Girende's Tomb

Once Freya and Essen had completely disappeared from sight, Brando calmed down as well. Unlike infiltrating the ranch from the other direction, where he could use the colorful woods for cover, getting from here to the forest below meant exposing himself to the gaze of an entire squad of Skeleton Soldiers.

Taking risks was unavoidable, but there was no need to bear unnecessary ones. He decided to wait until it grew darker before acting. Although undead could see life energy directly, their search range was still limited at night.

But Brando was not idle. He observed the patrol patterns of the Bone Frames below. Soon, he found a gap in their patrols. Between the moment these two scattered squads crossed paths, he could get an interval of about ten seconds.

He studied the terrain. There was a distance of twenty meters from here to the forest below. Although he had two levels of Agility, his Attributes could not be used at full strength while he was weakened. Completing a forty-meter round trip and digging out the key buried beneath a tree within ten seconds seemed like an impossible challenge.

He decided to find another way.

The sky soon darkened.

It is time to act. He told himself this inwardly. His whole body blended into the dim surroundings, though his heart was pounding nervously.

This was playing a game with his life on the line. What game's death penalty could be more thrilling than this?

Holding his breath, he stared below and counted silently to fourteen—the exact time it took for two pairs of Bone Frames to cross paths. Then he first threw the sword in his hand in that direction. This was the first step.

The sword traveled twenty meters and landed in the soft fallen leaves with a faint rustle. Brando waited in terror for a long while. Only when the patrol passed by for the second time did he confirm that everything was fine and let out a sigh of relief.

Next came the crucial part of the plan. Brando counted silently for the second time. When the two squads of Bone Frames crossed paths for the third time, he took a deep breath and dashed out. His mind was almost completely blank. He could neither think nor worry about anything. He had only one goal—speed. Go faster.

Three seconds.

Brando arrived and let out a long breath. He crouched down, brushed aside the fallen leaves, seized his sword, and began digging. His efficiency was terribly slow, far beyond his expectations. He counted inwardly as he dug: one, two, three.

Six seconds.

He had left himself an extra second, then dropped the sword and ran back. The scenery around him blurred as he sped along. He dove into the bushes and stopped, feeling as though his heart were about to cease beating.

The Skeleton Soldiers crossed paths for the fourth time without noticing him. Brando took a deep breath. The excitement had left his hands and feet somewhat weak, but the surge of adrenaline also made him intensely exhilarated.

Then he withdrew and continued waiting for the second round. Brando was much calmer during his second sortie, but he returned empty-handed again.

On the third attempt, he dug for only two seconds because he could clearly feel his strength declining. Then came the fourth attempt. At last, he touched the cold, square foreign object beneath the soil. Brando had never seen this thing before, but at that moment, his heartbeat still accelerated uncontrollably.

This was it.

Brando felt certain. For a moment, he desperately wanted to dig the thing out, but he knew there was not enough time. He took a breath to calm himself, lowered his sword, and ran back.

On the fifth attempt, Brando was completely calm. He ran to the tree, picked up his sword, and began prying at the square stone slab. It immediately loosened, but at that moment Brando's ears twitched. Wait. That sound is wrong. The Bone Frames below have changed their patrol route.

Impossible! Our protagonist felt a chill in his heart. He did not know whether the heavens were playing a malicious joke on him. Madara's Skeleton Soldiers lacked even basic intelligence. They could not adjust their patrol plans on their own unless a Lich had instructed them—but a Lich would not change its original intentions for no reason.

Unless an outside force had invaded.

Brando's past gaming experience became crystal clear at that moment. He could not help glancing toward the ranch. Could Freya and Essen have been exposed? But when he looked down from the hillside, everything in that direction was peaceful. The young man immediately discarded the thought.

The clacking footsteps of the Skeleton Soldiers behind him drew nearer. The monsters must have seen him. Brando felt his blood run cold. What was he supposed to do? There were six Bone Frames below, and any one of them could kill him in his current state.

Use the Wind Queen Ring? No. Leaving aside the fact that the noise would be too loud and attract trouble, Wind Bullet's size meant that hitting three Skeleton Soldiers would already be impressive. What would he do about the rest?

Brando's scalp grew increasingly numb. He kept reminding himself to stay calm and think about what he usually did in such situations in the game. Right—use his advantages. Every Attribute point and skill a player possessed could be used to survive a desperate situation.

All he needed was imagination.

He immediately thought of a possibility, but the crazy idea frightened him as well. This is not a game, Brando. Can you afford that price? He could not help asking himself this, but the Skeleton Soldiers were getting closer and closer. He had to make a choice.

He took a breath, then swung his sword horizontally and stabbed it into his lower abdomen.

Tearing pain erupted from his stomach. The sensation was ten thousand times more intense than it had been in the game. Brando groaned and nearly collapsed to his knees. He felt that he had gone completely mad. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead, but at the same time, the clacking footsteps of the Skeleton Soldiers stopped.

It had worked. The Unyielding skill had taken effect and deceived those unintelligent Bone Frames.

Brando did not dare delay. He endured wave after wave of dizziness and pulled out the sword. Although he had deliberately avoided his vital organs, blood still sprayed across the ground. The young man did not even dare look. Almost struggling to breathe, he used the sword to pry out the square stone slab, then turned and slid all the way down the hillside.

