Age of Adepts

The inner ocean, which was enclosed by the Ring-shaped Island, covered an area of five miles in a straight line. While Nimr stood at the edge of its own island, it could barely see the outline of the island to its opposite. It threw its glance over to the islands one after another and could see the busy figures of its clan members everywhere, yet it saw more juveniles who were swimming in the inner lava ocean, playing and chasing with each other. Though it was a little bit noisy, it actually made the clan look more lively and full of energy.

Right as it was about to shut its eyes, trying to sense the possible direction where the danger might come from, far at the Southeast border of the Ring-shaped Island, an unprecedented explosion suddenly broke out. A rock wall of nearly one hundred meters in circumference shattered into pieces, shooting countless rocks fragments and debris like a shower into the lava ocean and causing a massive flame and dust pillar to rise up.

Nimr sprinted with big steps. One after another floating island flitted across under its feet. In less than fifteen minutes, it had arrived at the floating island located nearest to the explosion. Standing at the edge of the floating island, half of its body was submerged in the boiling hot lava. Using its right palm that was as large as a coach, it scooped up a huge pool of molten lava and poured it onto its body, while reciting a series of profound, obscure and strange incantations. After finished with that, an enormous Eye of the Flame appeared right in front of it.

“The mighty Spirit of Fire, please show me what happened at that place?” Using its deep and hoarse voice, Nimr spoke out its request.

Supported by the powerful Fire element energy, the Eye of the Flame trembled, soon, the scene located dozens of miles away was projected in front of it.

“These damn intruders! It must be them who are destroying our home and profaning our holy ocean! Elders, follow me to banish them from our land!”

Nearly one hundred strong giant fighters saw the scene as well, and the air filled with their furious roars. After greeting each other, they quickly boarded one after another primitive looking lava rock battleship and sailed towards the place of the explosion at top speed.

Elder Nimr was controlling the Eye of the Flame and kept watchful eyes on any activities happening in the region afar. Though there was a huge commotion, but it just couldn’t find any traces of the intruder. This… no doubt had made Elder Nimr more worried!

What exactly did these intruders want? Could it be merely an act of vandalism?

With the understanding Nimr had toward those Human Adepts, regardless of what they did, they were all well-targeted with hidden motives. It was rare that they would meaninglessly destroy something, just to vent their anger!

If their true motive wasn’t to destroy the lava ocean, then…

A shudder struck Elder Nimr’s mind. It turned around and roared at the remaining clan members, “I want a total locked down on the entire island! All adult giants must act right now…”

Before it could finish its word, a huge dust pillar suddenly arose from an island located at the Northwest corner of the Ring-shaped Island, as if something with a gigantic body was rolling on the ground and wreaking havoc.

That island… that island was their clan graveyard!

“Damn it, those foul humans should be devoured by the Spirit of the Flames, how dare they make trouble at the place where our ancestors are sleeping! Quick… hurry up… I want everyone to go there right now!”

Hearing the roar of their Elder, all the remaining Molten Giants immediately strode in the direction of the graveyard in top speed. At the same time, some giants who possessed the ability of Fire Teleportation were even seen slightly squatting down and immediately disappeared within a towering fiery explosion. And a moment later, at a distance of two to three hundred meters, a similar fire pillar appeared, revealing the body of the same giant.

After pausing for four, five seconds, once the surrounding Fire Elementiums was back in its control, the giant would initiate Fire Teleportation once again, bringing it three hundred meters closer to the destination.

Although Molten Giants owned an intrepid body and physique, agility was never their strong point. Those giants who possessed the ability of Fire Teleportation could still put out a considerable speed, as each time when their body flickered and reappeared, they always drew themselves closer to the island destination. Yet, those ordinary giants could only run past island after island using their feet, causing a great commotion along their way.

And, right at this very same moment, Greem’s eyes shined brightly, while busily looting the mighty war trophies that he dared not imagine in the past.

This was an island with an irregular shape that occupied nearly one hundred acres of land. The shore of the island was fully filled with rocky peaks and stone pillars arranged in a crisscrossing pattern. On the empty field within the island, nearly forty dead bodies of Molten Giants who had completely solidified into stone statue were seen standing quietly.

If it was according to Greem’s initial plan, he would come to this island stealthily without alerting anybody. But too bad, though the plan was well-designed, when he finally swam his way to this graveyard of giants, he realized that it was extremely difficult to harvest everything here without making any noise.

When alive, these Molten Giants had been known for the hardness and high-density of their bodies. After they died, the Fire Elementiums inside of their body would fade away, and their conscious core would be tightly trapped inside of the stone statue who served like a super thick armor. These rocks were the toughest steel rocks or granites found in the underground, and they even mixed with Black Iron, Wrought Gold, and Mithril which had the hardness beyond one’s imagination.

Not only a stone armor like this possessed a fearful strength in physical defense, it also carried an excellent resistance against magic spells. Hence, since Greem came to the island stealthily, he had broken three enchanted longswords but failed to even crack a stone statue.

Looking at the precious treasures that spread out everywhere over the hills and dales, yet unable to make them his, had nearly driven Greem insane!

Also, the practical environment didn’t allow him to spend a long time to slowly chisel away the hard shell of the giant. Once those giants who went out patrolling returned after hearing the news, perhaps he, a mere Fire element Pseudo-Adept, would be skinned alive and swallowed by over three hundred giants.

Left with no alternatives, Greem summoned six Rock Snakes in one go, using their savageness to put out a show of ‘hit, slam, rob’ that shook the heaven and startled the earth in this graveyard of the giant. Six Rock Snakes pulled out all tricks in their bag, either using their rock solid body to crazily slam, or coiled up a stone statue and kept smashing it onto the ground. In short, they resorted to the most violent methods they had and used the craziest manner to achieve their goal!

