Chapter 43: Act 35 – The Phantom of the Past
Under the clear sky, it was the brightest sunshine since spring.
By the banks of the Bruglas River, this was how it should look in April and May. The lush green meadow extended all the way to the riverbank, with dense trees in the forest, and in the bend of the golden river, one could faintly see a waterwheel or a sawmill.
The water flowed crystal clear, passing over the pebbles on both sides, carried downstream to the Vieiro region by the winds between the pines. But for the locals, this river was like an endless poem, containing the wisdom of the ages.
Brendel thought so as he walked along the riverbank, listening to the sounds of the forest. There were bears in the forest, but they were not easy to spot. In one of his memories, this place was where his grandfather loved to bring him. Yet in another memory, this area was the novice zone he was most familiar with. The forest was filled with low-level creatures, and the bear was the local boss that dropped quality leather.
The two memories intertwined and merged in his mind.
The third memory was about the Golden Magic Tree—
Looking at the familiar scenery, his thoughts involuntarily reverted back to minutes ago:
“Freya, Romaine. To be brief, you should have realized that the ability to control so many magical servants and offspring with mental power— the true ability of the Golden Magic Tree lies in the power of the mind.”
“The power of the mind?”
“Romaine, don’t interrupt.”
“Sorry, Freya.”
“Yes, the power of the mind. To probe thoughts, remotely control hearts, create enigmatic illusions, and imprison souls.” Brendel replied, “In fact, while we were dealing with the Treants, the Golden Magic Tree had already begun to influence our thoughts because it has been dreaming a long dream, a dream that will soon merge with you and me.”
“A dream?”
“Yes, soon we will each enter our dreams. You will see some incredible things there, but before that, I have some key points to share with you…”
Brendel pointed towards the center of the valley, where the Golden Magic Tree was becoming increasingly beautiful in their eyes. Its branches seemed to spread out in all directions, radiating a vibrant vitality—this was the manifestation of the dream of the Golden Tree extending into the real world.
In the game, the divine blood bestowed by the Shepherds awakened the Golden Tree, but it also plunged these elven holy trees into an eternal dream. These dreams were fragments and whispers of a dark world; even a mere glance from a mortal would drive them to madness.
Just one of these dream fragments could be lethal for a player; once involved, they could die at any moment. But to fight the Golden Magic Tree, one had to enter its dream.
This would be the first stage of fighting the Golden Magic Tree, the illusion. Originally, this stage of battle was deemed the most difficult by players, but a guild called “Mutian” had cleverly solved the problem.
This method was once a little-known secret, but Brendel just happened to come from an era when it was widely spread among players.
And coincidentally, the resources he carried were just enough to execute this plan.
But that wasn’t enough—
Because after the first stage, the second stage battle that would take place in reality would rely on true strength to determine the victor. This stage, although relatively simple in the game, would prove to be a bit challenging for the original Brendel’s party.
The reason was simple; in the game, players entering this dungeon were mostly above level 25, but among the three, the highest level Brendel was only level 10. Even with the help of exceptional equipment, it would be tough to finish the battle before the withering beast horde arrived in fifteen minutes.
That was why as soon as Brendel grasped the fate card—Holy Sword, the calculation immediately turned to focus on the head of the Golden Magic Tree. As long as he made good use of the fate card, it seemed that all conditions to defeat the Golden Magic Tree would be met.
“Key points?” Freya’s voice pulled him back to reality.
Brendel paused for a moment then nodded: “Because the dream of the Golden Magic Tree enters our dream, you must remember that you are the masters of this dream. Therefore, no matter how it constructs this dream or how ferocious the beasts it creates, they won’t exceed your limits—”
He recalled that in the game, the Golden Magic Tree should release the strongest monsters that players had encountered alone within this dream and recreate that scenario. But it wasn’t that simple—in this place, players would receive a negative emotion value; the more mistakes they made and the more they were hurt, the higher the negative emotion value would become, and the monsters would grow stronger.
Thus, this battle often resulted in a vicious cycle where the monsters grew increasingly stronger while the players grew weaker, ultimately leading to an inevitable end.
Brendel did not know how this negative emotion value would manifest in reality, but the core was just one. That was to be filled with self-confidence, to maintain the best fighting spirit, only then could they achieve victory.
He pointed to his forehead, looking earnestly at Romaine and Freya: “Concentrate your attention and ensure your fighting spirit is high. The human will attribute—”
“Will attribute?”
“Don’t interrupt, Romaine!” Brendel replied impatiently: “I mean willpower, human willpower is not fixed. It fluctuates based on your state; concentrating your attention and maintaining high fighting spirit will keep your willpower at peak levels. The more steadfast the will, the harder it will be for the Golden Magic Tree to manipulate your negative emotions. Never let negative emotions control you, or the consequences will be severe.”
“How severe?” the future Merchant Miss looked at him with bright eyes.
Brendel didn’t answer; he feared his words would make them overly nervous, and anxiety was also a type of negative emotion. For failure meant that their souls would be eternally trapped in the trunk of the Golden Magic Tree until the Golden Tree was reduced to ashes by flames, but liberation also meant death.
The surroundings had gradually become hazy.
