In the World of Adepts, the construction of any individual adept"s tower would create a ma.s.sive impact on its surroundings.
Apart from its environmental effects, the main impact of the tower would be the very concept of the tower"s territory.
The area where the tower"s power and influence reached would be the fixed territory that the tower"s owner could control and possess.
This simple concept was almost etched into the soul and consciousness of every single adept, making them uphold it as if it was a belief.
That was why almost every single branch of the Northern Witches received news of the appearance of an adept"s tower in Icewind. Among them, the most shaken were the Coldwinter Witches.
After all, this vast land used to belong to the Coldwinter Witches. It was only due to some "indescribable" reasons that pa.s.sed it into the hands of the Fate Witches. Now, the d.a.m.ned male adept that carried the banner of the Fate Witches actually intended to construct an adept"s tower here. It had clearly gone beyond the expectations of the Coldwinter Witches.
The Coldwinter Witches were also a witch branch that had only reestablished themselves after many difficulties and challenges. Their current branch leader was only Third Grade. As such, though their overall strength might be superior to the Fate Witches, they were still far weaker compared to the other witch branches.
The Coldwinter Witches had no choice but to admit their new reality after several of their messengers were turned away by Icelady Snowlotus.
They would forever lose actual power over Icewind and its surrounding territories. From now on, they would have to rely on the Fate Witches" good will any time they wanted to pa.s.s through Icewind to enter the Black Forest!
The adept"s tower of Icewind finally opened under the curious but shocked attention of the many witches.
One had to admit, the activation of the elementium altar of every single adept"s tower was always mesmerizing! Even though Greem had already experienced it twice, he couldn"t suppress his excited emotions when experiencing it once again. Even his mental consciousness couldn"t help but undulate along with the elementium flux of the tower itself.
When Greem completed the activation of the tower"s spirit alone in the control hall of the eleventh floor, several elementium halos appeared at the base of the tower. Then, floor by floor, they lit up the structure of the tower and started moving toward the top of the tower.
As the defensive magic of the tower belonged to the ice and snow attribute, most of the elementium particles attracted toward it were ice particles. A ma.s.sive number of ice particles slowly gathered around the outside of the tower, each of them like a minuscule light that couldn"t be seen with the naked eye, gradually building up into a miniature blizzard.
From a distance, the entire tower was hidden in white and blinding snow, making it difficult for anyone to successfully gaze upon its actual appearance.
That was only after the activation of the tower"s elementium altar. There weren"t enough elementium energy reserves, causing the blizzard to only manifest within a hundred meters of the tower. With the daily functioning of the tower, the elementium reserves in the energy room at the lowest level would eventually be filled, and this kind of blizzard could easily extend over five kilometers away.
This way, any foe that held hostile intentions toward the tower would have to endure the blizzard even as they attacked the tower. Moreover, as the owner of the tower, Greem could invest even more elementium energy to strengthen the intensity and radius of the snowstorm in specified areas.
The price paid for any operations against the tower would always be immense!
Many Crimson adepts had teleported here from the center of the continent for the tower activation ceremony today. As such, it was extraordinarily lively here as well. Meanwhile, the pseudo-adepts and apprentices of the clan had to spend two to three months traveling through the Black Forest to get here.
While everyone was gathered around the tower to sense the minute changes in the surrounding elementium particles, the gates of the tower suddenly opened as Greem walked out from within.
As a Second Grade adept, Greem was undoubtedly at the peak of his life. His looks had been fixed at his current appearance, with both the youth and vigor of a young man and the composure and ableness of a middle-aged man.
He had yet to go through the first hundred years of his four-hundred-year-long lifespan. There were still plenty of good times for him to enjoy and experience. That was why all the adepts couldn"t help but hold their breath for a moment when he emerged from the tower, bathing in the magical halos still coursing through the building.
"Come on in. From now on, this will be our new home!"
The Crimson adepts who were present started cheering when they heard Greem"s invigorating words.
After acc.u.mulating sufficient power, the Crimson Clan had finally taken its first firm and determined step toward the outside world after acc.u.mulating adequate strength!
All the adepts and apprentices surged into the tower, carrying with them a trace of curiosity and excitement.
The outside world might be one of ice and snow, but once they crossed that barrier of light, it was a beautiful world as warm as spring.
In the center of the first floor was a broad and brightly lit magical hall. At the very front of the room was a vast library. One could see the shelves of magical tomes stacked within through the barrier of light. On both sides of the library were clean and neat magical houses.
The spiral staircase leading to the second floor was located in the corner of the hall.
The floor of the hall was composed of smooth and shining obsidian. Profound magical pictures and strange runes had even been carved into them. Every time an apprentice stepped on top of the tiles, their magical powers would interact with the energy coursing through the array, activating some phantasmal and beautiful light projections.
