The Amber Sword

The girl’s reply stopped everyone, and they looked back at her. Amandina looked at the young man and spoke softly.

“Ser, please be at ease. I will fulfill the agreement in the letter with my personal thanks as well.”

Brendel was a little surprised at her determined and even confident expression.

[No matter how I look at her situation, she can’t pay any significant amount of gold, but is it because of her pride that she wants to fulfill the agreement? This situation is going further away from gaming common sense...]

“How do you intend to do that, lass?” Batum looked at her from top to bottom, with the usual unrefined tone with deliberate quips from his mercenary ways: “Even though you’re considered a fine looking girl, but my lord already has a fiance.”

Anger found its way into Amandina’s eyes and cheeks when she heard that. She looked at Brendel with flushed cheeks due to anger, and Brendel saw disappointment in her eyes. She opened the drawer next to the table and retrieved a big scroll. She stopped for a while before she finally passed the papers to Brendel: “I believe the value in these papers are no less than what you expect, Ser Brendel.”

“What is this?” He asked as he took the scroll.

“My research.” She looked a little uneasy when she said these words, but she appeared confident again.

The cripple snorted derisively, and Batum poked him from behind and whispered: “How much gold do you think the girl owes my lord?”

Roen turned back and looked blankly at Batum. Even though the hood covered his face, he could clearly see the red knotted beard.

“You don’t know?”

“Of course I don’t? How should I know about these things?”

“I thought you knew. Let’s see, even a poor noble like Berg should have an annuity of two thousand coins. Calculating it... Well, it’s around a hundred thousand Tor coins. It’s not a huge sum of money, but it’s no paltry sum either.”

“That is indeed a considerable sum.” Batum nodded. “Do you mean to say that the papers in my lord’s hands are worth a hundred thousand coins?”

“I did not say anything like that. If it’s something that comes from a famous painter, well, fetching a few million coins isn’t surprising. But that little girl had already said it’s her research. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think it’s worth anything that much, otherwise this little girl wouldn’t need to stay in this place already.”

“You’re really a nasty piece of work.”

“That’s a logical conclusion, Ser Batum.”

Amandina clenched her fists when she overheard their conversation.

Brendel did not stop their talk as he was engrossed in checking out the scroll with one hand. He was a little puzzled over it as it felt quite heavy in his hand.

[Paintings? Old Magic? Or some lore copied from old books? The quality of the scroll is quite bad, but there’s some considerable weight to it.]

“Can I take a look at the contents of these papers?” Brendel asked.

“They are already yours.”

Brendel nodded and carefully unfolded it. It was a complicated array of lines that formed into some form of machine. The multiple patterns and arrays were carefully written all over the scroll, along with detailed explanation with the girl’s elegant handwriting. His heartbeats quickly increased when he saw the contents of the scroll, and comprehension dawned on his face while he rolled the scroll back up.

It was the earliest blueprint for creating a machine that moved mana.

[The overall concept in this design can be considered as crude or terrible... But... I see... so this is how it is... Back then in the game, the guild ‘Origin’ got the original blueprints for producing this type of machinery and allowed players to gain their own independence.]

Brendel did not expect to encounter the answer to be like this. He did not expect the girl to have anything to do with the top ten questions in ‘The Amber Sword’, and he was genuinely surprised at the outcome.

“The guild leader did not infiltrate an empire or the likes, he simply completed this one-time secret mission...”

Brendel used all his will to keep his face from changing. The scroll in his hands meant that it was enough to change the world greatly.

Owning a third type of power in this world.

The first type of power was ‘Elements’. Fire, wind, water, earth, space, time and many others. Physical examples existed as well. Professions like warriors, Elementalists, wizards, and many powerful classes have different qualities, but they share a common measuring unit called ‘Oauth’.

The power of Elements are typically hidden in one’s body, until the power in them crossed 500 OZ. Under the Holy Church of Fire description, people who crossed 500 OZ had ‘Enlightened Elements’ in them. From that moment onwards, these people would be crowned as ‘Holy knights’. (TL: Okay. You know those recent modern games like to ‘simplify’ things by reducing the amount of buttons/commands right? Everything press ‘F’ to jump/dodge/hit/execute/whatever? Apparently OZ does the same thing here. If I TLed anything wrongly, well...)

This was a long journey and even impossible for many to go through. The majority of the population are born with just 0.3 OZ, and would be unable to surpass that 500 OZ limit. However, there were people who blessed and simply had the talent to surpass the limits, therefore they were called ‘The Chosen beings’.

The second type of power did not belong to humans. They were called as the ‘Power of the Gods’, and more exactly the power of faith.

The Gods were split into two factions, Ximar and Einkar. Ximar was humble while Einkar was arrogant. They governed the laws of the stars and magic, and there were called as gods. Their presence supported this world, and though they did not need the worship of the beings in this world, they had answered their prayers through their faith.

This response was called the ‘Power of the Gods’. The source of the powers from the priests were from their will, taking care of their children from high above. And because of that, many different religious factions argued constantly, speaking of misinterpreted instructions or expressing their reluctance to change the world from the signs of the gods.

The third power, was the power of wisdom, and the power that mortals had to change the world.

The so called machine in Brendel’s hands was also called ‘Magicite’. Under the artificial (machine) design, revolution to move the energy in the Element crystals, either to power a magic weapon or floating city. This was originally the creation of the craftsmen in Buga, but the various empires soon took hold of this secret.

This new power that mortals created changed the entire chessboard in this world. They started off with production which led to a new industrial revolution, and the struggle to gain for resources created new factions and powers. The records started from one hundred years ago, and the Holy War lasted for ten over years, of which the November War was most infamous for.

[I now hold the blueprints of a ‘Magicite’... Even though it is lacking in many ways and even considered behind the empire’s technology by thirty years, this is the true secret that gamers thought they would never get. In ‘The Amber Sword’, the magicite called ‘Star Constellation’ was created twenty years into the game and is the same design that this scroll has.]

Brendel took a deep breath and asked: “You designed this?”

Amandina’s expression was originally tense but she was taken aback when she heard the question.

“Y-you understand it?”

She had gotten all her knowledge from books, and spent long hours into designing the machine. Even though her teachers told her that her talent was there, her success might be limited if she continued to go on this path. Even so, she put all her time and money into this road, selling her family properties and almost got cheated by a deceptive merchant. If her status as a noble did not protect her, she would have become a plaything of someone else.

But she did not give up and believed that she had found a way to create a ‘Magicite’. She had created this version with a fatal flaw that it required too much materials to create a single ‘Magicite’. Despite that, she believed her designs were valuable enough, and was prepared to face Brendel’s sarcasm.

Except she did not expect him to take her seriously.

[He understands my work?]

“It’s very rough, but at least it’s a completed version.”

“No, no, Ser Brendel, you don’t understand this,” The girl coughed because she spoke too quickly: “This design is only half completed, the input and output cannot be seen as a good ratio—“

“What? You dare to use a half completed blueprint to pay for your debts!” The cripple immediately jumped when he heard that.

Brendel gestured to Batum to stop Roen from making any more noise, then looked at Amandina and said earnestly.

“This is fine. In my eyes, this is a transaction that is worth even more than I expected, and you fulfilled your promise.”

Brendel did not lie and it certainly exceeded his expectations compared to gaining Berg’s treasures.

The young girl’s eyes went wide with surprise.