The Amber Sword

Chapter 2 – Sophie’s world

Even though this house was old it was immaculate. The former owner had cleaned it very well.

Sophie raised his head to look at the half skeleton that he pushed away earlier. A pile of broken bones sat quietly there. Brendel’s counter attack before his death resulted in the only casualty amongst the undead scouts. He knew that these soldiers indeed lack intelligence, but the necromancer controlling them was not. This mistake could not be attributed to the youth’s fault, because he did not know about this at all.

During this peaceful era, there were not many who knew about this.

That sliced painting laid flatly on the floor. The skeleton’s soldier’s cold sword was not far away. Sophie’s pupils dilated slightly. The Madara troops most likely intended to attack straight after the scouts retreated as they did not even pack the place up.

But this certainly conformed to Sophie’s memory about the War of the Black Rose.

“Hmm?”

Sophie raised his eyebrow a little. His gaze laid about the sliced painting. He did not see wrongly, there was a hidden layer on the painting frame’s surface.

Wait, the ancestor’s painting? Sophie suddenly remembered, perhaps this was the famous painting of Bucce?

He immediately struggled over with strenuous effort, and vigilantly kept his ears open at the same time. Sophie knew that the necromancer that killed Brendel was of the lowest level, but even it was more then enough to do away with a normal person.

Within the ‘game’, the low level necromancers were able to use the novice ranks of Black Magic, able to conjure up ghouls and skeletons in the nearby cemetery. They are naturally crafty and experienced in sneak attacks. It could be said that they were a big threat to people who did not understand them.

But Sophie was different, because he probably understood them more than they understood themselves.

He laid on the ground and tore the painting frame open. A clink rang out as a ring rolled onto the ground. At this time he could not help but took a breath lightly. The design of the ring was too familiar to him. The ring that was made of silver glimmered slightly in the dark. In addition to the looping appearance, there was a Holy Phoenix symbol on the center of it.

Such a design was rarely seen in the Aouine southern region.

This was the northern Sanorso’s national emblem.

Sophie carefully rubbed the ring. This was the famous Ring of the Wind Empress, a mission reward for the ‘Bucce’s painting’, but this mission vanished along with the next patch. Ultimately the people who knew and completed this mission were very few.

Sophie was not one of them. He only heard of this tale before. In the legend, this was a fake keepsake belonging to one of the four saint, Delutte, how did Brendel’s grandfather had this?

The Ring of the Wind Empress’s effect was Agility+1, and it could expend the energy within to launch a wind bullet to strike at the enemies in front. In the game it was able to absorb a little energy every ten minutes, but it was unknown whether it was the same here.

He looked at the ring and his heart raced for a moment, even forgetting the dangers of his surroundings. This ring’s appearance had partially answered his guess, that this world was one that he was familiar with.

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Sophie exhaled without being able to suppress himself. His current mood were swayed from the succession of events, but his hesitation was short and he slowly put it on his forefinger. Magic rings only worked when worn on the forefinger or thumb. In Roens, the region between the thumb and forefinger were called by the Talan witches as ‘The domain of sacred mystery’. They believed that it was where mana was gathered in the human body, and many gestures were evolved from that starting point.

Naturally to Sophie, that was merely a game rule that he adopted as a subconscious behavior.

“Bang!”

He was about to test the effects of the ring, when a large sound in the first floor transmitted over and made him turned his head abruptly.

Sophie’s heart was startled and immediately became alert. It was possible that an undead made that sound, and even when it was not, there was the possibility of alerting the enemies outside. He quickly abandoned the painting in his hands and retreated against the wall intuitively and then carefully gazed into the living room below.

He instantly saw a suspicious figure.

It was a young girl wearing a simple leather dress who carefully approached inside. She looked around to the left and right, but despite her tense appearance she did not pay attention to what was above her. She tightly gripped something like a hammer used for masonry with slight difficulty. She seemed to be searching for something based on her looks.

Sophie sighed.

He coughed. It was not very loud but in this empty house it appeared to resound loudly.

The girl was evidently startled and raised her head, her face awfully pale. In his heart, the young girl could be considered as a beauty. Her chestnut hair was bundled up in a dignified fashion, but her silky smooth forehead along with thin long eyes made her look enchanting. Her eyebrows were slightly raised, with her eyes clear but bewildered. Her nose was pointed and straight, and one look let one knew that she had a fiercely independent personality.

She had a special quality about her but she definitely could not be called a lady. At least when one saw her gripping the masonry hammer, with her leather dress hanging a cowskin bag found in the southern region used by merchants, they could not view her as a noble girl from an upstanding family.

The young girl quickly saw Sophie and relaxed instead. She let out a long breath and patted her chest, and displayed a beautiful smile: “So it’s you, Brendel, you scared me.”

“Miss Romain, how did you come in here?” Sophie felt a headache coming up when he saw her.

This was a girl that Brendel had always adored. She and her aunt lived in the opposite house, and she usually had some quaint aspirations, for an example, she wanted to go out to the outside world to become a travelling merchant.

Sophie thought her view did not make any sense. A traveling merchant in Aouine was not a respectable job, and some of the citizens grouped them together with conmen and thieves.

In the Anson sixth century, there was a time when these people collaborated together and were greatly despised, and even named as ‘People who had two mouths and three hands.’

