Age of Adepts Chapter 260

Chapter 260 Experiment Collaborator
Feidnan City, Adepts' Tower.
Greem met the five apprentices assigned to him in his room.
Two pseudo-adepts and three advanced apprentices. All of them were very young.
In general, anyone that could make it to a pseudo-adept or apprentice adept by fifty years old had the potential to become an adept. And these individuals were the ones the clan were willing to expend resources in order to cultivate! On the other hand, all of those apprentices that had made their way to advanced apprentices through grinding and time were well aware of their own situation. They knew it was virtually impossible for them to become adepts. All of them had already given up on that path and went on to the worldly realm to enjoy the offerings of local nobles.
There was one female each among the pseudo-adepts and advanced apprentices assigned to Greem. They were fairly pretty and beautiful. However, using his elementium sight, Greem could still see the light residue left on their faces from magical facial reconstruction.
The apprentice adepts bowed respectfully as they waited on Greem. They didn’t even dare to breathe too loud. It was clear that even they had heard of Greem's terrifying name as the Flame Demon. However, one could tell from the excited gleam in their eyes that they were still extremely satisfied that they were able to become the disciples of the famed Flame Demon. Their excitement and joy was hard to hide.
No one knew why, but even the reckless Alice showed up for this meeting.
She put her hands on her waist and stood beside Greem. Her eyes circled the two female apprentices, darting about as if she was scheming something.
"This is the first time we have met each other. Give me a simple report on your names and research direction!" Greem slowly spoke.
The five apprentices looked at each other when they heard their teacher's instructions. The slightly scrawny male pseudo-adept was the first to step forward.
"Kodar. Affinity: Dark Elementium. I just turned into a pseudo-adept last year. My main research focus is biological mutation. I have some understanding of beast modifications as well… "
"Meryl. Affinity: Earth Elementium. I turned into a pseudo-adept this year. I intend to walk the path of an elementium adept. I do not have any secondary professions currently… "
"Am. Affinity: Fire Elementium. Advanced apprentice. I know how to do a bit of magical material processing… "
"Toril. Affinity: Illusions. Advanced apprentice. Also a potions master… "
"Lena. Affinity: Water Elementium. Advanced apprentice with no secondary professions currently… "
Greem listened silently, blue light flashing deep in his eyes.
Using his elementium sight, he had already captured the bodily attributes of his apprentices. He had them do a basic report on themselves to make it easier to create a profile of them and complete their basic information.
Thanks to the amazing information processing abilities of the chip, Greem got notifications from the chip on the five apprentices the moment they were done introducing themselves.
Amongst the five apprentices, one has the potential the continue improving.
Another’s potential has been completely depleted. The fact that they have made it this far is thanks to the help of potions.
One of them has immense potential for developing in this direction…
While he already had an estimate of his apprentices’ quality, Greem didn't show any emotion on his young and handsome face.
"Now that you have been assigned to me, you will be considered as my apprentices from today onwards. I will even consider accepting anyone with good performance as my actual disciple." Greem looked at the apprentices and saw excitement in their eyes, "Also this is Alice. She is my personal maid, as well as your senior. You can come find her if you have any trouble in the future!"
Upon hearing Greem's words, Alice instantly puffed up her chest as if she was the boss.
The few apprentices looked at each other and bowed to Alice in unison. The two young pseudo-adepts looked a little upset about it.
In the World of Adepts, the difference between an apprentice and a disciple was extremely large.
The identity of an apprentice only meant that you had studied under an adept. When necessary, you could use your identity as his apprentice to receive his shelter and help. However, a disciple was entirely different. A master-disciple relationship was more akin to a magical contract. Both sides would have an even closer and more well-defined relationship.
Sometimes, when an adept died of an accident, his disciple would have the right to inherit his property.
Thus, most of the time, the adepts were unwilling to create more trouble for themselves. As a result, most adepts would have plenty of apprentices while having close to no real disciples.
"According to the tradition of the Sarubo Clan, now that you are my apprentices, you possess the right to obtain free knowledge from me. Every seven days you will have a chance to ask me questions. Advanced apprentices may ask me one question while pseudo-adepts may ask two. Moreover, the subjects I am involved in include elementium golem creation, animism, dissection, nervous system studies as well as fundamental potions studies… if any of you are willing to be my experiment collaborator, you will be able to share the fruits of my research and have free access to my personal lab!" Greem spoke without expression.
