Chapter 702: Confrontation
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“What a f***ing good sword!” Al’Akir’s only consolation now was the Master-level sword that had just been created.
In the Alanna Guild of Magic, the two key halves could finally be brought together. However, Aldwin and Macklin, who had been waiting for a long time, did not feel that pleased, because the fact that Megard was there meant that they would not be the only ones exploring Osric’s mausoleum.
Of course, on the other hand, Andoine’s, Rosen’s, and Megard’s presence gave them more confidence in exploring Osric’s mausoleum because they were all experienced. After all, the Highlord Osric was also an arrogant man during the Dark Age, and wouldn’t just let anyone into his mausoleum.
When the group returned to the Alanna Guild of Magic, the first thing they did was to report the news to Megard, who had been waiting too. Andoine, who had witnessed the process of Lin Li forging in person, was naturally proud of his good judgment and wisdom. Of course, he also compared Lin Li to Rosen’s disciple, Gryffindor.
However, after hearing the news, Megard didn’t seem excited at all. Instead, he stared at Lin Li, and said, “The success this time is just to make up for your previous mistakes. No matter how strong you are, keeping to your promises should be a basic virtue. I hope you can take this as a lesson and learn from it.”
Everyone was shocked to hear Megard’s words, and Andoine soon grew displeased. He frowned, and said, “Master Megard, your words seem to be a little inappropriate. Felic was the one who won that half of the key for us, and his contribution should not be undermined by your words.”
“Andoine, how can you question the arbitrator’s words? Felic once promised to help the Alanna Guild of Magic win the bet before the deadline, but did he fulfill his promise? Had he kept his promise, we wouldn’t have had to go and beg Al’Akir to extend the deadline and become pa.s.sive. The arbitrator is right. Keeping promises is the basic virtue that everyone should have. If President Felic can’t even do that, I doubt he’d be capable of leading the Guild of Magic of Breezy Plains. As his teacher, you ought to be responsible too,” Rosen said while staring at the table as he sat beside Megard.
“Is that so? Surely you knew where Felic was when we made that bet? He was working hard in the Breezy Plains and taking charge of the construction and development of the Guild of Magic. If it weren’t for his efforts, would the Guild of Magic have gotten a steady footing in the Breezy Plains just by relying on the Supreme Council? Could we have developed to what we are now!?” Andoine retorted. Although he usually behaved in a sloppy and cynical manner, he would never let anyone undermine him or criticize his students.
Rosen looked up slowly and first glanced at Megard before turning to look at Andoine. He sneered, “As a member of the Supreme Council, we must first be absolutely fair. Felic is your student, so you’re no longer impartial. The excuse you made for him cannot be the reason for his breach of commitment. Since he couldn’t be sure that he had the ability to fulfill his promise, he shouldn’t have made it in the first place. Don’t forget that he is the President of the Guild of Magic. He represents the Guild of Magic, the Supreme Council, and all mages.”
Aldwin and Macklin glanced at each other awkwardly. He was the one who invited Felic to help him, only to end up bringing more trouble to him before he could even thank him. However, Rosen sounded so self-righteous that no one could rebut him.
“Rosen, stop trying to call names. Aren’t you just jealous of me for having a better student than you? Mages are not prophets who know what will happen in the future and when it will take place. Besides, even if Felic had refused to help, would you have been able to find a Smithing Master? Wouldn’t the outcome have been the same? Macklin, let me ask you, did you seek help from others after you looked for Mage Felic? Did you find anyone who’s both a mage and a Smithing Master!?” Andoine asked Macklin.
Macklin thought to himself in despair, Whom did I offend? You guys are from the Supreme Council, and you can fight and argue with each other however you’d like, but can you not implicate me? I’m just an Archmage.
“Okay, Andoine, Felic is your student, I can understand why you’re defending him, but don’t forget that as a teacher, you should not only impart knowledge to your students, you should also teach them the right values. This matter is over, and what we have to do now is to consider the plan for exploring Osric’s mausoleum,” Megard said, putting an end to the topic when Andoine and Rosen were about to get into a heated argument. However, he clearly still felt that Andoine failed to teach his student well.
In the end, Megard was an arbitrator and a powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm. Although Andoine was dissatisfied, he was left with no chance to continue to argue, because Megard had put an end to the topic. He had no choice but to glower at Rosen before pulling Lin Li to the side.
Megard hung up a map which was labeled with dense lines and annotations, after which he turned to look at the rest. “This is a map that we had redrawn according to a map from the High Elves that was pa.s.sed down from the Dark Age. According to the map and the information on it, we can deduce that this should be the structural drawing of Osric’s mausoleum.”
“Hmph, Felic was the one who found it,” Andoine muttered with dissatisfaction.
The map provided by Megard was drawn according to the two rags that Lin Li had handed to Andoine back then. The High Elves didn’t like boring lines or monotonous squares, and felt that their language was the only perfect one in this world. Hence, they were used to expressing everything in tongue twisters. Even a person who was proficient in the language of the High Elves would require a long time to understand the map and figure out the meanings hidden in it.
The map of the Sky Castle that Lin Li had obtained at the beginning was actually just a painting of the Sky Castle. The real map was the complex elven text beside it. In order to understand the meaning of those words, Lin Li had put plenty of effort into understanding the High Elves Print, but even then failed to create a map using those words. The members of the Dark Blade were the ones who managed to turn the words into a map according to the ancient doc.u.ments and materials of the Darkness Shrine.
