Chapter 694: Act 54 – The Crystal Stag
The two stood on the cliff, gazing at a silent valley below.
“Going down from here is Saint Mark Valley. Do you remember the specific steps to catch the crystal stag?” Brendel observed the situation below; the valley was also covered with dense cedar forests, but there were scattered glimmers of light among the trees, the radiance of moonlight grass.
“Let’s go down.”
“Catch it.”
Brendel turned around to look at the calm Lady Knight. This was truly like the answer from Baijia; simple, clear, and devoid of any ambiguity.
“What are you looking at me for? With your current abilities, it shouldn’t be difficult to catch it. I only remember that this valley is a concentric circle, with frost sprites residing on the outer edge, then a shallow lake, which you can wade through in many areas.” Nemeses breathed in the night wind, her expression serene.
“Even the geographical records of the kingdom wouldn’t provide me with this information…”
“You are not mistaken, Mister Brendel. I indeed obtained this information from the ‘Geography of Manowell’ published in the year 355. My memories from the dream are fragmented, and sometimes I have to correspond it with literature,” Nemeses replied softly.
“But you told me you could find the crystal stag! They only appear tonight at three or four o’clock during the full moon, seeking the magical river, but I have never found the magical river…”
“I have, but you need to take me down first.”
Brendel sighed in relief, glanced back at the dark forest, and nodded, “That’s not a problem.”
The distance from the outskirts of the valley to the central lake was a slope slanting towards the center, sparsely covered with large patches of cedar forests. The forest was dotted with moonlight grass, glowing gently, and from a distance, it looked like a meadow on fire. This was also the domain of the frost sprites, which were a type of lower-tier elemental creature, resembling flat ice shard beings. Their power was roughly equivalent to that of three skeleton soldiers, with much more tenacity of life, but they lacked any special attack methods except for a spell called ‘Ice Knife.’
As a low-level magic creature, frost sprites also lacked intelligence, relying entirely on bestial instincts for their actions. Therefore, hunters could set traps to catch them. The magical core within them, the Frost Core, was a low-quality magic crystal that could fetch a good price at the market.
However, Brendel did not intend to provoke these creatures—most frost sprites preferred to act in groups, especially near their habitats. He did not want to cause a swarm of these monsters to attack.
This was the first test of the task.
For an average player, this test would pose quite a problem; Brendel could imagine that unless it was a skilled player undertaking this mission, the general choice would likely be to rally friends and charge straight through the periphery.
Yet, this task was exceptionally simple for him; he directly took out the Cloak of All-Seeing from his backpack, opened it, and stepped inside. He then looked up at the Lady Knight beside him: “Come in.”
Nemeses hesitated briefly before diving into the cloak, squeezing in beside Brendel.
“I warn you, don’t take the opportunity to get too close to me,” she said coolly.
Brendel nodded somewhat awkwardly and closed the cloak with his hands. Inevitably, their distance drew closer again, and Nemeses let out a light hum, but she understood that Brendel did not mean to take advantage, so she chose not to mention it.
With the Cloak of All-Seeing, traversing through the domain of frost sprites became an incredibly simple task; he didn’t even need to consider taking detours. Brendel walked straight through the first half of the valley. Soon, he saw a patch of silver light in the forest; that was a lake. The silvery glow shimmered due to the mirror-like surface reflecting the continuous moonlight grass.
As Brendel approached the lake, the cloak he was holding gradually lost its magical power, flickered twice, and then turned back into a piece of tattered fabric.
Just then, he heard a sharp, ‘squeak’ from behind him. He sensed trouble and hurriedly stowed the cloak away, drew the Sword of the Earth, and looked back, finding a translucent creature like ice crystal watching them from under the tree shadows not far away.
It looked like a thin ice-being, standing only half the height of an average human. It was barely possible to see that its head area glowed with a red light, appearing like eyeballs. But Brendel knew that was just the creature’s magical core.
This was a frost sprite.
“It seems the duration of your cloak was shorter than you expected; it’s regressed, Brendel,” Nemeses turned around, unsheathed her longsword, and stood back to back with him.
Brendel felt somewhat embarrassed; since crossing into this world, his attention had been occupied by other matters, and his keenness as a player had indeed dulled significantly.
After a shriek, two to three dozen similar monsters surged out from the cedar forest, surrounding the two.
“How do we fight?” Brendel asked.
“I can handle seven or eight without any problem,” Nemeses replied, looking calm.
“Then you protect yourself, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Nemeses nodded; she was well aware of Brendel’s abilities. With her strength, she would only drag him down here, so she just needed to ensure her own safety and prevent Brendel from being distracted.
