Chapter 307: Act 74 – The King of the Underground (25) (First Update, Please Support!!)
The feeling of impending death was like suddenly plunging into an icy cellar, a chill penetrating to the bone. A layer of frost formed on the surface of his skin, and he became stiff, unable to move — though the blade of his opponent had yet to reach him, the cold aura emanating from the sword felt as if it had already pierced his heart.
Brendel felt his heart suddenly tighten. In that moment, he had no other thoughts, only a subconscious effort to avoid this fatal strike.
However, it was still a bit too late; time seemed to pause at that moment, and he felt a slight sting in his back. Brendel sensed his nerves tightening, and he couldn’t help but think:
Is this where I fail?
But just then—
A blue shadow suddenly flashed past him, and there was an immediate sharp sound as if two swords were crossing.
The elder immediately retreated, while the blue shadow pressed forward, the two engaging in a rapid exchange of blades ten times in an instant — this was the first time Brendel’s grandfather had been forced back in a head-on confrontation — he retreated to put more distance between them, raising his long sword to see that it was already broken in half.
All of this dazzling action was completed in the blink of an eye; just a moment ago, everyone was holding their breath, watching Brendel in peril, but the next moment, the situation had completely reversed.
Brendel hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of being attacked; when he turned his head, he saw a light blue figure standing between him and his grandfather, effectively blocking the attack route of the four opponents.
It was a ghostly woman with long hair cascading over her shoulders. She pointed her right hand diagonally to the ground, holding a delicate elven sword, the tip still trembling slightly.
The Soul of the Holy Seal!
Kuran, on the other side of the air wall, stared at this woman, momentarily baffled, but then a wave of suspicion arose in his heart: Who is this woman? He naturally knew her origin, but this holy seal did not belong to any of the ones he was familiar with.
His own holy seal was the Wind Reaper Sora, and Tobus had the Azure Swordsman Glace, but he never expected that the old man’s grandson’s holy seal would be a woman — although as far as he knew, there were several women among the twenty-four knights, their swordsmanship wasn’t suitable for men.
Except for Wind Speaker Soya, but Soya’s primary weapon was a bow, and all descriptions of her image depicted her with a ponytail and wearing a long cloak.
Clearly not this one.
What shocked him even more was that this holy seal could materialize. What kind of trait is this? Although he and Tobus’s holy seals could also manifest in front of others, they could not interact with this world as a spiritual entity — and what did he see? He saw the woman engaging Tobus, striking ten blows.
He couldn’t help but look up at the arena, wondering if the holy seals had stronger powers in this semi-fantasy space than outside.
“However, this young one is a bit unlucky to have encountered this holy seal,” Kuran mused in surprise, thinking that this was indeed Brendel’s first time activating a holy seal.
It was hard to believe that the young man had already reached this point without activating a holy seal; what would be the limit of his future achievements?
Kuran couldn’t evaluate.
…
“Young one, this is the second time I’ve saved you.”
When the woman spoke, her voice was beautiful, carrying a mature and rational tone; she didn’t turn around, but just from her voice, it felt like she must be an incredibly beautiful woman with an extraordinary aura.
“Who are you?” Brendel was stunned; he had never known there was a third soul within him since his transmigration.
“I’ll tell you later,” the woman replied, “You’ve made great progress, but it’s not enough to deal with these enemies. I need to borrow your body.”
‘Borrow your body’?
Brendel was startled by the ambiguous phrase. He certainly knew what an apparition — or rather, a spirit — could do in terms of possession and influence, and he hurriedly stepped back, but the woman beckoned to him, causing his body to move forward uncontrollably, merging with the spirit of the woman.
“Don’t be afraid,” the woman’s voice came from deep within his heart, “Focus your mind on the ring on your hand.”
“You…?”
Brendel’s eyes widened in realization; it dawned on him that the woman’s spirit might be coming from the ring on his hand. He remembered that Kuran had been shouting at him earlier, insisting that the ring on his hand was genuine.
But the real Wind Queen’s ring? The artifact of Saint Ausoor, the Breath of the Wind Queen?
How could this be?
Not to mention why his grandfather possessed such an item.
The legendary Breath of the Wind Queen was said to be a holy artifact from the realm of wind elements; if the Mountain of Stilled Storm was indeed a mountain, then the Wind Queen’s ring was the most brilliant gem atop that peak. Holding it would grant one control over the power of wind, but how was that related to the spirit? And what was the connection with this woman?
In the moment of distraction, not far away, his grandfather was repairing the long sword in his hands. A faint black shadow emerged from the broken blade, extending forward and gradually forming the shape of a sword tip. Then the shadow retracted to reveal the bright silver blade underneath.
