Act XIV: Girende's Tomb

As the figures of Freya and the other person completely disappeared, Brando also calmed down. Unlike sneaking into a ranch from another direction where he could use a patch of colorful woods for cover, the path from here to the thicket below required him to move almost entirely under the gaze of a whole squad of Skeleton soldiers.

Adventure was essential, but there was no need to take unnecessary risks. He decided to wait until it was darker before making his move. Although the undead could see life energy directly, their search range was limited at night.

But Brando wasn't idle; he was observing the patrol patterns of the bone racks below. He quickly found a gap in their patrols, a ten-second interval between when two scattered small squads passed each other.

He surveyed the terrain—there were twenty meters between here and the thicket below. Despite having a Dexterity of 2 energy levels, his attributes couldn't be fully utilized in his weakened state. Completing a forty-meter round trip and digging up the key buried under the tree within ten seconds seemed like an impossible challenge.

He decided to find another way.

The sky quickly darkened.

"Time to move," he told himself. He melted into the dim environment, his heart pounding with nervousness.

This was playing a game with his life. What game could offer more excitement with such death penalties?

He held his breath and stared down, counting to fourteen—exactly the time it took for two pairs of bone racks to pass each other. Then, he first threw his sword in that direction. This was the first step.

At a distance of twenty meters, the sword landed on the soft fallen leaves with a slight rustle. Brando waited anxiously for a long time. It wasn't until the first patrol team passed for the second time that he confirmed everything was normal and breathed a sigh of relief.

Next was the crucial part of the plan. Brando counted again, and when the two squads of bone racks passed each other for the third time, he took a deep breath and charged out. His mind was almost blank at that moment; he couldn't think or worry about anything, only one goal—speed, to go faster.

Three seconds.

Brando arrived and let out a long breath. He crouched down, dug through the fallen leaves, grabbed his sword, and began to dig. However, the efficiency was much slower than he had anticipated. He dug while counting in his mind: one, two, three.

Six seconds.

He gave himself an extra second before dropping the sword and starting to run back. The surrounding scenery blurred past him at lightning speed. He darted into the bushes and stopped, feeling as if his heart had stopped.

The Skeleton soldiers passed for the fourth time, not noticing his presence. Brando took a deep breath, feeling so stimulated that his limbs were trembling. However, the surge of adrenaline also made him feel an undeniable excitement.

Then he retreated to continue waiting for the second round. Brando was much calmer on his second attempt, but this time, he also returned empty-handed.

On the third attempt, he only dug for two seconds, as he could clearly feel his stamina declining. Then came the fourth attempt, and he finally felt the cold, square object beneath the soil. Brando had never seen this thing before, but at this moment, his heart rate uncontrollably quickened.

This is it.

Brando felt a certainty in his heart. For a moment, he couldn't resist the urge to dig it out, but he knew there wasn't enough time. He took a breath to calm himself, put down his sword, and ran back.

On the fifth attempt, Brando was completely calm. He ran to the base of the tree, picked up his sword, and began to pry at the square stone slab. It immediately loosened, but just then, Brando's ears twitched—wait, the sound was wrong. The patrol route of the bone racks below had changed.

Impossible! Our protagonist felt a chill in his heart. He didn't know if this was a malicious joke from fate. Madara's Skeleton soldiers lacked basic intelligence; they wouldn't adjust their patrol plans on their own unless there was a Wight's intent behind it—but a Wight wouldn't change its original intention without reason.

Unless there was external interference.

Brando's past gaming experience became incredibly clear at this moment. He couldn't help but glance towards the ranch. Had Freya and Essen been exposed? But looking down from the hillside, that direction was calm. The young man immediately dismissed this thought.

The clattering footsteps of the Skeleton soldiers behind him grew closer. Those monsters must have seen him. Brando felt his blood freeze. What should he do? Below him were six bone racks, any one of which could kill him in his current state.

Use the Wind Queen Ring? No, setting aside the fact that the noise would attract trouble, the Wind Bullet's size meant it would be good if it could hit three Skeletons. What about the rest?

Brando felt his scalp tingling more and more. He constantly reminded himself to stay calm, to think about what he usually did in such situations in the game. Right, utilize advantages. Every attribute point and skill the player had could be used to survive a desperate situation.

Just use your imagination.

He immediately thought of a possibility, but this crazy idea also frightened him. This wasn't a game, Brando. Could he afford the price? He couldn't help but ask himself, but the Skeleton soldiers were getting closer, and he had to make a choice.

He took a breath and immediately thrust his long sword into his own abdomen.

A tearing pain spread from his abdomen. The intense sensation was a thousand times more violent than in the game. Brando groaned, almost collapsing to his knees. He felt like he had gone mad. Large beads of sweat broke out on his forehead, but at the same moment, the clattering footsteps of the Skeleton soldiers stopped.

Success! The Unyielding skill had taken effect, deceiving the unintelligent bone racks.

Brando didn't dare to delay. He endured the waves of dizziness and pulled out his sword. Although he had deliberately avoided vital points, the spurting blood still splashed all over the ground. The young man didn't dare to look. He almost gasped for breath as he used his sword to pry out the square stone slab, then turned and slid down the hillside.

