Chapter 695: Act 55 – The Ice Fairy’s Spell
The Frostheart is not equipment, nor a strengthening crystal, or any kind of material or inlaid gem. It is merely a consumable item, and its sole purpose is to increase the user’s wind and water element pool capacity by five percent, but it can only take effect once for the same person.
Undoubtedly, this item is exactly what Brendel needs most right now.
It is even a crucial part of his journey as a mage, a part that even Tumen cannot imagine—equipment, special items, enhancing consumables, and strengthening crystals. In the world of Vaunte, there are many similar items like Frostheart and Flame Star that can expand element pools—though, for balance reasons, similar magical and fantasy items grant only a small increase to element pools, except for a few legendary artifacts.
But don’t forget, Brendel himself is special.
Because of the existence of two element pools, the bonuses from these items for him are essentially doubled. It’s as if the Frostheart’s effect of increasing the wind and water element pool capacity by five percent actually becomes a ten percent increase for him.
A doubled enhancement is enough to change the existing balance.
Brendel even wondered if Martha was showing him a bit of favoritism. Although before heading to the Frosty Forest dungeon, he had anticipated obtaining similar wind and water element pool expansion equipment—after all, this was a dungeon dominated by one of Erluin’s most famous ice-based creatures—he didn’t expect the surprise to come so quickly.
The drop rate for Frostheart in the game is only 0.003%, meaning, on average, this area produces one about every one to two months. Yet this time, they had only killed twenty or thirty ice sprites, which, according to the game’s standards, is a remarkable stroke of luck.
The key is, this was obtained through Nemeses. In Brendel’s mind, Nemeses’s luck level is pretty much comparable to a senior’s.
After a surge of happiness, Brendel immediately used the Frostheart. The data for his wind and water element pools immediately changed to:
【Wind】(21/20+1)+5%——————【Wind】(63/60+3)+5%
【Water】(21/20+1)+5%——————【Water】(63/60+3)+5%
Brendel knew how element pool expansions are calculated in the game—equipment, strengthening crystals, and inherent enhancements are calculated separately, and aside from direct additions to the base value, all other relationships are multiplicative, so the order of use doesn’t matter too much.
However, due to the expansion of the element pools, the system also prompted him that his deck capacity has increased, changing to 6 (10), 14 (20), giving him a huge unexpected joy.
Because this indirectly confirmed his thoughts—
His envisioned path as a mage is to build an absolute advantage on the battlefield by rapidly accumulating multiple mage creatures—eight or even more. Each mage creature serves as a channel to draw and play cards. If he draws and plays ten cards each round, starting with eighty cards in hand, what kind of concept is that?
Even a newly minted mage apprentice would understand how terrifying this can be.
However, the only flaw in his deck is actually the limitations of deck size and element pool capacity. Tumen’s original vision had flaws; mage creatures themselves cannot provide capacity for element pools and decks. This means that more than eight mages have to draw power from his element pools and share just two decks.
If general mages’ element pools and decks cannot form a cycle, they might face the risk of running dry in no time.
Yet Brendel does not want to pursue a typical cycle. If he sought a cycle, why bother refining this particular deck? It’s not that he hasn’t considered this issue, but he has only one solution.
The solution he devised is quite simple. Utilizing his innate advantages from being a former high-level player, he can specifically collect items that expand element pools, accumulating equipment and enhancements to support a massive element pool, which in turn can bring about an equally vast deck.
This way, he can cleverly bypass what is said to be the bottleneck problem of his mage deck.
Of course, this method seems straightforward. Yet, for anyone other than Brendel, it’s almost impossible. The world of Vaunte is enormous, and those limited ruins and dungeons are spread across vast areas. To sift through countless magical items to find those with the desired attributes is undoubtedly an endeavor of a lifetime.
Of course, one could craft them, but since the fall of Babel Fortress, most advanced techniques from the peak of ancient magic have long been lost, and most of the top-grade equipment in Vaunte is a gift from the ancients.
The craftsmanship of the Black Iron people cannot surpass that of the blessed bloodlines of gold and silver.
Not to mention those artifacts lost to history, the possessions of the gods are not something that can arise in this mortal age.
However, these problems are not issues for Brendel because they are exactly his forte. Knowing what equipment is in which dungeon, what treasures hide in what chests—finding this information is as simple as eating and drinking for him.
The only regret is that in his previous life he was a warrior, and he knows little about the top-tier equipment of wizards.
But surprisingly, this issue was at least more than half solved today.
—Because his senior was a wizard and an elementalist.
Once Frostheart was used, it seemed to vanish from his hands like weathering. Brendel looked at the now empty deck and reached into his spare deck to pull out a card—the Holy Archangel—and then placed it into the Faith of Pashmira deck.
Silver flames immediately ignited from the card’s surface, and after the flames subsided, the Holy Archangel changed its form immediately:
Vengeance Angel
Faith III
Light 15
【Spell】
Pay 50 mana to place the Vengeance Angel (level equivalent to the Priest of Himirud) onto the battlefield, attacking all enemies that have harmed the summoner.
Redemption, when the Vengeance Angel enters, select the top three cards from the graveyard and shuffle them into their respective decks.
