End of the Magic Era

After dealing with the Draconic Beastman, Lin Yun began focusing on the changes in his Magic Arrays.

After cracking the 8th character of the Book of Death, Lin Yun had been trying to use the runes to emulate these mysterious characters. When he was in Edge Rift’s canyon, Lin Yun had made some progress… which had been erased by the reckless Rieser. Thus, Lin Yun had to spend a few more days on this.

Fortunately, Lin Yun’s simulations weren’t as tedious now due to his previous experience. He had a breakthrough just as the fleet of carriages was about to reach the Four Seasons Canyon and managed to simulate the first character.

In order to simulate that character, Lin Yun used over a thousand runes. If these were used to establish a spell matrix, it would be a 7th Tier Spell at the very least. In other words, this was already the power of an Archmage…

Unfortunately, Lin Yun didn’t have the time to experience this himself. As soon as the simulation was over, the mysterious character made of thousands of runes was assimilated into the center of his Magic Arrays. The nine Magic Arrays were roused at the same time, and in an instant, the mysterious character was memorized.

It turned out that Lin Yun had made a very good decision.

Just as the Magic Array memorized it, the mysterious character collapsed before transforming into its most basic runic state.

It was inevitable, as these mysterious characters were simply too powerful. After all, three of these characters could open a Planar Path, two could complete positioning, and the final two were used for teleportation. This kind of power was unheard of, even to Lin Yun.

Lin Yun even suspected that these characters weren’t from Noscent.

Even with his abilities, he could only try countless times and rely on luck to get the chance to simulate a mysterious character using runes.

And it was only a simulation…

After going all-out, he was only able to simulate the mysterious character for a short moment. He wasn’t able to control it afterwards and could only turn this character into its most basic runic state.

But this split second was already enough for Lin Yun.

In that split second, the Magic Arrays had memorized that character, which would make the next step much easier. With the powerful computing ability of the Magic Arrays, he would be able to slowly decipher the mysterious character before finally being able to merge it into the Magic Arrays.

In fact, the Magic Arrays were already working on that.

Lin Yun could clearly feel the nine Magic Arrays working at top speed within his body, continuously maneuvering large amounts of mana. The Magic Array was known as such because it was a complete system. Even if the mage supplied it less than half of its mana, the Magic Array would still be able to operate properly, which was different from the other Magic Conducting Runes.

But now, the complete system of the Magic Arrays needed such a large amount of mana. It could be seen from this how powerful that character was.

‘Now, all that is left is to wait…’ After making sure that the Magic Arrays were working properly, Lin Yun felt relieved and focused.

Moreover, he would have to wait for a very, very long time.

That mysterious character was simulated from over a thousand runes, and its complexity even surpassed a 7th Tier Spell. No matter how extraordinary the Magic Array’s computing ability was, it would never be able to complete the calculations in a short time. After all, Lin Yun’s Magic Array was still in its most basic form.

Unless Lin Yun could immediately enter the High Mage realm and properly fuse his nine Magic Arrays into a single Magic Array… At that time, the Magic Array would truly transform and its shocking computing ability would reach a whole new realm…

The next two days were as dry and dull as before. After the first few times, the leaders of the other eight major forces didn’t come as often to Lin Yun’s carriage. Only acquaintances like Solomon and Cadgar would occasionally come over to check on him.

But Sauss… He had been afraid of Merlin all along, and after he sold William out last time, the latter had some grudges. Since he was next to Merlin, he would misinterpret his words from time to time, making Sauss break out in a cold sweat. After the first two times, Sauss gradually stopped visiting.

Since no one was disturbing him, Lin Yun was happy about the peace and quiet. He gave William some pointers about the Crimson Heart Meditation Law Set while secretly taking notes on the Draconic Beastman’s changes, keeping him quite busy.

The spirit mana crystal was indeed worthy of its name. Two days after the Draconic Beastman started wearing it, faint traces of mana patterns could be seen on his arms. This meant that Xiuban was no longer a simple Highland Beastman. The magical ability brought forth by the Highland Beastman bloodline was slowly appearing on his body.

