The Developer Reborn As Archmage

After a good bath and nearly twelve hours of sleep, they anchored the next day in the middle of the ocean at a point where they had to pick a direction.

The day started with the Seers. Nerima and master Lam both sat on opposite sides of the living room table. Master Lam had a pouch of special herbs that were said to enhance visions. He sprinkled some of it on some embers.

The process began with the missing members. Seris brought their belongings, not knowing what was actually ideal. Nerima explained the importance of an item that maintained a lot of skin or blood contact with the target. The best candidates were jewelry and clothing items.

Emil had a hat and a golden scarf. Rossarie’s was a piece of silver jewelry that was twice the size of a normal wrist. There was also a large cone-shaped silver cap that was supposedly fixed at the end of her tail.

Darya was delighted when she figured out the easiest way to find her missing Warblade. The soulstone ring was jewelry. It had been on Sarka’s walking corpse for a hundred and twenty years.

Nerima started with Emil while master Lam grabbed Rossarie’s things. The method of their seeing was slightly different. Master Lam did a lot of staring at the goods while muttering a mantra. Nerima touched the items with her fingertips while keeping her eyes closed.

She was the first one to speak. Seris quickly grabbed a piece of paper and a quill and nodded at Darya. Fominel was in charge of master Lam to do the same.

“He is miserable,” Nerima said, her eyelids fluttering.

“Sounds about right,” Seris muttered under her breath.

“He is cold and miserable. He is sleeping a lot because he is miserable. On a mattress. Old mattress. Very old mattress. Very old room too. Stone walls. Big stones. It’s windy and dark outside. There is one small fire in the room. Not a hearth. A circle on the ground. Meat hanging over it. Wait, that can’t be meat. Fish? smoked fish.”

Now, where the hell did that boy end up? It hasn’t been long enough for him to start smoking salmon, has it?

Nerima swallowed as if she were suddenly hungry. “He cooks for him. Under the smoked fish, that’s where all the cooking takes place. The old man, he is very old. Merfolk. Wait, there is some land meat mixed in. Rabbit?” Nerima gulped again. “Pig?! can’t be!”

Darya didn’t miss Nerima’s laser focus on food. She couldn’t tell if it was Emil’s hunger leaking through or if it was Nerima’s own taste buds doing half the work.

“Whoa, he met someone?!” Seris gasped. “Actually, that’s better. He wouldn’t have survived alone the way he is!”

“He is miserable because he lost his weapons. Both of them. They’re gone. He is sad. He sleeps all day. Wakes up to eat once and then goes back to sleep.”

“Yeah. That’ll do it,” Fominel said. “He’s crazy about his weapons.”

“Look who’s talking.” Darya raised an eyebrow at him.

“…even more than me!” Fominel added with a sheepish smile.

Nerima started speaking again. “Island, small island. Old merfolk kingdom ruins. Abandoned castle. The old man has the keys. It’s not safe to go anywhere at night. Some monsters come to land from the sea. Eugh, what is that!”

“Monsters?” Darya asked curiously.

“Looks like giant frogs with human faces! ew!” Nerima shook her head.

Oh, sorry I asked. Me and my fucking mouth.

Darya couldn’t shake the image from her head.

“He is definitely in the Greybone kingdom, then?” Fominel asked. “We were right after all.”

Nerima started speaking as if to answer him. “There are four other islands. The largest one has the biggest castle. Can only see it during daytime. Fog hides everything fast.”

Sarka spoke for the first time. “That is certainly the Greybone kingdom. I have no doubt. The islands were arranged from the highest elevation to the lowest like a staircase. The king’s castle on the tallest mountain and four lords below on the other islands.”

“Interesting,” Darya said. There was no merfolk kingdom in the VRMMO. This was completely emergent with RLP. Something about the merfolk had gravitated towards this hierarchy in their society, represented even by the geography they picked. It was built for inequality and instability.

No wonder it collapsed at the first chance it got. Too many pissed off people and their lords on the other four islands.

Nerima opened her eyes, rubbed her fingers together, and smiled. “I hope that was helpful.”

“You’re really good at Seeing!” Seris said, patting her dark green hair. Nerima loved the praise and affection.

“As payment, I’ll buy anything you want. What is it?” Darya asked.

“I can’t take money from you, princess!”

“That’s why I’ll do the buying. Think of it as a gift. You didn’t say you wouldn’t take gifts. It’s too late now.”

“Hmm?” Nerima tapped her lower lip. “What do I really want…” she thought for a while. “I like land meat.”

“Ah, there it is!” Darya clapped. She had the answer. The meat obsession had entirely leaked from Nerima. “You’ll have all the land meat you’ll ever need.”

“Sounds scary when a siren calls it land meat.” Seris protested. “Sounds like I’m also on the menu. Just call it meat, please!”

Nerima laughed, clattering her teeth together, pretending to bite Seris.

