Chapter 465: Act 214 – Preparing for Battle (4)
Whether it was a piercing attack or bloodline revival, both had a fairly long task chain. However, Brendel had an advantage; at this moment, his reputation in the Green Tower was essentially at the maximum value. His request was not something the Meng Hoo dared to refuse, and they even felt honored to pass on the skill to him.
After obtaining Bloodline Revival, Brendel directly wiped all the skills below Militia, then placed the Silver Elf’s In-Depth Analysis under the Mercenary profession. The special equestrian skill: Dragon Hunt was only added temporarily and naturally had to be removed now. Power Burst could not coexist with Piercing Strike, and the frontal breakthrough was excluded for the same reason. It was a bit regrettable to remove White Crow Swordsmanship because this skill had reached a bottleneck. Without the following inheritance, it would be hard to continue progressing. Furthermore, he was about to learn the Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries, so after a brief hesitation, Brendel wiped away this swordsmanship that had accompanied him almost from the beginning.
White Crow Swordsmanship was originally modified from part of the Wind Elf’s Star Inheritance. Although Otales herself had the Moon Inheritance, the legendary strongest sword would only grow stronger and not weaker.
After removing the main skills under the Mercenary, Brendel obtained nearly six thousand points of skill experience, spending half of it to directly raise Piercing Strike to Master Level (Level 10). Now, the attributes of Piercing Strike had transformed into dealing 425% damage in a cone-shaped area extending thirty meters ahead, with a 12.7% chance to land a critical hit (Master Attribute: When charging, there’s a chance to double the damage). Though its attack range was much more meager compared to White Crow Swordsmanship, when compared to this damage, it was negligible, especially since the Master Attribute of this skill combined with a charge could potentially yield over fifteen times the damage. While the probability wasn’t much better than winning the lottery, similarly, traveling into a game world was far rarer than winning the lottery.
Brendel chose this moment to reset his points because he had his own considerations. Before entering the Loop of Trade Winds, his primary concern in learning skills was how to resolve his current difficulties. But after gaining the trust of the Druids from Valhalla and the Green Tower, he believed he had begun to grasp the ability to steer his own destiny.
For players, they were originally observers and could be said to possess such abilities by nature. But for the natives living in this world, they had to put in enormous effort just to reach this point. Once they acquired such abilities, it meant they could design their paths of learning and growth just like players.
The goal of players is to be the strongest.
His goal was to shake an era with the strength of a single person.
Using gaming terminology, this meant he had to be the Carry (), and moreover, the main C-position, a savior with divine equipment in the late game. Of course, it wasn’t that extreme here, but at least it represented a significant resource expenditure and a carefully crafted growth plan.
(Carry refers to a tactical core hero in Dota-like games; such heroes can change the entire game situation in the late game and lead the whole team to victory.)
Brendel chose to stop Mercenaries at level 30 and Elementalists at level 25 because these two levels represented an upgrade: Sword of Frostfall, Frost Knight, a profession that simultaneously wields ice elements and warrior combat techniques. Moreover, he happened to know of a fantasy-grade weapon that suited this profession – Avelios, the Golden Flame Ice. This sword belonged to Yula’s daughter in the future, and in the game, was the weapon of Princess Ellara Ophilia, the last legitimate bloodline of Erluin. However, for the current Erluin, Brendel thought it was necessary to make do with this yet-to-be-born young girl.
Based on his understanding of the Amber Sword, he had already arranged this route during that night of battle. Moreover, at that time, he had yet to acquire the Earth Sword Halangaya. Frost Knights were originally dual-wielding warriors, with the primary hand being the Earth Sword and the offhand being Golden Flame Ice. In the future, he could further advance to the Frost Earth Guardian related to ice and earth elements, making it the best combination.
To advance to Frost Knight, one needed to travel to the Eternal Frozen Glacier in the ice elemental plane. Crossing planes required a total character level of at least 80, and Brendel just happened to plan to take the 10-level Temple Knight to obtain the Conflict Aura. Temple Knights could advance in a city like Ampere Seale that had a main temple, which was only a month or two away.
As for before that, although he couldn’t level up, there were still things Brendel could do. It took him only half a day from reaching level 30 to learning Piercing Strike and resetting his points. Then, Brendel returned to the quiet room to awaken Otales and begin learning Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries. This was the first trump card he had obtained since arriving in this world, a core ability in his character growth plan that naturally needed to be mastered first.
However, when the Elf Lady Knight taught him this skill, Brendel was instantly dumbfounded. The attributes of Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries were as follows: When attacking, an illusionary clone appears at the position before movement to ambush enemies, generating up to one illusion, which has 5% of the body’s attack power. The clone can use skills but must draw magic power from the main body. The Moon Inheritance of the Wind Queen was not a swordsmanship relying on speed to achieve multiple strikes like Gilt’s Flash Sword, but rather a magical swordsmanship. Indeed, the so-called Moon Inheritance, being most closely related to the moon, naturally involved magic power.
What dumbfounded him wasn’t this, but rather the learning cost for this swordsmanship: 3,550 experience, which was merely the experience required to learn this swordsmanship. Brendel fell to his knees; military swordsmanship only required a few experience points to level from level one to level two, but after level thirteen, it still required tens of thousands of experience to level up once. At this rate, wouldn’t the experience required for Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries after level ten be akin to an unending abyss?
