Chapter 195 Returning to the Base
In the adepts' base.
A group of adepts were gathered in one corner of the base. Their heads were raised, silently gazing at the black dot constantly circling far away on the horizon.
Beside them, an extremely large illusion barrier hid the entire valley, causing it to blend into the woods around it. From the skies, one couldn't tell anything was odd with the scene.
Meanwhile, behind them the entire adepts' base was as busy as an enormous construction site. Countless robotics beasts, voodoo beasts, and elementium golems were busy working, while the outline of an adept's tower was slowly appearing.
A nine-level adept's tower that stood two-hundred meters tall was supposed to be erected here, according to the original plan. As compared to the mid-tier adept's tower in the World of Adepts, this tower would prioritize defense and offense, while the non-combat facilities within would be greatly reduced.
Such an adept's tower might not be very comfortable to live in, but when the World of Adepts wanted to rapidly expand outward, it was a necessary war fortress. Every time adepts arrived in a foreign plane, the first thing to do was to construct such a simplified war tower.
Once they built the tower, the adepts who had entered the plane would be free from the planar laws' oppression within the adept tower’s radius. This created a beneficial battle environment for the adepts on their home territory.
Currently, the three underground levels of the adept's tower had been completed. However, above ground, only a basic structure for the first two levels had been constructed. Under the command of the adepts, several robotics beasts were carefully carving arrays on the inner walls of the tower.
This was another world after all. It wasn't possible to use the exceedingly costly interplanar ultra-long-range teleportation to transport all of the construction materials over. Thus, all of the luggage the second batch of adepts brought with them were rare materials and resources. The stones and timber used to construct the tower, on the other hand, could only be gathered here.
If this were a normal adept's tower, the body of the tower would be built from numerous layers of compound rocks. The outer wall would be constructed of strongly magic-resistant materials, such as obsidian and steelrock, while the inner wall would use special rocks with excellent magic conductivity such as augite, bloodstone, and volcanic rock.
Of course, the specific rocks which were selected to construct the tower would be adjusted based on the individual attribute of the adept stationed in the tower. An adept's tower built in this fashion would naturally contain a living environment that was compatible with the stationed adept's attribute, and could greatly accelerate the rate of the adept's growth.
Sadly, the lack of resources in this world turned all of this into mere fantasy. This simplified war tower could only be built out of resources gathered in the woods. The materials used to form the tower were all taken from the mountains nearby.
The adepts had already commanded the large number of elementium golems to excavate a nearby hill, completely mining out everything inside. It was with such a method that they were barely able to keep up with the huge consumption of rocks for the adept tower’s creation.
These normal rocks didn't have such outstanding magic properties as the precious rocks usually used for construction, and their quality was hardly satisfying. In order to compensate for the inadequacies of the wall itself, the adepts had to carve large numbers of Strengthening arrays on the tower walls.
This undoubtedly caused an even greater consumption of rare materials and resources!
The initial investment of resources required for the invasion of another plane was astounding.
Don't think of it as just a simplified war tower. Even this structure alone could exhaust several decades worth of a small-sized adept clan’s reserved resources. Moreover, if the war turned sour, the adepts and resources that could be successfully retrieved from the other plane were very few. Most of the investment would have been for nothing.
This was why plane wars were both the only shortcut for small and mid-sized adept clans to grow, but also an appalling nightmare that could destroy the foundations of a clan.
As such, every adept clan was extremely cautious when faced with an unknown plane. They would seal all information, to avoid opposing clans from finding out their plans, while amassing large numbers of resources. This would allow them to construct their war tower in the shortest time, such that they may have a solid foundation in the following plane war.
Indeed, the true plane war had yet to start!
The several battles that Greem and the others had engaged in were at best overtures and appetizers before the start of the plane war. A true planar war was infinitely more savage and bloody than a normal war. It was not something that the likes of Greem and the rookies would be able to imagine with their inexperienced minds!
Looking at the black dot persistently circling on the horizon, an adept couldn't help but start cursing in anger.
No one would dare make any large actions within the camp while there was such a threat circling above their heads. The progress of the construction would inevitably be affected.
"Sir Fügen, don't you think we should send some voodoo beasts to lure it away?" Someone couldn't help but suggest.
"We cannot act recklessly! Right now, there isn't a single adept within the base that is a match for a Third Grade dragon knight. If we exposed the location of the base, it probably wouldn't take more than a couple of hours before the most powerful beings of this plane appeared. Then, the expansion plan the clan has prepared for several decades would have to be given up!" Adept Fügen shook his head coldly and rejected the suggestion of his subordinate.
