The man was not Haromed . To complicate things even further, there was a High Elf in their midst .

The former's presence was not too surprising . As Evelina had said before, Haromed was not the only high-level Ethereal . But the Ethereal and the High Elf before them seemed to be working together on something, and the High Elf had deliberately hidden her ident.i.ty . This demanded further scrutiny .

After thinking for a while, Link mouthed noiselessly at Evelina, "Inspect them . Get ready to act . "

As Link and Evelina were the Legendary masters of their four-man squad, they acted as its vanguard . Eliard and Celine served as their backup, providing their a.s.sistance whenever they saw fit .

Their targets did not notice the four of them lying in ambush in their yard . They chatted on while walking side by side .

"Envoy, are you sure this method of yours will be more effective?" asked the Ethereal Warrior . He was holding a crystal vial . It contained a light purple fluid .

"Of course it is . There's nothing unusual about your current conditions . It's simply due to the incompatibility between your souls and your new host bodies . Black ant essence can help alleviate your symptoms, but this is only a temporary solution . An antidote concocted with purple lotus extract should be able to completely cure your conditions," explained the High Elf woman . Her voice was hoa.r.s.e . She sounded like a middle-aged man whose throat had suffered a terrible injury . Obviously, she, or he, was wearing a disguise .

The Ethereal Warrior still seemed unsure . He turned the vial around in his hand . After observing its contents from all possible angles for a few minutes, he finally said, "The decision isn't really mine to make . We'd best wait for my master to return . However, I do approve of some of the demands you've made in exchange for your remedy . "

"I see . And when will your master return?" asked the High Elf .

"Not today, that's for sure . The earliest he'll be back is tomorrow afternoon . And if I'm being honest, your demands may sound a bit excessive to him . I would be more than happy to help you out a bit if it was up to me . But my master would probably not take kindly to the requests that you've made . He may even chase you out of here without a moment's hesitation . If it comes to that, you'll probably not be able to get anything from him . "

As he spoke, the Ethereal put away the purple fluid and walked to the bubbling cauldron in the middle of the yard . He knelt down to add more firewood beneath the cauldron . He then began stirring the potion inside the cauldron with a stirring rod . As he stirred, the Ethereal sprinkled in the black ant carca.s.ses into the mixture, leaving the High Elf woman standing in a corner .

The High Elf looked on at this, deep in thought . Ten seconds later, she opened her mouth to speak . "Then how many Stabilizing Crystals will you give me?"

"Hehe . " The Ethereal chuckled . He brushed the dirt off his hands and said, "You give me the recipe for this purple lotus concoction and its preparation method, and I'll give you 300 pieces every month . That's around 22 pounds of Stabilizing Crystals . "

"22 pounds . . . That's too little . " The High Elf was not satisfied by this offer .

The Ethereal shook his head . "This is as much as I can give you . If I give you any more than that, our affair here will be revealed, and I will of course be severely punished by my master . But my punishment would also hurt you as much, since you won't be able to get a single piece of crystal from me then . "

The High Elf fell silent for a while . Finally, she nodded . "Alright, I'll take it . 300 Stabilizing Crystals per month . Let's move on to the second item in our agenda . We've found that you Ethereals had a run-in with Ferde a while back . Since then, the number of Legendary masters in Ferde has increased . I would like to know the reason behind this . "

As she said this, a drastic change came over the Ethereal's face . His brows shot up in anger . Power flowed off him in waves, sending out faint ripples in the air around him .

The Ethereal's demeanor switched instantly from the vulgar mannerisms of a haggling merchant to the ferocity of a wild beast .

He stood up and walked slowly towards the High Elf . His voice was dripping with hatred when he said, "Step away from this while you can, or else . Just wait and see . We'll get our revenge on Ferde . We'll raze that place to the ground, turn it into rubble!"

The High Elf woman was again silent . She seemed unmoved by the Ethereal Warrior's threat, but she did not ask any further . A while later, she took out a magic book with a purple cover and handed it over to the Ethereal . "If you don't wish to tell me, that's alright . This contains detailed instructions for preparing the purple lotus potion . Take it, and remember, 22 pounds of Stabilizing Crystals per month . No less than that, or we'll cut off our supply of purple lotuses . "

"Got it . You seem like a reasonable person," replied the Ethereal moodily . He was still fuming .

