Advent of the Archmage - Chapter 260

Chapter 260: Disorder in the South

 

Ferde Wilderness.

Woo, woo. There was the deep sound of the conch. In the Ferde Sea pier, a flat sail cargo ship slowly approached the dock. The sailor at the bow sounded the horn, asking for permission to dock.

A soldier ran on the pier while waving a bright command flag. Bit by bit, he guided the large ship to dock in the respective berth.

Ten minutes later, the large ship about 150 feet long safety stopped in the pier’s berth. With a whoosh, the plank was put up. The physical laborers rushed over, fighting for a chance to work. They were all farmers from the Ferde Wilderness with land newly partitioned to them. However, it was off-season, so they all came to the pier to make some extra money.

A buff sailor walked down from the ship. He pointed at some stronger men casually. “You, you, and you guys, come and transport the goods. You get 100 coppers when it’s done.”

The chosen laborers were overjoyed. They strode up the ship and started moving the goods on the deck. The sailors helped while maintaining order. After a while, the bottom cabin was opened. Countless young men and women in rags and shackles walked out.

“Look, it’s the slaves the lord bought.”

“Look at that woman, the one with the torn shirt. Geez, her titties are so big and round.”

“Wow, is that a Warrior? He’s so muscular!”

The laborers discussed the slaves while transporting the goods. On the other hand, the slaves were terrified. Some of the women carried babies who were crying and waiting to be nursed. Because they were in an unfamiliar environment, they hugged their mothers and howled. Occasionally, there was the crack of a whip from sailors forcing the slaves to hurry up.

The pier instantly grew lively.

Another plank was propped against the other end of the ship. A few well-dressed merchants walked down. The leader was Warter, the owner of the Green Leaf Merchant Firm.

As the owner of the goods, he didn’t have to oversee the unloading personally. After walking down the ship, he walked quickly to the Pier Office Building. He said to the guard, “I am Warter. I have an emergency and must see Sir Alloson.”

Alloson was the man in charge of the pier. Warter had interacted with him many times before. The guard recognized Warter too, so he moved aside. “Sir Alloson is in the second floor. Please go on ahead.”

Warter walked briskly. His steps were hurried, and his expression was somber. Finally, he reached the main hall of the second floor and saw Alloson behind the business table.

Alloson used to be a mercenary. Due to his extraordinary abilities, he became a core member of Ferde and was sent to manage the new pier. He was only 30 years old and was in his prime.

Right now, he was processing some documents speedily. When his subordinates asked questions, he could explain clearly within a few sentences. He was obviously a competent worker.

Warter waited patiently at the side. When Alloson finished with the task at hand, he walked over and said quietly, “Sir…”

Recognizing him, Alloson smiled and said, “Oh, my friend, just call me Alloson.”

Warter nodded and continued, “I just came back from the Kingdom of Delonga in the South. Something horrible happened in Delonga, and I’m afraid it might affect Ferde.”

Alloson narrowed his eyes at Warter and asked, “What exactly happened?”

The Kingdom of Delonga was to the south of the Ferde Wilderness with only the Blackwater River between them. If something happened in Delonga, Ferde would definitely be affected.

Warter glanced around at the other people in the hall. He looked hesitant.

Alloson quickly waved. “Come, let’s go to my room.” He rose and led the way out the hall, up to the third floor, and into the room overlooking the sea.

Here, Warter pulled out a scroll to Alloson. He said, “The scroll contains a Magic Image. I bought it from an escaping Court Magician at a high price. The image recorded some secret things that happened among the Delonga royalty.”

Alloson opened the scroll. There was a very clear image recorded on it. Under the light, he could see that the location was in a secret room. There were seven or eight men, mostly Magicians. One man had a gold crown. A Magician with red eyes and a dark aura was bowing to him.

“What’s this?”

Warter explained, “The one with the crown is King Roy the Fifth of Delonga. According to the escaping Court Magician, the Magician beside him had shocking dark waves. He promised to help King Roy create a secret army and the king agreed.”

Alloson couldn’t believe it. “How can a Magic Image with such a secret be preserved? Is the Court Magician reliable?”

“Very reliable. He actually is Master Emmandel, the head Magician of Delonga. After he felt something was amiss, he quietly escaped. When I saw him, he was being pursued and then he gave me this.”

Alloson was quiet for a few minutes. Then he asked, “This is very important. I’ll take you to see the lord.”

This was what Warter wanted. The Ferde Wilderness was developing rapidly, and Link’s reputation was rising. It was getting harder and harder for him, a mere merchant, to see him, which was why he came to ask Alloson for help.

The two left the building. Getting horses and a dozen guards, they hurried to Scorched Ridge, dozens of miles away.

On the way, Alloson asked, “Warter, you’ve been going to the South a lot recently. How is the state of the Southern Trade Federation?”

Warter shook his head and sighed. “There’s unprecedented chaos. Delonga is being forced back by Southmoon, and Roy the Fifth has started sparing no costs. The Doska Kingdom is almost entirely controlled by the Syndicate and can barely survive. The Golle Kingdom is corrupted. The officials will do anything for money…I remember that when I went to the South 20 years ago, I didn’t need guards on the road. Now, I’m terrified when I go to the wilderness, and I don’t even dare to go out at night!”

He sighed continuously. He had truly experienced the downfall of the South.

Hearing this, Alloson’s expression darkened. “Norton is also fighting with the Dark Elves. I heard that the North isn’t doing well either. The military has already retreated to the Iron Wall Defense Line. It feels like the mainland fell into chaos so suddenly. How can it be like this?”

“Maybe the world is ending.” The merchant’s brows were knitted.

In a time of unrest, a man’s life was like grass. No one wanted this situation, but for some reason, the world just became more and more of a mess. As an unimportant figure, Warter could only watch everything happen without being unable to help.

Both fell silent for the rest of the journey.

More than one hour later, they could see Scorched Ridge in the distance. Gazing at it, Warter sighed. “The changes are so big. When I left last time, the Mage Tower only had its foundations. Now, you can see its general shape. And the camp looks like a small town now.”

No matter how the South was, the Ferde Wilderness was still calm and peaceful. Everything was developing rapidly and prospering.

For some reason, Warter felt much better.

Alloson looked a bit proud. “This is only the surface. Let me tell you, even the High Elf Princess is staying here. A lot of powerful High Elf Magicians are helping with the Mage Tower too. They all respect the lord.”

Warter smiled. “Our Lord is a smart and powerful man. When I was in Delonga, I saw many refugees from Ferde and guess what?”

“What?” Alloson asked with a smiled.

“They snuck back and then took their friends and family back to Ferde.”

Alloson laughed out loud, and the guards laughed as well. The mood had lightened, and the group forged in light spirits. Three hundred feet ahead, there was a rock 13-foot-tall.

Rocks were everywhere in the Ferde Wilderness; there was nothing special about it.

But then, the reddish rock suddenly exploded with a loud boom. The rock, almost 30 feet wide and 13 feet high, cracked into two. Shards flew everywhere, and dust rose up to the sky.

“Careful, it’s a Magician’s sneak attack! Raise your shields!”

“Where? Where’s the Magician?”

“Where are the archers? Archers!”

The procession panicked. Everyone was terrified as if they had run into a huge enemy. They looked side to side, trying to find the Magician who had attacked.

However, this was a prairie, and it was daytime; the vision was great. Everyone looked around but could not find the attacker.

Warter was extremely frightened. He wiped at his sweat and asked quietly, “What’s going on? Who attacked?”

Alloson was tense as well. He looked at the boulder that had been split by some power. He said in a wavering voice, “I don’t know, but it seems like he’s really powerful!”

Warter rolled his eyes. He wasn’t blind; it was obvious that the Magician was powerful. The problem was, where was he?! If they couldn’t figure it out and there was another attack, they wouldn’t even know how they died!

Everyone stood rooted to the spot with their guards up but the Magician didn’t appear. The terrifying attack didn’t come either.

Just as Alloson and Warter were at a loss, a soldier suddenly pointed at the road before them. “Look, I think it’s the lord.”

They all looked up. Indeed, there was a Magician clad in a dark red robe, covered in fire light, racing over on a horse. He had a person with him—a woman, to be specific. She wore leather armor and grasped a plain-looking dwarf gun. She looked happy.

Alloson looked closely and let out a sigh of relief. “It truly is our Lord. The one beside him is Celine, the affairs officer of the territory. What just happened was a misunderstanding.”

I knew there wouldn’t be a Magician attack near Scorched Ridge, Alloson thought.

“Let’s go to them.”

The group started off again, and the two parties quickly met.

“Sorry about that. I was testing the power of the spell,” Link explained voluntarily.

“It’s alright.” The group shook their heads.

Link went straight to the point. “Alloson, what are you doing away from the pier?”

Lucy had recommended Alloson. He was hardworking, so Link naturally knew him.

Alloson pulled Warter over quickly and said, “He has something to tell you. I was escorting him.”

Warter walked up and bowed. “Lord, something terrible happened in Delonga. I must inform you about it.”

Link recognized Warter as well. The merchant had helped him greatly before, but they hadn’t met recently. Link said, “Tell me after we return to the camp.”

Chapter 261: Someone Has Completed the Reward

 

In the hall of the Administrative Building.

Link, Jacker, Lucy, Gildern, and Celine all had arrived at the hall. The magic projection Merchant Warter brought with him was placed on the table right in front of them.

Link tapped his fingers lightly on the table and suddenly said, “It is merely a magic projection that suggests Roy the Fifth might be in cahoots with Dark Magicians. However, this cannot prove that this incident indeed happened, unless we can find Aymons himself.”

It was horrible news that Roy the Fifth was working with the Dark Magicians. This meant that his future behavior would become extremely unpredictable. He might even become a serial killer like the Dark Elves.

The Ferde Wilderness and the Delonga Kingdom were only separated by a body of water. If this magic projection was true, it meant that the Ferde Wilderness had made a dangerous enemy out of the blue.

The magic projection was extremely clear. The red-eyed Magician looked familiar. His stature was 70% similar to Wavier, though Link still could not confirm his suspicions.

It would be too hasty to jump to conclusions based on just a magic projection, especially when the issue was this serious.

Gildern immediately said, “My lord, we should set up a rescue team straight away and cross the Black River to rescue Magician Emmandel from the Delonga Kingdom.”

He was already a Level-4 Archer and was in charge of the scout system in the Ferde Wilderness. This system was the equivalent of the MI3 of the Norton Kingdom. It was tasked with eliminating any spies and gathering of information. If needed, it would also be sent for rescue missions.

After some consideration, Link nodded and agreed. He said, “Just do your best for this issue. Don’t make our soldiers lose their lives over this matter. Time will tell us whether Roy the Fifth is truly working with the Dark Magicians.”

After which, Link then turned to Jacker and said, “We have to defend against the possible attack from the Delonga Kingdom. It is time to expand the scale of our troops. Didn’t another batch of slaves just arrive? Grab the strong ones to become our Warriors.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Link then stared at Merchant Warter and said, “As you can see, my territory is still very empty when I have a large land area. Everything is under construction which requires a large number of resources and manpower. It is still too slow if you work alone. Perhaps you can find someone to cooperate with you. I can promise that all the goods transported to the Ferde Wilderness will be acquired at a price twenty percent higher than the average market price, as long as it is from a Merchant firm that you recommended. Of course, the quality of the goods cannot be compromised.”

Link was not being generous by increasing the price of the goods he acquired by a good twenty percent of the original price. He was running out of time and by purchasing the goods at a premium, he would naturally be given the priority for these goods.

If not for the profit margins, who would go out of their way to come to the Ferde Wilderness?

Upon hearing those words, Warter was elated and immediately patted his chest with confidence, saying, “That is no problem. I will form a Merchant Alliance immediately after I leave and increase the speed of resource delivery. I promise that the delivery speed will increase ten-fold in one month’s time! You would also be getting ten times—no twenty times more slaves!”

Merchants chased profits for a living, for Link to have increased the profit margins by a good twenty percent, he would definitely get all the businesses in the region.

Before he understood more about the situation, this was all the preparations Link could do. He then said, “You guys can discuss the specific things later. Lucy, remember to send me a report after you are done.”

“I understand, my lord.” Lucy was becoming more capable by the day. She was now the administrative chief of the Ferde Wilderness. She was a truly strong, independent woman holding the reigns.

Link then stood up and left.

In one swooping motion, everyone in the hall stood up to show their respect as Link left. They only sat down after he went out of sight and started discussing the specific details of the plan.

As he exited the administrative building, Link gave a long sigh. He could feel that the World of Firuman was slipping into the abyss at a terrifying speed. The powers of the darkness had already infiltrated into every single crack they could find.

Link could not help but stare into the sky as he whispered, “Oh God of Light. Herrera mentioned that I am your Chosen One. Lady Fortuna thinks that I can save the world. However, can I really hold up this wheel of glory and brilliance that is sinking into the depths of despair?”

As expected, he received no answer. The ever-present sun in the sky still shone mercilessly onto the Ferde Wilderness, bringing light and heat to the world. Link then sighed, feeling unconfident in his abilities.

He then heard light footsteps behind him. He knew that Celine had snuck up behind him. He did not turn his body but merely stretched his hand backward. After a while, a small and warm hand held his fingers gently.

