Advent of the Archmage Chapter 1

The strongest magician in the game, Link, led his group to finish off the final boss: Ruler of the Abyss, Nosamax. Then, a cinematic appeared.

It was a very simple one. An endless void, and within a void there was a self-proclaimed Ruler of Light—a dim light ball.

“Link, are you willing to save the continent of Feiloma from the envelopment of darkness?” asked the Ruler of Light.

Naturally, in reality, he wouldn’t dare to agree to such an enormous, righteous mission. However, can’t he give it a try in game?

“I am willing!” Link replied with full seriousness.

“Then go ahead.”

So, Link was thrown into the tragic continent of Feiloma.

The night was as cool as water.

At the northern part of a small town—north-west corner of Gerastone [Ge’la’si’tong] City—within the Flaming [Fu’lai’ming] Lessor Magic Academy, in the corner room of 309.

“Huu—” A quiet gasp. A blanket was pulled away. A black-haired weak young man abruptly sat up. Moonlight shone into the room through the glass window, lighting up the pale complexion of the young man.

Raising his frail arm, he wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead with his sleeve. There still remained fright from a nightmare in the young man’s black-coloured eyes.

“I’ve truly come to the world of Feiloma [Fei’luo’man]? A world of darkness; a fading light; bloody nights; saving the world with the glory of magic. Are all that real?”

The young man’s mind was in chaos. Extreme chaos.

His name was Link. He was from Earth. At least, an hour ago, he was.

One hour ago, he was playing the game “Legend” at home.

“Legend” was the most popular virtual reality online game on Earth. It described a pitiful world slowly taken over by the power of darkness. Within the game, he was the most powerful magician in the entire server, the head magician of the strongest guild, the Dream of Stars. Before the incident, he was fighting with his friends, challenging the newest expansion of the Army of Darkness—the final boss: Ruler of the Abyss, Nosamax [Nuo’sa’ma’si].

Nosamax was a half-god, and one of the three great bosses of the Army of Darkness in the mortal world. The progress of challenging it was extremely difficult. After many hardships, they grinded it down to a critical state, and when it was in a Fatal State, their entire group—over a hundred and ten people—had fallen. Only he was alive.

In the final moment, Link activated the Divine Armament’s special effect: “Sword of the Blazing Angel”. Huge amounts of energy were channeled into his body, and he entered a five-second temporary state of invincibility.

In those five seconds, Link cast three Fingers of Death and took three from the near-insane boss!

Finger of Death

Level 19 – Legendary Magic

Effect: After striking, the magic will commence a judgement of magic in accordance to their body’s strength. High chance of causing death!

(The one the player uses is the weakened version. It can only be used when the boss is in a Fatal State.)

The terrifying area of this magic was that it enacted a judgement upon the opponent while ignoring their level. Even if it were a god, if the magic’s judgement was effective, it could kill them directly!

After three strikes of magic, the judgement from both Link’s and the boss’s Fingers of Death were triggered simultaneously; both sides died together.

But the odd thing was after Link’s physical game body died, he did not revive at the graveyard in this boss instance’s entrance. Instead, he had entered a dark space.

Within that space, there was a dim ball of light. It proclaimed itself to be the Ruler of Light, the main god of the righteous faction. In the faraway world of Feiloma, the righteous faction was soon to collapse. As the main god, his power was also greatly diminished, and he was at the border of becoming a fallen god. He pleaded Link to save the broken world of Feiloma.

For something as huge as saving the world, Link would only give it a listen. Who would truly do it?

He mistakenly thought this was the final cinematic after killing the final boss. Since he had finished off the boss just now, he was full of confidence. He subconsciously agreed, and now, he was thrown into this damn place!

He turned his head around and looked at his surroundings. With the silver moonlight, Link was able to clearly see the layout of his room.

It was not big, nor small. Roughly thirty square meters, and by the window was a small bookshelf, full of an otherworldly style. One chair, and against the wall was a one-man bed. By the bed, there was storage cabinet. That was all.

