Chapter 327 - Each With His Own Axe To Grind

Chapter 327: Each With His Own Axe To Grind
Translator: 
Atlas Studios 
 Editor: 
Atlas Studios


Black Eyes?
Lin Jie sized up at the masked Mages in black. He could not tell the quality of their equipment due to the hidden stats of their capes. However, it was not hard to guess from their postures that they were a bullying and arrogant team. If they had eight legs, they would be walking like a crab.
Although the leader’s words were polite, his tone was extremely unfriendly, implying that if they did not leave, his team would start the battle straight away. Obviously, he wanted to force all of them to leave.
Upon seeing that Lin Jie was still hesitating, the leader gave a cold sneer. Then, a strange dark-green ghostfire was gathered in his hands. It sent out a smell of corrosion as if it had been infused with countless poisons.
‘He used the channeling material Poison Powder to cast Fireball. No wonder the color is so strange. I thought he was from the Dark Shrine and was related to Eighteen Massacres when I heard Small Melon say it was ghostfire. It seems that I was overthinking. Even if Eighteen Massacres is everywhere, he should not be the one who received the opposing mission and will appear in the mission of the Secret technique of Clomaros.’ Lin Jie sighed in relief.
He could tell that Black Eyes’ members were casting Fireball augmented by the channeling material Poison Powder, but not the real ghostfire.


Casting materials were essential for magical jobs. In time to come, the worth of a rare channeling material would not be less than equipment, weapons, or skills! For example, when casting Fire Spells, Domestic Fat Cattle would burn the Ignition Powder that he carried along to reduce the casting time and CD by 0.5 seconds. After leveling up, he could use superior-grade channeling materials such as Flame Crystal and Sparks of Seven Flames to significantly increase the damage of his skills.
Restricted Curses also required lots of channeling materials. In Lin Jie’s previous life, Ophadi had once released an Arcane Restricted Curse, Elemental Purgatory, whereby using Arcane Imitation together with lots of channeling materials to bombard a middle-grade camp, leaving no residue of NPCs or buildings at all! That had cost a hill-high amount of channeling materials.
This was the importance of channeling materials!
The leader gave a sharp look and said,
Is that enough? We’re being very kind to allow you to leave. Don’t refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit. Leave!

Small Melon sent a private message to Lin Jie.
Boss, we can’t make it this time. The Black Eyes team is very domineering. Although he is letting us go now, there must be a team outside waiting to kill us and seize our treasures.


Oh? How dare they be so arrogant?
Lin Jie was surprised, but his face was calm.
In this case, let’s use Returning Scrolls to go back.

As he spoke, Lin Jie’s body flashed with the Returning Scroll’s light.
Small Melon and the others followed him. Indeed, they could avoid the ambush if they returned to the city with Returning Scrolls!
The leader’s eyes flashed. He did not expect that they were so brave to go back to the city in front of their team. The reason why they had arranged assassins outside was to attack easily when they were unprepared. Thus, they could avoid leaving evidence. Although everyone was clear that it was the Black Eyes team, which was killing and robbing, on the surface, they had let them go. The people who left would be attacked by other
unknown people
outside, which had nothing to do with them.
‘That was smart.’ The leader sneered in his heart and waited quietly with his arms crossed.


At the moment when the Returning Scroll was about to take effect, the leader flicked his fingers and fire exploded on Lin Jie.
-3!
The Returning Scroll’s progress bar was interrupted!
Small Melon and the others were shocked, but they successfully returned to the city at their camp.

OMG! Boss is not back yet. Brother Small Melon, what should we do?


Shut up! We were just making a transaction, did you really think of him as our boss?
Small Melon patted Sprite Xia angrily and sneered.
Black Eyes must have taken a fancy to that Warrior’s equipment. They are planning to kill and guard his corpse as they deliberately kept him there. This team has been occupying the first place for so long, and everyone wants to have control over them. Now we have a good chance! We can hire a Bandit from the Brotherhood to gather evidence on them as they are guarding the corpse. In addition, the team’s style is extremely overbearing, which has long incited public anger! Their doom is only a matter of time.


Hmm… But, how about the boss…?


Leave him alone. How is his death related to us? Let’s go and hire a Bandit, must find an expert!

……
In front of the Ancient Wilderness Temple.


Lin Jie’s face turned cold.
What’s your meaning?
he asked coldly.

Nothing interesting. It would be a pity to allow you to leave with such good equipment,
replied the leader with a commanding tone. In his mind, Lin Jie was now a turtle in a jar for him.
You could avoid disaster with money. Give us 100 gold coins.


100 gold coins? I didn’t know that my life was worth so much.
Lin Jie was not afraid at all. He laughed and said sarcastically,
Do you think I’m a fool? Who doesn’t know about Black Eyes? I can leave here after paying, but once I get outside, I’ll probably be killed by your ambush, right? Spending 100 gold coins to buy a few minutes of survival? Sorry, I won’t sell at a loss.