At this point, the two of them had come to an agreement . As the High Elf turned to leave, Link, who had been hiding behind a clump of gra.s.s in the yard, shouted an order to Evelina, "Now!"

He leaped into action at the same time .

Link willed his Dragon King's Fury sword to point at the cauldron in the yard . A white spatial ball flew out from it . It then struck the cauldron in an explosion .

It was an upgraded version of the Spatial Shackle spell: Spatial Seal .

A resonant hum sounded . A white mist spread out in all directions . In an instant, the Ethereal was enveloped in it and was turned into a spatial statue . Deprived of all movement, the Ethereal was about to fall to the ground when suddenly, something happened .

As the mist surged towards the High Elf, a dark green light radiated from her body .

The light cloaked her body in an instant, blocking off the white mist . Upon a closer look, Link realized that the barrier of light did not completely block it off, but was rather slowing down its advance .

Taking advantage of this, the High Elf's body dissolved into mist itself . In the blink of an eye, she was able to retreat back a few feet away from the white mist . Once she was out of harm's way, the dark green light around her dissipated immediately .

When the light faded away, dark green leaves appeared out of thin air, swirling at high speed around the High Elf like a cyclone . The leaves lashed out in all directions, hitting everything in their paths, including the frozen Ethereal .

The High Elf had whipped up a terrifying leaf cyclone .

Whoosh . . . The leaves slashed across the Ethereal's body, tearing it into pieces . Nothing was safe from the High Elf woman's fury now . Not even her deal with the Ethereal was enough to guarantee the Ethereal's safety .

Before long, the cyclone ripped through Link's spatial white mist and was now heading towards Link and the others . It was spinning with such destructive momentum that everything in its path was ground to dust .

Link gazed intently at the High Elf woman . It turned out that she was also a Legendary master with a frightful temper . She had seemed composed back then, but once provoked, her wrath now threatened to swallow up the whole world like a raging torrent .

In spite of its ferocity, the leaf cyclone's power was only at Level-10 . It was able to pierce through the white mist only because Link was not using his full power against her .

Link did not feel at all threatened by such an attack .

With a force of his will, a band of spatial runes surrounded the leaf cyclone . The runes then formed a thick spatial barrier around it . With a thunderous sound, the cyclone was shut within the barrier .

Bang, bang, bang! The dark green leaves of the cyclone rattled against the rune barrier repeatedly . A moment later, the cyclone faded into a dark green mist .

The dark green leaves were reduced to pieces through repeated collisions against the barrier . Before long, the leaves dissolved back into pure Nature Power . The dark green mist within the barrier was so thick that no one could see what was going on inside .

This went on for half a second . Suddenly, Link sensed a gap in the dark green swirl, as if there was something missing in it .

The sensation was akin to missing one's step while walking as if the ground had disappeared beneath his foot . In much the same way, his spatial barrier felt as if it had lost its support from within .

A thought surfaced in his mind . She escaped . That certainly took some resolve!

The dark green mist behind the barrier began to subside just as soon as the thought popped up in his head . Two seconds later, the mist had completely disappeared, revealing a yard that had been ravaged by some force of nature . The gra.s.s and flowers had been completely pulverized . All that was left in the yard were deep pits and cavities in the thoroughly loosened soil .

Link dispelled the spatial barrier . Celine and the others came out of their hiding spots . They looked in utter amazement at the ground beneath them, which still sizzled with thick Nature Power aura .

It all happened so fast, not even Evelina was able to join in the fight . In the blink of an eye, the whole thing was over .

"Evie, do you know her?" Eliard looked at Evelina . None of them had antic.i.p.ated such ferocious power from the High Elf woman, not even Link . In the end, she managed to escape from them .

Evelina was still dazed by the scene before her . Upon hearing Eliard speak, her body trembled a bit . She frowned . "Of course I do . "

She looked at Link and said, "Do you remember when I told you that the High Elves now have five newly promoted Legendary masters?"

"Of course . Including you, that makes five . We've already seen the other three who went by the names of Elovan, Sonya and Milose . "

Evelina sighed . "That was the last Legendary master of the High Elves . She's called Ariel Newmoon . She was the first to reach Level-10 . She's younger than me by three years, but she was able to reach Legendary half a month earlier before I did . Elovan and the others were all High Elf geniuses, but I'm not too worried about them, since I know where their limitations lie . Ariel, however, is a different story . Honestly, I don't think I would be able to defeat her myself . "

Ariel?

