Advent of the Archmage

Chapter 246: Spatial Magicians Are All Monsters

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After the conference, Link politely rejected Anthony's invitation. He prepared to return directly to his territory and find Vance. He needed Vance's help if he wanted to repair Nana.

Coming out of the Heaven's Thorn, Link began thinking of how to repair Nana.

He had dealt with Nana before and was certain about this magic puppet's strength. She was extremely fast and had almost 700 years of battle experience. She reacted quickly and was exceedingly sensitive to enemies' weaknesses. Her body was strong; basic elemental magic was mostly ineffective on her. Bottom line, she was practically a perfect soldier.

Link thought for the entire way but could not think of any areas to fix. Vance had spent twenty years creating this magic puppet, and it definitely couldn't be underestimated.

That simplified things. Since he couldn't fix it, he would just strengthen it, pushing Nana's limits as far as he could.

She was fast, wasn't she? Then he'd make her even faster!

She couldn't turn at her max speed, right? Then he'd think of a way to make her turn!

She wasn't sturdy enough and was destroyed by the Divine Gear, right? Then he'd make her even stronger!

Following this train of thought, countless ideas immediately appeared in Link's mind. The magic knowledge he had learned recently popped up like bubbles. They combined, burst, and combined again, creating various crazy and unique ideas.

"Yes, I'll hurry back and recreate Nana!" Link was excited now. He sped up and went towards the stable of the East Cove Magic Academy.

Halfway there, a voice suddenly sounded behind him, "Mr. Link, wait for me."

The voice was crisp like marbles rolling on a plate. This unique and beautiful voice belonged to the Elf Princess Milda.

Link slowed down. He turned to see Milda jog over alone. Probably due to the running, her translucent cheeks were now pinkish. She was as beautiful as a painting.

"How may I help you?" Link was confused. He hadn't really interacted with the princess yet.

Milda reached Link's side. She exhaled deeply and adjusted her breathing. She quickly recovered her ladylike composure and smiled, saying, "I'm here because of the spatial magic spell you just used. The spell is very unique. From what I know, there are no books about spatial magic in the East Cove Magic Academy. Where did you get the knowledge?"

Link continued walking towards the horse stable. Rather than keeping it a secret, he admitted, "The academy doesn't have any, but I've been deducing a spatial thesis for a year. I've had some results recently. The spatial magic spell is one of them."

Milda followed Link. Hearing this, she was shocked. "So you created the spell yourself?"

In the field of magic, improving spells and acquiring super spell techniques was already very difficult. Creating spells was even harder. If he was able to create an obscure spatial magic spell, it was a bit frightening.

This meant he had a shocking amount of magical insight. This man had surpassed countless Magicians!

Milda was forced to admit that this young man truly had a special characteristic. "Can I see your thesis?" She was curious about the thesis Link was deducing.

"Now?" Link glanced at the stable in the near distance. "I'm preparing to return to my territory. Now might not be the time."

"Oh…" Milda glanced at the stable as well. She wanted to use her status as a princess to make Link stay here longer. However, she remembered that this wasn't the Isle of Dawn and Link wasn't her citizen. If she used her status but Link ignored her, she would be embarrassed.

Thinking more, Milda said, "Wait for half an hour, alright?"

"Fine." Link nodded. Half an hour was not long.

Milda lifted her skirt and jogged back. After around twenty minutes, she returned. There were two High Elf Magicians; one of them was Morrowson.

Running back and forth, Milda's face was even redder now and sweat beaded on her forehead. Panting, she said, "Let's go. I'm returning to the Isle of Dawn. I heard that there's a port on your territory, so I'll just go from there."

At the moment, she was so beautiful that Link had to lower his eyes. He nodded. "I'm honored."

The two High Elf Magicians, Milda, and Link arrived at the stable where Link found a large carriage. There was a small table inside. It was usually up against the wall and could be flipped down when needed.

After the four settled in, Milda flipped the table down and reached out her slender hands at Link. "Where's your thesis? Show me." Worried that Link would be unwilling, she added, "I won't read it for free. I heard from your dean that you want to repair your magic puppet. I have The Heart of a Puppet written by a Level-9 Master Magician. How about we trade?"

