Chapter 853: Basel Returns
However, the Mithril Alliance had been running businesses in the Breezy Plains for over a thousand years, and it was still possible for them to cause some trouble for the Tower of Dusk. The first thing that they had to do was to use their own resources. The five major families all held ma.s.sive territories. Although they did not surround the Tower of Dusk, they had blocked off various directions. Hence, the five major families immediately set up various obstacles in their respective territories. It was impossible to do too much to the caravans of the Tower of Dusk, but they wouldn’t be breaching the new order if they just did not allow the caravans to pa.s.s through their own territory.
Under those circ.u.mstances, the caravans of the Tower of Dusk would have to bypa.s.s the territories of the five major families. It might have been possible to reach the destination in 10 days at first, but due to the bypa.s.s, they would probably take much longer. After all, the five major families had rather large territories. It might take the caravans 20 days, or maybe a month. That would bring about great trouble to the Tower of Dusk. The increase in the transportation costs was not a big deal, but the delay would have a significant impact on the production and sales, as well as the reputation of the Tower of Dusk.
In addition to targeting the caravans of the Tower of Dusk, Mithril Alliance began to pull unscrupulous tricks to boycott the shops belonging to the Tower of Dusk, such as hiring hooligans to block the entrances or splashing filthy things at the storefronts. However, their indiscriminate means did not affect the Tower of Dusk much. Instead, it caused the Mithril Alliance to be thoroughly embarra.s.sed. Everyone knew that the Mithril Alliance was going against the Tower of Dusk.
As for the hooligans, they were all beaten into a pulp after they got caught and sent to prison. The people of the Tower of Dusk were not the only ones who would teach them a lesson. Even the customers would sometimes take action to teach those sc.u.mbags who had hampered their shopping trips. Magical weapons, equipment, and potions were sold in the shops of the Tower of Dusk, and the customers were definitely not ordinary people. They were all adventurers who adventured their lives in dangerous situations all over the world. The hooligans could scare ordinary people, but they would be bringing trouble to themselves by trying to scare the adventurers.
Those indiscriminate means could only cause small losses to the Tower of Dusk, which mainly relied on large transactions to keep the business going. The retail revenue only accounted for a small part of the total. Although those despicable means were not that effective, they were indeed disgusting.
In order to curb the development speed of the Tower of Dusk, the Mithril Alliance had done everything possible. They even went all out and sacrificed their prestige and reputation as an established force. However, the Tower of Dusk only pulled a single move which immediately put the Mithril Alliance in a dilemma. Lin Li took time out of his busy schedule and wrote a three-word letter to the Ledin Kingdom, which caused tragedy to strike the Mithril Alliance.
There were plenty of established forces like the Mithril Alliance that had a heritage longer than 1,000 years, and had strong foundations with larger systems than the emerging forces. Relying solely on the local business in the Breezy Plains would barely be enough for them to maintain their ma.s.sive system, let alone develop. That was precisely the reason that the 13 families became the current five major families with the opportunity that existed during the conflict with the Blood Moon Clan. The five major families developed again by annexing their former allies.
Especially under the suppression of the Ashen Warlock, the distribution of forces in the Breezy Plains had hardly changed in the last hundreds of years. All the forces that had reached their pinnacle in the Breezy Plains understood that if they wanted to continue developing, they would have to expand beyond the Breezy Plains. Hence, the Ledin Kingdom, which had the Brilliance Shrine as its only force, as well as the Dwarf Kingdom that had scarce animal and plant resources, had business relations with the top forces of the Breezy Plains.
Due to the Grand Canyon of Gargas that acted like a barrier, the trade between the forces of the Breezy Plains and the Dwarf Kingdom had to rely on the Ledin Kingdom. However, after receiving Lin Li’s letter, the Ledin Kingdom began to boycott and attack the five major families of the Mithril Alliance, just like what the Mithril Alliance did to the caravans of the Tower of Dusk. At the same time, the businesses of the Mithril Alliance in the Ledin Kingdom had also been suppressed from all sides. The n.o.bles who usually benefited from the Mithril Alliance were no longer as enthusiastic as before.
