Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Gu Ying could no longer treat Mo Fan the same way. She always thought the fawn in her heart had died around eight years ago after slamming its head into the banister called reality. She did not expect it to come back to life and keep jumping up and down in her heart!

‘I’m sorry, we…we all thought you were just a Basic…” Gu Ying finally blurted out after some time.

“It’s fine, but we are quite fateful. We are on the same team again,” Mo Fan said.

Big Nose and the Earth Mage were already regretting their decision after hearing the words ‘same team’. Why did they kick him out of the party over the negligible cut to their profits? They simply had an urge to die right on the spot!

Luckily, Mo Fan was not bothered by their actions.

Lingling had hired a lot of Hunters. There were seventy-two people, according to Yang Ning’s report. The Hunters were still discussing things loudly, since it was extremely rare to see such a young Seven Star Hunter Master. Some were still confirming Mo Fan’s information repeatedly.

“My Heavens, how did he complete S-Rank Quests? They even had an international reward pool…” a few Advanced Hunters were whispering softly, but their soft voices could not hide their astonishment.

“He might be lucky if it was only one, but there are two S-Rank Quests on the list, and another one is confidential!” the leader of Cangjin Hunter Group, Lan Jin, pointed out.

“Oh wow, he’s the one that resolved the Drowning Curse. I am from Dalian. The Drowning Curse was a hot topic at our place. They kept saying the victims were sacrifices offered to the King of Sea. Even Senior Hunters tried looking for the reason behind it, but they couldn’t find anything!”

Not many people in China had heard about the reward pool for the Tear of Medusa, but the Hunters that were active along the coastline had heard about the Drowning Curse. They did not expect the young man to be the one that had completed the international S-Rank Quest!

Yang Ning stood beside Mo Fan and said to the teams, “Let’s sit down. I will explain the quest in detail. It’s a little complicated, so it might take some time.”

The Hunters immediately fell silent. After all, they were still professionals, and their discipline was only second to soldiers. Otherwise, they would not have been hired for the quest.

However, not only were the members of the Foehn Hunter Squad restless, Lu Zhuo and Li Yumei were feeling uneasy too, judging from their expressions.

The news was like a crash of thunder from a clear sky to Li Yumei!

“What are you waiting for? Go apologize now, do you want to get kicked out of the team?” Lu Zhuo nudged Li Yumei.

This Li Yumei was seriously a troublemaker. They would not be in this situation if she had not gone and displayed her superiority as a senior. Lu Zhuo even had the urge to slap himself on the face when he recalled what he had said. He was planning to befriend the Seven Star Hunter Master, yet he already messed up right at the beginning!

“Master, master, I…I was as blind as a bat. I hope you don’t mind what I said,” Li Yumei said with a forced smile.

Mo Fan was amused when he saw her reaction. He quickly put on airs.”Have you forgotten what you said?”

Seriously, people in every field liked to act superior in front of their juniors, as if they had been through a lot of hardships to get to where they were at now, hence their juniors were obliged to run errands for them…

“I didn’t forget, I didn’t forget, I’ll go brew the tea right away,” Li Yumei could not have cared less about embarrassing herself anymore. She quickly went inside the teahouse.

Li Yumei was still hoping to earn enough Contribution Points to be promoted to a Hunter Master!

“If a rookie is willing to run errands, it’s a way for them to pay their respect to their seniors, but it doesn’t mean it is their duty. The seniors shouldn’t treat these rookies as their slaves either… What’s with all these practices?” Mo Fan said when he saw the others gloating.

Mo Fan remembered the time when he first joined a Hunter Group as a rookie. Back then, Xu Dahuang and Fei Shi had never forced him to run errands for them. These so-called unspoken rules were tightly related to a person’s character. Those that lacked morals enjoyed feeling superior to others, so they enjoyed ordering their juniors around!

“The Hunter Master is right!”

Many Advanced Hunters had been hired for the quest. They were also rookies once, and were ordered around by old Hunters. Those with a good moral center would show understanding and not treat their juniors the same way. Others would learn from their seniors and waited until they could finally do the same to their juniors.

“Alright, let’s get down to business. Our job is mainly about the Salamander Demons! You should understand the situation by now; the Thousand Islands Lake is crawling with the Salamander Demons. If we don’t get rid of them soon, the Thousand Islands Lake will soon be taken over by a horde. I have an agreement with Councilman Jiang Xia. I will help him resolve the problem, and your job is to find the mated pair that are breeding the Salamander Demons and help me eliminate them!” Mo Fan said.

