abcnovels
Chapter 218: Tidying Up 3
Chapter 218: Tidying Up 3
Chapter 218: Tidying Up 3
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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A faint sky-blue light, like a serene azure, illuminated the guild's open space.
It was a vicious aura capable of slicing through people and rocks as easily as tofu, yet outwardly, it appeared as beautiful as the lights of a laser show.
A naive country bumpkin, unaware of the ways of the world, might see Katie and mistake her for a beautiful witch, readily prostrating themselves before her.
Each time the sound of slicing through the air faintly echoed, one could feel a chill on their skin.
This is why her title changed from Sword Princess to Frost Blade - the pale blue aura emitted a coldness that seems to flow in streams.
Hoo, how is it?
"Great, it's hard to believe you just awakened to this power. It's so strong."
Katie Wesley, hailing from the North, naturally possessed the swordsmanship of the Northern Knights.
It was the sword of pioneers who lived and fought monsters in the perpetual snow of towering mountain peaks and pristine snowfields a sword for survival.
Perhaps that's why her sword carried the essence of the North.
Despite being a swordsman, her elemental damage is incredibly strong.
It wasn't just about intimidating with an imposing aura; the coldness emanating from the aura was so intense that it could freeze the wounds it caused.
It was advantageous in clashes of auras, and a direct hit on the skin would instantly freeze and tear the flesh.
In game terms, it applied speed and defense debuffs to close enemies - the ice type that always showed overpowered performance in almost any game.
A stark contrast to a natural 3 archer who only gets to ignore 80% of defense/resistance.
Slowness, frostbite and freezing, defense increase, temporary invincibility, blizzard area attacks, critical damage from shattering...
For a moment, PTSD from ice attribute overpowered characters threatened to resurface, but I managed to hold onto my sanity, recalling it was a story from 10 years ago.
Even someone who went crazy over game characters' genders and spammed macros would change a bit after 10 years.
Is this cool aura the power of the Wesley family?
Yes, it's a characteristic of our family's swordsmanship.
Despite trying to avoid and deflect as much as possible to not overwhelm with my passive, her aura was gradually being chipped away.
It seemed unlikely for an equal swordsman to defeat Katie.
If both wielded the same power in a swordfight, but only one side suffered, who would win?
Katie only had to endure the shockwaves of the aura, whereas her opponent would have to deal with the fluctuating aura, their sword and armor freezing, and the numbing cold and sluggishness enveloping their skin.
It's great, really great. The way your swordsmanship and aura blend is truly befitting a prestigious and venerable house.
Hehe, thanks for the compliment.
Although she never managed to land an effective hit on me, Katie's expression was one of pure delight.
The first reason was her reaching the advanced stage of emitting sword energy at a very young age, and the second was that, at least at the advanced level, one could intuitively sense the power of their own sword.
As Katie and I tested the power of our auras through our swordplay, Grace, who had been busily shooting arrows at my shield and cleaning up afterward, was now in a close conversation with Han Se-ah.
Grace's skill was a passive that ignored 80% of the opponent's defense and resistance when hitting important points.
However, there were opponents without important points, and even with the ability to ignore defense, a thin arrow was hardly a threat to massive beings like ogres.
Therefore, Han Se-ah believed the crucial part of the skill was not the '80% defense ignore' but the '80% resistance ignore'.
Regardless of the skill's specifications, Grace was an experienced archer who could skillfully use alchemical arrowheads, and Han Se-ah had chosen alchemy as her secondary profession.
Should I go deeper into alchemy then?
Are you interested in alchemy?
Mmm, especially after encountering that troll, and thinking about making arrows for Grace.
-No, it's about time you learn some serious damage-dealing skills. Don't just prepare the bus fare.
-Riding on Roland's coattails, now looking for someone else to carry her.
-If everyone becomes 5 after passing the 40th floor, doesnt that mean the players become senior-level too?
-Senior mage (doesn't learn advanced magic, makes arrows, a porter).
It probably started when she was roaming the city to light up the mini-map.
Before roughly hunting the full moon wolf, when newbie Han Se-ah was easily passing through the early floors riding on the Roland bus and filming a hunting movie as a mage, not a porter, against goblins.
Though I didnt see it broadcasted, at some point, Han Se-ah became a mage-alchemist, carrying things like wolf lure scents.
Whether the secondary job tutorial forced her or she explored alchemy workshops while illuminating the map, I couldnt be sure.
Should I have captured that troll earlier and turned it into a bomb?
Even so, Han Se-ah wasn't sincerely into alchemy.
