Advent of the Archmage

Chapter 490: We Need More Power

“Time is the ultimate dimensional order that moves only in one direction. To throw it into turmoil would compromise the dimensional fabric.”

This was the first sentence written in the prologue of the magic book. It was also the only sentence Link understood, as the rest of the pages were filled with words he could barely grasp.

After flipping through only a third of the book, a splitting headache had set in.

He did not recognize any of the runes or the magical concepts introduced in the book. This could be easily rectified; he could simply take all the time he needed to understand the book’s contents. The problem was that each and every one of these logical inferences in the book was extremely complex, to the point that it seemed to have surpassed the boundaries of all human knowledge. It was all written in abstraction in the truest sense of the word.

Link continued poring over its pages till midnight. He knew he had come across a real conundrum. Understanding the whole book would definitely take a great deal of time and effort from him.

Link now had an inkling of where the two Nagas had disappeared off to. He suspected that the enemy had traveled through time and hid themselves in the future.

But just how far into the future did they manage to travel? Would they reappear at the same place that they had disappeared? Link knew none of the answers to these questions.

The fact remained that the two Nagas had escaped his grasp.

“Forget it, I need to rest. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading off to the Mage Tower in Orida Fortress and begin working on some magical equipment for Kanorse.”

As of now, Kanorse was only equipped with a sterling level set of leather armor and the magical sword that Link had forged for him, a far cry from Duke Abel’s epic level equipment.

Right now, Link felt obligated to support in any way possible the ascension of the next marshall in the North.

A night had passed in silence.

The next day, the army set off for Orida Fortress.

Link had gone off ahead with Celine to Orida Fortress, whereas King Leon and the others had remained with the rest of the army, trudging on slowly towards the same destination.

On the third day of their journey, a dark red light appeared in the middle of the woods, where the army had set up camp before.

At first, the point of light was no bigger than a thumb. It was shaped almost like a pair of bloodshot eyes. They observed their surroundings for a moment as if making sure they were alone. Then, a sudden whoosh sound could be heard, as the ball of light rapidly expanded. Moments later, there was a thump, and the Naga Priest Molina and Katyusha fell from the ball of light and onto the ground.

On the ground, Molina immediately scrambled over to Katyusha and pressed a hand on the gaping wound in her chest. She began chanting a spell. From her hand flowed a continuous stream of dark red light, which then entered Katyusha’s body.

Katyusha stared dully at the air in front of her. Her breathing had all but stopped. Her limbs dangled lifelessly from her body, and her skin was sagging so much, it was as if she had been reduced to a skeleton with squishy bags of skin and blood bound to it.

This was the appearance of an Agatha Naga on the verge of death.

But as the power flowed on through her, the skin around the gaping hole on Katyusha’s chest began weaving itself together at a speed visible to the naked eye until the wound was completely sealed up. At the same time, her skin began to tauten around her. Ten seconds later, she took in a deep gulp of air. Both her hands clasped tightly around Molina’s wrist as her eyes sprang open.

“I’m alive?” Katyusha’s voice was weak.

“You almost died.” Molina pulled her hand back. She was covered in sweat, and her eyes were dark with exhaustion. The divine spell she had used on Katyusha had depleted almost all of her power.

“What time is it?” Katyusha sat up. She then looked about, searching for her Spear of Victory.

“It’s with me.” Molina took out the spear and handed it over to her. “We’ve traveled into the future, three days after our last battle. The human army has already left. I assume they’ve all returned to Orida Fortress. Our operation has failed.”

Katyusha fell silent. She took her spear back and leaned on it as she slowly tried to stand up.

In the dim forest, a breeze blew down from the mountains. Without a sound, Katyusha began whirling the spear in her hand. Her body was still weak, and she could only spin it slowly at first. Gradually, the spear began picking up speed. A few minutes later, she was whirling her spear at her normal speed.

Just then, she tripped on a rock and fell forward on the ground.

The Spear of Victory flew from her hand and clattered on the ground a few feet from her.

Katyusha did not bother getting up. She remained lying face-down on the ground, like a corpse buried shallowly among the fallen leaves.

She had never experienced such defeat ever since she was born!

She lay on the ground for around five minutes without moving. Looking on at this, Molina grew worried and approached her to see if she was alright.

When she got close to her, Molina saw that Katyusha’s shoulder was trembling. The sound of stifled sobbing could be heard from Katyusha. Molina walked around her and saw that tears were indeed rolling down her cheeks.

Molina sighed heavily. She understood Katyusha more than anyone else. When she had just entered adulthood, Katyusha was deemed as the most gifted Naga of them all. Their defeat this time had come as a tremendous shock to her.

Molina kept silent and simply remained by Katyusha’s side.

Ten minutes later, Katyusha crawled up from the ground and wiped her tears off. She then walked over to pick up her spear. “We were impatient. We left our defenses wide open. If we had slowed down just a bit, Ferde and the Isle of Dawn would have gone to war with each other without our aid.”

Molina nodded. “I guess you’re right. The emergence of Link would naturally accelerate the rise of the human race, but the High Elves would not have let such a thing happen. There was no need for us to have intervened in this.”

Something clicked in Katyusha. “Link is just too powerful. With the Light of Firuman’s blessing on him, he must be the Child of the Realm. We are most definitely not a match for him with our current power level. We need to form our own alliances.”

Molina laughed at this. She knew that Katyusha had grown even more mature and reasonable after suffering such a defeat. She asked quietly, “What other race would want to ally themselves to us?”

Katyusha counted her fingers. “A lot, actually. On the surface, there’s the Lord of the Deep, Nozama himself, the Dark Elves, Morpheus the Shadow Stalker of the South and his Syndicate. Then there are the High Elves, the Beastmen, Dwarves and even the Yabba race who may be willing to form an alliance with us.”

“Oh?” Molina was confused. “I can see why the High Elves would ally themselves with us. But the Beastmen live far out in the Golden Plains, the Dwarves have no quarrel with the rest of the world. There are, in fact, friendly with Link, and the Yabba people are under Link’s protection. How do we make allies out of any of them?”

Katyusha’s reasoning had become even clearer. Her eyes lit up even more. “The rise of the humans will eventually lead to them invading the others for their own profit. As they become more powerful, so too will their greed. They will begin coveting the Dwarves’ weapons and the Beastmen’s fur and other natural resources. I imagine none of them would find such an outcome desirable. Though the Dwarves and Link are on friendly terms, it is only on a personal basis. The illusion of friendship will not last long when the Dwarves’ own interest is at stake. As for the Yabba people, there should be a couple of them who have begun to feel discontent about living under another race. Akensser, the master craftsman, is still within our grasp. He’s probably gathered a following in his race by now.”

Molina grinned widely at this. “I can’t find any fault in your reasoning. Once we get back to the North, we’ll bring this up for discussion with Ashali (the highest in command among the Nagas), she’ll probably agree with you.”

At the mention of Ashali, Katyusha’s face darkened instantly. “Maybe, I don’t think she likes me that much.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll back you up,” said Molina reassuringly. She lifted her head up and looked at the sky. “It’s getting dark. We’d best rest for a while. Once it’s completely dark, we’ll go back quietly to the North.”

…

Orida Fortress

Link was still hard at work forging magical equipment. When the exhaustion started to set in, he could either go back to finishing up his book on magical enchantments or practice his sword at the magical arena.

Days had passed, as scouts from the Orida Fortress searched the woods for any sign of Katyusha or Molina, but to no avail. A month later, they simply gave up their search.

In that time, King Leon had remained in Orida Fortress, while Kanorse began familiarizing himself with his duties as the fortress’ new marshall. The one who had appointed him as Duke Abel’s successor was none other than the depowered Duke Abel himself.

As if trying to make up for his crimes, Duke Abel had been teaching Kanorse how to navigate his duties as a respectable marshall. Though Kanorse was upright in his ways, he was also an intelligent man and picked up what he had learned in no time.

Time passed, and both master and student had grown even more intimate with one another.

In half a month’s time, Link managed to complete three pieces of magical equipment: a marshall’s ring, a lapel pin, and a belt. All three were Legendary gear. He had even crafted the Hero’s Dusk sword, modeling it after the Lion’s Fury sword.

There was still half a month away till Kanorse’s promotion ceremony. With all that free time, he began focusing all his efforts on writing his book on magical enchantment.

As far the book on time magic, he figured that he still did not have the capacity to fully understand it. He would only be torturing himself if he were to force himself to absorb its contents in one go. He decided to just take it slow.

One day, while he was buried deep in his work, a sound of someone knocking came from outside his door. After psychically identifying his visitor, he put down his pencil and said, “Come in.”

The door opened, and Skinorse entered, grinning lazily at him. His hands kept rubbing against each other greedily.

At such a sight, Link knew what he was up to. He picked up three rings placed on his table and threw it to Skinorse. “Take them. You’ve earned it.”

Skinorse caught the rings in the air. He felt them carefully in his hands, and knew that they were no ordinary rings. Each of them contained a Burst spell and a Level-10 Defense spell. Both spells were invaluable to any self-respecting adventurer who wished to live a little longer in the adventuring business.

“Hehe, many thanks. I’ll remember to give the other two rings to my friends.” Skinorse put away the rings in his pocket, then sat on the other side of the table in front of Link. “Actually, I’m here to show you something.”

“Oh, do tell.” This piqued Link’s curiosity. He knew that Skinorse’s slovenly mannerism was just a facade. He could be quite dependable when he wanted to.

“It’s like this. Didn’t I tell you before that I was exploring some ruins? I found something quite interesting. You won’t be able to guess what it’s used for.”

Saying this, Skinorse took out a silver coin and placed on Link’s table.

“It’s definitely going to blow you away!” he said.

Chapter 491: Thin Pieces of Time

The coin on the table seemed to be made of silver. One side had a silhouette while the other side was a rose. The edges were very finely made. It was clear that Skinorse had specially cleaned it; it looked as good as new.

Link studied it. He still felt that it was a regular coin. He felt for it and vaguely sensed a strange aura. It was a bit familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he’d felt it before.

He was too lazy to think more. “What’s it for?” he asked straightforwardly.

“Hehe.” Skinorse was proud to stump Link. He took the coin and asked, “Do you think it’ll be heads or tails if I toss it?”

How could one guess something that was based on chance?

Link guessed randomly. “Heads.”

“Haha, wrong.” Skinorse tossed the coin. He didn’t try any tricks. Under Link’s scrutiny, he couldn’t do any tricks even if he wanted to.

Clack. The coin landed on the table. It spun and then showed tails.

“It’s luck, right?” Link laughed.

Skinorse grinned. “Hehe, you’ll see if it’s luck after a few tries. Guess again.”

“Heads.”

Skinorse tossed the coin again. The result was still tails. Link couldn’t believe it. He guessed again but was wrong again.

“I’ll toss it myself.” He suspected Skinorse’s method was a trick. Assassins and thieves had quick hands. He must have practiced some cheating method and came to show off to Link.

Skinorse handed the coin to Link with a grin. “Then toss it, but you have to guess beforehand and say it out loud.”

Link nodded. “This time, I’m guessing tails.”

He tossed the coin without any manipulation—it was just a casual toss.

Clack. The coin landed. It was heads.

Link was intrigued. This was a bit strange. He tried a few dozen times but was wrong each time.

“Interesting, right? I found this on accident. In the tavern, I used it to win everything off a drunkard, haha.” Skinorse’s smile was devilish.

Link started thinking. He set up many prerequisites and started experimenting, tossing more than 100 times. He discovered that he would definitely be wrong if he didn’t try to manipulate anything.

But if he used the Magician’s Hand to disturb it slightly in the air, not even specifically controlling it, the coin would become ineffective. Link’s accuracy returned to 50%.

“Interesting, interesting.” This piqued Link’s curiosity. “This coin is mine now,” he said. “What do you want?”

