Chapter 1144: Learning A Lesson
Just like Lin Li said, they wouldn’t feel the pain and learn their lesson unless they suffered some losses. Soon, the group of rookie mages from the Tower of Dusk finally learned their lesson. After they blasted the magical beasts they encountered with all their might time and time again, they finally discovered that they had unknowingly consumed more than half of their mana.
Although Lin Li had equipped his mages with extremely high-quality magical equipment meant for defense, attacking, rapid mana recovery, and many other purposes. In particular, the magical equipment for rapid mana recovery almost allowed the mages to have several times more mana than the other mages of the same level.
However, those pieces of magical equipment were not artifacts after all. The recovery of mana was rapid, but it wasn’t enough to support the repeated output of powerful magic spells. Besides, in an environment like the ice island, the magical elements in the s.p.a.ce were far less active than in the outside world. That made their mana recovery much slower than before.
The Snow Demons that the team encountered this time were not ordinary magical beasts that could be got rid of easily, though it was mostly because of the environment here. The Snow Demons were at least at the Legendary-level, and many of them were at level-21 or level-22.
The rookie mages who consumed plenty of mana were pitted against the Snow Demons that had an absolute advantage, thus making the battle unmatched in the first place. After launching several waves of attacks, the Tower of Dusk’s mages had no choice but to defend pa.s.sively. Even if the commander Dorick had thought of countless solutions to reverse the situation, none of them worked.
Those Snow Demons not only cast magic continuously, they also kept emitting a sharp whistling sound which made the rookie mages fl.u.s.tered so much that they couldn’t even chant any incantations anymore.
The Snow Demons were different from other magical beasts, and it was said that they carried the blood of the Abyssal Phantom. Each one of them was born with a female humanoid body that was perfectly voluptuous, making them extremely attractive. Their sharp whistles were not ordinary, either, as they came with mental spells that could easily disrupt the mages’ spellcasting.
The performance of the group of rookie mages was conceivable. Their consumption of mana was extremely large in the first place, and now their spellcasting was interrupted time and time again. The consumption of mana was almost exponentially increased. Soon, the group of rookie mages turned pale, and some mages even began throwing up because of the interruption.
Seeing this situation, Lin Li knew that there was nothing much to do anymore. If that went on, the rookie mages might reach the other extreme again. It was just like how Alan calculated the use for every trace of mana carefully. That likewise wasn’t a good habit.
“Uljfalusi, get rid of that group of Snow Demons,” Lin Li said indifferently.
Uljfalusi didn’t even summon a Humerus Wyrm, and simply took two steps forward and raised the skeleton staff in his hand. Immediately afterwards, the ice and snow in the area where the Snow Demons were standing instantly turned black, and countless skeletal arms extended from the black snow, dragging the Snow Demons that were close to the ground.
This time, the group of Snow Demons were immediately frightened to the point of turning pale, and their expressions became twisted too. All the pleasant things before had been ruined. They wailed and shrieked while struggling, but they could not break free from the skeletal arms that seemed extremely fragile. They had no choice but to be dragged into the ground.
In an instant, Snow Demons were all gone, while the black ground gradually retracted and shrank until it became a tiny black dot before vanis.h.i.+ng completely. The snowfield also turned clean and pure again, but there were some messy stains left. Without them, they wouldn’t have guessed what happened here.
Seeing that the Snow Demons had disappeared, the rookie mages also finally recovered from shock. Dorick walked towards Lin Li with a guilty expression, and said, “President, I’m sorry, it was my misconduct that caused such a result.”
Although the team did not suffer any losses, the president actually had to stand by his subordinates during a battle against the Snow Demons. Clearly, it was their negligence! Dorick had originally been confident that he and the others would be able to share the burden and relieve some of Lin Li’s pressure, but now he was so embarra.s.sed that his face turned red.
Instead of reprimanding him, Lin Li merely calmly asked, “Do you know what your mistake was?”
“Yes, President, we took too much for granted, thinking that we were so great just because we stepped into the Legendary-realm. However, in reality, we still have too much to learn,” Dorick said with some guilt.
“Okay, take a 10-minute break, think about what went wrong earlier, and then move on.” Lin Li waved his hand, and told Dorick to go back and make arrangements for the mages to rest.
When Dorick returned to the team, and began to arrange for the mages to recover their mana as soon as possible, Lin Li looked at the place where the Snow Demons were just now, and couldn’t help but get a little lost in thought. He wasn’t thinking about the alluring figures of the Snow Demons, but rather wondering if he should catch some Snow Demons and bring them back for the mages to learn how to cast spells under interference.
10 minutes pa.s.sed quickly, and the group of rookie mages had almost recovered their mana. Besides, while they were resting, they listened to Dorick’s summary of the previous problems, and had more or less learned their lesson.
The team set out again, and the rookie mages vaguely changed. Previously, they were indeed serious, but deep down they probably didn’t think that the adventure would be too difficult. After all, they were all Legendary-mages, and would make quite a powerful team out there. Besides, with the previous lesson, they finally knew that the adventure was not a leisurely excursion, and that there was just too much for them to learn.
In the ensuing process, the team encountered even more hindrance from magical beasts, and the mages finally behaved and reacted the way they should. Of course, for them, a group of rookies, to suddenly become elites who were experienced in battle was obviously not quite realistic. That could only happen after they continued partaking in battles and honing their skills. They might even have to pay the price in blood or lose their lives.
All of a sudden, Norfeller, who had gone to scout ahead, flew back and came close to Lin Li. He reported, “Master, a team of humans has been spotted ahead, and it seems to be from the Gilded Kingdom.”
