Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Judging from the blueprint, Lin Li speculated that this rather delicate crossbow would be at most the size of a palm after it was made. This was good news to Lin Li. For a very long time, Lin Li had wanted to get a long-range weapon for self-defense. He had two reasons, one being the fact that he used to be a Hunter, and personally favored long-range weapons, and the other being that long-range weapons were more convenient and suitable for a mage’s use.
However, what annoyed Smithing Guru Lin Li was the fact that although he knew countless forging blueprints, there were few that truly suited him. Even if there was one or two that were suitable, Lin Li would give up on them due to his strict selection criteria.
Up till now, Lin Li had only chosen this forging blueprint from the pile of potion formulas.
Lin Li spent just 10 seconds to confirm that the crossbow on the blueprint was the defense weapon he had always wanted.
According to the High Elves Print introduction of the blueprint, the crossbow was named Enchantress’s Howl, and had been designed by a royal Smithing Guru in the Dark Age. It was said that when this High Elf Smithing Guru was designing this crossbow, he had wanted to give it to a mage friend for defense. Unfortunately, that mage friend had died during war when the blueprint had just been drawn and hadn’t even been tested. Moreover, the materials needed to make this Enchantress’s Howl were so outrageously expensive that even this Smithing Guru who got his salary from the royal family couldn’t collect all of them which would reduce any powerhouse to extreme poverty at once. With these two reasons, the making of this crossbow was delayed. The Enchantress’s Howl still remained in the blueprint stage till the death of this Smithing Guru.
“Luckily, I have some savings…” Lin Li glanced at the materials listed on the blueprint, and drew a few cold breaths with much heartache.
While Lin Li was examining this crossbow blueprint with much interest, Gavin and William’s negotiation had come to consensus too. Gavin was undoubtedly very talented in the field of business. Once he had sat down in front of the negotiation table, he instantly forgot all his excitement during the earlier battle, and only thought about how to maximize the benefits of the Tower of Dusk.
The aim of this negotiation wasn’t about exploiting the other party. If the other side couldn’t get any benefits from it, all the benefits he could get now were just short-term benefits. The aim of the negotiation was to achieve a win-win scenario and maximize his own benefits while making sure that the other side could also gain from the deal.
Gavin knew on what he could compromise and on what he couldn’t. He knew what the Tower of Dusk didn’t really care about but the other side could gain from. Hence, both sides finally came to a consensus after the negotiation.
The content of the agreement was briefly as such: the Tower of Dusk would provide technical support, while William would provide the funding and avenue. The revenue would be divided with the Tower of Dusk getting 70% and the Time Consignment Store getting 30%. This appeared to be the Tower of Dusk bullying William. Therefore, as compensation, the Tower of Dusk could send two pharmacists who were above the medium-level to the Time Consignment Store whenever possible.
Lin Li was very clear that one could have a strong stance, but certainly couldn’t be tyrannical. Not to mention that he was a Legendary-mage now, and he couldn’t make everyone work for him for free even after he reached the Sanctuary-realm. Since this was a collaboration, he had to make sure that the other side was profiting too and got its fair share.
Upon hearing Gavin’s report, Lin Li was quite satisfied with this deal. Although another condition was added in the end, it could be considered advantageous for the pharmacists in the Tower of Dusk. Lin Li couldn’t teach them much more theoretical knowledge. What they needed now was practice. Since the Time Consignment Store was willing to take charge of the supply of herbs, Lin Li was naturally willing to let his subordinates have a try. This could also increase the Tower of Dusk’s reputation.
This was called everyone got what they wanted. Lin Li was glad that the pharmacists had a place to practice, while William hoped that these pharmacists could stay at his store forever. After all, why did all the factions abandon focusing on the bustling Breezy Plains and go to a small place like Doland? Wasn’t it just to poach the pharmacists from the Tower of Dusk?
Although he was on the lower end in terms of the splitting of revenue, William was secretly rejoicing over the fact that two high-level pharmacists were coming to his store, not at all feeling that he’d lost out. Hence, upon hearing that Lin Li was leaving soon after the negotiation, William sincerely urged him to stay.
The next day, Castellan Arathor of Roland City visited Lin Li with much unease. Other than bringing expensive gifts, he had invited Lin Li and his companions to the Castellan Mansion as guests again.
