Chapter 155 - The Highlord (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Haha, I’ll go up to the tenth floor first.” After waiting for the middle-aged mage to finish listing the dozen prohibitions at last, Mason was already eagerly holding his pa.s.s and heading straight up the spiral staircase. Before he left, he said wretchedly, “I wonder what treasures are hidden on the tenth floor…”

“See you at nine.” Walking into the largest magic treasure house in the Felan Kingdom, there were perhaps few mages that would not be moved. Orrin left a few words hastily, and disappeared in a twinkling of an eye.

“Okay, see you at nine.” After separating from his two teammates by the steps, Lin Li did not rush to the upper floors, but went straight through the corridor to the hall on the first floor of the Omniscient Tower.

Coming in from the main entrance of the hall, Lin Li saw a row of huge bookshelves that were filled with all kinds of books. A large desk was placed in the middle of these bookshelves. Some young mages were sitting by the desk in twos or threes, each concentrating between a thick stack of books. Judging from the magical wave emanating from them, most of them were above level-six or seven, but they were only in their twenties, and several of them were even younger than Lin Li. He reckoned that these were all young talents specially trained by the Alanna Guild of Magic.

Lin Li walked gently into the hall. After circling around in the middle of a row of bookshelves, he quickly found what he wanted.

It was a thread-bound book with a black cover. What was recorded in it was not a magic spell, but a biography written by a bard based on hearsay after the Dark Ages; it included the life of Highlord Osric.

In the hall on the first floor of the Omniscient Tower, besides a variety of low-level spells, the most common books were probably these anecdotes. It was just that this light read was obviously less popular than low-level magic spells. Just like the one in Lin Li’s hands—when it was picked up and shaken lightly, the thick dust on the cover was shaken off. It was probably some years since anyone had last picked it up to read.

Lin Li did not care. He shook the dust off the cover, and casually took a seat at the desk. He was even reading the biography with great interest.

Anyway, he had never thought about looking for any spells coming to the Omniscient Tower today.

It was almost evening when they had returned from the Shadowglen, and he was still asked by the two old fellows to forge a weapon. He had also spent a lot of time on the bolts when he returned to the dormitory. By the time they reached the Omniscient Tower after pa.s.sing through the various checkpoints, it was already time for the largest magic treasure house in Felan to close. It was too late to memorize even if they had found some powerful spells at this time. He’d rather find some light reading on the first floor to pa.s.s time and learn more about Highlord Osric while at that.

Speaking of the Highlord, Lin Li was very intrigued indeed.

Since arriving in Alanna, Lin Li felt as if he was always involved with the Highlord. Osric’s name was clearly written on the two rags written in High Elves’ language. The Torrent of Elements Ring on his hand was also said to have been the ring worn by the Highlord during his lifetime. Even these days, Lin Li was treated with courtesy at the Alanna Guild of Magic because he could help them win the key to Osric’s mausoleum.

He had nothing to do, anyway. It’d be good to know more about it.

Lin Li read the biography with great interest with such an idea in mind.

“Savage…” Osric’s biography was full of legendary quality, and with the bard’s exaggerated writing, Lin Li was utterly stunned as he read.

Speaking of Highlord Osric, one had to mention the conflicting clan of the High Elves.

After the remote years of floods and wilderness, after the t.i.tans and Dragons disappeared in the long history, the High Elves took advantage of this opportunity to rise, and began to rule Anril with blood and magic for thousands of years.

Compared with other clans, the High Elves could be described as perfect—no one could match their superiority in magic. Every adult High Elf possessed at least the strength of an Archmage. With this unique advantage, the High Elves had almost advanced to the edge of magic civilization. They had created one miracle after another with magic. Even 1,200 years later, no clan had the guts to say that its magical achievements were anywhere near that unprecedented glorious civilization.

In the mouth of most bards, the magic civilization created by the High Elves was described as “a miracle beyond the G.o.ds”…

They loved and wors.h.i.+pped all things that were perfect, and their achievements in the field of art were equally amazing. Unfortunately, most of these achievements were destroyed by wars after the Dark Ages. Today, people could barely recover a trace of perfection from the ruins of High Elves.

