Chapter 327 Each With His Own Axe To Grind (1/2)
”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.”