The Amber Sword – Chapter 25

TL:

I was really frustrated at myself today, because I feel like I didn’t prepare enough (there was an assessment to see everyone’s level for this first day). It’s a bit unfortunate, but I think the next chapter will be in tomorrow as I really need to spend more time practicing.

And uhh, I might need you guys to spot any English errors, I translated the chapter during public transport.

Chapter 25 – Minute and second

Brendel followed her gaze and nearly let go of his Thorn of Light, both sword and scabbard, out of his hand from a tremble.

[What the hell?]

At the narrow valley where it intersected the area of sharp boulders, the area at one extreme end was filled with throngs of Rotten Beasts chasing after the necromancer Kabara on the cliff, resembling a tidal wave that was climbing up slowly.

And on the other side, there was a slim figure that was also climbing up the narrow valley’s cliff in his line of vision. She carried a huge bundle on her back, and a sword hung from the bundle, swaying along with the girl’s long ponytail as she slowly proceeded forward.

[Freya?]

He rubbed his eyes, almost thinking that he saw wrongly. But Romaine wouldn’t be wrong at spotting her, and the reason why she was nervous was because it was definitely Freya. But did she not follow Marden to the River of Daggers, why did she appear here? He could not believe she would abandon the militia’s third squadron.

“Brendel, that’s Freya.”

“I see her, just don’t make any sound, I’ll think of something!”

“She will be caught by them so we need to help her right?” She turned her head back and asked testily.

“No, Romaine! I don’t need your help on this matter, I’ll definitely think of something.”

He found it was a great pity that he did not even have the chance to go bonkers. The situation was very delicate, and the key to change the situation was not in his hands. It was decided on whether Mother Marsha’s mood was good today, and unfortunately it looked like she was not.

The undead’s situation was just as bad. Brendel turned back and saw the necromancer cutting out his feet without any hesitation, and forced the Rotten Beast that had grabbed onto it back into the midst of the other monsters.

It quickly flipped over and used its bony hands to climb up the cliff. Its 1.7 OZ strength allowed its light skeletal body to climb rapidly as if it was flying on it. However, when it boosted itself upwards mid-way of the cliff, it suddenly paused.

Kabara raised its head, and the green flames in its sockets illuminated a male human’s shocked and angry face on top of a gigantic boulder. While it felt that the ripples of his lifeforce was a little familiar, it was of no importance, because it had already raised its bone staff at Brendel.

[A human maggot.] It thought in its mind.

Brendel was unable to care anymore at this moment, he pulled out his sword with a singing ring, the Thorn of Light bursting with dazzling radiance in the darkness, and thrust it straight into Kabra’s forehead, creating a light crack. A golden flame surged forth from the crack and spread everywhere.

“Ga—” Half of a word was stuck in Kabara’s throat. The speed from Brendel’s thrust was so swift that it was unable to react, and it felt it was reaching the end of its life.

Kabara had once thought it would become a great necromancer.

It tried to stagger backwards but the youth grabbed its bony hand. It was surprised for a moment, wondering why he wanted to save it. Yet it was an undead that forever worshiped the Dragon of Calamity, how could it ever accept a lowly human’s aid?

Just when it was feeling vexation over his actions, it saw that he smoothly pulled off the ring from its index finger.

“Despicable! You human maggot, bandit……”

This was Kabara’s last thought, and the Soul Fire in its eyes were extinguished.

Three experience points.

Brendel was surprised that this necromancer had a remarkable Ring of Spiders which added +0.2 Perception. The familiar patterns struck out at him, as he had one in the past that he kept as a souvenir and did not throw it away.

Perception was a stat that allowed a character to sense its surroundings, and boosted hearing, smelling, sight, touch and taste to complete a comprehension towards space and objects.

It was a very important attribute in the game. There was a low level dungeon in Bruglas called ‘The Public Mausoleum’, where it did not allow the usage of a fire. Parties had to keep dodging a high level monster in the complicated passageway in it, and items that raised perception and agility were once highly sought after because of it.

Brendel’s friend had once given this exact ring to him, and when he reminisced about it he felt tearful. He nearly sold everything he had to gather a full set of 10 OZ worth of perception equipment, and in the end he still failed to complete ‘The Public Mausoleum’.

With the chain of thoughts, he suddenly recalled there was a wonderful item for warriors within this dungeon, The Emblem of Bravery, +2 Military swordsmanship. He pat his head, as he had forgotten about this item. He had spared no expenses in order to get this emblem in the past.

“Brendel, Brendel!” Romaine’s voice was full of anxiety.

He was startled, the merchant girl did not panic so easily, did something happen to Freya? He quickly threw the necromancer away, and saw a Rotten Beast which caught up to Freya. It extended its withered branch-like claws and grabbed onto the bundle’s strap that the girl was carrying, and hauled her backwards. (TL: Yes, Brendel, daydream away and see if anyone remains calm…)

“Freya, be careful!” Romaine exclaimed in surprise and she stood up and wanted to run downwards, but Brendel grabbed her and pulled the girl who could not read the situation back.

[Seriously, please stop adding to my pile of troubles!]

“Just stay here and wait!” He threw the Ring of Spiders at Romaine to let her look after it.

There was a limit to how much magical equipment a character could use, and the witches speculated that it had something to do with a human’s mana pool. Brendel, a level 2 mercenary had reached the peak of what he could use when he had 40 OZ worth of equipment.

