### Chapter 37 Scene 29: Tumen’s Legacy
Romaine and Freya extinguished the campfire and followed Brendel out. Both of them guessed that Brendel’s transformation might be related to the previous blinding black light, but they had no idea how that black light was produced. Only our future Merchant Miss had seen the soul crystal in Brendel’s hand; she also knew he had a very magical ring that could summon the wind to aid him in battle.
By the way, he had also given her a ring that Romaine particularly liked, with its black and white spider silk patterns. In Buche, or indeed in the entire world of light, using spider silk as decoration was quite rare, but the rarer it was, the more she cherished it.
She just wasn’t sure if that ring had similar magical properties.
These were all aspects of Brendel she didn’t know. The future Merchant Miss watched the young man standing in the morning valley with curiosity, feeling that everything related to Brendel was filled with magic and secrets.
“Brendel, what happened?” Compared to Romaine’s carefree attitude of just wanting to follow Brendel, Freya was more serious. The girl with the long ponytail believed it was her responsibility to share some of Brendel’s worries.
“Nothing major, but we should leave this place quickly.” Brendel suppressed the anxiety in his heart as he spoke. He unsheathed the elven sword, and a ghostly light reflected off the barren rocks. To be honest, he really didn’t know how to explain the magical absorption reaction to Freya and Romaine—
All in all, it was essentially a spontaneous plundering behavior of high-level magical items towards low-level free energy. But magical items below the 40Oz power level rarely reacted this way to each other. Either way, he couldn’t find a way to convey these technical terms to Freya and Romaine in a short time.
Freya looked at him with concern but didn’t ask further.
Brendel observed the valley below; there was no movement down there, but at that moment, he still felt insecure. He had Freya don her armor while asking Romaine to prepare the rope hook. Freya was already wearing her combat suit and could directly put on the pieces of the Wind Queen armor, but as she hadn’t received professional training, she was slow.
Romaine felt anxious yet a little excited on the side; she wanted to help but was afraid of being scolded by Freya. Although she and Freya were good friends, the ponytailed girl could be quite merciless when angry. Moreover, she knew if she went to help, she would only complicate matters further.
Brendel wasn’t in a rush, but he was more worried that the strong magical ripples would provoke the monsters in the valley, which would make things complicated.
At the thought of this, he couldn’t help but lift the card in his hand, feeling a chill of fear. He hadn’t expected the most important artifact in Jirande to be this card and not the Light’s Thorn. Magical items above the 40Oz power level—that was quite a concept; he remembered he had only seen one for the first time in his fifth year in the game.
It was known that during the long chaotic era, humanity and elven wizards had long struggled to solve the problem of how to infuse magical items with secondary-level power. This issue was finally solved by a genius in the year of the Twilight Moon (Chaos471).
This genius was Tumen, the Elemental Emperor.
Tumen’s invention of the Sacred Rune Etching technique completely resolved the problem of infusing items with secondary power. It was only after that that it became possible to create magical items of 40Oz power level and above.
Brendel didn’t doubt that the mysterious pattern on the back of the card was indeed the sealed sacred rune; he just had never seen a sacred rune this complicated, as it was neither the Wind Queen’s sacred rune of the elves nor the Fire God’s sacred rune of the Crusicians. As for the Sea King’s sacred rune of Elanthal, though he wasn’t familiar with it, it absolutely didn’t resemble this one.
He stared at the intricate pattern, feeling quite overwhelmed. The techniques passed down by Tumen had undergone several revolutionary advancements over the millennia. Logically, modern sacred runes shouldn’t appear with such complicated configurations—unless it was an ancient artifact?
Just as he was puzzled, the card in his hand suddenly lifted unexpectedly, shooting a black beam of light into the gray sky. Moments later, another beam of light answered from the southeastern mountains.
Resonance!
Brendel didn’t have time to react and could only watch in a daze as this scene unfolded. He was about to go mad because this time, the magical reaction was even louder. It was likely that the Madara army, several miles away, had been alerted; only components of a set would produce such resonance. Brendel never imagined that the card in his hand was part of a set, and there was actually a responding set in the Zeviel Mountain Path.
And worse yet, they were conveniently within the resonance range.
“Brendel?”
“Brendel, what’s wrong?” Romaine and Freya spoke simultaneously. This time, even if they were fools, they knew something was definitely off with that card in Brendel’s hand.
“I’ll explain later; are you all armored up?” Brendel took one last look at the valley below, asking urgently.
Freya nodded.
The strong magical reaction had already drawn the shadows of magic minions in the valley, and Brendel saw several withered beast larvae crawling through the dry ravine below. He dared not delay, immediately instructing Romaine and Freya to drop as much weight as possible and to head east along the cliff with light gear.
Rations and water should normally be important reserves, but they couldn’t afford them at this moment. Brendel carried only the basic gear and a few coils of rope, leaving each person with a torch while discarding all other necessary weight. They had to race against time. As they moved along, more and more withered beasts gathered below in the valley, as if the entire Zeviel Mountain Path was boiling.
