Azure Scepter

Page 58

“Either it’s a magical effect,” Trier said, staring intently at the smooth cut between the stone and the blade. “Or this sword is just too sharp, so sharp that it’s hard to aim at the edge with the naked eye.”

He suddenly exerted force with his elbow, and the longsword slid out silently, splitting the hard bluestone in two as if it were butter being cut by a hot knife.

The putrid stench of negative energy sprayed into Trier's nostrils like volcanic ash, and the chilling pain vanished instantly.

[Item Name: No Light]

[Item Level: Legendary Weapon]

[Item History 1: A dull, unadorned longsword with a wooden hilt; a powerful, ancient weapon.]

Legend has it that after long and arduous training, the Elven King Auberdine the Lost, obsessed with forging with souls and tempering with blood, had reached the pinnacle of his forging skills. Towards the end of his reign, King Auberdine used the souls of 321 dwarves and human captives, along with the bodies of 123 Elven nobles who opposed him, to forge the longsword "Lightless" over 13 days.

"This forging technique is too bizarre. Looking at the sword's simple design, I thought it was a sacred weapon..." Trier thought to himself.

In order to reverse the foreseeable defeat, the Elf King Auberdine bestowed the weapon upon the most famous martial arts master on Evergrande—the master of the Shadow Sword School—and ordered him to go to the newly established Kingdom of Orko to assassinate the dwarven envoy who was trying to persuade Losewey to join the war.

[Arrested by powerful weapons and aided by an inside agent, the martial arts master launched a deadly sneak attack the moment everyone relaxed their guard. However, Lorraine effortlessly deflected the Shadow Sword Sect master's full-force strike with just a fork in her hand, and then used the Shadow Sword Sect's signature move, "Phantom Blade," to pierce the throat of the master who invented the technique.]

"It's Lothaway again," Trier thought. "When she was still alive, her ability to fight with melee weapons was already so incredible; now she's only going to be even stronger."

His gaze shifted slightly as he continued to scan the history of the ancient weapons.

[Item History 2: After learning of his master's death, the Grandmaster's apprentice vowed revenge and to uphold the school's honor. He vowed to defeat Losevie honorably. Because the Shadow Sword School emphasizes the use of shadows and negative energy, the apprentice captured a high-ranking vampire. After forcing the vampire to transform him, the apprentice killed the vampire who had transformed him. Afterward, he went to the plane of negative energy to meditate in seclusion for a long time.]

After a long and arduous training, the apprentice was ready to return to the Prime Material Plane seeking revenge. However, time had passed, the war between humans, dwarves, and elves was long over, and Lor'thewi was gone. The apprentice's long-suppressed rage was finally replaced by bewilderment, but he ultimately decided to make humanity pay for the humiliation inflicted on his teacher with blood.

The apprentice stole "Lightless" and used his talents and weapons to wreak havoc in the region bordering the Kingdom of Orco and the Great Swamp for a very long time. As time went by, his dark power reached an unprecedented level of strength, and his deeds even spread in human horror stories. His reputation roamed all the hidden dark realms, and even some powerful beings from outer planes began to pay attention to him. Weak mortals did not even dare to call him by name.

However, just as the apprentice was preparing to take his studies to the next level, he vanished without a trace on a moonless night, and no one knew where he went—except for the third owner of "Lightless."

“A vampire?” Trier took a deep breath. “Could the owner of the Cooling Cloak have some kind of connection with this vampire?”

He didn't delve into this thought, because at that moment, he suddenly had a strange premonition that he would see himself in the history of ancient weapons.

[Item History 3: The third holder of "Lightless" was a mysterious, nameless mage. For some unknown reason, the nameless mage launched a planned and bloody massacre of the people in the dark realm within the Southern Duchy. This covert killing was initially limited to weak, unaffiliated bandits, but soon the "disappearance wave" spread like a plague to drug dealers, thieves' guilds, bandit knights, and vampire families.]

The powerful vampire thought it would survive, but it was wrong. On a moonless night, the vampire about to ascend to a new existence, along with all its derivatives and followers, vanished. "Lightless" ultimately fell into the hands of an unnamed sorcerer.

