Age of Adepts

One month later.

After traversing many rough mountains and hills, Greem's party of six finally arrived at the Burning Plains they had heard so much about.

The entire world changed before their eyes when they climbed across one steep mountain.

The brilliant sun in the sky was covered beneath a layer of dark gray mist; only a sullen red wheel could vaguely be seen.

However, the most eye-catching feature of the area wasn't its sky or the ever-present heat waves, but the geography.

When one looked into the distance, they wouldn't be able to find any other color apart from red. There were dark red lands and the crimson rocks. A strange power had twisted this once beautiful mountain into a burning land with almost no life.

Fissures and lava pools of various sizes were everywhere. The large-scale eruptions of underground volcanoes over the years had turned all the rocks here into magma, forever altering the geography of the land. The mighty volcanoes, shattered mountains, and jagged magma fields impressed all outsiders with the destructiveness of nature!

A massive volcano was still spitting out thick black smoke and volcanic ash in the distance at the very limits of the adepts' range of sight. Occasionally, some blazing piece of volcanic rock would fly out of the volcano and crash somewhere, leaving a trail of black smoke in the air.

A rolling river of lava meandered at the foot of the volcano, where many elementium creatures could be seen frolicking about.

Greem looked away from the volcano and returned his gaze to the earth beneath him.

His thick boots pressed against the ground and crushed the dirt. It could no longer be called earth. Not a single patch of moist soil could be seen. The only things present were crumbling pieces of rock and stone.

[Beep. Environment probe data completed.

[Main components of the air are as follows: 63% nitrogen, 23% oxygen, 12% carbon dioxide, 0.8%methane,...

[Air temperature: 46 degrees Celcius.

[The air contains large amounts of toxic and harmful substances that are hazardous to the human body.

[Host's Physique is compatible with the current environment. Body cell activity has increased, elementium sensitivity has increased, Spirit and stamina regeneration slightly increased.]

……

Greem couldn't help but let out a silent sigh as he looked at the data compiled by the Chip. This place was only the outer area of the Burning Plains, yet the temperature was already forty-six degrees. If they were to press on into the center of the Burning Plains, the temperature there would probably exceed the thermometer!

If Greem were an ordinary person, just the current environment would be enough to kill him a thousand times over. There was no need to even talk about dragonslaying. He would probably be long dead before he could see a single hair of the dragon.

However, Greem felt a sense of relaxation and freedom that permeated his body upon arriving in this place. Those hot winds and that maddening heat were not only any threat to him, but they were even rejuvenating his spirits and causing the blood in his body to become vigorous.

A light click rang out as the pebble by Greem's feet rolled away. A half-meter long miniature fire lizard emerged from beneath the ground and stared at the adepts briefly before scurrying away.

"Let's go. There are still two hundred kilometers from here to the fire dragon's den. We need to hurry up!" Greem quickly surveyed his surroundings and led his party toward the towering volcano in the distance.

Mary, Oliven, and Billis were all draped in thick black cloaks. Their physical features were well-hidden as they silently followed Greem into the distance.

A good half of Goblin Tigule's long robe dragged behind him due to his short stature, rustling as it scraped across the ground. Dragonborn Zacha's massive body couldn't be hidden either. He decided to toss away his cape and march at the end of the group in his shining armor of wind indurium. He held his lightning spear in one hand and the Frozen Mallet in the other.

Stealth was no longer useful now that they were here.

At any rate, their party was powerful enough to hold their own even in a frontal confrontation against that Second Grade fire dragon. Thus, no one expended any effort to hide and instead made a beeline straight for that impressively large volcano.

After all, the rendezvous point they had agreed upon with Vanlier was there!

The Burning Plains might have looked harsh and empty, but there were plenty of fire beasts and elementium creatures hiding all over.

When Greem and his party stepped on the sand and marched forward, greedy and burning gazes looked upon them through the cracks in the crimson rocks and shadows of massive magma boulders, locking onto the adepts and refusing to leave.

Instinctively, these creatures could sense a harsh and unforgiving aura around the adepts. They didn't dare to attack recklessly. That said, their instincts as bloodthirsty creatures wouldn't allow them to let such rare fresh meat slip away from their mouths.

