Chương 95: Attacking the Mage Tower

The number of people inside the Adventurer's Guild was not large, around 300 people, and there were not many strong individuals. To Li Qinwu, anyone who could be struck and brought down by a musket did not count as a strong individual. However, upon breaking into the third floor, they encountered several armed personnel of the Guild. All of them wore ultra-heavy full body plate armor that muskets could not pierce, and they managed to rush over and hack several musket Goblins to death.

Later, the company commanders used hand-cannons to shoot them right in the face, the iron grit shredding their eyes, before prying open their helmets and stabbing them to death with bayonets. On the upper floors of the Adventurer's Guild, they discovered an archive room containing a large amount of the Guild's operational cash-flow records. Feeling that the Adventurer's Guild might become one of his primary enemies in the future, Li Qinwu left a company there and ordered them to guard the documents closely.

The next offensive location was the Mage Tower. This thing truly was a tower-shaped building, with the highest tower reaching over 50 meters! Below the tower was a noble manor-style architectural complex—the kind with a garden—and the perimeter had no wall, but rather iron railings. Li Qinwu brought the cannons up, aiming right at the highest tower to blast it.

This building was both thin and tall; it would certainly snap within 20 cannon shots, and crashing into the manor would directly destroy the mages' defenses. But he was stopped by Miss Hana.

"Lord, at the absolute top of the Mage Tower is a precious Magic Tide Observation Instrument. The number of such devices in the entire Halyun Province does not exceed two digits." Li Qinwu asked in bewilderment, "A what-what instrument?" Miss Hana explained, "This world has magic tide activity, similar to various climates. If one wants to conduct deep magical research, this kind of foundational equipment is an absolute necessity." Li Qinwu frowned.

In attacking the Mage Tower, he had aroused 120% of his alertness; every single one of these mages could cast the Fireball spell, making them extremely dangerous. He had intended to directly flatten everything with artillery and push his way through. Yet he hadn't expected that there would actually be important equipment inside the Mage Tower, which was quite a pain.

While Li Qinwu was weighing the gains and losses, a window on an upper floor of the Mage Tower opened, and an old man with a black mage hat and a large white beard—bearing a bit of Gandalf's charm—poked his head out.

"Ah~ an enlightened Goblin, what an interesting research subject~" Li Qinwu snatched a musket from a soldier beside him, raising his hand to shoot. The old man mage's movements were not slow; with a flash of his body, he dodged the bullet's attack. The old man mage was somewhat angered.

"Impolite fellow. As expected, no matter how enlightened, a Goblin is still a Goblin after all!" Li Qinwu silently lowered the gun, came to the side of a cannon, adjusted the muzzle, and aimed it right at the window. The old man mage's expression turned a bit weightier.

"Wait! Inside the tower behind me is precious equipment. The young girl beside you is right; if you want to conduct magical research, it won't do without insight into the changes of the magic tide. You must want it very much, right? This equipment... how about we make a deal?" Li Qinwu's eyes narrowed slightly.

"You had better impress me."

"Hiss! Truly terrifying~ For a Goblin to actually..." Boom!! Before the old man could finish his words, Li Qinwu fired the cannon. The cannonball struck right beside the old man mage's window, smashing away several bricks. The old man mage was so frightened his hat fell off, and then he flew into a rage.

"Qua!! Stupid Goblin!! Do you have any idea how precious a Magic Tide Observation Device is! You..." Li Qinwu leaped behind another cannon and began to crank up the muzzle. The old man mage choked, hurriedly shouting, "Stop, stop! What a truly crude and dangerous weapon, exactly who invented it? How about we make a deal? You let us leave the city, and I'll yield the observation instrument to you, how about it?" Li Qinwu finished adjusting the cannon and spat fiercely.

"Listen up, people inside! Everyone, throw out your staves and surrender cleanly, otherwise everyone can accompany the Mage Tower and go die together!" The old man mage's face turned dark.

"Goblin, you could release two thousand soldiers, so why can't you release 200 mages? Have your soldiers yield a path; we will leave quietly, and everything here will be yours—everyone is happy!" Li Qinwu barked out, "Julie is a professor of the Mage Guild, right?" The old man mage was startled; why would a Goblin speak of this? He naturally knew Julie—the youngest female professor of the Mage Guild. Aside from being talented, she was exceptionally beautiful and very 'big'.

She had been dispatched by the Mage Guild to the side of Leon the Hero, and her purpose went without saying.

"Goblin, does this have any relationship with Professor Julie?" Li Qinwu sneered coldly.

"Julie of the Mage Guild associated with Leon's party of four to launch a terrorist attack against the Union of Intelligent Species, causing indelible harm to our Union. Shouldn't your Mage Guild take responsibility for the actions of a professor under your command?" The Mage Guild was similar to the Adventurer's Guild in that both possessed private armed forces. But what was different was that the Adventurer's Guild had no territory, while the Mage Guild did.

