Advent of the Archmage

Chapter 134: An Endless Night (Part 2)

The black raven entered the room through the air vent in the window and shrouded itself in a cloud of grey mist. It then transformed into the mysterious black-dressed woman. Link was completely stunned at the sight.

Is this person here to silence me? What have I gotten myself into?

“Relax. I mean no harm,” the woman said. Link could indeed feel no malice emanating from her magic aura, nor any suspicious fluctuations that may hint at a sneak attack. She did not even hold a wand in her hand.

Nonetheless, Link was still alert.

“I don’t think a person who barges into my room so late at night would mean no harm.”

Eleanor smiled, accentuating the alluring charm of her beautiful face. She walked to the only chair in the small bedroom and adjusted her sitting position until she was comfortable.

“Just to be safe, I was observing you the whole time; you are of no threat to me, and similarly, I do not want to cause any trouble in Hot Springs City. Furthermore, I specialize in secret magic, if I truly meant to cause you any harm, I would not even appear in front of you. What do you say?”

If they were not in Hot Springs City, Eleanor’s normal procedure would be to bring Link back to her Mage Tower for interrogation before erasing his memory. That was what she had done for most of the humans she had an interest in.

However, that was not possible here. Link had a Level-6 Magician living beside him and there were many other Master Magicians roaming around town. Furthermore, Link was pretty powerful himself—she had to speak to him as though he was her equal.

Link thought for a moment before putting away his wand.

“So what business do you have here?”

Seeing that Link was reasonable, Eleanor was immediately in a good mood.

“We are all here for the Magician’s Fair. Although the fair will not start until tomorrow, I would like to make some transactions with you in advance,” she said.

“Oh?” Link was intrigued.

Even though Link was still wary, he maintained a calm composure and no longer displayed any signs of hostility.

Eleanor admired Link’s ability to hide his emotions. She took a scroll out from her dimensional ring and said, “I have a magic scroll containing a Level-4 spell. I will give you this in exchange for your Whistle spell. What do you think?”

Exchanging a Level-1 spell for a Level-4 spell was simply a bargain under normal circumstances. However, Link was not a normal human being. If he truly wanted to learn a spell, he could simply purchase it using his Omni Points. He also had access to the complete collection of Herrera’s and Anthony’s magic books. The Level-4 spell thus had no value to Link, at least not as valuable as the Level-1 spell Eliard and him spent so much time and effort creating.

It was a one and only Level-1 spell that was created through their combined efforts.

Link shook his head and said, “I have no interest in exchanging them.”

Eleanor was taken aback, “You should probably take a look at this. This Level-4 spell is called Psychic Shock and was enchanted with my original Supreme Magical Skills. With this spell, you can attack the spirit of all enemies within a 240 feet radius and devastate their willpower.”

Link was even more unwilling now. He said, “I am not interested in such spells. By definition, this can already be considered dark magic.”

In the World of Firuman, any spells that directly attacked the spirit was forbidden. This was due to the devastating side effects of those spells which could destroy a person’s soul.

The death of the physical body was not something that was feared, as many believed that their souls would finally attain peace in heaven after death. However, the destruction of the soul was different as it would destroy your existence itself, something that was way too horrific to even think about.

Link had no prejudice towards this type of magic, though, he would not personally learn them. This was due to his fear of being even exiled by Magicians of the East Cove Higher Magic Academy.

“Okay then.” Eleanor put the scroll away and asked, “What do I have to offer to see the magic structure of your Whistle spell?”

Link was curious as to why Eleanor was so persistent in learning the Whistle spell. He thought for a moment and said, “Something that is unique, I guess.”

“What a greedy man!” Eleanor smiled and took out another scroll.

The scroll was brown in color and was enveloped in a glorious silver hue. When Eleanor brought it out, the atmosphere in the room seemed to have stagnated. Its magic presence was so overpowering that Link immediately felt his heart and mind grow heavy, as though he were pressured by an intangible force.

“This is?” Link did not expect a scroll to have such fearsome power.

“Do you know Bryant?” Eleanor smiled with pride, much like a sly fox who had successfully baited its prey.

“Of course!” Almost all sentient beings in the world would have heard of his name. Why else would he be heralded as a Legendary Magician?

“This is the Scroll of Enlightenment that he had left behind. I can let you take a look at it in exchange for your Whistle spell,” Eleanor offered.

“It’s a deal!” Link agreed without any hesitation.

Eleanor was not afraid that Link would run off with her Scroll of Enlightenment. She passed the scroll to Link and held out her pristine white hands, waiting for Link to pass the magic scroll containing his Whistle spell.

