Payment for the Mission (2)

Prioritize offense or defense?

Brendel gritted his teeth. Something felt off to him. Though he was a bit frustrated at the involuntary enhancement of his time and space attribute this time around, it hadn’t done irreparable damage — it just meant that he might have to give up the road he had planned out previously.

He hesitated, but in the end, he put his hand on the Holy Knight profession.

Previously in the game, it was common for a player to change their profession simply because of a powerful weapon. For him to change his planned profession because of a powerful elemental seemed a more reliable reason. After all, an elemental would accompany you for the rest of your life. Especially since the time and space elemental was too powerful; a regular elemental’s enhancement wouldn’t normally go beyond 50% but a principle element can double that.

Of course, he couldn’t just casually disregard such a powerful advantage.

Besides, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t considered becoming a more battle-aggressive knight. This might mean his attack would be slightly weaker than what he had planned, but it shouldn’t be that big of a difference since he had the Colliding Halo from the Holy Knight as well as the Crown of Thorns.

In a flash, Brendel had decided on his future path.

Then he looked over his skills as a Holy Knight. As expected, the skill interface had completely changed. After the elemental enhancement, skills received their own laws.

Blood of the Burning Sun

(Level 10)

[Master] (Elemental Powers/Normal)

Whenever you receive close-combat damage, deal damage equal to 50% of the damage received.

(Element Enhancement) Now, Blood of the Burning Sun can disregard the limits of space and rebound long-distance attacks.

Crown of Thorns

(Level 10)

[Master] (Elemental Powers/Normal)

Continued deployment. Increases stamina and resistance by 20.

Active: Gain attack equal to Defense, Resistance, and Stamina. Lasts 30 minutes. After the effect ends, the Holy Knight will lose all defense, resistance, and stamina for the next 30 minutes. This ability can be activated once a day.

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(Element Enhancement) The duration after self-activation will double and the side effect will be swallowed by the cracks of time.

Colliding Halo

(Level 10+1)

[Master] (Elemental Powers/Normal)

Increase the defense of all allies, including the player, by 7 points.

(Element Enhancement): The area of coverage doubles and an extra 2 points of defense is awarded.

Enhancement seemed to have ended in a second. Brendel finally let out a sigh of relief when he read through these enhancements. It looked like different elemental powers had enhanced skills completely differently. For example, if you used the healing elemental powers of the Crystal Stag to enhance the Blood of the Burning Sun, then you’d probably gain a slight self-healing ability while the Blood of the Burning Sun rebound attacks.

But clearly, time and space worked really well to enhance these techniques. Brendel was so happy he could have laughed out loud when he saw the part on Crown of Thorns that said, “side effects will be swallowed by the cracks of time.”

In truth, he now had 952 points of strength, which was approximately the bonus he gained from having an extra 500 life points and 4 points in natural defense. After he put on Glow Wave and Bahamut’s Grip and combined that with the effect of his talent and the effect of his skills — he had almost 40 resistance, 30 stamina, and 17 defense points. If these were changed to attack, they would be worth 87 points in attack.

In the Amber Sword, attack was a basic attribute. The final damage was calculated using it as a base and then adding in power and skills, etc. Even as a Fantastical Holy Sword, the Staff of Earth only dealt 42 points of attack and the raw attack power of the Lionheart Sword was probably even lower than that. As for the Azure Lance that had been priority sealed? It only had 122 attack points.

The meaning represented by the 87 points of attack was obvious.

In other words, by activating Crown of Thorns and then Beserk, Brendel’s fury mode pretty much turned him into a rabid dog. How could he not be satisfied with an hour’s worth of triple the attack power without any side effects?

If he wanted defense, he had it. If he wanted attack power, he had that too. Brendel suddenly realized that the time and space elemental chose to give him a perfect answer.

But this was far from the last of the boons granted by elemental activation, because Brendel finally saw, after all the attributes, a status list that made his heart pound.

Elite Skills ——

Demonize

(Level 1)

[Basic] (Elite/Regular)

Rapidly disguise the player’s scent as that of a demon’s. Monsters under the rank of lord/lady will not voluntarily attack. The effect lasts for 60 seconds or until the user initiates an attack.

Elite template, the attribute that he had gained after rescuing Frenia in Trentheim has finally come to fruition after he underwent elemental activation. When the first row of the Elite Template unlocked, it brought Brendel an unexpected, but very welcome, surprise.

Demonize.

Only now did Brendel finally realize how this technique came to be.

