Chapter 211: Secret of the Dark Alley.
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Matthias started to panic. He could not understand what was going on…
Logically speaking, all of these should have gone smoothly.
Ever since he’d unintentionally heard somebody say that this Jarrosus country bumpkin was going to leave, Matthias had put in a lot of effort. First, he’d inquired about the time he was going to leave, and then he’d sent quite a few men to keep a lookout. That morning, when he’d discovered that he was going to leave the Guild of Magic, Matthias was elated. He immediately looked for his mage mentor and asked him to stalk this Jarrosus mage and finally to finish him off in a safe place…
From Matthias’ perspective, if a level-16 archmage were to take action, even ten Felics would be finished, not to mention just one Felic. He had been at ease while waiting at the Guild of Magic. He did not even go out once—he only thought of waiting for Argus to bring him good news.
Yet, in the end, he only waited for the most hated enemy to stand alive right in front of him.
Furthermore, he even drew with Macklin during a duel just now.
Matthias stood in front of the crystal ball and stared at that face for a minute or so before he was certain that he was not mistaken. This fella that drew with Macklin was indeed the Felic from Jarrosus.
Matthias was restless; he had to look for his mage mentor immediately to find out what had happened.
“Morning, Mage Matthias,” Lin Li greeted with a face full of smiles.
“Morning.” Currently, Matthias’ mind was like roast pit. He did not even have the mood to be entangled with him. He hurriedly greeted him and brushed past Lin Li’s shoulder before leaving the Guild hall in a hurry.
However, this time, Lin Li did not continue provoking him. He only laughed in his mind. Good luck, Argus.
“Why does this fella look so weird…” Mason mumbled to himself while looking at the back of the leaving Matthias.
‘He’s feeling guilty.” Lin Li smiled, but did not explain further. He only spoke briefly to Orin and Mason and had them go back first. He decided to walk around and return later.
“Be careful then, Felic.” Before Mason left, he was somewhat concerned. “I’ve always felt that that fella is weird, he might use a cheap trick.”
“Relax, I’ll be fine.” This time, Mason was spot on. Matthias had indeed planned for a cheap shot, but it did not matter anymore. The Fire Plume Ridge was the Fire Plume Ridge. Alanna was Alanna. Under the eyes of the Guild of Magic, Lin Li believed that Matthias would not be brave enough to mess with him.
It was not a joke…
The outcome of the bet that was due in half a year would be directly related to the Mausoleum of Osric. If anything were to happen to him, Macklin would go mad if it were to cause the Guild of Magic to lose the chance to obtain Osric’s mausoleum. If something were to happen at that point, not even Wilhelm would be able to clear the mess.
To offend a powerful entity such as the Guild of Magic due to a moment of rage was not very wise.
As for whether Matthias knew about this, Lin Li was not concerned. It did not matter if he understood as long as Wilhelm understood. Without using the Marathon Family’s resources, what sort of waves could a single Matthias create? Unless he intended to search for another Archmage to assassinate Lin Li…
Hence, Lin Li walked out of the guild hall without any worries, and walked along the streets towards Buck’s equipment store.
“Morning, Boss Buck.” The equipment store was not having a good business. When Lin Li walked in, there were only two adventurers browsing through the weapons, while Buck was in low spirits and yawning away, leaning on the counter.
“Morning, Mage Felic.”
“How’s it going, Boss Buck. Any good stuff coming in these two days?” Lin Li looked around after entering and realized there was quite a number of new equipment. From the looks of it, the craftsmanship was pretty decent. Immediately, Lin Li started to be interested.
“Stop joking, Mage Felic…” Buck smile was somewhat fearful. How could he not know what this young mage in front of him did? He was somebody that casually produced the Eternal Adamantine. Anything that could capture his attention would not be ordinary. Even if one were to search the whole of Alanna, Buck estimated that there would still only be a few such things, not to mention this weapon store that had been going from bad to worse.
“Oh, yes. Boss Buck, how’s business lately?” Just by looking at Buck’s expression, Lin Li already knew that nothing good had been delivered. He did not continue asking, but brushed off the topic instead.
“Let’s not talk about business…” Little did he know that mentioning this would make Buck frown. He saw the middle-aged businessman sigh and start looking dispirited.
“What happened?” Lin Li could not help but feel curious. It was not like he had not seen the equipment at Buck’s store. Even if he judged them as a Smithing Guru, the craftsmanship of these could be considered decent. For an average adventurer, each one was excellent. Furthermore, Buck was a person easy to deal with; he knew the principle of not overcharging while running a business. Even if it were those highly valued pieces of equipment that could easily command a price of tens of thousand of gold coins, his profit would only be one or two hundred gold coins. In the vicinity, Buck’s store could be said to have the lowest prices.
