The First Archmage

(Gavin)

Forests as far as the eye can see.

Including my PER-enhanced vision several miles above the canopy.

Nies had to guide me here, so I can work on the Quest for Ultarna, but then he went and took a nap, leaving me with absolutely no fucking clue on where this particular kingdom of elves are in this massive fucking continent that is nothing but fucking forest as far as I can fucking see.

"Hi!" Someone appears in the air in front of me.

It's a male around sixteen or seventeen, I'd say, with platinum-blond hair, emerald-green eyes, fair skin, and pointy ears. Somewhat tall, with a lean build. He's dressed in a brown tunic with green embroidery in the pattern of leaves, brown pants, and brown, soft leather boots. A bow is slung across his back, though no quiver of arrows, so a magical archer.

Well, that's probably the appearance he's trying to give.

"You aren't suppressing your Divine Aura in the slightest," I tell him. "And you appearing caused my Divine Detection to go up to Level 4. Also, the fact that my Level 10 Appraisal fails on you would tell me you're a Divine Being, even if you were suppressing it."

"No one mentioned either of those to me," he looks stunned. "You have Divine Detection?"

"You here to smite me for going after the Ilinia?"

"Absolutely not!" He grins. "Actually, I'm here to tell you that I support you one hundred percent in it! As the Patron God of Elves, that carries a bit of weight, even if the Divine are warring over this Quest of genocide."

They're… what? They're what now? They're warring over me committing genocide? Have the Divine lost their ever-fucking minds?

"Anyway," he says. "Just wanted to let you know that. Bye!"

He vanishes, and I check to see if Nies is around.

Yeah? He responds sleepily.

"Someone claiming to be the Patron God of Elves just said he backs me in committing the genocide of elves."

Probably Hubert. He never liked the Ilinia in the first place. That, and I think he's trying to get into Ultarna's skirt. He did tell the Ilinia to not do it, and then to free them, and they didn't listen to him. The other Elven Kingdoms are refusing to do anything, though, due to the sheer size of the Ilinia Kigndom.

"How big?"

The others, combined, number around four million Elves.

"And the Ilinia?"

Has roughly that many fighters.

"I'm supposed to kill millions of warriors?" I ask. "I thought it was just, like, a million or so Elves."

Nah. It's closer to twenty million. Also, you've flown over, like, ten Elven settlements. They're not Ilinia, but you're currently hovering over a capital. They're built in the forest itself, making this forested continent ideal for them. Wiswim is a good kingdom.

His presence fades from my mind, and I drop straight down, using the air around me to deflect the canopy so that I drop straight down without incident.

Not that the trees could hurt me, but it's the principle of the matter.

The forest is much, much taller than I expected. The Dungeon I came out through was hovering in the air, and the canopy is thick, so I wasn't bothering to examine it, or I'd have probably noticed the buildings built into and around the trees.

Very few actually rest on the ground, the majority of them built on or across sturdy branches, walkways spreading between them. It looks a bit hectic, but at the same time, the craftsmanship was done masterfully.

The hundred or so elves that raised bows and readied magic at my appearance are all beautiful, and share similar ginger hair and hazel eyes, all tall and with pointy ears. I remember reading that elves were, by nature, somewhat tall or elegantly tall. All of them have lean, graceful builds as well.

"Human," someone says as I gain the language Skill for Kavvul. It's a human language, not an Elven. "Why have you invaded upon our lands? The treaty-"

"Apologies," I say. "But I've come a long way, and find it interesting that a human casually dropping from the sky is seen as normal around here. Where I'm from, it most certainly isn't."

"Irregularities aside," the Elf says. "The treaty bans your kind from coming here. Tell us which nation you hail from, and after we kill you, we will return your head to your people. The peace-"

"That's not very nice," I say. "I come from a land called Jozan, and it's quite a long ways from here. Also, I'd like to see you try to kill me."

He fires an arrow, and it moves at what would be, to others, an untouchable speed. I watch it as it moves, my AGI and PER high enough to make everything feel much, much slower to me, unless I will myself to be at the rate of others.

It slams into my face, right between my eyes, the metal tip smashing flat, the wooden shaft shattering. I close my eyes, letting the shards bounce off me, then open my eyes as the remains of the arrow drop to the ground.

"When I said," I say. "That I'd like to see you try to kill me, I really did mean it. You can't kill me. I'm also not here with hostility, though if you wish to fight me, I'll be willing to oblige. It isn't really genocide if the other side is trying to kill you before you have any hostile intent.

"That said," I say. "You aren't my enemy unless you make me your enemy, and I have no intent to fight you, unless you wish to attack me more. In which case, I'll kill you with a lot more ease than I did the Dragon."

I make my First Dragonslayer Title public, and they all tense up or gasp.

"Now that I have your undivided attention," I smile. "I'm here on a Divine Quest to wipe out the Ilinia and rescue the clan of beastborn they're abusing known as the Kemmel. I only dropped in to see if I could get directions to them.

