Advent of the Archmage - Chapter 200

Chapter 200: The Start of All Mistakes

 

Morestern’s idea was simple.

He had noticed a few uninvited guests in Dorians’ underground palace. His plan was to hide in a safe place while this group of intruders fought Dorians. The best situation would be for both of them to be gravely injured, weakening their battle capabilities. He would then appear and reap all the benefits.

This was a perfect plan!

After casting a high-level Invisibility spell on himself, Morestern slowly crept into an alleyway in the underground palace. This was already his third time passing through his route. He clearly remembered the position of the two skeleton Warriors at the side of the alleyway and skillfully avoided them. Following which, he quickly reached the security hall.

The hall was extremely quiet as Dorians had returned to the depths of the underground palace. In the hall, the security beasts patrolled the area tirelessly, not giving anyone the opportunity to sneak into the palace.

“If the security beasts are still here, it means that they have yet to arrive in this area. Are they a group of cowards that would be discouraged by a minor setback?”　Morestern could not understand.

This was strange. A Magician who could cast such an exquisite and delicate concealing spell would definitely have a strong magic foundation. He must at least be a Level-5 Magician. Such people were usually resilient and ambitious; how could they have given up so easily?

“Perhaps I was too early…but that is not possible either. I left almost immediately. If the other party had not given up, they should already be in the palace…This is bad!” He gasped.

Morestern suddenly thought of another terrible possibility. While he had noticed the presence of his opponents, he had failed to consider that they could have noticed him as well. Similarly, while he had thought of reaping all the benefits without lifting a finger, his opponents also might have predicted his actions.

If this group of intruders was, in fact, waiting for me to enter this palace again…No, I have to get out immediately! Morestern started panicking.

Morestern was a strong and quick-witted Magician as well. In a moment of negligence, he had placed himself in danger. However, the moment he realized something was amiss, his instinctive reaction was to first ensure his safety.

Alas, it was a battle between powerful Magicians. One would lose the entire battle if even one small mistake was made. The possibility of a comeback was close to zero then.

At the moment when Morestern was prepared to leave, he saw a pale purple light ball charging straight towards him from the dark alleyway behind him.

A Level-4 dark magic spell, Shadow Decay! Morestern was shocked by this sudden attack and immediately cast a defensive spell in response. Three dark green light spheres then appeared and started spinning at high speed around his body. This then created transparent ripples which made use of the three light balls as nodal points to create a light dome.

Defensive Spell: Three-Sided Barrier

Level-4 spell

Cost: 410 Points.

Effect: Creates a strong barrier that can defend against physical, elemental and mystic attacks.

(Note: Morestern’s pride and joy)

Vance and Morestern were both Level-7 Magicians. In the current Firuman Continent, this was almost as powerful as one could get. Furthermore, they were both monsters who had lived for countless years. The moment they cast spells, it usually would not be a spell lower than Level-4. They could also cast all of them instantaneously, making them extremely formidable foes.

However, Morestern was once again caught off guard.

The Shadow Decay spell that Vance had cast made a sharp turn at the last moment and exploded in the alleyway behind Morestern.

A huge explosion sound could be heard, as the dark purple miasma dispersed in all directions.

Morestern was completely dumbfounded.

Hmm? The security beasts all stopped in their tracks and turned towards the door in the hall.

In that direction stood Morestern. While the Three Sided Barrier on his body was not emitting a strong glow, it was eye-catching enough in the dark underground chamber.

The security beasts immediately let out a wolf-like howl and charged towards Morestern. It was a terrifying sight to see over 30 Level-5 Warriors charging straight towards you. Despite Morestern being a Level-7 Voodoo Magician, he was slightly flustered.

He knew that his opponents were not merely these beasts. There was a strong dark Magician that was still hiding in the shadows. Furthermore, the magic swordsman Dorians would also prove to be quite troublesome.

“This is bad!” Morestern gasped. He realized he was caught in a trap.

He did not have much time to think. The security beasts were charging at top speed. He only had around one second to think of the best alternative before he would taste the wrath of their sharp claws and ferocious jaws. Morestern then raised his staff and pointed it towards these beasts, “Enhanced Cobweb!”

Enhanced Cobweb

Level-4 Spell

Cost: 290 Points

Effect: Creates an extremely adhesive cobweb. It is a very strong restrictive spell.

The web was flung towards the beasts much like a fisherman casting his net. It did not take much effort for Morestern to trap all the beasts in his restrictive spell. The accuracy and spellcasting speed was a true testament to Morestern’s strength as a Level-7 Magician.

This was indeed a powerful spell. Although it was only Level-4, its adhesive effects were incredible. Once someone was trapped in the web, the speed of their movements would be greatly reduced. It would be a miracle if anyone could move three feet forward within a second while under the effects of this spell.

Now that he was temporarily out of danger, Morestern heaved a sigh of relief. He did not continue his assault on the beasts as he was still wary of his opponents, who were still hiding in the shadows.

This was way too dangerous. He had to retreat.

As he retreated, Morestern remained extremely vigilant. As long as he felt a threat to his safety, he would immediately locate his opponent and cast his wide-ranged instantaneous Level-7 spell without hesitation. After around 30 feet, Morestern still could not locate his opponent. The Magician seemed to be like a phantom, disappearing right after they fired that Shadow Decay spell at him.

Damn it! This was their plan right from the start! To get me trapped! This was the thing Morestern was most worried about.

At that time, a ferocious roar came from the depths of the palace, “Who is the one making a ruckus in my palace!”

It was Dorians’ voice. This was followed by the sound of rapid and heavy footsteps. At the same time, the walls in the palace started glowing with a slight magical light, illuminating the area. There was now nowhere to hide.

Apart from that, the skeleton warriors who were lying dormant within the walls of the palace had also been awakened. Their eyes shone with a bloody sinister glow and, they walked out of the walls with swords in their hands, blocking Morestern’s path of retreat.

Furthermore, Morestern also realized that a ghostly blue hue was covering the exit of the underground palace. He knew from a glance that this was a Level-7 area sealing spell, Shadow Fortress. The appearance of this area sealing spell had pushed Morestern to his limits.

At that moment, Dorians appeared in the security hall. He was accompanied by Warriors clad in a black body armor who held a giant black axe in their hand.

They were Dorians’ prided Black Axe Fighters. The average strength of the Axe Fighters was Level-5. There was even a third of them who had reached Level-6!

If an army of such strength appeared in the Norton Kingdom, it would be enough to cause a huge ruckus. However, Dorians clearly did not want to be in the spotlight. His life goal was simple. He merely wanted to stay in the underground palace together with his vast wealth. Whoever dared to disrupt his peaceful life and riches would be his mortal enemy!

The moment he saw Morestern, he furiously bellowed, “Morestern, I did not think you would be the one! You despicable thief!”

“This is a misunderstanding; listen to me!” Morestern tried to explain.

“There is no misunderstanding! I only trust what I see. This time, you have angered me. Be prepared to taste my wrath!” A strong dark aura emanated from Dorians as he saw his security beasts being trapped in the cobweb.

He then raised the dark elemental sword in his hand and pointed it accusingly at Morestern, “Warriors, slice him to bits!”

Gwwahhhh! The Axe Fighters roared and charged towards Morestern. They adopted a dispersed formation to reduce their susceptibility to spells.

“Damn savages!” Morestern was enraged as well. He knew that explaining himself would be futile now. He could only depend on his own strength.

He raised his staff and waited till the Axe Fighters reached the golden distance for his spellcasting range before he shouted, “Corrosive Nova!”

Corrosive Nova

Level-7 spell

Cost: 3200 Points

Effect: With the caster as the center of the spell, this releases three bursts of extremely corrosive energy within one second. This spell has a certain impact to it and can blow off any obstacles it encounters along the way.

(Note: Morestern’s killer spell!)

The spell was not one that was exceptionally flashy. Three green, light circles emerged from Morestern and gradually expanded in all directions.

However, the offensive power of this spell was insane.

With Morestern as the center of the destruction, everything within a 180 feet radius was immediately blown in all directions. As the targets were in mid-air, they would be corroded and disintegrated by the corrosive power of the spell. By the time they reached the ground, they would already be reduced to a pile of white dust.

The skeleton warriors and the security beasts were the first to suffer direct annihilation. The Black Axe Fighters then followed, as the spell instantly destroyed over 30 of them. The remaining ten over Axe Fighters had noticed something was amiss and immediately retreated, narrowly escaping death.

As the three corrosive magical waves subsided, Morestern looked at the piles of white dust on the floor with pride. He then stared coldly at Dorians, “Warrior, do you really think you are strong? You are nothing more than ants in my eyes.”

Dorians was indeed shocked at this outburst of offensive power. He was glad that he did not charge forward impulsively. However, he then laughed, “How many Level-7 spells can you cast? I am sure you are almost out of mana points by now.”

As he sniggered, he commanded the remaining ten Axe Fighters, “Kill him!”

The Black Axe Fighters charged forward without a shred of fear in their hearts.

Dorians did not attack. He merely went back to the depths of the palace. He was not retreating but calling out his triumph card. The most terrifying force in this palace was not Dorians, nor was it the Black Axe Fighter. It was something that usually hid itself in the depths of the underground palace—an extremely powerful being that Dorians could never hope to match up to.

As he left, Dorians took a good look at the powerful Magician as he whispered, “Morestern, prepare to meet your death!”

Morestern gritted his teeth as he looked behind him. The area sealing spell, Shadow Fortress was still present. It had only been slightly weakened by the offensive power of the Corrosive Nova spell, causing the light to dim a little.

He also had no time to be concerned over the spell. The Black Axe Warriors were now only 90 feet away and were about to release their Battle Aura.

Morestern cursed, “Damn! That’s too many things to deal with.”

Under the effects of the Shadow Fortress, he was unable to use his transportation spells. It seemed like he was destined to stay behind.

However, Morestern still had the pride of a Level-7 Magician. Despite knowing that it was the end, he did not give up.

Twenty Black Axe Fighters would not be enough to defeat me.

As this thought flashed through his mind, the fastest three Black Axe Fighters had already started charging towards him. They also raised the giant axes in their hands which were now enveloped in a black aura. They seemed to be putting in all their power into this attack.

Morestern was prepared. He immediately pointed his staff at his attackers and hollered, “Get out!”

Level-4 spell, Single-Directional Blast!

A huge force exploded right in front of the three Black Axe Fighters. The timing of this spell was also perfect, exploding at the time when the fighters were at the peak of their charging speed, which incidentally, was also when their sense of balance was at their worst.

They were immediately flung in the opposite direction as the Battle Aura from their axes exploded towards the ceiling. That was not all. While they were flung backwards, they also crashed into many of their other comrades, hitting ten other fighters along the way.

As a Level-7 Voodoo Magician, Morestern was adept at cursing others from the shadows. However, this did not mean that his combat skills were to be trifled with. After all, he had lived for hundreds of years and had developed many Supreme Magic Skills. He would not be an easy foe even in direct combat.

“What a bunch of dumb savages!” Morestern said as he stared at the tumbling Black Axe Fighters. He then started putting all his focus into destroying these muscle-minded creatures.

Outside the underground palace, Vance could be seen retreating right after casting that Shadow Decay spell.

As the three of them felt the strong magical fluctuations coming from the underground palace, they looked at each other in awe.

“This Voodoo Magician is really powerful!” Link commented.

“A bit on the dumb side though,” Celine laughed.

“He is actually a very intelligent person. He merely made one mistake. However, if he is still getting entangled with Dorians’ Warriors, then he would have made a second mistake.” Vance smiled as he rubbed his chin with his slender skeletal fingers.

“Why do you say so?” Link was curious.

Vance gloated, “Apart from the security beasts, there is also a magic puppet in my underground palace. In order to create this puppet, I spent nearly 20 years and an insane amount of materials. In essence, it is a perfect combat machine. Even I will not be able to defeat it.”

Link and Celine stared at each other as they mourned for Morestern in silence.

Chapter 201: The Invincible Magic Puppet (Part 1)

 

Thud!

The last of the axe-wielding Warriors finally fell. He was dead before he even hit the ground. Morestern heaved a long sigh of relief and reached his hand out to pull down the hood of his tattered cloak. Just then, a bone cracked and the body that had been attacked by the axe of a Warrior earlier almost collapsed to the ground.

“Ah, it’s time to find a new body,” said Morestern.

This wouldn’t be a big problem to him though, as he had killed almost all of Dorians’ men. Once he got out of here, he’d just find a safe place to rest for a while then come back once he’d recovered slightly and kill Dorians. Then, the underground palace would be his.

This turned out to be quite out of my expectations, Morestern thought.

He looked around at the corpses strewn all across the ground and couldn’t help but feel proud of himself. He hadn’t been out for hundreds of years; who would’ve thought that he’d still be on top of his game?

After a short rest, Morestern then walked towards the exit and was prepared to get out of the underground palace. The Shadow Fortress was still active, but it wouldn’t be any problem for him to cancel it now, as there wouldn’t be anyone else in here to pose any threat to him.

The Mana in his body was close to depleted now, so Morestern took out a bottle of fluorescent potion and swallowed it in one gulp. It was a high-level Mana potion which was highly effective in replenishing a body that was almost out of Mana back to its full capacity. He then lifted his wand and directed the Mana towards the skeleton at the tip of his wand and caused a huge Mana fluctuation to appear in the passageway.

Morestern was about to use the remaining Mana in his body to cast the Level-7 attacking spell in his wand to deactivate the Shadow Fortress. But just as the spellcasting process reached halfway, a thought emerged in Morestern’s mind which made him pause.

If those people who were lying in wait for me are outside, he thought, then wouldn’t it be suicide for me to use the Level-7 spell now?

Once he thought about it, Morestern gritted his teeth and decided to sit down inside here instead of going out. He knew that there were three people waiting to attack him, and one of them was a powerful dark magic Magician who was actually inside this underground palace. Meanwhile, Dorians’ underlings had all been eliminated, so there was only Dorians left to deal with.

His body was weak now, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to fight Dorians. The best plan for him was to just wait here quietly and recover his strength and not arouse Dorians’ suspicion so he wouldn’t come out.

As he thought of this, Morestern closed his eyes and entered into a half-conscious meditative state to accelerate his body’s healing rate.

But just then, he heard footsteps coming from the depths of the underground palace.

Tap… tap… tap…

The footsteps were light and regular, and they didn’t sound that fast.

Morestern was naturally stunned. He opened his eyes immediately and saw a skinny figure walk out of the big entrance. The shadowy figure was about five feet and six inches tall. The figure’s silhouette seemed quite slim and feminine; the only pity was that her chest was too flat. Morestern could now discern that she was wearing a long dress that was covered in shiny scales, while in her hand she was holding a four-foot-long sword. When he looked at her face again she noticed that her skin was as smooth and fair as porcelain, and her features almost flawless. The dark black eyes shone with beguiling charm… ah, this was indeed a true beauty!

“You are…?” Morestern asked in a daze.

He wasn’t one to be so easily fooled by someone’s outward appearances, of course. This young woman in front of him was indeed beautiful, but strangely enough, he couldn’t sense any Life Aura from her at all. Neither did her body emit a Mana fluctuation. In other words, she was no different from a non-living lump of rock.