Therefore, Lin Li could not comprehend why business was bad if the prices were all appropriate?
“Recently, the business of this store has been going from bad to worse…” Buck sighed; he looked rather frustrated. While he was talking, those two adventurers that were looking at weapons left without picking any weapons that interested them after taking a look. They looked with a nitpicking manner and then left while shaking their heads.
“These two fellas really have poor taste…” Lin Li pouted and looked outside of the store curiously. He saw that those two adventurers walked into the store across the street after leaving Buck’s store. Instantly, Lin Li could not but feel uncertain. “Boss Buck, is that store newly opened?”
“Yes, it was opened a few days ago.”
“Oh…” Lin Li nodded, and did not question further. This was too obvious. The reason why Buck’s store’s business had been declining was most likely due to the newly opened store across the street. However, this was normal competition between similar stores. It had nothing much to do with Lin Li.
“No choice, he hung the Marathon Family signboard. Business is bound to be good.”
“Men from the Marathon Family?”
“It should be. Two days ago I went to take a peek. The equipment there was indeed produced by the Marathon smithy.”
“Then you’re in big trouble…”
“It’s fine, if business is bad, then let it be. After all, I am returning to Moonset City soon. My son has been writing letters daily, rushing me. I’ll just use this chance to wrap up the business.” Although Buck sounded like it did not matter, his depressed expression could not be hidden. After all, it was a business that was tens of years old. Nobody could tolerate it if it were to be wrapped up.
“That’s not too bad…” Lin Li smiled and brushed off the topic.
During this afternoon, Buck’s store did not have any business, plus Lin Li had nothing urgent going on, so they just chatted away. They did not feel the passage of time until it was evening, when Lin Li left Buck’s store.
After leaving Buck’s store, Lin Li was not in a rush to return to the Guild of Magic. He followed the walkway and walked towards the new weapons store.
He decided to take a look.
Of course, this had nothing to do with whether Buck’s business was doing well.
He just felt that it was weird.
After hearing what Buck had said, he instinctively felt that the Marathon Family should not be opening a weapon store at this area at a time like this. As to why he felt this way, he could not explain it temporarily, but it did not matter as he had nothing to do. Going over to take a look at Marathon Family’s weapon store was good as well. After all, it was the best weapon store in the Felan Kingdom; there might be a good surprise waiting on the shelves there.
“Mr Felic…”
Just when Lin Li had reached the corner of the street, he suddenly heard someone call his name. The voice was really soft—like a mosquito’s—plus it was already in the evening, and the sky started to darken. Lin Li stared for a while before he saw a familiar silhouette at the corner of the street.
“What’s with you, Argus?” Lin Li asked with a frown. At the same time, he was complaining in his mind. What’s with this guy, didn’t I already release him? Why did he come back, looking for me? Could it be addictive to be a prisoner?
“Can I talk to you?” The expression on Argus’ face was rather surreptitious. He only asked that Lin Li softly after he had looked around.
“Talk”. Although Lin Li was feeling rather uncertain, judging from Argus’ expression, it did not seem like a joke. Lin Li was feeling uncertain, but he reluctantly nodded. “Search for a place.”
“Follow me.”
Along the way, Argus always looked down as though he was afraid of being recognized. He brought Lin Li past a few corners before stopping outside a dark alley.
“It’s fine, Argus, this place is remote enough. If there’s anything, let’s talk here.” Lin Li saw the pitch-black alley and started to be on alert.
“Ok.” Argus hesitated for moment before continuing, “It’s like this, Mr. Felic. Matthias looked for me in the afternoon…”
“I know.” Lin LI nodded. He’d seen Matthias leaving the guild hall in the afternoon. How could he not know what was the reason for Matthias leaving in a hurry. Other than searching for his mage mentor to clarify things, it could not be anything else…
“You.. Did you say something to him?”
“Stop joking…” Lin Li rolled his eyes. He thought to himself, I am not so free to say anything to Matthias. Have you ever seen a cat tell anything to a mouse?
“But…”
“But what?”
“But I feel that Matthias is suspecting me…” Archmage shook his head and looked somewhat worried. “When Matthias returned this afternoon, he asked me if you had really broken through to the Archmage realm.”
“You’re saying that he knows we fought before?”
“Yes, so I wanted to ask if, while talking, accidentally…” Argus’ voice got softer. Although he did not say anything after “accidentally”, his surreptitious gaze clearly told Lin Li the following: I am suspecting you!
“Shut up…” Lin Li glared at him. “So what did you say?”
After being glared at by Lin Li, Argus resentfully retracted his gaze, and said in a soft voice, “I had no choice. I could only admit that I fought with you, but I was unlucky and got involved with the battle between the Salamander and the six great mercenary corps. You’ve escaped during the chaos. As for whether you really broke through the Archmage realm, I am not sure…”
“Ok.” Lin Li nodded; his expression seemed to be full of praise. “You’ve done well.”
