Surviving The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 300: Chapter 103 The Elf Strikes Hill Again

”Is there anyone else who so lacks the will to live?” Adrian asked, astonished. ”What could the elves possibly offer them to make a Magister come and court death?”

”Magisters whose lives are nearing their end will always be a few, whose descendants have good potential, but not top-notch. Before, they might have considered themselves more important, but as death approaches, they start to think about their family lineage.

Some precious things are easily obtained by the Legendary, but very difficult for Magisters. Besides, it’s just risking life once. If they can return alive, what they get might be of great use to them,” Fran said indifferently.

”This kind of thing isn’t new. It’s happened more than once or twice before. But in the past, it’s always been for dealing with their family’s enemies.

The Mage Association does this to prevent those Mages who disagree with them from joining the Association, even if they become Legendary.

No matter the reason, killing the messengers sent to congratulate and give gifts invariably leads to trouble. If anything happens, no one in the Mage Association will notify them anymore.”

Seeing the astonished looks on Adrian and Hill, Fran scoffed disdainfully, ”The higher-ups in the Mage Association have also known about this for a long time. Doing this now has no meaning.

So, this kind of thing has actually become quite rare in the last few centuries, although it still occurs!

Those who do it then become true enemies with the Mage Association’s family members. They won’t allow such individuals to join the Parliament.

By doing this, they are actually forcing these Mages to choose whether to swallow their pride and join the Association, biding their time for a few hundred years before seeking revenge, or to simply kill the messenger and disregard the Association completely.

You must know, when a high and mighty Legendary Mage actually swallows their pride, it means they won’t rest until they’re dead.

No matter how they deal with that Mage afterward, they now have a justification.

Those Councilors, regardless of the reason for the incident, are actually very simple-minded. Compared to those Legendary families working within the Mage Association, these outsiders just aren’t that important.”

”Why didn’t anything happen when you became Legendary?” asked Adrian curiously. ”There are even more people in the Mage Association who dislike you, right? How could they give up so easily?”

”Everyone knows it’s utterly impossible for me to join the Mage Association! What would be the point of them trying anything with me, other than wasting a life and annoying me? After all, they are still mages. It’s understandable to do such things for power, but just to be malicious? The Mage Association hasn’t fallen that low.

The key is, when facing a Legendary Alchemist Master, who knows when something might happen that would require their help. No one wants to express hostility. Disliking someone doesn’t mean you have to be enemies!”

Fran glanced at his thoughtless student, ”But it’s different with Hill this time. Even if it displeases Hill, it will offend me as well, but everyone knows it’s the elves behind it, so they can easily wash their hands of it. I can’t take my anger out on the whole Mage Association just because of something the elves instigated.

Therefore, the one sent to give Hill the materials will certainly have issues.

After all, what the elves are offering might very well relate to life force. For a Magister nearing death, the chance to extend their life is enough to tempt them to take the risk. Maybe, there will even be disputes within the Mage Association over it!”

”But, how have I offended the elves?” Hill asked, baffled. Even though he was a Nature Warlock of Saral, that had little to do with the elves, didn’t it? He wasn’t a Mage directly under the Royal Family and might have to face the elves on the front lines in the future.

”Of course you wouldn’t think much of it, as you’re not likely to go to the Forest of the Elves,” Fran said with disdain. ”The Goddess of the Hunt has declared that with your Moon Elven Bloodline and resemblance to the Elven God King, you pose a significant threat to those Moon Elves who don’t wish to leave the Forest of the Elves.

Right now, they are competing for the Divine Position of Lord of the Moon Elves! The Elven God King will definitely choose a Moon Elf to appoint as a Divine Subordinate. Having Moon Elves under His command would prove His legitimate standing in this world.”

”I, even if my Elven Bloodline awakens, I am still a Half-Elf, right?” Hill asked, horrified. ”Even if the Elven God King isn’t choosy, He wouldn’t dare to appoint a Half-Elf as the Lord of the Moon Elves, would He?”

Hill really felt that the elves must be out of their minds. What did all this have to do with him?

But Adrian directly scoffed, ”To the Elven God King it wouldn’t matter at all! If you were truly willing to serve as the Lord of the Moon Elves, wouldn’t you have to rely on Him?

Compared to those Moon Elf Legendary Mages who could cause Him trouble, you would be akin to a dear, obedient Baby Guai.

Considering the lifespans of elves, imagine how many Moon Elf Legendaries have existed over these several hundred thousand years?

Even if many have left, those remaining wouldn’t be few in number. What they desire isn’t a Divine Position, but the leadership of their Clan.

However, should this Clan Leader clash with those incoming elves and engage in power struggles, the stability of the Elven Royalty would be jeopardized. The Elven God King wouldn’t intentionally make things difficult for Himself, would He?

So indeed, there’s a chance for you, if you wish to enter this competition. After all, you are a legendary warlock of the Nature System!”

