The Amber Sword

TL: Well I’m basically tired as heck. This news update is a bit long, bear with me please.

To be honest I have been sick for nearly a month and I am still coughing even now (which is part of the reason why I had to cut my TLed chapters to 1 or nearly 0 per week), and I don’t see myself getting well anytime soon, stupid persistent cough.

Moving on to the TL issue, so I’m going to see how much I can TL today, kinda depends on how bad my cough is. These particular updates are exclusive from the donated chapters, meaning it’s kind of like me catching up on my usual release pace. I’m able to do this because two of my assignments have been given 1 more week extension to the deadline, which I’m going to take 1 day off as my break (which is today) and just do whatever I want.

As for the donated chapters, yes it’s accumulating >_<…. but I think I have to push it until my term break which starts during July. So far the current amount accumulated is $110 this month or 9 chapters worth in total. Sigh, I’m really quite sorry about this issue but unless I’m able to somehow magically improve my art skillz, I have to take it slow. Even the next subject is hard because it’s going to be about animals, sigh, can’t say I look forward to researching animal anatomy…

PS: In other news, I received a free sketch (I requested Horo from Spice and Wolf) from my lecturer which honestly made me smile for the entire afternoon. I’m surprised at how delighted I am for some reason, haha.

TL: I think I have four TAS chapters and two TSTBGAM. They haven’t gone through proofreading and I’ll take a look at them tomorrow for Engrish mistakes. For now I’m going to play a visual novel that involve fox ears.

Chapter 37 – Brendel’s preparation (2)

Brendel lined up eleven daggers that were intricately crafted side by side. He then used a silver hammer to break the crystals that were harvested from the Rotten Beast and threw the fragments into the golden liquid inside the alchemy pot. He turned his head back and asked:

“Tamar, why don’t you give it a try?”

“Me?” The middle-aged man was momentarily surprised, but he immediately showed enthusiasm on his face. The future grandmaster alchemist might be reticent during normal times, but when the topic is about alchemy, he could not help but talk about it excitedly. Now that he had the chance to try it for himself, he would definitely take it.

He might have been an alchemist who worked at the parliament, but he was typically tasked to do only minor things like refinement for the materials, as the nobles themselves had their personal alchemist and typically would not give away any of their secrets.

This was the first time that Tamar had the chance to create a magical artifact all by himself, and he gulped when he saw the Elven daggers. Brendel chuckled and gave a nod.

[Tamar’s alchemy skills are going up very quickly. When I first saw him, his alchemy skills were approximately Rank 3, and now he’s Rank 5. At this pace, he’s going to surpass me and become a true master alchemist. This is really innate talent.]

The reason why Tamar advanced so quickly was because Brendel had passed the refinement of high grade materials to Tamar, and allowed him to improve quickly.

However, Tamar seemed to look like he did not realize his talents, and when Brendel tried to recruit him for thirty thousand gold per year, he actually requested to reduce the amount of gold to a mere sixth of Brendel’s proposal.

[A grand alchemist for an annuity of 5000 gold, even close relatives wouldn’t give such a rate. Well, most of these alchemist tend not to break their contract, and in the future I should have the capabilities to keep him even if he requests for more money. Due to his abilities, I must keep him.]

“Alright, I’ll give it a try.” Tamar said with confidence.

The room turned quiet, and Brendel moved to the bookshelves and randomly picked a history book about noble lineage. He had been reading such books for the past few days, and his knowledge about the nobles and sigils have gone up, increasing his Scholar Rank to Rank 11.

With the additional TP, he raised his Militiary Swordsmanship to Rank 7 (6+1), Emergency First Aid to Rank 4, White Raven Sword Arte to Rank 2, and took on the proficiency skills for the profession Mercenary, as well as Stealth and Barkskin.

The Weapon Proficiency skill was a core ability of the professions ‘Warrior’ and ‘Mercenary’. There was only one rank for this skill, but it allowed Brendel to use all related weapons for his profession.

[It’s fortunate that I got to have a profession like Mercenary. If I was to actually spend TP on proficiency in weapons because I’m a militia, I’m going to waste thousands of TP of improving them. But at the same time, there’s a limit to specializing in certain weapons. Other than that, the stealth trait comes from the Nightingale profession, while Barkskin comes from druids. The Barkskin ability is especially good since it adds 50% natural armor once per day. This combination is something I used in the past as well.]

These two unique abilities from other professions could only be taught within Bruglas’s Royal Geography Institute, and Brendel made sure to learn them as the chances to acquire such skills were rare.

[Hundreds of TP are gone so quickly. Technically speaking, repeated usage is also a way to level up skills, but it takes way too much time. I have gone through a considerable amount of fights for the past few weeks, but my swordsmanship has not even reach 6+2…]

Brendel had not turned over many pages of the book in his hand, but Tamar had already finished with his task. Tamar brought a single dagger as if he was a child showing off his toy:

“My lord, they are done!”