The young woman’s face showed no trace of emotion as she walked towards Morestern in her neither-fast-nor-slow pace. Once she was about 160 feet away from him, she suddenly spoke up.

“Target: Voodoo Magician. Height: five feet, eight inches. Body weight: 150 pounds. Strengths: secret spells. Threat level: two stars.”

“…?” Morestern didn’t catch all of what she said and just sat there dumbstruck by it all. Still, he was prepared to unleash an attack the moment he was sure this young woman was going to be a threat to him.

He activated a three-phase barrier, then lifted his wand and pointed it towards the young woman and chanted, “Elemental Collapse!”

A water-like translucent sheet of Mana then shot towards the strange young woman.

Ding!

The body of the young woman suddenly became blurred, and she bent backwards until her body was almost horizontal as she escaped the attacks of the Elemental Collapse with unimaginable speed.

She can’t be that fast! Morestern thought, although he didn’t seem to panic at all. If this woman could dodge an attack from a focused-range spell, then how about trying to dodge his wide-range attack?

“Spiderweb!” Morestern decided to slowly toss the web this time just to gauge her speed.

The moment the white light of the spell appeared, Morestern suddenly discovered that the young woman disappeared!

“Where did she go?” remarked the flummoxed Morestern.

Then, he felt a cool sensation on his forehead as if something cold was piercing through his skull. At the last moment, he saw the beautiful face of the young woman right in front of him. The last image he saw in his mind was that of those clear, charming eyes of hers.

How is this possible? Why didn’t my protective barrier work?

Those were the last thoughts in Morestern’s head. He was dead immediately afterwards, and the Spiderweb that he cast collapsed with him.

“Mission completed. Threat eliminated,” said the young woman. Her voice was as pure and innocent as a lark’s. She then turned around and walked back into the underground palace.

Tap… tap… tap…

She kept a leisurely pace as she walked, as if she was just enjoying an afternoon stroll in the park.

Ba-dump!

Morestern’s body slumped to the ground. He was dead, dead at the hands of a nameless opponent.

…

Outside the underground palace.

“Morestern is dead,” Vance suddenly said. He had been following the situation inside the underground palace closely all along.

He’d left several detecting runes inside earlier, and these runes were telling him that the powerful Level-7 Voodoo Magician’s Life Aura had been completely extinguished.

“Was he killed by the magic puppet?” asked Link.

Vance nodded his head. “I think so,” he said. “If these runes aren’t mistaken, there should only be two fighters left in the underground palace. One is Dorians, and the other is the magic puppet.”

“Can we storm inside now?” asked Celine.

“Any time now,” answered Vance. Vance glanced at the direction of the underground palace and saw that Morestern’s Shadow Fortress was still there. “It takes Mana energy to sustain the Shadow Fortress. Now that Morestern’s dead it should collapse soon. We should wait here for a while.”

Link took the opportunity to ask Vance a question that had been bugging his mind.

“The magic puppet of yours seems quite powerful,” he said. “Tell me more about it.”

“Well, of course she’s powerful!” exclaimed Vance with visible pride in his expressions. “She’s called Nana. Her body was made with Gibb’s Gold which can withstand extremely high and low temperatures. She’s as close to indestructible as is physically possible. The magic seal on her body was made with thorium gold which is the best Mana conductor in the world. I’d also put 1028 units of Solon memory magic seal in her brain so she could learn from combat experience and evolve so she must’ve gotten stronger….”

“Wait, wait, wait a second,” interjected Celine. “I didn’t get most of what you just said there. Can’t you use plainer words?”

“Alright, then,” said Vance. “There are two things that are her strongest points. Firstly, her speed, her extreme speed. She usually likes to walk at a strolling pace, but when she needs to, she can accelerate her speed up to an explosive point and move at a quarter mile per second.”

Celine gulped at the revelation. She was now a Level-6 Warrior and could be considered as one of the best Warriors on the continent. But even if she were to spread out her wings and dive down from the sky, her speed couldn’t be any faster than a tenth of a mile per second. That meant that she was still four times slower than Nana!

Even Link was stunned and incredulous.

“But that’s faster than the speed of sound!” he exclaimed. “Are you sure you didn’t exaggerate this?”

“I did no such thing!” said Vance, looking even more proud of his creation now. “In fact, that was her speed 400 years ago! Don’t forget that Nana can improve and evolve, so to be frank, even I’m not sure how far she’s advanced now. Which is why I must remind you, Celine, that you must only be on the defensive with her, never attempt to attack her!”

Celine rolled her eyes at the Lich’s remarks. She’s not so foolish or insane to ever attempt to attack a monster with such a speed. Not unless she wanted to die, anyway!

“What’s her second strength, then?” asked Link.

“Her second greatest strength was attacking the opponent’s weakest point,” said Vance. For fear that the two couldn’t understand the technical terms, Vance used his bony finger to draw a very simple magic seal on the ground.

“Look at this,” he said. “This is the Level-0 defensive spell, Basic Shield. When the spell is cast, a light shield will appear around the caster’s body. Isn’t that right?”

Both of them nodded their heads.

“Viewed on the surface,” continued Vance, “this light shield seems smooth and uniform, but in truth, there will be some points on the shield where it is much weaker than the other points…Do you follow?”

Celine frowned as she couldn’t understand much of it. Her knowledge in spell foundation was not her strongest suits. Link, on the other hand, nodded keenly, although his brows were still furrowed.

“The points of different strengths do indeed exist,” he said, “but they are usually unstable and don’t exist for long. Every weak point can only last for as long as ten microseconds. How can Nana ever utilize this point?”

Vance nodded his head at Link’s question.

“The fact that her speed can reach a quarter of a mile per second,” he began to explain, “proves that she has an extremely fast reaction speed. In truth, 400 years ago, her reaction speed had reached 0.002 seconds. In other words, two microseconds.”

“That fast?” asked Link, completely astounded.

After coming to this world, Link’s most powerful advantage had been his terrifying thinking speed. He’d once measured that his limit was around one microsecond, and he couldn’t sustain that kind of thinking speed for longer than two seconds. Yet now, he’d met a human-made puppet whose reaction time was almost as fast as his own! He must concede at this point that Vance truly was a genius who should be very proud of his inventions.

“Link,” said Celine, “I think I’m a little frightened by this.” Although she didn’t actually understand the specifics of this puppet’s strengths, she still felt that the reaction speed of two microseconds and the moving speed of a quarter of a mile per hour were just too staggering to think of.

She would have no hope to fight against or even defend herself against someone with such speed. She might even get killed within a second and not even know what hit her!

“Don’t worry,” said Link after thinking about it for a moment. “I’ll protect you from behind.”

There were three of them, and one of them was a Level-7, thousand-year-old Lich who was also the magic puppet’s creator. There was no reason why they couldn’t defeat a single magic puppet, was there? Link’s own reaction time was also dangerously quick too, so he should be able to protect Celine without a problem.

“Alright, then,” said Celine. She knew that Link would never give her empty promises, so now that he’d given her his word, she was finally relieved.

Just then, the faint blue light in the underground palace flashed ever so slightly—the Shadow Fortress had collapsed.

“It’s time,” said Vance. “Let’s go.”

Once again, Vance cast Traceless on all three of them and led the other two into the underground palace. Celine gripped at her blue crystal sword tightly and followed behind the Lich closely. Link was the last one to enter behind Celine. All three were highly focused as they prepared to fight against the invincible magic puppet.

Chapter 202: The Invincible Magic Puppet (Part 2)

 

Underground Palace.

After walking for around 150 feet, they saw a body on the ground which had its arms severed.

“It’s Morestern.” Vance whispered.

Celine quickly squatted down to observe the injuries on the Voodoo Magician’s body. After glacing up and down, she could not help but gasp, “What fast attacking speed!”

From the shape and depth of the wound on Morestern’s forehead, Celine, who was a swordsman, could accurately determine the terrifying attacking speed of the magic puppet. It was a level that she could only hope to reach.

Meanwhile, Vance and Link were observing the magic traces left on the scene.

Vance pinched the piles of white dust on the ground and cooed, “This old guy seemed to have cast a Corrosive Nova spell before he died. From the residual magic fluctuations, this spell was released extremely quickly. I estimate the total casting time to be only around 0.2 seconds. The Dark Arbiter is really a powerful wand.”

Link pointed to a set of footprints on the side and said, “This small footprint was probably left by the magic puppet.”

Vance looked over and nodded. “That’s right. Nana’s image is that of a 17-year-old girl…Don’t think of it that way! The only reason why I used this image was to bewitch the opponents!”

Link shrugged his shoulders and decided not to comment on that decision. He continued to observe the traces on the ground. After a few minutes, he said, “After the magic puppet killed Morestern, she left immediately. After around half a minute, Dorians appeared again. He came right over here…This should be the place where the wand was. He picked it up and left.”

Link then switched an angle to view the traces as he continued, “From the footprints on the ground, there were two outbursts of power. The first one was here, where the puppet moved horizontally for three feet, and her attack was dodged; one Elemental Disintegration spell was released. She then started fighting back.”

Link spoke as though he had witnessed the battle scene first hand, explaining along the way. Link then walked up beside Morestern’s body. He saw a white gelatinous substance and dabbed his finger in it. After taking a sniff, he continued, “When the magic puppet retaliated, Morestern was just about to release the Cobweb spell. Vance, how fast do you reckon Morestern actually needs to cast this spell?”

Vance knew that Link was estimating the power of the magic puppet and was hence willing to cooperate. He observed the white substance and said, “I have seen him cast this spell once. He was extremely fast. This level of completion should have taken less than 0.1 seconds.”

“Less than 0.1 seconds? That is too vague. I need it to be more specific,” Link pressed.

Vance thought back on what he saw and reported an accurate number, “0.08 seconds should be about right.”

Link then measured the distance between the two outbursts of power and frowned. He then said, “The distance between the two footprints is 150 feet. If the magic puppet had attacked while Morestern was casting the spell, her speed could be estimated to be at a terrifying 2000 feet per second. Vance, you were totally right, this magic puppet has evolved greatly.”

Celine was horrified, “If we consider the starting step and the landing action, her top speed would be much greater than 2000 feet per second. This is insane!”

This outburst of energy was comparable to a short distance teleportation spell.

Vance gave a bitter smile and said, “Nana seems to have exceeded my expectations. What do we do now?”

Vance was not confident in going against such fast reaction and attacking speed. He would be courting death! Not to mention how embarrassing it actually was to be defeated at the hands of his own creation.

Celine turned to look at Link.

Link stayed silent. From the current data they had, he quickly calculated the power limit of the magic puppet. After around three minutes, he said, “It will be a bit tough, but we still stand a chance. For example, when traveling at such a high speed, she will not be able to change directions. This can be seen from the battle traces.”

To change directions while traveling at 2000 feet per second would generate a huge centripetal force that would put great pressure on the magic puppet’s body. Even if her body were hardy enough to withstand such pressure, the ground beneath her feet wouldn’t be able to provide enough friction to make the direction change. This was not merely dependent on the power of the magic puppet, but also the environmental restrictions.

He looked at Celine and said, “Give me the bracelet; I have to make some alterations to this spell.”

The bracelet contained a Level-5 Crimson Edelweiss spell. As the creator of this spell, Link naturally had a good understanding of this spell. He was extremely clear that this spell also contained a magic inflection point which would last around 0.06 seconds. This was sufficient time for the magic puppet to deliver a fatal blow. In order to ensure Celine’s safety, he had to compress the duration of the magic inflection point to within 0.01 seconds.

Celine handed her defensive bracelet over to Link. Link then sat down on a piece of rubble and took out the best material he had brought with him, the Fire Star Thorium, before he started to replace the ordinary Thorium in the bracelet with this high-quality material. The process was extremely fast and could be done with a simple replacement spell. It merely took ten minutes. Following which, Link used a Higgs Field spell to carefully repair the tiny flaws in the bracelet. As time was tight previously, he did not polish this bracelet to his usual standards. He originally thought that no one in the world would be able to take advantage of such minor flaws. However, now that this puppet had appeared, he would have to defend against it.

The entire bracelet had around five flaws. Although they were all inconspicuous alone, their effects would stack and render the eventual Crimson Edelweiss spell imperfect. Ordinary people would not be able to feel any difference between the two. However, a strong Magician would be able to tell simply from the magic fluctuations that was emanating from the bracelet.

After Link completely refined the bracelet, Vance, who was observing the whole time, could not help but applaud, “This bracelet is beautiful!”

Link smiled and put the bracelet on Celine’s wrist. The previous bracelet he gave Celine was around the same quality as the Dragon’s bracelet he gave Eleanor. However, the quality of the bracelet now was much higher than that.

“Now, I do not have to worry about the magic puppet breaking through the magic inflection point,” Link mentioned as he held Celine’s smooth and soft hands. Link did not wish to let go of it as he caressed it gently.

Celine merely smiled and did not pull her hand back.

Link then turned towards Vance while holding her hand. “Instant spellcasting requires complete focus. There can be no distractions in your heart nor any fluctuations in mood. Only then can flawless spells be released.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Vance rubbed his smooth skull and suddenly lacked confidence. It was simply enough for a thousand-year-old monster like himself to feel no distractions in his heart. However, for one to have no fluctuations in mood…As long as one was still alive, that would be almost impossible to do during combat! This request was fundamentally anti-human!

Now that the preparations had been done, the success of their mission would depend entirely on their reaction on the spot.

“Alright, let’s enter.”

The three of them progressed forward.

As they passed through the security hall, a long and winding corridor appeared. There were magnificent statues on both sides of the corridor, and the ground was made entirely of black jade. It was a sight to behold.

“This is what an underground palace should feel like,” Link said with a smile.

“This is merely the beginning,” Vance spoke with pride.

As they walked along the corridor, they could feel that they were walking along a slight upwards slope which brought them higher towards ground level. After two whole rounds, a huge copper door appeared right in front of them. The door was at least 30 feet in height and 24 feet wide. Glorious scenes where the God of Light created the world were inscribed on both sides of the door, giving the door an intense historical and epic presence.

Celine was pleasantly surprised at the sight, as she stared at Vance once more. “I did not think that you had such good taste.”

Link agreed.

Vance felt extremely satisfied.

The door was left ajar, and they passed through it without any obstructions. Behind the door, was an extremely spacious hall that was more than 2000 square feet. The ground was carved out of obsidian, and in order to maintain the stability of the hall, 20 thick pillars each the width of two adults were built. Similarly, intricate statues were carved into each of these statues for aesthetic purposes.

The three of them progressed, using the pillars as cover. After around 60 feet, they heard voices in front of them.

“Master, is this fine?”

From the voice, one could easily tell that it was magic swordsman Dorians.

But wasn’t he the master of the underground palace? How could there be another one? Who exactly was this master? The three of them were puzzled.

At that moment, a crisp voice sounded.

“Joint magic rune lubricated level 89%, beneath expectations. Number two, restart!”

“Yes, Master.” Dorians voice once again sounded as brushing sounds followed.

