Advent of the Archmage

On the sea

The three Ferdian warships dragged the giant thing and sailed slowly on the sea. They didn’t go towards Ferde and leave the thing there. Otherwise, the entire world would know that they stole the High Elves’ island, and that would cause a bunch of problems.

For things like this, it was better to make a fortune without a sound.

They sailed for three days, carefully avoiding all other ships. By dusk of the third day, the three warships stopped in a secluded bay in the south of Ferde. It was around six miles from land.

"Alright, all of you go back to the pier. Remember, nothing happened today!" Link said to Jacker, who was on the warship.

"Understood!" Jacker saluted at Link.

Whoosh. The warships started steering towards the Ferde Port. Link stood on the giant floating mine, watching them fade into the distance.

He took a deep breath and started pouring Dragon Power into the ore. After a few seconds, the Dragon Power was equally distributed inside the ore. He used more than 10,000 points during this process.

"Spatial Distortion: Anti-gravity Force Field!"

With a soft hum, a thin ring of detailed runes spread out across the surface with Link as the center. Two seconds later, it surrounded the entire piece of ore.

The first time Link used Spatial Distortion was at the Northern Skeletal Fort. It was still a Spatial Distortion spell but now, it was much more complex and detailed than before. This spell contained Link’s all-new understanding of space and rich experience.

The runes lasted for two seconds. Then this hundred-thousand-ton rock started floating up. Whoosh, whoosh. The water around it washed away, slowly revealing the true shape of the ore.

Originally, the rock was 300 feet wide and 900 feet high. After Link changed it with the enchantment spell, its bulk was at least eight times larger and had doubled in size.

When this giant piece of rock was 60 feet in the air, it was practically like a floating city!

The Dragon Power he’d added in was being burned up at 500 points per second. Link knew he couldn’t maintain it for long. Using his thoughts, he pushed the rock towards Ferde at 120 feet per second.

Whoosh, whoosh. Gales of wind sounded in Link’s ears. It was the sound of this giant rock tearing through the air.

After around 20 seconds, it was thousands of feet inland and Link couldn’t keep going. He sagged and the huge rock plummeted. Two seconds later, there was a muffled boom. The ground was crushed and the rock cracked into many big pieces.

Link estimated that if he used the Anti-gravity Force Field to lift something that heavy to 2500 feet in the air and slammed it down, its power would be equivalent to a Legendary spell.

Of course, doing that was too stupid. If he was disturbed while doing it, he would be in trouble. He was just imagining it for fun.

The place Link chose was very remote. The soil was rocky and infertile so no one lived around here. Naturally, no one noticed this commotion.

Throwing down the ore, Link used the force field to float down slowly.

While descending, he suddenly felt that he should use a force field to make a spell for him to travel faster. He didn’t dare use it before because his Mana recovery rate was too slow. Flight spells would use up a lot of Mana and make him vulnerable. But now, his Dragon Power was recovering at 30 points per second. If he could make a spell that used up less than 30 points, he could travel without tiring out.

That’s a good plan. I’ll develop it as soon as I have time. It has to be flexible and as fast as possible. At least, it can’t be slower than my dragon form... Wait, if I add this force field to my dragon form, won’t I be even faster?

The more Link thought of it, the more amazing it felt.

By then, he had landed on the rock. He had around 3000 Dragon Power points left so he poured it in again, reaching the rock surrounding the ore.

"Higgs Force Field!"

The rock instantly became as soft as water. The gyromagnetic iron started sinking into the "rock water." After a few seconds, the entire piece of ore was hidden within the water.

After this, Link let out a relieved breath. Heh, even if the High Elves discover this, I can say it’s Ferde’s own mine. They have no evidence and can’t take it away. They can only stare at it.

This was around 30 miles from Scorched City. Link jumped down from the rock and started sprinting towards Ferde. He was so fast that he made it within ten minutes.

Link told Lucy of the location of the gyromagnetic iron to Lucy. She would arrange everything after this while Link went back to his Mage Tower.

Even with his physical strength, he was exhausted from all these days’ work. At the top level, he filled the large bathtub with hot water. He rested in the hot water for half an hour before he recovered.

While lying there, he heard a click from the entrance of the hall. Celine was back. She’d taken the ship to the port so she was a bit slower.

