The Amber Sword

Chapter 232 – The city of trees (3)

“My apologies, I lost myself there……”

Medissa drew a breath and composed herself with a hand on her chest and continued her words:

“The term Arcadian Grade is used in the War of the Holy Saints, and it’s used to describe the strength of the different fiefs. Trentheim is an unfounded Arcadian Grade land. The Mana in the air is typically scattered, but with such close proximity to the Wilderness, it is pulled in and turned into Chaos energy, which gives rise to corrupted creatures. Mana Pools can be constructed in places of abundant Mana. There are natural Mana Pools as well, but they are actually lairs and dens of monsters.”

“So that’s how monsters are formed!” Romaine tapped her lips with an inquisitive finger: “But what do these Mana Pools have to do with the strength of a fief? Strange…… Isn’t it dangerous to have monsters appearing in the city because you have too many Mana Pools, right?”

Medissa laughed and explained:

“Be it the humans, Elves, or other races, they had fought in the past to vie for such places abundant with Mana. These creatures raised in the city by sentient races, and they are loyal to them. In addition, Mana Pools are useful for cultivating Mana Crystals. One can even build a Mage Tower on top of such a place. These structures are used to empower the fiefs’ lords. Extremely powerful cities that have mature Mana Pools are qualified to be called as Elysian Strongholds.

The concept of a Magic City is different from the definition of a territory. Many older races respect the lords ruling over the Magic cities. A human noble like Graudin receives the fear and reluctant respect of the ordinary citizens in Aouine, but in the eyes of the other races, this man is worthless.

But Brendel did not have such a worry. Firburh already had a place where natural Mana gathered, and now he had three more. He originally planned to make Valhalla’s Mana Pool to be exclusively used for a Hydra Nest, but it seems that he had more choices.

But he quickly discovered something else.

[Huh? The bottom Mana Pool is being used? What’s this ‘Whirlpool of Light’ structure?]

After fiddling with the system’s windows in his retina, he discovered it was a type of Nest, able to create creatures called Light Spirits. The words sounded like Heroic Spirits or Light Elemental creatures when he rolled the name with his tongue.

[A natural Nest in this fortress. It’s definitely a delightful shock. Special Nests in any particular era are unique, unlike the common ones such as Black Wolves and Wyverns. A Nest from Valhalla would never belong to the latter, and typically creatures from that era are powerful. I really want to find out what these Light Spirits are.]

He immediately suggested exploring the lower sections. The girls naturally did not object to it, and only Felaern stayed behind with the reason of leaving someone behind as contact in case there were messengers bringing information about Firburh. If the mercenaries did not find anyone in the World Tree, they might panic, so it would be good for her to stay behind.

Brendel could only praise the older Wild Elf sister’s meticulous thinking. Only Felaern and Amandina would be particular about such details. The latter could not follow him on this trip due to the matters in Firburh, and only this eternal poker-faced Felaern accompanied him with this trifling issues. Even though she looked like she was always unwilling to do it, she constantly performed impressively.

Brendel and the others eventually discovered the entrance to Valhalla’s lower section, and they entered the room where the Whirlpool of Light was.

The lower section of Valhalla was a hollow section of the tree. The walls and ceiling were made out of wood, appearing as though they had been processed by artificial means to make them smooth, but there were also random vines that decorated the place that made it feel natural.

There was a small area with glowing blue crystals scattered all over it, and vines twisted to from an archway over a door. The center of the door was a whirlpool of golden light, reaching over three meters which slowly churned in a clockwise direction. There seemed to be a tunnel in the eye of that whirlpool bridging two worlds. A golden ray was pouring out from it, as though it was a bridge suspended in mid-air.

There were some other vegetations in the room’s corners. They reflected different colors from the door’s illuminations, making people feel like they were in a dreamlike place.

“Brendel, this place is so pretty!” Romaine could not help but exclaim.

“This place is a Nest. It seems the door is some kind of portal that bridges two different worlds?” Medissa asked.

Brendel nodded.