by Zhuang Bifan
"Not bad…" Old Merlin nodded. There was a glimmer of approval in his eyes. "This is a level-eighteen magical crystal. In addition to increasing the magic power, it also contains one of the biggest secrets that only the heads of the Merlin Family in previous generations knew… This level-eighteen magical crystal can be activated by a special method, and when it is activated, you can get a chance to cast an overstepping spell of five levels…"
Cromwell hissed, s.u.c.k.i.n.g in a cold breath. What did an overstepping spell of five levels mean…? Take himself as an example—he was a level-thirteen Magic Shooter. If the magical crystal was activated, he would be able to cast a level-eighteen spell. Such a terrifying level of spell would even be able to defeat Old Merlin and Gerian!
"And this Soul Branding Robe…" Old Merlin put down the staff and picked up the gray mage robe. "It has magic resistance attributes. After wearing it, chances of you getting hurt by low-level spells will be much smaller. In addition, it also has space for 16 scrolls. Before the duel begins, I will prepare 16 scrolls for you."
"I get it, Father." Cromwell looked at the two pieces of equipment with some disregard. He felt that Old Merlin was making a mountain out of a molehill. Now that he was a level-thirteen Magic Shooter, he might even be able to fight the leaders of the other mage families. That Felic was at most level-eight or nine in strength. He did not need any equipment to aid him; he could easily crush Felic with his strength alone.
"Are you thinking I'm making a big deal of a fuss here?" How could Old Merlin not see what Cromwell was thinking with that vision of his? It made Old Merlin helpless. Although Cromwell had grown up a lot after the setback at the Emerald Tower, his supercilious character had never changed completely.
"Father, I feel—"
"Say no more." Cromwell tried to justify himself, but Old Merlin waved his hand wearily. "There's one thing I haven't told you in order to avoid distracting you. That day, outside the Emerald Tower before Gerian came out, I tried to suppress Felic with my mental strength. Do you know what the result was?"
Cromwell looked at Old Merlin with surprise in his eyes.
"Ay…" Old Merlin sighed. "I wonder what kind of luck has struck the Guild of Magic to have such a genius with them. Not only is he a pharmacist, he also has an alarming magical talent. His mental strength is stronger than any mage's I have ever seen. At that time, if I hadn't suppressed him with the strength of an Archmage, I might have lost our Merlin Family's face without waiting for Gerian to come out…"
"…" For all his arrogance, Cromwell was not really an idiot. Especially after breaking through to level-thirteen in magic, he understood better than before what a powerful mental strength meant to a mage…
"Don't belittle your opponent. And don't forget, he's a pharmacist at the same time…" Old Merlin carefully handed the two pieces of equipment to Cromwell. "There are seven days left before the duel, and you still have a chance to complete the final ritual. If you can break through to level-fourteen in these seven days, the Merlin Family is really going to win this duel."
"I get it, Father." Cromwell nodded heavily. With the two pieces of equipment in his hands, he bowed himself out of the room and gently closed the door behind him.
…
Meanwhile, inside the Emerald Tower, Lin Li had once again fallen under the Arcane Missiles.
"Looks like you need a little luck…" Old Grimm, who won, had a look of relief on his face. If he hadn't cast the spell too fast to trigger the bite of mana, he might have lost the combat.
The young man progressed too fast. Andoine was right, he was a real magic genius. This speed of improvement was enough to make any mage jealous. At the beginning, he could use the strength of a Magic Shooter to triumph over him easily. But these days, Lin Li had made a leap from day to day. He had even required luck to win on this day.
Every time he entered the hall, Old Grimm would feel that he was standing in front of a stranger.
That kind of feeling was too strange—they obviously looked the same, but the strength was completely different.
It was less than ten days from the beginning, when Lin Li had no ability to retaliate, to now, when he could exchange strikes with Old Grimm himself. Old Grimm lived a hundred years and had never seen such a monster before. It was as if he had been born to learn magic; in particular, his terrifying combat talent gave Old Grimm chills whenever he thought about it.
