Alice had decisively won in her battle against First Witch of Fate Maysa. Naturally, she had obtained a tremendous amount of Fate power feedback. Meanwhile, having helped the Crimson Clan defeat the vastly superior Fabres Clan had also allowed her to gain elementary proficiency over the veins of the world's development. Thus, it wasn't at all surprising that she had advanced so quickly.
This improvement allowed her to catch up and surpa.s.s Mary and Oliven, becoming the second most powerful authority figure within the Crimson Clan, second only to Greem.
However, Mary had obtained a large amount of high-quality blood from powerful individuals. As long as she successfully absorbed and a.s.similated the blood into her power, she should quickly advance by one to two minor grades. As such, it wasn't entirely obvious who would hold the seat of second-in-command within the Crimson Clan yet.
While the three leaders of the Crimson Clan were chasing after each other and trying their best to improve themselves, most of the other Crimson adepts were also desperately following in the steps of the clan.
In the twelve years that came after the victory over the Fabres Clan and the domination of the Ailovis Region, many of the Crimson adepts slowly started advancing into Second Grade adepts due to the tremendous amount of adept resources and the guidance sent their way.
What used to be a pathetic squad of no more than a few adepts had now developed into an impressive and intimidating army.
Peak Second Grade: Blood Knight Soros.
Advanced Second Grade: Dragonborn Zacha, Goblin Tigule, Split Brain Gru, Bug Adept Billis.
Intermediate Second Grade: Blood Knight Windsor, Blood Elf Mage Isa, Blood Elf Magic Archer Lilia, Blood Elf Shapes.h.i.+fter Spalla, Berserk Witch Sofia
Beginner Second Grade: Fire Dragon Adept Meryl, Poison Adept Gargamel, Mystique Emelia, Old Fox Vanlier, Brutalblood Commander Drusilla La Salle, Half-Serpent Goblin Snorlax, Goblin Magical Mechanic Locke, Magical Goblin Leader Gonga, Mechanical Princess Vanessa, Icelady Snowlotus.
Vanlier should not have had the talent or power to be one of the clan's Second Grades. However, out of consideration for his dedicated service to the clan and its development, Mary used her powers as his blood master and forcibly promoted him into a Second Grade vampire.
At the same time, Peak Second Grade Blood Knight Soros was also promoted in the same fas.h.i.+on.
He was a talented individual to begin with, and perhaps the one individual among the vampires whose consciousness and vampire bloodline was best combined. To increase the number of capable subordinates beside her, Mary exhausted much of her origin blood to promote Soros from Peak Second Grade to Beginner Third Grade.
Mary even had to take a long, six-month sleep due to this!
The Crimson Clan could be considered as having plenty of adepts of Second Grade and below now.
Even the veterans like Wind Adept Deserra, Medusa Dana, Manticore Charon, and the others had all reached Peak or Advanced First Grade. They were getting closer and closer to Second Grade.
There were also plenty of new faces among the First Grade adepts.
In this group of over one hundred and twenty adepts, ten percent were vampires, twenty percent were goblin magical-mechanics, and the rest were all human adepts. Of course, apart from the official adepts, there were also over two hundred and seventy goblin machinist-sorcerers in the clan.
They might not have the long lives and vast knowledge of real adepts, but they had violent combat prowess comparable to an average First Grade adept. To be fair and equal, the Crimson Clan provided them with the treatment and status of official adepts.
Apart from the goblin machinist-sorcerers, there was also a group of people within the Crimson Clan with relatively unique status. They were the magical goblins!
They numbered between seventy to ninety individuals and were goblin engineers and technicians that spent their days working inside the magical golem dragon. Due to long-term exposure to the magical energy emitted from the golem dragon, they had become fundamentally different from ordinary goblins. Still, they couldn't quite be considered a subspecies or different race yet.
Compared to an ordinary goblin, they were more rash and violent. They were also bigger and had greater strength. Visible magical patterns had even appeared on their green bodies.
These magical patterns had the unique effect of providing them with an enhancement similar to a Berserking Spell.
In a fair duel, a magical goblin could easily defeat three to five ordinary goblins.
One day, these magical goblins might split off from the goblin faction and become a faction of magical creatures that was entirely different from the goblins.
…………
Year 32,902 of the Era of Adepts. The seventh day of the sixth month of the year.
Gargamel walked down a vast and empty corridor alone. The starlight stone embedded on both sides of the hall lit up one by one, illuminating his path.
