Chapter 184 - Ruby Eyes
Lin Li muttered in his heart after sending Aragon away…
At first, he really did not expect Andre to be the disciple of Sword Sage of the Storm. Then, what he’d said on the road carried a different meaning. It was obvious that the mission this time was personally issued by the Sword Sage of the Storm. Other than Al’Akir himself, Andre was perhaps the only one who knew the inside story the best. Even he had said that the mission was extremely dangerous; so, this task had to be really dangerous…
‘We must get another map tomorrow and make a clean break with this ghost of a mission as soon as possible!’ Lin Li wrapped himself in his sleeping bag. Before going to sleep, he gritted his teeth, and once again cursed the man who drew the map.
He had been thoroughly exhausted the last two days; Lin Li slept until late in the morning. When he got out of the tent, the sun had already risen high in the sky. Lin Li squinted and looked at the sky. He was going to look for the deputy head in charge of logistics when, suddenly, he discovered a familiar figure in the distance…
“F*ck!” Lin Li was startled by the figure.
Isn’t that Matthias? What is this fellow doing in the Fire Plume Ridge?
Weird, how did Matthias become like that… Lin Li took a few looks at Matthias, and then frowned in spite of himself.
“Oh?” Lin Li took the portrait, and immediately froze. The black hair and black eyes—wasn’t that himself?
“Why, Mr Felic knows the person on the portrait?”
“Yes.” Lin Li was grinding his teeth. Things had already come to this point; if he still hadn’t made a sense out of it, he’d be having a brain for nothing.
Azalez was right; once he was out of the shelter of the Alanna Guild of Magic, the Marathons were bound to take action. But Lin Li really didn’t think that the Marathon Family would invest such a big capital, sending an Archmage in order to deal with himself.
Moreover, there were six carriages parked outside the camp. Those six carriages could carry over a dozen level-10 characters, and it would be a stinking nuisance to him already…
It seemed that this trip to the Fire Plume Ridge was far from as easy as he imagined.
And, Serena was also a trouble…
She had been beating around the bush for the longest time; he was afraid her purpose was not just a casual chat.
Serena wanted to beat around the bush, but Lin Li was not in the mood to do so. He did not go around in circles with her, and said straightforwardly, “Captain Serena, if you have something to say, please say it.”
“Haha, Mr Felic, I wonder, what do you think of the Silver Hand?” Serena laughed brilliantly because she knew that she had grasped the key to the other party. Although she could not get more information after talking to the two men from the Marathon Family, one thing was certain—the Marathons would never let this fellow named Felic off.
Perhaps not many people knew the power of the Marathon Family better than Serena did. The Marathon Family, which owned half of the arms business in Felan, could almost cover the sky with one hand in the Kingdom. Even when His Majesty made a decision, he had to pay the utmost attention to the reaction of the Marathon Family.
The Marathon Family at present was a monster of power and wealth.
Other than the Alanna Guild of Magic, which was a secular power above the world, who else dared to offend the Marathon Family? A level-five warrior, or a high-level miner? In fact, it did not matter what his identity was. Whether it was a level-five warrior or a high-level miner, once the Marathon Family decided to get rid of him, he’d be bound to fall into desperate straits.
Maybe she was one of the few people who didn’t have to be afraid of the Marathon Family…
Therefore, Serena was very confident in bringing this high-level miner into the Silver Hand.
Serena thought her words were clear enough; she was only short of waving her handkerchief like a prostitute on the street, shouting, “Come in and have a rest, Mister. Of the girls here, one is more beautiful than the other. They will surely serve you comfortably…”
“The Silver Hand isn’t bad” was what she got after a long wait.
“Ah?” Serena’s brilliant smile froze. Was this guy having a problem with his brain or his ears? Shouldn’t he have cried and asked to join the Silver Hand Mercenary Corps, and ask her for asylum? How come “isn’t bad” was all that came out? What did he mean by “isn’t bad”?
“Uh, Mr Felic…” Serena hesitated for a moment, but decided to speak clearer so that this fellow would not regret later, while Silver Hand would lose a rare talent. “I heard Aragon said that you are a talent in mining, I wonder if you are interested in joining the Silver Hand?”
