Chapter 791: Act 142 – The Bet
Until they crossed the entire glacier, the Frostbite Worm King ‘Frostfang’ that should have appeared in the game never made an appearance. Only some Frost Spirits were present in the snowfield. These undead creatures were said to be the souls of travelers who froze to death beneath the glacier. They were similar to ghosts but looked like ice sprites wandering through the snow-covered forest. Fortunately, they weren’t too powerful, and the Young Female Dragon, Brendel, and Veronika easily dispatched them without even needing the Gray Saint to intervene. Charles and the others also gained quite a bit of experience from the encounter.
The experience and drops from the small monsters in such a large instance were quite bountiful. Unfortunately, today’s luck with the elapsed pointer had clearly drained Brendel’s fortune. Despite dozens of Frost Spirits, none dropped anything good, not even a high-level white item. Brendel felt like crying; if the elapsed pointer had yielded a full set, it would have been worth it, but it only produced half, and the required bad luck still dropped. It was simply too unfair.
After passing through the glacier, they entered the belly of the mountain through a concealed cave in the valley. Under Brendel’s guidance, the group turned down a long artificial corridor. Suddenly, a spectacular scene unfolded like a grand painting that had dropped from the sky before them—there stood a magnificent temple embedded in the mountain, towering hundreds of feet high, with arched beams creating soaring trapezoidal spaces. The architectural style of the temple resembled the remains of Milos they had previously seen on the surface, yet beams of sky-blue light streamed down from the temple’s dome, resembling hundreds of foot-long swords descending onto the deep blue ice surface, forming intricate shadows intermingling with the tilted columns.
The temple was so grand that it seemed to stand like a giant supporting the glacial walls on both sides. As the people walked out of the narrow passage, they felt as insignificant as dust.
Everyone couldn’t help but gasp in awe, and even Brendel, who had seen the description in the guide, was shaken at this moment. This was the Eternal Plaza; beyond here lay the Spiral Hall—a civilization’s creation from a bygone era. The plaza still echoed with the fierce cries from that war, then all fell silent, leaving nothing but the quietude that lingered millennia later.
“What is that?” The Young Prince had somehow come to the front and curiously stared at the groups of azure orbs drifting in the plaza below, asking.
“Breath of Ice.”
Those were activated spells awakened by dark magic from the ancient battlefield. The sheer number was astounding; counting from one end of the plaza to the other, there were at least a thousand of them spread out, like stars in the night sky. Veronika found herself in a difficult position upon witnessing this scene. Such ancient activated magic was quite tricky; handling a few dozen would be manageable, but thousands? Even if she and the Gray Saint teamed up along with the Young Female Dragon or Brendel, they would likely be overwhelmed.
“Shall we charge in directly?” She took a breath, realizing this scene side-lined the intensity of the ancient war, needing how dense a magic explosion it required to gather such formidable activated magic here thousands of years later. Vaunte had another ancient battlefield, the site of the last clash between the Four Sages and the Dark Dragon, now referred to as the Dead Land, where numerous activated spells thrived; however, the numbers were nowhere near as outrageous as here—across miles of battlefield, only a few hundred activated spells wandered. But here… Veronika shook her head: “This will probably take several days to clear.”
“We don’t have that much time; beyond this is the Spiral Hall, and Anlek and the others should be close by. We need to step ahead of them.” Brendel replied promptly, “I’ll distract them; when I give you the signal, make your way through the plaza.”
“No!”
“Absolutely not!” Brendel was slightly taken aback, turning back to find that the ones opposed were the Young Female Dragon and Medisa. The Young Female Dragon scrutinized him for a moment, expressing her discontent: “You’re my toy; shouldn’t you consult your master before making decisions?”
Medisa was more concerned: “Lord, your status is different now; there’s no need for you to take such risks personally. As someone in a higher position, you must learn to act like one.”
