Advent of the Archmage

Link received from the dragons—mostly from the queen—dragon power, the book Dragon, various dragon spells, and alchemy. He'd lost the thin piece of time but shared a way to create extraordinary material with the queen.

All in all, he didn't lose anything.

But at the end, he forced himself to stay there and let the Red Dragon Queen seal his dragon form. Thinking back, he'd been too headstrong. His dragon form was so useful. It was a pity to lose it like this.

Whatever. What's done is done. No point in regret. Link, look forward! Comforting himself, Link walked into his room at the top of the Mage Tower.

Celine happened to be in that room. She flipped through Link's enchantment book while one slender hand was open on the table. A small Mithril ball hovered above her palm. Under the modification force field, the ball kept changing shape.

She was practicing enchantments.

Link walked to the comfortable chair beside the hall and plopped into it. Celine flinched at the noise. Ripples appeared in her Mana and the Mithril ball instantly wrinkled.

She turned around. Seeing Link, she patted her chest and whined, "I was wondering who it was. I was so scared."

She put down the Mithril ball and walked to sit beside Link. Grinning, she said, "You left for one month. I thought you'd spend the rest of your life with the Red Dragon Queen."

Link shook his head and smiled. He grabbed Celine's small hands and caressed them. "Don't worry, baby," he said, sighing. "I probably won't ever go to the Dragon Valley again."

"What, you destroyed the relationship?" Celine was a bit shocked.

"Something like that. Whatever, let's stop talking about them. Come, tell me what happened in the territory while I was gone."

Celine stopped asking and started reporting to him. Most of it was good news about the territory's construction. This included the Golden Rune Workshop's establishment, which Vance was responsible for. It only enrolled Magic Apprentices now and had many Tutors—more than 100. They'd started producing basic enchantment equipment already.

This was good and of high efficiency. Link was satisfied.

"And there's this." Celine handed a small bag to Link. "Skinorse brought it back for you. He said that he only needs around 30 more so you should prepare his reward."

Link opened it to see a bag full of Jogu. He counted it; there were close to 50. This was a huge gain. With what he already had, he now had more than 70 Jogu. This was great. Link was satisfied too.

"What about news from around the territory?" he asked again. "Such as the Isle of Dawn, the Southmoon Kingdom, the fortress in the North, and such."

Celine cocked her head and thought for a while. She shook her head. "Nothing big. Oh, right, the Syndicate in the South seems to have changed. They got a lot stronger. I heard that the Leo Kingdom has completely been controlled and turned into a puppet."

"Oh, that's really bad news." Link sighed. He knew this was definitely caused by the Ethereal Knights. Morpheus had started preparing the forces to conquer the South.

There were only four kingdoms in the South. Delonga had mostly been annexed by the Southmoon Kingdom. The latter had a good relationship with Ferde, so Link couldn't ignore this.

He quickly thought of something. He cast a large scale life detection spell and quickly found Lucy. Then he used a telepathy spell. "Lucy, it's Link. I need your help."

Lucy was looking over documents and was frightened when she heard the voice. But she quickly collected herself and replied, "Lord, please give me your orders."

"Send a document to Southmoon Kingdom's royalty. Tell them I wish to visit the Grinth Magic Academy in their capital, and they should prepare for it. Then send a small magic ambassador group to spend a few months in Grinth. I'll choose some time to go… Oh, right, have them bring this long-distance communication rune with them."

With that, a crystal-red runestone appeared in Link's hands. It flashed with white light and was sent to Lucy's table.

"Yes, Lord." Lucy collected it and started writing the document.

Having taken care of that, Link felt less worried. He did this to purposely cast doubt. His name was known across the continent now. When the magic ambassador group arrived at Southmoon under the name of a Legendary Magician, this news would spread throughout the southern kingdoms.

The Syndicate would learn of it too. Then they'd have to worry about Link's power if they wanted to wreak havoc in Southmoon. If something really did happen, the ambassador group would send a message with the runestone. He could get to the capital in one hour.

Celine's voice sounded. "Hey, why aren't you talking? What spell did you just use?"

Link chuckled. "A small telepathy spell. I told Lucy to do some things. Alright, now ask me any enchantment questions you have."

"Tsk, look how proud you are!" Celine pouted but still obediently brought her notes over and started asking questions seriously.

Link answered them easily and moved through the dozens of questions Celine had accumulated. Then Celine grasped her notes and ran happily to the enchantment room to try it all out.

Link sat in the room alone, thinking about the future.

First, he still needed to spread some force that could strengthen human Warriors. Pure Dragon Power was out of the question. It wasn't because of their ban; he didn't care about it. It was because he couldn't do it without their help for now. However, he had Dragon Power within him and also their magic books. He could experiment and do research; he believed he could create regular Dragon Power soon.

Once he had a stable Dragon Power seed, he could start spreading it. That was the most important task at hand. Second, if he wanted to turn Scorched City into his main camp, he'd have to create a battle-level magic seal.