They would be small girls running about barefoot, or a lively fawn prancing about, or a flower fairy dancing in the winds, or small young dragons breathing fire…
These strange fellows would appear and fade out of existence whenever an adept or apprentice walked through the hall, accompanied by strange sound effects and fantastic lighting.
For the adepts, these were only the most basic of light and shadow illusions and were barely worth mentioning. However, these illusions were magical power that apprentice adepts dreamt about.
Beautiful yet phantasmal, ridiculous yet so real.
Leaving the group of pseudo-adepts and apprentice adepts to explore and get used to the new tower, Greem led the clan adepts onto a short-range teleportation array and instantly arrived at the fifth floor.
Once everyone had taken their seats in the meeting hall, Greem"s pa.s.sionate gaze swept past each of their faces.
With the scale that the Crimson Clan had developed, the internal adept force required proper reorganization and distribution. There wasn"t much to be done over at Fire Throne. It was even said that the Zhentarim a.s.sociation had sent over a n.o.ble lord to attempt to contest the Crimson Clan for the lands surrounding the tower.
Greem took the opportunity to move most of the clan"s forces over to the north.
Gargamel and Forest Spirit Eva remained in Fire Throne to manage the day-to-day tasks there, while Meryl was summoned back from the Goblin Plane to manage the daily functions in the new tower here. The matters in the Goblin Plane would be handed over to Medusa Dana instead.
With such an arrangement, the power structure and veins of the Crimson Clan were slowly fleshed out and expanded.
At Fire Throne, Gargamel would be the majordomo, aided by Forest Spirit Eva, Emelia, and Manticore Charon. Oliven would be stationed there, while Greem would also spend most of his time training there as well.
At the new tower in the north, Meryl would be the majordomo, aided by Icelady Snowlotus, Bug Adept Billis, and Wind Adept Deserra. Mary and the bloodkin she led would be stationed here.
In the Goblin Plane, Medusa Dana would be the majordomo, aided by Goblin Tigule.
In Lance, Brain Monster Gazlowe would be the majordomo, aided by Dragonborn Zacha.
First Grade adepts would manage most of the daily tasks in these places. Meanwhile, no specific duties had been a.s.signed to the Second Grades of the clan. They only needed to train and improve their power constantly. This way, the group would be able to call upon them when the clan needed their strength.
For the first time, the Fate Witches were involved in the management of apprentices within the clan, along with its daily matters, as new members of the clan. Moreover, Alice had specially sent word that a batch of witch apprentices would be sent over to undertake trials here once the new tower had started operating properly.
From the day the new tower was completed, the joining of the Crimson Clan and the Fate Witches had officially begun!
"Teacher, the new adept"s tower has been constructed, but we can"t just keep going on without a name for it, can we? What do you think we should name it?" As the majordomo of the new tower, Meryl was naturally the most concerned over this matter.
Greem looked at everyone present and mulled it over for a while.
"White Tower. We shall just call it White Tower!"
…………
Lance. The thunder dragon"s territory.
A lavish and luxurious palace sat atop the mountainous hills.
Most of the buildings in the palace were constructed to be extraordinarily large and grandiose. The furnishings inside the rooms were also well beyond the extravagance of a human emperor"s palace.
At this moment, on a platform to the east of the palace, Thunder Dragon Arms had once again transformed into his human form and was lying against a soft bed while draped in smooth silk robes. He was enjoying the diligent service of four or five elven beauties while appreciating the performance of the dancers below.
Of the five elven beauties, two were ma.s.saging his legs while one was peeling away grape skins and feeding him with a smile on her face. Meanwhile, one of the other two was holding amber-colored wine in her hands and bringing it forward for him to drink at his instructions. The last one was holding a jade platter for him to spit out the grape seeds.
Though these forest elves captured from Faen appeared to be happy and joyful, the corners of their eyes betrayed their resentment and suffering.
Just as Arms eyes started to glaze over and he prepared to embrace the elven beauties and bring them into his room for a round of pleasantries, a dragon"s roar rang out from the distant horizon.
Wild winds blew across the skies as a ma.s.sive dragon with shining emerald scales descended upon the platform.
As the emerald dragon beat her wings, a small storm formed on the platform beneath her. The soft beds, silk curtains, wine jugs, incense pots, fans, coffee tables, the fruits; everything, even those elven girls in skimpy clothing, were blown about and unable to stand still.
After letting out her fury, the emerald dragon was finally shrouded in a surge of blue mist, transforming into a pretty girl in emerald armor.
"Look at what you"ve done, Arms! Hmph!"
It was the beauty of the emerald dragons that Arms had tricked into coming to Lance- Iritina!