Chapter 248: Orrin in Trouble
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Lin Li had time for a break during the subsequent days. After settling the formula with Hoffman, he stayed in the Guild of Magic. Every day, he would visit the Omniscient Tower to read and go to the battling arena to practice with Mason and Orrin. He felt very carefree.
Of course, “carefree” only applied to Lin Li.
To Mason and Orrin, these few days were the most fulfilling ever since they came to Alanna. They reaped many benefits every time they practiced with Lin Li. Not everyone had an opportunity to train with an Archmage. What was more, this Archmage was their closest teammate. This allowed Lin Li to better analyze their strategies and suggest ways for them to improve.
The two men improved greatly after 10 days. That morning, Mason finally had a breakthrough and left behind his status of a rookie Magic Shooter. Although Orrin did not experience any breakthroughs, his abilities were much better than Mason’s.
No one knew what Orrin went through these days. He became quieter than before. When Lin Li asked him things, he only replied by nodding or shaking his head. Replying with a “yeah” had become the furthest Orrin would go if he had no other choice. At the same time, the amount of effort he put into magic was abnormal. He would visit the Omniscient Tower before sunrise and only come back fatigued after his two teammates fell asleep.
Orrin got more and more serious after every practice session the trio had every other day. He would take a very long time to reflect on Lin Li’s suggestions and drag Mason to test out his new strategy with him.
His extreme perseverance and hard work finally paid off when he improved every single day. After 10 days, he became just a step away from level-14.
Naturally, Mason felt his improvement the most.
Initially, Mason could still win in the practice sessions between both men. But, recently, he realized that he felt he was lagging behind. When he stood in front of Orrin, he had no strength to return his attacks. He was completely suppressed right from his first move, and received multiple explosive attacks—just like how an adult beat up a child.
In the end, Mason decided to hide whenever he saw Orrin.
The pretty boy had become too freaky! Mason would rather get tortured by Felic and not let Orrin destroy his confidence. There was nothing to be ashamed if he were to lose to an Archmage. However, Mason could not take the blow if he were to lose to a Magic Shooter. What was more, he was a pretty boy Magic Shooter…
Furthermore, Felic did not have much free time. Unlike that pretty boy, Felic only had time to torture him occasionally. On the other hand, Orrin would not stop if he was not satisfied with beating Mason up.
Indeed, Lin Li did not have much time. He spent most of his time in the Omniscient Tower.
Lin Li learned a lot over the course of the 10 days in Cinder Woods, and wanted to consolidate his knowledge in preparation for the finals. But, this time, he was not at the first or second floor. He went straight to the 15th floor to rummage through all the spells rigorously.
Only Lin Li would do this type of thing…
Normal mages would climb one level every one or two years. Yet, when they reached level-15, it would be very difficult to advance anymore. Many mages who were less able would be stuck at their level until they died.
However, Lin Li was not like them. He had already prepared for spells that were above level-15, waiting to advance after breaking through the higher levels…
Lin Li’s rapid improvement caused his level to advance far ahead of the level of the spells he knew. Now that he reached the Archmage-level, he had the liberty to learn all the spells he wanted to. When that fella was hungry for knowledge, he would just copy all of them down regardless of whether they were useful or not.
In these 10 days, the Archmages around him always saw Lin Li coming with a pen in the morning and leaving with a huge pile of scrolls at night. It was fortunate that the Omniscient Tower provided blank scrolls for readers, or else Lin Li would need to spend a huge amount of money to fund his quest of copying…
Of course, none of the level-15 Archmages would think that this young man had no qualifications to visit the 15th floor. Everyone knew who he was. He was the youngest Archmage from Alanna Guild of Magic, the one who defeated Macklin a few days ago. If he did not have the right to visit the 15th level, who else had the right to do so?
“Good morning, Felic.” Two familiar Archmages would always greet Lin Li whenever he went to the 15th floor. Since all of them frequented the library, they naturally knew each other. Not only that, Lin Li was well-liked by them too. He always had a humble smile and treated people with extreme politeness. Even though they were on good terms with the Marathon Family, they could not find any faults with Lin Li. Gradually, they grew to accept the young man.
“Good morning!” Lin Li greeted the Archmages warmly. After exchanging greetings, he found a seat and took out the magic book from the day before. That book had insights and notes from a Legendary-mage living 300 years ago. It focused on helping one improve on the technique of unleashing spells.
Although Lin Li was fast in casting spells, he relied heavily on his natural abilities. His strong mental strength allowed him to compress the time he took to cast spells by a large extent. He did not have to worry about facing the bite of mana at all.
In fact, it did not require much technique from him. He was like a man with invincible strength, allowing him to have the natural ability to lift a huge rock. Furthermore, Lin Li always had the mentality to make use of this natural talent and not delve into techniques.
His experience in the Cinder Woods gave him a new perspective.
The environment there not only suppressed his strength, but also weakened his entire body. Regardless of mana or mental strength, the battles that happened during those 10 days became the most awkward battles Lin Li had ever fought in the World of Anril. Having a weakened mental strength and mana, as well as abilities capped at level-15, he had missed many magical beasts which he could have easily killed in usual settings.
The feeling was so unnatural that Lin Li had no choice but to cease many crucial attacks in fear of the bite of mana when he was able to unleash them with ease on normal days. Then, Lin Li had to pick up his weapon and physically fight the beasts which were above level-10. He really regretted not learning more methods to unleash his spells…
After transferring all the level-15 spells, he went on to search for books that could teach him more techniques related to casting spells.
In fact, Lin Li found one that was written by a Legendary-mage. He spent two days to figure out the gist of the concepts, but could only try them out slowly in his subsequent battles.
Even though it was like that, the extent of Lin Li’s improvements across those 10 days was not what normal people could imagine.
He had no choice too. He had too much room for improvement. Before learning about those techniques, he was like a blank piece of paper. He had been relying on his powerful mental strength all this while. Now that he had mastered different types of insights pertaining to the various methods, it was natural for him to have unbelievable improvement straight from the start.
Although the improvements were not obvious at a glance, they were definitely there. One could only see them during a real battle.
“Ugh, if I came early by a few hundred years, I would have asked this Legendary-mage personally. Maybe my improvement would be even greater…” Lin Li mumbled as he put down the book, thinking if he should go out to eat lunch.
At this moment, there was a din outside the door.
“Get off, let me in!” A frustrated voice could be heard at the door.
However, the people on patrol were all Magic Shooters on the 15th floor of the Omniscient Tower. How would they allow outsiders to trespass the area? The two Magic Shooters gave no room for negotiation and rejected Mason straight away. “No, without the member pass, you are not allowed to the 15th floor.”
“I beg you to let me enter. I have something really important to find my teammate for…”
As the noise got louder and more anxious, Lin Li finally realized whom the voice belonged to.
“Damn, that’s Mason!”
Lin Li had no time to care about order. He threw the magic book aside and stood up. His big actions shocked the fellow Archmages around him. Fortunately, Lin Li had good relationships with them. When they saw it was Lin Li, they smiled tolerantly and continued to read their materials.
Lin Li dashed out of the door and saw Mason and a middle-aged Magic Shooter having a conflict. The face that was usually filled with smiles and laughter was all anxiety. If there weren’t the two Magic Shooters stopping him, he would have dashed into the room.
“Brother Mason, what happened?”
“Felic, it’s bad! Something terrible happened to the pretty boy!” Mason exclaimed when he saw Lin Li coming out. He pushed away the two Magic Shooters who were trying to stop him.
“What happened to Orrin? Calm down and tell me slowly.”