The Amber Sword

Hearing Monica finish this speech in a mechanical tone, Brendel was almost dumbfounded. He could not help but blurt out, “Valhalla is a copy of Ebabel! Monica, do you know the legends of the time of the Divine Folk?”

Monica came back to her senses with a jolt and hurriedly shook her head, her tone returning to normal at once. “No, my Lord, I don’t know.

“Wait, so how do you know all this?”

“No, I don’t know either, but ever since the World Tree Fortress was upgraded, this knowledge seems to automatically appear in my mind as one of its chief directors,” the light sprite maiden hurriedly replied. “But I myself am unable to tell you anymore than that.”

Brendel was a little taken aback, but he calmed down. “In other words, Valhalla is most likely a creation from the era of the Divine Folk?”

“I am not sure about that, my Lord.”

“Never mind, at least we know that it is something of ours, and that is enough. ” Brendel waved his hand, deciding not to dwell on this nonsense. “Let’s return to the original topic. In that case, I only plan to build the Elf Arrow Towers on the looped road, so that means I only need to build twenty Arrow Towers, Monica.”

“I understand, my Lord, but the territory needs more magic power and supplies to ration nowadays, and I’m afraid the resources you allocated to us earlier are not quite enough,” Monica replied respectfully. “Thanks to your Lordship’s blessing, Valhalla is growing fast.”

Brendel bared his teeth. It would have been fine had Monica not brought this up, but now that she did, he remembered the piles of transparent crystals he had seen under the World Tree earlier. These things were proof of the wealth this World Tree Fortress had consumed over the past six months.

But that was just the beginning; each of the Arrow Towers on the list required the consumption of nearly two hundred thousand magical powers, as well as a colossal amount of supplies. Magic could be converted with crystals, while supplies would have to be transferred over from the territory one by one.

He could not help but mentally groan. “From now on, the percentage of magic crystals produced by the Black Forest for your use will be doubled from twenty percent. As for supplies, I’ll let Jana and Amandina fulfill your requests first…”

“Thank you so much, my Lord.” Monica the light sprite flew around excitedly in the sky.

It was apparent that she had spoken so much earlier all so she could hear those words from Brendel.

But Brendel actually knew better than she did that a higher level magic territory was a money-burning commodity, and the Elf Arrow Towers were just the beginning. With the Elf Arrow Towers, there was the need for archers and crossbows, followed by mages and magical apprentices.

Each of these required money. Brendel rubbed his forehead and asked, “How’s the Wind Archers’ training going, Monica?”

“Just about to report this, my Lord,” Monica immediately replied. “The Hall of the Wind Archers has been constructed, and the first batch of trained soldiers were mainly Tree Elves from the Loop of the Trade Winds. After that, they took in some Elves from other places, such as some Wind Elf mercenaries and Wild Elf refugees from the north. However, humans have been the main source of soldiers from the third batch onwards, but judging by the completion of their training, Elves are still potentially the best Wind Archers-”

This was as Brendel had expected; there weren’t many Elves in the human world, let alone a place like Trentheim. As for the Elves surpassing the humans with their talent in archery, it was also still within reasonable expectations.

But when he heard Monica say that there were now four hundred and sixty-five Tree Elf Wind Archers in the army, and one hundred and eighty-seven other Elf Wind Archers, while there were only one hundred and sixty human Wind Archers, he still could not help but be slightly startled. He asked back, “Why are there so few humans? Is the elimination rate too high?”

“That’s a factor, my Lord.”

A voice suddenly cut in. Brendel turned back at the familiar voice, and indeed saw a stern-faced Ferlarn walking over. The wild Elf maiden came to him with several rolls of parchment. She replied, “But the key reason is the strange rule you have laid down, lusty Lord – only women can be Wind Archers. Most of the humans of Trentheim are refugees, and there are few women to begin with. Those who fit the physical and age requirements are even fewer. Factor in the elimination rate, and it is unsurprising that only a handful would remain.”

The wild Elf took a look at her Lord. Her outfit nowadays was very different from before. Ever since the card group had become the White City Pioneer, her attire had changed from the original mercenary uniform to a more formal elemental messenger robe. However, the robe was still monochromatic due to the significant drop in rank. She then said in a bland tone, “And now everyone in the entire territory has been made aware of your special preference. Though it is normal for a normal man to have such fantasies, I hope that you can be more mindful of your reputation, my Lord.”

“What?!” Brendel just froze. “When did I set such a rule?”

A thought suddenly struck him and he ran to the tree wall to take a look. Sure enough, he saw a large group of elven and human archers training in the circuit in the direction of the Hall of the Wind Archers, and all of them were females. In addition to that, they were women with certain better qualities. He almost could not believe his eyes.

Brendel hurriedly took a deep breath and asked, “What’s going on?”

He would have never dreamed of it. A few months without asking about Valhalla’s development and the damned World Tree Fortress had built him a real army of women. Not that it was bad, of course; Brendel certainly wanted his subordinates to be more pleasing to the eye, but as a soldier, men were indeed much more effective than women in many ways.

“It’s…” Monica hesitated for a moment before replying, “The Wind Archers of Valhalla were originally from the Silver Elf’s Princess Guard, so…”

Brendel shut up for a moment.

He of course knew what the Silver Elf’s Princess Guard was. The name Princess Guard did not actually mean that the army was the Silver Elf Princess’s Guard; the name was actually a metaphor, as all warriors in this army of archers were the absolute elite of the Silver Elven women.

According to the setting of The Amber Sword, it could even be said that this army was the Amazon female warriors of Vaunte’s history.

He could not help but be slightly stunned at Monica’s words. He had never dreamed that he would inherit such an army.

“The Princess Guard,” he blurted out. “Are the Wind Archers of Valhalla as strong as the historical Princess Guard?”

That was an army on the same level as the Silver Elves and the Dragon Cavalry…

“Of course not,” Monica immediately dismissed his expectations. “The Wind Archers are, after all, only Valhalla’s earliest arm of services. It is formally only a simplification of the Princess Guard.”

“Then what abilities do they have?” Brendel asked.

“My Lord, see for yourself.”

Actually, Monica did not need to remind him not; Brendel was already looking in that direction. On the lower part of the ring, behind the Hall of the Wind Archers was a huge training ground.  The earliest group of Tree Elf Wind Archers were currently splitting up into a few teams to spar. Brendel immediately saw how the bodies of these Elven women faded in and out of focus. As far as he knew, only one kind of magic had such a characteristic.

“Invisibility?”