Link narrowed his eyes, visibly troubled by this .

The High Elf known as Ariel had appeared in the middle to later stages of the game . She was also a High Elf princess . Her High Elf blood was as pure as Milda's . The only difference was that she was younger than Milda by five years .

In the game, when she first appeared, Ariel was only a captain of a High Elf outpost . After receiving a few promotions in the span of three years, she finally became a general of the whole High Elf army, second only to Milda .

Ariel was the main mission in the later stages of the game . She had many interactions with the players during her mission . She was also portrayed frequently in the game's battle cut scenes .

She would calmly enter a fight and come out victorious without a spot of blood or dirt on her every time . She was also not programmed to deliver lines like "I'm tired, let's rest for a bit," as if she was driven by a perpetual source of power from within .

On the other hand, though Marshal Milda of the High Elf magical army had a glowing list of military achievements, she always came out worse for wear after every battle .

A few players who had too much time in their hands had made a comparison of the battles of every renowned Magician, followed by an evaluation of their respective power levels and combat prowesses .

They finally came to the conclusion that Eliard, the half-elf, and Ariel ranked at number one in terms of combat prowess . However, Eliard was a high-profile Magician, which earned him the attention of opponents with equal repute . As a result, his achievements were much more impressive . As for Milda, her combat power was only half of Ariel's .

Putting it simply, this High Elf princess was a genius among geniuses in the art of combat!

Ariel had even managed to make Evelina lose her nerve through their daily interactions back on the Isle of Dawn .

Link's head was throbbing slightly . He asked, "She's probably gone back to the Isle of Dawn by now . Evelina, do you think she'll give up her end of the bargain with the Ethereals?"

Evelina shook her head . "It doesn't seem likely . She's someone who won't let something go until she's seen it through . She always gets what she wants, as if Lady Luck's watching over her all the time . "

Link's headache worsened . They were still nowhere near to finding the Ethereal prince, and now, they had to deal with such a troublesome individual .

Slapping his forehead, he finally calmed himself down . "I guess there's no point in crying over spilled milk . Haromed, the Ethereal prince, will return tomorrow afternoon . We'll just have to wait for him here . "

