Infiltration

The Dark Dragon was the mortal enemy of the Four Saints in the Holy War. It had an especially deep grudge with Gilt, King of Flames, who had lost his kingdom because of it. Although Brando was also puzzled by why the witch Babasha had said that, he couldn't agree this time. Otherwise, one careless move would put him on the opposite side of the entire world of light. "The Dark Dragon Odin? I know that you witches regard him as the guide of dark fate, but that has nothing to do with me."

He looked at Babasha, only to see that the old witch was still kneeling on the ground in terror, her whole body trembling like a sieve. Brando froze for a moment before realizing that he had gone too far. He had forgotten that the people of this world held the Deities and beings of immense power in the highest regard. Even when standing opposed to them, they would never casually show disrespect in words.

As a player, he couldn't accept all of that. The other half came from Brando's influence. Thus, whenever he mentioned these names, an air of equality naturally surfaced in his expression.

That equality meant nothing to him, but in Charles and Babasha's eyes, it was an enormous insult. Yet the situation was somewhat different now—the old witch Babasha was mired in deep panic, while Charles had yet to recover from his earlier worship. As a result, that natural attitude only gave rise to even more doubts in their minds.

Brando realized this as well. He shook his head. "Forget it. Think whatever you want. As long as you don't get in my way, that's enough. And you're not allowed to go anywhere until sunrise."

Babasha pressed her forehead to the ground and, as expected, didn't dare move at all.

Brando then gestured to the dazed Charles, telling him there was a hidden door beneath the table and asking him to open it. The young man moved the table aside skeptically, lifted the carpet, and pressed down with his hand. Sure enough, there was only a thin layer beneath it. By now, Charles was no longer surprised by his lord's foresight. He could only attribute it to the fact that there were still some things in this world whose results could not be sought through "human effort."

He found the handle nearby and pulled hard. A steep, pitch-black staircase was revealed below.

"My lord, are we going in now?" he asked.

"Of course. What else would you do?"

"Oh? In a place as vast as Ridenburg, is there nowhere else we can level up a little?"

"Do you think magic items are cabbages growing in the fields, ready for you to pick?"

"Cabbages?"

"I mean lettuce. You know what that is, right?" Brando slapped his forehead, realizing that he had misspoken again. Vonder and his world were still somewhat different.

"Of course. But when it comes from your mouth, my lord, it becomes extraordinarily different. Cabbage—such a poetic and picturesque word. Its root must surely come from the ancient language. Look, even the pronunciation is quite similar."

Brando couldn't help laughing. This fellow. In fact, he knew that there were at least two more places in Ridenburg where he could obtain secret side quests and benefits—the underground church and the famous Tower of Wind. However, both places had level restrictions similar to those of a gatekeeper. And unlike Babasha, they were NPCs he couldn't outsmart. After considering the matter repeatedly, he could only give up.

His greatest wish now was to temper his strength while collecting the treasures he knew about. Unfortunately, he was simply too short on time. His current top priority was to become a survivor, not a statistic. Once the First Black Rose War ended, he would have plenty of time to carry out his plans before the Eluin Civil War. With experience and the finest equipment piled onto him, he felt that becoming one of Vonder's supreme powers might not be impossible.

Brando had never believed that the strong didn't need equipment. As a player, he considered the system jointly built from Attributes, equipment, and techniques indispensable.

He casually picked up a box nearby and swept all the Elemental Crystals inside into his belt pouch: twelve Wind Elements, one Fire Element, and only two or three deep-blue Water Elements. These Elemental Crystals, also called Elemental Crystals, were the condensations of free elements in the material world. They should have been irregular prismatic crystals, but because they needed to be artificially polished into equal, pointed pillars, each one contained exactly 1 unit of energy.

After looting Babasha's collection, the two of them entered the passageway, taking Babasha's candles along with them like the most professional bandits. A witch's candle was also a magic item. It could teleport a person to any place reachable by light. This was a life-saving secret known only among witches—though Brando knew it as well.

The secret passage beneath Yusong Castle was about 1.5 kilometers long, and most of it was so narrow that only one person could pass through at a time. The slightly wider sections housed three human-sized Poisonous Spiders. Wizards often did things like this, raising servant beasts to act as guards. Babasha had clearly placed them here to curry favor with Duke Golan-Elson, but while they might scare ordinary people, to Brando they were simply three creatures worth 9 experience in total.

The other end of the passage led behind a row of wine racks in Yusong Castle's cellar. Since it was a secret escape route, naturally it couldn't be sealed too tightly. After feeling around the wall for a moment, Brando found the mechanism that shifted the wine rack aside along the iron rails installed beneath it.

When the two emerged from the passage, they both let out long breaths. No matter how good the ventilation was, the smell of dust that had accumulated over the years in such a narrow tunnel was unbearable to ordinary people. After walking for so long, Charles almost felt that a thick layer of dust had settled over his lungs.