“Young one, don’t lose focus.” The woman, seeing this scene, immediately reminded him, “The current state can only last for a short while. This is not the proper use of the holy seal—”
“The proper use of the holy seal?” Brendel was taken aback.
“The purpose of the holy seal’s birth is inheritance, but I am currently forcefully transferring this inheritance to you using my own power,” the woman answered, “You will understand later—”
Brendel shook his head, his mind feeling somewhat chaotic. Various pieces of information intertwined, making it a bit hard for him to accept. However, he fully understood his current situation, and after listening to her words, he immediately scanned his hand.
The Wind Queen’s ring was still the same Wind Queen’s ring —
Wind Queen’s Ring [Ring]: +1 Agility, Skill — [Wind Bullet].
But now there was an additional line of ghostly green text below:
‘Holy Seal Activation State’
“Holy Seal?” Brendel frowned slightly: “What does this mean?” He had heard this term from Kuran before, but even now, he hadn’t figured out what a holy seal really was.
Yet at that moment, he noticed a slight movement at the corner of his eye. He caught sight of two small prompts at the edge of his retina:
‘Possession State’
‘Skill Link State’
The possession state was easy to understand; all players possessed by a spirit would see this prompt just like a DEBUFF alert, preventing players from being unaware of what was happening to them.
But the second “Skill Link State” puzzled him. He knew what this state was. Wizards had a category of spells called Ritual Magic, which linked multiple people’s mana pools together through a magic array to jointly cast spells that one person couldn’t execute alone.
When wizards entered a ritual, they would receive this prompt, and could also use spells from others within the magic array.
But he wasn’t a wizard; what did this prompt appearing on him mean?
Brendel’s heart stirred, and on impulse, he opened his skill panel. But the moment he looked, he was shocked nearly out of his senses. Originally, as a commoner, he had two main professions: Militant and Mercenary (Warrior Class), Elementalist (Element Class), along with Scholar as a secondary profession, with very few skills in swordsmanship, horsemanship, and elemental sensing.
Yet now, there were three additional professions on his panel:
Swordsman.
Swordmaster.
Holy Knight.
The Swordsman and Swordmaster were easy for Brendel to understand; the former was a basic warrior/ranger class, while the Swordmaster was the most common advanced class of that profession. But as for the Holy Knight, he had never even heard of it before.
While there were many job transitions for players, Brendel had never come across many of them. But that wasn’t the most shocking part; what truly left him wide-eyed were the skills that appeared after those professions —
Even the most basic Swordsman had at least ten different sword techniques.
“What is this?” For a moment, Brendel was at a loss. He of course knew where these skills came from, but how could that woman be so powerful?
So many skills represented a massive amount of practice, even battle experience — in other words, one would need to have accumulated such abundant skill experience and character experience to achieve this. Brendel recalled that when he was around level eighty or ninety, he likely didn’t possess as many skills as this woman.
Of course, this was related to how players’ skill trees were relatively singular, as very few players were willing to waste skill experience on skills that didn’t enhance their main path. Players like Brendel, who squandered experience while leveling both Warrior and Elementalist, were usually considered beginners in the game.
But even so, this was outrageous. A person of such caliber was probably one among twenty in this era of Vaunte. However, on the other hand, since the Wind Queen’s ring was not a product of this era, her identity became clear.
“Are you a Wind Elf?” Brendel thought to himself.
“Shh,” the woman pressed her finger against her luscious lips — although Brendel could not see it, he felt as though he sensed that scene in his heart: “Don’t lose focus, dear sister will tell you naturally later; your enemies are coming.”
Her words jolted Brendel back to reality, and he realized that the four opponents on the field were closing in again.
“Do you need my help?”
Brendel looked at those skills and shook his head. He could never have used them before, but once he grasped these skills, he was confident he wouldn’t fall short against anyone — a level 130 warrior, even in the era of the Holy War, was among the top-tier strong.
“Eh?” The woman seemed mildly surprised.
“You brat!” At that moment, Kuran began shouting from outside the air wall.
The elder, seeing the holy seal and Brendel becoming one, of course understood what had happened. He had experienced the same scene in his youth. In fact, the information overload at that time had nearly caused him to faint.
However, Brendel stood motionless, his expression calm, only appearing slightly distracted, which secretly impressed Kuran. The elder knew that the conflict arising when a person’s soul first merged with a holy seal brought a pain that ordinary individuals could hardly withstand —
But he didn’t know that Brendel, who originally had two souls within him, had a system that completely absorbed such an information explosion effect from the very beginning.
(PS: Seeing that everyone doesn’t trust me makes me very sad. I’m about to explode… dare to use support to comfort my wounded heart??) (To be continued. To know what happens next, please log in. For more chapters, support the author and support authentic reading!)