He had five minutes to save himself. His life hung by a thread.

The Soul Fire activated by the Unyielding skill supported him as he stumbled toward the village. But just as Brando felt his way into the village, he was startled. Between the ruins of the buildings were patches of snow-white Bone Frames everywhere. Those newly created Skeleton Soldiers were the Lich's handiwork. Affected by soul summoning, they had crawled out of the graveyards—or torn through their flesh to emerge.

Under the gradually darkening sky, the masses of white Bone Frames created an oppressive atmosphere. Fortunately, Brando had seen and experienced much; otherwise, he would have collapsed in terror long ago.

He calmed himself and counted them. There were more than fifty in sight alone. That was no small number. It meant that Madara's invading forces were growing stronger as they advanced. The only reassuring thing was that Brando knew these frail Bone Frames were on an entirely different level from their kin refined through darkness.

They were even slightly weaker than an ordinary adult man.

Brando advanced while observing his surroundings. His destination was the village's small shrine, which should have been due north—if his memory had not become confused. Among the many disadvantages death brought, there was at least one benefit: the undead roaming the streets regarded him as one of their own. Even if Brando collided head-on with these brainless creatures, they would probably do no more than adjust their balance before continuing on.

This was tremendously good news.

Relying on this advantage, he found the shrine of Kalidas in just over three minutes. However, it seemed Madara's undead did not hold the God of Pottery from the game in very high regard, because they had already collapsed one wall of the shrine.

This provided Brando with considerable convenience. He directly followed the wall inside. It was pitch-black, so dark that he could not see his hand before his face. Brando remembered that this shrine had later been rebuilt, but after feeling his way around for a while, he found that the interior was still more or less the same. Relying on his memory, he quickly found the path leading to the meditation room.

To his surprise, there was a wandering Skeleton Soldier in the meditation room. It gave Brando a huge fright in the darkness, but fortunately, his nerves were strong enough. He quickly calmed down and took several deep breaths, comforting himself that it was merely a puppet without any intelligence.

But breathing was becoming increasingly difficult, and his vision had begun to blur. He had about one minute left.

Brando recalled that the entrance to the secret passage should be behind the lectern. He felt around there and, sure enough, found the square recess. At that moment, he truly felt like saying, Martha above. Trembling, he pressed the stone slab into place, fearing that the heavens would play another malicious joke on him.

Fortunately, they did not. In the pitch-black silence, there was first a soft click, then a second. Next came a rumbling from underground, and finally a clatter. He felt a faint breeze brush across his back.

Brando turned around and immediately saw the descending passage to the tomb. There was light inside. Purple, faintly glowing crystals were embedded in the walls of the passage. They were not valuable, but the light they gave off was too dim, so they were not widely used.

He shook his head. The dizziness was nearly knocking him down. The game had not included this part. In The Amber Sword, players would not feel any discomfort during the five minutes that the Unyielding skill remained active. But once the time was up, even someone with nerves as tough as a bull's would collapse immediately.

Brando was barely holding himself up through sheer willpower. His desire to survive drove him forward through gritted teeth. As he walked, he recalled the origin of this tomb passage. The Templar Knight buried here was a famous NPC. His name was Girende, or something like that. He was a local born here, had participated in Eluin's War of Independence, and had lived an upright life. After his death, the people had buried him in his homeland according to his wishes.

It was said that this place had once been a forest. Later, a shrine was built above it, and 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 sword Brando was searching for, Gleaming Thorn, had also been the weapon used by that knight during his lifetime. The young man had never intended to disturb the dead, but surely the knight would not wish to see those undead rampaging freely across his homeland.

The young man gradually began to pant. He laboriously supported himself against the wall of the tomb passage and advanced another twenty or thirty meters. The end of his field of vision gradually brightened. Such a steady, gentle white light must have been produced by some high-grade faintly glowing gem. Brando steeled himself, realizing that he was close to his goal.

But before he had time to relax, a mass of Black Shadow suddenly dropped from the ceiling. Two steel claws clamped onto his shoulders and abruptly hoisted him upward.

Brando felt tremendous force course through his limbs. It was as though iron chains had wrapped around him, leaving him unable to move. He immediately realized that this was an absolute difference in strength. The creature had at least four levels of Energy Level. He was horrified. His gaming experience instantly told him what it was—a gargoyle. The person who had completed the quest back then had never mentioned that there was a gargoyle in the tomb passage.

Gargoyles were the masterpieces of Artificer Wizards. They were level-twenty-three monsters. Compared to one, even a lesser Lich would become a gentle little baby.

Before Brando could finish thinking, he felt himself rise into the air. It was like being lost among the clouds and mist. He felt himself fly across a long distance, then his back slammed heavily into the cold tomb wall. Every bone in his body groaned, as though they had cracked one after another.

But our protagonist had no time to worry about that. He climbed to his feet and shook his head, only to see the gargoyle already pursuing him like a ghostly shadow.

Was there still a chance?

(PS: Really, it's not that I don't want to unleash more chapters... I'm just a few hundred index points short.)