Advent of the Archmage

Forest

Link stood steadily on the ground. Blue haze wrapped around him, covering his body.

His Dragon Power limit had reached 17000 points. One point was equal to five Mana points for humans. This meant he had 85000 Mana points in total.

The magnitude of this was unbelievable. Only five people in all of Firuman had power of a larger scale than Link—the Red Dragon Queen, Bryant, Dark Magician Eugene, Light Magician Halino, and Shadow Walker Morpheus.

The three High Elves before him had only broken past Level-10. Their power wasn’t even one-fourth of Link’s. If converted to Dragon Power, they had 4000 points at most. They couldn’t even be compared.

Regardless of power, Link’s knowledge of magic was on a completely different scale too.

The High Elves lived on the Isle of Dawn, the home of magic. They’d practiced magic for more than 30 years too. From this, they should be masters, but this wasn’t so.

Life on the Isle of Dawn was too peaceful. There was no pressure and obviously, no motivation either. The High Elves mostly studied due to their own interests.

It was different for Link though. He was putting in his all every second of the day.

Link had only studied magic for two years, but he’d received tips from various strong figures—the Red Dragon Queen, the exiled god, Bryant’s Revelations Scroll, the God of Light’s rewards, and more. He even learned martial arts and was at the point of starting his own school.

Right now, Link was skilled in every aspect. His abilities were immeasurable.

As for the magic equipment, it went without saying too. As the lord of Ferde, he was rich and didn’t lack any materials. Combining the ones he’d made and received by chance, he had at least six Legendary pieces of equipment. The High Elves were geniuses of their race. Though they had more than enough equipment, they couldn’t be compared to a territory’s lord. If this was a physical distance, the High Elves probably had to use a telescope to see Link.

He had the absolute advantage in every aspect.

Even if Evelina came down from the tree and joined the battle, fighting four against one, Link still had no fear. He was confident in ending the battle within two seconds.

On the other hand, the three High Elves thought they could win this gamble too.

It was like a joke. Link would stand there without moving and let them attack. They also had the advantage of attacking first. And instead of defeating him, they only had to make him move his feet. If they couldn’t even do that, they’d be humiliated.

"Lord, we will start now. Get ready," Elovan reminded before starting. He thought it was too easy for them this time. He had to be polite.

Link wanted to shake his head. These High Elves were too young and hadn’t experienced the cruelty of the world. If he was in their place, he would find a chance for a surprise attack instead of saying this.

He just stood in place without using any defense spells. "Stop wasting time and do it."

As soon as he spoke, Elovan, Sonya, and Milose moved at once. They used the Black-Gold Thorn, their most powerful and handiest trick.

Boom, boom, boom. Three poisonous black vines, thick as one’s fist and gleaming gold, broke through the ground. Like pythons, they came for Link from different directions.

The spell was similar to what they did to Evelina, but the force was different.

Against Evelina, they’d still held back, thus letting Evelina escape. But against Link, they didn’t dare go easy on him. They used all their power at once.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The three vines attacked together with extreme speed. The air cracked with wind and thunder. Poisonous thorns sprouted from the vines. The vines waved at the same time, and the thorns swarmed towards Link like wasps.

The three vines and clouds of thorns blocked all of Link’s escape routes.

Every thorn flashed with emerald light. This was the toxin. Once inside Link’s body, he would be affected no matter how powerful he was unless he had the High Elves’ antidote. Even if he didn’t die, his combat abilities would be decimated.

Seeing this, Evelina clapped her hand over her mouth and cried softly, "It’s over."

The Black-Gold Thorn was the High Elves’ best trick. The seeds of the vines were from the Level-18 World Tree and nurtured by Natural magic. Their attributes were very special. Other than Natural magic, practically no other magic could equalize them. They were also extremely sturdy, with an excellent resistance to magic. To them, iron was as fragile as paper. Shields below Level-11 practically didn’t exist before them.

