Chapter 352: Crystal Cannon
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Heheh…” Lin Li merely smiled without saying anything.
“Oh… I understand now, I understand it now…” Moke was not stupid, after all. After pausing for a moment, he suddenly understood it. He had asked a dumb question—while that was an impossibly difficult problem for most Inscribers, President Felic was a freak who had mastered mageweath arrays and created the All-Kill Array, after all!
So what if the Countercurrent mageweath resulted in damage from mana? This guy could come up with at least 10 solutions for that!
“Thank you.” After saying that, Moke bowed deeply to Lin Li.
“You’re welcome.” Lin Li merely smiled, and did not feel it inappropriate that Moke bowed to him, for he knew that the bow was not to show respect for him, but to show respect to the power of knowledge.
Then, Moke turned around and left the tower…
“Would you like to look at other places?”
“Of course…” Everything that happened today had been too unbelievable, and a look of disbelief remained on the faces of some of the engineers. As members of the Supreme Council themselves, they knew Moke’s personality better than anyone else—he was not someone who yielded to others easily. Even in the Supreme Council, where there were many powerful individuals, he rarely conceded defeat willingly; unless the other person awed him with their knowledge of Inscriptions, it would be difficult for them to gain his respect even if they were much more powerful than him.
Without a doubt, this young president had made Moke concede defeat willingly in terms of their knowledge of Inscription…
But why was he so young?
The door to the secret room closed once again, and buried the light of the All-Kill Array in the dark. The gloomy basement room returned to its original state, and nothing seemed to have changed. However, Herza and the engineers knew that it merely looked liked nothing had changed as they could all feel the power that made them tremble in this dim lighting and musty air…
The group followed the stairs up, and returned to the guild hall. The light of dawn was just seeping into the tower, and shone colorfully due to the refraction of the crystal ball. Lin Li stood quietly in the center of the guild hall and raised his head slightly, squinting as he surveyed the tower he had built along with the Supreme Council.
True, Lin Li had not been there more than a few times during the months it took to build the tower, but that did not mean that he was unfamiliar with it. On the contrary, Lin Li knew it like the back of his hand as every critical point was designed by him. For example, he was completely clear which underground room was used to store the source of mana for the power. In order to provide enough mana for the tower, Lin Li had even used the Salamander magical crystal—the Legendary-level magical crystal Lin Li had stolen from under the nose of the Sword Sage of the Storm back in the Fire Plume Ridge…
Fortunately, this had all been done secretly, or he would have driven many mages insane with anger if they knew he was using a Legendary magical crystal as the source of mana. A Legendary magical crystal was a priceless treasure indeed, and it was not an exaggeration in the least bit. To put it simply, if there was a level-19 magical crystal and a level-20 magical crystal on the market, then the latter would definitely be sold at a price at least a thousand times that of the former!
Magical crystals above level-20 were much too rare, but there was nothing that could be done about it. There were only so many people in the Legendary-level in Anril, and even if one was at Legendary-level, it did not guarantee that they would definitely be able to obtain a Legendary-level magical crystal. Both Legendary-level magical beasts and people at Legendary-level were comparable, after all, so who was to say that they would definitely win in a fight to death? Back in the Fire Plume Ridge, the level-21 Sword Sage of the Storm and a few thousand Adventurers from various mercenary corps were still forced into a corner by the Salamander, and if not for Lin Li suddenly striking, nobody knew who would have won in the end…
But the strength of a Legendary magical crystal was deserving of its price.
Any Legendary magical crystal had a nearly endless supply of mana, and was a treasure cove of mana truly coveted by mages. Gerian had once said that if he owned a Legendary magical crystal, he would never go meditate again.
Gerian had not been exaggerating, as the mana in a Legendary magical crystal was enough to last an Archmage for life. Moreover, that mana was renewable…
Each Legendary magical crystal came from the most powerful magical beasts in this world—it was the continuation of their life, the inheritance of their soul. On some levels, Legendary magical crystals had their own life and soul, and were vastly different from average magical crystals. They could even meditate like a real mage in order to gather magical elements from the air and turn it into mana!