Hill realized that his promotion had happened too quickly and he wasn’t yet accustomed to how elevated the status of a Legendary Mage was, especially one who directly controls the Laws; even if less powerful, they are not beings that Legendary Knights and the like could compete with.

Even for comparatively weaker Legendary Mages like Carl and Miller, they wouldn’t covet a Divine Subordinate position unless their lives were nearing an end.

Now that the path through The River of Time and Space was available, the two had also almost given up on that divine standing.

However, Hill was still a bit puzzled by the elves’ actions.

”Just for this sake, they would risk a Magister’s life?” Hill felt that the life of a Mage couldn’t be so cheap, could it?

”Your faction, a Neutral Good Nature Warlock.” Fran glanced at Hill, ”Becoming legendary, you couldn’t suddenly change your faction, could you?”

Hill blinked.

Was this a way of bullying Hill, assuming he wouldn’t easily resort to killing? But if someone went too far, even if Hill killed them, his alignment wouldn’t shift, right?

Being good didn’t mean not killing.

”Given your status, you play by the rules far too much,” Adrian said, looking at Hill with a face that read absurdity, and couldn’t help but laugh, ”Why did the teacher conclude that the Mage Association would definitely send someone to cause trouble? Because provoking you carries the lowest cost. As long as they keep it in check, you’d at most beat them up. You wouldn’t actually kill them, would you?”

After thinking for a moment, Hill said, ”For something like this, he’s not worthy enough for me to change my long-standing principles. But do they know that my Elemental Spirits are neutral? An Element Lord who kills a human that angers them would not even be considered chaotic in alignment.”

”That’s why it’s a risk!” Adrian said. ”If you really can’t stand being tested this way and let an Element Lord kill him, then that’s just fate.”

Fran stopped the two from discussing further, ”There’s only a possibility, no need for a detailed discussion. Just be prepared, the Elves definitely have their guard up against you, but they wouldn’t dare lay a hand on you—it’s like a joke.”

Fran chuckled coldly, ”Elf Mages were so powerful once upon a time! But those nowadays have been nurtured into uselessness. A Legendary Mage who respects the deities without fearing them—that’s out of their reach now.

What’s the difference between fearing deities and fearing the Laws? Then, what’s the difference between them and Magisters? Is it just that their spells are more powerful?”

Hill understood Fran’s point – the truly powerful Elves who mastered the Laws, the ones who could summon winds and call upon rains, the Legendary Mages, couldn’t possibly remain in this world subject to the will of the Elven God King.

And the existing Legendary Mages among the Elves were no different from those in the Mage Association. After all, that method of using certain fixed Laws to become a Legendary Mage clearly originated from the Elves.

For the Elves of that era, the Human-formed Mage Association was a threat, and it was absolutely necessary to do whatever they could to minimize this threat.

The gap between a Legendary who controls the Laws and an ordinary Legendary was definitely no less than that between a True God and a Demigod.

But as times changed, now with the Divine System overwhelmingly strong, the number of Elves choosing the arduous path of Mages was bound to dwindle.

If humans who took shortcuts in their legendary journeys could live for three thousand years, what about Elves who were inherently an Eternal Race?

They didn’t face the same survival pressures as humans.

Hill had figured it out; the Elves’ actions were not about severing his ties with the Mage Association but to tell Hill that the Forest of the Elves did not welcome him.

In Fran’s eyes, the Mage Association had significant importance, which was why he failed to see things as clearly as Hill did.

The earliest human Legendary Mages must have owed much to the Elves.

At the very least, the records Hill had seen indicated the presence of Mages at the founding of the human kingdoms.

The magic of that era was already systematic.

Humans, however, eventually became wary and gradually gained independence.

But in the eyes of the Elves, without their teachings, Mages wouldn’t exist among humans.

This was a common flaw of the Eternal Race, always crediting themselves for the achievements, while humans had long since progressed through several generations.

The past affairs, if any human Mages even remembered, likely had already set off for the starry paths long ago.

But even if those human Mages were still around, seeing their former mentors seeking to be their masters would result in nothing but outright rebellion.

At first, Hill didn’t understand why the Elves didn’t immediately come over to fight, when both the Goddess of the Hunt and the Lord of the Moon Elves, alongside the daughters of the Divine King, had perished.

William, too, had never worried.

But from the Elder Councilors of the Mage Association, who dared to publicly declare their support for humans against their enemies, it was clear that, in a world where True Gods could not descend, human Legendary Mages were not afraid of the Elves.

So, just how many Legendary Mages were left in the Forest of the Elves? The last ones who followed the Goddess of the Hunt to Saral were all Legendary Rangers wielding dual blades.

Hill didn’t believe that the Moon Elves lacked Legendary Mages, but there wouldn’t be many, not even enough for the Goddess of the Hunt to dare bring them along for adventures.

It seemed like the Forest of the Elves hadn’t celebrated the power of Legendary Mages for over ten thousand years.

Their current Legendary Mages might not even outnumber those in the Mage Association.