However, the Mithril Alliance had been operating in the Breezy Plains for thousands of years, after all, and it was still possible for them to cause some trouble for the Tower of Dusk. The first thing they had to do was to make use of their own resources. The five major families each controlled a relatively large territory. Although they did not surround the Tower of Dusk, they had blocked several directions. Therefore, the Five Great Clans immediately set up layers of checkpoints in their respective territories. Although they couldn't do anything too outrageous to the caravans of the Tower of Dusk, not allowing them to pass through their own territories was not considered breaking the new order.
Under such circumstances, the caravans of the Tower of Dusk and even those who wanted to purchase goods from the Tower of Dusk had no choice but to bypass the territories of the five major families. They could have reached their destination in 10 days, but they didn't know how long they would have to walk. After all, the territories of the five major families were rather large, and it might take 20 days or a month. That would cause a lot of trouble for the Tower of Dusk. The increase in the transportation costs of the caravans was not a big deal, but the delay would have a great impact on production, sales, and the reputation of the Tower of Dusk.
In addition to targeting the caravans of the Tower of Dusk, the Mithril Alliance also began to secretly use despicable means against the shops of the Tower of Dusk, such as hiring hooligans to block the doors of the Tower of Dusk's shops, or splashing dirty things at the doors of the shops in the middle of the night. However, those despicable means did not do anything to the Tower of Dusk, and instead embarrassed the Mithril Alliance. Everyone knew that the Mithril Alliance was now going against the Tower of Dusk.
As for the hooligans, they would be beaten up and thrown into jail after being caught. Not only would the people of the Tower of Dusk beat them up, but even the customers would sometimes teach them a lesson. What did the Tower of Dusk's shops sell? Magical weapons, equipment, and potions? Their customers were not ordinary people, but adventurers who had traveled far and wide to survive. It was fine if those hooligans wanted to scare ordinary people, but if they wanted to scare these adventurers, wouldn't that be asking for trouble?
Those despicable means could cause very little loss to the Tower of Dusk. The business of the Tower of Dusk relied on large transactions, and the retail income only accounted for a small part of the total income. However, although those despicable means were not very effective, they were indeed rather disgusting.
In order to curb the development of the Tower of Dusk, the Mithril Alliance could be considered to have gone all out, and even went all out to protect the reputation of the traditional forces. However, the Tower of Dusk only took one move to immediately put the Mithril Alliance in a dilemma. Lin Li took some time out of his busy schedule to write a short letter to the Ledin Kingdom, after which the Mithril Alliance suffered a tragedy.
The Mithril Alliance was a veteran force that had been passed down for thousands of years. While they had a deep foundation, their entire system was much larger and more bloated than that of the new forces. Relying solely on the local businesses of the Breezy Plains was almost impossible to maintain the operation of their massive system, let alone develop. It was precisely because of this that the Thirteen Clans became the current Five Great Clans by taking advantage of the opportunity of fighting with the Blood Moon Clan. The Five Great Clans were able to develop again by annexing their former allies.
In particular, under the suppression of the Ashen Warlock, the power map of the Breezy Plains had not changed much for hundreds of years. All the forces that had reached the peak of the Breezy Plains understood that if they wanted to continue to develop, they would have to expand beyond the Breezy Plains. Hence, the Ledin Kingdom, which only had the Brilliance Shrine, and the Dwarf Kingdom, which lacked all kinds of living resources, had businesses with the top forces of the Breezy Plains.
Due to the obstruction of the Gargas Canyon, the forces of the Breezy Plains had to go through the Ledin Kingdom to trade with the Dwarf Kingdom. However, with Lin Li's letter, the Ledin Kingdom also began to block and attack the caravans of the five major families of the Mithril Alliance, just like how the Mithril Alliance dealt with the caravans of the Tower of Dusk. At the same time, the business of the Mithril Alliance in the Ledin Kingdom was also suppressed from all sides. The nobles who usually benefited from the Mithril Alliance were no longer as enthusiastic as before.
