Advent of the Archmage
chapter-337

At first, Link didn't have to care about the Yabba race since the Orida Fortress was in danger. However, he vaguely felt that something was wrong.

He felt that Aymons sealing off information from the Black Forest not just to prepare for the final attack. Aymons was probably taking advantage of the humans' fear of the Divine Gear to secretly attack the Yabba city.

If the Dark Elves had powerful magic muskets and airships in the last battle, it would be a disaster to the Orida Fortress and the entire Norton Kingdom!

This worry meant that Link had to find out about the Yabba race's current situation.

He waited patiently in the forest for half an hour. The screaming winged demons finally left. They didn't go toward the northeastern Black Forest as he'd expected and flew northwest instead.

This meant that they probably had another mission, which increased Link's worry.

"Let's go take a look," he whispered.

Skinorse led the way, and Link followed. The two of them used the forest's vegetation as protection and snuck past the still-burning airship frame. The fire had weakened quite a lot, and they didn't feel the heat beside it.

Walking up to a Yabba corpse, Skinorse started studying carefully. "This Yabba man is wearing an engineer coverall. He's probably an engineer. There's an emblem here of blue wings and gears. Master, do you know what it is?"

Link thought back to the previous game and quickly found the corresponding information. "The wings and gears mark should be the emblem of the City in the Sky, Pollol. The Pollol City is one of the Yabba's important cities. They're especially skilled in creating magic airships…This situation is bad. Continue searching for clues. We must know what's going on."

Skinorse nodded. He circled the airship and checked every corpse.

There were a dozen bodies of demons on the ground. Other than the hard-shelled armor that only demons had, they had nothing else so Skinorse and Link couldn't find out anything other than what kind of demon they were. There were seven or eight Dark Elves. All of them had an emblem on their armor of a moonflower wrapped around a bloody sword.

"These are members of the elite Dark Elf air force, the Wings of Moonlight. Why are they here?" Skinorse's voice was filled with shock, and the worry on his face deepened. It was clear that he'd thought of something.

After searching for a while longer, he suddenly called out, "Master, look, this Yabba man has a hidden letter."

The letter was very deeply hidden inside an inner layer of the corpse's clothes. The demons had searched this body before but just couldn't find this letter.

This showed how skilled Skinorse was. His acuity was almost like gut instincts, and he could easily find critical clues.

He handed the letter to Link. It had the same City in the Sky emblem, but there was no magic seal, so there was no obvious magic aura. Opening the envelope, he took out the letter, but it was white. There was nothing on it.

"A blank piece of paper? Why would he hide it so secretively?" Skinorse was watching, and he found it strange.

"It's not blank." Link shook his head. Every enchantment Magician was almost instinctively sensitive to the elements of the material. Link was so as well. The moment he received the letter, he felt that there was something about it hidden.

"Element Detection." Link cast a Level-1 enchantment spell.

Ding. A ball of powdery light appeared out of thin air and sprinkled onto the letter. Something miraculous happened.

There really was writing on the blank piece of paper. Because of the different material, it absorbed the element detection powder differently as well. Words appeared on the paper instantly.

The letter was written in the Yabba language. Skinorse was illiterate, but Link could read it, so he read it out loud in the human language.

"Respected human general, my race has suffered violent attacks from the Dark Army. We don't know how many there are, but from the current situation, there seems to be more than 30,000 soldiers. Half of them are demons. Our city is in extreme danger. Practically all the civilians in the nearby towns have been killed…Lariel is on the brink of danger as well…I ask for your reinforcement as chancellor of the High Mountain Council."

This was a letter for requesting reinforcements. It was written to Duke Abel of the Orida Fortress.

Link looked back at the airship. From the damaged frame, he could guess that this was not the main airship that the Yabba race used. Instead, it was an extremely fast airship for sudden attacks. It was longer and narrower than the ones Link had once made. There were fewer magic muskets on it as well.

It was obvious that it had burst out of the siege to ask for reinforcement but still couldn't escape from the Dark Army.

The more Skinorse thought, the more shocked he became. "No wonder there was no action from the Black Forest these days. I can't believe they were attacking Yabba cities without us knowing. They must want to receive their magic muskets and battle airships!"

Link nodded and said, "There's still not enough written on the letter. Let's follow the trail and see if there are any Yabba survivors."

The Yabba airships had come under fire long before they crashed. They had been exploding as they flew and lay scattered on the ground. The trail was obvious.

The two followed the visible airship parts everywhere and went northwest. After around one mile, they reached a large patch of thick grass. Skinorse suddenly stopped.

"Master," he whispered. "I feel something wrong. I think someone's on us."

