Advent of the Archmage

Dragon Temple.

Inside the room, Link wasn’t fully awake yet. Hearing the Red Dragon Queen’s words, he couldn’t quite process it yet. "What? Dragonification?"

He’d seen the word "dragonification" earlier. Oh, right. There was a book called The Pros and Cons of Dragonification Spells on Dragon Magician Olisa’s dresser in Duke Osiris’ castle.

This word had appeared in the previous game too.

In actuality, these dragonified creatures were another hidden race. The player must complete a series of difficult epic dragon missions, be revered by the dragons, and complete the dragonification spells to advance from being a newbie player.

After dragonification, the player’s physique would strengthen in all aspects, especially vitality. They would practically become as hard to kill as a cockroach and were the best choice for Warriors. In the previous game, almost every main tank of a guild was a dragonified Warrior.

They were also excellent in terms of magic. Each one had a talent called Dragon Sense. It allowed them to quickly recover 30% of their Mana, and it could be used once per day. It was a fatal weapon in battle!

However, everything in the world had its pros and cons. It was the law.

The vitality of dragonified players was too strong. A side effect was becoming impulsive and greedy. In the game, they would have an extra desire bar. If the player couldn’t complete a special mission in time to lower the desire count and it overfilled, the player’s body would become uncontrollable. They would do all sorts of weird things. Dropping in experience or exploding equipment were everyday things.

In the previous game, the missions to lower the desire bar weren’t hard, but they were frequent. They had to be completed daily. The bar would overflow if the player missed one day. It was very annoying.

Naturally, many dragonified players would experience that, and it lead to tragedy.

Some nosy people had calculated the 1000 ways to die as a dragonified Warrior. These included challenging the general of the allied army and being stabbed in the head; charging into a demon’s fortress alone and getting blown up by countless demons; flirting with the Red Dragon Queen, resulting in getting burnt to dust; having sex with their horse in the wilderness, getting filmed, and having that video go viral...There were countless ways, and they were all abnormally unlucky.

If it was like this in a game, it would be even worse in real life.

Link didn’t want to experience these cons. He was much more clear-headed now and shook his head furiously. "No, no, no. Magicians must have a calm and logical mind. Dragonification spells aren’t suitable for me."

"Dragonification spells?" Gretel was taken aback and took a while to react. "I think you misunderstood. I was speaking of advanced dragonification technology, not regular dragonification spells."

"Is there a difference?" Link was interested.

"The explanation starts with the dragon bloodline. Our body contains the ancient and powerful dragon magic. This is very special and continuously grows with the dragon. It never stops modifying, and the dragon never stops strengthening. The completeness of the dragon bloodline magic determines the ultimate success of the dragon."

Here, the Red Dragon Queen took out a vial of a crystal red potion. There was a light spiral submerged inside. It actually looked similar to the double strands of DNA from Earth.

"True dragon bloodline magic is combined with the soul. It grows very slowly; that’s one of the reasons why we have longevity. Regular dragonification spells just puts crude dragon magic into the person’s blood. This affects the user greatly and torments them for life. The potion I have here is called the Red Dragon Password. Drink it, and a mortal can become a dragon—a true dragon."

"I can transform into dragon form?" Link was doubtful.

"It’s possible, but it depends on the completeness of the fusion. It won’t be effective immediately either. Like a true dragon, it requires a long period of time."

If it was true, it would be great, but Link still felt strange. "Your Majesty, why did you suddenly choose me?"

Gretel blanched at the question. Yes, the Red Dragon Password was so rare and precious. Why would she give it to a human she’d just met? She thought for a while and realized she hadn’t seriously considered this idea. It was the result of an impulsive moment.

However, she couldn’t take the potion back now. It was awkward.

Link could tell too. Chuckling, he said, "Your Majesty, it seems that you hadn’t fully thought about this. We can talk about it in the future...Come, let me see the results of your deduction. I’d like to see where I went wrong."

The potion was a good thing—really, really good. In fact, it was like a godly object. Link also knew that receiving it for no reason would be troublesome in the future. If he became a dragon, he would also be subordinate to the queen. If she commanded him to do something in the future, would he be forced to do it?

Gretel felt even more awkward. She even felt her cheeks burn. As a leader, she’d been too brash...This wasn’t the level she should be at. Chuckling wryly, she took the potion back.

Looking at Link, he seemed totally unaffected. He was already immersed in her deduction and didn’t notice her actions. She let out a sigh of relief.

This was still annoying though. I really embarrassed myself today. Ah, how can I show my royal power before this human in the future? This is horrible!

