Chapter 173: Act 107 – Luring the Snake from Its Hole (Part Six)
But after a slight pause, he finally realized:
“Wow, perfect storyline, experience bonus mode—it really exists!”
This time, he couldn’t sit still anymore. He activated his charge skill directly, and like a continuous afterimage, he dashed past Husher, the Silver Elf commander, numerous mercenaries, and the front line of Silver Elf guards, stopping just in front of a line of lizardmen spear throwers. He looked up and saw more than ten lizardman soldiers approaching.
“Come at me!”
Brendel shouted inwardly.
He lifted his sword in a parry, and with a ‘clang’, he blocked two spears thrusting towards him. He was level twenty-four, but his actual combat power far exceeded that of an ordinary level thirty NPC. The lizardman spear throwers, being level nineteen monsters, were no match for him at all. Brendel didn’t even need to see what the opponents looked like; with a forceful swing forward, he unleashed a burst of power that sent two lizardmen spear throwers flying backward with a scream.
Taking a step forward, he pulled the sword from right to left with both hands—a momentary pressure from the wind seemed to warp the space, and a transparent shockwave, around seven to eight meters long, sliced through the upper halves of the lizardmen.
It was just like the scenery he had seen in the mountains of Golan-Elsen, where the summer breeze swept over the grassy highlands, causing the grass blades to bend backward. As numbers burst forth in his retina, all the lizardmen within a fan-shaped area before him split into two and toppled backward. That scene resembled the moment when Medisa had chased him and Husher, causing the entire battlefield to fall silent.
The pressure from the wind caused harm; apart from elemental affinity, only a few combat techniques could achieve such an effect. Medisa’s Spirit Spear was actually derived from the skills of the Phantom Knight, and typical elven warriors wouldn’t possess similar techniques—even those at the lower tiers of gold would struggle, as they could only develop such abilities when their elemental affinity peaked.
Brendel retrieved his sword and exhaled.
That single strike had only taken down six or seven lizardmen, but the intimidation factor it generated was enormous. He saw the morale gauge of the nearby lizardman warriors drop into the red alert zone, causing them to scatter to the sides, creating a vacuum around him for a moment. This gave Brendel time to assess his experience; he discovered that each of the seven lizardmen spear throwers he had just defeated provided him with sixty points of experience. Normally, defeating a level nineteen monster would yield only a little more than twenty points—this was nearly three times the usual amount. Just as in the game.
Brendel felt the hot blood inside him stir; he originally had 3200/7900 experience, needing just a little over halfway to reach level twenty-five. Moreover, when the Silver Elf guards clashed with the lizardmen earlier, his experience had jumped by over two hundred points. Adding in the six lizardmen just now, he had gained a total of 420 experience points. After estimating, he realized that if he could slay another twenty or thirty lizardmen, he would be leveling up directly.
Level twenty-five was a watershed; not only would he gain a second talent, but he could also obtain a third profession skill.
What’s more, reaching level twenty-five would grant him the strength of a silver tier.
Being under twenty and already possessing silver tier strength was already on par with a Seeker. He would no longer feel inferior upon encountering a genius; although Brendel considered himself never to have felt inferior, witnessing the abundance of prodigies and geniuses in this era inevitably left him feeling a bit uneasy.
Furthermore, if lizardman spear throwers provided sixty experience points, what about level twenty-two lizardman crossbowmen, and level twenty-three elite lizardmen warriors? Not to mention the level twenty-five dragoon riders and the black fire devotees. Oh, and that Dark Cleric! The thought of the potential mini-boss made Brendel’s blood boil; his eyes turned red as he couldn’t help but look around in search of that substantial experience.
However, the first thing he saw was a wave of high-tier black fire devotees rushing in, and he immediately realized that they were evidently unwilling to allow their forces to be overwhelmed in the center, aiming to split the lizardmen army into two segments. The Dark Cleric also understood that once split, the massive army would become slow and cumbersome, unless he was willing to make a desperate gamble. But even if he was the only one with such determination, what good would it do? He was a caster, reliant on protection to escape the chaotic battlefield.
Being left with no choice, he could only command his high-tier black fire devotee guards to shift toward the central area to stabilize their defenses.