As Greem's party slowly progressed, they could see signs of hordes of fire creatures around them.

Once Greem and the adepts entered the depths of the Burning Plains, they ran into the first group of ignorant fools that dared to stop them on their path.

It was a patrol group of ten Blackstone Orcs!

Blackstone Orcs were a small branch of the massive orc bloodline.

They were all muscular and bulky individuals with intimidating gaits and even more threatening looks.

Due to the lack of wood or any such produce in the Burning Plains, everything that the orcs wore on them was special leather armor that they had skinned from fire creatures. Their weapons were also varied and differed from individual to individual.

Some had crude stone sticks, and some had bone spikes they had snapped off the body of some other large creature. Of course, most of them were equipped with fearsome metal hammers or large clubs with exaggerated designs.

Every orc warrior stood at two meters tall, with broad chests, thick waists, and muscles that seemed forged from iron. They had large mouths, fangs, and had odd runes painted on their faces with red dye. Their massive nose rings jingled from their heavy breaths.

The leading orc smashed his massive warhammer in front of the adepts and blocked their path.

His fierce eyes swept across this unique party and finally fell upon the dragonborn at the rear.

"Hey, big one; which lord do you serve? Why'd you come to our place?"

This orc captain was speaking in traditional orcish, but a few odd Dragontongue pronunciations had been used, making for a bizarre-sounding sentence. However, Greem and the others didn't seem to care. Instead, they glared sinisterly at these orcs from underneath the shadows of their hoods, as if they were looking at dead people.

The average level of these orcs was no more than pseudo-adept level. That said, each and every one of them had the bodily strength of a First Grade body-refining adept. Moreover, staying inside the Burning Plains for an extended period of time had also caused their bodies to develop fire resistance far stronger than ordinary creatures.

However, this 'meager' strength was entirely insignificant before Greem's party!

"Who's going?" Greem looked at these pathetic pseudo-adept level fools strutting in front of him. He smiled chillingly and secretly sent mental messages to everyone.

Oliven remained unmoving.

Tigule gripped the crystal golem talisman dangling on his chest, wondering if he should let out the Goblin Shredder now. Dragonborn Zacha had yet to take a step or speak before Mary laughed and struck.

Red shadows flashed all over the place.

Mary took off her hood and revealed her pretty face. A large and steaming heart pulsed in the right hand she had extended from under her cloak.

The orc captain's eyes were wide open, staring unbelievably at the still-beating heart the opponent was holding in her hand. It was a long time later before he remembered to look down and examine his chest, only to see a massive hole and a fountain of blood where it once was.

That heart was his.

This thought hadn't entirely formed in his mind when the orc captain roared, dropped his weapon, and collapsed heavily to the ground.

Mary lifted the orc heart and raised her hand as if to down an entire glass of wine in a single go. She immediately started spitting out the blood and tossed the heart away as far as she could.

"These orcs' blood is foul. Dammit! They deserve to die!" A stern look flashed in her crimson eyes, "Billis, I'll leave these fellows all to you! "

The cloaked bug adept acknowledged Mary's words and stepped forward. He waved his loose sleeve as a massive swarm of insects surged outward, turning into ten black arrows and shooting toward every single orc.

The orc warriors roared upon seeing this and raised their weapons to cut these black arrows into pieces. However, the arrows immediately scattered and turned into swarms of black insects, lunging at the orcs faces and bodies.

In the blink of an eye, all nine orc warriors and the fallen orc captain were completely covered in a layer of squirming black insects.

The orc warriors tossed away their weapons and used their large fists and palms to swat away at the insects on their bodies. They smashed several of the insects into pungent blood and pulp, but even more of them crawled into the orcs' bodies through their orifices or simply dug inside through the wounds they had inflicted.

The orc warriors roared and howled in agony. These swarm of black insects had actually devoured them alive!

Though everyone had seen this scene play out many times before, they still couldn't completely get used to it.

Slaughter was natural to adepts, and they weren't opposed to it. However, not every adept could accept making slaughter such a bloody and cruel affair. In particular, Tigule felt his stomach roll, and he frowned.

He would probably be gagging if he wasn't trying his best to hold it back!