Advent of the Archmage

“Nana, draw the Aragu Empire’s sign for me.” Link passed paper and pen to Nana.

“Yes, Master.”

Nana took the paper and pen and started drawing. On the side, Piasce also looked curiously. He didn’t understand why everyone had seen what he’d seen in the Sea of Void.

The sign wasn’t complicated. With a few strokes, Nana accurately recreated the sign on the paper. It was completely realistic and identical to the real thing.

“Here, it’s like this. Don’t you think it’s similar?”

The paper was on the table. Everyone could see it. Link, Celine, and Piasce all looked over.

There was a badge on the paper. It contained one eye with an eight-sided gear around it. Nana had drawn in detail. Looking closely, one could see that the eye was made up by many detailed runes. What was shocking was that the runes were practically the same as what Piasce had drawn.

“This doesn’t make sense.”

Piasce carefully compared the two images and found it increasingly hard to understand. When he’d seen the gear in the Void, he’d thought that it was an intelligent creature from some realm. He’d circled it but didn’t find anything.

Now, an image of the same source appeared in another realm. It had even attracted the interest of Nozama. What exactly was it?

His curiosity was piqued.

In reality, everyone present was the same. Link looked up. “Nana, Aragu should have more than one sign. Is there anything special about this?”

“Yes. This is the sign of God-given Wisdom, the core magic workshop of Aragu. The eye is called Wright’s Eye.”

“God-given Wisdom? Magic workshop?” Piasce asked hurriedly. “Do you know which god the so-called god-blessed is referring to?”

Nana thought a bit and shook her head. “I’m unsure. Apparently, this magic workshop has been around for many years. It’s a name passed down from ancient times. Maybe it had a special meaning in the beginning but was lost. It’s probably just called this by habit now.”

Link had wanted to ask another question. Hearing Nana’s answer, he didn’t have much hope, but he still asked. “Who’s Wright?”

This was another critical question. All three turned to look at Nana with hopeful eyes. If they knew who Wright was, they could follow it to get another clue.

This time, Nana didn’t disappoint. She supplied another piece of information. “Apparently, Wright is the name of an ancient enchanter. Princess Milda had researched this question, so I read some material. According to legends, Wright was one of the creators of God-given Wisdom. He was the most skilled in creating magic puppets. Not only were his puppets extremely realistic, but they were also very smart. In some ways, they were even more intelligent than humans. Later, Wright disappeared. No historical records said where he went.”

The three all felt that Nana should’ve said more. The information was too little and crude. It was basically useless.

Link couldn’t help but ask, “Nana, is that all? Think more closely.”

Nana “cruelly” shook her head. “Nothing more. These are all ancient legends. Princess Milda could find it because the Aragu Empire split and no one supervised the library. There are more than 100,000 books there. It took Milda a month to find this much. I could see it only because I was her personal bodyguard at the time.”

Everyone sighed at this. Too much time had passed. The truth of history was hidden in the passage of time. It was depressing.

Link walked up. He used a print spell to print the Wright’s Eye that Nana drew and the eye on Piasce’s mysterious gear. He turned them into magic projections and compared them carefully in the air.

This way, he found something new.

“Don’t you think that the runes forming the gear’s eye are more detailed than Wright’s Eye? It seems like the revised version.”

Piasce nodded. “Now that you say that, it does seem that way.”

Celine looked carefully and nodded too. Pointing at some of the runes, she said, “I also think that. Look at these runes, here, here, and here. The former is clearly a variation of the latter… Wait, I remember. I’ve seen this eye in a book!” Celine suddenly exclaimed.

“Which book?” Link’s spirits were lifted. Right now, he really wanted to understand the source of the eye. A voice inside told him that the key for Aisenis’ dark prediction was perhaps in this eye!

Celine didn’t reply. She ran to her bedroom and ran back after a while with a magic book in her hands. It was the Book of Revelations. Before opening it, she glanced at Piasce. The man was curious too and was staring at the book. Sensing Celine’s eyes, he chuckled awkwardly and looked away.

Finally, Celine opened it and flipped to the last few pages. One page had a picture.

“I flipped through while I was bored and saw this picture. Don’t you think it’s similar?”

Link looked over. The picture described a Soul spell called Eye of Insight. Despite the name, its appearance was extremely similar to the design of the mysterious gear. The runes weren’t even that different. It was quite similar to Wright’s Eye too.

“That’s strange.” Link read the spell’s description.

The inspiration for this spell is from the remains of an ancient book I found by accident. The author is named Wright Skynar. There isn’t much recorded in the book, but using the information, I can conclude that Wright was an excellent Magician. Unfortunately, he has passed. It is such a pity that I could not be in the same era as a Magician like him.

Wright Skynar. Another clue had appeared; new questions also appeared. This was a complicated matter.

Link carefully studied the Eye of Insight on the Book of Revelations. Suddenly, his heart jumped. He finally understood why the mysterious gear had felt familiar at first glance.

“I remember! I remember!” he cried excitedly. He took out a dark gray square rock. Its surface had some strange magic veins.

This was the game system’s reward to him for defeating the God of Destruction’s Saint—the Astral Whetstone. Link didn’t know what its use was. When he first got it, he’d looked at it and tried sharpening the Ode of a Full Moon. It hadn’t been too effective, but he was busy these days and put it away without studying it.

But now, he realized the magic veins on the stone were extremely similar to Wright’s Eye, the Eye of Insight, and the mysterious gear.

Celine realized it too. “Hey, Link, where did you get that rock? The veins are so familiar.”

Link didn’t keep it from Piasce.

“The style is completely the same. I think it’s made by the same person,” he quickly concluded.

Here, Link had formed a vague hypothesis, but there wasn’t enough information. He couldn’t confirm it. Looking at the coordinates in Piasce’s book, he said, “I guess we’ll have to go see the gear personally in the Sea of Void.”

Piasce immediately said, “How will you go? My Void Ferry? It’ll definitely attract Nozama and his Dark Army!”

“No, no, no, not your Void Ferry. It’s too shabby. I have a better idea,” Link said, smiling.