Chapter 38: Act 30 – The Brave Deck
Summoning the Sacred Sword? There are many swords bestowed with the name of the Sacred Sword, such as the Crown of Wind, Nodhacis; the Sword of Endless Sky; the Sacred Sword of the Mountains, ‘Extreme’; and the only Sacred Sword ever obtained by a player—Amber. However, these legendary names seem irrelevant to Brendel.
Is this a spell? He knew that priests had a low-level Light-type spell called Sacred Sword Technique, but that spell is purely an offensive incantation and clearly unrelated to summoning or calling. In the game, words rich with magic are taken very seriously, and cannot be changed or paired arbitrarily.
But regardless of what this Sacred Sword summoning is, as far as Brendel knows, any spell available to players in the game has little adverse effect—at worst, it might lead to excessive mental power expenditure, but it wouldn’t cause a splitting headache; at most, one would feel a bit mentally fatigued.
With this in mind, he steadied his heart and internally issued the command to summon the Sacred Sword. After all, anyone would take a no-risk business, and besides, he wasn’t without the hopes that a dead horse could serve as a living horse doctor.
As Brendel paused slightly, the treant was already controlling two vine snakes to whip toward him, but he immediately crouched low and swung his sword upward, sending a silver arc through the air; the two foul-smelling vine snakes flew into the air and were reduced to ashes.
Then our protagonist maintained his offensive, propping himself up with one hand to accelerate into the treant’s melee range. Just as he was about to take further action, a faint light screen projected onto his retina changed:
“Warrior Path, unlocking.”
“Brave Deck Chapter II, Knight—Sacred Sword.”
“Since the character is activating the Destiny Deck for the first time, the guidance system is loading.”
Lines of ghostly text floated and quickly disappeared.
“Sacred Sword, the sword symbolizing the knight’s dedication and purity—”
“Effect: Pay 6 Earth Element from the elemental pool to summon the Sacred Sword into play. Summoning conditions are met. Please display the card by pressing the thumbprint to the center of the Destiny Sacred Pattern and ignite the Sacred Sword with a magical triangle formed by your thumb and index finger—”
Brendel immediately found himself almost unable to attack due to the distractions from these chaotic elements. As soon as his actions hesitated, the treant’s retracted vines pushed him back. He cursed under his breath but knew that even without the interference, his chances were slim. He couldn’t help but take a breath and glanced back at Freya—she was struggling to climb beneath a giant rock, and she was getting close, but Brendel was momentarily stunned by the sight of her light brown ponytail bouncing up and down behind her.
He discreetly shifted his attention to another direction. The other juvenile treants below were still slightly slower, so it seemed the future Valkyrie shouldn’t have any problems. However, Romaine was not in a better situation; she was completely unable to climb anymore and was gasping for breath below.
Meanwhile, Brendel had exchanged a blow with the treant. Both sides hadn’t gained much, but the offspring of the golden treant had realized that this human was not as formidable as it had imagined; it merely feared the elven sword in his hand.
Brendel was aware of this as well.
He tightened his grip on the sword once more, but at that moment, the final prompt flashed through his retina: Display card? Brendel paused but, being an old player, immediately thought of the card in his pocket. As if struck by inspiration, he quickly took it out.
It turned out this sacred pattern was called the Destiny Sacred Pattern, though he had never heard of it before. Brendel couldn’t help but feel a bit puzzled, but puzzlement aside, he pressed his thumb on it.
“Brave Deck Chapter II, Knight—Sacred Sword, locking successful.”
A blinding black light shot out.
The piercing magical wave surged like a blade into the minds of every creature nearby, causing even the adult treant to howl in agony. Under this mental disturbance, both Freya and Romaine halted, turning to look at Brendel.
They saw the card he held aloft vanishing after a wave of black ripples.
“Brendel, the card in your hand is gone!” Merchant Miss exclaimed nervously. Her eyes were sharp; from her position to Brendel was at least fifty meters.
But Brendel ignored the future merchant girl’s words, as he was now staring blankly at the light screen on his retina where new information appeared:
“Sacred Sword, the sword symbolizing the knight’s dedication and purity—”
“When it exists on the field, you can pay 1 Earth Element to attack an enemy, or pay 1 Earth Element to dispel diseases, toxins, and dark effects.”
“The Sacred Sword requires 2 Earth Elements and 2 mental power to maintain for every 10 minutes it exists.”
“The range of the Sacred Sword is one thousand meters.”
Huh?
What a wicked sorcery? Brendel had never heard of a magical item requiring a player to continuously pay power to use. Naturally, mental power was straightforward; it only related to will capacity. However, he recognized the elemental pool, as he only knew elementalists, magic swordsmen, and sun knights had elemental pools due to their need to draw elemental power to cast spells.
Yet no magical item was known to require a player’s elemental pool; didn’t that mean players without an elemental pool couldn’t use it?
Moreover, the most critical aspect was the continuous consumption. This meant that if he wanted to draw power from this card like he did with the soul crystal, he needed to ensure he had enough soul crystals in hand.
