Chapter 48: Act 40 – The War of Summer
After the dust settled, Brendel’s gaze immediately fell on a card on the ground, roughly the size of a palm. He picked it up, the front doused in colorful imagery displaying a tree, tall and magnificent, with mysterious veins extending from its trunk to the crown. In the upper left corner of the card, a VII was inscribed, but it lacked the elemental attribute crystal marking. He paused, but now he knew how to handle such items and quickly opened the attribute data for scanning.
The card’s description changed its form:
Sacred Tree Sanctuary
(Elf Forbidden Ground VII)
【Basic Terrain – Forest】
Produces 1 point of water element into the elemental pool each week.
Horizontally placed: Constructs forest terrain.
” ‘My soul returns, returns to the homeland’ ”
“This set of cards is called Elf Forbidden Ground?” Brendel mused. The card description didn’t state the conditions for its effect. Did it mean that simply entering his deck would naturally produce a bit of water element every week? But what if he didn’t have an elemental pool?
The aspect of constructing forest terrain was also debatable, and certainly he wouldn’t experiment with it here. Though the Golden Magic Tree would scatter its magical servants once felled, and it would quickly wither from the loss of magical sustenance. Perhaps one of its treants could take root anew in another forest, continuing this ecosystem, but that was unrelated to Brendel.
What concerned him was the Stone Spire Worm below finishing off the stray earth elements and magical energy, then coming after the three of them; elemental beings never got “full.”
He stowed the card away, remembering the previous time he had resonated with magical energy. Presumably, there was another card belonging to the knight’s set in this area. Unfortunately, the magical resonance happened naturally and could not be triggered repeatedly. Otherwise, he could have used it to search. While he sent Freya and Romaine off to gather some acorns from the Golden Tree—ripe acorns could be used to create high-level magical potions, which were among the most luxurious consumables in the game.
Regrettably, a Golden Magic Tree produced at most seven or eight ripe acorns, making a permanent solution impossible.
He moved to another area, flipping aside the leaves, discovering a pair of gloves tangled in aerial roots. At first glance, he recognized these gloves as protective gloves that offered +2 protection in the game, though they required a strength of 2.5 energy levels. He felt the weight of them in his hands, confirming his guess was indeed close.
He tossed the gloves to Freya to try on, initially hoping she would appear more tank-like, but the ponytailed girl only found her arms sinking down with the heavy gloves. They were too heavy; the future Valkyrie returned them with a disappointed look.
“What a pity,” Brendel shook his head. “If you wore these along with Queen Wind’s armor, swordsmen below the Iron level wouldn’t be able to damage you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What’s there to be sorry for? I reckon only a few of the guards could wear them,” Brendel replied while putting the gloves on himself. Freya couldn’t help but notice this detail and was slightly shocked—did this mean Brendel was already among the elite of the guard?
Unbeknownst to her, even Brensen couldn’t measure up in front of the current Brendel.
The three of them searched around the fallen tree crown in a clockwise direction. Romaine found a nimble +0.1 energy level swift short sword, and Freya stumbled upon a valuable 22 Oz enchanted ring that could ignite flames over her sword with a small expenditure of mana.
As for the rest, they were mostly remnants drained of magical energy. Brendel used the Elf Sword to peel away the bark of the Golden Magic Tree, finding the Heart of the Golden Tree—much to his dismay, due to a three-year disparity with game time, this Heart was still in the form of a Tree Crystal.
Of course, its quality was purer than that of an ordinary tree crystal.
But a material was still just a material, and equipment was still equipment; there was an unbridgeable gap between them. This unexpected discovery reminded Brendel that he couldn’t view the current situation with a long-term gaming perspective.
After all, this was a real world, and history moved forward gradually.
As he retrieved the Heart of the Golden Tree, a gentle breeze seemed to caress the valley— the Golden Magic Tree had died. He looked up to see eight silver orbs swiftly flying out of the trunk and merging into his chest.
800 experience points.
Brendel couldn’t help but pause. Considering it was a boss-level kill, 800 experience points was not much, but it struck him with a palpable impact. After all, experience in this world was real; it was a kind of power that allowed one to grow stronger continuously. Thus, compared to gaining experience points in the game, he felt much more exhilarated now.
He could clearly feel himself growing little by little through each battle.
Lost in his thoughts, he noticed the Merchant Miss approaching him carefully, hands cupped around an object she meant to present as if it were a treasure. Previously, any equipment they found had been identified by Brendel, who only needed a glance to discern what it was, its background, how to activate it, and its magical properties.
At that moment, Brendel had already become a synonym for omnipotence in Romaine’s eyes.
