The Amber Sword

Chapter 46 – Nest

TL: Recap. Brendel originally wanted to bid for the Elemental scroll, but it was out of his budget and he gave up. The next item he wanted to bid was the Rock Mercenaries’ Pendant which boosted creatures’ production. If you played Heroes of the Might and Magic, this might sound familiar.

“Everyone here should know this already. The continent Vaunte’s shape was formed when Mother Marsha entered into a contract with the Four Spirit Kings. It was under the basis of six different Elements that formed the borders.

In outskirts of the borders, lies the territory of the Elements, while the inner area is an incredibly vast land.

The powers of the various Gods that shaped the laws within this world is reflected onto the sky, forming the sun, the moon and the stars. Life was created from water with the nourishment from the Earth. The wind protected the life that was created, and the flames granted them wisdom and formed civilization.

The bible noted the thirteen million laws, a’thro (the laws of the Elements), did not apply to the Sea of Chaos. This chaotic energy was similarly reflected in the sky, and the evil disciples called it the Third Round Moon. The members of the Tree Shepard and the Unifying Guild called the Magic Moon.

It is said that this strange magical moon would appear once every decade during the summer, would overlook the earth for a few months. The powers of witches would be the strongest during this period, while users of the Elements would be the weakest during this period. It is also during this period when the Sea of Chaos brings about a tidal wave, birthing out monsters in this darkness because they are affected by the magic.

These monsters that came from the tidal wave attack the lands of civilization — Which also causes Aouine’s borders to crumble inwards, and similarly other kingdoms would shrink as well. This early era of this chaotic period, this tidal wave of cataclysmic mana was a nemesis that threatened every living being.

Which also brought about the existence of Pioneering Knights.  (TL: Previously I think used Exploring Knights.)

Even till now, a kingdom has to prepare part of their forces to guard against such events.

While it is true that this tidal wave comes about every ten years, there would only be an overwhelming wave of monsters that come about every hundred years, therefore the people in this generation are not too worried.

However, once the mana wave ends, that does not mean that the Monsters’ Nests disappear. They would continue to affect wild creatures and turn them into monsters with their weak pulses of mana, and you would hear news of pathways to the big cities being attacked by monsters.

In Aouine, it is the duty of the kingdom’s soldiers and the Holy Cathedral of Fire to remove the monsters and Nests. But not all Nests would be destroyed. After such a long time fighting with ‘Chaos’, our ancestors started to study them and they discovered they could develop them like they domesticated animals.

The dwarves, elves and humans came together and developed something that was like a ‘Nest’ after a long time of research.

Buga’s gargoyles are a classic example. A single nest produces two gargoyles every year, and it takes a large amount of resources to produce them. Even though the gargoyles are powerful, these Nests does not mean that they are able to gather an infinite amount. (TL: HOMM vibe, hah.)

Other Nests developed other creatures. Examples would be Aouine’s Flying Dragon Knights’ mounts, or Kirrlutz gryphons, and commonly seen creatures that are used in battle, ground dragons, salamanders and black wolves.

Special nests are infused with Mother Marsha’s powers and produce minerals affected by different elements, Saint Orsola’s Abyss of Wind, the Templars’ Gate of Heaven, and Madara’s Valley of Shadows.

There are even hunting hounds that came from Nests, but their abilities are just slightly better than a regular hound.

A magical creature’s lifespan is affected by their gradual loss of mana, and more often than not they are short-lived. Even dragon-based creatures created from nests have only about a hundred years — And it is a large difference compared to the real dragons.

This Rock Nest that I want to build produces Rock Marionettes, and their strength is the rough equivalent of seven to eight normal adults. It is considered as a relatively low ranked Nest, but the advantage is the numbers that come along with it. Many nobles have them them in their lands, and even though these Marionettes have low intelligence, they are able to be used like soldiers in the front lines.”

Brendel drank some water. Amandina and Batum started to consider the advantages of the Rock Mercenaries’ Pendant. Amandina started to calculate the amount of money that they would saved, while Batum thought of the numbers. The three of them decided to get the pendant at all costs—

The base price was soon shown. It was not as expensive as the scroll and the price was only two thousand Tor coins, with each increment as one hundred.

