Chapter 715: Act 74 – The Inheritance of the Bones (Part 1)
“Don’t be nervous.” Brendel sighed, “Even if there is, it’s already dead. This magical pet is ownerless; the one who killed the warrior was the spell attached to this creature. I suspect this guy was from the invading side. After the wizards in the wizard tower killed his companions, he must have died too, but he transferred his last spell onto his magical pet, which ended up killing this guy.”
What he said was actually the analysis of the player who discovered all this, but he turned around, glanced at Haruz, and asked, “Do you know this guy?”
Though he asked this, he felt it was somewhat unlikely. How old could Haruz be? This skeleton must be at least a century old.
Unexpectedly, the Prince Younger frowned, shook his head, and nodded again, saying, “I don’t know; I think I’ve seen this set of armor somewhere.”
Armor?
Brendel looked at the armor. There were no obvious markings, and the style was very ordinary, though it appeared to be magical armor. But upon a closer look, he suddenly noticed something amiss.
He and the player had always assumed this skeleton was a human, but he suddenly realized a question—what if this guy didn’t turn into this form after death but was like this in life?
For instance—
It is a skeleton.
The Black Rose of Broamente.
Brendel immediately understood why Prince Younger found the armor familiar. It was ordinary Erluin standard military armor, commonplace in this kingdom’s army, but there was a problem: all armor should bear the insignia of the affiliated army.
Except for one case. That is, skeleton soldiers transformed by the undead. They mostly wore rusted armor from their lives until they were promoted to skeleton knights or even higher ranks. Necromancers would have the armorers erase the insignias on their armor and apply magic to it.
That kind of armor was exactly the same as what was seen now.
But this still wasn’t conclusive.
He turned back to Prince Younger and asked, “Madara?”
He saw Prince Younger shiver in surprise and nod vigorously, “Yes, that’s it! I saw similar armor on their emissaries in Winterclaw Fortress. I even asked my sister why Madara’s armor is the same as ours—”
That’s it.
Brendel could not confirm himself, but there was no one with a more profound memory than a native born of the land. If Prince Younger remembered this, the likelihood was high.
He stepped back and said, “No matter what, we can check it to find out. Lady Martha said that what is scattered across the land is a blessing, and a warrior should return to his homeland. His gifts left in life are rewards for the successors.”
“If he is a warrior—” he added.
Then Brendel looked at Phillas, and the young man’s eyes lit up: “So, this armor is our loot?”
“And there are other things like this; according to our agreement, you will sort through the loot.” Brendel replied.
“Ha!” Phillas showed an excited expression: “Right, I almost forgot you mentioned it. Can I go?” He pointed to the skeleton.
Brendel nodded; this scene was indeed a reward for the players. However, he still patiently explained, “As a matter of courtesy, you should start by checking his satchel since you need to prove the identity of the deceased first, so that the soul may rest. Only then should you look for weapons, and lastly the armor and other equipment.”
This was a custom of sorting through the belongings of the deceased on the continent. However, players typically didn’t do this. Except for those role-playing with strong spirit, but that was quite rare. For natives, this was a rule that had to be followed, especially nobles, who treated the deceased with great respect. Thus, even though Madara similarly believed in Martha, it wasn’t well-received in the wider civilized areas for the same reason.
“I know, I know.” Phillas nodded enthusiastically, squatting down and indeed found a nearly rotted leather pouch beside the skeleton. He picked it up but immediately let out a small exclamation.
“What’s wrong?” Brendel immediately asked with concern, hoping this fortunate knight of the Crusian would help him open the corpse, something he had been looking forward to for a long time.
“Lord Earl, you should take a look at this!” Phillas shook the pouch and pulled out a pale object, which at first glance looked like a slab of stone, but upon closer inspection, Brendel saw it was a bone.
As soon as he saw this item, he confirmed the identity of the other party. Only Madara’s undead would use enchanted bone slabs to record text; he learned this information after going to the Greyshus Knights’ country.
He took the bone slab, feeling a flicker of excitement. The text on the slab was recorded in Madara’s cipher, which he couldn’t read, but that didn’t stop him from checking its attributes with his built-in light screen.
He saw a line of emerald-green text:
Unknown Bone Slab (Quest Item).
Brendel felt exhilaration; in “Amber Sword,” there was no specific classification for quest items. Generally speaking, items that NPCs asked you to prepare had other uses. For example, a blacksmith might ask you to gather iron ingots, coal, or even tools, but these items could also be materials that players could use in the game.
Usually, items classified as quest items belonged to one kind of thing.
That was the initiation item for hidden quests.
Brendel’s heart raced; the rewards for hidden quests in the game were never lacking. Like earlier when he saved the Holy Seal Valley, though the task’s completion was far from perfect, Malorcha had given him a huge surprise.
