“I executed both the baiting and the intercepting, so I must get a larger share of the loot!”
The old geezer blustered. He vibrated the wings on his back and floated into the air.
*Whoosh!* The old geezer traveled at a very quick pace. He was as nimble in the air as he was on the ground. From the looks of it, he had much practice in air combat.
“Ga Ga!” The Kary Vulture King angrily cried out. Sadly, a large portion of its wings were damaged by the explosion, and it was no match for the old geezer in the air.
After hovering and swooping for a while, the old geezer grabbed an opportunity. With a green ray, he pierced one of the Kary Vulture King’s wings.
*Peng!*
With one wing pierced, the Kary Vulture King lost its balance and crashed down into the ground. A large cloud of sand floated around the downed Vulture.
“Advance!”
Leylin and the rest of the party immediately rushed up and surrounded the Kary Vulture King.
Blood flowed out from the multiple wounds on the Kary Vulture King. Looking at the Magi who surrounded it and the human figure floating in the sky above him, its eyes betrayed a sign of hopelessness.
“Haha! Goddamn beast, I shall tear you apart!”
The big bloke laughed out coldly. A green-greyish stone skin appeared on his body as he leapt at the injured Kary Vulture King.
“Ga Ga!”
The Kary Vulture King sounded an abnormally high-pitched shriek and shook its wings.
What remained of its unharmed wing slashed across like a knife, with feathers erect like steel blades. The wing clashed with the big bloke’s fist.
*Bang!* A dull explosion sounded out in midair and shook the ground below.
The big bloke quickly retreated, his greyish stone skin letting out a crackling sound like the popping noises of popcorn.
The Kary Vulture King let out another screech, and its body turned red. It looked like the Kary Vulture King was pumping all of its blood into its head. The originally shattered tumour on its head begun to rise and swell again.
“Careful, he is about to let loose a sound wave attack!” Leylin rapidly shouted out. He grabbed the tumour with his palms. ”Restrict!”
*Sssii!*
The countless black tentacle-like objects reached out from the Kary Vulture King’s shadow and bound it tightly. Extra effort was placed in tying up the Kary Vulture King’s skull region.
“All together!”
Leylin yelled wildly. Together with the other two silent Magi, he attacked the Kary Vulture King.
Various intensely fluctuating magical spells landed on the Kary Vulture King’s body.
The spells tore apart the Kary Vulture King’s chest, causing large amounts of blood to spurt out of it.
*Kacha!*
The old geezer, who had been floating in midair, let out an emerald air-blade attack, which chopped off the bound tumour.
The Kary Vulture King screeched a couple of times as the light in its eyes started to extinguish, and it thudded onto the floor.
*Pa!*The old geezer landed on the ground, and his magical green wings disappeared.
The six Magi surrounded the Kary Vulture King’s corpse. They all had complex looks on their faces.
“What a chore this has been! If not for the additional remuneration from the pub, this would have been a complete loss!”
The lack of serious injuries on the party was a poor reflection of the difficulty level of killing off the Kary Vulture King. They had to spend a lot of time to prepare the traps and come up with the various materials needed for the potions. On top of that, the fact that they needed 6 Magi to complete the task proved how big of a challenge it was.
The materials that were scavenged from the Kary Vulture King’s corpse were barely enough to cover the expenses of the effort taken by the party.
If anyone was dead or seriously injured from the incident, this would have been counted as a big loss.
Magi were a rational bunch. They could calmly perform cost-benefit analysis under different circumstances. If the cost was greater than the benefits, they would avoid doing the job.
This time, if not for the fact that the Kary Vulture King was obstructing the way towards their destination, the party would have left such a high-level creature alone.
“No matter what, the fact that our party has sustained no serious injuries is good news!”
The old geezer smiled widely and said, ”Now let’s discuss how to distribute the plunder from our efforts…”
Afterwards, true to Leylin’s expectations, the old geezer claimed the majority of the feathers and the pair of large wings with the argument that he had put in the most work. From the looks of his happy face, he must have needed it urgently for an experiment or for crafting.
The rest of the party followed suit and claimed what they felt was fair for the amount of work they had done.