“Link, everything is going to be alright. No one can do this better than you can.”

She seemed to be able to guess Link’s exact thoughts every single time. The soft whispers were like clear spring water surging into his heart, nourishing his tired and worried being. Link immediately felt better and grabbed Celine’s hand with a bit more force. The smile once again appeared on his face as he asked, “How is my Huge Fire Gun?”

“It is indeed powerful, but it is way too expensive. How much did those Khorium bullets cost?”

“Not a lot, just 500 gold coins,” Link said as he grinned.

Celine was startled by this answer and swore not to use the gun that often anymore. Link then smiled as he said, “While 500 gold coins may seem like a lot of money, every bullet can help me eliminate a powerful enemy. If you think about it this way, it will be extremely worth it, isn’t it?”

Celine hugged the Huge Fire Gun tightly. Although she had only fired one shot, this weapon had already become her treasured possession. Upon listening to Link’s words, she glanced at him before saying, “How can you be sure that I will land every shot?”

“You mean you can’t?” Link said while maintaining his warm smile.

“Alright then, I will have to do some training.”

“I will craft some training bullets for you. Each of them only requires 10 gold coins. I assume that will be acceptable?”

Celine nodded her head. Ten gold coins per bullet was the limit for the price of a practice bullet. She would still have to concentrate during her practice sessions, striving to get acquainted with the workings of this gun using the least amount of bullets.

Link did not idle for long as well. He soon went back to his own little magic hut and started using ordinary materials to craft a few training bullets.

The structure of these bullets was simple. As Link was still unfamiliar with the process, he merely spent five minutes on each bullet. By the time Link reached the tenth bullet, his speed had increased to one bullet per minute. Alas, this was menial labor, and he quickly grew tired of it. Link still persevered through the process and managed to craft 100 bullets in one sitting before he stopped.

Good marksmanship has to be trained using a large number of bullets. It’s not possible for me to craft all the bullets Celine needs by myself. Luckily, the process of crafting these bullets is not complex. When the Mage Tower is completed, I will find a few helpers to do this task.

With this thought, Link then handed the bullets over to Celine.

Celine was naturally elated. After making sure that no one was looking, she gave Link a light peck on the forehead before heading over to train with her new batch of bullets.

Link felt as though all his fatigue instantly dissipated with that single kiss. He returned back to his room and crafted yet another 50 bullets before stopping to rest and read the magic puppet book he had borrowed from Milda.

Link was extremely focused when studying magic theories. Time seemed to pass extremely quickly when he was doing so.

On average, Link could finish a book regarding magic puppet theory within a day and a half. He even had the spare time to craft 50 of those training bullets for Celine every day.

Link had run out of books to read after ten days. However, by this time, his understanding of the magic puppet had already undergone a qualitative change. His view on the domain had also changed drastically.

Half a month earlier, Vance’s creation, Nana, was nearly a perfect Warrior in Link’s eyes. It seemed impossible to make her any better. However, now armed with a treasure trove of knowledge regarding magic puppets, Link had thought of nearly 30 ways to easily deal with Nana.

Link had not gotten stronger. He simply saw many flaws in Nana that he could not notice before after broadening his horizons.

“It is time to find that old guy Vance.” Link decided to take a trip to the coastline.

Link was just about to return the final magic puppet book that Milda had lent him. However, when he reached his doorstep, he realized that the Scorched Ridge was exceptionally lively. There were also many people gathered around the East gate of the camp.

Link even found Jacker amongst the crowd.

“What is happening?” Link was curious and walked towards the commotion.

Jacker saw Link and brushed aside the crowd to get closer. When he reached in front of Link, he pointed to a red-haired man in the crows and said, “My lord, do you see that guy?”

Link nodded.

This person was around 27 years old and had shiny red hair. He was extremely handsome, especially the way his slender eyes squinted when he smiled. He had the presence and aura of a vagabond free-spirited individual. He had only been here for a while, but many young women were already attracted to him, casting him seductive glances every so often.

“His name is Skinorse. He has completed your mission.”

Skinorse?

Link was slightly surprised. In the game, this person was extremely famous in the mid-late game period. He had many aliases such as the “Red-Haired Flirt,” the “Lady Killer,””King of the Assassins,””Legendary Samurai” and so on.

He was born to a noble family from the Doska Kingdom. However, he chose to give up his right to the inheritance and live a life roaming the world. His strength was formidable, and he was one of those who managed to attain the Legendary status in the game. He still had room to grow even further when he died. His character was wild and free-spirited. He gained countless victories in battle and also gathered many negative rumors about his private life.

Eventually, when the Lord of the Deep, Nozama descended into the world, he joined the Army of Light and infiltrated the Demon Fortress to gather information. However, due to him having a complicated relationship with a succubus, he exposed himself and was surrounded by demons. During the chaos of battle, Nozama managed to take advantage of one mistake he made and reduced him to a pile of mushy meat in just one attack.

Well, it was not very noble to have died in that way if you were a well-known Assassin.

Link then carefully observed the Assassin’s aura. It did not take him long to have a gage of his strength. Level-7 strength and extremely close to a breakthrough to Level-8. He does not possess a huge amount of Battle Aura, though that which he possesses is very pure in nature. He is indeed qualified enough to kill the Assassin leader.

Skinorse was extremely sensitive and immediately turned around. Upon seeing Link, he smiled heartily, revealing a neat row of glistening white teeth. He then bowed elegantly towards Link in the style of a noble and spoke in a charming tone, “Ah, are you the lord of this Land of Light? It is an honor to meet you.”

Chapter 262: Time to Resurrect Nana (1)

 

Clink. Clink. There were two crisp sounds.

Skinorse tossed two fiery red daggers onto the ground before Link. They were the weapons that the lead Assassin had used that night—the Reaper’s Gaze.

“The Assassin’s body was strange and was hard to kill. I could only burn it, but the daggers are special. It’s enough to prove that I completed the mission, right?”

Skinorse smiled, lips curled upward. He started displaying to the people his slightly evil good looks, making some of the women call out softly.

Link activated the Magician’s Hand. The daggers floated before him, and he nodded after studying them. “Yes, they’re his weapons.”

With that, he commanded Jacker before the hundreds of people, “Go find Lucy. I must keep my promise.”

The reward for killing the lead Assassin was 10,000 gold. Each dagger provided was 20,000 gold. In total, he would receive 50,000 gold and Link prepared to give it without hesitation.

Jacker was unwilling, but he couldn’t go against Link. Sighing and complaining, he went to go find the territory’s Chief Executive Officer Lucy for the money.

The spectators were shocked. This offer had spread throughout the entire Mainland. Now, someone had surprisingly completed it, and the lord fulfilled it without delay. In the Ferde Wilderness, Lord Link had very high prestige. No one doubted he would fork out the money, especially after the discovery of the clay mine.

“Gods, it’s happening! Are endless coins going to appear before my eyes?” someone cried.

“Oh, I’m witnessing history in the making!” Someone was prepared to take his hat off in respect.

“I have a question. How can he take all those coins away himself? I think I can help.” Another man began thinking of how he could benefit a little. The people discussed amongst themselves, highly anticipating the huge sum of money.

“Hey, wait!” Skinorse suddenly called to Jacker. Then he smiled at Link and said, “Lord, I trust your credibility and know you’ll definitely fulfill the payment. But even though 50,000 gold is a lot, it’s not really useful to me. Can I use another way to exchange for the reward money?”

Jacker stopped. He turned to Link, waiting for the command.

Link actually wasn’t surprised by the Assassin’s request. Fifty thousand gold was just a gimmick. For truly powerful men, there was nothing more useful than a powerful weapon or some kind of magic medicine.

Not everyone liked gold coins. Too many of the powerful individuals, they only needed enough gold to survive. Skinorse happened to be one of them.

“What would you like? I’ll try my best.” Link was very friendly.

Skinorse looked left and right. Seeing all the spectators, he said, “Let’s find a quiet place to discuss in detail. Just us two, alright?”

It was obviously alright. Link turned to the side and put a hand out to guide Skinorse. “Let’s go to my home.”

Skinorse strode into Link’s cabin; Link followed him. After he shut the door, the civilians all sighed sadly. They’d thought they would see the piles of gold, but they were let down.

Inside the cabin, Skinorse took in the furnishing of the cabin for a while before sighing involuntarily. “You’re a lord who can give away 50,000 gold as a reward, but you live in such a shoddy place. It seems like I made the right choice.”

Hearing this, Link was interested. In the past game, Skinorse was a wandering vigilante-type character. He was a bit of a playboy, but he didn’t have any bad traits. He’d always been part of the Light Camp. Later, when darkness shrouded the mainland, he even joined the alliance against the Dark Army.

If someone like that said these words, did it mean he was another talent who wanted to join him? But it didn’t seem right. This guy never liked restraints. He liked going around for adventures and probably wouldn’t become his subordinate. Then, why was he here? Link was curious.

“There’s no one else here,” Link said with a smile. “You can tell me your request now.”

Skinorse nodded. He walked to Link’s table and took out an old scroll, unfurling it on the table.

“This is a map of an ancient tomb that I came across by chance. I went to the ancient ruins alone to investigate and found that it’s very dangerous there. It is filled with ghosts and strange creatures. I tried to enter but failed. The ghosts are very sensitive, so if you want to enter the ancient tomb, you must kill them all, killing your way in. So…”

Here, he looked at Link. His meaning was clear—he needed Link’s help.

Without responding to his plea, Link walked forward to study the map. It was drawn very clearly. The ancient tomb was in the Parmiso Plateau in the west of the Southmoon Kingdom. It was called the Tomb of the Late King Taris.

Seeing the surname Taris, related memories popped up in Link’s mind. Turning toward Skinorse, he asked, “You said you saw many ghosts and creatures. Were they all very short and stocky?”

“Uh, yeah. They were all like that—short and stocky. How did you know?” Skinorse was pleasantly surprised.

“They’re all dwarfs,” Link explained. “Taris is the surname of one of the royal dwarven families who disappeared in the Mana Disaster 2000 years ago. The Taris Royal Family had the tradition of immolation burials. They would use a very cruel way to turn their guards into mummies. These mummies would become very powerful ghosts that would protect the tomb forever.”

In the game, this tomb was a dungeon quest that contained some ancient books. When Link got bored playing the dungeon, he would read through the books for fun. In this life, he had read many magic books, which contained history. He had a deep understanding of the Taris Dynasty.

Because of this, when he saw the word Taris, he was able to remember the background facts about the tomb. Though the information was shallow, it was enough to shock outsiders.

Skinorse chuckled in surprise. He reached out to pat Link’s shoulder but felt it was unsuitable, so his hand shrank back. “Ha, I really found the right person. Lord, if you can help me, I can forget about the gold.”

Instead of saying whether he agreed or not, Link asked, “Just the two of us? We’re probably not enough.”

The ghosts had matured for 2000 years. Now, they had terrifying power and had many unique attacks. In real life, they might even have unexpected tactics. Link didn’t want to risk this.

Skinorse rubbed his hands excitedly. “Hehe, two isn’t enough, but I also have two friends. One is a Level-6 Warrior, and the other is a genius priest. Oh, she’s a beauty too. She’s so good she can bring the dead to life. We just need a powerful Magician now, so how about it? Interested?”

Unexpectedly, he had two aces, including a priest. Things were more reliable now.

There would definitely be many good things in the tomb. Link remembered that the most valuable thing was an ore called crystallized sheet metal. Its element was very special, and it was a necessary material for creating legendary weapons. It was the only piece of metal like it in Firuman. Similarly, dwarves were an ancient race. They had a unique knowledge of magic. There were sole copies of some magic books in the tomb; each one was worth a fortune.

It was definitely worth it to explore a tomb like this.

Considering it, Link said, “I can participate but merely offsetting the reward money isn’t enough. I’m really busy, you know.”

“Psh.” Skinorse felt slightly annoyed. He wanted to argue, but after thinking closely, he realized that the money truly wasn’t enough to hire the renowned Magician. This man could hand out 50,000 gold easily; he clearly didn’t care about money.

“Then what do I need to do for you to agree?” Skinorse asked, throwing his hands up.

“I recently received a magic image.” Link had been waiting for Skinorse to ask this and he was well-prepared. Taking out the magic image given by Warter, he gave it to Skinorse. “As you can see, the one with the crown is King Roy the Fifth of Delonga. He’s working with Dark Magicians to create a powerful army with dark magic. This poses a huge threat to the Ferde Wilderness.”

Skinorse studied the image and asked, “You want me to kill this Dark Magician?”

“Can you do it?” Link asked in return. It would be best if the Dark Magician could be killed.

“No.” Skinorse’s expression grew somber. He stared at the Dark Magician in the image and said, “This guy isn’t a human…No, what I mean is he isn’t from any of the intelligent creature on this world. His eyes tell me that he’s already sold his soul to a demon god. Someone like that will definitely possess terrifying power. The dark aura around him proves this. I don’t think I’m his opponent.”

Link nodded darkly after hearing this. He could see all this too, but Skinorse could come up with so much with just a few glances. He was extraordinary.

“It’s okay. As a lord, I must know the nearby threats clearly. I want to know the details of their alliance, what kind of power the army they create possesses, what weaknesses they have—all of that.”

