Chapter 439: Act 191 – The Final Moment (7)
Faina fumbled on the cloak for a while and soon found a clue. Spells have fixed forms, though powerful wizards can create them at will. Generally, they need to follow basic principles. The witches who have lived by the banks of the River of Magic believe that there are thirty-six thousand characters filled with mysterious power in this world, which can encompass all the laws of this world; runic magic and divine word magic are built upon this foundation.
These characters are most commonly used in the activation spells for magical items.
For example, the most common ones are ‘Eaam’ (Earth), ‘Oss’ (Wind), ‘Vo’ (Water), and ‘Flame’ (Fire).
The cloak had a strong aura of earth; in fact, aside from the artificially created magical items made by the races of silver and gold, most treasures from the earliest times flowed in from the elemental realms. Therefore, the noble young lady tried the “Giant’s Poem,” which describes the origin of the Earth race. This codex contains one thousand two hundred magical characters, and testing them all would be nearly impossible.
But she was experienced. Generally, activation spells need to be chosen based on the abilities displayed by the magical item, so the scope narrowed significantly.
She tried the ‘Teeth of Yara,’ representing shadows, and the trembling rune, then raised her head, a hint of pride flickering in her blue eyes, and handed the cloak to Brendel.
Her eyes sparkled with youthful pride, and the corners of her mouth curled upward as if saying—How about that?
Brendel glanced at her and took the cloak. Immediately, a line of green text popped up in his retina:
“Burrow King’s Invisibility Cloak, Magic Resistance 30%, Activation Ability: Enter the state of All-Things Concealment for one hundred twenty breaths. During this time, the character vanishes from this world (though they can still perceive their surroundings). Activation Spell: Far.”
This meant that the equipment had been “identified.”
Finding out the “function” and “activation spell” of a treasure is referred to as “identification” in the Amberem realm. The identification spell is indeed similar to the expertise of professions like magical swordsman and spell knight.
Because magical swordsmen are not merely swordsmen who use magic—though they can also cast spells, their true power lies in deciphering magic to combat wizards. They are usually more skilled in anti-magic rather than magic itself.
However, Brendel was not thinking about anything else when he saw this item. All-Things Concealment—described as “vanishing from this world,” made the corners of his eyes twitch involuntarily.
According to the rules in the Amber Sword, All-Things Concealment means that one does not exist in any of the primary planes of this world, including the material plane, the four elemental planes, and the two energy planes; because these seven worlds overlap to form Vaunte in its entirety, anyone existing in this world at any moment must be based upon these seven worlds, just as a person must stand on the ground.
This was vastly different from ordinary invisibility.
In the mystic spells, invisibility merely deceives the vision through light refraction from air or water magic, or distorts the laws to change the path of light. Fundamentally, it’s an illusion, simply making one invisible, but they can still be heard or smelled.
They could even bump into something.
However, All-Things Concealment was far stronger; at least Brendel knew that this item had a simple purpose: to walk through walls. Because in the concealed state, the “walls” existing in this world do not exist for the user.
Though the duration was only one hundred twenty breaths—about five minutes—it was perfect for escape.
This item could be called a divine artifact by those who needed it, and the 30% magic resistance definitely lived up to its identity as a treasure from legends. The legendary cloak from the treasure hoard of the King of Giants, Burrow, did not embarrass its master at all.
Brendel raised the cloak and enveloped the three of them, saying, “Far!”
The cloak instantly turned transparent, and the sensation was incredibly strange, as if surrounded by a curtain of water.
Funiya opened her eyes wide, looking at the scenery around her. She even looked at Brendel with a bit of admiration; young men always managed to do magical, unexpected things.
However, it took Brendel a while to adapt to this state. He knew they should have already entered the effect of All-Things Concealment; in the past, items with such attributes in the game were always held by famous lone heroes, and he had never even seen one.
“How did you know the spell? I didn’t tell you!” Faina sounded extremely surprised, only then realizing, staring at Brendel’s face in shock.
Brendel was taken aback.
He quickly realized he had made a serious mistake—because in the game, once an item was identified, the player could directly see its attributes and activate it, but he forgot—that this was not the game.
Here, just like between NPCs, identification requires the identifier to describe the function of the equipment. His earlier behavior was akin to prescience—unless he could prove he had starlight blood, it was very likely he would end up bound to the stake.
Brendel’s face stiffened, looking at Faina’s shocked expression, momentarily unsure of where to begin. If he claimed he already had the ability to “identify” items, it wouldn’t make sense; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to wait for Faina to do it.
If he hadn’t, then how did he know the activation spell?
“Um…” Brendel cleared his throat, quickly answering, “This… didn’t you say it was a segment from the Giant’s Poem, related to concealment? Aside from representing shadows with Yara’s canine teeth, it was either that or the blind trembling rune… so I tried it…”
“And it worked!?” Faina asked in disbelief; it was too simple! Then what’s the point of having them, experts in deciphering runes, if one could guess it instead?