"I apologize," I say. "For whatever treaty I'm violating, but I'm from quite far away. Beyond the ocean. The knowledge of treaties and such of this realm are beyond me. Admittedly, I'd probably ignore them anyway, but the goals of my land and of my Order come above such trivial things as treaties that don't deal directly with them."

"What is your Order?" An Elf asks from behind, and I turn to find an elf that looks quite aged, a braided silver crown atop his head, a single diamond embedded into it. "I am-"

"Lulin, Level 4 King, Level 12 Elf," I interrupt him. "You are the king of this realm?"

"This nation," he answers. "We are the Wiswim Elves. You come from beyond the Endless Sea?"

"Is that what you call it, here?"

"The Endless Sea, which surrounds the continent," he nods. "Legends tell that there is more which lay beyond, but all attempts to pass have told us this is the world, and there is nothing beyond. So there is?"

"There is," I nod. "Though I cannot divulge upon you my method of transport between the various continents."

I really want to check out that mountainous one I had to go through to get here, too. I mean, it probably wasn't entirely mountainous, I just popped up out of a Dungeon on the mountain, and went to another one a few dozen miles away on the same range of mountains, so that's all I saw.

"Forgive my skepticism," he says. "But you speak Kavvul quite fluently, for someone who comes from another realm."

"I learn languages quite fast," I tell him. "Speak a few words of your own language, and I'll learn it as well. The more you or I speak in it, the more the Skill will go up. I hit Level 5 Kavvul from zero during this exchange so far. Most languages seem to stall out around Level 5, implying I need quite a bit more in order to push past that. Funnily enough, before I gained Access, I apparently spoke enough of a language for wyverns that it's at Level 8."

"Is that so?" Lulin asks in Surlin, the Elven language they speak here.

"It is," I respond in it.

"How interesting," he says. "I am still retaining skepticism, as you could be a very good acting."

"Concealing my utter bewilderment from Divine Beings and beings above them pushed it to Level 10."

"Back to Kavvul?" He asks in it.

"I don't know enough of Surlin to actually speak it that well," I explain. "I'll need to hear or say more in it in order for me to speak it. Three words wasn't enough to do more than hit Level 1. A few more sentences will probably push it to Level 3, depending on the words used. I can pretty much understand basic grammar and a few words, and that's it."

"Interesting," he says. "So you claim that you have a Divine Quest to wipe out the Ilinia? Ignoring the improbability of such an occurrence, do you expect me to believe that your tough body would be enough to kill tens of millions of Elves by yourself? All the while trying to rescue people?"

"Roughly twenty million Elves," I say. "And I'm not a warrior."

"I've yet to hear of any mage with a body of steel."

"Ah," I say. "But I'm not a regular mage, I have the Classline that has Mage as its Third Tier, though I've mastered the Class in its entirety, so I'm an Archmage. The Elven woman beside you has no Access, yes?"

"Indeed not," he answers. "All of the halura species are bound by the same odds of gaining it, unlike monsters."

"She has Access, now, yes?" I ask, and she gasps. Then I point at a boy probably five or six years old, watching from a window. "That boy also has Access as well," then I point at an Elven Archer not far from me. "As well as him."

The Elves don't fully believe me, but the ones who have Appraisal confirm it, as well as the ones who now have Access, and they begin to whisper in their own language, that alone enough to bring my Surlin Elven Language Skill to Level 5.

"I am beyond the power of mere mortals, such as yourselves," I say as violet flames begin to swirl around me, yet not burning the grass around me or fill the air with heat. "I am the most powerful magician Jozan ever birthed, as well as the founder of the Order of the Violet Flame. Once I have finished my pledged duty to restore Jozan back to his former glory, I will establish a headquarters for a place where members of all species can mingle and feel safe, learn from each other, and grow together.

"I do not," I continue, the flames taking on the form of a serpentine dragon coiled around me, which then stares down the Elven King. "Tolerate people abusing another species simply for being another species. That is why the goddess of the Kemmel sent me that Quest, and why I have defied the barrier that prevents travel between continents to reach here. I am a being that can grant and revoke Access at will. Do not try to apply logic to me. My CON is over eight hundred, and my INT is even higher. If I wished, I could burn this forest to the ground.

"In fact," I say. "That is what I will be doing to the Ilinar, as I rescue the Kemmel from them. I will scar their land so badly, they will never recover, what few of them there will be left. I will gouge out a hole in the land, leaving a permanent reminder of what happens when one decides to use what isn't theirs for being different.

"Now," I continue to stare down the now thoroughly-terrified Elf King. "If there is another species doing the same thing, tell me, and I will do the same to them as well. I do not discriminate based on species, and will rescue any suffering abuse and slavery for being another."

The forest has fallen silent as I wait for him to respond first, and as I do, I realize that I should probably try working on my diplomacy skills.

Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes, allowing my manipulated flames to dissolve into the air.

"Forgive me," I open my eyes. "I get a bit heated, when it comes to certain matters, and this is one of them. I've sacrificed precious time learning under the most powerful of the Fairies to rescue the Kemmel, and I am someone who values getting stronger very much. That is how much I despise people who do such things this, and it tends to cause my anger to flare up. I apologize."

