Advent of the Archmage

There was indeed a secret portal in the healing magic seal of the crack, tucked away from prying eyes in a corner.

After looking at the spatial portal for ten minutes, Link finally figured out Piasce’s trick behind it.

The principles underlying the magic portal seemed to differ from those of Firuman. It was operating under a magical system Link had never seen before. However, upon closer inspection, Link was able to appreciate its ingenuity.

It was then that Link was struck by inspiration. By bringing this new magical system into Firuman, Piasce had opened up new pathways for Link to arrive at solutions for previously unsolvable magical problems.

“Incredible!” exclaimed Link.

He looked at it again and realized that the portal’s coordinates were the same as those given to him by Piasce.

“Looks like you were telling the truth,” said Link, glancing at Piasce.

The blue-skinned man rubbed his hands, an awkward smile on his face. “I would never dare lie to you, not when my life’s at stake here.”

Link nodded. He then turned to all the Magicians on the scene and said, “Alright, we’re done here for today. It would seem that Piasce really doesn’t mean us any harm. This was all just a huge misunderstanding. Please continue working on the magic seal when you return to your posts. We still have three days to complete it!”

Everyone nodded. They all turned around and resumed their work on the healing magic seal.

“Nana, please stay. I want you to keep an eye on Piasce,” Link shouted after Nana when he saw that she was about to leave with the rest of the crowd. He still could not completely trust Piasce. Also, Nana was the only one in the barrier other than himself who was completely immune to the blue-skinned man’s soul magic.

Nana nodded and did as she was told.

At that point, Link had fully understood how the spatial portal functioned. Before teleporting himself over to the other side of the portal, he psychically said to Celine, “Celine, hold the fort, would you?”

“Alright. What will you be doing?” replied Celine almost immediately.

“I’ll take a look at our guest’s Void Ferry, but I don’t really trust him enough to bring him along. You and Nana keep an eye on him. If he tries anything funny with the Void Ferry or does anything out of the ordinary here, you have my permission to shoot him down.”

“No worries, I’ve got him in my sights,” said Celine with a chuckle.

With all the necessary precautions in place, Link was finally at ease and ready to leave the place. He then turned to Piasce and said, “I can tell that you harbor no ill will towards us. Your magic is indeed potent, and truth be told, I’ve never seen anything like it. I would not want to hurt you over some misunderstanding. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Piasce immediately replied, “I won’t try anything when you’re on the other side. You have my word. I only ask that you do not under any circumstances activate the Void Ferry. I’m a hunted man. My pursuers are powerful as they are numerous…”

“I understand,” said Link nodding. There was a white light around him. Seconds later, he was gone from the Firuman realm.

According to the coordinates, Piasce’s Void Ferry was anchored at the outermost and incidentally deepest layer of the Firuman realm.

At first, all Link could see around him in his descent were warped images from the surface of the Firuman realm. Everything looked surreal. However, as he sank deeper, his surroundings darkened until the rest of his body vanished beneath him. Not a sound could be heard.

The only sound he could hear was the thumping of his heart. As the place was devoid of air, Link had to draw on his Realm Essence Power to keep himself alive.

The entire experience gave him the impression of journeying through a dark tunnel with no end in sight. The distorted images of the Firuman surface had also vanished behind him. As there was nothing around him that he could use as a reference point, Link could not even tell if he was moving at all in the sea of darkness.

Any ordinary human being would have been driven mad by the overwhelming silence and darkness. Link could also feel the suffocating pressure around him. However, as this was not his first plunge into the depths of space, he was still able to endure it.

An hour later, Link saw a gentle blue glow in front of him. It was different from the Sea of Void’s deathly white sheen. Also, the blue glow seemed to be concentrated at one point. From afar, it looked like a lone blue star in a dark night sky.

Must be Piasce’s Void Ferry. Link drew closer towards the blue point of light. This took about ten minutes.

As he got closer, the scene before him became clearer. The point of blue light was gradually shaping into a streamlined object. It was around 15 feet long, tapering to a pointed tip on one end and a rounded tip on the other. It was shaped almost like a teardrop. Its surface was filled with countless magical runes which resembled the runic circuits that were etched on Piasce’s skin. These runes were also the source of the blue light that Link saw.

The object matched the description that Piasce had given Link. When he was a few feet away from the teardrop, a voice suddenly sounded in his head. Intruder, this is as far as you can go. Please don’t come any closer. Otherwise, immediate action will be taken against you!