Brendel raised an eyebrow; this line sounded familiar. He looked at the Silver Elf Princess and asked, “Did Antinna say anything else to you?”
The Silver Elf Princess’s face flushed, stammering, “N-no… nothing… this… this is what I wanted to say.”
Brendel found it amusing to see Medisa’s flushed face. He was about to comfort her when Veronika spoke up, echoing Medisa’s concerns: “Brendel, you’re not the strongest among us; the Princess is right; it’s better left to me or Mephistopheles.”
Brendel shrugged, entirely ignoring the Young Female Dragon’s earlier complaints. He had his views on Veronika’s assertions. In reality, it wasn’t as dangerous as it seemed; it was just about drawing aggro. If a warrior in the game could reach over a hundred levels purely as a class, they should know how to handle this much. Moreover, leading away these Breath of Ice was a well-known technique. Back in the day, players would farm materials here.
Though Brendel hadn’t attempted it personally, he couldn’t claim to be incapable.
However, it wasn’t that Mephistopheles or Veronika couldn’t learn this technique; it was relatively simple. The problem was that this technique required knowledge of the terrain. Among all present, only he barely qualified for that condition. This task left no room for error; if surrounded by a thousand or more Breath of Ice, even Mephistopheles would have difficulty escaping easily. If it turned into a direct confrontation, it would be disastrous. As Veronika said earlier, this could easily take several days to finish.
Thus, he finally shook his head: “Lady Veronika, Teacher, drawing away these monsters isn’t difficult, but do you know where to lead them? I do because I’m more familiar with this area. Let me try it first; don’t worry, if it gets too tricky, I’ll find a way back.”
“How will you get back?” Brendel’s evasiveness clearly didn’t fool the Crusian commander.
“Uh…” This lie was hard to spin; Brendel hesitated before answering, “It’s hard to say; I’ll think of something.”
Veronika scrutinized him suspiciously.
Brendel sighed, needing to explain, “Lady Veronika, trust me; do I look like someone who wouldn’t care for their own safety? Well, maybe for Erluin, but I’m not noble enough to do this for you Crusians, so please believe in me, alright?”
This reasoning finally moved the female commander, though it sounded a bit grating. Even Prince Rainwright couldn’t help but hum coldly, feeling that Brendel’s remarks were rather arrogant. When had the Crusian people ever needed help from Erluin? Veronika regarded him deeply, deliberately replying coldly: “That’s true; a little trickster like you is indeed different from those who preach self-sacrifice, even if you often put on a guise to deceive others.”
Brendel couldn’t help but smile wryly; he knew Veronika was referring to the incident at the Loop of Trade Winds, but at that time, he was utterly unconcerned with sacrificing himself for the Druids or the Treants; he was merely trying to find a path to escape from despair. He turned around and saw that the Crusians who were unfamiliar with that experience mostly looked bewildered, while a few of his subordinates were chuckling, especially the Silver Elf Princess, who was smiling sweetly.
Nevertheless, Veronika finally ceased her objections.
Turning back, his teacher, the Gray Saint, remained silent, merely nodding slightly and responding, “Since this is what you requested, be careful. It’s also a good opportunity for you to hone your skills.” Brendel raised an eyebrow; he had to admit that his teacher was indeed a peculiar person. Perhaps breaking through the encirclement of thousands of magical beasts didn’t seem like much to him, considering he was the one who carved a bloody path out of the siege in the core area of the Crusian Empire.
That was hard to compare; after all, among those who participated in the campaign against him were individuals on the same level as Veronika. Compared to those figures, the threat posed by the Breath of Ice was only slightly stronger than that of a pet dog.
With this in mind, he shook his head and gestured to his Wizard Servant nearby: “Charles, come with me.”
Aggro drawing takes skill. Although one could do it alone, given his current power, it was still somewhat strenuous; having assistance from a wizard made all the difference. The key was that Charles was his summoned entity; if danger arose, he could reset him at any time. Bringing others along might be more troublesome, and primarily, he didn’t want Veronika and the others to uncover some of his little secrets.
