482 Steal them

"Young Master Hutton, we cannot hold on for long, let's retreat so that we can at least preserve some strength." Yeric came before Hutton, embarrassed as his eyes glanced towards Lin Li, who seemed to be busy with something for no reason, and felt his anger rise. "Hey you, everyone is fighting with their lives out there. If I had to die for the Malfa Family, I would accept it, but what are we doing this for?"

Hutton was conflicted as well. Who knew this would be such a difficult task? Weren't they the remnant of the Syer bandits? Why were there Alchemy Colossuses and 10 Archmages? His only hope was in President Felic, but there he was, toying with something randomly.

Actually, so what if he did something? Right, he was a Legendary-mage, but he had only been one for a few days. Those Alchemy Colossuses were all nearly equal to a Legendary magical beast; even if his teacher Cheyenne were here, he might have to order a retreat as well. If they were to go hard against them, then there would be a hefty price to pay—they were sure to suffer huge losses.

"Wait a while longer, have them all hold on for a bit more," Hutton told Yeric. If they were to retreat now, then his potions deal with President Felic made the day before would be moot.

"Hey you, this might be rude, but you call yourself the President of the Breezy Plains Guild of Magic?" Yeric said a little louder on purpose so that he would be heard over the sounds of explosions even far away. He wanted those from the Tower of Dusk to know that while they were fighting with their lives, their President was hiding in the back, doing God knew what.

"Yeric, that's enough! President Felic has his reasons!" Hutton scolded with a frown before he looked over at the busy President Felic, not knowing how to describe the way he felt. Ever since he had helped his father manage the family's affairs, he had never been at a loss as much as today.

Logically speaking, it was evident that they were on the losing end, and there was no way out besides to retreat. Yet, there was a tiny voice inside his head, telling him to persist and that a miracle would happen.

Could the young President who created many miracles continue doing so today? if there was going to be a miracle, what would it be? How could they survive this?

No matter how they thought about it, four Alchemy Colossuses seemed like too difficult a task. Unless that young President suddenly broke into the Sanctuary-realm or if someone from Sanctuary-realm came forth to help them…

Hutton was on the verge of tearing out his hair; this was too torturous!

Yeric saw Hutton hesitate; hence, he disregarded the previous scoldings, and continued yelling, "Humph, the Supreme Council must be crazy to let such a nobody become the President of Guild, yet there are so many people willing to risk their lives for him."

To his dismay, the mages from the Tower of Dusk were not affected by it, and only his companions from the Malfa Family were distracted and injured as a result of it.

"Ridiculous, our people are sacrificing themselves for you, so what are you doing right now?!" Hearing the cries of his companions, Yeric's anger rose, and he turned towards the young President, wanting to give him a piece of his mind even though he might be scolded by Hutton.

"Yeric, what are you doing?" Hutton was shocked, and quickly pulled Yeric aside forcefully. Lin Li was a Legendary-mage, so even if he might not be able to deal with the four Alchemy Colossuses, he was more than enough to deal with Yeric.

"Young Master Hutton, don't stop me. How can this cowardly fellow be a President? I must show everyone what he truly is!" Yeric shouted in anger.

"Alright, why don't you go and help your companions instead of worrying about things like that??" Hutton said angrily. Even though he was upset with Lin Li, he dared not trifle with the Legendary-mage.

Hutton had intentionally allowed Yeric to say more so as to make Lin Li do something; even if the latter was upset, Hutton could just say that his subordinate was not thinking straight.

But the worst thing was that even after all Yeric had said, this President did not seem to care, just as though he had not heard anything. He continued to gather ingredients as though he was preparing for an experiment, but his men and allies were out there, risking their lives; was it really time to experiment now?

Truth to be told, Lin Li had no time to care about what anyone said or Yeric's outburst, so he paid no attention to any of that. Everything around him, from the battle in the sky and on the ground to the explosions and the cries of the injured, had been blocked out by him. All his focus was on the magical ingredients in front of him.

Lin Li had not thought that the Syer bandits would have the Alchemy Colossuses, something comparable to a Legendary magical beast in terms of combat power. With four Alchemy Colossuses, even he would not be able to deal with them quickly, and to top it off, there were also 10 level-18 Archmages.

He could have summoned his Undead servants, Humerus Wyrm, Ujfalusi, Norfeller, and the 18 Death Knights, and the battle could be easily won, but then he would have to suffer a big loss, and his Death Knights would definitely decrease in number again.

He could not bear to! While he might seem generous, always giving out potions and magical equipment to others and providing his men with high-quality equipment, these were all investments to him—high return investments, in fact. He was never one to get involved in a business that would bring him losses. Take those Death Knights for example. He deeply regretted it after some of them had died in the Scar of Death—they were all potential Retribution Knights! While these Death Knights were not that significant as they were currently, with the most powerful one only at level-18 and some of them were even level-15, they could all be groomed into Retribution Knights…

Lin Li used to think that it was impossible to groom all 18 Death Knights into Retribution Knights, but now that he had an opportunity to get the arm of the Immortal King, it did seem like he had a chance.

Of course, he would do so if he was left with no other choice, but now he had a better alternative to going head-on with the enemy.

