Sacred Tear

Xia Tong did not panic. Instead, he lowered his stance slightly.

He carefully sensed the brass shield in his hand, assuming a strange defensive posture as he shifted his center of gravity slightly to the side.

In an instant, the surface of the brass shield was covered in a heavy silver-gray glow, as though the shield's material itself had been strengthened several times over.

Skill—Barricade Shield.

"Bang!"

A dull, thunderous crash rang out.

Xia Tong instantly felt as if he had been struck head-on by a speeding dump truck!

The immense impact traveled through the shield and into his entire body, forcing him to stagger back three steps before he barely managed to steady himself.

Even though he had angled the shield to deflect the force, his organs still churned violently, and sweetness rose in his throat.

Just as Xia Tong was about to retreat, a piercing pain suddenly shot through his left ankle!

"Fuck!"

Xia Tong looked down and saw a treacherous Frenzied Flame Rat clamped tightly around his left ankle, its sharp incisors already buried deep in his flesh!

People said that ten fingers were connected to the heart. Apparently, feet were connected to it too!

Xia Tong immediately swung his sword backward!

A flash of cold light passed by, and the grotesque rat head was cleanly severed. Foul black blood instantly stained the grass by his feet.

But that bite was more than just a flesh wound.

Xia Tong felt yellow sparks crackling inside his mind. For no reason, he became irritable, anxious, and seized by the urge to destroy everything before him.

Drawing on his gaming experience from his previous life, Xia Tong knew that his Frenzy Meter was building up.

Once it reached its critical point, the madness born from the depths of his soul would be far more terrifying than physical injury.

Meanwhile, the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat shook its stunned head. The ferocity in its eyes grew even stronger as it roared and charged Xia Tong again.

This time, it did not choose to ram him. Instead, it opened its foul, fang-filled maw and began biting wildly.

Faced with that relentless barrage of bites, the brass shield empowered by Barricade Shield displayed absolute defensive power.

Like an impenetrable wall, it held firm no matter how frantically the giant rat gnawed at it, unable to break through the flowing layer of silver light.

No matter where it tried to bite, Xia Tong's seemingly foresighted shield blocked it dead.

But that could only last for so long.

Out of the corner of his eye, Xia Tong saw another three or four Frenzied Flame Rats circling in from the flanks, waiting for a chance to ambush him.

Surrounded from both front and back, Xia Tong's movements began to grow slightly disordered.

There was no helping it. There were simply too many rats!

Back when he played Elden Ring in his previous life, he had no idea how many times he had been beaten to death by swarms of rats.

Now that he was experiencing it firsthand, those dead memories began attacking him again.

However, at that critical moment!

"Whoosh!"

A crossbow bolt tore through the air, piercing with perfect accuracy through the head of a Frenzied Flame Rat that had been about to sneak attack him.

The massive force nailed it to the ground, its limbs twitching helplessly.

It was the Godrick Soldier wielding the light crossbow!

Xia Tong had drawn nearly eighty percent of the aggro and attention, while the battle on the Spirit Ashes' side had long been nearing its end.

The reinforcements, now free to act, had arrived.

The Godrick Soldier who had originally carried the greatshield charged forward in heavy strides, raised his kite shield, and viciously slammed it into the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat's flank!

"Thud!"

The giant rat staggered from that powerful blow, its body tilting as it retreated two steps.

An opening!

When facing such a massive monster, the Fanged Imps revealed their cruel side.

Shrieking strangely, they leaped onto the giant rat's back. Their forked hatchets plunged in and out like butcher's cleavers chopping meat.

Amid their spine-chilling shrill laughter, blood sprayed everywhere. They truly looked like demons.

Seeing the giant rat restrained, Xia Tong took a deep breath and slowly raised the Lordsworn's Straight Sword in his hand.

He had already mastered this sword thoroughly.

Holding the sword one-handed, he leveled its tip.

Skill—Square Off.

The strength of his entire body seemed to twist into a single cord, gathering at one point on the sword's tip.

Xia Tong suddenly stepped forward with his right foot, making the ground tremble slightly!

A devastating heavy thrust stabbed viciously into the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat's heart!

"Pssh!"

The sound of the blade piercing flesh was crystal clear.

At the entrance to Carl's Baptism Church, another five or six Frenzied Flame Rats seemed to have heard their leader's scream and were rushing back from outside to provide support.

But they could not get through.

Kulala floated quietly at the breach, her translucent pink body now forming an uncrossable abyss.

Her tentacles were like supple yet powerful whips, lashing fiercely at the rats trying to rush inside with a howling gust of wind.