Faced with an attack like this, even the most powerful Warrior would commit suicide. Magicians only had one solution: use a spell to escape.

But Link had said earlier that he wouldn’t take even half a step. That meant he could only die.

Just as the thorns were about to reach him, Link’s Dragon Power flared. The buzz shook everyone’s hearts as the space around him suddenly expanded. It stretched like a rubber band until the entire space swelled.

To everyone else, it was as if Link’s body suddenly became thousands of feet away.

Evolan, Sonya, and Milose stood in a triangle around Link, but they felt the same way. Eliard and Evelina also felt that way in the tree. They watched as their tree shot up like they were thousands of feet up in the air.

What they couldn’t comprehend was that Link really didn’t move. He was still in the same spot.

Here was the problem: they were suddenly so far away from Link. No matter how powerful the vines were, there was a range. One thousand feet was the limit, but now they were thousands of feet away. How could this work out?

What happened was that the vines of the Black-Gold Thorn spell slackened after around 300 feet. The thorns were able to fly to the limit, but then they dropped helplessly too.

When all attacks ended, the space buzzed again and went back to normal. Link’s body "snapped" back from thousands of feet away.

He really hadn’t moved during this. He just stood there without doing anything.

The three High Elves lost.

The forest was deathly silent.

The High Elves gulped in unison. How could they compete with such a miraculous spatial technique? No matter how powerful they were, they couldn’t hit Link. When they used up all their energy, he came back to harvest the fruits. This was hopeless.

After a while, Elovan put away his wand first. Speechless, he bowed to Link and turned to leave. Sonya and Milose were also shocked. Sonya opened her mouth to speak but gave up. She left with Elovan; Milose followed.

The three weren’t powerful enough. They’d attacked first but couldn’t even make Link budge. It was too embarrassing.

When the three were far away, Eliard brought Evelina down from the tree. "See, I said Link would win, but you didn’t believe me," he said excitedly. "You’re so ignorant."

Evelina couldn’t refute it. She was still shocked, but now she had to worry about her own fate.

"Lord, how will you punish me?" All thought of fighting back disappeared after seeing Link’s skills.

Link canceled the blue haze around him and looked coolly at Evelina. "You created 97 Ethereal Warriors in the Southmoon Kingdom and, either directly or non-directly, affected 12 people, including the dean of the Grinth Magic Academy and Amir, Magician of Ferde’s ambassador group. These are all grave sins that must be punished."

Hearing this, Eliard opened his mouth to speak. However, he quickly realized that he had no reason to defend Evelina, so he kept quiet.

Evelina was much more resigned than Eliard. She shrugged as if she’d given up. "Then say what you’re planning. I only have this life. Take it if you want."

"You must give something to the Southmoon Kingdom and me, as well. I must know the specific details about the Ethereals and the Syndicate in the South. I also need to know anything about Legendary High Elf magic. If you tell me, you can live. Of course, you’ll still be imprisoned."

He wanted to have Evelina on their side, but the territory had laws. He couldn’t let her go just because she was useful. There was nothing free in the world.

"Fine, I’m a captive now. I can’t choose, so just ask whatever you want to know. I have a requirement though. If you don’t agree, I’d rather die."

She was more like the Syndicate’s mercenary. As for loyalty, she’d ended all thoughts for the Isle of Dawn after learning that her mother agreed with the Elder Council.

"Alright, what is it?" Link asked.

"I can be imprisoned, but I want Eliard to be my guard."

Eliard was speechless. He didn’t know what this woman was thinking but... he was kind of happy.

Link stared hard at Evelina. Her eyes sparkled and wavered. After a while, Link had a guess as to what she wanted. Smiling thinly, he said, "I agree. You have to ask Eliard if he agrees though."

She obviously wanted to use Eliard’s feelings for her to escape. Sadly, she underestimated Eliard. It wouldn’t take long for her to fall into his trap.

"Eliard, do you agree?" Evelina turned to look at him.

"I... I’ll listen to Link." Eliard was confused but still agreed.