Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Gerian, who was very satisfied with Lin Li’s performance, laughed with pride. “That diary mentioned a snippet of Osric’s secret information. It said that when Osric was in his later years, he once used a whole Magic Legion to guard a transport of resources to the Breezy Plains secretly.”
“Oh, do you know what he had been transporting?” Lin Li asked curiously.
“This… Haha.” Gerian scratched his head with embarrassment, and said, “This diary didn’t specify such details. Its owner speculated that it must have been a very valuable load of resources.”
“Erm… Isn’t this nonsense? Since Osric could use a whole Magic Legion as guards, the contents must have been valuable! What else did that cliffhanging guy say?” Evidently, Lin Li was a little unsatisfied with this fella who’d written the diary. However, he also knew that in the Dark Age, this fella was considered a capable man to have some clues about things that a man as powerful as Highlord Osric did.
“Don’t be so short-tempered, young man, I haven’t finished speaking,” said Gerian, taking out a notebook from his chest. He flipped a few pages, and said, “Although the owner of this diary didn’t specify any details, according to information inferred, this bunch of resources was extremely likely to have been gathered to construct something.”
“This diary in your hands is that dairy?” Lin Li was quite surprised. That diary was so new, and didn’t even have any protective magical wave.
“Of course… not! If this were the one passed down from the Dark Age, even if there was magic as protection, it’d be impossible for it to be so new! I’ve only seen that diary a very long time ago. After realizing the unusualness of the cave upon coming here, I recalled this incident, and wrote down these things from memory. It’s only for the ease of analysis. Look at it yourself,” said Gerian as he threw the notebook in his hand to Lin Li.
Magicians all had pretty good memory, but the reason Lin Li did not doubt the authenticity of this document at hand was not because of his faith in Gerian’s memory, but the fact that nothing in this document was written with a certain tone. Rather, it was filled with speculative expressions like maybes, perhaps, and what-ifs. This kind of thing wouldn’t affect much, even if Gerian had remembered some things wrongly. Maybe he would even score a lucky hit!
“Building something?” Lin Li’s fingers knocked on the table, producing soft “tap tap” sounds. He was contemplating this issue in his heart. Honestly speaking, those High Elves were too damn frustrating. Why couldn’t they just vanish without putting up a struggle instead of using so many tricks to torment people?
Gerian laughed with pride. “You see, even the materials used for construction were high-class goods escorted by the Magic Legion. How can the things stored inside be bad?”
“That isn’t impossible. Maybe Osric died even before it could be completed, so there’s nothing much inside,” Lin Li said jokingly.
“I have considered this problem too, but according to the timeline of the diary, this possibility can basically be eliminated, unless they were building something even bigger than Osric’s mausoleum,” said Gerian.
“Those things were transported to the Breezy Plains… doesn’t seem like it’s about the Scar of Death. Other than the Scar of Death in the Blackstone Mountains, where else can things be hidden in the Breezy Plains? Looks like there’s only the Dragon Mountains left,” said Lin Li as he looked at the information at hand.
“Let me tell you something. You probably haven’t noticed that after we entered the mountain hideout of the remnants of the Syer Bandits to search it, but I discovered a few construction foundations deep in the heart of the hideout. Those foundations are probably pretty old, at least 300 to 500 years old,” said Gerian, immensely proud of himself.
“The Syer Bandits were probably established no earlier than 100 years ago. Since there are such ancient building foundations in their hideout, seems like they are not the first ones to live there,” said Lin Li.
“Indeed. I’ve asked Gavin and friends. They are all from the Breezy Plains and familiar with the history and environment here. They told me that before the Syer Bandits, there hasn’t been any news that other bandits ever occupied this valley. Although no news doesn’t mean there definitely hadn’t been any, at least this fact made the place more suspicious.”
“Speaking of this, it’s indeed quite suspicious. There’s no point in guessing; no matter what it is, we will know once we’ve seen it for ourselves.” Lin Li couldn’t be bothered to guess blindly. The cave was just at the base of the valley, anyway. Whether it was the remains of the High Elves’ constructions or a Magical Beast’s nest, he would know once he scouted the cave.