Seeing this, Trier couldn't help but glance back at the hanged corpse behind him. Chains and hooks pierced its face, and through the holes in its withered features, Trier saw vampire fangs protruding from its decaying gums. Considering the Inquisitor's strange name for the hanged corpse, its identity in life was obvious—this powerful undead should be the vampire mentioned in weapons history...

“A mystery has been solved—now I know the origin of those undead in the lab,” Trier thought to himself. “However, it’s quite a novel experience to see my own record in an ancient weapon—even though it looks like a mentally deranged evil mage used to scare children in a story.”

He took a deep breath and looked at the last part of the item description.

[Equipment Requirements: Any humanoid creature]

[The elven inscription on the gauntlets reads: There is only one shortcut in the world: don't take shortcuts. This principle applies to forging, swordsmanship, and warfare.]

[Traditional Ritual]

[Diligence in Tempering (Completed): Mental diligence is the necessary path to tempering a weapon. Following the example of the swordsmith who forged "Darkness," you must swear an oath before this sword to undertake a grand undertaking and persevere for a long time. After completing the undertaking or steadfastly persisting in it for five years, "Darkness" will receive the blessing from its special tempering process. "Darkness" will gain the effects of a living being, a divine weapon, and any attack it attacks will inflict additional sharpness, armor penetration, piercing, and massive mental damage based on your perception level.]

“Completed, is that alright?” Trier glanced at the notes after the ancient ritual. “I’m sure I’ve already met the requirements.”

[The Undead and the Shadows (Completed): Light and dust are not significantly different in murky environments. By mimicking the second holder of "Anemo," when you choose to travel to a negative energy plane and remain there for more than 24 hours, upon completion of the ritual, "Anemo" will grant you the ability to shadow leap, and the undead will no longer see you as an enemy out of their instinctual hatred for the living.]

[Fear Leads to Tyranny (Completed): Power comes from imagination, and fear is the catalyst for imagination. Playing the role of the third master of "Anemo," without revealing your identity, you instill a prolonged state of panic in 10 beings of at least your challenge level. After the ritual is successful, while you possess "Anemo" and are in stealth mode, enemies within 20 meters of you must undergo an extremely difficult saving throw, otherwise they will enter a state of terror. If an enemy is already in a state of terror, then without a moderately difficult saving throw, the terror state can be converted into a half-minute paralysis state.]

Trier blinked incredulously. He knew that ancient weapons were generally incredibly powerful, but the sheer power of "Darkness" was beyond his imagination. Even disregarding the terrifying mobility granted by "Undead and Shadow" and the powerful control effects of "Fear Leads to Tyranny," the first effect, "Diligence Tempered," alone provided a series of destructive effects that would turn anyone wielding this weapon into a lawnmower.

For example, even if only the first effect of this weapon is active, Trier alone could easily cut through the cult army of Beaver Town.

"No wonder it's a treasure I kept for myself." Trier put away "No Light" and took out his black notebook, which he had lost for many years, from the bag.

[Item Name: Trier's Diary]

[Item Level: Cursed Item]

[Warning: Please read with caution if you are unprepared.]

Chapter 113 Harvest (Part Two)

Trier gently grasped the notebook cover, and the dark, washed leather responded with a strange smoothness, the smell of decaying earth mingling with the faint scent of paper and ink.

Trier frowned and silently turned the diary over.

"A perfectly good diary has become a cursed item."

In the game, books containing profound necromancy knowledge are usually cursed, because powerful necromancers do not record knowledge directly in words, but instead use magic to bind the dead into the books, and then let the bound dead replace the words as the carrier of knowledge—in this way, the recording and transmission of knowledge are completely under the necromancer's control.

However, the black notebook in his hand clearly did not bind any undead; no matter how you looked at it, the notebook was just a diary filled with writing.

“Trier, be careful. That lich might have gone mad from reading this book,” Noy whispered a warning. “It’s very likely imbued with mind-controlling magic. We should destroy it.”

Trier did not respond; he continued scanning the information in the diary through the information panel.

[Item Name: Trier's Diary]

[Item Level: Cursed Item]

[Warning: Please read with caution if you are unprepared.]