Chapter 72 - Narrow Defeat
This hurt his self-esteem…
Old Grimm felt incredulous looking at the young mage before his eyes. The same person couldn't even tell if a spell was really released a few days ago, but in the battle just now, he accurately judged Old Grimm's intention with a Mental Confusion spell. He seized the brief pause after Old Grimm's spell-casting and successfully suppressed it with a few low-level spells…
Old Grimm's fear swelled as he watched Lin Li grow stronger day by day.
He recalled the shot of Ice Blast earlier on; if he had not encountered the bite of mana, the one lying on the ground now would be him.
"I'm still too impatient." Lin Li recovered from the dizziness caused by the Arcane Missiles, but he was not in a hurry to get up. Instead, he sat on the cold floor and summed up his earlier failure. This was a habit he had developed in the recent days. After each failure, he would analyze the combat and look for the key to his failure.
"This is just one of the reasons." Old Grimm shook his head. "With your current mental strength, even if your casting speed is fast, it would be hard to encounter the bite of mana. You were just unlucky this time to encounter it. Your real problem lies in your mentality.
"You have been losing these few days. Today, you finally got the chance to win, so you'd inevitably be a little out of your mind. You wanted to beat me with that Ice Blast, but in that situation, I was already under the spell of the Mana Retroaction and couldn't cast any spells for five seconds. Although the Elemental Shield was still there, it had already blocked off several low-level spells. Why did you not continue to use low-level spells to suppress me then? You only needed two or three wind blades to cut through the Elemental Shield. At that time, why did you choose to recite the spell for Ice Blast that took three seconds long? Did you ever consider that if there was a mistake with the Ice Blast, then the opportunity you've managed to grab would slip away from you and even put you in a passive position throughout the combat?"
Lin Li carefully recalled the situation at that time. It was indeed just as Old Grimm said; his mentality was unbalanced in the face of the coming victory.
Old Grimm's expression was stern. In his heart, he had already regarded Lin Li as his student. "The bite of mana this time was by coincidence. However, a real powerful mage would never leave any chance to his opponent. Such is the battle between mages. One such coincidence can be fatal. Maybe you're much stronger than your opponent. You can win him 99 times in 100 battles, but that one time could kill you and you'd never have the chance to fight him another 99 times."
"Thank you." The old man's words fell into his ears, and Lin Li felt a twinge of gratitude in his heart. He knew very well that the experiences Old Grimm mentioned were summed up in his lifetime. This was more precious than any magic knowledge, and no mage would be willing to speak of it except those who really cared about him.
"But, Felic…" At this point, there was a smile of relief on Old Grimm's face. "Your performance amazes me. If it had been two days ago, I would never have expected you to push me to such a degree. I even secretly used a Magic Steal once earlier on. This is a level-fourteen spell…"
"No wonder…" Lin Li tumbled. "I was thinking I had lost my Elemental Shield too fast…"
"Heh heh…"
"Why don't we do it again? But this time you promise you won't use Magic Steal…"
"Sure!" Old Grimm agreed readily. The battles with Lin Li these days had made him feel like he was a few years younger, as if he had returned to the days when he was a young man following the team of adventurers
to every corner of Anril, hunting for magical beasts and precious herbs…
At the same time, the old man nodded his head. Lin Li, sitting on the floor, had released two shots of wind blades with a swish. He had prepared the two wind blades for long, only waiting for Old Grimm to accept the invitation. Old Grimm had said that himself—a mage was not a knight and should cast a spell whenever possible. There was nothing to worry about bad manners as long as you could kill your opponent; a dead body was not entitled to talk about manners.
"Not bad, you learnt fast." Old Grimm was not fl.u.s.tered. An ice armor was erected and easily blocked the wind blades released by Lin Li. It was then followed by a recitation that was unhurried yet remarkably fluent.
Just as his spell was about to end, he suddenly felt an abnormal surge of mana. The raging fire element seemed to have frozen suddenly. Old Grimm looked up and saw Lin Li's triumphant smile. This was a brilliant Mana Retroaction, released just a second before the end of the spell. It not only disrupted Old Grimm's spell-casting rhythm, but also successfully consumed the duration of his ice armor.
