Chapter 192: Act 125 – The Observer Behind (Second Update, Continuing to Request Monthly Tickets, Subscriptions, and Recommendations)
The young girl squatted next to Eck’s corpse—compared to him, she seemed as small as a mountain. One hand pressed against her knee, while the other fiddled around for a long time, ultimately seeming to find nothing. She could only use her finger to hook the string of the shale longbow, then stood up and waved it in front of Brendel, “Want it?”
“You don’t want it?”
Alorze shook her head, her golden ponytails swaying. “It’s no use to me; I’m just seeing what’s around—”
Brendel felt a bit like crying without tears at the moment. He thought, if you don’t need it, then stay away from the corpse! He couldn’t help but feel a little frantic, but as the Earth God’s envoy had been killed by her, he had no standing to complain. He could only ask hopefully, “Is there nothing else?”
“What’s nothing else?”
“Is it just this bow?”
“How can that be? There are plenty of things. But none of them suit my taste, so I won’t bother with them.” The short girl replied.
What kind of reason is that? Brendel thought to himself but still asked, “You still haven’t answered me; what interesting things did you put on this Golden Apple? As thanks, I feel I have the right to know?” He pointed to the golden fruit in his hand. He originally wanted to give this to Freya or Romaine, but now it seemed he was fortunate not to do so. Only the genius knew what was on it.
With this thought, he couldn’t help but push the apple a little farther away, to avoid getting contaminated by what she called ‘interesting things.’
“Secret,” the young girl giggled.
“Secret?”
Brendel was about to ask again when he suddenly noticed Alorze’s expression change slightly. She turned her gaze to the side and then put her index finger to her lips, making a ‘shh’ gesture to Brendel. “Someone’s coming.” She became serious and said softly, “Mister Brendel, your adventure is quite exciting, and I really like it. But the reason I came to find you is that something small happened in my clan, and Freya and I have to hurry back. Please be careful!”
“Hold on.” Brendel was taken aback; he suddenly thought of a possibility from the girl’s words: could she have been following him all along? His expression turned strange, but even so, Brendel didn’t lose his instinctive sharpness. He quickly found a loophole in her words: “Clan? You are…?”
Alorze smiled and nodded.
Brendel felt like he was struck by lightning; he could hardly speak. Not human and using ‘clan’ to refer to her kin, if he remembered correctly, there was only one type of creature in Vaunte that fit that description—the dragon race, which was disliked by all, including the undead of Madara. This group claimed to be a higher species, typically aloof from human affairs, known for their unreasonable behavior, and notoriously infamous.
He never expected that he would actually have dealings with such a young female dragon. But thankfully, at least the other party wasn’t in a bad mood and didn’t eat him for lunch, though it was a bit late for lunch now. However, Brendel also felt that Alorze seemed to have a pretty good impression of him. If he really had a dragon as a backing, he couldn’t help but feel a bit lucky.
What a stroke of fortune.
“Well, Mister Brendel, those people are about to arrive. I don’t want those low-class creatures, stupid things, to see me right next to you. Don’t worry; I won’t let them harm you.” She stood on her tiptoes, very maturely patted his shoulder as if she were his big sister. Then half of her body disappeared into the air, gradually turning transparent and vanishing without a trace.
“Harm me? Is there a need for Naminez and the others to do that?”
Brendel thought she was referring to Naminez and the group, wondering how the proud silver elves would feel when called low-class creatures and stupid things. He imagined the previous kings of the silver elves would be enraged if they heard that. But she wasn’t wrong; the dragon race was one of the few on Vaunte that still maintained a relatively pure golden bloodline. Just from a bloodline standpoint, they were superior to the black iron and silver citizens. Moreover, one of the most eccentric aspects of dragons was that although their fertility was low, any offspring they produced possessed elemental power, which was also one of the most notable characteristics of the golden bloodline.
But Naminez was coming too late.
He complained internally as he limped over to the corpse, thinking that since he had already been visited by the dark hand’s halo once, he wouldn’t be afraid of another pollution. And who knows, maybe luck would be on his side with a double negative resulting in a positive? He picked up the bow, examined the attributes on his retinas, and indeed found it was a shale longbow:
Shale Longbow [Magic], Piercing Damage: 25-29, +4 Agility, +2 Strength, Activate: Create a Petrifying Arrow (1-week cooldown).
