Chapter 169 (1/2)

Eliard had been staying in his rooe Tower He didn't eat or drink He just sat there staring at Elena's body in a daze No one knehat he was thinking about

On the second day, Herrera searched Elena's body and found three scrolls containing the detailed e Towers

Eliard looked on nuhout the entire process He didn't stop Herrera from her search, but neither did he speak to her or make any movements at all He just sat there motionless like an inanimate sculpture

No one disturbed him after the discovery of the scrolls, because they had caused an uproar throughout the entire academy

Even proe Towers could be bought with gold coins, and it turned out that they had sold the secrets of three Mage Towers! The whole acade revelation

The dean, Anthony was understandably furious when he got wind of this news He was now afraid for the safety of the academy, which hy he presided over the operation to cleanse the acadeicians once and for all The Magicians who had sold the acadeic powers, their e Toiped out of their minds and they were cast out of the academy

All the merchants involved in the plot suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth This wasn't the acadeh, but was the work of the MI3 The East Cove Magic Acadedo terrible happened there, ru himself had taken special interest in this matter

After the purge, Anthony and the other aps in the security system of the academy and planned confidentiallike this could never happen again

Link held no important position in the academy, so he had little to do with all these follow-up enerous rewards froe Tower anytime he wished Plus, he was allowed to use the Level-6 Elee Tower up to six hours per week and the permission to freely browse any books he liked in the dean's library

It was just what he needed right now

Although the traitors in the academy had all been rooted out and it seemed that the dark forces had been thwarted, Link still felt an indescribable uneasiness in his et everything else and focus on learninghis level

With this obsessive deterress in a short tian to learn a Level-6 spell, he realized that he had far underestiician

Link nohat a nonsense fantasy it was to try to reach Level-8 in three months It would be a h to kno to use it in a real battle in that time

This discovery caused Link to become quite exasperated

Still, Link's true strength was in his unrelenting attitude towards so that he'd set out to do No matter what kind of difficulties he faced, even if they seeh he ht feel frustrated He would just quickly adapt to the current situation then find the best solution in order to move on

Thus, although he didn't know if he could achieve his goal, he never stopped working hard to try to advance his level to the highest point that he could muster

Link slept for six hours a day and didn't drink or eat but depended on ic spells to maintain his body's health He would cast the spell, Ele and once before he went to sleep at night, and that was enough to let hih the day

That was how his days went by for the past week It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Link had coic spells and had coiven up the joy of life

Late one night after the tiring week, Link alking back to Herrera's Mage Tower in utter exhaustion froe Tower's entrance, he saw Eliard standing there waiting for him

Within a week, the originally well-built Eliard had become emaciated and his dark blue eyes were now deep-set and dull Even his skin had gotten grayish He looked nothing like his former self

”Eliard, why are you so…?” Link was at a loss for how to face this friend of his Even with all things considered, Link was still the one to cause Elena's death There was no way for him to avoid this fact Admittedly part of the reason why Link had been obsessively learningEliard

A faint smile appeared on Eliard's face He looked at the tired face and bloodshot eyes of his friend's and shook his head gently

”You don't have to bla I don't blame you for it at all”

It had been a week now and Eliard had given it ht He had resented Link for a time, but it only lasted for a few hours He understood well that Link had done what he should do to protect the safety of the academy The one at fault wasn't Link, it was Elena Still, Eliard couldn't bring himself to blame Elena either She's dead noay

In the end, the only thing Eliard hated was his fate He couldn't understand why fate had to torture hiht him to a woman he loved, yet it also snatched her away so quickly Nothing could be crueler than that!

Meanwhile, Link felt no sense of relief at all after hearing what Eliard just said He grew even

”I…”

”I've decided to give up on ic,” said Eliard suddenly

”What did you say?!” Link's eyes opened wide in shock at Eliard's words This was the Magician whose level of genius was one that the world hadn't seen in five hundred years! In the gaendary Pinnacle level and was about to fight against Nozaun to prepare hie while he was only 36 years old!

But now this would-be earth-shattering genius was talking about giving up ic, all because of a woman? This is preposterous!

For what felt like hours, Link just stood there du what to do or how to respond

Eliard then took out a pouch froician's Hand to hand it over to Link

”Here are the 1300 gold coins that I owe you,” said Eliard ”I' it all back to you now Thank you for your selfless help in the past, I…I'm very sorry!”

”…” Link stared at the coin pouch floating in front of hian to stir up in him

What was Eliard thinking? He's giving upoff his debts to Link because he wanted to completely sever the friendshi+p between them? All because of a woman from a dark cult? So now that Eliard was heartbroken he was just going to abandon ic just like that?

Anger started to rise up in Link as well He flung the pouch violently to the ground then rushed up towards Eliard and grabbed his collar

”You're a coward, do you know that?” Link shouted in Eliard's face ”You're acoward!”

Eliard shoved Link away and his face turned stone cold

”This isto do with you!” said Eliard ”If I didn't learn ic, Elena wouldn't have died! Magic killed her!”

Those words were the last straw for Link He was now desperately learning and practicing ainst the Level-8 demon, and he was ready to sacrifice all the joys in his life to achieve that Still, there was a thread of hope in hih all the hardshi+ps he faced so far, and that hope had sprung froht He knew that apart froician whose talents could one day save the world froenius grew up and had developed his skills to its full potential, he would be a powerful ally ould fight against the Dark Army with him side-by-side

And now that daic?