“But I don’t know if Matthias believes it…”
“He can only believe it. Think about it yourself. What happened in the cave, only you, me, and Sean know. If the three of us don’t mention anything, who knows if I escaped during the chaos…”
“I hope so…” Argus still looked like he was full of worries.
“Oh, yes, Argus…” After the conversation ended and they were about to leave, Lin Li suddenly remembered about the newly opened weapon store. “Do you know why would the Marathon Family open a weapon store beside the Guild of Magic?”
“This, I am not too sure. Business matters have always been handled by Gaud…” After Argus said this, his expression was rather uncertain. “But there is something really weird. Recently, the Marathon smithy has been shipping out quite a lot of magical equipment. I am not sure if this has anything to do with this newly opened weapon store…”
“How many is quite a lot?”
Argus thought for a bit. “I reckon there’s hundreds of them…”
“Then that has definitely nothing to do with it. Hundreds of pieces of magical equipment would not be sold by next year…” Lin Li’s expression changed while speaking. “Wait, what did you just say? The Marathon smithy shipped out hundreds of pieces of magical equipment?”
“That’s… That’s right.”
“Good,” Lin Li spoke while gritting his teeth, and when he looked at Argus, his expression was rather frightening. “Argus, could you help me?”
“Ah?” Argus was stunned.
“Help me find out where was that batch of equipment from the Marathon smithy shipped to.”
“This…” Argus frowned, and his expression seemed to be rather awkward. “I am afraid it would not be easy. As you know, I am just a mage mentor for Matthias. I can’t say anything about business. Furthermore, now is such a sensitive period. If Matthias knows about my relationship with you, I’m afraid…”
Argus explained it in a long-winded manner, but Lin Li did not even listen. He just selfishly said, “If you can settle this, I’ll help you recover your mana.”
“Ok!” With this sentence, Argus immediately changed his tone. It was just that after he said that, he started to feel worried again. “But, can I really recover my mana?”
“Of course.” This time, Lin Li was not spouting nonsense. Even though Argus’ power had been sucked up the Vampire’s fang, in essence, this was part of normal power shifting. If Lin Li could use the Vampire’s fang to suck his mana, he could also return it back to him because that mana originally belonged to him. There was no clash of attributes during the shift. All Lin Li had to do was to make a minor change on the mageweath.
Of course…
Because the Vampire’s fang was plated with Divinity Metal, the mana stored inside would be depleted. Additionally, the depletion would get worse as time passed by. Within ten days, this level-16 archmage’s mana would be completely depleted by the Divinity Metal, and it would change into the power of the Vampire’s fang.
Therefore, Lin Li kindly reminded him, “But you need to be quick. If you can’t help me settle this issue within five days, then I can’t guarantee anything…”
“Ok!” Argus gritted his teeth, but in the end, he still chose to believe this young mage once more.
It was because as he thought about it, he could not find a reason as to why the other party would lie to him. If Lin Li only wanted him to help him, he could have used other methods, like violence or threats. Now, both parties’ powers had been totally reversed. This young mage was now an Archmage; as for him, he had fallen back to the Magic Shooter realm due to the loss of mana.
Most importantly, the temptation of regaining mana was too big.
For an archmage, it was more painful than death to remain in the magic shooter realm. It was like a multi-millionaire losing all of his wealth overnight. The great disparity between the beginning and end could even make a person completely break down.
“Yes, make the best of your time. As long as you settle this, the issue of regaining mana would be on me.” Lin Li only had a satisfied smile at this point.
For Lin Li, this was the important issue. For this issue, he could even let go of the immense mana that he had obtained. That was a level-16 archmage’s mana. Once it had been completely absorbed by the Divinity Metal on the Vampire’s fang, it could raise the power of the Vampire’s fang by several levels. However, this was no longer important. Lin Li needed to know where those hundreds of equipment pieces went to.
If it went to Shadow’s Nest, then don’t blame me for being rude…
“Oh, yes, Argus.” Before leaving, Lin Li instructed Argus, “If Matthias were to ask about the Fire Plume Ridge again, you must end this topic. Just say that I escaped during the chaos. I’ll see if I have a chance these few days to speak to him and make him believe what you said is true.”
“Okay.”
The two of them discussed the details again before going their separate ways, leaving this dark alley.
After coming out from the dark alley, Lin Li no longer had any interest in visiting the newly opened weapon store. He went straight back to the living quarters of the Guild of Magic.
Lin Li opened the door and saw that Mason, Orrin, and Kevin were sitting in the living room. Lin Li started feeling uncertain. Didn’t Macklin say that he would arrange a room for Kevin? Why was he still in his room? Could it be that after that old man failed, he got so angry he forgot about it?