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Chapter 105: Luring the Snake Out Part 5
“Not interested?”
Minnis glanced back at him, his eyes full of mockery.
“Interested, of course I am,” Brandon hastily replied. What kind of idiot wouldn’t want elven sanctuary combat techniques?
“The Silver Elves’ combat techniques cannot be taught to you. Don’t even think about it,” Minnis said with an indifferent gaze. “I already told you—those techniques are tailored specifically for my kin.”
Brandon nodded outwardly but inwardly dismissed the notion. “Then?”
“I can teach you something we’ve developed ourselves,” the Silver Elf paused. “You see, on the battlefield, learning how to gauge your enemy’s strength is crucial—”
“Wait,” Brandon interrupted, taking a deep breath. “Are you talking about ‘Detection’?”
He struggled to keep his composure, asking the question as calmly as possible. Of course, it’s Detectionn! Now, looking at this cold Silver Elf, he suddenly found the commander almost endearing. After growing accustomed to measuring strength through data, reverting to class-based evaluations felt awkward. Without the Detection skill, there was no way to know an opponent’s abilities—experience could provide some hints, but that method lacked accuracy, especially against humanoid foes.
Brandon wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he could memorize the skills and tactical preferences of thousands of NPCs.
In the game, Marden was supposed to teach the Detection skill. However, Brandon had tentatively asked the veteran in Braggs only to discover that Marden didn’t possess the skill. Reflecting on it, he realized that by the time he encountered Marden in the game, it was already late in the story. It was plausible that Marden had acquired the skill from someone else during that period.
But after losing that lead, finding another source to learn the skill became nearly impossible. The options were either too far away or outright hostile. And now, despite having accumulated a large number of Free Skill Experience Points, Brandon found himself unable to seize the opportunity to learn these essential skills. This problem had been troubling him lately, and here Minnis had conveniently offered a solution.
After all, Detection was like a search function—it revealed a character’s basic attributes and most commonly used skills. At higher levels, it could even evaluate Absolute Strength, making it effortless to assess an enemy’s power. Filled with hope, Brandon looked at the Silver Elf, only to see him shake his head.
“Detection?” Minnis replied. “We call it ‘Deep Analysis.’”
“What?” Brandon blinked, utterly unfamiliar with the term. He knew Detection had an advanced version called Hawk Eyes, which not only replicated Detection’s effects but also had a chance to steal skills from slain enemies. Unfortunately, Hawk Eyes was Baron Bunagis’s specialty, and its reputation requirement was at least [Alliance] level. Considering Bunagis was Eruin’s staunchest opposition and Princess Grifine’s mortal enemy, there was no way Brandon would have leveled up his reputation with such a man in his past life.
Let alone the cost of doing so—he imagined his former guild leader would have challenged him to a real-life duel first.
“Deep Analysis,” Minnis repeated. “It’s a technique every Silver Elf warrior masters. We use it to assess the battlefield situation.”
“Oh? What does it do?” Brandon asked, intrigued. From what he knew, the Silver Elves were natural-born warriors. Any combat knowledge they valued couldn’t possibly be weak.
The Silver Elf commander stared at Brandon before replying, “I recall you saying you’d bring us victory and told me to record your words. Consider it noted. This skill will be our wager—if you fulfill your promise, I’ll teach it to you.” With that, he turned away, a faint smile flickering across his face unnoticed by Brandon.
Damn it, Brandon cursed inwardly. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. But he thought nothing of it. Whether it was victory in this war or mastering the skill, he was determined to secure both. After over a decade in the same game, very few skills remained unknown to him—save for Planeswalker and Fate Card.
Just then, he felt Tiger Finch nudge him with an elbow.
Looking up, he noticed a stir among the mercenaries lying in ambush below. Though brief, it was enough to signal trouble.
The long-awaited enemy had arrived.
The first to enter the valley were the lizardfolk dragon-hunting cavalry, numbering over thirty riders. They advanced across the cold rocks beneath the moonlight, quickly crossing the valley floor. Behind them came hordes of lizardfolk infantry armed with spears and crossbows. Being irregular troops, these creatures lacked uniform equipment or banners. Squad leaders wore armbands, shouting high-pitched, unintelligible calls to maintain order among their chaotic ranks.