At this point, Gildern and the others hadn’t developed yet. When they ran into truly strong opponents, they were helpless. This was a sign that they had weak foundations and needed time to accumulate experiences. However, he still needed to do things. Now, a powerful Assassin had offered himself to Link. He obviously had to take advantage of the situation.

Skinorse fell silent. After around three minutes, he nodded. “I’ll do it. Give me ten days.”

Link smiled, his eyes crinkling. “No problem.”

Seeing him like that, Skinorse suddenly realized that he’d fallen into the cunning lord’s trap. This was a loss for him. He huffed unhappily and put away the Reaper’s Gaze daggers. “These daggers are pretty good. Since I’m helping you, I’m not going to give them to you anymore.”

“Sure.” They were just a set of Epic daggers. If Link wanted to, he could make some whenever he wanted. They were no big deal.

“I’m leaving.” Skinorse was annoyed. He opened the door and left without another word.

Just then, he saw Celine who was back from gun practice. His eyes brightened instantly, and all annoyance disappeared. Turning around enthusiastically, he asked Link, “Hey Lord, that girl’s pretty. Heh, that face, that body, that grace—I’ve never seen someone like that before. Can I know her name…Oh, she’s walking towards me. Does she like me?”

Skinorse was instantly excited. He fixed up his hair, straightened his collars, and tried to make himself look more attractive. Then the corners of his lips curled, he narrowed his eyes a bit, put a hand behind his back, and reached out the other one. He bowed like a gentleman to Celine, who was now before him. “Beautiful miss, my pleasure to meet you,” he said gently at the same time.

As he spoke, he wanted to take Celine’s hand to kiss.

Celine was shocked. She moved to the side and walked past the Assassin with a weird expression. Reaching Link’s side, she said, “Link, that guy looks weird. Is there something wrong with his brain?”

Link grasped Celine’s hand to show that she was his and smiled. “He’s not like the average man.”

A man who could flirt while investigating demons was clearly in a different world than everyone else.

Skinorse was taken aback. He could see Link and Celine’s relationship now and slapped his forehead. “Lord, I’m sorry…I’ll go work now,” he apologized promptly.

With that, he ran out of the cabin. He looked calm but inside, he was wailing, I’m so embarrassed!

While sprinting, he passed by a stone house. There was a small garden, and it was exquisite that Skinorse glanced at it subconsciously. Then he was stunned as if he was struck by lightning.

How can there be such a beautiful girl…elf? Oh my god, is this Aphrodite? What’s with Scorched Ridge? Ah, that girl looks good too.

Skinorse plastered on his mesmerizing smile again and instinctively wanted to go say hi, but he tripped over air and almost fell down.

Heh, thankfully I’m skilled. This is nothing!

In midair, Skinorse adjusted his balance, ready to land with an attractive spin. The next instant, there was a thud, and he crashed. He rolled on the ground a couple of times and then landed facedown.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t skilled enough, but that he had been attacked by a Magician, destroying his balance. Skinorse hadn’t sensed any bad intent, so he didn’t dodge, resulting in this pathetic state.

Then he heard a cold voice. “A human must not offend Her Highness!”

Skinorse turned around and saw a High Elf Magician glaring at him. He felt for the other’s Mana and realized…he was a Level-7 Master Magician. Skinorse turned back to the garden. The beautiful elf had taken the little girl into the house without even looking at him.

“Oh, it’s the princess. Haha, sorry about that, sorry.”

Skinorse climbed up quickly and patted the dust from his clothes. He apologized again and turned to leave. He seemed calm but inside, he was wailing, Ah, this place is so unfriendly. It’s not suitable for a beautiful man like me!

The more he thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. After leaving Scorched Ridge, he started sprinting. He didn’t stop until Scorched Ridge was totally gone from his vision.

On the other hand, Link didn’t care about Skinorse’s misfortunes. Smiling, he asked, “How’s gun practice?”

Celine was in love with the pistol. Hearing the question, she grew proud. “Pretty good. I can hit nine out of ten arrowhead seagulls within one mile. If I practice a few more days, I can easily get ten out of ten. But mostly, this gun is so powerful.”

Arrowhead seagulls were a type of bird with extreme speed. They were agile as well. She was definitely a sharpshooter if she could hit nine out of ten within one mile.

Seeing her animated features, Link was happy naturally. Nodding, he said, “Good, good. Come, I got you 100 more bullets. Take them to practice some more.”

The two shared a moment and then Link took out the broken magic puppet Nana. He started organizing the pieces one-by-one.

Chapter 263: It is Time to Resurrect Nana (Part 2)

 

Ferde Wilderness, East Coast

The weather was excellent. A cool breeze swept through the beach as golden sun rays graced the World of Firuman. There were many seagulls sunbathing on along the coastline, and in places where the tide did not reach, a lush layer of greenery took over. One could even see a few trees swaying in the relaxing breeze.

“Hey, old guy, it’s time to wake up. The sun is up.” Link walked towards the beach and lightly kicked a skeleton leg sticking out of the fine white sand.

A few seconds later, a muffled sound sounded from beneath the sand, “You came here alone? Are you not afraid that someone might be suspicious of what you are doing?”

Link was different from who he used to be. Now, every single one of his actions was carefully scrutinized. It would be impossible for him to hide his whereabouts even if he wanted to. This was the troubles an overachiever like Link faced.

Link then smiled as he said, “I came here together with Celine, in the name of practicing her marksmanship.”

Whoosh, a skeleton appeared from the ground as the fine white sand around him was cast aside. Vance then said in a sleepy tone, “Marksmanship? What marksmanship?”

A sudden explosion on the surface of the water answered his question. This explosion traveled in a linear direction and only dissipated after skidding 150 feet across the water.

Looking along the direction of this linear explosion, Vance saw a figure on top of a rock some distance away. Celine, who was clad in grey armor, was waving at him with a cap in her hand.

“In this period, Celine will be practicing her marksmanship here and also doubling up as our surveillance. You don’t have to worry about anyone discovering us.”

“Alright then. That is good to know.” Vance then stood up and put a black robe on himself. This way, even if someone had seen him together with Link from afar, Link would have room for explanation.

“Let’s go. It is too open over here. It will be convenient to hold our conversation in the cave.” Vance said as he headed towards the cave on the side of the coastline.

Link then followed behind him as he said, “Old guy, I have recently read many magic puppet books that belonged to the High Elves. One of them mentioned something called a Flesh Magic Puppet. This body is so genuine that ordinary people would never be able to tell the difference. Perhaps I can create one for you.”

Vance then waved his hands as he said, “I simply like to lie on the beach and rest. I am not interested in the rest.”

Link then continued, “This type of magic puppet has an extremely delicate and intricate body, allowing the user to enjoy everything that a living person can. You will once again be able to taste delicious food and feel the bitter cold and unbearable heat. You can even find yourself a lover…”

Before Link could complete his sentence, Vance stopped in his tracks and said, “It is impossible for such a magic puppet to exist in the world!”

The reason for his disdain for life was exactly due to his inability to experience the senses that accompanied flesh and blood. He was also unwilling to fall to the dark side and gain pleasure from those sinister acts. Hence, he could only rest on the beach to kill time when he was free.

However, with this intricate Flesh Magic Puppet, he could once again enjoy the pleasures that accompanied flesh and blood. He had almost forgotten that feeling. He only remembered that it was a peculiar and wonderful feeling, something that he would do anything in exchange for.

“The human race is unable to do so. However, the High Elves can. They have tens of thousands of years of experience with magic. Amongst these years, there have been countless prodigies which culminated into a vast treasure trove of wisdom. I already figured out the exact method to construct this magic puppet.”

“That’s enough. I want it. What should I do?” Vance answered immediately.

Link then said, “I am not done. There is a price to pay for this body.”

“What is it? I can pay any price, as long as I am able to.”

“Firstly, this Flesh Magic Puppet is extremely delicate. In order to reap the maximum benefits of this puppet, your soul would have to be completely fused with the puppet. This is the first step to attuning your senses with the puppet. This process is irreversible, that is, once you fuse your soul with the puppet, it would be impossible to draw your soul out again.”

“Why would I want to come out of it after gaining back my senses? That is not a problem at all!” Vance shouted,

“Another point.” Link continued, “Due to the complete fusing of your soul, if the puppet was damaged in any way, your soul will also suffer the same amount of damage. You will die like any ordinary human. Unless you become powerful enough to ignite the Sacred Fire within yourself and become a god before you die, you will never gain eternal life again.”

There was a price to pay for all decisions, which was how the World of Firuman maintained balance in the world. At that moment, only a Divine Gear could partially upset this balance.

However, Vance showed no signs of hesitation. He merely chuckled and said, “Currently, I am no different from being dead. To be able to enjoy the world with my full senses and experience a lifetime of joy again is worth the sacrifice!”

Link was not surprised at this decision and said, “Then it’s settled. When we are done with Nana, I will create that body for you.”

After entering the cave, Link realized that Vance had expanded the place since the last time he entered. It had already been transformed into a place more than 30 feet in diameter and nine feet in height. It was even extremely cool inside.

In the middle of the cave, was a large and smooth table made of stone. There were a few naturally formed holes directly on top of the table, allowing light to enter the cave. There were then a few refraction lenses placed strategically on the ground, refracting the light towards the direction of the stone table. The principle which this setup worked around was similar to that of the astral lamp on earth.

“A decent enchanting table,” Link commended.

“I did it in my free time. Alright then, I know that Nana is definitely damaged. Let me take a look at the pieces,” Vance said.

Link then took the metal pieces out from the dimensional pendant. Quickly the entire stone table was filled, and he said, “She was damaged in the back by the Dark Serpent. Apart from her head remaining intact, the other parts were all smashed to smithereens. I have checked that the heart situated in her brain was only slightly damaged. We should be able to repair her.”

Vance merely observed the fragments on the table and stayed silent. He paid close attention to the pieces that were directly hit by the Divine Gear. It took him a long while before he shook his head and said, “The power of a Divine Gear is truly amazing!”

Following which, he took Nana’s head and cast the Higgs field spell on his hand. With just a little force, the exterior of Nana’s head was removed, and a sapphire colored crystal dropped out from the inside.

This crystal was around the size of two fists and contained many runes within it. The runes were so dense that they looked like layers of seamless coating and cotton wool within the crystal from afar.

Vance then reminisced, “When I just created Nana, there were only over 1000 rune circles within her heart. However, after my hundreds of years of study, the number of rune circles within the heart has increased tenfold. Take a look at these knots over here. These are all Nana’s battle experiences over the years. I had observed it previously when I was making adjustments. Nana has defeated nearly 200 infiltrators in this past hundreds of years trying to protect my underground palace. One of her strongest opponents was a Level-9 Assassin. Look, it even recorded the name of the Assassin. His name is Morpheus.”

Link was shocked.

Morpheus? Wasn’t that the leader of the Syndicate? The person who had attained the Legendary status and was extremely close to becoming a god, the Shadow Stalker?

To think that he was defeated by Nana as well. Furthermore, he had not come back for revenge even after so many years. Although this may be due to Morpheus preoccupation with other issues, this could also refer to Morpheus’ fear of Nana.

Nana’s strength was truly amazing.

“Oh, look here, it’s a crack. The heart was still damaged in some ways. But fortunately, it did not harm the core structure of the heart. I can repair this.”

As he spoke, a glow enveloped Vance’s hand as he was prepared to repair the heart. However, he was interrupted by Link.

“Wait, there is no rush.” Link then opened a large scroll on an empty space at the stone table. He then charged it with mana to activate it.

With a humming sound, a clear hologram appeared on top of the scroll. It was a detailed structure of the heart of the puppet. Link pointed to the hologram and said, “I have many new ideas. I feel that we can improve Nana through these methods. However, I have never put them into practice and am thus unsure about their feasibility. Can you help me take a look?”

Vance did not speak. He was already completely absorbed in the hologram right in front of his eyes. He circled the hologram again and again and carefully observed every rune formation within the heart.

After a full half an hour, he pointed to an intricate structure and asked, “I don’t really get this part. What does it do?”

“This is an intelligence structure that a High Elf thought of. Its role would be to humanize the pure logical thought process of magic puppets,” Link answered.

“Humanize?” Vance was still slightly confused.

“Yes.” Link nodded and continued, “For example, if I ask Nana what is one plus one, she will only reply two and would give no other answers. However, after this intricate structure, Nana can choose to not answer such simple questions. Its greatest use is to prevent Nana from going into a trap of endless logical loop. ”

Vance then went into deep thought as he whispered, “Endless loop? I did consider this and made some adjustments to Nana. However, it was not perfect. Your structure seems refined enough and should solve this issue completely. Amazing, truly amazing, the High Elves are indeed geniuses.”

He then continued to observe the structure. Time flew quickly, and Vance was finally done with the structure after three hours. He then sighed as he said, “Compared to your magic puppet heart, mine is almost like a sieve. It is full of holes, and I must be lucky that Nana survived to this day.”

Link then shook his head and said, “That is an overstatement. Nana’s true strength lies in her battle experience over the past hundreds of years. That is the true priceless treasure. The rest are only parts that complement this aspect. The structure that I developed is also merely meant to help Nana fully utilize her strongest advantage. ”

As Link spoke, he brought out another scroll and charged it with mana. Before long, another hologram appeared in the air. This time, it was a blueprint of the structure of Nana’s body.