[Item Description: This is a book written in an unknown language, its illegible characters containing almost all knowledge and truth. Reading this book will grant you insight into the secrets of the past and even knowledge of the future. However, over time, some of the more obscure and complex knowledge has become biologically active, like brain-eating worms that will hunt down and burrow into the minds of the mentally vulnerable, draining everything from their victims.]

[Item Effect 1: When the reader turns the pages of this book, they will be affected by a supernatural effect similar to "suggestion." The reader can save this effect through an extremely difficult willpower check. If the save fails, the reader will be forced to continue reading.]

[Item Effect 2: To read this book, the reader must pass an extremely difficult test of knowledge and skill (Comprehensive). If successful, the reader will gain a vast amount of profound knowledge and a brief glimpse into fragments of the future; if unsuccessful, a portion of the reader's will will be consumed by the knowledge. They will still gain fragmented knowledge and prophecies, but will permanently lose their mental state-based intelligence and perception, until they become completely insane and unable to distinguish between illusion and reality.]

Although somewhat surprised by the immense destructive power of his diary, a great sense of unease still welled up in Trier's heart.

Without a doubt, the maddened drought lich read extensively through its own diary, and it certainly learned many things it should never have known.

The Drought Lich's ravings revealed that it already knew a great deal about the future. A reasonable speculation is that while gaining knowledge about the future, the Drought Lich also acquired a great deal of knowledge about magic recorded in its diary, and even knowledge about gods. Knowledge is power, and this knowledge will make the already powerful Drought Lich even more troublesome!

“I need to at least know what it knows,” Trier said, taking a deep breath and making up his mind.

The next moment, he turned to the first page of the diary without hesitation.

After quickly deciphering the cipher text: "The Year of the Ice Age, March 28th. For some unknown reason, my memory seems to be fading, so despite the risks, I have decided to start writing a diary."

"If I want to conduct my research and live a peaceful life, I must find a way to eliminate the imminent threat from Loservy."

"This month has progressed smoothly. First, we have initially established a network of agents throughout the duchy through Uncle Cohen. Contrary to my impression, Cohen now seems to be a melancholy and weak person. Although he is very talented, he has not used it effectively. Second, we have preliminarily determined that Lorseville's strength is far from what we expected. It is difficult to deal with and is far from an ordinary lich. Based on what I know about the future, it is natural to deduce that there are many very powerful forces behind its downfall. The next goal is to strengthen our own power while finding these hidden allies as secretly as possible."

Just as Trier was about to continue flipping through the book, a line of cobalt blue numbers suddenly caught his eye. After staring at it for a moment, his pupils contracted sharply.

[Warning: You have acquired the dissolved memories of the Drought Lich "Renebo Ka". Your background feat "Otherworldly Knowledge" provides an additional 4 points to your Intelligence.]

[Warning: You have acquired the dissolved spirit of the Drought Lich "Renebo Ka". Your background feat "Otherworldly Knowledge" provides an additional 4 points to Perception.]

"Huh?" Trier opened his mouth in disbelief, almost doubting that he was seeing things—although he always prided himself on his extensive knowledge, he had indeed rarely seen such a thing as transferring the intellectual and sensory attributes of one being to another.

Intelligence, perception, and certain components of charisma, unlike other attributes that are more physical, are closely related to the soul of an being, or rather, the essence of immortality. Transferring these three attributes means that the immortal essence of the transferred person is no longer immortal and is almost torn apart—as far as he knows, this technique called "soul tide" is only mastered by a handful of demon dukes.

The technology possessed by the demons could at most transfer a maximum of six points of mental attributes to the beneficiary at the cost of transforming the souls of extremely powerful beings into inferior demons.

Trill's gain of eight points in total attributes means that the Drought Lich will lose at least four times that amount in mental attributes. This means that its soul must have been torn into twisted rags, like a bed sheet ripped apart by a mad cat—because even from an ideal perspective, the conversion efficiency of these attributes is incredibly low—this powerful Drought Lich is definitely doomed.

"Is my diary really that eerie?" Trier asked himself, quite shocked. "I don't think I wrote anything, did I?"

At this moment, the only sound in the quiet, dark room was Trier's breathing, and a slight, electric-like burning pain gently spread through Trier's fingertips.

