Advent of the Archmage

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

St. Doze City

“This is your identity, Theodore Morgenstern.”

A day later, the owner handed a set of equipment necessary for a High Elf noble and the family information to Link. Amongst the High Elves, a family’s ranking was easily seen from the name.

For example, the one Link used before was Morgenleaf, which just meant “leaf.” There were leaves all over the Isle of Dawn, so it was clearly a commoner’s surname.

Now, he was a Morgenstern. He’d gone from a leaf in the mortal world to a star in the sky. This was clearly nobler. The families named from celestial objects, like the sun, moon, or stars were all nobles. Amongst them, the sun was the highest ranked. They were the royalty. After that was the moon for the core families or descendants of heroes. The stars were regular nobles who had had some achievements.

Because of the Mana disaster more than 3000 years ago, the royalty had all died. There were no sun families in the Isle of Dawn. The noblest name now was the Silver Moon. It was the same as the Dark Elf royalty in the Black Forest. Judging from the names, the two elven races of Firuman came from the same source.

But that was a bit off topic.

Link scanned the material. He learned that the Morgenstern family was a fallen noble family that no one really paid attention too. They hadn’t had any talents in generations and had been pushed aside on the Isle of Dawn.

However, this family was quite populous, especially the current patriarch. He had more than 20 sons and around 30 daughters. Elves usually had a low fertility rate. He was honestly a weirdo!

Even the patriarch couldn’t keep track of all his kids, let alone outsiders. In the Isle of Dawn, he was secretly known as the “wild boar of Twilight Valley.”

Theodore Morgenstern did indeed exist. He was the 16th son and was around the same age as Link. A year ago, he wanted to accomplish something in the Black Forest, but unfortunately, he ran into Eugene who was disguised as the Dark Elf princess. Then he just died somehow.

Of course, no High Elves had seen this. On official records, Theodore Morgenstern had just gone missing. Link could easily take his place.

The owner also took out a magic image of Theodore Morgenstern from around a year ago.

“He’s a very young guy and looked energetic. I see ambition in his eyes.” Link studied the image inside the magic crystal. Due to the High Elves’ advanced technology, the image was very clear. There were basically no differences from reality.

The owner nodded. “Indeed. Amongst all his brothers, he was the most hardworking. While the others are all busy partying and wasting their lives, he studied magic and swordsmanship. The old man knew about this and paid attention to this son. He’d put in a lot of effort for his son to go to the Black Forest. He just wanted to rebuild the family. Unfortunately…”

Life was unpredictable.

Link frowned. “He was noticed by the old patriarch… That’s not a good candidate.”

Since he wanted a disguise, the plainer, the better. If people paid attention, it would be many times easier to get exposed. More importantly, he could feel danger getting closer quickly.

Now that he was at Level-19, his gut instincts were even sharper. He could practically prophesize accurately. Especially for something as large as a realm’s destruction; it was as if he could see it before him. For example, right now, he could sense that darkness would befall Firuman in two months. This meant that if the realms hadn’t fused in two months, everything would be over.

He only had two months. He had to start moving as soon as he figured everything out. He had no time to act!

“No, sir. This is the best option in our situation,” the owner said seriously.

“What do you mean?” Link stared at her.

The female elf instantly felt great pressure. She took a deep breath and composed herself. “Theodore’s father placed hope on him, but he was also a playboy when he was young,” she explained. “His personality hadn’t changed much either. He didn’t actually pay much attention to this son. It was mostly the old housekeeper’s idea to use some resources and send Theodore into the Black Forest. But because of Theodore’s death, the old housekeeper died from depression half a month ago. Think, Theodore was respected and could get resources. His reputation isn’t bad either and won’t be discriminated for being a Morgenstern. This can help you enter the nobles’ circle, won’t it?”

The explanation was quite persuasive. Link actually knew this already, but he asked to test the owner’s reaction. He wanted to ensure that she wouldn’t pull any tricks.

On the surface, he nodded in agreement. “Indeed, you are right.”

