Age of Adepts

The consequence brought about by his reckless decision was obvious.

After the first potion, his Physique was only reduced by 0.85, but the second potion had brought it down by another 1.05. If Greem had taken the third potion, perhaps his Physique would’ve taken a nose dive of nearly two points.

After all, the parameters calculated by the Chip were just the digitized representation of his body’s attributes. All four major body attributes weren’t isolated but supported and influenced each other. For example, Spirit and Agility influenced the hitting accuracy of long range attack and the frequency of attacks. Spirit and Strength together influenced reflex and explosive force. Meanwhile, Physique was the foundation for all attributes. It worked with other attributes and influenced a person’s amount of health, their physical and elemental resistance, evasion, and many other aspects.

When Greem’s Physique dropped from 4.98 to 3.17, the reduction of two points not only lowered his health points, but also caused a decay to his entire life system.

At this moment, Greem felt as if his entire body was empty.

The feeling of emptiness and hunger brought by the quick decay of his Physique kept bugging him. It was a really uncomfortable feeling and made all his internal organs feel like they were being burnt by fire.

As he was left with no other option, and temporary had no strength to stand up, Greem reached his hand to a small copper bell on his table and rung it.

Following that, a unique soundless wave rippled through the air, and a wooden, human-like face suddenly protruded from the empty surface of the table.

“Mister Greem, may I know what special service you need?” Surprisingly, the wooden face spoke.

“Food! I need food right now! Now, immediately, right away!”

“May I know what grade of food you need? We offer an ordinary set meal of nobility. The degree of luxury is guaranteed to be the ultimate enjoyment among human noble. Each set only costs one magic crystal. We also provide a magical energy set meal. All the ingredients are taken from intermediate to advanced level demon beasts found in the depth of Kerala mountain range. Each set only cost five magic crystals.”

“Magical energy set meal. I want it right now!”

“Understood! Your order has been accepted, please place the meal fee inside of my mouth!” Following what it said, the protruding face opened up its mouth.

Greem took out five magic crystals from his waist pouch and placed them into the mouth of the human face. It was originally a solid wood carving, but now it had turned into a crack that led to a secret place. It quickly swallowed the magic crystals.

After the wooden human face swallowed the magic crystals, it suddenly expanded and transformed into a square wooden box. When the wooden box finally exploded into countless wooden fibers and retracted back into the table, a steaming hot rib placed on top of a silver tray was revealed in front of Greem.

A set of exquisite cutlery lay next to the meal. The meal consisted of an appetizing fried rib, garnished with red, blue and white vegetables along with some tasty sauce. It was paired with a glass of fragrant grape wine.

As Greem wasn’t a picky man, he didn’t pay too much attention to his meals. However, he had to admit that for the Apprentice Adepts who had been immersed in a boring routine, a meticulously prepared meal like this was considered a huge mental compensation.

Wasting no time on table manners, Greem savagely exterminated the fried rib like a hungry ghost rushing for his food. When the entire rib finally rested in his stomach, the burning hunger had finally subsided.

“Chip, can you identify what this meat is?”

“Beep. The possibility of Iron Rhinoceros is 87%, Berserk Beast is 10%, Gray Pocket Beast is 2%...”

The Chip showed Greem a long list, but the possibility of the last seven to eight were so low that they could simply be ignored. Only the first few had the highest possibility.

Greem moistened his hungry lips, threw his head back and gulped down the grape wine.

He could clearly felt that the magical energy meal he had just now was far inferior to the Underground Fire Dragon meat he had yesterday. Also, the Iron Rhinoceros, who the meat had the highest possibility of coming from, should’ve just been an intermediate Earth element demon beast. The Elementium contained within the meat was totally unmatched with his elemental affinity. Although it could still bring him a huge amount of health points, it didn’t provide any benefit to his Fire element innate ability.

It looked like if he wished to replenish both his health points and Fire element innate ability at the same time, he should choose meat from those Fire element demon beasts. The higher grade, the better.

Therefore, urged by his hunger, Greem once again rung the copper bell.

As expected, when Greem mentioned straight away that he wanted the Fire element demon beast as his meal, the wooden face immediately offered him a long list of delicacies.

Flaming Tiger – 15 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

Fire Lizard – 20 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

Inferno Hound – 25 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

Fire Swallowing Sparrow – 30 Magic Crystals per 500 grams

......

Greem quietly listening with his eyes closed. From time to time, he would ask for more information. Soon, he made up his mind and picked a delicacy that suited him the most: Fried Heart of Inferno Hound.

After paying 25 magic crystals, the wooden face quickly swallowed the dishes on the table and revealed another luxurious meal.

