Right now the ideal dream would be to acquire all the items that he knew, while raising his power at the same time, but there was just not enough time. His current goal was to survive the war, and not to gather items at a leisurely rate and wait for the war to be over.
Once the war was over, he had plenty of time to gather XP and prepare the best equipments for himself before Aouine’s internal civil strife. After checking through his plans, he concluded that it was possible for him to become one of the strongest in the continent.
As a player, he recognized that stats, equipment and techniques made up the system to become strong.
He picked up the box that was beside him, transferring all the Element Crystals into his bag at his waist:
12 Wind Crystals
1 Fire Crystal
3 Water Crystals
Each crystal contain 1 point of energy.
After sweeping off with Babasha’s collection and acting like a professional robber, Brendel even took Babasha’s candle and went into the passageway. The witch’s candle was also a magical item, which could teleport someone to where its light reach. This was a secret that was only known amongst the witches, but it was not a secret to him.
The passageway was approximately 1.5 kilometers long, and most of the passageway only allowed one person to enter at a time as it was very narrow. At the areas where it became bigger, there were three poisonous spiders the size of human beings. The witches normally did something like this, raising beasts for them to become their guards. Babasha put them there to please the duke, but they were a total of 9 XP to Brendel. (TL: Lol. Can you imagine if the duke tried to escape, and the spiders attacked him? This is just asking for snark.)
The end of the passageway led to the cellar. After Brendel reached there, he started to search for the switch and used it, and the shelf holding the wines slid to one side.
The two of them sighed with relief after walking out from the passageway. The stale air and accumulated dust were hard to adjust to, and Ciel thought his lungs were covered with a thick layer of dust after that ordeal.
“We took a little longer than fifteen minutes, my lord.” Ciel took out a watch and glanced it after coming from the passageway.
“That is fine.”
“Hmm?”
“I originally wanted to go the duke’s treasury, but we probably have to give on that. But the collection there are just some paintings and jewellery, they are not really useful.”
“My lord is truly decisive. Not everyone can remain unmoved by the treasure in front of them.”
“No, you’re mistaken, Ciel. I mean that you can just take a few of them on our way up, I’ll tell you which items are the real deal.”
“…………..”
Ciel was surprised at his lord’s unreadable greed, but he did not know that it was not his character, but simply a player’s subconscious action.
The two of them continued up the stairs and stopped at the same time to go over their plans. Brendel extinguished his candle and passed it to his squire, then placed his hand at the cellar’s door to the outside. He activated his skill and the door knob broke apart with a cracking sound.
Then he immediately pushed the door outwards. The two guards that were there turned their heads in dumb surprise, while Brendel’s other hand had already pulled out his sword. With an elegant swing with silver light trailing behind the sword, the guards’ half drawn swords were knocked away along with their sheaths.
They became fearful and wanted to run away, but he could not allow them to do so, and chased them from behind and ended their lives with a stab to each person.
This was the first time Brendel killed someone.
He did not think at all when he killed them, and his mind was blank when he did so. He felt he was even calmer than his normal self. If he hesitated, Ciel and himself would end up in a dead end, and in this life and death situation, he did not consider what Romaine or Freya would do.
His survival instinct was more than enough to make him do it.
Yet after he killed them, he suddenly felt dizzy as if he could not breath anymore. He tried to steady his body and forced himself to inhale, but he was rooted where he was and could not move. The blood dripped onto the floor.
At that moment, different thoughts went through in his mind and allowed him to gain a perspective on the situation he was in. The fleeting moment of chaos was merely to find an excuse, and when he found one he felt a little better.
“My lord?” Ciel noticed his strange behavior.
Brendel raised his hand to indcate he was fine. Even though he planned to bring the two corpses to the cellar to hide them, he did not have the mood to do so anymore. The best he could do was not to look at their bodies.
He did not develop a fear after killing them, but he could not accept the sudden blow.