower construction. For the first month, the resource caravans they sent over continued without stopping, turning the cold and silent Icewind into a lively market.

The resources they had gone to such lengths to transport were all heavy stones and tower components that had undergone heavy processing. Meanwhile, the three Silver Union adepts commanded large groups of magical stone and metal statues along with construct golems to build the tower. In just a dozen days, they managed to erect an icy tower ninety meters in height and three hundred meters in diameter.

Indeed, to better match the environment and elementium traits of Icewind, the Silver Union adepts had recommended an ice tower to Greem. The outside of the tower was constructed with Icefrost Stone, a type of special material that could continuously strengthen itself by absorbing wandering ice elementium from the air.

That made it very well suited for Icewind.

It was because the area was at the northern border and its weather was always cold and dry. In the twelve months of a year, the temperature would only rise above zero degrees Celsius during the seventh and eighth months. It typically remained below negative twenty degrees for the remainder of the year.

With these favorable conditions in place, this tower's central defensive power should reach between four hundred and fifty to six hundred points, even without considering its magical defenses. If the tower's defensive systems were activated at a suitable time, the tower's defensive power could reach a shocking one thousand points.

Even a Third Grade adept could not harm the tower in the slightest, even without an adept of the same grade hosting the tower!

More importantly, as a medium-sized tower, it could control environmental changes within a radius of five kilometers. Of course, trying to achieve such a tremendous effect required an immense amount of energy exhaustion from the tower. It would very likely affect the other energy systems of the tower.

The original Fire Throne was only a small tower. It might have all the required magical facilities within it, but the number of facilities was limited. A fully functional alchemy lab needed to provide basic service to over two dozen adepts and a hundred adept apprentices simultaneously. Yet, any one of the major experiments of a high-grade adept could easily go on for one to two month.

This situation was not beneficial for the improvement of the clan adepts and the apprentices if it persisted!

With the appearance of this medium tower, this awkward situation finally changed for the better.

The wide and spacious apprentice hut allowed the apprentices to no longer be cramped up within their small stone rooms in groups of two or three. The expansion of the tower's space also gave adepts and apprentices more space to move about and conduct their activities.

The new clan book storage was also replenished with plenty of new books, most of them being new knowledge from other worlds. Of course, high-grade knowledge remained in the grasp of the clan. However, some enlightening basic knowledge and subjects had already been opened to all clan members.

Being able to obtain rare materials and otherworldly knowledge through the clan that couldn't be found outside, and having the privilege to purchase these items at a discount, was the most attractive part of being a clan adept!

Why else was it that every single apprentice adept tried their very best to become members of major adept clans? It was because of the welfare and privileges that wandering adepts and apprentices could never hope to get.

It was important to note that most apprentice adepts didn't have immense talents, nor did most of them come from wealthy and influential noble families. Even the slightest of discounts and privileges could mean less need to undertake risks and less need to participate in dangerous magical creature hunts or ruin explorations.

As an apprentice, without the protection of powerful magical equipment and the lack of sufficient defensive and offensive magic meant that the outcome of every single adventure rested in the hands of Lady Luck.

That was why adept clans with good benefits and plentiful resources were able to attract many apprentice adepts continually. And with sufficient apprentices, only then would the adept clans be able to select those with talent and potential for focused development.

A good adept cultivation system was the key for clans to establish themselves in the World of Adepts!

The Crimson Clan that Greem had established lacked in this particular aspect.

One had to admit, Greem's progressive development strategies had a massive impact on the Crimson Clan.

Looking across the entirety of the Crimson Clan, the only true Second Grade adepts were only Greem and Mary. Individuals like Tigule, who piloted the Goblin Shredder, or Dragon Devourer Oliven, were only outsiders with the strength of Second Grade in the end.

Meanwhile, Zacha, the blood knights, and the blood elves were only Second Grade servants of Greem and Mary. They could not be considered official adepts of the tower.

If one were to do a head count, they would find that the Crimson Clan's Second Grade lifeforms had outnumbered the number of First Grade adepts. The clan's future development was facing a dangerous situation of an overdeveloped head and an insufficiently grown base.