Vance then carefully observed it. His experience with magic puppet creation was rich, and he quickly discovered many flaws in the design.

Link stood beside him and started making revisions to the design the moment Vance pointed out the flaws. Every so often, both of them would discuss ways to improve on the design.

While Vance seemed like a depressed and unmotivated individual, he was also a prodigy of his times.

Their exchange of ideas and thoughts progressed extremely smoothly. New ideas surged into their brains constantly like the bubbles ever present in boiling water. The flaws were quickly taken care of by both of them.

Time flew, and the sky darkened. Link had to return to his territory. Vance then said in disappointment, “It has been a long time since I felt such joy. Alas, I was born 1000 years too early. If you were present at that time, I would not have to go through that much pain researching into Battle Auras!”

Link also felt elated and said, “We still have many issues that we have not settled. If I have nothing to do tomorrow, I will come at exactly 10 o’clock in the morning. If I cannot make it on time, I will ask Celine to inform you in my place.”

“Alright, I already cannot wait for tomorrow to arrive,” Vance said.

After a short farewell, Link then left the cave by the coastline. Upon reaching the exit, he saw Celine practicing her swordcraft on the beach.

Link then got inspired by that scene, “Celine’s Battle Aura is still quite weak. Although the Huge Fire Gun is strong, she will still be in danger if her hiding spot is exposed. She will need something that can protect her even in a close ranged battle… a shotgun should be good.”

Link then decided to craft a pair of shotguns with high firepower for Celine when he was free.

Link then greeted Celine who was completely focused on her practice and said, “Let’s go.”

“Alright.” Celine then kept her sword.

“You have used up all your bullets?” Link asked.

“It was just 150 bullets. I was done a long time ago.” Celine laid her hands out helplessly. It felt extremely refreshing and exhilarating to shoot the gun. However, there was simply too few bullets.

“I will try to prepare more bullets for you tomorrow…” Link said as he swore to find a simpler way to craft these bullets. It was too much of a chore to do the same things every day.

“Alright, then,” Celine said expectantly with a smile on her face.

The coastline was not far from Scorched Ridge; the two of them quickly reached back to camp. By the time they reached the entrance, they saw Gildern walking towards them.

Seeing the serious expression on Gildern’s face, Link felt a shiver down his spine as he asked, “What happened?”

Gildern then took out a letter and said, “My lord, MI3 has delivered an emergency letter from the battlefield. There is a bloody sword logo on the front of the letter.”

Link was already a core member of the Norton Kingdom’s upper echelon. He enjoyed the same clearance to information as Dean Anthony. He would receive a copy of any reports regarding the situation on the battlefield.

If there is a logo of the bloody sword on the letter, it meant that the information in the letter was extremely important, to the point where it might change the tides of the battle. Gildern was aware of this fact as well.

This meant that something that would adversely affect the results of the war in the North might have happened.

Chapter 264: Secret Plans

 

The emergency letter from the MI3 had a special magic seal targeted at Link’s Mana. Only Link could open it; if anyone else tried to damage it, the letter would self-destruct.

This letter from the battlefield, Link could only read it by himself. He brought it back to his room and cast a Silent Barrier. Then, he lightly pressed his thumb to the letter, supplying his Mana continuously.

After around three seconds, the shimmering surface on the letter receded like a tide. The entire outer shell faded as well. Finally, the entire letter transformed into a light blue ball of light. It turned into a face that hovered quietly in the air.

The face started mechanically reading the report.

“Recently, many Fear Demons were discovered in the Northern Black Forest. These demons and ghouls appear in groups and work well together. Their combat power is many times higher than the ghoul teams from before. The MI3 suffered heavy casualties, and the Black Forest is practically sealed by the Dark Elves. We only know about ten percent of what is happening there. There is heavy fog over the entire forest. To counter the possible attacks from the Divine Gear, the Pope and Twelve Archbishops of the Sacred City have already brought the Holy Grail north to the Orida Fortress.”

There was not much to report. After that, it added the exact date, showing that it was a report from two days ago. Afterward, the light forming the man’s face scattered into faint light spots and disappeared in the air.

It was only a few minutes, but it was like a dark cloud over Link. Had the Dark Elves started summoning Fear Demons?

Fear Demon

High-Level Demon

Introduction: #28 on the High-Level Demon Combat Power Rank. They are extremely powerful. In battle, they can instantly sense holes in the enemy’s mindset and use strong psychological attacks to disrupt the enemy.

In the game, the Dark Elves had destroyed Greenstone, and then used sacrifices to summon the Dark Serpent Divine Gear. Later, they moved south, fighting smoothly. That was why, five years later, the Light Confederation was formed and they started summoning large amounts of demons to fight against the attacks. The first type of demons summoned was the Fear Demon.

But now, it was three years too soon!

If the ghouls modified by the venom of the Dark Serpent were like cockroaches that couldn’t be killed, the Fear Demons were battle masters with the characteristics of a cockroach!

All the high-level demons from the Abyss had boundless vitality comparable to the ghouls. Because of the difficult environment of the Abyss, every demon who could survive had rich battle experiences.

These demons were extremely powerful, especially high-level ones like the Fear Demons. Compared to the ghouls with raised strength but low experience, they could fight one against ten.

Even more terrifying, the ghouls would definitely make these Fear Demons their commanders. This would make up for the ghouls’ own lack of experience.

This was so in reality. The report had said that the combat abilities of the ghoul teams had multiplied. No wonder the MI3 would be forced out of the Black Forest.

In war, the most crucial thing was information. Now, the MI3 was unable to see anything in the Black Forest. They had no clue what the Dark Elves were doing. Even worse, there was no news on the actions of the Dark Serpent. If the Dark Elves wanted a surprise attack…the result was too horrible to imagine!

“However, the Light Church has put the Holy Grail into use. They should still have a chance to fight or at least delay the enemy.”

Link remembered the characteristics of the Holy Grail clearly.

Holy Grail

Sacred Gear

Rank: 5

Effect 1: It activates a Light Territory up to six miles in diameter. Within this territory, all organisms of the Light World will receive the Light’s Blessing. The strength of all dark organisms will decrease by 80%.

Effect 2: Begins the holy summoning to summon seraphim to fight in the mortal world!

The Light Territory was almost tyrannical. The seraphim it could summon had Legendary power, enough to make the Dark Elves fear for their lives and change their battle tactics.

However, this was only an expedient solution. Sacred Gears were not the same as Divine Gears. It could stop the Dark Elves for a while, but as time went on, the enemy would definitely think of a solution.

Pondering, Link realized that he was unable to help with the war in the North anymore. He could only reinforce them in the background…No, he still had Nana.

“I can’t keep procrastinating. I must complete Nana!”

Thinking of this, Link wanted to go to the seaside immediately and work with Vance to create Nana as soon as possible. However, he knew that as the lord, it would be troublesome if someone discovered he was with a Lich at a time like this.

“What should I do? What should I do?” Link murmured to himself. He paced in the room, trying to come up with a perfect excuse that wouldn’t be suspected.

After thinking for a while, he really did come up with something. “Pretend to be sick? That might work!”

He could pretend to be sick and stay inside and then sneak out to the shore of the East Sea. If he had Celine for his alias, there shouldn’t be any problems. This illness couldn’t be any simple one either because there was a priest at Scorched Ridge. He could easily cure Link. For a Magician, the biggest problem would be… Yes, spell backlash!

A priest couldn’t cure this illness; the Magician must recover by himself.

Thinking of this, Link went to find Celine. After he told her everything, Celine’s eyes widened, and she looked at him in surprise.

“What’s wrong? Is it bad?” Link felt guilty being stared at like that.

“No, I just think it’s weird you can think of something so interesting, ha.” Not only did Celine not disagree, she even thought it was interesting.

“So, deal?”

“Sure.”

“Let’s discuss the details now. My cover can’t be blown.”

The two put their heads together and discussed for several hours until they came up with a seamless plan.

…

Late night.

There was a boom and huge sound waves spread through Scorched Ridge. Firelight rushed into the air, illuminating the night sky.

Everyone was shocked awake. Quickly, someone felt something wrong.

“Oh no, it’s the lord’s home! It’s on fire!”

“What are you waiting for? Put out the fire! Put it out!”

Where’s the lord? Is he okay? This was what the soldiers and common folk thought.

The Magicians of Scorched Ridge rushed to the scene as soon as possible. The two at the front were the two Masters from the East Cove Magic Academy—Grenci and Ferdinand.

They were nervous because they sensed huge Mana waves before the fire appeared. Rather than the typical waves, they had been uncontrolled and scattered. Waves like that meant a Magician’s experiment had failed, and there was a high chance of spell backlash.

To a Magician, there was nothing more dangerous than this. When the two rushed to the scene, there was only blazing fire. There was no trace of Link.

“No way,” Grenci murmured. How could a genius Magician die from spell backlash? This was unrealistic.

He would believe other people, but it was impossible for Link. He had such fast reflexes that he would definitely realize his Mana was losing control and save himself.

“Do you think he used Burst to escape?” Ferdinand guessed.

“No, I didn’t feel the Mana for Burst,” a voice said. It was light and lovely with a hint of worry. The voice came from Princess Milda.

“I didn’t sense it either. Did something really happen?” Romilson was here too.

More and more people hurried over. They surrounded the blazing cabin, but Link still didn’t appear.

“No, we must run in to save him!” Jacker had arrived. He was more straightforward and had a damp blanket over him. The Battle Aura around him was explosive; he was ready to run into the fire to find Link.

But then, something moved inside the fire.

“Jacker, wait. Look, someone’s coming out,” Eliard said.

The situation inside the fire was very clear now. Everyone could see a blurry figure walk from the blazing flames. When he came out, flames still covered his body. Five seconds later, the flames finally extinguished, revealing Link.

His face was as white as paper, and a patch of his hair had been burnt to crisp. He was covered with burns as well. In the empty space, he couldn’t stand anymore. He staggered, almost falling over.

Countless people rushed over to steady him. The fastest one, the least hesitant, and the closest to Link was Celine. She held onto him and asked anxiously, “Lord, how are you?”

“My body is okay, but my Mana is a bit uncontrolled.” Link smiled wryly.

Seeing that Link was okay, Grenci felt assured. He looked at Link’s pathetic state and walked up to reprimand him. “After two days, the Mage Tower will be finished. If you want to experiment with new spells, you should go to the elemental pool of the Mage Tower. What are you hurrying for?”

“Stop,” Ferdinand advised from the side. “Everything’s alright as long as he’s alright.” Then he turned to Link and asked, “How are you now?”

“My Mana is very chaotic. I think I must recuperate quietly and organize my Mana.” With that, Link coughed lightly. There was blood at the corner of his lips. It was clear that he was badly injured.

Milda walked over from the side. “The injuries look grave,” she said caringly. “I have some Elf Nectar here. Drink it.”

Link didn’t reject her. He took the crystal bottle and drank all of the holy medicine.

At the side, Jacker and others saw that Link was alright and the fire had only burned Link’s home. It hadn’t spread further. Jacker waved a hand and said, “Let’s disperse now. There’s nothing wrong. The lord was experimenting with a new spell, and it’s a small mishap. This won’t happen after the Mage Tower is finished. Let’s go now.”

It had made a big commotion, but it actually wasn’t that big of a deal. Under the soldiers’ urging, the residents of Scorched Ridge all went back to their homes to rest.

On the side, Link smiled wryly at the Magicians. “It was a bit dangerous,” he explained. “My mind is quite messy right now, and I must rest quietly for a while. I’m not sure if I can be better within half a month. Two Masters, all Magic-related matters of Scorched Ridge will need your help while I’m resting.”

“No problem, these are all small things. Your health is most important,” Grenci said. Ferdinand nodded.

Then Link said to Lucy, “There aren’t any big matters on the territory these days. You can make decisions for me for everyday tasks. Jacker, Gildern, it’s the same for you. If there’s something important, tell Celine, and she’ll notify me.”

“Yes, Lord.” The three weren’t quite familiar with spell backlash, so they agreed without suspicion.

Link then smiled apologetically at Princess Milda. “I’m sorry for disturbing Your Highness’s rest so late at night.”

“It’s nothing, but were you experimenting with a Level-7 Spell?”

“Yes, but I failed.” Link’s face was filled with regret.

At the side, Romilson comforted him. “Failing is normal. Back in the day, I failed at least seven times and had spell backlash four times. Once, it was even a serious injury, and I had to rest for half a year. But I’m seriously impressed that you dared to experiment without the Mage Tower!”

Link chuckled. He didn’t dare; this was all a show.

“Then everyone, I’ll go rest now.”

“Go, go. Rest well and don’t take risks like this again!” Grenci chided.

Link nodded. Celine helped him toward her own cabin. The people of the territory no longer saw this as strange. Link and Celine’s close relationship was old news.

Once Link entered Celine’s cabin, Milda turned to rest too. After a few steps, Romilson caught up. He asked softly, “Your Highness, this was weird. How can spell backlash happen to Link? It’s so weird!”

Milda smiled. “Isn’t spell backlash normal?”

