Advent of the Archmage

Valley

After Morpheus’ white fog projection finished asking, he watched Link quietly, waiting for his reply.

Link’s mind whirred crazily, trying to find a way to solve this. On the other hand, Morpheus waited a few seconds. When he didn’t get a reply, he said, “Oh? You don’t dare to answer?”

Eliard and Dylosen had stopped breathing, and they were ready to act. They didn’t hope to defeat Morpheus; they only wanted to escape successfully.

But then Link suddenly yelled, “Those thieves said you’re an unbeatable god. Is that right?”

“Can it be wrong?” Morpheus huffed. He was only a demi-god, but before mortals, he always called himself a god. He never interacted with mortals either to further maintain his mysteriousness.

“God, I beg you, let me become your believer.” Link prostrated himself on the ground.

This interruption got rid of Morpheus’ anger. Link probably only wanted to save his life by becoming a believer, but no demi-god who wanted to become a god would drive away a potential believer. Morpheus was the same.

However, he wouldn’t accept just anyone who said he wanted to convert. He had to learn about this person’s past and personality… Of course, this wasn’t important. The most important thing was where the other half of the Celestial Stone was.

“If you wish to become my believer, you must serve me and be completely loyal. Now tell me, how did the statue get halved?” Morpheus asked. His voice was much softer now. If he could get the other half, he could let these people live. Of course, they had to join his cult.

Link’s thoughts whirred, and he thought of what to say. Pretending to recall his memory, he said, “Mighty God, this statue was very difficult to get. We risked our lives in the Grinth Forest near Ferde to get it.”

Morpheus was instantly interested. “Oh? Tell me in detail.”

He didn’t test Link’s soul to see if he was speaking the truth. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to; he was just a thief originally. He didn’t know anything about Soul magic. After receiving the divine fragment, his power increased, and he grasped some of the knowledge for becoming a god. He still wasn’t familiar with Soul magic though. If Link was his believer, he could use the belief to read Link’s soul. Since he wasn’t, he could only judge from Link’s expression.

The man looked fidgety and extremely scared. His body was drenched in cold sweat. A regular merchant wouldn’t dare to lie.

Morpheus was quite confident about that.

Link cursed inwardly. He didn’t know anything. Beside him, Eliard and Dylosen were still sweating. They looked at Link, waiting for him to make something up. They hoped the story would be beautiful and Morpheus wouldn’t be able to find flaws.

Of course, they were also busy during this time.

As a Level-14 Magician with a Level-19 divine gear, Dylosen took advantage of when Morpheus was distracted by Link and secretly searched for where Morpheus truly was.

This divine gear was the Snow Mountain Archmage’s proudest work. It was called the Eye of Reality and operated secretly. If the other was also an Archmage, they would be able to discover it. Morpheus wasn’t though. He was just someone who didn’t know any Soul magic and just hit a fortune.

He didn’t know what Dylosen was doing at all.

Link saw it, of course. Now, he had to make time for Dylosen. His mind spun and suddenly got an idea. “Mighty God, we are from Norton, and we live in the Grinth Forest. We were strong as children, so we learned some martial arts techniques—”

Morpheus cut him off with a wave. For some reason, he felt anxious and restless inside. This annoyed him. “Cut the nonsense and say how you found it!”

“Yes, yes, Mighty God!” Link wiped his sweat and swallowed heavily. Then he took some deep breaths, seeming to try to make himself calm down.

Morpheus couldn’t do anything except wait patiently.

After many seconds, Link finally continued, “It’s like this. Me, Liard and Dylo are good friends. We went hunting in the forest. You know, the Grinth Forest had a lot of battles. The farms are all destroyed and we don’t have enough food, so we had to hunt to add to our food.”

“And then?!” Morpheus just wanted to strangle this wordy guy. It’s been so long, and he just can’t get what he wanted.

“And then we found a deer. I shot it and hit its hind leg. It was a bit off though. Not only did it not die, but it also ran too. It kept running, and we followed its bloody trail. I didn’t think that lame fella could run so fast. It disappeared just like that. If it wasn’t for the blood, we couldn’t track it at all—”

“Cut the nonsense!” Morpheus’ image waved his hand and Link immediately flew backward, rolling many times before stopping. If Morpheus hadn’t restrained himself and used more strength, he would have exposed himself now.

As for why Morpheus was so nice was because Link had said he wanted to become a believer. Morpheus couldn’t kill him.