“Aha.” Skinorse looked accomplished. Chuckling, he said, “I want a ring. A really pretty ring that girls will like. Of course, the magic can’t be weak either. It’s best if it’s at least a Level-10 Legendary spell.”

Link didn’t comment. He stared at Skinorse until the man started feeling uncomfortable before saying, “You… are a bit greedy.”

“Then it doesn’t need to be Legendary. Level-9 is okay too,” Skinorse said weakly, shrinking back.

Link couldn’t hold it in anymore and laughed out loud. “Which girl do you have your eyes on? Tell me the name, and I’ll fulfill your request.”

Skinorse scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Hehe, you scared me. I’ll tell you the truth. That female priest I’ve been telling you about, you know, I like her.”

“Alright, I see. Come back in a week. I’ll have it done.”

“Thanks.”

Skinorse walked away, satisfied. Link started studying the coin. It was honestly strange. He flipped it around but couldn’t figure anything out. After a while, he activated the Higgs Force Field.

The silver on the surface of the coin instantly started flowing like water. Finally, it melted away like wax. A thin piece the size of a watermelon seed remained in Link’s hand.

The color was strange. It was pure black but not a regular black. This kind of black practically absorbed all light. Link placed it beside the ink on the table. Compared to the thin piece, the black ink somehow looked faded.

Link scanned his table. Nothing in his room was darker than this tiny piece, not even the hole in the corner of the shadowy wall.

He then lit a small light spell beside the piece. Under the silver-white light, the piece was still black as ever. Not illuminated at all, it absorbed all light that shone on it.

This was strange.

Technically, if it was this black and absorbed this much light, the surface should be hot. But when Link touched it, he only felt room temperature.

Link tried a Modifications spell, but it was ineffective. The Higgs Force Field couldn’t find anything solid.

Strange… I definitely felt this aura before… Let me think… Link furrowed his brows and pondered. Suddenly, a lightbulb went off. He knew why it was familiar.

He took out a Jogu. The two objects had a similar feel.

The Jogu was white like a Go piece. It was plain; Link never felt anything special about it. However, when placed beside the black piece, the white stone actually started glowing.

The glow was especially strange. It looked like an illusory object constructed by a ball of white light. Then it turned into a white ribbon. There was no Mana aura at all; it was just a regular object. The white ribbon floated towards the black piece and disappeared bit by bit.

Around three minutes later, the Jogu disappeared just like that. The black piece grew a bit. It was around eight millimeters long before. Now, it was around 8.5 millimeters.

Link touched it to feel its temperature, but it was still the same.

These two things were too strange.

Thinking some more, Link got another idea. He wrapped the black piece with the silver coin, with the rose on one side and the silhouette on the other. He started tossing again.

Link still guessed incorrectly every time. That wasn’t what he wanted to test though. He wanted to test the piece’s ability to fight disturbances.

After tossing the piece, Link used the Magician’s Hand to disturb the fall. He was still wrong each time. He continued, gradually lowering the strength of the Magician’s Hand.

By the 300th try, the intensity of the Magician’s Hand reached a limit. The black piece could resist the disturbance. Link’s next ten predictions were all wrong.

This means that the black piece can resist outside influences. It’s just too weak, so it can’t resist that much. If I let it absorb another Jogu, will it get stronger?

He did it without hesitation.

After feeding it another Jogu, Link started testing again. Fifty tries later, he confirmed his guess. The black piece had strengthened and was more resistant to outside influences.

This… Link was impressed. If the piece becomes strong enough, would it be able to resist everything, including Legendary disturbances… Wouldn’t it become impossible to change it? How does it do this?

Link was sure that this small thing was a product of time laws. However, he didn’t understand it at all. Because of that and the powerful potential, Link was extremely intrigued.

Aisenis collects Jogu. I thought they were just regular pebbles. I never expected it to have such special power. The Spear of Victory from the God of Destruction, the spell that helped the Naga priestess to escape, Elin’s prediction spell, and Celine’s short-term predictions all involve the power of time.

Link realized that even though the power of time was uncommon, it was not rare. He’d been interacting with it all this time. He’d just never thought deeply about it or put in the effort to study it.

Now, as Link’s power grew, not understanding the laws of time became his disadvantage. He felt that he had to learn now.

He had an item to experiment with and a magic book. His learning materials were quite rich.

Link first created the ring for Skinorse. With his current level, the ring was a simple matter. Three hours later, a beautiful Legendary ring was complete.

Then Link flipped open the book again. He studied it for a long while, but he ended up with a huge headache. He wanted to slam his head against the wall!

This stuff was too hard.

After half a day, he’d only read half a page. The entire book was 200 pages. He would really have to work his brain.

Phew, this is a difficult task. I won’t be able to understand it quickly. I can’t rush it. I guess I’ll pretend it’s my spatial thesis. Slow and steady.

After that, Link started battling with this book. When he honestly couldn’t figure something out, he would change his mind set and do something else, like writing enchantments, practicing swordsmanship, or helping Celine.

Half a month passed in a blink. Link finally understood… one and a half pages. The book became more difficult. Now, whenever he saw the book, he would get a headache.

Finally, Kanorse’s titling ceremony arrived, and Link had a reasonable excuse to take a break. He felt like if he kept going, he might want to burn the book.

Chapter 492: The Boatman’s Bamboo Raft

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

In the history of the Norton Kingdom, and maybe even the human race, there had been few marshalls of commoner origin.

Kanorse may be the first marshall to set such a precedent in the Norton Kingdom.

He had also set another even more stellar precedent: in the last 3000 years of human history, Kanorse was the first Legendary Warrior who had been promoted to Marshall through sheer talent and hard work.

He had reached Legendary three days ago. Before, there were the royal generals in the army who had objected to his promotion. As he was now a Legendary Warrior, all objections to it had been quelled.

Link was not surprised by this. Even though he had sealed up the dimensional crack with a rune formation, Firuman’s Mana saturation had been steadily increasing till it had now reached its late-game stage.

Under these circumstances, talented individuals would surely surpass the Legendary State all across the continent. Kanorse was but the first of such individuals.

In the fortress, Kanorse stood motionless in his room. His attendants bustled about him as they fitted the marshall’s standard black-gold battle armor on him. On the surface, Kanorse seemed extremely calm.

But inside, he could feel his heart palpitating violently, sending out vibrations across the rest of his body.

He had never thought such a day would come.

Orida Fortress was the first mountain pass to the north of all human nations. To be promoted to the fortress’ marshall essentially meant that he now stood on the pinnacle of all human Warriors.

The attendants had finished putting on every part of the battle armor on his body. In front of Kanorse stood a full-length mirror. A tall Warrior stood in the mirror, clad in a full black-gold set of battle armor furnished with runes all over.

The Warrior in the mirror had an air of power and grandeur about him, like one of those heroes from legends of ancient times.

Looking at his reflection, Kanorse drifted off into a reverie, as he recalled something from his childhood years.

He had been the son of a horsekeeper.

When he was young, he had helped his father feed the horses, and clean up their stables. He had helped groom these magnificent battle horses every day. Yet, he never had the chance to ride on them once, as he was still not qualified to do so.

He had seen the royal elders clad in their splendid garments coming in and out of the Abel family’s royal palace. He had always enjoyed the sight of the knights following behind them and dreamt about one day wearing their brilliant armors and exquisite swords.

Of course, this was all wishful thinking.

His father had told him from time to time, “Kanorse, horsekeeping is the family business. If you wish to lead a more stable life, don’t start chasing rainbows.”

Kanorse was only 13 years old when his father passed away. He thought he would be stuck in the palace as a replacement for his father, when one day, he met Duke Abel.

“This kid looks strong,” the duke had said to him.

At the time, the duke was recruiting a large number of youths of the same age as Kanorse to form his own entourage of bodyguards. Kanorse, too, was selected for training. Kanorse could still remember clearly the first time he had brandished a sword, the first time he had sweated out a storm over his body, the first time he was injured, all on his journey to become a magnificent Warrior.

Now, he had done it, and the result had surpassed all his expectations.

With a soft snap, a brilliant red cape was clasped onto his shoulders. His attendants then softly said, “Marshall, it’s time.”

Kanorse nodded. He saw the Legendary Warrior in the mirror had nodded at the same time as he did. Dad, are you looking at this now? I’m no longer a simple horsekeeper, he thought to himself.

He turned towards the door and walked out into the corridor. His attendants led the way in front of him until they arrived at the entrance of the fortress’ great hall.

The great hall had been decorated splendidly. A red carpet had been laid out on the ground, while the four walls were hung with battle flags adorned with the head of a lion. The soldiers of the fortress too had put on their most brilliant armors for the occasion.

When Kanorse arrived at the great door, all eyes were immediately on him.

In an instant, all the generals gave him the standard military salute. From the dais, King Leon and the Lord of Ferde nodded at him with a smile.

In that moment, Kanorse’s chest swelled up with pride.

This was the ultimate goal of every Warrior.

He walked slowly through the great hall until he reached King Leon. He then half-knelt before him, knowing that this was the last time he would be doing so before the king. As marshall later on, he simply needed to bow before the king.

King Leon placed a hand on Kanorse’s head and asked, “Kanorse, what is your duty?”

“To protect the North and drive out the darkness!”

“Which precepts do you abide by?”

“Compassion, loyalty and glory.”

King Leon then spoke, “From this moment forth, you are now the lion of the Norton Kingdom, the highest commanding officer of Orida Fortress.”

When he finished, King Leon held the Hero’s Dusk sword that Link had modified in both hands. The sword was rechristened the Lion’s Pride, but as of now, it would be known as the marshall’s standard sword.

Kanorse took a deep breath, ready to accept the sword.

Flashes of light came from the crowd behind them, as some of the Magicians took out their Memory Crystals to record the moment.

The Legendary Warrior Kanorse was the most dazzling among them all, followed by the king. As for the Lord of Ferde, Link had completely blended with the crowd, an inconspicuous figure in the background.

This was not at all what the military Magicians had wanted. In truth, they had wanted to make Link stand out even more in their Memory Crystals, being the most powerful person in the kingdom. But it was no use; Link had simply faded into the background in the images that they had taken.

His existence was completely ignored by everyone else.

After handing the sword to Kanorse, King Leon proceeded to give him the lapel pin, ring, and belt that Link had forged for the new marshall.

Kanorse put them on one after the other. When he finished, an indescribable black-golden aura radiated from his armor, adding an indistinct, almost mystical quality to his features.

Kanorse felt a sudden vibration in his spirit, as all the excitement and fear fled from him without a trace. His mind had attained a state of calmness he had never felt before, as if there was nothing in this world that could frighten him.

This must be the Spiritual Protection that Master Link was talking about, he thought. Truly awesome.

He tried to search for Link among the crowd, but noticed that the Legendary master, whose actions could supposedly determine the kingdom’s fate, had already reached the great hall’s entrance. Link felt Kanorse’s eyes on him and turned to give him a knowing smile. His figure began fading away until he finally vanished into thin air.

Kanorse sighed inwardly. He had once read a passage from a book written 800 years ago by a wise king.

The king had written that the kingdom was like a bamboo raft, and time a flowing river. A wise boatman should not try to alter the course of the raft. Whenever a submerged rock appeared in the flow of the river, he should extend the bamboo pole in his hand and give the rock a light push, subtly maneuvering the raft around it and letting it float on down the river.

Kanorse felt that Link was that wise boatman, and the people of the Norton Kingdom were the passengers on his bamboo raft.

He said to himself, “Thank you, God of Light, for bestowing upon us the presence of such a wise man.”

…

Once the ceremony had ended, Kanorse was officially promoted to marshall. To top it all off, he was now a Legendary master equipped with the finest gear.

With him presiding over Orida Fortress, there should be no further problems in the northern region.