Seeing Brendel’s somewhat dark expression, Otales thought something was wrong and couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”
Brendel shook his head: “It’s too difficult…”
The Elf Lady Knight was momentarily taken aback, then couldn’t help but chuckle in his mental world. A proud expression appeared on Otales’ face: “So you also find it difficult, little brother. I thought you could do everything.”
She shot Brendel a glance, teasing him: “Hehehe, do you know? I reached the entry level of this swordsmanship before I turned thirty-five, and yet I was called one of the most talented inheritors since obtaining this inheritance. So, don’t disappoint your sister—”
Elves develop much more slowly than humans; thirty-five years for them was roughly equivalent to five or six years for a human. Looking at this experience cost, Brendel knew how difficult this swordsmanship was. Reaching entry at five or six years was indeed exceptionally talented.
The so-called entry level meant mastering the first three tiers, which posed no challenge for Brendel. He glanced at Otales, not wanting to be looked down upon by this woman who considered herself an older sister. After thinking for a moment, he directly invested the remaining experience into this skill and stepped forward, leaving behind an identical afterimage of himself.
“This… You… Brendel, how is this possible!” Otales held her breath, her azure eyes widening in disbelief, to the point where her usual composure appeared somewhat adorable. This was incredibly unbelievable; even with nearly a thousand years of experiences, she could not help but be astonished by it all. If she could, Otales would have shouted “cheat!” in her heart. This dude was definitely using hacks!
However, Otales was completely unaware of the existence of such “hacks.”
In an instant, Brendel grasped the essence and usage of the most powerful and core swordsmanship within the Moon Inheritance, which was an ancient legacy, even surpassing a series of advanced swordsmanship of that time and regarded as an exceptional skill. Even during the Age of Saints, no one dared to claim they could create such swordsmanship.
Flash Sword, Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries, Earth and Mountain’s Roar, these were such heritages.
“Could it be that there really are geniuses like this in this world!? Could the historical legends about the divine people be true!?” Otales looked at Brendel, her heart’s shock like rolling thunder: “Who the heck is this little guy? How could such a being be born in such an era?”
But Brendel was not aware of Otales’ shock, as he was equally astonished by the immense power of Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries. He took a step forward, and the afterimage left behind seemed to inherit all his knowledge and swordsmanship. It immediately took a step forward, precisely echoing his position. If Brendel had enemies on either side at that moment, the afterimage would be positioned ideally to strike. Even if Brendel judged himself, it would be no different.
The afterimage lasted only a brief moment, then vanished. Since there were no enemies, it did not draw its sword. However, this brief moment was already more than enough for battles that often hung by a thread.
A divine skill!
What kind of skill could exponentially increase one’s combat power, even providing the ability to strike multiple times? Such skills would never be achievable by even advanced skills. Brendel gazed at the label of Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries. The dark-golden tags of [Extraordinary] and [Ancient] gleamed like gold—
In the following days, Brendel completely immersed himself in the world of this swordsmanship. If his previous obsession with the game was not in vain, such a powerful skill was something he had never seen, let alone heard of in his past gaming life. Acquiring such a skill, the primary task was naturally to elevate it to the highest level possible. Though he didn’t have enough skill experience on hand, that wasn’t a problem; he still had the remnants of the Book of Mavikalte, right? Without skill experience, he could convert ordinary experience.
A ten-to-one ratio was still acceptable to him, so for the next week, his life basically revolved around absorbing the power of the Book of Mavikalte, then hammering and refining his swordsmanship, followed by more absorption, repeating the cycle. Besides his essential daily activities, no one had seen Brendel come out of that quiet room.
Of course, his swordsmanship made remarkable strides. Brendel tested his maximum absorption rate, which was about seven hundred thousand per hour. However, the Book of Mavikalte was a self-contained system. The inherent self-protection instincts of its laws, even after its wreckage, still resisted Brendel’s absorption. It was simply because of a lack of consciousness that this resistance felt gradual, like a frog being boiled in warm water. Brendel found that he could only extract around two to three million experience per day before it became difficult to continue.
Since he didn’t need to level up, nearly all this experience was converted into skill experience. Initially, his Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries was growing at a rate of two levels a day, causing Otales to become a bit numb. The once battle-hardened Elf Lady Knight almost spent her days doubting whether she had truly woken up; it all felt like a dream. But by the third day, upon reaching level five, Brendel noticed a shift in the situation.
Queen Wind’s Nine Luminaries [Expert] (Extraordinary/Ancient): Attacking creates an illusionary clone at the position before moving to ambush enemies, generating up to five illusionary clones. Each clone has 35% of the body’s attack power. Clones can use skills, but they must draw magic power from the main body. (Expert Effect: When an illusionary clone is generated, the main body can choose to swap positions with the clone once.)
It had special effects just at the expert level? Brendel was immediately dumbfounded. Even more shocking was the experience required for this swordsmanship after reaching level five, as he saw a clear line of numbers: 100,321.
One hundred thousand!?
Brendel couldn’t help but want to pull his hair—wasn’t this just playing him? Reaching level five required one hundred thousand experience? Wouldn’t the requirement after level ten skyrocket to millions? That was over a hundred million ordinary experience! Lady Martha!
…
(PS: The network had issues in the afternoon and it just got resolved. Fortunately, it’s back up, or I would have been roasted—Damn, I just said a return to regular updates was inevitable, and today there’s a delay. Isn’t this a scam? It’s totally a scam! Of course, I can’t be so deceitful, so I decisively climbed back up…)(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
