Chapter 55: Act 47 – Babasha
Brendel had the gargoyle release its claws, and he and Charles fell onto the soft, fluffy meadow. In the quiet woods at the peak of the mountain, a rickety wooden house came into their view—like a slum dwelling, two stories high, with the dim yellow light of candles spilling out through the gaps in the boards.
“My Lord, is this the place you mentioned for Lvup?” Charles loosened his sore wrist, scrutinizing the house before him, a look of severe skepticism on his face. “I don’t mean to doubt you, but this looks more like a place where Burnoson’s witches live.”
“You aren’t mistaken; this is the residence of a witch.”
“Oh, the witches indeed have some ways to temporarily enhance their powers.”
“No, temporary power is too fragile.”
“Then, my Lord, is your goal necromancy? Necromancy is certainly an expedient solution. But, my Lord, those evil spirits from the lower realms are rather difficult to deal with. I have a few tricks to deceive them, but I haven’t tried it personally—” Brendel walked toward the wooden house, and the young man followed closely.
“Charles, remember to tell me next time, but this time we are here for business.”
“Business?”
Brendel had already reached the door; he stopped, tensed his body, and slowly regulated his breathing.
Only he understood that the witch named Babasha who lived here was merely a cover. Nobles often left an emergency passage when designing their family castles, and Duke Golan-Elsen, the original owner of Yusong Castle, had made many political enemies due to his conservative hardline stance. Thus, the castle’s tunnels were constructed to avoid densely populated areas, running all the way up to this hillside.
And it was only natural for Babasha, as the wizard advisor to Duke Golan-Elsen, to guard the exit of this secret passage for her lord. This secret was discovered by players during the second Black Rose War, after a long deadlock with Madara over Yusong Castle, when they found the castle’s blueprints.
Brendel was also very familiar with this level 32 witch known as Babasha. When he was leveling in Ridenburg, this was the only shop that sold mysterious items. Back then, Brendel, with little gaming experience and a liking for luck, ended up losing quite a bit of hard-earned money to this old witch.
But that was no longer the key issue; the key issue was how to subdue this first-ring wizard so that the subsequent plan could be executed. One of his hands remained on the hilt of his sword, his fingers cold from the tension.
He hesitated for a moment before curling his fingers and knocked three times on the wooden board that was slanted at about seventy degrees, with two gaps of different lengths on top.
A voice quickly came from the second floor, sharp and old: “Who is it? Come back during the day if you want a divination.”
“I’m not here for divination; I brought something.”
“You want to do business; do you know the rules?” The voice from upstairs paused and asked.
“I have what you need, witch.”
“Is that so? You’d better bring me what I want, or I’ll have your heart dug out and thrown to my dogs.” The sharp voice echoed from the second floor as it descended the stairs.
The door soon opened, revealing an ugly old face. The witch looked at him with her murky eyes from beneath her hood for a while and said, “Speak quickly.”
Without thinking, Brendel swiftly drew his sword and placed it against her neck. This move was unexpected for everyone, even startling Charles, who thought, “Is this how you do business?”
When he drew his sword, his whole body felt as if it were a tightened string, and after succeeding, he felt a bit weak. He exhaled, and his hand gripping the sword trembled—if Babasha had reacted just a fraction of a second faster, she could have turned him to ashes with one of her spells.
But luckily, it seemed this old hag was so used to her pampered life that she didn’t take this black iron low-tier swordsman seriously, believing that even with a long sword at her neck, she still had a chance. For Brendel, however, the outcome of battle was already decided at that moment.
Charles, standing beside him, was shocked as well. He thought that escaping prison or causing trouble for a count was mere child’s play compared to this moment; the second Babasha opened the door, he realized—this was a first-ring wizard. My goodness, a high-level wizard like her could easily take on ten of him with a single hand.
Yet, his lord had placed the sword at her neck without a second thought.
“Young man, what do you intend to do?” Babasha’s expression turned cold, her voice sharp.
“Before your left hand little finger completes the third section of the spell, my sword will pierce your heart. I’ve heard that the heart is the source of a person’s life, corresponding to the triangle of magical power, and I’ve always wanted to test if this is true,” Brendel replied coldly. “Of course, if I were you, I would immediately cease this foolish behavior.”
His words changed Babasha and Charles’ expressions dramatically.
Charles thought that this old witch was indeed casting a spell, and he hadn’t even noticed. It must be a very advanced spell technique; how had his lord recognized it?
Babasha, on the other hand, was utterly shocked. A swordsman with no magical aura whatsoever actually recognized her spell technique at a glance, pinpointing the exact segment of the incantation she was in. Was this world upside down?
“What do you intend to do?” Faced with such overwhelming shock, her tone softened as she asked.
“My request is simple. I want you to swear by your natal constellation to let me use the secret passage of Yusong Castle just this once. Just once, and I won’t spread it to anyone else.”
Although Brendel spoke confidently, his hand gripping the sword continued to tremble slightly. He paid close attention to every detail of Babasha’s movements and gaze, fearing that she might pull a trick. A level 30 or 40 wizard should have no secrets from him, but his perception attribute was simply too low, making him guess and infer blindly.
Brendel felt this was a test of who had the bigger courage.
Babasha’s expression changed again: “What did you say?”