Link returned to the Mage Tower to pack his things up, ready to head for the South.

The Yabba airship had arrived. with Merlin still as its pilot. Link, Celine, the priests from Hapsburg as well as some of the marksmen had all boarded the airship.

“My lord, are we ready for takeoff?” asked Merlin.

“Not yet, King Leon’s still not with us,” said Link.

Around ten minutes later, King Leon had arrived, with Kanorse, Duke Abel and Princess Annie beside him.

King Leon and Duke Abel both waved back at Kanorse and Princess Annie as they ascended the gangplank.

When both Abel brothers had gotten on board, the airship began taking off.

In that time, Link never once made an appearance. Princess Annie seemed visibly disappointed by this, while Kanorse tried to console her. Link smiled to himself as he looked on at the scene below him.

After a while in the air, King Leon shot a few glances at Link, as if wanting to say something to him.

“Your Highness, is something the matter?”

“Jon would like to stay at Ferde,” said King Leon with an awkward smile.

Since they were brothers, and considering Duke Abel had no chance of regaining his former power, King Leon had intended that he be kept under house arrest. The duke would still be able to enjoy the luxuries of his royal life as before.

Link knew what he meant, and smiled at him. “I’ll have a garden villa built for him in Ferde.”

“Many thanks,” said the king cheerfully. He then continued speaking, “There is one other thing… I… I’m thinking about rebuilding Hot Springs City.”

As a king, he felt that he should not live the rest of his life in Ferde. Before, he did not understand what Link’s intentions were, and so did not dare make such a demand to him, fearing that it might have him killed. Now, knowing what his intentions were, the king felt that Link would surely agree to rebuild the city with him.

More importantly, with Link’s support, King Leon felt that he would be able to receive help from the other lords of the kingdom in the form of manpower and capital.

Link thought for a while, then nodded. “Your Highness, I’ll support your decision. You’ll need to discuss the details of your plan with Supervisor Lucy first, though.”

Even as king, there were a lot of procedures to adhere to, and Link had no intention of seeing them through on his behalf.

Hearing this, King Leon was pleased that Hot Springs City could now be rebuilt, but somewhat annoyed that he had to deal with Lucy. Nothing good ever came from their dealings with each other.

After flying for five hours without much fuss, Link and the others finally reached Ferde.

Beyond his magical research, Link never concerned himself with other things. His time was split between reading the time magic book, writing his magical enchantment books, and sword practice.

The time magic book was extremely hard to digest. He gave it to Alloa, the Maiden of Truth, who had accepted it like it was gold, and read through its pages for three days and three nights straight. On the fourth day, she vomited actual blood out of overexertion. Link immediately took the book back from her.

In the end, Alloa only managed to understand the first few pages of the book.

In a blink of an eye, a month had passed by.

One day, as Link wrestled mentally with the time magic book, he suddenly sensed the presence of an impressive amount of light energy in his domain.

Someone had appeared in Ferde. The energy belonged to the Legendary Light Magician he had met back in Dragon Valley!

Chapter 493: From an Ant to a Dragon!

Link activated the Dimensional Jump and arrived at a tavern in Scorched City. He saw a gray-robed elder at a small table in the corner. There was a small plate of food and two cups of gold absinthe. He was drinking by himself.

After seeing Link, the man smiled. “Come, come drink with me.”

Link was wearing regular clothing and didn’t worry about getting recognized. He sat across from the elder and sipped from a cup. Then he said, “When we separated at the Dragon Valley, you said you were going to deal with the Dark Magician. Did he cause any trouble?”

The elder sighed and drank some more alcohol. “Yes, quite troublesome. I feel that I can’t do it myself so I thought of you.”

“Tell me.” Link snapped his fingers at a server and motioned with his hands. This was a signal that only regulars at the tavern knew. It meant that he wanted a specialty of marinated beef, sauce, and a bottle of secret Ferde fire wine.

The server seemed to figure out Link’s identity and quickly went to prepare the order.

The elder stopped drinking his absinthe. He placed a black pebble on the table and pushed it to Link with his finger. “Do you recognize this?”

The black pebble was round and smooth. It looked like a black Go piece and didn’t have any aura. Other than the color, it was identical to the Jogu that Link had been collecting.

He picked it up and sensed carefully. He instantly felt a hidden aura similar to Jogus. Furrowing his brow, he asked, “Is it a Black Spirit?”

In the game, the Black Spirit and White Jogu existed opposite each other. Players of the Light camp collected Jogu to exchange for what they wanted from Travel Magicians. The Dark side also had a similar currency—the Black Spirit.

After a player killed a high-level member of the Dark side, they could also receive this. After giving it to Aisenis, they could exchange it for half the White Jogus.

The Light Magician nodded and smiled. “I didn’t expect you to know.”

At that moment, the server brought over the dish and alcohol. Link poured a cup for himself and said, “Fire wine and marinated beef is a specialty of Scorched Ridge, especially in the wet winter. Your entire body warms up with one sip. Try it.”

The Light Magician did so and chuckled. “These scammers. I told them to give me the local specialties, and they gave me absinthe and fried fish. Compared to yours, I can’t even stomach mine anymore.”

Link laughed. “I’ve always wanted to know your name and that Dark Magician. Can I know?”

“Of course, it’s not some big secret. My name is Halino, and he’s Eugene. We’ve fought for almost 600 years. You don’t know how annoying Eugene is. My only wish in life is to imprison him and spend the rest of my life watching him!”

As he spoke, Light Magician Halino put away the Black Spirit and continued, “The recent event has something to do with Black Spirits. Eugene found Morpheus and had a secret exchange with him. After that, Eugene started collecting Black Spirits everywhere. I don’t know what he’s planning, but I know it can’t be anything good. Morpheus is worrying too. After the exchange, he started constructing realm portals. I secretly investigated for the target of the portal and realized it led to the Delou Ethereal Realm. Eugene must have given him the coordinates.”

Ethereals were a type of spirit. They couldn’t exist independently in the Firuman realm and had to have a host.

The host could be a human or a beast. After becoming a host, the organism would receive the Ethereal’s abilities. The cost was that their vitality would endlessly be corroded. They would lose control of their mind and completely become the Ethereal’s puppet.

Ethereal Warriors appeared in the mid-period of the game. It was when the Norton Kingdom was struggling against the Dark Army in the North.

The Syndicate created a powerful Ethereal Warrior army because they were usually extremely powerful and had unique law powers. With this army, Shadow Stalker Morpheus quickly took all power in the Southern Merchant Alliance and prepared to rule over the South.

This wasn’t a bad thing at first. In the beginning, Morpheus had teamed up with the Dark Army and killed every human he saw. The relationship with Nozama, Lord of the Deep, quickly soured. He even planned on establishing an army of five kingdoms to help the Norton Kingdom fight against the Dark Army.

The problem was that Morpheus completely over-estimated his control over the Ethereal Warriors!

These powerful Warriors quickly broke free from his control and poured into Firuman. They took over tens of thousands of organisms. The once-gentle hosting turned cruel too.

The Ethereals corroded their hosts’ souls to take over their body. It soon turned into a catastrophe in the South.

The Syndicate had no time to care about the others. Even Morpheus was heavily injured by Ethereal Warriors and had to escape. He hid in his turf and didn’t dare appear. This was how the storyline quest of the Shadow Stalker happened.

The player would kill Morpheus and go south to fight with the Ethereal Warriors. By the time they poured in their efforts and chased away the Ethereals, the five kingdoms were practically all in ruins.

Of course, this was what happened in the game. Seeing that Morpheus was going to repeat the mistake, Link felt screwed. He’d already changed history so much. Why did the events of the game have to come back?

Despite being a Level-11 Legendary Magician now, Link still felt troubled against these Ethereal Warriors. These creatures weren’t that powerful—they were mostly around Level-8 or nine, rarely going past Level-10.

But they had tons of tricks and some really fatal talents. In the game, countless independent Legendary players died at their hands. Ethereal Warriors had another nickname—Legendary Killers!

Thinking of all this, Link sighed. “I read about the Delou Ethereals in a book before. They’re an ambitious group. Morpheus wants to use their power. Isn’t he scared of drawing fire onto himself?”

Halino shook his head. “I don’t know about that. Maybe he has some kind of method of control. He’s Level-19, after all, and also has some divine knowledge. His power isn’t something we can comprehend.”

“Morpheus is just a parvenu.” Link drank some wine, his expression one of disdain.

Link didn’t get this information from the game; he discovered it from the dragon library. Morpheus was originally a robber and liked adventures. He was Level-9 at his peak. But after a trip to a relic, he luckily found a piece of Godhead.

And then he hit a goldmine!

Halino obviously agreed with Link. Chuckling, he said, “So Morpheus isn’t that threatening. Eugene is the one who’s actually a threat. To be honest, Eugene is Level-13, and he is a true genius. He also loves taking risks. He doesn’t care about mortal lives. I’m truly worried about what he can do.”

Level-13. Link’s heart jumped. This strength was indeed a bit scary. Morpheus was even stronger than Bryant. In Link’s knowledge, all shocking events from the past millennium all had traces of this Dark Magician.

After thinking carefully, Link said, “I’m afraid I can’t help you. I’m not his match either.”

In regard to absolute power, Link was Level-11 and nowhere near Eugene. Of course, no one could be completely sure about the winner in a battle of life or death. Every Legendary Magician had their own killer skill. They all feared each other.

“No, you underestimate yourself. In Firuman, you are number one in spatial laws. If we work together, Eugene won’t be able to escape,” Halino said.

But Link shook his head. “No, no, no. Eugene is a very dangerous figure, but he has his own morals. If I don’t fight him, he won’t come find trouble with me. But if I do, my territory will be threatened. He might even destroy it, so I can’t do it.”

He had no conflicts with Eugene. Ruining his plans for no reason would make him hate Link. He wasn’t scared for himself. At most, they would just fight to the death.

But he had a territory and Celine. He could escape, but Ferde would become Eugene’s target for revenge.

Here, Link drank some fire wine and said, “Compared to that, I’m more worried about Morpheus summoning the Ethereals. He doesn’t understand how horrible the Ethereals can be and his methods are crude. I can feel that he will ultimately lose control of the Ethereals.”

Hearing this, Halino looked unsatisfied. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Link nodded.

“What a pity.” Halino took out a runestone. “Contact me if you change your mind.”

At their point, all words were spoken after careful consideration. No one would nag and try to persuade someone else. Other than souring a relationship, it was useless.

“I will.” Link nodded and took the runestone.

Halino stood up and bowed. “Thank you for your hospitality, Ferde lord.”

He retreated into the shadowy corner and disappeared. Link remained at the table. He drank by himself and plotted.

Morpheus summoning the Ethereals was truly troublesome. That guy did this near his turf and was an undefeated Level-19 Magician. He had the absolute advantage. If Link just went to stop him, it would be suicide. He would definitely be squashed.

The other was too strong. He was halfway into godly territory. Even if Link called some of his Legendary friends, he still wouldn’t be a match.

Thinking some more, Link couldn’t figure out a good way against Morpheus. He could just leave it to the side for now and continue watching the South. When Morpheus was hurt by the Ethereals’ betrayal, he would reach out and take care of things.

He couldn’t just not do anything during this time though.

Humans are too weak while the upper limit of power in Firuman is too high. Some powerful and ambitious person will always show up and cause a disaster. My plan for spreading my Dragon Power… I can’t delay it any further.

For an ant, a slight breeze could be the end of the world. Humans were the ants now.

First, they had the Dark Army, and then, the God of Destruction. Now, Morpheus was summoning Ethereal Warriors in the South, and Dark Magician Eugene was stirring up more trouble. How could Link take care of everything alone?

Since ants have difficulty surviving, I’ll turn the ants into dragons!

