Age of Adepts

Snorlax was very upset!

And, the thing upset the optimistic Snorlax was actually that mysterious white stone.

Since it couldn’t figure out the actual usage of the white stone, Snorlax had put it aside and continued busying itself with its Goblin Store. It just had no time to find an expert to identify what it was.

But unexpectedly, after spent two busy days, it suddenly discovered the white stone was glowing.

The white stone was lying quietly on the wooden table near the window. Under the shine of the fading moonlight, it was emitting with a faint white glow.

Yes, it was a glow emitted by the white stone itself and not the reflection of moonlight. Snorlax was certain about this!

Step by step, Snorlax drew closer to the white stone, and carefully, it touched the stone with its hand. It was neither warm nor cold. The white glow wasn’t caused by a heat source, but from some kind of mysterious magical energy inside the white stone. Based on the fact that the stone could absorb moonlight and transform into energy of its own, Snorlax determined it was possibly a special magical equipment that came from another plane.

Once it had reached this conclusion, merely for experimentation, Snorlax took out a magic crystal. To its surprise, when it placed the magic crystal near the white stone, the white stone actually dismantled and transformed. After a series of dismantling and assembling movements that dazzled Snorlax’s eyes, a mysterious magical machine that looked similar to a communicative mirror was unveiled in front of its eyes.

A mechanical arm stretched out from this magical machine, clamped onto the magic crystal and placed it onto a hole located at the lower part of its body. Right after that, a strange mechanical voice echoed out in the room.

“A mutated entry level energy crystal is detected. It can be used as energy source. Magical Kernel serial number 03768, estimated recovery of function reached 17%. Initiating now...”

After that, following a series of peculiar noises, this Magical Kernel transformed from the white stone actually stood up, tilted a screen that was located at the top part of its body and pointed it right at Snorlax.

A violent distortion of images flashed through the screen, and suddenly, an enormous glass eye appeared on it, followed by a noisy and hoarse voice.

“Peculiar... this is peculiar... why did a Magical Kernel that had not show any activity for more than two hundred years suddenly activate? Hey, little guy, are you the one who activated this Magical Kernel?” Snorlax was certain that the language spoken by the voice came from the Magical Kernel was something that it had never heard or learnt before.

“Who are you? How did you squeeze into this tiny object? This... what is this... what exactly is this object?” The naturally timid character of Snorlax had struck again. Judging from the size of the eyeball, Snorlax bet it must be a terrifying and enormous giant. If it jumped out from this tiny object, how could Snorlax escape from its death?

Right at this very moment, Snorlax was seized with remorse. Why hadn’t it mentioned this discovery to its master earlier! Perhaps, only that miraculous master of its could save it from the giant mouth of this giant.

Right as a fierce mental struggle was going on inside of Snorlax’s mind, the glassy eyeball on the screen backed off some distance, and eventually, allowed Snorlax to get a clear look at the appearance of the giant.

Fancy that! The ‘giant’ was actually someone with a near identical appearance and build like Snorlax! It had a similar height of around one meter tall and had green skin, a pair of large ears, a long and pointy nose, and disheveled, fluffy, short yellow hair. The enormous glassy eyeball that Snorlax saw just now was actually a special goggles.

Yes, this fellow was actually a goblin too!

The goblin on the other side was clad in a dirty white coat, a drawing pen was placed in one ear, and it was wearing a high-power magnifier on its eyes. That was why it looked so strange. However, no matter how strange it looked, Snorlax was certain that this fellow was a... goblin!

After bent over the screen and spending some time looking left and right, obviously, the goblin on the other side never expected it was also a goblin who had just sent a request for communication from a far distance plane. Therefore, after murmuring some complaints for some time, it finally became friendlier, and commenced a warm interaction with Snorlax.

“You... are you a goblin too?” Snorlax asked timidly.

“Little guy, you are now meeting with the greatest chief inventor of the Goblin Empire, Duke Gazlowe. So, before you ask any question, you better add in the proper honorifics!” On the other side of the screen, the yellow-hair goblin was seen waving its arms dissatisfied and speaking in a threatening manner.

“Oh, the Great Duke Gazlowe, could you tell me what exactly is this object? Also, why is that I can understand your words?”

“Damn you #%@￥%... it looks like you this little guy had not understand anything yet.” The yellow-hair goblin crazily cursed, before it explained to Snorlax with a helpless expression. “What you’re looking at right now is the Magical Kernel I invented: the Super Long Distance Magical-Mechanical Communication and Transmitting Machine. To put it simply, it is a little equipment that allows two goblins to communicate and transmit items across a super long distance.

As for why you can understand my words, it is because you’re a goblin too! As long as you’re a goblin, no matter which plane you are living in, it is natural that you can understand the Goblin language, as it is one unique to Goblins!”

Snorlax’s eyes went wider and wider, as it hardly believed what it had just heard.

“If this machine was invented by you, why was it stranded in this place?” Snorlax asked wonderingly.