Thinking of this, Link decided to create an attack spell that could strike the universe.

In the Firuman Realm, Level-19 was the most powerful. He could create it with a magic seal but couldn't control it perfectly because he didn't have Level-19 material.

He gave the thin piece of time and objects from the Sea of Void to Gretel to guard the spatial crack. Without these, he naturally couldn't create Level-19 material. Without Level-19 material, he couldn't restrain Level-19 power. If any Level-19 force exploded in Ferde, the entire territory would be reduced to nothing. That would suck.

Link collected all the material he had right now. He discovered that he could at most create a Level-15 magic seal.

Fine, Level-15 is good enough. Currently, other than Morpheus, this power can destroy any existence in this realm.

With this magic seal, things like Bryant forcing into his territory wouldn't happen anymore. No matter how strong one was, they'd have to surrender at Ferde!

Since he had the idea, he would start. Link immediately began designing.

This magic seal would naturally be set in the Mage Tower. It should use beams for attack and add the power of time. Without the thin piece of time, he couldn't use fate. He would have to use predictive attacks.

This way, it would be hard for the opponent to escape once targeted.

The attack range should be long enough. Since it was a magic seal, the spell should be as complicated and detailed as possible. Taking advantage of spatial magic's focus, it should reach a maximum of two miles on a good day. This could protect the entire Scorched City.

Finally, the attack shouldn't be largescale. Otherwise, the shockwaves could destroy everything. The spell should be as thin as a needle and just be fatal with one hit.

Link thought and designed; the magic seal came into existence under his pen.

…

While Link was focused on magic in his territory, in the Orida Fortress, Kanorse received a letter from a scout from the Black Forest. He was training in the field when he got the letter. He stuck his Lion's Fury sword into the ground and unfurled the small scroll.

After a few glances, his body trembled. His eyes grew serious.

Turning to the scout who'd brought the letter, he asked, "Are you sure the news of this portal is true?"

"Not sure. There are all types of scouts around the building. We can't get close. There's mist around the entire structure, and it's very hard to see. Princess Annie sent me to alert you while she and the rest try to approach again…"

Hearing this, Kanorse slapped his forehead in worry. "That's too dangerous."

"I said that too. The others tried to dissuade her, but you know Her Highness' temper. She insisted."

Kanorse couldn't do anything. Before, he was a general and could go help with his hot-blooded temper. Now, he was the fortress' supreme commander. He couldn't be so whimsical. Sending reinforcements could alert the enemy too. Thinking it through, he could only wait passively for Princess Annie's news.

He waited for three days. In the dawn of the third day, Princess Annie and five elite scouts rushed out of the Black Forest. Covered in blood, they returned to the Orida Fortress.

She was injured all over, but there was no fear in her face. Instead, she looked excited and proud. Without treating her wounds, she hurried all the way back to the fortress.

Kanorse had gotten the message. He was already dressed and waiting for her. When he saw Annie, he realized her power waves were stronger than before. She'd broken into Level-8 and was close to Level-9.

"Kanorse, it's great that you're here. I got certain news about those Nagas!"

"Really? Is there really a portal?"

Annie nodded. "It's a portal—a large multi-realm portal, in fact. Around it, I saw Wild Beastmen, demons, and many Agatha Nagas."

Kanorse was shocked. "How many?"

Annie gestured with her hands. "More than 150,000."

Kanorse's hands trembled. There were only 50,000 Warriors at the Orida Fortress. The enemy was three times larger. Was the scene with the Dark Army from half a year ago about to be repeated?

What made him curious was that Annie didn't seem nervous at all.

"What else?"

"There are a lot of people, but they're sundry. The Wild Beastmen are the most at 80,000. They have very crude equipment though. They only wear a leather rag and hold sticks. There are only around 20,000 demons, and they don't really follow orders. The Nagas aren't as strong as we predicted either, only around Level-4 and Level-5. They're equal to our elite army, so they're far from the Dark Army from before. They still need to go through a lot of training. We have time to get ready!"

As Annie spoke, her eyes flashed with confidence. The humans were ill-prepared for the Dark Army before. She'd only been a Level-4 Assassin too. They'd been completely squashed. Now, the Orida army wasn't the weak thing from before.

Even the regular Warriors were at Level-3. There were many from Level-4 to Level-6 too and could form an elite army of 10,000 soldiers. The commanders were all above Level-7. There were 15 at Level-8 while Annie was at Level-9. Kanorse was a full-armored Legendary fighter too.

They were all veterans who'd survived the last battle.

From the aspect of individual soldiers and combat ability, they weren't any weaker than their enemy. They also had the impregnable pass of the continent. They had the absolute advantage.

In that case, they should fight to the end!

Annie's words reassured Kanorse. He thought a bit and said, "You're right… I'll notify the others, and we'll prepare for war!"

Those bastards had been messing with them for so long. Now, it was time for them to get a taste of the humans' iron fist!