As they listened to the conversation, an incredulous look overcame all of their faces. They had gotten it wrong the whole time. Dorians was never the master of this palace. This true master of the palace was the magic puppet, while Dorians was merely her servant. It suddenly all made sense. How could Dorians face a Level-7 Magician without any fear, and why he would be such a cheapskate and be willing to stay in this palace despite being a strong magic swordsman?

The thing that was keeping him here was not the wealth, but the magic puppet!

Link then looked at Vance. “Nana is your creation. Why is it not listening to you?”

Vance helplessly laid out his hands and said, “I have no idea as well. Four hundred years ago, Nana was merely a magic puppet that I created. How could I know that things would turn out like this?”

“Then, can you still give her an order?” Link asked.

Celine also looked at Vance expectantly. As long as there was a chance for her to avoid battling with this magic puppet, she would take it.

Vance said regrettably. “I’m afraid not. I don’t look like who I was 400 years ago at all. Furthermore, before I was imprisoned, I had set Nana into a state of slumber. Now that she has awakened, I’m afraid that something must have happened.”

Four hundred years was a long time. It was true that many things could have changed.

Link took a deep breath before saying, “Then I guess there is no other way. Let’s do this. I will commence the ambush while Celine helps me defend against any unprecedented attacks.”

“Got it.” Celine stood in front of Link as she spoke with resolve.

Link then started concentrating his mana. He was about to cast the Level-6 Titan’s Hand spell.

Link could cast the spell in 0.5 seconds. This was already considered an extremely fast speed. However, the moment he started concentrating mana, the magic fluctuations broke through the veil of their concealing spell. Nana’s voice then echoed through the hall.

“Intruder alert! Threat level: 3 stars!”

Following which, a young girl with an exquisite appearance and huge, clear eyes appeared.

Celine was extremely cautious of Nana. The moment she saw Nana, she instinctively activated her Level-6 bloodline spell, Obsidian Shield. This spell was extremely special, as it would not interfere with other spells that were being cast at the same time. Furthermore, it could also be activated instantly. After activating this spell, Celine then triggered the Crimson Edelweiss spell. Link had given the bracelet a mana retention ability which allowed mana to be stored and thus allowed the spell to be cast instantaneously whenever Celine willed. Hence, within 0.1 seconds, the Level-6 Obsidian Shield was covered by another Level-5 crimson forcefield.

The moment these two spells took form, Nana’s attack arrived.

A figure appeared right in front of the Crimson Edelweiss spell. She rushed into the forcefield, ignoring the burning heat from the forcefield. Although the heat seemed to have no effect on her, the forcefield seemed to have lowered her speed greatly.

However, her speed was still fast by normal standards. The dagger in her hands then struck like a venomous snake, piercing through the Edelweiss spell before piercing through Celine’s second layer of defense, the Obsidian Shield. It was about to hit Celine’s body anytime soon.

This was not an attack that took advantage of the weak points in the spell. Nana merely used brute force to break through two high-level defensive spells.

Link was horrified. How can she have such destructive offensive power!

Chapter 203: The Invincible Magic Puppet (Part 3)

 

Nana’s speed was ridiculously fast. Even with the combined protection of Crimson Edelweiss and the Black Crystal Shield, it would still be difficult for Celine to effectively defend herself.

She did not step backwards because Link was behind her, which would mean that it would inevitably put him in a very dangerous situation. Her only choice was to move slightly sideways in the hopes that she could avoid the brunt of the impact herself.

This confrontation happened within a fraction of a second. Even Vance’s reaction time was too slow to do anything, as Mana was still stuck in his Gray Flame wand and the spell just wouldn’t form quick enough.

It wasn’t that Vance’s spellcasting was too slow, it was just that Nana’s speed was too terrifyingly fast!

The same was true of the Necromancer swordsman. When Nana and Celine clashed, he was a hundred feet away from them and hadn’t even had time to pull out his sword yet.

The only one there who could make any meaningful response was Link.

Seeing that Celine was in danger, Link’s heart suddenly beat much faster. The next moment, the world around him began to slow down—he was now entering the state of absolute calm that allowed him to cast spells at an ultra-high speed. In this state, anything that had nothing to do with the immediate surroundings of the battlefield was cast out of Link’s mind. All he could see now and be focused on was Nana and the sword in her hand.

The sword advanced inch by inch towards Celine. It encountered the Black Crystal shield on its way, and at such a high speed, the shield acted like a real crystal; it broke on contact with the sword, and fragments of the shield scattered about a quarter of an inch before they evaporated and dissipated into dark elements.

Link could now see Nana’s sword very clearly. He didn’t know what material it was made of, but its blade was dark blue, and there was a thin blue electric arc hovering on the surface of the sword. Once the electricity made contact with any kind of shield, the shield would be rendered completely useless.

There are still 0.05 seconds left before the tip of the sword touches Celine’s body, Link thought. I still have time!

At this point, Link had cast the Titan’s Hand, and under his precise control, the giant fiery hand made up of pure fire elements quickly went around Celine’s body and grasped the magic puppet Nana in its clutches. When the giant hand had wrapped around half of Nana’s body, a thought suddenly occurred in Link’s head—she’s resistant to extreme temperatures!

Once he thought of this point, Link promptly changed his plans. He’d originally set the fiery hand to stretch out and grasp Nana, but now he directed the giant hand to clench into a fist and take the form of the Fist of Firomoz and increase the speed to its maximum limit to punch Nana from the side.

Link had calculated that this blow would send Nana flying right before the edge of her sword hit Celine’s body! Unfortunately, in the next moment, the magic puppet Nana responded to Link’s attacks; she suddenly pulled back the sword that was about to pierce Celine. Now, without the force field of Edelweiss and the Black Crystal Shield in the way, her sword moved at an impossibly fast speed. In a fraction of a second, it struck the Titan’s Hand.

Nana’s short sword then pierced through the Titan’s Hand and immediately Link could feel that he’d lost control over the fire elements in the spell and the fiery hand began to explode.

She didn’t attack the weakest point in my spell, Link realized. She directly attacked the critical point in the Mana structure and shattered the stability of the spell instantly. She’s evolved much further than Vance expected!

Although this could be considered as attacking the weakest point, Nana’s move just now was almost ten times more powerful than any magic spell. When this kind of attack was coupled with her high resistance towards extreme heat, Nana had turned out to be a Magician’s arch nemesis!

Link watched helplessly as the fire elements in the Titan’s Hand began to collapse and explode, while Nana had pulled back her sword and once again thrust it towards Celine.

But this time, Celine had gotten enough time to respond. She raised up her Blue Crystal sword and assumed the defensive stance.

Still, she could only block Nana’s sword. Celine could only rely on her solidified Battle Aura to protect her from the exploding fire elements from the Titan’s Hand as both the Crimson Edelweiss and the Black Crystal shield had both been destroyed.

The Titan’s Hand was a Level-6 spell, and the force of the explosive fire elements from this spell was no weaker than a full force Level-4 Flaming Blast. If Celine were to be struck by the brunt of the impact from the explosion, her Battle Aura would surely be depleted. It might even send her flying, leaving an opportunity for Nana to pursue and attack her.

Link must not let the Titan’s Hand explode!

The moment that thought popped up in his head, Link activated the Soul’s Glyph and his Level-5 Vulcan’s Hand began to take form. Within a microsecond, Link used one of his Supreme Magical Skills, Machine Gun to transform the Vulcan’s Hand’s spell structure using Mana resonance. Combined with the collapsing fire elements in the air, it formed into a new Titan’s Hand.

And so, the fire elements started to reorganize, re-stabilize and instantly formed into the clenched fist shape of the Fist of Firomoz and struck hard at Nana.

This type of attack was obviously something Nana couldn’t have predicted. Then, a crisp yet somehow urgent voice emerged from her mechanical throat.

“Target’s behavior deviated from initial estimation,” she said. “Recalculating new strategy!”

Link couldn’t care less what she was doing. All he knew was that her reaction had now slowed down for a fraction of a second.

Bam!

The Fist of Firomoz struck squarely on Nana’s body. The impact was so powerful that it sent the magic puppet flying a few feet away.

While her body was still in mid-air, she was in her most vulnerable state; another idea popped up in Link’s mind. The movements of the Titan’s Hand followed his control precisely and changed from the fist into a stretched out hand which then clutched Nana and gripped her tightly in its palm.

Then, with a smooth and instantaneous motion, the hand then started to implode on itself.

She’s heat-resistant, huh? Then let’s see if she could hold up to the scorching temperature above 5000 degrees Fahrenheit in the center of the fiery hand!

“Extreme heat detected,” said the magic puppet. “Heat dissipation process started.”

Right after those words were heard, there was a pronounced sizzle within the Titan’s Hand. Then suddenly, a hole appeared in the fiery hand, and a dark blue sword emerged from it. Then, the magic puppet whose whole body had now completely turned a burnishing red jumped out of the Titan’s Hand, seemingly without any serious damage.

“Impressive!” exclaimed Link.

The Level-6 Titan’s Hand could reach a temperature that would melt steel when it imploded. Yet, the magic puppet escaped from its clutches virtually unscathed. It seems that the material Vance had used called Gibb’s Gold really was the toughest metal!

At that moment, Celine had already reactivated the Crimson Edelweiss and the Black Crystal Shield. Meanwhile, Vance who was standing near a huge pillar had already completed the casting of a spell.

“Metal Decay!” he shouted as he pointed his wand towards Nana. A grayish ray of light shot through the air and struck her.

Metal Decay

Level-6 Master Spell

Effects: Produces an extremely corrosive ray of light. This is the arch nemesis of all metals.

(Note: This is one of Vance’s proudest spells.)

This spell was similar to the spell Elemental Collapse that Vance had cast on the cliff earlier, only with one crucial difference – this spell exerted a spiritual control on the target which prevented them from dodging the ray of light, meaning that there was no way for a target to evade this attack!

Still, what happened next was utterly shocking.

Nana seemed to realize that she couldn’t possibly evade this spell, so she made no attempt to step back or sideways. Then, there was whoosh sound, and her body mysteriously disappeared out of thin air. When she appeared again, her sword was already thrust towards Vance’s head and was about to pierce through his skull!

Everything had happened too fast that Vance had no time to respond at all. In fact, he was still controlling Metal Decay and aiming at Nana when he realized that she was now right in front of him.

But while Vance couldn’t respond, Link definitely could. In truth, Nana only seemed to disappear in Vance, Celine and Dorians’ eyes. Link’s eyes could still follow Nana’s every step in that moment. Just as Nana was rushing towards Vance, Link thought up another way to go against her.

As he focused his mind, he began to do two things simultaneously. With one hand, he controlled the Titan’s Hand and transformed it into the Fist of Firomoz and struck it at the Necromancer swordsman Dorians. Meanwhile, his other hand was casting the Magician’s Hand.

The Magician’s Hand’s target was not Nana, but was instead aimed at Vance. To be precise, it was aimed at the eye sockets that held his Soul’s Flame.

Crack!

Vance’s skull dodged Nana’s sword at the last possible instant as it was detached from the rest of his skeleton. Under Link’s control, the skull, along with the Lich’s wand, Gray Flame, was sent flying towards himself.

It was only then that Vance finally had time to respond, and he realized that Link had saved his life as it was hanging by a thread.

His skull and his wand were placed in Link’s hood on his back. The view was somewhat limited from here, but that was fine since he could easily use the Magician’s Hand to raise his skull and leave it floating beside Link. After that, he then used the same spell to get his wand back to his side.

There was no time to thank Link for his heroic rescue, so Vance immediately cast another Metal Decay and aimed it at the magic puppet. She was purely made up of metal, which meant that it would mean certain doom for Nana. But just before Vance could cast the spell, Nana once again utilized her ultra-speed and escaped.

At the same time, there was a loud boom which came from the Titan’s Hand that struck the swordsman Dorians at an incredible speed. Dorians was flung far away like a cannonball due to the impact, and his whole body slammed into the wall half a second later which then left a huge human-shaped indentation there.

He was limp and motionless when he fell to the ground. The blue light glow from his eyes became very faint. It was obvious that he’d been seriously injured.

Link then prepared to unleash another strike at Dorians to send him straight down to hell.

However, the magic puppet Nana once again launched an attack, although this time her aim was not Link or anybody else’s body, but Link’s Titan’s Hand instead. There was another sizzle, and in no time at all, Nana successfully destroyed Link’s Titan’s Hand for the third time and thus saved Dorians’ life.

As soon as the Titan’s Hand collapsed, there was another bang coming from her position, and it turned out that once again she was rushing towards Celine in breakneck speed and had now broken through the newly reformed Crimson Edelweiss and Black Crystal Shield.

This magic puppet was simply a machine of destruction hell-bent on eliminating her every target. She was now on a direct collision course with Celine, and her speed exceeded even that of a supercar. If Link, Vance, and Celine did not join all their forces together, there would’ve been no chance for any of them to defeat her.

Luckily, Celine was already prepared for Nana this time. Her Blue Crystal sword was positioned precisely where Nana’s attack will hit her, and shortly after, her sword and Nana’s own sword clashed, producing a loud clang.

Then, cracks appeared on the blade of Celine’s crystal sword. The cracks started to spread out like a spider web, and her body was flung backwards by the terrifying forces of the impact.

Link almost jumped out of his skin when he saw what had transpired. Although Celine’s sword wasn’t of epic quality, it was still an extremely high-quality weapon made with a type of magic crystal that was as tough as the metal Khorium. The fact that it was cracked just showed how frightening the force of the attack was!

She must’ve aimed the attack at the weakest point of the sword! Link realized.

Meanwhile, Nana was not done with Celine. She rushed forward towards her and was about to give her the last blow.

Link had by then re-formed a new Titan’s Hand and was about to block Celine from Nana’s attacks, but to his surprise, there was another loud boom. The next thing he knew, Nana had changed her direction and target and was now rushing towards him!

“Target locked,” said Nana with her eerily calm voice. “Threat level, five stars. Must eliminate as soon as opportunity arises!”

Link had successfully thwarted her attacks by then, so she had learned to treat him as the primary target whose elimination was her highest priority.

At that point, Celine’s body had been struck by a violent force and was flung far backwards. She was then completely powerless and couldn’t even maintain her own body’s balance, let alone unleash an attack at Nana.

On the other hand, Vance was still casting his Level-6 spell Metal Decay and would need at least another second to complete it. Even if he was to forcefully stop the spellcasting process, there was still nothing he could do to cast a powerful enough defensive shield between Nana and Link.

This meant that Link was all alone now.

His only defense against Nana was the Crimson Edelweiss. Yet, Link had seen many times how this spell was simply useless against the force of Nana’s speed and power.

In truth, even if Link could block himself with another Titan’s Hand at this moment, Nana could still break through it so easily that it would make no difference at all.

Which meant that at this point Link’s death was almost certain!

Chapter 204: The Invincible Magic Puppet (Part 4)?

 

Underground Palace

The crisp voice rang across the underground palace, “Mission complete. Threat eliminated.”

