Chapter 168: Act 102 – Luring the Snake Out of Its Hole (1)
To achieve one hundred percent completion of the task, it seems necessary to uproot all enemies standing in the way. The difficulty of this task is far greater than Brendel had imagined; he originally thought that saving the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps would be enough, but now it seems that this idea was somewhat naïve.
Indeed, the task system of the Amber Sword is no joke, even after coming to this world it still retains its true nature. That said, Brendel nonetheless greeted the members of the Torrential Rain task group a hundred times in his heart.
He counted the enemies he would face on his fingers. This included over a hundred lizardman bandits mentioned in information provided by Shubli to the Gray Wolf Mercenary Corps, but the task strategy indicated that the actual number exceeds a thousand, even more.
Next are the followers of the Black Fire Cult, numbering no less than two hundred, with an average strength above black iron; this is a big problem.
Finally, there are the more than seventy dark mercenaries under Conrad, whose strength is comparable to that of the Black Fire Cult; this is also the only task report in the strategy that is most accurate regarding numbers. Ha, what good news—
Then there’s the lizardman commander Hyeugil himself, who possesses peak silver strength. Conrad is undoubtedly of gold level, and as for the earth elementalist accompanying the Black Fire Cult, Brendel doesn’t even want to mention him; just bringing it up gives him a headache.
However, Brendel does not yet know that there is a junior dark cleric among them; otherwise, he would really curse.
After thinking for a while, he turned around and saw that the silver elves had already dealt with that white-haired arrogant man. The Gray Wolves were tending to their wounds with help from Lubis’s mercenaries, likely due to their similar backgrounds, as these two groups got along extremely well.
“What are you planning to do?” a voice sounded from his side.
Brendel was taken aback when he saw the silver elf commander wearing a golden helmet.
“If that human didn’t lie, the followers of the Black Fire Cult and the lizardmen are merging; they should be moving at a similar speed to us. By the time we arrive, we may be facing not just a mob of lizardmen,” the silver elf commander stated as if recounting something unrelated to himself.
“Basically correct,” Brendel replied without thinking: “But I guess that by now, Conrad has probably met with the lizardman commander Hyeugil, as he must be on guard for us sneaking out from the north.”
The silver elf commander silently regarded him. Though he and his subordinates appeared incredibly formidable at this moment, capable of easily striking down lizardmen, Brendel knew that it’s far from that simple.
He had yet to hear of a task with SSS completion that could be completed by sheer force.
“They should have sent out scouts by now.”
“Does he think we will run away?” Brendel chuckled slightly. “Well, it’s just right; I want them to make a mistake.”
Brendel’s guess was not wrong; that evening, the lizardman dragoon cavalry spread out from their lair located in Barogan.
……
The next morning—
A rustling sound came from the dry shrubs on the hillside, as a human hand and a slender, delicate elf hand each pushed the foliage aside. Behind the shrubs, Brendel and the silver elf commander calmly observed the commotion in the valley; after watching for a while, the young man spoke:
“Dragon hunters.”
“This is the third group since yesterday—” The elf commander’s silver pupils reflected the lush scenery of the valley below, his expression unchanged. Dragon hunters had speed and agility in the jungle that exceeded that of any cavalry mount of this era, but they still fell far short compared to the Minren shadow knights. The dragon hunters swiftly leaped forward through the forest, their agile forms occasionally darting through the gaps between the tree canopies. Unfortunately, in the eyes of this silver elf warrior master, they were still rather slow.
“From this distance, they are already twice the normal patrol range for common bandit lairs. Even if they are under the guidance of a herder, this is abnormal…” Brendel murmured, “It seems we’ve indeed entered plot mode.”
“What?” The silver elf commander turned his head.
“Nothing,” the young man realized he had misspoken and quickly corrected himself, “I was just estimating the distance.”
“Unnecessary.” The silver elf commander glanced at him; since last night, this was not the first time they’d been doing such things.
Brendel hurriedly nodded, “Indeed, there’s nothing to see; let’s proceed according to the original plan.” He turned his head and shouted, “Sanford.”
The former Gray Wolf Mercenary, now his subordinate, ran up panting, looking up at the two with eyes wide and asking, “Here! My Lord, what’s the matter?”
Though he had just joined, Brendel had already instructed Antinna to explain his ‘true identity’ to them. Of course, it’s not unusual for adventurers, travelers, or even merchants to use a false identity while on the road, but these mercenaries were quite pleased that Brendel trusted them so much—especially since being a future lord clearly had greater appeal to these mercenaries than a merchant’s identity.
Compared to a transient life with no roots, mercenaries preferred to become a noble’s retinue, as it allowed them to settle down. Especially from the descriptions of the Lubis mercenaries, it was clear that this young lord was different from most nobles whose stubbornness and indifference disregard the lives of their subordinates. Even though they had just learned a lesson from the ‘Maned Wolf’ Makarolo—they were just small figures in this chaotic world, what could they do?