The young lady’s large eyes showed a hint of wavering as a feeling of great frustration set in.
“No,” Brendel quickly shook his head; at least Faina did well in this matter. He didn’t want to undermine her confidence, “You already narrowed down the range; I can’t feel the magical energy waves’ cycle. You know… I’m just a bit knowledgeable in legends and myths.”
“Really?”
“Of course, I’m at least an elementalist.”
“Where is an elementalist who has reached the golden realm in swordsmanship?” Faina couldn’t help but scoff, her face full of disbelief. “Master Feng?Kain always says that human life is extremely limited; if one doesn’t invest all their energy into one thing, they probably won’t achieve anything—”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Brendel shook his head, “Did you forget when I snatched that thing back from you in the Green Tower? I actually used a spell.”
“How can you mention that! It’s pathetic to snatch something from a girl, such an impudent guy!” When Faina mentioned what happened in the Green Tower, she couldn’t help but get angry, huffing, “At that time, I thought you were definitely a fake noble, a country bumpkin; I didn’t expect you to actually be the real deal—”
She huffed, “The guy from Erluin is indeed very rude.”
Brendel couldn’t help but wipe the sweat from his brow, thinking he truly was a fake. However, he couldn’t agree with the young lady’s comments; although snatching something from a girl wasn’t proper, he was not trying to steal it—he merely wanted to teach a certain self-centered someone a lesson.
Anyone dealing with a merchant while bargaining would be upset if someone snatched something away, especially someone who completely misunderstood the rules—of course, the Stone Key was still somewhat useful to him.
“One thing at a time; I don’t want to debate who was right or wrong before.” In a good mood now, Brendel, wearing the cloak, slowly walked out with Funiya and Faina. The effect of All-Things Concealment was indeed remarkable; Andisha was still gazing towards the forest and occasionally glanced at the World Tree, but she completely did not notice the three people slowly moving across the square.
On the other side, the man in the red robe standing at the other end of the ruins also did not notice their presence. Brendel felt the man’s silhouette seemed somewhat familiar, but at such a distance, he couldn’t see his features clearly.
However, unexpectedly, Faina spoke up at that moment: “Hey, that man looks familiar.”
“Familiar?” Brendel was taken aback. He had dealt with numerous high-ranking druids in the game, and it was understandable to recognize one or to have some impression of their voice. But how could a noble lady from an upper-class family find an heretic recognizable?
“Ah, it seems like that priest Amann from Blass. I’ve seen him with my father many times; when he was the local bishop of Huaye, my father was quite familiar with him,” Faina replied, “But why is he here?”
“Amann?”
Brendel nearly blurted out, how could this be possible? He had encountered Amann, but that was several hours ago (as Brendel perceived time) when he pushed him to his demise in the Mist Nightmare. He had seen that guy’s heart pierced. As far as he knew, aside from the golden folk, no one survived a pierced heart; not even angels could resurrect them.
However, thanks to Faina’s reminder, he looked at the man and found he looked more and more like Amann. Although it was not very clear at this distance, it was unlikely to be a big mistake.
In fact, he had felt something was off from the beginning; he just hadn’t thought in that direction.
“Is it really Amann?” Brendel himself was getting uncertain, unable to help but ask: “Are you sure?”
“Your way of speaking is strange; how can I be sure? I can’t see anything clearly from this distance. I just thought he looked similar; I just said it offhandedly. Why are you taking it so seriously?” The noble young lady complained with annoyance, “Moreover, a grand high priest is actually walking with a druid heretic; what a shocking secret!”
She seemed excited, licking her lips as she spoke.
“If it really is him,” Brendel thought to himself, “then it’s not just a secret.” The dead have come back to life, and it was under conditions of severe heart damage—there was no possibility of that under normal methods. The only way was through dark arts. To be honest, Brendel hadn’t expected Amann to have ties to dark magic at all.
That guy turned out to be an undercover agent?
He took a deep breath, unsure of what to think, his mind filled with various pieces of information. The high priest of the Temple of Fire is actually a druid? This news was far too shocking, and he was even more surprised that back in the game, not a whisper of this had been leaked.
He had thought NPCs had no secrets before players.
But while Brendel was lost in thought, a voice suddenly came from behind: “Who is there, hiding like that? Step out!”
The voice was slightly hoarse, but its tone was chillingly cold. Hearing that voice, Brendel almost jumped, for it belonged to no one other than Andisha.
How could they have been discovered?
Brendel and Faina were nearly paralyzed with fright, exchanging glances and seeing the shocked expressions on each other’s pale faces.
……(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly subscriptions. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