Finally, at the end of the long corridor, what appeared before him was the incredibly familiar Molten Hall. At the entrance of the Molten Hall, two incredibly ma.s.sive magical machines walked out of the holes in the stone wall with heavy steps. They stared at Gargamel with the weird compound eyes on their heads.
Lights of various colors flickered in the eyes of the machines, seemingly confirming Gargamel's ident.i.ty.
"Welcome to Fire Throne, Sir Gargamel. Lord Greem wishes for you to wait at the third level of the tower for now. He will meet you once he finishes with his experiment." The ma.s.sive magical machine said with a strange metallic voice. It then returned to the hole in the wall and stopped moving entirely.
A party of slightly smaller magical machines led Gargamel through the Molten Hall. They formed a neat line, escorted Gargamel to the entrance of Fire Throne, and turned to leave. Waiting here for him were two beautiful and curvaceous succubi.
Ever since Greem returned from the otherworld he had been in, and beaten the Fourth Grade body-refining adept in a mighty show of force, the Crimson Clan had entered a phase of rapid development. Fire Throne might be a decent tower, but it was a small tower after all. It could not host all the members of the Crimson Clan, whose number had swelled to several times their former size.
As such, by order of the clan leader, a new, large adept's tower was constructed in the core region of Ailovis. All the clan members were also relocated to that tower. Fire Throne, the origin of the clan, then became Greem's personal s.p.a.ce, no longer opened to the outside world.
Both Gargamel and Meryl almost entirely managed daily matters.
When they ran into some issue where a decision was difficult, they would report to Lady Mary or Lady Alice to ask for their opinions.
It was only when it came to important matters that would affect the very fate of the Crimson Clan that they would come to Fire Throne to take an audience to their clan leader so that he could make the final decision.
The reason Gargamel had hurried here today was that the incident at hand was a significant event that involved a Fourth Grade adept. Otherwise, he wouldn't ever dare disturb the lord clan leader.
"Hehe, what a young and handsome man. Amy's overjoyed to be able to serve you!" The eyes of one of the two succubi flickered as she smiled sweetly at Gargamel, like a girl with a crush.
Having consumed the bloodline-purification potion two times over the years, Gargamel's serpentine bloodline had become increasingly pure and was manifesting more prominently. At this point, he no longer looked like a human adept. Instead, he was a powerful bloodline adept with a serpentine head.
If Gargamel were to take off his robe, one would see that he had dark green scales all over his body. These scales were smooth but gleamed with a radiance that hinted at the potent magical power it contained. It could defend against attacks from First Grade magical weapons while also possessing tremendous magic resistance.
Meanwhile, his hands and legs had devolved to various extents. They looked like branches that had lost all nourishment from the tree, skinny and withered. From a distance, they almost looked like slender chicken claws.
However, the overwhelming serpentine bloodline within him caused him to brim with life. His intimidating jade green eyes exuded an oppressive aura of cruelty and viciousness whenever they blinked.
Gargamel had now reached Advanced Second Grade. For the two First Grade succubi before him, he was as fearsome and vicious as a monster.
Gargamel looked at the succubi flaunting her natural Charm ability and hissed, "Little girl, as long as you aren't worried that I'll eat you out of some sudden hunger, you are free to visit me tonight. Kehkehkehe."
There was no need to put on a vicious expression. Gargamel's terrifying appearance and sinister aura alone were enough to scare the succubi pale. She fell silent and didn't dare to probe any further.
The other succubus had clearly been around longer and knew the rules better. She gently said, "Lord Gargamel, the master is still working in the laboratory. You can wait in the hall on the third level first. Please follow me!"
The succubi led Gargamel towards a floating disc that would lead to the third level.
The floating stone disc was made out of red ochre found in the Eisent Region. There were plenty of strange magical patterns on the stone, even without any magical treatments or processing.
The three people got onto the disc. The succubi touched the disc somewhere, and powerful magical energy surged into it. The red-ochre floating disc turned translucent and glowed with a faint magical radiance.
It then slowly took flight, carrying the three people to the upper levels of the tower.
Gargamel's eyes gleamed when he pa.s.sed by the second level.
Tremendous changes had been made to the floor. Several semi-translucent magical barriers separated this floor of the tower into a dozen ma.s.sive living areas. Each living area contained strange creatures of odd appearances, and the areas they lived in each had a unique environment.
Hot and dry deserts, snowy plains, flaming volcanoes, dark and humid swamps; there were all sorts of environments, each tailored with care and finesse. It was evident that the creator had spent a lot on the project and possessed a tremendous understanding of the arcane arts.
The clan leader's power had increased yet again!