Master Lam cleared his throat, suddenly grabbing everyone’s attention. It seemed he was a more careful Seer. He had just been gathering his thoughts the whole time.

“The lady is in a dark place,” he started. “She is completely alone. It looks and feels like a dungeon. There are things to eat. Mushrooms and small critters. She is not as strong as she was. One hand is useless. There is a slash across her torso. Infection is spreading from the wounds. She doesn’t have long.”

“Oh no!” Seris gasped as Fominel quickly wrote things down.

“Slash across?” Fominel asked with a frown. “She didn’t have that before. Her hand was on fire; no wonder that’s useless now.”

Master Lam opened his eyes for a second. “Since it’s all underground, she doesn’t see any sky or the rest of the environment. I hopped over to the mouse that she touched. She failed to kill it. It escaped. The rest of this is based on that.”

Fominel and Darya nodded eagerly. Seris looked worried.

“The mouse ran down an old sewer. It had gone this way a thousand times. It jumped through a blackened grill and came into a courtyard. Everything is overgrown. The mouse hates this place because of the monsters. Thousands of its ancestors had died going out in the open. But now, there is danger in the tunnels too. The mouse sneaks through vines and roots, keeping itself in the shadows. It sees the ocean through gaps in the walls.”

“We need conclusive evidence that she is in the Greybone kingdom,” Sarka said.

Master Lam opened his eyes again. “Unfortunately, it is difficult with a mouse. It wandered around the place, but I couldn’t tell if it was a castle or a pile of stones.”

“She has to be in the Greybone kingdom. Both of them were taken at the same time, weren’t they?” Darya asked.

“True, then why aren’t they together? Emil met an old man to take care of him, but Rossarie is all alone in a dungeon.” Seris said, rolling her lips uncertainly.

“They separated after getting there?” Fominel suggested. “I can’t tell what the reason is, but there has to be a good one. Emil also had his weapons when he was taken. He’s miserable having lost them. Rossarie has a new slash wound. There are monsters on the islands. They got separated somehow.”

“Could Lady Rossarie have been transported elsewhere with another spell?” Sarka asked. “Maybe they met my body again.”

Well, shit. That’s true.

“Wait. We need to see one more thing. I need to know where my weapon was taken, but it seems more important to know where Sarka’s body went.”

“Magus Sarka’s body is walking around on its own?” Nerima asked. They hadn’t been told the full story yet. There hadn’t been enough time.

“Long story short, Magus Sarka was killed by a Dreagan and became a shadow. He preserved his soul in this ring shortly before he was killed.” Darya said.

“Oh, I never could’ve guessed. Dreagans! That cursed horde.” Master Lam performed a religious gesture.

“Sarka, I’m taking the ring off for a while. We’ll find out where you died for good.”

“Please let me know when you put me back on, princess!”

Darya took the ring off and slid it across the table towards the Seers. This time, both Nerima and master Lam touched it, immediately closing their eyes.

Nerima’s shoulders tensed, and she started shivering as if she were cold. Master Lam’s lips quivered, white vapor twisting out of his mouth and nostrils.

Nerima started. “He is in an abandoned garden. There are trees, old trees bent by the wind. Oaks, I think, but with glowing lines on their trunks.”

Master Lam also started speaking this time. “The grass is different. There is a circle. I see something stabbed near the edge. Looks like a staff.”

“Aha!” Darya clapped, feeling warmth in her heart at the mention of her precious warblade.

Nerima shivered, blowing air from her mouth. “There is another circle. Different soil. No grass. It is smaller. The black corpse is near it. I see signs of battle. Shattered rocks, burned trees. The corpse is in two pieces. Ripped in half. It looks kind of decayed.”

Seris looked at Fominel and Darya. “Sounds like Rossarie’s way of finishing someone off.”

“Oh, it must’ve been her work then. The second smaller circle is Sarka porting away.” Darya leaned back in her chair.

Fominel cleared his throat. “Emil lost his weapons. This means he also fought with Sarka. Likely at the moment they arrived. He somehow ended up on another island after this fight. Rossarie didn’t.”

“…they must’ve hit Sarka hard enough for him to escape again,” Seris said with a clap. “If Emil lost his weapons, he must’ve done something desperate. It probably hit the mark.”

“Sarka didn’t have much life left in him when he escaped from us,” Darya added.

Master Lam grabbed their attention again. “This is Greybone Towers. I have no doubt. I can see old merfolk kingdom insignia on a collapsed wall.” He leaned forward. “I also probed the past. The corpse had met Lady Rossarie right after it emerged from a porting spell. Their battle was short, but the corpse managed to claw at her during the final clash.”

Darya stood. “Alright. Rossarie first, Emil next. Fom, set the course to a shipyard where we can prepare this thing to sail to the Greybone towers.”

“Fixing the canons alone might take a week, princess!” Fominel said.

“Surely not. We’ll pay up to five times more, ten if we have to.”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!