Lin Li was really surprised to hear that because the Gilded Kingdom claimed that this place was the Ominous Land, and it seemed that no one had come here to explore for thousands of years, so why did the Gilded Kingdom sent their team to explore as soon as Lin Li and his team had just arrived? Of course, this island was within the territorial waters of the Gilded Kingdom, so there was nothing wrong with them sending a team to explore it. However, that would result in an inevitable conflict with the Gilded Kingdom again.
Although he was surprised, Lin Li didn’t take it too seriously, and let the team move on. Anyway, if the team from the Gilded Kingdom knew what they were doing, a cooperation was possible too. However, if they decided to be foolish, Lin Li wouldn’t mind adding on to the legend of the Gilded Kingdom.
The team of the Tower of Dusk continued to move forward, and soon saw the team of the Gilded Kingdom in front of them. Without needing Lin Li’s order, the mages quickly got into a formation under Dorick’s command vigilantly. Everyone knew that when exploring ruins or during a quest for treasures, the most frightening existence was not those magical beasts or magic gears, but their own kind.
As expected, when the Tower of Dusk’s mages changed their formation, the team from the Gilded Kingdom also immediately reacted in a way that was obviously not very friendly. The mages and warriors broke away from the team, and rushed towards the Tower of Dusk’s team. The mages raised their staffs and chanted incantations, while the warriors drew their swords, all without the intention of talking to the Tower of Dusk’s team as they simply attacked immediately.
The team from the Gilded Kingdom was the expedition led by the Illuminati’s Saint Edmund, Elder Zumar, and High Priest Poer. They arrived two days earlier than the Tower of Dusk’s team, but due to the fact that they landed on another side of the ice island, they didn’t see those wars.h.i.+ps of the Gilded Kingdom like when The Star came over.
After discovering that Lin Li’s team had actually appeared on the ice island too, High Priest Poer was really surprised and elated. He was surprised that Lin Li was able to find the island, knowing that the island would move and not remain stationary. Apart from the pirates who often frequented the surrounding waters, few people would be able to accurately deduce the location of the island. Meanwhile, he was glad that he could run into the enemy he wanted to get rid of in the future in such a place that was considered to be isolated from the world. Here, he could let go of all his worries, and would not have to consider the fact that the enemies were under the Supreme Council nor worry about the relations.h.i.+p between the Gilded Kingdom and the Breezy Plains.
Hence, High Priest Poer had no intention of talking to Lin Li at all as he simply ordered his team to attack. Although he also knew that Lin Li had Sanctuary-level strength, and was more powerful than him, he was not the only Sanctuary powerhouse there. In particular, there was also Saint Edmund who was in charge of the Chaos Sanctuary of the Illuminati, and was at the peak of the Sanctuary-realm. Hence, he thought that it probably would be a piece of cake for him to deal with Lin Li.
Seeing that High Priest had ordered his subordinates to attack the Tower of Dusk without hesitation, Elder Zumar panicked, and frantically said, “Wait, Poer, you can’t do this, do you want us to start a war with the Tower of Dusk!? Don’t forget, Felic is still the fourth arbitrator of the Supreme Council!”
However, after hearing Elder Zumar’s words, High Priest Poer laughed unconcernedly, and said, “Zumar, don’t worry, if we were elsewhere, I’d definitely take your advice. However, if we kill all of them here, who would know that we were the ones who did it? So what if the Supreme Council is in charge of them? Without evidence, they can’t pin the blame on us.”
“Poer, you!” When Elder Zumar saw that High Priest Poer refused to listen to him, he had no choice but to turn to Saint Edmund, and say, “Saint Edmund, please stop Poer quickly, or I’m afraid it will cause a war between us and the Supreme Council!”
However, in the face of Elder Zumar’s request, Saint Edmund remained silent, seemingly approving of Poer’s behavior. Indeed, from everyone’s perspective, the Gilded Kingdom’s team was significantly stronger than the Tower of Dusk. Although Edmund did not bear a grudge against Lin Li, he thought that it would be the right choice to get rid of Lin Li before they got into a likely conflict in the future.
Just when Elder Zumar was persuading High Priest Poer, those who were sent from the team of the Gilded Kingdom had already rushed to the spot with the best engagement distance, and were ready to attack. The battle would begin at any time.
However, looking at the people from the Gilded Kingdom who rushed over, Lin Li’s expression remained indifferent, and he was completely unmoved. He simply raised one hand, and pointed at the group of people. Next, the warriors sent by the Gilded Kingdom suddenly loomed over, and fell onto the ground, while the movements of the mages of the Gilded Kingdom froze. Their incantations stopped, and the magic light on their staffs stopped flas.h.i.+ng, as if time had been stopped in its tracks.
Upon sight of such a scene, High Priest Poer could not help but feel overwhelmed with hatred as he hollered at the subordinates beside him, “All of you must die!”
High Priest Poer was prepared to go all out to get rid of his enemy, even if all his subordinates had to die. Perhaps there seemed to be no great feud between him and Lin Li to ordinary people, but as he was a Sanctuary powerhouse, his pride mattered more to him than anything else. The fact that his son had gotten bullied was just like an insult to him.
Hearing High Priest Poer’s orders, the mages and warriors in the group immediately got into formation to attack without hesitation at all. They then bulldozed towards the Tower of Dusk’s team.
Although they had all heard the argument between Elder Zumar and High Priest Poer, such an argument between big shots was meaningless to them. They just needed to know whom they should listen to. Although Elder Zumar had a high status, and was probably superior to High Priest Poer, he wasn’t their direct leader, after all.
However, just as the team from the Gilded Kingdom was getting ready to launch a large-scale attack, Saint Edmund who had been staying silent for a long time suddenly interjected, “Stop.”
Edmund’s voice was very soft, but everyone heard him very clearly. Upon hearing his words, they finally stopped. Although High Priest Poer was their direct leader, Saint Edmund was a G.o.dlike existence in their hearts.