"We're already a little past the fifteen-minute mark, my lord." The moment they left the passage, he took a silver pocket watch from his robes and checked it before answering.

"It's fine."

"Hm?"

"I originally set aside time to visit Duke Golan-Elson's treasury, but it seems we'll have to give that up. Besides, a noble's collection in a villa is usually nothing more than art and jewelry. It wouldn't be much use."

"My lord is truly decisive. Not everyone can remain unmoved in the face of treasure."

"No, you've misunderstood, Charles. I mean that taking two things along the way will be enough. I'll tell you later which ones are genuine."

"..."

Charles was astonished by his lord's calm greed. He didn't know that this bandit-like quality in Brando didn't come from his inherent personality, but from the subconscious behavior of being a player.

The two walked all the way up the stairs, then stopped speaking at the same time. Brando extinguished the candle and handed it to the retainer behind him. At the same time, he placed a hand on the cellar door leading outside and activated Power Burst. With a sharp crack, the latch shattered.

He immediately pushed the door open. Two guards looked over in astonishment, but all they saw was Brando already drawing his longsword with his other hand. The blade flashed forward in a beautiful silver arc. The guards had only just completed half the motion of drawing their swords when their weapons were knocked flying, scabbards and all, with a loud clang.

They jumped in fright and, realizing that the newcomers meant trouble, tried to flee. But how could Brando let them go? He chased them down without hesitation and ended both their lives with a sword strike each from behind.

This was the first time Brando had killed someone.

When he killed them, he had barely thought about anything. It wasn't even that his mind had gone blank. He felt that he had been calmer than usual at that moment. If the two men didn't die, he and Charles would certainly face certain death. This was a fight to the death, and he hadn't even considered what would happen to Roman or Freya. The instinct to survive alone had been enough to make him act.

Yet after killing them, Brando instead felt a tremendous sense of suffocation. He struggled to steady his breathing, gripping his longsword tightly as he stood motionless. Blood dripped from the blade onto the flagstones, but he showed no reaction at all.

In that moment, he thought of many things. Countless chaotic thoughts burrowed into his mind, instead leaving his thoughts in a vacuum. He was almost dazed for a moment—at first, he had been looking for an excuse, but afterward, he was simply trying to comfort himself and ease his guilt.

"My lord?" Charles noticed that something was wrong.

Brando raised a hand to show that he was fine. He had originally planned to drag the two bodies back into the cellar and hide them, but now he no longer felt like it. Being able not to look at them was already his limit. It wasn't that he was afraid of killing people; he simply couldn't accept the shock all at once.

What reassured him slightly was that killing people didn't grant experience. He didn't know why that comforted him. He should have been desperate for experience, but when Brando imagined gaining experience from killing people, he felt that he might not have been able to accept it.

After thinking about it, he decided that, first and foremost, he was still a human being. He couldn't accept profiting from the lives of his own kind.

"We'll split up now." Brando drew a breath and answered.

"Just give the order."

"I'll kill my way up and deal with that count. You go around to the other side and ring the alarm bell." As he spoke, Brando counted from one to a hundred in his mind. By the time he reached thirty, he had finally regained his composure.

"Ring the alarm bell?"

"Have you forgotten what I told you? We're attacking from the front. The more commotion, the better."

"Then will we return the way we came and escape through the secret passage?"

"No. We have to fight our way out."

Charles was startled. "Why?"

"The guest rooms are on the uppermost floors of the castle. We'll only have time to escape from the top of the tower. But if the White Mane Legion brought archers with them, you and I will have to pray for Lady Martha's protection."

Charles nodded after hearing this and turned to leave. He wouldn't ask which direction the alarm bell was in. If he couldn't even handle the small matter of taking a prisoner for questioning, he had no business being a retainer. Knights and their retainers were supposed to possess basic combat skills.

However, Brando called out to him first. "Wait. Why are you in such a hurry?"

"What is it, my lord? Do you have another order?"

"Of course. Go up from here, turn left at the top of the stairs, and there's a corridor at the end. Everything along the way is genuine. If you see anything easy to carry and easy to sell, don't hold back."

"..."

Charles stared at him for a long while before finally saying, "I take back what I said earlier, my lord."

"Which part?"

"The first part. Not everyone can remain unmoved in the face of treasure. It should be changed to: in truth, no one can remain indifferent in the face of treasure."

"No, you don't understand. Look, Charles, I'll have to support Little Roman and her aunt from now on. That's a man's duty. Earning a living and supporting a family isn't easy—I have my reasons."

"You should save that speech for Duke Golan-Elson, my lord. Don't worry, I learned appraisal in Buga. I'll help you pick out the most valuable pieces."

Brando froze for a moment, then smiled wickedly.

(PS: I had fried rice for dinner and instant noodles for a late-night snack. But why did I feel a little nauseous after eating the noodles?)