The Amber Sword

After the group entered the forest, the blue curtain of light slowly closed behind the group, as if it was alive. Outside it was still afternoon, but inside the curtain was already twilight, with a blue curtain hanging from the sky and a few stars in the distance, like the scenery after dusk.

And a hundred steps away, the forest floor was a gloom.

The huge contrast caused everyone to be on guard, and Maynild and Freya gently drew their swords and looked around. There seemed to be some sort of uneasiness lurking in the air, making people feel a chill down their spines.

Brendel looked at the strange shadows of the woodland, they were already in a valley, the distant overlapping hills immersed in the night. In the north, the sky was as deep purple as the silent night. This hilly area was called the ‘Twilight Mound’’ in the Amber Sword, and in his memory, it should be at the southwest corner of Milos’s Breath.

At the entrance to this area, there should be a lair of the Dusk Hound, an ancient subspecies of canine dreads. It had long been extinct in Vaunte but was still found in small numbers in certain Black Forests.

“Lord, as you said, which direction should we head now?” Laurenna interrupted his thoughts and asked.

“The Raider mentioned that there should be a path leading to the ‘Atrium’ here,” Brendel’s mind recalled the Raider’s text: ‘The Dusk Mound is the most excellent entrance into the direction of Milos, and the gatekeeper’s lair is the dreaded The beasts of the Dusk Hounds, the passage through the Dusk Hounds’ lair extends northward, leading to the ‘Atrium’, with a treasure site at points A and B, which in the year 385 and 387 respectively were the ‘Crimson Wing Brigade’ and the ‘ Crystal’s Apple’ exploration.’ If this quest was still the first time it had been explored by people, then the location of the hidden treasure mentioned in the walkthrough might still exist as well. His eyes searched the forest, suddenly realizing that this sprawling valley was a passage. Brendel’s gaze stretched forward, the dark green hills that stretched on both sides meandered to the north, which also matched the description on the Raider.

After confirming this, Brendel had a plan: “Let’s proceed along this valley, watch out for wandering spirits on the way, and try not to use magic or activate magic items. Use open flames for lighting, and lighting crystals are banned at all times.”

Demons are not difficult creatures to deal with, but once a battle starts, the magic power that escapes will attract more demons. Some players had said that the demonic spirits were alarms within the copy of Milos’s Breath, and this was not an empty claim.

“Do you understand?”

“Understood.” Everyone nodded.

Brendel was somewhat satisfied, though his knowledge of the copy was only in the strategy. But he knew that in the midst of the unknown, people were always willing to favor the person who seemed to have a good idea of what to do. And as the most experienced person in the team, he was obliged to take up this responsibility.

He continued: “Scarlet, Medissa, you two go ahead. Lady Laurenna, please take care of the back.”

“Yes, my lord.” Medissa nodded instead of Scarlet.

“No problem.” Laurenna also raised her sheathed sword to her chest, a Kirrlutzian knightly salute – a sign of willingness to take orders.

With no objections from anyone, the team was quickly divided up. Scarlet and Medissa walked in front as the eyes of the group, both holding spears as they made their way through the dense coniferous forest, and they soon noticed that the sky was growing darker as the group progressed through the gaps between the cascading boughs.

It started as a light red in the evening, turned to a light blue, then a deep blue, and gradually became filled with stars, becoming a landscape of silent night. It was as if the sky had changed from evening to night after only ten minutes of walking in the forest.

The fact was that this was exactly the Cielacteristic of the Twilight Mound, this was the transition area of the Eternal Night Forest, and until one went deeper into this area, one could be considered to have truly entered the center of the forest. The surroundings gradually became pitch black, but Scarlet lit a torch and the firelight stretched in all directions, dragging the surrounding dense cedar trunks in long shadows across the forest floor, but where the light could not shine, the darkness instead seemed more prominent than ever.

The group had advanced for about half an hour when Medissa suddenly noticed that stars began to appear in the deep darkness, and she immediately recognized them as the demonic spirits floating among the woodlands.

She grabbed Scarlet and held up her finger as a ‘careful’ gesture to her.

“What’s that?” Scarlet also noticed the spots of light in the woods and whispered.

“It could be demonic spirits.”

“So many!” Scarlet was shocked. It did seem to her that the number was a little too large, and there were at least hundreds when she counted them down. She looked at the floating spirits and looked a little nervous for a moment.

“Don’t worry,” Medissa, however, said softly, “Although the demonic spirits are terrifying, they are notoriously blind. As long as we don’t use magic, light is invisible to them. As long as we pay some attention, we should be fine.”

Scarlet nodded her head in confidence. The fact that Brendel had asked Medissa to serve as the team’s eyes was to make use of her rich combat experience and the Elf’s natural acumen, while Brendel’s intention in arranging Scarlet as a partner was actually to protect Medissa; Medissa’s level had been shuffled to level one along with Ciel after he had advanced to the official position of a Planeswalker, and although they could now be upgraded by gaining EXP just like him, it had only been less than a month of practice, and right now, his strength had only just returned to the beginning of the Silver rank.

