Chapter 7: The Journey (Part 1)
The time returned to June 5th.
On the morning of that day, after bidding farewell to his three good brothers, Linley shouldered a sturdy leather pack and set off on the road to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.
"Squeak squeak~~~" The little Shadowmouse happily hopped about on Linley's shoulder.
"Boss, we're finally heading to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts! Wow, I'm so excited!" The little Shadowmouse's voice rang out in Linley's mind. Linley just smiled faintly, while at this moment, Doehring Cowart, clad in a moon-white robe, also walked beside Linley.
Doehring Cowart advised, "Linley, you must be careful when you're alone. You might run into bandits."
"I know, Grandpa Doehring," Linley said with a laugh.
Regarding all the various precautions to take when alone out in the world, Grandpa Doehring had already explained them many times over. At this moment, Linley was wearing sturdy linen trousers and a sleeveless vest. With his bulging muscles, just from his appearance, he looked every bit a warrior.
According to Doehring Cowart, wearing a magus robe in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was too cumbersome; it was better to dress like this.
Linley moved very quickly. Even though the road from Ernst Institute to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was rather difficult to traverse, with his strength as a fourth-level warrior, he easily covered forty li in an hour. At this moment, Linley suddenly spotted three people ahead.
"Huh?" Linley's gaze suddenly landed on one of them.
Because that person was actually wearing the standard robe of Ernst Institute. Of the other two, one was extremely muscular, carrying a giant battle blade on his shoulder, while the other was lean and wiry, with a short blade at his waist. The lean young man warily turned his head to look at Linley.
Linley couldn't be bothered with these three and accelerated to pass by them from the side.
"Linley, is that you?" A voice suddenly rang out.
Linley turned his head in confusion and saw the young man wearing the standard Ernst Institute robe smiling and calling out, "Linley, I'm Deschari! Remember me?"
"Deschari, it's you." Linley stopped in his tracks.
Linley did know this Deschari.
Deschari was a fifth-year wind-element student like himself. Although the two weren't close friends, they were still classmates in the same class.
Deschari brought the other two warriors over and said warmly with a smile, "Linley, I never thought a magus like you would dress like this. I almost didn't recognize you. When I saw the little Shadowmouse on your shoulder, I looked more carefully and confirmed it was you."
"Kava, Matt, let me introduce you. This is one of the two super geniuses of our Ernst Institute, 'Linley.' He's only fifteen years old but already a fifth-level magus." Deschari introduced him enthusiastically.
Kava was the burly man built like a bear, and Matt was the lean warrior.
"One of the two super geniuses of Ernst Institute. I've heard Deschari talk about you before. I didn't expect to be lucky enough to meet you today," Matt said very politely. Kava blinked his cow-like eyes and said in surprise, "You're a magus? How come you look like a warrior to me?"
Linley didn't say much and asked, "Are you all heading to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts too?"
Deschari nodded. "Yes. Kava and Matt went out on a trial with me last year, and we worked together very well. This year, we plan to explore the edge of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Linley, why don't you come with us? It'll be safer traveling together."
Linley nodded.
"For now, I'll go with them. This Deschari is from the same institute as me, so he can be trusted. I'll separate from them once I reach the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts," Linley decided. After making up his mind, he set off toward the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts together with Deschari and the other two.
Along the way, the four of them moved very quickly.
Even Deschari, who had the poorest physical condition, could cast the auxiliary spell 'Haste.' The group advanced rapidly along the desolate road.
Kava's loud voice rang out: "Linley, if you join us, then we'll have two fifth-level maguses! With the four of us working together, we might even be able to kill a sixth-level magical beast! A sixth-level magical beast's magic crystal core is worth a thousand gold coins! Kill a few more, and we won't have to worry about living expenses for a hundred years!"
For an ordinary person, a few dozen gold coins a year was more than enough for living expenses.
A thousand gold coins was a huge fortune.
Linley's heart stirred, and he recalled the books about magical beasts he had read in the Ernst Institute library. The books also introduced the energy core of magical beasts—the magic crystal core.
"This magic crystal core only condenses in the heads of third-level magical beasts and above. But magic crystal cores below the sixth level aren't worth much. They probably aren't even as valuable as my stone sculptures," Linley mused to himself.
A sixth-level magic crystal core was generally only worth around 1,000 gold coins.
And according to Doehring Cowart's judgment, Linley's stone sculptures were definitely worthy of being displayed alongside the sculptures in the expert exhibition hall of the Proulx Gallery, naturally valued at over a thousand gold coins. Fighting a sixth-level magical beast was far more difficult and dangerous than creating a stone sculpture.
"When I get to the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, training myself is the real goal. Magic crystal cores? Just a bonus along the way," Linley thought to himself, while looking at the other three.
Deschari and the other two were talking enthusiastically, clearly very excited about the magic crystal cores.
"Magic crystal cores from third-level, fourth-level, and fifth-level magical beasts aren't worth much. Even sixth-level ones are only a thousand gold coins," Deschari said, shaking his head dismissively. "If we killed a seventh-level magical beast, that would really be hitting the jackpot." As he said this, Deschari's eyes gleamed.
Just like with humans, the leap from a sixth-level magus to a seventh-level magus was a huge jump. The same was true for magical beasts—the leap from sixth-level to seventh-level was a massive increase in strength.
A seventh-level magical beast's magic crystal core was worth tens of thousands of gold coins.
If they could hunt just one, they could really become a small-time rich man in the countryside and never worry about money again.
"A seventh-level magical beast? With the four of us, I think we'd just be throwing our lives away," Linley said casually.
Linley had seen a 'Velociraptor' among the seventh-level magical beasts. With the Velociraptor's astonishing defense, even Linley as he was now would probably find it hard to break through. If you couldn't even break through its defense, how could you possibly kill a seventh-level magical beast?
Matt, who seemed the sharpest of the three, nodded and said, "It's hard to say whether the four of us could even handle a sixth-level magical beast. Fighting a seventh-level one would definitely be suicide."
"I was just talking," Kava said, rubbing his head and pouting.
Just as the four of them were chatting and laughing, in the forest over a hundred meters away to their side and rear, a man dressed entirely in green, with green juice smeared all over his face, held a powerful compound longbow and stared coldly at Linley and his group.
This man's lips kept moving, as if he were silently chanting a magic incantation.
At the same time, he drew his longbow to a full moon shape. Suddenly, the arrow shot out at extreme speed. The arrowhead at the tip faintly shimmered with a green light. The entire arrow reached a terrifying speed, tearing through the air, cutting across the sky, and in the blink of an eye, it had crossed over a hundred meters.
At that moment, Linley, who was talking with Deschari and the others, suddenly felt all the hair on his body stand on end. His heart instantly leaped to his throat.
"Danger!"
Linley dodged to the side at extreme speed. "Pfft!" The lightning-fast arrow shot directly from behind through Deschari, who was wearing the Ernst Institute robe. The arrow pierced through the back of Deschari's neck, punching a hole straight through, then flew another few dozen meters forward before falling to the ground.
Deschari clutched his throat, his eyes wide open, making indistinct sounds from his mouth as blood continuously gushed from the hole in his neck.
"Ah... ah..." Deschari's eyes held a desperate longing for life, mixed with boundless terror. But as the blood poured from the hole in his throat, his eyes quickly dimmed completely, and his body collapsed weakly to the ground.
Linley, Kava, and Matt all quickly dropped flat into the dense grass, warily looking toward their side and rear.