Since they were still far from the area where scouts had reported encountering humans, the lizardfolk maintained a tight formation, advancing in rows two or three deep. The long column snaked through the valley like a serpent. The mercenaries glanced back at Brandon, awaiting his command to attack. But Brandon shook his head, signaling them to let the first half of the lizardfolk army pass. It wasn’t time to strike yet.
Soon, the Dark Priest finally entered the fray. Not being a physical combatant, he wasn’t positioned at the flanks or front but was surrounded by a group of Blackfire cultists. Brandon didn’t need to think twice to recognize them as high-ranking Blackfire cultists. He also spotted several towering one-armed demons among them—Bachisa demons, legends said that warriors whose souls fell into hell transformed into these creatures. They were among the few offensive low-tier demons.
The first half of the lizardfolk army had already passed.
Brandon glanced left and right, asking, “Where’s Antietta?”
“Lady Antietta was called away by Lady Roma,” Tiger Finch replied.
“Oh,” Brandon muttered. He had been slightly worried about leaving Roma unsupervised, fearing she might cause trouble. But knowing Antietta was with her eased his mind somewhat. All that remained was to handle this battle properly.
He stared down at the valley, where the lizardfolk remained oblivious to the deadly trap hidden on the slope. Drawing his sword—its blade dark and unreflective—he pointed it downward.
This was the signal to attack.
The night’s slaughter began with the powerful twang of quad-arm crossbows. The mercenaries braced the weapons against their shoulders, aiming carefully at their pre-selected targets. Clenching their teeth, they pulled the triggers. The metal strings snapped back to their original state with a series of dull thuds, sending dust flying as the stored elastic potential energy unleashed a torrent of kinetic force.
The battle had begun.
From the lizardfolk’s perspective, just as a series of muffled booms echoed, over a dozen streaks shot out from the forest on the slope. Before they could fully turn their heads, more than ten of their comrades on the outermost edges collapsed, struck by crossbow bolts. Though most hadn’t been hit in vital areas, the sheer impact incapacitated them temporarily.
Ambush.
These incompletely evolved reptiles instinctively scrambled into battle formation, but the second wave of attacks arrived as promised. The lizardfolk crossbowmen with ranged capabilities were systematically targeted, and panic descended upon them like an unavoidable catastrophe. Then, the bushes parted, revealing a line of silver-armored elven warriors wielding double-edged swords. Though only twenty strong, they moved with impeccable order, as if they were still fighting on the battlefields of seven centuries ago, with the might of the Silver Elven Empire of Hayaran behind them.
Their presence was overwhelming.
The low-ranking Dark Priest of the Blackfire nearly froze in terror. He thought the ancient empire had reappeared in retaliation for the lizardfolk’s desecration of the Silver Elven King’s tomb. When the Silver Elves emerged, he nearly contemplated murdering that wretched lizardfolk leader Hjúkigr. After all, these were the legendary warriors of the Holy War.
Twenty gold-rank warriors made the Dark Priest’s hands tremble.
He hoped the lizardfolk cannon fodder would buy him some time, but things went from bad to worse. When the first squad of Silver Elves charged into the dense lizardfolk ranks, their sheer momentum sent the emaciated creatures flying into the air before crashing back down, either dead or severely wounded. Fully armored elven heavy infantry carved a path through the enemy, trampling over those who hadn’t managed to rise.
The battle was brutally one-sided. Despite outnumbering the Silver Elves tenfold, the lizardfolk were iron-rank amateurs facing gold-rank elites—a massacre.
As the elven guards began their charge, the mercenaries were reloading their crossbows for the third volley. Meanwhile, Brandon, Tiger Finch, and the Silver Elf commander simultaneously joined the fray. Of the three, Brandon was undoubtedly the fastest. From the start of the battle, he had noticed something unusual—not a bad omen, quite the opposite. His allocatable experience points were steadily climbing upward.
Logically, though Rubis’ Mercenaries and the Gray Wolves were his summons and subordinates, the bulk of the damage was dealt by the Silver Elves. As allies, they shared experience points. In theory, fighting alongside high-level characters (the Silver Elves were level 40) should have significantly reduced his share of the experience.
And yet...
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