While the business of the five major families of the Mithril Alliance was being suppressed, the Tower of Dusk took advantage of the situation and began to take over the market that the five major families had vacated after being suppressed. All of a sudden, the Mithril Alliance was having a hard time. Even if they survived this ordeal, it would be difficult for them to snatch back the market that they had lost.
The Mithril Alliance tried their best to suppress the business of the Tower of Dusk in all aspects, but the results were minimal. The Tower of Dusk retaliated once, and the Mithril Alliance immediately fell into a predicament. Although the five major families did not collapse immediately after losing the business of the Dwarf Kingdom and the Ledin Kingdom, the sudden loss of the massive business profits was enough to make the patriarchs of the five major families vomit blood.
What the Mithril Alliance found even more unacceptable was not how much they had lost, but the fact that most of the profits they had lost had gone to the Tower of Dusk, which they had wanted to suppress. They had done everything they could to stop the rapid development of the Tower of Dusk, but they did not expect the Tower of Dusk to seize the opportunity to develop again.
The various forces of the Breezy Plains who had been paying attention to the battle between the two families couldn't help but feel a lingering fear when they recalled what they had done to the Tower of Dusk previously. They would never have imagined that the Tower of Dusk would actually have such great power. Not only did they get the protection of the Ashen Warlock, but they could also influence the decisions of the royal family of the Ledin Kingdom. Is this still an ordinary local force!? At the same time, they were more or less secretly glad that they did not continue to go against the Tower of Dusk with the Mithril Alliance. Otherwise, they would probably have died a horrible death.
Even a top force like the Mithril Alliance had suffered a loss at the hands of the Tower of Dusk. Didn't that mean that the Tower of Dusk could be considered the strongest force in the Breezy Plains now? The forces that were still watching from the sidelines sent people to the Tower of Dusk one after another with such thoughts in mind, hoping to repair the misunderstanding caused by the so-called exploitation.
Despite being suppressed by the Mithril Alliance, a veteran force that had been passed down for thousands of years, the Tower of Dusk did not stop developing. Instead, they reaped even more benefits. In addition to the specific benefits, their reputation and status in the Breezy Plains also skyrocketed again.
However, did the Mithril Alliance admit defeat just like that? No one knew. After all, they had accumulated a deep foundation for thousands of years, and no one could predict what other tricks they had up their sleeves.
It had been some time since Lin Li returned from the Glittergold Trade Union. While waiting for Hoffman's notification, he had been working hard to improve his strength at every moment. It was not only for the sake of exploring the ruins, but also for the sake of the cataclysm that Geresco had prophesied. Although he had already reached the peak of the Legendary-realm, Lin Li was still making obvious progress every day, and he was steadily advancing towards the Sanctuary-realm.
On this day, Lin Li did not receive any notification from Hoffman. Instead, he received an unexpected visitor who should have arrived a long time ago.
"Master Basel, long time no see. What are you …" Lin Li immediately rushed to the guest room after hearing his subordinate's report. The visitor who was waiting in the guest room was Master Basel, who was known as the librarian of the Doland Library.
When Lin Li first came to the Breezy Plains, he had the support of the Supreme Council to establish the Tower of Dusk in Doland. But, how could a newly established Guild of Magic, without any reputation, attract mages to join? At that time, be it the local forces of Doland or those from other Guilds of Magic who disliked Lin Li, almost everyone was waiting to see him make a fool of himself. They were waiting for him, a country bumpkin from Jarrosus, to scram back to the countryside.
Master Basel, who was known as the librarian, was the one who introduced the mages in the library, who were equivalent to his own students, to the Tower of Dusk, which was still unknown. He helped Lin Li solve the awkward situation of being a president without any followers. Although Lin Li was confident that he would be able to make the Tower of Dusk famous in the Breezy Plains with his own strength even without the support of others, Master Basel's actions could definitely be considered timely help.