This was the Void Ferry’s defense system that Piasce was talking about. Any living being entering its vicinity would receive a psychic warning from it. If the intruder continued moving towards the vessel, it would unleash a Level-10 energy beam on him or her in retaliation.

After casting a Level-13 magical shield on himself, he continued drifting towards the Ferry.

A blue energy beam streaked out from the Void Ferry and struck Link’s shield. Tiny ripples spread out across its surface upon impact before subsiding completely.

Link continued moving forward. Though the Ferry’s attacks did not let up, its level was just too low, and it posed no real threat to Link.

When he reached the Void Ferry, Link began observing its external structure while withstanding its barrage. After ten minutes, Link finally had an inkling of how it worked.

Like the secret portal from before, the Ferry’s structure seemed to have been conceived in accordance with the new magical system that Piasce had brought with him. The Ferry was also much more advanced in its application of the magical system in question.

As soon as he figured this out, Link began his observation of the vessel in order to gain an even more profound understanding of it.

After studying it for half an hour, Link realized that though the runic circuits on the Ferry looked foreign, they seemed to adhere to the same basic principles that governed Firuman. So far, there was nothing in them that surpassed his comprehension.

Link was already a grandmaster in the world of magic. With his current mastery of the mystic arts, he was able to understand most of the runes inscribed on the Void Ferry with ease.

Link was soon lost in his observations. After god knew how long, he finally had a complete grasp of the Void Ferry’s design.

He then took out his Ode of a Full Moon sword and gently ran it along one of the runic circuits on the Ferry. All of a sudden, the Ferry’s attacks stopped. Then, a voice sounded in Link’s head again. Warning! Warning! External breach detected. Commence self-destruct protocol. Beginning countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7…

The whole vessel had turned red. It was now flashing dangerously.

Without a hint of panic, Link continued tracing the magical circuits with the tip of his sword. Finally, he plunged into a triangular rune on the rounded end of the Ferry and began infusing his Realm Essence Power into it.

Two seconds later, the red light stopped flashing. Then, Link heard a soft click. He then saw a hole opening up on the surface of the vessel’s rounded end.

Link entered the vessel through the hole. Once inside, he discovered that its interior was also filled with countless magical runes. However, due to his meddling, some of the runes had been damaged.

The inside of the Ferry was cramped. There were no seats. However, there was a bed-like platform strung to the ceiling with a couple of wires. On it were runes that seemed to control the vessel’s various functions.

Link was able to understand most of these runes. However, there were a few he could not make any sense of. Since the vessel had broken down, he now had no way of experimenting on them.

Piasce said not to activate the Ferry. I guess he won’t mind me breaking it. On the other hand, some of its parts could still be of some use!

Link began looking around the place and soon was able to scrounge up at least ten types of rare magical materials, as well as a few other he had never seen before. There were also a few Astral Meteorites lying around.

Link estimated that the value of these materials could easily surpass Ferde’s wealth.

I’ve definitely hit the motherlode. Leaving all these here would be such a waste. Exiting the vessel, Link began making his way towards the inner region of the Firuman realm while dragging his loot behind him with the Magician’s Hand.

Floating back up from the deepest recesses of space was much faster than going down. Half an hour later, there was a hum, and Link reappeared in the realm crack barrier. The Void Ferry he had dragged behind him fell on the ground with a clatter.

Piasce was frozen in horror when he saw the state of his Void Ferry. “My lord, why did you break it? It took me 13 years to build it!”

“Well, you can fix it back up, can’t you?” said Link, not at all sorry for what he had done.

He was now looking at Piasce greedily the same way one would look at a recently unearthed treasure.

Despite the man’s sketchy background, his current power would benefit Link greatly, especially his soul magic mastery. Though he was not as strong as the Soul Dominator, Piasce was undoubtedly far more powerful than Link or Celine in this respect.

With his help, Link and Celine would be able to proceed with their training in soul magic without a hitch.

This person is the real prize! Link’s eyes lit up at the blue-skinned man.

Piasce felt a shiver down his spine under Link’s gaze. He then said, “My lord, why are you looking at me like that?”

Link laughed out loud and beckoned at Nana. “Bring him back to my house.”

He then said to Piasce, “Relax, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just curious about you. Extremely curious.”