Magical races like the High Elves were so powerful that no one dared to mess with them. The Isle of Dawn had been as peaceful as heaven for 3000 years. The High Elves could do it, so why couldn’t the humans? They weren’t any stupider.

Thinking of this, Link emptied his cup and threw down a gold coin. As he left, he was already thinking about how to create the seed of Dragon Power.

Chapter 494: The Construction of the Golden Rune

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

Link saw the half-elf, Eliard on his way back to the Mage Tower.

He too was walking towards the Mage Tower with a bald, middle-aged man, whom Link recognized as Vance, as he approached them. Both men seemed to be in a fierce debate with each other about something as they walked side by side, gesturing wildly in the air as if about to start a fight with each other in the middle of the street.

They suddenly stopped by a brick wall and began scribbling out magical formulas on it with a piece of chalk in their hands.

They bickered on while scribbling on the wall. Finally, Link heard Eliard declare loudly, “My idea is faultless. If you don’t believe me, why don’t we ask Link himself?”

“Have it your way!” Vance replied angrily. “I’ve been studying magic for 800 years. I know a lost cause when I see one!”

“So tell me, how exactly is my idea a lost cause?” Eliard’s face was red with anger.

Sensing that a fight was about to happen between them, Link immediately rushed forward. “What’s going on?” What are you two fighting about?”

Upon seeing him, Vance said, “You’ve arrived just in time, Link. Eliard’s saying he’s come up with an enchantment method that simply uses Mana itself to construct a rune formation and provide a stable form of enchantment directly to magical equipment without the use of any magical material. I just don’t think such a thing is possible.”

Link immediately understood what was going on.

The tried-and-true method for enchanting magical equipment had always been through the fusion of magical materials to form a rune formation, before setting it on a magically resistant base in order to stabilize the resulting magical gear.

However, what Eliard was proposing was not at all wrong. In fact, Link had been using such high-level enchantment magic all this time.

After thinking for a while, he raised a finger and began drawing out a rune formation with his Dragon Power. The runes then interlaced with each other in an intricate fashion until finally, a bright red ring was formed in the air.

Link then severed the Dragon Power connection between the ring and his finger. The ring did not vanish; instead, it was hovering steadily in the air.

He flicked a finger gently at the ring. With a ting, it bounced towards Vance from where it floated.

“It is possible to craft magical equipment from pure Mana. It’s just that to accomplish such a feat, one needs to have at least a Level-10 power saturation.”

Vance caught the ring in his hand. Feeling its warmth carefully, he narrowed his eyes at it and noticed a smooth stream of runes flowing through it. The ring was crafted with such elegance that Vance just could not bring himself to let it go.

He breathed in awe, “To think such magic exists in this world… just brilliant! It doesn’t mean that I’m wrong, though. Something like this is just impossible for anyone below Legendary level.”

Eliard took the ring from Vance’s hand and exclaimed, “Such beautiful workmanship. It’s like a miracle from the gods.”

Link suddenly remembered something as they marveled at the enchanted ring. He smiled and said to them, “Come, let’s go to the Mage Tower. I have something to discuss with the two of you.”

Link was already a Legendary Magician from whom the world of magic virtually held no secrets at this point. Both Eliard and Vance gave Link a strange look, wondering how they could be of any help to someone like him.

When the three of them arrived at the library on the third floor of the Mage Tower, Link brought out four magic books titled Principles of Enchantment, Basic Enchantment, Intermediate Enchantment, and Advanced Enchantment.

The books were written by Link during his free time. As of now, he had completed four of them, which would be enough to be used in a course on magical enchantments.

“Take a look.”

Eliard and Vance each took a book from Link. One of them a Level-7 Pinnacle Magician, the other a Level-8 Magician; both of them were extremely proficient in the mystic arts. As they flipped through their books, their eyes lit up, and they were both immediately immersed in them.

The book Eliard was holding was Principles of Enchantment. After reading through it for about ten minutes, he began singing praises about it. “A really good book, this one. It’s already resolved some of the problems I’ve been mulling over for a while now. No, no, far from it, I’ve never seen some of the techniques introduced here…”

Vance was reading the copy of Advanced Enchantment. He was staring at an enchantment technique for about 20 minutes. When he finished reading, he let out a sigh. “Link, you certainly have a gift for magical enchantment.”

Link was pleased to have his work receive such praise. He smiled. “It’s like this. Ferde currently relies on the exportation of mineral resources as its main source of income. I don’t think it would be a viable solution to our financial troubles in the long run. As an alternative, I’ve been meaning to open up an enchantment workshop that processes all kinds of magical materials and magical gear for export. What do you think about this?”

Bold and adventurous as ever, Eliard clapped his hands and exclaimed, “A great idea!”

On the other hand, Vance frowned at this, and asked, “The High Elves are now responsible for the production of more than 80% of the magical equipment being sold throughout Firuman. They’ve practically monopolized the production of higher-level magical equipment as well. We’ll probably face some fierce competition from them if we were to take a cut from their market now. You should know, Link, those pointy-eared fellows aren’t exactly known for playing nice with others.”

He had lived for 800 years and was more than familiar with the ways of the High Elves.

Knowing little to nothing about the High Elves himself, Eliard asked strangely, “We’re just here trying to make an honest living by making our own magical wares. Why would they want to pick a bone with us? They could just outcompete us by improving the quality of their own production.”

Vance shook his head. “Young man, things in Firuman aren’t as simple as you make them out to be.”

“Will they be so bold as to burn down our workshop?” asked Eliard, frowning.

“No, they would probably resort to something far more subtle and insidious. I fear that Link would be in grave danger.”

Eliard looked at Vance in disbelief. “Danger? Would the High Elves send someone over to kill him?”

Though he was familiar with just how hostile the High Elves could be, both races were allies, after all.

Shouldn’t there be a line somewhere that both parties knew not to cross? Eliard thought.

Eliard had heard only the barest details of the matter with Bryant from Link. But after hearing such a thing from Vance, he suddenly felt a chill in his veins.

He suddenly remembered the night Bryant had dropped in for a visit. From the words he had spoken that night, he knew that the High Elf had not just come by for a cup of tea.

Still, he dared not rush to conclusions and turned to Link for answers.

Link nodded, confirming what Vance had just said. “Vance speaks the truth. In fact, the High Elves had come looking for trouble with me twice in the past, and during those two occasions, Bryant had personally come knocking on my front door… But the matter’s been resolved, so there’s really no need for you to worry about it.”

Vance still seemed worried. He knitted his brows together and sighed. “For 3000 years, my people had many opportunities for a revival, only to have them taken away without mercy by the High Elves. I have borne witness to such misfortune twice in my life. This time… I fear this time may not be as simple.”

Eliard furrowed his brows even more. He was naturally so good-looking that even a deep frown failed to tarnish his good looks. Any young woman looking in his direction would have instantly fallen in love with him.

In truth, Eliard was not short on suitresses. There were more than 20 women currently vying for his attention, that is, if he had made any serious effort to count them. However, Eliard had no time to spare for any of them, as the only lady he was hopelessly infatuated with right now was magic.

Eliard had no idea that there was such strife among the races of Firuman. He suddenly remembered how his High Elf father had gone back to the Isle of Dawn on his own after impregnating his mother. His mother had brought him up by herself, until she fell ill and passed on when Eliard was only at the tender age of seven years old.

“Eliard, live your life as you see fit. Become stronger, so that you can go back and tell your father that he was wrong for leaving us!” These were his mother’s dying words. Even though he was only seven years old then, those words remained fresh in his mind.

Eliard had lived by those words to this day, struggling on to empower himself with magic.

He had hated his father as a child, but now, upon the realization of the High Elves’ true nature, his heart burned even more with hatred for them.

“Oh, the disgrace to have High Elf blood flowing through me!” he spat out acidly.

Seeing the agitation on Eliard’s face, Link quickly changed the subject and smiled at them. “Alright Vance, let’s stop talking about this. It’s ruining the moment. I’m planning to open a magic workshop, are any of you free to help me out here?”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Vance replied, “Of course, I’m available. Eliard has a bright future ahead of him. I can’t trouble him with something as tedious as this. Let the doddering old fool here be of some assistance to you, Link.”

Eliard ruminated on this for a moment, then nodded. He said, “The workshop will need a lot of manpower. It’s a great way out for other Magicians with limited talent. Link, I’ll open up a class to help you cultivate all the talent that you need.”

Link chuckled. ‘Then it’s settled. Oh, right, the workshop needs a name. Do you have a good name for it?”

Vance shook his head. “I’m not very good at naming things.”

Eliard thought for a moment, then said, “Why not call it the Golden Rune?”

Link was satisfied with the name. “Then the Golden Rune it shall be. We’ll also need to design a unique label for it… How about the soaring bird mark that I usually use?”

None of them objected to this. Link’s soaring bird mark was renowned throughout all of Firuman.

The three of them then began discussing the finer details of the magic workshop for the whole day.

Link had planned on writing two other books: Master Enchantment and Legendary Enchantment, but they would only be available to the core Magicians of Ferde’s Mage Tower.

When they were finally done with their discussion, Link said to the others, “I’ll leave the workshop to your capable hands. As for me, I’ll need to start preparing for the High Elves’ forces.”

Eliard and Vance looked at each other, then nodded furiously at Link.

Vance was especially excited about this. He felt, deep down, that maybe this time, the human race may indeed have the chance to rise up once more.

Chapter 495: Obstacle of Dragon Biases

Dragon Power was a very special kind of power. Even though Link had the Heart of the Dragon and had been studying the book Dragon, he still had a long way to go to understand the basic nature of the power.

But even if he didn’t understand it, he could still let regular people have the power. Link already had this idea. He prepared to start with the dragonification magic.

The dragons had an entire set of methods to turn a human into a regular dragon. In the game, there were also Dragon Warriors and Magicians. The Red Dragon Queen had also shown Link dragonification potion without side effects.

It shouldn’t be hard, Link thought.

But despite that, he still didn’t have a deep understanding of it, so he didn’t know what to do. That was okay though. He could ask experts.

There was an expert right in Ferde—Red Dragon Elder Pettalong.

Link called him over and expressed his wishes.

Pettalong listened patiently, his face not betraying any emotions. When Link was done, he shook his head briskly. “No, this can’t do. Nothing like this has ever happened in our history. There’s no precedent! Furthermore, how can the dragon race’s power be spread amongst regular humans?”

“Dragons and humans are from the same source. Why not?” Link frowned.

“Duke, that’s true, but in actuality, we are very different from humans. After tens of thousands of years, humans have interbred with different races, such as elves, Beastmen, Yabbas, and even the lizard people of the southern swamps. Humans are like a melting pot while the dragon bloodline is pure. Our blood is still the noble blood of our ancestors. The difference is like a pure mountain spring and the polluted swamp water. It is a difference in nature!”

Pettalong said this naturally as if it was something all dragons believed in. Link was a bit angry at this. The elder was right, but there was no class in blood.

For example, the Shadow Walker, Morpheus, was just a regular human. He was lucky to receive a piece of Godhead and instantly became a Level-19 Legendary figure. No one in the entire realm could defeat him. You could say that he wasn’t noble and he would grind you into dust if he was annoyed. In his eyes, what meaning did being noble hold?

To Link, the difference between noble and lowly was just a shallow title the powerful created to support their privileges.

Thinking of this, Link’s voice became cold as he said, “So my blood is a melting pot too?”

Pettalong nodded reflexively. “Yes…”

But mid-sentence, he felt something was wrong. He looked up at Link and saw the man’s narrowed eyes with a glint flashing past. The elder trembled and quickly waved his hands. “Duke, that’s not what I mean. You are different. Your blood is mixed, but you’ve already broken free from the mundane fate. The impurities of your blood have been removed. Right now, you are the pure and noble dragon duke!”