At the borders where the four human kingdoms met lay a piece of land covering over 100, 000 square kilometers, which was the Mage Guild's headquarters. There, towers stood in forests and academy after academy was established; hundreds of thousands of mages conducted research and teaching there, while millions of ordinary people produced and served for them. They had developed their own hierarchy system, such as apprentices, lecturers, professors, and mentors.

Just hearing the names made it clear that this was an organization that laid extreme emphasis on research. In fact, once a mage's personal force reached a certain level, wanting to climb higher relied precisely on research achievements. Although the Mage Guild did not publicly declare this to be a country, it possessed the reality of a nation, so they had to pay for what Julie had done. The old man mage fell into silence for a good while, letting out a sigh as if accepting his fate.

"So, is it impossible for us to reconcile? Young girl over there, have you told the Goblin what the consequences are of attacking a magic tower under the Mage Guild?" Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Miss Hana spoke in a low voice beside Li Qinwu's ear, "Once, a monarch of the Donovan Kingdom took a fancy to the Mage Guild's land and led a grand invasion. They were slaughtered to the last man by an army composed of mages.

The mage army marched into the Donovan Kingdom's capital and forcibly replaced the king!" Li Qinwu snorted.

"As if if I do nothing, they won't come to fight me! Everyone, prepare for combat; follow me and rush inside in three minutes!" Li Qinwu was still somewhat concerned about that device atop the Mage Tower, so he did not intend to use the cannons anymore, planning to personally lead the troops to storm it. From his storage, he took out a set of Horned-Crocodile heavy armor and layered it over his plate armor; piling on a few more layers of armor was beneficial for blocking the enemy's Fireball attacks.

Seeing that Li Qinwu was preparing to attack, the old man mage on the tower muttered "What a pity," before closing the window and ceasing communication. The three minutes ended quickly. Dangdang held up a massive wooden shield, its surface layered with Horned-Crocodile leather. With one kick, he sent the iron railings enclosing the Mage Tower flying, striding onto the neatly manicured lawn. Following behind him were Li Qinwu and the 9th Company of musket Goblins.

The lawn of the Mage Tower was very spacious, just like a small golf course. 50 meters away stood rows of houses comparable to noble residences, and in the middle of these dwellings stood the high-and-mighty Mage Tower. Li Qinwu used Dangdang's massive body as cover, holding a hand-cannon in each of his left and right hands, remaining alert toward every position from which a Fireball spell might be shot. Sure enough, just as everyone walked onto the open lawn, the mages' attacks came.

Figures flickered in the windows of the opposing houses, and then light flared up; that was the most common offensive spell, Fireball, the fiery light generated by the friction of magical energy as it condensed. Li Qinwu's reaction speed was extremely fast. He raised his hand-cannons and fired two rounds of buckshot toward two windows.

The two mages who had just condensed their fireballs had barely flashed to the windows and hadn't thrown them out yet when they received a full blast of steel balls, beaten until blood mist sprayed wildly as they collapsed, unable to rise. The fireballs they had just condensed also fell onto themselves, blowing them into a mess of shredded corpses.

But Li Qinwu could only fire two shots in a short duration, and the other musket Goblins were not as fast as him; several mages in other windows still successfully threw out their fireballs. These fireballs were clusters of high-pressure magical energy that would produce violent explosions upon landing. Their power varied based on the mage's strength and the duration of the spell's condensation, but generally, the explosive power was roughly similar to a 50–75mm artillery shell without shrapnel.

The fireballs shot toward the attacking force. A few shots were blocked by Dangdang and his shield, causing no damage, while others landed on the turf, blasting out small pits. One landed right on the leg of a Goblin musket soldier, directly blowing his thigh off.

"Ah ah ah ah!!!" The unlucky fellow whose leg was blown off screamed frantically. Li Qinwu had Dangdang erect the large shield in front of the wounded soldier, and two soldiers dragged him toward the rear, where Miss Hana would provide healing. The troops fell prone on the turf to trade fire with the mages in the houses. The new breech-loading flintlocks allowed them to reload while prone, and the speed was not slow, easily suppressing the mages in the windows.

Li Qinwu seized the opportunity to rush forward rapidly, reaching the side of the houses within a few seconds and pressing against the wall. He took out a bangalore torpedo, ignited it, shoved it into a window, and quickly ran away. With a booming explosion, the bangalore torpedo directly collapsed the wall and the house, sending a massive amount of smoke and stones flying everywhere.

Li Qinwu retrieved a hand-cannon and a short axe from his storage, leaping into the blasted gap, and the other musket Goblins followed his footsteps into the building. Just as Li Qinwu entered the house, he saw an ash-covered mage vomiting blood on the ground. He stepped up and crushed his throat with one stomp, then proceeded to clear the next room. Hearing two people screaming in the adjoining house, he kicked the door open to find two mages kneeling on the ground, clutching their ears.