Brendel weighed the bow in his hand and was somewhat satisfied with the attributes. Though the shale longbow only had a bronze rating, its attributes were roughly at the level of a level 40 equipment piece, but the activation attribute was very practical—the Petrifying Arrow was one of the few magical arrows that couldn’t be crafted by a spell; its effect was that it petrified enemies upon impact, while the degree of petrification depended on the opponent’s physique. Generally speaking, a silver-tier or lower opponent would likely turn to stone with a single shot. Of course, Brendel wouldn’t use such a precious Petrifying Arrow against a black iron opponent; even against a silver upper-tier opponent, it posed a significant threat.
Especially since the Petrifying Arrow, like other magical arrows, would not lose effectiveness over time—at least not in the short term. Thus, it had storage value for players, and many archer players had prepared for it in anticipation of storing the Petrifying Arrows. After all, magical arrows did not require a corresponding bow to launch.
However, although the shale longbow was decent, it couldn’t be compared to the drops from a perfect-rated level 55 BOSS. Therefore, he eagerly set his sights on Eck’s massive corpse. Even knowing Alorze was still next to him, as a player, the temptation to find his dream equipment from a pile of unknown drops was simply irresistible.
He casually placed the Golden Apple at his feet, then pulled a necklace from beneath the corpse:
Star of Flame [Magic], Fire Element Pool Expansion: 50%, Fire Element Enhancement: +10.
Upon seeing this necklace, which was also of bronze level, Brendel couldn’t help but laugh three times. It seemed that the dark hand indeed had its good aspects. This item was a small treasure for fire elementalist; had he obtained it in the past after defeating a BOSS, he would have wished to drag the Torrential Rain design team out for a beating, as neither the fire element pool expansion nor the increase in fire spell damage would be of any use to a warrior. But now, it was different. Although the latter attribute was still useless for him, the fire element pool expansion was exceedingly important for someone like him, who had poor elemental sensitivity.
But the real significance of this necklace was that it opened up a new thought process for him. Brendel had long been troubled by the small size of his elemental pool, but the Star of Flame made him realize—that for someone like him with poor elemental sensitivity, it was entirely possible to equip elementalist gear. For instance, Star of Flame, the Bitter Winter, or even the legendary Asilika—Elementalist Brooch. With these items, expanding the elemental pool several times over would be quite simple; even with a poor elemental sensitivity, he could be transformed into a qualified elementalist.
This was what they called using equipment to make up for a lack of talent.
Brendel put away the necklace but heard a soft sound behind him. He turned around, and a group of people emerged from the bushes in the woods—upon seeing them, Brendel couldn’t help but freeze, and ‘not gathering with enemies’ flashed through his mind. The newcomers were none other than Makarolo and Bud, who had led him into this mess. Of course, it wasn’t just the two of them; there were about seven or eight other people with them, but they didn’t appear to be Grey Wolf mercenaries.
Brendel’s gaze mainly focused on the elderly man between the two. He frowned, feeling as if he had seen this person before.
However, compared to Brendel’s coincidental surprise, Makarolo and Bud were even more astonished—one could even say they were shocked. In fact, they had been dumbstruck upon seeing Brendel, having recognized the young man. However, Brendel now looked a bit fierce. Leaning on a short sword, he sat on the blood-soaked corpse of the Earth God’s envoy Eck, covered in blood himself, instantly giving the impression that:
This guy had battled fiercely and single-handedly killed this monster.
It should be known that Bud and Makarolo had personally experienced the battle from a few nights ago and had also fought against the Earth God’s envoy Eck. The level 55 BOSS’s strength was close to that of a level 70 regular monster, and Bud and Makarolo were no match for him. Furthermore, Eck and Bud virtually stemmed from the same elemental field—awkwardly, that meant that once they clashed, it largely came down to absolute strength differences. And the absolute strength difference was glaring, so when they clashed, it resulted in utter defeat, leading to the annihilation of the Grey Wolf mercenary group.
Thus, as soon as Makarolo and Bud saw that corpse, their pupils instinctively shrank back.
This young man…
“It’s you!” Bud was the first to speak.
“It’s you guys,” Brendel turned around to look at them, lazily answering. At the same time, he secretly laughed; this was what they called instant karma. Lady Martha had arranged for them to encounter him here, so they could only blame their misfortune. He joked that if he didn’t take this opportunity to strike back hard, what could he call himself—a seasoned veteran player? He’d be better off going home to grow sweet potatoes.
After finishing this statement, he took his time observing this group of people, leading to an awkward silence as soon as Bud opened his mouth—
…
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