Chapter 544 Ariel NewmoonTranslator Nyoi Bo Studio Editor Nyoi Bo StudioThe man was not Haromed . To complicate things even further, there was a High Elf in their midst . The former s presence was not too surprising . As Evelina had said before, Haromed was not the only high level Ethereal . But the Ethereal and the High Elf before them seemed to be working together on something, and the High Elf had deliberately hidden her ident.i.ty . This demanded further scrutiny . After thinking for a while, Link mouthed noiselessly at Evelina, Inspect them . Get ready to act . As Link and Evelina were the Legendary masters of their four man squad, they acted as its vanguard . Eliard and Celine served as their backup, providing their a.s.sistance whenever they saw fit . Their targets did not notice the four of them lying in ambush in their yard . They chatted on while walking side by side . Envoy, are you sure this method of yours will be more effective asked the Ethereal Warrior . He was holding a crystal vial . It contained a light purple fluid . Of course it is . There s nothing unusual about your current conditions . It s simply due to the incompatibility between your souls and your new host bodies . Black ant essence can help alleviate your symptoms, but this is only a temporary solution . An antidote concocted with purple lotus extract should be able to completely cure your conditions, explained the High Elf woman . Her voice was hoa.r.s.e . She sounded like a middle aged man whose throat had suffered a terrible injury . Obviously, she, or he, was wearing a disguise . The Ethereal Warrior still seemed unsure . He turned the vial around in his hand . After observing its contents from all possible angles for a few minutes, he finally said, The decision isn t really mine to make . We d best wait for my master to return . However, I do approve of some of the demands you ve made in exchange for your remedy . I see . And when will your master return asked the High Elf . Not today, that s for sure . The earliest he ll be back is tomorrow afternoon . And if I m being honest, your demands may sound a bit excessive to him . I would be more than happy to help you out a bit if it was up to me . But my master would probably not take kindly to the requests that you ve made . He may even chase you out of here without a moment s hesitation . If it comes to that, you ll probably not be able to get anything from him . As he spoke, the Ethereal put away the purple fluid and walked to the bubbling cauldron in the middle of the yard . He knelt down to add more firewood beneath the cauldron . He then began stirring the potion inside the cauldron with a stirring rod . As he stirred, the Ethereal sprinkled in the black ant carca.s.ses into the mixture, leaving the High Elf woman standing in a corner . The High Elf looked on at this, deep in thought . Ten seconds later, she opened her mouth to speak . Then how many Stabilizing Crystals will you give me Hehe . The Ethereal chuckled . He brushed the dirt off his hands and said, You give me the recipe for this purple lotus concoction and its preparation method, and I ll give you 300 pieces every month . That s around 22 pounds of Stabilizing Crystals . 22 pounds . . . That s too little . The High Elf was not satisfied by this offer . The Ethereal shook his head . This is as much as I can give you . If I give you any more than that, our affair here will be revealed, and I will of course be severely punished by my master . But my punishment would also hurt you as much, since you won t be able to get a single piece of crystal from me then . The High Elf fell silent for a while . Finally, she nodded . Alright, I ll take it . 300 Stabilizing Crystals per month . Let s move on to the second item in our agenda . We ve found that you Ethereals had a run in with Ferde a while back . Since then, the number of Legendary masters in Ferde has increased . I would like to know the reason behind this . As she said this, a drastic change came over the Ethereal s face . His brows shot up in anger . Power flowed off him in waves, sending out faint ripples in the air around him . The Ethereal s demeanor switched instantly from the vulgar mannerisms of a haggling merchant to the ferocity of a wild beast . He stood up and walked slowly towards the High Elf . His voice was dripping with hatred when he said, Step away from this while you can, or else . Just wait and see . We ll get our revenge on Ferde . We ll raze that place to the ground, turn it into rubble The High Elf woman was again silent . She seemed unmoved by the Ethereal Warrior s threat, but she did not ask any further . A while later, she took out a magic book with a purple cover and handed it over to the Ethereal . If you don t wish to tell me, that s alright . This contains detailed instructions for preparing the purple lotus potion . Take it, and remember, 22 pounds of Stabilizing Crystals per month . No less than that, or we ll cut off our supply of purple lotuses . Got it . You seem like a reasonable person, replied the Ethereal moodily . He was still fuming . At this point, the two of them had come to an agreement . As the High Elf turned to leave, Link, who had been hiding behind a clump of gra.s.s in the yard, shouted an order to Evelina, Now He leaped into action at the same time . Link willed his Dragon King s Fury sword to point at the cauldron in the yard . A white spatial ball flew out from it . It then struck the cauldron in an explosion . It was an upgraded version of the Spatial Shackle spell Spatial Seal . A resonant hum sounded . A white mist spread out in all directions . In an instant, the Ethereal was enveloped in it and was turned into a spatial statue . Deprived of all movement, the Ethereal was about to fall to the ground when suddenly, something happened . As the mist surged towards the High Elf, a dark green light radiated from her body . The light cloaked her body in an instant, blocking off the white mist . Upon a closer look, Link realized that the barrier of light did not completely block it off, but was rather slowing down its advance . Taking advantage of this, the High Elf s body dissolved into mist itself . In the blink of an eye, she was able to retreat back a few feet away from the white mist . Once she was out of harm s way, the dark green light around her dissipated immediately . When the light faded away, dark green leaves appeared out of thin air, swirling at high speed around the High Elf like a cyclone . The