And that was what made Legendary magical crystals truly valuable.
Of course, the mana in the tower was awfully abundant with such an insane source of mana.
But was it a little too abundant?
Honestly speaking, Lin Li had been racking his brains over this for a while. Thankfully, it was not long before he came up with a solution, and he added a few interesting designs to the tower…
“Right, President Felic, this is…” Herza suddenly stopped when the group reached the fourth floor. The fourth floor was strange indeed. The second and third floors had merely been libraries, pharmaceutical labs, and alchemy labs—although the facilities were all unnecessarily refined due to the strict requests of Lin Li, they had not exceeded the boundary of what was normal.
However…
The fourth floor was an entirely different story, and Herza even thought he had walked into a prison made from refined iron when he stepped into it. Everything he saw before him was covered in refined iron—from the railings on the stairs to the floor beneath their feet.
Herza looked at the engineers questioningly, but they all shrugged their shoulders indignantly. Truth was, they had no idea what was going on, either. All they knew was that the young president had a special request, and had even provided all the materials—correct, all the materials!
And thus, it resulted in everything they saw before their eyes…
Lin Li smiled, but did not answer Herza’s question, and only pushed open the iron door. A narrow room appeared before them, but compared to normal rooms, this one was insane. Herza could not help rolling his eyes as soon as the door was pushed open; there was no doubt that everything inside was made of refined iron, be it the thick walls or the floor they were standing on. The room was tightly sealed save for one window opposite the door. Herza could clearly see a bottom piece made of refined iron under the window; it looked like it was used to hold something…
“I heard someone mention that the Dwarf Kingdom produces an incredibly powerful Crystal Cannon rivaling level-18 magic, so I was thinking it would be interesting if I had about 10 to 20 Crystal Cannons firing around…”
“…” Herza nearly lost his mind…
Setting up Crystal Cannons in a tower filled with mages? And 20 Crystal Cannons at that…
What kind of lunatic was capable of spouting such words?
Herza handled the external affairs of the Supreme Council, and had been to every corner of Anril in the past few decades. Of course, he had been to the Dwarf Kingdom as well, and was not unfamiliar with Crystal Cannons. The truth was, the last time he had been to the Dwarf Kingdom, His Majesty Madoran had even personally demonstrated the power of a Crystal Cannon to him.
He had to admit that it was indeed a terrifying weapon.
But no matter how terrifying it was, surely Lin Li had to be able to use it first? Crystal Cannons used nothing but mana, which could only be supplied by magical crystals, and not just any magical crystals. A level-10 magical crystal could only let the cannon fire a few times, and even a level-15 one could only guarantee a few dozen shots. It took all the Dwarf Kingdom had to offer to set up 18 cannons in their royal castle, and even then there were strict orders for everyone in the Dwarf Kingdom to not use Crystal Cannons unless they were really threatened by a formidable enemy.
Yet this President Felic wanted to set up 20 of it…
Did he really think he could fire Crystal Cannons like fireworks?
Wait a minute…
Herza was shaking his head when he suddenly recalled something. Earlier on in the basement, he had felt a shockingly powerful magical wave.
Moreover, the engineers had mentioned that the young president requested for the source of mana in the tower to be placed in the basement.
Could it be…
The sudden thought that appeared in his mind scared Herza. The old man could distinctly feel a chill running down his back.
After inhaling deeply with a pale face, Herza asked, “P-President Felic, s-surely you have not gotten yourself a Legendary magical crystal?”
Lin Li continued to smile, and did not answer Herza.
“Alright, President Felic, since you’re unwilling to admit it, I shall not force you, but I have to tell you this: even a Legendary magical crystal cannot withstand the expenditure caused by 20 Crystal Cannons…” Herza’s gaze became solemn. “This usage of mana is too scary, and even the speed of recovery of a Legendary magical crystal would not be able to keep up with it. Besides, that Legendary magical crystal of yours still has to provide mana for other uses. Perhaps it will work for a decade or two, but it will be depleted one day. By then, that Legendary magical crystal would be completely destroyed…”