Hmph. Link vented the dissatisfaction he felt, and after a moment, he collected his fury. He knew that it was useless to go against Pettalong. At most, he could only use his Legendary authority to convince Pettalong, but it wasn’t genuine or meaningful.

Pettalong’s attitude alerted Link too. The other dragon elders would probably react similarly and reject the idea instinctively.

Looking at the cautious but still insistent Pettalong, Link thought, Seems that I’ve oversimplified things. I cannot break the dragon tradition. I need some tricks to achieve my goal.

Thinking a bit, Link changed his tactic. He began persuading Pettalong from the dragon race’s perspective.

“Pettalong,” he continued, “I have my own considerations. Look, us dragons are few in numbers now. There are less than 500 true Red Dragon Warriors while Firuman is filled with disasters. Before the shadow of Nozama could fade, the God of Destruction came. If we send our own Warriors into battle whenever something happens, won’t we become extinct in a few years?”

Hearing this, Pettalong’s expression faltered a bit. Link was right, but it still felt wrong.

“Right now, there are 20 million humans and is the most populated race in Firuman. They have the same ancestors as us too. If we choose some talented youths and train them into successful Dragon Warriors or Magicians, they can be a great help to us.”

“This…” Pettalong furrowed his brows in deep thought. To be honest, Link’s idea was nice. The continent was indeed in danger now; Pettalong was scared too.

But it just felt wrong. He’d been against this at first. Now, Link changed his explanation, and he couldn’t find anything to disagree with. It seemed that he’d been persuaded. But how could he?

Seeing him like this, Link grinned. “So you agree?”

But Pettalong was still an experienced guy who’d lived for almost 3000 years. Even though he couldn’t figure it out quickly, he still reflexively gave a neutral answer. “Your explanation is correct, but I am not well-versed in dragonification. I know there are many side effects. Why don’t you ask Her Majesty?”

He couldn’t refute Link, so he passed this problem to the queen.

To Link, this was already a good result. He could persuade Pettalong with this logic so he could persuade the other elders too. He didn’t need them to agree; acquiescing in silence was good enough. When everything was on track, and the dragon war chariots were rumbling, it would be too late to stop!

Link chuckled. “Sure, I was planning on visiting the Dragon Valley. I’ll go ask her opinion right now.”

Without waiting for Pettalong’s reply, white light flashed around Link, and he disappeared from the Mage Tower, reappearing on the field outside. Celine was there, practicing her shooting. Link explained where he was going and cast the Void Walk, hurrying over to the Dragon Valley.

His speed was extreme. At thousands of feet per second, almost 2000 miles per hour, he was three times faster than the wind.

The Dragon Valley was in the westernmost region of Firuman while Ferde was the easternmost. There were thousands of miles in between, but with Link’s speed, he arrived at the Korora Mountain Range within three hours.

Here, Link went to check the realm crack first.

The center of the crack was located in the mountains in the South. There were runestones around it and many dragons guarding it. There were three Red Dragon Elders responsible for it and more than 50 pureblood Warriors, hundreds of flying dragons, and ground dragons. It was heavily guarded.

Link didn’t collect his aura. When he reached the outside of the crack, a young flying dragon walked over. “Duke,” he greeted respectfully.

Link nodded. “I’m here to check the runestones around the crack. Please lead the way.”

“Yes, Duke.”

The dragon turned in the sky and started flying towards the closest runestone. Link followed slowly.

From the air, one could see that the mountains in the distance glowed with a semicircle shield. It was at least 1000 feet high. The Mana inside the shield was abnormally dense, flowing like water, but not a bit leaked out because of the spatial barrier.

Link looked with squinted eyes. He could guess the Mana density from the outer texture of the Mana. It was probably five times higher than Firuman right now. The limit was 500 times. Once the density reached 500 times the norm, the spatial barrier wouldn’t be able to withstand the huge pressure. At that time, a horrible Mana storm would sweep through the Korora Mountain Range. The Mana density of the entire mountain range would probably double. The entire Firuman continent would be affected as well.

Link estimated that it would take at least 13.5 years to go from five times to 500. This was a bit slower than he’d expected. This was good news.

The two now reached one runestone.

This runestone was hidden inside a sturdy obelisk. It was surrounded with a huge magic shield that could block all spells under Level-12. No mortal could ever approach it.

Of course, it wasn’t guarded against Link.

When he neared the obelisk, many dragon Warriors saluted to Link. He returned them and asked the Red Dragon Elder who stayed here, “Has there been anything abnormal?”

The elder nodded. “Yes. Half a month ago, a Void Beast appeared inside the shield. It tried to break through the spatial barrier but failed in the end. Look here, the runestone even cracked due to this. Her Majesty has fixed it though.”

Link was shocked. He looked in the direction the elder pointed and saw some visible cracks in the previously smooth runestone. There were many new runes too. It looked like it’d been patched up. From the way the runes were made, they were definitely from the Red Dragon Queen’s hand.

Then he looked to the spatial barrier in the distance. He could see that the space inside had completely collapsed. It was practically connected to the Sea of Void. It couldn’t guard against Void creatures.

Link circled the runestone and walked towards the spatial barrier, feeling carefully for the status of the consolidated space. He grew worried.

This was unexpected. Not only did the Void Beast crack the runestone, but it also created undetectable ripples in the stagnated air around the spatial barrier. And this was only a regular creature. If a stronger one came or if the God of Destruction discovered this barrier’s existence, he could definitely break through. That would be a problem.

The spatial barrier isn’t a long-term solution. I must quickly find a way to mend the crack.

Link couldn’t do anything better now though. He could only try his best in fortifying the barrier. He circled these runestones and fortified them one by one.

He was now much better at spatial magic than the Red Dragon Queen. After repairing them, not only was the spatial barrier completely repaired, it was also stronger than before as well.

But if he wanted to stop something at the level of the God of Destruction, it was still not enough. He had to think of another plan.

After finishing the fortification, Link gave the elders some advice and continued flying towards the Dragon Valley.

As he flew, he thought about the spatial barrier. Everything is possible. The spatial barrier isn’t completely safe and might accidentally be broken someday. At that time, some Void Beast will definitely burst free. They’re all above the Legendary level, and these dragons aren’t their match. Only the queen can stop them, but she’s only one person. What if something like the Void Tyrant comes? That would be horrible.

Thinking of this, Link realized that there were too few Legendary figures of Firuman. At most, there were only around ten right now. Less than five could be counted as allies, and all had their own duties. For example, Kanorse had to stay in the North to clean out the demons in the Black Forest. He couldn’t leave at all.

After thinking, Link’s eyes brightened. We don’t have enough people, so we’ll use material power. The spatial barrier isn’t safe, but it restricts the way Void creatures can enter Firuman. They can only crawl out from there. If there’s an extremely strong magic array around the runestones, it can definitely kill all these guys while they’re still crawling out.

Sometimes, there wasn’t enough manpower, but wisdom was boundless, especially in destructive magic. It wasn’t hard to create a horrible attack.

Of course, there would be a huge cost to operate the magic array too.

Link had been studying magic all this time and never relaxed. He’d received Lucia Silverstar’s notes and the book, Dragon. He also studied the time magic book. Though he was far from understanding it all, his understanding of the laws had improved a lot. If he could work with the Red Dragon Queen, creating a powerful magic array around the spatial barrier wouldn’t be hard.

The spatial barrier is related to the dragon race’s security. If I can create a fortifying method, Gretel would owe me. Then if I ask her to help me research Dragon Power seeds, she won’t be able to refuse… Right, I won’t mention it first. When everything is done, I’ll find a chance to mention it so she won’t feel antipathy.

Thinking through the entire process, Link made up his mind.

After flying for a while, the Mist Maze appeared. Link passed through it with practiced ease. After ten minutes in the Dragon Valley, the Dragon Temple was before his eyes.

The Warriors who saw him all saluted from afar. Link sensed the Red Dragon Queen’s position and finally found her in the Creation Hall.

The Creation Hall, simply, was an enchantment workshop. It was where the dragons created magical items.

The queen wasn’t alone in the hall. There were more than 20 Dragon Magicians over Level-8. There was also a scroll more than 10 feet in length and width spread out on the table in the center. It was covered in runes.

Link scanned it and immediately understood the general significance of the runes. It seems that the Red Dragon Queen has already started preparing.

Gretel had already thought of what he’d thought of and had already put the plan in motion.

Chapter 496: You’re All Dismissed!

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

In the Creation Hall

Gretel did not join in the discussion on the magic seal with the other Dragon Magicians. She sat in one corner of the great hall, her eyes fixated on a book before her.

The Dragon Magicians seated around the long table of the great hall seemed to be stuck on a problem. Amid their frustrated grunts and sighs as they struggled to solve the problem in hand, the magic seal etched on the scroll before them had yet to make any noticeable progress.

It seemed as though the magic seal’s construction was not going smoothly.

When Link arrived at the entrance, Gretel was still so focused on her book that she did not notice him in the doorway. She seemed to have come across a stumbling block herself. She had one hand pressed against her forehead, while her sleeve had slid down from her elbow, revealing the pristine white skin of her shoulder. Her brows were knitted together tightly, and the pair of brilliant red eyes below them, purer than even the world’s most pristine agate, never once strayed from the book before her. Not far from her, a magic pencil skated about on a sheet of paper. Link narrowed his gaze and saw that the paper was filled with meaningless scribbles.

It would seem that Gretel was at her wit’s end.

As Link entered the hall, a few of the Dragon Magicians noticed him and rose to bow before him. Link waved them off and made his way towards the Red Dragon Queen as quietly as possible, his eyes still fixed on the book that she had been reading.

A few seconds later, Link realized that it was a book on extremely advanced magical principles.

Link had read the book before. He knew that the book was titled Advanced Magical Theory, and it contained descriptions and predictions of what would happen in an environment with a high Mana concentration. It was a must-read on the subject of high-level magical enchantment.

Recalling the hurdles he had come across while reading the book, and looking at which page Gretel was stuck at and the few symbols the magical pencil had written on the piece of paper, Link was able to deduce what problems she was struggling with at the moment.

With a nudge of his will, Link activated the Magician’s Hand and took control of Gretel’s magic pencil. He then began making his own calculations on the paper with the pencil.

Gretel was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not react to Link’s spell in time. She let out a soft gasp, before realizing that Link was now standing before her. She immediately relinquished her grip on the magical pencil and began looking at Link’s calculations.

Magical formulas flowed out from the pencil tip across the paper. The pencil danced on agilely, piecing together Link’s thoughts on the paper bit by bit until finally, his solution was given form on it.

Gretel’s eyes lit up brighter and brighter throughout the process. She heaved a deep sigh when Link finished writing. “So that’s how it is. I’ve been working on this the whole day.”

As she spoke, she gently twitched her finger, and a chair slid noiselessly to her side. “So what brings you here?”

Link sat down and smiled. “Thought I might come by to take a look at the spatial barrier, since I’ve got the time to spare. And there really is a problem with it.”

A satisfied look came across Gretel’s face. She got up and said, “You’ve come back just in time. Come, take a look at the magic seal here.”

Saying this, Gretel walked towards the middle of the great hall, with Link following behind her. After taking a few steps, Link sensed that something was off.

Gretel was wearing a rather casual dress today. The almost transparent fabric was form-fitting, revealing an awkward number of details around her body.

As Link walked behind her, he noticed that as she ambled forward, her waist was sweeping out an arc in the air with such fluidity that anyone watching this would want to reach out and feel her waist in their fingers.

The circular motion of her waist seemed almost unreal, mesmerizing even.

Link felt a sudden jolt in his heart, and he immediately shifted his line of sight. He now found himself looking at the long curtain of red hair falling across Gretel’s back, and beneath her hair was the dazzlingly white skin of her neck, which stirred his heart even more.

Anyone looking at the Red Dragon Queen’s beauty may accidentally blind themselves. If one were to give her a closer look, the effect would be similar to a knockout pill, as they may not want to wake up from such a beautiful dream as her beauty.