Megard didn’t care about Andoine’s words, but Rosen seemed unwilling to let go of any opportunity to launch verbal attacks on Andoine and Lin Li. He coldly said, “Yeah, I heard that one of the maps was obtained after the destruction of a family of mages. As a mage, it’s not good to be too brutal. That will only cause one to be obsessed with power and lose themselves while forgetting that exploring the source of magic should be a mage’s pursuit.”
“d.a.m.n it, Felic won the bet, yet you nitpicked on him. Felic was also the one who contributed the map, yet you have so much bullsh*t to say about him. If you’re that capable, just go to Osric’s mausoleum without following the map. By the way, Felic was the one who won the key, so you’d better not use it when we go to the mausoleum.” In fact, Andoine didn’t flip the table or raise his voice. Instead, he seemed to be murmuring to himself, despite making sure that everyone heard him.
There was a faint flush on Rosen’s face, but he managed to hide it quickly. He continued in a composed tone, “The inability to stay calm and handling things impulsively is going to be lethal for a leader and the President of the Guild of Magic. If he hadn’t killed Borg’s son, he wouldn’t have brought such a disaster to his Guild of Magic. Unfortunately, as the President, he didn’t reflect on himself. I heard that he killed more than 2000 people during a battle. What rights does such a brutal person have to be the President?”
Aldwin placed a hand on his forehead helplessly, and thought, These two are arguing again after just a short conversation. Are we still going to explore Osric’s mausoleum?
Of course, he knew that the real reason for the conflict between them was their compet.i.tion for the arbitrator’s position. They obviously wouldn’t be in harmony with each other.
There were 10 authoritative figures in the Supreme Council, including Andoine and Rosen. There were also three arbitrators, two of whom were Apophis and Megard. The other position was currently vacant. It was precisely this vacancy that caused many of the plans made by the Supreme Council to be aborted because of the different opinions of the two arbitrators.
Therefore, the selection of the third arbitrator was extremely critical to the Supreme Council, and would even be likely to determine the future direction of the Supreme Council. However, due to the fact that Apophis favored Andoine, while Rosen was a descendant of Megard, the compet.i.tion between the two also became a compet.i.tion between Apophis and Megard.
“Master Rosen, you’re thinking too much about it. Killing is not my hobby, but there are always some people in this world who never know their limits.” Lin Li indeed felt a little embarra.s.sed, but he had never regretted it at all, because the best enemies were the ones who were dead.
Megard frowned a little, and said, “Felic, you may deserve to be proud for what you have achieved at such a young age, but I hope you can respect your teacher and elders like him. Andoine, Rosen, if you can’t focus on the exploration of the mausoleum, I’ll request for a change in candidates from the Supreme Council.”
Megard’s words placed the emphasis back on Osric’s mausoleum. However, everyone could tell that even the arbitrator of the Supreme Council could not be absolutely fair and impartial.
The discussion in the conference hall was much less intense. Everyone carefully put forward their own opinions after careful consideration. Everyone knew that apart from being a huge treasure, Osric’s mausoleum was also full of murderous traps. Even the Sanctuary-realm powerhouse Megard was extremely serious about it. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that Osric’s mausoleum was dangerous even for a deity.
The choice of route, the strategies for handling the traps, and the plan to explore Osric’s mausoleum were slowly written on paper. However, while even Macklin had voiced his opinions, Lin Li remained silent and listened.
Of course, Lin Li wasn’t clueless about Osric’s mausoleum. After returning from the Haiga Mountain Range, apart from enhancing the strength of the Tower of Dusk, Lin Li spent most of his time studying Osric’s mausoleum. After all, at that time, he didn’t know that the Supreme Council would also be partic.i.p.ating. If he were to cooperate only with the Alanna Guild of Magic and not put in more efforts, he probably wouldn’t even enter the Osric’s mausoleum.
However, the tension between Andoine and Rosen made Lin Li feel that he shouldn’t reveal anything. Apart from his relationship with Andoine, Lin Li still had to consider the benefits and interests of the Tower of Dusk. If Rosen were to become the new arbitrator, he would probably go against the Tower of Dusk.
However, the others were obviously not willing to let Lin Li off for remaining silent.
“President Felic, I heard that you have experience exploring the Sky Castle, so you’d definitely help give us a greater advantage if you were to become our vanguard,” Rosen said in a slightly hoa.r.s.e voice, giving everyone a great shock.
His words were rather blatant. By asking Lin Li to be the vanguard, he was getting Lin Li to be at the front line and stay in front of the team to shield them from the bullets. Although the young Lin Li was at level-23, Osric’s mausoleum was still incredibly dangerous. Even though they had the map of Osric’s mausoleum, the High Elves’ words might contain other hidden meanings that they had yet to discover.
Lin Li glanced at the skinny Rosen, not feeling too surprised about his mention of the Sky Castle. Although the Supreme Council was no longer as strong as it was in the past, it was still the top force in Anril. They definitely knew about the high-profile visit to the Haiga Mountain Range, but Lin Li didn’t expect Rosen to have developed such a strong prejudice against him. In fact, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Rosen didn’t hide his displeasure with Lin Li.