The Amber Sword

Chapter 24 – Withered trees

The deeper they went into the mountain pathway, the more desolate the scenery became. There was nearly no vegetation on the ground, and the path that was void of life was filled with intersecting rocks that appeared like sharp fangs.

Wilted brambles and grass had grown from within the cracks of the walls. Withered trees seemed to manifest themselves in the distant darkness. The cold wind could be heard blowing through tree branches like ghastly whispers.

Brendel knew that Demonic Trees drained the nutrients from the soil and turned into this to a barren wilderness that people came to know about. He raised his torch, and there were occasional decrepit skeletons that appeared in the shadows. They appeared to be animals like mountain goats which had accidentally barged into this forbidden area, and turned into the Demonic Trees’ food.

Romaine nimbly followed behind with her torch raised with one hand, while she gripped her bag with the other and looked everywhere with curiosity and tension. This was the first time that she traveled this far away from her home, and she felt like she was beginning to fulfill a merchant’s dream. The difficulty, excitement and the endless wealth and treasures awaited her, just like how this dream nurtured the numerous other merchants and adventurers in this continent.

She even had a sense of security by following Brendel.

The two sources of light passed through the narrow valley. Brendel’s hand was placed over his sword’s hilt. Once he passed through this area in the game, he would have entered a den of monsters of a certain type called the Rotting Beasts.

The Golden Demonic Tree was a terrifying creature. It was a variant of the Golden Trees, and its former body was most likely the Holy Elven Tree. However, ‘The Tree Shepherd’ who belong to one the great evil cults, implanted the tree with the ‘Blood of Gods’ and turned it into a Golden Tree.

He obviously did not dare to pull out the ‘Thorn of Light’, otherwise in this darkness it would become a ‘Lure of Light’, where every enemy would have its eyes on him.

Fortunately, a dark red Rotten Beast suddenly jumped up to grab the necromancer’s ankle which sank a little. Right at this moment the Rotten Beasts had surrounded this area and all the skeleton soldiers had probably been crushed to bits. If Kabara hesitated for one second it would have followed their fate.

[Kill it!] Brendel yelled in his mind.

He felt Romaine gripping his shoulder from behind, almost as if she was as tense as he was. Anyone who saw the situation would see that their positions would be exposed if the necromancer came any closer.

But Romaine’s breaths landed on his ears and made him a little distracted. He turned around to look at her, and found she was staring at some other place.

[Huh?]

Brendel subconsciously looked into her direction and his heart plunged into an icy river.

TL: Uhh… cliffhanger.