“No, it’s not the same. For other people, it’s normal, but he’s different. Back then, he helped detoxify Your Highness while controlling the Wind Fenrir to run smoothly and talking to me at the same time. He was doing three things at once. If this spell backlash didn’t really happen, I would never believe it.”

Milda still didn’t feel any suspicion. She smiled and said, “Okay, stop feeling strange. Link is a human and humans can make mistakes. There’s nothing weird about that. Go rest.”

Seeing that Her Highness wasn’t supporting his idea, Romilson couldn’t do anything about it. Though he was suspicious, he didn’t look too deep into it. He turned and went back to his cabin to rest.

On the other hand, Link waited patiently for two hours. When the territory fell quiet again, he whispered to Celine, “I’ll be relying on you for the next few days.”

“Don’t worry. It’s all on me,” Celine promised seriously.

Link left the Flame Controller robe in Celine’s room, using the aura from that robe as a disguise. He cast the Traceless spell and slipped out of Scorched Ridge.

Chapter 265: Nana Is Alive!

 

The full moon hung precariously over the night sky.

The ever-present silver moonlight illuminated the entire Ferde Wilderness, casting a pale white glow on the barren land. Link could be seen running across the Ferde Wilderness under the watchful gaze of the moon.

In order to keep his actions a secret, he did not summon the conspicuous Wind Fenrir and merely cast a Level-1 Cat’s Agility spell on himself.

Link took almost 15 minutes to reach the beach, which was around ten miles away from the Scorched Ridge. By the time he reached the beach, he was already exhausted and placed his hands on his knees while panting heavily.

After all, he was not a Warrior and did not have a strong physique.

He then heard footsteps beside him. Link did not even need to look to know that it was Vance. Sure enough, Vance’s voice sounded a few seconds later, “Young lad, what are you trying to pull running here at this hour?”

Link finally caught his breath and wiped the perspiration off his head before saying, “I secretly escaped from the camp. Celine is watching my back for me. Currently, no one knows I am here.”

Vance was startled and asked, “Is it that urgent?”

Link knew the intention of those words and briefly described the situation of the war in the North.

“In order to gain the upper hand in intelligence, the Dark Elves had once again summoned high-level demons to aid them in battle. It seems to be working well, and the kingdom is losing their footing. In order to defend against the possible sneak attack from the Divine Gear, the pope is bringing the Holy Grail back to Orida Fortress.”

Link did not mention this information to anyone else, including Celine. However, he was comfortable sharing this information with Vance. After all, this old guy had a thousand years of wisdom running through his veins.

Upon hearing Link’s words, Vance looked and him and sighed, “It is good to be young. You have the courage and drive to face the Divine Gear. If I were in your shoes, I would definitely get as far away as possible instead of running here to create some magic puppet.”

Link then smiled bitterly and said, “I am left with no choice as well. If the Dark Elves head south, everything that I ever cared for will be destroyed. I can only face them head-on.”

Vance then headed towards the cave as he said, “Then, let’s begin. I have a feeling that the resurrected Nana will have the power to rewrite history!”

Link had also recollected himself from the tiring journey and entered the cave. He first cast an Illumination spell in the cave before saying, “Where did we stop the last time?”

“Methods to increase Nana’s offensive power. You mentioned that you were going to try adding the power of space distortion,” Vance smiled as he said.

Link patted his head upon hearing this reminder and recalled his previous thought process. He then took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down the magic equations on the side of the enchanting stone table. He spoke as he wrote, “The power of space is extremely unique. It has a basic property of being ‘malleable.’ When space is bent past a certain limit, a terrifying phenomenon called space fissure will happen.”

Vance then took a look at the equations Link was writing and could vaguely understand the theories behind it. Upon hearing the final sentence, he gasped, “Space fissure? It has a similar concept to opening a gate to another dimension, right?”

Link then shook his head and said, “It is not the same. If I liken the space to a pool of water, then opening a gate to another dimension will be like linking two pools of water with a water pipe. There would be no rupture or tear in space. The two originally separate spaces would merely be connected. However, the space fissure creates a crater in the pool of water, causing water to flow out of the hole.”

The fine difference between the two was a source of debate in the game by many guilds. The trigger for this debate was none other than the increasing mana intensity of the World of Firuman.

A faction believed that the reason for the increasing mana intensity was due to the Dark Elves constantly using cross-dimensional summoning magic to summon demons. However, there was another faction that believed it was due to the summoning of various Divine Gears by the different races of Firuman throughout history, and the reason for the increase in mana intensity was merely a side effect of the Divine Gears.

Previously, Link merely thought that these guilds had too much time on their hands. However, after delving deep into the principles of the World of Firuman himself, he realized that the latter faction was the correct one.

A Divine Gear could tear through space easily. When a tear in space happened, the energy within the Sea of Void would enter Firuman through this tear, resulting in the increase in mana intensity.

Naturally, the impact of a single Divine Gear entering the world was minor. The World of Firuman had not yet experienced any major changes. However, as the races continued to strategize against the Dark Serpent and come up with ways to summon their own Divine Gear to go against it, the collision between these forces would then cause the mana intensity to rise drastically.

However, Vance did not fully understand the characteristics of space. He then asked in a worried tone, “If that is the case, won’t the water in the pool eventually run out?”

Link then shook his head and said, “No, it is the exact opposite. Not only will the water not run out, something else will be added to it…Well, this has nothing to do with our magic puppet as of now. Let’s get back to the main topic.”

He then pointed at the equation and said, “The power of mortals definitely cannot cause a tear in space. However, we can distort them. If this distortion frequency is high enough, a space turbulence which possesses incredible destructive force can be created.”

Vance then replied in shock, “You are referring to the space turbulence? If we can really accomplish that, then Nana will possess the power to destroy every being on the World of Firuman.”

“Yes, that is exactly my thoughts!” Link’s eyes gleamed as he exclaimed. His eyes seemed as though he had witnessed the wisdom as far reaching as the countless stars in the galaxy.

He then half sprawled on the enchanting table and tried to figure out the equation. He spoke with fervent passion, “In theory, all beings will be affected by some sort of spatial turbulence, including the Divine Gear! This is because for the Divine Gear to exist in Firuman, it will have to conform itself to the principles of this world. If we can vibrate it at a frequency high enough, it is possible to eject the Divine Gear out of Firuman before its expiry… Look, if we do this, we might be able to increase the frequency just a little…”

Link spoke at a fast speed and even mad some logical leaps along the way. Vance tried his best to keep up with Link and listened intently. When he was truly lost, he would stop Link and request for him to explain again until he understood the principles. After Vance understood Link’s idea, he then gave his suggestions and comments on the feasibility based on his experience in magic puppet creation.

This process repeated itself over and over again. On a stone table in a rundown cave by the coastline, a human race magic prodigy and a one-thousand-year-old Magician pieced together a magic puppet that was bound to leave her name in the annals of history.

At that moment, the two creators of the magic puppet had no idea what she would be able to achieve in the future. They were only doing their best to make Nana more perfect in their eyes.

On the first day, Link only slept three hours on top of a cold rock. Luckily, it was summertime, and Link brought a blanket with him on this trip. Coupled with his young physique, he was able to hold on.

When he woke up, he cast an Elemental Healing spell on himself and immediately became energetic again. He then once again immersed himself in the heated discussion.

Link was fully focused on Nana’s creation and had placed everything else at the back of his mind. He felt himself transforming into a burning flame, and Nana was the mineral on top of this fiery passion.

It was a process where the flames of wisdom were forging true gold!

Vance similarly gave up on his decadent lifestyle and did not sleep for the entire duration.

While Link slept, Vance tried to educate himself on the space equations that Link wrote so that he could better understand the power they were dealing with and also to keep up with Link’s thought processes. While Link was awake, he would then give suggestions based on what he had understood.

He felt as though he was a full 900 years younger, back to the times when he first started learning magic, when his heart was still filled with curiosity and anticipation.

“This is how life should be!” Vance exclaimed as he delved even more fanatically into the creation of Nana.

All in all, these two prodigies had gone insane!

The World of Firuman had once again made a full rotation around the sun, all in the blink of an eye.

By the third day, the two of them had completed Nana’s right hand.

This was Nana’s master hand, the one she would use to wield her dagger. It thus had to be the most delicate structure in the entire body. In order to create this hand of the reaper, Link used the best materials he brought and made many adjustments together with Vance. After nearly a hundred adjustments, they finally created a beautiful hand with features similar to one of a young girl, but a power equivalent to that of a terrifying ancient dragon.

They completed the torso on the fourth day. This would be the source of Nana’s majestic strength.

They then started building the main body…Nana would still be flat-chested. There was no other way. When the body was moving at high speed, a huge bosom would only become a burden to the body, greatly affecting the body’s balance and was prone to damages. For example, when Nana had to come to a sudden stop, the bosom would continue to move forward due to inertia and risk breaking off from the body.

That would be awkward.

On the sixth day, the two of them attached a pair of beautiful slender legs to Nana’s torso.

This pair of legs would be Nana’s driving force. There was even a coordination field attached to the legs to ensure that Nana could make a turn if she wanted to while traveling at an extremely high speed. When needed, Nana could even make use of sonic explosions to walk in the air or maintain aerial battles for a short amount of time.

On the seventh day, the two of them completed the left arm.

From Nana’s past battle experiences, the left arm was usually used to maintain the balance of the body. However, the left arm Link and Vance created was not much weaker than the right arm in terms of both strength and flexibility.

Both of them believed that after a few more battles, Nana would definitely familiarize herself with the use of the left arm and fully utilize its potential.

On the ninth day, both of them created Nana’s weapon. It was a pair of daggers.

This time around, Link had pushed his enchanting skills to the limits and handpicked the best materials for this weapon.

When this dagger was completed, the Storm Lord’s sword uttered a faint sound before falling silent again, choosing to not give his comments.

However, that sound alone was enough to show his astonishment.

Player has successfully created an Epic quality weapon, Omni points +200 (payable in 100 days), please name your weapon!

The in-game system had immediately rewarded Link with a hefty reward of 200 Omni points, a testament to the power of the two daggers.

Link then asked Vance, “What should we name these dagger?”

Vance then shook his head and said, “I shouldn’t be the one naming them. You did most of the work. You should do it.”

“We have two daggers, let’s name one each,” Link said.

“That’s fine,” Vance nodded and continued. “You take the main dagger wielded by the right hand.”

Link then thought for a moment before he started writing down a line of beautiful runes on the dagger surrounded by multiple air ripples, spelling “The Last Nightmare.”

Vance then thought for a few moments as well before carving onto the near transparent left-handed dagger, “Whispers of the Forest.”

When Vance wrote down the last word, an in-game system message appeared in Link’s field of vision.

Weapon naming Completed.

Main Weapon: The Last Nightmare

Sub Weapon: Whispers of the Forest

Quality: Epic

Main Weapon Effect: Able to trigger the space distortion effect while attacking. Has the ability to destroy any mortal beings.

Sub Weapon Effect: This sword has practically no quantitative weight. The user can use this sword to accomplish high-speed defensive movements from any angle.

Combined Effect: Space Fortress. This property ensures that the two daggers are protected by an almost impenetrable barrier.

(Note: Nana’s little toy)

So far, the body and weapons were already completed. Link and Vance then exchanged glances and started working on the final step, which was to fix the heart of the puppet onto Nana’s head.

They did not make any changes to the features and shape of the head, merely improving on some minor details. However, the interior of the head, also known as the heart, had received a tremendous upgrade. Apart from keeping the battle experience memories intact, everything else had been upgraded.

This took the two of them a total of ten days, more than the combined time of what they used to create Nana’s exterior and weapons.

…

Three o’clock in the morning.

When the sun rose on the horizon, Vance gently placed Nana’s head on her body. Link then used the magic field to repair the runes connecting her head to her body.

Two hours later, everything was completed, and the sun was already high up in the sky. A golden ray of sunlight illuminated the cave and landed right where Nana was lying.

“She should be waking up soon right?” Vance was slightly apprehensive.

“I have not activated it, hold on…Alright, it is activated,” Link whispered.

On the enchanting table, Nana still lay flat on the ground, seemingly lifeless. After around 15 seconds, she suddenly blinked and sat up on the stone table.

“Nana, Alive.”

The voice was as crisp and sweet as before. However, her tone was no longer monotonous and robotic. She sounded exactly like an ordinary person.

Chapter 266: The North Has the Divine Gear, the South Has the Undead Army

 

Seaside cave.

After Nana woke up, she looked between Link and Vance. Finally, she looked at Link and opened her arms. “Clothes gone,” she said. “Nana wants clothes.”

Link was Nana’s highest authority, and she would go to him whenever she needed something. Link quickly took out the feminine leather armor he had prepared beforehand. Nana was actually ungendered, but her outer appearance was feminine to fool the enemies. It wasn’t good to let her run around naked.

Unexpectedly, Nana shook her head. “War kilt. I want war kilt.”

Link didn’t understand why a magic puppet would care about clothes.

Thinking for a bit, Vance said, “I got it. In battle, clothing greatly affects movement. The magic puppet’s combat experience has gotten used to the variable of the war kilt. That’s why it would make this choice instinctively.”

However, a war kilt wasn’t the best for movement. Link put the leather on Nana. “We wear this now.”

This was the command from the highest authority, so Nana accepted it. What was interesting though was that she let Link put it on her without moving but she kept pouting, seemingly unhappy.

