The Amber Sword

In fact, after leaving Ampere Seale, the task of achieving Elemental Activation had moved up on Brendel’s agenda.

This was because all of his Experience bars had been locked to grey since he entered the Elemental Awakening phase. Such a state in Amber Sword meant the player had to unlock the Elemental Activation quest before he could level up further.

But that was just one reason.

In reality, he had been led here primarily because of information received from Laurenna. The Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth was extremely famous in Aouine in the past, both for the Labyrinth itself and the famous Winter Dragon within it.

This copy was one of the rare legendary copies in Aouine, and the legendary copies themselves were those that allowed guild-level teams of a hundred people to enter. Such a copy was the only one that every civilized region outside of the Black Forest had until the third major update was released, and clearing it represented almost the highest level honor and challenge a team  could win in the early era that Brendel remembered – the difficulty of the copy was therefore obvious.

While Brendel had anticipated going to meet the ‘Young Dragon of the Falling Needle Hills Avenue’, he had not expected the opportunity to descend upon him so soon. To be honest, if it was not for the fear that Arreck would get the Heart of the Dragon before he did, he would not have wanted to enter the Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth so early.

The Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth itself was a Black Forest, one located inside lands claimed by civilization, and it was close to the highest-ranked kind – the Land of the Tilting Law, or the ‘Twilight Scars’, similar to the opposed order of existence like the Holy Saint’s Legacy and Goblin’s Country.

As an Aouine player, Brendel was naturally incredibly familiar with this copy. The Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth was created in the era of the Twilight War. After the fall of the Ebabel Tower, Milos the Frostweaver fled south with the Miirna, and after seven days and seven nights of pursuit, Chief Warg Hati caught up with the God of the Giants on the border of the Winter Kingdom. A terrifying battle erupted ensued.

It was written in the Pale Poem that when Warg Hati bit down on Milos’ neck, the God of the Giants was torn apart. His body blew up in a star-filled explosion, his remnants falling to the ground in three directions: east, north, and south. The place where the giant ‘stars’ fell immediately burst into flames, but the flames were not blazing hot like most fires. Instead, they were ice flames.

Legend has it that a fragment of the God of the Giants, Milos, fell southward and landed in present-day Viero, creating the ever-frozen Black Forest. Even in the heart of Marsha’s Blessed Land, it had not been assimilated despite centuries passing. In the game, the Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth was the source of almost all the monsters and player quests in Viero.

Although Brendel had many friends in his last life, he had not joined any large guilds before the fall of Aouine – he had been in nothing more than a small group with a few people and his senior. A group like theirs naturally had no connection to a legendary copy like the Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth. But even so, they had still experienced the hellishness of this copy on its periphery.

Back when rhe copy had only just opened, players all across Aouine were scrambling to experience something new, and their team was naturally no exception. But just like most players, teams like theirs had met with a huge obstacle before they even entered the copy’s entrance.

A young Dragon.

The gatekeeper with the bloodline of the Golden Folk. It was entrenched near the Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth because it liked the cold climate, obstructing the players who were trying to enter this forest with everything they could.

Honestly, it was hard for the average player to imagine the power of a true Dragon before that. The game designers did a good job of giving all players a chance to gain ‘experience’ in this event.

The so-called infant Dragons.

Brendel understood that Aloz was a ready-made example. To have the players of that era and even most of the players who had not yet activated their Elemental Powers face a young female Dragon – the result could be imagined. Brendel did not even want to think back to the details of that battle because there were no real details to be covered. Simply put – they came, they saw, they were conquered.

And that was just the ‘boss’ who was guarding the door.

It was for this reason that Brendel desperately needed to activate the Elemental Powers of he and his subordinates first. After all, while the legendary copy represented the peak of difficulty of a team copy in an era, it had its level own limitation. Once the Elemental Powers were activated, the difficulty of the copy would have to drop exponentially.

After all, it was a copy made for players before Elemental Activation, and design ideas also had its limitations.

As he thought about all these things, Brendel walked towards the center of the stone formation. Theoretically, once a player reached the center of the stone formation in the game, the quest system would immediately be triggered. Just like when he was in the Long Song Forest and the Forbidden Garden, he thought he would immediately receive a system prompt.

But what made Brendel slightly startled was that after he waited for a small moment, aside from the whistling wind from the mountains, the surroundings were considered silent.

“What…what’s going on?”

Brendel’s mind burst into panic. Theoretically, he had already touched the Elemental Barrier, and if he was an native, he should have already activated the Elements without even needing a quest. For an native, Awakening Elemental Powers was almost synonymous with Activating Elemental Powers, and the rest was nothing more than the accumulation of Attributes and Experience Points.

But his Attributes should have already been sufficient, possibly even exceeding the requirement. And his Experience had also been locked down, which should have been a signal to prepare for the unlocking of Elemental Activation.

But the problem was:

He had never heard of a player who would fail to receive a quest on the stone formation after fulfilling all the conditions. Besides, there was not a second way to obtain Elemental Activation quests in the game.

The cold breeze from the mountain blew through, it only took a moment for Brendel’s forehead to be covered in a cold sweat. Multiple possibilities flashed through his mind for a moment, the most frightening of which was undoubtedly that he was not from this world and might not have the means to Activate his Elemental Powers at all.