Link felt it as well. The opponent had some odd trick that allowed him to see through Link's Traceless spell. However, Link didn't feel much danger despite having eyes on him.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "It should be a Yabba survivor. If I'm not wrong, his magic musket is pointed at our heads right now."

"Having their magic musket pointed at my head…doesn't feel good." Skinorse's handsome face had a wry and uncomfortable smile.

In Firuman, the dwarves were the first to invent the magic musket. The dwarves and Yabbas lived in a mountain range, and they often traded with each other. The magic musket was powerful but didn't require much physical strength so the thin Yabbas grew to love it. They developed the weapon and created many powerful muskets. With it, they became known for their musketeers in the mainland.

In Firuman, "having Yabba muskets pointed at one's head" had become an idiom that meant absolute death.

On the other hand, Link was searching for the Yabba. After around three seconds, he shook his wand, and a sesame-sized dot of light flew out soundlessly.

Buzz. With a light sound, the spatial sphere expanded, successfully restricting the target 150 feet away. Then firelight came from behind the grass. The musketeer had fired subconsciously at the shock.

Sadly, it was useless.

"Let's go. He's over there."

Skinorse had rushed over already. He saw two Yabba people hiding in the grass—one man and one woman. The man was covered in blood and unmoving on the ground. The woman was half-kneeling, a musket with a scope propped on her knee, aimed at where they had been.

Of course, these two people were no longer a threat. They were restricted by the spatial sphere and were so slow they were basically frozen.

In that strange space, Skinorse saw something extraordinary.

He saw a beautiful flame bloom from the muzzle of the Yabba woman's musket. Inside the flame, a spinning bullet flew forward bit by bit. It looked so slow, but the bullet was able to produce rings of ripples in the air.

It was beautiful.

Master Link's spell is unbelievable, he thought, impressed.

Link walked over as well. Seeing the two people, he observed them and said, "The man is too heavily wounded and pretty much bled out. He can't be helped. If the woman doesn't treat her leg wound, she won't live for more than three days."

As he spoke, Link activated a Soundproof Barrier and canceled the spatial restraint.

The Yabba musketeer's movements sped up, but the musket's sound was muted within the Soundproof Barrier. Link then canceled the spell.

"Who are you?" The musketeer's face was bloody and full of vigilance. She wasn't dumb—when she spoke, she aimed the musket at the ground.

Link introduced himself. "I am Link Morani, the lord of Ferde. As you can see, I am a Magician."

Skinorse introduced himself as well. "I am the famous wandering vigilante, Skinorse…uh, hey, are you listening to me? Why are you crying? Am I that awesome?"

Before he could speak, the Yabba musketeer gaped at them and tears started streaming out of her bright eyes.

"Master Link, our city is destroyed." Ignoring Skinorse, the Yabba woman choked out, "The Dark Army invaded the City in the Sky and killed everyone in sight. My father, mother, and brother were all killed. They even ate my brother…They're all dead. The city is in a sea of fire. My home is gone."

Who was Skinorse? She didn't know, but the lord of Ferde, the most powerful human Magician, Link, was known throughout the continent. Link worked with the Yabba race often and Elin, the Lady Fortuna, spoke highly of him as well. All Yabba people were familiar with him.

In their eyes, Link was powerful, fair, benevolent, kind, wise, and basically everything good.

At this time, the Yabba musketeer had just experienced the biggest tragedy of her life. Seeing a strong figure she could rely on now, her tense feelings collapsed, and she broke down sobbing.

Skinorse had been disappointed at first but listening to her, he fell silent too. He'd only joined the army recently, but he had experienced too much tragedy already. He thought of the comrades who had died in the Northern battlefield, thought of their last cries, and thought of the rookies crying hopelessly before the demons.

He also remembered how in one mission, he had a smart girl as his subordinate. Her name was Lily. She had deep blue eyes and a pretty cherry-like mouth. She really liked Skinorse; she would run after him, asking questions, and called him "brother." She gave herself to him too. At that time, Skinorse even wanted to marry her.

But in the Black Forest, she was ripped apart by a Fear Demon. Her head was torn off, and the beautiful thing rolled to where Skinorse was hiding. The two deep blue eyes stared at him listlessly as if asking why he didn't save her.

Skinorse felt his eyes grow hot and his vision blurred.

"I'll go see if there's anything around here." He wasn't willing to cry before the others. With that utterance, he turned around and started investigating around.

Link couldn't escape. He had to take up the role of a kind elder now. Patting the musketeer's shoulder, he said, "It'll get better. Everything will get better. Now, I'm going to treat your wound. Tell me what happened in detail, alright?"

"Yeah." She wiped her eyes and nodded.