Mo Fan briefly explained how the Salamander Demons were reproducing to the teams.

A few Advanced Hunters were intrigued when they heard the information. They had always thought the Salamander Demons were breeding the normal way, considering how their numbers had increased rapidly in just a short period!

“As expected of a Seven Star Hunter Master, our group tried to find the reason behind their rapid reproduction, but we had no luck. However, you’ve found the reason so quickly!” Lu Zhuo quickly used the opportunity to flatter Mo Fan.

“Lu Zhuo, your group has seven members. Each of you will lead a group of Advanced Hunters. We will split into seven teams!” Mo Fan allocated the teams.

“Don’t worry, my team is full of elites. We will find where the Great Salamander Demons are hiding. Don’t you worry… however, the Great Salamander Demons are going to be tricky to deal with. You will have to be there in person,” Lu Zhuo said.

“Just report to me as soon as you locate them!” Mo Fan said.

“Will do, let’s move out.”

The teams were soon assigned their jobs. Every member of the Pancheng Hunter Group would lead a group of Advanced Hunters to search the remote areas of the Thousand Islands Lake.

Gu Ying came up to Mo Fan and asked, “Fan Mo, can…can you not let Li Yumei be our leader? She has only reached the Advanced Level recently. She can’t even use an Advanced Spell. We are assigned to search a dangerous area, too. Our safety isn’t guaranteed with her leading us!”

“Oh? I remember I only asked for Hunter Masters with at least two Elements in the Advanced Level!” Mo Fan looked at Yang Ning.

“A team might have abused their connections to bring her in. We don’t really have a good way to prevent it from happening, but you can reduce the reward accordingly when the job is done,” Yang Ning said helplessly.

“The unreliable ones always bring the most trouble. Forget it, I don’t mind as long as we can find the Great Salamander Demons. Let her be, I’m too lazy to deal with her,” Mo Fan said.

If he was to rebuke Lu Zhuo now, it might disrupt their plan. Mo Fan was willing to turn a blind eye to the freeloaders as long as they could finish their job.

“What about us?…” Gu Ying persisted.

“I will assign Li Yumei to another team. Your team must be very familiar with the Thousand Islands Lake if you can find the island surrounded by mountains. I’ll let my Summoned Beast follow you!” Mo Fan said.

Mo Fan summoned the Flying Creek Snow Wolf.

It had been some time since the Flying Creek Snow Wolf had some exercise. Even though he was helping his lackeys expand their territory in the Summoned Beast Plane, he normally let the Moon-Devouring White Wolves handle the fights. He did not have to do the dirty jobs, as he was the leader of the pack.

“Old wolf, you will follow Gu Ying and protect her team. Do you understand?” Mo Fan said.

The Flying Creek Snow Wolf was unwilling. Why was he not Summoned for an intense fight? Why did he have to look after a bunch of people instead?

“Stop howling. You only know how to hook up with female wolves in your den. Do you seriously think you are a breeder? Aren’t you worried about having weak kidneys? Do your job and stop complaining,” Mo Fan berated him mercilessly.

The Flying Creek Snow Wolf lost his noble bearing. He lowered his head and followed after Gu Ying.

The Flying Creek Snow Wolf left Minghu Outpost with the Foehn Hunter Squad. The members of the Foehn Hunter Squad noticed the Flying Creek Snow Wolf following behind them in low spirits when they reached the wild. He looked more like a sleepy aged dog instead of a guardian beast.

“Can we trust the wolf? I thought he would be following us himself. We can witness his strength as a Seven Star Hunter Master too, but he only sent his Summoned Beast. Is he looking down on us?” Big Nose grumbled.

“Big Nose, you should really keep your mouth shut. If it wasn’t for you, we might be on the same team with a Seven Star Hunter Master now. You are only making it difficult,” Zhong Li rebuked him, displeased.

Zhong Li and Gu Ying were friendly toward Mo Fan, and had parted ways without any hard feelings. The quest was a great opportunity for them. Even if Mo Fan was an aloof person, he would still give them special treatment, considering they were once his teammates…

“Why am I to be blamed for it? Who would even think a young guy like him is a Seven Star Hunter Master? I wonder what his real strength is. There’s no way I would believe he had earned the rank himself. I bet his partner must be very impressive!” Big Nose said.

“I think so too. His partner must be very impressive,” Xie Hao agreed.