In the bookshelf, there were three books. Link discovered he was able to remember the book names: they were “The Theory of Elemental Magic”, “Discussion of the Balance of the World”, and “Light and Darkness”. They were all borrowed from the academy’s library, and all of them were beginner books.

More memories surged into Link’s head. The body he possessed was also called Link; he was the youngest son of a small leader at the southern hills of the Norton [Nuo’dun] Kingdom. He was seventeen this year, and he had quite an introverted and passive character. His magic aptitude was extremely normal—he had already come to the academy for half a year, but he had only learned the most basic magic: the Hand of Magician.

In this academy, he was an unknown person. Nearly no one paid attention to him.

Of course, none of that mattered now.

He jumped down from his bed, and didn’t even bother wearing his shoes. With a few steps, he ran over to the calendar hung in front of his desk. Made by sheep skin, it clearly recorded the date today.

“Calendar of Light: 9th October, 1056.”

Link immediately breathed in deeply. This was a very normal day, but after today, it would be a day eternally remembered by all intelligent beings in the world of Feiloma!

Because on that night, the army of darkness’s vanguard, Dark Elves, successfully broke through Gerastone City, and quickly following it was a great massacre. All hundred and fifty thousand people in the entire city were killed cleanly. Their souls were sacrificed to the god they believed in, Zuhorosy. In the end, the number of pardoned did not pass a thousand!

After sacrificing their souls, their corpses were piled up outside the city, into the Gerast River. The current was nearly severed by the corpses, and the water was dyed red.

In a night, Gerastone City was also burned into a ruin!

This event was named later as the “Change of the Blood Moon”!

Afterwards, a horrifying battle engulfed all of Feiloma, and the era of darkness thus started. For over twenty years, there weren’t any signs of it stopping, and instead, became more and more intense.

That was the history of the game “Legend”. Link discovered, after examining the memories in his brain, that the world he was in was nearly the exact same as “Legend”.

The only difference was in the game, it was already year 1076. At that time, the faction of light had been pushed continuously back, and the number of losses surpassed the number of victories. Their territory kept on shrinking, and there were many instances of internal chaos events. Their situation was extremely horrid. As for now, the world was at the very beginning of a calamity.

Tonight, the Change of the Blood Moon would occur!

Link’s heart was cold. Turning around, he saw a watch by the bedside cabinet. Quickly walking up, he took it, opened, and its needle was glowing. A production from dwarves. He could clearly see the time—9:35.

“In less than an hour, the assassination of the Dark Elves will start!” Link’s heart trembled.

On that night, the first to attack were the Dark Elf assassins. They snuck into Gerostone City first, disguised themselves well, and made an extremely thorough assassination plot.

In the game’s history, the assassination started on 10:30, and lasted for an hour.

In that hour, 99% of all influential people who could stabilize the city were killed. Many of the remaining alive were heavily injured, and when the Dark Elves started attacking, the entire city had sunk into endless chaos. The army didn’t seem to have met any sort of resistance.

Why did he know this so clearly?

Because in “legend”, every single player who entered the game would experience a newcomer mission for the Night of the Blood Moon. Their mission was to escape Gerostone City.

Link, of course, had experienced that as well, but he never would have thought he would experience it again in the real world.

“How should I save myself?”

Link walked to and fro within the room, throwing himself questions endlessly.

He was about to experience a terrifying otherworldly massacre! If he didn’t escape, he would become one of the members to lie on Gerast River next morning!

The upcoming changes made Link a bit frightened. However, as a god-level magician in the game, his mental strength was very strong. Though surprised, he was not panicked, nor did he cast blame to any person after being tricked. Upon understanding his current state, he immediately started contemplating how to face the scene before his eyes.

Suddenly, Link’s heart trembled. Then, he felt a glowing number appearing in his head—it was 20.

“This is. . . Free Points? What the God of Light said was true?” Link’s spirit was greatly raised.

Within the game, the God of Light was the main god of the righteous faction. In this world, it was the same. This young man’s memory proved that point.