“Since this machine is called Super Long Distance Magical-Mechanical Communication and Transmitting Machine, it is of course used to carry out trading of items between planes! When I was young, I produced a few hundred of them at one go, and randomly tossed them into different places in the multi-verse. So, when the local experts picked up this machine, they could become my customers. If my memory served me well, last time, it was a powerful Molten Giant who used this machine with the serial number of 03768 to communicate with me. But too bad, that giant was really poor, and didn’t own any good stuff that met the fancy of my eyes!”

“You... you are actually a Mighty Transplanar Merchant?” The greedy-in-nature, keen on receiving petty advantages Snorlax had its eyes pop out instantly. For Snorlax, obviously, compared to the status of Chief Inventor of the Goblin Empire, the yellow-hair goblin’s status of a transplanar merchant was so much more respectable.

“Certainly! As the greatest engineer, inventor and transplanar merchant of the Goblin Empire, I, Duke Gazlowe, am well-known throughout the entire multi-verse!”

“You’ve mentioned many times about Goblin Empire? This... what is it then?” Snorlax asked curiously.

Gazlowe said out loud with a proud voice, “Goblin Empire is, of course, the empire of Goblins! It is a kingdom built by us, Goblins, after occupying an entire plane. In this kingdom, we, the Goblins are the true master of the plane. Since you’ve asked this question, presumably, in the plane you’re living right now, goblins have an inferior status?”

Hearing what it said, Snorlax clenched its fists tightly in excitement, while both of its eyes were filled with tiny sparks of envy. However, it soon recalled its current situation and couldn’t help but lower its big ears dejectedly.

Gazlowe sighed silently.

It had seen many situations like this. In most of the material planes, Goblins were discriminated against and lived miserable lives being bullied by everybody. They didn’t possess any ability in fighting, and they didn’t have any extraordinary innate abilities. Even among all demons, their place belonged in the bottom of the food chain.

Nevertheless, with regards to this goblin who had accidentally activated the Magical Kernel in another plane, Gazlowe expressed its extreme curiosity. After patiently questioning Snorlax, it was told that this dejected little goblin was actually a slave who served a mysterious Adept.

And when Gazlowe couldn’t bear itself and suspected that Snorlax was just a penniless vagrant who owned nothing, the angry Snorlax opened up its waist pouch and revealed all its treasures to Gazlowe.

Human fist-sized Fire Diamonds; Sapphire, Ruby, Green Agate, Topaz, and Beryl which sent forth a powerful aura of magical element, and rare Night-Eye Stones, Pyre Stones, Crimson Spinel Stones and other treasures which could only found in certain planes...

A little, seemingly insignificant goblin actually took out so many rare gemstones in one go, this had made Gazlowe nearly dropped its eyes out. It paid no attention to those elemental gemstones, because at the plane where it was living, it could find plenty of them easily. However, the Night-Eye Stones, Pyre Stones, Crimson Spinel Stones and few other special gemstones and materials that Snorlax took out the last were something it had never seen before, and it took a great interest in a few of them.

In the Goblin Empire where it came from, the one single most powerful creation was all kind of magical machines. And, the energy that drove these magical machines would be a huge amount of energy crystals and distinguished magical gemstones. If it could bring all these special magical gemstones back to the Goblin Empire, figured out the mode of existence and the method of sharing the special energies, no doubt it would bring a tremendous help to the development of the magical machine.

Thus, the more this two goblins talked, the friendlier they became with each other. By the end, they actually reached a trade agreement, planning to carry out a transplanar barter trade in secret.

The trade list drafted by each of them was extremely long.

For Snorlax, it had listed every single magical gemstone, magical materials and some unique Adept resources it heard or seen before in the World of Adept. As for Gazlowe, its list comprised all sorts of powerful yet dangerous magical machines and some local resources produced in the Goblin Plane.

While browsing through the trade list provided by the other party, when one of them was interested in some random item on the other’s list, it would offer a price and started the negotiation process. Sure enough, Goblins deserved to be generally regarded as a race that cared about nothing but profit, and they were also the greediest race in the world.

When it came to the price of the item, this pair of Goblin brothers who were happily chatting with each other moment ago immediately turned into someone as mean as a miser, fighting over the smallest trifles. Because of a difference in one or two magic crystals, they would rage at each other, cursing loudly all the familial relatives of the other goblins, and portray a fierce look of ‘take it or leave it’.

Therefore, Snorlax didn’t sleep for the entire night, spent all its effort and more than twenty hours fighting with Duke Gazlowe, who was a greedy, stingy, shameless, selfish, narrow-minded... goblin. In addition to that, it also paid no attention to hygiene and carried a pungent body odor. As for the result? Two transplanar deals that were worth less than five magic crystals.

And yet, in order to maintain the smooth communication, Snorlax had literally spent three magic crystals in just one night.

But with regards to this, none of them actually felt strange. Snorlax was dancing in joy as it was able to negotiate a discount of one single magic crystal for the deal. On the other side, Gazlowe was seen roaring furiously, cursing Snorlax as the most shameless and despicable green-skinned goblin it ever met.

Finally, both ended their first communication in such ‘friendly’ atmosphere!

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