Nana’s slender blade pierced through Link’s chest as fresh blood poured out of the wound caused by the pale blue sword. Link held Nana’s blade in his hand as he weakly smiled.

“Just a bit more, heh.”

The next moment, Link became an elemental phantom image together with Celine, who was still airborne, and Vance’s skull and headless body, who was in the middle of casting a spell. At the very last moment, Link made use of his fast reaction speed to avoid Nana’s fatal attack and decisively activated his Dimensional Jump spell to escape.

This magic puppet was way too scary. It was impossible to defeat her even when the three of them joined forces. They could only escape and come back after formulating a more detailed plan.

After a light sound, the three of them disappeared from the underground palace. Nana was surprised at this turn of events. This was the first time she encountered such a peculiar situation since she was created. She stood there motionless for a few seconds before speaking with the crisp voice, “Confirm that the threat is still not eliminated. Target has been marked. Starting pursuit.”

A sound of an air blast could be heard, and the next moment, she had disappeared from her location and appeared at the entrance of the hall. Another loud air blast echoed through the underground palace and Nana had begun her pursuit.

On the cliff outside the underground palace, Link, Celine, and Vance appeared out of thin air.

This was Celine’s second time experiencing the Dimensional Jump spell. She managed to recollect herself quickly enough. However, Vance was still experiencing some dizziness as his skull rolled about on the ground. If not for Link’s quick reaction, his skull might have already fallen off the cliff.

Picking his skull up and placing it back on his body, Vance creaked his thousand-year-old bones and finally regained his soberness.

He immediately asked, “That was a Legendary spell?”

“Sort of.” Link nodded.

Vance gasped and said unbelievably, “I have heard that you are the Chosen One. It seems like they were not lying.”

Link smiled bitterly and said, “Let’s not mention this for now. I feel that we are still not out of danger.”

As he spoke, he covered his wound with his hand and started concentrating water elements to seal his wound in ice. Although the wound did not damage any vital organs, it severed a few blood vessels and was extremely painful.

After the sealing was complete, Link cast an Elemental Healing spell on himself before drinking another high-level healing potion. That was when he was finally satisfied with his recovery process. He now merely had to find a priest when he got back to the Girvent Forest for a complete recovery.

The moment he felt safe, Celine immediately pointed to an area below the cliff and screamed, “Look, it’s that magic puppet!”

“I knew it!” Link was almost speechless and stood up, “We cannot defeat her now, let’s go!”

Link was not going to overestimate his abilities once again. Vance and Celine were similarly horrified by the extent of Nana’s power and naturally did not have the confidence to win in another fight. They hence agreed to escape together with Link immediately. However, the magic puppet was traveling way too fast. It was impossible to outrun her on ground. Link then asked Vance, “She can’t fly can she?”

Vance smiled bitterly and said, “Probably not. I did not give her that ability. But who knows?

“Then let’s fly.”

Flying spells were something that Link had in his arsenal. He summoned a Storm Eagle.

Storm Eagle spell

Level-5 Ordinary Spell

Cost: 100 Mana Points for summoning, 10 points per second afterwards.

Effect: This is an extremely fast flying spell.

Link originally learned this spell so as to travel faster while he was rushing from one location to the next. Three seconds later, a pure wind elemental giant eagle appeared in front of them.

“Hop on.” Link mounted the eagle. Upon seeing that Celine was about to fly with her own wings, he said, “Celine, conserve your energy.”

“Alright.” Celine then landed gently on the eagle’s back. The last to mount the eagle was Vance.

The eagle howled and spread its wings majestically. It then jumped into the air and immediately flew in the direction of the sea.

This was not Link’s choice. While the storm eagle was fast and could cover over 1000 miles in an hour, Link was still not confident that they could shake off a magic puppet whose top speed was at 2000 feet per second.

“Let’s hope that the puppet doesn’t go that fast in the water.” Link smiled. To think that two Level-6 and one Level-7 professional would be thoroughly defeated by a human-made object—this was more than just embarrassing.

After flying for merely a few seconds, Vance reminded, “Link, faster! She is catching up to us!”

Link was still trying to get the giant eagle to speed up when he was shocked by Vance’s words. He looked behind him and saw that Nana was already on the cliff. She then leaped off the cliff decisively and charged straight towards them.

Using her top speed of 2000 feet per second, her leap was almost like a cannonball. The distance between both parties was rapidly narrowing.

However, the magic puppet was unable to fly. It was clear that she was traveling in a parabola curve. Link then commanded the storm eagle to make a sharp turn. Within a second, the beautiful, young puppet reached a distance close enough to launch an attack. However, as she could not turn in mid-air, she was just about to miss her chance.

The three of them on the eagle heaved a sigh of relief. This puppet had an overwhelming speed and presence. Even Link felt pressured when fighting against it.

However, something strange happened.

The magic puppet threw something into the air. Link observed the whole process carefully and realized that it was a large stone. As the stone flew into the air, the puppet’s body made a sharp turn in mid-air! She then flew at top speed towards the eagle!

The hell? She made use of momentum and physics? This puppet is ridiculous! Link thought.

Momentum was one of the three standard laws of energy conservation on earth. Rockets made use of these theories in order to fly in a vacuum. These laws applied to the World of Firuman as well. When Nana threw a rock in the opposite direction of where she wanted to go, it was as though a rocket jet had been activated. Naturally, her body would veer towards the direction opposite of where she threw the rock.

This was an unexpected turn of events. As Nana closed in on the three of them, Link was at a loss for what to do. They were about to collide headlong.

Everyone was speechless. How could this puppet be so ruthless!

Link was the first one to react. He immediately canceled the storm eagle spell and grabbed Celine by the waist. He then raised his wand and cast a Vector Resistance Field spell onto Nana.

Vector Resistance Field was a Level-1 spell. It was a low-level spell and was not all that powerful. However, there was an occasion for every spell, no matter how useless it might seem. This Vector Resistance Field spell was near perfect for this situation.

The atmosphere blurred for a moment as the forcefield crashed into Nana from the side.

Nana was extremely fast on the ground. However, she had just used the stone in her hand and was in mid-air where there was no friction for her to capitalize on. She was thus unable to avoid this spell and suffered the full force of the collision.

The puppet then veered slightly to the side while Link made use of the opposing force of the impact to glide past Nana.

Both of them then crossed each other in mid-air as the distance between them once again widened.

Nana was out of options this time around as she fell helplessly into the sea. Link then once again summoned the storm eagle while in mid-air before commanding it to catch Vance, who was currently floating casually using a levitating spell.

With a loud splash and the crashing of waves, Nana fell into the sea. The three of them watched in fear from the eagle’s back.

“Will she still be chasing us?” Celine asked, still in shock from the previous encounter.

“I have no idea. I indeed set her to endless pursuit mode the previous time though…” Vance was completely confused. Four hundred years ago, he was only a little wary of Nana’s power. However, he could not bear to destroy this product that he spent so much time constructing as well. He hence commanded Nana to go into a deep sleep. Little did he know that 400 years later, not only did she awaken, she had also evolved to a point where he could not even retaliate in a direct battle.

Vance felt extremely dumb to have created a magic puppet that he could not control.

Link looked at the seabed and carefully observed the ripples on the surface of the water. He then sighed and said, “The endless pursuit mode is still ongoing. She is still running while under the water. Vance, we seemed to have been marked in a way that she can locate us no matter where we go. Do you know what kind of marking it is?”

“I do. But it is impossible to remove it.” Vance awkwardly smiled.

“Why do you say so?”

“The marking is on you. When Nana pierced her sword through your body, the metal particles on her blade entered your bloodstream. These particles are extremely small. The only way to get rid of it is to drain all of your blood.”

Draining blood? This was not earth where one could get a blood transfusion anytime they wanted. This meant that they only had two choices now. The first one was to run for the rest of their lives until the puppet malfunctioned. The second was to destroy the puppet.

As for escaping from her pursuit, that would be impossible.

“Why not the both of you leave while I lead her into the Norton Military Fortress?” Link said. He could not defeat this puppet alone. However, he believed that the power of the entire army would be enough to suppress her.

“It wouldn’t work.” Vance smiled bitterly.

“Why?” Link was confused.

“She is not just a simple-minded puppet. She is extremely intelligent and can determine danger. She will never enter the fortress alone. Unless you are prepared to spend your entire life in the army, she will definitely find a chance to face you off in a direct battle.” Vance hated how well he designed this puppet. To think that he would be unable to find a flaw in this design.

Perhaps there was one in the past. However, in the 400 years when he was away, this flaw had probably already been covered up by her evolution.

“Are we really going to live our lives on the run?” Celine could not believe that this was how she would die.

Vance fell silent and looked at Link. Link knew exactly what Vance was thinking.

“You want me to use a Level-9 spell to deal with her?”

It was definitely possible to use a Level-9 spell to destroy the puppet. However, it was wasteful and extravagant to waste a Level-9 spell on an artificial being.

“I don’t think there are any other alternatives,” Vance sighed.

“No, let me think about it.” Link started recollecting the battle scenes in detail, hoping to find a flaw he could capitalize on.

Using his eidetic memory, Nana’s actions replayed in his mind like a movie scene. After around half a minute, Link’s eyes lit up.

“I’ve got it!”

Chapter 205: The Invincible Magic Puppet (Part 5)

 

It took ten points of Mana per second to sustain the Storm Eagle, which meant that 36,000 points of Mana would’ve been consumed within an hour. Link’s current maximum Mana limit was 5200 points, but because of the series of attacks he unleashed earlier, he was now left with only about 2400 points of Mana.

In other words, if he were to keep on maintaining the Storm Eagle in the air, he’d be completely depleted of Mana in less than four minutes. The Mana consumption rate of a high-level flying spell was simply astronomical. This was one of the crucial reasons why flying spells weren’t the most practical spells to use in battles.

Fortunately, though, Link had come up with a way to deal with the magic puppet Nana.

Link made the Storm Eagle climb higher up into the sky.

“How much time do you need to cast Metal Decay?” Link turned around to ask Vance.

“Ummm…about 1.8 seconds,” answered Vance while scratching his smooth skull. He could guess what Link was planning to do. “While the spell can really cause damage to Nana, she’d never give me enough time to cast it on her.”

“I suppose so,” said Link, nodding his head. “That’s why you must increase your spellcasting speed.”

Vance was speechless for a moment.

“How do you expect me to cast a spell faster than that?” he asked Link. “That’s my limit!”

“Do you remember Morestern’s wand Dark Arbiter?” asked Link. “It’s in the underground palace, and right now the only one who is there is the weakened Dorians—”

“Link and I will distract Nana,” said Celine immediately as she caught up to Link’s plans, “and you’ll go get the wand!”

“Exactly!” Link glanced at Celine with gratefulness in his eyes. It felt great to have someone on his team who could quickly understand what he intended to do.

Vance’s teeth clattered for a few seconds, and he said nothing as he considered the plan.

“That sounds like a decent plan,” he finally said. “But that wand needs a whole day’s time to recharge after casting a Level-7 spell. Besides, you don’t have much Mana left; are you sure you’ll be able to hold Nana at bay?”

“I can carry him,” said Celine. She could easily stay in flight for as long as ten hours or more without expending much energy anyway.

“That’s unnecessary,” said Link. “I’ve got a way to stall her. Celine, the wand is the key to our victory. You must go get it with Vance.”

It would be too risky for one person to venture into the underground palace due to its labyrinthine structure. If Dorians had a functional brain between his ears, he could easily defeat Vance with sneak attacks. With Celine’s help, though, there shouldn’t be any problem for them to get the wand.

Although Celine was anxious of Link’s safety, she saw how resolute he was and thought there wouldn’t be any point in making protests, so she nodded in agreement with the plan.

At that point, the Storm Eagle had reached the highest limit of its flight at about 20,000 feet which took it 20 seconds to ascend. Looking down from here, the inky dark sea looked vast and endless. Wads of cottony clouds floated all around them. If it hadn’t been for the dangerous situation that they were in, they would’ve appreciated the sublime view very much.

“Let’s do it then,” said Link. “Celine, take Vance back to the underground palace and get the wand. Take this rune tag with you, and you’ll know my precise location wherever you are.”

“Be careful, Link,” Celine said as she took the rune tag from Link.

Link nodded. Then, Celine spread out her black wings and grabbed the almost weightless Vance and flew away from the Storm Eagle.

Immediately afterwards, Link canceled the Storm Eagle spell and cast a levitating spell on himself.

Levitation

Level-0 Spell

Mana Consumption: 2 Points

Effects: Makes the spellcaster’s body as light as a feather, light enough to walk on water. When in the air, the spellcaster will fall at the maximum speed of 1.6 feet per second for about ten minutes.

Why 1.6 feet per second? This speed was as slow as the average walking pace, and it would take about three and a half hours to fall from the height of 20,000 feet to the surface of the sea. With this leisurely speed, Link could easily summon the Storm Eagle again and use it to climb up 20,000 feet within 20 seconds before he hit the surface of the water. Using this technique, Link would have no problem floating in the sky forever!

Moreover, Link wasn’t that far away from the underground palace, probably about 20 miles, so it shouldn’t take too long for Celine and Vance to return with the wand. Once they returned, all they needed to do was stall Nana for a day to wait for the Dark Arbiter wand to recharge. Then they’d defeat the terrifying puppet.

As he was floating in the air, Link used the spell Eagle’s Eye to check the situation on the surface of the sea. He must make sure that Nana was still following him, otherwise it would mean that Vance and Celine were in serious danger.

From what they’d seen so far, the magic puppet clearly possessed near-perfect combat skills, but her strategic planning still left something to be desired. From there Link could spot her weak points where he could utilize to defeat her.

Nana was still following Link at high speed. She’s obviously locked her target on Link, as she thought that he was the most dangerous opponent with a threat level of 5 stars. Therefore, her primary goal must be to eliminate Link.

Haha, keep on following me, then, thought Link.

The Level-0 Levitation spell consumed only two points of Mana and required no additional Mana to sustain at all. With nothing to do and all this time on his hands, Link nonchalantly slipped out Bryant’s Scroll of Enlightenment and began to calmly study it.

He’d studied more than half of the scroll and had made many great discoveries from it. According to Eleanor, the person who managed to study the whole scroll thoroughly would experience a doubling in the rate of Mana recovery. That would surely come in handy for Link now as his Mana was running quite low. That’s why he decided to study the scroll now.

After having drifted in the air for a while, luck seemed to be on his side as a storm started to brew on the surface of the sea. With a body that was as feathery light as Link’s now that he was under the Levitation spell, the slightest gust of wind from the storm kept him aloft for much longer and even helped him gain a bit of height as well.

He then used the spell, Eagle’s Eye and watched the surface of the sea beneath him. He noticed how Nana struggled to catch up with him and couldn’t help but laugh at her. What an adamant puppet she was!

Soon, though, Link found that the situation wasn’t so funny anymore.

The wind was getting stronger and stronger as the storm brewed on. The clouds got much thicker now and had transformed from white fluffy puffs to dark, menacing clouds that harbored thunder.

