Age of Adepts

Earth elementals, ice elementals, stone elementals, lightning elementals, fire elementals...

As long as it was a cheap and inexpensive elementium lifeform, the alchemists didn’t mind summoning them from a distant otherworld to use as the cannon fodder for this scouting expedition.

At any rate, a single vial of low-grade elemental summoning potion was only worth three magical crystals. Trading them for explosive fireball traps worth twelve magical crystals was worth it, no matter how you looked at it!

The thirteen First Grade alchemist adepts took turns at their job, continually summoning all sorts of elementium lifeforms and ordering them to charge into the magma tunnels that led toward the lower levels. The continuous explosions and waves of searing heat turned this underground world upside down. Even the loose rocks and dust on the walls were falling from above.

The tunnels were filled with suffocating dust and the smell of fire and smoke!

"Enemy detected!"

Every summoned elementium lifeform had a fragile soul connection to the alchemist adepts who had summoned them. The adepts would be able to obtain some information about the enemy through the soul feedback when the elementals were destroyed.

While the elementium servants of the alchemists continued to dive into the tunnels, one of the alchemists suddenly shouted.

"It wasn’t a trap that killed my elementium servants, but...but a sort of never-before-seen metal golem!"

It was obvious that the information he got from the soul connection was extremely vague and unclear. It made it difficult for him to describe the enemy.

"Where?" The leader, Adept Roy, couldn’t help but ask solemnly.

"To the front and right. The second magma tunnel."

Two new elementium lifeforms immediately charged into the tunnel he pointed out after he reported the enemy’s position.

These were two strange wind elementals!

They didn’t have humanoid bodies, and their appearances were simply miniature tornados. Two red lights in the center of the swirling winds functioned as their eyes. These elementals floated lightly in the air. They were almost weightless, which made them unsuitable candidates for triggering the traps.

However, their flight speed was extremely fast, making them the perfect flying scouts.

The two wind elementals had just turned a corner when they immediately ran into the strange metal golem that the adept had described. Both parties looked at each other from ten meters away, then immediately started charging at the same time.

Several wind blades cut across the air and sent sparks flying when they hit the three-meter tall humanoid golem encased in a gleaming metal shell. The terrifying creature ignored the attacks of the wind elementals and lifted both of its thick metal arms. Several metal cylinders extended from the front and fired rapid metal bullets that were so fast they couldn’t be seen with the naked eye. The bullets struck the wind elementals, causing their bodies to tremble uncontrollably.

The two beginner wind elementals completely scattered after three seconds, their consciousness cores having been destroyed.

The alchemist adepts looking at the freeze-frame of the metal golem projected on the light screen frowned. They quickly assessed the grade level of this metal golem.

Adept-level!

Of course, comparing such a clumsy and slow metal golem to an official adept was thinking too highly of it. Still, considering its tough and impenetrable metal body and its rapid-fire goblin guns, it could easily counter ordinary apprentice adepts. Apprentice adepts would probably be murdered before they could even resist.

Even pseudo-adepts had to watch out when dealing with these metal golems. After all, their weak magical defenses couldn’t deal with the wild barrage of these metal bullets.

"It seems we need to take out some real fellows to deal with this."

An alchemist wickedly smiled as he took out a large vial and threw it onto the ground in front of him.

The entire tunnel filled with the stench of rot as a gigantic slime-like monster emerged from the ground with its massive body.

"Dammit, Singh! Can’t you summon some more conventional magical beasts? Have it move away from us." The alchemist adepts covered their noses. A few of the female adepts even glared furiously at the guy that summoned the slime creature.

"It can’t be helped. Other summoned creatures don’t have the advantage against this metal lump in such tight corridors. The only way to deal with metal golems is either through brute force or corrosive acid." Adept Singh shrugged and ordered the ooze to crawl toward the other end of the tunnel slowly.

Seven minutes later, the ooze successfully encountered the metal golem!

There was no need for orders. The two creatures on opposing sides immediately started attacking each other savagely.