Due to the Planeswalker creature having the defect of not being resurrectable, Brendel had to be careful.

Scarlet took another look in that direction and looked back with some confusion in her eyes, which seemed to mean: “What now, Medissa?”

The little Silver Elf Princess understood and reminded in a low voice, “Scarlet, see if you can go around the left and right side.”

Scarlet was slightly startled and looked at her with some suspicion. Theoretically, although Medissa only had a fraction of her strength, it was not so bad that she could not even see clearly from such a distance. But as if sensing this suspicion, Medissa hastened to explain, “This place seems to have some sort of restriction for us Elite Elves-”

She blushed after saying that, if it was not for the fact that it was too hard to explain her ‘rank’ being washed away, she really would not be good at lying. But to be honest, she still did not understand what this rank was, and why it was closely related to her own strength.

It was fortunate that a little blush was not visible in the firelight. Only then did she nod her head and turned back, but her eyes swept across the entire valley and noticed that the demonic spirits in the forest seemed to have blocked all paths ahead.

After a moment’s scrutiny, she shook her head slightly.

“Can’t we?” Medissa chimed in, and she immediately activated her Psychic Connection, sending a message to Brendel behind her. Soon after, the bushes behind the two young girls parted with a ‘clatter’ and Brendel’s group had emerged from there.

“Medissa, Scarlet.”

Brendel probably figured out what was going on after he got the news from Medissa. He parted the shrubs from the back of the forest and looked up, and sure enough, he saw those stars in the darkness.

The Eternal Night Forest was a huge area where the distribution of monsters was very random, but after the player’s exploration, he had just as well found out quite a few of the patterns. Before that, the path he guided for Medissa and Scarlet was actually a very remote path, which, according to the strategy, could avoid most of the unnecessary battles.

Since there had been a lot of delay in the Anserra Forest, Brendel had to choose this path. But this path was not safe and secure, there were two monster nodes that could not be bypassed. One of them was a place known as the Demons’ Pool, and the other was stuck at the last gate before leading to the atrium, where they had to face the Dusk Hound and the Hick Demons.

Brendel took one look at the astonishing number of demonic spirits in the forest and roughly identified the location – the Demons Pool. Although it was not the lair of the demonic spirits, it was somehow like one.

Demonic spirits in Amber Sword were genuine gold-ranked demons, and normally to kill this many of them, at least two groups of people are required. But Brendel just happened to know an unusual way to deal with these demons, and in a copy like this that had been thoroughly figured out by the player later in the game, there should not be too many oddball strategies.

But he took a glance over there and then withdrew his gaze. He had two more things to do before he was ready to pass through here.

Brendel glanced at a direction and took a look somewhere in the darkness, where he did see a huge cedar that required two or three people to surround its trunk.

“Medissa, how tall are you?” He whispered.

The Silver Elf Princess was slightly stunned, not expecting her lord to ask such a strange question, and she hesitated before she answered Brendel using the Psychic Connection as she was embarrassed.

Even so, she still heard the Ciel at the side who was uttering and laughing. Brendel stared towards that direction, then he said, “Almost there, you come next to me.”

“Huh?” Medissa was a little puzzled but did as she was told. Everyone was completely confused as to what Brendel was doing and could only watch as the little Silver Elf Princess approached Brendel with some curiosity, “Is there anything you wish to order, my lord?”

“Face me.” Brendel said looking at the cedar.

“Brendel, what are you doing?” Freya felt a little strange, in fact everyone felt as strange as she was. If she had not asked, Filas, who was leaping behind her, would have been ready to ask.

“You wait and see.” Brendel replied.

Medissa hesitated slightly before continuing to take a step closer, she was almost face to face with Brendel now and could even feel his faint scent. She blushed as she had not been this close to her lord at such a close distance since she had been summoned by Brendel.

But Brendel was not satisfied, and he put a hand on her shoulder to reorient her. Medissa was so startled that several times as the tip of her nose touched Brendel’s chest.

“Brendel!” Freya glared at Brendel, and if she had not considered the situation they were in, she would have stabbed him with her sword.

But Brendel was oblivious, and only for this moment did he feel as if he was back in the middle of a game, in the days of pioneering quests with trusted companions. He stared at the huge cedar and whispered to Medissa.

“Now, starting from my side, take ten steps back, and tell me what you feel.”

Brendel’s words sounded a bit like a riddle, but Medissa had already trusted him enough to do everything without having to ask why. She nodded and backed away slowly with only a slight startle.

Everyone saw her step ten steps back, then she stopped.

“Tell me what you’re feeling under your feet.” Brendel asked.