Age of Adepts

The Burning Cave.

Greem’s majestic, hundred-meter-tall body stood at the peak of a small volcano as he silently surveyed this black and red world of smoke and fire.

The former ruler of this land, Broodmother Lasbes, had reigned over the Burning Cave for over two thousand years. She now cowered beneath Greem’s feet, burnt and scorched, her bulging stomach flickering with golden runes left behind by the Undying Flames.

Lasbes’ current condition was exceedingly terrible!

Three days ago, a mysterious flame giant had appeared in her territory, requesting that she submit and offer up her loyalty.

Fire creatures were savage and cruel beings. There was no way they would simply give up their freedom without a fight!

Thus, a terrible fight broke out.

What Lasbes never expected was for this flame giant to be a fearsome Fifth Grade powerhouse. In a violent fashion, he destroyed the Burning Cave that Lasbes had painstakingly managed for several thousand years, putting the torch to the countless traps and Emberweb spider descendants in the cave.

The battle between the two of them went all the way from the Burning Cave to Singga Volcano, a distance of over a hundred kilometers. Finally, the match ended with Broodmother Lasbes’ defeat.

Lasbes was a five-meter-tall Emberweb spider with six sharp limbs and a pair of giant pincers. As the broodmother of the Emberweb spiders, Lasbes was most proficient at laying down fire web traps and spawning large numbers of fire spiders.

She had set down a lot of spider traps near her lair to catch wandering fire creatures. She lived by sucking out the lava and fire from their corpses. In doing so, she could slowly get stronger.

Her actual combat power might not be very impressive, but she had her incredibly troublesome webs and a frightening number of descendants. These two factors allowed her to rise up from within the numerous fire creatures, becoming the only Fourth Grade fire lord within a radius of five hundred kilometers.

However, she was primarily a fire lord in name only. Apart from the descendants she had spawned, she had no other subordinates from other species or tribes. It wasn’t hard to figure out the reason why. You just had to look at her round stomach that didn’t seem to have a bottom.

Naturally, Greem had plenty of means to deal with a sly, sinister predator like an Emberweb spider that preferred to strike from the dark.

The main reason Lasbes was so difficult to deal with was that she had constructed her lair underground. The tunnels and passages down there were narrow and winding. In the face of fire creatures that were more than her match, she would simply hide underground and refuse to emerge. Against weaker opponents, she would mobilize all her forces and used self-detonating spiders, Ember spiderlings, and weaver spiders to lure them into the webs.

However, Greem was even more sinister than she was!

The first thing Greem did upon arriving was to blockade the entrance of Lasbes’ lair. He then raised a hell of fire and blew his Undying Flames across every corner of the cave.

Smothered spiders!

Emberweb spiders were fire creatures that could even survive in lava of several thousand degrees. However, their fire resistance meant nothing against a principle fire like the Undying Flames. They could only screech in the golden sea of fire as they slowly burned to death.

Even Fourth Grade Broodmother Lasbes had been forced out of her lair to fight against Greem with a body smoldering with golden fire, let alone her spiderlings.

Awkwardly enough, despite being a Fifth Grade, Greem’s Strength, Physique, and Agility were all far inferior to this Fourth Grade broodmother. However, his powerful Fire Teleportation allowed him to dodge Lasbes’ Vicious Lunge, Boiling Splatter, and Smoldering Devastation.

[Vicious Lunge: Lasbes’ movement speed is increased by 300% while within her web. Her attacks possess a chance to paralyze the enemy upon contact.

[Boiling Splatter: Spits out a twenty-meter-long, sixty-degree-wide cone of boiling poison liquid. Enemies hit by the poison will receive 3,000 points of fire damage and 2,000 points of poison damage.

[Smoldering Devastation: Spits a 5 meter by 5 meter fire web coated in poison at the enemy. Enemies caught in the web will be immobilized and will have to endure tremendous damage from the poison. Said poison will ignite the fire energy within the target’s body.]

One had to admit that Lasbes had truly deserved her title as a fire lord. Those who could rise up from the masses and distinguish themselves all possessed powerful abilities and techniques!

Even though Greem was of a superior grade, protected by two divine artifacts, and wielded two fire principles, he still had to be careful against the broodmother’s unusual Smoldering Devastation.

It was impossible for Lasbes to defeat him, but if he were caught in the web and ended up being bitten a few times, it would be quite embarrassing!

Thus, Lasbes had been able to force Greem to step back over and over again by spitting fire webs.