However, Old Grimm did not panic. With a thin layer of ice armor, he resisted the suppression of the low-level spells that came after.
The battle between the two men dazzled Gerian. Artful spell-casting techniques, precise time calculation, rapid attack and defense changeover—all kinds of qualities were displayed incisively and vividly. Especially in these two days, as Lin Li's strength skyrocketed day by day, the battles became more and more exciting, making Gerian reluctant to leave.
Unfortunately, he received a message from Kevin just as he was watching in excitement.
The Shadow's Nest had once again barged into the Demon Fall Valley.
"Eiserhol, you've got guts!" In the guild hall, the furious Gerian slammed his fist onto the table and nearly smashed the crystal ball connecting to the Demon Fall Valley. In his towering rage, Gerian spoke to Kevin in the crystal ball in a shouting voice, "What is the damn situation in the Demon Fall Valley now?"
"They have around a dozen thieves that sneaked in from the Night Song Forest. They destroyed two guard towers and took the mages in the towers hostage."
"Bloody hell!" Gerian broke out in curses. After a while, he gradually calmed down. "How many people have been taken hostage?"
"A total of four."
"Write a letter to Eiserhol right now to request an exchange of hostages. Didn't we capture a few Shadow's Nest people last time? Exchange them. If they don't agree, you can increase the price a little. Anyhow, we must get our people back," Gerian said in one breath and paused before adding, "There are seven days left before the duel, you must hang in there… If you can't keep the outlying guard towers, give them up. We can recover them anytime. The most important thing is that you are alright."
Chapter 73 - Level Twelve
Kevin, who was holding his ground in the Demon Fall Valley, passed every day as if it were a year. Lin Li, who was in the Emerald Tower, felt like time was flying by. In the blink of an eye, seven days were reduced to one day left.
Accompanied by Gerian, Lin Li walked into the level certification hall once again.
Old Grimm had just left half an hour ago. Before he left, the old man's expression was somewhat hurt. In one afternoon, Lin Li had beaten him four times in a row, and each time was done neatly and efficiently. He'd even used Magic Steal on one occasion, but still failed to avoid a defeat…
Even Gerian, who was wild with joy while watching, couldn't help but curse inwardly. Beast.
Old Grimm was a legendary mage; though he used only the power of a Magic Shooter, it was hardly justifiable to beat him over and over again…
"Go and certify your level once more. With your current strength, you should have reached the Magic Shooter realm."
At Old Grimm's reminder, Lin Li suddenly remembered that he had not gone to certify his level for a long time. He wondered how much progress he had made after this period of tempering.
Still the same empty level certification hall, still the same crystal ball protected by the mageweaths.
Under the eyes of Gerian, Lin Li once again pressed his hand on the crystal ball.
As time went by, the light on the crystal ball became more and more dazzling. Lin Li had once again broken his own record. This time, the mana output was extended by a full two minutes to become a horrifying 30 minutes in total!
"30 minutes…" Gerian's jaw was wide open, and looked as if an egg could be stuffed into it. He stared dumbfounded for long before asking incredulously, "You little bastard, are you still human?"
To Gerian, this kid was a monster in human skin. The initial 28 minutes was enough to put people in despair. To think this beast in human skin could extend the time. Gerian was even wondering if this bastard would blow up the crystal ball directly when he came back in another few years' time.
Before Gerian's dumbstruck eyes, the brightness of the crystal ball soared through level-nine without a doubt, and then went straight into the realm of a Magic Shooter. What drove Gerian completely mad was that the light still showed no signs of stopping after it had passed the realm of the Magic Shooter, and it broke through level-eleven with an irresistible force…
"Damn! Magic Shooter, it indeed is the Magic Shooter!"
When the crystal ball's brightness rested at level-twelve, Gerian's screams almost lifted the roof off. "Bloody hell, it's a level-twelve Magic Shooter at that…"
"Level-twelve? That much?" Lin Li couldn't help feeling astounded. He had been practicing with Old Grimm every day recently, and he could really feel his strength growing by leaps and bounds. But he had never expected the extent of his ascension to be so great. Not only did he enter the realm of the Magic Shooter directly, he also reached a height of a level-twelve Magic Shooter in just over ten days.
