Advent of the Archmage

Three days had passed and the Royal Knight Anderson still had no success in the search for the Syndicate’s hideout. This was much within Link’s expectation. When he was playing the game, the Syndicate’s hideout was well known for its secrecy. The hideout of the Dark Brotherhood was well-hidden, however the Syndicate’s hideout was on a completely different level.

The Syndicate built their hideout to complement the geography of the land. They also used various spells and Divine Powers to conceal it. Even if a thorough search of Girvent Forest was done, luck still had to be on their side for the search to be successful. Link thus decided that he would take this time to focus on crafting his magic wand.

The strength of a Magician was largely dependent on the quality of his magic wand, which made the staff the most crucial part of a Magician’s equipment. A powerful wand was extremely complicated to craft. The basic wand he crafted previously only managed to increase his magic power by a measly 5%.

He would probably be dismissed as grossly overestimating his own abilities if he told another Magician of his foolish attempts at crafting a wand after only six days of practice.

However, Link was never one to follow the rules. He always valued action over words and would set out to accomplish what he envisioned despite the odds.

He first needed to fully understand and absorb the knowledge in the three enchanting magic books Herrera had kindly given him.

"Lucy, I plan to do meditative training these next few days, just place any food outside my door and please do not interrupt my progress," Link gave Lucy a heads up.

"What if General Anderson is looking for you?" Lucy had already gotten used to Link’s quirky habits of locking himself in his room and thought nothing of it.

"Anderson ... inform me if that happens." Link was left with no choice. He had promised to help out with the search previously and could not go back on his word, much less by locking himself in his room.

"I got it," Lucy nodded.

Link then started his research into the field of enchanting magic.

When he was awake, his eyes would be fixed on the books. He only slept three hours a day, and even when he slept he dreamt of enchanting magic. From a third person’s perspective, he seemed to have gone slightly insane.

Link’s brain was like a supercomputer. In a matter of three days, he was done with all three magic books.

"Enchanting magic is so interesting," Link exclaimed.

He started penning a letter to Herrera. He had so many newfound questions about the wondrous world of enchanting magic. After sending the letter, he started his experiments on enchanting magic without any delay.

Naturally, enchanting was a branch of magic. Through the work of many generations of Enchanters over the past 500 years, a complicated system of spells was finally developed—many of which were unique and powerful.

Link had to familiarize himself with some of the enchanting techniques before he started crafting his staff.

We are slightly lacking in resources, but that doesn’t matter! Mithril is the only resource we need! Link delved into fanaticism yet again.

For the next few days, one could constantly hear sounds of explosion, laughter and even the howling of wind from Link’s room. Initially, everyone was slightly afraid of what was happening, but they soon got accustomed to it.

Whenever an explosion sound was heard, they would look at each other and achieved a mutual understanding. "I guess ... Link’s experiment ended in a failure yet again."

Three days passed. Herrera had sent her letter back to the academy. After reading through her answers, Link wrote down new questions from the experiments he conducted the past few days and passed the letter to the messenger.

He never stopped working. And under such fanaticism, his enchanting magic level rose rapidly.

Time flew by; it had been two weeks, yet was already the fifth exchange of letters between Link and Herrera. General Anderson also tried his best to not disturb Link’s training with superfluous things.

In the last two letters, Link had improved to the point where he could raise some objections to Herrera’s answers, instead of just passively absorbing the knowledge. He had made major progress.

On the last day of the two weeks of training, there was a large explosion sound that came from Link’s room. With his face covered in dust, his hair disheveled and his stained shirt, Link rushed out of his room holding a wooden stick in his hand. What caught everyone’s attention was the fire crystal that sat at the tip of the stick. "I have succeeded! Yes!" Link ecstatically waved the wooden stick around. Wooden stick? ... No, it was a wand!

Magic Wand: Matchstick

Quality: Epic

Effect 1: Increases casting speed of fire magic by 20%.

Effect 2: Increases magic power by 50%.

Effect 3: Contains Level-3 magic: Might of a Giant (Released after charging)

(Note: Created by Magician Link)

Based on the rule of classification for magic equipment in the World of Firuman, an equipment with three additional effects was strong enough to be written into the annals of history, also known as epic quality.

Link dismantled both the Fire Crystal Staff and the New Moon Wand before attempting to combine both their materials together. Using the knowledge he gained in these past two weeks, he finally succeeded in creating this epic quality wand after many failures.

The wood of the wand came from the Fire Crystal Staff, which he thinned to lighten the weight and to increase movement speed. The tip of the wand had a huge fire crystal. At first glance, it looked simply like a giant matchstick, therefore the name.

This was probably the ugliest epic equipment in the history of Firuman.

Link got a reward of five Omni Points after crafting the wand and also developed his own understanding of enchanting magic. The whole process took him around 20 days, a progress much faster than the average Magician. This was partly due to his talent, but more so, his undivided attention and passion.

These few days, he skipped meals to conduct experiments and even dreamt about enchanting magic while he was asleep. He also had confidence in his control of magic, and was daring to conduct all sorts of experiments, as evidenced by the consistent explosion sounds.

It was not surprising that such a hardworking, fanatical genius could achieve these results. Lucy was the first person Link saw after rushing out of the room.

Lucy had already fully recovered from her injury. The power of divine spells was mind-blowing, not even a scar remained after recovery. Lucy looked well-rested and in the peak of health; she even looked like she had put on some weight!

Link was thrilled, and gave Lucy a tight hug. He attempted to make a spin while hugging her to celebrate his achievement but Lucy did not even budge. Lucy was half a head taller than Link, and though she looked slim and lightweight, she was a warrior, after all, and weighed much more than the average girl—it was impossible for Link to carry her with his weak physique. Link awkwardly withdrew his hands while Lucy blushed.

"How many gold coins do we have now after paying my tuition?" Link hastily changed the topic. He was too excited and lost his cool.

"We made 1300 gold coins from the sale of anti-magic equipment previously. On top of the 1500 gold coins you saved, we have 2800 gold coins in total," Lucy reported the numbers after she calmed down.

"We will leave 500 gold coins for our daily necessities. Instruct Jacker to purchase more Mithrils with the remaining gold coins, I will enchant the rest of your armor!" Link laughed.

Link was still not confident in enchanting other types of high-level equipment. However, he was confident enough to enchant basic equipment. He believed that for Jacker and the rest, the addition of a few magic attributes would be enough to greatly increase their power.

Most importantly, everyone now knew that the master of The Flamingo Band of Mercenaries was a strong wizard. Jacker had also become a Level-4 Warrior, while Lucy and Gildern had acquired Battle Aura and became Level-3. No one would look down on them anymore.

"Roger!" Lucy’s eyes shone at the mention of magic equipment, ecstatically nodding her head.