The sight of more than ten black-robed black fire devotee knights charging forward, mounted on hellhounds, brandishing flails was indeed quite imposing. Unfortunately, at that moment, the silver-armored Silver Elf guards had already rushed up to stand alongside Brendel, while the surrounding lizardmen trying to encircle them were coming under incessant ranged attacks from the mercenaries.
If the Dark Cleric, who commanded all of this, had been a little more composed and allowed the lizardmen to abandon protecting him to attack Brendel in the elevated positions, the situation would have certainly looked better. Unfortunately, the art of command was not inherent to the black fire devotee priests; he could only subconsciously order the lizardmen to group closer to him to both avoid being divided and better protect himself.
He needed to start preparing his spells.
However, Brendel’s reaction was faster than his.
…
The sounds of fighting in the valley had melded together.
But on the mountain, as the wind swept across the bare, rocky cliffs devoid of vegetation, Antinna couldn’t help but shiver, feeling as though the world below was separated from this place by another realm. She softly coughed, tightening the cloak wrapped around her. This noble young girl stood alone at the edge of the cliff, nervously glancing around, frowning with worry at the dark chasm inside—after hesitating for a long time, she finally asked softly:
“Romaine, is it done yet?”
“Almost done,” came the business lady’s nonchalant voice from inside.
Antinna sighed; she had already heard that answer several times, but she knew that the other party would definitely ignore her complaints, so she could only stomp her feet to dispel the chill on her body.
However, this time Romaine seemed to be really close to finishing. She walked a bit deeper into the crevice of the cliff—without any light source, as if darkness was a friendly companion to her. Most ordinary people would instinctively feel fear in such a narrow, dim environment, but this young lady appeared intrigued. She took out a crystal from her pocket, bent down to rummage beneath the rubble for a while, and placed the crystal inside.
She turned back, paused to count with her fingers, earnestly tallying about five similar spots, nodding in satisfaction before calmly retreating.
As she stepped out from the rock crevice, she saw Antinna looking at her with a frown and a look of deep complaint.
“I regret it, Romaine. Let’s go back,” the gentle girl coughed, lowering her head.
“Don’t worry, it’s just an experiment. Brendel won’t find out,” Romaine said with a smug expression, grasping the other’s hand and urging her forward, “Let’s go to the next place.”
“Wait, wait…”
“Give me some more of that, Antinna.”
“What are you trying to do!” Antinna hurriedly covered her bag in alarm; having inadvertently let this girl discover her secret was already unlucky enough, and she certainly didn’t want to go mad with this business lady.
“But what if the calculations are wrong?”
“Of course not!” the noble young lady gritted her teeth and replied, “Romaine, you wicked woman, I’m an honorary student of the Lantonrand Royal Geographical Society…”
The merchant lady immediately sighed in disappointment.
…
One wind spell, one fireball.
As the expanding and hot air spread from the battlefield, the more than ten high-tier black fire devotees had long since turned to ashes. As a burst-type magic item, the Ring of Queen Wind carried an energy of 20 (Oz), dealt 30 points of damage, almost equivalent to peak black iron, with an impact force close to that of lower-tier silver. The fireball spell had an energy of 24 (Oz), dealt 70 points of damage, on par with lower-tier silver, and its area of effect reached mid-tier silver levels.
Being taken down with a single combo was quite normal for those at the lower tier of silver.
Brendel was worried that there might still be trickier high-tier devotees with chain blade lords in the battlefield, but it seemed like that concern was unnecessary. It made sense; after all, chain blade lords, as elite demons among the lower tier, wouldn’t appear in large numbers in this realm.
Unless the Demon Gate had reopened.
After the smoke dissipated, Brendel’s experience surged by nearly two thousand points. He was just a step away from reaching level twenty-five. He immediately lowered his sword and issued commands to the nearby Silver Elf warriors: “You all go attack the left and right flanks, split the lizardmen. The middle boss—no, I mean their leader—is mine! Understood?”
Twenty Silver Elves nodded in unison.
“What about me, my lord?” Husher asked from the side.
“You and Naminez can lead a side,” Brendel replied.