A bitter smile cropped up on Link’s face as he realized that he’d forgotten the most crucial fact when he meticulously planned his strategy to fight Nana. He’d failed to take into account the fact that they were in the coastal area of the Ferde Wilderness where the climate was notoriously temperamental.

Lightning soon flashed in the clouds, and the sound of thunder rumbled Link’s guts. Before the sublime majesty of mother nature, Link was as insignificant as a speck of dust. The average flash of lightning was equivalent to the power of a Level-7 spell. He’d die instantly if he ever got hit by one of these lightning flashes.

Just in case, Link cast the spell Edelweiss to protect himself, then he summoned the Storm Eagle and began to ascend to its highest limit at 20,000 feet where he would be safe from being struck by lightning. Yet, the storm was just as violent there as it was below, and Link’s body was blown about like a leaf. There was no way for him to check the situation down there on the surface of the sea at all. Neither did he know where the wind of the storm would blow him to.

And so, Link drifted in the sky for about three hours when he was finally blown out from the storm, and the clouds gradually cleared out, once again allowing him to see the dark blue sea below. Then, Link immediately cast the Eagle’s Eye spell and checked the situation below him. After a while, he sighed in relief at the sight of Nana still chasing after him from below.

What a relentless magic puppet, he thought. And she still hadn’t lost sight of me after all this time. Not bad at all.

At that point, Link noticed a cluster of islands in front of him. There were about 30 or so islands there of different sizes. Among them, the biggest one probably had an area of about five miles. Lush forest covered most of the islands and colorful birds danced around, filling the air with bird calls and chirpy bird songs. Then, in one corner of the forest, Link saw a wild Griffin catching its prey.

Link had no intention of landing on the island. He just slowly floated above it, taking his time enjoying the beautiful view.

What a strange island, he thought.

Most of the islands were full of wildlife, yet on the southeastern corner, there was a black island where even grass and weeds wouldn’t grow. It seemed as if the whole island was cursed. Link tried to sense the aura of the strange island, but he couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary coming from the place.

How odd. If no one were chasing him then, he’d dive straight down and explore the place from corner to corner. Unfortunately, Nana was still hot on his trails, so he couldn’t afford to go down there.

Right at that moment, a shocking sight caught Link’s eyes. He saw how Nana came up on the shores of the island where her speed increased miraculously on land. There was no sign of fatigue in her movements at all. Link was shocked. He was only hovering at 2,000 feet above the island. Nana could easily leap up from the ground and reach him at this height! Thus, Link swiftly summoned the Storm Eagle and ascended higher up into the sky.

He soon reached the height of 20,000 feet. The cluster of islands had shrunk into the size of pebbles at this height and Link could no longer see the magic puppet.

I should be safe from her here, Link thought.

He then cast the Levitation spell on himself and continued to drift in the air.

Suddenly, though, Link heard an unusual gust of wind behind him. He drew in a sharp breath when he turned around and saw a Griffin flying towards him at high speed. Sitting on its back was none other than Nana herself!

She’s a smart puppet, alright, thought Link bitterly. Now that she’s found herself a Griffin to fly on, things are no longer as simple as before!

The Griffin’s flying speed wasn’t actually that fast at only about 200 miles per hour. But the more critical point was that it had high endurance and wouldn’t have any problems flying in the air for more than a dozen hours.

Link might have recovered some of his Mana when he was under the Levitation spell, but now that he had summoned the Storm Eagle, he could probably maintain it for no more than five minutes before he ran out of Mana again.

At this point, Nana would catch up to him soon enough!

I must kill the Griffin! Link thought.

He made no more attempts to flee from Nana and waited for her to approach him mid-air.

Half a minute later, Nana had driven the Griffin to about 300 feet away from Link. He could clearly see that the Griffin was reluctantly following Nana’s orders only because her powers had overwhelmed it and rendered it helpless against her will. Three hundred feet was the range limit of Link’s Whistle. The Griffin had no protective gear around its body, so Whistle was more than enough to cause damage to its body.

Link focused his eyesight and activated the Crimson Edelweiss in his bracelet just in case. Then, he raised his wand and directed his Mana into it, casting five Whistles in a row, taking 0.08 seconds for each of them.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh…

The Whistles tore through the air and headed straight towards the Griffin.

The magic puppet Nana quickly blocked the Whistles at an unimaginably fast speed. A series of dings rang out in the air. Nana had quite effortlessly deflected all of Link’s Whistles from the Griffin.

What Link found even more shocking was how nimble and agile Nana’s movements were. Not only did she cut off Link’s Mana from the Whistles, making it impossible for him to control them, she’d also used her tremendous power to deflect the attacks right before the Whistles exploded.

The Whistles had now been flung out about 50 feet away before their spell structures collapsed which triggered their explosions. At that distance, even with the metal fragments in the air, they posed no threats to the Griffin whatsoever.

It was the first time Link had ever seen one of his most powerful attacks get deflected so easily!

As expected from a magic puppet that’s evolved over 400 years, Link thought. Ah, her combat skills almost make her indestructible!

But naturally, Link had other attack strategies up his sleeve other than Whistles alone. He still had his Glass Orbs, which could do nearly as much damage to the Griffin as Whistles could.

Mana flowed into his wand once again, and Glass Orbs took form at an indescribably high speed. With the help of the Domingo crystal, Link managed to cast 50 Glass Orbs per second.

For a moment, there were countless lines of light between Link and the Griffin.

Nana blocked the attacks with her sword as she did before. The Glass Orbs burst like soap bubbles as they hit the blade of her sword. And in no time at all, none of Link’s Glass Orbs remained.

Nana’s swordsmanship was flawless indeed, but there was one tiny problem that was out of her control.

Because of the succession of explosions were so near to the Griffin, the creature was completely spooked, and it fled instinctively away from Link, overruling Nana’s command no matter how much she tried to subdue it.

The Griffin escaped further and further away from Link, and Nana fixed her eyes on him as if she had made a certain decision. She stood up and used the Griffin’s body as the springboard to leap forward towards Link.

Nana had witnessed Link’s reaction speed many times by now so she knew that there was a chance that she could hit him this way. But still, this was her only chance!

Meanwhile, Link entered the state of absolute calm that was the spellcasting state. He amassed all of his energy and attention and dared not relax for even the briefest fraction of a second. He knew that the slightest mistake he made would result in death when faced with such a terrifying opponent.

Nana was insanely fast; she was now only 16 feet away from Link. Seeing this, Link immediately raised his wand and cast the defensive spell, Vector Protective Force Field.

The Level-1 spell got to work instantly and flung the magic puppet away from Link. At almost the same time, Link saw a black stone getting hurled at him by Nana, evidently as a direct attack. Although it was only an ordinary stone, once in the hand of the terrifying magic puppet, it turned into a menacing weapon that shot through the air towards Link at the speed of 2600 feet per second.

In truth, the speed at which a stone traveled would always be faster than the speed that the thrower was moving at. Therefore, because Nana herself was moving at 2000 feet per second, it only made sense that the stone that she threw was moving as fast as a rifle bullet!

This didn’t pose much of a problem to Link, though. He was sure that his Crimson Edelweiss was sturdy enough to deflect the stone. Once the stone hit the edges of the shield, it was met with a ring of scorching light. The heat from the light ring slowed it down at first, then the stone burned up into flames and began to disintegrate. 0.01 seconds later, Link discovered that there was something strange about the stone. Its surface looked normal, but at its core, there were tiny blue sparks of electricity.

Link had seen those sparks before. They were on that dark blue sword she’d used earlier, and they had a strong anti-magic effect.

It seemed that Crimson Edelweiss alone wouldn’t be enough to stop this stone!

“…”

Things were looking bad!

By this point, Link didn’t have any time to do anything to counter the incoming attack. At the very last second, he cast a Level-0 defensive spell, Mage Armor and instantly, a pale green glow enveloped him as the armor took form.

Bam!

The stone smashed into Link’s stomach. It was less than two pounds. When it reached Link’s body after having broken through Crimson Edelweiss, its speed was no more than 30 feet per second.

The problem was that Link’s body…was not much stronger than that of the average person’s.

Link was thrown completely off balance by the impact, and all he could feel was the excruciating pain in his stomach. His black eyes dulled, and he almost lost consciousness for a while, although he soon recovered.

What truly horrified Link was the strange sensations he felt in his stomach as if an alien force had penetrated into his body and interfered with his Mana.

Then there was a flash on the interface showing a warning from the gaming system.

Player has been afflicted. Current state: Mana Disorder.

Estimated total recovery time: three hours.

At that instant, all magical functions in Link’s body were shut down. He could only manage to maintain the Levitation Spell and activated the defensive spell in his bracelet, in case Nana flung her sword at him when he was in his most vulnerable state.

Fortunately, Nana cherished her sword too much to throw it away at Link, so he was safe in that regard. Link sighed in relief and floated down towards the cluster of islands below. While he was in mid-air, he took a deep breath and relaxed his body to speed up its recovery time.

What a fearsome magic puppet, Link thought. Her battle intuitions are amazing! I can’t waste any more time playing cat and mouse with her.

Link decided not to run away any longer. There must be more than one Griffin on these islands, so there was a high possibility that Nana would catch another one to chase him with. Once she caught up with him, there was no saying what she would do then.

It’s time to end this battle once and for all. Link took out the Prophetic White Stone from his storage pendant. If nothing else happened within these two hours, then he would use it to end the battle as soon as his feet landed on the ground.

He’d planned on saving a Level-9 spell originally; it’s too bad that it wouldn’t be possible now.

Meanwhile, Nana was similarly falling to the ground because she’d been struck by the impact of Link’s Vector Protective Force Field. Her falling speed was extremely fast, but she fell right on one of the islands.

Boom!

A crater of about eight feet wide and five feet deep was created on the spot where Nana hit the ground. Still, she stood up and dusted her body off as if completely unhurt. She then turned around and entered the forest to look for a Griffin, while not forgetting to keep an eye on Link, who was slowly drifting downwards from the sky.

Chapter 206: A Bizarre Island

 

It had been an hour; Link floated in the air using a levitation spell. He had been slowly descending and was now at an altitude of 6000 feet. He had also recollected himself in this period.

Although the Mana disturbance effect had not completely worn off, his spellcasting speed was now back to its original state. The only side effect left was the inevitable flaws that would appear in his spells due to the status he was afflicted with. It would be fine to use such spells on ordinary people. However, it would be disastrous to have such a flaw when dealing with Nana.

If he did not have the Prophet’s White Stone in his hand, he would not have even had the slightest chance of escape, much less turn the tables around.

Nana was designed to calculate every detail of a battle down to the specifics. She was so perfectly created that even a combat master like Link felt pressurized and shackled.

Four hundred years of battle experience is really a force to be reckoned with. Link did not feel defeated, though. He believed that given enough battle experience, he too would have the same impeccable knowledge of combat as Nana.

The sounds of flapping wings could be heard. Link looked behind him and saw Nana on another Griffin. She was hovering at a distance 600 feet away, staring at him in waiting. Link was highly focused, though he stayed still the entire time. He displayed a relaxed and calm demeanor as he floated down slowly.

Nana also kept her distance and lowered her altitude slowly, matching Link’s movement.

The previous two battles that happened mid-air ended in her failure. This meant that the odds of her defeating Link in the air were not high. She would thus wait for Link to land before making her move. The land was her home ground. She could kill her target in just a single strike.

“Target is locked in. Target is currently landing…1900…1800…1700…” the crisp voice constantly rang from Nana as her clear eyes were fixated on Link. It seemed pure and innocent enough, though it would probably feel like the reaper’s incarnate if one was the target.

After half an hour, Link’s altitude and been reduced by another 3000 feet. The islands beneath him had become clear. He could see the flora and faunas on the island clearly. Furthermore, he was pleasantly surprised to find that his landing spot would be right on the black-colored island.

How coincidental. Link smiled. He had around 1900 Mana Points and could probably maintain the Titan’s Hand for 20 seconds. This should be enough to deal with Nana.

At that moment, the subtle howling sounds of wind appeared again. Link then felt a familiar magic fluctuation. As he turned his head, he saw Celine and Vance returning from their mission. Vance held a staff with a black skull perched at its tip. It was none other than the Dark Arbiter. This was good news. If they could make it through the day, this would be the key to their success. However, the plan now had to change.

“Link, how are you?” Celine whispered as she stared at Link’s pale face with a worried expression.

“Just some minor injuries,” Link answered.

Nana had also noticed their arrival and immediately adjusted her position to ensure her safety. On the other side, Link made use of this chance to cast the Clear Thoughts effect on the Flame Controller’s Robe. The Clear Thoughts effect would recover 2000 Mana Points. In this battle where a split second could determine life and death, more Mana Points was always useful.

After activating the special effect, a pale heat wave enveloped the robe. It was as though Link’s body temperature suddenly rose to an insane level, making it slightly intimidating.

Nana had never seen such a phenomenon before. She expected Link to release a strong spell. She immediately retreated 300 feet behind her.

She is, after all, just a magic puppet. Although her battle experience is useful, there is a limit to her knowledge. Link felt that his chances were getting better.

Taking advantage of this, Celine successfully reached Link’s side.

Vance then cast a levitation spell on everyone so that Link could focus his attention on Nana. They then floated down slowly.

“Link, what is the plan now?” Vance stared at Nana, who was currently riding a Griffin. The Flame of the Soul in her eyes jumped around actively. This puppet was too intelligent; they were even losing their air-borne advantage.

Link had decided, “Once we land, I will release a Level-9 spell.”

Although he was relieved that Vance and Celine were back to support him, it had been proven that their combined power was still not enough to deal with Nana. Now that he was injured, it was impossible to delay the battle until the Dark Arbiter’s effect reset the next day.

A Level-9 spell was the only course of action.

Celine interrupted, “Perhaps we can kill her Griffin.”

Link smiled bitterly, “I’ve tried. She is very protective of it. No matter what I did, I was not successful. Furthermore, I am now under a Mana disturbance status. The strength of my low-level spells is reduced by at least 50%.”

Upon hearing those words, Celine gave up on her idea.

Vance was speechless as well. He had heard rumors about Link when he was at his full power. It was said that the scene was akin to a storm of low-level spells mercilessly raining on his opponents. To think that Nana was able to defend against this ferocious magic storm! He probably would not be of much help even if he were to be present in that battle.

Vance was still bitter that they had to waste a level-9 spell on a puppet. He said reluctantly, “We can just let Celine bring us on the run.”

Before Link could speak, Celine shook her head and answered, “My speed will be much slower than the Griffin if I had to carry two people with me. This applies to my endurance as well.”

Vance then laid out his hands helplessly, “I guess we have no choice.”

The three of them kept silent as they slowly descended.

Ever since Nana got a Griffin as her aid, they lost their airborne advantage. They even lost their advantage to cast the first attack as there was a limit to their spellcasting range. Nana was extremely cautious and would retreat the moment she felt something was amiss. She would not give them the opportunity to release any spells.

Hence, both parties were merely waiting to land before engaging in a fierce battle.

Time passed quickly, and before long, they were only 300 feet above the ground. Under them was a bizarre looking black-colored island.