It was just that Xiuban was far from being skillful with the casting ability he had.

“I’ll say it again, focus your mind!” After an entire day of scolding, Lin Yun was already losing his temper.

Beastmen were Beastmen, and whether they were Highland Beastmen or other Beastmen, they were truly underwhelming in terms of magic. Xiuban could be considered blessed by heavens with his powerful bloodline, but he was still unable to skillfully master his mana pattern after practicing for a whole day.

If this happened to a mage, Lin Yun would have told him to jump under the wheels of the carriage and die.

“Sir, I’m just a Highland Beastman…” The problem was that Xiuban didn’t feel anything wrong with that. How could Highland Beastmen focus on studying something? Usually, the battles were all about chaotic slashes, and they only needed to act on instinct. If they didn’t know how to fight, sneak attack, dissimilate, or surrender, then they weren’t Highland Beastmen…

“…” The excuse of being a Highland Beastman was too easy. Lin Yun almost choked from anger when he heard that.

In the end, Lin Yun throughly lost his patience.

“Syudos!”

“Sir, I’ll immediately focus my mind!” The Draconic Beastman knew that things were taking a sharp turn for the worse the instant the Upper Rank Flame Spirit appeared.

But it was too late…

“Syudos, take my place and tell this Highland Beastman what concentrating is!” After leaving these words, Lin Yun closed his eyes once again and entered deep meditation.

As for what happened next, no matter how loud the screams and wails of the Draconic Beastman were, Lin Yun simply didn’t care.

The next day, just after opening his eyes, Lin Yun saw the dying Draconic Beastman giving him a “please just end this” kind of look.

“Drink this.” Lin Yun shook his head and handed him a bottle of Health Potion. He watched Xiuban drink it, and just as he was about to ask about his progress, he felt the carriage coming to a stop.

“Merlin, finally!” Solomon’s voice echoed.

“Four Seasons Canyon?” Lin Yun opened the door to the carriage and saw a rugged and extremely narrow path. Only one person could go through at a time, and there were precipitous walls on both sides, as well as moist moss and wild weeds. It could be seen with one glance that this was a deserted place.

“Let’s go.” Solomon walked in front, following the rugged path towards the depths of the Four Seasons Canyon while telling Lin Yun, “Everyone’s troops arrived three days ago. They already established a camp in the Four Seasons Canyon and tried to explore a bit, but the situation is quite bad…”

“Ah?” Lin Yun frowned. He remembered that the Four Seasons Canyon was described as a desert… As long as they didn’t approach the Vaughn Laboratory, there wouldn’t be any danger, so why did Solomon’s words sound like there was a crisis?

“The magic beasts inside are very fierce. Level 17 and 18 magic beasts are everywhere, and there are also quite a few magic beasts above level 20…” Here, Solomon slowed down a bit. “Moreover, some plants underwent some mutations. They are very fierce and don’t differentiate between us and the magic beasts. Once they wrap around their targets, no one can escape…”

“Plants?” Lin Yun was startled…

‘What’s going on, magic beasts… And now plants? Is this the first major slip-up with my memory since I arrived? But how could it be such a big error…’

He clearly remembered that the Vaughn Laboratory was found about a thousand and seven hundred years later. At that time, alchemy was in its golden growth period. Figures that were important to the field of alchemy emerged one after the other. Just within the borders of Andlusa, four alchemists became Saint Alchemists, and they had no less than ten Artisans. The first person to break into the Vaughn Laboratory was an Artisan from Okland Magic School.

It was clearly written within the notes of that Artisan that the Vaughn Laboratory was a barren desert, without a single bit of green from north to south. The laboratory was buried under this desert and it took the creator and his team six months to dig it up.

‘Hold on… Time…’

As he thought of this, Lin Yun suddenly stopped.

‘It’s time!’

They were still 1,700 years away from that Artisan’s discovery. Something must have happened during that time to turn the Four Seasons Canyon filled with fierce magic beasts and mutated plants into a barren desert that buried the entire laboratory.