Chapter Twenty-Five: Death of a Fire Mage
Moonlight Potion?
Li Wen frowned. She had heard of this thing. Even as a Potion, Moonlight Potion was considered extremely rare. It was impossible to obtain in the black market, and most importantly, it was a drug officially banned from circulation by Arthur.
The reason for the ban was also ridiculous. It wasn’t because of its addictiveness or powerful side effects, but because Moonlight Potion was a Potion from the Dark Lineage, and its production process was only known to those of the Chong Yue faction.
“It seems you know about it too…” the Fire Mage continued. “Yes, it’s a very powerful and fascinating Potion. Therefore, when I used mind reading to learn about the existence of the Potion from the minds of those mercenaries… Heh, those mercenaries didn’t understand the value of that small bottle of dark green potion, so I kept the Potion safe for them.”
This sounded much more reasonable: slaughtering an entire merchant caravan escorting Potions for the sake of a rare Potion.
“But why are you, a Mage from the Forbidden Institute, appearing in the Black Dragon Territory?”
Li Wen asked again.
“…That has nothing to do with you,” the Fire Mage said after a moment of silence.
“But it has a lot to do with you.”
A guy with pointed ears, and a Mage from the Forbidden Institute, appearing in the outermost region of the Kingdom, it was hard to say he was there for sightseeing. According to Li Wen’s understanding, these long-lived Mages were either researching magic, delving into Alchemy, or studying more obscure subjects.
Their long lifespans meant they didn’t have many ways to enjoy themselves, so dry and tedious academic research was their only option.
“It’s hard to explain… In short, I am a variant elf.”
Li Wen’s expression changed.
Variant elves were naturally different from pure-blooded elves. Ethically speaking, all elves were born from the World Tree. However, variant elves were somewhat different. They were the offspring of some elves… to be precise, Silver Elves coupled with other beings.
Therefore, most variant elves had impure bloodlines, and it was easy for some descendants to possess unusual talents. Variant elves were generally difficult to distinguish by appearance, depending on the other half of their Silver Elf ancestor. However, due to the Silver Elves’ exceptional openness in sexual matters, it often resulted in some variant elves not having such satisfactory appearances…
One thing was a consensus among all elves: variant elves were never to be compared with them. At least in Arthur, ruled by High Elves, the living conditions of variant elves were not ideal.
Discrimination was not always reflected in actions and words, especially in places with a strong academic atmosphere like the Sun Cultivation Institute. Even variant elves were eligible to join the Forbidden Institute to study magic, under the guise of equal treatment.
“But they would never allow variant elves to surpass them in the field of magical academics. It’s not that they think variant elves are unworthy… Of course, you could say that. They wouldn’t believe that this was an achievement by a variant elf. They would only think that I was cheating or using some unsavory sorcery… Hah, how would those pointed ears who only know how to read books understand that for someone with Fire Affinity like me, the mixed casting of basic elemental magic is as easy as pie!”
Fire Affinity? No wonder the opponent’s fire magic cast so quickly. Could one of his ancestors be some kind of elemental being?
“So you fled here?”
“No, that was just the beginning. Later, they slandered me with stealing their secret treasure and even intended to use mind invasion technique on me. I accidentally entered a teleportation magic circle while fleeing, and that’s how I ended up here… Before meeting those mercenaries, I didn’t even know this was the Black Dragon Territory. Glor, this is too far from the royal capital…”
Logically speaking, this made sense. The teleportation magic circles of the Forbidden Institute did indeed have the ability to traverse more than half of the kingdom.
However, one thing was strange: mind invasion technique was a magic that had long been banned from dissemination and use by the Magic Committee. Compared to similar mind reading techniques, mind invasion technique was more efficient, but also more brutal and inhumane, and it was very easy to cause irreversible damage to the brain.
However, there were not a few higher-level magics that could achieve the same or even better results than mind invasion technique. Even if they had certain level requirements, the Forbidden Institute was not short of high-level mages.
In other words, he was lying, or at least, there was some concealment in his statement.
If the Fire Mage had truly stolen some secret treasure from the Forbidden Institute, how did he escape the pursuit of the mages from the Forbidden Institute?
Li Wen pondered the rumors about the secret treasures of the Forbidden Institute in her previous life, but none of them matched. She had little knowledge of the early game plot like this, unless the Strategy Team had specifically recorded it.
Forget it, what did it have to do with her?
Li Wen directly took out the Bone-Eating Poison Sword, seeming to prepare to take the Fire Mage’s life.
The Fire Mage was terrified. He didn’t understand why Li Wen still wouldn’t let him go after he had said so much.
“No! You can’t kill me! I still have value to be utilized! I can tell you a lot… No! I’m sorry, I lied. I did steal something from the Forbidden Institute… But it should have belonged to me! I can give you that thing, as long as you spare my life.”
“Shouldn’t you have said that earlier?”
Li Wen shook her head. To be honest, she found it difficult to trust this man who was full of lies. It would be safer to just turn him into experience.
However, before she could do anything, the Fire Mage’s eyes widened, his face filled with fear and panic.
“No! Don’t kill me! Don’t!”
The Fire Mage shouted hysterically while reaching for his chest. Li Wen, fearing he might go berserk and use some mutually destructive method, quickly retreated a few steps.
But she waited for a while and saw no movement. When she walked closer, she found that the Fire Mage was already dead.
He remained in the posture he had in life, his eyes widened as if they were about to fall out, and his expression was filled with nothing but fear.
Li Wen knew that he couldn’t have died from a curse. The duration of the Dark Word Curse depended on the caster’s level. With her current ability, she could at most sustain the curse for about twenty seconds, and such a short period had long passed.
But why then? Could it be poison from the Takebitori Crossbow? But that poison was something Li Wen had paid for, and she knew its effects and onset time clearly. Unless the underground merchant sold her fake medicine.
It was truly difficult to understand. Li Wen noticed that she had gained 200 experience points, which clearly came from the dead Fire Mage.
According to the experience distribution mechanism of “World Tree: Origin,” at least the death of the Fire Mage was somehow related to her, but it was unclear whether it was due to the Dark Word Curse or some other reason.
It was a pity that Takebitori was not here. She was the only player who dealt effective damage among those few players, and she should have received some experience, but Amber City was too far from the ground, so she probably wouldn’t get any experience.
