Chapter 788: Act 139 – Beware of Traps (First Update)
(The everyone seems to distrust my integrity, and I’m quite sad. Decided to do a ten-thousand-word update to express my discontent. Keep recommending Xiao Hei’s “Disaster Descends”!!! I don’t believe he can also update ten thousand today?)
The meticulously carved traces are immersed in darkness, with rows of colonnades extending equally forward and backward, looking up along the narrow path embedded in the sheer cliffs, these colonnades shrink and overlap at the end of the line of sight; the smooth walls appear to be paved with obsidian, yet are covered with a lattice network used for energy transmission, identical to what Brendel had seen in the underground of Valhalla and indistinguishable from the materials of Milos’s remains scattered on the icefield below.
In fact, such materials can be found throughout the ruins of Vaunte, and the only common knowledge players have about them is that they come from a previous era.
This place appears to be a long corridor, which might have been called so in some time past. But now, this corridor remains only in half; it is cleaved from the middle by an unknown disaster, leaving a bottomless abyss on the other side, with the corridor embedded on the edge of a precipice, winding down to the ground.
In the game, this is referred to as the “Coldflow Passage”—
A group is slowly traversing this half corridor left over from a primitive time before the previous era, possibly even prior to the era of chaos.
Among the group, a blonde young girl is pulling at the face of a chubby little fellow in front, which is Alorze and Shi Ta; Brendel and Veronika follow closely behind, while the scholar Miss is adhering closely to the female military leader. As the frosty road becomes perilous, she no longer asks Brendel bizarre questions from time to time; in fact, everyone has grown more cautious. A distance of one step behind the three, Xi carries a package taller than herself, without a word, only her long crimson ponytail occasionally sways slightly as she walks. Of course, she doesn’t need to trouble herself with this; at Brendel’s request, Bud’s artisan wizard has already cast illusions on the Azure Spear. The mystic law-goers among Bud are lifelong researchers of illusions, claiming to be the guardians of the Silver Sanctum, and are the most outstanding masters of illusions in “Amber Sword” besides the Faceless Man. Their illusions are typically only detectable by beings two levels higher than themselves.
The caster this time is even the leader of the mystic law-goers, Roan, one of the wizard leaders of the Silver Alliance, whose strength is comparable to William’s; it’s unlikely anyone exists in the world with two levels higher expertise in the domain of spells, except for the Sage Lord of Erlandta.
Brendel naturally isn’t worried about Erlandta coming to expose his trickery in Erluin.
Further back is the Young Prince, the future king of Erluin, who is stumbling along, bruised and battered; if he were still in the palace, there would surely be attendants supporting him—unless that strict sister isn’t around. At this moment, Charles, Himelam, and Medisa surround him but do not lend a hand. In fact, the youngest wizard tutor in Erluin is stifling laughter, and Medisa can’t help but hold back a smile. They only need to protect the Young Prince from accidentally tumbling into the abyss below; as for everything else, Brendel has commands to give.
Behind them, following the Laurena couple and Cruz’s Crown Prince, along with numerous noble Cruz and several witches led by Babasha, at the back of the group is the Gray Saint, with Mephistopheles responsible for the rear guard as the strongest presence in the group. No one dares to guarantee absolute safety beneath this abyss; even Brendel can’t claim he knows this major dungeon in the game; not to mention that he himself has never truly ventured into such places, and taking a thousand steps back, who knows what changes might exist in the ‘real Vaunte’ world?
After getting gradually used to this world, Brendel has confirmed that this similarly named world of Vaunte is not that of the game, nor an illusion or a dream. Although for a time he suspected someone was playing a malicious joke on him, or that this was simply a ‘Truman Show,’ with the passing of time, he no longer harbored such fantasies and began to refer to this world as ‘the real Vaunte.’ The operational principles of all things in this world align more with nature than they do in the game; despite some differences, they seem even more real.
Though a real game world seems rather absurd.
After crossing the underground icefield, Shi Ta indeed led them to the entrance of the Temple of the Sleeper underneath; it was not far from where Peiya’s younger brother had fallen by accident, which made Brendel suspicious, feeling as if something guided them here by an unseen force. Especially since Anlek clearly did not take the shortcut beneath this icefield, why then would Peiya’s brother find himself in this location merits discussion.
It’s a pity that the hunter siblings remain unconscious and can’t be questioned for clarification.
Brendel had already heard about the underground entrance to the Temple of the Sleeper; the upper part of this abyss is called the White Gorge, the only entrance outside the main door of the Temple of the Sleeper, which is split into underground and aboveground sections—the aboveground leads to the Ciwei Icefield, camped by Frost-devouring giant insects, while the underground connects to this Coldflow Passage.