Responding to his lord’s call, Charles sighed resignedly, raising his hands as if he had anticipated this outcome; after all, if there was a hard task, it would invariably fall on him.
“Lord, I didn’t owe you anything in my past life, did I?”
“Hard to say, but I think I might owe someone.” Brendel replied quite helplessly.
“Someone?”
The young wizard turned back, only to find Brendel had taken a step forward when someone suddenly grabbed his clothing. He turned back helplessly to see Xi’s bright yet somewhat worried eyes: “You wait for me here, Xi. I’ll be back soon. Oh no, we should be meeting on the other side soon, alright?” Brendel felt it was a bit ominous to say he would be back soon; why would he come back? He hastily corrected himself.
However, the red-haired girl looked at him and shook her head seriously.
That meant—‘No!’
…
The warning range of the Breath of Ice was about thirty feet; the perception of activated magic was poor, and his level was slightly higher than the theoretical entry level for the Sleeping Hall, so Brendel stopped about twenty-five feet away. Charles followed closely behind; the stealth ability of a wizard was far inferior to that of a warrior class, not to mention compared to a nightingale; however, magic could solve this problem. He cast a sound-absorbing spell, completely muting his footsteps, making them seem lighter than Brendel’s.
Behind him was Xi. Brendel couldn’t convince this mountain girl to stay behind, so he allowed her to accompany him. Fortunately, Xi wasn’t weak either, possessing dragon blood. She might struggle to conceal her sound from the adept hunting monsters, but the half-deaf and half-blind Breath of Ice wouldn’t be a problem.
Only—when Brendel looked back again, he saw the two sneaky faces of Alorze and Shi Ta.
“What are you doing here?” Brendel glared at them, annoyed.
“Afraid my toy will get lost.” Alorze replied matter-of-factly.
“She brought me along.” Shi Ta responded, almost crying.
Brendel felt somewhat speechless. Had he known, he might as well have brought everyone along to break out; having four or five people try to draw aggro was simply a pipe dream. He glared at Alorze threateningly: “Just follow my commands later.”
“What attitude is that!” The Young Female Dragon seemed quite unsatisfied, but after a moment of hesitation, she supplemented, “…but if it’s reasonable, I may consider it.”
Brendel scoffed lightly and, hiding behind the first pillar, pointed to the other pillar: “Do you see over there? The Breath of Ice’s attack style is emit a beam, with a range of about one hundred and twenty feet. Their movement style is flying at a speed of about fifteen feet per second. However, we have five opportunities to hide behind the columns to evade their pursuit. So our escape speed must not exceed twelve feet per second; otherwise, you should retreat.”
As he spoke, he turned back to the others.
But Alorze looked at him as if he were an idiot: “What are you looking at?”
“Of course, I’m inquiring.” Brendel replied.
“Are you an idiot? We’re dragons.” The Young Female Dragon responded angrily: “We can run faster than you walk.”
“Can he too?” Brendel nodded toward the chubby boy next to Alorze.
“Lord, even though I’m not fond of exercise, I’m still faster than you.” Shi Ta replied, clutching his small belly in a deep voice.
Brendel couldn’t help but touch his face, feeling somewhat outmatched. Dragons, being the golden race specializing in combat, naturally possessed superior physical abilities. He was merely instinctively asking a question based on his past habit as the team leader but had completely overlooked this aspect. He then glanced at Xi, who didn’t respond, but having half-dragon lineage, didn’t need much to say. He finally shifted his gaze to Charles.
“Lord, I have a dimensional gate.” The Wizard Servant replied after some thought, smiling.
“So, I’m the slowest, huh?” Brendel suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
“Well… pretty much.” Charles glanced at the others; Alorze and Shi Ta were dragons, while Xi could also be considered half-dragon, and he had magic on his side. It seemed that the lord was indeed dragging behind.