Before entering this world, when he was within the strange space, the Ruler of Light had told him, in order to escape Gerastone City, he would obtain 20 Free Points. By using them, he would obtain starting magic power.

That lit up Link’s eyes. He was only a god of magic in the game; he knew nothing regarding the theories of magic. If he wanted to truly grasp magic, he would have to go to magic academies to learn. That would require a large amount of time, and with such hurried circumstances now, that was an impossibility.

“How to use Free Points?” he immediately asked.

A light flashed at the borders of his vision; Link discovered a row of clear words there. That was the exact same as in the game.

The words started moving down and refreshing.

GAME SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY LOADING . . . LOADING COMPLETE.

SCANNING TARGET’S ATTRIBUTES . . . SCANNING COMPLETE.

PLAYER: LINK MORANI (NOBILITY)

TITLE: MAGIC APPRENTICE

MANA RECOVERY SPEED: 0.2/HOUR

MAXIMUM MANA; 1 (REGARDING MANA CONSUMPTION REFER TO FREE POINTS CONSUMPTION TABLE)

CURRENT SPELLS: LEVEL 0 HAND OF MAGICIAN (CONSUMES 0.2 MANA)

CURRENT EQUIPMENT: NONE

Link was quite puzzled as he looked at it. “What is this? Why is it so similar to a magician’s stat screen in the game . . . But this body is truly useless. These numbers aren’t no different from an ordinary person.”

Then, the game system gave a more detailed explanation.

IN ORDER TO LET THE PLAYER QUICKLY ADAPT TO THE TRUE WORLD OF FEILOMA, THE PLAYER’S BODY HAS BEEN MERGED WITH THE GAME SYSTEM. THE GAME SYSTEM WILL SEND YOU MISSIONS, AND UPON COMPLETION, YOU WILL OBTAIN MORE FREE POINTS

“What can Free Points be used for?”

Instantly, new information appeared in his vision.

FREE POINTS CAN BE EXCHANGED FOR THE PLAYER’S ATTRIBUTES.

EXCHANGE RATE: 1 FREE POINT = 1 ADDITIONAL MANA RECOVERY/HOUR = 10 ADDITIONAL MAXIMUM MANA.

FREE POINTS CAN BE USED TO PURCHASE MAGIC.

MAGIC PRICES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

MORTAL MAGIC: LEVEL 0 MAGIC = 1 FREE POINT.  LEVEL 1 MAGIC = 10 FREE POINTS. LEVEL 2 MAGIC = 20 FREE POINTS. ETC. . . . LEVEL 10 MAGIC = 100 FREE POINTS.

LEGENDARY MAGIC: LEVEL 11 = 500 FREE POINTS. LEVEL 12 = 1000 FREE POINTS. LEVEL 13 = 2000 FREE POINTS, ETC. . . . LEVEL 19 PEAK LEGENDARY MAGIC CAN BE PURCHASED FOR 128,000 FREE POINTS.

SEMI-GOD DIVINE TECHNIQUE: LOCKED AS OF YET.

Okay, that explanation was enough.

It also meant as long as Link kept on finishing the missions sent by the game system, he would keep on obtaining Free Points. He would never step growing, straight until he reached the peak of legendary magic.

Of course, that was for the future.

Now, Link only had twenty Free Points. He had to split those points appropriately and let himself obtain the power to escape Gerastone City.

In the game, Link chose to be a magician. So, his starting point in escaping Gerastone was also the Flaming Lesser Magic Academy.

During the night of the blood moon, magic academies were heavily focused on by Dark Elf assassins.

The academies were very small, and there were no more than a hundred magician apprentices. Of those, there were no more than twenty official magicians, and the highest level magician was only level four.

However, there were at least two hundred assassins sent here. There were twenty who had snuck in beforehand.

There were over half of the instructors in the academy who were killed within sleep. Those who survived went on guard, but were overwhelmed. In the end, the entire magic academy was eradicated, and even the apprentices were completely killed!

