The Amber Sword

v5c43

Two Letters(8)

It was a chilly night. Brendel walked along a deserted and winding path slowly in the quiet forest. He could hear the flowing river as the right side of the forest glittered under the moonlight. It was in the direction of Bucce River. After passing by the bushes, he could vaguely see a dilapidated wooden house in front of him, hidden behind the dense foliage.

He was very familiar with this route as he’d walked through this forest every day for ten years. He then saw an old man and a teen standing next to a tree stump. The old man was looking at the teen, and the young man was waving a wooden sword repeatedly. Reality then hit him as he saw the same stump that was now covered in moss and there were brown mushrooms growing at the roots of the tree. The figures he saw dissipated under the moonlight.

The sawmill was abandoned ten years ago. The owner of this mill sold it to a local noble, but it was closed down shortly after due to poor business. Brendel only had memories of it from that time until his grandfather’s death.

The quiet scenery seemed to calm his troubled mind, but Princess Gryphines’s words were still lingering in his mind.

“Silver Queen Constance, the King of Wind Elf, and Great Priest Farnezain know what’d happened back then.”

“They’re not only the witnesses, they’re also the survivors of that battle. They’re the only ones who know what’d really happened in Alkash Mountains. Also, the Wind Elves owe Darius a favour.”

Brendel shook his head as it wasn’t that simple. He remembered what Veronica had told him. The Holy War ended forty years ago, and Silver Queen Constance only started climbing the ladder of supremacy then. She had a miraculous encounter when she was young, allowing her to stay young forever. The Dragons even owe her a favour because of it. The jumbled threads seemed to begin to connect gradually. After knowing all of this, Brendel finally saw a glimpse of the Golden race.

Dragons.

Why are the Dragons also involved in this matter?

A name popped up in his mind at this moment – Aloz.

Brendel walked along the river bank which was surrounded by tree stumps. Stag forest stood on the other side of the river. There used to be a lot of rumours about that forest which had brought a lot of fun to him when he was a child, such as old witches, fairies, white stags and a haunted castle. The adventurous spirit in young boys was an adult’s nightmare. Although children were forbidden to enter the forest, he’d managed to enter the forest twice.

His childhood memories gradually washed away the doubts in his mind. He suddenly thought of the brat, Bennett, who was the leader of the group of children from outside the city. He would always mix around with the noble children in the city and beat them up. He couldn’t win a fight against Bennett back then, and the feud between both of them started since then.

He shook his head, and the faces of the children vanished in his mind. Bennett headed north and nobody knew how he was doing right now. They’d resolved their conflict in Ampere Seale. His father, Sir Harbouche, visited his family after hearing about him from the elites of Vanmier Legion. Brendel still remembered that he was a sheriff, but he’d resigned from his job in the noble council and retired in peace. When Brendel saw Harbouche again, he had white hair, as if he’d aged ten years.

Harbouche visited his family to ask about Bennett and he just told the truth. Bennett had actually asked Brendel to pass a message to his family when they were in Ampere Seale. But when he saw sir Harbouche, who had white hair and a hunched back, talking to himself, Brendel realized that time really flew by quickly.

“Bennet doesn’t know how to behave himself and deal with people nicely. You’ve known him since young, Brendel, so you must keep an eye on him and don’t let him offend too many people.”

Brendel couldn’t help but laugh a little when he thought of Sir Harbouche’s words. He remembered that Bennett was indeed such a person, but he was no better. If it wasn’t for his stubbornness when he was young, his grandfather’s teachings wouldn’t have gone to waste. He sighed and walked along the riverbank slowly. He could hear the insects chirping in the sawmill.

Everything was the same just like ten years ago, the only difference was that the moonlight was now brighter and the sound of the flowing river was clearer.

Brendel walked past this familiar scenery slowly. Every tree stump seemed to remind him of his memories. He’d suddenly realized that this world was becoming clearer and more realistic in his eyes. There seemed to be a dissociation between a passerby and a player’s mentality now, and he could even hear glass-shattering sounds.

He looked up and saw heavy shadows floating in front of his eyes, and the whole world turned into the colour of old stained photos. He saw the past, where he practised his swordsmanship with his grandfather here. He could remember every step and every movement he’d made.

He saw himself being hit repeatedly and then getting back up again. He complained and threw a tantrum at times.

But the old man just watched him in silence.