At the thought of this, even Brendel could not help but pale. If he could not Activate his Elemental Powers and continue to level up, his goal of saving this kingdom and setting history on a different path would be nothing more than  a dream.

In this world, no matter what the situation was, strength was first and foremost in importance.

But he closed his eyes and gently took a breath to calm himself down. Although it was not ruled out as a possibility, being unable to reach Elemental Activation seemed unlikely. If a soul from another world was incompatible with the laws of this world, then he might not have been able to touch any Elemental Powers at all.

But I already possessed a portion of elemental power, don’t I?

Brendel stood dumbly for a moment before suddenly remembering something. He hurriedly opened his Character Panel, but that all the Attributes on his character panel were the same as always. He frowned. He was switching from page by page when suddenly his eyes lit up slightly.

His eyes suddenly stopped on the Character Log.

On the bottom line of the Log, there was this line of tiny green text written: the permission to unlock condition has not been reached.

Permission to unlock condition not reached? 

Brendel froze at the sight of the rows of text, What kind of a hint was that? Permission to unlock condition not met? He knew very well that all of his conditions should have already met the standard of the Elemental Activation; this kind of statement did not make any sense.

“What the hell is going on here…”

Brendel couldn’t help but frown. Could this be the legendary bug?  But this problem seems a bit outrageous, not to mention the fact that the chances of being struck by lightning were almost smaller than encountering a bug in Amber Sword. And even if I’m encountering a bug now, where would I go to find a game manager to solve the problem? 

Brendel had a headache when he thought about it.

He couldn’t help but knock on his head and began to calculate the differences between himself and the average player one item at a time. The biggest difference numbered no more than two. One was his own Elite Template and the other was the Planeswalker System. But the Elite Template had a similar existence in the game, and it did not seem to have much to do with the Elements or the Laws themselves.

He ruled out that possibility first, but the rest of the Planeswalker System gave him a headache. To be honest, while the Planeswalker System had always been his greatest source of support, the system itself was something he had never been able to figure out.

How did it come about? Does it also exist in the game? How does it work? Although Brendel had obtained some information from the Deer Demons and Tuman and Sanorso partially explained the history and origins of the Planeswalker, to be honest, he was afraid even the three of them were not sure where the Planeswalkers truly originated from. Additionally, the principle of their existence was.a whole different issue.

He thought about it for a while and did not come up with anything, but when he thought of the name Sanorso, he finally remembered there was an existence who also knew something of the Planeswalker like he did. Hurriedly, he called out in his heart:

“Lord Sanorso!”

“…ooh hmm?” A confused voice was heard. The voice seemed to hesitate for a moment, then suddenly became clear: “Brendel? …Didn’t I say I was going to catch up on my sleep at this time of day!”

There was a sense of sternness in the voice.

Brendel coughed, the legendary sage Lord was not good-tempered, especially since the Elf had repeatedly instructed him to never disturb her to catch up on her sleep – according to her own words, lack of sleep was beauty’s number one enemy.

But with Marsha high above, the Elf did not seem to need to care about that at all.

Of course, he would never unwisely say this out, but could only smile and say, “Lord Sanorso, I’ve run into a little trouble.”

“A little trouble?” The voice of the Wind Empress was startled. She had not spent much time with Brendel. It had been rare to hear him speak voluntarily about the trouble he was in. After a slight pause, she asked, “Is it about the Planeswalkers?”

“Huh?” Brendel was surprised this time by the Elf, “How did you know?”

“Hmph.” The Wind Empress snorted softly, “You’re a freak of nature, and much of the knowledge you possess isn’t even known to me. The only thing that can confuse you at the moment seems to be about the legacy of the Planeswalker.”

She paused and continued, “Tell me, what kind of trouble have you run into.”

Brendel hurried to tell the story of the predicament he had encountered. Of course, he skipped the part about the Elemental Activation task as it was really hard to explain. After all, it would be as if he was trying to explain what a non-existent cabbage in this world was like to Ciel.

So instead, he switched to a more euphemistic way of saying it, telling this Wind Empress that he was having a little trouble on his way to Activating his Elemental Powers.

“You mean to say that your inability to touch The Elemental Barrier might be because you are a Planeswalker?” The Wind Empress quickly listened to Brendel’s explanation, but immediately asked again, “How come I’ve never heard of the Darkness Dragon, Odin having this problem?…”

“How am I supposed to know that.” Brendel spread his hands helplessly.

“Wait.” The Elf seemed to grab the focus at once, “Do you have your deck of cards?”

“That…” thought Brendel, and replied seriously, “I think there’s one.”

“Then you’re a real fool!”

Sanorso suddenly asked viciously, “Brendel, you woke me up for such a stupid thing?! In vain, I thought you were a smart guy!”

“Wait,” Brendel responded now, “What do you mean, Lord Wind Empress?” Are you saying that I have to have my deck if I want to Activate the Elemental Powers?”

“What else?”

The Elf ended her discussion with Brendel in her charismatic voice clearly and concisely.