"But allowing the dragon knight to keep circling around here is not a solution either!" An adept sighed, "The illusion barrier can only extend up to a height of 80 metres. Once the war tower is erected, it would definitely be the most obvious landmark in this stretch of woods. As long as the dragon knight isn't blind, he would definitely see it. When that happens…"
"Hmph," Adept Fügen shook his head and spoke, "What do you take the dragon knights of this plane for? To use a Third Grade dragon knight as a patrol scout? In my opinion, this dragon knight is searching for the last group of witcher-knights we exterminated. As long as he can't find them, he will definitely… hmm?"
Just as they were speaking, the dragon on the horizon far away suddenly stopped his actions. After a quick pause and a loud dragon's roar, the dragon knight drove the dragon southwest without any hesitation.
Based on the direction, he was probably returning to Blue Hillock City!
Adept Fügen was stunned for a moment, before turning back and giving out an order, "Immediately contact Muret in Blue Hillock City. Check if anything important happened. I have a feeling that the dragon knight was in a hurry when it left earlier, almost as if something had happened!"
"Understood!" The few adepts behind him bowed and accepted the order, then promptly turned to leave.
A short while later, an adept hurried back.
"Sir Fügen, big news! Big news!"
…………
It was the early morning of the second day when Keoghan and the other three returned to Blue Hillock City.
Before they could even sit down and take a breather, a personal order from Second-Grade Adept Sir Fügen had already been brought before them. Thus, they once again rushed towards the adept's base!
There, Sir Fügen asked details about their actions in Herdurand City.
All the clan adepts who stayed in the base looked at each other in amazement when they finished hearing Adept Keoghan’s retelling of events. They could hardly believe what they heard. Even Sir Fügen lowered his head and remained silent after hearing the entire thing.
Assaulting a Second Grade green dragon? Throwing a city closely guarded by hordes of soldiers into utter chaos, while beating the other dragon-knight’s dragon partner to the brink of death?
Such an absurd and unbelievable story. Even the most cliched novels about heroes and dragons wouldn't beat this, would it? This was a Second Grade dragon!
In all seriousness, even if it had been Sir Fügen who had engaged a dragon alone, he probably wouldn't have been able to do much to a Second Grade green dragon! After all, dragons could fly and possessed shocking magic and physical resistances. Moreover, adolescent dragons even possessed Dragontongue magic. Wasn't this equivalent to a combination of both elementium adepts and body refining adepts? And a combination that could even fly!
This was why dragons had the terrifying ability to challenge enemies above their Grade levels, regardless of what plane they were in!
The only reason the Third Grade dragon knight would choose Second Grade dragons as their partners was because they had absolutely no means to beat these Second Grade dragons that had thick hides, could fly, and spit their saliva all over the place!
Yet the four adepts before him, with two of them being rookies that had barely advanced for a half a year, together managed to beat a Second Grade green dragon to the brink of death? It sounded unbelievable. But judging from the clues, it seems this was the only thing that could the dragon knight’s odd actions previously!
It was undoubtedly important to search for the witcher-knights in the forest, but it was far more important that his companion's partner had been beaten to the brink of death back in their home base– so important that he had no choice but to rush back to Herdurand City.
After thorough deliberation, Fügen could only choose to believe them.
But with this happening, it was hard to predict how the following events would unfold!
First, they exterminated a witcher-knight vanguard army composed of a hundred men. Now, such a bold assault happened in Herdurand. If the opponents were not able to figure out that the invaders they sought were hiding nearby, they would be a group of complete morons!
Cutting off the legs of a Third Grade dragon knight was indeed fairly good news, but this came at the price of the enemy possibly arriving earlier. Whether this was for better or worse was very debatable.
Sir Fügen didn't dare let these few people out to Blue Hillock City anymore. He had finally recognized that this couple of adepts were not people that abided by conventional rules. If he let them out, they would surely create another huge commotion in a few days. With a bitter smile on his face, he could only keep them in the base.
Greem and the other three, on the other hand, had also obtained spoils of war from Herdurand City. They needed a safe, quiet place to digest and turn them into part of their strength. And so they easily agreed to stay. Mary, in particular, could be said to be the one that benefited the most out of the four.
Vampires would always be busy chasing after the blood of the powerful!
Keoghan, Ferrier, and Greem had at best obtained some green dragon flesh and blood as excellent crafting materials. But Mary could directly convert the consumed dragon blood into blood energy to increase the limits of her power. This terrifying ability was the scariest trait of the vampires!
And so, Mary went into seclusion the moment they returned to the adept's base!
This was the third time Mary had gone into seclusion. For Mary, each solitude was a chance to massively increase her power!