Chapter 421: Act 174 – The Ancients
The golden flames surged forward, and Andisha’s expression changed drastically. She could feel the terrifying heat contained within, and the painful lessons from before were still fresh in her memory, prompting her to instinctively dodge to the side.
However, this dodge also widened the gap between her and Xi. In fact, at this moment, Andisha had already completely forgotten about the young girl, only realizing it when she pushed herself away. She immediately felt a sense of crisis and turned around, but could only watch helplessly as the golden flames swept through the vines between her and Xi.
Andisha let out a painful scream as she endured the agony, extending her hand toward Xi, who had already been freed from her restraints by the flames. Yet, the voice within the golden fire was faster than her movement—a long sword engulfed in flames pierced through to block her hand, stopping right in front of Xi.
Then, a path opened in the flames, and a figure stepped out—that was none other than Brendel—though his clothes remained tattered, the injuries on his body had completely healed. He glanced at Andisha, while casually pulling out the crystal embedded in his chest and crushing it; astonishingly, there was no visible wound on his chest.
“This thing belongs to you, right?” Brendel opened his palm, letting the crystal dust drift away with the wind. He then looked up at the woman before him: “Andisha, or should I call you the Withered Lord?”
“You know me?” Andisha stared intently at the young man, her face filled with vigilance. As the High Priest of the Seekers, she rarely moved about, but it wasn’t surprising that Veronika recognized her after their previous encounter. How did this young man manage to identify her?
If he had heard her conversation with Veronika, then the title of Withered Lord was an internal designation within the Seekers; it wouldn’t be known to an ordinary person, let alone to someone like Veronika.
She narrowed her purple eyes, watching Brendel warily.
At this moment, Brendel glanced at Veronika, then returned his gaze to meet that of the Withered Lord. He rested one hand on Xi’s fragile shoulder, using his experience in the militia to assess the young girl’s condition, and fortunately, she was merely unconscious, which relieved him.
He looked at Andisha; thanks to her, his body had been completely transformed by the blood of the Dark God, making him practically a divine messenger. However, the situation was a bit unique—firstly, he had mysteriously inherited the legacy of the Dark Dragon, and secondly, there was that ‘gift’ given to him by Odin.
It was a drop of blood.
Once that drop of blood entered his system, it completely reversed the effects of the Dark God’s blood. However, in Brendel’s view, it was more accurate to say that the divine blood was wholly consumed by his own lineage. He had never heard of a human lineage being able to devour divine blood before this.
Yet, everything that had transpired was indeed just like that.
Once Odin’s blood entered his body, it seemed to carry an ancient message, instantly activating a certain signal within his bloodline. The ancient resonance began from the soul, and Brendel felt his spirit and willpower swell a hundredfold in that moment, immediately absorbing the ‘faint’ power contained within the divine blood.
Then his bloodline began to merge thoroughly with the divine blood—rather than being a mere reception and transformation, it was akin to absorbing the power inherent in divine blood for self-evolution.
In short, the results of this evolution were now clearly visible to him.
First, the Dark God’s blood was completely absorbed, granting him the abilities of a Dark Divine Messenger. Rapid recovery; life loss and bodily damage could heal at ten times the normal speed.
Brendel understood that this effect was far more remarkable than Xi’s Lightning Divine Messenger ability because the blood of the Thunder God was merely mid-to-high tier divine blood, whereas the Dark Divine Messenger was a truly top-tier divine power.
Naturally, becoming a Divine Messenger also granted him corresponding supernatural abilities. Just as Xi controlled lightning, Brendel acquired ‘Dark Power.’
This ability was somewhat akin to elements, but to put it bluntly, it allowed him to manipulate the power of darkness, which was the forte of Dark Divine Messengers and Necromancers; however, at the moment, Brendel could only infuse attacks with dark power. While it may seem inconsequential, as the most lethal and corrosive elemental type, even just the corrosive defense property could benefit any physical profession immensely.
It should be noted that during his time, light, dark, and lightning weapons were exorbitantly priced. Light-damaging weapons ignored armor, while weapons with lightning enchantments—such as the Lightning Spear—were notorious for being area damage dealers. Dark-damaging weapons were well-known for corroding defenses and weakening healing effects.
In addition to these effects, there were minor side effects. Brendel discovered that, for the same reason, his dark elemental pool had directly doubled, while his light elemental pool had shrunk by one-third.
This left him both amused and exasperated.
Yet, the benefits did not end there; after the refinement of divine blood, he could clearly feel a significant enhancement in his physical attributes. Just like the earlier strike that pushed Andisha away, his strength, agility, and coordination were astonishingly powerful; previously, he would have never qualified to attack in front of Andisha.
In fact, the most direct manifestation of the enhancement in his physical attributes was the property panel now clearly visible before him. His physical attributes had nearly doubled, already reaching a mid-tier gold standard.