In the game, the Red Dragon Queen was described as being “as sweet as the illusion of one’s first love.” Every day, countless players struggled to complete her quests for three months just to raise their reputations among the dragon race and obtain the right to enter the Dragon Hall.

One could always find almost a thousand players close to her. Wherever she went, there would always be a group of players following close behind her. Such players were jokingly called “the flies hovering around the queen’s royal dress.”

Link had never noticed it before, but he now had the opportunity to personally experience the Red Dragon Queen’s charm.

In order to prevent himself from losing focus, Link shifted his line of sight to the scroll spread out across the table.

Seemingly oblivious to the subtle changes in Link’s behavior behind her, she finally reached the table and said, “After cracks had appeared on the rune barrier, I thought it would be best to build an offensive magic seal so that we could immediately eliminate any threats that might come through it, even if the barrier was compromised. At first, I had wanted to begin making a prototype of the seal by myself and have you perfect it later on, but the difficulty of the situation had far exceeded my expectations.”

“Let me take a look.” Link was now focused on the magic seal that was spread across the long table.

Before long, he was completely immersed in it. He began walking slowly around the table, closely observing the scroll on it. After completing a full circle around the table, he was able to fully grasp the scroll’s contents.

He shook his head. “Your Highness, to build a magic seal on such a shaky foundation, no matter how perfect it may be, the seal’s power will not reach more than Level-15. Even though it’s already at a high enough level, there is no shortage of entities beyond Level-19 in the limitless Sea of Void. To them, a Level-15 attack is nothing more than a mosquito’s sting.”

As he said this, the Dragon Magicians around took a deep breath and stared in bewilderment at Link. There was no way their measly Level-15 barrier would have deterred these godlike beings from entering their dimension. Such naivety would have spelled the end for the entire dragon race.

Gretel did not seem the least bit disconcerted by this. She raised her brows and gazed at Link, waiting eagerly to hear his thoughts.

With the Magician’s Hand, Link rolled up the scroll on the table, and pulled open a new blank scroll. He then willed a magic pencil nearby to start scribbling out his thoughts on the scroll’s surface.

He began giving his explanation as he wrote. “I had come up with this concept recently. I’m basically using the singularity phenomenon that would occur in any instance of spatial distortion as its basis.”

“Is it a spatial singularity?” asked Gretel curiously.

Link nodded. “That’s right. I’ve been studying the phenomenon closely. It’s so small that it defies all conventional methods of measurement, but I theorize that it is capable of containing an unlimited volume of matter inside itself. In theory, if I were to throw a mountain into a singularity, the mountain would be completely contained by it. At that point, the singularity would have the mass of the entire mountain in it.”

The singularity he was talking about was in some respects identical to the black holes of his home world, but due to the differences in the physical laws governing the two worlds, there were some stark differences between them. One such difference was that the singularity could be manipulated and was less powerful than the black holes in Link’s home world.

Gretel was mesmerized by Link’s description. She then asked, “So is there a way to safely release the power contained within a singularity?”

“I’ll need to start by explaining the state of the singularity. In a singularity, all matter that exists in Firuman will be transformed into a pure energy state. It’s like a cloud of gas being compressed continuously into an infinitesimal point in space. Under such conditions, when the distorted space returns to normal, all the matter compressed within the singularity will burst forth instantaneously in an explosion of limitless energy… Your Highness, if we’re to release the energy contained within a 10,000-ton rock, I guarantee you the resulting explosion would decimate half of Firuman!”

Link’s words elicited gasps of shock around him.

“My god, that’s horrifying!”

“Is that true, my lord?”

The Dragon Magicians were all staring at Link incredulously.

“Yes, it is.” Link nodded and continued, “Of course, to subject a huge rock to a singularity’s compression has its own difficulties. One might say it’s impossible to do such a thing, and for the sake of all of Firuman, let’s hope we never need to take such risks. However, it is possible to compress a ton of energy, or maybe even ten, and then set up a couple of runes to regulate the energy output. The explosion would then be directed into the spatial crack. Anything behind the crack would think twice before coming through it into our world.”

In this world, destruction was always easier than creation.

Link’s current power level was at Level-11. This was due to the fact that the power within him was pure life energy and all life energy could be wielded to create. Though his power was growing at a somewhat slow rate, this did not mean that he was incapable of using anything beyond Level-11.

One of the many advantages all intelligent life had at their disposal is the ability to make and use tools to accomplish something. An example of such a tool would be a magic wand.

As he explained his theories to everyone in the room, Link had finally finished a complicated sketch of his spatial design on the scroll. At a glance, the whole thing seemed like a work of art, but with a closer look, it was so intricately designed that if anyone had risked looking at it any longer, he or she would probably feel the urge to tear out their eyes.

Some of the Magicians around the table stared at Link’s work, trying to grasp the underlying principle behind the whole thing, while others simply gave up.

The only person who was able to comprehend it was the Red Dragon Queen herself.

As she finished looking it over, her eyes flashed in excitement. “This is the nucleus of the singularity. How do you intend to control its energy?”

The singularity was not enough by itself. The energy within would explode in a sphere. The farther it traveled, its impact would be greatly lessened. Still, the resulting shockwave would affect the Dragon Magicians around the magic seal.

Though the singularity may be a powerful source of energy, the regulating seals around it would play an even more critical role later on.

It would require an extremely refined technique to keep such a violent output of energy under control.

Link spread his hands and said ruefully, “I have a general outline of how to go about solving the energy regulation problem, but I still haven’t figured out how to actually carry out the solution.”

Gretel said consolingly, “A general outline is all we need now. Alright, we’re done for today. I’ll finish up everything with Duke Link later on.”

Though there were 20 Dragon Magicians in the great hall, from the queen’s point of view, none of them held a candle to Link.

Chapter 497: Cook a Pot of Mixed Stew

Creation Hall

“Come, come, Link. Tell me your idea now.” Red Queen Gretel had some knowledge of spatial singularities and knew the difficulty in restricting the power. Thus, she was interested in Link’s idea of control.

She pulled two chairs over and placed them beside each other next to the long table in the center. She sat on the one on the right.

Link thought this wasn’t suitable, but he had no need to mention these small details to the queen. He sat onto the chair on the left and took out his notes. Opening it, he gathered his thoughts for a bit. Then he started writing his specific train of thought for the control.

After writing for a while, he felt something on his right arm. Something soft was pressed against it. He also smelled a vague fragrance. It was soft and sweet, making him want to keep smelling it.

Link groaned inwardly. He didn’t know if Gretel was doing this on purpose or not, but she was leaning against him to look at his notes. He couldn’t focus like this at all. His pen stopped moving unconsciously.

“Hey, continue. Why did you stop?”

Gretel’s voice rang right in Link’s ear. A warm breath touched his ear too. Link felt that if he turned his head, his lips would be less than ten centimeters from her face.

After freezing for a moment, Link slowly sighed. He collected his mind bit by bit. A few seconds later, he exhaled softly. No distractions remained anymore. No matter what happened in the outside world, he would be focused on his thoughts.

Slowly, Link forgot about the Red Dragon Queen beside him. He was completely immersed in his world of magic. With magic runes, he described a huge yet detailed magic building.

Seeing him like this, Gretel pouted a little. She felt bored. Flirting was only fun if the other party reacted, but Link had turned into a piece of wood now. She couldn’t do anything to wood.

However, this was just a fleeting moment of interest. Her focus was quickly attracted by the magic thoughts that kept flowing out of Link’s pen.

According to Link, this was a spell that could control explosive energy. Based on regular logic, one needed to construct energy, or object that could be even more controlled or consolidated to control this energy.

There was a problem.

Gretel was clear that a singularity’s explosion was probably the most terrifying explosion of power in a realm. There was nothing more powerful than it in the world. In that case, nothing could control it.

Thus, a singularity’s explosion was destructive and using this method was like a suicidal attack.

She wanted to see how Link could control it.

As she kept reading, she felt something off. In the notes, Link didn’t build a power that surpassed the realm’s limit to forcefully control the energy of the explosion. He used a strange thought—so strange that she couldn’t really understand it.

Though she couldn’t understand it, she could still clearly feel that the magic building Link described was beautiful. All Mana formulas were clear-cut. The logic of the entire process was impressive too. After reading it, she subconsciously felt like this was the truth of the world.

Link took three hours to write his thoughts clearly on paper. When he was finally done, he breathed deeply and stretched. Looking at his product, he was satisfied.

Recently, he’d researched various magic books, and this idea had been turning in his mind. Using this chance, he organized them all and laid it all out on paper, creating a highly feasible control magic seal.

To be honest, he thought that his product was perfect after writing it down. He felt exhilarated, just like the feeling of using all his energy while exercising.

But his action caused a problem.

A soft sound came from his side. Then Link felt something touch his arm. Shocked, he turned his head and felt his lips brush past something warm and soft.

It was the Red Dragon Queen Gretel. She was still reading beside him, but Link had forgotten about her. His arm ended up touching her forehead. When he turned his head, his lips touched hers.

Link froze. It was just a touch, but his lips felt like it had been shocked electrically. They were numb, soft, and slippery. He could keep indulging in it.

“I…it wasn’t on purpose,” Link hurriedly explained.

“Oh. So you don’t dare to kiss me anymore?” Gretel whispered in reply. Her red eyes were filled with ambiguous light.

What could Link say? He was so awkward he just stood up and moved to the side. Changing the topic, he said, “Your Highness, I wrote all my thoughts in this notebook. What do you think?”

Gretel cocked her head and supported it with her hand. Looking up, she smiled and said, “I read the notes already, but I don’t really understand. Come sit down and explain to me.”

Link couldn’t sit there anymore. He wasn’t that innocent. If he sat down, something would happen. If he gave into his hormones now, he would be too ashamed to face Celine back in Ferde.

Sweating slightly, Link remained standing. “Your Highness, I remember everything in the notes. If you can’t understand something, just ask, and I can answer.”

Seeing him like this, Gretel sighed. “If only I met you before Celine,” she muttered.

With that, she stopped the flirting and stated, “I saw your magic model. Are you using the power of time?”

Now that they were talking about magic, Link calmed down. He nodded. “Indeed. Your Highness, look here. The flood of energy when a singularity explodes is already the limit of the realm. In Firuman, no power or object can restrain this flood. Not even space itself can. The only solution is to use the future to influence the present… No, more accurately, it’s using the future to restrict the present and use time to restrict the direction of this flood!”

Using the future to restrict the present sounded iffy, but this happened often in real life.

For example, if someone set the goal of becoming rich in three years, the future goal would continuously affect his actions now. Of course, this was the weakest type of influence. It could be interfered with or broken at any time.

Link wanted to use his knowledge of the time laws and continuously strengthen this restrictive power until it was strong enough to turn a singularity’s directed explosion into fate!

He couldn’t do this with his own knowledge, but it was okay. He now had a ready-made time tool. It was the thin piece of time Skinorse had given him.

With this piece as the core, Link would improve upon it and create a usable control magic seal.

Link explained all of this to Gretel. At the end, he took out the black piece of time. “Your Highness, look at this. This is the true core.”

Gretel studied this pure black object. “According to you, this piece is too weak. Are you going to keep feeding it the Jogu you mentioned?” she asked.

Link shook his head. “No, not Jogus. Your Highness, look at the outer magic seal I designed. Most of it is used for strengthening the piece of time. Look here. After the singularity explodes, the horrible power will turn all existence into nothingness. Time, space, and material will all turn into pure energy. It won’t be distinguishable. I call this state ‘chaos’!”

This was similar to the Grand Unification Theories from Earth. Link didn’t know why this would happen. He’d just calculated and naturally came to this result.

Gretel grew more interested. Her eyes glittered, totally different from the watery light when she was flirting. This was the desire for knowledge.