She was a player interested in being a mage, not in alchemy.
It was the typical behavior of an RPG player who briefly explores something out of initial interest, only to lose that interest soon after.
The problem was that its usefulness became apparent later.
Grace, labeled as a ranger, was not just someone who could shoot a bow well, but more like a special forces unit traversing mountains.
This meant her ability to pierce through 80% of an opponent's resistance was significant.
It meant she could inject all sorts of vicious alchemical poisons directly into important points.
If she could just penetrate the skin with reduced defense, ignoring 80% resistance with her deadly poison, like a needle into a child's buttock, she could compensate for her lack of attack power with various status debuffs.
Within an unbreakable protective shield, a mage skilled in support spells, an archer injecting deadly alchemical arrows, an unyielding top-tier tank, and a frost blade warrior slowing down any flanking enemies.
The very thought of such a revolting combination was enough to make one shudder.
And yet, that was the hero party of this era.
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Raei Translations
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Regardless of whether the hero party employed such ruthless tactics or not, time outside the tower moved on.
The temple, without any intention of hiding it, acknowledged the adventurer mage Hanna as a hero destined to oppose the Demon King and declared unlimited support for her tower climb.
This included free use of bases and gates, provision of potions and other materials for climbing, and the authority to summon temple knights if monsters became too overwhelming, among other things.
Various game systems were in place for Han Se-ah, who was a 'player' in the guise of a 'hero party'.
In simpler terms, it meant that they were willing to overlook the tightness of one's wallet due to the increased difficulty.
Higher difficulty meant more extended leveling, and more extended leveling naturally led to a thicker wallet.
It seemed like a grand gesture of support, but in reality, it was of little substance, almost desperately trying to balance the game.
However, the lack of substance didn't change the fact that it was a big deal.
And when something big happens, there are always those in this fantasy world ready to poke their heads in
Ugh, I'm sick of this.
Im starting to miss the North
These were the city's nobles.
Nobles who rushed in, jingling their purses of gold coins, just at the story of the full moon wolves.
The temple had declared the existence of a 'hero following the Goddess's will to overthrow the Demon King', so how could they stay still?
It reached a point where even the amiable Irene, who was a nun at the temple before she was part of the hero party, had to ask people to come through the temple if they wanted to talk.
While I was busy catching a few purses of gold coins, the rest of our party nearly fled to the 35th floor, hiding in a corner of the tent village.
Though the tent village had far less adequate facilities than accommodations outside, after hearing every three, no, every five minutes about another noble's visit, the corner of the tent village felt less like a harsh living space and more like a leisurely vacation spot.
"Why are they doing this, all of them?"
"Because they're city nobles."
What does that mean?
They're nobles with money but no territories, so they're more desperate.
Han Se-ah, who had been wandering around the city thinking of leveling up her alchemy, also ended up fleeing here.
The way the sticky nobles behaved was enough to startle her, far worse than her previous ordeal with the mages of the magic tower.
The mages were driven by intellectual curiosity, but the nobles were motivated by money, honor, the desire to recruit, the pretense of piety, the facade of being hearty and loving freedom like adventurers...
There were countless reasons they clung on.
-In the RPG I used to play, only the guards' dialogues changed.
-Politicians are the same, whether in the modern world or a medieval fantasy, damn them.
[This chat has been deleted by the mod]
-Thought wed leisurely wait for the 40th-floor gate to open, lol.
-Feels like a simulation of a celebrity being chased by obsessive fans.
Ah, we cant have political discussions. But still, when Roland took money from the nobles, I didn't think much of it, but experiencing it myself, it's intense... Maybe as a famous adventurer, I'll get better at dealing with nobles after more experience?"
It was mostly because Han Se-ah was the hero of the hero party that she attracted the most nobles.
Even Katie, a noble lady who had been part of the social circles before her coming of age, was shocked, indicating the nobles established in the city of adventurers had an even more unyielding side.
Thus, avoiding the self-proclaimed baron who boasted of his hefty donations to the temple, the baron who claimed to have many acquaintances in the capital, and another baron who had been eyeing us since the full moon wolf incident, we stayed on the 35th floor.
It was then that an even bigger figure made an appearance.
Um, excuse me Hanna? The temple sent a message that the princess wishes to meet with us.
Really, sister? The princess? For real?
Yes. Someone from the kingdom's knights came and informed Father Ambrosio."
A princess, of noble blue blood, incomparable to the lesser nobility who can't even offer a succession of lands.
The problem is, as far as I know, this kingdom only had two princes.
Why do they keep adding and fitting in new settings...