But compared to the enhancement in will and perception, the increase in physical quality was trivial. When Brendel glanced at his will attribute, he nearly lost his composure; he found that his will attribute had risen to a terrifying 124 points. With Martha above him, will in Amber Sword was not considered a ‘base attribute’—this attribute was responsible for countering most spell effects and some mental effects; exceeding one hundred points essentially meant that any spell below twelfth circle would have no effect on him.
Furthermore, twelfth-circle sorcerers in Vaunte did not seem to be a common sight, meaning that in most situations, Brendel could consider himself magic immune.
Besides this, he had also gained the legacy of the Dark Dragon. In reality, upon witnessing the true effect of the ‘Fool,’ Brendel instantly cast aside his previous frustrations.
Fate Talent—Fool lv1
[Enthralled: Selfless devotion is sometimes not a good thing—within thirty minutes of activating Enthralled, the character can gain a 100% extra boost across all attributes; this ability can be used twice a day.]
[Ancients: Can learn ancient attribute skills just as one would learn common skills.]
When Brendel saw such an attribute displayed on his property panel, he couldn’t help but want to punch the air in excitement. The power of this fate talent was nearly second only to the legendary Son of Martha; although compared to the dual-birth synergy it was still more suitable for him, judging purely by the inherent strength of the talent itself:
The dual-birth synergy was nothing in comparison—
The first talent ability, Enthralled, spoke for itself; transforming into a superhuman for one hour a day. A doubling of power could directly propel him from the mid-tier gold to peak gold, even allowing him to brush the edges of elemental realms.
The second talent ability, Ancients, might be difficult for others to comprehend. But as a player, Brendel understood its significance—skills of ancient attributes, as the name implies, were legendary skills passed down from ancient times to the present; most of these skills were signature abilities of well-known NPCs.
For example, Tumen’s Ancient Sacred Symbol Technique, the Flash Sword Technique passed down from the Flame King Gilt, or the prophecy of Hrudian from the Highest—High Priest Fanzan, etc. These powerful spells and skills were marked with the so-called [Ancient Tag]. Generally, such skills required extremely stringent conditions—lineage, talent, attributes, and luck were all included. Some even specified that players must complete certain tasks and not complete others, and if they failed to meet any of these stipulations, they could forget about mastering them.
For instance, Gilt’s Flash Sword Technique was familiar to most Crusian court knights and royal members, but to master the complete version of the skill required—firstly, to be a Crusian; secondly, to have completed the Crusian main quest ‘The Radiant Eagle’ series; thirdly, not to have completed any tasks related to achieving goodwill with the Minren; and finally, one must master the supreme fire elemental mastery.
These requirements, aside from the first or second, were exceedingly difficult for most people to satisfy—especially mastering the supreme fire elemental mastery and not completing any tasks leaning towards goodwill with the Minren was almost an impossible demand. It should be noted that in the third chapter of Amber Sword, the vast majority of tasks were related to dark forces, and players would, to some extent, interact with the Minren.
Furthermore, similar ancient skills all possessed mutually exclusive properties; mastering one meant that one could not fulfill the requirements for another.
Ancient skills were so powerful that often mastering just one or two could completely change a character’s combat style; countless players had fantasized on forums about acquiring all ten slots of ancient skills.
But evidently, that was an unrealistic endeavor.
However, Brendel now found that this talent of Ancients seemed to allow that fantasy to become a reality, if it truly worked as described.
With this thought, he took a deep breath and couldn’t help but glance at Andisha, who was warily watching him. For a moment, he genuinely did not know whether to thank her for her actions.
Although divine messengers were often seen as neither human nor ghost in the eyes of ordinary people, and that terrifying divine blood had almost cost him his life.
But looking at the remaining crystal dust in Brendel’s hand, Andisha appeared to have been startled, staring blankly for a long time before she finally spoke, “Y-You didn’t become a Divine Messenger?”
“Andisha? You used divine blood on him!” Veronika, who had been left aside, was taken aback, her brows twitching before she solemnly inquired.
“What does it matter to you?” Andisha shot a glance at Veronika; she was feeling rather annoyed. The dark divine blood was a rare high-grade commodity. She had originally expected to create an excellent specimen of a divine messenger to serve her, but unexpectedly, the divine blood seemed to have had no effect on Brendel.
Veronika was momentarily stumped by Andisha’s retort; she thought to herself, how was this her concern? Yet, the female commander couldn’t help but steal a glance at Brendel, feeling somewhat regretful, although she wasn’t sure why such a feeling arose.
But now that she looked, Veronika noticed that Brendel did not seem like someone who had been controlled by divine blood.
Could it be that the divine blood had no effect?
Yet that seemed impossible; she was well aware of Andisha’s status among the Seekers, and the divine blood in this woman’s possession would not be lacking in quality.
And it was at that moment.
Brendel finally reacted, nodding his head, “What’s the matter?” The young man raised his eyelids to look at Andisha: “Did I disappoint you?”
…(To be continued. For more chapters and to support the author, please visit the official site.)
