Advent of the Archmage

The footprints in the forest were fresh. Link had no trouble tracking them.

Whoever these footprints belonged to seemed to be a really huge fellow. Link continued his pursuit, not worrying about being shaken off by his prey. Along the way, he picked up some of the medicinal herbs that Gretel still needed.

Soon, he had gathered a whole bunch of herbs in his hand. Gretel had even told him that the more he could find in the forest, the better.

After pursuing his prey and collecting herbs along the way for more than 30 miles through the forest, he finally saw a lake up ahead.

The lake was oval-shaped, its diameter more than a thousand feet. Its water was crystal clear. Near the reeds on the edge of the lake, Link caught a glimpse of what he had been tracking.

It was a giant. He seemed to be around 150 feet tall, almost humanoid. He did not have much body hair, or even any clothing, covering his muscular body.

Below the giant’s crotch, Link could see, a bit too vividly, two huge meat balls swaying along with the giant’s movements. A few birds had landed on the giant’s vast body, apparently looking for food on it.

At that moment, the giant was squatting beside the lake, scooping up water in his hands to his lips. He would sometimes catch a huge fish in his huge hands. With an idiotic smile on his face, he would then pick it up between his fingers, cocked his head back and let the slippery thing slide into his great maw without even chewing.

He seemed to be having fun with all this, as he would chuckle to himself for a long while. When he was done laughing, the giant continued drinking from the lake.

Link observed the creature from behind a tree and noticed a huge wooden stick on the ground beside the giant. Just as he had heard from the natives, it was the trunk of a tree whose leaves and branches had been plucked clean off. One end of it was jagged.

Link changed his perspective from behind the tree and saw that the giant was physically similar to a human being. The only difference was that he only had one eye. The eye looked out from above the giant’s nose bridge. The huge orb practically covered half his face. It was also radiating an unsettling orange glow.

This must be the one-eyed king, Link thought to himself. He carefully felt the giant’s aura. It was powerful, approximately at Level-8 Pinnacle and close to Pinnacle power in the mortal realm.

Of course, no matter how powerful a mortal was, they were still a mortal. To a Legendary master, an opponent’s size mattered little.

Whether the big guy’s brain is as big as the rest of his body is remains to be seen, Link thought. He walked out from behind the tree, and rushed at the cyclops, shouting, "Hey, big guy!"

He had spoken those words in the native language. He had also used a bit of magic to amplify his voice.

"Huh?" The giant heard him, stopped drinking, and turned to where the sound had come from.

He had not expected such a loud voice to come from Link’s relatively tiny body. When his eye fell on Link, he ignored him and searched elsewhere for the big fellow that the voice had belonged to.

Link laughed uncontrollably at this. Seems like he’s not as intelligent as he looks. All brawn, and not much else up there.

He took a few steps forward, and waved at the giant, shouting once more, "Hey, over here!"

This time, the one-eyed giant noticed him. He stooped down to give him a closer look. He then asked strangely, "Little one, why do you have such a loud voice?"

Link smiled. He had followed the giant to measure his threat level. From the looks of things, the giant was nothing more than a big brute.

If that was the case, Link only needed to give the giant a big scare that he would not dare approach his castle.

He then activated Void Walk and flew into the air. He accelerated, and with a boom in the air, Link landed on the giant’s shoulder in an instant.

He walked along his shoulder casually and said to him, "Big guy, have you seen the castle in the forest?"

"What are you doing there? Get off me, little one... castle? No, I have not seen it. Where is it? I want to push it down. I love pushing down castles."

The giant’s speech was incoherent. His train of thought also seemed susceptible to influence.

Despite being distracted by Link’s mention of the castle so easily, his hand moved quickly to his shoulder, ready to swat him off. Had Link been slower to react, he would have been squashed into a meat puddle by the giant’s hand.

It would also have been an extremely painful experience to be hit by the giant’s hand if Link did not put up any form of defense around him in time. Of course, he did not let such a thing happen.