She sat up straight. “Chaos? Explain in detail.”

Link thought a bit and used a metaphor, “Your Highness, it’s like stewing a pot of potato and beef stew. The materials are the potatoes and beef. Time and space are like the water in the pot. The energy from the singularity explosion is like the fire under the pot. When the fire is burning, and the temperature is very high, everything in the pot will turn into a thick stew. You can’t distinguish anything from each other. That’s the state the moment after a singularity explosion—an indistinguishable pot of stew.”

“Oh, then what?” Gretel quickly asked.

“Then this extreme energy will expand and cool. Once it cools, things will change. The melted time will first become solid from the stew. This will happen one-billionth of a second after the explosion. That moment is the best time for control… Look at this magic seal.”

As Link spoke, he quickly drew a magic seal in the air. “The cooled power of time will be detected by the magic seal and surge into the piece of time. Within one-millionth of a second, the piece’s power will multiply tens of thousands of times. It is enough to turn the slightly cooled explosive energy’s direction into an inextinguishable fate!”

This time, Link explained everything clearly, and Gretel understood. She was deeply impressed. “Then what level do you think this attack would be at?”

Link thought for a bit and said, “The power of time is the most mysterious type of strength. It is also the existence closest to the source of the realm. Applying the current levels, when it is heated to a chaotic state, it will definitely be above Level-29. When the explosive energy cools slightly and the power of time is isolated, it will be around Level-26. Thus, our final energy supply will reach Level-26. Even a god would fear this power!”

To a Magician, the levels of power were clear because any type of power, even a god’s power, could find its relative phenomenon in the world. It could even be calculated on paper with simple logic.

For example, the instant a singularity exploded, its power would technically be at Level-30. This was the pinnacle of the godly domain!

Of course, there was still a long way to go between knowing its existence and completely controlling and manipulating it. It was like how a mortal could see the sun and feel its mightiness, but they couldn’t become the sun.

Link being able to create a Level-26 attack wasn’t because he himself was so powerful. It was because of this piece of time in his hands that he couldn’t even comprehend.

Without this, everything Link had done would be all in vain.

Gretel knew this, but to her, Link was still amazing. Looking at the thin black piece, she asked, “If your idea can be realized, the spatial crack won’t be a threat anymore. However, I can feel that your model isn’t perfected. The details are rough.”

“Indeed.” Link nodded. “The most critical part is that we need materials with a very high heat resistance.”

Gretel was confused. “High heat resistance… But nothing can stop a singularity’s explosion, right?”

Link shook his head and explained, “No, no, Your Highness. The material isn’t to stop the high temperature of the explosions. It’s just a buffer. It must buffer the energy for one-billionth of a second. Otherwise, I’m afraid the time piece won’t be able to absorb the power of time. It’ll evaporate instantly.”

Gretel nodded. Thinking a bit, she said, “I know a place that will definitely have the material you need, but it’s dangerous.”

“Tell me.” Link’s eyes lit up.

“The Sea of Void. All types of astral rocks float in there. One of them will satisfy your needs.”

“The Sea of Void… But I can’t go in now…” His dragon form hadn’t recovered yet. Without turning into a dragon, he wouldn’t have the Void Ferry. He could at most open a realm portal, but he wouldn’t be able to enter the Sea of Void.

“But I can go and take you with me too. The dragon form is the Void Ferry. There’s no problem in taking someone in,” Gretel answered, smiling.

“How?” Link rubbed his forehead in confusion. The dragon form had completely fused with each person.

“You’ll see,” Gretel said mysteriously.

Chapter 498: The Centipede in the Sea of Void

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

The Dragon Square

The Red Dragon Queen transformed into her dragon form. Before letting Link ride on her back, she turned to him and said, “Now close your eyes.”

“Why?” asked Link curiously. Still, he closed his eyes shut.

“I’ll need to swallow you down my dragon body. The whole body may seem a bit disturbing, and I don’t really want to show you my horrible fangs You’ll probably hate me for that. You know what, it’s probably not enough that you close your eyes, I’ll need to cast a Numbing spell on you.”

As she spoke, Link felt Gretel’s Dragon Power over him. She must have already cast her spell on him.

The spell instantly dulled all of Link’s senses. Not only had his surroundings gone dark, but he also could not hear or feel anything around him as well. Link then felt himself being lifted up and sliding down a warm tube.

Five seconds later, the Red Dragon Queen’s voice could be heard once more. “Alright, you can open your eyes now.”

When Link opened his eyes, he found himself swimming in a mass of unknown liquid. Around him was a hazy blur of red light, and extraordinarily enough, he noticed that he could breathe regularly in the liquid without any risk of suffocation.

The sensation was almost like being back in his mother’s womb.

With a sudden snap, the hazy blur of red light around Link had vanished, and in its place was a magic mirror providing a full view of what the Red Dragon Queen was seeing at the moment.

“Can you see it?” Gretel’s voice rumbled from outside.

“Yes, I can see everything clearly, it’s an amazing sight,” exclaimed Link. He had never felt such comfort in the womb-like chamber. It seemed like such a great place to just lie back and take a nap for as long as he wanted.

Gretel’s voice rumbled again, this time with a hint of satisfaction, “It’s called a vesicle. It was originally used to accommodate passengers. After generations of evolution, though it still retains its function as a compartment for passengers, we’ve stopped letting outsiders use it.”

“If that’s the case, why bother keeping it? I think the vesicle’s maintenance requires a large amount of energy input.” It was one of Link’s many quirks; whenever something seemed illogical to him, he would try to make sense out of it through logical reasoning.

Gretel laughed without actually giving Link an answer. “Alright, enough questions for now. I’m taking off!”

Through the magical view in the vesicle, Link could see luminescent ripples in the air before Gretel. She then took a large step forward, and her large dragon body melted through the ripples.

In the outside world, Link could see cracks radiating out in huge numbers across the green tiles in the square. This was the result of spatial vibrations continuously being sent out from the dragon’s body. It was almost trivial compared to the effects of Realm Transference.

Two seconds later, Gretel’s body had completely submerged into the spatial depths. Crimson Dragon Power cloaked her whole body, giving her the appearance of a gleaming crystal dragon.

They were immediately beset by a fantastic sight around them, brilliant silhouettes dancing around the spatial canvas of Firuman’s inner regions. As they waded deeper through space, the light around them gradually faded. Before long, they were completely immersed in darkness.

The whole process was not unlike diving into an ocean’s depths. The only difference was that a diver would eventually hit the bottom of the ocean, whereas in the farthest regions of space stood the wall between realms. Behind that wall lay the Sea of Void.

The Space Barrier in the Dragon Valley was nigh impenetrable, especially around the Dragon Temple. It acted as a deterrent against any attempts to invade from the Sea of Void.

Carrying Link inside her, Gretel swam on downwards for more than one minute. Darkness had utterly consumed them at that moment. Then, Link saw a glimmer of light before him. The Red Dragon Queen spoke, “Alright, we’re in the Sea of Void.”

From the magical view, Link could see that a white fog had surrounded the Red Dragon Queen’s body, obscuring her vision terribly. Through the fog, sudden streaks of light flashed by at times. Link could also make out a couple of vortexes spinning in the distance.

Behind the Red Dragon Queen was a huge body of light. Due to the white fog around her, none of them could make out the exact appearance of the object, but Link knew that it was the realm of Firuman itself.

“Alright, I’m going to move forward. Visibility is low, and there may be danger lurking about, so I’ll need to concentrate on my flying. If there’s a meteorite heading our way, you need to tell me,” Gretel said.

“Understood,” said Link. He then noticed that Gretel had begun flying away from the realm of Firuman. The road ahead of them was a blur fraught with all kinds of danger. Not daring to let anything distract him for even a moment, Link kept his eyes wide open as he surveyed his surroundings throughout their journey.

The Red Dragon Queen floated slowly forward through the Sea. Around five minutes later (all measurements of time were carried out by Link at this point with the realm of Firuman as his reference point, since the concept of time itself was essentially meaningless in the Sea of Void), Link noticed that the realm of Firuman had completely vanished from sight behind them. They were now surrounded in every direction by hazy balls of light and energy.

In such a place, one could lose their bearings easily without a reference point in space, and would probably drift on through the Sea of Void with no end in sight. Link suddenly remembered the sages of old who had fled from Firuman must have floated through the Sea of Void for months before finally managing to find their way back to the realm of Firuman. Such a feat was nothing short of a miracle.

The Red Dragon Queen had slowed down considerably. She was now feeling even more nervous at this point. Link could feel her heart beating even more uncontrollably, raising the temperature in the womb as a result.

“Link, do you see something?” Gretel’s voice sounded.

“No, nothing but those balls of energy around us. I don’t see anything concrete.” Link had been scanning the magical view attentively, but still could not find a single piece of meteorite anywhere around them.

Gretel continued flying forward.

Soon after, Link suddenly saw a black shadow flit through the white fog. He strained his eyes in its direction, but could not make anything out.

“I think I see something moving,” whispered Link.

Gretel’s pulse accelerated even more. She slowed down, and her body took on a more defensive posture. “I sense it, too. It’s probably alive. I could feel it staring at me.”

Gretel was now feeling even more nervous. She did not have much experience making trips through the Sea of Void.

“Why don’t we turn back now? Once my dragon body is fully recovered, we can go back into the Sea of Void together. Besides, we only need to wait for another three months till my dragon body heals up completely, which isn’t that long,” proposed Link. It was too dangerous to go on at this point, especially with an unidentified object leering at them from a distance. If Link was able to transform into his dragon form, he could still be of some use to the Red Dragon Queen in the Sea of Void.

As for the Astral Meteorite, they did not need to find it straight away. They were probably bound to find some after making a few more trips into the Sea of Void.

Gretel fell silent for a moment. She then spoke, “Alright then, it’s a shame we didn’t find any meteorites.”

Feeling the coordinates of Firuman, she began making her way back towards it. An hour later, all of a sudden, a black figure bolted through the fog and collided against Gretel’s body.

Thanks to Gretel’s alertness, when the black figure appeared, she immediately leaned to one side and spat out her Dragon Void Breath at it.

All this had been carried out by Gretel in one fluid motion, and the black figure received the full brunt of her attack.

The Red Dragon Queen’s Dragon Void Breath had a diameter of more than five feet. Its energy was pristine white and extremely concentrated. When the blast of energy hit the black figure, its speed was drastically reduced.

However, instead of being pushed back, it persevered on bit by bit through the rush of energy from Gretel’s jaws.

As it pushed on towards Gretel, Link managed to see the entity’s shape clearly. Its body was a greyish color, and it resembled a giant centipede. Its long, narrow body was around 50 feet and lined with countless black slender legs on both sides.

Its legs did not seem to be made for walking, but rather served as narrow lines of oars pushing the black shape through the Sea of Void.

Link was stunned. He had seen such a creature before, back in the game, but the creature before him right now was considerably larger than its counterpart in the game.

Back in the game, players simply referred to it as a centipede, but it was a hundred times more venomous than any ordinary centipede.

“Be careful with its legs, Your Highness…” Link did not finish his sentence.

Gretel had swung her tail at the centipede, which was now 60 feet away from her.

The centipede’s movements were severely restricted as it was still being bombarded by the Red Dragon Queen’s Void Breath. As a result, it was unable to dodge her tail in time and took a direct hit from it.

Link saw that the centipede’s body was struck by the dragon tail with such force that greyish shards broke off from one side of its body. Some of its legs had also been torn off by the impact.

On the surface, it seemed as though the Red Dragon Queen now had the upper hand. However, Link sensed that something was wrong, and shouted, “Your Highness, watch out for its stingers!”

Saying this, Link pressed a hand on the vesicle, and a rush of Dragon Power flowed through Gretel’s body in an instant.

