Chapter 388: Act 144 – The Heart of Echis’ Catastrophe
The mist swirled through the mountains, and after the battle, a strange tranquility settled in the forest.
Scattered among the woods were hundreds of centaurs taking a brief rest after battle. The young men from Erluin nearby were all injured, and the treants were not faring much better. After carving a bloody path through a sea of wolves, everyone felt an exhaustion that seemed to reach deep into their bones.
This fatigue gripped them like a pair of dying claws on their nerves, dragging them into a drowsy abyss. Yet even with drooping eyelids, no one dared to lose focus.
Brendel sat atop a fallen, rotting tree—its hollow trunk covered with dense moss, with mushrooms sprouting beneath it. He held one hand over his injured cheek; the pain was sharp, but he gritted his teeth and let Meria cast her healing prayers upon him.
Fortunately, the healing magic proved as effective as it did in the game. Brendel felt a slight itch at the wound, but soon, the pain faded as it healed.
However, the fatigue from blood loss lingered. Healing magic could accelerate metabolism, but it couldn’t produce energy out of thin air.
After casting the last spell, Meria took out a small piece of dried bread from her bag and handed it to him. “Eat something, Sir Baron. It will make you feel better,” she said, her voice soft yet pleasant.
“Have you been on the battlefield?” Brendel asked.
“As a cleric, I participated in the knights’ operations,” Meria replied, lowering her head.
“Did you see the dead?”
“I did.”
“No wonder,” Brendel thought to himself, feeling fortunate to have found such a gem. An experienced candidate cleric without a temple position was quite rare among NPCs.
Yet, she seemed to lack a sense of belonging to his group. He felt that this trainee cleric had considerable insight, and those with insights often have their own thoughts, making them harder to sway.
Were those insights gained from books or personal experience, though?
Brendel asked, “Do you like that guy?”
No sooner had his words left his mouth than he heard a chorus of coughs from behind. He didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Meria blushed brightly and lowered her head, not replying.
Brendel smiled slightly. He thought, even if you didn’t answer, I already have my answer. As long as she cares for Carglis, he need not worry about this cleric lady leaving.
At the same time, he confirmed Meria’s gender.
Antinna sat beside Brendel and couldn’t help but suppress a smile. She could read Brendel’s thoughts, but his straightforward questioning still amused her.
Since their lord was not adept at such matters, it was better for her to handle it, Antinna thought.
“My lord, when are we setting off?” Carglis, sensing the awkward atmosphere, noted Meria’s flushed cheeks and cleared his throat to break the tension.
“Setting off?” Brendel asked with a hint of amusement, lowering his hand to reveal a pale scar on his left cheek, contrasting with the surrounding skin. “What’s the hurry?”
The black wolf lord had bitten him, leaving a long scar that ran from his forehead to his cheek. Fortunately, his brow had blocked further injury; otherwise, according to Meria, he might have lost his left eye.
For that, Brendel had faced some ire from Antinna, but this noble girl understood that Brendel had acted out of necessity, so she let it go.
Cough, cough. Carglis cleared his throat again, fully aware of Brendel’s intentions. “Of course we’re in a hurry. Didn’t you say we only have a few hours?”
Though they had only been together for less than a month, Carglis had gradually gotten familiar with his lord’s character—truthfully, if it weren’t for some malicious tendencies and an inexplicable penchant for damning the nobles of Erluin, Brendel was quite fitting for the type of followers he had in mind.
“True,” Brendel replied. “But there’s no need to rush this moment; everyone needs a breather.” He glanced at Carglis. “Is someone feeling guilty?”
Carglis coughed heavily, opting to remain silent.
Brendel chuckled, then retrieved a dark, shuttle-shaped stone from his bag. The previous battle had been devastating; he had lost four young men—this was the first casualty since they entered the Black Forest.
Besides the dead, there were others severely injured. This group, which Brendel had personally trained, had lost a full ten percent of their combat effectiveness in their first battle, even under the protection of centaurs and treants.
What comforted him was that the losses hadn’t defeated these young men. Though morale was inevitably low, no one had given in to despair or collapse.
This meant they were already qualified warriors.
All they needed now was more training and experience. Brendel believed his young followers could eventually become excellent seeds. They might not match up to the monsters of the past players, but at least they had stepped into the currents of this era.
Under his guidance—
Some of these young people might get injured or even die, but regardless, they would become the first beneficiaries of the great magical tides—an experience that was once reserved for history’s brightest geniuses.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but turn back. The injured centaurs resting by the woods were among the worst affected, with at least a third having dropped out from the battle according to Elder Ward of the centaurs.
Most of them had been torn apart by being dragged into the wolf tide.
The treants and druids had also suffered losses, but not as grievous. Brendel’s remaining strength comprised about four hundred centaur elder guardians, weak silver combatants.
