Chapter 710: Nightfall (VIII)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“This should be the… Rule Talent, right?”
Mini Bubble Gum puckered her brows. Canary and Rhode nodded in agreement.
Normally speaking, there were two types of awakened talents after transcending into the Legendary Stage: Rule Talent and Attribute Talent. Mini Bubble Gum and Canary belonged to the latter and the former was extremely rare. Rule Talents were usually superior, but there would be no gain without a loss. Mastering the Rule Talent was challenging, especially after the players reached level 85 and accepting the Privilege Mission. This was because the core of the Privilege Mission was for the players to find the essence of their talents. Attribute Talents were relatively simple in this aspect. Many players had complained that the Privilege Mission of the Rule Talents were as though solving puzzles after puzzles, where they couldn’t even figure out what exactly their cores were.
“But this is really rare, huh? I don’t remember seeing anything similar to this.”
Canary scanned the attributes introduction on the interface and shook her head slightly. Eternal Fantasy—sounded like an Attribute Talent that existed like a rule. However, no one knew the specific conditions. Even though Rhode sensed the surging strength in him, he couldn’t grasp the core and essence of it. He shook his head and threw this thought to the back of his head.
“But, even if Leader doesn’t master the unlimited privileges, there shouldn’t be too many opponents capable of taking him down, right, Big Sister?”
Mini Bubble Gum pondered deeply. Then, her eyes glinted and she lifted her head to Rhode.
“Leader, do you wanna try?”
Rhode hesitated and turned to Canary. It was apparent that Canary’s eyes were also revealing such intentions. In fact, he had also intended to give it a shot. No matter how powerful the words had described the talent, he had to try it personally to feel its actual effects. He gestured for the two young ladies to make way and swung his right arm down. Shortly after, a sword shimmering in white holy radiance emerged in his hands. Then, a line of words emerged before him.
[Self-Affirmation. Activated.]
[Please choose attribute to enhance and its level]
“Hmm?”
Rhode stared blankly because there weren’t only basic attributes such as strength, constitution, and willpower. Instead, enhanced attributes such as [Magical Resistance] and [Strength Recovery] and swordsmanship attributes like [Explosiveness] and [Flexibility] were also listed. It appeared that there was a wide range of selection for the attribute enhancement. This was great for him as he would have more variety of choices to strengthen himself in battles. He nodded in satisfaction and swiftly shifted his gaze to the most intuitive strength attribute since this was only an experiment.
[Increase Strength Attribute]
Increase to its maximum.
Rhode answered in his head and the strength attribute bar quickly flickered. But…
“—”
An ear-deafening system error sounded. The flickering radiance instantly dimmed and at the same time, another line of system prompt emerged.
[Unrecognizable. Unable to upgrade. Please select another choice]
I see.
Rhode finally understood what it meant. Even though he had chosen to enhance the strength attribute to its maximum, he wasn’t aware of how it would be for the strength attribute to be enhanced to its maximum. Would a punch from him crush a star? Or would it devastate the entire world? Rhode lacked sufficient understanding of himself and the system naturally couldn’t proceed. It seemed that this enhancement had to be within his cognition… If that’s the case…
Rhode twitched his brows.
Enhance 30 + 15.
This time, the strength attribute bar shone once again. In an instant, the ‘??’ representing the strength attribute bar transformed!
[Strength Attribute: 30 + 15 (??)]
Rhode raised his sword.
He sensed a massive strength coalescing on his blade and gazed forward in silence. At this instant, he had as though returned to the burly, tall, and strong character in the game. He lifted his sword high and brandished!
The land shook violently.
A deep, bottomless, three-meters-wide fissure emerged on the solid ground as though a knife slicing through butter. Snow fluttered as the long, enormous fissure spread forward. After three seconds, the ‘rumbling’ finally stopped.
If others were to witness this, perhaps their jaws would have fallen to the ground. However, Canary’s and Mini Bubble Gum’s eyes merely glinted in surprise. Then, Mini Bubble Gum turned to Rhode excitedly.
“Leader, have you recovered your strength?”
“It’s the effects of the technique.”