Hutton didn’t know why Lin Li and the fellas from the Tower of Dusk were still here, but he didn’t dare to ask them. Seeing that he had no business here, he packed up and said goodbye to Lin Li. This certainly wasn’t a wasted trip. Not only was he able to secure an even firmer relationship with the Tower of Dusk, he also acquired a large amount of rewards from the battle. Although there had been some casualties, the rewards were enough to shut those old codgers up.
Hutton left with his men in satisfaction. Lin Li calculated for a while. As long as it was related to the High Elves, nothing was easy to deal with. It’d be better to explore the cave himself. Those from the Tower of Dusk weren’t going to be of much help, either—better for them to bring back the rewards first.
“No, I object. Why are you not bringing me along? We’re talking about the High Elves’ Relics here.” Gerian was displeased. This secret was discovered by him, yet he couldn’t even see it. That little rascal was so exasperating.
Lin Li had his reasons for thinking this way. Just speaking of those two pieces of debris of the stars—Holy Light and Gloomy Dark—he had, they were from the ruins of the High Elves. Which one of those ventures wasn’t filled with dangers, ending with him barely making it back alive? If he were to encounter a crisis that even he couldn’t overcome, so what if he brought along so many people? He would have to protect them eventually.
Of course, for the sake of Gerian’s ego, Lin Li couldn’t tell him straight out that he was too weak and would hold Lin Li back. Therefore, Lin Li contemplated for a while, and earnestly said, “Actually, I feel so regretful that you can’t accompany me, but there is a crucial matter concerning the development of the Tower of Dusk. I have no choice but to ask you to personally help with it.”
“Oh, is that so?” After hearing these words, Gerian got interested. He raised his eyebrow slightly and proudly said, “Tell me what you need me to help with. Just say it.”
“It’s like this. This time, when Hutton from the Malfa Family came, we also talked about the potion business other than dealing with those Syer Bandits. Basically, they wanted some quota, and I needed them to provide some cheap medicinal ingredients. So, we just briefly talked about collaboration. I’ll need to trouble you to help settle the specifics.” Lin Li didn’t lie—speaking of business negotiation, nobody in the Tower of Dusk was talented in this aspect. Meanwhile, Gerian coincidentally had the potential of an unscrupulous merchant. If he took charge, the Tower of Dusk wouldn’t suffer any loss no matter what happened.
“Alright, I will settle this.” Gerian thought for a while, knowing that Lin Li didn’t lie to him. The Tower of Dusk primarily relied on the potion business to gain income they needed to survive; this matter naturally concerned the development of the Tower of Dusk as well. Since there was a proper matter to settle, it definitely took priority over exploration. Anyway, what lay in the cave at the base of the valley was still a mystery. Maybe it was the High Elves’ ruins, but maybe it wasn’t anything important.
Lin Li also found it a little funny. It was just a speculation; could he really find the relics of the High Elves just by randomly walking around…?
However, to prevent any accidents, Lin Li still decided to settle the Tower of Dusk’s matters before going there. The last time he went to the Abyss of Tharlen, three months passed unknowingly in the blink of an eye. If he encountered something this time too, then it would hold up things too much.
Actually, there were not many matters to take care of. The potion business was left to Gerian; the chores in the Tower of Dusk were managed by Gavin. The only matter that Lin Li needed to settle personally was the issue of the pharmaceutics apprentices. In the beginning, there were two choices to this, one being to train their own people from the Tower of Dusk, the other being to borrow people from the Pharmacist Guild. However, a pharmacist trained from scratch wouldn’t be able to do much in the short term, so the best option currently was to borrow apprentices from the Pharmacist Guild.
Borrow people? No, wouldn’t Lin Li owe them a favor if he did so?! Lin Li wasn’t someone willing to lose out. He dipped a pen in ink and wrote a letter to the Balbo, the President of the Pharmacist Guild, choosing every word with care.
“Training entrustment? What does it mean?” Since Lin Li did not have any intention to hide it, Gerian naturally impolitely looked over his shoulder, but what he saw was a big heading “Pharmacist Training Entrustment Plan” at the top of the letter. Lin Li didn’t reply, so Gerian continued to read the letter, his eyes widening more as he read.
