It was a cold night.
Towards the North, in the northwest corner of a little city called Gladstone, sat the Lower Magic Academy of Flemmings. In the darkest corner on the third floor of its Apprentice Dorm stood room 309.
Blankets were thrown up in a flurry. A black-haired, thin and frail-looking young man sat up with a jolt. The moonlight shone in through the glass window panes, casting a pale white sheen onto his face.
Am I really in the World of Firuman now? A world of darkness, dying gods, that bloody night, the flashing magical lights, saving the world? Was that all real?
The young man's head was in chaos. Utter chaos.
His name was Link. He was from Earth. At least, he had been, up until just an hour ago.
Just recently, he was still in his own home on Earth, playing the game Legend.
Legend had been the most popular online virtual reality game on Earth. It was about a world in a tragic state, slowly being taken over by the Dark Side. In the game, he had been the first ever Archmage, as well as the head Magician of its largest guild: The Guild of Starry Dreams. Just before this, he had challenged the game's Ultimate Boss—the Lord of the Deep, Nozama.
Nozama was a mighty Demi-God. He was one of the three overlords of the Dark Army in the Mortal Realm. Link's battle with Nozama had been an arduous one. Of his team of more than a hundred and ten players, only Link was left standing. By that time, Nozama had worn down his health to the point of almost finishing him off.
Towards the end, Link unlocked the God-level item, the Archangel's Sword. Immense power surged through him, and he became temporarily invincible for five seconds.
In those five seconds, Link and the frenzied boss clashed, each using three Fingers of Death on each other!
Finger of Death
Level-19 Legendary Spell
Effect: When it hits a target, it will carry out divine judgment (magical judgment) according to the condition of the target's body. There is a very large chance that it will cause the target to experience sudden death!
(The version used by the game player is Basic. It can only be used when the Boss' health is below a certain level.)
The scary thing about this spell was that it judged its targets regardless of their skill level. If the spell's judgment was successful, even a God would be killed on the spot!
Link and Nozama's Fingers of Death activated at the same time. They both had literally fought each other to their deaths.
Strangely enough, Link's avatar hadn't been resurrected at the graveyard. Instead, it entered a dark, eerie dimension.
In this dimension, there was a luminescent but dim ball of light. It claimed to be the God of Light hailing from the Legion of Light, a realm in the World of Firuman far away on the verge of defeat. As its supreme God, his powers had been weakened to the point of death, and he begged Link to save his beloved World of Firuman.1
Link just listened. Who could believe such a ridiculous thing as saving a world?3
He thought that this was a cut scene that had been activated by slaying the Ultimate Boss. Full of pride after having just slain the boss, Link had somehow actually agreed to the God's plea. This caused him to be banished to this godforsaken, wretched place!
Under the silver moonlight, Link looked about and was able to make out the room around him.
The room was neither large nor small, 100 or so square feet. By the window were a distinctively foreign-looking bookshelf and chair. A single bed had been placed against the wall, and at the head of the bed, there was a ste chest. That was all.
There were three books on the bookshelf. Link found that he could recognize their names very quickly: Elemental Magic, The World's Equilibrium, and Light and Dark. All of them were basic learning materials from the academy's library.
More memories began flooding into his head. This body had also been called Link. It was the youngest son of a small baron in the Eastern Dunes of the Norton Kingdom. He was 17 this year, introverted and taciturn. He had only learned an extremely basic Trick (Level-0 Apprentice Spell) throughout his half a year in the Magic Academy –The Magician's Hand.
He was a hermit in the academy. Almost no one noticed him.
But none of that was relevant now.
Jumping down from the bed, without even bothering to put on any shoes, Link strode over to the calendar hanging by the table. Clearly inscribed on the calendar of vellum was today's date.
The Light Ages: The Year 1056, the 9th Day of the 10th Month.
Link gasped. It seemed to be just a normal day, but after today, it would be carved into the history of the World of Firuman for all eternity!
Because late tonight, the vanguard of the Dark Elves would succeed in ambushing Gladstone City. They would follow it up with the atrocious massacre of the whole city – 150,000 people would be wiped out within a day and a night, their souls sacrificed to the Dark Elves' goddess, the Spider Queen, Lolth. There would be less than 1000 survivors.2
After the sacrificial ritual, the corpses would be thrown into the Gladstone River beside the city. The river would nearly be cut off by the dam of corpses, the water stained red with blood.1
Gladstone was reduced to rubble that night.
This incident was known as The Change of the Bloody Moon!
Soon, a war swept over the entire World of Firuman. The Dark Ages had arrived. Twenty years later, there were still no signs of it ending anytime soon. In fact, it only seemed to have gotten worse.
All this had been a part of the background history of the game Legend. After comparing what he knew with the memories of his body, Link realized that this world he was in was almost identical to the world in Legend.
The only difference was the time—it had been the year 1076 in the game. The Legion of Light had been on the retreat, losing more battles than winning, its territory steadily shrinking. There had also been constant internal squabbles leaving it in extremely poor condition. Now, the world was just about to face the beginning of the disaster.
The Change of the Bloody Moon would happen tonight!
Cold to his core, Link turned to see a pocket watch lying on the chest by the bed. He rushed over and picked it up. It had been made by the dwarves. Opening it, the watch hands glowed in the dark, he could tell the time very easily. It was 9:35 at night.
"There's less than an hour! The Dark Elves' attack will start soon!" Link thought, his heartbeat quickening.
This night, the Dark Elves had been the ones to deal the first blow. They had snuck into Gladstone City in disguises, carrying out an intricate assassination scheme.
In the game's lore, the assassination had been carried out at 10:30 pm and went on for an hour.
Within that one hour, 99% of the leaders of the city had been murdered, leaving the rest mortally injured. When the Dark Elves began their main attack, the city was already in turmoil. The Dark Elf Army hadn't come across any significant resistance.
How did he know all of this so well?
Because in the game Legend, every beginner had to go through The Change of the Bloody Moon as part of their first mission. Their mission was to escape Gladstone.