Chapter 74: Black Diamond

After coming out from the level certification hall, Lin Li locked himself in his room once again.

The duel with Cromwell would begin in a day’s time—he had a lot of things to prepare before it. As Old Grimm said, a truly powerful mage had to put an end to all accidents. Lin Li couldn’t prevent all accidents by himself with his strength, so he had to prepare some items for himself.

It was a must to wear the Robe of Wrath which could carry 30 scrolls and which he enchanted with magic resistance attributes using the abyss mithril gold rod. The space to carry 30 scrolls was a little unnecessary, but the magic resistance attribute was definitely what Lin Li needed. How could Lin Li have gotten away unharmed at Castellan Isaac’s banquet if he had not worn the Robe of Wrath?

After deciding on the mage robe, Lin Li fumbled about in the Ring of Endless Storm again.

But the result was embarrassing. Despite the extent he was rich to in the Endless World, he had forgotten to prepare a set of equipment for his mage smurf. The Robe of Wrath was the only thing he had.

So, Lin Li had to dig out the Winter Staff, which was the only equipment Andoine gave him. Although the tip of the staff was inlaid with a magical crystal from a level-eight Frost Troll, it was a handsome weapon for Lin Li, who had always loved ice spells.

“Eh!” Lin Li suddenly saw two familiar things when he took out the Winter Staff from the Ring of Endless Storm. It was a dirty canvas and a ring embedded with a black diamond.

Lin Li vaguely remembered that the two things should have been offered by the Leviathan Gorilla when he went to rescue Ina.

The dirty canvas was quickly thrown aside by Lin Li, for he couldn’t understand what was painted on it anyway, but he was delighted by the ring. This was something that carried a strong magical wave. When they found it in the tree hole of the Leviathan Gorilla, Lin Li knew that it was at least on the same level as his Robe of Wrath.

But after coming to Jarrosus City, he had no use for it at the time, and he also had no time to use it. So, he had actually forgotten about it in the long run…

Now that he had found it again, Lin Li decided to study it in detail.

He first tried to input mana into the ring to see if he could trigger the magic attributes of the ring itself. This was general knowledge Andoine had taught him. If he was unable to judge the use of a piece of magic equipment, the best way to find out was to input mana into it. Under the stimulus of the mana, most magic equipment would reveal its own attributes.

What Andoine had taught him was indeed true. Lin Li had just begun to input his mana into the ring when the black diamond inlaid on it began to emit a faint light. The light was strange—deep and dark—like the eyes of the legendary Abyssal Demon.

Lin Li’s confidence rose seeing there was a reaction from the ring.

He slowly began to increase the intensity of his mana output. It was a process that required patience. An overly intense mana output was likely to destroy rare magic equipment.

But very soon, Lin Li found that he was being too careful.

The intensity of mana output was constantly increasing, and the light coming out from the black diamond glowed brighter and brighter. But the true attribute of the ring was never revealed. Lin Li began to feel a little anxious. The increase of his mana output began to amplify from the previous caution to a subsequent full output.

But the strange ring remained the same…

“F*ck! What bird-crap stuff is this…” Lin Li knew his mana like the palm of his hand. At present, he was close to the maximum output of his mana. With such a massive influx of mana, even the most powerful magic equipment would be activated. How was it that this bird-crap ring had no response at all?

“Did I use the wrong method?” The method of mana input did not work, but Lin Li was not discouraged. After all, this was only one of the ways to judge the attributes of a magic equipment—it was just the most widely used method. Apart from this, there were many ways to activate equipment; some creators even deliberately placed traps on the magic equipment.

Lin Li gently held the ring inlaid with the black diamond in his hand and began his attempt to penetrate it with his mental strength. It was just like when he was forging the gold rod; he could establish a subtle connection with the ring with the penetration of his mental strength. Mental strength was a sensitive and delicate thing. Through the trace of mental strength, Lin Li could clearly grasp any situation that was in the ring.

Lin Li felt an anomaly the moment his mental spirit penetrated the black diamond.

It was a bizarre feeling, as if the trace of mental strength fully incarnated into Lin Li himself and that little black diamond had become the whole world.

The world in the black diamond was just like the deep, dark light it gave off, bearing a strong, peculiar aura. Lin Li was aware of the abnormality as soon as his mental strength seeped in. There was an endless gloom all around; it seemed that no trace of mental strength could escape the darkness. A powerful attraction force—chaotic and violent—poured in from all directions, as if to tear the thread of mental strength to pieces.

From the moment the powerful attraction force appeared, Lin Li knew he had done something stupid. The penetration of the mental strength was a very dangerous thing, not to mention doing it with a ring of unknown origin. If the mental strength was completely torn apart, even if he made great progress in magic in the future, it would not be able to make up for the flaw left behind in the mental strength.

However, it was too late to regret now. Under the pull of the powerful attraction force, he was unable to recall that trace of mental strength. Lin Li could only try to steady his mind and control the mental strength with caution. Shuttling swiftly through the darkness, his goal was the only glint of light in the endless darkness.

That glint of light was far ahead—faint and flickering but exceptionally brilliant in the endless darkness. The powerful attraction force was tearing in all directions, the darkness swept past, and every now and then, there were voices husky and deep, whispering and murmuring, and everything was as if in a dream.

And with these voices were all kinds of emotions—sadness, joy, laughter, and tears. These innumerable emotions seemed to pour into his mind all at once, and even with his sick mental strength, he almost collapsed in an instant.

After barely managing to steady his mind, Lin Li felt cold sweat breaking out all over his body. The pure mental attack was more frightening than a magic spell. It took only one careless move to plunge himself into a state of eternal damnation. At this point, he had begun to regret venturing to penetrate the black diamond with his mental strength.