Seeing that Link was back and still in the tub, she also stripped and walked in. Sitting across from Link, she washed herself while saying, "Link, I’m going to start learning enchantment magic!"

Link laughed. "I hope you don’t lose interest fast."

"I definitely won’t! Look at my Mana." Celine swam towards Link and cuddled up to him. She reached out and released Mana. A dark blue ball of light appeared on her pale and delicate palms.

When the light appeared, Link felt his heart skip. This was a sign of his soul being affected. He was a Legendary Magician and had a powerful soul. It was impressive that his soul could be so easily affected.

He studied the ball of Mana. Unexpectedly, it was at Level-7. It looked like dark blue, but if he squinted, he could make out endless magic runes flowing within.

So powerful. No wonder Celine has the foresight talent. This is such unique bloodline magic... This is the power of time. When I have time, I’ll have to study it. Link sighed within. No wonder Nozama, the Lord of the Deep, tried everything to get this daughter back to the Abyss. If trained, Celine could definitely become a terrifying soldier.

"How about it? Am I powerful?" Celine asked proudly. "Of all the Magicians in the Mage Tower, only Elliard is a bit stronger than me. The others are all weaker." She put her Mana away and rested her head against Link’s chest. While drawing circles on his muscle, she murmured, "When I learn enchantments, I’ll modify my large fire gun until it’s a Legendary weapon. By then, even you can’t beat me, haha."

She had a great vision and Link had to support her. "Your Mana is indeed enough to learn enchantments. I’ll be writing spells during this time. Just take them and if you have questions, write them down. I’ll answer them at night."

Celine was satisfied. "I knew you’d support me. Here, let me reward you."

She turned and sat in Link’s lap... After a while, Celine was tired and fell asleep. Link was revitalized. He returned to his library and started writing.

The night was silent.

The next morning, Lucy came to report about the gyromagnetic iron. Her eyes were bloodshot; she probably didn’t sleep at all. Handing a scroll to Link, she said, "Lord, we’ve already built the mine and arranged the mining work. According to the plan, this mine can support 18 months of financial operations."

"Eighteen months...that should be enough." Link nodded. He was very satisfied with this. It was enough for him to establish the enchantment industry as a pillar in Ferde.

There were two obstacles in completing this: enchanters and High Elves.

Currently, almost all advanced enchantment equipment in Firuman were produced by High Elves. It was practically a monopoly. Link would be stealing business from them.

This would be challenging but that would be for later. Right now, he needed a large amount of enchanters. Where would he get them? Other than training them in his Mage Tower, another source would be the magic academies all over. Amongst them, the East Cove Magic Academy was the most important.

Seeing Lucy’s fatigue, he tapped her lightly and cast Essence Vitality, a dragon healing spell.

Essence Vitality

Level-10 Legendary Healing Spell

Cost: 1200 points

Effect: Dragon Power transforms into the essence of light and pours into the target’s body. It can greatly raise their vitality. The duration decreases as the target’s level increases. It can last at most 30 days.

(Note: Gift from the Red Dragon Queen.)

Lucy had worked the entire night and kept yawning. Her head felt heavy and dizzy too. But with this spell, she shivered and then all the fatigued disappeared. She was hundreds of times livelier, as if she had an infinite amount of energy.

She knew this was the spell’s power. "Thank you."

Link smiled. "Alright, don’t tire yourself out. There are many things you can tell other people to do. You’re my most important manager."

"I’ll keep that in mind." Lucy’s heart was warm. However, she was totally energized now. As soon as she left Link’s room, she dove back into work.

Link chuckled. Scorched City was able to develop so quickly and the territory was able to improve all because of these loyal followers.

By now, Link had finished the Enchantment Outline and Basic Enchantments. He spent another hour packaging them into books. After letting Celine know, he got a carriage and started towards the airship stop in Scorched Ridge.

The airship stop obviously belonged to the Yabbas. It wasn’t open to the public yet. As the lord, only he could use it. The airships there could count as his private jets.

After getting in, Link said, "To the East Cove Magic Academy."

If he wanted to find talents from the academy, he would obviously need his tutor Herrera’s help. The two books he had were basic enchantment books. Link prepared to publish them to give his new writing career a good reputation.

After this, he planned on writing intermediate and advanced enchantment spells, and even at the expert level. He would keep these higher-level books secret. They would become the core of his planned workshops’ competitive edge.