But Brendel still had one rule left to explain, for there was a rule in this battle: once the first person awakens, they can enter the next person’s dream, transmitting a belief to their companion, allowing the other to overcome the nightmare more easily.
However, each member of the team only had one chance for this, which was why guilds would typically arrange a waking chain; the strongest would enter the dream first, then the next strongest, and so on, so when the most capable person in the guild woke up first, they could help the others promptly, and this order would prevent excessive casualties in the first stage.
Now Brendel planned to change this order.
“I will enter the dream first.” he said: “Then Freya, and finally Romaine.”
“How do we enter the dream?” Freya asked.
“You just need to close your eyes. I will close my eyes first, then you, then Romaine—” Brendel almost bit his tongue; he quickly reached out to press down Romaine’s eyelid as he saw the Merchant Miss preparing to close her eyes to try it.
“Ah!” Romaine cried softly as Brendel’s hand pressed against her forehead.
“Curiosity killed the cat, Miss!”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“The world of magic and the mind is dangerous; everything must be approached with caution.” Brendel sighed; his plan was this: he was the most confident, so he should be the first to enter the dream. Freya was after him because he thought among the three, this future Valkyrie was likely to be the most challenging to defeat—due to too many mental obstacles, the danger would be greater.
But with someone experienced like him by her side, it wouldn’t be too risky. Conversely, the pure-hearted Romaine should find it easier to break free from the Golden Magic Tree’s control. Plus, with Freya’s assistance, success would be a natural outcome.
The first stage had a time limit of five minutes, extended in the dream to half an hour. If they could not escape within that time, they would be eternally imprisoned by the Golden Magic Tree due to getting lost.
It seemed like a highly plausible plan, and at least Brendel couldn’t find any flaws in it. If they succeeded, they would gain considerable rewards, and their active time in Ridenburg would also become quite ample. No one knew better than Brendel what the situation in Ridenburg was like now and what it would become in the future. To find Romaine’s aunt there and successfully retreat, every extra moment meant more hope.
He patted the gleaming dagger at his waist and took a deep breath. The dream of the Golden Magic Tree was so real; as he inhaled deeply, his lungs seemed to fill with the scent of the moist earth by the riverbank, the essence of March and April, the aroma of grassland and burgeoning woods.
But what did it mean for the Golden Tree boss to throw him here? Did it think that the strongest monster he had encountered was the old brown bear from this forest?
That would be fine; it was just a rare elite of level 16, something he could easily deal with now.
However, in Brendel’s memory, the Golden Magic Tree was not so kind. On the contrary, these creatures twisted by the so-called “divine blood” were the purest evils, devoid of reason.
But given the time, the plot should be about to trigger, right? Although he had only been in this world for a few days, Brendel subconsciously used the phrase “trigger the plot”—out of habit.
At that moment, he heard the sound of metal clashing, and Brendel’s ears perked up. For someone like him who had a certain level of familiarity with swordsmanship (level 3 military swordsmanship), he could tell from the sound that it must be two people dueling.
But it didn’t seem to be intense; it looked more like practice.
Brendel did not choose to avoid it, because he knew that avoidance in a dream was meaningless. Furthermore, evading danger meant cowering, which was a negative emotion, and he might be used by the Golden Magic Tree. He followed the source of the sound and found it came from behind a nearby sawmill waterwheel. As he got closer, his line of sight went around the tall vertical waterwheel, and he saw two unexpected figures—
One was an elderly man with snowy hair and silver locks, dressed in deep blue uniform, holding a sword, emanating an imposing presence, as if he were a towering mountain. However, what startled Brendel was the expression of this old man; amidst the seriousness, it carried an inherent warning that seemed to intimidate those with guilty consciences, making them instinctively avert their gaze.
The other was a young boy wielding a wooden sword. Perhaps he looked similar to an ordinary child, but to Brendel, he represented something different.
He recognized at a glance that this was Brendel, to be precise, Brendel as a child. He was taken aback, looked up, and immediately realized who the old man was. It must be Brendel’s grandfather, a veteran of the November War, the recipient of the Candlelight Medal. Wow, this was something, although Erluin had aged, the medal of the Temple of Fire was not something easily awarded—
However, this time the dream set by the Golden Magic Tree seemed a bit different from the game, and Brendel’s heart tightened. But just at this moment of hesitation, he suddenly felt the presence of Brendel’s grandfather before him growing more solid, even beginning to influence his state of mind.
“Negative emotions!” Brendel immediately realized that he had unconsciously been affected, which was unlike in the game. In the game, the system couldn’t manipulate human thoughts, but here, it was entirely different.
This made the battle considerably more difficult than it was in the game!
Brendel couldn’t help but take a deep breath, pressed his waist pouch—thankfully, he still had his biggest support. Though this was somewhat unexpected, at least he still had a grasp on the situation.
Thinking of this, he calmed his mind.
The elderly man’s gaze also rested on him, scrutinizing for a moment, then he opened his mouth: “Young man, are you worthy of inheriting everything from my grandson?”
This question made Brendel’s body slightly tremble.
……
(PS. This chapter and the next few chapters will reach a climax. A lot of my emotions were poured into these chapters, and I cried while writing them. I hope everyone will like it.
With tears in my eyes, I ask for recommendations and collections.)