“How about it, little Brendel,” Alorze saw Brendel’s embarrassed expression and looked quite pleased, unable to help but let out a chuckle, “Now you understand, we’re here to help you. Without Lady’s assistance, it would be quite challenging for you to complete this task. But more importantly, if you were to be taken down by these pesky things, then my painstakingly acquired toy would be gone, and that would be a significant problem.”
Brendel knew full well that the Young Female Dragon was deliberately at odds with him. It seemed that ever since she found out he gave the Golden Apple to Xi, she had been brooding over it. However, a thought struck him suddenly: “Alorze, how about we make a bet?”
“A bet?” The Young Female Dragon narrowed her eyes, instinctively becoming a bit wary.
“Yes, what I mean is, leading these monsters away for others to pass is not as simple as you might think. If you believe that simply being fast will suffice, you are gravely mistaken. I can tell you that in this case, even speed does not surpass mine here.” Brendel replied, “So I suggest you and Shi Ta return to act with the others instead, leaving this to specialists to handle.”
“Cut it out, I’m not biting on that,” Alorze huffed, “But how do you want to bet?”
Brendel chuckled internally; this Young Female Dragon was good at pretending. He swiftly replied, “Didn’t I say? Let’s race; see who reaches the finish line first.”
“You’re racing against dragons,” Alorze’s eyes widened: “You must be crazy!”
Brendel nodded seriously: “The loser must unconditionally agree to a request from the winner.”
“Condition?” The Young Female Dragon paused slightly, suddenly crossed her arms, and blushed, angrily exclaiming, “What are you trying to do, shameless!”
Damn, where did you get that idea? Brendel nearly shouted at the Young Female Dragon when he saw her reaction. He quickly raised a finger in a shushing gesture and peeked outside—thankfully, the drifting Breath of Ice didn’t seem to notice the commotion here. True to their half-deaf and half-blind reputation. He breathed a sigh of relief, turning back, and scolding Alorze, “Are you insane? You want to die here?”
Alorze glared at him, baring her fangs in protest: “Who told you to make such shameless demands?”
“Where’s the shamelessness!” Brendel suddenly noticed Charles and Shi Ta’s peculiar expressions, along with Xi’s flushed cheeks, feeling like he could strangle this foolish Young Female Dragon: “I meant, if I win, you’ll have to give me the true Dragon Heart.”
When Brendel said this, he paused momentarily, as the Dragon Heart was a treasure of the dragons, and he didn’t know how valuable that item was to the dragons.
But since Margadale needed the Dragon Heart to resurrect, he came up with this idea in desperation.
Sure enough, as soon as he spoke, Shi Ta immediately shook his head: “The Dragon Heart is mine!” Unfortunately, Alorze scrutinized him and asked, “Just that? Alright, I accept.”
“Alorze, sister!” The chubby dragon’s eyes widened.
“It’s fine; you can participate too.” Alorze clapped her younger brother on the shoulder, responding casually: “That way, if he loses, he owes each of us a request.”
“Can it be like that?” Charles looked dumbfounded, hastily raising his hand: “Then I’ll join as well.”
Brendel watched coldly, seeing his young wizard servant dig his own grave, and couldn’t help but smile derisively. However, he was also curious and asked, “What kind of wager do you want?” For Brendel, Charles had always seemed to have a rather indifferent character, appearing to have little desire apart from essential magic research.
“Well, not much; just think it’s cool, isn’t it? Just imagine, your master owes you a request; it feels all dirty and unreasonable just to think of it.” Charles answered excitedly.
“Damn,” Brendel had nothing to say to his servant’s peculiar thoughts.
But when he turned back, he saw Xi also blushing and raising her hand.
“You want to join too?”
“Mm.”
“Damn!” For a moment, Brendel couldn’t help but think to himself:
This is really dirty and unreasonable.
