Chapter 67 - Guidance
Jarrosus City was in disorder, but the Emerald Tower was unusually quiet. About half the mages were out, leaving behind some mage apprentices below level-five and a few others, such as Gerian and Lin Li.
Old Grimm looked up from a pile of beakers and asked in a seemingly casual way, “Felic, when I saw you teaching Bathrilor a lesson that day at the banquet, you should have been at the strength of level-nine?”
“About there, I’ve reached level-nine just a few days ago.” Lin Li nodded and then continued gloomily, “But strangely, lately I feel that I’ve run into a bottleneck again. It’s the feeling that you know you have the potential, but you just can’t exert it…”
“Oh?” Despite having some understanding of Lin Li’s strength, Old Grimm did not expect that he would be encountering a bottleneck in his breakthrough to the Magic Shooter level at such a young age. For a moment, the old man was intrigued. “Does the Guild of Magic have a practice ground? I’ll have a look at your situation first and then see if I can provide you with any suggestions.”
“That’ll be great.”
After this afternoon, the old and the young gradually became familiar with each other. There was less politeness but more intimacy in their conversations.
The two men went downstairs and spoke to Gerian, hoping to find a suitable place for actual combat. But when the old fellow heard that the legendary mage was about to showcase his skills, he forgot all about the proper business and insisted on going with them to have a look. At last, Lin Li failed to dissuade him and had to let him bring the both of them up to the third level.
“This is the best place. You can use any spells here. As long as it’s not a legendary-level spell, it will be no problem.” Gerian fished out a key and unlocked the tightly shut door.
Initially, Lin Li thought he was bragging. But when he poked his head in to take a look, he realized Gerian was actually too modest… On the spotlessly white wall, there were six magical shield fields and six elements annihilation fields. With the 12 mageweaths laid out, the room was an impregnable fortress. Not to mention ordinary spells, even if a legendary-level spell was used, it would be difficult to blow the room apart.
“Impressive…” In Anril, even the general mages would have studied inscriptions, much less a legendary mage like Old Grimm, whose accomplishments in inscriptions were also extraordinary. The moment he entered the room, his eyes naturally fell onto the 12 mageweaths.
“This is by Delavi?” Old Grimm was rather amazed, passing before the 12 mageweaths.
“You have fine eyes, Mage Grimm. This was indeed designed by Master Delavi 1300 years ago, when the Guild of Magic was established.”
Lin Li was rather lost. “Who is Delavi?”
“A level 22 mage.” Old Grimm’s expression revealed a look of yearning.
“Level 22!” Lin Li was startled. Even a half-baked mage like him knew that as the magic level reached the realm of an Archmage, even a single level of ascension could bring about a nearly qualitative change in power, not to mention the legendary realm above the Archmage. A level 22 mage would probably equal up to ten Andoines—and that was a conservative estimate.
Lin Li had no idea that there had been such a powerful person in Jarrosus Guild of Magic.
“But his greatest achievement in life was actually in inscriptions. If it weren’t for him, the study of inscriptions today might be a totally different story. He was the first person to combine inscriptions and magic. Since then, inscriptions have become a required course for mages.”
“Felic…” After talking about Delavi’s achievements, Old Grimm took a few steps back. “That day at the banquet, I saw that you had done a good job in releasing the icicles. Why don’t you try again now and attack me using the wind blade?”
“Okay.”
“Just focus on your spell, don’t worry about hurting me.” Afraid that Lin Li would worry about hurting him, Old Grimm specially reminded him.
“Mm.” Lin Li nodded, and his expression became serious.
There was no recitation nor even the slightest sign. Lin Li raised a hand and an icicle tore through the air. Driven by Lin Li’s tremendous mana, the icicle was as fast as lightning. As soon as it was released, it disintegrated into the air, creating a blue stream of light…
But as the stream of light approached Old Grimm, it stopped without warning and just hung quietly in front of his chest. It was like there was an invisible hand in the air, catching it with an unparalleled speed.
There was a smile of approval on Old Grimm’s face.
“Very well done. But it’s still not enough this time. When you were teaching Bathrilor a lesson a few days ago, you had unleashed a few spells consecutively, so you should have ample mana. Don’t stop. This time, we’ll change it to the wind blade: release as many as your mana allows.”
“…” Gerian touched his nose in spite of himself when he heard it.
“Okay!”
From the previous icicle, Lin Li knew that Old Grimm’s strength was fathomless and that it was impossible to hurt him with his own strength.
Hence, he showed no mercy anymore and the wind blades came one after another.
In an instant, the shrill sound of tearing filled the air and dozens of wind blades fell down like raindrops. But all these wind blades, without an exception, were met with the invisible wall; none of them ever touched the corner of Old Grimm’s robe.
With the strength of a legendary mage, it was impossible for Old Grimm to be hurt by a few low-level spells. He didn’t even require any magical shields; it was enough to protect himself from harm just by releasing his own mana, like what he had done when he’d saved Bathrilor at the banquet.
There was deep admiration in Old Grimm’s eyes as he watched Lin Li release the wind blades.
Andoine’s judgment was indeed right—this was a true magic genius, skillful and with an abundance of mana, just like Andoine in the past. The only difference was, he was much younger than Andoine had been back then and had a deeper understanding of magic.
But as time went by and the wind blades Lin Li released were already in the hundreds, the admiration in Old Grimm’s eyes gradually turned to amazement.
The mana of this young mage seemed to be overly abundant…
Although the wind blade was just a level-one magic, he couldn’t afford to unleash it like this. The power consumed by more than 200 level-one spells was already well beyond the reach of a level-nine mage…
From the look on his face, the young mage did not seem to be tired at all. Over a hundred level-one spells was as easy as eating and drinking water for him. No wonder Andoine had mentioned many times that this kid was nothing but a monster. Old Grimm thought he was talking about pharmaceutics, but now it suddenly dawned on him that Andoine was talking about the kid’s freak mana!