Leylin took only a bit of the blood and flesh from the tumour and nothing else.
As a Warlock, he was extremely interested in the bloodline of high-level creatures. Although the benefits of the Kary Vultures’ bloodline were not documented, Leylin wanted to experiment to see if he could extract anything from it.
At night, in the Golden Oasis, the 6 Magi cleaned up the remains of the Kary Vulture King and refilled up their water supplies in the nearby water source. The Seated Lupin Wolves, which had been hidden for a long time, happily cleaned themselves in the lake.
In a glowing tent nearby, Leylin looked at the surface of the tumour, which he had retrieved with a glint of excitement in his eyes.
“A.I. Chip, record data, assist in the experiment!”
Leylin silently chanted a sentence, and immediately pulled on a pair of white rubber gloves. He held out his thumb and pressed on the tumour.
The blood on the tumour flesh has dried completely by now. There were bloodstains on it and it was shriveled.
“It is very light, there seem to be meridians and air sacs…”
Leylin’s eyes glowed blue. Using his other hand, he used a scalpel to break the surface of the tumour.
Inside the flesh, there was an oddly small amount of muscle and blood vessels, and it was comprised mainly of small air sacs.
Many of the air sacs were layered over each other, forming what looked like a lattice shape that resembled a beehive.
“This kind of composition…”
Leylin muttered to himself, “A.I. Chip, record the image!”
……
After the experiment was finished, Leylin cleaned up his makeshift laboratory, picked up a goose feather quill, and wrote in his goatskin notebook: Sound vessel composition and sound wave attack…
The path after the Golden Oasis was much less dangerous. They did not have any further encounters with powerful, high-level life forms such as the Golden Giant.
……
Andre Town was a small town located on the other side of the Grand Canyon Magret.
The Kary Vultures had caused the town to become empty and desolate. However, upon exiting the Grand Canyon, they saw a few people.
“May I know if you people are master Lancey and company?”
There was already someone standing by the roadside. He was clad in the pub’s working attire. Upon sighting Leylin and his party, he bowed respectfully. ”The incident with the Kary Vultures was already relayed to us by a secret imprint. Please follow me back to the pub to collect your rewards…”
“Ok!” Lancey and the old geezer stepped out among the group and gave their agreement.
After reaching the pub the attendants unhitched their luggage, and with a whistle, the Seated Lupin Wolves hurried into their feeding area at the rear of the pub.
144 - The Chase
“It’s only renting for a few months, but it costs five hundred magic crystals. Your boss sure knows how to make money!”
The big bloke complained.
“In fact, we generally charge one thousand magic crystals per r
ental of the Seated Lupin Wolf. We only charged the minimal maintenance costs this time, as you Sirs took on the task…”
The smiling waiter explained.
As the old geezer arrived, he immediately threw the Vulture King’s skull onto the counter.
“Mission accomplished! Have a look!”
From behind the counter, a white-bearded, bespectacled old man in a bartender’s uniform came out. However, from the energy waves exuding from him, he also seemed to be an official Magus.
The white-bearded old man carefully examined the Vulture King’s skull for a long while, only then did he put it away.
“It is indeed the Vulture King’s head. According to the agreement, each one of you will be able to get….”
Mr. White Beard was nimble. He immediately took out bags filled with magic crystals and magic materials and gave it to everyone. It seemed like he had prepared this beforehand.
“In actuality, I belong to the great Dorian family…”
After completing the delivery, the old geezer put on a kind smile and extended an olive branch to Leylin and the rest.
These kinds of big families would recruit foreign magicians from time to time to further strengthen their family.
Moreover, Leylin and the rest had decent strength, and since they had come from the eastern part of the Grand Canyon, they were not likely to be spies sent by their enemies.
As long as they didn’t have a massive headache that they brought with them, it was likely that the local large magisteriums would be most willing to offer shelter for such talents.
Leylin noticed that the big bloke’s face obviously displayed his intention to agree. The two magicians who were together, however, seemed indecisive. As for Lancey and the old geezer, they did not hesitate to reject the offer.
Leylin himself did not consider this option.