In the letter to Balbo, Lin Li didn’t even mention the fact that he was short on manpower. Instead, he displayed a totally selfless and altruistic attitude and suggested a very thoughtful plan: the Pharmacist Training Entrustment Plan.
Lin Li wrote thus…
“Concerned about the shortage of talents in Anril’s pharmacist industry, I have decided to establish the Entrusted Pharmacist Training Class. The following details are for the reference of President Balbo…
“Advanced pharmaceutics lessons will be taught in this class. Students need to be at least medium-tier pharmacists, and the duration of training is one year. No school fee is charged; food and housing needs to be settled on your end. After one year of training, at least half of the students are guaranteed to advance by a level. Places are limited, register now!”
“This… Felic, you are suffering such great loss, how can you not charge any school fees!” Gerian couldn’t react at that moment and was quite worried about Lin Li.
Lin Li blew the ink dry and laughed. “So you also think that I’m losing out. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
“If you’re losing out, why did you even… Haha, you are such a cunning lad.” Gerian was also an old fox, and he figured out the trick behind this very fast. This lad was really a little fox, he thought. He obviously wanted people to do work for him, yet he didn’t even have to pay them their wages and care about their food and housing in the name of training. What was more important was that not only would this avoid owing Balbo a favor, but also make Balbo owe Lin Li one instead. Who knew what Balbo’s reaction would be after seeing this letter…
Lin Li wasn’t afraid that Balbo would reject it. After all, this deal was beneficial to both Balbo and the Pharmacist Guild. The reason behind using the pretext of a training entrustment was entirely due to his own wicked sense of humor. In addition, it was always good not to owe anyone favors.
There was another reason, which was for those coming pharmacists to put down their pride from the start. Given the status of the pharmacists in Anril, even medium-tier pharmacists were treated like masters by every faction wherever they went. However, Lin Li was summoning people for hard labor, and not for them to enjoy life like a master. So, given their status as students, who’d dare to act like a master?
The next day, Gerian left with the people from the Tower of Dusk. That letter would be sent to Alanna’s Pharmacist Guild, into the hands of President Balbo. If not for the fact that he needed to do business with the Malfa Family, Gerian would have gone himself to see what Balbo’s expression would be after reading the letter.
After the people left, Lich Ujfalusi and Vampire Norfeller, who had been hiding nearby, came to Lin Li’s side. Both of them had watched the battle yesterday from start to end; now, they looked at Lin Li with more admiration.
Lin Li briefly told them the gist of the matter. These two Undead henchmen certainly didn’t have any objections. They followed along everywhere their master went.
The cave that Gerian had mentioned was located deep in the valley. It was accidentally discovered when they prepared to attack the Syer Bandits from the back. Lin Li brought the two Undead creatures into the cave, released a few Warlock’s Eyes as he went exploring, and ventured further into the cave.
Not knowing how long they had walked, Lin Li just felt that they had walked a very long way. It was good that there wasn’t any fork in this cave; if not, he would think that he was going in circles. Using the Illuminating Spell to light up the surrounding walls, Lin Li was surprised to find no evidence of excavation. Could it be that this was just an ordinary cave formed by nature?
Just as Lin Li was losing his patience from the long walk, “plah, plah” sounds suddenly came from the darkness ahead, just as if something was flipping its wings. Before Lin Li could see it clearly with the Warlock’s Eyes, that unknown creature somehow managed to deactivate the Warlock’s Eyes.
However, Lin Li didn’t wait for long. Those “plah, plah” sounds ahead drew nearer, and the unknown creature finally appeared in front of his eyes. It was in fact a group of palm-sized black bats.
Seeing the bats, Lin Li couldn’t help but think of Vampires. He turned and looked at Norfeller beside him.
However, Norfeller looked quite tense at this moment. His eyes were fixed on the flying bat in front. Shaking his head, he said, “They are not Vampires, they are Night… Night Demon Bats.”
“These are the Night Demon Bats?” This was the first time Lin Li saw Night Demon Bats with his own eyes, but he had heard many stories about them.
Although Night Demon Bats looked like incarnations of Vampires, they were in fact not related to Vampires at all. They were unable to take human form, and no matter how high-level they were, they were always palm-sized. However, one shouldn’t think that they were easy to deal with given their small size. Those bats could definitely make you die without burial ground.
