Chapter 157: Flame Shield

After Lin Li entered the room, he found that there was another acquaintance sitting inside besides Macklin.

“Good afternoon, Mr Darian,” Lin Li greeted with a smile. Perhaps few people could imagine, seeing the expression on his face, that this polite-looking fellow was actually the culprit who had beaten Darian’s nephew into a cripple.

“Hng!” Darian snorted; his face as black as the bottom of a pan.

The atmosphere in the room was full of tension, making Macklin’s head throb. He rubbed the center of his forehead painfully, and quickly interrupted, “Alright, Darian, I’ll think about what you’ve said. You go back first…”

“Yes, Mr Macklin…” Macklin had already spoken, so Darian would have to abide even if he was unwilling. In case he had incited the anger of the guild’s most powerful Archmage, it’d be too late to regret. Macklin was not as accommodating as Aldwin; he would always turn hostile all of a sudden without even prior greeting.

Darian got up and opened the door. Before he left, he shot a merciless glare at Lin Li. Let alone Lin Li, even Macklin, who was at a side, could clearly see the hatred in his eyes.

It was just that Macklin was troubled now, and he pretended not to see it.

Seeing Darian’s figure disappear at the end of the corridor, Lin Li closed the door and shamelessly left the matter clean. “I’m sorry to interrupt your discussion with Mr Darian…”

“Why bother pretending? You can’t possibly not know what we’re talking about…” Macklin had a headache just looking at this guy.

This kid was absolutely driving him to death. He had only been in Alanna for slightly more than half a month, but had gotten into a butt of trouble. Matthias and Madrick were crippled one after another by him. During this period of time, Macklin had wanted to hit the wall with his head just taking the blame for him.

Just like facing Darian earlier on, Macklin had spent a lot of effort to barely pacify him.

But, the pacification could only be temporary. Who knew when these two fellows would clash again. It would be trouble for Macklin when the time came…

There could be no mishaps with Felic. Not to mention the bet with the Adventurers Guild six months later, the ability he had shown at present alone was sufficient for the Alanna Guild of Magic to fight for. Let alone Darian, even if His Majesty the King came, Macklin would never allow him to lay a hand on Felic.

But, the problem was that there could not be any mishap with Darian, either…

He was an elder of the Alanna Guild of Magic. Over the past few decades, he had long run a huge force in the guild. If something had happened to him, and it was because Felic, wouldn’t the others raise the devil with the guild on the spot?

In this respect, Macklin was not as good as Gerian…

Gerian’s hard work for decades had brought his personal prestige to the peak. The Jarrosus Guild of Magic could be said to be his own guild. In the Jarrosus Guild of Magic, his words were the truth, and no mage dared to defy him.

However, even back then, when Gerian had given Lin Li special privileges, there were voices of opposition as well, and he had even forced out three traitors as a result.

If that was true for Gerian, it naturally went without saying for Macklin, who was worse than him…

And, some things could never be made public.

After the long talk with Aldwin that day, the two men were surprisingly in agreement. Felic’s real situation could not be made public.

This kid was a freak. It was frightening just thinking about the various peculiar points of his. If the other forces were to know there was such a figure in the Alanna Guild of Magic, perhaps it wouldn’t take a few days for them to be hounded.

Alanna was such a place—they were more serious in robbing talents than robbing money. What forces wouldn’t want to fight for a talent like Felic?

This fellow had even gone beyond the scope of talent. If he were to be described in one word, it would probably only be “all-rounder”.

He was proficient in both forging and pharmaceutics, and his talent in magic was enviably strong. It probably wouldn’t take him long to reach the realm of an Archmage. What forces would not want to contend for such an omnipotent young genius?

The truth—this young genius’s ability—could never be disclosed. So far, no one in the guild knew the truth except Aldwin and Macklin. In the eyes of ordinary people, this young man from Jarrosus was merely a gifted trial mage.

Hmm… Maybe Mason and Orrin knew something about it, but it was only something. After all, they were both too young to see anything beyond the surface. They certainly knew that their teammate was different, but they most likely did not know what this difference really meant…

All these reasons distressed Macklin.

Darian counted on his nephew’s injury and his status as an elder. He knew that Macklin would not go too far with himself. The recent days had been a real storm; he came to Macklin everyday, insisting that the Jarrosus country boy would have to be severely dealt with…

Macklin could only laugh bitterly in the face of Darian’s demands.

He really wanted to tell Darian, If it weren’t for the Jarrosus country boy you mentioned, the Alanna Guild of Magic would be in trouble six months later!

Unfortunately, these were the words that couldn’t be uttered…

So, Macklin could only suffer in silence as he listened to Darian’s complaints while contemplating that he had to find a chance to banish the b*tch to a remote and deserted place after this matter had passed!

“What is Mr Darian demanding to do with me?” Since Macklin had already said so, Lin Li was also too embarrassed to continue his pretense.

“There is no specific demand, but in general, it can all be summed up in two words—severely dealt!”

“…” Lin Li chuckled, embarrassed. He knew that Macklin had to be under some pressure in this matter. After all, Darian was an elder in the guild. Macklin would have to spare some effort to suppress his opinions.

However, it could not be helped.

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Some things were like that—knowing that doing it might cause trouble, many times it still had to be done.