One could responsibly assert that ninety-nine percent of the Crimson Clan's strength rested with Greem and Mary. If anything happened to either of them, the clan's power would experience a destructive collapse.

Greem had been spending his past few years in endless conquest and slaughter, all for the sake of providing the clan's development with sufficient nutrients. Now that he had the Goblin Plane in one hand and a slowly expanding Lance in the other, with no significant operation planned, it was time for him to turn back and reorganize the clan's developmental frame.

The Goblin Plane was the first private plane of Greem's conquest. Meryl was currently stationed there, and there was no fear of any major revolt. Due to the lack of the necessary workforce for in-depth excavation, the Crimson Clan had left this plan's improvement to the Goblin Empire's development. The adepts only existed as supreme rulers behind the scenes.

After the intense quake that had affected the entirety of the Goblin Plane, the goblins had fully realized the massive difference between their power and the adepts' power. Though reluctant, they had no choice but to obediently become the slaves of the adepts and accept the rule of these otherworldly adepts.

Meanwhile, the most significant yield for the Crimson Clan from the Goblin Plan was its rich ore resources.

One had to admit, as a low-magic world, the Goblin Plane might be severely lacking in magical creatures and magical resources. However, the plane's metal and ore reserves were shockingly high.

The Crimson Clan, represented by Meryl, adopted a relatively gentle ruling method over the Goblin Empire. On the one hand, they transported large amounts of adept resources to treat the goblin nobles and indulge them in their luxurious lives, while on the other, they unfairly traded a massive number of metal ores and special alloys with the goblins in exchange for some adept resources.

The flying ship that had been destroyed in Faen had only been forged with the massive amounts of metal from the Goblin Plane. Judging from the current scale of trade between the Crimson Clan and the goblins, Greem would only need another six months to save enough resources to build a second flying ship.

Judging from the data from Meryl, the number of resources that the Crimson Clan could obtain from the Goblin Plane on an annual basis was worth as much as five hundred to eight hundred thousand magical crystals.

Of course, if the Crimson Clan were a bit more brutal and savage, they could easily double their profits from the Goblin Plane. Though if they did that, it would be hard to guarantee the order in the Goblin Plane.

If the goblins started trouble, the Crimson Clan would have to assign large groups of adepts to suppress and end the revolts. When that happened, the Goblin Plane would become an absolute sinkhole of war, dragging most of the clan's resources and military strength into its pull.

Given all these factors, such a choice was not a good one. Instead, the ruling order that Meryl had established was the most logical and effortless!

Meanwhile, Lance was Greem's biggest concern right now.

The magical resources and dragon resources there were so plentiful that it made him want to cry. But given the Crimson Clan's current strength, they could not devour the plane whole.

That was why, rather than the clan conquering Lance, it was better to think of it as the clan secretly establishing a forward base in Lance, while covertly hunting down low-grade dragons for profit.

Of course, the risk of hunting dragons was higher than simply reaping the profits of the Goblin Plane. Moreover, they couldn't kill too many dragons in a short period of time, or it would quickly draw the attention of the dragon lords.

However, the profits of a single success were immense!

Take for example the most populous member of Lance– the Second Grade dragons. A live dragon transported to the World of Adepts could easily sell for six hundred to eight hundred thousand magical crystals. If they ran into adepts that desperately needed dragons, then this price could easily double again.

Moreover, this was just the price of the dragon itself!

Don't forget, every single one of these dragons was a wealth-hoarding, treasure-collecting millionaire. If the entire nest was cleaned out, just the worldly wealth and treasures would exceed the worth of the dragon itself.

If appropriately managed, the profits of hunting a Second Grade dragon in Lance would be approximately two million magical crystals. However, half of these resources and wealth would have to be given out to the participating clan adepts. The clan itself could only gain a profit of a million magical crystals.

Even so, the plane profits of Lance were way higher than the low-magic Goblin Plane!

More importantly, it was only through Lance that Greem and the other adepts could obtain adept resources that could greatly benefit them. On the other hand, the Goblin Plane could only provide them with low-end metal reserves.