As soon as Brendel finished speaking, the blade of the Sword of the Earth swept down lightly, and there was a loud boom as if something had surged up from the ground. Two sharp rock pillars shot through the surface and pierced two frost sprites, nailing them to the cedar tree behind.
With a crack, the cedar snapped, and those two frost sprites were completely shattered into piles of ice fragments.
This all happened in an instant, so much so that the numerous ice monsters had yet to react when they already lost two of their kind. However, it was well-known that the Sword of the Earth would only activate after the sword was swung; it wasn’t that this swing was empty, but Brendel had not even reached them yet.
Brendel’s figure was gradually fading.
But on the other side of the battlefield—
A black blade revealed itself in front of a frost sprite—the creature raised its head, gazing with wide eyes as the Sword of the Earth swept through its body, shattering it like glass, its icy form breaking apart bit by bit.
Brendel’s strike seemed to carve out a gap, sweeping through in a huge arc, and three frost sprites were transformed into countless flying fragments along with his sword.
In mid-air, the disintegrating frost sprites dissolved at a visibly fast speed, and before the shattered bodies could hit the ground, they turned into light blue crystals, falling to the earth.
These were Frost Cores, a very low-quality substitute for magic crystals, but barely classified as a renewable resource—when Brendel had just arrived at Toniger, such substitutes were indeed valuable treasures, but now they seemed less useful—he didn’t glance at those fallen pieces at all, instead charging into the frost sprites like a whirlwind, momentarily creating the illusion of four or five Brendels appearing on the battlefield.
Nemeses quickly joined the battle; it was essentially one-sided, with only the last few frost sprites managing to cause a bit of a scratch on the Lady Knight with their Ice Knives as they were dying. The likelihood of those monsters posing any threat to Brendel was practically nonexistent.
The final frost sprite also turned into ice flakes under Brendel’s sword, the battle concluding in just a few minutes; Brendel even felt as though his body hadn’t warmed up yet. However, Nemeses had expended considerable stamina; she pushed the last frost sprite she killed away with great effort, its body crashing into the ground with a loud thud, shattering into countless pieces, and she leaned on her sword, looking quite exhausted.
Brendel turned around and saw the Lady Knight’s flushed face; he teased, “You’ve regressed quite a bit too.”
“Don’t compare me to her; I am not her,” Nemeses let out a soft sigh, raising her head to glare at him resentfully.
Brendel smiled faintly. He knew well that Nemeses was not Baijia, but they seemed to influence each other; from her, he could always see hints of the senior sister in the details. He finally understood why she gave him a sense of familiarity beyond just her appearance.
Perhaps it was because of such a feeling that he found it hard to harbor any ill feelings towards her, and even felt an innate closeness.
At that moment, the corpse of the frost sprite killed by Nemeses was dissolving, seeping into the meadow like melting snow, leaving behind a deep blue hexagonal crystal. Brendel’s smile instantly froze on his face.
“Um…” Nemeses also noticed the item at her feet, gently picking it up: “This is…”
“The Heart of Frost!” Brendel almost cried out in shock.
“By Martha, why has your expression changed?” He stared blankly at the Lady Knight and blurted out, “This item’s drop rate is only 0.003%!”
Nemeses paused for a moment before glaring at him with resentment, answering slowly, “I said, I am not her—”
“But it still has the same bad luck,” Brendel couldn’t help but mutter to himself as he recalled the earlier experiences of this noble knight in opening corpses, making him feel somewhat fearful.
“What did you say?”
“No, just expressing some astonishment…” Brendel shrugged.
Nemeses glanced at the gem in her hand with a bewildered look, but she clearly recognized it. She raised the Ice Heart: “Do you want it? Is it useful for you?”
“It would be very useful,” Brendel took a deep breath and answered honestly.
“But you are not an elementalist, are you?”
“I know, but it is more useful to me than to an elementalist—” Brendel replied.
Upon hearing his response, Nemeses showed no hesitation, as if the item in her hand was garbage to her; she looked at the gem one last time and casually tossed it toward him. “Remember, don’t compare me to her; I am me, and my name is Nemeses.” Accompanying her action, the Lady Knight coldly ordered.
Brendel was slightly taken aback; he suddenly thought of something: “Is this why you are unwilling to learn magic…?”
But before he could finish that thought, he met Nemeses’ icy glare. “I need to tend to my wounds,” the Lady Knight said, dropping this line, and disappeared behind the woods.
Brendel already had an answer in his heart, but he paused for a moment before bending down to pick up the Heart of Frost. He opened his interface, and a familiar property immediately appeared in his view:
Heart of Frost
Wind and Water Element Pool Capacity +5%
…(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your votes and support; your support is my greatest motivation.)