Maintenance, the Vengeance Angel remains until after completing an attack.
‘—The voice of the mass seemed to resound from above the cloud layer, holy light descended from the heavens, and the dead were resurrected.’
Upon seeing this card, Brendel couldn’t help but gasp in surprise. Although every card he took into his own rules after becoming a full-fledged mage had to undergo a transformation of the laws, he had never seen one as powerful as this.
He couldn’t help but be a little dazed, not quite understanding how this connection worked. However, at this moment, footsteps were already approaching from behind the forest; Nemeses was evidently coming back soon, so he hurriedly tucked away the card and turned around to see the bandaged wrap in the Lady Knight’s hands.
“Are you okay?” he asked with some concern.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a little injury,” Nemeses replied indifferently. The Lady Knight walked over to Brendel, standing by the shimmering lake with him. She looked up at the large island in the center of the lake, which had a broadleaf forest unlike anywhere else.
Those trees, resembling oaks or redwoods, had trunks and leaves of silver-gray, as if they were ice sculptures. The Frosty Forest stood on the opposite bank of the lake, appearing like a white palace from afar.
“The Crystal Stag is in that forest,” Nemeses answered. “Do you plan to go directly?”
Brendel glanced at the mirror-like lake, shaking his head. “It’s probably not that simple. The forest over there should be the Frosted Forest. I’ve heard the Crystal Stag cohabits with some ice fairies, who usually dwell near the lake. I doubt they will let us pass easily.”
“Sounds like you were prepared,” Nemeses turned back to look at him.
Brendel nodded; although his instinctive sharpness as a player had diminished significantly, he would never forget the basics. For example, thorough investigation and preparation before undertaking a mission would never be neglected.
Even if he couldn’t find the river of magic within the forest, he had actually prepared some alternative items before teaming up with Nemeses. Methods to simulate the ability to detect darkness using magic items similar to White Deer statues could also work, though their effects wouldn’t be as good as those of an experienced user.
“Still, let’s try first,” he thought for a moment and replied.
Nemeses drew her sword. “Should I go or will you?”
“I’ll go,” Brendel said. The Ice Fairies are level 32 creatures, although slightly inferior to Nemeses, the opponent would clearly not present alone, and being near the lake would be right in the enemy’s main battleground.
With that, he brandished the Earth Sword and slowly walked into the lake. Just as Nemeses said, the water was quite shallow, and in most places, it only reached his knees. Despite the lake being sizable, it seemed like it had merely a thin layer of water.
Such a scene in the real world could only be seen in marshes and wetlands. However, Vaunte itself is a world governed by rules, so seeing such a spectacle was not surprising to Brendel.
Just like if you’ve seen rivers ablaze, you wouldn’t be surprised by merely a shallow lake.
However, just as Brendel had walked about thirty meters in, with two-thirds of the distance to the other shore remaining, he suddenly felt something was off.
He lowered his head and saw the surface of the water beside him began to ripple without wind, forming layers of water patterns.
“What a hospitable greeting,” Brendel couldn’t help but murmur. He immediately recognized the prelude to a spell—Summon Water Elemental. His assumption was confirmed as the ever-growing ripples suddenly became violent, and in an instant, a water hill formed on the surface.
Then came a deafening crash; the gathered lake water seemed to collapse, and a massive giant made purely of lake water surged from the splashes. This entity appeared to inherit none of water’s gentleness, instead being extremely irritable, directly flinging a waterball at Brendel.
As Brendel saw the diameter of that waterball, he couldn’t help but inwardly exclaim, “Oh my god.”
That was a giant waterball exceeding thirty meters in diameter.
Of course, this thing wouldn’t harm him, but Brendel knew too well what those damned ice fairies would do next. If he got hit by this waterball, they would surely follow up with their best ice spells to freeze him right in the middle.
That scene could be likened to being encased in amber.
Brendel had witnessed such shameless tactics in the game.
But what drove him even crazier was what came next; the originally calm lake surface roiled, and one water elemental beast after another surged from beneath the water. Looking around, the numbers exceeded a hundred.
“Damn it!” Brendel knew full well that at least half of those damned water elementals were illusions, as that was also a classic water spell, but now he had no time to distinguish which were real and which were fake. He certainly didn’t want to become a frozen chunk of pork.
He took one last look at the direction of the lake’s surface and had no intention of proceeding any further. With Martha above, who knows how many ice fairies were on that island; such a large area of spells couldn’t have been stirred up by just a couple of hundred ice fairies.
Without a second thought, Brendel turned and yelled to Nemeses:
“Run!”
(PS: Today there’s the third chapter with over ten thousand words, though it’s a bit late. I’m not sure if this last chapter can be posted before midnight. But whatever, it doesn’t matter. Additionally, to clarify, many people have asked who between Romaine and Mi Kaya is the Witch King. This question makes me break out in a cold sweat; isn’t it simple? Romaine became the Witch King in this world due to Brendel’s influence, but not in the game; Mi Kaya is the queen in the game. Also, I continue to seek monthly tickets, recommendations, and various votes; you understand, it’s the end of the month, don’t think about anything else…) (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