As she spoke, she pulled the book out. Link flipped through it and was captivated.

Earlier, he had read the magic puppet material Vance gave him when he had time and was mostly done with it all. There were only some details he needed to purify. This book before him explored an entirely different train of thought. He only looked at a few pages, but Link could already sense the author's unique intelligence.

"This is a very good book," Link praised. He took out the spatial thesis from his dimensional storage gear.

The thesis was no longer the few pages it once was. Now, it was at least one hundred sheets of intuitive breakthroughs, most of it containing Link's own symbols, markings, and various changes. It was extremely complicated, but it was Link's simplified version. If he wanted to write each deduction step in detail, it would probably be 300 pages.

Of course, Link would never do that. He had already written the critical steps. Those who could understand would naturally understand. Those who couldn't…probably had no talent for spatial magic to begin with.

After handing over the thesis, Link started focusing on The Heart of the Puppet. Milda opened the thesis and started reading with her two Magicians.

The carriage fell silent. The only sounds were the clacking of hooves and wheels.

After around half an hour, Link had completely immersed himself in the wisdom of The Heart of the Puppet. The three High Elves, however, had knitted brows and painful expressions. They seemed to be enduring the world's cruelest torture.

The Magician whose name Link didn't know had already given up. He started looking at the scenery outside the window. Compared to the obscure and incomprehensible thesis, the scenery was much more enjoyable. At least his head wouldn't burst.

Milda and Morrowson were still at it. Using the symbol index Link had made, they studied the thesis bit by bit.

It was pretty simple in the beginning. They felt comfortable, but this easiness only lasted around ten minutes. Ten minutes later, the content had entered a purely rational territory. What did that mean? It meant that it was logical, but many conclusions were completely opposite of the common knowledge that one received by perceiving the world. (See the Theory of Relativity.)

As Level-7 Magicians, Milda and Morrowson could understand purely rational theories. But there were so many changes and Mana equations—how could someone deduce this?

The logic in this was incomprehensible!

After struggling for half an hour, Milda gave up. As a Level-7 Magician, she could sense the deep wisdom in this thesis, but it made her head hurt. She felt like she would die if she kept reading.

She checked her progress; she'd only read a portion, around twenty pages. There was still a lot more left, but Milda did not have the courage to look.

Only Morrowson was still persevering. He had been humiliated by Link once and was still upset over it.

He thought, It's just spatial magic, isn't it? The thesis is right here, and we're all Magicians. You can write a thesis; you're skilled. I can't but does that mean I can't read it?

With this supporting him, he read…one page more than Princess Milda.

That single page took him one hour before he could kind of understand it. Halfway through, the thesis had taken some kind of drug and suddenly became extremely obscure.

"Mr. Link, how did you deduce this Mana equation? I don't think it's right," Morrowson said, pointing at an equation.

Link did not reply. He was focused on the book in his hand.

"Mr. Link? Mr. Link?" Morrowson called.

"Ah, what's wrong?"

"I asked if there's a mistake here," Morrowson said, pointing at the equation. Beside him, Princess Milda glanced in curiosity. She hoped Morrowson had found a flaw so they wouldn't be completely defeated.

Link glanced at the equation and asked in confusion, "Where?"

How could it be wrong? If it was wrong, how could he use the inaccurate result and perform the spatial magic?

"Look here…here…the change is illogical. Doing this will cause turbulence in the Mana," Morrowson said decisively.

Link took another glance and pointed at the parameters. "You've underestimated them."

"Uh…oh!" Morrowson hit his forehead. It suddenly made sense and his face reddened. He had misunderstood the writing; it was totally embarrassing.

Link ignored him and went back to his book.

This made Morrowson feel slightly better. Gritting his teeth, he continued reading. After another half hour, it felt like his head was splitting. He was going to break down. Looking up, he saw that Link was still immersed in the magic puppet book.

He whispered to the princess, "Your Highness, the thesis is getting harder and harder. I can't finish it."

Milda also snuck a glance at Link. Seeing that he wasn't paying attention, she whispered, "Shh, don't say it aloud. It's embarrassing. You two, use the magic image and make a copy. I'll bring it back to the Isle of Dawn."