“Okay, Brendel, but…..”

When he looked around his surroundings one more time, he realized that he was worried to leave this clumsy girl here. He had pulled out the Thorn of Light earlier, lit the area and attracted attention to himself. If he left her here, she might be attacked.

If little Romaine got injured he would really regret it. But Freya was also in the midst of grave danger, and he already treated this determined and kind lass as his most important partner, how could he do nothing at all? He was really in a dilemma here.

All these thoughts passed through his mind in a fraction of a second.

At the bottom of the valley, Freya shrugged off the Rotten Beast’s claws, and struggled to run forward two steps before falling down. Her helpless eyes glimmered with a little hope when she saw them in front of her.

“Brendel—” She got dragged backwards before she managed to finish her sentence.

“Pull out your sword.” He shouted.

“It’s grabbing on to my bag, I can’t get to it–”

[This blockhead!]

He decisively passed the Thorn of Light to Romaine: “This sword is able to curb them, protect yourself!”

“What about you, Brendel?”

The youth shook his head to inform her not to worry, and ran towards Freya’s direction.

[Damn it. This isn’t the first time anyway, if Mother Marsha likes to play jokes on me, then go ahead and do so.]

Monsters seemed to like picking off the weak first just like how it was in the game. Before he even jumped down, a human-shaped shrubbery had blocked his path. (TL: We want…… a shrubbery! *dramatic music*…….. You must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest…… withhhhh a herring! *dramatic music*)

A young Rotten Beast, level 7 creature, with 2.2 Strength, 3 Physique, 1.2 Agility, Dark attribute, weak to fire and striking, half-resistant to piercing attacks.

Brendel’s memories came back in a rush. The unique points of a plant-type monster was its high physique but low agility, and the Thorn of Light was truly their bane. Except he did not have it right now. He gritted his teeth and cursed quietly. The only thing he could rely on was his 2.1 Agility and he did not intend to waste time with this enemy.

The Rotten Beast in front of him obviously did not feel the same way as it lumbered heavily towards him. Even though it was in a human shape, it ran on all fours, completely looking like a wild human that had not evolved.

Brendel dodged sideways to avoid its claws, and the sharp tips from the branches scratched a few bloody marks across his forehead. He thought it was fortunate that it was not an undead, otherwise the debilitating poison in his body would accumulate again.

But he did not have the time to celebrate as a green line scrolled down in his retinas:

“Emergency warning: You have been affected by a paralyzing poison.”

[Fuck! I completely forgot about this!] Brendel nearly cursed out loudly.

Because he was over level twenty in the game and could easily pass through the Rotten Beast’s territory stealthily, he forgot that this creature’s attacks also had poison. Even if it was weak, the combination of the remaining debilitating poison and paralyzing poison would cause significant deficits to his status.

Even though he cursed his own mistake, his actions did not slow down at all. His hands grabbed the enemy’s thorny claws and pushed it back, targeted the dark red Rotten Beast and used the ability ‘Charge’.

This dark red Rotten Beast was actually a mature type.

Brendel took a deep breath. A mature Rotten Beast had 4.7 Strength which surpassed even a Gargoyle. A Grade 1 Rank creature’s power was not easily trifled with. But he suddenly noted something strange, a mature beast should have dragged Freya away easily right?

Brendel used the young Rotten Beast as a stepping platform and kicked off from it, did a spin in the air, and his skill activated, his speed accelerating across the sharp intersecting rocks with a blurry afterimage.

Dozens of meters were covered in a mere second.

“Let go of your bag, Freya!”

But she held on to it and shook her head defiantly. One of her hands grabbed onto the nearby rock but she was unable to hold on much longer. One of her fingers slipped.

But he finally reached before she let go of her hand entirely.

“Lower your head!” He bellowed, and he pulled out her sword on the bag when he charged over, then sliced off the strap that the mature Rotten Beast was holding on to.

The dark red human-shrubbery figure immediately lost its balance and fell backwards. It tried to regain its stability by grabbing on to something, but Brendel followed up immediately with a kick to the chest, and it fell backwards to a deep recess in the valley.

Rotten Beasts were very light and the one that fell down might not perish from it, but it certainly would not be able to climb back up for a while. Brendel finally relaxed after he saw that it disappeared into the darkness. However, he snapped his head back and his tone became severely reproachful:

“Are you seeking death!”

Freya raised her head and looked at him with her bright eyes. She probably did not expect him to be so furious, and she bit her lips, turning her head away stubbornly.

He wanted to continue his excoriation, but paused when he suddenly saw that her hands were full of abrasions and blood. Furthermore, their dangerous situation was still not resolved. He sighed and pulled her up and said: “I have many things to ask you but we will talk later. Romaine is still waiting for us up there.”

“Okay.”

When he wanted to turn back, he saw two golden light entered into his chest. Two XP. He looked back in shock and discovered Romaine raising her skirt with one hand while carrying the Elven sword with the other, running down towards him. The young Rotten Beast had been carefully skewered by her and turned into a pile of ashes.

The merchant girl was also shocked when she saw the results, not expecting the sword in her hand to be so powerful!

“Why did you also come down?” Brendel suddenly felt an urge to send a smack on her head.

“I thought very seriously for a while, Brendel, but I think I don’t have the means to defend myself.”

He went speechless for a while.