End of the Magic Era

Ever since he started following Lin Yun, saying that William’s strength had been improved at a very fast speed was an understatement, but even after reaching the Archmage realm, he still couldn’t tell how strong Lin Yun was.

‘Hey, Cousin Mafa regularly comes into contact with powerhouses like Sir Jouyi and Sir Harren, and even Prophet Deloy of the Gaugass Battlemages…

‘Just who is that person? The leaders of the two major forces of the Andlusa Kingdom treat Cousin Mafa politely, and regarding the very wise Prophet Deloy, I saw him taking the initiative to greet Cousin Mafa while merely nodding to those that greeted him.

‘How could such a simple thing not be clear? Cousin Mafa is definitely a powerhouse on Sir Jouyi’s level. Last time the Patriarch of our Merlin Family saw Sir Jouyi, Sir Jouyi wasn’t that friendly.

‘The heir of a Family of the Odin Kingdom actually dares to speak like that to Cousin Mafa? Isn’t that an insult? We have to get rid of him.’

The current leader of Lin Yun’s mage squad was a very humble 2nd Rank Archmage, but he was now reeking of killing intent. He walked up to Lin Yun, stopped in front of him, and bowed deeply.

“Sir Merlin, please allow me to lead your mage squad to make those who insulted you pay the price! Our staves are thirsting for their blood, and our spells can’t wait to tear them to pieces…”

The group there looked murderous. Whether it was Xiuban, William, or Kurumu, their strength had advanced by leaps and bounds ever since they followed Lin Yun, but the latter two hadn’t had a decent fight yet. Having an easy road had boosted their self-confidence.

But now, they unexpectedly met the heir of the Odin Family. ‘It’s only an heir, yet he dares to talk down to Mafa Merlin like he’s talking to a subordinate. This isn’t just an insult to Sir Merlin, this is an insult to all of us!’

“Merlin, we should get rid of them! After all, this is a battlefield. What does the Odin Kingdom even count as? It’s a group of lucky b*stards that allied together for benefits. Besides the few strongest forces, the rest can be completely wiped away…”

Enderfa, who hoped to see the world in chaos, was fanning the flames and trying to goad Lin Yun into getting rid of Wagner’s group.

Speaking of which, Shawn also came out of his ring and loudly roared, “Merlin, get rid of who? Lord Shawn’s cultivation is about done! For three spirit mana crystals, I’ll guarantee that none will be able to escape…”

The group of angry and annoyed people all wanted to deal with Wagner, making Lin Yun shake his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry…

“It would be a shame to get rid of that guy so quickly. I kept him alive because he might prove useful, what’s the hurry?”

All of them had experienced smooth sailing while following Lin Yun, so whoever dared to provoke him would be beaten up and torn to pieces. They couldn’t stand this grievance. Lin Yun felt a bit exasperated as he pacified his subordinates and got back into the temporary camp on his own.

On the next day, an arrogant mage entered Lin Yun’s camp.

“You are called Mafa Merlin, aren’t you? Listen, I am Young Master Wagner’s most trusted aide, Sir Doug. Today, I represent Young Master Wagner in discussing how to go about attacking the Radiant Fort.”

Doug faintly raised his chin with an air of superiority while walking towards Lin Yun with his hands behind his back. He glanced at the camp’s old chairs after seeing Xiuban sitting down with a vulgar attitude.

The others stood in the distance looking like they could barely hold themselves back. William was staring at Doug as if he was already dead, and Enderfa was on the side fanning the flames. Kurumu was moving his hand along his Dragonscale Staff, faintly sighing.

Doug swept his snobbish gaze over everyone as he thought, ‘So trashy! Look at these people, how could they have any accomplishments as mages? The honor of mages was completely trampled. The Andlusa Kingdom might really be the backwards countryside. Even the mages in the Odin Kingdom’s remote areas are more dignified than them.

‘I don’t really understand why Young Master Wagner didn’t drive these louts away. Why would he let them participate in the assault of the Radiant Fort Plane? Isn’t that gifting points to these bumpkins?

‘Although they won’t be able to get much, they’ll still walk away with a share of the points, and that feeling is very unpleasant. No, I can’t let this small Family of the Andlusa Kingdom take any unfair advantages.

‘In any case, Young Master Wagner sent me to negotiate, so I can just set the conditions to be whatever I want so that most of the points will be ours while giving them all the hard work.