So, the huge dust pillar Elder Nimr saw just now, was actually the result of the violent actions put out by the team of Rock Snakes!

While directing the Rock Snakes to restlessly destroy the dead bodies of the giants, Greem kept running his eyes nervously at the surroundings.

Due to the fact that this island was the clan graveyard, rarely anyone chose to live on the surrounding islands. Also, the massive explosion that happened previously had attracted most of the giants to the other side of the Ring-shaped Island. Hence for time being, this place was still considered safe.

However, following the huge dust clouds and noise caused by the activities of Rock Snakes, the figures of giants who were running wildly at top speed could now be seen at the far side of the Ring-shaped Island. Yet that was not the most frightening part. A dozen of Molten Giants who stood over five meters tall were driving on flames that kept leaping up and approaching to the graveyard at incredible speeds.

It was an enormous Molten Giant with the height of seven meters that led the pursuit. The powerful Fire and Earth element energy contained within its body had reached to a dazzling stage that could blind anyone’s eyes just by staring into it.

Damn it, damn it… this was a Second Grade Molten Giant!

While calculating the enemy’s’ speed, Greem kept urging his minions of Rock Snakes to make the best use of their time and work harder. After all, for those who were eligible to enter the graveyard of giants, the weakest would also be the mighty existence of that Adept level and many of them were even Second Grade Molten Giants.

In a treasure vault like this, even if he spent one more second in it, and grabbed one more handful of treasures, it would become the mightiest opportunity for his future debut!

While throwing an examining look at the enemy’s besiege, Greem kept crazily slamming and smashing the rock statues. His heart was racing so fast it almost jumped out of his mouth. Even with his Physique, cold sweat started to exude from his palm and back.

“Beep…”

Upon hearing the dangerous warning tone sent out by the Chip in his mind, without the slightest hesitation, Greem turned around and jumped into the mouth of one of the Rock Snake, brought his dismantling team and dove into the lava ocean in lightning speed. Then, each of them simply fled into different directions on their own.

Naturally, the Rock Snake who carried Greem was the only one with all the war trophies. Once it entered the lava ocean, it immediately sunk deeper into the half-molten lava that hardly flowed, swaying its body and bolting toward the nearest escape route. Meanwhile, the other five Rock Snakes were swimming on the surface of the lava ocean, creating a huge uproar and fleeing in different directions.

A moment ago, it was a calm and peaceful world of flame; a moment later, it had transformed into an explosive ocean that rocked violently.

When they were hiding inside the graveyard of giants, these Molten Giants dared not attack them using violent long-range abilities, fearing that they might destroy this holy island of theirs. But once they left the island, these Molten Giants wouldn’t be easy with them anymore. While getting closer to them in high-speed, they kept crazily launching long-range Fire element abilities to attack at the Rock Snakes.

Flaming Storm!

Lava Flare!

Fire Stone Shower!

Hellfire Pulse!

……

……

One after another Fire element abilities of massive power had stirred the lava ocean into a rocking sea of fire, and a violent explosion of energies immediately swept across the entire space. Elementium storm visible to naked eyes quickly spread out on the surface of the lava ocean and soon covered all Rock Snakes who were fleeing.

Though a Rock Snake had a thick and large body and its Strength and Physique was considered superb among all element golems, when it was facing a tyrannical and brutal attack that saturated every inch of the space like this, the body made up of hard rocks still melted like hot wax.

The bodies of two Rock Snakes were broken into half from the middle and were swept up into the sky by the Elementium storm like a whirlwind that swept away scattered clouds. The broken bodies flew high up above the sea of fire. And in next moment, more raging energies had rolled them up like a mat.

At the same time, though the bodies of the other three remaining Rock Snakes were badly damaged as well, they still desperately fled towards the outside of the storm. However, before they could run to a far enough distance, a series of fire explosion came into the scene, which brought a Molten Giant who had a tall and mighty body beside them. Upon making its debut, it raised its huge stone fist and simply punched the Rock Snakes’ bodies.

Sensing the conscious nodes that died off one after another on his back, Greem’s heart was pounding violently. He had completed half of his plan, and what was left would be how he could make his escape!

In the beginning, Greem’s existence wasn’t noticed by any of the Molten Giants. But following the annihilation of the Rock Snakes and the help from its Fire Sense, Elder Nimr who possessed a formidable overall strength had finally discovered the Rock Snake that had hid deep inside the lava ocean and was fleeing at top speed.

But right at this moment, Greem had fled some seven miles away.

The miserable situation of their clan graveyard had completely infuriated this group of Molten Giants. Whether they were sailing on lava rock battleship or swimming in the lava ocean, they used all their efforts to chase Greem. In addition to that, each giant had summoned a large group of Fire element creatures and organized them into an army of fire that consisted of an insane number of soldiers, vowing that they would capture the foul human.

But too bad, due to the disadvantage in their speed, they were extremely furious and helpless at the same time.

The little human thief who had robbed their clan graveyard, had smoothly escaped the lava ocean and rampaged his way towards the outer perimeter of the volcano world.

The greatly angered giants no longer stayed within the restraints of the contract they had signed with the Human Adepts. Riding on the rocking lava they stormed into the lava tunnels, following that little human thief and pushing their way to the upper level of the volcano. Yet, on this route, there were many human apprentices who came here for training, and was laboriously searching for magical gemstones and underground materials that had been washed up to the upper level by the lava.

As the result of being caught unprepared, these apprentices had suffered a great deal.

A dozen of Advanced Apprentices failed to escape in time and were killed by the besiegement of Fire element creatures who flooded them like a tsunami. The other apprentices put out every single skill and approach they knew and only managed to miserably escape this world of volcano which had gone on a rampage.