The Amber Sword

Chapter 232 – The city of trees (3)

“My apologies, I lost myself there……”

Medissa drew a breath and composed herself with a hand on her chest and continued her words:

“The term Arcadian Grade is used in the War of the Holy Saints, and it’s used to describe the strength of the different fiefs. Trentheim is an unfounded Arcadian Grade land. The Mana in the air is typically scattered, but with such close proximity to the Wilderness, it is pulled in and turned into Chaos energy, which gives rise to corrupted creatures. Mana Pools can be constructed in places of abundant Mana. There are natural Mana Pools as well, but they are actually lairs and dens of monsters.”

“So that’s how monsters are formed!” Romaine tapped her lips with an inquisitive finger: “But what do these Mana Pools have to do with the strength of a fief? Strange…… Isn’t it dangerous to have monsters appearing in the city because you have too many Mana Pools, right?”

Medissa laughed and explained:

“Be it the humans, Elves, or other races, they had fought in the past to vie for such places abundant with Mana. These creatures raised in the city by sentient races, and they are loyal to them. In addition, Mana Pools are useful for cultivating Mana Crystals. One can even build a Mage Tower on top of such a place. These structures are used to empower the fiefs’ lords. Extremely powerful cities that have mature Mana Pools are qualified to be called as Elysian Strongholds.

The concept of a Magic City is different from the definition of a territory. Many older races respect the lords ruling over the Magic cities. A human noble like Graudin receives the fear and reluctant respect of the ordinary citizens in Aouine, but in the eyes of the other races, this man is worthless.

But if there’s even just one Mana Pool in a city, then it would at least mean that the lord has some repute of power, though I should remind you that the past is different from the current customs.”

Her eyes went over to Brendel.

Even though the youth remained relatively unknown, his current position had surpassed Graudin by far in her era.

“Then how big must the city be to have a natural Mana Pool?” Romaine asked, keen to know a trivia question.

“Roughly……” The Silver Elf girl thought for a while: “Using the scale of Aouine’s system, the city would be the size of a baron’s entire fiefdom.”

Scarlett was listening in with rapt attention. It was the knowledge that mercenaries and typical nobles did not even know, especially at the rural borders of Aouine. She suddenly blurted out a question:

“Does Firburh have a Mana Pool?”

“Ah, you’re right!” Romaine’s eyes suddenly shone with understanding. She was always good with things that were not relevant to her: “So that was why Ciel acted mysteriously for a period of time. I heard from the mercenaries that he was frequenting Schafflund for a while, muttering to himself about building a tower. So he was trying to find a place where Mana gathers?”

“Your little head is moving really quickly, huh,” Brendel scoffed with slight sarcasm.

“I’m always that good, it’s Brendel who’s too stupid, only realizing— ouch!” Romaine hugged her head hurriedly.

Before her nose could point towards the sky, Brendel flicked her forehead once. He did not understand why this self-proclaimed noble, elegant, great merchant would always put her intelligence in such nonsensical directions.

“It’s true, Tamar and Amandina calculated that there’s a Mana point near Schafflund,” Brendel said.

“To think that Lady Amandina also has the talent of reading the stars,” Medissa praised from the bottom of her heart.

The youth did not expect it either. Amandina had already mentioned this fact before he entered the Dark Forest, but at that time there was not even enough Mana Crystals to forge the White Lion Armor, let alone building an entire Mage Tower.

“Does a Mage Tower look like the ones in the stories, dumb Brendel? What is it used for, is it a wizard’s home, a place where Ciel can stay in?” Romaine clutched her head as she dodged Brendel’s armed fingers.

A normal person would find it impossible to answer this question. Even Medissa did not know what was inside a Mage Tower, but Felaern was an Elementalist. She bowed slightly and answered the question as though she was reciting from a textbook.

“A Mage Tower is not only the home of a wizard, Miss Romaine. The highest floor of the Mage Tower is fitted with a Resonating Crystal that’s cut from a gigantic Mana Crystal. It increases the power and distance of many area-of-effect spells— extending their range to several miles, even reaching ten-odd miles. The wizards are able to form a stout defense through this crystal and defeat their enemies from a great distance.

There are crystal balls placed within the tower to observe the surroundings. A low-grade Mage Tower is enough to observe the entire region around Firburh, and it’s one of the most important defensive structure of the city. In addition, there’s also an Alchemist laboratory and a public Mana Supply Storage.”

“Mana Supply Storage?”

“Magic apprentices improve and train by casting spells, but they would have to rest for long periods of time after casting a few spells. A Mana Supply Storage greatly reduces the amount of time required for them to recover, which in turn reduces the time to train these apprentices, Miss Romaine.”

“Please stop addressing me so politely with such a term, Felaern, it feels terrifying,” Romaine patted her chest and said with a little trepidation: “In any case I understand. The Mage Tower is a very important place, right?”

Both Brendel and Felaern nodded solemnly.

There were no mistakes in her explanation. Training a farmer into a passable soldier took three weeks in the game, but training a passable apprentice took nearly a year. Having a Mage Tower reduced the time by a factor of ten, and it took slightly more than a month to train an apprentice.

The apprentice could then continue to train as an Elementalist or Wizard. Basic spells included Magic Arrow and Mana Shield, spells from the First Circle. Having a group of them casting them together had considerable firepower.