Trier knew that these were the lingering resentments and memories of a legend, dangerous echoes powerful enough to affect reality.

"Boom!" In an instant, a ghostly blue flame suddenly emerged from the bottom of the black diary and devoured the entire notebook like a ghost, then exploded into ashes in a blinding flash!

The light was dazzling, and Trier heard a crisp cracking sound in his mind—he knew that such a sudden and drastic change in his perception and intelligence was extremely dangerous.

The crisp cracking sound was like a crystal chandelier crashing to the ground. The hanging wire snapped, the outer casing broke in two, and the shimmering light pieces scattered all over the floor, leaving a mess.

Everything before him was stained with an unusual, bright red, like rotten fruit, or a bruise that had suddenly appeared in the world. Trier felt the chaotic currents coursing through his nerve bundles, the abstract thoughts and concrete memories, composed of concepts and symbols, colliding with each other in the crevices of his brain. Hundreds and thousands of psychedelic, scalding, and chaotic thoughts appeared and disappeared simultaneously like an unstable sun.

“It’s a familiar feeling, I can control it.” All of Trier’s thoughts reflected this fleeting thought.

Take a deep breath and blink.

"Om..."

Amidst the intense tinnitus, he felt his fragmented spirit being solidified and reshaped by the firm hand of his will. With each breath, the icy, knife-like air once again caressed the capillaries in his nasal cavity, and the intense discomfort caused by the sudden surge in his intelligence and perception gradually dissipated.

His hazy senses resurfaced, and his vision finally cleared. Only then did Trier realize that he was soaked all over—salty, cold sweat soaked his forehead and back like seawater. He rubbed his forehead as if in a daze, and then realized that his internal organs were clenched tightly. He couldn't help but think of a towel that had been twisted into a spiral.

[Intelligence increased from 16 to 20!]

[Your intelligence has reached the limits of mortal ability. Based on your personal abilities, you have gained the special personal specialty "The Scholar".]

[Scholar: You possess a photographic memory and extensive knowledge; your long academic journey has given you more skills than others. Each time you level up, you gain an additional 5 skill points and an additional 1 feat point. Note: This feat can compensate for past skill gains.]

[Perception 16→20!]

[Your perception has reached the limits of mortals. Based on your personal abilities, you have gained the special personal skill "Unwavering."]

Chapter 114 Harvest (Part 3)

[Your perception has reached the limits of mortals. Based on your personal abilities, you have gained the special personal skill "Unwavering."]

[Unwavering: Perhaps from experience, perhaps from wisdom, you now clearly perceive the true nature of things. You can see through illusions, morphing creatures and objects, and the true forms of disguised creatures and objects; you also gain an additional 2 saving throws when facing charm and coercion spells.]

"I originally thought that physical constitution would be the first to reach the extraordinary attribute, but I didn't expect it to be intelligence and perception." Trier breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, he felt his mind was clear and his thoughts were lightning fast. The severe concussion and internal bleeding caused by manipulating too many undead seemed to have eased considerably.

Trier reached up and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Because his thoughts were racing, he even felt that time had slowed down considerably. The dark room, which should have been dim, was now as bright as a sunny afternoon square. He stepped towards the chainmail and the walls full of magic storage stones, and felt light and transparent all over. His mind and every muscle fiber became one, as if a person who had been bound by chains for a long time had suddenly broken free.

“Master…are you…alright…?” Noy’s voice came from behind, but in Trier’s mind, the other’s words sounded unusually slow, as if a slowed-down cassette tape.

"I'm very good."

As he spoke, he turned his head to look. Noe's reflection was clearly visible in his pupils, the reflection's gaze as sharp as a dagger, its undisguised perspective even causing a slight sting to his own eyeballs.

blink.

At this moment, he felt as if time itself had sunk into a quagmire, and everything was crystal clear. Endless information flowed through his mind like a clear, orderly stream.

Perception and intelligence don't just affect spellcasting; in close combat, the gathering, processing, and decision-making of information are equally crucial. If Trir were to engage in a melee combat to the death with himself from just a few minutes ago, he's even confident he could cleanly and decisively finish off his opponent within a minute.

After all, a full 8 points of attribute improvement is simply too exaggerated.

