Chapter 195 (1/2)

Chapter 195: We Must Be Flexible to Achieve Great Things

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

A flash of light suddenly appeared out of thin air with a buzz in the forest on the outskirts of Opal City. From that point of light, two people emerged and fell to the ground from the height of six feet above the ground.

It was Link and Celine who had escaped here with the help of the spell, Dimensional Jump.

To prevent from being transported to the top of a big tree, Link had set a good destination point in advance before he entered the city. It was slightly above a nice clearing in the forest where he had parted ways with the Wind Tiger earlier.

Thud! Thud!

Link and Celine had fallen on a bed of soft grass, so neither of them were badly hurt. They were both still in a daze which was a common side effect of the people who had just been through Dimensional Jump.

Celine was a strong Warrior, so she felt nothing from the fall at all. Link, on the other hand, wasn’t much stronger physically than a layperson, so he was still seeing stars for a while after the fall.

As he lay on the ground to recover, Link felt a weight pressing on his body and the light that was streaming into his eyes got blocked. He opened his eyes and saw that Celine was half leaning on top of his body and was looking down at him. The distance between their two pairs of eyes was no more than eight inches.

Link noticed how even at such a close distance Celine’s face still looked smooth and delicate like the surface of jade stone. Her black eyes were clear as crystal and as vivacious as young fawns in the forest. Her arched brows gave off a flirtatious charm, and her lips were as red and shiny as red pomegranate seeds.

It’s no wonder that she was one of the top four most beautiful characters in the game! She looked perfect no matter which angle you look at her from.

“You saved me this time, Link,” whispered Celine. The gentleness in her voice echoed in her eyes as she looked straight into Link’s eyes.

Link almost fell into a trance and had the urge to reach out his hand to caress Celine’s cheek but was afraid that it might be inappropriate. Although when he thought about it, wasn’t it the perfect moment for at least a kiss?

But reality never turned out to be as perfect as imagination.

Just as Link was enjoying the moment, a rough and crude voice suddenly rang out near them. It was the Wind Tiger.

“What are you waiting for, Link?” shouted Dorias. “Your woman is ready to mate with you!”

The voice had appeared so suddenly that it gave Celine the fright of her life. When she turned around, she saw the green-furred giant tiger who just jumped out of the forest. She quickly jumped away from Link and pulled out her blue crystal sword.

“What’s up with the beast, Link?” she asked.

By that point, even Link himself was a bit annoyed at the tiger.

“That’s Dorias,” he answered as he sat up. “It’s a Wind Tiger. It was the one who had brought me here to the South.”

“This is Celine Flandre,” Link then told Dorias. “She’s my…good friend.”

“Oh!” replied the tiger. He then stared at Celine with keen interest and even circled around her. Suddenly he turned up his nose and turned back to Link and asked him, “Argh! Why do I smell dark energy from her?”

Celine’s face darkened as soon as she heard those words. She had always regarded her true origin the greatest shame in her life. Still, her aura and inner force were things that she could not conceal, and they were the things that anyone who’d encountered her would point out without fail. Although they didn’t always mean it as an insult, it still caused her to be upset.

The perceptive Link knew instantly what Celine was feeling and thinking the moment he saw Celine’s eyes darkened. But he didn’t think he should evade the subject this time, so he decided to explain the matter plainly and honestly to Dorias.

“Let’s get moving,” he told Dorias immediately after getting up to his feet. “We must make for the North now; I’ll explain everything about Celine on the way.”

“Fine, then.” Dorias took another glance at Celine and realized he must’ve hurt the girl’s feelings, so he stopped pressing the matter entirely and crouched down to let Link climb onto his back.

Link then signaled to Celine to climb up as well. Once they were both safely settled on the tiger’s back, Dorias then promptly headed towards the North.

“Celine’s father is the Lord of the Deep, Nozama…” explained Link.

Dorias was so shocked its feet almost got tangled and lost its balance.

“What did you say?!” he exclaimed. “The Lord of the Deep Nozama? You’re not jiving me, are you?!”

Even though Dorias was a magical beast who had lived for over 400 years and had lived to witness countless powerful figures, Nozama still remained—after all these years and all that he’d seen—one of the top three most fearsome figures in the whole wide world.

To Dorias, Nozama was the kind of powerful figure who could topple the whole Firuman continent upside down with a flick of his finger! Even 300 years ago, in the time of the legendary Magician Bryant, Nozama was infamous throughout Firuman for his frightening power, and the demon Tarviss was, in fact, his underling!

Although the demon couldn’t descend upon the Firuman continent himself, legends said that he would transform himself into an ordinary human form and walked the earth, leaving many half-blood spawns behind.

Of these descendants of his, some possessed mediocer talents with only a low level of dark energy in their bodies, while some were said to be extraordinary geniuses who could each set off a wave of terror and destruction throughout the continent. When he thought of this point, Dorias sneaked a look at the girl on his back. He thought the legends must be true and that the girl riding on his back must be one of the most talented descendants the Lord of the Deep had ever had.

“Celine’s father had always tried to capture her and bring her back down to the deep abyss,” Link continued. “He’d even sent some demon minions of his here to do so. The reason I came down here was to rescue her from them.”

“But, how will she escape a powerful figure like the Lord of the Deep for the rest of her life?” asked Dorias.

Celine noticed how Dorias showed neither scorn nor hatred towards her, so she began to relax. She then shook her head gently in reply to the tiger’s question.

“If I fail in the end,” she said, “then I would rather choose to die by my own hands.”

“You truly are a tenacious girl!” replied Dorias. He then continued without thinking. “It’s no wonder that Link likes you!”

Celine blushed and turned towards Link. She saw that his face was full of smiles and that, for some reason, cheered her up immediately.

“Still,” Dorias continued, “the problem of Nozama will still loom over us like a big dark cloud. Link, have you thought about how you’re going to deal with his demon minions?”

Dorias wouldn’t worry about any other people, not even the Level-7 Necromancer Andrew, because he had faith that Link would have no problem in defeating them. Nozama, though…Just the mention of his name was enough to make Dorias’ knees buckle and the courage drain completely out of its body. In fact, Dorias found that he was shaking at that very moment!

This was a very real problem indeed. Celine half-turned her head and glanced at Link herself. She was surprised to find that the smile still lingered on his face.

“Nozama isn’t as frightening as you might imagine,” said Link calmly.

“Don’t be stupid, Link,” said Dorias in disbelief. “Nozama? Not frightening? You must be joking!”

Link remained unperturbed by Dorias’ reply.