Chapter 676: Act 37 – Towards Elemental Awakening? (Part 2)
In fact, after leaving Ampere Seale, the task of awakening the elements was already on Brendel’s agenda.
Since entering the phase of elemental manifestation, all his experience bars had been locked in gray. This state in “Amber Sword” meant that players had to unlock the elemental awakening tasks before further increasing their levels.
However, that was only one aspect.
The real reason he came here was still due to the information he received from Laurena. The Froststreak Forest Labyrinth was very famous in the past game for Erluin, both for the labyrinth itself and that renowned Winter Dragon inside it.
This instance was one of the few legendary dungeons located within Erluin, and so-called legendary dungeons were those that allowed guild-level teams of a hundred individuals. Before the announcement of the third version, every civilized area outside the Black Forest had only one such dungeon, which in Brendel’s memory represented the highest honor for team challenges during the earlier years—its difficulty was, therefore, self-evident.
Although Brendel had anticipated an encounter with that ‘young dragon at Needle Hill Avenue’, he did not expect the opportunity to ‘arrive’ so soon. To be honest, if he were not worried that Anlek might truly snatch the Dragon’s Heart before him, he would not want to visit the Froststreak Forest Labyrinth so early.
The Froststreak Forest itself was a dark forest, a black forest amid civilization, and it was nearly of the highest level—an area where laws tilted. In other words, the ‘Scars of Dusk’, a concept akin to the remnants of saints and the homeland of fairies, existing in completely opposite orders.
As an Erluin player, Brendel was naturally familiar with this instance. The existence of the Froststreak Forest could be traced back to the era of the Dusk War. After Babel Fortress fell, the Frost Weaver, Milos, fled south with the Minren, and after seven days and nights of pursuit, the leading wolf, Echis, caught up with this giant god on the border of the winter country, leading to a tremendous battle.
The Azure Poem wrote: Echis bit down on Milos’s neck, and the giant father immediately shattered into pieces; his massive body seemed to transform into brilliant stars, falling to the earth in three directions—east, north, and south. Where the giant stars fell, blazing flames ignited instantly, but these flames had no heat; they were rising ice flames.
Legend has it that a piece of the giant god Milos that fell south landed in what is now Vieiro, thus forming the eternally frozen Black Forest. Even in the center of Martha’s blessed land, it had long been unable to be assimilated; in fact, in the game, the Froststreak Forest was almost the source of all monsters and player quests in Vieiro.
Though Brendel had many friends in his past life, he had never joined a large guild before Erluin fell, merely forming a small group with a few seniors. A team like theirs naturally had no chance with a legendary dungeon like the Froststreak Forest Labyrinth, but even so, they had gained some experience of that dungeons’ difficulty from the outside.
He remembered that it was when this dungeon was first opened, and all the players in Erluin rushed to experience the novelty, his team was no exception. However, like most players, they had encountered a massive obstacle even before entering the dungeon.
That was the young dragon.
The guardian possessing the bloodline of the golden people. Because it favored the cold climate, it lurked near the Froststreak Forest, blocking all players attempting to enter.
To be honest, before that, it was hard for average players to imagine the power of dragons. The game designers did well to provide all players with an opportunity to accumulate ‘experience’ in this encounter.
As for the so-called young dragons.
Brendel knew all too well that Alorze was a ready example. Letting players of that era, many of whom had not even awakened elements, face a young female dragon meant the consequences were predictable. Brendel was even reluctant to recall the details of that battle because there were practically no details to speak of; simply put— they came, they saw, they fell.
And this was just the ‘old man’ guarding the entrance.
Because of this, Brendel felt a pressing need to awaken the elements first. Although legendary dungeons represented the peak difficulty of team dungeons in an era, they were still limited by levels, and once the elements were awakened, the difficulty of the dungeon would naturally decrease significantly.
After all, it was a dungeon designed before elemental awakening, and its design principles had their limitations.
While thinking about these various matters, Brendel walked toward the center of the stone circle. Theoretically speaking, once players reached the center of the stone circle in the game, the task system would immediately activate. Just like when he was in the Eternalwood Forest and the Forbidden Fruit Garden, he would receive system prompts right away.
However, Brendel was slightly taken aback as he waited for a moment; apart from the howling wind in the mountains, the surroundings were completely silent.
“What… is going on?”
Brendel’s heart suddenly panicked. Theoretically, he had already come into contact with the Wall of Elements; if he were a native, he should have awakened the elements without needing a task. For natives, manifesting elements was almost synonymous with element awakening; what remained was merely the accumulation of attributes and experience.
But to say his attributes should have been sufficient, even exceeding what was necessary, and his experience had already been locked, this was a clear indication that he should be preparing to unlock the elemental awakening task.
But the problem was—
He had never heard of any player not receiving a task on the stone circle after meeting all the conditions. Moreover, there was no second method of obtaining the elemental awakening task in the game.