Suddenly, Link felt that something was amiss. His hand seemed to feel heavy. More accurately, it was his fingers that were feeling the weight. It was as though something was pulling on it. Link was confused. He quickly realized that this pulling sensation came from the Baron’s seal on his hand.

Link’s instinct was to immediately observe his Baron’s seal. However, the moment he moved, he felt a subtle tingling feeling coming from the ring. He also felt the same sensation coming from the defensive ring he wore. This would not have been possible without Link’s sensitivity. It felt as though a mini electric current was running through them.

But why would there be a current in mid-air?

As they continued on their descent, Link felt the pull on his Baron’s seal becoming more prominent. This ring was not made from a good material, merely from cheap iron.

Wait a minute…Iron?

This downward force was almost similar to the attraction forces from a magnet. Is this really a magnetic force?

Link then looked at the black colored island. He observed that the island was in fact a huge, black, rocky reef that was around 900 feet in diameter. There was some scattered gravel on the surface of the island which looked extremely strange. Link saw that one of them seemed to be hanging precariously from a cliff without any form of external help. This was a violation of the rules of physics.

Link was suddenly inspired. “Could this be an Ever-Magnetic Island?”

They were merely 150 feet above ground level and the attraction forces pulling on the Baron’s seal were getting stronger by the minute. Link had to put the ring away into the dimensional pendant as it was becoming too much to bear. He then tried to raise the Starcatcher wand in his hand.

The Starcatcher’s main body was made almost entirely of premium Gold and Thorium, both of which were metallic substances. The moment he moved the wand, he felt that the surface temperature of the wand would experience a slight increase.

When metallic substances cut through magnetic lines, electric pressure resulting in voltage will be produced. If a loop is created, then a current would be produced. As the wand is irregular in shape, there could be a vortex that forms in its inner structure, causing the temperature to rise. I merely made a slight movement with the wand and such obvious temperature difference could be felt. Just how strong is the magnetic field on this island to have such a powerful current conversion rate?

This was the theory of using magnetic forces to generate electricity on earth. Although the exact specifics might be slightly different in Firuman, the general theory was the same. In fact, this was the theoretical basis for most lightning elemental spells.

Link was then struck by an idea. He stared at Nana 600 feet away and realized that she was made entirely of metallic materials. This island would be where she would meet her demise!

Link was excited and immediately said, “Did both of you feel it? This island is special.

Celine felt nothing but a slight headache. This was a normal physical abnormality under the presence of a strong magnetic field.

Vance, on the other hand, was slightly more sensitive and gasped, “How interesting! This island is a mine for extremely strong magnetic materials!”

“Perhaps we have a chance against Nana here.” Link turned to Celine and asked, “Do you have any spare swords?”

“Of course.” Celine took out a one-handed sword made of gold.

“That would be fine. We will commence our battle against Nana right here,” Link’s eyes glowed as he declared.

This island was extremely special, and Nana would certainly have no experience in dealing with magnetic fields. The lack of any battle experience on Nana’s side would be their greatest advantage. Furthermore, even if she had the relevant battle experience, it would be futile. The fact that her whole body was composed of metallic materials would mean that her movements would be limited on the island!

Chapter 207: You’re Impeded Here!

Buzz… Buzz… Buzz…

Once they’d landed on the ground, Celine, Link, and Vance all activated their defensive spells. They took the same positions as they did in the underground palace—Celine was in front, while Link and Vance stood side-by-side behind her.

Nana had reached the ground too. She stared at Celine who was standing in front and estimated her strength.

“Target locked,” said the magic puppet with her uncanny voice. “Threat level: 2 stars.”

The instant she finished speaking, there was a loud boom in the air. Nana had used her deadliest move—the Ultra-Speed Charge!

In previous battles, whenever Nana used this move, she’d appear as if she’d vanished out of thin air to the eyes of those with slow reaction time. This prevented her opponents from estimating where her attack would come from, which would naturally render them helpless and defenseless.

But this time there was a problem!

Moments after Nana seemed to disappear, a mysterious figure glowing in red light appeared suddenly. Not only that, but Nana who was supposed to charge at full speed straight towards Celine was resisted by an unknown force. It threw her off balance and flung her away from her target just when she was about 30 feet away from Celine.

Because of her extreme 2000-feet-per-second speed, she’d sliced through the outrageously strong magnetic field of the island which caused a terribly high electric current to run through her metallic body.

The force of the electric current was equivalent to being struck by a lightning spell!

What was even more frightening was how her body got magnetized by the electric current, which then caused her body to interact with the magnetic field of the island even further. That was what threw her off balance.

“Huh…?” Celine’s stunning pair of eyes widened at the sight of Nana’s accident. It was something she’d never expected to occur.

Link and Vance had predicted this outcome, though. They wasted no time and each cast their own attacking spells!

“Titan’s Hand!”

At the instant when Nana was flung away from them, Link’s Titan’s Hand quickly caught up to her and changed into the form of Fist of Firomoz and slammed down violently against the magic puppet’s body.

Bang!

Nana’s body was struck just as she was about to hit the ground, and the impact sent her flying again at high speed. She kept on intercepting the magnetic lines of the island which would generate more electricity in her body.

The magnetic force converted kinetic energy into electric energy, and once the electric current ran through Nana’s body, it would then be converted into a huge amount of heat. In other words, this meant that the extremely high levels of kinetic energy (due to her extreme speed) would eventually be transformed into an equally high level of heat!

The higher the temperature of Nana’s body, the more intensely her body would emit the red light.

“Body temperature will soon exceed limit,” said the voice coming from Nana’s body. “Begin heat dissipation! Begin heat dissipation!”

Soon, Nana did not dare to move at high speed even though she wasn’t completely comprehending what was going on. Her most lethal weapon, her speed, was now canceled out by the Magnetic Island.

Finally, Vance now had enough time to cast his spell. 1.8 seconds later, he pointed his wand towards the magic puppet and shouted, “Metal Decay!”

A gray light shot out from the wand and went after the magic puppet. Nana immediately detected the great threat coming from this ray of light, and she instinctively dodged it with her lightning speed, causing another boom to reverberate through the air as she seemed to disappear once again.

Only this time, she was forced to reappear a mere seven feet away.

The red light on the surface of her body had now turned white, proving that the metal that made up her body had reached an extreme temperature that was close to its melting point.

Sizzle sizzle!

The Metal Decay finally caught up with her and struck her chest. Thick white smoke billowed out from the spot, and a fist-sized gaping hole appeared where the ray of light hit her body.

Nana just stood there motionless now, and the mechanically crisp voice once again emerged from her body.

“Fatal damage detected on the body,” the voice said. “Begin repairing process.”

“Repairing process failed,” the voice continued. “Performing memory backup…Backup successful. Hibernation process initialized. Mission to protect master has failed…failed…failed…failed…”

Then, Nana’s body trembled and flailed about violently for a few seconds before her head and arms got detached from the main body and dropped to the ground. The rest of her body just stood there without any signs of life or movement left in it.

“Is she defeated now? Just like that?” asked Celine, hardly able to believe it. Somehow it had seemed a little too easy.

Link nodded and heaved a long sigh of relief.

“She’s gone into hibernation,” he said. “We’ve won.”

Vance, on the other hand, said nothing. He stared at the motionless magic puppet wordlessly for quite some time before letting out a long sigh.

“I built her in my daughter’s image, you know,” he finally said. “And now she’s dead by my own hands.”

As he spoke, he slowly approached Nana and made a move to examine her more closely.

“You should probably cast Metal Decay on her one more time,” Link reminded Vance, “just in case she’s not totally destroyed.”

“That wouldn’t be necessary,” replied Vance. “That last attack from me was aimed at her Mana core.”

The old Lich seemed to have fallen into a deep melancholic mood. He completely ignored Link’s dissuasion and insisted on approaching Nana’s lifeless body. He then stretched out his bony hand and softly touched her face.

Crack!

The magic puppet’s body jerked suddenly, and her arm shot straight towards the Lich’s skull.

Vance’s skull was indeed very tough, but it was still far less sturdy than the metal that made up Nana’s body. If Vance were to get struck by the full force of Nana’s arm, his head would be blown to bits, and the Flame of Soul in his head would be instantly extinguished.

Nana’s arm still moved too fast for Vance to respond appropriately, and he could only watch helplessly and brace for the incoming impact.

Just then, a dim red glow appeared around Vance’s body—it was Link’s Crimson Edelweiss!

Nana’s arm was immediately slowed down by the shield’s force field, and it finally stopped completely four inches away from Vance’s skull. Half a second later, the arm was deflected away by the force field.

Nana’s head jerked up sharply, and her clear eyes stared straight at Link. Then a hoarse voice emerged from her body.

“Mission failed,” the voice said. “Residual energy exhausted…Target threat level: 5 stars…5 stars…5…stars…”

Then, as if all the life force had been drawn out, Nana’s body collapsed completely to the ground, and all the segments came apart. This time, it seemed that she really was totally destroyed.

Only then did Vance manage to react to what was happening. He touched his smooth skull with his bony fingers and felt that his Flame of Soul was still burning. He did not expect Nana to still be able to attack him like that. It was indeed a close shave for him just now. He could easily have just died in that instant, not knowing what hit him.

Originally, Vance wouldn’t have minded dying at all. But now that he’d fought through such a thrilling and fierce battle with Celine and Link, he found that he still very much wanted to live after all.

The sun still shone upon the earth, he realized. There are still worthy things to live for, like trust among comrades and loyalty in friendship.

This battle had really turned Vance’s rusty and nihilistic views of life completely upside down.

“Thank you, kid,” Vance said to Link with a wave of his hand.

“You’re welcome, old man,” replied Link.

Both then looked at each other and felt there was a newly formed trust between them. Suddenly, they both erupted into hearty laughter. Celine looked on at them curiously. She turned to Link, then to the old Lich, but couldn’t work out what they both found so funny.

Then, Vance squatted near Nana’s remains and began to carefully examine the magic puppet’s body. He wanted to see how she had evolved and what had happened in the last 400 years.

Link, on the other hand, began to study the magnets on the ground. He picked up a piece of black stone and observed it closely. He found that it was, in fact, greenish black and had a strange spiral pattern on its surface. When he placed it closer to his nose and took a whiff, it smelled somewhat pungent and metallic. Then, an idea popped up in his mind, and he quickly turned around to Celine.

“Cut it in half with your sword,” he said. “I’d like to see its cross section.”

Celine then swiftly pulled out her sword, and as the blade glinted in the sunlight, she quickly cut the magnetic stone cleanly in half. The cross-section was smooth like that of a metal and was completely different from the usually rough surface of an ordinary magnetic stone. Upon seeing such a cross-section, a big grin appeared on Link’s face. He realized that he was going to make a fortune!

Link had once read of a type of metal in a textbook on magic materials back when he was in the East Cove Magic Academy. The metal was called Gyromagnetic Iron, and it was described as having a pungent smell and had spiral patterns. Its magnetic field was a hundred times stronger than that of the ordinary magnets.

When this kind of metal was ground into powder and mixed into a dissolving potion, then put through a certain process, the result would be sparkling ink, which was a type of electrical ink. A small vial of this special type of ink would cost about ten gold coins. The capital to produce it was only three gold coins, containing in that small bottle no more than one ounce of Gyromagnetic iron.

Yet, this Magnetic Island surely contained thousands and thousands of tons of Gyromagnetic Iron. If he could turn them all into sparkling ink, Link realized that he’d be making a mountain-sized heap of gold coins!

But it wouldn’t be so simple of course. The price of sparkling ink would drop drastically if there were a large amount of it on the market, probably as low as one gold coin or even one silver coin per vial. Even so, it would still make a huge fortune for Link.

When he thought of this, Link got so elated that he couldn’t help but laugh heartily. He leaped up into the air then took Celine into his arms and danced.

“Hahaha, Celine!” he shouted, “this island will make us so much money that there’ll be more than enough to build my estate now!”

Although Celine had no idea of the Gyromagnetic Iron’s true value, she was still very happy to see Link so joyful.

Link let go of Celine eventually, but he still held her close. Now that he’d found the perfect excuse to be affectionate to her, he wanted to prolong the blissful moment as much as possible. At that point, Link felt his chest could just burst from the joy he felt, and his whole body was overcome with a tingling sensation while the wound on his body no longer gave him any pain.

Celine’s cheeks blushed till they were as red as apples. She let Link hold on to her without any complaints. In fact, she was holding Link’s hand herself.

Crack! Rattle!

The sound from Vance’s skeletal body jerked Link and Celine rudely back to reality. They then quickly separated from each other when they realized the awkward positions they were both in. This made Vance rub his smooth skull and laugh cheekily.

“Oh, don’t be shy,” he said. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Celine lowered her head and said nothing. Link tried to calm himself down quickly and wiped the grin off his face.

“Did you find anything interesting about the magic puppet?” he asked, desperate to change the subject.

Vance nodded his head. “I think I’ve found the reason why I lost control of her,” he said.

Link suddenly became interested. “Can you solve it, then?” he asked.

“That would be slightly difficult,” answered Vance. “I can’t do it alone. But if you’re willing to help, I think we can revive her and turn her into a frightening combat machine.”

“What if you lose control of her again?” asked Celine. It was a crucial problem that they couldn’t afford to ignore. This magic puppet had pushed them all to the point where their lives were hanging on a thread, after all. It made them shudder even thinking about it.

“That’s where the difficulty lies,” said Vance, scratching his head and looking over to Link. “What do you think?”

Link considered the matter for half a minute.

“I don’t really understand the principle that underlies a magic puppet’s inner workings,” he said, “so I can’t give you a meaningful opinion now. Let’s just bring her back with us first.”

Vance nodded in agreement.

“That is a wise choice,” he said. “I don’t have any objections to that. Once we return, I’ll hand you my notebook which contains notes and descriptions of the magic puppet so you can study it.”

Chapter 208: The Vast Treasures of the Old Necromancer ??

 

The group of islands in the middle of the ocean was a distance away from the Ferde Wilderness. If Celine had to make two 380 miles’ roundabout trip to ferry them back to camp, she would definitely be drained of her energy. Luckily, there was a group of wild Griffins on the island.

They grabbed a Griffin each after intimidating them with their powers and commanded them to fly back in the direction of the mainland.

The Griffins were fast. Within two hours, the three of them once again arrived at the entrance of the underground palace. The moment the three Griffins regained their freedom, they flew off immediately, looking clearly startled and in fear. They then proceeded all the way into the deepest area of the underground palace
without any obstructions.

Vance carefully observed the furniture in the underground palace and said in disbelief,

“This is a surprise. Everything here is intact. Even the position of the chairs has not been changed. If not for my memories of the past 400 years, I would even feel that I just left this place a day ago.”

Link laughed. “This is the work of your magic puppet. This place is her sanctuary, and her only goal is to protect the integrity of this sanctuary.”

Speaking of Nana, Vance sighed, “She was so overprotective that she even forgot who I was.”

Under the influence of all this familiar furniture and scenery, memories started flashing through Vance’s mind. He ran around in this magnificent hall while mumbling things to himself.

“This scroll…Oh! It’s an unfinished spell. To think that it is still kept half open, like how I left it when I left this place!”