With that, he started changing his appearance according to the magic crystal. The real Theodore was 35 years old, which was young for a High Elf. He was thin and paler—typical for a High Elf Magician. However, he’d practiced swordsmanship, so he wasn’t frail like Magicians. Instead, he was quite spirited.

Link was now a complete expert at spells. A regular Magician had to rely on hallucinations to change their appearance, but Link could directly modify his body! Mana surged under his skin, and his body changed like clay. Instead of changing directly into Theodore, he just made some small adjustments.

A High Elf who had been on the run in the Black Forest for more than one year would never maintain his figure from his carefree life on the Isle of Dawn.

Around ten minutes later, “Theodore” appeared before the inn’s owner. Compared to the image, this Theodore had a faint scar on his cheek. His skin was tanner, and his features looked more tired. His originally silky dark green hair had dried, and the sides were graying. He’d become more muscular though. There were many scars on the back of his hand while there were calluses on his palm. His hands almost felt too rough to be a High Elf Magician’s hand.

The biggest change was in his eyes. The High Elf in the image had ambition in his eyes, but they were also filled with vitality and hope. He believed that all his hard work would pay off. He would definitely rebuild his family. But now, Link’s version of Theodore had the same colored eyes, but they looked dead. Rather than hope, people would feel death and solitude.

Only someone who had experienced true darkness and cruelty and struggled free from it would have those eyes. Link barely had to pretend. He could use his own experiences.

Even more miraculous was that even with all these changes, anyone who saw him would still think it was Theodore—just a Theodore who had gone through many difficulties.

The owner carefully compared the two and sighed, impressed. “Completely flawless. I bet even Theodore’s mother wouldn’t find any flaws if she’s still alive.”

Link shook his head. “No, the physical body is just the skin for a soul. The true flaws would appear in the soul and power… Whatever, you don’t understand. I’ll go now. Find a chance to leave the Isle of Dawn. It will change drastically soon.”

“Ah? Yes, sir,” she quickly replied and turned to leave.The owner’s heart trembled.

When she left, Link took a deep breath and began the last step of the disguise. Before arriving at the Isle of Dawn, Link had started to put away his Dark Power. He also transformed the surface to the Natural Power of the High Elves.

However, his power was too large. He also had the Crown of Eternal Night. It would take a while to put away all his power. Even if Ferde Magicians helped, it would still take time.

Link didn’t have much time and left before that. He wouldn’t be discovered in the outer fringe of the Isle of Dawn, but he was going to the capital now. His disguise must be perfect.

Using his thoughts, he mind sank into his body. From the point of view of his soul, he saw that his body was filled with greenness. It looked full of life.

My Natural Power is around the pinnacle of Level-10, and it has basically filled my entire outer body. The Dark Power has mostly retreated. There’s only shred left. It’ll take around two days… I might not have to wait. I can say that it’s invasive aura from the Black Forest.

This excuse could save a few days for Link. It was great. A High Elf who reached the pinnacle of Level-10 at his young age would definitely be valued in the capital. He might even reach the upper levels.

He continued observing. Looking past the outer layer of green power, he reached the depths of his soul. Here, it was filled with darkness. It looked as tiny as the tip of a needle, but size couldn’t be used to measure strength.

The Dark Power in this needle reached Level-18. It was close to 300 times stronger than the Level-10 Natural Power on the outside.

The Level-20 Crown of Eternal Darkness rotated slowly inside the needle tip. Link could put it on whenever needed. Of course, it wasn’t time yet.

It’s still divine gear and has surpassed the limit of the realm. Even if Freyar, the consciousness of the realm, recognizes me, I still can’t use it freely.

In Firuman, the resistance he would feel from using divine gear would be less than in Aragu. His recovery speed would be reduced to half rather than zero. This was already good enough.

Link made a final check. After ensuring that his power was flawless, he started changing the appearance of the Ode of a Full Moon. Instead of changing it to Theodore’s sword, he changed it into an ordinary thin elven sword.

Afterward, he left the inn and hurried towards the royal capital. His first destination was the Morgenstern manor in the suburbs. In order to enter the capital without raising alarms, he had to use the Morgenstern family’s power.