Actually, Lin Li was the biggest winner of this incident. Although he didn’t need to thank Arathor, there was also no need for him to be petty with what had happened earlier. Doing that would also be unsuitable with his status as a Legendary powerhouse. So, when Arathor had shown enough sincerity and personally visited him, Lin Li didn’t pick on Arathor on purpose.
Honestly speaking, Arathor was quite proud of himself to have such foresight. How many 20-year-old Legendary-mages had there been till now? Even the God of Mages Geresco only reached the Legendary-realm at the age of 23. Even if this Master Felic couldn’t reach Geresco’s standards, his achievements now were already unreachable for the majority of the people. Everyone wanted to pull strings with this Legendary-mage after witnessing the Legendary battle in the Harvest Square. Arathor’s foresight came from the fact that his children were already considered this Master Felic’s students since a year ago.
Although the biggest reason why Lin Li had agreed to it was to hide from that female knight who was a crazy devotee of the Brilliance Shrine, Lin Li still had to take up his responsibility as a teacher no matter why he’d agreed to teach Arathor’s children. Moreover, Arathor’s children were both quite talented in magic, and Lin Li didn’t want to see their talents go to waste.
Of course, Lin Li also asked about the Elven Legendary-mage Vidas while teaching the two students. After all, not only did Vidas not get the debris of the stars Rebirth, but also lost a Helios’ Scepter. Probably nobody could accept such an outcome.
However, Arathor seemed to be hiding something about this. He always avoided the question, and had a rather awkward expression. Lin Li thought it was funny, and didn’t question him further. He knew that this castellan also had things beyond his control.
Just when Lin Li had reached his house, that noble-looking and stern old housekeeper reported that close to 100 different factions had come to visit just today alone. Though these people didn’t get to meet Lin Li, they still left precious gifts behind. In fact, they felt it was better not to meet Lin Li. Otherwise, even their gifts would be directly rejected.
After the Legendary battle in the Harvest Square, the saddest ones were certainly those who had wanted to poach pharmacists from the Tower of Dusk. For them, every minute and every second was a torture. They feared that their painstakingly built faction would disappear from the Breezy Plains in the blink of an eye.
What people could do when facing a Legendary powerhouse was just keep sending gifts. Obviously, the target of this gift-sending was changed to this young President of the Tower of Dusk and Legendary powerhouse, Master Felic, whom many had looked down on before. Not to mention these factions, even those who believed they had never offended the Tower of Dusk and Master Felic before also wanted to gain some connections with this young Legendary powerhouse.
Nobody could ignore a Legendary powerhouse, not to mention a young Legendary powerhouse who had just turned 20. Almost everyone who William had invited for the auction stayed after the auction. Outside Lin Li’s house, it was crowded beyond words. Everyone brought along gifts, all hoping to meet Lin Li with sincerity no matter how high their status was in the Breezy Plains was.
Of course, they didn’t want to discuss the weather when meeting Lin Li. Lin Li wasn’t so free. He also didn’t meet some of these people because of the expensive gifts they had brought along. In fact, these people wouldn’t possess any gifts that were truly precious to a Legendary powerhouse. Other than miracles like the debris of the stars, what could entice Lin Li was only things that could benefit the Tower of Dusk’s development.
One week later, Lin Li returned from Roland City full of prizes.
Even Lin Li was surprised that he had gained so much from this trip to Roland City. Although he had spent all the gold coins that he had earned from the auction of potion on the debris of the stars Rebirth, he felt it was totally worth it. Rebirth was the one and only in the whole of Anril, and was a piece of debris of the stars. Not to mention 15,000,000 gold coins, he could have paid 30,000,000 or even 60,000,000 gold coins to get it.
Moreover, Lin Li had also unexpectedly gained a Helios’ Scepter that was worth the same as the debris of the stars as well as experienced fighting with a level-22 Legendary-mage. Just talking about the Helios’ Scepter’s power, it was even stronger than the debris of the stars, and on a totally different level compared to the Aether Staff that he’d used so far. Not only had he gained precious fighting experience from the battle with Legendary-mage Vidas, he had also used this opportunity to gain more control over the Lord of Nightmares.