He had five minutes to save himself, his life hanging by a thread.

The Soul Fire activated by the Unyielding skill supported him as he stumbled his way towards the village. However, as soon as Brando entered the village, he was startled. Between the ruins of the buildings, there were patches of white bone racks everywhere—those brand-new Skeletons were the work of the Wight. Influenced by the summoned souls, they crawled out of the graveyard or tore their way out of flesh.

Under the gradually darkening sky, these white bone racks brought a sense of immense oppression. Fortunately, Brando was experienced; otherwise, he would have collapsed from fear long ago.

He calmed himself and counted them. Just the ones he could see exceeded fifty, which was not a small number. This meant that Madara's invasion strength was growing with their advance. However, the only comforting thing was that Brando knew these flimsy bone racks, compared to their similarly purified counterparts in darkness, were not on the same level in terms of combat power.

They were even slightly inferior to an ordinary adult male.

Brando moved forward as he observed. His target was the small shrine in the village, which should be directly to the north—if his memory wasn't mistaken. One of the many drawbacks of death was that the wandering undead on the street all saw him as one of their own. Even if Brando ran headfirst into these mindless creatures, they would probably just adjust their balance and continue moving.

This was a huge piece of good news.

With this advantage, he found the shrine of Kalidas in just over three minutes. However, it seemed that Madara's undead did not show much respect for this in-game god of pottery, as they had already collapsed one of the shrine's walls.

This provided Brando with much convenience. He directly felt his way inside along the wall. It was pitch black inside, so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Brando remembered that the shrine was rebuilt later, but after fumbling around inside for a while, he found that the internal environment was still very similar. Relying on his memory, he quickly found the path leading to the meditation room.

To his surprise, there was a wandering Skeleton in the meditation room, which startled Brando greatly in the darkness. Fortunately, his nerves were strong enough. However, he quickly calmed down, took a deep breath, and comforted himself that it was just a puppet without any intelligence.

But his breathing became increasingly difficult, and his vision began to blur. He had about a minute left.

Brando recalled that the entrance to the secret passage should be behind the pulpit. He fumbled around there and indeed found the square indentation. At that moment, he felt a sense of "Martha above." He almost trembled as he pressed the stone slab into it, fearing that fate would play another malicious trick on him.

Fortunately, it didn't. In the dark silence, there was first a light click, then a second one, followed by a rumbling sound from underground, and finally a rustle. He felt a breeze blow past him from behind.

Brando turned his head and immediately saw the downward passage—there was light inside. Purple luminescent crystals were embedded in the walls of the corridor. These things weren't valuable, but the light was too dim, so they weren't widely used.

He shook his head. The dizziness was almost overwhelming him. There was nothing like this in the game. For the five minutes the Unyielding skill was active in The Amber Sword, players felt no discomfort. However, once the time was up, even if you had nerves as tough as an ox, you would immediately collapse.

Brando was almost solely relying on his willpower to support himself. The desire to survive drove him to grit his teeth and move forward. As he walked, he recalled the origin of this tomb passage. The Templar knight buried here was a famous NPC named Girende or something similar. He was a local, born here. He had participated in Eluin's war of independence and lived an upright life. After his death, people buried him back in his hometown as he had requested.

It was said that this was once a forest, and later a shrine was built above it. The people of the Temple of Flames modified the Templar knight's tomb passage so that he could rest eternally in the peace of the divine kingdom. The treasure sword called Gleaming Thorn, which Brando was looking for, was also a weapon used by the knight during his lifetime. The young man had no intention of disturbing the peace of the dead, but he presumed that the knight would not want the undead to rampage wantonly on his homeland.

The young man gradually began to pant, leaning heavily against the tomb wall as he advanced another twenty or thirty meters. The end of his vision was growing brighter – this kind of persistent, soft white light must have been produced by some kind of high-level luminescence gem. Brando perked up, realizing he was getting closer to his objective.

But before he could even catch his breath, a dark mass suddenly dropped from the ceiling. Two steel claws clamped onto his shoulders, yanking him upwards with force.

Brando felt immense power penetrate his limbs, as if he were bound by iron chains, rendering him immobile. He immediately recognized the absolute disparity in strength; this power was at least four levels higher. He was terrified. His gaming experience instantly told him what this was – a Gargoyle. The guy who completed the quest before hadn't mentioned a Gargoyle in the tomb.

Gargoyles were the masterpieces of Gargoyle craftsmen wizards, a level twenty-three monster. Compared to it, even a lesser Wight would seem like a gentle baby.

Before Brando could finish his thought, he felt himself airborne. It was a disorienting sensation – he felt himself flying a long distance, then his spine slammed heavily against the cold tomb wall. All his bones groaned as if they were breaking.

However, our protagonist didn't have the leisure to worry about that at the moment. He got up, shook his head, and saw the Gargoyle had already caught up, like a phantom.

Was there still a chance?

(PS. Honestly, it's not that I don't want to erupt... I'm just a few hundred stat points short.)