“Join a Mercenary Corps?” Lin Li deliberated for a moment, but still shook his head. “Sorry, Captain Serena, I currently have no such plans…”
“Mr Felic, you really don’t want to think about it? By the way, the one who came this morning was Gaud from the Marathon Family…” After saying that, Serena took another look at Lin Li. Her expression meant: “now you know how bad it is?”
Gaud, Wilhelm’s nephew, was a well-known figure in Alanna. At an early age, he had the ability to undertake tasks alone. He was also one of Wilhelm’s most trusted aides. At least one-third of the business of Marathon smithy was handled by Gaud himself. And he had a frightening strength—at the age of 28, he possessed a strength of a level-16 warrior. Perhaps he’d be another legendary figure ten years later.
“Oh…” Lin Li nodded, but he wanted to ask Serena: “what does Gaud do…?”
It couldn’t be helped—Lin Li only came to Alanna just over a month earlier. In this period, at least a whole month was spent in the Guild of Magic. If not for what Azalez had told him, he wouldn’t even have known about Wilhelm and the Marathon Family, let alone Gaud…
“…” On the other side, Serena wanted to knock her head against the wall. She really wanted to split this guy’s head and see what structure was inside. She had spoken till her mouth was dry, but he merely responded with an “oh”. Did he dare give her a warmer response?
At this time, it suddenly hit Serena that everything that had already returned to the right path seemed to have slipped out of her control once more…
The fellow in front of her seemed to be really obstinate; he was in a constant state of calmness no matter what she said. It was as if what she had said was not that the Marathon Family wanted his life, but that an acquaintance wanted to invite him to dinner.
Serena looked at Lin Li with a straight face…
While Serena hesitated to make herself even clearer, Lin Li had already stood up. “Captain Serena, if there’s nothing else, I would like to go back first.”
“Ah?”
“Oh, yes, Captain Serena, can you give me that map?”
“I-I can…” Serena stared blankly at Lin Li, and then blankly watched him take the map away. When he disappeared out of the tent, Serena still couldn’t make sense of the situation. Where did this fellow get his guts from? He’s not even afraid of the Marathon Family coming after his life…
When Lin Li returned to his tent, he immediately spread out the map.
Serena had guessed it wrong this time. How could Lin Li not be scared of two level-16 and above characters? But it was also because of fear that he could not join the Silver Hand.
From what Serena said, Lin Lin could hear that this beautiful captain shared some friendship with the Marathon Family; however, the problem was that she didn’t understand that the ill relationship between him and the Marathon Family was not an ordinary one. It was bought with Matthias’ limbs.
Who was Matthias? He was Wilhelm’s son; could friendship resolve such hatred?
Now, the only way was to cut the Gordian knot.
As long as he was fast enough to obtain the black lotus and then return to Alanna before them, under the protection of Macklin and Aldwin, even if the Marathon Family was bold enough, they wouldn’t dare to be too hard on him.
Besides, with the black lotus in the hands of a pharmaceutics guru, it was still uncertain who’d be the one bothering whom…
He could just fight it out at worst, and look for the ingredients for the Ephemeral Divinity Potion with a high reward. As long as he could concoct the potion, he could flatten a small Marathon Family directly with an instantaneous legendary spell. They were looking for trouble? More like looking for death…
Lin Li began to study the map in his hands.
Lin Li was sending his respects to the deputy head in charge of logistics while he studied the map. That man was indeed cheap. He had given him a simplified version of the map. Lin Li didn’t feel much about it initially, but compared with the one he had in his hand, it was a damn sight worse. Lin Li even suspected whether the fellow was deliberately fooling him…
As a matter of fact, he had wronged the deputy head this time.
At the beginning, the deputy head had indeed given a simplified map, which only provided the distribution of monsters at the foot of the mountain. Many places on the mountainside were not marked in detail. For example, the damn cave was only drawn with a line, and no detailed route was given.
The problem was…
Lin Li had asked for the map as a level-five warrior. Who would have thought that he would go all the way to the mountainside? What kind of place was the mountainside of the Fire Plume Ridge? That was where magical beasts above level-10 emerged in endless stream. Even in the Silver Hand, no one would dare to go there alone, let alone a level-five warrior.
The deputy head thought that the captain’s life savior had only wanted to take a stroll around the foot of the mountain. He didn’t think much about it at that time, so he had chosen an ordinary map to give Lin Li. How could he know that the fellow’s goal was the mountainside?