“Need any help?” asked the Silver Elf commander with rare curiosity.
“Leave it to me; I don’t want that guy to die quickly yet,” Brendel answered, though his thoughts were of another nature. Although the lower-tier Dark Cleric was known to be a miser, he was still a level twenty-five elite creature, with overall strength comparable to that of ordinary units around level thirty-five—of course, the only difference was that dealing with level thirty-five creatures alone posed some trouble, but handling a level twenty-five elite would be much easier. Besides, that was a considerable amount of experience waiting to be claimed.
Having said this, the young man rushed in, not giving the two of them a chance to argue.
Blocking his path were two Barghests, each nearly three meters tall. These creatures were strong, as being attack-type demons, they inherently possessed charge capabilities and could be considered one of the nightmares of low-tier archers and wizards. Unfortunately, Brendel wasn’t either; he was a warrior. As he charged at the two demons, before they could swing their heavy blades down on him, he was already like a ghost, circling around to their backs.
The Barghests, being level twenty-four creatures, had a power rating of 14, but their agility was a pitiful 7, barely half of Brendel’s peak explosive state. Their only pride of charge skills and thick skin were trivial in front of the young man. With one sword strike across its back, he swiftly followed its awkward turning motion to maintain his position behind it—then another strike.
This poor Barghest was almost tortured to death in this humiliating manner, unable to even get a clear look at its enemy before it began to bleed.
At this moment, the Dark Cleric’s spell was finally ready; he screamed and hurled a streak of black lightning at Brendel—this was no ordinary lightning. Brendel recognized the name of this spell: Demon’s Claw. It was essentially a dual-purpose spell, its primary effect being damage derived from hellfire transformed from dark elements. The accompanying slow effect, being a third-tier spell, was much more complex than Ice Shard.
In contrast, it would thoroughly immobilize a target, and if your power level didn’t exceed 40, get ready to just take hits for a minute and a half.
This spell could be deemed one of the most practical spells among dark element users and evil priests, especially when used for ambush. Unfortunately, what Brendel wanted to tell this Dark Cleric was—this spell wasn’t meant to be used this way. Although in the early game, players tended to carelessly cast spells without refinement, the best way to use this spell was to conceal all of its visual effects with a ‘Ray Curvature’ spell or utilize it in close combat.
Because the Demon’s Claw required precision.
Brendel directly swung his sword, launching the corpse of the Barghest aside, blocking the serpentine black lightning in mid-air. The lightning exploded against the body of one demon, sending off countless black sparks that swept across the cold corpse and pinned it to the ground—the entire process unfolded in a flurry of black sparks, a spectacular sight, but it meant nothing to the real target of the spell.
At this moment, Brendel had already raised his long sword; with explosive power and the amplification from the Phantom Knight Crystal, his strength surged to thirty units, sending the remaining Barghest’s arm and head flying into the air. He took a breath; while the burst of power was ferocious, it was also quite taxing on stamina. Fortunately, as the glowing orb emitted from the demon melded into his body, a warm flow surged from his heart throughout his entire being, and a line of eerie green text immediately appeared on the young man’s retina:
“Character reached ‘Level 25’, entering the Destiny Activation Phase.”
“Character acquired skill ‘Frontline Breakthrough’; Frontline Breakthrough (Level 0) – Consumes 5 times stamina to break through the opponent’s defenses (armor, innate, magic) in the next strike, weakening 1.7 damage reduction capability.”
“Detected nearby destiny item ‘Fruit of Golden Destiny’, would you like to activate the destiny talent ‘Golden Revelation’?”
Brendel was astonished—what a joke! He quickly shook his head: “Decline, I refuse to activate!”
…
(PS: Correcting an error, the previous chapters mentioned the protagonist was level 23; in fact, he is level 24, as I forgot to check the attributes when writing. This is the official correction—thus Brendel will level up to 25 and unlock the Destiny Talent shortly. Furthermore, I initially thought I wouldn’t be able to write three chapters today at my uncle’s place, but here we are, finished them! 233…) (To be continued, for more on the next chapter, please log in for additional chapters. Support the author and read genuinely!)
