Chapter 493 - From an Ant to a Dragon! (1/2)
Chapter 493: From an Ant to a Dragon!
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Link activated the Dimensional Jump and arrived at a tavern in Scorched City. He saw a gray-robed elder at a small table in the corner. There was a small plate of food and two cups of gold absinthe. He was drinking by himself.
After seeing Link, the man smiled. “Come, come drink with me.”
Link was wearing regular clothing and didn’t worry about getting recognized. He sat across from the elder and sipped from a cup. Then he said, “When we separated at the Dragon Valley, you said you were going to deal with the Dark Magician. Did he cause any trouble?”
The elder sighed and drank some more alcohol. “Yes, quite troublesome. I feel that I can’t do it myself so I thought of you.”
“Tell me.” Link snapped his fingers at a server and motioned with his hands. This was a signal that only regulars at the tavern knew. It meant that he wanted a specialty of marinated beef, sauce, and a bottle of secret Ferde fire wine.
The server seemed to figure out Link’s identity and quickly went to prepare the order.
The elder stopped drinking his absinthe. He placed a black pebble on the table and pushed it to Link with his finger. “Do you recognize this?”
The black pebble was round and smooth. It looked like a black Go piece and didn’t have any aura. Other than the color, it was identical to the Jogu that Link had been collecting.
He picked it up and sensed carefully. He instantly felt a hidden aura similar to Jogus. Furrowing his brow, he asked, “Is it a Black Spirit?”
In the game, the Black Spirit and White Jogu existed opposite each other. Players of the Light camp collected Jogu to exchange for what they wanted from Travel Magicians. The Dark side also had a similar currency—the Black Spirit.
After a player killed a high-level member of the Dark side, they could also receive this. After giving it to Aisenis, they could exchange it for half the White Jogus.
The Light Magician nodded and smiled. “I didn’t expect you to know.”
At that moment, the server brought over the dish and alcohol. Link poured a cup for himself and said, “Fire wine and marinated beef is a specialty of Scorched Ridge, especially in the wet winter. Your entire body warms up with one sip. Try it.”
The Light Magician did so and chuckled. “These scammers. I told them to give me the local specialties, and they gave me absinthe and fried fish. Compared to yours, I can’t even stomach mine anymore.”
Link laughed. “I’ve always wanted to know your name and that Dark Magician. Can I know?”
“Of course, it’s not some big secret. My name is Halino, and he’s Eugene. We’ve fought for almost 600 years. You don’t know how annoying Eugene is. My only wish in life is to imprison him and spend the rest of my life watching him!”
As he spoke, Light Magician Halino put away the Black Spirit and continued, “The recent event has something to do with Black Spirits. Eugene found Morpheus and had a secret exchange with him. After that, Eugene started collecting Black Spirits everywhere. I don’t know what he’s planning, but I know it can’t be anything good. Morpheus is worrying too. After the exchange, he started constructing realm portals. I secretly investigated for the target of the portal and realized it led to the Delou Ethereal Realm. Eugene must have given him the coordinates.”
Ethereals were a type of spirit. They couldn’t exist independently in the Firuman realm and had to have a host.
The host could be a human or a beast. After becoming a host, the organism would receive the Ethereal’s abilities. The cost was that their vitality would endlessly be corroded. They would lose control of their mind and completely become the Ethereal’s puppet.
Ethereal Warriors appeared in the mid-period of the game. It was when the Norton Kingdom was struggling against the Dark Army in the North.
The Syndicate created a powerful Ethereal Warrior army because they were usually extremely powerful and had unique law powers. With this army, Shadow Stalker Morpheus quickly took all power in the Southern Merchant Alliance and prepared to rule over the South.
This wasn’t a bad thing at first. In the beginning, Morpheus had teamed up with the Dark Army and killed every human he saw. The relationship with Nozama, Lord of the Deep, quickly soured. He even planned on establishing an army of five kingdoms to help the Norton Kingdom fight against the Dark Army.
The problem was that Morpheus completely over-estimated his control over the Ethereal Warriors!
These powerful Warriors quickly broke free from his control and poured into Firuman. They took over tens of thousands of organisms. The once-gentle hosting turned cruel too.
The Ethereals corroded their hosts’ souls to take over their body. It soon turned into a catastrophe in the South.
The Syndicate had no time to care about the others. Even Morpheus was heavily injured by Ethereal Warriors and had to escape. He hid in his turf and didn’t dare appear. This was how the storyline quest of the Shadow Stalker happened.
The player would kill Morpheus and go south to fight with the Ethereal Warriors. By the time they poured in their efforts and chased away the Ethereals, the five kingdoms were practically all in ruins.
Of course, this was what happened in the game. Seeing that Morpheus was going to repeat the mistake, Link felt screwed. He’d already changed history so much. Why did the events of the game have to come back?
Despite being a Level-11 Legendary Magician now, Link still felt troubled against these Ethereal Warriors. These creatures weren’t that powerful—they were mostly around Level-8 or nine, rarely going past Level-10.
But they had tons of tricks and some really fatal talents. In the game, countless independent Legendary players died at their hands. Ethereal Warriors had another nickname—Legendary Killers!