He couldn’t help but glance at Phillas in front of him, thinking, as expected of the existence that supposedly walks out and steps on , truly miraculous. But seeing the other party still looking puzzled at him, Brendel finally restrained his emotions and replied, “This should be something from Madara; the Undead Knights often use similar bone slabs to record writings.”
“No wonder I saw some strange writing on it. What the heck, the first piece of loot is this thing—so unlucky!” Phillas cursed and couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed, “Looks like I’m having bad luck today; why don’t you take it?”
“No, no, no, that’s fine.” Brendel hurriedly shook his head, joking that it would be better to summon Nemeses instead. The knight lady’s hands change from red to black, but that was still better than his all-black hands.
Phillas was actually just saying it casually, then he simply dumped everything from the pouch onto the ground. With a clatter, Brendel nearly blacked out at the sight.
First, there were two rings.
Two dark silver rings, intertwined like silver snakes, surrounding a cat’s eye stone. Brendel happened to recognize these two rings.
Double Ringed Serpent’s Eye.
[Fantasy]
Defense +1
Light Resistance +5
Light Element Pool +20%
Double Ringed Serpent’s Fang.
[Fantasy]
Defense +1
Dark Resistance +5
Dark Element Pool +20%
(All Things Return to One)
(When wearing one) Perception +100, Bloodline +100
(When wearing two) Dark Awareness +5
Brendel couldn’t help but grind his teeth upon seeing these two items. This pair of rings was rare among fantasy equipment and was one of the few set rings. The attributes of the rings themselves weren’t particularly outstanding among fantasy-tier items, but the set attributes were exceedingly rare; +5 Dark Awareness alone was an extremely valuable precious attribute, not to mention the terrifying +100 increase to both Perception and Bloodline.
Actually, the Bloodline part was manageable, but Perception was a very special attribute in the game. Since Perception is not the main attribute for any spellcasting or attacks, its sole purpose is to enhance a person’s awareness of the world—essentially, every point of Perception could extend one’s perception ability by two feet. However, this attribute, like Intelligence, was very difficult to obtain.
Even today, with Brendel’s enlightened elemental state, his Perception was still only fifty. With his perception ability, he could clearly hear whispers within a hundred meters and normal conversations within about five hundred meters, or detect a capable infiltrator within one or two hundred meters.
But as soon as he wore this pair of rings, even a top Nightingale in the game with a level ten advantage over him would have nowhere to hide within two hundred meters. If he were to intentionally eavesdrop, normal conversations within a kilometer would not escape his ears.
Besides hearing, there was also vision. Once Perception exceeded one hundred, vision would become magical vision, ignoring darkness, even that created by magic. And what it meant to exceed one hundred fifty seemed to nobody in the game has reached before.
Because the All Things Return to One set of rings was exceedingly rare, as only the undead would drop this set of rings, but the Double Ringed Serpent’s Eye was a rare light item, making its drop rate exceedingly low to a staggering degree. At least Brendel had never heard anyone in the game report seeing this item.
He couldn’t help but stare at the two rings, nearly wanting to pick them up on the spot. However, he certainly couldn’t do that; firstly, it would be extremely disrespectful, and secondly, he was unable to wear them.
Because the Double Ringed Serpent’s Eye required a willpower level that at least reached the pinnacle of the Laws’ standard.
Brendel’s gaze could only pass over these rings and then fall on the next three items. A staff, a silver-handled mirror, and a tooth.
When he saw the staff, he nearly let out a chortle from his throat.
That item had a loud name:
Francis’s Grip
[Cursed]
Attack: 45-51
Strength +200
Constitution -100
Additional Skills:
Evanescence—The blade of Francis does not exist in the normal world, making it hard for mortals to describe its existence. Unless truly struck by Francis’s Grip, it will distort a mortal’s perception, making it impossible to judge the length of its blade through sight, sound, experience, or memory.
Rose’s Regret—‘Regret consumes the heart of man.’ When using Francis’s Grip, as long as the wielder harbors doubt in battle, they will age faster with every enemy they kill.
In “Amber Sword,” this staff heralded an era. It made players understand the existence of ‘cursed items’ in the category of equipment. But more crucially, this weapon was the only one capable of nearly deleting its user’s account.
Nobody knows what the real requirements for Rose’s Regret are, but most people only know one thing: once you take up this staff, you can’t easily put it down; killing someone with it would make you lose a level.
In the game, cursed items corresponded to legendary equipment while demonic items corresponded to fantasy-grade equipment. In one sense, this staff could be considered a divine artifact, but Brendel would absolutely not want to use it.
…
(PS: Four updates, fifteen thousand words. If you haven’t seen the previous ones, feel free to go back. I said I’d give you a New Year gift, and I’ve delivered! Happy New Year, everyone, and I hope you can send some monthly votes my way?) (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
