Chapter 372: Act 129 – The Woodlands Front (1st Update)
It was dawn.
But the forest still lay quiet in the darkness, pierced only by the creeping white mist that brought with it a chilling cold. The edges of the pikes in neat rows refracted the cold light of the campfires, casting an eerie, bone-chilling atmosphere.
In the distance, the rustling of leaves could be heard as groups of Druids searched the woods, their tread breaking the oppressive stillness.
Somewhere on the battlefield, a cough echoed through the air thick with the sharp tang of blood. When Brendel arrived, the Druids had already organized a counterattack, retaking part of the Rosewall area.
Looking out from an open battlefield between the trees toward the distance, the darkness concealed the grayish-yellow grasslands dotted with the bodies of black wolves.
These corpses would shrink over the next day or two, eventually transforming into pure magical crystals.
As for the bodies of the Druids, those had already been collected by their comrades. The Druids’ burial customs were quite primitive—or rather, they returned to nature—with minimal handling before being laid to rest, integrating them back to their origins.
The combat of the night had been too intense to describe in words. Thankfully, the black wolf surge had bypassed the northern side of the Branch Valley and seemed to intend to surround the Green Tower region first, leaving an open area in the center that allowed the Druids to evade the main thrust of the enemy’s offense.
However, the Druids had regained only a small piece of the woodland. The monstrous creatures had withdrawn into the darkness from the forest clearing, as if preparing for another assault.
But Brendel was not the only one who had arrived here. Indeed, at this moment, various factions from the Green Tower area were present—Cruz’s Empire, the wizards of Bud, the Temple of Fire, and even some adventuring groups.
Brendel had initially thought that most would leave the area in the face of the impending onslaught. However, he had clearly underestimated the situation. The changes occurring within the Loop of Trade Winds, coupled with the allure of holy relics, seemed to outweigh the threat posed by the wolfswarm.
This was not necessarily a bad thing, as it would alleviate some of the pressure on him. The main concern was the anticipated struggle before entering Valhalla. Although he was troubled by this, he feared the wizards of Bud more than the Cruz Empire.
Fortunately, it appeared that Bud’s wizards were also unclear about the changes happening within the Loop of Trade Winds—this was his greatest reliance.
Looking out into the dark distance, Brendel understood well that the sun was not going to rise for the next seven long nights. The Green Tower would face seemingly endless waves of monstrous beings.
Historically, there had been three thousand players in this area, but now only he remained. Whether he could single-handedly alter the course of history was still uncertain.
Xi and Antinna sat beside him, while Brendel leaned against a white poplar tree. Antinna was updating him on the movements of other factions within the Green Tower during the previous night, while he opened his panel to make the final preparations.
The start of the Year of the Sword’s outbreak, though confined to the Black Forest, marked the first world-scale plotline in the Amber Sword, and its difficulty was unimaginable.
As such, he had to be fully prepared. The first step was to strengthen his own power. As an experienced player, Brendel clearly understood that nothing was more reliable than his own strength.
He thus first opened his attributes panel.
However, his experience points had scarcely increased over the past month. The only significant gain had been during the battle with the five-headed snake lizard in the middle of the month of the Slumber. After that, his experience points had hovered around 57,000, still slightly short of what was needed for the next mercenary level.
Moreover, the impact of a single level increase in character levels on one’s actual power was not too significant. Consequently, Brendel didn’t dwell too long on this page as his irises flickered with green light, then the holographic grid paused slightly—
Wandering Mage System.
Brendel scrolled page by page until he found the resources section. After the journey from Schafflund Mines, about three months had passed. During this time, apart from spending one hundred wealth to unlock the Silver Swallow Flag, up to now, Brendel had actually amassed a small fortune.
He then glanced down and saw the amount of resources he possessed.
Wealth: 2,220
Reputation: 330
Brendel had been saving wealth purely to unlock the card that required 2,500 wealth—Dehl’s. Dehl’s could generate 20 wealth daily and, when used strategically, provided gems and reputation, being the core card necessary for maintaining the Platinum Angel.
But now he had to interrupt his plan and reconsider.
Brendel opened the Sealed Card Album, and then one by one selected the needed cards. First were the three bloodline cards: Vampire Duke, Blood Throne Vampire, and Nocturnal Lord.
Although Brendel favored the white cards in the album, in reality, his white land cards were quite scarce. Even if he could summon them, he might not be able to sustain their upkeep costs. The bloodlines were different. In the destiny cards, bloodlines had a feature—they only required the host to pay life to cover maintenance costs.
This was extremely critical for spell-based vocations, but for him, a warrior, it felt like a minor inconvenience. Moreover, he possessed the Unyielding talent, which made life regeneration three times faster than normal.
He paid 400, 600, and 800 wealth to unlock these three cards, scanned them, and sent them into his deck.
Vampire Duke
(Shadow XI)
10 Darkness
【Creature—Undead/Vampire, Level 28 Creature】
Vampirism.
When the Vampire Duke is on the field, it adds one combat marker to all lower-level vampires.
When the Vampire Duke is on the field, pay 2 life daily.
“Elegance in the dark is a deadly art.”