“You’ll get used to it.” Link knew this was programmed, but Nana was too mesmerizing. Seeing her like this, he comforted her reflexively.

The armor was blue too. It looked like leather, but it was actually a special type of metal. It was resilient and had high magic resistance. It had a high buffering capacity toward attacks from the outer world and was the first layer of defense for Nana’s body.

After putting on the armor, Link helped Nana put on boots and gloves. He hung two swords on the weapon hook at her waist, and then he stepped back. “Okay,” he said. “Get up and take a few steps.”

Nana nimbly jumped from the enchantment podium. She landed on the ground and walked around.

She was now 5’5″, and her curves were perfect. Wearing the dark blue and finely made leather armor with two magnificent weapons, she looked like a handsome warrior.

At the side, Vance commented, “Her movements are smooth. There isn’t any sign of stiffness. Her eyes are coordinated too, and her skin looks no different than humans. From the outside, she basically looks like a regular person.

Link was satisfied as well. Turning toward Vance, he said, “I’ll take her back to Scorched Ridge. My Mage Tower should be done now. I’ll find time to make the Flesh Magic Puppet for you. Give me a sketch image of what you want the outside to look like.”

“I’m flattered.” Vance chuckled and thought for a moment. He pointed his wand in the air, and an image appeared. It was an average-looking man. “This is what I looked like in life. Just use it.”

Link studied it and nodded. “Got it.” Without wasting any more time, he waved at Nana. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, Master.” Nana followed behind Link, steps in sync with his.

But just as Link reached the cave entrance, an unexpected voice rang out. “Lord, so you’re hiding here! I had such a hard time looking for you!”

Link was shocked. Vance immediately got into a defensive position, ready to fight whoever was outside. Link stopped him with a wave. “Let’s test Nana’s abilities.”

He could tell who it was from the voice, but he wanted to test Nana. Retreating, he said to Nana, “Send the guy outside to the ground but don’t hurt him.”

“Yes, Master.”

With a clang, Nana grasped a short sword and activated. There was a boom, and she disappeared from Link. It was the speed and decisive actions he was familiar with.

Half a second later, there was a shocked cry outside. “Hey, who is this? No, what is this…!”

Mid-sentence, there were clangs of weapons, and after three seconds, there was a muffled thud. “Impossible!” the man wailed outside. “What is this? Let go! Let go of me! Ah!”

Link walked out at this time. He saw Nana dressed in her dark blue leather on the beach, her hair pulled in a ponytail (buffering the damage to the magic puppet’s heart), with a foot on Skinorse’s chest.

Her legs were long and curvy, looking even better in the leather pants. However, these slender legs had terrifying strength. Under her foot, Skinorse struggled in vain. He was immobile as if he had been nailed to the beach.

Seeing Link, he smiled wryly. “It’s just a Lich, not a big deal. You won’t kill me, right?”

“Nana, let him go.” Nana stepped back and pouted with her red lips. “Master,” she said, “This opponent is as weak as a chicken.”

Skinorse was speechless. He clutched his chest, heartbroken.

Link was speechless too. He had designed this language set for Nana so she could communicate. These instigative phrases were used to destroy the opponent’s confidence. He didn’t expect Nana to use it now in such perfect context, completely destroying Skinorse’s self-esteem.

Face pale, Skinorse looked cautiously at Nana as if scared she would do something. Nana glared and pursed her lips. She jutted her chin out in disdain. “Weakling, are you fearing me, the queen?”

Her voice was crisp and lovely. She was looking down on him but still seemed playful. Skinorse clutched his chest again. He looked mesmerized, and he sighed in regret. “If only she’ wasn’t a magic puppet!”

Link laughed. “Her name is Nana. As you can see, she’s a magic puppet. She saved my life in the North.”

“Nana? That’s a good name. Her appearance has gone to waste. I was almost won over by her.” With that, Skinorse walked around Nana to Link’s side. He peered at Link suspiciously. “Why are you with a Lich? To be honest, the majority of these undying things aren’t good news.”

This interested Link. In the game, Skinorse had traveled the world and had vast knowledge. He was very open and would never judge someone too quickly. Now, based on his words, Link realized that his personality was the same as in the game.

He laughed. “You yourself said ‘majority.’ There’s also a minority.”

“Fine, that Lich does seem different.” Skinorse glanced at Vance, who had exited the cave, and tipped his hat.

Vance was curious about this young Assassin. Smiling, he asked, “Boy, have you met good Lichs before?”

“Of course. It was in an ancient tomb when I was still young. I’d broken in without meaning to, and he helped me out in the end. He even gave me 100 gold. It was really memorable…But that’s all unimportant stuff. Can I know your name?”

“I’m Vance.”

“Oh, Vance. A good name,” Skinorse said politely. He obviously didn’t know the creator of the Battle Art. After the polite stuff, he turned to Link. “I finished investigating Delonga. Do you want to see?”

“Of course.” Link nodded.

Skinorse tossed a scroll at him. “Everything’s in there, so look by yourself. Notify me whenever you’re free, and we’ll set out.”

Link opened the scroll and scanned it quickly. His pupils restricted, but his expression didn’t change. “It probably can’t be too soon,” he said. “The northern battle needs me. I have to at least wait until the northern front is stabilized.”

Skinorse was shocked. Brows furrowing, he said, “I heard the Northern Dark Elves had received the Dark Divine Gear. Is this true?”

Rumors had spread everywhere, but Skinorse rarely trusted rumors, so he didn’t care for this one.

Link nodded. “Indeed. I had fought with it and barely survived.”

“Are things that bad…?” Skinorse looked anxious. Others spread rumors, but from Link, it would definitely be the truth. After a few seconds, the red-haired Assassin glanced at Link. “So are you preparing to head north?”

“I’ll set out soon. You know, the Iron Wall cannot be defeated.” As Link spoke, he could feel that the Assassin wouldn’t just stand to the side.

As expected, Skinorse fell silent again. After a while, he said, “Hey, Dark Elves are all crazy. Count me in…No, I’m not enough. I’ll get a few of my friends too.”

If the Iron Wall of the Norton Kingdom was breached, it would be a catastrophe to the mainland. Anyone with common sense understood the severity of this. Skinorse seemed unreliable and careless, but he actually had foresight.

At the side, Vance sighed, face filled with regret. “Ah, if only I wasn’t like this. Otherwise, I’d go north too.”

If he showed up in his undead state, he would probably be exterminated by the king before he could even do anything.

Link comforted him. “Don’t worry, old guy. You won’t have to worry after I make your Flesh Magic Puppet.” Then he said to Skinorse, “I’m going back to the territory now. If you really want to go north with some friends, you can set out with me. At least I can speak to the higher-ups. You won’t be looked down on after you go.”

Skinorse nodded. “No problem. The time seems tight, so I’ll go tell them now.”

The Assassin moved quickly. As soon as he finished speaking, he jumped backwards, ready to leave in a flash. However, he hadn’t changed. When he passed by Nana, he sent a flying kiss. “Hey, girl, chase me if you can!”

Nana saw that as a provocation. With a muffled boom, she burst forward without warning and kicked Skinorse’s butt. Thankfully, she had control over her strength and didn’t injure him.

Still, Skinorse was sent flying 300 feet. He landed pathetically with a plop in the water.

“I’ll get back at you someday!” came the depressed roar from this silly Assassin. Then, he swam away.

On the other end, Vance looked at Link and asked, “Is the situation with the South bad?”

Link nodded and showed Vance the scroll. “Roy the Fifth has gone crazy,” he said. “He’s collecting bodies from the battlefield, and currently, he already has an undead army of around 30,000.”

The most intimidating thing about the undead army was its numbers. Anyone who died in battle would become their soldier. In war, the undead army would grow with every battle. Like a snowball, it could turn into a super army of one million within a short time.

If this really happened, it would be a disaster even more terrifying than the Northern Dark Elves. The only solution against the undead army was to stop them before they started developing. Once it reached a certain state, it could defeat anyone purely with their numbers!

Vance looked at the scroll in disbelief. “I can’t believe that the genius Wavier has become Demon God Tabinos’ puppet and even joined the Syndicate. What a pity.”

Demon God Tabinos was a demi-god of the Sea of Void. He was also known as the ruler of the dead and was the controller of death. He was powerful enough to be in the top ten of the demon gods.

Link sighed. “No matter what, I must do something about it. Before going north, I must visit the Southmoon Kingdom.”

Nowadays, Delonga Kingdom’s enemy was the Southmoon Kingdom. If the Southmoon Kingdom didn’t have any measures against the undead army when they appeared, they would be unable to hold on. If Southmoon collapsed, the Ferde Wilderness would be next.

At that time, the Norton Kingdom would have to face the Dark Elves in the North and the undead army in the South. It would be checkmate! Therefore, he must stop the undead army before they could start developing!

Time was tight, and Link couldn’t waste a second. He called to Nana and hurried back to his territory.

He could see the tip of the Mage Tower before he reached the territory. There was already a ten-foot wide Mana Light Ball at the top. Around the ball, dozens of Mana threads reached into the air. From a distance, it looked like a spider web. This meant that the Mage Tower had started operating and had successfully integrated with the Mana of the wilderness.

The Mage Tower has finally been completed. Good news. Link instantly felt better.

He sped up. As soon as he reached Scorched Ridge, someone recognized him. It was Eliard, who looked at Link with a pleasant surprise. “Link, you’re better?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m okay now,” Link muttered in reply.

“Then let me take you to tour the Mage Tower. I participated in the entire process this time,” Eliard said with a smile.

Link had this intention too, so he naturally nodded.

Chapter 267: The Infiltration of the Undead Knights

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Link spared no thought for the cost of the construction of his Mage Tower.

The Mage Tower comprised of the main tower which was 540 feet in height, and three other auxiliary towers which were each more than 300 feet in height. The four Mage Towers covered an area of more than 20 acres, making it a gigantic architecture in the Ferde Wilderness.

Standing below these Mage Towers, Link and Eliard seemed extremely insignificant, as though they were merely ants beneath the feet of a giant.

Eliard then told Link excitedly, “Currently, there are still a few minor magic formations in the tower that is not completed. However, the detection magic formation is already operating, and it’s monitoring range is around 40 miles, around 50 percent wider than the Heaven’s Thorn. This means that the entire Ferde Wilderness will be under its surveillance. The Elemental Pools within the Mage Towers have also started operating. They are all of high quality and can support experiments up to Level-8 in strength. We also left lots of room for upgrades for the future. This is all Sir Romilson’s work. He had provided us with a lot of help.”

Link smiled as he listened, satisfied with the results. With the completion of his Mage Tower, he was now a fully-fledged successful Magician.

The two of them then entered the Mage Tower where many other Magicians were already busy with the daily tasks that needed to be completed.

Eliard walked in front as a guide and introduced the facilities to Link.

“That is the entrance to the basement of the Mage Tower. It houses a Level-8 earth elemental ring that can be further upgraded in the future. Look, here is the parliament hall that can house 1000 people. Even if all the Magicians from the Norton Kingdom were to arrive, we could easily accommodate all of them. This is the enchanting workshop. It is huge, though we have not fully equipped it with the necessary equipment. This is the library that can hold at least 10000 magic books. Of course, we still have not started stocking it up with the relevant materials,” Eliard explained.

Link observed all these facilities carefully and realized that this Mage Tower had one very commendable trait—almost every aspect of the Mage Tower had left plenty of room for future upgrades.

This meant that as Link grew more powerful, he could also upgrade this Mage Tower to complement his strength, rather than build a new one. It seemed like both Master Grenci and Master Ferdinand were very optimistic about his future developments.

After making the tour with Eliard, Link felt satisfied. However, he still had one concern, “We do not have any enchanting or alchemy tools. Furthermore, our library is totally empty. We need time to accumulate and gather these things.”

A Mage Tower was akin to a small-scale magic academy. While one could compromise on the basic facilities, the enchanting workshop, alchemy workshop, Elemental Pools and library must be top-notch. These four areas were what determined how prestigious the Mage Tower was.

If the Mage Tower did not provide such facilities to their Magician’s Apprentices, why would any of them want to study there? After all, they were not here to serve as guards.

“We can use gold coins to purchase enchanting and alchemy tools. We can even purchase Magicians with some gold coins. However, high-level magic books, also the most alluring of them all, were not something that could be bought using gold coins alone.”

After a while, Link had an idea. He said, “I have to start collecting magic books. In fact, I have many of them housed in my head. I will copy them out in my free time and categorize them respectively…This is going to be a tedious project.”

The construction of the Mage Tower was only the beginning. If Link wanted the Mage Tower to mature and grow stronger, he would still need to continue investing in it and give it a lot more time.

The Mage Tower was huge, and they spent over an hour before they finished the tour. Eliard and looked at Link and asked, “So are you satisfied?”

Link then nodded and said, “It is much better than what I expected.”

“Naturally. The cost that went into creating this Mage Tower is insane. By far, the rough estimate of the cost is around 200000 gold coins, excluding the money used to purchase those rare materials. If we try to even count those materials in, we might not be able to give you even a specific number. If you ask me, I would say that the total cost is definitely more than two million gold coins. This is double the construction cost of the Heaven’s Thorn!”