Seeing the situation below, Brendel couldn’t help but feel a jolt of fear. This truly was a monster uprising. However, since he was on the cliff, the first batch of monsters wouldn’t reach the place they had camped for at least ten minutes. Even if a few withered beasts spotted them, their numbers weren’t a concern.
What Brendel truly worried about was that the patrol route of the magic treants on the eastern cliff would change due to this sudden disturbance, so he needed to reach the middle of the canyon ahead of the golden magical tree spawn before they arrived.
Only there could he find a way to take down the first patrol.
He knew that this patrol should just have passed the riverbank; even if they turned back immediately, it would take two hours for them to reach the middle of the canyon. He had come to this dungeon countless times to farm for the Heart of the Golden Tree, and he could remember every little movement; his only fear was that reality might differ from the game.
Fortunately, they arrived there just in time. The three of them saw a team of monsters woven with vines rushing in from the east. Both sides seemed to notice each other almost simultaneously. The magic treants stood about one and a half people tall, with vine-like roots entwining their bodies. They had no eyes, but the membranous organs on their joints could capture every detail of sound.
They came in adult and larval forms; the adults were agile and moved through the valley with ease, excelling in climbing, and posed the biggest threat to Brendel. However, out of the ten magic treants in this group, there was only one adult, which matched his memory.
“Get to the top of the mountain before they do.” As Brendel saw the magic treants closing in, he felt a bead of sweat forming in his palm. There was a huge rock at the mountaintop, which he could use explosives to loosen and roll down to knock out the patrolling magic treants while blocking the valley. Of course, he didn’t have explosives with him, nor could he find them temporarily, but he did have the Wind Queen’s ring, which was much more powerful than explosives.
He glanced at the small platform at the mountaintop and couldn’t help but let out a sigh—previously, he could easily reach there before the adult magic treants, but now, due to the paralysis toxin, his agility had dropped by 0.3 levels, and he could only rely on Freya and Romaine.
Though the two girls didn’t understand what Brendel was thinking, they nodded earnestly. Right now, time was of the essence. Although Brendel didn’t say it aloud, just by looking at his anxious demeanor, they knew the monsters ahead were not to be trifled with.
Both sides were racing against time. Freya and Brendel were slightly better off, while Romaine, physically weaker, was pale and almost out of breath. Fortunately, because of their time advantage, they managed to reach the mountaintop first.
But it was barely ahead.
Just as Brendel and Freya had just climbed up, the adult magic treant appeared in sight. A level 22 monster; Brendel could tell with his toes that the odds of winning were zero. But even if the odds were negative, he had to go; he couldn’t just sit back and wait for death.
Brendel immediately tossed the Wind Queen’s ring to Freya and shouted, “Attack the connection point of the rock and knock it down. The command is ‘Oss,’ got it?”
Freya instinctively caught the ring, momentarily stunned: “Brendel?”
“Put it on your index finger; I’ll hold this monster off. Hurry.” Brendel originally intended for Romaine to do it; at least that would save one person to cover himself, but he looked back and saw the Merchant Miss was still far behind.
This was the consequence of being lazy all the time, and he couldn’t help but shake his head.
Turning back, Brendel took a deep breath, feeling tense all over. Though he appeared calm before Freya, it didn’t mean he wasn’t scared at all. The magic treant was not a withered beast; with its solid first-level power, it was hard for him to believe he could resist without the Wind Queen’s ring.
4.5 power level, 6 level vitality, 2 agility level. High defense and toughness, corrosive toxins on its skin, adept at ranged attacks, with binding abilities, weak against fire, and weak slashing. Brendel focused on recalling the treant’s attributes; just based on this data, the adult magic treant seemed not too different from elite withered beasts, but he knew the battles between the two were worlds apart.
Just as Brendel was contemplating this, the vines on the magic treant seemed to come alive, countless tendrils shooting toward him. He quickly rolled to the side to evade—what seemed soft before now acted like steel cables, stabbing into the rock with a sharp ‘thud’, causing the surface to sizzle and emit white smoke.
Corrosive—that was the most terrifying aspect of the magic treant. Ordinary weapons not only couldn’t harm them but would actually be ruined by their corrosive skin.
The magic treant could tell it had missed by the sound, and it immediately swung its vines sideways, aiming to lash out at Brendel again. The latter cursed under his breath but could only continue to roll away. The ‘steel cable’ swept across the ground, immediately sending stones flying.
The flying rubble struck Brendel’s brow, causing blood to stream down his forehead. But at that moment, he didn’t dare to utter a sound of pain. Seizing the opportunity during the monster’s attack, he lunged forward with the Light’s Thorn.
However, just as he did, he froze momentarily.
He saw a row of ghostly green characters appear on his retina—
“Do you want to summon the Holy Sword?”