For a moment, he saw the legendary Sword Saint Darius raised his head and looked in his direction. Brendel broke out in a cold sweat and stood still under the bright moonlight, letting his memories run through his mind.

He could see the development stages in his life, from birth to a grown man, from him being ignorant to a mature person. He also saw the last moment of being awoken from his dream, his skeletons were inlaid with a sword that was covered in black roses. The images intertwined and spun rapidly, forming a straight line. Brendel realized that this was the law.

The Wall of Laws became clearer in front of him. It then collapsed a second later. Brendel looked up and saw the whole world expanded in a void of space. A tall, white tower stood in the centre of this world.

The second world, Olivia’s White Tower, was said to control the order in Vaunte. It was the endpoint of all Lines of Laws, and all the laws formed a circle that was called ‘World’ around the tower. Marsha wrote all of the Truths and Laws on top of the tower, and travellers would climb the tower to seek the true meanings of the world.

It was as if a child and an elder walked hand in hand to seek Elemental Enlightenment.

Brendel suddenly opened his eyes and had a question in mind. What were space and time? They both described the state of matter, it was as if they both existed in the world, yet at the same time, they didn’t exist. But the moment he touched Vaunte, the Core of the Laws of this world finally opened up to him.

Brendel raised his hand, and a stone that was supposed to exist at a certain position suddenly disappeared and reappeared right in front of him. He had a feeling that he could change the nature of matter easily. The surface of the stone eroded, it then crumbled and eventually turned into powder.

It was as if it had gone through millions of years.

This was the ultimate unification of Law and Willpower.

Brendel then realized that he was standing in front of the gate of Elemental Enlightenment. His mind had finally merged with this world after going through a long journey. His identities of Brendel and Sophie were no longer separated from each other. His past knowledge, experiences, memories and feelings merged together perfectly. Although he didn’t feel like he got more powerful, he felt that he could defeat Korfa and Williams easily now.

Brendel smiled. The first thing he did was to open the panel.

[Human, male, 20 years old.

Power System: Element Realm (Self Determination), upper threshold.

Time and space: (In the eyes of the Haseir Divine Folk, time and space were a concept used to describe the state of existence of the world. If matter and energy didn’t exist, then time and space wouldn’t exist as well. But the concept often extended to the power of definition and imagination, which was the root of Laws and the key to existence.)

Elemental Powers (4/4)

Domination: ‘Space is bounded and governed by you.’

As long as the Lines of Laws were stable, the controller of time and space could make the next attack on any coordinate in space, and you could make any object appear on any coordinate.

Consumption: 50 Power of Order

Stabilization: ‘Space is the farthest distance between people, if you can’t cross it, how can you hurt me? – Sadin, King of the Law Mages.’

The Lines of Laws protected the user’s armour and weapons. As long as the attacks failed to pierce through the Laws, the armour and weapons were undamageable. In addition, stabilization provided the controller of time and space an additional +2 defence.

Consumption: Passive

Time: ‘Time is my ally, but it’s your enemy.’

The controller of time and space could completely destroy or heal a character. The degree of destruction and recovery depended on how much Power of Order the controller had allocated.

Consumption: Any

Space: ‘You seem to be in the middle of a gap in time, its flow is always particularly slow compared to you.’

The controller of time and space no longer aged naturally, thus doubling their lifespan and enhancing their body functioning through metabolism.

Consumption: Passive

Power of Order: 0/3000]

The four pillars of Elemental Powers had changed completely, domination and time were now necessary. Domination allowed him to control himself and everything within the Lines of Laws, including enemies. Time, on the other hand, enhanced one’s ability to age and also provided the power to backtrack. Having such power was equivalent to being a deity, but it took up a lot of energy. He’d tried using Power of Decay to turn a stone into powder, and it’d cost him 3000 Power of Order to reach the peak of Elemental Activation.

Brendel smiled bitterly. It would be amazing to have such power, but his level of power wasn’t enough for him to do so. At least his Elemental Activation and spatial abilities were better now. His ageing rate had slowed down and his body functioning was enhanced. All these attributes seemed to be of help to him, but they were now only passive skills.

There were only major changes to his levels.

Mercenary had reached level 40. In addition to Military Swordsmanship, Weapon Mastery, Dash, Deep Analysis, Piercing Strike, Nine Luminaries Sword Art, Flash Strike Sword Art, and Horsemanship, there were three other new skills, Stealth, Gretius’ Sword Art and Sword of Disintegrating Army.