Brendel slowly advances with the group, touching the ice-blue colonnades embedded in frost, about every five to six meters there is one protruding from the wall, seemingly like ribs. These columns feel cold to the touch, and their weighty realism differs slightly from the simulated sensations in the game. Although Brendel hasn’t been here before, he is aware that this type of material has a special texture in the game, as if capturing the fierce war and malice of a previous era; not just in the hands, even in the heart, one can feel a chill—this is the atmosphere created by the game’s special emotional system.
But here, there is no such feeling; these columns feel like ordinary stone products, heavy to the touch. ‘So this is how it feels,’ Brendel muses, finding this somewhat remarkable. Even though this is considered a dangerous journey for him, the sensation of personally verifying the world in the game is very interesting.
The female military leader noticed his unusual behavior and softly asked, “Have you been here before?”
Brendel nearly slipped his hand in surprise, quickly replying, “Of course not.”
“Not? Why do you look as though you’ve returned to a familiar place?” Veronika responded in displeasure, finding his vague responses frustrating.
“That’s because I’ve seen this corridor, these columns and walls,” Brendel sighed and explained.
“You’ve seen them, where?”
“In a book,” this answer didn’t require much thought from Brendel, almost intuitive—he could also say it was on a forum, right? “Today when I saw this corridor and these columns, it matched precisely with what I had read in the book. It wasn’t until I personally measured these columns that I truly understood how it is.”
This reason does seem reasonable; although the Temple of the Sleeper is a forbidden place, history isn’t devoid of visitors. Minren once passed through here, and Bud’s wizards along with the Mist Elves followed the trail of Minren to this place. About a decade later, the Blackfire cultists would occupy this temple, turning it into the infamous dungeon of later generations. Veronika had heard about the temple previously, but she still looked somewhat suspiciously at Brendel; did the tower wizards truly possess such vast amounts of data? This little guy always attributes everything to the documents of the tower wizards. The tower wizards split from the silver Bud, and she doesn’t believe they always carried Bud’s documents with them while migrating.
It’s unfortunate that there’s not much connection between the Cruz Empire and the tower wizards; otherwise, she might have found a way to verify it, but now she can only harbor doubts about Brendel’s claims.
At this moment, Shi Do, who had been following behind the two, suddenly spoke up: “Seeing the things from the books appear before my eyes, only then do I realize that the facts are like this. Textual descriptions inherently incorporate the author’s subjective will; only by seeing with one’s own eyes can one fully understand.” Her eyes lit up, and her last statement was precisely the reason she left the academy for Erluin: “Like Lord Earl, I’ve gained a lot today.” The scholar lady seemed to have grasped some profound truth, replying a little excitedly.
Veronika sighed, feeling that Shi Do spoke somewhat reasonably. She finally glanced at Brendel and ceased further questioning.
Brendel then exhaled in relief, but the sharpness of this female military leader still made him feel a bit ridiculous. However, he also realized he should perhaps be cautious and retracted his hand from touching anything in the corridor, lifting his head in thought. The forum mentioned this Coldflow Passage has about a thirty-minute journey; estimating the time, they have now traversed roughly half of it. The latter part of the passage leads deeper into the Temple of the Sleeper. Brendel pursed his lips, knowing that the last two-thirds of the passage belong to the domain of the Twilight Twins—Mel and Mein. He had been waiting for those two black wolves to appear for quite some time.
Mel and Mein are the last generation of the Twilight Wolf clan; they were born from the seventh daughter of Echis, Jin Hai, who is the ruler of the Evernight Moon. Thus, much of their power is related to shadows and darkness. Mel and Mein look quite alike, resembling a massive black wolf with long horns on their forehead; however, Mein lost his left eye fighting the Dragon of Dread, leaving him with just one eye and a long scar in the left eye socket to distinguish him from his brother.
These two wolves are optional bosses in “Amber Sword,” as they are trapped in the secret path leading from the temple underground to the surface—exactly where Brendel is now in this Coldflow Passage—whereas entering the temple through the front door won’t encounter them. As the optional bosses guarding the secret path, Mel and Mein are undoubtedly among the strongest boss-level enemies in the first four acts of the game. If it were in the game, Brendel would mostly prefer to avoid them, but now, he was quite looking forward to the appearance of these two beasts.
For no other reason, having Mephistopheles, Veronika, and the Young Female Dragon among the group makes Mel and Mein, which could pose significant challenges to players, a moving treasure trove for him. His nominal teacher, the Gray Saint Mephistopheles, has reached a level in the Extreme Plains beyond even what he was in the game; Brendel has no doubt that he alone could easily handle this pair of Twilight Twins.
The drop list from the Twilight Twins is among the best in this dungeon besides the final boss.
The only problem is, these two foolish wolves don’t necessarily appear; Brendel can only pray for good luck.
At present, the surroundings are still silent, only the sound of footsteps crunching on the ice and snow. He purses his lips, surveying the area. Himelam and Laurena behind them are holding torches; aside from the small illuminated area from the flickering light, the end of the vision remains pitch black. Just then, he saw Alorze in front tugging at Shi Ta’s ear and stopping.