“This chair was my favorite. Nothing has changed, not even the dust that settled…Oh, the activation trigger is still active. It still has not rusted.”

He pressed the trigger, and all of a sudden, machinery sounds could be heard from the back of the wall. In a few seconds, a wall on the left side of the hall started moving backwards before going deeper underground.

Behind the wall was a space 15 feet deep. There were three antique chests placed within the space. Each of the chests was huge, measuring at three feet tall and six feet wide. From the design of the chest, it could be determined that they were painted 500 years ago when the Assyrian Dynasty was still in power.

Vance beckoned to Link and Celine, “Come over here. Look at my treasures.”

He went into the hall and opened the chest on the left. Layers of wooden shelves then emerged from the chest, amounting to an astounding 20 layers. Every layer then
had over 40 boxes which were stuffed with items.

“This is a Vochit-style chest. It is the most stable dimensional chest which compresses items in a 50:1 ratio. There is a total of 800 boxes in this chest which are filled with a variety of rare metals and materials. For example, this piece of Thorium is close to 1.5 kilograms.”

Vance then took out a piece of Thorium. It was originally the size of a thumb. However, when it was exposed to the original atmosphere, it expanded to the size of a fist, the silver brilliance nearly blinding anyone in sight. Link once saw a similar chest in Herrera’s room. However, that chest was nothing compared to the current one right in front of him. Looking at the brilliance emanating from all the rare materials, Link could finally understand why Vance said his wealth was enough to even build a Mage Tower similar in scale to the Heaven’s Thorn.

Celine merely stared with her mouth slightly opened. She could not believe that a man could accumulate this much wealth.

Vance was extremely satisfied and laughed with glee, his bones clattering as his body
shook. “I made a fortune in those days selling my Battle Aura books. Those nobles would purchase them from me regardless of the cost. I was once the world’s wealthiest businessman.”

He then walked towards the second chest and opened it. This time around, rows of books appeared in the chest. The books were all intricately designed with jeweled
hardcovers and high-quality paper. One could even feel magic fluctuations from the books, suggesting that some of these books had records of powerful magic formations.

There were at least 300 books in total. Link randomly picked out a book titled The
Insane Microscopic Universe. After browsing through a few pages, Link saw a formula which attracted his attention. It was almost identical to the one he had been racking his brains over in his thesis. After a few more pages, Link saw even more identical content. He shared some similar ideas with the author of this book, and there were even some details inside which he hadn’t thought of.

Link already felt inspired after just a few pages. “This is just priceless!”

Link had a real look of euphoria on his face. The rare materials which almost blinded him merely made him slightly excited. However, these magic books were simply a wonderland.

Vance once again laughed with pride. It was an achievement to make a genius such as Link lose his usual calm demeanor. He then opened the last chest. This chest was a
lot more empty, housing a few intricately designed scrolls. Vance browsed through these scrolls one-by-one as he caressed each of them with his bony hands. He seemed to be reminiscing about some good memories.

He smiled emotionally. “The Battle Aura scrolls and all my research journals are housed here. Although it is not as voluminous as the other two chests, this took me at least 200 years to complete. I even had to carry the bad reputation as the Heartless Butcher.”

Link walked over and opened a scroll. The scroll was titled Earth Shattering Storm
Style. What an extravagant name! He then opened the other scrolls and counted a total of 16 scrolls, most of which were Epic in quality, some of them unfinished.

After introducing all his treasures, Vance then spun towards Link and said, “I have no use for such things now; you can have them all.”

Although Link had expected this, when he finally heard it from Vance’s mouth, he was still overwhelmed with gratitude. “Old man, I have no idea how to thank you.”

Vance laughed, “The best way to thank me is to put them to good use. Use this knowledge and wealth to create the best territory there ever was!”

At this moment, Vance seemed to have remembered something. He patted his head before walking to the middle chest and taking out three magic books. He then took out a few scrolls and a journal from the right chest, passing all of them to Link. “These have all the knowledge regarding magic puppets. Take them back for your research. Also, my underground palace has already been exposed to some powerful dark figures. It is not safe to put these chests here anymore. You have to take them away as soon as possible.”

Naturally, Link would.

Following which, Link and Celine became movers as they made many trips to carry the spoils out of the underground palace. It was not a small amount, and there was a limit to the amount their dimensional equipment could store. They hence had to make three trips before they emptied Vance’s treasures.

After the hard work, the three of them rendezvoused at Shark Bay. At this moment, Vance held a handwritten book in his hand. This book was extremely thick and was titled Treasured War History of the Ancestors.

He smiled when he saw Link. “The last thing is the terrible climate at the Ferde Wilderness.”

Link was startled when he saw the book. “Are you telling me the answer is right in this
book?”

Vance smiled. “It’s very likely.” He opened this thick book to somewhere in the middle and pointed at a paragraph of words. “This day, the Storm Lord and the Earth Lord fought at the beach. This battle lasted three whole days. The two powerful lords were both heavily injured as they unleashed their final attack. The Storm Lord destroyed the physical body of the Earth Lord in one swing of his sword. However, he eventually succumbed to his heavy injuries and fell at the same place.”

After reading it, he looked up at Link. “Do you see it? The Ferde Wilderness was the exact location of their battle. The gravel littered around the entire Wilderness is the fallen body of the Earth Lord, while the terrible hurricane that plagued this land is caused by the remnant soul of the Storm Lord.”

Celine felt that it was strange. “Isn’t this just a legend? Do you really believe it?”

Vance was not amused. He merely looked at Celine and said, “Young girl, legends are actually history that has been either dramatized or modified over the years. The truth
often lies behind these legends.”

Link was lost in thought. As a Magician, he had once read about the history of the World of Firuman. He knew that the World of Firuman had changed over the years. Tens of thousands of years ago, there was a golden era were many Legends walked the ground. The strongest of those Legendary professionals were termed as lords.

The Storm Lord and the Earth Lord could just as well be such powerful beings. Although no one knew the exact reason for their fight, it could really explain the uncanny geography and climate of the Ferde Wilderness to a great extent.

After thinking for a moment, Link said, “I have heard that in the golden era, the lords were extremely powerful beings. Most of them would have attained an indestructible spirit which allowed them to remain on the earth in some form even after the death of their physical bodies. Does this mean that if we can find the remnant soul of the Storm Lord, we can stop the appearance of the random hurricanes?

“You are absolutely right!” Vance snapped his fingers. He then flipped to another page on the book and pointed at a chunk of words, “The Lion Heart King came to this Wilderness when suddenly, a hurricane ensued and blew sand across the entire area. The king then lost his way and reached a mysterious canyon while trying to maneuver
out of the terrible weather.”

The Lion Heart King was a figure from 2000 years ago. He was a great king that loved adventure, and legends of his exploits could still be found circulating amongst the world of Firuman. Although some of the stories were made up, the passage that Vance read had revealed two important pieces of information: Firstly, the soul remnant of the Storm Lord might very well still be present. Secondly, it was probably still hidden in some canyon. Link was prepared to follow this clue and find a canyon with the presence of strong wind elements.

Celine then raised a question, “The Ferde Wilderness is huge. However, no one seems to have heard of any storm canyon.”

Vance nodded. “The canyon is certainly not in the Ferde Wilderness. However, this history has pointed out that these hurricanes seem to have an origin.

Having a direction that might be false was better than having no direction at all. If one could see through the mist covering the truth, they could very well expose the true history.

Link frowned and thought for a long while before saying, “There is a Wind Tiger in my territory that is especially sensitive to wind elementals. Perhaps I can task him to find this origin for me.”

“That is a good idea.” Vance closed the Treasured War History of the Ancestors and handed it over to Link. “This is the only copy. You can read the rest of the stories in your free time as well. Many of these stories have value to them.”

“Alright.” Link was interested in this book already.

Link and Celine then returned to the camp afterwards. Vance then found a remote place
within the Ferde Wilderness to call home. As for where that location was, he was unwilling to answer. He did, however, give Link a transmission rune to contact him whenever needed. They had also agreed to research on the theories of magic puppets together in the future.

Link naturally had no opinion on this arrangement. After returning to the Scorched Ridge, he first headed towards River Cove Town to heal his wounds. He then approached Dorias and tasked him with a mission.

“What? The origin of the hurricane?” Dorias had been living a good life and seemed to be slightly relaxed. When he heard Link’s words, he subconsciously starting sniffing the air in the atmosphere.

After a while, he nodded. “The wind here is indeed different. I will look into it now.”

He was extremely efficient. Upon finishing his sentence, he leaped from the ground and sniffed the air while walking in a specific direction, quickly making his way out of Scorched Ridge.

It wasn’t too nice for him to do nothing while he lived off Link’s resources. Furthermore, he had been extremely bored these few days. He could take this chance to go out for a walk.

Chapter 209: Windy Cove

Dorias had gone out for three days. On the second day, there were two violent storms that seemed to come out of nowhere in Ferde Wilderness. On the afternoon of the third day, Dorias dragged himself back, and he seemed to be acting strangely.

As soon as he arrived, he rushed back to the big shed that Link had built specially for him.

“Give me some roast meat and make it quick!” he shouted. “I’m almost starved to death! Make sure you add hot peppers and sea salt to my meat!”

At that point, Link was studying the design blueprint of the magic puppet in his room. When he heard of the commotion outside, he stepped out of the wooden cabin and saw some of his servants pouring a bucket of clean water onto Dorias’ body. The water that flowed from his body was full of mud and dirt.

“Where have you been?” asked Link as he approached the tiger. “Did you fall into a mud swamp?”

Dorias shook his giant head and wore a strangely proud expression on his face.

“I’ve found the source of the storms,” he revealed. “It was on a bizarre island out in the sea, probably about a hundred miles away from here. It had been quiet and calm before I reached the island, but the moment I set foot on it, a violent storm formed very quickly. I was almost blown into the sky by the storm!”

“An island a hundred miles away from here?” asked Link. “Did you notice any cliffs or caves there?”

Dorias stared at Link in shock.

“Oh, so you know about the caves on the island?” he asked.

Link was in fact reminded of the records in the book War History of the Ancestors where King Lionheart said that he was blown adrift to a cave. It seemed that this description was true and that he was, in fact, blown from the mainland to the island in the middle of the sea.

Once he’d found the target, Link felt that half of the problem was solved. He decided that what he must do now was to go and see the place for himself.

“I’ll take you there when I’m full,” said Dorias. He could guess exactly what was on Link’s mind.

The head cook of the camp was very good at his job. He’d roasted two cows perfectly to Dorias’ taste, so naturally, he wanted to savor every bite of food he was served. Once he’d picked all the bones clean, he burped loudly and shook his fur dry.

“Let’s go,” he said, turning to Link.

Link relayed the appropriate orders to his clerk, Joshua before climbing onto the giant tiger’s back. They sped all the way towards the sea.

Once on the beach, Link saw that the harbor was under construction. The Yabba people were truly as efficient as they were rumored to be. It hadn’t been more than half a month since they arrived, but Link could already see the rough structure of a port. If they kept on working at this pace, the harbor would be ready to use in less than a month.

The construction of the estate is on the right track now, thought Link. And I’ve got all the magic materials and gold coins in place. Now, it is only the matter of solving the climate problem!

Meanwhile, Dorias had already reached the edge of the shore. He then roared, and his body was immediately shrouded in glimmering blue light. Then, the tiger jumped down the cliff, and when his feet touched the surface of the water, it was as if he’d landed on firm ground. He proceeded to run as fast as the wind on the surface of the sea.

Dorias proudly shook his head to and fro against the wind as he ran.

“What do you think of my moves, Link?” he asked.

“Very smooth,” answered Link with a smile.

Roar!!! Rooooaaarrrr!!!

Dorias then got more adjusted to the new surface he was running on and his speed gradually increased. It only took him under an hour to travel the 100 miles’ distance. Soon enough, Link spotted a black dot over the horizon.

“Do you see that? That’s the place,” said Dorias. “It looks like a desert island and seems normal from afar. There was nothing out of the ordinary around it either. But as soon as you get 300 feet to the island, there’s a huge gust of wind so strong that you almost can’t stand it. I tried it twice when I got here, and it resulted in the same outcome both times. It really is very strange.”

Link had no idea what was going on himself. He only waited to approach the island himself and experience it first-hand.

Soon afterwards, they were both on the island. It was a bleak and barren place where not even grass could grow. There was a sandy beach near the shore while the inner part of the island was made up of rusty, brown stones that were so heavily weathered they looked like honeycombs.

From afar, these stones seemed to form into caves where gentle breeze blew from their depths.

“Everything still seems normal here,” said Dorias, “but once we walk further into the island things will change drastically.”

Dorias crouched down a little as he walked on slowly and cautiously as if bracing for the sudden appearance of a violent storm. Link jumped down from the tiger’s back and cast the Crimson Edelweiss spell on himself as protection. He then walked slowly forward while remaining close to Dorias’ side.

After walking for about 30 feet, Dorias suddenly wiggled his nose as if he smelled something in the air.

“Did you sense that?” he asked. “The wind has changed.”

It was an obvious change. At first, it had only been a mild breeze that they could hardly feel, but now the wind started to blow more quickly. It was strong enough to blow up the grains of sand on the beach. Without the Edelweiss spell, those grains of sand would’ve gotten into Link’s eyes by now.

“Looks like the island has woken up,” whispered Link.

“Exactly!” replied Dorias. “It’s as if there’s a ferocious beast in the cave and our presence disturbed its slumber.”

Dorias then crouched down even lower to the ground and moved even slower. He squinted his eyes to prevent the sand from getting into his eyes. At that moment, he looked just like a cat who was ready to pounce.

Link and Dorias then walked for a further 150 feet. The gusts of wind had now turned into a storm that whistled and howled and picked up stones and sand into the air. Through the Edelweiss shield, Link could feel waves of air pressure coming from the wind. He was sure to be blown off into the distance by now if he hadn’t cast a defensive spell earlier.

Dorias also began to release the blue aura around him. He crouched down almost to the ground now and would shake his head from time to time to remove the sand and stone that got caught between his fur.

“Link, it’s getting a bit unbearable for me,” said Dorias. “Are we still going to move forward?” Dorias had to stretch out his claws and dig deep into the ground to prevent from getting blown away by the storm. Even so, his body was visibly moving backwards, and he’d left a long deep channel on the ground where his claws were dragged backwards by the wind.

Link fared better as the Edelweiss shield helped protect him from most of the wind’s power. But even he felt quite overwhelmed by the storm’s sheer force. He turned around and could see nothing else in the surroundings except sand and stones.

After focusing his eyes for a while, Link could see that thick clouds were already taking form in the sky. Soon, dark clouds gathered, and a huge storm was looming over them.

It wasn’t just gusts of wind around the caves now. Instead, the whole region seemed to be caught in a strong hurricane!

Link felt a wave of panic surging over him.

Is this how the storms in Ferde Wilderness are formed? Link thought. Is this place really hiding the souls of the ancient lords? But thousands of years have passed since then; how could their powers still be this ferocious?

Whoosh! Whoooosh!

