123 Emerald Dream

Macklin had been observing the three men with the Warlock's Eyes ever since they stepped foot into the jungle. With his powers as a high-level Archmage, it was extremely easy to conceal himself from them. Hence, nothing had escaped the pair of old eyes. He was aware of every single detail of their encounter—including Lin Li's breakthrough.

The expression on his face became more serious than ever. He was very shocked by Lin Li's breakthrough. Despite the young age of twenty, this Magic Shooter had already reached level-13. To describe the man as 'powerful' would be an understatement. If the news of his breakthrough were to be known by the Supreme Council, it would surely create a commotion.

"F*ck Gerrian, that old bastard…" cursed Macklin under his breath. He could not understand why a hot-tempered man like Gerian had the good fortune of having such a gem like Lin Li.

The old man got more and more vexed as he pondered this matter.

"I can't let this be. I need to think of a way to bring him to Alanna. To stay in Jarrosus would be such a waste of his potential! But… what should I say to Jarrosus? Oh, yes… maybe I could exchange Lin Li with 10 of my Magic Shooters! Yes, yes… I shall let Aldwin discuss this with Jarrosus after I get back!

"Eh?" While Macklin was still muttering to himself, he suddenly sensed the presence of a peculiar magical wave. Then, his facial expression changed. "Damn! Why is that fella here?"

At once, he swooped up into the air hurriedly despite his old age.

…

Lin Li felt so powerful after his skills upgraded. It was as though he could cast a huge amount of magical elements with just a raise of an arm! Even at this moment, when he was walking in the creepy and gloomy jungle, every step he took felt lighter than before.

With the help of the markings left behind by his teammates, Lin Li found them easily. For those two men, navigating the jungle had been an arduous journey.

"Goddammit, Macklin is such an old bastard…" Mason cursed his mentor profusely as they ventured through a jungle full of thistles and thorns.

Mason was beyond frustrated. The abstract markings on the crazy map were totally incomprehensible! Those curvy lines drawn by Macklin were just like earthworms tangled together! How were they going to locate any treasure with this mess?

What was the purpose of this map—if there was even any??

Facing the ranting Mason, Orrin just shook his head helplessly. He did not even bother to scold him for his foolishness anymore. Orrin was also exasperated with that map. Even he started to doubt the credibility of the old man.

What if… this was a conspiracy to lead them into a trap?!

"Felic!"

Just when Mason was at the peak of his irritation, he saw Lin Li coming from behind. At once, his face glowed with surprise and happiness—just like that of a drowning person who found a life-saving straw. In these two days, Lin Li had indeed surprised him a lot of times. This teammate of his had already become an invincible man to him, and he thought that nothing would be unconquerable by Lin Li—including that insane map.

"Are you better now?" Orrin asked with a hint of suspicion.

Watching how the freak walked towards them from a distance, Orrin felt there was something different about him. Yet, he could not make out what exactly had changed. If he really needed to give an answer, he could only say that Lin Li had become more powerful than before.

"Yes."

Lin Li smiled as he walked towards them. Mason came over, and passed the map to him frantically, looking as though he was giving him a bomb that could explode anytime soon. Mason told him, "I don't understand this crazy map…"

"Same here," replied the grinning Lin Li as he put the map into his pocket casually. "If I'm not wrong, I think the old man did not intend to let us understand it from the start."

"I knew it! He was plotting against us…" Mason said in fury.

Lin Li shook his head, and replied, "It was no conspiracy. He just wanted to create some challenges for us to gain more combat experience."

"What should we do, then? Should we just kill everything that comes our way…"

"We could do that too…" Lin Li's eyes lit up at this absolutely tempting idea. The breakthrough just then had allowed him to gain new insights and confidence about battling between life and death. However, Lin Li had to put away his excitement reluctantly at the thought of how weak Mason was. How would Mason be able to endure such extreme conditions? He continued, "But we'll do that next time… Let's just complete the mission for today.

"Help me catch an animal," said Lin Li as he reached for a glass bottle from his pocket. It was sky-blue in color.

"Alright!" Mason's eyes lit up after hearing this order. He left at once in excitement before Lin Li could give him any more instructions. After all, he was still a level-nine Mage! Although his skills were far behind his two teammates', the simple task of catching small animals would not be hard for him. In a few minutes, he came back with a wild rabbit in his hand, and a face beaming with pride.

Lin Li took the rabbit from Mason. One of his hand pinched the mouth of the rabbit, while the other opened the cap of the glass bottle. Then, he poured two drops of liquid into the mouth of the rabbit.

"Felic, what's that?" Mason asked curiously as he looked at the mysterious potion.

"Emerald Dream," Lin Li replied Mason patiently as he estimated the dosage, "It is a potion that could turn mages into Druids. I will drink some myself too; then, I would be able to converse with the rabbit."

"That's so interesting! Could I try it?" Mason asked in fascination.

"Of course." Lin Li passed the bottle of Emerald Dream to Mason without any hesitation. After that, he reminded Mason, "It has a very strong effect, so only a few drops will do—"

Mason had lived for more than 20 years, yet he had never drunk such a high-grade potion. Excitement took his rationality away as he emptied the bottle even before Lin Li finished his sentence. It was too late.

"W-what would happen now?"

"Nothing much, the effects will just last longer."

"Phew…" Mason heaved a sigh in relief as he waited eagerly for the potion to take effect.

Seeing how enthusiastic Mason was, the two teammates went ahead to find a place to sit down as they waited for him.

After around 10 minutes, Mason was seen coming out from the bushes and walking towards them.

"So, what information did you gather?"

"There's too much," said Mason with an exaggerated look,"but the rabbit had told me everything. It said that it was true that an old man with goat-like beard hid something in this place. Look, the Emerald Dream is such a powerful potion—the rabbit even revealed the hiding place to me, not that far from here! I can bring you there now. Hahahaha! Macklin would never expect that we'll find the treasure through such a method!"

"…"

It was the first time that Mason talked to animals. That made him even chattier than usual. "That little rabbit was so interesting; it even told me that it lived at the northern side of the jungle, and it has at least 10 siblings at home, and—"

"Hold on…" Just as the exhilarated Mason was telling them about his encounter animatedly, Lin Li sensed a strange magical wave lurking by.

"Someone's here." Orrin nodded.

"Who?" Mason asked them in a daze as he looked around.

Orrin glanced at him in irritation. Just when he wanted to speak, faint footsteps could be heard.

The three men looked toward the source of the sound instinctively. There were a few men dressed in long robes walking towards them. Among them, two were familiar faces, whom they had met the day before.

"It's them…" said Lin Li as he got distracted for a moment. He still remembered that those two fellas were the ones with Matthias then, and were also the scumbags who injured Orrin.

However, Lin Li could not recognize the middle-aged man who was with them. He was a gentleman around 40 years old; his sharp and dignified features, as well as his well-built figure, were completely different from that of Macklin. Donned in the same black robe as Macklin, Lin Li knew that he was a mentor from Alanna.

"Mentor Aeron, it's the three of them!" The two men stirred uneasily as they saw Lin Li from afar as though he was a ghost.

"Oh?" the middle-aged man replied in a husky voice, but when his stern gaze fell on Lin Li's gang, even Lin Li felt a chill down his spine.

"Hey, look… that guy seems familiar…" Mason whispered as he hid behind Lin Li.

"You are right…" agreed Lin Li. Just like Mason, Lin Li felt that he had seen the man somewhere before.

…