Chapter 417: Act 170 – The Fate Seed
“System prompt: Source Blood match.”
“Repair work starting—”
As Brendel felt himself floating in an endless darkness, a voice suddenly seemed to pull him back to his own world.
He immediately awakened, feeling a strange force invading his body—however, Brendel was experienced enough to react quickly.
That was the Blood of the Gods!
How could there be Blood of the Gods?
He was slightly stunned, but he knew full well what it meant to be invaded by the Blood of the Gods—right now, the Blood was repairing his body, but it would soon attack his soul. Brendel dared not be careless, immediately mobilizing his will to prepare for a counterattack, but at that moment, magical power was dissipating from his dying body, and Brendel quickly realized that he was utterly powerless to stop it.
He realized he could only watch helplessly as the Blood of the Gods coursed through his body, gradually extending towards his brain and heart.
“Damn it, don’t do this!” Brendel gritted his teeth, shouting inwardly, as he saw the Blood of the Gods about to enter his core area. Just then, another voice suddenly sounded.
“System prompt: Fate item detected nearby—”
“Would you like to awaken the Fate Talent?”
Brendel was taken aback again; how could there be a Fate item nearby? Hadn’t the Golden Apple already been given to Xi? But what was the point of activating the Fate Talent at a time like this? The Fate Talent couldn’t suppress the power of the Blood of the Gods.
However, while he hesitated, the voice in his heart shifted again.
“Fate Talent has been awakened.”
Brendel immediately froze; wait, he never chose to accept this damn Fate Talent! What was going on? Could it be that the Blood of the Gods had invaded his soul?
As he felt anxious, the system prompt echoed once more:
“Source Blood is compatible.”
“Heritage is compatible.”
“Spirit is compatible.”
“Heritage activated—”
Heritage activated? Brendel was startled; what heritage? What did it mean that the Source Blood was compatible? But as he pondered, the scenery before him suddenly changed, and he found himself sitting on a cold metallic throne.
This fact clearly didn’t correspond with his previous experience; Brendel was slightly taken aback, his fingers instinctively moving, and the cold touch of the throne’s metallic armrest made him flinch slightly.
The cold sensation transmitted through his nerves, helping him calm down and realize his situation.
“What is this place?”
Brendel inhaled lightly; he suddenly felt a headache. This dark and cold space seemed to suffocate him, so he raised his head for the first time and surveyed the surroundings. What he saw were towering arches, obsidian columns, and a mysterious hall that seemed to stretch infinitely.
Desolate and empty—
What is this place?
Brendel turned his head and squinted, noticing from the far end of the hall another identical throne, where it seemed someone was also seated.
That person faced him from afar.
At first, Brendel thought this strange setting was a reflection created by a mirror; he even suspected if this was the place players went when they died—the Hall of the Underworld?
Yet there didn’t seem to be such a scene in the game.
His confusion lingered until the figure on the throne spoke, “Who are you?”
The voice was deep but not hoarse, rather heavy, and traveled through the long distance of the hall, still clear in Brendel’s ears.
“Who are you?” Brendel retorted.
“I?”
The figure chuckled lightly, resting one hand on the throne and placing his chin on his fist, leaning slightly to one side, “I’m just a fool.”
“Eh?”
Brendel was taken aback, frowning slightly. Was this a quest? Was there such a scene in the game? No matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t come up with one.
“In any case, calm down first.”
Brendel told himself mentally, taking a deep breath and recalling similar situations in the game. If this were a quest, then engaging with the other party was essential.
“Hopefully, it’s not some riddle game.” Brendel thought grumpily, then replied, “Then I… why are you here?”
He initially intended to ask why he was here but changed his words at the last moment.
“Then let’s ask why you are here, young one.” The person’s voice stated, undeniably.
“Me?” Brendel was caught off guard, “Sorry, but I’m not sure either. All I know is that I offended a woman and then took out a cleric, and then I ended up here.”
He answered somewhat self-deprecatingly.
“Well, that’s interesting.” The person across responded.
“Hmm?”
“Young one, do you think everyone can come here?” The figure rested his fist against his chin, casually gazing at Brendel, “Let me think, are you of the Golden lineage?”
Brendel’s heart skipped a beat. Although he didn’t know how he had come to this place, he was certain this was indeed a quest. He thought for a moment and answered candidly, “Sorry, not even a Silver lineage.”
“So you’re a waste then?” the person replied.
Brendel was momentarily taken aback, baring his teeth—he wasn’t annoyed but rather familiar with the remark since he had heard it countless times before in the game.