At the same time, they were a clan full of contradictions.

When dealing with other clans, the brutality of the High Elves had reached an appalling level. In their eyes, other clans were just inferior creatures, whose only purpose was to serve as slaves. When dealing with other clans, the High Elves did not even consider hypocritical appeas.e.m.e.nt, but only the most direct and brutal enslavement.

The Orcs had tried to resist, but what awaited them was the repression of blood and fire. Six months later, millions of Orcs from 18 clans died under the butcher knives of the Magic Legion. Nearly every village was covered with the hanging corpses of the Orcs. Millions of Orcs had groaned and wailed under the butcher knives, and blood stained large areas of land red.

Highlord Osric was undoubtedly a typical example of a High Elf.

Even in that glorious age of magic civilization, Osric’s strength was absolutely the highest. He had even fought with the G.o.d of Mages, Geresco.

According to the bard’s description, in the war at the end of the Dark Ages, the rebels sent their strongest fighters—seven strongmen of the Legendary-level—to a.s.sa.s.sinate Osric. They successfully infiltrated the palace of the Highlord, coming face-to-face with the real ruler of the Felan Kingdom, Highlord Osric. Eventually, none of them escaped, and the seven legendary strongmen remained in the Highlord’s palace forever.

Osric merely said a few words about it.

“Kill those loathsome bugs!”

Then, there was the infamous ma.s.sacre—the most well-known event in Osric’s life. 100,000 rebels were hanged overnight. This horrible ma.s.sacre also earned him the nickname, The Butcher.

But, few people knew that in addition to this ma.s.sacre, Osric had actually done a lot of things in his life…

The legendary life of Osric almost perfectly ill.u.s.trated the conflicting nature of the High Elves. Behind the cruel nickname of The Butcher, he was also a wise scholar with profound knowledge, a powerful mage, a versatile craftsman, and a famous artist. Osric, shrouded by numerous halos, could only be described as amazing.

At the end of the Dark Age, the High Elves laid the foundation of pharmaceutical theory and developed the complete framework of pharmaceutics on the basis of this theory. Highlord Osric was a real Potion Master. In the description of the bard, Osric’s pharmaceutics level was exaggerated to an incredible degree.

All sorts of magical potions had rendered Lin Li dumbfounded. In particular, the biography mentioned several rare formulas Osric had discovered in his later years; even Lin Li, a pharmaceutics guru, had only heard about them.

In his later years, Osric became interested in forging.

So, he led the Magic Legion and conquered the Dark Iron Dwarves.

Countless Dark Iron Dwarf craftsmen were sent to Osric’s palace to demonstrate forging techniques for him day and night. It took less than a year for the Highlord to make amazing progress in the field of forging. Four of the seven most notable pieces of magical equipment in the Felan Kingdom today came from Highlord Osric.

Osric’s life was full of legendary quality; especially after 1,200 years, looking back on his life, it really felt like reading a novel, but the satisfying kind of novel where the main character was invincible.

Lin Li felt satisfied reading it.

However, after the satisfaction, he looked back, and suddenly realized that there was not even a trace of the thing that he wanted to find…

That day in the Shadowglen, the Lich’s mention of the “butcher’s ring” almost caused Lin Li to encounter the bite of mana. At that time, he had vaguely guessed that the Torrent of Elements Ring on his hand was most likely related to the High Elves’ Highlord.

The reason why he stayed in the hall on the first floor was not only to find some light read to pa.s.s time, but also to see if he could find some clues about the Torrent of Elements from Osric’s life story.

Unfortunately, nothing was found…

Lin Li shook his head and closed the thread-bound book again. He was about to stand up and put it back on the shelf when, suddenly, he heard light footsteps behind him.

“How did you come here…” Lin Li looked back and found that it was his two teammates.

“We’ve copied a couple of spells and came to call you back together. I say, Felic, what on earth were you reading to be so fascinated?” Mason pulled a chair furiously and sat down on Lin Li’s right. The sound of a fuss prompted several young mages who were reading to glare at him.