Chapter 208: Act 142 – The Hope of Soft Words (Part 4)
The battle quickly came to an end.
Indeed, Husher and Sanford’s party were equally matched with the ferocious cavalry, but the noble cavalry captain who lost his life at the very start clearly did not anticipate that among these seemingly ordinary people, there were two true Golden Tier entities.
The Envoy of the God of Thunder, Xi.
And Brendel, who had just brushed against the edge of the Elemental Wall, thus entering the Golden Tier. The two of them unleashed their full power, erupting like two flames, one silver and one red, from the ground. In an instant, they shot forward—then vertically pierced through the entire cavalry formation. From above, it looked like an electric dragon and an ice dragon crisscrossing north and south.
The dead lay in heaps.
At that moment, the cavalry crumbled. Even before engaging, they had already fled in terror, howling like ghosts. Unfortunately, a war horse’s speed was only enough to bully ordinary people, and it granted them no advantage in escape. In just half an hour, the plain was left with only the scattered corpses of warhorses and cavalry.
This was the result of Brendel not summoning the Silver Elf Princess and several purchased cards; otherwise, the entire process would likely have taken much less time. Medisa, also possessing Golden Tier strength and coming from a cavalry background, could easily have slaughtered these rabble with the unicorn’s speed being ten times that of warhorses.
But that wasn’t important.
After a fierce battle, Brendel finally calmed down. He sat on the corpse of a warhorse, quietly watching others cleaning up the battlefield nearby, finally having the time to check his own status. In Baron Grudin’s castle, he had unexpectedly broken through in anger, entering the ranks of the Golden Tier, but until now, he had not checked the specifics of his condition.
Since arriving in this world, he always thought his unique advantage was leveling up through experience. The steps to awaken the elements only required completing several not overly difficult tasks, so the boundary issue that was hardest for NPCs was nonexistent for players.
However, after his last battle in the dream against Brendel’s grandfather and with the growth of his swordsmanship skills, he had begun to suspect that his skills might actually grow through training—something that was supposed to be an NPC privilege.
Doubts remained just doubts because he had not experienced any similar instances since then. Moreover, the last growth in swordsmanship could also be attributed to inheriting and digesting Brendel’s original memories; if considered a quest reward, it would all make sense.
But only today did he finally realize that he seemed to genuinely possess some characteristics typical of NPCs. For example, he could increase his skill levels through training, or similarly, rely on breaking through boundaries to grow his strength.
Just like before.
Although this was of little use to him, it was at least a piece of good news. Furthermore, it indicated another fact: that he indeed possessed the dual traits of both a player and an NPC.
Just as Sophie and Brendel’s mixed identity should inherently possess.
He calmed himself and brought up his status menu. Brendel was immediately taken aback. He found that his actual level had not increased at all, still stuck at Level 32, but he noticed that all his attributes had improved by more than thirty percent!
What was going on?
He quickly exited the menu, and the green virtual shadow on his retina changed. When the young man glanced again, he almost spat out his drink; he indeed saw a small bracket next to his name on the status bar:
Brendel (Elite Template)
Oh no, Lady Martha, could you not be so hasty?! Does breaking through a boundary signify an upgrade in Bot rank? Then next would be (Rare Template)? Followed by (Lord Template)? Then (Elite Lord Template)?
Seeing this, even with Brendel’s current state of mind, he couldn’t help but mentally scoff. For a moment, he almost thought he was some kind of monster, just like in those game novels he often read before his journey, where certain bosses would mutate into mutated bosses in melodramatic plots—he just never expected that such a scene would happen to him one day.
And it was truly happening to ‘him’!
Brendel couldn’t help but cough and instinctively glanced left and right. He worried whether 25 or 40 foot soldiers might jump out to raid him or something, although that thought seemed a bit unrealistic. However, what was happening now was already surreal enough.
Compared to that, it seemed that any other event would not be so inconceivable.
But wait, after a brief period of shock, Brendel came to his senses. With his understanding of games, since he had acquired the Elite Template—then the changes in attributes should not only be reflected in the numbers.
What about Elite Skills?
What about Additional Resistances?
Brendel quickly switched to the skill menu and indeed found three newly unlocked slots under the character skills section. They were labeled with ghostly green text: Elite Skills, Additional Resistances, but all these slots were still locked and had numbers behind them like this:
(45), (47), (60)
After a moment’s hesitation, Brendel understood what these meant—level lock. This was similar to the additional slots for awakened elements and presumably required reaching corresponding levels to unlock.