The few apprentices couldn't help but betray an expression of hesitation and thought when they heard his words.
Even though they were all considered valuable assets by the Sarubo Clan, it was still a dangerous thing to collaborate with an adept in their experiments. Not anyone dared to try something like that.
Most adept experiments include taboo and forbidden topics. The risk was obvious.
Even though participating apprentices would be able to enjoy the fruits of the experiment and research, the damage to their minds and bodies was uncertain. No apprentice confident in their future would choose this path under normal circumstances. Only the fellows that had depleted their potential or were in desperate need of funds would take the risk and volunteer as experiment collaborator to attract the teacher's attention and favor.
"O’ respected teacher, we were wondering what your experiment involved?" The pseudo-adept named Kodar couldn't help but bow and ask.
"It is related to illusions!"
All of the apprentices looked towards Advanced Apprentice Toril. He was the only one with illusion affinity among them. He was clearly the most suited to become the 'experiment collaborator' from their group!
Toril felt the burning but intangible pressure from everyone and had no choice but to take a step forward. He bowed and said, "Teacher, I am willing to participate in your experiments on illusions!"
"Oh… " A gentle smile appeared on Greem's face, "Are you doing this voluntarily?"
"Indeed!" Toril put up a very reluctant smile that looked even more terrible than if he was sobbing, "It is my honor to be able to participate in your experiments!"
"Very well then, let's sign a contract!"
Greem nodded in satisfaction. He waved his hand and grabbed a scroll out of the air. This magical scroll, forged of pure fire, had appeared out of thin air and was slowly hovering before Toril.
Toril rubbed his eyes, leaned against the scroll, and carefully read through every clause in it. After confirming that the content matched Greem's words, he carefully left his emblem on the scroll.
The scroll crackled and disappeared in a whirlwind of fire.
"If there's nothing else, you may leave. Toril. Make some preparations and come over at seven tonight!" Greem was in a very good mood, having found an experiment collaborator like he had wanted. Even his smile was wider than usual.
The apprentices bowed together and slowly left.
Alice's rolled her eyes and quietly followed them out.
One hour later she returned triumphantly, like a little fox that managed to steal the chicken from the farmer.
"How was it?" Greem put down the book in his hands and asked lazily, "How many of them did you beat?"
"Five! All five of them got beaten up by me." Alice spoke arrogantly and in disdain, "With what little prowess they had, I could take them on all at once!"
Greem frowned when he heard this, "You didn't hurt that Toril, did you?"
“Of course not!” Alice had been in a good mood ever since she got a spacestone from Greem, "I know he still has a job to do tonight, so I only trapped him in my Spatial Prison. He surrendered after realizing he couldn't do anything!"
"The others?" Greem asked curiously.
"I beat them black and blue! All of them are going back to treat their wounds." Alice waved about a small fist like she was the queen of violence.
Greem tilted his head. He could totally imagine everyone's helplessness before Alice's impenetrable Spatial Barrier. Honestly, if it wasn't for his powerful golems, Greem with just his fire affinity would have an impossibly hard time suppressing Alice.
With her unbelievably broken space affinity, Alice had unimaginable offense, defense, and mobility. Just these three were enough to make Alice nearly undefeatable against ordinary pseudo-adepts. They couldn't beat her, nor could they even run from her.
People who battled with Alice were in for an experience of pain and agony!
…………
Dusk fell, and Toril had already appeared at Greem's dwelling.
Greem's task for him was extremely simple as well.
He gave him a knowledge crystal used to store Spirit. There were ten extremely unique magic runes hidden within the crystal. What Toril needed to do was to write out the runes one by one, and as he did so, he needed to record his experiences.
Greem had even set up a hidden room for this specific purpose, to have Toril finish this series of seemingly simple tasks. Of course, he had already hidden many monitoring crystals in every corner of the hidden room. These crystals would very clearly display Toril's every action to Greem, who would be sitting in the room next to this one.
To encourage this advanced apprentice chosen to be his lab rat, Greem had even promised to provide Toril with three books related to potions studies.
Thus, Toril unhesitatingly walked into the room.