leaves lashed out in all directions, hitting everything in their paths, including the frozen Ethereal . The High Elf had whipped up a terrifying leaf cyclone . Whoosh . . . The leaves slashed across the Ethereal s body, tearing it into pieces . Nothing was safe from the High Elf woman s fury now . Not even her deal with the Ethereal was enough to guarantee the Ethereal s safety . Before long, the cyclone ripped through Link s spatial white mist and was now heading towards Link and the others . It was spinning with such destructive momentum that everything in its path was ground to dust . Link gazed intently at the High Elf woman . It turned out that she was also a Legendary master with a frightful temper . She had seemed composed back then, but once provoked, her wrath now threatened to swallow up the whole world like a raging torrent . In spite of its ferocity, the leaf cyclone s power was only at Level 10 . It was able to pierce through the white mist only because Link was not using his full power against her . Link did not feel at all threatened by such an attack . With a force of his will, a band of spatial runes surrounded the leaf cyclone . The runes then formed a thick spatial barrier around it . With a thunderous sound, the cyclone was shut within the barrier . Bang, bang, bang The dark green leaves of the cyclone rattled against the rune barrier repeatedly . A moment later, the cyclone faded into a dark green mist . The dark green leaves were reduced to pieces through repeated collisions against the barrier . Before long, the leaves dissolved back into pure Nature Power . The dark green mist within the barrier was so thick that no one could see what was going on inside . This went on for half a second . Suddenly, Link sensed a gap in the dark green swirl, as if there was something missing in it . The sensation was akin to missing one s step while walking as if the ground had disappeared beneath his foot . In much the same way, his spatial barrier felt as if it had lost its support from within . A thought surfaced in his mind . She escaped . That certainly took some resolve The dark green mist behind the barrier began to subside just as soon as the thought popped up in his head . Two seconds later, the mist had completely disappeared, revealing a yard that had been ravaged by some force of nature . The gra.s.s and flowers had been completely pulverized . All that was left in the yard were deep pits and cavities in the thoroughly loosened soil . Link dispelled the spatial barrier . Celine and the others came out of their hiding spots . They looked in utter amazement at the ground beneath them, which still sizzled with thick Nature Power aura . It all happened so fast, not even Evelina was able to join in the fight . In the blink of an eye, the whole thing was over . Evie, do you know her Eliard looked at Evelina . None of them had antic.i.p.ated such ferocious power from the High Elf woman, not even Link . In the end, she managed to escape from them . Evelina was still dazed by the scene before her . Upon hearing Eliard speak, her body trembled a bit . She frowned . Of course I do . She looked at Link and said, Do you remember when I told you that the High Elves now have five newly promoted Legendary masters Of course . Including you, that makes five . We ve already seen the other three who went by the names of Elovan, Sonya and Milose . Evelina sighed . That was the last Legendary master of the High Elves . She s called Ariel Newmoon . She was the first to reach Level 10 . She s younger than me by three years, but she was able to reach Legendary half a month earlier before I did . Elovan and the others were all High Elf geniuses, but I m not too worried about them, since I know where their limitations lie . Ariel, however, is a different story . Honestly, I don t think I would be able to defeat her myself . Ariel Link narrowed his eyes, visibly troubled by this . The High Elf known as Ariel had appeared in the middle to later stages of the game . She was also a High Elf princess . Her High Elf blood was as pure as Milda s . The only difference was that she was younger than Milda by five years . In the game, when she first appeared, Ariel was only a captain of a High Elf outpost . After receiving a few promotions in the span of three years, she finally became a general of the whole High Elf army, second only to Milda . Ariel was the main mission in the later stages of the game . She had many interactions with the players during her mission . She was also portrayed frequently in the game s battle cut scenes . She would calmly enter a fight and come out victorious without a spot of blood or dirt on her every time . She was also not programmed to deliver lines like I m tired, let s rest for a bit, as if she was driven by a perpetual source of power from within . On the other hand, though Marshal Milda of the High Elf magical army had a glowing list of military achievements, she always came out worse for wear after every battle . A few players who had too much time in their hands had made a comparison of the battles of every renowned Magician, followed by an evaluation of their respective power levels and combat prowesses . They finally came to the conclusion that Eliard, the half elf, and Ariel ranked at number one in terms of combat prowess . However, Eliard was a high profile Magician, which earned him the attention of opponents with equal repute . As a result, his achievements were much more impressive . As for Milda, her combat power was only half of Ariel s . Putting it simply, this High Elf princess was a genius among geniuses in the art of combat Ariel had even managed to make Evelina lose her nerve through their daily interactions back on the Isle of Dawn . Link s head was throbbing slightly . He asked, She s probably gone back to the Isle of Dawn by now . Evelina, do you think she ll give up her end of the bargain with the Ethereals Evelina shook her head . It doesn t seem likely . She s someone who won t let something go until she s seen it through . She always gets what she wants, as if Lady Luck s watching over her all the time . Link s headache worsened . They were still nowhere near to finding the Ethereal prince, and now, they had to deal with such a troublesome individual . Slapping his forehead, he finally calmed himself down . I guess there s no point in crying over spilled milk . Haromed, the Ethereal prince, will return tomorrow afternoon . We ll just have to wait for him here .