The cold wind blew through the mountains, but only for a moment before Brendel was already covered in cold sweat. Various possibilities flashed through his mind, the most terrifying of which was undoubtedly that as a transmigrator, he might be fundamentally unable to awaken the elements.
Just thinking about this made Brendel’s face pale even with his current mental resilience. If he couldn’t awaken the elements and continued leveling up, his ideal of saving this kingdom and leading history down a different path would simply be a mirage.
In this world, no matter the circumstances, strength was of utmost importance.
But he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. Although this possibility could not be ruled out, it seemed unlikely because if the soul from another world were at odds with the laws of this world, he perhaps would not have been able to come into contact with any elemental power at all.
But he already possessed some element power, didn’t he?
Brendel stood still for a moment, then suddenly remembered something. He hurriedly opened his character panel, but everything on the panel appeared normal. He frowned, flipping through the pages, and suddenly his eyes brightened.
His gaze landed on the character log.
At the very bottom line of the log, there was a line of faint green text: Permission unlock conditions not met.
Permission unlock conditions not met?
Brendel was stunned when he saw this line of text. What kind of hint was this? Permission unlock conditions not met? He was well aware that all his conditions should have reached the standard for awakening elements, and there shouldn’t be any mention of unmet unlock conditions.
“What on earth is going on…”
Brendel couldn’t help but frown. Was this the legendary BUG? But this problem seemed a bit ridiculous; let alone the almost negligible chance of encountering a BUG in “Amber Sword,” even if he did encounter one, where would he find the game administrator to solve it?
Thinking of this issue made Brendel’s head ache.
He couldn’t help but knock on his forehead, mentally tallying the differences between himself and the average player. The biggest differences boiled down to two: one was his elite template, and the other was the Traveling Mage system. But elite templates had similar existences in the game, and they didn’t seem to have much relevance to the elements or laws themselves.
He quickly ruled out this possibility, but the remaining Traveling Mage system gave him a headache. To be honest, although the Traveling Mage system had always been his greatest reliance, he had never fully understood what it was.
Where did it come from? Did it exist in the game? What was its operational principle? Brendel had only gathered bits and pieces of information from Tumen, the Centaur Lamia, and Saint Ausoor. While some of this information explained the history and origins of the Traveling Mage, to be frank, those three probably didn’t fully understand where the Traveling Mage came from either. Let alone clarify how it existed.
He thought for a while, but nothing made sense. Just when he recalled the name Saint Ausoor, he suddenly remembered that there was another being in his body who also had some understanding of the Traveling Mage, and he hurriedly called out in his mind:
“Saint Ausoor!”
“…Huh?” A dazed voice responded. It seemed the voice hesitated for a moment before suddenly becoming clear: “Brendel? …Didn’t I say I needed my beauty sleep at this time!”
The tone of the voice carried a hint of severity.
Brendel quickly cleared his throat; the legendary Sage Lord was not known for her good temper, especially since this elven senior sister had repeatedly reminded him not to disturb her beauty sleep—according to her own words, lack of sleep was the greatest enemy of beauty.
But with Martha present, the spirit seemed to pay no mind to this.
Of course, he would never be foolish enough to say that aloud and could only smile: “Saint Ausoor, I’ve encountered a small trouble.”
“A small trouble?” The voice of Wind Queen paused for a moment; having accompanied Brendel for some time, she had rarely heard him proactively mention troubles. She pondered slightly before asking, “Is it about the Traveling Mage?”
“Eh?” This time, Brendel was genuinely startled: “How did you know?”
“Hmph,” Wind Queen snorted lightly: “You’re a weirdo; many of the knowledge you possess, even I don’t know. The only thing that seems to confuse you at the moment is likely related to the legacy of Traveling Mages.”
She paused and continued, “So, what trouble did you encounter?”
Brendel hurriedly recounted the predicament he faced. Of course, he omitted the part about the elemental awakening task—after all, this was hard to explain, much like trying to explain to Charles what a nonexistent cabbage in this world was.
He chose a more euphemistic phrasing, telling the Wind Queen that he had encountered a small issue on the path of awakening elements.
“You mean to say, you can’t touch the Wall of Elements, possibly because you’re a Traveling Mage?” Wind Queen quickly listened to Brendel’s explanation but immediately retorted, “Why haven’t I heard that the Dark Dragon Odin has this problem?”
“How would I know?” Brendel shrugged helplessly.
“Wait.” The elven senior sister seemed to have caught onto something important: “Do you have your own card set?”
“This…” Brendel thought for a moment and replied seriously: “I think I have one.”
“You are truly a fool!”
Saint Ausoor suddenly asked harshly, “Brendel, you woke me up for something so foolish?! Here I was thinking you were a clever guy!”
“Wait,” Brendel responded, realizing. “Wind Queen, what do you mean? Are you saying that in order to awaken elements, I must also have my own deck?”
“Of course!”
The elven senior sister concluded her discussion with Brendel succinctly in her uniquely charming voice.
…(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider giving a recommendation ticket or monthly ticket on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