But getting enough soul crystals isn’t as easy as it sounds; not every monster drops them.
Of course, even though a flash of doubt crossed his mind, the power of this magical item was indisputable; it deserved to be rated above 40Oz in power levels, and the effect was absolutely undeniable.
Brendel swiped his hand down—
A sword of light suddenly manifested behind him, twice the height of a person and wide, with a handguard shaped like a shining golden cross. A pair of wings spread from both sides of the sword’s guard, making it look as if Brendel were sprouting a pair of snow-white wings from behind.
Merchant Miss paused for a moment, taking in the scene below, her eyes filled with admiration and excitement. Brendel looked so handsome!
Freya was also mesmerized, though she still remembered her task and gritted her teeth, continuing to climb up the rocks. The wound on her hand seemed to have reopened overnight, the pain causing her to frown.
Brendel sensed his state; the moment the Sacred Sword appeared, it cleared two negative conditions from his body. The corruption poison and paralysis toxin vanished like ice melting away, and with every movement of his hands and feet, he felt the divine light power surging within him.
40Oz, second-level power, at least comparable to a quasi-cleric’s level. This meant after entering the Sacred Sword state, Brendel had at least been on par with a full cleric in terms of dispelling effects. If one were to ignore his attire and experience, anyone could sense his aura and perceive Brendel as a quasi-cleric.
However, it was puzzling; the card summoned by Earth Element could simulate such realistic Light Element power. He couldn’t help but wonder who had created this card.
But what Brendel didn’t realize was that under his suddenly enhanced aura, the treant before him was starting to stir. The adult offspring of the golden treant was only level 22, while 40Oz in power level was nearly equivalent to level 30. Under such a formidable pressure, it’s challenging for a not-so-intelligent creature to control its inner panic.
With a scream, it finally could not hold back any longer and launched an attack, as the monster entwined in vines suddenly expanded, and all the vines shot toward Brendel.
“Brendel, be careful!” Merchant Miss warned from below.
Brendel frowned.
Since he didn’t have an elemental pool, he was unclear about how much Earth Element he could draw. However, generally speaking, the conversion rate of soul crystals to elemental pools is one to one, so according to remaining energy, this card should originally have 20 points of Earth Element. Summoning the Sacred Sword used 6 points, leaving 14 points remaining—
Calculating like that was still relatively ample; thus he swept his right hand forward, paying 1 Earth Element to use the Sacred Sword’s ‘attack’ skill. It was like a golden blade of light shot forth from his fingers—
Wherever the light passed, the vines ignited, burning to ashes.
This was the Sacred Sword Technique. Brendel immediately recognized it; it was a low-level priest offensive spell, but after his power level rise, its attack power was equally terrifying.
The treant let out a wail and retracted, having lost nearly a third of its vines after Brendel’s strike. The treant relies on the magical energy provided by the golden tree, and it would take many years for those vines to grow back.
But our protagonist gave it no chance; he launched a flurry of golden blades into the adult treant’s body, then delivered a decisive hand chop. With a loud bang, the offspring of the golden tree exploded from its center, turning to ash.
At the same time, Freya activated the Wind Queen Ring. Though her aim was slightly off, with the power of the wind bullet, she still sent the giant rock flying. With a thunderous roar, the boulder, the size of a small mountain, rolled down, destroying everything in its path, whether sharp stones or treants, reducing them to dust.
In an instant, a dozen or so treants perished simultaneously; even the golden treant could not bear this loss, releasing a dreadful wail that almost pierced through the entire Zevir Valley.
However, having heard this sound in the game at least eight hundred times, Brendel was already used to it, feeling a sense of nostalgia even when he listened to it. On the other hand, Freya and Romaine were startled, exchanging glances.
“What—what was that, Brendel?” the ponytailed girl asked from the mountaintop.
“Don’t worry, we won’t have to deal with it.” Finally relieved after defeating this patrol, Brendel let out a sigh. With this team of patrols taken care of, what remained would be much easier. He estimated the time; the Sacred Sword could still remain in the area for another hour and a half, which should be more than enough time for them to exit the valley. At this time, if he dismisses the Sacred Sword, he might be able to summon it once more.
With this thought, he decisively retrieved the card. Just then, Merchant Miss managed to climb up, out of breath, and immediately asked, “Brendel, what was that just now?”
“It’s the power of that card; I didn’t expect it to be a magic item as well.” He saw the stars in Romaine’s eyes and answered ambiguously.
“A magic item?” Freya was surprised upon hearing this answer. The ring Brendel had given her was also magical, as was the Wind Queen Half Armor, but how could an ordinary person understand so many things related to magic? To her, magic seemed as mysterious as those legendary tales.
She couldn’t help but scrutinize the young man below, as if trying to see through his true identity.
He claimed to be a militia of Bruglas, but Freya was increasingly feeling that this was merely a superficial response. However, what she did not expect was that, in a world she couldn’t see, an even more spectacular scene was unfolding:
As Brendel looked up, he saw golden light across the fields flying toward him—
Leveling up by defeating monsters was indeed quite a delightful thing.