While the business of the five major families of the Mithril Alliance was suppressed, the Tower of Dusk took advantage and seized the opportunity to take over the market that had been vacated after the five major families had been boycotted. All of a sudden, the lives of the five major families became rather difficult. Even if they could pull through, it would be difficult for them to regain the foothold that they had had in the market previously.
The Mithril Alliance had tried its best to harm the businesses, but there were barely any effects. However, the Tower of Dusk had only retaliated once, yet the Mithril Alliance was immediately in trouble. After losing the business deals with the Ledin Kingdom and the Dwarf Kingdom, the five major families did not immediately collapse, but the losses were enough to make the patriarchs of the five major families vomit blood.
What the Mithril Alliance found especially hard to accept was not how much they had lost, but the fact that almost all the interests and benefits that they had lost were pocketed by the Tower of Dusk. They went through painstaking efforts to prevent the rapid development of the Tower of Dusk, but did not expect to let the Tower of Dusk seize the opportunity and develop well again instead.
In the Breezy Plains, the various forces that had been paying attention to the conflict between the two parties began to recall the things that they had done to the Tower of Dusk before, and couldn’t help but feel afraid. They couldn’t imagine that the Tower of Dusk had that much power. Not only was the Tower of Dusk protected by the Ashen Warlock, it could even influence the decision-making process of the royal family of the Ledin Kingdom. They were far beyond an ordinary local force! At the same time, they were secretly somewhat grateful, and felt fortunate that they did not continue to follow the Mithril Alliance to go against the Tower of Dusk. Otherwise, they would definitely face terrible death.
Even a top force like the Mithril Alliance had suffered some attacks from the Tower of Dusk. Didn’t that mean that the Tower of Dusk was now the strongest in the Breezy Plains? The forces that were still watching hurriedly sent people to the Tower of Dusk in hopes of clearing up the misunderstanding caused by the so-called instigator previously.
Under the suppression of the Mithril Alliance which was an established force that had been established over a millennium ago, the Tower of Dusk did not stop developing, and instead gained even more benefits. Their presence and status in the Breezy Plains had also skyrocketed again all of a sudden.
However, no one knew if the Mithril Alliance was going to give in just like that. After all, they had a strong foundation after more than 1,000 years of acc.u.mulation. No one could predict what kind of means they were hiding.
It had been a while since Lin Li returned from the Glittergold Trade Union. While he was waiting for Hoffman’s news, he spent every moment working hard to improve his strength. It was not only for the exploration of the ruins, but also because of the major calamity that Geresco had predicted in his prophecy. Although Lin Li had already reached the pinnacle of the Legendary-realm, he was still making obvious progress every day, advancing step by step towards the Sanctuary-realm with unparalleled determination.
However, on this day, Lin Li received a guest who should have visited a long time ago instead of Hoffman’s notice.
“Master Basel, it’s been a long time since I saw you, you…” After hearing about Basel’s visit from his subordinates, Lin Li rushed to the reception room immediately. The visitor waiting in the reception room was none other than Master Basel, the so-called librarian of the Doland Library.
When Lin Li first arrived in the Breezy Plains, he managed to build the Tower of Dusk in Doland with the support of the Supreme Council, but how could a newly established Guild of Magic attract any new mages without any fame? At that time, be it the local forces of Doland or the people of other Guilds of Magic, almost everyone was waiting to see Lin Li make himself a laughingstock. They were all waiting to see him, a country b.u.mpkin who had left Jarrosus, scurry back to his hometown.
Master Basel, who was known as the librarian of the Doland Library, introduced the mages in the library who were akin to his own students into the Tower of Dusk, which was still unknown. Thus, he solved the awkward situation for Lin Li who had been a leader with no subordinates. Although Lin Li was confident that he could make the Tower of Dusk rise to fame himself even without the help or the support of others, Master Basel’s actions did give him timely a.s.sistance.
