The Amber Sword volume 3 - Chapter 211 – Leaving the Loop of Trade Winds

After lighting the Fire Seed and confirming that the Core Crystal had lost its use, the group began to search the underground city to see if there were anything of use. Since it was an adventure, they should not be returning empty-handed. Brendel had not felt such a pleasant time searching in an underground city after Aouine was destroyed in the game.
The youth traveled to other kingdoms and grouped up with players, but it was not unusual to have players kill-stealing and he had to guard against them. Many groups were also ambushed in dungeons, and there were many who were lawless and troublesome to deal with.
Here, Veronica and Mephisto made Brendel feel safe. The female general kept her promises and she only had eyes for precious artifacts. What Brendel wanted might not be things she wanted, and it was not as if she recognized the value of the ancient artifacts. He would always gain the upper hand here.
Mephisto was someone who did not have any material desire, and instead trained in the path of the sword like a maniac. If he was not bogged down by the fate of his kingdom, he would probably have reached Andesha’s level long ago. He was also in need of Brendel’s help to restore his kingdom, so it was unlikely that he would vie for something that Brendel wanted.
The youth brought these two powerful bodyguards around with confidence that he would find at least one or two Legacy artifacts, but contrary to his beliefs, he did not even find one functioning magic artifact despite searching the underground city for several hours.
The entire underground city’s Mana seemed to have been completely disassembled. Any artifacts that they found had lost its power.
Several passages showed signs of violent battles, and the ground had broken weapons and armors strewn across the floors. Magic patterns could be clearly seen on them, but there were no signs of Mana activity on them.
Brendel also discovered some magic artifacts meant for daily life, like Illuminating Crystals and Mana Stoves. But they were all void of Mana and could not be used again.
[A powerful Anti-Magic spell was cast down here and affected them. But what kind of power does that spell have to sweep over the entire city?]
Brendel and his two bodyguards were a little shocked. The largest war they knew was the War of the Holy Saints. The most powerful spells cast during that era were at the Fourteen Circle and it certainly did not reach this magnitude. It was clear that this particular Anti-Magic spell was used against the monsters from the Era of Chaos as a final desperate measure.
Still, Brendel swept all this equipment into the Dimension Space. Trentheim did not have iron mines, and melting these weapons and armor down made it possible for the metal to be reused. This equipment was high quality and some of them were even made of Star Metal.
[This is such a wasteful use of Star Metal…… Just applying a little of it makes it possible to resist magic spells. And it’s hard to procure Star Metal too.]
Veronica found it humorous when she saw Brendel’s greedy actions. If it were a young noble from the Kirrlutz Empire, they would never do something so openly to loot a sacred place.
Faena mocked Brendel for being a slave to money, and the latter agreed with her assessment, though he rolled his eyes at the notion of being a ‘noble’.
Trentheim and Valhalla were just starting up and it was difficult. He did not mind being greedier when he needed money. The ratio of Trentheim to Aouine was like Aouine to the Kirrlutz Empire. It was a very sensible thing to do.
“You…… stupid oaf!”
“Why are you interfering with my choice?”
Brendel’s thick skin made Faena angry. She did not understand why he did something so shameless and ignored her goodwill, but she was unwilling to admit that she did not want Brendel to act in this manner in front of Veronica.
They eventually exited the underground city and explored the ruins above. It seemed like there was resistance at every street corner. Brendel thought the guardians of this place were all defeated as he collected the equipment. He estimated he got at least a few thousand sets of armor and weapons, filling the Dimension Space to the brim.
[If Amman had a grave he would turn his body over. Honestly, just having this Dimension Space alone is already a reward.]
The group eventually stopped searching the area. They confirmed that Valhalla was completely destroyed and there were no magic artifacts that still worked, and Veronica and Mephisto completely lost interest in the area.
There were no signs of the Lionheart and Veronica lost two talented youths instead. Even though this probably did not affect her authority in the Empire, she did not wish to stay on any longer.
“We’re leaving.” She expressed her desire to Brendel.
“Are you going back to the Green Tower?”
“No. I’m heading back to my subordinates and leaving for the Empire. I don’t wish to deal with the Druids.”
Brendel could understand Veronica’s mindset. The Druids had confronted the latter earlier and she would not allow her probable enemies to see her awful state, but the also youth thought that the Druids were probably suffering even more casualties than she did.
“Come to think of it, the youths that you brought are probably the weakest fighters amongst the various mercenaries and factions, but it seems like you lost the least amount of men. That’s a little too much of an irony. What are your plans now?” Veronica asked.
“I’m leaving as well. This place is currently a dead city and there’s no point to stay here.” Brendel scratched his head.
The youth had discovered the second Core Crystal. It had a different shape compared to the conspicuous crystal, resembling a grey walnut. If he did not access the information from the first Core Crystal, he was definitely going to miss out on this thing, let alone Veronica and Mephisto.
Thus Brendel took possession of Valhalla.
[It’s not going to be easy to restore it. This Core Crystal establishes the Domain for approximately 2 miles and supplies twenty buildings with Mana, which is more than sufficient since there are only that many buildings. Building Wizard Towers, Nests, Magic Forge, or Magic Formations….. I don’t think it’s possible for me to build even half of the buildings. I should focus on making a Hydra Nest and Magic Forge first. Then a laboratory for Amandina to study Magicite. Even though she volunteers to be my advisor and has some considerable talent, it’s a waste if she didn’t do what she was meant to do.]
The instructions given by the second Core Crystal was to build a large hall according to its designs and plant it into the ground. Once it was activated, the Domain would be created and extended out. The activation was akin to planting a seed, and the entire process would take two weeks.
Even though he thought it was bizarre to construct such a strange hall, he could not stay here for two weeks. He had been cut off from the outside world after he entered the Loop of Trade Winds while Trentheim was surrounded by strong enemies. It was possible to have a dangerous scenario and he had to settle things as quickly as possible and bring back the advantages that he received from this adventure to fight the possible enemies.
Building the hall for the World Tree could be tasked to Amandina, and it was also possible to get the Druids to help out, so in his eyes there should not be a problem Veronica showed a little surprise to Brendel’s response, but she was quite pleased to see the next action he would take. Mephisto naturally followed them. He did not have any reason to stay behind, and his original intention was to pick a fight with Veronica, but no one would have expected that he formed a temporary alliance with her as well as Brendel.
From that moment onwards, this little alliance would become take root to become something of significance in Aouine.