"Heck, you tell me, are you human? After practicing with Grimm Burnside for a few days, you've jumped from level-nine to level-twelve…" Gerian had gone totally insane, grabbing Lin Li's neck and shaking it with all his might. "I've fought for decades, and had 800 if not a 1000 battles in total, so why have I never got promoted so fast before?"
"How would I know…"
"F*ck, this is inhuman." Gerian was extremely indignant, and looked at Lin Li with suspicion. "If you continue practicing with Grimm Burnside for another couple of days, will you break through to the Archmage realm directly?"
"You're dreaming!" Lin Li was at a loss whether to laugh or cry hearing Gerian's whimsical words.
"Right…" Gerian chuckled embarrassedly as he wiped off the cold sweat that broke out on his forehead. To break through to the realm of an Archmage could only be said out of fun. If there was really such a good thing in the world, why did they need to study magic? They could just battle with a legendary mage like Old Grimm or Andoine, who would probably be worked to death.
In fact, Gerian knew that the root of Lin Li's achievements lay not only in his unique talent, but also in his diligence and acc.u.mulation.
It could be said that Gerian had watched this talented mage grow up. From the level-eight mage when he first came to the Guild of Magic to the level-twelve Magic Shooter he had broken through today, Gerian was perfectly clear how much sweat and effort Lin Li had put in in the process.
Not to mention the Emerald Tower, even if you looked all over Jarrosus City, there was probably no mage beyond level-eight who still practiced the basic skill of elemental sequencing every day, and more so no one would stay in the library for a whole day just to find a shorter spell.
But Lin Li could. Gerian often found this genius mage staying in the room for a whole day. When asked what he was doing, his answer was actually practicing elemental sequencing. Jarrosus was the famous City of Chaos in northern Anril. There were 18 forces here and a life full of splendor and various temptations. Even an honest guy like Kevin failed to resist the temptation and sparked off a relationship with the daughter of a wealthy businessman a few years back…
But this y
oung man, who was several years younger than Kevin, could resist the temptation. With his status as a potion master, the wealth of over a million gold coins on the crystal card, plus the strength of a level-nine mage, there would be countless ladies willing to throw themselves on him with him just standing around in the Daylight Square. But he did not, and was instead holed up in the Emerald Tower every day, studying magic or making potions, as if these were all his amus.e.m.e.nts.
This made Gerian perplexed but pleased at the same time…
The acc.u.mulation of diligence and perseverance finally broke out at once and led him to leap directly from level-nine to level-twelve. The combat with Old Grimm was merely an inducement. Without his previous diligence and perseverance, even if the legendary mage personally guided him, he would only obtain some additional combat experience, which would not be helpful to the ascension of magic level.
For Lin Li, the fighting over the past ten days was like a key that opened the door to his dreams. Before this, he had been wandering in front of the door for a long, long time…
Chapter 74 - Black Diamond
After coming out from the level certification hall, Lin Li locked himself in his room once again.
The duel with Cromwell would begin in a day's time—he had a lot of things to prepare before it. As Old Grimm said, a truly powerful mage had to put an end to all accidents. Lin Li couldn't prevent all accidents by himself with his strength, so he had to prepare some items for himself.
It was a must to wear the Robe of Wrath which could carry 30 scrolls and which he enchanted with magic resistance attributes using the abyss mithril gold rod. The space to carry 30 scrolls was a little unnecessary, but the magic resistance attribute was definitely what Lin Li needed. How could Lin Li have gotten away unharmed at Castellan Isaac's banquet if he had not worn the Robe of Wrath?
After deciding on the mage robe, Lin Li fumbled about in the Ring of Endless Storm again.
But the result was embarrassing. Despite the extent he was rich to in the Endless World, he had forgotten to prepare a set of equipment for his mage smurf. The Robe of Wrath was the only thing he had.