They could only work harder to draw the attention of this lord.
“Relay the order, prepare to act.” Brendel gazed down at the valley and replied.
“Got it, I’ll get to it right away.” However, halfway there, the young man turned back, confused, and asked, “My Lord, actually, I don’t quite understand one thing…”
“Hmm?”
Sanford hesitated for a moment but still mustered the courage to ask, “I feel that given your current strength, there’s no need to go to such lengths. We just need to kill our way through; I believe those lizardmen would be unable to resist at all. Even if, as you said, they have colluded with the Black Fire Cult, it would be the same. To my knowledge, even Erluin…”
He couldn’t finish the latter half of his sentence, “Even the royal family of Erluin would probably be unable to gather more than twenty knights”—yes, though the total number of knights in Erluin may far exceed twenty; one must understand that not every single one of these knights serves the nobility. Moreover, even those that remain loyal to a certain faction aren’t necessarily all faithful to one force.
However, the implication of this statement sounded more like a doubt regarding Brendel’s identity, so Sanford abruptly bit his tongue.
But Brendel understood his meaning; he smiled slightly and replied, “It may be disappointing to hear, but these elven allies are not my subordinates. They fight alongside us only because we share a common goal, and furthermore, they cannot venture too far from the region, or else their power will gradually weaken.”
The young man paused, not understanding what Brendel meant by power weakening. Nevertheless, he promptly replied loudly, “No, my Lord. You misunderstand; we are not disappointed—don’t forget, when we swore to follow you yesterday, it was not because of your immense strength. It was to repay your kindness. So, at any time, whether as the Gray Wolf Mercenary or as former Gray Wolf Mercenaries, we will not go back on our promise.”
But then he quickly asked, “Just, these elven allies are knights, right? Even if their power is diminished, can they have such a strong effect…?”
Upon seeing Sanford’s expression, Brendel knew that this guy had misunderstood. It wasn’t his fault; indeed, under the general understanding, a knight’s power could diminish by as much as half and still remain at the peak of the gold rank.
Twenty peak gold rank knights could indeed sweep through this region.
Unfortunately, contrary to this expectation, there is something in this world known as a level system. Reducing half of one’s strength merely drops one tier, but losing half of your levels has significant consequences. And unfortunately, this damn altar system indeed deducts power in this manner—the peak state of the elven guards happens to be an ordinary unit of level sixty, and deducting half means becoming a thirty-level ordinary unit; let alone the peak of gold rank, even maintaining silver rank upper tier level is difficult.
Over twenty units of upper silver rank could indeed bulldoze through lizardmen; however, adding in the earth elementalist and Conrad, then that becomes a big problem.
Thus, he must seek to overcome strength with strategy.
However, explaining this was a bit cumbersome, so he waved his hand and replied, “Don’t worry, go ahead and relay the orders. Trust me; I will lead you to victory—”
The young man was taken aback, then vigorously nodded.
The silver elf commander watched Sanford’s figure disappear into the forest before turning to Brendel, looking at him with his silver-gray eyes, and replied, “I didn’t expect it, human; you are quite arrogant.”
“It’s confidence.” Brendel lifted his head and earnestly corrected him, “Remember, this isn’t the battlefield of the Holy War, nor is it the era of your shining stars, where numerous brilliant commanders render all conventional tactics dim. Of course, perhaps in the near future this continent will welcome that era again, but not now.”
He raised his head, looking toward the northern forest, articulating slowly, “Right now, here, I believe no one possesses the ability to take victory away from me. I speak these words to you as a seasoned captain; Commander, you may record it.”
The silver elf studied him, then lowered his head and removed the golden pointed winged helm. When he raised his head again, he revealed an extraordinarily handsome and cold face: “To be honest, I didn’t understand.”
“You said, ‘Perhaps in the near future this continent will welcome that era again.’” The silver elf tilted his head; his cold, angular profile was so beautiful it would make a woman jealous. He asked, “Do you mean that the dark dragon will return to this continent?”
“No, that’s something else.”
“How can you be so sure, human? Can you see into the future?” Another cold question.
Brendel was momentarily taken aback, thinking how this guy catches loopholes so well; the game development team should simply hire you to find bugs. However, after hesitating, he replied, “Not foresight, but a kind of premonition. If you don’t believe me, when that time comes, I will return to this place to tell you what has truly happened in the outside world—” He didn’t know why he said this, but perhaps some secret had been pent up in his heart for too long.
This guy was merely a ghost who couldn’t leave here, he thought.
The silver elf paused for a moment, then coldly smiled, “Naminez.”
“Brendel.”
“Brendel, then I will wait to see the victory you claim to have.”
This bastard, clearly still doesn’t believe it.
“Suit yourself.” Brendel gritted his teeth and replied. (To be continued; to find out what happens next, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