Every so often, there came a "splat," followed by a huge spray of purplish-red acidic venom.

With every burst of venom, three or four Frenzied Flame Rats fell writhing to the ground amid miserable shrieks, their flesh rotting away.

Taking advantage of that opening, Xia Tong quickly pulled out the Crimson Tear Flask from his waist and tipped back a mouthful.

The warm liquid slid down his throat.

Honestly, it had been a long time since he had drunk a healing flask in battle.

But this time, the burning pain in his left ankle was simply absurd.

As the liquid entered his stomach, a warm current instantly coursed through his body. The soreness throughout his body and the wound on his left foot healed at a visible rate, while the agitation in his mind gradually faded as well.

His movements no longer distorted, and strength surged back into his limbs.

By then, the Stray Wolves had completely dealt with the lesser rats. They swarmed forward, savagely biting the Giant Frenzied Flame Rat's limbs and pinning it firmly to the ground.

With the Spirit Ashes restraining it, Xia Tong directly discarded the cumbersome brass shield and gripped his sword with both hands instead.

He viciously delivered several more slashes to the giant rat, which was still struggling in its death throes.

"Screee—!!!"

With one final shrill and unwilling scream, the enormous monster finally crashed to the ground and stopped moving.

Specks of golden light rose into the air.

A golden Rune emerged from its corpse, gathering into an exquisite golden sigil in midair before falling to the ground.

Golden Rune [3].

At the same time, several streams of orange-red energy flowed out from the corpses of the dead Frenzied Flame Rats around them.

As though drawn by some force, they automatically flowed into the Crimson Tear Flask at Xia Tong's waist.

Xia Tong picked up the flask and shook it, only to discover in surprise that the portion he had just drunk had miraculously been replenished.

"The essence of a flask is condensed life energy, or perhaps some form of spiritual energy."

Melina's figure slowly appeared beside him. Watching the scene, she explained,

"When you end enough lives in a short period of time, the density of life energy within the space rises sharply."

"When that free-floating energy resonates with the flask, it condenses into tears once more."

Looking at the rat corpses strewn across the ground, Xia Tong could not help but laugh.

Of course he remembered the game mechanic where killing enemies replenished flasks.

But after nearly a month in this world, this was actually the first time he had experienced it personally.

Previously, either he had killed too few monsters to reach the threshold, or he had not lost enough health to need healing.

Now that he had cleared out this entire rat swarm at once, he had finally triggered this hidden mechanic.

Xia Tong sensed the Runes within his body. The twenty or thirty rats altogether had provided nearly a thousand Runes.

"Xia Tong, do you know why your kind are called Tarnished?"

Melina suddenly asked as she looked at the faintly glowing Golden Rune [3] in Xia Tong's hand.

Without waiting for Xia Tong to answer, she continued on her own,

"So-called tarnishing does not refer to the skin, nor does it refer to one's will."

"It refers to the disappearance of the golden light in one's eyes."

"At the height of the Erdtree Dynasty, the pupils of humans blessed by the Greater Will all shimmered with brilliant golden radiance."

"And Golden Runes are, in essence, condensed blessings."

Melina pointed at the sigil.

"The higher the grade of a Golden Rune, the clearer the patterns on its surface become, and the more they resemble a human pupil."

"If you ever have the chance to see the legendary Lord's Rune, you will find that looking at it is like staring directly into the eyes of a god."

As he rubbed the warm Golden Rune [3] in his hand, a strange glint passed through Xia Tong's eyes.

Back when he played the game in his previous life, he had accumulated several Lord's Runes in his inventory.

And not just Lord's Runes. He had more Hero's Runes and Numen's Runes than he could count.

Who was he looking down on?

Xia Tong secretly felt rather pleased with himself!

Setting those thoughts aside, he cleaned up the remaining scattered Frenzied Flame Rats.

Only then did Xia Tong let out a long breath. This battle was finally over.

Apart from his own injury, the other Spirit Ashes were basically unharmed. Only one of the Stray Wolves had been bitten, but it was nothing serious.

Xia Tong slowly walked deeper into the church.

There stood the damaged statue of Queen Marika.

The statue spread its broken arms, as though embracing this shattered world. It was compassionate and silent.

At the statue's feet was a reassuring warmth, utterly at odds with the brutal, bloody atmosphere of the battle moments ago.

Xia Tong lowered his head and looked at the stone basin beside the statue's feet.

Within the murky pooled water, a golden-red liquid crystal the size of a fingernail floated quietly.

It was clear and translucent, like a teardrop of blood shed by the divine statue.

"This should be the Sacred Tear, right?"