Rhode shrugged and kept his sword. Through this experiment, Rhode had finally understood the appropriate style of this technique. It seemed that under the same conditions, this technique could unleash the strength in which he remembered and was familiar with, which would be a tremendous help for him in the future. The only restriction was that the strength that was unknown to him couldn’t seem to be enhanced. This was as though a modifier altering the game data, where the highest number was 65535, but he just had to force it to 99999. This would undoubtedly result in data error. However, his only suspicion now was what the ‘cognition’ in this technique was referring to. Was this technique really that simple? Apart from this, he also knew the numerical data of other classes at the tip of his fingers. If such a cognition was effective, did it mean that he could target any attributes from any class to enhance himself?
Even though every class had unique attribute values, they essentially had core attributes of their own. For example, Rangers, Thieves, and Assassins were naturally high in dexterity. Classes like Swordsmen and Shield Warriors focused on attacking strength, while Mages and Clerics were experts in willpower. Rhode was familiar with the attribute values of all the top players in each class and this was why he stood above everyone and was called the ‘Walking Library’.
Whereas for [Igniting Wrath], Rhode instantly recalled this technique at a single glance. If he recalled correctly, he had triggered this technique back then when he used [Self-breakthrough] twice in a row. The first was during his battle with Barter while the second was with the Duke Fiend. Barter was struck off the platform by Rhode’s brandishing sword while the Duke Fiend had lost an arm. Back then, Rhode was oddly amazed that he was capable of dealing damage to a superior presence like the Duke Fiend. And now it seemed that it was due to this technique that had absorbed strength and reflected with double damage.
As for [Absolute Presence], it was a decent choice, but it came too late. Rhode recalled the devastating moment when his Zero Refining Equipment was shattered by the Duke Fiend, which was also the treasure of the Behermes. Back then, perhaps he would have kept the equipment safely if he possessed this Rule Talent.
However, this didn’t mean that the Rule Talent was useless. In fact, Rhode had instantly thought of its purpose as soon as it caught his eye. With the rule power from the Rule Talent, he could casually pick up a scrap metal as a shield that would be as tough as Anne’s King’s Protection Shield. His rule would only be destroyed and disrupted by even stronger rule power. In other words, unless the opponent’s Rule Talent power was above his, even the most ordinary black metal shield would turn into a legendary artifact in Rhode’s hands. It could also be said that with this talent, Rhode could save on wearing a magical armor. Although his Spirit Swordsman character in the game had an attacking build with basic speed, he mainly focused on having a speed build in this world as he refused to face opponents head to head because, no matter what, players wouldn’t feel pain in the game, but the pain was unavoidable here.
In fact, on this Dragon Soul Continent, the attribute enhancements of many magical equipment were decent. But their defense attributes were mainly terrible. This was one of the reasons why Mages like Marlene and Shield Warrior like Anne mostly wore lighter armor and not heavy metal ones. Not only would the heavy metal armor affect their movement speed, but they also wouldn’t come with useful magical effects. Therefore, among the top 10 legendary armors, only one was heavy armor while the rest were light armor, leather armor, or robes.
After obtaining this technique, Rhode’s defenses would be comparable or even stronger than wearing heavy armor even if he wore a robe.
After a simple experiment, Rhode, Canary, and Mini Bubble Gum returned to the Fortress. Although he still had a lot of doubts, he knew that he couldn’t rush everything at once. On the contrary, he had to settle the Skill Points quickly. After reaching level 60, Rhode discovered that five Skill Points could be exchanged for one Sword Creation Point. Currently, he had 20 Skill Points and according to this quantity, he could fill the Talent Tree to the bottom second tier, or perhaps exchange and build on the Sword Creation Points. However, this was no easy task because he would need to build on other swordsmanships which he had learned in order to upgrade the Fantasy Daybreak Swordsmanship, which would waste another three to five Skill Points. He needed more time to consider this question.
When Rhode entered through the main entrance, he immediately spotted Lize sitting on the chair by the corridor in a daze.
“Lize?”
Rhode twitched his brows curiously. This was the entrance hallway and even though there weren’t too many people around, this wasn’t the best choice to admire the view. She would be better off in her private room, which went to show that she was waiting for someone.