Although he had also temporarily enhanced his perception and intelligence during the final battle in Beaver Town due to the spells "Wise Owl" and "Agile Fox," the external enhancement felt completely different from the internal growth he was experiencing now.

“The game doesn’t simulate this experience at all.” A thought flashed through Trier’s mind. “I need some time to adjust to this change.”

"First, allocate the newly acquired skill points and expertise points."

On a whim, he immediately invested all 40 newly acquired skill points into "Orco Cross Sword Technique".

[Orco Cross Sword Technique 54→94]

“I only need 6 more sword skill points to get the second feat of the sword style. If I remember correctly, the expert-level Orco Cross Sword Technique is a very strong feat. The feat provides a strike that reduces the enemy’s senses.” Trier thought to himself, “To deal with monsters that already have poor senses, I can even cut them into blind and deaf targets with one strike.”

Trier shifted his gaze slightly to the skill points. After a moment's thought, he directly selected two new skills to improve his survivability: [Robust] and [Evasion (Mastery)].

Now that he has obtained his inheritance, even without considering the wall full of magic storage stones, the damage provided by the ancient longsword "Lightless" alone has made his damage output nearly overflow.

Now, to ensure victory in battle, he no longer needs to rely on the initiative and surprise attacks to quickly reduce the enemy's numbers, just like he did in Beaver Town. Prioritizing survival-related feats is clearly a better option.

[Robust (1): Exercise makes you strong; your vitality and stamina are better than average. You gain bonus vitality and stamina based on your level.]

The Robust feat is simple and direct: it increases health. Since Azure Scepter provides a fair number of feat points, most players will choose to invest in this feat when conditions allow.

It's worth mentioning that this feat can be selected repeatedly, and there's an advanced [Robust (Legendary)] as a superior alternative after Legendary. Theoretically, a player who consistently invests in the Robust feat could even completely escape the embarrassing situation of everyone in the game being glass cannons.

Trier recalled that in the past, a very persistent player in the game had put this theory into practice. He threw all the feats he could find into the [Busty] line and worked hard every day to gain more Busty feats through his own hard training.

Finally, his hard training paid off, and his Robustness feat reached an astonishing 30+. Due to the excessive boost to Robustness, his Strength and Constitution attributes were also increased—in the Age of Insects version, this legendary warrior's vitality was even more outrageous than various bizarre insect derivatives; his blood, when injured, could even assimilate those parasitized by the evil insects.

Although this legendary guy had extremely poor mental resistance and was eventually completely seduced by the succubus lord in the abyss, this is enough to prove the [Robust] feat's ability to enhance physical survivability.

After “personal specialty”, there was an additional “robust (1)”. Trier felt his heart pump more powerfully and slowly, and a warm current seemed to flow slowly through his muscles. With his extraordinary perception, Trier could even feel the subtle pain of muscle fibers tearing and then rebuilding.

"There is an improvement, but it's not as noticeable as directly increasing physique. Perhaps the more points you invest in this specialty, the stronger the effect will be."

[Dodge (Mastery): Through long-term combat, dodging enemy attacks has become second nature to you. You can perform many dodging maneuvers that are difficult for ordinary people to accomplish.]

The dodge feat, as the name suggests, makes it easier to dodge enemy attacks. In game terms, it increases AC (Anti-Armor) gained from dodging. But in addition to that, Trier felt that his coordination and reaction speed had also improved slightly.

With his evasion feat combined with his newly acquired enchanted chainmail, his defensive capabilities have been significantly enhanced.

“This upgrade is truly enormous.” Trier walked to the wall and picked up a leather belt covered with high-quality magic storage stones. “Whether it’s melee attacks, defense, or saving throws against spell effects, there has been a qualitative leap!”

"There are definitely more than 30 magic storage stones on the wall. These high-quality magic storage stones should be enough to make up for the lack of time and space I need to prepare for the ritual when casting spells."

"With the undead in the laboratory, I now have the most basic ability to protect myself in the face of the dangers ahead. Even if Lorse is a demigod, I may still have a chance of winning if I plan properly."

After changing into enchanted plate armor and quickly collecting all the mana storage stones in the dark chamber, Trier returned to the first floor of the laboratory.