This time it was not a rib but a fresh heart that was still pumping lightly. It seemed there was a fire source concealed within the fist-size heart. It was still raw and fresh when it appeared, but following an explosion of the fire source, a scorching hot flame soared up to the roof before disappearing in an instant.

When the enshrouding heat finally vanished into the air, a fresh and fragrant fried heart of Inferno Hound was revealed in front of Greem.

Greem first used the table knife and poked a small hole on the surface of the heart, then suck all the warm blood inside of it in one go. When the warm and appetizing liquid flowed through down his throat and reached his stomach, a raging and explosive sensation made Greem so happy that he couldn’t help but close his eyes in enjoyment.

Soon after wolfing down everything in his mouth, Greem sliced the heart of Flaming Hound into small equal sizes and tucked in one after another. Whenever a piece of heart exploded in his stomach and began to emanate a raging Fire element energy, Greem had the impulse to moan because of the pleasure feeling.

The raging Fire element energy kept flushing throughout his entire body. Although it made him drenched in sweat, it was an extremely refreshing.

After he finished two sets of Flaming Hound meals continuously, he finally managed to replenish part of his Physique, which had been reduced a lot. In addition, there was a slight increase to his Spirit.

Strength – 4.04, Agility – 4.30, Physique – 3.34, Spirit – 10.07

After the wooden face cleared up the leftover dishes on the table, Greem placed both palms on his big belly. He struggled his way to his bed, before starting his daily meditation routine.

After experienced a targeted food tonic, today’s deep meditation had brought Greem’s Spirit the unprecedented increase of 0.11, which was an additional 0.03 comparing to the normal 0.08 increase. Judging from this alone, if he was able to increase the density of Fire element energy in his body or his surroundings, it would also increase the efficiency of his meditation.

Greem ordered the Chip to record this finding, so he could use his free time to research for the best meditation formula. After finishing with all these, Greem breathed out a long sigh of satisfaction and sunk into a deep slumber.

............

It was a good sleep!

After a long hour of sleep, when Greem finally woke up from his sweet dream, he found that his entire body was filled with a powerful yet inexhaustible strength.

Of course, this was only a sensation of fullness after his Strength had reached the maximum level. After all, he only had 3.34 of Physique and 4.04 of Strength. For a Beginner Apprentice, numbers like this weren’t considered a shame, but if it was an Intermediate Apprentice, it was considered rather ‘frail’.

Even though an Intermediate Apprentice didn’t take the path of Body Refining, he should also make his Strength, Agility and Physique reach the minimum level of five. It was only a body quality like this that wouldn’t hinder their Spirit, placing themselves in an unbalanced course of development. Of course, those like Evil Bugs and Dark Wood were extreme examples and couldn’t be judged by this standard.

For people like them, their bodies could no longer be judged by normal standards, as they had transformed into completely different body constitutions. The bug’s body of Evil Bugs clearly showed the miraculous signs of vitality and damage sharing, and he could be considered an undefeated cockroach.

Meanwhile, although Dark Wood’s Physique was extremely low, he obviously possessed some unspeakable special abilities. At least, Greem’s Demon Alligator had attacked him multiple times with Paralyze Gaze during their battle, but it seemed like he wasn’t affected at all. Clearly, his strange body constitution had an immunity toward such spell.

Greem briefly exercised his body. Right when he decided to pay a visit to the library in this place, someone came knocking on his door.

It was Mary.

When Mary strode into his room with rather charming steps, her eyes were instantly filled with unconcealed puzzlement.

“You... your Spirit has reached ten?”

The strange feeling coming from Greem’s body made Mary think that there was something wrong with her senses, as it was obvious that the spiritual ripple could only be owned by an Intermediate Apprentice.

“Yes, I just made a breakthrough yesterday. Oh, right. I suppose you’re here for the war trophies? Let me tell you some good news, I successfully sold all those war trophies, and I got us these treasures!” While saying that, Greem took out a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion from his waist pouch.

Mary took over the potion and gave it a closer look. An expression of sudden comprehension emerged on her face. She then gave it back to Greem.

“You can keep this yourself! A low-grade potion like this has no effect for me, but it can still provide some benefits to you. Remember, don’t consume them continuously, and don’t forget to recuperate after having it. Or else, the condition of your body will become really bad!”

Greem was startled.

Although he did expect that Mary wouldn’t care too much about this potion, but her indifferent attitude of giving it back still surprised him. After all, a bottle of Mind Concentrating Potion was five merit points and five magic crystals in this Adept Tower. Anyone who went to the Underground World at least once would understand how valuable a merit point was.

Therefore, Greem was left speechless.