The elementalists had reached level 27. There weren’t many changes to their skills, but their alchemy skills increased to level ten.

The Holy Knights reached level 30. Blood of the Burning Sun, Crown of Thorns and Colliding Halo increased to level fifteen, and they had a new skill called Holy Power Infusion.

Guardian of the Lost Earth reached level 25. Though, their skills were just the same as before as they couldn’t learn anything new. They only knew Frostbite, a basic enchantment for their sword.

The Scholars grew the most as their level increased drastically from level 15 to 50. They’d acquired a variety of knowledge, such as grey knowledge, geography, nature, engineering and all kinds of local knowledge, including Farnezain’s religious knowledge and Madara’s local knowledge.

Underneath all these classes, there was a profession that Brendel was extremely familiar with.

Dual Wielding Swordsman, level thirty.

Brendel almost shed a tear when he saw this profession. He didn’t really understand what was going on when he saw the changes in his attributes before this, but it was all clear to him right now after seeing this profession. This profession was the one that Sophie had always wanted to become since the start – a level 130 Dual Wielding Swordsman.

He’d learned Stealth from the Night Swallow players in White City and the famous sword art from Gretius’ Knight Squad. He’d also fought using the only advanced sword art he knew, Sword of Disintegrating Army, in the ruins of Valata. He acquired his Holy Knight’s skills before Aouine was destroyed, and he’d acquired his alchemy skills when the game first started. He then stopped learning new alchemy skills after learning Blood Alchemy. Also, he’d learned about the grey areas of the world when he dealt with the bandits in Aouine. He’d also been to Sanorso, Farnezain, Gretius and Madara to broaden his horizons.

But all of these were in the past.

He already had all these experiences in his memory.

But it was only at this moment that the system finally recognized this knowledge and experiences, merging them with Brendel’s experience in this world, just like how he had the experiences of militia and swordsmanship that had remained in Brendel’s soul when he took over his body. So now, Sophie’s experiences and knowledge were finally integrated into this body as well. But the militia and swordsmanship experiences that were gained from the game weren’t as substantial as the ones that were gained from real combats, so it seemed like the system only recognized less than a quarter of them.

However, this quarter of experiences was already enough for him to reach the peak of Elemental Activation.

Elemental Enlightenment was just around the corner.

This was really an unexpected gain.

Brendel heaved a sigh of relief. All this while, he could feel the layer of separation between himself and the world, which had slowed down his developmental progress. He’d gained a lot of experience from several professions, but there weren’t any improvements in his Elemental Realm. He’d finally figured it out today, and the path towards the Power of Existence was now clear. Although he knew that there was still a long way to go, at least it was no longer out of his reach.

His mind seemed to have returned to its shell. He could now hear the river flow and the insects chirping around him again. But this time, he heard a weird sound.

Brendel furrowed his brows. He felt that his five senses were sharper than before. Before this, he didn’t notice this subtle sound at all. He could tell that the sound was coming from someone who was practising their swordsmanship as he was very familiar with it. But who would practice their swordsmanship in the middle of the night here? Brendel looked in that direction puzzledly.

…

Amandina stood by the creaking waterwheel, holding an overcoat while looking at the river that was glistening under the moonlight. Her mind kept replaying what she’d seen in the afternoon, and she sometimes thought she might have been better off if she hadn’t seen it. She remembered that when she was passing by the short hedges at the back of the manor and while everyone was admiring Old Scott’s waterwheel, she spotted her lord and the princess together.

Her eyes widened when she saw the princess walked closer to her lord, stood on her tiptoes, tilted her face upwards and gave him a gentle peck on the lips.

At that moment, she was so shocked that she almost screamed out loud.

Even up till now, she still felt like she must’ve been seeing things.

Suddenly, she saw a figure peeking at her from a bush not far away. She was definitely seeing things. It was already late at night, so it was very unlikely that someone would be there at this hour. Amandina kept her guard up. She wasn’t seeing things, there was indeed someone in the bushes. She furrowed her brows, looked in that direction alertly and whispered, “Who is it?”

A beggar-like teenager then came out of the bushes. He looked at Amandina dubiously and asked, “Excuse me, are you Brendel’s wife? I’m looking for him.”

Amandina blushed. Instead of denying it, she asked, “Who are you?”

“My name is Dean, and I have something urgent to tell Brendel.”

The teenager replied.