The storm got louder and stronger. It now sounded like the roar of an immensely strong giant. The clouds gathered in the sky and almost completely blocked the sunlight from penetrating to the ground.

“You should stay back now, Dorias,” said Link. “I’ll go on for a little bit further.” Link thought he’d be able to handle the storm for just a little while longer. He’d come to solve the climate problem in the Ferde Wilderness, so he couldn’t back out before reaching his limits.

“Be careful, Link,” yelled Dorias. He then turned around and ran towards the sea. He then jumped into the water and hid there, only keeping his head above the water to keep watch on Link from afar.

He didn’t know what would happen next, but his big eyes were full of worry and apprehension.

Meanwhile, on the coven island, Link continued to move forward. The force field of Edelweiss was pulled back by the wind, making it look like a comet’s tail behind Link. The force field in front of Link had been compressed and weathered by the storm until all that was left was a thin layer.

If he pressed on this way, Link knew that Edelweiss could only protect him for another 30 feet or so.

Link activated the Glyph of Soul and cast the Vulcan’s Hand. Then, he quickly canceled the spell and used the Mana structure resonance to transform it into the Titan’s hand.

Whoosh!

A giant hand appeared in front of Link’s body, protecting him from the force of the storm.

A Level-6 spell would naturally be more stable than the Level-5 Crimson Edelweiss. Link found that he could now step forwards more easily now that he was protected by the Titan’s Hand.

Link wasn’t sure how long it took, but suddenly he felt that the pressure exerted on the Titan’s Hand suddenly seemed to ease up. It wasn’t because the strength of the wind decreased though, but rather because the storm’s power had reached the point where it could slash like knives. Without the Titan’s Hand, the storm would’ve behaved like a thousand blades of knives that surrounded Link, and he would be slashed all over his body.

Also, Link noticed that all the sand and stones that were blown up into the air had cleared off, leaving only the pure power of the wind elements.

Maybe everything that could get picked up by the wind has been blown away, Link thought, leaving only smooth boulders here.

Link didn’t dare to peek his head around the Titan’s Hand to see what was happening in front of him. All he could do was walk on forward.

After another thirty steps or so, Link felt that the screaming wind around him had reached a totally unbearable point. It sounded as if he was standing right next to a jet engine!

Even the Titan’s Hand was about to reach its limits. Although Link used all his powers to focus on strengthening the force field in front of him and change the form of the Titan’s Hand into the more stable fist shape, he could still see that a trail of red-hot fire elements was blown behind him.

The spell would collapse any moment now.

Link realized that it would simply be suicidal for him to keep moving forward. He stopped and tried to estimate the situation around him. He could see much better here than before, but still, his view was distorted as the rapid air flow became transparent ripples.

Finally, Link noticed a faint frosty white aura on the ground where he stood and the stone walls around him.

There must be a light source ahead, not too far away from here, thought Link. But what could it be? Link was very curious but did not dare to risk his life finding out. If he took any more steps further, the Titan’s Hand would surely collapse. Then, what would surely follow would be him getting minced to small bits by the violent wind around him.

Should I go back now? Link thought.

Despite the clear danger, Link was still a little hesitant and unwilling to go back. He’d come so far and so near to finding out the truth. Going back now would mean that he still couldn’t solve the climate problem in his estate and that he’d have to come back here again.

He considered it for three seconds, then took out the White Prophetic Stone.

The violent climate of Ferde Wilderness was now his last hurdle in building his estate. If he couldn’t solve this problem, then there would be no way for him to develop his power and build up his army. Elin, the Lady Fortuna, had warned him that the sun was about to sink under the horizon, so he mustn’t waste any more precious time.

Therefore, he felt that using the Prophetic White Stone now would gain him huge and invaluable progress, so he proceeded without any more hesitation.

His Mana began to flow into the stone which caused it to emit a transparent water-like aura. This aura then flowed into the Titan’s Hand in front of him, strengthening it within a second and turning it from a tattered force field into solid protection while its size was tripled as well. However, Link’s Mana consumption rate increased five times now, and he was expending as high as 200 points of Mana per second.

“Clear Thoughts!” chanted Link as he activated the special powers of his robe. He then took a bottle of high-level Mana potion from his storage pendant and drank it all up in one gulp.

While a mid-level Mana potion could restore 500 points of Mana, high-level Mana potion could restore 1000 points of Mana instantly. Coupled with the effects of Clear Thoughts which boosted his Mana recovery rate, Link estimated that he would be able to hold out for another half minute.

If I can’t reach the end of this cave after 20 seconds, Link thought, then I’ll be on my way out!

With that decision made up in his mind, Link walked on behind the protection of the Level-6 Titan’s Hand.

One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds…

The frosty white light got brighter and brighter, the wind became stronger and stronger, and the floor got so smooth that it was starting to be slippery. Link had to struggle just to take a step forward now.

Ten seconds!

Link’s Mana consumption rate had reached 300 points per second now, while there were only about 2600 points of Mana left in his body. In two more seconds, he would have to use the spell, Dimensional Jump to get out of here.

Just as he took the last step forward, he noticed a sudden change!

It was as if he’d broken through the layer of a barrier. He could no longer hear the wind’s howl nor feel the pressure exerted on the Titan’s Hand. He’d entered a calm and silent place.

There were wind elements here, and they were very densely packed too. But instead of being violent and vicious, these wind elements were gentle and calm. There was a frosty white light here as well, and it was so bright that Link couldn’t look at its source directly.

Link carefully canceled the Titan’s Hand and slowly turned his eyes in the direction of the light source.

A second later, his eyes widened, and he stood there in a daze.

“Isn’t this…?”

Chapter 210: Arbiter of Storms, Master of Lightning, Silencer of Realms

This was the end of the canyon. The walls of this area were pure white in color and glistened when light was reflected off its surface. The area was also saturated with wind elements. They were so concentrated that they became visible to the naked eye, floating around Link like a thin veil.

In the center of the area, lay the origin of this spectacular phenomenon. Through the blinding brilliance, Link could see a magnificent and elegant rustic sword.

It was a one-handed sword!

It was suspended gracefully in the air and was around 3 feet long. It seemed to be formed from shimmering white crystals. There was an oval-shaped translucent dent in the center of the sword. Within this translucent area, glowing circular air currents stirred slowly while emanating a powerful presence. Around the sword, the wind elements were as docile as a sheep.

Link merely stared at the sword for a second before he felt a huge pressure coming from it. This pressure was so intimidating that he was almost forced to kneel on the ground to give respect to this almighty sword.

“What a strong presence!” Link was surprised and withstood the pressure with all his might. He did not avert his gaze, nor did he succumb to the intimidation.

Three seconds later, the information of the sword appeared in his field of vision.

Arbiter of Storms, Master of Lightning, Silencer of Realms! (Sword of the Storm Lord)

Quality: Legend

Status: Depleted (8/100) (Down to 20% power)

Effect: Owner of this sword will wield the power of storm and lightning. Any wind and lightning elemental spells or Battle Aura cast by the owner will see a 1000% increase in power and gain 30000 feet in attacking range. The offensive power of area of effect attacks will be 30% of the owner’s attacking power.

(Note: Only a true master can fully control its power.)

Link was practically dumbfounded when he saw the sword. He knew this sword by name while he was playing the game.

In the game, this sword was not casually neglected on an island. Instead, it was segmented into three parts—namely the hilt, the damaged blade and the wind elemental core. One could only assemble these pieces as loot drops from the three final world bosses. Furthermore, the drop rate for these items was abysmal. Even after painstakingly collecting the parts, one would still have to spend a great deal of effort to clear a story called Prestige of the Dwarf Master repeatedly. Only when they had reached a certain level of mastery for the storyline would they be able to craft a sword completely depleted of energy.

Finally, the sword then had to be charged with mana points which would once again require a lot of time. The final in-game stats of the sword were also modified for balancing purposes, though there were similarities between the both of them.

In the game, the effects of the sword were to increase the strength of all wind and lightning elemental attacks by 300%, as well as increase the attacking range by 150 feet. Despite the great reduction in stats, it was already considered to be one of the strongest weapons of all time.

Amongst the billions of players who played the game, only around 20 of them managed to get ahold of the sword. If a wielder of the sword were to appear in town, they would immediately become the center of attention.

The power of this sword simply knew no bounds. No matter what profession you were, as long as your main element was wind or lightning, this sword would immediately make you one of the strongest players on the server. As long as one had basic playing skills, it would not be a problem to fight against three other players of the same level and supposedly same strength.

If the owner of this sword were to meet a bunch of rookies, he could even destroy a group of twenty easily.

The sword was already near perfect in the game. However, the beauty and incomparable brilliance it had in real life were simply astonishing. The sword had revealed the true terror and gloriousness of a top-tier Legendary weapon in reality!

When the sword was fully charged, it would grant the wielder a 1000% increase in strength and 30000 feet in attacking range. The wielder could then easily destroy an entire troop of soldiers with this weapon. They merely hand to swing the sword to call upon the surging thunder and howling winds. In a matter of seconds, a battalion of opponents would lay motionless on the ground.

That would be insanely cool.

Link felt a desire to walk up and claim the sword as his own. He suppressed the intense pressure emanating from the sword and stretched out his hand towards the hilt of the sword.

He succeeded! His hand wrapped around the hilt as a feeling of satisfaction overwhelmed him. However, a reprimanding voice suddenly rang, “Mortal, you are facing the weapon that once belonged to the Storm Lord. What qualifications do you have to wield me!”

“This is…a sword spirit!” Link was startled. What other surprises would this sword bring?

“I have broken through your wind elemental barrier and successfully grabbed the hilt of the sword. From that perspective, I am more than qualified,” Link replied.

“Mortal, you have a strong soul. However, you are still too weak. That is really disappointing. If you were to wield me having such measly power, it would be a disgrace to my predecessor!” The voice rang again, not willing to admit that Link was qualified enough to wield him as of yet.

Link fell silent and tried to pull the sword out from its position. However, no matter how much strength he used, the sword merely levitated in the same spot and would not budge. He then started charging mana into the sword but to no avail. The moment any mana touched the sword, it would be greedily consumed by the sword which had a vast mana storage capacity, rendering it ineffective.

What a pity that he could not claim a powerful weapon that was right in front of him!

However, since a sword spirit was present, it meant that Link could strike a deal with him. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Alright then, I will not attempt to wield you. The aim of my trip is to find the origin of the hurricanes, the menace that is destroying my territory. That origin is none other than you!”

“Origin of hurricanes? Menace?” The voice sounded doubtful.

Link did not speak and let images of the Ferde Wilderness flash through his mind. He believed that the sword spirit would be able to see these images as well.

“Do you see now? Because of you, my territory has become a barren land. As the lord, I have to improve the situation!”

The sword spirit fell silent for a while before speaking again, “This was not my intention.”

“Then what is it?”

“My original intention was to release my power to search for the next Storm Lord. It is such a shame that mortals are getting weaker by the day. After waiting for ten thousand years, no one even managed to reach this place. You are the first one to have succeeded. But look at your measly power! What a disappointment!” the sword was clearly dejected.

The sword spirit seemed to be highly intelligent. This meant that it might be possible to reason with him.

Link then suggested, “You want to look for a new Storm Lord while I need to protect my territory. What do you say we make a deal? You will seal your powers while I will bring you around the mortal world. One day, when you find a suitable candidate, I will hand you over to that lucky person.”

The sword spirit did not reply immediately, and Link waited nervously.

After around half a minute, the majestic voice once again sounded, “Your idea is not half bad.”

Link then heard a light, clanging, metallic sound as the elegant blade suddenly lost all the brilliance it was emitting. The pure white crystals that used to glimmer were now pale white rocks, and the mysterious air ripples in the middle of the sword had disappeared. The veil-like layer of wind elements had also dissipated entirely. Link then picked up this sword from the ground.

This sword looked extremely ordinary now. It was simply a hand-crafted sword that looked slightly more aesthetic. If Link were to auction it in Hot Springs City, it would probably fetch at most ten gold coins.

“From now on, I will enter into a state of slumber. No matter what situation you are in, I will not offer my power to help. If you die in an accident, I will find another carrier myself. However, if you die of old age and happen to have any descendants, you may hand me over to them.”

“It’s a deal!” Link nodded as he tried to put the sword away into the dimensional pendant. However, he was not successful.

The voice the sounded again, “Don’t humiliate me by putting me in such low-level magical equipment! Just carry me along on your waist like a normal sword.”

Left with no choice, Link secured the sword onto his waist. Luckily, the sword was light and only weighed around two kilograms.

He then stared at the sky once again and felt the cooling sea breeze. The dark clouds and thundering bellows had all disappeared, revealing the clear blue skies that were supposed to have graced the island.

It seemed like the era of bad climate in the Ferde Wilderness was over.

Link heaved a sigh of relief as he walked out of the canyon. Halfway through, he saw Dorias walking towards him.

Dorias was unable to grasp the situation. Just a moment ago, he witnessed a storm that seemed to even tear a gap through the dimension. However, the next moment, the entire world seemed to be enveloped in warm fluffy clouds and comforting sunshine. The peculiar wind that once plagued this island had also disappeared without a trace. This was strange.

“Link, what happened?” Dorias asked.

“Do not reveal anything about me.” Before Link could speak, the sword spirit gave a stern reminder.

Link needed to make up an excuse on the spot. “There is an extremely powerful Storm Lord in the depths of the canyon. I have already defeated him, and all is well.”

Dorias was immediately overwhelmed with respect, “Is that true? You are really something! Is this sword the weapon of the Storm Lord in question?”

This was truly what Dorias felt. He had attempted many times to enter the canyon but only managed to reach the halfway point before he was forced to turn back. If the opponent was able to create such strong winds consistently, just how strong would he be in combat?

To think that Link was not only able to reach the end of the canyon but also defeat the Storm Lord. This was the strength of the man Dorias had chosen to follow!

Link was tickled by Dorias’ reaction and nodded. “That’s right. This is his weapon. What do you think? Beautiful isn’t it?”

Dorias then shook his head. “It is a piece of crap. I have seen at least 10000 similar low-quality swords in my lifetime.”

He then automatically squatted down to let Link mount onto him easily.

As Link mounted Dorias, the voice of the sword spirit once again appeared, “I don’t like this hideous creature. Don’t let me see him next time.”

What is going on? Link was speechless. Didn’t he mention he was going into a state of slumber? Why is he still so talkative?

“He has no manners!”

Link had nothing to say to the sword spirit’s arrogance and pride.

Link then relaxed as Dorias brought him all the way back to the Ferde Wilderness. Along the way, Link admired the beautiful scenery while he appreciated the brilliant weather. With the issue of bad climate off the list, Link once again felt the passion and drive to develop his territory.

Half a day later, Link and Dorias reached the campsite. The moment they reached the outskirts of Scorched Ridge, they could hear many voices and saw a huge figure lying in wait for them. The moment Link saw the figure, he was elated. East Cove Higher Magic Academy was indeed efficient. They had already brought him the magic puppet that he had ordered.

It seemed like everything was going according to plan. Link smiled and said, “Let’s speed up. I have to see how the magic puppet performs.”