“My request is very simple. I want you to swear by your natal constellation to let me use the secret passage of Yusong Castle just once. Just once, and I won’t announce it to anyone.”
The old witch looked at Brendel as if he were a monster. Besides Duke Golan-Elsen, only she knew about the secret passage of Yusong Castle. Even the duke’s followers and family were unaware; how did this young man find out? Could he be the illegitimate son of Duke Golan-Elsen?
“I refuse.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone.”
Babasha finally realized she had no room for bargaining. After thinking for a moment, she could only relent and tremblingly pointed to the Witch King’s throne to swear, but Brendel shook his head.
“Babasha, isn’t your natal constellation Serpens?”
The witch shuddered; how did he know? She couldn’t help but look into his dark eyes, feeling as if all her secrets were exposed under his sharp gaze. The natal constellation was a witch’s biggest secret, which she had only shared with Golan-Elsen to gain his trust. The more she thought about it, the more mysterious Brendel seemed, making her dare not play tricks and honestly point to her natal constellation to swear an oath.
Brendel breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his back completely soaked in sweat. He lowered his sword and said to Charles beside him, “Charles, go to the back shelf and take the scroll on the far right of the first row. Also, the box in the middle of the second row, and the three potion vials on the far left of the third row. Do not touch anything else.”
At this point, Charles was thoroughly impressed by his lord; previously, he had flattered Brendel in the sky, saying he was mysterious, but now he truly felt this lord was somewhat profound.
Meanwhile, Babasha felt like she had fallen into an abyss. This young man knew just by looking that she had useful items on her shelf, whereas those filled with malicious curses were mere decoys. It’s worth noting that those things were secrets only she knew.
However, when Charles opened the box, he exclaimed in surprise, “These are elemental crystals! My Lord, spend some time to absorb them, and you can use them immediately!”
But Brendel shook his head, walked over, and picked up the three gray potion vials at the bottom. “Do you know what these are?”
Babasha looked up in confusion. The old witch didn’t even know what was in those three vials. At her level, she had long been able to intuitively sense the magical energy emanating from certain items, which was why she had kept them—after years, they had accumulated a thick layer of dust.
Potions are not something one should fool around with; not only do poisons kill, but using benefit-enhancing potions incorrectly can also lead to dire outcomes.
Magic is inherently a powerful, mysterious, and dangerous thing.
Charles glanced at them and shook his head.
“These are mana potions; how could you not recognize this?” Brendel said somewhat discontentedly, brushing the dust off the bottles to reveal the light blue liquid beneath.
“Impossible!” Babasha and Charles exchanged shocked expressions.
“Why are you so surprised? It’s just a magic potion, right? Now I want to ask you, these three mana potions can boost your mana fourfold. Ignoring the changes in magical power, what level of wizard do you think you would equate to with four times the mana?”
“Intermediate Wizard,” Charles answered dryly.
“So, these are the three indicators I mentioned to you. With these three mana potions, until you’ve used them up, you will be an intermediate wizard. And the fact is, you are still just an apprentice, got it?”
Charles instinctively nodded, but they were mana potions; they were reputedly the golden standard for wizards. These were products of advanced alchemy, not one bit easier to make than holy water—he had only seen them in parchment scrolls. Was he really just given them so casually?
Brendel then picked up the long parchment scroll from the top of the shelf: “This scroll records the secret of how ascetics compress the air on either side of their sword blades to sharpen them. Skills are part of attributes. This is the three indicators; now do you understand why I came here to enhance myself?”
“Learning a skill is not something that can be achieved overnight; is sharpening a spear at the front lines useful, my Lord—” Charles immediately began to say, but he saw Brendel opening the scroll, glancing through it, then casually tossing it aside. The scroll fell to the ground with a thud, and Brendel stood there for about a few seconds in a daze. Then suddenly, he swung his sword towards the door of the wooden house; with a crisp ‘crack’, the doorframe broke apart a few feet away, and the door panels flew out over ten meters before landing.
Charles’ jaw dropped in shock.
Brendel frowned; merely learning this skill had cost him 153 skill experience points. This wasn’t even cross-class skill—this was crazy for intermediate skill consumption. The forums had mentioned that this skill needed to be raised to level 25, which would require a ridiculous amount of experience.
However, to him, this was worth it; after all, he had only learned a dozen or so intermediate skills in his previous life, half of which were profession-specific. This scroll likely had been the closest intermediate skill to him early in the game, but he had missed it due to a stroke of bad luck.
Thus, regardless of whether he proceeded with the next plan, this skill from the scroll was something he must acquire. It was merely a convenient detour.
He lowered his sword, turned to Babasha, and said, “I’ll borrow these things, no problem, right?” Though he said “borrow,” it was practically akin to theft. But this old hag wasn’t a good person, so he felt no psychological burden.
However, Brendel was merely asking casually when unexpectedly, Babasha plopped down to her knees, deeply bowing and touching her forehead to the ground: “The Black Prophecy states that only the Dark Dragon can see through all the secrets of the witches. Any means before you are but tricks; you see into hearts and clarify all things. Ancestor of the Minren, you have returned—”
Now it was Brendel and Charles’ turn to be taken aback.
(PS. On Christmas Eve, should I eat instant noodles or fried rice?)
