Chapter 95: Chapter 84: Scarlet Thorns
“This is it, Wizard Lynn!”
Laud led Lynn to a sowhat dilapidated mansion in the southern district and stopped in front of it.
The mansion seed to have been abandoned for a long ti, its outer walls overgrown with ivy, wild weeds flourishing in the yard, and only a few withered trees standing alone, rustling when the wind blew.
Once inside, however, it was quite bustling, with a hundred or so people cramd into the not-so-large lobby. Lynn recognized them at a glance as the sailors who had crossed the sea with Laud.
However, having not seen them for over half a month, they looked even more bedraggled than when they had been adrift at sea for half a month.
Many of them were in disheveled clothes, their complexions pale, and so still bore traces of bandages. Several seriously injured sailors were even lying unconscious on stretchers.
“It’s Master Lynn!”
Upon seeing Lynn, the sailors imdiately surrounded him excitedly, but Laud quickly intervened.
“Everyone, calm down for a bit, I still have matters to discuss with Wizard Lynn!” After Laud had dispersed the crowd, he turned back to Lynn and said,
“Please follow !”
Lynn surveyed the people around him briefly, said nothing, and directly followed Laud into the inner room.
It was a reception room, dilapidated on the outside but very clean inside, with tables and chairs wiped spotless.
“What news do you have to speak of now?” Lynn sat down on one of the chairs and asked straightforwardly.
“Just this afternoon, one of my sailors discerned a suspicious Wizard Apprentice near the residence of ‘Dark Physician’ Radak,” said Laud, “I believe it is very likely that he was the one who attacked that halfling nad Ralph…”
Laud described in detail that the Wizard Apprentice was dressed in a black robe, about thirty-four or thirty-five years old, roughly 1.7 ters tall, and walked with a limp, probably due to a leg injury, with the hem of his robe showing slight signs of acid corrosion.
Was it because he was too close, so while using “Corrosion Skill” to kill Ralph, he also injured himself?
Lynn pondered; a mistake like this was not inexplicable for an apprentice.
“Furthermore, it is very likely that he is a mber of the ‘Crimson Thorn,'” Laud hesitated as he spoke.
“Crimson Thorn?” Lynn paused. If he rembered correctly, that was a very peculiar Magic Potion requiring a large amount of fresh blood to bloom its most splendid flowers.
But obviously, Laud was not referring to a Magic Potion.
“I heard that within ‘Crimson Thorn,’ an influential figure is willing to pay five hundred Magic Gold Coins for your airship designs, by any ans necessary,” Laud said in a low voice.
“Who?” Lynn’s gaze sharpened, then he coldly asked, “How did you co by this information?”
“I gathered it from so well-inford ‘Whistles’… As to which Wizard ordered it, I am not entirely sure,” Laud shook his head.
“So what exactly is this ‘Crimson Thorn’?” Lynn leaned back in his chair and pondered for a while before abruptly asking.
What puzzled him more was that if they wanted the airship designs, why had they not approached him to discuss and purchase them outright?
Upon reflection, Lynn developed a guess. To him, the technology of the airship was trivial, but others might not see it that way.
In a certain sense, this thing was a strategic weapon of significant impact, a gem hidden away in any Alchemy Workshop, symbolizing a continuous stream of wealth. Normally, no one would easily sell it.
Even before he developed the internal combustion engine, he had no plans to sell the airship.
Facing Lynn’s inquiry, Laud hastily began to explain. “Scarlet Thorn” was an organization ford by nurous Wizard Apprentices who had no hope of advancing, deeply connected to many alchemy workshops.
Rumors suggested that as long as one contributed enough, “Scarlet Thorn” could ensure anyone beca a full-fledged Wizard with absolute certainty!
Upon hearing this, Lynn’s face inevitably showed so emotion.
From the intelligence he had gathered these days at the Iyeta Academy, a person’s magic talent greatly determined whether they could beco an official Wizard.
For instance, Wizard Apprentices at Iyeta Academy who hadn’t completed their studies by the age of thirty were deed to lack magic talent, with nearly no chance of a breakthrough in their lifeti.
Even those who completed their studies and managed to flood their bodies with Magic Power, the success rate of advancing after consuming “Magic Source” wasn’t a hundred percent; usually, only about forty percent of the apprentices successfully beca official Wizards.
The layers of selection were understandably difficult.
If Scarlet Thorn truly claid it could make anyone a Wizard, it’s little wonder it attracted so many mbers, unless they were lying.
However, having seen the so-called defective products, Lynn wasn’t naïve enough to think this was a normal thod; otherwise, it would have beco mainstream long ago.
The Magic Council always advocated advancing by using “Magic Source,” at least causing no side effects, as evidenced by the many apprentices who remained healthy and active after consuming Magic Potion.
“Then do you know what they want my airship for?” Lynn’s fingers tapped intermittently on the armrest of the chair.
Such a large object couldn’t be hidden forever once used, and Lynn would find out sooner or later, especially since these days he had been preparing to apply for a patent at the Alchemy Association. Even if soone else got the blueprints, it wouldn’t help them much.
Unless they weren’t planning on using it openly…
After conducting a flying experint yesterday afternoon, it wasn’t long before the other party expressed a desire to obtain the blueprints, indicating an urgent need for an airship for so purpose.
“I’m not sure about that, probably only the inside mbers of the Scarlet Thorn would know,” Laud said sowhat helplessly as he shook his head.
“So, one last question. Why did you specifically co to tell this information? What do you hope to get?” Lynn stood up and stared at Laud in front of him, he asked.
Laud’s expression changed repeatedly, swallowing down countless words before ultimately responding with a wry smile.
“Actually, we’re just seeking a way to survive,” he said.
“I rember when we crossed the sea, didn’t you bring along three hundred n?” Lynn asked curiously. He rembered that these sailors were all strong young n, yet in less than half a month, they had almost turned into a group of refugees.
Even odd jobs shouldn’t have brought them down to such a state.
“You probably don’t understand, Wizard Land is not like the outside world,” Laud sighed. “What we have the most here is people, or should I say, our magic-less poor…”
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