Chapter 349: The Legendary Archmage
Using his godlike vision to observe the demi-plane under his control, Donald discovered that the natives of this Totem Continent were already quite satisfied with their current lives. In their eyes, everything was a gift from the great god Donald. If they were given a modern human lifestyle, either they would degenerate in material pleasures and ignore the gods’ blessings or they would be unable to cope with such advanced concepts and choose to hide, even suffering mental breakdowns! No one would take on such a thankless task!
After leaving the Kingdom of Truth, Donald immediately gathered everyone to discuss how to deal with the retaliation from the Church of the God of Dawn and to speed up the construction of the mage tower. Under such pressure, everyone worked anxiously to accelerate the construction of the mage tower—there was no better solution. The blueprints for the mage tower were already available; Donald simply copied and inscribed several time-consuming spells directly from the Book of Truth. The rest required only assembly and installation. With experienced mages like Messel around, everything would be handled well, so Donald confidently went back to his tent.
This time, in addition to organizing the gains from the Magic Calamity and Bloody Hawk, he also needed to systematically sort out his own cultivation. He had noticed that his powers were now quite mixed—his mage powers, demonic strength, and natural energy were all growing rapidly. Especially his natural divinity had reached a level where he could break through the limits of legend. However, due to the constraints from other aspects, he hadn’t had time to make that breakthrough. Moreover, he had absorbed a great deal of powerful legendary demonic energy, filling his body to capacity. If it weren’t for his natural divinity, he would have already strengthened himself beyond the legendary level, or else he would risk being overwhelmed by his own powers.
Therefore, it was imperative to sort out his various powers. Since he trusted his teachers to handle the construction of the mage tower, he immediately set up a defensive spell array before entering the House of Time. This time, with tight deadlines and so much to do, Donald planned to stay in the House of Time for at least five days—roughly one and a half years in internal time. First, he focused on processing the legendary demonic energy he had absorbed through the abilities of the Demon Hunter.
The most powerful forces of nature, being the gentlest, have been almost fully assimilated by now. In contrast, the demonic forces from outside and the mage systems that require extensive knowledge accumulation still need considerable time to be mastered!
Two full months passed, and when Donald opened his eyes again, the spiritual energy shining in them was as bright as lightning. By this time, Donald’s soul, spiritual strength, and abundant magical power had all surpassed those of ordinary new legends, bringing him close to the level of seasoned legendary warriors. With a mere movement of his spiritual energy, he could lift objects weighing several tons without using any magic hands—meaning he could defeat professionals below the silver rank without casting any spells!
His abilities as a Demon Hunter had reached the golden peak, allowing him to ascend to the legendary level at any time. However, he still lagged behind legendary mages in terms of magical theory knowledge and needed time to catch up.
While a mage at the golden peak doesn’t need to focus as intensely on mastering a particular law of power like a Sword Saint in physical combat, it’s still not easier for them to rise from gold to legend. This is because golden archmages must master a vast array of magical theories to choose a path and create their own powerful legendary spells that surpass level nine, based on those nine-level golden spells! Only then can they ascend to the legendary realm, a challenge no less difficult than mastering the application of a certain law of power to become a legendary Sword Saint.
Who is stronger—legendary archmages or legendary Sword Saints? This has always been a hot topic among the intelligent beings and professionals in the main world!
In Donald’s view, whether it’s a Sword Saint or a mage, their true strength depends ultimately on individual application. Without quick reflexes and sufficient wisdom, even if a pig attains legendary power, it remains just a fat pig ready to be slaughtered; any peer-level warrior can easily kill it, and those at the gold or silver rank can do so if they plan well.
Legendary Sword Saints excel in the endurance of their domains, which allow them to optimize their powerful sword energy and physical attacks. Meanwhile, legendary archmages stand out for their diverse and powerful spells, some of which can even harm gods. In contrast, legendary Sword Saints must get close to gods and expend their life force to unleash a full-power strike to possibly harm them.
Apart from a few powerful level-9 golden spells, true gods can use their innate divine strength and physical resistance to ignore all spells and physical attacks below level 9. However, legendary spells are exceptions; to counter their effects, they must defend themselves proactively or even counterattack, just as they would against attacks from other true gods. Of course, even the most powerful attacks must hit their target! Thus, in battles between two legendary mages and a sword saint, the outcome often depends on each side’s control over their own powers. On the other hand, from a long-term development perspective, spellcasters have an easier time attaining divinity and thus gaining the chance to ascend to demi-god status. But during the process of igniting the divine flame to become a demi-god, warriors with stronger physiques have a significant advantage. As a result, a balance is always achieved between the two in the end, due to the universal rules of the world. Overall, there are slightly fewer true gods of the magical lineage than those of the warrior lineage, but their general divine rank is slightly higher. Yet at that level, there is little difference between warriors and mages. Therefore, Donald focuses mainly on those powerful beings below demi-gods; due to their different paths of ascension, they have distinct strengths and weaknesses. For example, in a relatively isolated and difficult environment, a sword saint’s survival ability is stronger than that of mages with weaker physiques. But when it comes to obtaining resources for survival, sword saints are at a disadvantage compared to mages who can create and transform water and food, as well as withstand environmental damages like elements over long periods. On the battlefield, sword saints can fight their way through enemy forces unharmed, but they cannot instantly destroy an enemy army of tens of thousands like a powerful mage can. Yet mages also cannot venture alone into enemy encirclement, as that is a very dangerous act.