With the young, heroic adventurer before her, Elena felt safer than ever before. He swept through the demons that had once taken her and her sisters tremendous effort to escape as easily as chopping vegetables. He blocked every monster, making it hard for any of them to get near her. His broad back was like an insurmountable city wall, shielding her from every danger...
That overturned Elena's understanding of the relationship between adventurers and mercenaries. In everything she had heard before, including from leader Kashya, mercenaries were merely tools for adventurers to use. Many despicable adventurers used the pitiful mercenaries to draw monsters and act as meat shields, leaving the female mercenaries of the [Rogue Encampment] to suffer heavy casualties and miserable fates.
But to keep the camp going and protect the weak who could not fight, the female Rogues had to accept employment from those adventurers, giving and sacrificing in silence.
Clearly, however, the young barbarian adventurer before her was not like that.
Elena did not know whether the stories circulating in the camp were wrong, or whether she had simply been lucky enough to meet a kind and upright adventurer.
Maybe it's because of time. After sixty years of isolation, the many adventurers from before have all disappeared. This place is like a forgotten land, and he was the first adventurer to come to the [Rogue Encampment] in sixty years... Everything has changed.
Elena made excuses for herself.
Seeing the beautiful mercenary's somewhat flustered expression, Sun Fei merely laughed. Without another word, he turned and stepped into the portal.
Her mind full of thoughts, Elena hurried after him.
It took Sun Fei less than ten minutes to return from the [Dark Wood] to the [Stony Field].
They were so fast because, while asking Angela to translate the Scroll of the Tree of Inifuss, he had also bought two [Stamina Potions]. He drank one himself and had Elena drink the other. Their unlimited stamina let them travel at great speed, and since the monsters on the way back had already been cleared out, there was nothing to obstruct them. They made the entire journey without incident.
Soon, they arrived before the five stone pillars.
Sun Fei took out the scroll and carefully checked the translated sequence, then cautiously touched the five pillars one by one in the required order.
At once, the sky and earth darkened, and the sun and moon lost their light.
A fierce wind suddenly rose from the ground, sweeping up countless dead leaves as though the end of the world had arrived. Just then, beams of blue light burst from the five pillars and gradually merged. Slowly, a massive blood-red portal appeared in the very center of the pillars. It looked like a mass of congealed blood, with yellow light flickering around it.
This was the portal to the town of Tristram, where the sleazy old man Cain was trapped.
Sun Fei stood outside the pillars, marveling. He thought the "climax" of these five showy pillars was truly astonishing to behold, making such an enormous commotion.
The beautiful mercenary Elena also looked astonished.
In the less than two hours she had spent following Sun Fei, everything she had seen was far more wonderful and miraculous than all she had experienced in her previous twenty years of life combined.
"Once we enter this portal, we'll run into lots of demons. Be careful, stay close to me and behind me, and don't charge too far ahead..." Sun Fei turned to instruct Elena. Still worried, he added, "Remember, if things get dangerous, hurry back out through the portal. Don't try to push yourself."
According to the plot of Diablo 2, Tristram had already been destroyed by the awakened Diablo and turned into a paradise for demons and the undead. Moreover, the old paladin Griswold of former days had fallen and become a terrifying demon, the boss monster here. Rescuing Cain would take some effort. Sun Fei was confident he could wear down all the monsters bit by bit, because he had more than a dozen [Minor Healing Potions] in his inventory, enough to see him through the battle.
But if things turned critical, he might not be able to protect Elena. If the monsters and demons got close to the magic archer, she would definitely be torn to pieces, so Sun Fei gave her a few extra warnings.
With that, Sun Fei stepped into the portal and vanished.
Elena watched Sun Fei's retreating figure disappear, warmth filling her heart.
Although there had been nothing special about Sun Fei's tone, the beautiful mercenary could feel his concern for her-the kind of concern one showed family.
Someone worth giving myself for.
She hesitated briefly, then her expression turned resolute, as though she had made a decision. With her longbow in hand, she stepped into the blood-red portal.
Chambord City.
The sun had nearly reached the middle of the sky.
The mysterious black-clad enemy remained in position without moving. Their formations of armored soldiers occupied the narrow stone bridge over the Zuli River like a black torrent, resembling a great black serpent coiled there, flicking its scarlet tongue as it patiently waited for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow.
An unbearable, terrifying pressure continued to spread.
Like something tangible, it surged toward Chambord City's walls in wave after wave.
The atmosphere burned in the deathly silence, broken only by the rushing roar of the river.