There were even subtypes of what an apprentice could choose to go into. An Anti-magic Swordsman, or an Illusion Knight, though these particular professions required the prerequisite basic training before they could be attained.

Building a Mage Tower required a Mana Pool, so the latter was an important existence for a fief.

Once the purity of the Mana in the Mage Tower reached a certain standard, there was the possibility of creating advanced structures.

Training Tree Elves’ Pegasi Knights required a Pegasus Nest and Celestial Gate, and these two structures required a Mage Tower.

“It is typical that a naturally occurring Mana Pool can be found in Trentheim when one considers its size, but Valhalla has three…… It’s a little incredulous. It’s as though this place is a Mana Plains,” Medissa said.

[So you also use the term Mana Plains?]

Brendel turned his head towards Medissa who continued speaking:

“Elysian Strongholds that have at least ten Mana Pools are qualified to be called Mana Domains. There are legendary places in the Wilderness that have many natural Mana Pools, and we recognize this plot of land as a Mana Domain even if there are less than ten Mana Pools, and the Mana Plains is one of them.”

“Mana Plains is also called as the ‘Field of four-leaf clovers’. This plot of land has a high concentration of Earth Mana, and the magic reagents that grow in this place would mature faster than any ordinary plot of lands that have Earth Mana,” Brendel said.

“Yes, for example, Marsha’s Sentinel is a land that’s considerably unique with Earth Mana. The Dark Forest, the Fire Plains, and Consecrated Conflict, are plots of lands that I have only heard and not seen. My Lord’s planted World Tree has a natural type of Earth Mana that’s thicker than any of those I have seen before. These three Mana Pools…… Even our hometown of us Silver Elves, the Silver Valley, does not have such a degree of Mana concentration.

I read that the fortress in the ancient fables were all built on divine plots of lands. Our ancestors built them as the last bastion against the Twilight Dragon. But all of them are lacking in comparison to Valhalla. I don’t know why the original plot of land in the Loop of Trade Winds still hold so much power after all this time, but the World Tree on it must be part of the reason. If I have to name this plot of land, I’ll call it ‘Realm of the Gods’……”

[Halran Gaia, the Golden Apple, Valhalla. The legendary items in fables are appearing one by one at his side. If this was in the past when I was still alive, I might have attributed to luck and coincidence, but now I wonder if this is destiny telling me to join his side.]

Medissa finished her monologue, suddenly a little expectant of the future.

“Realm of the Gods. This name is indeed a fine one,” Romaine expressed her acknowledgment.

Scarlett nodded too. She felt that the things that her lord had were worthy of such names. Brendel would have blushed if he knew what Scarlett was thinking.

But the youth was actually quite surprised at finding three Mana Pools in the new Valhalla. It was indeed a windfall.

A typical gamer would have to make a tough decision. The three essential magic structures that a tier 1 town:

Mage Tower, Mana Crystal Pond, and a Magic Forge. Only one of them could be chosen.

But Brendel did not have such a worry. Firburh already had a place where natural Mana gathered, and now he had three more. He originally planned to make Valhalla’s Mana Pool to be exclusively used for a Hydra Nest, but it seems that he had more choices.

But he quickly discovered something else.

[Huh? The bottom Mana Pool is being used? What’s this ‘Whirlpool of Light’ structure?]

After fiddling with the system’s windows in his retina, he discovered it was a type of Nest, able to create creatures called Light Spirits. The words sounded like Heroic Spirits or Light Elemental creatures when he rolled the name with his tongue.

[A natural Nest in this fortress. It’s definitely a delightful shock. Special Nests in any particular era are unique, unlike the common ones such as Black Wolves and Wyverns. A Nest from Valhalla would never belong to the latter, and typically creatures from that era are powerful. I really want to find out what these Light Spirits are.]

He immediately suggested exploring the lower sections. The girls naturally did not object to it, and only Felaern stayed behind with the reason of leaving someone behind as contact in case there were messengers bringing information about Firburh. If the mercenaries did not find anyone in the World Tree, they might panic, so it would be good for her to stay behind.

Brendel could only praise the older Wild Elf sister’s meticulous thinking. Only Felaern and Amandina would be particular about such details. The latter could not follow him on this trip due to the matters in Firburh, and only this eternal poker-faced Felaern accompanied him with this trifling issues. Even though she looked like she was always unwilling to do it, she constantly performed impressively.

Brendel and the others eventually discovered the entrance to Valhalla’s lower section, and they entered the room where the Whirlpool of Light was.

The lower section of Valhalla was a hollow section of the tree. The walls and ceiling were made out of wood, appearing as though they had been processed by artificial means to make them smooth, but there were also random vines that decorated the place that made it feel natural.

There was a small area with glowing blue crystals scattered all over it, and vines twisted to from an archway over a door. The center of the door was a whirlpool of golden light, reaching over three meters which slowly churned in a clockwise direction. There seemed to be a tunnel in the eye of that whirlpool bridging two worlds. A golden ray was pouring out from it, as though it was a bridge suspended in mid-air.

There were some other vegetations in the room’s corners. They reflected different colors from the door’s illuminations, making people feel like they were in a dreamlike place.

“Brendel, this place is so pretty!” Romaine could not help but exclaim.

“This place is a Nest. It seems the door is some kind of portal that bridges two different worlds?” Medissa asked.

Brendel nodded.