“That fast?” Brendel stole a glance at the hourglass at the side, and the sand in it had only gone down by a third. “Are there any failures?”

“No.” Tamar shook his head.

Brendel took a deep breath. It was rare to see someone who had no failures at all, and the failure rates within the game for newcomers were nearly 50%. He took the dagger and inspected it with the Window Stats.

[1-4 Damage, + 1-1 poison, Dagger Steeped in Demon Tree’s poison. The name of the dagger changed, as well as the rarity. It was originally ‘White Rank’, but now it’s ‘Iron Rank’.]

Brendel got up and placed the dagger back onto the table. He thought for a while and decided that their worth to be around two thousand gold. It was not something that was exceptionally special and only suited for low-ranking nobles or adventurers. Upper ranking nobles had their own personal alchemist and a blade like this would not interest them.

[A total of twenty thousand Tor coins, even if I sell them all. That’s not enough for Little Romaine.]

He took out the High Grade Crystal that he got from the Golden Demonic Tree and a Dwarven Short Sword.

“The next equipment is going to be a little difficult. Let’s do it together this time, Tamar.”

“Together?” Tamar was a little puzzled when he heard Brendel said that. Alchemists worked alone to avoid any mana interference from each other.

But Brendel did not have that same concern. He started to use a chalk to draw a circle formation and added runes and numbers to it. Tamar watched him in wide eyes, recognizing the runes as star constellation used by wizards.

Finally, Brendel raised his head and pointed to the inner circle.

“Tamar, come over here.”

But Tamar looked on in a daze and asked: “My lord, is this the Loop Ritual?”

“Loop Ritual?”

“I heard that only wizards in Buga had this mysterious skill, where someone who’s standing on the primary star constellation would be able to borrow many people’s power to create a magic or alchemy ritual. My lord, is this…?”

“Something like that. This is a simplified version for 16 people. If there’s a chance I’ll draw a complete version for sixty four people and how it to you.” Brendel nodded. This skill was something that every gamer in his world needed to have, but Tamar saw it like it was an incredible feat.

Fire seemed to flare in Tamar’s eyes as he nodded forcefully and rushed to stand within the formation, as if he could not wait to see the power of the ritual without any more delay.

Brendel inspected the blade in his hand. The short sword was intricately crafted by the dwarves,with the surface of the blade hammered with Earthern Mana into it, with the tip of the blade in a wavy form. He ran his fingers through the sword to check something.

[A type of sharpening magic. But it’s good that this magic shouldn’t have any conflicts with the things I’m about to do next.]

He carefully picked up a golden chisel and knocked it into the sword to create a hole.

“Ah!” Batum suddenly yelled.

“What the fuck are you yelling for Batum!” Brendel nearly chipped off the magic from the sword, but his hands were steady enough to avoid ruining the sword that was worth fifteen hundred Tor coins.

[Shit, if I screwed that up, I won’t have enough funds to buy a second one.]

Batum knew that he had made a huge mistake and he chose wisely to not answer anything. His heart was bleeding inwardly when he saw his lord making another hole in the sword. He felt like a hole had been knocked into his heart.

But Brendel ignored him and placed the Tree Crystals into the hole and nodded to Tamar. Both of them started to carve sigils onto both sides of the sword. After working on it for thirty minutes, they finally made a new magic weapon.

Brendel picked up the sword and flourished it, sending dancing lights throughout the room with the sigils. He then checked it with the stats window, and confirmed there was a +3-3 poison behind the stats. It was comparable to the ordinary damage of the Thorn of Light, and this sword could be placed in the Bronze rank. It definitely had no problem for selling at a price of one hundred thousand Tor coins, and might even interest some high ranking knights.

Brendel wiped his perspiration off. This was the first time he crafted a magical equipment above 15 OZ, and he felt tired from writing fourteen stacks of sigils. The result was spectacular, however. The sword was perfectly created and he felt like his skill was about to get a +1 behind it.

[Except that I’m a fake noble. Unless I get a real identity confirming of myself as a noble, my skills won’t surpass Rank 5… otherwise I’m most likely at Rank 6 by now (5+1).]

As he thought to himself, he saw Tamar looking like he was still excited to do more as his eyes were glittering.

“My lord, I feel like I have come to a revelation. If I’m not mistaken, it’s just a matter of time for me to create higher grade sigils and formations.”

“That’s a good thing.”

Brendel patted Tamar’s shoulders and was inwardly happy.

[If Tamar reaches Rank 10, he can start to make Dragon Slaying Arrows (40oz), that’s a good thing.]