Advent of the Archmage

In the forest

Link waited patiently. He wasn't disappointed. After three minutes, there came the patter of footsteps.

From the time they concealed themselves to now, it had only been three minutes and thirty-five seconds. Link's Dragon Power recovery rate was 27 points per second. In this time, he had already recovered over 5800 Dragon Power points, fully recovering the amount he consumed earlier on.

This was the benefit of pure dragon power.

As their opponents got closer, Link gestured towards Nana. It was to say, I'll take the lead, you take the chance to sneak in an attack.

Nana's strength had increased, but even still, she was still only at Level-8. It would be foolish to let her initiate the attack on a Level-10 expert, tantamount to suicide.

In fact, Nana was only a backup plan. If things went smoothly, she would not even have to reveal herself.

Nana nodded. She could feel her opponent's strength. She gripped her Breakpoint dagger tightly.

Tap. Tap. The footsteps slowed down. It seemed that the opponent detected something.

Link crouched low under the huge grass, squinting his eyes to look at the opponent. He saw that the bandit was only 90 feet away. The bandit gripped his axe tightly and poised his body in a defensive posture.

The bandit was wearing simple leather armor with little defense. Whether it was Link's Dragon King's Wrath sword or Nana's Breakpoint dagger, either one would easily pierce their defenses.

The axe he was holding also seemed to be made of simple steel. This would be a great weapon for a normal Warrior, but for a Legendary Warrior, it was far too inferior.

Although the Warriors in this world are strong, their equipment is pathetic. This fellow doesn't even have any magic equipment; he's just a sitting duck. Link sighed. In terms of equipment, Link had an extreme advantage.

At this point, the bandit came within 30 feet. His movements became even more cautious and alert. When he walked into the foliage, he alarmed a dog-sized rat. As it jumped and escaped, the bandit was in turn alarmed and turned to face the rat.

Whoosh. Link naturally would not waste this chance. His body immediately disappeared from his original position, instantly appearing to the bandit's seven o'clock, behind the bandit's left shoulder.

This was an ideal position for sneak attacking, as it was a dead angle for the opponent. Link could focus on attacking while the bandit could only dodge and not counter.

Swoosh. Link's sword stabbed at the bandit's back. At the same time, he pointed his Burning Wrath of Heaven's wand to the space in front of the bandit. He released a dimensional ball that stopped in front of the bandit, cutting off his escape path.

The bandit Oyes detected the killing intent from behind him and immediately reacted, lunging forward as Link had predicted.

As he was in mid-air, he forcefully spun his body around, raising his axe to strike back at Link.

Wham. The dimensional ball exploded, trapping the bandit within.

Revolve!

This time, Link didn't use Spatial Shackles or Spatial Rend. Instead, he simply used the distortional force produced by the spatial energy to create a rotating force. The huge force acted on Oyes's body, causing him to spin around mid-air.

Oyes was shocked. He immediately re-adjusted his body and forcefully activated his skill. Swoosh. A blood-red light appeared and headed straight for Link.

This skill was extremely forced. After releasing it, he found himself in an awkward position, and he couldn't maintain his balance.

Link had long since expected this development and had activated Instant Flash before this happened. When the blood-red light reached, all it hit was Link's after-image. The real Link had already reappeared behind Oyes's body and once again stabbed towards his back.

This stab was in a perfect position and had perfect timing. It was immediately after the opponent had used his skill and was in a refractory period. The bandit simply did not have time to make any follow-up moves.

The sword stabbed into the opponent's back, sliding smoothly into his body. Just as the sword tip entered, Link noticed a few scars on the bandit's neck. Link felt a sudden impulse and twisted his blade, avoiding the bandit's heart.

Nonetheless, the blade still pierced right through the bandit's lungs. The pain was incredible, and the bandit involuntarily released a cry of pain. Still suspended in the air, his body lost all its strength and went limp.

Link pulled back his sword and slashed once more, cutting off the bandit's arm that held the axe.

Crash. The bandit's body crumpled to the ground. He no longer had any strength left to resist.

After creating the spell Instant Flash, it was a simple matter for Link to deal with regular Level-10 experts.

Link walked forward and stepped down hard onto the bandit's body, which was still jerking about in pain.

Link pressed his sword tip against the opponent's throat and asked, "What happened in Spring Leaf Village?"

"I dare you to kill me!" The bandit shouted. He wanted to spit his blood covered spit at Link. However, the moment he exerted his strength, he started coughing in pain. The wound in his lung caused him to cough up huge amounts of blood and nearly stop breathing.

Link moved his sword to poke into the bandit's finger on his left hand, like a sharp nail.

"Arghhh!" The bandit screamed in pain. He could see that Link was going to slowly and repeatedly pierce his finger with his sword. Panicking, he explained. "We poisoned Balha's wife. He's gone mad!"

"No wonder," Link said in realization. In Spring Leaf Village, everyone knew that Balha's soft spot was his beloved wife. Even though Link had only stayed in the village for a short time, he had also known about it.

There was little that strong people like Balha would fear. That was with the exception of the people that he cared about. Watching as the bandits kill his beloved, it was no surprise that Balha would go insane.