Naturally, the metal golem was still using its rapid-fire metal bullets.

In such a tight, narrow space, all it had to do was guard one end of the tunnel, and the enemy would have absolutely no chance at making it across. It was impossible to do it without paying a hefty price!

One after another, the metal bullets filled with kinetic energy crossed the fifteen-meter distance and crashed into the large viscous body of the ooze.

......

Several small holes appeared in the ooze’s soft body. Black and pungent acid water poured out from the wounds. However, the slime seemed utterly ignorant to this fact and several appendages extended from its soft, jelly-like body, reaching toward the Archer magical machine.

Small openings opened in its body as it approached, constantly shooting pungent acid at the joints of the Archer. The black slime sizzled when it landed on the Archer’s metal body, and thick white smoke rose into the air.

The Archer had been programmed by the goblin engineers to defend this place to its dying breath. As such, it did not take a single step back, even as the enemy continued to close in on it. The metal guns on its arms had already turned red from such rapid firing, but the stuttering gunfire of the bullets did not pause, even for a second.

When the ooze reached the halfway point, two shoulders of the Archer split apart and revealed the array of goblin rockets within. The next second, eight goblin rockets shot out under the propulsion of bright yellow flames and embedded themselves in the body of the ooze.

Beng! Beng! Beng!

A series of energy explosions went within the fat and ugly body of the slime. It was like a water pouch that had been filled with too much liquid. Its body stretched to its limits and let out a terrifying straining sound.

It seemed the expansion had reached a certain limit!

Alchemist Adept Singh, who had been calmly watching the battle from behind the scenes, changed expressions.

The next second, two more goblin rockets shot into the ooze’s body and caused another round of explosions.

This time, the ooze could no longer expand its body any further to neutralize the energy shockwave. It simply exploded before the eyes of the alchemist adepts.

The entirety of the fifteen-meter-long tunnel was painted in a coat of sticky and pungent black acid. Countless animal bones and hide remnants were mixed in with the mess. The entire shaft started to melt under the effect of the acid, almost as if it had turned into the stomach of a horrifying magical creature. The suffocating stench of its acid filled the air.

The Archer that had been ordered to guard the corridor has also been splashed with acid. The surface of its metal body had been corroded into mud. Two thuds rang out; the metal arms of the Archer had been corroded and fell to its feet.

A short moment later, the Archer crumbled as sparks flew out from within its body. It had finally malfunctioned!

An adept-level ooze against an adept-level Archer magical machine ended with both of them defeated.

Of course, this had to do with the geography here as well.

If the Archer had been able to maneuver about and kite the enemy freely, it could probably have taken down this ooze with minimal damage. Unfortunately, there were no ifs in war.

Adept Singh finally managed to eke out a smile when he saw the metal golem defeated. Still, losing an adept-level summon caused his heart to bleed.

After all, an adept-level magical beast such as this easily went for a hundred magical crystals on the market. Losing it here like this made his heart hurt, even though he wasn’t strapped for money.

Just as his frown turned into a smile, a new Archer stepped out from the darkness on the other end of the tunnel. Its clanging footsteps were clear to all as it appeared in sight of the alchemist adepts.

Wew!

The next second, a small hole appeared in the machine’s chest as a thick stream of fire shot out, burning the entire tunnel.

The acid might be terrifyingly corrosive, but even it couldn’t endure such intense burning.

A short moment later, the magical machine stopped the flames, and the tunnel turned as hard as steel once again. However, the surface of the walls, made of volcanic rock, had become uneven and filled with craters, much like the surface of the moon when inspected at a close distance.

That wasn’t the end of it. A sort of odd firing device appeared from its back and started to shoot out round metal discs at various spots of the tunnel. These metal discs let out spikes upon landing and fixated themselves.

A layer of light shone over their smooth metal surfaces.

Goblin Landmines!

Having accomplished all this, the Archer squatted down and raised its thick metal arms, aiming at everything in the other end of the tunnel. As hot air was expelled from the vents on its back, the revolver rifles within its metal arms started to roar wildly.

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