Age of Adepts

Only by facing calamities could a person truly grow!

At the edge of this lava ocean filled with infinite and copious fire energies, what Greem obtained was not only being able to gather the Fire element energy. His innate talent affinity to Fire element was like a stranded fish put back into the water, allowing him to sense the progress of his Inferno Body at every single second.

If not because deep in his mind, the real-time data transmitted by the Chip was refreshing the progress of his Inferno Body continuously, perhaps Greem would have long given up and back off from the lava ocean, as he couldn’t endure the severe pain that made him feel like he was being cooked by the raging flames.

Under the impact of an even more violent Fire element energies, the Inferno Body, which had stopped its progress since Greem had left the World of Deep Red in Underground Cave Region and had been stuck in the progress of 17%, started to skyrocket, placing him in both a state of pain and of joy!

18%……

19%……

20%……

……

……

The strengthening of his Fire element innate talent had also spurred the self-evolution of his corporeal body. Under the scrubbing from the raging Fire element energy, some internal organs, flesh and tissues that didn’t match with his Fire element innate talent were baked into coke and incinerated into ashes. Meanwhile, with the support of the powerful energy, new body parts had quickly regenerated, replacing the position of those old ones.

Originally, this was a chaotic and disorderly process, and was basically carried out automatically by body instincts. However, with the refine control the Chip had over the body, Greem was able to overcome the severe pain he felt on his body, and focus his spirit on the balance between the speed of the Fire element energy entering his body and the speed of regeneration on his body parts.

No doubt having both Spirit and body evolving at the same time was a good thing, but it had to be controlled to an appropriate rate. Without a strong Physique, no ordinary apprentice could withstand this overly violent modification of body. Hence, only after soaking his body in the lava ocean for two minutes, after the progress of Inferno Body increased from 17% to 23%, Greem had no choice but to grit his teeth and get out.

When he climbed out to the shore filled with rubble, the boiling hot half-molten lava was rolling off his body, making the volcanic rocks underneath his feet burn and produce sizzling noises. When all the lava left his body, an ugly body of black and red was revealed.

The darkened part was his skin that had turned into coke and started to peel off within the flames of frightening temperatures. The red part was his newly regenerated flesh, the crimson tissue was exposed directly under the high temperature and heat, but clearly, they possessed a higher resistance and endurance toward the deadly fire.

Though, the body in the past was part of Greem, but obviously, it wasn’t fitted perfectly for his Fire element energy. Now, after going through the modification as the result of having copious Fire element energy injected into his body, together with the help from his powerful flesh-regeneration ability, it had formed into a brand new body that perfectly matched with his innate ability.

However, a body modification like this couldn’t be completed in one go!

After all, Greem’s Physique was still very weak. Doing it in one go would be an overly brutal process, and it was very easy for the balance of the body to collapse. That was why he only scratched the surface of it. When the Chip detected his body had reached the limit of his endurance, it immediately gave him the warning, which led him to halt the cultivation of Inferno Body at once.

Right at this very moment, his body looked slimmer than before, however, it had become dapper. Nevertheless, compared to the glorious look on the outside, all his internal organs, bones and tendons were now fully filled with cracks and wounds of different sizes. Before he could fix all these injuries, he had to temporarily stop this overly violent body modification.

He had given himself a brief moment to rest at the shore, once he finally got used to this body, Greem put on his clothes, squeezed into one of the lava tunnels in the wall without looking back.

At a place half an hour distance from the lava ocean, Greem found himself a half-isolated lava cave. After modifying it slightly, he had turned it into his temporary base camp. Perhaps, within this period of time, he would have to dwell here days and nights, waiting patiently for his body to recover.

He summoned a Rock Snake, using its thick body to block off the only entrance to the cave. With that, he wouldn’t have to worry about enemies sneaking up on him when he was sleeping. After all, the Rock Snake’s body was made up of rock, as long as it coiled up its body, and reduced the frequency of its consciousness, it could disguise itself well as a rock wall.

Greem took out a small pile of Fire Stones and placed them inside a small hole located at the center of the cave, using them as his fuel, he started to cook a magical energy meal set himself. As his ingredients were the flesh of a Fire element creature, it only required a simple roasting. After he was done, Greem immediately wolfed down to heal his hunger.

It was worth to mention, following the improvement of his Physique and Strength, those meats of demon beast which were overly tough and sour to him in the past, had become one of the recipes of his diet. Though every time after he finished eating them, his cheek would hurt for quite a long time. However, whenever he sensed the comfortable energy slowly released inside of his body, he thought that the torture wasn’t that hard to endure at all!

When he finished eating the magical energy meal set, Greem poured another gallon of clean water into his mouth, only then he satisfyingly laid down on a soft blanket placed beside and went into deep slumber. This time, he didn’t perform his meditation. His broken body could no longer withstand any more changes, and only the soundest sleep would bring him into the state of worried-free, which was the thing he needed the most now!

While indulging in a sound sleep, little to his knowledge, right at this moment, within the lava ocean, something related to him was happening.

Not knowing which time of the day, an extremely bizarre battleship had drifted into this lava ocean.

Why was it described as bizarre? Because this battleship was modified from a floating rocky island. The rugged and rough rocks made the ship look tattered. There weren’t any sails on the ship, and vaguely, there were some tall and burly figures onboard.