Atop Chambord City's walls, the soldiers of the king's guard and some civilians were drenched in sweat under the sun. Their blood-boiling morale from a few hours earlier had fallen to a dangerous level. Although Brook had arranged rotations, the invisible pressure had worn everyone to exhaustion.
The enemy still had not attacked.
The silence was like an invisible, dull knife, quietly wearing away at the soldiers' courage.
As time passed, Brook's heart slowly sank.
The white-haired powerhouse Pierce paced restlessly in front of the stone room in the ruined tower on the wall, the [King's Sword] on his back.
Everyone's gaze passed over the damaged stone wall and settled on the young man sitting with his eyes closed in thought.
That was the miraculously recovered King Alexander.
If anyone still held a sliver of hope for Chambord City's future at this perilous time, it was this young man who had given it to them.
At some point, even Frank Lampard, Chambord City's greatest warrior, could no longer make them feel safe. Yet this once-idiotic king had miraculously stopped their fear-filled hearts from trembling.
Tristram.
Sun Fei had barely emerged from the portal when a group of skeletons rushed at him, swinging bone blades and hacking wildly at his head.
"Damn, there are so many? That's brutal!"
Sun Fei cursed under his breath and swung the two-handed greataxe in a sweep of tremendous force. Cold light flashed, and the three skeletons in front were chopped in half. They fell with a clatter, scattering broken bones across the ground.
The real challenge was still to come.
The skeleton soldiers following close behind surrounded him in an endless tide. Behind them came some slightly slower zombies, and farther back were [Fallen], shouting loud provocations. In Tristram, many monsters that could be found in the wilderness had mutated, greatly increasing their attack and defense.
Wherever Sun Fei's greataxe passed, monsters fell howling.
But that speed still wasn't enough. In the blink of an eye, he had already taken several hits, and his health began dropping rapidly. Frightened out of his wits, Sun Fei let out a roar and used the barbarian skill [Howl], scaring the monsters around him into scattering. Only then did he have a chance to take out a [Healing Potion] and gulp it down.
The effect of [Howl] soon wore off, and the monsters charged again.
Just then, suddenly-
Swish, swish, swish-!
Ice arrows flew like rain.
The beautiful mercenary Elena had finally emerged from the portal. Her longbow twanged repeatedly, sending out deadly arrows that immediately killed five or six monsters.
"Keep your distance! Don't charge in! Stay behind me!"
With a shout, Sun Fei gripped his two-handed greataxe and charged forward again, blocking the tide of monsters. He used [Howl] once more, then chased after the fleeing monsters, hacking at them wildly. When the effect of [Howl] wore off, Sun Fei hurriedly used it again, repeating the process.
Finally, after more than ten minutes, this wave of low-level monsters was wiped out.
Tristram was now a ruin, its former prosperity gone. The ground was cracked, houses had collapsed, hellfire burned everywhere, and black smoke hung over the barren earth. All the town's original villagers had now been killed or possessed by demons from hell, becoming new bloodthirsty monsters and undead that wandered everywhere. Whenever they saw a living person, they would charge with a roar.
Tristram's boss monster was the fallen old paladin Griswold.
He was an extremely powerful foe and difficult to deal with.
But he generally hid among the collapsed ruins, guarding the sleazy old man Cain, who was suspended in a cage. He would not immediately rush out to fight you to the death, which gave Sun Fei time to prepare.
Sun Fei walked slowly ahead, trying not to alert the big boss.
Finally, at a corner of the village, Sun Fei and Elena encountered a large number of Skeleton Archers.
In the computer game from his previous life, these were a rather sneaky bunch of skeletons. Unlike the stupid skeleton monsters from before that brandished swords and only knew how to charge, these dozen or so fellows had a little intelligence. They would shamelessly hide far away and shoot at you, sending arrows down like rain. They also knew how to launch sneak attacks, hiding around corners to shoot, making them impossible to guard against.
Sun Fei motioned for Elena to retreat, then switched to his secondary equipment.
A golden light flashed.
The [Storm Piercer Dagger] and [Soul Emblem Buckler] appeared in Sun Fei's hands. He darted out, stabbed his blade into the head of a skeleton sneakily hiding around a corner and preparing to shoot, then gave it a vicious twist.
I really can't write any faster.
There are established formulas for soccer stories, so they're easy to write, but fantasy is entirely set in an invented world, and Daozi has to work out the plot. I'm under so much pressure that I've been losing sleep.
My stockpile of chapters has run out, so updates are getting later and later.
Please bear with me, brothers.