Advent of the Archmage

Mysterious forest

Dwarf Riel held two battle axes and muttered to Link, "These are the poorest elves I’ve ever seen. Master Link, do you know what they’re talking about?"

They were indeed poor. Not only were they thin as bags of bones, but their clothes also couldn’t cover their bodies. Some only had a piece of hide while others just wrapped leaves around their waist. The one who jumped out was in the best state. Other than the fur hide, he also had a metal spear and a damaged metal ring around his neck.

Link activated the Dragon King’s Fury magic sword in preparation. "I can’t really understand. I think it’s a dialect, but it seems they’re here to rob us. Milda, can you understand?"

Unexpectedly, Milda nodded. "They’re speaking the ancient elven language, a really ancient one. I’ll cast a Consonance Spell."

Consonance Spell

Level-2 Secret Spell

Effect: The receiver of the spell will instantly learn the elven language.

(Note: Spell unique to the elves.)

She lightly tapped Link and Riel with her want. Two thumb-sized balls of light melted into their bodies. A few seconds later, they could understand the screaming of the elven robbers.

"Brother, I think they’re Magicians!" an elf whispered to the leader.

"The leader seems to be from Aragu. From his clothes, he looks to be a noble," another robber said.

The leader lost confidence. He waved his spear and said to Link, "My friend from a faraway place, I’ve decided to let you go this time. Leave your wealth behind and go."

Link was curious about this world; they seemed to all be really powerful. For example, these robbers were extremely thin, but from their auras, the weakest was at Level-4. The leader was even at Level-6.

That wasn’t too strong, but they were robbers in the lowest class. If there was an elven kingdom here, the strongest would be impossibly powerful.

The leader was losing patience but didn’t dare act brashly. Brandishing his spear, he urged, "Hey, say something. Are you gonna give or not?"

Link thought for a moment and quietly took out a few dozen coins. He squeezed them and cast an enchantment, melting all the coins into a fist-sized block of gold. Then he flicked his finger while activating the Magician’s Hand. The gold slowly floated towards the leader.

"We are just travelers from a faraway place. Coming here was purely coincidental. We want to know the specific situation inside. Who is the king? Who does this land belong to? Are there any cities nearby? If you answer, this gold is yours."

Gold was clearly also the currency in this world. When it appeared, the elves all stared unblinkingly at it. It seemed that gold was quite valuable.

When the gold flew beside the leader, he reached out to take it. But there was a soft sound and the gold stopped moving. Link had used Spatial Restraint and added 1000 Dragon Power points, making the spatial frequency very high.

The leader grasped the gold to tug it back. But no matter how he tried, the gold wouldn’t move. It was like it was stuck there. He activated Battle Aura, and his body shimmered. He used all his might, and his face turned black and red. He even yelled loudly, but the gold still wouldn’t move. He hung all his weight from the gold, but it wouldn’t even budge.

The trick was marvelous and incomprehensible.

The other elves looked at Link with terror. The leader seemed to sense something. He shuddered a bit and let go from the cold. "Friend, is that for real?" he pushed on. "If I answer the questions, this gold will be ours?"

He didn’t mention the robbery anymore. Only an idiot would try to rob someone so powerful.

"Of course. After my questions, this is yours."

"Okay, okay, I’ll tell you now. We’re in the Great Beast Forest as you can see, everything is huge. But we’re at the edge, so it’s not that dangerous. Go east from here for 30 miles, and there’s a small town called Spring Leaf Village. The lord is the Bloody Butcher Balha. The Spring Leaf Village is a small place of the Aragu Empire... Oh, right, let me tell you, we’re in the Aragu Empire right now. There’s no king, just an emperor. The emperor is Calagu XVI. He lives in the City of Gold."

The robber rambled on. Link’s group learned a lot about this world.

"You said that this gentleman looks like an Araguan noble," Milda said. "What do Araguans look like?"

The leader looked at Milda and was mesmerized. However, he was scared of Link, so he quickly looked away. Then he said fiercely, "The Araguans are similar to us from Lagu, but their ears are different. They have round ears like this gentleman. They enslave us Laguans!"

With that, he turned to Link and said, "Sir, I must remind you that your slave is too beautiful, like the moon in the sky. You should cover her up, or else people will come to take the moon. It’ll be really, really troublesome then."

Link didn’t expect that the elves would become slaves. It was so interesting.

Milda didn’t find it odd though. She covered her face with a veil and then put on a hat. At the same time, she whispered an explanation to Link. "In our historical records, the ancient Araguans were extremely powerful. They ruled over most races in the continent. In addition to my face, the dwarves and Yabba were all slaves. I think that not only did we teleport, we also time traveled. We’ve returned to ancient times."

Link had this feeling too, but it was all a guess now. He needed more information to prove it.