The leader sneered and was about to speak when Lin Jie added,
But I have a good idea. You are mercenaries, and I’m an employer. The most suitable thing for us to talk about is business, right? How about this, since your overall strength surpasses the five players I had hired, I’m willing to pay 100 times their price to hire you. I want you to help me kill the monsters or lead them away so that I can enter the mission map smoothly.


100 times!?
asked the leader in a deep voice with a flash of fright in his eyes.
How much is that?

Lin Jie showed 5 fingers and said,
500 gold coins! But I don’t have so many gold coins on hand. If possible, I can pay in cash. Although the currency exchange rate has dropped a lot, 500 gold coins can still be exchanged for 50,000 cash. You should know that this is a very good deal.


I’m a little interested. If everyone was as tactful as you, doing business would be much easier. Okay, transfer the cash to me now, and we’ll assist you with the mission.

Lin Jie stared at him as if he was retarded, rolled his eyes, and said,
Is your IQ too low, or do you think I have a low IQ?

The leader froze and realized that he had been too abrupt. 500 gold coins, that was not a small amount.
Then how do you want to trade?
he asked.

Very simple, this is the credit ticket of the City of Light Central Auction House.
Lin Jie took out a small ticket with the words
50,000 yuan
written on it in regular block letters. The credit tickets of the Central Auction House were made of special paper monopolized by the Holy Church, which could not be imitated.
Here’s the rule. I’ll pay immediately once you kill the Queen Bee. Then you will have to kill the Queen Dryad and let me enter the rocky mountain for my mission. In this way, you won’t have to worry about me entering the mission map without paying, and I won’t have to worry about the possibility of you betraying me. How is that?



The leader nodded. Indeed, this was the best solution.

Happy to cooperate!
The leader smiled, took off his mask, and revealed his real name—Seven Feet Mountain. He reached out his hand, gave a peculiar smile, and said,
The Black Eyes team accepts this transaction.

Lin Jie shook his hand and smiled as well.
I’m happy to cooperate with you.

The two parties, who were about to fight each other, had unexpectedly developed an employment relationship.
After Seven Feet Mountain let go of his hand, he elegantly waved. More than 30 Mages dressed differently rushed out of the periphery. He smiled and said to Lin Jie,
This was planned to ambush you, but since we’re in a partnership, I’ll lay my cards on the table. I believe that we are both smart people, I’m showing you these people to let you know that I won’t play any dirty tricks.

Lin Jie was shocked. Although he had been prepared, Lin Jie had not expected that he had been ambushed by 30 people, and all of them were Mages! If a battle broke out, they could pose a great threat to him.
Lin Jie was not so foolish to believe Seven Feet Mountain’s words, but his face changed from shock to relief. He held his fists and said,
Thanks.

His expression cause Seven Feet Mountain believed that Lin Jie had been hooked. Seven Feet Mountain waved his hand and started arranging battle tactics to kill the Queen Bee. He completely ignored the Queen Dryad.
As for the Demon House Flower, which was too inconspicuous, other than Lin Jie, everyone else ignored it.

Do it!



Seven Feet Mountain yelled, and the team was immediately spread out, with 6 in front, 35 in the middle, and the rest scattered. Lin Jie focused on the front six people. Their equipment was bizarre. It was a set of Fire Red Armor! This kind of heavy equipment was usually only equipped by Warriors and Paladins. It had a strong defense, but it was also very heavy.
When Mages were equipped with armor, their channeling speed would drop by 150%, and their Movement Speed would drop by 80%. Normally, Mages would not wear that kind of equipment as it was not worth the loss.

Combination Spell, Magic Flame Armor!

Six Mages roared together, and a sky-high fire was emitted from their bodies simultaneously. It gathered in the middle of the sky, formed an armor, which was hard to tell whether it was solid or virtual. This armor was five people high, carved with dragons and phoenix, and surrounded by fire, like an armor of the God of Fire!
Lin Jie’s pupils constricted. ‘Combination Spell! These people are good!’
Combination Spells needed to be cast by more than two players at the same time. Most of them were ‘guided spells’, which were extremely powerful. But those spells were most vulnerable to Silence, Interrupt, Repel, and other similar moves. Combination Spells could not be learned from mentors, and they could only be opened and learned when multiple players obtained the same kind of Skill Books.
However, there were countless The New Age players! The chance of getting the same Combination Spell was extremely low, and it was even more difficult to gather those players together.
To match with the difficulty, the Combination Spell’s power was extraordinary!
This move, Demon Dragon Armor, had to be cast simultaneously by 3 to 12 players. It would stack the Defense and Health Points of all the players, and condense into a Demon Dragon Armor with infinite Taunt Skills!
Hence, the reason why the Mages were equipped with armors was to maximize Defense and HP!
Dwarf Identify!
[Demon Dragon Armor]
Health Points: 18,000
Defense 1,928
Additional skills: Taunt.
Additional effect: Cooldown for Taunt reduces to 0.
‘18,000 HP, 1,928 Defense! It would be challenging to break through the Demon Dragon Armor’s defense by pure physical attacks, even for the Queen Bee!’ Lin Jie was shocked, but in his heart, he was thinking about how to get rid of those clowns and enter the Ancient Wilderness Temple at the same time.