Next were over two hundred silver-ranged treant archers—truth be told, as silver-tier ranged units, Brendel was reluctant to throw this treant army into a war of attrition. He had daydreamed about what would happen if these treants were sent into battle alongside Duke Toniger.
But alas, most of these treants among his ranks were destined to fall in this forest tonight.
Finally, there were the dozens of young people under his command, along with the remaining ten or so silver-tier knights from Erluin’s embassy. However, since Earl Ouding was unlikely to hand over command to him, Brendel tactically disregarded them.
He glanced toward those nobles; Ouding and Lobolen had emerged unscathed from the earlier battle, but the noble scholar had perished in the fray.
This made Brendel let out a sigh. He had previously saved that scholar’s life—particularly given her ties to Lantonrand. Unfortunately, saving her once wasn’t enough to save her again.
He lamented.
Though the casualties were severe, the achievements remained glorious. Killing a male wolf, in the eyes of almost everyone except Brendel, was an impossible task—what that magnificent wolf had revealed of its abilities had already indicated its level.
Elemental awakening.
Anyone with even a modicum of insight understood what that meant, and yet Brendel, Quinelle, and Xi had slain it with their strength rated lower than gold—though most of the credit went to Brendel.
Everyone had witnessed that climactic moment when Brendel redirected the mist howl towards it, cementing his identity as a spell-sword.
Apart from the male wolf, more than three black wolf lords had fallen beneath Brendel’s initial strike, with countless black wolves perishing as well. The wolf tide, dense and sprawling over a thousand square meters, had been swept away twice.
Brendel hadn’t noticed at the time, but afterward, he was shocked by the surge of experience.
After counting the 35,000 experience points gained from defeating the howl itself, he discovered that merely taking down black wolves and the black wolf lords had also provided a staggering 23,250 experience points.
In just that strike, he gained nearly 60,000 experience, and the subsequent ‘team mode’ or ‘legion mode’ battles had further netted him close to 12,000 experience points. In total, he gained over 70,000 experience from this one battle.
Brendel calculated this figure; it meant they had at least slain close to ten thousand black wolves.
The only regret was that the sheer number of wolves meant the drops from those black lords had almost all gone to waste. Thinking of this, Brendel looked at the cold stone in his hand, grateful he had acquired it—this single item was worth the effort.
“What is that?” Xi, sitting beside him and leaning on the Spear of Thunder, looked at the item in his hand, unable to contain her curiosity despite not having Antinna’s grace.
Brendel raised his head and smiled mysteriously. “You mean this? It’s a good item.”
“My lord, there’s no need to keep us in suspense,” Carglis said, rolling his eyes. “Just tell us what it is; it looks valuable!”
Valuable?
This time it was Brendel’s turn to roll his eyes inwardly, thinking, kid, you should know this item was called a legendary artifact back in the game—treasured by countless guilds. It’s not simply valuable.
But then again, he figured the young man was unlikely to grasp what ‘RMB’ meant.
He replied, “This is the Heart of Echis’ Catastrophe.”
“The Heart of Echis’ Catastrophe?”
“The head wolf Echis?” Antinna asked.
“About that. But this isn’t Echis’ heart; it’s a rare magical item. Legend has it that it seals the soul of the great wolf, imprisoning its raging power and chaos.”
“Power and chaos?” Carglis asked, puzzled.
Brendel nodded, looking at the elongated stone shard in his hand—it was the source and core of the great wolf’s power, or it could be said to be the great wolf itself—whoever possessed this shard was the head wolf!
“What’s it for?” the young man asked again.
“You’ll find out soon,” Brendel said. The Heart of Catastrophe was indeed an amulet, but its usage differed from a regular amulet.
As for how to use this thing…
He raised his hand and pressed the shard against his forehead. Then everyone saw the stone shard in his hand suddenly vibrate, emitting a red glow that began to soften and oddly meld into Brendel’s forehead.
The shard penetrated deeper; the red light seeped into his skin like a pattern spreading outward, forming a circle of abstract thorn-like designs on his forehead, and as the red glow faded, the texture turned gray.
The entire process lasted more than ten minutes before finally calming down.
Brendel lifted his head; the shard had transformed into a dark red hue, and beneath the circles of patterns, it presented an eerie beauty. However, the gray-white scar that extended from his forehead down to his cheek diluted that strangeness.
The combination made it difficult for anyone to look away for a moment.
“Now,” Brendel said, lifting his head, “it is complete.”
“Ah?” Everyone was momentarily stunned.
Antinna was especially dumbfounded; she couldn’t find her voice as she gazed at Brendel’s peculiar appearance.
Just as Brendel finished speaking, he saw a network of green light weaving a series of data on his retina, as if formed by endless digits. These points of green light recombined into text:
“Connecting to the lair lord system, neural connection—”
“Connection complete.”