On the other hand, Link was already focused. The queen’s suggestion was only a small interruption in his mind. It didn’t even cause a ripple. Now, all that remained in his eyes were the spatial laws.

After reading for half an hour, Link suddenly hit the table and laughed. "Your Majesty, I think I won this round!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Gretel was stunned.

"Look at your Mana transformation here. It’s very clean and peculiar, but you overlooked the sudden changes of spatial curvature in extreme situations...Look, this is correct."

Link took out a pen and started scribbling on the scroll. His writing was crude, but it was okay. The queen could understand and followed his train of thought. At first, she was still feeling awkward, but she quickly forgot about it, refocusing on Link’s deduction process instead.

She read the whole thing while Link continued writing. After filling one scroll, he switched to a fresh one. This went on for more than one hour before Link finally stopped. He breathed deeply and smiled victoriously. "See, the final result shows that my idea is right while yours is flawed."

Gretel was in disbelief. She took the scroll and checked multiple times. Finally, she muttered, "Fine. You win this time."

Link was full of pride. He didn’t win against some nameless person this time. He’d won against the ruler of the Red Dragons, and this boosted his ego to the max. He laughed loudly. "Don’t feel down, Your Majesty. You still have the chance to beat me."

"Look how proud you are! If you were a dog, your tail would be wagging like crazy." Gretel wasn’t willing to admit defeat, but she’d truly lost. She was ready to make a comeback. "Come, let’s continue."

Link refocused. He pushed away all extra emotions and grew serious.

The two started discussing the spatial problems again and quickly forgot about time. They didn’t even waste time eating and just used a spell for it. Link was now in the Elemental Rejection state and couldn’t use Elemental Healing, so Gretel had to help him.

Her spell was very powerful. Link didn’t know what specific spell she’d used, but whenever she used it, he would instantly become spirited and stronger physically as well.

A week passed in the blink of an eye. Link’s spatial thesis was unrecognizable from before and had improved greatly. At this point, even the Red Dragon Queen felt unable to help anymore. Many of the theories had become crazily obscure.

Link felt the same. He knew that it had reached some kind of extreme.

"Your Majesty, I think it’s pretty much done."

"Indeed." Gretel understood what Link meant without him saying it. They’d deduced this thesis together for one week and knew each other well now. Many times, they could guess what the other was thinking with just a look.

"It’s time for you to leave."

All things had to end. Gretel found that she was a bit unwilling for this to end. Shaking her head slightly to get rid of the emotions, she eyed Link and sighed inwardly. He’s just a mortal, in the end, with a limited life. I don’t know if there’ll be another chance to see him after this.

One hundred years was a lifetime to humans but just a snap of the finger for dragons.

Link didn’t know what Gretel was thinking. He was still immersed in the new conclusion, thinking about how he could apply these results to his spells. He believed that before long, there would be a huge breakthrough in his spatial magic.

As for his life, he was only 20 years old now. He still had a long time.

Without him realizing, Gretel left. After a while, Felina walked over. She’d completely healed now, and her abilities seemed to have improved as well.

"Link, shall we go now?"

"Ah? Okay." Link finally snapped back into reality. He organized his luggage and followed Felina out of his room.

At the inner square of the temple, Felina transformed into her dragon shape. Link and Nana climbed onto her back. She flapped her wings, and with a low whistle, soared into the air.

Inside the temple, Gretel watched as Link left. She waited until he disappeared into the fog barrier of the Dragon Valley before looking away.

Sighing, she glanced back at the scroll of spatial laws. About half of the words were written by her while more than half were written by the human who’d just left. His thoughts were filled with spirit. Near the end, it was mostly him who guided the direction of the deduction.

She put the scroll away carefully, sealing it away with the weeklong memories. Her sadness had mostly faded through this week of willfulness.

With a long sigh, Gretel recovered the majesty of the Red Dragon Queen.

...

Ten thousand feet in the air.

"Felina, where are we going?" Link asked.

"My induction tells me that the exiled god Elodim is in the Golden Plains up ahead. He’s not far from us, only around 300 miles," Felina said with a laugh.

It was much easier for her to take Link and Nana this time. Fighting with the Red Dragon duke had helped her break into Level-8. With her speed now, 300 miles was only around half an hour. Link waited patiently.

The Golden Plains was very open. The grassland reached as far as one could see while the sky was all blue. The color was pure, and the view was vast.

Link had worked for more than one week and was exhausted. Now, he looked around, enjoying the view. Suddenly, he made a curious sound and pointed into the distance. "Felina, that’s the Beastmen city, right? I think it’s on fire?"