Eliard witnessed the construction process of this Mage Tower first-hand. He had gained lots of insights in that time as well. When he was done speaking, he looked at Link, seemingly wanting to speak but choosing to keep silent.

Link was familiar with Eliard’s antics and said, “You seem to like this Mage Tower a lot. Why not you stay over here to continue your magic research?”

Eliard immediately broke out into a smile and said, “Link, you know me well. Indeed, I have fallen in love with this place. Not only the Mage Tower but even the entire Ferde Wilderness. I feel like it gives people a sense of optimism and energy.”

The Ferde Wilderness seemed to be ever changing, progressing towards a thriving city one day at a time. For people with great ambitions, this place was akin to heaven on earth.

Eliard was one who harbored such ambitions.

Link then asked, “Are there any more Magicians who wished to stay in my Mage Tower?”

Eliard then nodded and said, “Of course. Out of all the Magicians who arrived, at least one-third of them wished to do so.”

“That’s good news. I welcome them any time,” Link smiled as he said. There were at least seven Elemental Pools in this Mage Tower. He could not possibly use all of them throughout the day. The original intention of building such a huge Mage Tower was to attract more Magicians to the Ferde Wilderness.

At this moment, Eliard moved away from the topic of the Mage Tower and stared at the woman quietly following behind Link all this while. He then asked quizzically, “Who is this woman? Why haven’t I seen her around?”

“She is called Nana,” Link smiled and said. Along the way, Eliard had stolen glances at Nana many times. His curiosity had finally gotten the better of him.

“How do you do, Magician,” Nana walked forward and said. Her voice was crisp and delicate as she greeted Eliard with a youthful smile on her face.

Eliard scratched his head and asked Link in a confused tone, “Why does she look a bit strange to me. How do I put it? It’s just extremely awkward; something is off.”

Link could not help but chuckle at his confusion and said, “This is a magic puppet that I created. My magic rebound status had already been dispelled ten days ago. This was what I had been busy with all this time.”

“Magic puppet?” Eliard could not believe his ears. He was fairly sure that it was a living young girl standing in front of him. How did she become a magic puppet all of a sudden?

He then circled Nana and finally found some inhuman traces. He then asked, “Is her skin made from metal?”

“Yes, it’s metal. It’s flexible Iridium that has been treated through a special process. Many other precious metals had also been mixed in during the process, allowing it to have a flexible, soft, yet hardy texture. Ordinary blades will not be able to leave even a scratch on it. Furthermore, if she suffers minor injuries, she can even regenerate automatically without external help.”

Link introduced Nana simply. This was merely a small part out of the myriad of outrageous things Nana could do with her new enhanced body.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that simply by comparing the number of materials used, Nana would be on the same level as this Mage Tower. However, if we were to go deeper into the wisdom used to create both of them, then Nana would be the clear winner, outperforming the Mage Tower in almost every aspect. They could not even be categorized under the same level.

Eliard was still observing, but after a while, he gave up and said, “It is way too delicate. It is still completely out of my league for now. What can she do?”

“She is a perfect Warrior,” Link said with pride.

“Warrior? She looks so meek and delicate; can she fight?” Eliard did not believe him.

“Oh, she is very good” Link assured.

“Alright then,” Eliard laid out his hands and said. However, one could tell from his expression that he was still not bought over.

At that moment, Link then left the Magicians to do the final touches to the Mage Tower and left together with Nana to Scorched Ridge.

Link then first approached Celine and ordered Nana to follow her around. He then approached Master Grenci and Master Ferdinand to discuss the counter-strategies with the information brought back by Skinorse.

The Delonga Kingdom was, after all, an established Kingdom. The Ferde Wilderness had just taken its first few steps and was definitely not strong enough to defend against any upcoming attacks. Link had to borrow the strength of the Norton Kingdom to go against it.

When he was halfway there, he saw Gildern who immediately strode over with big strides upon seeing Link, as though he had something important to say.

Link then stopped in his tracks.

Gildern had a serious expression on his face and bowed upon reaching Link and whispered, “Sir, I just received some bad news.”

Link then cast a Soundproof Barrier before saying, “Tell me.”

Gildern nodded and said, “Our scouts seemed to have met a group of extremely strong Undead Knights in the forest to the North of the Black River. Thirteen of our scouts have already died within a day’s time.”

Link frowned as he asked, “Extremely strong? Can you describe in more detail?”

“The scout who was lucky enough to escape mentioned that these Undead Knights have the power of darkness and ice. They are extremely strong and seem to have no weaknesses in their bodies. They can still fight even after their heads are severed and can even pick up their severed heads and place them back on their necks. Their bodies are also filled with corrosive liquids that can kill anyone within a minute if they make contact with it. Battle Aura will not work against them. The scouts who were killed by them would then stand up in ten minutes’ time as Undead Warriors…It truly is terrifying.”

Link then frowned. Gildern seemed to be exaggerating the situation. Even if they were Undead Warriors, they should not possess such powers. This type of Undead Warriors did not even exist in the game.

“Do we have any traces of their whereabouts now?”

Gildern shook his head and said, “They have a total of 35 people and seem to be doing a mission. They are moving very quickly. When the scouts found them, they were already heading towards the northwest region of the Girvent Forest.”

The moment Gildern ended his sentence, Link saw a message from the in-game system.

Mission: Tracking

Task: Enter the Girvent Forest and track down the group of Undead Knights. Investigate the purpose of their mission.

Rewards: Lost Magic Book, Space-Time Fusion.

Time Limit: Eight hours. Exceeding the time limit will be deemed as a failure!

To think that there would be a mission connected to this. Furthermore, the reward was a magic book! From the title of the book, the magic book seemed to be a high-quality one. Link was enticed by the reward immediately. From the time limit, it seemed like it would be an important and dangerous mission.

Link then accepted the mission without hesitation and handed the scroll containing Skinorse’s message to Gildern, saying, “Hand this over to Master Grenci, let him settle this issue.”

“My lord, what about you?”

“I am going to stop these Undead Knights myself. I will set off now!”

After speaking, Link immediately went to find Dorias.

Dorias seemed to be enjoying life a bit too much nowadays. He had put on weight and, another Wind Tiger half his size lay beside him, probably a mate he found while wandering off on his own.

Upon seeing Link, he shook his head and said, “Link, I know that something has happened from your expression. Where are we headed to?”

“Northwest side of the Girvent Forest. I am tracking down a bunch of Undead Warriors.”

“That’s near,” Dorias crouched down for Link to mount on before he roared, “Let’s go. I can definitely reach them within two hours’ time.”

He leaped forward and seemed to be running at a speed much faster than before.

Upon seeing Link’s surprised expression, he growled in disdain and explained, “I have been locked up for too long previously and was too weak. Now, I have regained most of my strength. I am now close to the peak of my past strength.”

“Peak? How strong were you?” Link asked.

“I was Level-7 in strength at my peak. After I was locked up in the Tower of Azula, I slowly became weaker,” Dorias explained.

“That is good news.”

Dorias ran at full speed the entire time and took only an hour to reach the junction between the Girvent Forest and the Ferde Wilderness. Once he reached here, he lifted his head and took a whiff before saying, “I can already smell the stench of the Undead Warriors!”

Chapter 268: The Real Undead Race?

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

There was a creek between the Ferde Wilderness and Girvent Forest called the Moon Creek.

Dorias followed the aura in the air and walked along the bank of the creek. After around one mile, he sped up again. After running for another mile, Link could see from atop him the corpse in the tall grass beside the creek.

The corpse’s clothing was ragged and old. He wasn’t a scout from the Ferde Wilderness. From the looks of things, he seemed more like a refugee from Delonga.

Dorias got a little closer. Finally, he stopped around 15 feet from the body. A little suspicious, he said, “I don’t think he’s completely dead.”

Link had a similar feeling. The man was covered in dried blood and had a giant hole in his stomach, but the bare skin on his face still shone like a living man. The slightly opened eyes seemed to be like a living man’s too.

Even stranger, he was clearly not breathing anymore, but there was still a faint heartbeat. The visible veins bulged, meaning blood was flowing.

“Dorias, can you sense if he has a dark aura? I can’t.” This was the part that was hardest to explain.

Dorias shook his head too. “No dark aura at all. It feels like he’s just asleep but with his guts spilled out…”

Earlier, Gildern had reported to Link that the Undead Army was very special. They were a type of undead that had never appeared in the game. The corpse before Link’s eyes now was similarly out of his knowledge.

This had completely destroyed the balance of the world!

Getting an idea, Link used the Magician’s Hand to pick up a fist-sized rock and tossed it at the body.

Plunk! The rock crashed against the body, ricocheted, and rolled to the side. The body shuddered. The action wasn’t caused by the rock’s strength; it was more like a reflexive convulsion.

“He really isn’t dead, but he’s not alive either. What the heck is this?” Dorias felt as if he’d really seen a ghost. This was beyond his common sense. He’d never seen anything like this in his long life.

Link didn’t know either. He tried casting a Glass Orb at the corpse. With a boom, flames burst forth and burned the body. The guy seemed to be in pain. He suddenly sat up on the ground for three seconds before falling straight back.

Other than having no consciousness, he was completely like a living person. However, his action had revealed more of his wounds. One was at the back of his head. Dorias had sharp eyes and saw it first. “Oh my god, look!” he cried. “He was stabbed in the head, and his brains have all come out!”

If he had these kinds of wounds but still wasn’t completely dead and didn’t have any dark aura, it meant he wasn’t undead. However, Link still had no explanation.

He jumped down from Dorias’s back and studied the corpse’s surroundings. “From the footsteps, a cavalry had passed by once. Let me count…One, two, three…37 types of horseshoes. This mostly matches Gildern’s report.”

This meant that there were 37 Undead Knights.

Link continued investigating. He used the traces in the environment to deduce the fight that had ensued by the creek bit by bit.

“There are human footprints here…Three people—two men and one woman. One is around six feet, uh…This footprint is from that corpse. That leaves two people. The other man’s figure is similar to the corpse. He was probably hurt. Look, that’s his blood. From the shape and position of the bloodstains, he was probably hurt in the left arm. The wound is pretty deep…He was probably protecting the woman and stuck out his arm to block an Undead Knight’s sword. He blocked it like this…and then…they jumped over the water.”

Link followed the footprints along the riverbank and finally found two very deep pairs of footprints. They were different and came from two individuals.

“The Moon Creek is 33-feet-wide, but these two crossed it with just one jump. They’re very strong physically and might be strange undead people like this corpse…Let’s go across and take a look.”

The situation was already apparent from the current observations. These Undead Knights hadn’t been targeting the Ferde Wilderness. They were chasing after these targets. So who were these three undead? Why did the Undead Knights want to kill them?

Link was very curious. He climbed onto Dorias again. The beast pounced and jumped over Moon Creek.

“The aura in the air is really obvious. They chased all the way into the Girvent Forest.” Dorias followed the smell in the air and advanced.

After walking for around half an hour, they found another corpse beside the path!

The corpse’s left sleeve was torn with a shallow wound. Like the other corpse, he was filled with life. He’d been stabbed in the back of the head too, so he could only lay on the floor unmoving as if in a vegetative state.

Link started investigating the ground again. Ignoring the marks made by the Undead Knights, he focused on the woman’s footprints. Ten seconds later, he found her trace.

“She ran in that direction and was very fast. Come, let’s go after her.”

Dorias pounced in the direction Link pointed out. After running for around one mile, things suddenly changed. There were three corpses of Undead Knights beside the road. They wore dark silver body armor and emanated a dark aura. After dying, the dark aura poured out of their bodies. The plants within 30 feet of them had all withered.

Link deduced the situation from the evidence he could find. “The woman ran here, the Undead Knights 65 feet behind her. She was at a dead end, but then, another burst of power came from the forest. It killed the three Undead Knights closest to the woman and took her away at the same time. The Undead Knights continued pursuing instead of retreating.”

He couldn’t see clearly from atop Dorias. He cast the Eagle’s Eye for himself and discovered many more details of the fight.

“This newcomer controls the fire element. They’re probably a Magic Swordsman. They’re not that powerful, at the base of Level-6. After killing the three Undead Knights, they were also heavily injured…Huh? How come their blood is dark purple? They’re a Dark Elf?”

A group of Undead Knights chased after three undead, and a Dark Elf Magic Swordsman suddenly popped up who even rescued the undead woman. The situation had become a bit complicated and mysterious.

Dorias was shocked. “Link, the Undead Knights’ armor has an eagle emblem. That’s the emblem of the Delonga Royalty. They’re from Delonga!”

Link wasn’t surprised by this. “Delonga’s King Roy the Fifth has gone crazy,” he explained. “He’s working together with Wavier, another madman, to create an undead army. It already has 30,000 soldiers.”

“When was this? No way!” Dorias was totally shocked. He didn’t know about the Delonga Kingdom yet.

“It’s true… Alright, I’ll tell you in detail later. Right now, we don’t have time. The Dark Elf Magic Swordsman can’t keep up for too long. Let’s pursue them to see. Go that way.”

“Okay.” Dorias pounced in the direction Link pointed out.

This time, they ran one mile, and two more Undead Knights’ corpses appeared. Link scanned them and frowned. “It’s weird. These were all killed by the Magic Swordsman, but he shouldn’t be powerful enough…Look here, he’s clearly aon the brink of death, but the Undead Knight suddenly made a mistake and was killed.”