It was a group of tall rock men that looked rather like rock golems. Their bodies were entirely pieced up together with granite of high hardness. Numerous large cracks could be found on the surface of their bodies which stood four-meters-tall, high-temperature flames could be seen leaking from these cracks, forming into balls of frightening flames which took different colors.

For those adults, the flames protecting their bodies were the color of gold, while the juveniles had a crimson color flame.

They had the body and limbs that looked exactly like those of a human, and had rugged heads. However, their facial features weren’t arranged in a regular and neat pattern like those on a human’s, but more like messily placed rock formations.

At the position of their eyes were two deep holes, vaguely, one could see the gleams of magical gemstone shining from them. Their nose and ears looked exactly like black beehives, while their mouth was simply large rifts that stretched across their faces. If they were fully opened, they could easily swallow a wild boar in one bite.

This mysterious battleship was swiftly sailing through the sticky molten lava, avoiding those big chunks of floating islands on its way. As for those smaller rocks, they simply crushed through them, smashing them into pieces and turning them into debris that floated on the surface of the lava ocean.

From time to time, the tall giants on the ship would bow down on the side of the ship, poking their large palm into the high-temperature lava, and scoop up one after another magical gemstone or metal ore that emitted a unique element rhythms.

For these guardians who were patrolling the lava ocean, not all things could meet the fancy of their eyes. Whenever they scooped up one object, they would bring it in front of their face and give it a careful examination and would only toss those with excellent colors into ship’s deck. The entire deck of the massive battleship had been fully filled with a thick layer of war trophies.

As for those magical gemstones or metal ores of ordinary colors, the tall giants would toss them back into the lava ocean, let them eventually melt down and became part of the vast lava ocean.

The lava ocean was like a super gigantic furnace, sinking all the waste and sediment to the bottom, yet pushing the most beautiful treasures to the surface, waiting for the arrival of these Sons of the Flaming Ocean.

As the Sons of the Flaming Ocean who had lived their entire lives in this world of volcano, the Molten Giants were the natural rulers of this realm. Not only did each of them possess a formidable overall strength individually, each also had a high intelligence and relatively complicated social structure.

There were seven Molten Giants onboard this battleship of lava rock. Two of them were at Adept level, while five were at Pseudo-Adept level. This also meant that the basic deployment for a lava rock battleship was two adults and five juveniles.

The nest of these Molten Giants was located on a ring-shaped reef at the heart of this lava ocean. In order to avoid the intrusion of human Adepts, they had organized four to five patrol teams who spent all day patrolling this vast lava ocean.

During ordinary times, when the volcano was at its erupting phase, their life would be rather calm and peaceful. But once the volcano entered its resting phase and the waterline in the lava ocean reduced, numerous tunnels that led to their nest would be exposed. And whenever this period of the year arrived, it was also the time those human Adepts sent their minions into this world of volcano.

Those countless Fire element creatures found at the outer perimeter were actually intentionally driven out by the Molten Giants, to use as the cannon fodder to block off the path of Apprentice Adepts. But there were many times, some fearful humans would still intrude into their home, stealing the supreme quality delicacies they had gathered laboriously (Supreme Fire Diamonds), and killing their juveniles that hadn’t reach their mature phase.

Hence, whenever the resting phase of the volcano arrived, it was also the time when these Molten Giants underwent a lot of stress, as it was the dangerous period when they would increase the frequency of patrol.

But for this time, when this lava rock battleship was slowly sailing forward along the shore of the lava ocean, a tall Molten Giant, who was standing at the bow of the ship and kept sniffing with its nose, before suddenly letting out a loud roar.

“Halt… halt… I can smell a human! Quickly stop the ship and check it out!”

With the work put in together by all Molten Giants, the lava rock battleship stopped near a pile of rocks on the bank.

A few tall, heavy figures jumped straight onto the shore, starting to seek the trace of the scent left over by a human and any other clues.

Soon, the place where Greem dove into the ocean and the spot where he hid his clothes were identified by them.

“Arghol, it looks like some human had intruded into our world again! What should we do now?” In a low, muffled voice, a juvenile Molten Giant asked.

One of the adult Molten Giants was seen touching its chin with its large palm. A pondering expression emerged on its face. Finally, in a resolute manner, it said, “Send someone and report this to the Elder, ask the elder to send more help here. Three of us will stay here and search for traces of that human. Since he could bypass the blockade of Fire Beasts in such a short amount of time, he is surely a guy with bad intentions. We can’t allow him to keep wandering in our world!”

Another adult Molten Giant agreed, so he said, “Then let me bring two little ones and bear the task! It had been many years since those human Adepts invaded the lava ocean, and this time, it is highly possible he is just an Apprentice Adept. I can handle an intruder like this!”

After obtained the approval from Arghol, the leader of this group of Molten Giants, the second adult Molten Giant raised its flaming arm in the air, with a soft voice, it read, “In the name of the Mighty Lord of Lava Rock, my servants, awake now!”

Following with its loud roar, not far away from them, the lava ocean started to roll and rock violently, over thirty strong and vigorous Lava Hounds made their debut by squeezing out from the surface of the lava ocean, and gathering in front of the Molten Giant.

“Go now, my servants, and help me find that damn human!”

Upon hearing the command from this Son of the Flaming Ocean, these Lava Hounds threw their heads back and let out loud and sharp howls, pressing forward and sprinting into the complex lava tunnels.

Without Greem’s knowledge and sense, a great hunt targeted at him had begun!