His Dragon Power had come from Gretel. Though its state had undergone some changes, it was still able to merge with Gretel’s Dragon Power. His Maximum Dragon Power had now reached 14500, whereas Gretel’s was more than 20,000. There was no chance the combined Dragon Power from two masters would lose to a Level-14 Legendary entity.

Though Gretel did not know why Link had issued such a warning, she did not dare let down her guard. With a hum, a Legendary-level crimson barrier had formed around her. She too began focusing her Dragon Power into the barrier.

The centipede let out a screech, and all of a sudden, ripples of violent black energy emerged around it. What was even more frightening was the fact that the black, slender legs around it shot out like missiles in all directions towards Gretel.

Link was able to see the black smoke issued out in the wake of each of its missile-like legs. He knew that the smoke contained its poison. Not only was it capable of corroding through flesh, but it could also melt through pure energy.

The creature’s legs barraged against the barrier relentlessly, peeling it layer after layer. It was as thin as paper by the time the twentieth leg struck the barrier.

“Its black smoke is melting through my energy barrier!” Gretel shouted in a panic. She let out another burst of her dragon breath at the centipede.

This time, her attack was effective.

After laying siege on Gretel’s barrier with its legs, the centipede had depleted most of its strength. It was blown back by the blast of Dragon Void Breath, and vanished into the depths of the Sea of Void.

Gretel did not wish to prolong their fight any longer and immediately sped off towards the realm of Firuman.

After a while, she let out a panicked shout. “Not good, my tail’s been hit by one of the creature’s stingers!”

Link looked back and saw that there were indeed two black stingers stuck to her tail. Even with the protection of her dragon scales, the tip of the stingers had pierced into her skin.

She must have been stung when she had swung her tail at the centipede.

The venom was indeed potent. Gretel shouted in pain, and Link saw that her vision was beginning to blur. Her flight path too was becoming even more erratic.

“Are you alright?” Link could feel that Gretel’s Dragon Power was receding rapidly. He began to panic and continued to pour some of his Dragon Power into Gretel’s body.

“The venom’s eating up my power. No, it’s also messing with my mind…”

The situation seemed to worsen by the minute. However, curiously enough, Link noticed that the venom had not entered the vesicle. He felt just fine even as he breathed in the liquid around him.

At that moment, Link saw a black shape floating in the distance. He immediately shouted, “Look, there’s a meteorite to your side!”

Still able to hear him, the Red Dragon Queen looked around and noticed the meteorite as well. She managed to grab it in her claw, and like a drunkard, continued her path shakily towards Firuman.

Half an hour later, a huge expanse of light came up before them. It was the realm of Firuman.

Gretel’s condition had worsened to the point where she was now unable to distinguish left and right. In the end, she clumsily burst through the spatial wall of Firuman.

After swimming through space for three minutes, both of them finally reached Firuman.

Through what was left of the vesicle’s magical view, Link saw that they were now thousands of feet above ground. Below them, however, was not Dragon Valley, but rather a huge island in the middle of an ocean. A dense forest covered the island, with a few signs of civilization here and there. The architectural style around the island was unlike anything they had seen on the continent. Without warning, the vesicle’s magical view disappeared before Link.

“I’m out of energy. I’m afraid I won’t be able to make a safe landing. You’d better come out from there, Link.”

A hole appeared in the vesicle. Without thinking too much about it, Link jumped straight into the hole.

As he climbed out of the hole, Link understood why Gretel had wanted to block off all his senses before swallowing him up. The sensation of crawling through a sticky, dark meat tunnel was not something Link would soon forget.

Chapter 499: Queen’s Crisis, a Close Call Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After crawling in the dark tunnel for a long while, Link finally reached the Red Dragon Queen’s mouth. There were huge fangs all around him. Three layers glinted coldly and overlapped like a forest of blades. It was indeed the mouth of a beast.

Link had only taken a glance before the tongue under his feet suddenly moved and pushed him out the mouth.

Once outside, Link immediately cast a cleansing spell to get rid of the saliva on him. On the other hand, the Red Dragon Queen’s body flashed with red light. Under this light, her body kept shrinking until she looked as she did in the Creation Hall.

There were two things with her too. One was a dark purple rock the size of a skull; the other was two poisonous thorns. It had fallen off of the dragon form.

Gretel’s face was ghastly pale. She was dazed too and had completely free fell from the sky.

Link quickly went to catch her while collecting the dark purple astral rock and thorns. He’d already used all his strength in blocking the thorns but thankfully, he wasn’t poisoned. His Dragon Power recovered quickly as well. Right now, he already gained 1000 points.

Activating the Void Walk, Link went towards the ground.

He only knew that he was inside the Firuman Realm but he didn’t know the specific location. There was a large island with residents below. He prepared to go ask them. However, he wasn’t familiar with the situation here and didn’t want to appear suddenly. He cast an Invisibility spell on them both before descending.

The island was truly large. Even from tens of thousands of feet in the sky and with a dragon’s amazing vision, Link could barely see the borders. This island was probably more than 300 miles wide.

While descending, Link checked Gretel’s state.

Her body was limp as if she didn’t have an ounce of power left. Her eyelids were half-closed but her eyes moved slightly. This meant she was still conscious. However, her Dragon Power aura was very faint. Other than her Dragon Power, a powerful Void aura radiated from her.

These were the classic symptoms of being poisoned. After a player was poisoned in the game, a Magician’s Mana bar or a Warrior’s Battle Aura would keep getting eroded until it disappeared. Then it would turn into something called the Chaotic Rot.

The poisoned would die at this time and become a puppet controlled by the Chaotic Rot. The poisonous centipede had two choices. One was to absorb the Chaotic Rot and transform it into its own power. The second was to keep it as its slave and eat when needed.

The Void Centipede’s poison was very unique. All antidotes in Firuman were ineffective against it. However, Link knew two ways to detoxify it.

The first was the orthodox method. He would use a new antidote. There was a mission in the game that described how an alchemist experimented on a poisoned person to find the antidote. The player’s mission was to collect all the materials for the alchemist.

This was the best solution; it could completely eradicate the poison. However, Link didn’t know the recipe and specific method of creating the antidote. He was mostly clueless about advanced alchemy. He had to scrap this idea.

The other solution was to seal it. He could seal all the contaminated power with a spell. However, the poisoned would lose all power and become an average person.

This solution couldn’t eradicate the poison; it could only buffer it.

“Your Highness, how do you feel?” Link asked.

“I can’t control my body. My power is completely eroded.” Gretel’s voice was as quiet as a mosquito.

Clearly, this poisoner’s power was extremely strong. The poison effect was abnormally intense too. Even a Level-11 Legendary figure couldn’t withstand it.

Link stopped the Void Walk and changed to a falling spell that was easier on his mind. He carried Gretel bridal style and opened her eyes to check the situation.

Her eyes used to be red and white; they were beautiful. Now, the red iris was unchanged but black vessels appeared in the white part. She was deeply poisoned. If he didn’t use the sealing spell quickly, Gretel would probably lose consciousness.

During this time, another 1000 Dragon Power points had recovered. He didn’t know specific sealing spells but he’d saved 800 Omni Points.

Open spell list, Link thought.

His vision flashed. Countless spell cards shone before him; they were all Legendary cards. Link scanned them and quickly found what he needed.

Void Shackle

Level-12 Legendary Spell

Cost: 13000 Dragon Power points

Effect: Use unparalleled strength to create a special shackling magic. It can seal any type of power in the world and is impossible to open.

(Note: Other than the spell-caster, no one can undo the seal.)

Link had around 2000 Dragon Power points now and was recovering at a rate of 39 points per second. He’d also activated the recovery effect of the Dragon King Belt. It would take around three minutes to reach 11000 Dragon Power points.

This wasn’t too long but Link worried that Gretel couldn’t survive until then. He checked her eyes again. There were more black vessels. The crystal-red irises were slightly contaminated too, turning dark red.

Link knew that when her eyes turned pure black, Gretel would become a puppet. Judging from the speed that the poison was spreading, she might not last until Link could cast the spell.

The most important thing now was to keep Gretel’s consciousness strong. She couldn’t defeat the poison with a strong desire to live, but she could at least delay it.

“Your Highness,” Link murmured comfortingly. “You are in extreme danger but I have a way to cure you. I just need time to regenerate Dragon Power…”

Gretel’s eyes were still half-closed. “Link,” she mumbled. “It’s eating away at me. I can’t keep going. I see the boundless darkness.”

Link grew anxious. Grasping her hand, he exclaimed, “Your Majesty, can you hear me? I can cure you!”

“I’m not Your Majesty. Call me Tellie.”

Her voice was very soft but still clear enough. Link hesitated a bit before saying, “Tellie, do you know when we first met?”

Link changed his tactics. He stopped using flat language to persuade her. Instead, he tried to distract her.

As expected, Gretel was attracted by his words. “Wasn’t it in the Dragon Square?”

“No, it wasn’t there. It was in my dream.”

“Dream?” Gretel’s voice was confused but also louder.

“Yes. In the dream, we met in the Delonga Kingdom. At that time, the Norton Kingdom hadn’t stopped the Dark Army and the Dark Elves went South with their divine gear. Just as the humans were about to be defeated, you appeared with the Dragon Army. The entire sky was burning with the fire of dragons and you—you were the queen amongst the flames.”

Link was describing a scene from the game. It was a video of the Dragon Army joining the battle between light and dark. New careers such as Dragon Warrior and Dragon Magician were opened after that.

In the video, the Red Dragon Queen’s appearance was incredible. No one could stop her Dragon Power. She was also gorgeous like an ideal first love and gained many fans. For two consecutive years, she was rated as the most beloved game character. As expected, all gamers would fall for a true queen.

Link thought back to the video and smiled. He was already a Level-9 Magician at that time. He’d seen Milda and Herrera without feeling much but that video really left an impression.

Clearly, Gretel liked listening to this. “Then what?” she murmured. “Did we talk?”

Link chuckled. “Yes. In my dream, I was just an insignificant Magician. After seeing you, I cried out, ‘Your Majesty!’ Then you asked me, ‘Mortal, what do you want?’ I couldn’t say anything after that and you left because you were busy. I was so sad.”

“Dreams aren’t real. I would never… Ah, I’m so dizzy. I see the hallucination. That insect is coming. It’s looking at me!” Gretel’s voice grew heavier. She was panicking.

Link was a bit shocked. He checked his Dragon Power—it was more than 8000 points now. He would have enough power after one more minute.

The whites of Gretel’s eyes were completely black. Her red irises were turning black too. Link couldn’t hold back anymore. “Tellie, I have something I’ve always wanted to say… Are you listening?”

“Yes…I’m listening.” Her words were broken but her pale face still filled with anticipation. Her eyes opened a bit wider too. She looked at Link, waiting for him to utter the sentence.

She looked as if she could die in peace after hearing Link say it.

Seeing her like this, Link changed his plan. He couldn’t say everything he’d planned. He needed to use this sentence to keep Gretel alive. “Tellie, you are the most elegant, beautiful, and moving woman I’ve ever seen. In my eyes, you aren’t a high and mighty queen…”

To drag out the time, Link spoke very slowly. Half a minute passed with this one sentence. As he spoke, he observed Gretel’s reaction. Seeing that she kept staring at him in anticipation, Link was a bit assured. He continued, “Actually, I…”

He stopped here; he looked hesitant.

Gretel waited for five full seconds. She was anxious when Link didn’t continue but she didn’t have the energy to urge him. She could only grit her teeth and force herself to stay awake so she wouldn’t miss it.

Link knew what she was thinking so he just wouldn’t say it. One second, two, three… The seconds ticked by. Eight seconds later, Link had enough Dragon Power.

He was relieved. Looking into Gretel’s eyes filled with anticipation, he lowered himself and whispered in her ears, “Tellie, actually, I can save you.”