Link handed over the scroll and opened the Scroll of Enlightenment almost immediately. The moment the scroll was opened, it was enveloped in a bright light and an intricate array of rune formations could be seen. The rune formation was formed from many shining light spheres, and each of the spheres was then formed by another complex set of runes.

Link’s attention was drawn to the shadows formed by the spheres. To be exact, they weren’t even shadows, but runic spirals that were created by chaining tens of thousands of runes into a continuous line. It was a really advanced technique.

In the game, Link merely had to click read and wait for ten seconds before obtaining a permanent stats increase. However, in the real world, he had to study and understand the scroll before he could get the benefits.

Epic quality scroll discovered, do you wish to scan and record? The in-game system asked.

“Of course! Record now!” Link ordered. This was way too complicated for him to read in a short time. He would slowly take his time with the scroll in the future.

The game system was extremely efficient. Link felt like he was in trance and after a few seconds, he could recall almost every detail in the Scroll of Enlightenment.

The moment he was done, the scroll was snatched from his hand. Eleanor said, “I only said for a while. You have already spent way too much time looking at it.”

Link stared at the scroll in Eleanor’s hands and said, “You’re pretty lucky to find that scroll.”

“Naturally. But your luck is even better. You possess the most precious gift known to mankind, and that is magic talent.” Eleanor spoke with a hint of envy in her voice.

Link asked, “I heard that there is a total of six Scrolls of Enlightenment and combining the six of them will give you a Scroll of Revelation. Do you know exactly which scroll this is?”

At this moment, Eleanor was looking at the magic structure of the Whistle spell. She answered with her eyes still focused on Link’s magic scroll, “You are quite knowledgeable. Yes, there are indeed six of them and mine should be the second one. If you can fully understand this scroll, your Mana Recovery speed will at least double.”

However, she had only allowed him to take a quick look at the scroll, making it impossible for him to obtain any tangible benefits. On the other hand, she managed to learn a powerful Level-1 spell. It was a good trade.

As it was a Level-1 spell, the magic structure was pretty simple. However, it contained subtle ingenuity and ground-breaking imagination; Eleanor found it extremely fascinating.

She only looked up after a full 20 minutes and said, “This is the most beautifully crafted Level-1 spell I’ve ever seen. It is pure, clean yet powerful. In order to repay you, I will let you have another minute on my Scroll of Enlightenment. How much you can remember then depends on your capabilities.”

She then opened the scroll in front of Link. This time, Link studied the scroll carefully while verifying it with the image recorded by the game system. There were indeed no omissions, the game system captured every single detail perfectly.

It took a full three minutes before Link looked up, despite the original time limit of one minute. Eleanor looked at Link expectantly and said, “It has been three minutes. Shouldn’t you give me something else in return?”

Exchanging a Level-1 spell for a Scroll of Enlightenment was an extremely good bargain. Link was in a good mood and chirped, “What do you want? I will do whatever I can to repay you.”

“How about helping me craft an enchanted accessory? Something like the one you just showed your friend. The design is simply beautiful.” Eleanor’s eyes sparkled in anticipation.

She looked exactly like Eliard when he first saw the accessory. In fact, she looked even more excited and fanatical than him.

Link stared and Eleanor and thought, Despite her status as a Magician, the sight of intricate accessories does get her excited.

Link then recalled some certain classic jewelry designs that were popular on Earth and reprocessed them in his mind. After the design was optimized to his liking, he took out some materials and was ready to work.

“Wait a minute; please use my materials.”

Eleanor placed gold, thorium and a Cat’s Eye Stone in front of Link.

The Cat’s Eye Stone was the best conduit for secret magic and was extremely rare. Link took a look at the stone and said, “I do not know any secret spells and I won’t be able to make full use of this rare stone. I do not want to waste such a high-quality material.”

Eleanor hesitated for a moment before exchanging the Cat’s Eye Stone or a fire crystal. The fire crystal had a pure luster and a layer of crimson fiery flame on it. It was much higher in quality than the one he snatched from the Magician Holmes.

“How about a fire elemental spell?”

“Is Flame Blast okay?” Link asked. It would be a waste to enchant a low-level spell on such a good quality material. He had to make good use of it.

“That would be great.”

“Come back in a week.” Unlike low-level accessories, high-level magic equipment will take a longer time to craft.

“I am expecting great things, Link,” Eleanor said with a wink.

A shroud of grey mist enveloped her. When the mist dissipated, she had once again turned into a raven, flying out through the window soon after.

After she left, the encounter felt extremely surreal to Link. A moment ago, Link had still considered her as an enemy. Now, they had already become trading partners and he even obtained the knowledge of the second Scroll of Enlightenment out of this incredibly good bargain.

If not for the spread of high-quality materials still laying in front of him, he would have thought it was all a dream.

“What a bizarre world,” Link couldn’t help but exclaim.