Link couldn't understand it. He asked, "But you guys are just a bandit gang…"

"Mercenary troop!"

"Fine, mercenary troop. For a mercenary troop to go up against the lord of Spring Leaf Village, aren't you afraid of retaliation? I'm sure you know that Balha's father is Great Lord Bal. That's a Level-17 expert."

"Heh," the bandit laughed. His smirking mouth was covered in blood. "We are just slaves, trash with nothing to our names. All we have are our lives. What wouldn't we be afraid of doing? Anyway, Bal is busy with his own troubles. Where would he find time to bother us? Hahahaha."

Important figures had their own work to do; this was something Link understood very well. Back when he was cleaning up Ferde's bandit problem, he had let the mercenary troops manage the problem. He had not gone out to clean them up himself, as he was far too busy with other things.

Link asked another question. "How do you remove the slave collar?"

This question caused the bandit to pause. "Remove the slave collar? What are you planning…? Oh, I get it. You Araguans are up to something. I'm never telling you!"

Although the bandit refused to answer, it gave Link a clue, letting him know that there was a way to remove the slave collar. Furthermore, it wouldn't be too difficult. Otherwise, a simple bandit troop would never be able to release it on their own.

This made Link happy.

Link sized up the bandit again. The bandit was tough and unmoving, stubborn to his bones. It would probably be difficult to make him open his mouth.

Link had no time to waste with him. Raising his sword, he ended the bandit's life.

There were three bandits from just now. Now that two were dead, there was one more Level-9 bandit. Link thought for a moment and said to Nana, "Go, protect Milda and Riel. I'm going to kill the pursuers."

"Understood," Nana said. She turned and left.

Link, on the other hand, turned back towards the tree hole they were hiding in before. He was going to deal with a Level-9 bandit. This would be a piece of cake for him, and he hurried onwards.

Half a minute later, he exited the dense foliage and found himself back where the tree hole was.

The surroundings were covered in flesh and blood, the remains of the first Blood-eye bandit he killed.

Link carefully studied the tracks on the floor and quickly determined the direction the last bandit had left in.

His speed isn't fast; the footsteps are much deeper than before. There is also a lot of blood trailing along. The bandit probably brought his comrade's corpse along, Link deduced.

Link followed the trail. After about three minutes, he noticed something new.

His speed suddenly increased. Based on the speed and the distance, this must have been when I killed the third guy. He must have realized that the situation was bad and decided to speed up. Unfortunately, he's still not fast enough.

Link increased his speed, determined to chase the bandit down.

After another five minutes, Link stopped. At the side of the road, he saw a corpse. This belonged to the first bandit he killed. At the same time, the footsteps on the trail disappeared. At least, with the naked eye, there were no obvious tracks on the ground.

Link thought for a moment. He must have decided that he couldn't escape fast enough, so he threw aside the body and hid his own tracks, choosing to hide instead.

If Link was a Warrior in this world, he might not be able to continue tracking down the bandit. Fortunately, he was a Magician.

Link pointed the magic sword in his hand forward and said softly, "Clear Sign!"

Clear Sign

Level-3 Hidden Spell

Effect: Greatly increase the user's senses and filter out irrelevant information.

(Note: Use it to uncover the truth.)

After using the spell, Link felt like he woke up. The world in front of him changed, and all the unhelpful phenomena in front of him, like the wind and the sound of bugs and bird calls, disappeared.

Link's mental realm became silent. The surrounding imagery became somewhat vague. Meanwhile, Link sniffed hard, picking up the scent of blood. There were two different scents: One came from the corpse in front of him and was very dense. The other scent was a lot fainter and pointed towards a particular direction.

The other bandit has got this guy's blood on him. I can use it to find him too.

Link maintained the state of Clear Sign, tracing the scent of blood and chasing it.

After walking for about 300 feet, Link stopped. He pointed the sword in his hand towards a patch of green nine feet away.

"Come out!"

The foliage was quiet at first. Then, three seconds later, a figure lunged out towards Link. It was the bandit!

Whoosh. Spatial Shackles!

The bandit was Level-9, and Link used 2000 Dragon Power points in this spell. The bandit immediately slowed down, moving as slow as one centimeter every second. It was like he was in a thick, viscous paste.

Link waved his magic sword, negating a portion of the Spatial Shackles. In the end, the bandit's body was still trapped within the Spatial Shackles space, while his head existed in normal space.

On this bandit's neck were also some scars. These scars were probably left by a slave collar.

Pointing the Dragon King's Wrath at the bandit's forehead, Link began to speak.

"I've got no patience. I just want to know one thing. If you answer me, I'll spare you, otherwise, …"

"Just kill me!" The bandit stared hatefully at Link.

Link laughed. If the bandit had stayed calm, Link wouldn't have any confidence in prying the information out of him. However, it was obvious that this was just a brave front in the face of death.

People in this state seemed fearless, but it was only temporary. After a while, their survival instinct would naturally kick in.

Link paused, dragging out the time. After a while, he continued, "I will count down from ten. You can make your decision by then…ten… nine… eight… three..."

Link took his time counting down. Finally, when he had reached three, the bandit spoke up. "Will you really let me go?"