It was a massacre!

Recalling the details in the escape during the game, Link first purchased some magic for him to use.

“Spell list.”

Within his vision, a large number of glowing cards slowly rotated. Every single card was a spell; on the top-left corner was its mana consumption, on its top-right corner was its magic level. From level 0 beginner magic to level 19 peak legendary magic, all of them were there—over a thousand cards.

Of those cards, the higher level ones were brighter.

The radiance of the legendary magic nearly blinded Link’s eyes. Giving them a look, Link saw “Finger of Death”, “Apocalyptic Meteor”, “Great Collapse” . . . well-known legendary spells such as those.

“Hell, if I had two thousand Free Points, I would definitely be able to change this war completely alone. Sadly, I only have twenty Free Points.

“Filter, show me only level zero spells.”

Although high level spells were good, he could not even buy a single one. Although he could purchase level one spells, one required ten Free Points and its mana consumption was much greater than a level zero spell. He had to act according to the present circumstances.

As for level two spells, they had a price of twenty Free Points, and thirty points of mana consumption. The price of purchase and usage was so high Link could not take it. He didn’t even want to go imagine it.

Level zero spells were also called apprentice spells. If used unwell, they were mere firecrackers for playing. If used well, however, they were sufficient to kill!

There was another reason he chose them. The higher level the spell level, even though the power did increase, the casting time unavoidably greatly increased as well.

For level zero spells, Link could release one in 0.1 seconds. Level one spells, he needed at least 0.3 seconds. Level two spells, at least 1 second. That was too long. It was not sufficient for fighting one-on-one.

With a whoosh, countless dazzling spell cards disappeared. What remained were only dozens of dim groups of cards. On their top-right corner, the number it stated were all zero.

Link looked over all of them, and in the end, he chose four level zero spells.

“Purchase Fire Shell, Sharp Spike, Lessor Concealment, Lethargy.”

Instant, the corresponding spell cards in his head started glowing. Then, they suddenly shattered and became countless bits of light, dissipating. Link felt his mind go blank for an instant before he regained awareness.

Then he discovered he had a very deep understanding of those four level zero spells. As long as it was required, he could release any at any time.

‘It’s learnt just like that? This feeling of grasping spells is the exact same as in the game!’ The familiar feeling made Link feel peace.

After buying four spells for now, in order to use them, Link added two Free Points onto the maximum mana limit. As such, it became twenty-one points, enough to use ten level zero spells.

After doing so, he felt the mana in his body instantly becoming bountiful. Link breathed in relief.

The game system was still reasonable. When increasing the limit of mana storage, the mana in his body would increase alongside it. If it didn’t, to wait for it to refill itself with Link’s recovery speed of 0.2 mana/hour, there would be no difference increasing the limit or not.

Now, he still had fourteen Free Points.

Link didn’t prepare to use them up immediately. Who knew what sort of incident he would run into when escaping? Act in accordance to the situation.

Lowering his head, looking at his watch, five minutes had passed. It was now 9:40.

The assassination would truly start only after an hour. In that hour, it was safe within the apprentice apartment. However, outside, the assassins had definitely started already. Running outside was undoubtedly equal to committing suicide.

In the game, if he wanted to escape the academy, he would have to wait until the assassination started. At that moment, the academy would become extremely chaotic, and only then would he have a chance to escape.

“There’s still an hour. What should I do?” Link was thinking of all sorts of things.

Save them? Convince the apprentices to escape with him

That would be nothing more than bothering them. Link belonged more to the outside group in the magic academy. Who would believe a pitiful insect’s words, one that only knew a playful spell? They would only look at him as like a madman.

Go find some equipment, and increase his power as much as possible?

Right! That way of thinking was reliable!

Descent of the God of Magic (????) is a Chinese web novel by Mo Xiang (??). It has over 480 thousand characters, and is listed, on qidian, under the category of “Game” and the subcategory of “Game World”. There are over 160 chapters; the novel was started on 15th May, 2016, and is still ongoing.

Chapter end