“What are you doing here?”
“Ah!”
Lize came to her senses abruptly. Then, she quickly stood up and bowed to Canary and Mini Bubble Gum before turning to Rhode.
“Ah, Mr. Rhode, you’re finally back. I was looking for you. Did something happen out there? I heard a loud rumble…”
“It’s nothing, I was just experimenting something.”
Rhode shook his head. He had no intention of explaining in details to Lize and the others. After all, players and natives had different views on such topics, which was why he sneaked out with Canary and Mini Bubble Gum in the first place.
“You said you were looking for me. Is anything the matter?”
“Ah. Yes.”
Lize revealed some traces of disappointment in her eyes. Then, she pulled herself together and said.
“Grand Mage Amund has arrived at the fortress. He wishes to meet you.”
“Oh?”
Rhode pondered in silence before lifted his head.
“Where is he?”
Rhode pushed the guest room doors open and saw Amund by the window. The most reputable Grand Mage of the Munn Kingdom had his back turned to Rhode and was admiring the picturesque view in the distance. He turned around and revealed glints of astonishment in his eyes.
“I hope my uninvited visit didn’t cause you any unhappiness, Earl Rhode.”
“Of course not, Sir Grand Mage. In fact, I’ve never thought that you would come here. If you informed me in advance, I would have personally expected your arrival, Sir Grand Mage.”
“Hahaha. Don’t stand on ceremony, Earl Rhode. An old sack of bones like me isn’t interested in such unnecessary and over-elaborate formalities.”
Amund shook his head and gazed at Rhode with narrowed eyes. Even though he appeared to be extremely calm, violent waves were crashing in his heart. As a being who had entered the Peak Legendary Stage and one of the best Grand Mages on the Dragon Soul Continent, he naturally recognized the radiance emanating from Rhode’s body. It was a faint, ray of light that was undetectable by the eyes and moving along with the young man’s every movement. Amund knew clearly what they were.
Rule Threads…
Amund was astounded. This young man had actually transcended into the Legendary Stage?!
In fact, rumors of Rhode being in the Legendary Stage had already been spreading after the Midsummer Festival. However, those were the views of civilians and mercenaries and in fact, any beings in the Legendary Stage like Amund, Lydia, and Gaya could instantly recognize Rhode’s true strength. Perhaps his swordsmanship techniques were exceedingly great, but they saw that Rhode was still a mortal and wasn’t in the Legendary Stage yet. The reason was simple. They didn’t see the Rule Threads circulating around him. The Rule Threads were the most distinct difference between mortals and legends. With the Rule Threads, they could blend into the rules of this world and become a member of the Legendary Stage.
However, for the sake of the King’s Party’s reputation and to suppress the Reformist Party’s aggression back then, no one exposed Rhode’s true strength. From a certain aspect, it was indeed accurate to say that he possessed swordsmanship techniques in the Legendary Stage, so it also wasn’t considered deceiving.
But Amund didn’t expect that in just half a year, this young man had transcended into the Legendary Stage! In just half a year!
Even though Amund had no lack of talents around him such as Lydia and Gaya, their situations were unique, after all. As an Archangel, it went without saying that Lydia was born in the Legendary Stage. On the other hand, Gaya was born in a family with the purest and most sacred blood, which wasn’t surprising that she broke through into the Legendary Stage. However, Rhode was entirely different from them. The last time when Amund met him, his strength was only in the mid Master Stage. But now, he actually broke the bottleneck and stepped into the Legendary Stage?! How did he do it? It was extremely common for the powerful beings to be stuck in the Peak Master Stage for three to five years before transcending into the Legendary Stage. But this young man actually did it in such a short period of time. Could it be that he had an incredible birth?
Such thoughts clouded Amund’s head. But, he didn’t show them on his expression.
“May I know is anything the matter for you to visit me personally, Grand Mage Amund?”
“This was what happened.”
Amund let out a cough and presented a smile.
“I’m following Royal Highness’ orders to check on the situation here and also deliver the list of items that you’ve requested, Earl Rhode.”
“Oh?”
Rhode’s eyes glinted.