Blood Throne Vampire
(Shadow VI)
15 Darkness
【Creature—Undead/Vampire, Level 30 Elite】
Vampirism
Sacrifice one non-black creature to add three combat markers to the Blood Throne Vampire (until reset phase).
When the Blood Throne Vampire is on the field, pay 5 life daily.
”The lower-class often forget they aren’t guests, not servants, but properties.”
Nocturnal Lord
(Shadow III)
15 Darkness
【Creature—Undead/Vampire, Level 35 Elite】
Vampirism
Pay 5 Darkness to place a squad of black derivatives (bloodline) into play.
When the Blood Throne Vampire is on the field, pay 10 life daily.
”Blood drips downward.”
These three cards were essentially a set. The Vampire Duke, although possessing only the peak strength of Black Iron, provided buffs to subordinate vampires.
And the Blood Throne Vampire, with its own significant strength surpassing Medisa, after sacrificing a non-black creature card could temporarily soar to the peak strength of Gold—this was almost the strongest card he could acquire at the current stage.
As for the Nocturnal Lord, who already had Mid-Gold level strength, by continuously paying Dark elements, it could create endless derivatives, and when combined with the Vampire Duke’s ability, it became even more formidable.
Brendel intended to use these three cards, aside from his Divine Sword and Wind Crystal Spider, to build a secondary core deck. Even if for other purposes, the inclusion of the Blood Throne Vampire and Nocturnal Lord alone would increase his Gold-level entities to seven—a significant force in Erluin.
With his remaining wealth, he also spent 550 to unlock the Seaside Gem and Tax Officer of Graywind Harbor:
Seaside Gem
(Ten Thousand Scenic Wonders V)
10 Any
【Treasure—Wonder/Magic】
When the Seaside Gem is on the field, it bestows 1 reputation daily.
Lay this card sideways to gain 2 wealth.
Sacrifice this card to choose any card in the hand, allowing it to enter play for free.
”Unstoppable Temptation”
Tax Officer of Graywind Harbor
(Alliance of City-States I)
5 Light
【Treasure—Human/Official, Level 5 Creature】
When the Tax Officer of Graywind Harbor is on the field, it bestows 1 reputation daily.
Lay this card sideways, providing you with 2 wealth as long as you own a city/building class site card (enchantment).
”Taxation, the foundation of the city-state”
The purpose of unlocking these two cards was to compensate for losses outside the plan. Since it was impossible to meet the requirements for the Platinum Angel all at once, he had to take a more winding path. Fortunately, these two cards increased both reputation and wealth, aligning with the demands.
After using his wealth, Brendel used reputation to unlock the Graveyard Resurrection spell.
Graveyard Resurrection
(Whispers from the Grave II)
20 Darkness
【Spell—Enchantment】
Place any deceased (or in the graveyard field) target artifact or creature card on your control into play, this creature gains Black and the [Mummy] category.
”Death is no excuse for disobedience”
The Graveyard Resurrection card cost 325 reputation points to unlock. It could directly revive a dead creature as a black card, with almost no exemptions aside from time requirements. Brendel believed that during the upcoming magical surge, an appealing target would present itself, hence, he decisively acquired this card.
At this point, the young lord had depleted several months of accumulated wealth and reputation. However, these weren’t all his land cards; he took out five more cards from his pouch.
These included two black land cards—Domain of Shadows and Death Woods—and one gray land card—Mountains of Anju. Additionally, the other two cards were the Fireclaw Herald and the Secret Glyph Summoner.
These five cards were exchanged from the wandering mage for three moon crystals. Apart from the land cards, the Fireclaw Herald and Secret Glyph Summoner brought him great surprises.
The Fireclaw Herald formed a set with Fireclaw Lizardfolk. This card could summon a Fireclaw Herald of Black Iron level. But its real standout feature was that while the Fireclaw Herald was in play, it could duplicate identical red derivative cards for each Fireclaw Spearman card on the field.
Therefore, if the Fireclaw Herald was in play, placing one Fireclaw Spearman card into play was equivalent to placing two Fireclaw Spearman cards into play simultaneously.
Brendel only had one Fireclaw Spearman card now, but he believed that one day this card would possess force comparable to how Divine Sword technique was to the Wind Crystal Spider.
As for the Secret Glyph Summoner, it had almost the same ability as the Nocturnal Lord. The difference was that for every 10 mana the Wandering Mage paid, the Secret Glyph Summoner could summon a gray derivative corresponding to the number of land cards the Wandering Mage possessed.
This was an early-stage weak but late-stage nearly limitless potential card.
Brendel also scanned these five cards into the deck. Now, his deck’s capacity had significantly expanded, excluding land cards, he had a total of fifteen different cards. Meaning he could no longer draw all the cards in the deck into his hand at once.
With the increase in card numbers, Brendel discovered a new issue: his available cards each day became random, and draw strategies posed a new challenge.
He checked his hand first.
Blood Throne Vampire, Wind Crystal Spider, Sacred Sword, Fire Giant, Charge Together, Energy Loss, and Fireclaw Herald.
But Brendel didn’t summon immediately, as he felt Antinna gently nudge him. Only then did he raise his head and come back to his senses from his thoughts.
He immediately saw a group of people approaching from the edge of the woodland.
They were not Druids.
But a group of humans, Erluin’s humans.
…(To be continued…)