In the Amber Sword, only those truly powerful NPCs would refer to the humans of this age as the Black Iron Folk. For all players, they were essentially all Black Iron lineage.
“Forget it,” the person waved his hand, “I want to ask you, before coming here, did you come into contact with the Sealing Rune?”
“The Sealing Rune?” Brendel suddenly responded—wasn’t that the sacred relic of the Four Saints, Fanzan? He suddenly thought of a possibility, staring wide-eyed at the person across.
Could this guy be the spirit of Fanzan?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Since both Queen Wind and the Flame King left ways for their legacies, the High Priest must have left something behind in this realm as well.
“You are…” Brendel stuttered, thinking to himself that he couldn’t possibly have such good luck to accidentally obtain the legacy of yet another one of the Four Saints.
In fact, at this moment, Brendel had recalled the gem of Amann. If he had previously had any opportunity to contact a mysterious magical item, it would have been that gem.
A light flashed through Brendel’s mind—he suddenly remembered that Otales had also mentioned the gem seemed familiar.
If it were from the same era, then what reason would there be for it not to seem familiar?
What puzzled Brendel was that he suddenly recalled seeing Fanzan’s sacred relic, the ‘Sealing Rune,’ once—it was during a background introduction of an event on the official website of the Amber Sword. He remembered that sacred relic was clearly a staff. How did it suddenly turn into a gem?
The only possibility Brendel thought of was that, like the Flame King Gilt’s Flame Staff and Saint Ausoor’s Wind Queen Ring, the Sealing Rune had also been split into several parts.
And that gem was precisely a part of the Sealing Rune.
While he was lost in thought, the cold voice of the person on the other side interrupted his concentration. “Who I am is not important,” the voice replied blandly, “but you should consider why you are here—”
“My lord,” Brendel replied more respectfully, “are you saying it’s about that gem?”
“That’s not a gem; that’s the seed of fate.”
“What do you mean?” Upon hearing that name, Brendel nearly spat out blood. What a joke, wasn’t the seed of fate a necessary item to awaken the Fate Talent?
And indeed, the seed of fate is just a general term; the Golden Apple is also a seed of fate, the Goddess’s Poem is also a seed of fate, they just correspond to different fate talents; just like the Golden Apple corresponds to the Fairy’s Whispers, the Goddess’s Poem corresponds to the Son of Martha, each seed of fate corresponds to a unique fate talent.
But Brendel hadn’t expected that just after giving the highest seed, the Golden Apple, to Xi, he would suddenly get another seed of fate.
He couldn’t help but instinctively touch his face—when did his luck become so good? He couldn’t help but glance at Fanzan, wondering what exactly that seed of fate was. Could it be the Twin Goddess’ Pact?
But wait!
He remembered that Fanzan had been a follower of the Twin Goddess in life, and the Twin Goddess Pact was also precisely from her legacy—the Guardian’s Staff of Fanzan.
Upon realizing this, Brendel’s eyes brightened as he asked, “The seed of fate, which kind of fate?”
“Oh?” The person at the other end of the hall was momentarily taken aback, “You actually know about the seed of fate.”
“Very well,” he nodded, “that saves me some explanations—The Gray Gem carries my fate; the one who accepts this fate must naturally receive the ancient legacy.”
“Ancient legacy?” Brendel was slightly surprised; shouldn’t it be the legacy of Fate? The Twin Goddess was indeed Vaunte’s duality of fate, governing the direction of fate’s progression.
He felt something was off and retorted, “Then what is the name of this legacy?”
Brendel had asked this question to inquire about the name of the fate talent.
After a brief silence, the figure across finally spoke:
“‘The Fool.’”
The Fool?
Brendel was taken aback, feeling as if he had just been punched in the face—what was that? The types of fate talents were not many, and excellent ones were even rarer, but he had absolutely never heard of ‘The Fool.’
Moreover, just the name felt terribly inferior!
Could this damned talent lower one’s intelligence by a third or something? Brendel couldn’t help but complain inwardly. He grimaced and immediately reflexively replied in the game’s tone:
“Uh, can I refuse to activate this talent?”
However, Brendel didn’t expect that as soon as he spoke, the hall fell silent for a moment.
Then the person let out a cold laugh: “Give up?”
He looked at Brendel and lightly shook his head: “Young one, do you understand your situation?”
“Situation?”
“What situation?” he retorted.
…
(PS: Third update, today’s final chapter) (To be continued. For more chapters and to support the author, please visit [website].)