After rolling to a stop, Link immediately started screaming like a dying pig, “Mighty God, mighty god! I’ll tell you! Don’t kill me!”

Morpheus huffed. “No more nonsense. I usually don’t give second chances!”

Link subtly looked at Dylosen. Seeing that he was still focused, Link knew he hadn’t found Morpheus. Link couldn’t find him either.

In the game, he found Morpheus mostly thanks to the Ethereals. The Ethereal Warriors had mutinied and forced Morpheus into the Shadow Fortress. But here, because of Ferde’s capturing, the Ethereals were almost extinct. Morpheus naturally didn’t have pressure from them. As for where he was now, Link had no clue.

Seeing that Morpheus’ patience was at the limit, Link spoke faster. “We still lost the deer in the end, but we happened to see a Warrior chasing a Magician deep in the woods.”

He was completely BS-ing. He only had one goal: drag things out.

“Warrior? Magician?” Morpheus’ brows furrowed. “Tell me what they look like. If they could have the Celestial Stone, they must be powerful. The Warrior was probably a Legendary Warrior. The Magician must be a master too.”

Link recalled in detail. “The Warrior wore a gold and red robe. It looked weird. I can’t explain it. He was so fast too, just like lightning. He just flashed by. We heard the Magician say, ‘Here you go, all for you.’ And then he tossed something down, but the Warrior didn’t want it. He cut it with his sword and then started chasing the Magician again. They disappeared so fast. We waited a long time before we dared to go look. After looking around, we found half of the statue, but couldn’t find the other half.”

Eliard followed up. “The statue is so pretty. After we got it, we were scared the Warrior would look for trouble. We obviously couldn’t stay in Grinth anymore. We wanted to sell it in the Southern black market. And then… and then we got captured and got brought here.”

Hearing this, Morpheus fell silent. If it was a Warrior with a gold and red battle robe and chased a Magician with a Celestial Stone all over the place… More importantly, he could cut the Celestial Stone with one move and make the cut so smooth. Just from that, he was sure the Warrior was at least Level-15.

These three were honestly so lucky to get this half. But according to their description, the other half should be in the Grinth Forest. They were just too scared to find it. They probably didn’t dare to spend too much time looking.

Thinking of this, Morpheus said, “Do you still remember where you found it?”

“Yes, yes,” Link hurriedly replied. “We grew up in the Grinth Forest. We can find our way with our eyes closed. Liard, Dylo, right?”

“Oh, good.” Morpheus suddenly looked to Link. “You said that you want to convert?”

Link froze. Glancing at Dylosen from the corner of his eyes and seeing that the man was still silent, he panicked a bit. What was with Dylosen? Did he still not find Morpheus? It was getting serious. Though he was panicking inside, Link nodded hurriedly. “Yes, yes. Mighty god, it would be my biggest honor to become your believer.”

“Oh, then I will perform the ritual now…” Morpheus’ image raised a hand. An emblem with dark light appeared in his palm. He was about to press it down onto Link’s forehead.

Just then, Dylosen’s hands twitched. The gesture meant that he’d found Morpheus.

Link’s eyes flashed. This meant that the divine gear could be activated and they could act. Now, Morpheus’ hand was about to land, but Link obviously wouldn’t allow it. He suddenly raised a hand. A shred of moonlight flashed and dissipated the projection!

Link couldn’t defeat Morpheus’ true self, but this was just a projection. It was nothing.

As soon as the projection was gone, Dylosen acted.

Fiery-red light radiated from his left arm. It grew brighter, and half a second later, his entire arm flew off. It curled into a silver-red disc. This was the divine gear he’d brought: Chaotic Moon.

Chaotic Moon

Level-19 Legendary Pinnacle Divine Gear

Effect: It took the Snow Mountain Archmage three years to create. After activating, it will use the chaotic Void power and force the opponent to Level-5. It can last from 10 seconds to one hour.

(Note: Knowledge is power!)

“Go!” Dylosen yelled. The air around them shook and rippled. The silver disc spun and whooshed, disappearing into the sky.

Half a second later, a roar boomed from around ten miles away. “Die! Everyone must die!”

The voice was aggressive and furious, but to Link’s group, it sounded weak.

“The divine gear is activated!” Dylosen yelled. “We have ten seconds!”

Within ten seconds, they either get the Divine Fragment, or they die. It was time to risk their lives!