At this moment, the tiny Rut'theran Village had already become a gathering place for vampires and black insects.
A black sea squirmed on the ground while swarms of vampires wove between the tall canopy.
The leaders of their respective factions were quietly discussing something upon the tree platform as they stood guard.
Even though Bug Adept Billis had raised an army of tens of thousands of insects and had twenty-five magical mantises guarding at his side, he remained as respectful as ever before Bloody Queen Mary. He didn't betray even a trace of arrogance or pride.
With this bug army and these combat insects that listened to his every command, Billis would have no problem challenging all of the First Grade Crimson adepts alone. Despite having such power, he still didn't dare to be disrespectful to Mary.
That was because apart from being a Second Grade vampire, Mary's actions while Billis was still an apprentice had left a deep impression on his soul. Even now, when Billis saw Mary, he felt his limbs go soft and his hands sweat. He forced a smile on his face and appeared even more obedient than even Vanlier.
After the past couple of weeks, the nearby elven villages had almost all been visited by the two of them.
As their power increased exponentially, they were no longer satisfied with such small battles and having to sneak around. They had specially chosen to meet here to gather their troops and accumulate enough strength to assault Skywater City's outpost.
It was a small elven town southwest of Skywater– Quel'Lithien Lodge.
That place was nearly a hundred kilometers away from Skywater City and had a population of four hundred elves. It was one of the satellite towns of Skywater City and was responsible for providing the city with large amounts of fresh fruit on a daily basis.
Most elves were vegetarians and never touch bloody meat their entire lives. That was why the fruits provided by Quel'Lithien Lodge could be considered the primary source of food for the citizens of Skywater City.
It was in consideration of this factor that Old Fox Vanlier had been suggesting Mary and Billis work together and conquer this elven town of great significance. Once they captured Quel'Lithien Lodge, not only would their military force increase tremendously, they would also be able to interrupt the order of daily life in Skywater.
It was a necessary step that had to be taken for two ambitious adepts that sought to achieve something on the west coast.
Moreover, the strongest person in Quel'Lithien Lodge's garrison was only Second Grade; there were no Third Grade powerhouses present. Assaulting a place like this wouldn't put them in too much risk at all. Mary and Billis couldn't help but be moved after listening to Vanlier's analysis and presentation.
It was the benefit of both parties working together. They could immediately put to action any of their plans once they had come to a decision.
The moment they made their promises, Billis took to the whistling winds and vanished into the forest with his rumbling insect army. The sound of beating wings came from Mary's side as a swarm of a thousand vampires gathered into a massive crimson cloud and flew into the distance, hovering right above the canopy.
A short moment later, this ravaged valley finally regained its peace, with only deathly silence left behind.
…………
The isolated island.
The flying ship was still floating above the island. The tinkering sounds of hammering and the sizzling of welding continued to echo, along with metallic ringing all the while.
The massive battle from last time had left far, far too many wounds upon the flying ship both hidden and not. For the sake of all future campaigns, Greem had to honestly stay upon this tiny island, regardless of how impatient he was. He had to wait for the moment the flying ship's repairs were completed.
At this moment, all sorts of construction machines were working inside the flying ship under the instructions of goblin technicians and engineers. They ceaselessly repaired the space furnace and all internal damage suffered by the vessel, as well as patching up the horrifying marks of battle marring the deck.
The scale of the project was so stunningly large!
It was fortunate that sufficient metal ingots and alloy materials had been stored inside the flying ship before they invaded the Faen Plane. It was only then that they had a way of fixing all these damages. Otherwise, they would have had no choice but to return dejectedly to Shadow Island and ask for help from the Pale Witches!
All of the adepts clearly couldn't bear such a noisy environment. All of them chose to move down to the isolated island. There, they could use this temporary break between battles to continue experiments and research they were interested in.
Greem also ordered people to dig out a small stone room beneath the prison within the island. He then excavated a temporary laboratory there.
What he badly needed to research now were those forest elves!
Humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, halflings, gnomes, kobolds, goblins; large deviations would happen to the same species when they appeared in different places. As an adept, Greem believed himself to be plenty knowledgeable about the elves already. However, all that knowledge had come from the books of the World of Adepts.