The Young Female Dragon stopped as she found a door ahead.
She squinted her golden eyes, studying this stone door—specifically, this is not quite a complete door, as with the Coldflow Passage, this stone door is also only half; the other half likely collapsed into the abyss along with the corridor during a past disaster, with the remaining part shattered, leaving broken pieces lodged in the passage. The Young Female Dragon turned to look at Shi Ta: “What is behind this? Why is there a door here?”
“How would I know,” the little chubby dragon grumbled discontentedly, “I haven’t been inside this temple; my task is just to bring you to the entrance below the icefield.”
“That’s what you promised him; I don’t care. You must find that so-called waking deity, and also recover the Dragon’s Heart you lost,” Alorze commanded irrationally.
“Wait, Sister Alorze, that’s not the Dragon’s Heart!”
“The Dragon’s Heart has nothing to do with me; I’m saying you need to bring back that fun toy!” The Young Female Dragon bared her teeth at Shi Ta, who shivered and immediately shrank his neck in silence.
Brendel overheard the conversation between the two, automatically ignoring the latter part; however, Alorze seemed quite interested in the waking deity, which made him suspicious, pondering whether it was due to her own curiosity or something else. Alorze is still an underage dragon, quite carefree, but as a golden lineage, dragons hold a special responsibility in the game; they had fought in the Twilight battles. Not only the golden folk, but as far as Brendel knows, Bud also established many observation posts to monitor the borders of order and the Black Forest. According to Medisa, the Silver Elves were not entirely indifferent to worldly matters; otherwise, they wouldn’t have returned to Vaunte due to the arrival of the Great Demon Tide.
It seems that apart from the mundane Black Iron folk, the ancients all act according to their respective purposes.
With these thoughts, Brendel couldn’t help but glance at Alorze again.
Alorze was instructing Shi Ta to push that stone door. Despite its thickness, it was nothing for the dragons; the damaged stone door slid back under Shi Ta’s rolling paws, revealing a half of a grand hall. Or rather, it looked more like a square since half of the ceiling had collapsed, and although the hall remained half, it was still outrageously large. There is a square with a fountain outside the Golden Palace of Erluin, but compared to this half hall, it appears exceedingly small. The group stood at the entrance of the hall, hardly being able to see the opposite end.
Upon seeing this, Brendel suddenly realized where this was. At that moment, a shadow leaped behind the door, and Shi Ta suddenly exclaimed, seeming to have collided with something head-on, turning into a ball rolling backward until he crashed into a colonnade to stop.
“Who’s there!”
The Young Female Dragon’s startled and angry voice reverberated from the front. Though she often bares her teeth at Shi Ta, that’s an internal dispute among dragons; great dragons are proud beings, and not just anything can bully them at will. Especially since this thing had knocked Shi Ta flying in front of her; it was simply intolerable. But the shadow leaped back and stopped, and everyone could finally see clearly—it was not a “person,” but a wolf.
“A male wolf?” Veronika couldn’t help but exclaim.
This indeed resembled the male wolf Brendel had seen in Valhalla, its size akin to a small mountain, nearly occupying half of the hall, with its soft, long fur hanging down behind its neck like black satin. However, the only difference from the black wolf is that it bore a long horn on its forehead, wreathed in black smoke, clearly indicating it was no ordinary creature.
“This is not a male wolf; it’s a Twilight Wolf!” Brendel was immensely thrilled. The bosses in “Amber Sword” possess higher intelligence; he truly feared these two beasts wouldn’t be fooled. However, foolish wolves are foolish wolves; since Mel has appeared, the one-eyed Mein must be nearby.
At that same moment, he also realized where this was.
The Trap Hall.
As the Young Female Dragon discerned the beast before her, she instantly let out a low growl and lunged at it. She could sense that this Twilight Giant Wolf’s strength was roughly on par with her own, but she is a dragon, one of the most combat-experienced races among golden lineages. Alorze believed that no matter how strong this foolish wolf is, she wouldn’t be any weaker, and it was necessary for her—regardless of her indisputable authority in front of Shi Ta or her pride as a dragon—to be the first to leap and teach this uninvited guest a lesson.
Yet she did not expect that just as she made her move, Brendel in the back realized with alarm that something was amiss. He intended to shout a warning, but unfortunately, the Young Female Dragon moved too quickly. The moment she lunged, layers of blue lightning manifested in the air on both the ceiling and the ground; these lightning bolts seemed to have a life of their own, charging directly toward Alorze. Dragons possess a passive talent, Resistance Scales, which grants them formidable resistance against magical and physical strikes; one or two bolts would do nothing to Alorze, but now facing thousands of lightning bolts, it was almost like a raging tide overwhelming the Young Female Dragon, leaving only a scream behind.
“Ah—”
Brendel couldn’t help but cover his face.
Otherwise, why would this place be called the Trap Hall?
