Otaku Translation: The Amber Sword V3C65

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Chapter 65: The King Beneath the Earth, Part 16

The black blood slowly spread beneath the dwarf’s body.

If a needle had fallen from the sky at that moment, its faint ting upon hitting the ground would have been audible to everyone.

Even the cheers in the coliseum had ceased.

Joka’s throat emitted a faint gurgle as he instinctively turned to look at Mahler. Almost telepathically, Mahler also glanced back, and both saw disbelief mirrored in each other’s eyes.

Who exactly was this young man?

Even the most ignorant among them now realized that was no ordinary individual.

But Brandon himself was caught in a storm of emotions. Barely weeks after , he had once again entered that ineffable state—

Time and space seemed to slow to a standstill. The third definition of was on the tip of his tongue, yet it remained just out of reach, like a thin veil separating him from understanding. He sensed two distinct principles—but the opportunity slipped away as the arena erupted into noise once more.

The clamor drowned everything, and reality snapped back.

Brandon stood still for a long while before exhaling deeply. It was still too early. If he had reached mid-, he might have broken through to the second stage of the Elemental Wall. But progress wasn’t guaranteed, even for those who reached the peak of gold rank. Understanding the rules of the world was crucial; many prodigies spent their entire lives stuck at gold rank.

It wasn’t intelligence alone that unlocked truths. Sometimes, simplicity brought clarity. And Brandon knew well that such things often relied heavily on luck.

He wasn’t one to overly rely on chance. If worse came to worst, he could always force his way through with the help of ancient stone tablets wielded by wizards.

Unlike most, Brandon had contingencies.

Still, this experience wasn’t without merit. His grasp of stasis and stability had deepened significantly. He was now certain it was tied to . Glancing at the sword Kulan had lent him, he noticed translucent ripples shimmering along its blade.

Elemental Power: Indestructible, +20% accuracy correction, +100% speed, +10% cold damage.

His retinas immediately analyzed the properties of these ripples. This was elemental power—though incomplete, it had shifted from latent to manifest, akin to Cinnabar’s lightning or ’s soul energy.

In terms of raw power, Brandon now stood on equal footing with Cinnabar and Metissa. But in practical combat? He glanced at Kulan, thinking that even against upper-tier gold rank opponents, he now had a fighting chance.

If memory served, the first explicit enhancement for lightning was: extended attack range, +20% speed, and +30% lightning damage.

The disparity was clear.

Lightning, a subordinate of wind, paled in comparison to top-tier elements like space. In , players couldn’t acquire powers beyond the "basic element" tier in the early stages. Later, only a handful—duke guild leaders or famous pay-to-win players—could ascend to higher tiers via the "cocooning" quest.

But Brandon’s NPC status bypassed these restrictions. Space element. He felt like dumping a bucket of water over his head to cool down.

Before he could dwell further, the booming voice interrupted:

"Mortal, will you accept the next challenge?"

All eyes focused on Brandon in the center of the sandy arena. They had doubted him earlier, but now they realized he possessed the ability to save them—far beyond their expectations.

Mahler still couldn’t believe Brandon surpassed the aged guard captain, let alone by such a wide margin.

Under their watchful gaze, Brandon snapped his fingers, opening Yuta’s cage, then nodded.

The challenge moved to the next phase.

"My lord," Metissa approached, her silver-gray eyes studying the young lord. Born during the , she didn’t find gold rank particularly remarkable. For humans and Silver Elves alike, reaching gold rank before twenty was almost expected.

Still, having experienced it herself, she asked, "How are you feeling?" She understood what had transpired earlier.

Brandon said nothing, merely raising the sword for the Silver Elf princess to inspect.

"Ah!" Metissa was stunned. "Space element."

"What?" Brandon raised an eyebrow, catching the surprise in her tone. "Isn’t space element common in your era?"

In his mind, the Holy War was an age of rampant monstrosities. Geniuses like Tumen were plentiful, so surely space element users weren’t rare?

After all, in the later stages of Amber Sword, though rare, there were over a dozen players wielding space or time elements.

"Where?" Metissa blinked in confusion. "Back then, only Akas, the founder of the Tower of Stars and Moons and leader of the Silver Alliance, wielded the space element."

"Earlier than that, only the Dragon of Darkness," she added.

"Huh?" Brandon broke into a sweat. Though well-versed in game lore, he hadn’t known this level of detail. Metissa’s explanation enlightened him but also made him reflect:

So Amber Sword ultimately compromised for gameplay balance. Thinking of the hundreds of players wielding top-tier elements, he couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.

As they spoke, the eastern gate rose. Everyone stared intently as orderly hoofbeats echoed from the shadows behind the fence, startling them.

When the first enemy appeared in Brandon’s view, he narrowed his eyes.

A knight—or rather, a tin figure mounted on a puppet horse—emerged. They carried round shields in their left hands, lances in their right, surrounded by four-colored runes.

"," Brandon murmured to Metissa.

"What’s that?"

"A invention. Be careful—they’re peak silver rank." Brandon and Yuta, the mercenary leader, spoke almost simultaneously.

Hazael lay west of Cruzean, separated by towering mountains. The Hazael people weren’t descendants of the Holy War sages but hailed from another continent. Their civilization revered , fielding the largest armies equipped with firearms and artillery in Vonder.

They even deployed tanks and primitive aircraft. Despite constant wars with Cruzean, neither side gained significant advantages on the battlefield—a testament to Hazael’s resilience.

Yuta felt a pang as she watched the opened cage. She’d assumed Brandon would prioritize rescuing Cinnabar, but he hadn’t spared them a glance. Clearly, he intended to save everyone, regardless of order.

Her words didn’t elicit a response from Cinnabar but caught the youths’ attention. Thirty metal cavalry emerged, each peak silver rank.

The first-round Cerberus hound was also peak silver, but now the difficulty skyrocketed thirtyfold.

"So many…" someone whispered.

"This is unfair!" Joka had conveniently forgotten his earlier skepticism about Brandon bringing Metissa along.

"Fighting outnumbered is despicable," Mahler muttered.

"Outnumbered?"

Brandon caught the phrase, looking toward the edge of the arena. Smiling inwardly, he turned to Metissa, pointing at the metal cavalry. "Watch their lances. From the grip to the midpoint is a firing mechanism—six barrels in total."

"Barrels?" Metissa frowned.

Brandon remembered magitech was only a recent development. "Think of it as a powerful crossbow with immense penetration. While not lethal to us, getting hit will still hurt."

"And protect your eyes and throat."

Metissa nodded.

"Their four runes cycle through attack modes. Red is heat ray, blue is ice shield, cyan is acceleration, yellow is rock armor. Focus on red—it’s ranged."

"Understood." Magic was familiar to Metissa, but Hazael’s intricate designs intrigued her.

Buga’s Craftsmen Wizards created powerful artifacts, but none so refined.

"Do we have a plan, my lord?" she asked.

Two early-gold fighters against ten peak-silver foes was already pushing limits. Though she and Brandon far exceeded ordinary gold ranks, facing thirty peak-silver enemies head-on would still be taxing.

Brandon shook his head. "Just protect yourself. Leave the rest to me."

Metissa paused.

She then saw Brandon raise a hand and snap his fingers. The sharp sound reverberated across the arena as the light dimmed overhead.

Instinctively, everyone looked up—and froze.

Over two hundred , each bearing radiant holy swords, blanketed the sky above the coliseum. The sight silenced the crowd.

"Fighting outnumbered?" Brandon lowered his hand, glancing at the youths. "That’s my line."

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