When magicians joined other big families, it was because they wanted to obtain higher level meditation techniques, magic resources and the like. Leylin already had meditation techniques, and as for magic resources, he could just use medicine to trade for them. Besides, compared to such closed families, Leylin was more willing to join an educational institute or an organisation. Hence, the olive branch the families threw to them, had a lesser appeal to Leylin.
“Come! In any case, we’ve operated as comrades! How about we go and have a drink?”
The leader old geezer suggested.
“Maybe not. I still have other matters to attend to, let’s keep in touch…”
Lancey left in a hurry, seeming like she had an urgent matter.
“I’ll pass as well. It has been a tiring journey. I just want to find a place to have a good sleep!” Leylin rejected him with a smile.
He had only become temporary comrades with these people to hurry along with the journey, so there was not much friendship between him and them. Besides, the crime he had committed was not light, so it would be better if he rushed to the domain of the light Magi as quickly as possible.
After Leylin, the big bloke, and the other two magicians also rejected the old geezer’s suggestion.
The old geezer shrugged helplessly and looked at Leylin as he left the bar.
Outside the pub were a couple of narrow streets that were pawed with flagstones. It was dark all around, and only the lanterns outside the pub still gave off a couple soft rays of light.
“It’s already dark!!” Leylin checked out his surroundings “It’s probably wise to first find a place to rest…”
[Warning! Warning! High energy force field convergence detected ahead, determined to be a rank 1 offensive spell!]
The moment he stepped out of the bar. Leylin felt his scalp go numb, the blood vessels deep inside his body also started to surge and boil, emitting a sense of foreboding.
At the same time, A.I. Chip also started to project a large amount of red letter of warning.
“This attack is aimed at me!”
Leylin’s mind was working on overdrive. His body turned into a blur as he dodged to the side.
*Boom!*
Suddenly, powerful energy waves exploded in front of Leylin. Dozens of weapons made of a silvery metal formed a metallic storm, which raged at the area where Leylin had previously stood.
The bar was directly cut in half, and the ceiling was shattered, exposing countless stupefied magicians and the painful groans of those who had hurt by the aftermath.
“Kid, I have found you!”
As the debris settled, upon the ruins stood a midget, who was staring at Leylin’s face with a pair of eyes that were like daggers.
“You are… part of the Lilytell family?!”
Leylin patted the dust off his body, and calmly squared off against the midget.
Among the people and powers that he had offended, only that elder of the Lilytell family could have this kind of enmity and capability. In addition, the spell was similar to what Bosain had used.
“You are courting death!”
Leylin’s actions had clearly enraged his opponent. The midget waved his hand as countless metallic fluids floated up in midair to form weapons such as long spears and giant swords. On the surface, it even radiated the acute radiation of energy forcefield.
“Go!” With a point of his finger, the metallic weapons once again chopped down at Leylin.
“Latent Fireball!”
Leylin chanted his spell at lightning speed. From the shadows a dozen black fireballs emerged and collided against the metallic weapons, causing violent magical explosions.
[Target’s magic determined as Metallic. Degree of attack: 32 degrees!] The A.I. Chip probed this information, which let Leylin release a breath of relief.
“You do have some skills, no wonder you could kill my subordinates and my grandson!”
The midget said.
“So you are the elder of the Lilytell family and the grandfather of Bosain? Quite without scruples!” Leylin retorted.
“This… gentleman, this bar is under the protection of the Dorian family, within this…”
From the ruins, the old geezer with the white beard and glasses that was tending the bar finally stepped forward.
“I know!” the midget tossed over a piece of metal. “I have met your family’s Buffett a couple of times, this is his keepsake! And there is even a message on it!”
“So, it is Master Lilytell, who is here to apprehend a criminal!”
The old geezer threw Leylin a gaze of pity, then hurriedly bowed to the midget. “Since that’s the case, the Dorian family will maintain a neutral stand on this!”
“Huh, kiddo, you’re able to escape well! Did you think the rules here could save you?”
The midget looked at Leylin with an unspeakable expression filled with schadenfreude, as if he wanted to see Leylin’s expression of despair. “The strong dictate the rules, and the weak can only obey. This is the norm of the world”.
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