“Brendel, is this what you were looking for?” she asked, holding up the card carefully.
Brendel followed her gaze, and the card had a gray pattern, featuring a knight on a tall horse with his robed retainer beside him. The card color matched that of his Holy Sword card. He instantly realized this was the card he had been searching for. Taking it, he examined it—indeed!
Highland Retainer
(Knight IX)
1 Water Element
【Creature – Human/Scholar, Level 8 Creature】
When the Highland Retainer enters the battlefield, provides 1 reputation each week.
Maintenance Cost: This card requires an extra 1 Water Element for each day it remains in play.
“‘Courage of the Plateau’”
This was a summoning card. Even at this moment, Brendel could guess that. This Highland Retainer had the Profession of Scholar, and the description below the card surely referenced the courage of the Karasu Plateau—an alliance between the mages and knights of Karasu for two centuries.
An 8-level scholar was not particularly strong. However, if used wisely at a critical moment, it could be an immense boon. He couldn’t help but glance at Romaine, who was looking at him with expectation, and smiled, “Thank you, this is very useful for me.”
“You’re welcome,” the Merchant Miss replied happily.
At that moment, Freya suddenly returned from the north, wearing a worried expression. “Brendel, Romaine, I think I saw the Stone Spire Worm coming from the north. Should we avoid it?”
“Stone Spire Worm?” Brendel froze; he intended to have everyone take a breather but hadn’t expected the worm to arrive so quickly. Although the Stone Spire Worm might not necessarily attack them, most people would choose a more cautious approach in this situation.
He nodded, “You two go ahead first. I’ll set up something to prevent it from catching up.”
The Stone Spire Worm used magical senses and tremor perceptions to locate its prey; thus, scattered magical items could attract its attention. Once Romaine and Freya left, Brendel took out the bottle of Holy Water No. 5, making a small hole in the bottom with the Radiant Light Spike and placing it in a crevice of the nearby rock. After ensuring everything was in order, he retreated westward alone.
He thought that due to the previous magical resonance, Madara might send a small team to investigate the situation here. In that case, the remaining Stone Spire Worms would give those skeletal warriors an unforgettable lesson and serve as revenge for Brensen and his group.
*
The time was June in the Year of Blossoms and Summer Leaves, and history was unfolding in a manner consistent with what Brendel knew.
Madara’s emissaries arrived at Winterclaw Fort. King Erluin of Obergh VI refused to meet with the envoy on Marquis Klugh’s advice, thus quickly pushing the First Black Rose War into its second phase.
On the frontlines, the Karasu Province faced a significant threat from Madara’s ‘Winter Solstice’ and ‘Black Raven’ legions; Prince Duke Ogujin even sent a messenger pleading that without support in the near term, morale could risk total collapse.
Meanwhile, even further north, between the Karlman mountain region and the sea, an Undead Army was making secret movements.
In the south, the Golan-Elsen province faced day-after-day attacks from Instulung’s army at the Vanmil Fortress. However, the Buche region’s flanks had fallen into an eerie silence. Commander Earl Prab had sent a letter to the 104th Knight Troupe stationed at Ridenburg; the last reply he received was:
“All is well.”
The date was June 1st.
At this moment, Brendel, along with Freya and Romaine, was traversing the secret path beneath the Forbidden Orchard, hurrying every second toward Ridenburg. In truth, they had spotted traces of undead activities along the way, but the scale appeared small, resembling scouts of the undead getting closer to Ridenburg.
This intensified the atmosphere within the group; they had overtaken the main force of Madara, but how significant that lead was remained uncertain.
At midnight on this day, Brendel led Freya and Romaine through the final stretch of the Zeviel Mountain Path. As they pushed through the thicket and arrived at a small hill south of Ridenburg named Fendek Mountain, facing the night mountain breeze, they beheld the expansive Yusong Valley formed by the confluence of the Yusong River and the Wei River. Ridenburg’s lights sparkled like a gem embedded in the darkness, quietly illuminating the riverbank stretching for miles below in the valley.
Seeing this scene, both Freya and the Merchant Miss paused their breath. They could only speculate about what Ridenburg might be like but hadn’t expected civilization’s spark in the darkness to appear so beautiful.
However, at that moment, the Merchant Miss poked Brendel’s back and whispered, “Brendel, there’s an army behind us.”
“An army?”
“Yeah, look north from here. In the valley we passed through earlier this afternoon. Can you see it?”
“That’s over ten miles away! It’s so dark, how could I possibly see it? My lady, don’t make jokes at a time like this!” Brendel froze and then replied irritably.
“But I saw it.”
……