Link did not dodge the giant’s hand. Instead, he remained sitting on his shoulder and cast a Level-10 spatial forcefield around him.

As soon as he finished casting his spell, there was a thump above him. The cyclops’ hand struck the forcefield. Through its effect, the hand’s impact was redirected around the forcefield without harming Link.

"Eh? Why can’t I hit my own shoulder?" The cyclops roared in surprise. He swung his hand a few more times towards his shoulder, and the result was the same. His hand slipped away harmlessly from his shoulder each time he swatted his hand at Link.

Link remained calmly sitting on his shoulder. He then asked, "Big guy, do you have any friends?"

"Yes, I have many friends and a king. My hand seems to be broken. I can’t hit my own shoulder... This is strange," the giant replied. He continued swatting at Link on his shoulder, without even realizing the futility of his efforts.

So he’s not the one-eyed king? The giant’s answer stunned Link. He thought for a bit about this, then asked, "Can you bring me to see your king?"

"Why should I bring you? My shoulder, my hand, they’re all busted... Wahhh!" Suddenly, the giant cried out in frustration. Huge drops of tears welled up from his one eye, and he continued striking at his shoulder even more persistently.

Noticing how exhausted the giant was, Link flew up and landed on the top of his head.

Thump! The cyclops finally managed to hit his own shoulder with his hand. He laughed out loud, "Haha, my hand’s all better, and there’s nothing wrong with my shoulder now. Eh, where did that little guy go?"

He looked around but did not see Link anywhere. He then mumbled to himself, "Strange."

He then squatted back down and resumed his drinking.

On his head, Link sighed with disappointment at the giant’s obvious lack of intelligence. He activated a Level-1 Suggestion spell, then spoke, "Go and see your king!"

"Huh?" The giant looked about once more, but could not see anything or anyone who had said those words. His hand reached up to scratch at his head as he said strangely, "Why do I have to go see the king? I won’t go."

He then continued scooping up water to drink.

"Go and see the king!"

"What was that? Is there someone talking in my head?"

"Go and see the king!"

"Alright, alright, no need to say it twice, I’m going." The one-eyed giant finally gave up drinking. He stood up, picked up his huge wooden stick and walked away from the lake in huge strides.

Link sighed exasperatedly as he held his forehead in one hand. Something must have gone terribly wrong in the process of creating this great brute. He did not even have enough mental fortitude to resist a Level-1 Suggestion spell.

The giant walked at a somewhat quick pace, covering 30 feet of ground in a second. The trees around him were nothing more than weeds below him that did absolutely nothing to slow him down.

Link would sometimes spot in the vicinity a medicinal herb that Gretel still needed, and leaped from the giant’s head to add it to his collection. When he was done, he would leap back onto his free ride through the woods.

After walking through the forest for two hours, they had finally reached a huge mountain valley. In the distance, Link could see that there were a lot of buildings in it.

The valley’s architectural style was simplistic. The buildings seemed to have been built by simply piling up huge white rocks on top of one another. Its only defining characteristic was that everything was almost as big as the Dragon Temple itself.

In the middle of the valley stood a huge white building. It was the only place there that had a roof on it, which was more than a hundred feet off the ground. The building itself was around a few thousand cubic feet. In it, a giant wearing black fur clothing with his shoulders laid bare was contentedly eating a large animal that had just been cooked.

A great bonfire burned outside the building. Two naked cyclops were hard at work, turning the same kind of meat above the fire.

There were many giants living in the mountain valley. They were all naked, regardless of gender. The giant in the middle of the valley seemed to be the only one fully clothed and had others waiting on him.

He must be the one-eyed king.

The giant also seemed to be a lot more intelligent than the rest. He was able to notice Link from where he sat, but his following reaction caught Link completely by surprise. The giant king threw his food to one side and rushed out from the building. He took a few mighty steps forward and then fell on his knees. He roared, "Our almighty savior has come to set us free!"

Link frowned at this. First the mixed demons, now the cyclops, what in the world was going on with these people?