Back then in the Amber Sword there had been a player that was referred to as the Leader of Night Swallows. That guy could be said to be the idol of all Night Swallows. They were a lone wolf and subscribed to the philosophy of the lone hero. He never teamed up with anyone and roamed between the various underground cities or side quests by himself. Aside from the big-scale side quests that had special limitations, the legendary side quests, or the regional battles, there was almost nothing that he couldn’t steal.

Later players confirmed that the guy back then depended on demonization – the amazing technique that could disguise a player’s scent so that the monsters in the top-level regions wouldn’t initiate attacks.

But unfortunately, nobody knew how that technique came to be. Because most people knew that it was truly a monster’s technique. At that time, only the gods knew how he learned that technique.

But now, Brendel finally understood.

It turned out that this was a bonus skill from the monster template. No wonder the players practically turned over every stone in the world and still couldn’t find the NPC that taught it. But Brendel was a little puzzled as to why he, as a fighter, would be allocated such a technique that screamed ‘thief.’

Of course, it’s not that he wasn’t satisfied with it. In fact, he was too satisfied. This technique was extremely useful for him, especially in the Stained Frost Forest Labyrinth.

If he had only wanted to cause some trouble for Duke Arreck before he gained this technique, now he had the ability to teach the guy a lesson he’ll never forget.

Consider it him taking revenge for her royal highness in the past life.

Brendel thought.

She couldn’t help but let out a sigh. When he came to, he discovered that Maynild stood not far from him, looking at him with a puzzled gaze. Clearly, he had been standing there, just holding the card.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“Nothing...” Brendel put the Song of Reincarnation into his back-up deck and took one last look at the white deer and fairy on the card. Then the card flashed and disappeared. Luckily, because he had expanded the elemental pool before, there was an additional card space. Otherwise, he’d be in trouble right now.

He looked at Maynild again and explained, “You should have felt — “

“Congratulations on entering the realm of the elementals –” The female knight’s face softened. “Count, you’re only 21 this year, right? Your accomplishments today surpass those of King Gretel.”

“Ah...” This was a hard question to answer. Brendel made some perfunctory sounds and then turned around to glance behind them — the newborn Crystal Stag was still lying among the grasses. Because it was too weak, it couldn’t even open its eyes and lay there, shivering.

Maynild’s look turned confused. “You know, it’s strange. You should have dreamt the same dream as I did. How come you can remember things so clearly? Are you really Brendel... or Sophie?”

Brendel turned around to look at her. “Of course I’m Brendel, but I’m also Sophie. I’m not against the memory of another world. Just like everything you saw in your dream — it’s still a part of you.”

He seemed to realize that Maynild assumed they had the same dream. This assumption felt a little weird to him. Did she not realize that the other world actually existed? But he shook his head and decided to follow her train of thought.

Sadly, the female knight was very defensive about this. As soon as they started talking about memories and dreams, she immediately clammed up.

Brendel examined her closely. Maynild shifted her head slightly. Brendel only turned back around when he was certain she would not continue discussing this topic.

He walked over to the shivering Crystal Stag, leaned down, and stroked its forehead. He asked, “Little one, what’s your name?”

The newborn fawn shivered slightly but didn’t answer. In truth, it couldn’t answer. Before maturation, Crystal Stags could only speak some simple water elemental language.

Obviously Brendel knew this. He looked beside it. The Crystal Stagy lay among the ashes of Malourcha’s body. Brendel quickly discovered three shining items among them.

These didn’t happen to be there by chance.

He knew very well that this is the reward for the in-game mission.

Normally, a creature like the Crystal Stag who lived in harmony with magic would rarely have any dropped items. They were attuned to magic and it was easy for them to make sure that anything they carried disappeared with its magic. But in the last second, he chose to help Malourcha which successfully unlocked that mission.

Because of that, the guardian of the Holy Seal Forest left him three presents.

But Brendel did have a few regrets. The highest completion rank for a mission was perfect, then excellent, and then great. He figured the problem came from the fairy lady; this mission could only be solved perfectly if she wasn’t sacrificed.

With a perfect finish, there’d be more than these items.

Of course, this was better than nothing.

He picked up the three shining magical items from the ashes. There were two sky blue crystals that looked like magical cores and another item that looked like a golden circlet. Brendel recalled that this thing had originally been on Malourcha’s long horns.

“This is...” When he saw the two things clearly, he had to pause for a moment.

“These are raw energy stones and the Circlet of Convenience... it actually left these items to you. Looks like it was very grateful to you ...“ Maynild said quietly from behind him.