“Will exemption passed—”
“‘Pack Leader’ identity obtained.”
With a flash of green light, Brendel felt many familiar auras appear in the surrounding forest. The furthest was still several miles away, remnants of the scattered wolf packs they had left behind.
With a thought, he immediately sent a sensation to one of the wolves. Moments later, that formidable aura began rapidly moving towards their location.
Peak silver rank, agile at least 100 levels above, and moving quickly; it was estimated to arrive in just a few minutes.
It was a rather mature black wolf lord, Brendel concluded—
Everyone looked at him, but he remained silent until Quinelle suddenly stood up from the bushes with a ‘whoosh,’ warily glancing toward the forest.
He immediately gestured to the others—more black wolves were approaching.
Everyone’s expressions changed as they turned their attention to Brendel—this young lord had previously assured them that they had shaken off the black wolves.
But Brendel’s expression was unchanged; he just stared in that direction.
Moments later…
With a loud rustling sound, a massive black wolf lord leaped from the thicket, landing heavily on the ground. Its almost cart-sized frame made the earth tremble, yet the beast did not attack immediately.
Instead, it lifted its head and looked at Brendel with confusion in its blood-red eyes.
Beside Brendel, Xi almost instantly had her spear at the ready, wanting to stop it, while the treant leader Quinelle drew his longbow, aiming at the black wolf lord.
If it weren’t for Brendel raising a hand to signal them to halt…
Then he lifted his head and looked into the eyes of the black wolf lord. The latter hesitated slightly before slowly approaching. It didn’t make any aggressive moves, instead stopping a short distance from Brendel, nudging its massive head to sniff at him.
Then, it affectionately rubbed against him—
At that moment, nearly everyone was stunned.
Carglis was the first to react: “This… is what it’s for!?” If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would hardly believe it.
But Brendel reached out to pet the black wolf lord’s furry snout, then turned his head, grinning proudly. “What’s wrong? Do you have any questions?”
“N-No, that’s not…” Carglis’ eyes suddenly lit up. “My lord, how many can you control?”
Brendel thought for a moment. “As of now, the system assumes I’m a small wolf pack, allowing me to control two lords and two hundred black wolves at most. However, this item has growth potential, which is why it’s referred to as an artifact.”
“System?” Carglis blinked.
“Cough, it’s just a term,” Brendel realized he might have gotten carried away with his pride, but it was hard to blame him—the Heart of Catastrophe was just too unusual. In the early game, a player who possessed it would wipe the floor with their enemies.
However, this item was unlikely to be owned by a single player; most typically belonged to large guilds. One person owning such a thing would attract too much attention since in the game, this item would definitely drop upon the player’s death.
Moreover, set in the forehead, it attracted even more eyes.
He recalled that the first Heart of Catastrophe had also emerged during this wolf tide, but could it be that it came from the howl? Brendel suddenly thought—was it really possible? Did this mean it was a fixed drop?
He couldn’t help but scratch his head. Initially, he thought he had finally broken free from the black hand halo that had plagued him throughout his past gaming years. But now it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Yet if the howl was indeed part of a fixed drop list, then that would imply the other great wolves should be similar, or perhaps the monster tide itself was designed this way.
Brendel couldn’t help but recall what other treasures had emerged during that wolf tide, aside from the Heart of Catastrophe—there were also the Claw of Awakening, and the Beastmaster’s Tusk Amulet—
He felt a twinge of desire, but he knew well that he couldn’t seize more benefits from this wolf tide. If he delayed too long, he might even find himself as wolf chow, thus he had to suppress his yearning for those legendary items.
One must learn to be satisfied—Brendel consoled himself inwardly, for having acquired the Heart of Catastrophe was already a pleasant surprise. Among the array of treasures, the Heart was indeed the finest.
And more importantly—
In this situation, he was the only player, and there wouldn’t be any guilds coming to trouble him.
Moreover, as for the so-called death drops, they hardly counted as a punitive attribute for him, right?
In his heart, Brendel felt an immense satisfaction. The Heart of Echis’ Catastrophe had been something he dared not even dream about in past games; in fact, he had never paid much attention to it, knowing merely its name.
This time, he had hit the jackpot!
…
(PS: I felt a bit better today. Originally, I wanted to rest for another day, but after feeling a bit more energetic in the evening, I decided to try coding a chapter, and ended up writing 5,000 words at once. I’ll post this 5,000-word chapter and resume regular updates tomorrow.
Also, I saw some amusing news on forums lately, to sum up:
“The National Development and Reform Commission shows its might again; the United States lost itself in Afghanistan; the maid country is tsundere and cute while the little white rabbit secretly wields power.”) (To be continued. To find out what happens next, please log in for more chapters. Support the author, support genuine reading!)