Disintegrating Array, an Alchemy Array used by many alchemists. Its main purpose was to disintegrate an Alchemy Array, such as the one modifying an Alchemy Colossus. Many precious ingredients were needed to make an Alchemy Colossus, and were not readily available most of the time. Hence, they'd be replaced with normal ingredients first, and those replaced with others once available. Often, many modifications were needed to craft an Alchemy Colossus, especially when it was built by an individual Alchemist.

Many Alchemists only used normal ingredients to craft the Alchemy Colossus at first, and only replaced the parts bit by bit when they obtained more appropriate ingredients.

The replacement was also unlike a simple replacement of parts, as the material could be different and have different tolerance. Hence, in order to maximize the effect of each ingredient, the Alchemy Array also had to be continually modified, or else the replacement of ingredients would have no effect.

As the Alchemy Arrays on the Alchemy Colossus were not separate but closely connected to each other, modifying one of them often required the modification of a dozen others as well. It was like replacing a gear in a machine—it had to fit right in with the rest, and then… a chain reaction was inevitable.

Sometimes, one was better off starting all over again rather than modifying an Alchemy Array. If only normal ingredients were used, then it would be easy to start over when making an individual part. Nearer the end, however, there would be more precious ingredients that would require modifications, and the losses from a mistake would become bigger—more than an average person could afford. Hence, an Alchemy Master created the Disintegrating Array, which would allow them to wipe away part of the Alchemy Array without harming the ingredients.

Science was a double-edged sword, however, and it was also the case in Anril. The Disintegrating Array was merely an auxiliary array that would make the job of an Anril easier. However, someone thought of using it in war, and made winning far too easy.

In order to protect themselves against such unscrupulous tactics, Alchemist started looking for ways to prevent their Alchemy Array from disintegrating, while those who studied the Disintegrating Array studied new ways to modify the Disintegrating Array. This conflict continued until today, and now the Disintegrating Array was not a foolproof method, but depended on who was using it and on what.

The four Alchemy Colossuses were all near the Legendary level, but they were not quite there yet, which meant that the Alchemist who made them was merely an Alchemist Master. Since an Archmage and a Legendary-mage were worlds apart, so was an Alchemist Master and an Alchemist Guru.

A Disintegrating Array created by an Alchemist Guru like Lin Li was more than enough to deal with the creations of an Alchemist Master. After all, the creations of an Alchemist Master were too amateurish in the eyes of an Alchemist Guru.

Lin Li squatted unceremoniously on the ground, a huge double-edged sword in front of him serving as a tabletop. He placed each ingredient carefully on the wide surface of the sword and started working once the ingredients were all laid out, his hands moving so quickly they blurred.

Firstly, he mixed the ingredients—blood of a high-ranking magical beast, juice of a rare magical plant, and the powder of a crushed high-ranking magical crystal, all measured precisely before they were mixed. If other Alchemists saw this, they would scold Lin Li for wasting precious ingredients—fancy using these only to make a Disintegrating Array, something that was no longer as powerful in the eyes of other Alchemists.

While Lin Li might not be able to create the most perfect Disintegrating Array in a hurry, he would be able to get rid of the problem before him now with these precious ingredients. This was no waste to Lin Li as long as the ingredients did what they were supposed to. Moreover, this was nothing to him; he had yet to count the riches accumulated over the years in the Throne of Darkness.

After setting aside the mixture, Lin Li took the standard equipment of the Tower of Dusk, a Sunset magic staff. In his opinion, this was the most suitable equipment to modify, and he intended to turn it into a Disintegrating Array equipment as the Sunset magic staff should be able to cope with the changes in array[1].

Lin Li then took out a crystal pen and filled it with the mixture before using it as a fountain pen and writing on the Sunset magic staff. A sizzling sound could be heard when mixture touched the magic staff, leaving slightly translucent silver markings on the magic staff.

"Young Master Hutton, we cannot fight anymore, let's retreat!" Yeric had come back to Hutton again, but this time not of his own accord—he had been forced back by the enemy. He was not alone; the mages from the Tower of Dusk and the Malfa Family were all forced to retreat into a tiny space.

Hutton did not waste any time and waved the magic staff in his hand, sending a spell at the enemy. He was a level-19 Archmage, after all, and him joining alleviated the burden on the others. But still, it did not change the situation at all.

"President Felic, please do something, or else we're all going to die." Seeing his men fall one by one, Hutton could not help but panic—they were all the elites he had.

"Young Master, let's retreat, we've already done our part. What else could he do even if he joined the fight?" Yeric glared at the busy Lin Li before a thought surfaced in his head, and he quickly whispered in Hutton's ear. "Young Master, this is a chance for you."

Hutton frowned before he lowered his voice, confused, and asked, "What chance?"

"Young Master, this Felic is not acting like a President at all. He does not care about his men at all, and they may already be upset with him. Why not take this chance to help them? As long as half of them remember our help, then the Malfa Family can…" While Yeric did not fancy Lin Li, he could still tell that the mages of the Tower of Dusk were useful, and thus he plotted to steal them from Lin Li.

[1] In other words, he's going to enchant a staff with an array, sort of.