Just the elven races that Greem had heard of through the books included the wood elves, gold elves, sun elves, moon elves, gray elves, wild elves, plains elves, and forest elves. Whenever an elven race was placed in an extreme environment, they would even evolve into entirely unrecognizable new appearances.
For example, the dark elves that lived underground (also known as drow), the sea elves that lived deep in the sea (also known as naga), or the fallen elves that lived in areas of demonic magic (also known as satyrs).
These elves that lived in Garan called themselves forest elves due to them taking up home in the Fantasy Forest. They fundamentally still held the legacy and tradition of the elves, establishing themselves through their exceptional archery skills. All forest elves, be they male or female, had slender bodies, intelligent minds, pretty appearances, graceful movements, and sharp eyes.
Their favorite activities were poetry, literature, and music.
They often lived deep in the forest, and their largest tribes rarely exceeded two hundred elves.
The hidden villages of the elves blended miraculously with the forest without ever harming the wood itself.
Almost all forest elves were vegetarians and only relied on harvested natural fruits as their diet, rarely killing or hunting the creatures in the woods. Thus, they also wouldn't fell trees or burn grass to farm as the humans would.
It was because they assimilated themselves perfectly to the Fantasy Forest that they won praise and titles of 'Children of Nature' and 'Friend of the Forest.' They relied on their unique racial talents to travel in the thorn-filled, tree-dense, and magical Fantasy Forest without leaving behind any traces.
The massive forest that was difficult to traverse for an outsider was no problem for them at all.
They could even converse intimately with every flower, every blade of grass, and every tree in the forest. That was why trying to track an elf in the Fantasy Forest was a nearly impossible task!
That was basically all that Greem knew of the forest elves. Apart from this, he only knew the basic classes of the elven army and their respective specialties.
In general, Faen Plane was only a mid-sized plane with decent development. It didn't have the qualifications to be compared to the World of Adepts. The grade classification of the lifeforms here might be very similar to the World of Adepts, but the quality of each grade was simply too different!
After the several battles he had gone through, Greem had obtained a fundamental estimation of the situation. The grades of the lifeforms here were about half a grade lower compared to the World of Adepts. Which is to say, a beginner First Grade combat profession of Faen would only be slightly stronger than the advanced apprentices of the World of Adepts. They were barely equal to pseudo-adepts.
Most of the time, the First Grades of Faen couldn't even compare to the more powerful pseudo-adepts of the World of Adepts!
That was why it wasn't hard to see how Greem could fight multiple Faen Second Grades as a beginner Second Grade fire adept and absolutely crush them in battle.
However, the forest elves of Faen weren't only full of weaknesses. They also had their advantages and strengths.
It was that all of their citizens could fight!
Almost every single forest elf, even those tiny children who were barely taller than a longbow, would be Deadshots in the human world. It was this unique racial trait of having all their population being archers that allowed the forest elves to maintain a steady hold over Garan, repeatedly repelling multiple invasions of Faen.
Moreover, the forest elves were also a strong race that was protected by gods. They had quite a number of spiritualists within their kingdom. These temple priests and god messengers could all borrow the divine power of their gods and combine it with the nature magic in which they were skilled. It gave them considerable might.
In the previous battle of Jintha'Alor, God Messenger Xenia had sent Dark Witch Uzzah packing, despite both of them being the same grade. If it wasn't for Greem summoning the Third Grade thunder dragon in time as well as the use of the magic energy cannon on the flying ship, that might have been the final battle of the Crimson Clan.
Greem might have been able to escape with his power, but most of the adepts following him would not have eluded the pursuit of the elves.
That was why Greem, having seen the terrifying might of an elven god messenger, had chosen to run to the seas and take the opportunity of going into hiding to find the weaknesses of the forest elves.
What he most wanted to do now was utterly and ultimately figure out the body structure of the forest elves, as well as the functions of their magical organs. He would then find the most straightforward and practical means to wound and kill them.
Of course, his first choice was still a plague!
After all, this wasn't a private plane that he possessed. Even if he wrecked the entirety of Garan and drastically reduced the population of the forest elves, he wouldn't be the one to lament the loss.
Thus, Greem invited Poison Hag Endor into his laboratory and worked together with her to research and invent a particular plague meant explicitly for the forest elves.