Gavin had already become a senior member of the Tower of Dusk among the group of mages that Basel had introduced, and had made great contributions to the development of the Tower of Dusk in the past two years. Alan had also stepped into the Legendary-realm, and became the first Legendary-mage that the Tower of Dusk had nurtured. He also became the leader of the team of mages. Apart from the two of them, there were many other important people in the Tower of Dusk who were also from the group of mages that Basel had introduced. It could be said that the development of the Tower of Dusk today was indeed inseparable from Basel's support.
However, Basel had promised Lin Li that he would come to the Tower of Dusk to take up the position of the chief judge three months later. However, when Lin Li returned from the Blackstone Mountains, he could no longer find him in the library of Doland. Three months had passed since then.
Of course, Lin Li did not blame Basel. Although the development of the Tower of Dusk would have been smoother if such a Legendary powerhouse had joined in the early days of the Tower of Dusk, it would have obviously affected his authority as the President of the Tower of Dusk. After all, at that time, Lin Li had just become an Archmage. Even though he was the President of the Tower of Dusk, the other mages still placed Basel at the top of their list.
However, to Lin Li's surprise, Basel, who had appeared in front of him at this time, looked travel-worn, and even a little disheveled, even though he was still as white-haired and amiable as before, and his eyes were shining with wisdom.
Hearing Lin Li's question, Basel shook his head with a bitter smile, and said, "President Felic, I'm really ashamed to say this. I should have come to see you a long time ago, but I didn't expect to be delayed by something."
"Oh, please take a seat." Lin Li gestured for Basel to take a seat, and then sat down himself.
When Lin Li first met Basel, he was rather frightened. From when he started learning magic from Andoine to when he used 28 minutes of mana output during the magic test, it seemed that none of his secrets could escape Basel's eyes. Hence, at that time, Lin Li had the impression that Basel was unfathomable, or rather, an otherworldly expert.
Hence, Lin Li couldn't help but be a little curious about what Basel had said. What exactly could have delayed a Legendary-mage like Basel for such a long time? Besides, judging from how disheveled he looked now, it seemed that the matter hadn't really been resolved yet.
After Basel sat down again, he told Lin Li the reason for missing the appointment. "According to the agreement I made with you back then, I should have come to the Tower of Dusk a long time ago, but when I was about to come over, I received a letter from one of my former students."
"Your student?" Lin Li was a little surprised. When he chatted with Gavin and the others in the past, he had never heard anyone mention that Basel had a student.
Although the mages in the library had received plenty of guidance from Basel in the past, and could be considered his students in a sense, strictly speaking, they weren't. To the mages who studied in the library, Basel had never regarded himself as a teacher, and would only say that he was a librarian. The mages would also address him as a teacher in private, but they would only address him as Mr. or Master in public. Hence, Lin Li couldn't help but be a little surprised when Basel suddenly mentioned that he had a student.
"Haha, strictly speaking, this student of mine is not a real mage. He's really not talented in magic." Speaking of his student, although he said that he didn't have any talent in magic, Basel's tone was a little proud. He continued, "I should say that he is a scholar, a scholar with a deep understanding of archaeology. He only learned magic for the convenience of archaeology in the wild."
"What's your student's name?" Lin Li asked curiously. He originally thought that Basel didn't accept students because he was too picky, and thought that although the mages in the library had good qualifications, they weren't geniuses that were hard to come by. If it weren't for the great convenience provided by the Tower of Dusk, there probably wouldn't be many of them who would have stepped into the Legendary-realm. However, he didn't expect Basel to have a student who wasn't talented in magic. In that case, the only thing that Basel valued was probably his attainments in archaeology.
"His name is Davos. Maybe you've heard of him before," Basel said in a calm tone that shocked Lin Li.
Davos? Not only had he heard of him before, but he had also heard of him too much! If it weren't for the fact that he believed in Basel's character, Lin Li would probably have suspected that he was bragging.
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