"The gods do not like those who commit genocide," Lulin says after several moments of silence. "Nor do they like people who willfully and knowingly scar the land. The scale you are doing this will earn you the ire of many gods."

"Oh, I've already earned that ire," I say. "The Divine are at war right now over this Divine Quest I received. Now, do I care for their ire? No. Any god that dares to smite or hinder me will have to face my patron god, the one who gave me his Blessing, and trust me when I say that only the truly powerful of the Divine Beings would even think about doing so."

"Who is your patron god?" he asks.

"Nies."

"Never heard of him."

"He's an Origin God," I answer, and he gives me an expression that says he wonders if I expect him to actually believe that. "Let me deal with issues with Divine, okay? It's not like you really care for me. I'm going to go and kill twenty million Elves to rescue a few cat beastborn, regardless of if anyone wants me to or not. It isn't really your problem, according to Nies. In fact, he said that the rest of the Elves on this continent would be grateful if something came and wiped them all out, since the other nations combined have about as many members overall as Ilinia's military force, and so can't fight back against them.

"Now," I say. "Would you kindly point me in the direction of the Ilinia? Nies wasn't very helpful with his directions, and only helped me get to this continent."

Mostly out of laziness.

It's easier.

Suddenly, a new sense forms within me, but no Skill attached to it. I can sense the Iliniar, which are showing up as red dots in my vision. There are orange dots as well, and green dots representing others. Not sure what the orange dots are.

The sense also gives me a general feel for the borders of the Ilinar kingdom.

"Huh," I say. "Nies got off his lazy ass and did something for once."

I was trying to find pudding, actually.

"And accidentally did that?"

Too lazy to do something like that.

"So it apparently wasn't him," I say. "Your help is no longer required. I would suggest, however, that you avoid Ilinia until I'm done. It's going to be bloody and dangerous. Very bloody, and very dangerous."

That said, I fly up into the sky and make my way to the Ilinia Kingdom. The orange dots are scattered throughout, but clustered, and only appear in the Ilinia Kingdom. There's also a golden dot among the orange, which is curious, as I'm assuming the orange are the Kemmel. There's also a silver dot as well, near the other side of the Kingdom.

So what are the golden and silver dots for?

I'll ignore them, for now. The first community within the Elven nation of Ilinia is near their border, which appears as a shimmering red field to my vision.

There are roughly a hundred thousand Elves in the fort built within the forest. It has high wooden walls roughly twenty feet thick and reinforced with magic, trees scattered here and there throughout the small city, buildings of wood built both in the trees and on the ground.

Not one Kemmel can be spotted in this city.

A few Elves spot me as I draw near, and an arrow flies out of nowhere. I catch it and inspect it. Wooden, imbued with magic, with strange, crimson feathers and a crimson tip.

"Dispel," I say, and the magic leaves the arrow.

I turn it around, and flick my wrist, sending it zipping through the air, piercing the Elf who sent it at me right between his eyes. It continues through him from the force of my throw, which exceeds that of whatever power he put behind it with his magic, and the arrow kills an Elf on the ground as well, before sinking fully into the soil, not even the notch on the end poking out.

They attacked first.

Those who saw the event only noticed it after the two bodies began to drop, and then stare at them.

They attacked first.

"Spear of Frozen Lightning," I command one into existence, then another, then another.

Once I have twelve of them, the attention of the Elves on me as their magicians and archers attempt to assault me from below, I speak, amplifying my voice with magic, a small trick I saw the noble perform, before I left.

"You attacked first."

Then, I launch the spears, and they pierce the magical barriers of the fort, continuing until they hit the walls. Three per wall, and that's all I needed. The moment they make contact, they burst, exploding in a shower of violet light and violet sparks, the ice rapidly spreading, forming spiky spheres of my beautiful, lightning-charged, violet ice.

The gaps between the ice are few and far between, despite the size of the walls and the city below. That is how much more powerful I am, since the Dragon. I wait the time to summon another twelve of them, to fill in the gaps – two along each wall, and the parts of the corners still visible. Not that I need to hit the corners, since the ice already there blocks them, so no one can escape.

Yet I still want to, because I can.

Yes, I came here to obliterate them, but they did attack the human who was just casually flying through the air. I wasn't even giving off a feeling of bloodlust.

Once all hope for escape has disappeared, I begin assaulting the city, throwing Spear of Frozen Lightning after Spear of Frozen Lightning into it. It even goes up a Level before I finish.

No more red dots here.

I look in the distance to either side of the city along the border. There are two more settlements nearby along it, and I can reach them, flying, probably within three or four hours. Five or six, if I barricade the kingdom using my powerful ice.

Since this ice doesn't thaw naturally, it'd take hella powerful magicians to thaw it out. Then, I'd be able to just set things on fire without worrying about it spreading to other Kingdoms.

That's actually a good idea. The only problem is that the Ilinia would probably try escaping/invading another Kingdom while doing this. Plus, they'd probably suspect it was the… whatever their name was. The people I just left.

I am starting from their border, after all.