Brendel wanted to get it at all costs, so he quietly waited to check the other bidders and avoid showing the others that he had interest in it.

The first wave of bidders ended with Amandina and Batum looking over at the bidders, but their expressions did not change.

Once the price got over three thousand, the number of people started to dwindle down. Most of the bidders wanted to try and participate and see if they got lucky, but the majority of them are not interested in the pendant.

Although the competition appeared to be steady, the bidders started to bid aggressively.

The third box of nobles who had their own lands drove the price up to over four thousand Tor coins. The price was starting to become higher than the average, but the real bidders started to corner in.

Someone drove the price up to five thousand coins from four thousand and four hundred, and for a moment the place went quiet.

Many of them thought the nobles were crazy to bid so much for a pendant that had rocks hanging on it, but a few of them believed there had to be a good reason for the price and thought there might be some worth to this pendant.

[The crowd is getting riled up. This doesn’t feel right…  There are opportunists asking for information about the pendant and the situation might get out of control.]

Brendel told Roen to go for it.

Six thousand Tor coins.

Another wave of silence.

The people who wanted to try realized a bidding war was going to happen and they backed out carefully.

Seven thousand. This time it was a captain from Aouine, and another noble bid for seven thousand and five hundred.

Brendel signaled for eight thousand without any hesitation.

Eight thousand and one hundred, from the third box.

Eight thousand and five hundred. Brendel looked over to the direction of his rival. He had no thoughts about giving up about this auction. Amandina grabbed her chair’s armrest, with her fingers going white from her grip.

The dimly lit auction area was completely quiet. Even the nobles were silenced. Everyone thought that bidding for this pendant at this price was not worth it at all.

Brendel’s thoughts were different.

[I know that the price is over what the pendant is worth for, damn it! But right now I need military might compared to the people here!]

The auctioneer swung his hammer down once.

The Aouine captain looked like he was struggling to try for one more bid, but after a long deliberation, he did not do so.

After the three hammer strikes, Brendel finally got the pendant. Roen’s men moved ahead and paid for the item, and it was sent over to Brendel in secret.

Brendel looked to his left and right and noted that no one noticed the item was brought over to him, before he carefully kept the pendant away. It was useless right now as he had no land and Nest to speak of.

After the rock pendant, the auction seemed to increase in intensity. There were a few art products that had the nobles went back and forth in their bidding. Two bronze ranked Magical armor were up for bidding, and almost all the adventurers, mercenaries and traveling knights got excited over it, and the two armors were sold for over forty thousand tor coins. (TL: Freya’s flame ring is Brass-ranked, Bronze rank is one level below that.)

Brendel’s next bid was for a set of poker cards that was rumored to have magic in it. He did not exactly want the poker cards, but the Card of Fate that was in it. The truth was, when the auctioneer brought the poker cards up, the cards in his bag immediately caused a reaction, and he bid for it without hesitation.

This time he did not have any true competitors. There was a handful of nobles who liked this sort of things that tried to vie for it, but Brendel managed to bid for it with two thousand and five hundred coins.

When Brendel pulled out the card, he discovered it was green in color. There were a group of spiders that were inside a tornado, with ‘III’ written  on the corners, as well as the amount of Wind Element to pay for it —

Group of Wind Spirit Spiders

(Alicia’s prophecy III)

Wind 1/X

[Creature – Element/Insect, Level 5 creature]

Pay X, and put X Green creatures (WInd Spirit Spiders, Level 5) into the field.

With the death of the Wind Spirit Spiders, choose a target and burn X mana points.

‘They were born from the maelstrom, and they shall return mana back into the maelstrom’

Brendel looked at it through the system. He was a little stunned over the low level 5 creature, and thought he made a loss. He did not know how to use the card from the description and strange mechanics involved. He thought about it for a while before he turned to Ciel and asked.

“What does this mean?”

Ciel looked at the card and smiled.