This thesis was valuable; that much was obvious. They just didn't have the talent to understand it.

"Okay." The two High Elves got to work on copying the thesis.

It was around 150 miles from the East Cove Magic Academy to the Scorched Ridge of the Ferde Wilderness. The carriage was quite fast as well. Even at a slow pace, it could travel thirty miles in one hour. After four hours, the Scorched Ridge was in the near distance.

Here, Link had finished The Heart of the Puppet. He sighed in satisfaction. "Such a good book. There are some flaws, but it doesn't affect the wisdom contained."

Milda's beautiful lilac eyes widened. "You finished it?"

"Mostly. There are some specifics that I must look into with detail when I get back."

Hearing this, the two High Elf Magicians stared at each other and then gaped at Link as if he were a strange beast.

The Heart of the Puppet was written by a renowned High Elf Master Magician. He was Level-9, and this book was infamous for being obscure in the Isle of Dawn. Most Magicians had to read it with a mindset of going on an arduous journey. They needed at least half a year to get a basic idea.

Now, this human Magician had only spent four hours reading it. It was frightening.

Milda was reading this book too, but she struggled with it. Seeing how relaxed Link was, she was in disbelief. Taking the book, she pointed at a Mana equation and asked, "What do you use this isometric Mana equation for?"

"To manage the magic puppet's intelligence," Link answered matter-of-factly. Then he said, "Actually, it has a small error. Magic puppet intelligence created with this equation will occasionally have locked logic. I think if you change it like this, it might be useful, but this is just a thought for now…"

Link began talking happily while the three High Elves listened in confusion. Milda could understand some of it. From what she comprehended, Link was right.

"Okay, spatial Magicians are all monsters!" Milda closed the book. She completely acknowledged Link's magic talent now.

Morrowson felt the same. Clutching his head, he asked painfully, "Mr. Link, what equation did you get the spatial magic from?"

Link shrugged. "To be honest, my spell involved all the results from the last twenty pages. If you're interested, I can point them out…"

Morrowson quickly stopped him. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll take my time, really."

He had given up deep down. If the first half was this hard, he felt a migraine coming just from imagining what the results of the last twenty pages were like. He would have to apply the difficult theories to the spells and use it with ease too.

I'll just continue learning my elemental magic then. I never want to touch spatial stuff again in my life! So what if I embarrassed myself in the East Cove Magic Academy? It's better than killing myself over this.

At this time, the carriage arrived at the Scorched Ridge. After a week of absence, there were many changes.

The surrounding stone lands had been plowed into the soil, people had already started planting crops, and there was more foliage on the barren earth. The plowed soil was very fertile, and weeds and saplings all thrived.

There were more residents in the surrounding area as well. Crude houses had appeared, including cabins and tents made of hide. At a glance, it seemed like a small town.

In the distance, the foundation of the Mage Tower had been established. Dozens of Magicians and workers bustled around it. Everything was prospering.

Milda and the High Elves also saw the Mage Tower. Milda mused and said, "You don't seem to have enough workers. Morrowson, Alar, you two stay here and help."

Since it was the princess's order, the two High Elves nodded.

Link needed this too, and he thanked her profusely. Looking up at the sky, he realized night was falling. He said, "Your Highness, it is getting late. Since we've arrived at my village, why don't you rest for the night and set off tomorrow?"

Milda naturally agreed.

The carriage rode into the Scorched Ridge and stopped before the Administrative Building. When they got off, Joshua, the clerk, welcomed them. He said to Link, "Lord, you're finally back. There's a magic letter for you."

Joshua handed a cowhide envelope to Link. Glancing at it, Link's brows knitted because there was a dark rune on it. A dark aura permeated it.

Who would send a letter like this to him? Vance? No, that old guy would never do something so unreliable because it would give Link trouble. Being involved with dark magic would be troublesome for him.

While he was still figuring it out, Milda had also descended from the carriage. Her gaze was attracted by the letter.

"There's a problem with this letter," Milda said discreetly, waiting for Link's explanation.

It was not just Milda. Morrowson and Alar also looked at Link with instinctive suspicion.