Advent of the Archmage

Hiss hiss. From deep in the grass came a soft hiss and suddenly, a figure flew by.

"That seemed like a person," Riel said, tiptoeing. He shaded his eyes with his hands as he looked at the direction he saw the figure disappear in.

He was roughly only about four feet tall, and the grass was a bit taller than him at four and a half feet. Despite all his efforts to make himself taller, he still could not see past the grass.

"Nana, catch him!" Link ordered.

He had seen it too. After getting his Dragon Power, his eyesight had improved greatly. He had seen the figure in a grey leather armor and a mask. The figure looked highly skilled.

That figure appeared in the forest, leaving no traces. After it saw them, it turned and disappeared. That was very suspicious, and Link had to find out why.

Nana immediately put down Princess Milda before shooting towards the figure. Half a second later, Nana had crossed a distance of 900 feet and had caught up to the figure. She stretched out her hand to grab onto him.

That person's reaction was instantaneous. He ducked, rolled on the floor and jumped up, turning back with dagger in hand. His body flashed and all of a sudden, he had his dagger stabbing towards Nana's neck.

Clang. Nana withdrew her Breakpoint dagger and countered, slicing through her opponent's dagger. Then, she punched towards the figure's head.

That person was shocked. Nonetheless, he reacted and blocked Nana's arm, retaliating with a punch towards her chest.

Nana retreated backwards, dodging his punch, then shot forward once more, stabbing with her dagger.

Unexpectedly, he dodged again. Although he had lost his dagger and was at a disadvantage in a fight with weapons, he was still able to fight back. He crouched low, punching, clawing, and kicking at Nana's lower body. Every strike was extremely vicious.

Nana had never faced an attack like this before. In the face of this attack, she could only dodge and retreat. Even though she held her dagger in her hand, she was unexpectedly on the receiving end of the attacks.

Bamm. Suddenly, a dimensional ball exploded, stopping the enemy in his tracks. Link had arrived. However, immediately after that, the person's body shone with white light. Link felt his Spatial Shackles becoming unstable as the person struggled to escape.

Link was shocked. This person has to be Level-8 at least. This is ridiculous.

Nana had charged back in, landing a punch in the person's belly, knocking him to the ground. Then, she stepped heavily onto his head, preventing him from moving.

Link, Princess Milda and Riel walked towards the person, expressions of surprise and shock on their face.

"This fellow wearing tattered leather armor is actually a Level-8 expert?" Riel asked, eyes wide. He almost couldn't believe what he was seeing.

What kind of shitty place is this? A regular thief was a Level-6 expert. Then, a random suspicious looking fellow appeared and he was Level-8. Unfathomable!

Princess Milda carefully assessed this person. He was about 30 years of age and wore a mask that hid all his features. However, his ears were sharp and pointy, although not quite as sharp as an elf, but just a bit more rounded. She turned back to look at Link, saying, "This is a Halfling."

Link used his Magician's Hand to remove the person's mask.

His looks were ordinary. He didn't have the same features as other Halflings. On his forehead, in between his eyes was a tattoo, a blood red eye. From afar, it looked like a third eye.

Although his head was being stepped on, his expression was twisted with hatred. He squinted at Link and laughed coldly. "Magician, don't even dream of leaving the Great Beast Forest!"

He spoke in the same elven language as the thief from earlier. Link and the rest could naturally understand.

Link frowned as he asked, "Are you together with those bandits?"

"Nonsense! I am from the Blood Eye Mercenaries. I'm a mercenary. You guys better release me quickly, otherwise, you'll regret ever coming to this world."

Riel laughed coldly. "Hmph, bandits are bandits. Once you open your mouth, you give away your identity. Sir Link, let me smash his arm with my hammer, he won't talk so much nonsense after that."

Who would have thought that the bandit actually laughed at this. "Hahaha, Sir? With such weak magic, you actually call him sir? Hilarious. Little dwarf, if you are lucky enough not to die, you can visit the Yellow Golden City. This Magician won't amount to anything there."

Even after he was captured, he was still as arrogant as ever and did not tone down his taunting. It was as though he knew Link and the others wouldn't dare to do anything to him.

Evidently, Link and the rest weren't worth anything in his eyes.

Riel was infuriated at his words and was about to attack him.

Link stopped him. From what had happened, he could feel that this world was not simple. At this moment, he laughed. "Sir is just a title we use as a joke between ourselves. We're just passing through and we're sorry to have disturbed you. This is just a misunderstanding. What say you forget about all this?"

"Hmph, it's too late for that now!" He laughed coldly, then stared at Princess Milda. "Legu woman, there's no use hiding. I could smell out a beauty like you no matter how you hide. Heehee, my leader will surely savor you."

This caused the three of them to frown.

For a scout to possess Level-8 strength would mean that his leader must be incredibly strong as well. He would definitely be at least Level-9, right?

Riel grumbled, "We just escaped a wolf, but find ourselves in a tiger's den. How unlucky!"

Princess Milda looked at Link. "What do we do now?"

Link was silent. He was considering his options.

The scout had seen that Link was the leader. He smirked as he said, "Are you thinking of killing me to keep me silent? My Blood Eye Mercenaries take vengeance very seriously. If you kill me, they will definitely seek you out and then use the most horrible methods to torture you for a hundred days!"

In the past, he had always used his mercenary troop name to scare people. Anyone who heard that would immediately release him and escape for their lives.

However, he had ran into the wrong people this time.

After hearing his words, Link immediately gestured towards Nana. Nana used force to stamp down on his head, and the scout's head exploded like a watermelon. The blood splattered all over the ground.