"What year is it?" he continued asking.

"Year?" The leader was confused.

"Epoch. What epoch is it?" Link tried again.

The leader was still confused. He thought for a while, scratching his head, and said, "You’re probably asking about the Aragu calendar, right? It’s the year 3162."

The Aragu calendar was nothing like the later Holy calendar. As for year 3162, there was no reference number, and this number had no meaning.

"It seems that we’re in a new world," Riel said softly.

"That’s possible, or we just came to a new land or realm. Or we traveled through time. We can’t get much information from the robbers, and we’re short on time. Let’s go to the Spring Leaf Village."

It would be best if they time traveled. Otherwise, they only had two months. Within the two months, they must find reinforcements and return to the Orida Fortress. That was their mission.

The three nodded seriously.

Link canceled the Spatial Restraint on the block of gold. "It’s yours."

The gold dropped down, and the leader caught it with two hands. A smile bloomed on his face. The gold was the size of a fist. It was enough for them to live off of for half a year.

Link’s group turned and left, walking eastward.

Seeing them leave, an elf asked quietly, "Brother, should we tell them there’s a group of Blood-eyed Robbers on that road?"

The leader smacked his head. "Shut up! He didn’t ask, so we won’t say it. Why should we look for trouble? Come, let’s go to Spring Leaf Village to buy a goat. We’ll feat."

"Yeah!" The elven robbers were immediately in a good mood. All of them started drooling.

...

The other side

Plop! Saroviny rushed into the hole of a large tree. As soon as she entered it, there was a series of tut-tuts. The flock of strange birds arrived and started pecking at the tree. Thankfully, the tree was strong. Even though wood splinters flew crazily, it protected Saroviny inside.

The birds went crazy around the tree for a long while, cawing for a whole half hour before leaving unhappily.

Inside the tree, Saroviny clutched her chest, still unsettled. What place is this? It’s too scary!

The birds actually had Level-8 strength, and there were many of them. At first, only a dozen attacked her, and she didn’t mind. She even killed some, but it was like hitting a beehive. Hundreds came all of a sudden.

She was frightened and could only escape frantically. After a while, she finally discovered the tree. She ran with all her might into it and escaped.

Relieved now, she suddenly heard a hiss. Turning around, she saw a black spotted snake thicker than her waist inside the tree. Its eyes were green and about the size of her fist. They were like two will-o-wisps.

Seeing Saroviny turn around, the snake hissed again. Then there was a poof, and green mist sprayed towards Saroviny’s face.

She reacted quickly and immediately held her breath. Simultaneously, she activated her demon power and blocked the mist.

But the snake reacted quickly too. During this, it curled and wrapped around Saroviny. Then it started squeezing, instantly stealing Saroviny’s breath. The snake was abnormally powerful, and she couldn’t struggle free. Both her hands were entangled and couldn’t move.

No, I’m going to die like this! Gritting her teeth, Saroviny screamed. Demon power spun wildly and exploded!

Boom! With a muffled boom, the snake swelled up and fell down from Saroviny’s body.

Ack, this mist is so poisonous! Saroviny was in bad shape too. To use her power, she had to take a breath of the poison. Now, she felt dizzy. Everything doubled in her vision. After struggling, she actually lost consciousness.

When Saroviny woke up again after some time, she found herself in a small cage. It hung on some long-haired demon. There were many other cages on the demon, all filled with people. Most were elves, but there were also dwarves. The snake had now been skinned and was being grilled over a fire. Humans dressed in leather hide sat around the fire, eating the snake while laughing.

They put me in a cage. How horrible! Saroviny’s fury was about to explode, but then she discovered that her power was sealed by something. She couldn’t control it at all. There was something cold on her neck. Touching it, she realized it was a metal ring.

The ring had a mysterious power that locked all her demon power.

I’m...a slave now? Saroviny never imagined that she would be in this state. Even scarier, she’d lost all power.

After a while, the humans had their fill. One walked towards the demon. He tossed a bundle of hay to the demon, and it started eating quietly.

"Let me go! Let me go!" Saroviny yelled.

The human heard. He walked over and looked at the cat-like black-haired girl. He reached into the cage and patted the girl’s cheeks with a smile. "Pretty girl, don’t be scared. When we get to Spring Leaf Village, I’ll sell you to a good home. You’ll have a good life."

Saroviny tried to bite the hand, but there was a crack. She missed. The human retracted his hand, fast as lightning.

"Kitty, you have to change your attitude. Otherwise, you’ll have a hard time in the future." The human was still smiling but stopped paying attention to Saroviny. He walked to his bedroll by the fire and fell asleep.

Saroviny stared at him in shock. The reasoning was simple: a slave trader in such crude leather had Level-9 power!

This world was terrifying!