The two mouths meant they were glib and good at deceiving. The three hands meant they did not kept their hands to themselves, often stealing and doing unclean things. They could be said to be one of the biggest great threat to public order. when Sophie was a newbie back in his era, eight out of ten missions were about them.

“I climbed into your window from your kitchen outside, ah that’s right, your house window is really small! It nearly tore my dress.” The young girl complained as she bent her waist to fix the corners of her dress.

“Nobody let you in to come in from there right!” With the inheritance of Brendel’s memory, Sophie had a certain immunity to this girl’s personality, but he could not help but grumble in his heart.

“I’m not asking you about this,” He shook his head: “I’m asking you, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

“I’m worried about you, Brendel,” Romain answered while she looked around, her expression incredibly curious: “You did see it right, this skeleton?”

She noticed it too? Sophie saw that the girl’s eyes were on his chest.

“You’re injured?” The future merchant girl titled her head and blinked.

“Yeah.....”

“Let me see,” She grabbed her dress and ran up noisily up the stairs, and clawed at the youth’s hand which was pressing against the injury, “Come on, take your hand away, what are you covering it for, your wounds will get infected!” She grumbled, and peered at his wound.

She drew a sharp breath and raised her head: “This is such a terrible wound!”

Sophie felt the girl’s cold hand grabbing his own, and his heart skipped a beat. Even though he knew this belonged to Brendel’s feelings, he did not make an effort to stop it.

“It’s fine.....”

“Fine—, are you mad!?” The merchant girl gave him a look of reproach, then she dug the cowskin bag hanging on her leather dress: “Just wait a little, I think I brought bandages....”

Sophie looked at her with interest.

He knew that the things in her bag were her precious treasures. Over half of them were strange things, the seashells from the seaside, glass marbles of different colors, a bronze whistle, old coins from the ancient past, and various other things. Most of them are not worth any money, but there were rarely seen in this region.

This future merchant girl’s biggest interest was to dig things from this pile of old stuff. Even though they had no money to speak off, she always managed to buy cheap and rare things that she loved.

He held Romain’s hand and shook his head: “Let’s go into the room and search, it’s too dangerous here.”

“I’m not afraid of these bones,” She glanced up at him as she finally found a first aid box: “Do you know how to tie it? I don’t know how to do it.”

Sophie opened the box and retrieved bandages and hemostatic cotton, and paused for a while in confusion. He originally planned to find these emergency supplies, but his consciousness still treated this world like a game. Once he applied the bandages in the game, it would automatically stopped the bleeding and replenish his blood, but he suddenly realized doing it in the real world was a professional skill. He could not possibly randomly go round his injury a few times right?

“Brendel, do you want me to try?” Miss Romain looked like she’s about to lunge at him.

“Nope.” Sophie quickly rejected her. Even if he had nine lives, he should not waste it like that.

He suddenly felt that this last resort was not a bad one, if this was how the game did it then just do it like the game. If he died he would just blame the gods. He bit one end of the bandages and took off his shirt, then wrapped the bandages from the side across the injury round after round. He was at least a veteran at doing this inside the game, and so he could be considered as well trained, and he carefully avoided to tie too tightly.

But he promptly stopped.

He saw a light green number, +1, slowly floating from his injury.

At that moment it was like a bomb had suddenly blasted in his mind and rang in his ears. He could not remember what he should do next. But he immediately reacted to it, and shouted in his mind like he was Professor Xavier: “Stats! Stats! Oh my gosh, just come out right now!”

He waited with a heart filled with expectations and dread, and after a second, a series of data appeared and floated on his arms, legs, joints, torso and his heart.

Strength 1.0, Agility 2.0 , Physique 0.9

Then another set of data appeared in his eyes like a ghost suddenly appearing:

Intelligence 1.1, Will 1.3, Perception 1.0

Overall power rating 1.0, Element (Sealed)

These set of data and lines of words, were like a waterfall gushing out, and poured forth into a translucent window panel:

Brendel, Human male, Level 1 (Strength type body: Physical, Close combat)

XP: 1 (Commoner level 1 —-, Civilian soldier level 1)

Health (Weakened): 60% (Bandaged status, 1 HP will be recovered every day)

Skills

Commoner [Basic knowledge (Level 1), Geography Knowledge (Level 0), Local knowledge (Level 1)]

Civilian Soldier [Military Swordsplay (Level 1), Grappling techniques (Level 1), Tactical Theory (Level 0), Military Organization (Level 0)]

Just as expected, just as expected!

Sophie wanted to say that the feelings of a normal person who just scored five million dollars would probably react the same way like he did.

Was this a dream?

No, he knew that a person within a dream would not be able to think so logically, and very few people would even think they were in such a dream.

Then was he still in the game?

No, the current year was the 2nd era of the 19th year.

The young man felt his mind was in a fine mess. All the strange thoughts sprang out in a rush and made him felt a little giddy. But Sophie shook his head and understood that it was reality.

Mother Marsha, do you really exist here?

Sophie could not help but prayed heavily in his heart to the the ultimate goddess. He stared blankly at the virtual data reflected on his retinas, and could not help but ask himself:

“Isn’t this your world, Sophie? What else did you want?”

Yes, as a veteran who had over 130 levels, what else could he ask for? Experience, he had them. Knowledge of the future, he also had them.

If these things did not allow them to control his own fate, then he really would have committed suicide by smashing his head against the wall. But truly, the feeling of a confident heart was so good, so very good.