“Mafa Merlin, our Young Master’s plan is to suppress the tribes surrounding the Radiant Fort. I’m here to discuss the cleanup operation.”

A faint smile appeared on Lin Yun’s mouth, but his thoughts couldn’t be seen through. He nodded to Doug to continue.

The corner of Doug’s mouth rose up.

“That being the case, I’ll explain our George Family’s plan. When suppressing the surrounding tribes, all the intelligence work will be given to our George Family. After all, your information gathering is truly lacking.

“Really, if you hadn’t boldly alarmed the Black Iron Beastmen, our George Family might have already breached the Radiant Fort by now. Thus, information gathering will be handed over to us, and you only need to wait for your dispatch.

“Do you have any complaints?” Doug asked after he finished explaining the plan.

But he didn’t entertain much hope in his plan. After all, everyone knew that intelligence gathering was of utmost importance in a war. Timely and accurate information would greatly alter the outcome of a battle and could reduce the losses and energy spent to a minimum.

But misleading intel or an error in the intelligence could send someone to their death. No one would let someone else be in charge of their intel gathering… It would be the same as leaving one’s life in the hands of others.

Now, it was time for negotiations. If the George Family exerted themselves heavily on information gathering, they would naturally spend less energy on other areas.

But what Doug didn’t expect was that Lin Yun would casually nod.

“Very well, your George Family will be in charge of intel gathering.”

Doug froze. He hadn’t expected Lin Yun to agree straightforwardly, but the result made him beyond happy.

‘Very good! Leave the intel gathering to our George Family so our losses this time will be reduced to a minimum. Moreover, these Andlusa country bumpkins don’t know that the intel gathering work has already been done.’

“Good! Since we’ll be taking care of intel, the vanguard should be given to you when we attack every tribe. After all, our manpower will be too scattered from our investigations…”

Doug barely even finished his sentence when Lin Yun nodded.

“Yeah, there is no problem.”

Doug was dazed and he couldn’t help smiling at how well this was going. His appetite got even bigger.

“Okay, since that’s the case, you’ll act as a vanguard, and after repelling the Raging Flame Beastmen’s attack, we’ll take over from there. Our George Family has been fighting with the Raging Flame Beastmen for so many years and has the most experience.

“You’ll then defend the outside and make sure no Raging Flame Beastman escapes. More importantly, when we attack, you’ll make sure that no spies from other tribes make it out alive. You should be able to accomplish that, right?”

Doug firmly watched Lin Yun, feeling somewhat uncertain. After all, he was discussing the George Family’s benefits. He had to be ruthless at the start to leave room to haggle.

This condition was truly too excessive, making Lin Yun’s people serve as the vanguard… What was a vanguard? Those fighting in the Raging Flame Plane knew that this was the most dangerous task.

Those Raging Flame Beastmen fought as if they were unafraid of death, like crazy and terrifying animals. Each time they met an enemy, they would throw a large number of elites at them. Their fighting style was completely different from mankind’s wars, in which armies would first send some ordinary soldiers to scout and probe.

This was especially true when attacking the Raging Flame Beastmen’s tribes. They wouldn’t need to think… The moment the Beastmen were attacked, they would send most of their forces and powerhouses onto the battlefield.

If the vanguard managed to repel the initial attack, then many of the Raging Flame Beastmen’s powerhouses would be either wounded or dead, leaving only the weaker members unhurt. The entire tribe’s strength would hit rock bottom.

Attacking the tribe at that time would be the best opportunity, the easiest moment to get the greatest harvest.

Not only would they obtain some points from finishing off the powerhouses wounded by the vanguard, but they would also be the ones to breach into the tribe, and those points would be a lot more important than what they would get from finishing off wounded Beastmen.

Killing a Raging Flame Beastman was only taking down one person. Apart from the most important ones like the Head Tribal Chief, it wouldn’t have much of an impact on the entire battlefield.

But breaching through a tribe would have a lot of importance on the entire military campaign, a completely different level of influence. No matter how many Beastmen were killed before, they might be worth up to a few dozen thousand points, but managing to push into the tribe would be worth at least ten thousand points by itself.

Adding the points from sweeping the tribe clear and the spoils of war they would obtain, more than half of the points earned from the clean-up operation would go to the George Family, and they wouldn’t have even used much manpower.

The dirty work, the expenditure of energy, and the losses would all be borne by Mafa Merlin.

But Lin Yun still calmly nodded.

“Yes, let’s do it that way.”