Summoning the Holy Sword

As the young ladies were whispering about Agatha’s origin, Rhode confirmed with the young lady herself on the main issues. As Marlene had predicted, Agatha was an Ocean Elf of the Silver Ocean in the Seven Fantasy Boundaries. She came to this world and contracted with Rhode as his servant to manage the entire Fortress.

Logistically speaking, the Ocean Elves were a very beneficial addition. They had close relations with the water element and could use water elemental spells to a certain extent. An ordinary Ocean Elf possessed a level 10 Mage player’s strength. Although they weren’t formidable in battle, they were more than enough for Rhode. Rhode found out from Agatha that the Ocean Elves were experts in cleaning and reorganizing. Their outstanding water affinity allowed them to excel in the cleaning and dredging of the entire Fortress. At the same time, she was also able to take up the role of the patrol guards to patrol uninhabited areas. Without a doubt, the Ocean Elves could deal with robbers and bandits; however, handling the mercenaries were out of their capabilities.

However, Rhode had no intention of sending any Ocean Elves to be a part of the patrol team.

According to Agatha, the Fortress’ low level only allowed Rhode to summon up to 50 Ocean Elves, including herself. However, she continued to reassure Rhode with her rigorous, confident and blank expression that these 50 Ocean Elves would be enough to complete the daily chores in the Fortress.

As the saying goes, seeing is believing.

Rhode summoned the other 49 Ocean Elves and although there were many of them, the spacious hall was enough to accommodate all of them. Most of them appeared to be quiet, well-behaved, and had beautiful features, unlike Agatha who was expressionless, like an ice sculpture. Even so, the presence of the 50 Ocean Elves gathered in the hall was rather strong, especially with the chill from their bodies giving Marlene and the others the illusion as though they were on the summit of a northern mountain.

“Lize,” Rhode turned around after completing his negotiations with Agatha and gestured to Lize.

“Yes, Mr. Rhode?” Lize scuttled towards Rhode and questioned curiously.

“Bring Agatha and her companions for a tour around the Fortress and assign them their work respectively. By the way, don’t forget to inform Kavos and Marfa because, after all, these Ocean Elves have unique identities, so we don’t want to startle them. Also, notify the mercenaries in advance so they won’t treat them as monsters and attack them,” instructed Rhode.

Lapis let out an awkward cough and lowered her head in embarrassment. “This… is nothing much, Sir Rhode. I was just following your instructions to modify the potion recipes. After all, there are many ingredients that we lack… But this is really too difficult…”

No wonder.

Rhode secretly let out a long sigh. As Starlight had just been established, they didn’t have too much money to purchase expensive Magic Herbs. Meanwhile, the Magic Herbs in the wild around the Fortress didn’t make the cut for high-level potions. Therefore, Rhode designated Lapis a task to test if she could modify these high-level potion recipes into more ‘common’ ones. But it seemed that this experiment didn’t proceed smoothly. “Be careful; don’t hurt yourself. You must take care of your health too.”

“Ah… Yes… Sir Rhode,” Lapis felt her heart skip a beat and she lowered her head hastily to conceal the blush on her face. Then, she spoke as though to cover up for her embarrassing actions. “B-B-By the way, Sir Rhode, are you here to see the badge? I’ve completed them. Please wait for a moment.”

After a succession of clumsy clatters, the young lady ran back with a square badge that matched Rhode’s guild flag. Through the carved silver gap, an embedded magical crystal that resembled a meter dial could be vaguely seen.

“I have made it according to Sir Rhode’s instruction and everything has met your requirements.” Lapis pinned the badge to her chest and withdrew a dagger from her waist. She used her other hand to rotate the pointer on the badge to one its four sides. In a blink of an eye, a red radiance enveloped Lapis entirely and her dagger blade began to blaze with flames.

“Elemental Badge: the holder will receive the corresponding buff in the attack, defense, and elemental attributes by turning the pointer on this badge. This will activate the badge’s effect using the spiritual energy within the holder’s body. The complicated mutual relationships of the Four Main Elements must be respected, so the effects aren’t that powerful… This current badge contains about 30% of the total attack and defense power.” Lapis rotated the pointer on the badge once again and the red radiance had been replaced with a layer of green radiance. Meanwhile, the flames on her dagger transformed into a slightly visible wind aura.

“Not bad,” Rhode nodded in satisfaction. “So how do we use it?”

“Just as Sir Rhode has mentioned, the holder has to use his or her blood to activate it. After the activation is completed, only the holder can use it.”

“Good.” Rhode examined the accessory closely after taking it from Lapis. Although this accessory wasn’t considered top-notch, it was a somewhat high-grade equipment for the mercenaries. If everything was as per Lapis had mentioned, the second 5 Star Mission wouldn’t be too challenging for Rhode anymore.

Rhode kept the badge and patted Lapis’s shoulder. “You did well, Lapis. I will give you your reward now.”

“Reward?” Lapis’s eyes beamed in dazzling anticipation. Then, Rhode withdrew a scroll from the fold in his clothes.

“What’s this, Sir Rhode?” Lapis tilted her head to the side and asked curiously.

“This is the Defense Formation of the Construct Guards,” answered Rhode.