Return to the Swamp

The journey back was smooth and uneventful just like it was three months ago. Some would say it was even more quiet. 

The presence and threat of the golden armored Body-Refining Adept remained an eternal deterrent against the stupidity of arrogant youth, however, the subdued haughtiness of the surviving apprentices added to this.

Most of them had come to understand a little bit of what Greem knew since his entry into this world; in the grand scheme of things, anything below Adept was nothing.

Unless you weren't part of this group of individuals that had broken the chains of humanity, your worth only lay in your potential and ability to join them. Not your power, not your clan, and not your wealth. 

Because this hard truth had been hammered into most of them, the apprentices who gazed at Greem with condescending and disdaining looks now looked at him with jealousy, surprise, or didn't look at him at all. 

After all, not everyone of them had been able to advance much less survive like he and Mary had.

Anytime these Advanced Apprentices climbed aboard the ship and sensed the reserved yet powerful spiritual aura around the cuddling couple, they'd express their shock mildly and move along.

There was no need to draw the attention of the duo they looked down on a few months ago. What if they were feeling vengeful? Granted, the golden armored Adept's presence ensured that these possible acts of vengeance wouldn't happen on the ship.

But what about when they dropped at their destinations? Greem and Mary wouldn't have to do much to find out their names and locations. Even if they didn't come after them right away, they could wait until they advanced to Adept and come after them.

Thoughts like these ran through the minds of a majority of the Advanced Apprentices, a significant part of them hoping the couple were truly asleep and unaware of their presence (even though they knew that was unlikely).

And they were right.

With The Method, sleep had become something Greem could induce or forgo for as long as he wanted or needed. As for Mary, while sleep was an important aspect of her power due to her race, she didn't need to indulge in it unless she was digesting high-energy blood or advancing to a higher grade. 

In the unlikely event she was feeling tired or sleepy, a simple sip of blood was enough to bring her back to 100 percent. So no, they weren't sleeping. Just relaxing and enjoying the feel of their bodies against each other while keeping their eyes closed.

The last part was to keep people away. Greem wasn't interested in making friends or acquaintances, not even with the Pseudo Adepts. All he had on his mind was his own power and the sexy vampire clinging to him like a cat.

Not the thoughts of vengeance like the Advanced Apprentices were thinking. 

He couldn't read minds, but he could sense the amount of gazes on him, those flickering indecisively like they were afraid of something, those that observed him for a long moment and moved away, and the single one trained on him with the focus of a laser.

Greem was tempted to open his eyes and look in the direction of the last one, but he reminded himself of how inconsequential it all was. If that gaze indeed belonged to who he thought it was, opening his eyes to meet it wouldn't change anything. 

It wouldn't make the airship go faster, make him stronger, or make the person hate him less. So why waste his brain power to acknowledge his presence when he could spend it working on the mental blueprints in his mind?

Finding the issue of his own power a good way to gain pinpoint focus, Greem spent the long journey completely stationary, his eyelids shut the entire time.

Such a deep dive into his mind and the engagement of his various plans within it had polished some aspects he overlooked and improved some of the mechanisms he wanted to incorporate into the items he planned to craft. 

For instance, the memory of a video detailing how jet engines operated had changed how he intended to build the rocket pack. Not only would he be able to use it for longer than he originally thought, it would also generate more thrust, significantly more.

Both these things rendered the creation of the wind suit unnecessary. He was better off incorporating the wind elementium cores in the rocket pack where they'd be of more use.

When he imagined soaring through the air and breaking the sound barrier, his desire to start working on the pack intensified. Luckily for him, the time spent in his head had been enough for that of the outside to also pass quickly.

The airship had arrived at the foggy swamp.

Nudged awake by Mary, Greem opened his eyes for the second time upon climbing the ship and looked around. The apprentices from the Swampy Tower who survived their missions were gathering themselves to disembark. 

Evil Bugs Acteon and Madwoman were part of them, the former matching his glance with a challenging one and the latter keeping her gaze down when he swept his vision over her.

Bringing his eyes to rest on the lowered platform, Greem rose to his feet and flanked Mary, his movements smooth and unburdened for someone who hadn't moved for more than ten days.

The duo walked down the plank, Acteon in front of them and the other Advanced Apprentices parting to make way for them. 

Taking out their apprentice talismans, all the Swamp Tower apprentices disappeared into the fog and beelined for their home, each of them with different goals and expectations in mind. 

Acteon, in what Greem assumed to be some sort of dick measuring contest, arrived at the tower first. 

Apprentice Leader Ellen, the apprentices who stayed in the tower for their missions, and those who arrived before them, also stood there, waiting to receive their colleagues. 

Adept Anderson, was of course, nowhere in sight.

The astonishment and loud mutterings Acteon generated with his advancement to Pseudo Adept doubled in intensity when Greem and Mary came out of the fog, Snorlax with his huge back of goods behind them.

Their double Pseudo Adept auras hit the lower apprentices in full force and cracked the smiles of schadenfreude Ellen and his lackeys wore. 