Dorias was utterly confused by the mysterious situation. “What’s going on?” he just asked. “It’s too complicated!”

Link didn’t reply. He continued observing and discovered a fresh mark on a tree half a minute later.

“Look, the bark is gone. Someone had been here… He perched on the tree to watch the fight on the ground and acted here…I got it. It was a pebble. He tossed a pebble, resulting in the Undead Knight’s mistake.”

“So another person appeared?” Dorias finally understood something.

Link nodded. He looked at the eerily dark forest up above and knitted his brows. “So many strong figures appeared. This can’t be a coincidence. This woman is most likely important and involved in something very beneficial, so many are focused on her. Dorias, there will most likely be many unpredictable dangers up ahead. We must be careful!”

“I understand.” Dorias grew serious for once. Things were too complicated today, and he could sense the danger.

For the rest of the journey, he slowed down a bit for safety.

This time, they traveled for around two miles when Dorias’ ears twitched. “Listen,” he whispered to Link. “There’s commotion in the forest ahead. The fight seems intense!”

“Stay down low…Be careful!” Before Link could finish, he felt heart palpitations. It was fatal danger.

Without even thinking, he moved his wand. Spatial Distortion!

Spatial Lens appeared in all directions, surrounding Dorias and Link. Practically at the same time, a purple laser appeared behind him. It shot into the distorted space and veered to the side. With a sizzle, it shot into a thick tree.

The tree was instantly shot through by the laser, but the laser didn’t stop. It continued through five more large trees until it finally disappeared.

Seeing this, Link was extremely shocked. “This laser’s strength is at least at the pinnacle of Level-7, but where do you get so many Level-7 Magicians?”

With this thought, the alarms went off in his mind again. Danger came from behind him. Just as before, it was another purple laser beam. He could tell that the enemy had adjusted his attack direction. Based off of the previous distortion angle from the Spatial Distortion, then the laser would hit Dorias after the enemy’s adjustment.

Thankfully, the powerful thing about the Spatial Distortion spell was that Link could adjust the frequency however he wanted.

Boom! This fatal laser brushed past Dorias again, but Link wasn’t happy at all. Even after these two continuous attacks, he still couldn’t nail down the enemy’s exact position! The laser seemed to have come out of thin air. There was no one at the other end.

This meant that he couldn’t fight back; he could only defend himself passively.

“Two Level-7 spells in an instant. This should be some kind of Magic Tool and this person is great at hiding. Who exactly are they?”

Link had a feeling that he had been sucked into a giant vortex, and the strange woman was at the heart of everything.

Chapter 269: Enemy of Our Enemy

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Link, what do we do?” Doria’s voice was shaking as he spoke. There was no helping it; he was extremely nervous. If not for Link’s assistance, he would already have died twice from the previous attacks.

This place was way too scary!

“Don’t fret. Their assault had ended,” Link whispered. Even if it was the work of a magic equipment, based on the mana intensity in the World of Firuman, two consecutive Level-7 spells should be enough to completely deplete their energy.

Link estimated that the other party probably still held one trump card in their hand. However, this time around, they would not cast it as easily as the first two unless they were sure of securing a kill. Hence, they were safe for now.

Clang! The sound of swords clashing against one another could be heard from the woods in front of them. Occasionally, a strong wave of energy could even be felt. The situation there must be chaotic and heated.

Behind them, an unknown professional was lurking in the shadows like a venomous snake, waiting for the right moment to strike. After a few seconds, Link said, “Let’s go, we will proceed in front to see the situation.”

If he was not wrong, the person behind them was there for the special girl as well. He could not possibly stand by and watch, and they would have to take action if they moved forward.

“Alright then. It’s all up to you.” Dorias then focused and leaped forward.

From the moment Dorias leaped up, Link pointed his Wrath of the Heavens Wand towards the woods beside him without warning. In an instant, a single-directional Flame Blast spell took form and spewed fiery demise throughout the forest after a deafening explosion.

“Where can you hide this time!”

In that instant, when the lurking shadow was attempting to strike while they were in mid-air, Link noticed his movements and retaliated before he could even react.

Amongst the eruption of flames, a figure stood out. It was enveloped in a dark purple Battle Aura, and Link could not make out his features from afar. Their speed was insanely fast, and in half a second, they managed to escape from the casting range of the Flame Blast spell.

This person was extremely decisive. The moment they realized that they were exposed, they escaped without hesitation. Strangely, the moment this person got out of the flames, their figure immediately blurred, as though their presence was about to disappear into thin air.

“You are planning to escape?” Link then focused and locked onto his opponent who was on the run and cast a Vector Field spell.

As Link deepened his understanding of space, his control over field-type spells also increased. He could already control them almost perfectly, manipulating the angle and strength to his own liking.

This spell came out of the blue and hit the enemy at the perfect angle. It was impossible to defend against.

The figure stumbled upon this impact. After the disruption, the figure once again became apparent.

Due to their insane speed, it was difficult for the figure to regain his balance. Link would also not give them the chance to regain their composure. Link was looking for a fatal flaw in his opponent movements to finish him off once and for all!

This person was clearly experienced in battle. They could roughly guess Link’s intentions and immediately gave up on regaining their balance. They then allowed their body to fall to the ground, and while in mid-air, they pointed a thing similar to a wooden stick in Link’s direction.

A purple colored ray shot through the forest.

This was supposed to be a game-changing attack. It took advantage of the enemy’s upper hand and retaliated the moment the enemy let down their guard. If it was anyone else, they might already be defeated.

However, Link had been through many battles and was a Master Combat Magician. He would not make such mistakes.

Whoosh! The sound of space distortion rang through the air as though Link had predicted his opponent’s every movement. A space lens appeared around Link, and when the ray hit the lens, it’s trajectory was forcefully manipulated to veer away from its original path.

Around 0.1 seconds later, Link canceled the space lens spell and started retaliating with full force.

The purple ray grazed past Link’s body. The nearest it got was merely ten centimeters away from Link’s body. However, as with all light-based spell, accuracy was of utmost importance. Even one centimeter would become an insurmountable distance.

At that moment, that figure was still in mid-air, and they could not regain their balance. They had also used up their trump card and was completely open to Link’s attack.

Link then immediately used his signature move, the Titan’s Hand.

Whoosh! The wind howled as the fire elemental concentrated on Link’s wand. A huge hand took 0.2 seconds to take form and grabbed the figure tightly.

Link then exploded the fire elementals within the hand without hesitation.

Boom! Boom! The first sound came from the explosion within the Titan’s Hand. However, the second one came from the figure, who had exploded their Battle Aura to escape from the attack.

Link had already seen through their ultimate retaliation move. They thus had no intention to be entangled with Link any longer. The moment they escaped from the Titan’s Hand, they started running in the opposite direction.

This figure seemed to be using all their strength this time around, releasing their Battle Aura constantly and evoking a Battle Skill meant for escaping purposes.

Whoosh! Three identical dark purple images appeared in the air and ran in three different directions. Link then had to choose one of them to attack.

Dorias was completely dumbfounded by the Battle Skill. He muttered, “The one on the left is real… no… it’s the one on the right… that’s not correct either. Don’t tell me it’s the one running straight?”

He basically said a bunch of crap.

If it was another Magician facing this figure today, he would definitely have escaped. However, Link was an exception. Link was not all that powerful, but he recognized this exact tactic.

“I was still thinking who this was. So it is you, Dark Prince!”

The Dark Prince was the third successor to the throne in the Dark Elves Pralync Kingdom. He possessed the royal Silver Moon blood and was known to like adventures. He had an extremely high reputation and was a highly-regarded Dark Elf Ranger.

This man was blessed by fate and had great talent in both Battle Aura and magic. He was especially skilled in crafting magic equipment.

The purple ray just now was from his prided weapon called the Remnant of Death. Its special effect was its ability to fire three Level-7 spells consecutively. However, after the third time, it then had to be recharged before it could be used again.

His Battle Aura was unique as well. Half of it was from his family traditional Battle Aura stance while another half was of his own innovation. This Battle Aura had many advantages, the unique one being its invisibility effect. If the Dark Prince did not receive any damage of interference for three seconds, he could enter the invisibility state.

The current skill he was using to split himself into three images was called The Dark Flower Blossoms.

This was the Dark Prince’s most prized escape technique. He could produce two completely indiscernible images of himself and had never failed him before. At least, that was what happened before he met Link.

Link paid no attention to the three images. Instead, he once again cast the Titan’s Hand and grabbed the area in the center of the three images. He then exploded the fire elementals within it without hesitation.

Argh! A cry of pain shot through the air. The Titan’s Hand had caught the real Dark Prince!

The reason was simple. The three images formed by the Dark Flower Blossoms Skill were all fakes. The real Dark Prince would be forced to stay in the original position for around 0.2 seconds after casting such a complicated Battle Skill.

If someone did not know about this trick, this Battle Skill would have been the perfect skill to use for escaping purposes. However, once someone had discovered its true form, this 0.2 seconds would be fatal to the Dark Prince.

The Titan’s Hand then brought the Dark Prince back to Link’s side. He was now barely hanging onto life.

With a thought, the Remnant of Death weapon on the Dark Prince’s hand was transferred to Link. After observing it for a moment, Link said regretfully, “It can only be activated using a special Battle Aura. It won’t be of any use to me. Forget it; the material is still good. We will disassemble it and use them for other purposes next time.”

He then stared at the Dark Prince held in the air by the Titan’s Had before saying, “Walter?”

This was the Dark Prince’s name.

Walter then sighed as he said, “Since you recognize me, I don’t wish to live anymore. Please give me a quick death.”

The human race and the Dark Elves were deadly enemies. They would not end a fight without one party dying. There was nothing left to say.

Link then shook his head and said, “That will be going too easy on you. You are here for the same reason as us. Both of us want to get our hands on that woman, but along the way, you have also protected her multiple times. She seems to be your friend and probably would not bear to see you die. I can use you to coerce her into giving me information.”

Upon hearing Link’s words, Dorias was slightly puzzled. What did he mean by here for the woman? Didn’t they track the Undead Warriors down all the way without knowing what exactly was happening?

He was just about to clarify things with Link when he felt a pinch on his back. He then had the sudden realization that Link was trying to trick information out of this Dark Elf.

Walter indeed thought that Link already knew the situation and sneered, “You have gotten the wrong idea. Alloa is my enemy. I attempted to kill you only because you are Link.”

Alloa? Link gasped. Alloa. Human and Dark Elf mixed blood.

In the game, she first served the Dark Elves and subsequently joined the humans after the Dark Elves started summoning demons from other dimensions.

Her magic talent was merely ordinary. Even in the late game, she merely just reached the strength equivalent of Legendary. However, she possessed amazing talent in terms of insight and observation skills, a talent that even put Eliard to shame.

Hence, she had another alias called “the Maiden of Truth.”

In the game, Alloa was of great help in their fight against the dark forces. Before her death, she cast her final spell, Ripples of Destruction, in an attempt to stop the demon army from heading South.

Destruction Ripple

Ungraded Rank

Forbidden Curse

Effect: By taking advantage of the flaw in the principles governing the World of Firuman, it creates waves of destruction ripple in a hundred-mile radius that can eradicate all beings in Firuman with the exception of Divine Gears!

The official site of the game had also created a detailed cutscene for the explosion of the spell. Link had witnessed its power first-hand, and he could testify that even a Legendary spell did not possess even a thousandth of its prowess.

The game company even created a special documentary titled the “Fall of the Maiden of Truth” due to the popularity of this scene.

Using the power of the Destruction Ripple spell, Alloa destroyed the entire demon army in one blow. Almost 50000 high-level demons were reduced to nothingness, though she had also disappeared without a trace. No one knew her whereabouts till this date.

Link did not think that the Maiden of Truth would betray the Dark Elves so soon in this timeline.

After he heaved a long sigh of relief, Link felt something moving in his field of vision. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was the message for the completion of the quest. A new mission then appeared.

Mission: Rescue

Task: Help Alloa regain her freedom.

Reward: None

Alright, this was the first mission that would offer no reward at all. However, simply from the fact that Alloa had created an immortal body, she was worth saving.

Link believed that he would benefit greatly if he saved Alloa.

He then looked at Walter and asked, “Since she is an enemy, why wouldn’t you kill her… you won’t answer my question, so let me guess. She must have found something peculiar that you want. Therefore, you people want to force her to hand it in. Am I right?”

Walter then sneered, “Even a fool would realize that.”

Dorias was infuriated. If Link was a fool, then what would that make him? He pressed his paws against Walter and said, “Link, let me end him!”

Link the shook his head, “No, he is Dark Elf royalty. He will be useful. Take him to the Northern Fortress and hang him on the castle wall. I believe the Dark Elves’ expressions will be fun to watch.”

“Damn it, kill me now! Kill me!” Walter started struggling while he bellowed.

Dorias then gave him a hard smack on the head to knock him out.

Link then dismounted from Dorias’ back and said, “Dorias, bring this guy back to the Scorched Ridge. He is important, do not let him get away.”

“No problem at all. What about you?”

“The enemy of our enemy is our friend. I am going to save her,” Link said.