Gavin, who was one of the mages Basel introduced to the Tower of Dusk at that time, had become a senior executive, and made considerable contributions to the development of the Tower of Dusk in the past two years. Meanwhile, Alan stepped into the Legendary-realm, and became the first Legendary-mage of the Tower of Dusk[Aside from Lin Li.]. He also served as the leader of the mages. In addition to those two, there were many others who had important positions in the Tower of Dusk. They were all from the batch of mages whom Basel had introduced into the Tower of Dusk. It could be said that Basel’s support was indeed related to the rise and development of the Tower of Dusk.
However, Basel had also promised Lin Li that he would take on the position of the chief judge in the Tower of Dusk in three months’ time. However, when Lin Li had returned from the Blackstone Mountains, he could no longer be found in the Doland Library. Several three-month periods had pa.s.sed.
Of course, Lin Li did not hold it against Basel. Although a Legendary powerhouse like him would have made the development of the Tower of Dusk smoother in the earlier days, it would’ve clearly affected his authority as the President of the Tower of Dusk. After all, at that time, Lin Li was just an Archmage. Even though he was the President in name, many mages would’ve definitely put Basel first in their hearts.
However, Lin Li was surprised that although Basel looked pale and benevolent like before and had eyes that gleamed with wisdom, he looked a little disheveled and embarra.s.sed.
Hearing Lin Li’s question, Basel shook his head with a wry smile, and said, “President Felic, I’m really ashamed. I should have come to see you a long time ago, but to my surprise, I was held up by something.”
“Oh, please sit down,” Lin Li allowed Basel to take his seat while he sat beside him.
When Lin Li met Basel for the first time, he was frightened. Basel could see through everything, and he could not hide anything from him at all—from when he learned magic with Andoine to the fact that he’d achieved 28 minutes of continuous output of mana. Hence, in Lin Li’s opinion, Basel was like an unpredictable and powerful figure.
As such, Lin Li couldn’t help but be curious about what Basel said. What kind of thing actually caused a Legendary powerhouse like Basel to be tied up and cause such a long delay? Basel seemed to be somewhat embarra.s.sed, so it seemed that the matter had not really been resolved.
After Basel sat down again, he began talking about the reason that he missed the appointment before Lin Li even asked about it. “According to the agreement with you, I should have come to the Tower of Dusk long ago, but when I was preparing to come over, I received a letter from one of my former students who asked someone to send the letter to me.”
“Your student?” Lin Li was a little surprised. He chatted with Gavin and others before, but he never heard of Basel having any students.
Although the mages in the library had received Basel’s guidance before, and they could be regarded as his students in a sense, strictly speaking, they were not ones. For those mages studying in the library, Basel never regarded himself as a teacher, and only claimed that he was a librarian. The mages would only address him as their teacher in private. When in front of others, they would only call him “master”. Hence, Lin Li could not help but be shocked when Basel suddenly mentioned his student.
“Hehe, my student, strictly speaking, is not a real mage, and his talent in magic is really not outstanding.” Speaking of his student, Basel’s tone was calm and a little prideful even though he mentioned his untalented student. He continued, “Actually, he’s a scholar with deep knowledge in archaeology. Learning magic is only for the convenience of pursuing archaeology in the wild.”
“What is your student’s name?” Lin Li asked curiously. He’d initially thought that Basel did not accept students, because he was too picky. Although the mages in the library had good qualifications, they were not geniuses who only appeared once in a century or millennium. If it were not for the fact that the Tower of Dusk had provided a lot of convenience, perhaps only a few would have the hopes of stepping into the Legendary-realm. Surprisingly, Basel did have a student who was someone who wasn’t talented in magic. The only thing that he could impress Basel with was probably his attainment in archeology.
“His name is Davos, maybe you have heard his name,” Basel said in a calm tone as he revealed a name that shocked Lin Li.
Not only did Lin Li hear Davos’ name before, he had heard it too often!