Just like Madrick the other day.

Lin Li knew that Madrick was Darian’s nephew and that Darian would never let him off easily after having crippled Madrick. But, Lin Li did not hesitate at all even up to the end, and the Flaming Hands fell without stopping.

The reason why he did it was not so much to do justice for Sean, but rather to express an attitude—if he wanted to bite me, then he had to come to understand that he might be beaten to death!

To Lin Li, this was a warning, but also a strategy.

At the beginning, he did try to tolerate it. When he first arrived at Alanna Guild of Magic, Darian’s attitude was not particularly normal. At that time, Lin Li thought there had to be some misunderstanding. Then, he was reminded by Mason that Darian had deliberately not informed himself to report to the guild hall. Lin Li had marked it down in his heart, but he had always kept it in mind, and not spelled it out.

It wasn’t until the incident with Sean that Lin Li was finally infuriated.

Since tolerance couldn’t resolve the contradiction, he’d simply intensify it completely and put everything in the open.

It might seem dangerous to outrage an Archmage, but, in fact, it was much safer than letting him prey on himself in the dark.

The aim was to let everyone know that Darian was in conflict with him. In this way, if Darian wanted to aim his shots at Lin Li, he’d have to think twice whether he’d get caught doing so.

To let the enemy worry was the real preemptive strategy.

“But, don’t worry too much about it. Aldwin and I will deal with it.” Seeing Lin Li was silent, Macklin thought he was worried about something. After a few words of comfort, he asked Lin Li about his purpose today. “Forget it, let’s not talk about this. You’ve come to me today not just to see Darian, right?”

“Oh, yeah…” At his reminder, Lin Li recalled his main purpose. “Mr Macklin, can you do me a favor?”

“What favor?” Macklin suddenly became interested. For a long time, the kid had behaved like a freak; Macklin did not even feel that he needed help for a lifetime.

“It’s like this… I acquired a gemstone a few days ago. As far as I know, there should be a spell in this gemstone, but I went to the Spell Testing Hall just now and couldn’t find out what kind of spell it was, so… I was thinking… could you help me to test it?”

“The Dragon’s Eye?” With Macklin’s knowledge, how could he not know what it was? Before Lin Li had finished speaking, he had already guessed what this gemstone was.

“Yes, Dragon’s Eye.”

“No problem,” Macklin agreed coolly.

Although the Dragon’s Eye was precious, he had already seen many of it with his status.

To tell the truth, he did not think much of this magical gemstone which was said to have been transformed from a dragon’s eye. In his opinion, the power of this magical gemstone was too low—it could only contain stuff such as wind blade or icicle, which couldn’t even break through the Elemental Shield. What practical significance does it hold?

To test the power of the spell was as easy as eating and drinking for Macklin. Without even a second thought, he went straight into the Spell Testing Hall with Lin Li.

“Come.” Macklin erected an Elemental Shield with a wave of his staff.

“Oh…” Lin Li nodded, and fished out the Dragon’s Eye from his pocket.

“Damn!” The fist-sized Dragon’s Eye almost drove Macklin mad on the spot. The old man’s eyes immediately became glazed when he saw the glistening yellow light.

He’d never imagined that the Dragon’s Eye in the kid’s mouth was such a big fellow…

“F*ck…” Macklin wanted to bang the wall. With his knowledge of Dragon’s Eyes, how could he not know that the level of the spell contained in the Dragon’s Eye was proportional to its volume? What the kid had in his hand was the size of a fist. The spell contained in it… was it a Magic Shooter level or an Archmage level one?

“Why, Mr Macklin, is there some difficulty?”

“Nonsense! What difficulty, you just try it! ” With Macklin’s character, how could he admit that he was unconfident?

Nevertheless, though he refused to admit outwardly, he dared not treat it lightly in his heart. He waved his staff again, and a spurt of flames rose. Four burning fireballs whirled around Macklin, looking like four bright suns. This was the Flame Shield—a single-attribute shield which one could possess after having attained the realm of an Archmage. It was the same concept as the Skeletal Shield on the Lich.

Under the protection of two layers of shields, Macklin then retreated a step. He hardened his scalp, and murmured, “Okay, come on!”

“Then, I won’t stand on ceremony…” Lin Li tightened his grip on the Dragon’s Eye, and began his mana input in a slow yet steady manner. The orange light gradually became brighter under the impetus of the mana, and bit by bit, it started to display a gorgeous gold…

Everything seemed to be the same as before. The golden light became brighter and more resplendent. It was like laying a layer of golden foil in the room. When the brilliant light reached its peak, a violent magical wave broke out.

But, this time, the room was no longer dead silent.

… For Macklin had exclaimed all of a sudden. “F*ck!”

“What’s wrong?” Macklin’s voice was like a stuck pig, and it startled Lin Li right on the spot. He couldn’t care less about studying the change in the Dragon’s Eye, and hurriedly went over to support Macklin. “Mr Macklin, are you all right?”

“Al… alright.” Macklin shook his head, but his face was turning pale.

“Then…” Lin Li wanted to ask what the situation was about when he felt that there was something wrong with Macklin. With this doubt in mind, he studied Macklin carefully for a long time before he finally understood what the problem was.

The two shields that Macklin had just propped up had suddenly disappeared into thin air…