Since they had already provoked the enemy and there was no way to avoid the trouble, then they might as well do a clean job of killing them. As for this fellow's threats, this was something to worry about later. They would deal with whatever came later.

Link threw out a dimensional ball, and softly said, "Rend!"

Zaaap. The scout's body soon turned into a crystal like white powder.

After having done all of this, Link said, "Legends say that in ancient times, Legendary figures were common. It seems like we've returned such a time. In here, we cannot rely on such a strength anymore. This means that things are only going to become more dangerous."

He then said to Princess Milda, "Disguise yourself well, make yourself look as ugly as possible. Riel, your hammers and armor look too valuable, hide them and wear plain armor. I've got to hide my wand too. This sword…"

Before he finished what he was saying, the Dragon King's Wrath sword suddenly turned dull. The dragon-like scales on the sword became ordinary looking lines. It looked like a regular factory-made sword.

"Seems like I can still use this," Link said.

The reality was right in front of them. Riel and Princess Milda didn't argue further and immediately got to work.

Riel's armor clanked as he took it off and changed into his most ordinary armor. As for his weapons, he took out a large iron hammer from his dimensional bracelet.

"This was the hammer I used when I was training, never thought I'd use it again," Riel reminisced, moved.

Princess Milda was a woman and still had to care about her modesty. She walked behind a large leaf to change, speedily taking off her outfit.

As this was happening, Link asked the Dragon King's Wrath sword spirit.

Is this the ancient century?

The sword spirit replied, although a bit hesitant. "It is somewhat similar, but not quite. Do you feel that? The Mana here is thick and bountiful, at least ten times more than on Firuman. It is higher than it was even in my time."

Link was now a bit confused. Have you heard of the Aragu Empire?

"I've heard about it before but I can't remember clearly."

There was no point in asking anymore. Link only became more and more confused.

About five minutes later, Princess Milda emerged from behind the grass.

She wore a simple pale green leather armor which looked simple and not very eye-catching. However, upon closer inspection, you would discover that the armor was more than it seemed.

Princess Milda also let down her braided hair, changing to a simple ponytail. Still, it could not hide her beauty, from her light purple eyes and flawless skin, sharp features and her diva like figure.

She simply could not hide her beauty and brilliance. Even if a female goddess dressed in simple clothes, she would still be a female goddess. In fact, it gave her a simple charm.

King Riel shook his head. "No, no, no, Princess Milda, you'll give us away like this."

Princess Milda replied in frustration, "This is already the outfit I like the least. There's nothing worse."

She was a princess, well-respected by everyone. Every single one of her outfits was worth 100 gold. This was her cheapest set of leather armor, but it was still worth over 50 gold. She simply didn't own any simple common clothing.

Link also didn't have any. He was no longer the poor simple Magician from the past. He was the Lord of Ferde, a great Magician. His clothes were similarly top grade.

Riel was the King of the mountains. With that kind of status, how could he wear torn and tattered clothing?

As much as the three of them tried to change into something common, it could not hide the truth from people with keen eyes.

Link also could not do anything about it. "Let's just go on like this. We'll try to stay as hidden as possible. We'll decide what to do when we get to Spring Leaf Village.

In order to avoid danger, the four of them moved inconspicuously, carefully proceeding eastwards.

Fortunately, they didn't meet any unexpected situations on this journey. After walking for about half a day, they reached a stone wall that was 60 feet high. This entire wall was made out of anti-magic rock. Both sides of the wall were guarded by soldiers. The guards wore seemingly normal battle armor, but they themselves exuded an aura that was exceedingly shocking.

King Riel eyed them, swallowing his saliva. "This is Spring Leaf Village? It has a 60-foot-tall stone wall and such strong guards guarding the city wall!"

He instinctively felt that the soldier could kill him with one slash.

Link could accurately gauge the opponent's strength. He reported, "Level-8 strength, two of them."

Riel was beginning to miss the demons in Firuman. At least those demons were a low level and easy to deal with, even though they were numerous beyond compare. He, the King of the Mountains, could barely deal with mountain bandits.

Princess Milda sighed. "We're just nameless pawns now."

Even as she sighed, the four of them caught sight of a huge beast. On the beast's back hung cages filled with people as it swaggered towards Spring Leaf Village.

Link casually glanced over, then blink and focused his gaze once again on one of the cages. "Look, over there. That demon has been captured."

As they looked over, they found that, indeed, in one particular cage, there was a black-haired young woman hugging her legs as she knelt on the wooden cage floor. Her face was extremely depressed and down-spirited.

Hey, wasn't that the one that had chased them to death? The demon commander famed for being half a step into the Legendary realm.

"Hmmm…" Riel looked at Link with a serious concerned expression on his face. "There is too many people on the road up ahead. Let's steal some normal looking clothes. These clothes make me fearful.

This place was really shitty. Just within half a day, they had been eyed by other people more than twice. It was the feeling when a weak young woman walked naked into a pirate den. Just thinking about it was enough to make people too afraid to fight.

Princess Milda's heart was jumping right out of her chest. "I need to touch up my disguise. This is too dangerous!"

Even a Level-9 demon was captured.

Link nodded his head. "Yes, let's go steal some clothing."

…

In the mountain forest

Two halflings appeared, standing around a pile of white powder. One of the Halflings carefully studied the pile of white powder. After a while, he stood up. "This was done by a Magician. They have four people, two male and two female.

"Rohan cannot die in vain. Ollie, report this to the chief. I'm gonna circle around and see if I can get any leads."

"Okay," said the other, as he turned and ran into the distance.