Fresh blood flowed down their ears; they had likely been deafened by the sound of the explosion. Li Qinwu settled the two with two strokes of his axe, searching toward the next room. In the next room, someone was speaking loudly. Li Qinwu listened quietly, and what they said was: "The monsters have come in, they attack the moment they open the door!" Li Qinwu chuckled. Returning to the previous room, he lugged a mage's corpse to use as a shield, returned to the doorway, and opened the door. Boom boom!

Two fireballs shot out fiercely, slamming into the corpse and blowing flesh and blood flying in all directions. Li Qinwu cast the corpse aside, raised his hand-cannon, and fired a round of buckshot at the two mages in the room. The two screamed as they were peppered with numerous pellets, spraying blood as they collapsed into corpses.

Li Qinwu switched to a fresh hand-cannon from his storage, intending to clear the next room, but just as he stepped out the door, he collided right with a mage who was opening a door to come out. A fireball had long since condensed upon that mage's staff, and the moment he saw Li Qinwu, he threw it out directly. Li Qinwu also raised his gun to shoot, not even looking to see if it hit as he flashed his body and lunged back into the room.

That mage was collapsed dead directly by the pellets, but the fireball grazed Li Qinwu's arm armor and exploded against the chest of a musket Goblin behind him, blasting him until he vomited blood and died directly. Li Qinwu glanced back at the unlucky fellow, then continued leading his men forward. Next, he encountered many methods of attack aside from the Fireball spell.

For instance, condensing stone spikes to throw, throwing a cluster of ice capable of frostbiting flesh, and an interesting one—a burst of magical energy that had no destructive power but was extremely bright, just like a flashbang. But honestly, none of these flashy attacks were as straightforward as a musket; a musket aimed and fired, and if it hit, they died. The spell-casting mages still had to distract themselves to continuously output mana and operate several magical formulas.

For example, with the Fireball spell, compressing the energy was one formula, maintaining it was one formula, and pushing it out was yet another formula. A musket Goblin could kill someone just by flexing a finger, while the mages had to busy themselves for a long time over a spell. Of course, mages were mages after all; having mastered attack methods that accumulated energy, they still caused a fair amount of casualties.

In the process of clearing the peripheral rooms, fireballs would shoot from corners and crannies from time to time, or sudden ambushes would be launched from turnings, causing the deaths of 8 Goblins and leaving 38 people with injuries of various sizes. After fighting all the way through, Li Qinwu led his men to a tightly shut door, outside of which stood 10 mages on guard. The two sides engaged in a fierce battle here.

The spell attacks of the 10 people were exceptionally intense, as if there was some important item to protect behind the door they guarded; various spells were thrown out as if they cost nothing, and even if their bodies were hit by bullets, they forcibly supported themselves to unleash attacks. The soldiers of the 9th Company were also ruthless characters who had emerged from cruel military discipline; each and every one pinned their bayonets and charged the moment they emptied their bullets.

The people in front were blasted to death by spells, and the people behind continued to charge. Charging to the mages' faces, they brought them down with a single bayonet thrust, settling the 10 mages in a single wave of charging.

"Open the door!" Li Qinwu shook the blood off his short axe, ordering everyone to open the door. He wanted to see exactly what was behind it that was worth 10 mages guarding so closely! The door was slowly pushed open, and bursts of startled cries echoed from within. Li Qinwu cast his eyes inside; some 50-odd young boys and girls wearing mage apprentice robes were huddled in a corner, looking at the monsters outside the door with terrified eyes. Li Qinwu instantly lost his drive.

He had thought there would be some kind of treasure inside the door, but it turned out to be just this? The mage towers across the world were actually just magical elementary schools. They would gather children with potential to conduct education, and those with excellent marks would be sent to the Mage Guild for further studies. Kids like those in front of him were precisely the children of Poloia city who possessed magical potential; however, they were just a bunch of little brats.

They didn't even have staves, and couldn't even condense a flame equal to a lighter's spark—there was no danger.

"Tsk, just this. Let's go, let's go!" Li Qinwu led his men toward the high tower. The rooms below were mostly cleared, and there weren't 200 mages at all—the actual number was less than 50; that old man mage had bluffed him! Li Qinwu brought his men under the tall Mage Tower. This thing was an independent stone structure, with a small wooden door at the absolute bottom. Entering was not an issue; the problem was that there was suspected high-precision equipment inside, along with a professor-level old mage.

If the old thing decided to go down in flames and blasted the equipment with a few fireballs, that would be a bit of a loss. Li Qinwu raised his head to look upward; the several windows on the high tower were tightly shut. After thinking it over, he shouted loudly, "Old timer, come down and surrender! Otherwise, those mage apprentices of yours are going to be BBQ'd!"