Ellen assumed that with his backer having reached Pseudo Adept, his authority among the apprentices in the tower would be uncontested. He would also have the chance to get revenge for the humiliation he suffered. 

It would be good if that bastard Greem died, but if he didn't he could give Acteon some resources and have the latter cripple or kill him.

Who knew that the bastard would defy all expectations and also reach Pseudo Adept? 

When he saw how Mary had intertwined her arm with his and how she clung on to him, his expression worsened even further, a trace of fear on his features. The entire power structure in the tower was about to change.

Even if Acteon was powerful, he couldn't fight against 2 Pseudo Adepts on his own. Especially when the two were closely allied. Ellen's gaze switched back and forth between the duo and the bug apprentice, the welcoming speech he'd prepared long gone from his mind.

Still as impatient and wanton as ever, Mary didn't slow her stride and said in a louder than normal voice, infusing her aura into it. "Out of the way!"

Her words parted the sea of gathered apprentices and she rushed into the tower through the gap, the anticipation about her and Greem in the shower about to blow over like a dam.

 ☀☀☀ 

Adept Anderson not coming to welcome his apprentices was not a normal occurrence. 

In other towers and academies, when an Adept's charges returned from such long missions, he or she was supposed to be present to receive them and assess their progress. 

This was especially true if there happened to be those lucky enough to reach Pseudo Adept among them.

In the apprentice realm of the Adept's power system, Pseudo Adept was a dividing line between regular apprentices and those who could ascend. It was a faint line, but it existed.

Had Anderson known that not one, not two, but three of his apprentices had jumped this hurdle, he would have received them with smiles and open arms.

Because it meant the main family would not only reward him for producing potential Adept material, they would also increase the amount of yearly resources allocated to him.

Alas, the man was so desperate to advance he hadn't even noticed this, leading to a representative of the Sarubo family arriving on his own to meet, assess and offer contracts to Greem, Mary, and Acteon. 

Whether Anderson's incompetence was ever called into question, Greem didn't know. What he knew for a fact, was that the Sarubo family had their eyes on this swamp and were privy to the happenings within it. 

Anderson's taboo experiments and little tricks hadn't escaped their notice. They knew of his plans and didn't care. So long as he could grow more powerful and be of benefit to them, he could do whatever he wanted to the apprentices in the tower.

Yes, even the Pseudo Adepts.

It was this and his foreknowledge that made Greem extremely wary of the official Adept from the clan. He kept his body relaxed, face straight, and words as short and concise as possible. 

He did not want to give anything away as Adept Keoghan explained the history of the Sarubo clan and his reason for requesting to see them so late in the night.

According to him, the Fourth Grade Element Adept Sarubo established the clan 1300 years ago, and he had a great reputation in these central lands. He was also deputy chairman of the Zhentarim Association, the lords of this mainland area.

That all ended 500 years ago when he ascended to Fifth Grade and left the plane to explore the endless depths of space. His departure left the clan without anyone of appropriate power to hold the fort. 

Currently, the most powerful person serving as their leader was a Third Grade Adept, not a Fourth Grade like a high-tier clan was supposed to have. Nevertheless, the fact that the clan had Fifth Grade Adept backing them was enough to keep the hungry and predatory gazes of other clans at bay.

To grow his own power and that of his clan, Fifth Grades like Sarubo supplied premium resources to the members so they could enhance their own power, train new Adepts or invite wandering ones to join them. 

These Adepts would then serve as foot soldiers in his conquest of lesser planes, earning all parties involved much needed resources, items, and wealth they could use to bolster their own power.

That's why Adept Keoghan presented the trio with two options after explaining everything to them; join the family to receive their full-fledged support or exchange years of service for resources.

As apprentices who were "nurtured" in the Swamp Tower, a resource site of the Sarubo family,

Greem, Mary, and Acteon had no choice but to choose one of the two. They would not be allowed to go free until they repaid the clan in some way.

Having long discussed this with her, Greem and Mary chose to serve the clan for the next ten years—the shortest period of time available.

Having held out little hope that the time period would be smaller, Greem took this hiccup—if it could even be called that—in stride. After all, his lifespan would be 30 to 40 times that after advancing. He had nothing to fear.

Perhaps to one-up Greem and Mary in some way, Acteon chose to join the family, receiving far better treatment than they did. He was given a family chest badge and free residence on the tower's fourth floor, one level below Adept Anderson's.

Moreover, he could adjust the concentration of elementium in his room to levels that would improve his meditation and speed of advancement.

At a price of four magic crystals daily, Greem and Mary also obtained a luxury residence on the same floor, but not the dense elementium bonus, showcasing a clear divide between them and the bug apprentice.

However both of them weren't bothered.

For one, they both had more magic crystals than they could count, more so for Greem. He had to have over a hundred thousand of them from Snorlax's sales. Mary also had a decent amount from selling the animal parts she gained from her frequent hunts.

So on the money front, they were secure. Same for the advancement speed. 

If the plans Greem formulated and shared with her came into fruition, in one or two months they'd both join the ranks of these existences that were deemed so important in Lethon.

Who cared about how the clan treated them?