It wasn’t until they reached this volcano that she ran out of poison and webbing, upon which she was blasted by a fireball and marked with a fire brand.

“Submit or die?” Greem shouted in his booming voice.

“I would rather die than surrender,” Lasbes let out a screech. The rune on her stomach abruptly turned into golden fire and instantly spread all over her body.

This golden fire was the manifested Undying Flames. It possessed the principle trait of being able to ignore magic resistance and burn the soul directly. Even with her fire resistance as a Fourth Grade fire lord, Lasbes writhed in pain. Her entire body was scorched and charred black.

Fortunately for her, Greem did not intend to kill her. The Undying Flames only burned for five seconds before reverting into a rune. Greem then took out a healing potion and poured it on Lasbes’ blackened body.

Given the potent regenerative powers of Fourth Grade creatures and the aid of the healing potion, Lasbes recovered in just a few minutes.

A muffled boom.

Greem stomped on the Emberweb broodmother again after she attempted to burrow into the ground and escape. His voice boomed once more, “Submit or die?”

“You dare?” Lasbes didn’t even get to finish this time before she was once again engulfed by golden fire.

The sizzling sound of burning flesh could be heard, and a pungent smell filled the air.

A short moment later, the flames faded away, and Lasbes was healed by Greem again.

“Hehehehe. Little spider, keep it up. I have plenty of healing potions anyway. I should have no problem torturing you for another hundred years, at least. So tell me, what’s your choice this time?” Greem chuckled coldly, the calmness of his words sending chills straight through the broodmother’s body.

“I......”

Lasbes had only said a single word when the golden flames engulfed her. Her pained screeches and howls rang out above the volcano again.

A short moment later, the flames dissipated.

Greem frowned and scratched his head as he said with an ‘apologetic’ expression, “Sorry, that was a little early. What did you say just now?”

Lasbes lay breathless on the hard stone. She waved her limbs and pincers about furiously. She sliced the volcanic rock beneath her, leaving deep marks in the ground and sending pebbles flying everywhere.

“Why? Why did you come to find me? There are plenty of fire lords out there. Why did you single me out?” The broodmother was clearly very resentful about this issue.

“Because you’re the smartest of them all!” Greem smiled as he complimented her.

He did mean it.

Those hulking big guys out there might be pretty powerful and of a high grade, but they all had explosive tempers and no idea how to adapt. They were stubborn oxen that would run all the way down the same path. Threatening them with death would be useless.

In contrast, only individuals like Lasbes who had bloodlines from another world and sufficiently smart brains would know fear, as well as the value of life.

Smart people were always afraid of death!

It was an iron law concluded by the adepts, and Greem knew it well enough himself!

“And if I don’t submit?” Despite his severe injuries, Lasbes only needed to rest for a brief moment. Her body was continually healing, and her voice had regained strength.

“Then I will keep playing with you for a little longer until my patience runs dry,” Greem gave an honest explanation. “Then, I will twist off your head as a trophy, pull apart your limbs to make daggers, tear off your pincers for scissors, and make your spinneret and poison gland into magical equipment.

“Hmm, let me think, is there anything else of value in you...right, I can extract your soul as well. Hey, tell me, little spider, is there a spider crystal in you? I heard that’s a really valuable thing too.”

Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes couldn’t help but tremble as she listened to Greem list off her body parts like pieces of treasure. As a high-grade intelligent lifeform, she was different than those stupid, foolish, and short-fused fire giants.

She knew very well that death was not her ultimate fate when a high-grade elementium being like herself fell into the hands of a human adept. No, it was the start of endless torture!

At the thought of being enslaved for the next thousands of years, Lasbes couldn’t help but feel sorrow overwhelm her. She crouched on the ground and started crying out loud.

Still, as an oddly-shaped arachnid fire creature, her crying just looked terribly ugly in the eyes of a human.

“Hi, little spider, have you made up your mind? If you still don’t submit, I will take your legs to start!” Greem ground his foot into the spider impatiently, instantly making the broodmother howl in pain.

“I submit...I submit!” Bad people were usually only afraid of worse people. Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes finally lowered her prideful head and submitted to Greem after two thousand years of running rampant in this region.

What came next was much more straightforward.

Lasbes opened up her soul consciousness, and Greem planted his soul brand in there.

In doing so, Fourth Grade Fire Lord Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes became the first native creature that Greem managed to subdue since entering the Fire Elementium Plane.