However, the latter only needed to reach the respective level and allocate elemental points as well.
As for the skills of elite individuals, they were comparable to ordinary lower-tier combat techniques, and the additional resistances were at most equivalent to adding an extra cloak equipment slot. However, if this mutation continued further, reaching the level of a BOSS, Elite BOSS, or even a World Boss, that would be entirely different.
Brendel pursed his lips, feeling a slight stir in his heart. BOSS skills had already reached an intermediate standard, elite BOSS skills were at a higher standard, while world leaders had surpassed players, representing the only way to obtain top-tier skills.
Although one could guess that breaking through boundaries must follow the general rules for NPCs, specifically that the higher up you go, the lower the chances. That was why NPCs who awakened elements or even reached the Golden Tier were so rare, and also why the distribution of powerful beings in this world presented a stark pyramid pattern.
Otherwise, players would not have dominated the later stages of the game back then.
Nonetheless, having a possibility was always good, even if it was as elusive as clouds on the horizon. Brendel quickly calmed down from the special circumstances because he had something even more important to check—elements.
He opened the panel and indeed saw behind the awakened elements slots the words: Stability, Stillness.
This was not his element but the nature of the elemental power he sensed. As his power further grew, the rhetoric describing this elemental power would become more numerous and precise—and once he broke through that barrier, at that moment, the true power of the laws belonging to him would descend upon him.
Only at that time could he truly claim to have the qualification to flexibly wield the power of the elements.
Elemental Points, Law Skills, Domains, warriors after awakening the elements, could indeed be said to be non-human beings. But this was also why it was so difficult for the Amber Sword to awaken elements; it wasn’t just about awakening elements, even entering the Golden Tier was enough to make most people shy away—
In fact, this was a well-known rule in the Amber Sword because for ordinary people to enter the Golden Tier, two necessary conditions were needed: an absolute power breakthrough of a hundred levels, and the ability to sense elemental power. Of the two conditions, the former was not difficult for most people of certain aptitude. However, those who achieved this would ultimately only stay at the peak of Silver.
The reason was simple; they could not sense elemental power.
Elements are the laws of the world. If one cannot see the line controlling the laws on the other side of this world, then regardless of how powerful a person might be, they would never have the chance to touch the Elemental Wall.
In comparison, wizards, priests, and even knights are far more likely to touch the rules of the line, hence the proportion of warriors among NPCs in the game is exceedingly rare. Brendel knew a few warriors who had awakened elements; only a few exceptional cases like Bud existed. Most others also held knight identities.
And those like him, who stumbled upon enlightenment by chance, were even more rare.
In this respect, his fortune was indeed unparalleled.
However, what truly puzzled him was the description of the nature of the elements. If his element was ice, or cold, or even the north wind or water, or a higher tier of heat, he likely wouldn’t feel so perplexed.
Because his element was clearly manifesting itself as the secondary element of cold and ice, yet the description of the element’s nature was Stillness and Stability—this seemed to describe properties of space or time.
Brendel couldn’t help but look at his hands, momentarily feeling bewildered.
Is it ice or space?
The difference between the two was not trivial; ice is indeed one of the four major elemental types. But space and time are legendary forces of existence.
The young man shook his head, then raised his head and saw Antinna and Romaine walking over together. He was slightly taken aback because he saw the two girls holding hands, leading a somewhat timid little girl who was looking at him—
A little girl with long green hair, at most eight or nine years old.
A Sainya.
Brendel frowned slightly.
The only southern village lies on the border of Duke Toniger’s territory; if he remembered correctly, it was inhabited by a group of Sainya people, rumored to be descendants of the Forest Children. These small humans are closely related to the druids in the forest and possess certain wild abilities, but because of this, they have always been viewed as barbarians.
The Sainya are extremely reclusive, residing in the borders of the forest, unwilling to assimilate with Erluin. The local lords generally take a laissez-faire attitude towards these so-called ‘inferior races,’ but there are a few who resort to bloody means of suppression.
At the moment, it seemed Grudin was one of them.
But what does that guy want with a Sainya girl? Nobles disdain contact with these savages; even the slightest touch would be considered a tremendous disgrace, and even ordinary folk generally looked down upon these outlanders.
The young man instinctively rubbed his chin.
But Viridien Village, that was precisely his destination.
…
(PS. Today’s concluding chapter. Thanks to those who offered various suggestions and help. The clarity of thought is closely related to you.
Thank you for your suggestions and encouragement!) (To be continued, for more chapters, please log in and support the author, support legitimate reading!)
