084 The Legendary One-Handed Sword!

Having been discovered, Morning Wind knew he needed to find a new spot to level up; otherwise, if a group showed up, he’d have no way to handle them. After returning to the main city, he visited the Brotherhood District to check on the advancement quests for the Brotherhood Sword, still undecided whether to push the sword forward.

[Brotherhood Sword – Divine Blessing]: Advancement quest. Upgrade the Brotherhood Sword into the one-handed “Sword of Divine Blessing,” gaining an extra divine blessing effect—a 25% chance to convert lethal damage into health. Quest selectable.

[Brotherhood Sword – Severe Wound]: Advancement quest. Upgrade the Brotherhood Sword into the two-handed “Sword of Severe Wounds,” boosting its base attack and granting a severe wound effect—a 25% chance to deal 1.5 times damage. Quest selectable.

[Brotherhood Sword – Celestial]: Advancement quest. Merge two Brotherhood Swords into a two-handed “Celestial Sword,” greatly increasing base attack and gaining both divine blessing and severe wound effects. Quest selectable.

These were the three advancement paths for the Brotherhood Sword—upon reaching level 30, it must be advanced before further improvement. Morning Wind pondered merging his two swords into a single two-handed blade. If he did, he’d lose both one-handed swords, and might be forced to dual-wield two-handed weapons, making it obvious to others that he was the Blood Dragon.

Enhancing the one-handed sword would raise its damage, but Morning Wind always felt such weapons were meant for tanks. He wondered whether the effects of the two Brotherhood Swords would stack, or if one failed to trigger, the other might activate.

There were only five Brotherhood Swords in existence—extremely rare. Morning Wind knew that Xiao Yun, who’d joined the Windchaser team, had already transformed his one-handed sword into a two-handed blade, while the combat rogue from the Stardust team had advanced his Brotherhood Sword to gain the divine blessing effect. Morning Wind was nearing level 30 and planned to upgrade his sword as soon as he reached it.

“Two Brotherhood Swords? Adventurer, you are truly lucky.” As Morning Wind was mulling over his options, the Brotherhood leader noticed the two swords at his waist. “How do you plan to upgrade them? You’ve been hesitating—is something troubling you?”

“I wish to upgrade them as one-handed swords, but I don’t want both to have the divine blessing effect,” Morning Wind replied, feeling that having the same effect on both would be too little benefit. He wanted one sword with the divine blessing, the other with a damage boost—one for tanking, one for increasing off-hand benefits.

“Adventurer, have you considered merging both into a legendary one-handed sword? You possess a perfect Brotherhood Sword, and I have a scroll here that can fuse your two one-handed swords into a legendary blade.” The Brotherhood leader produced an orange scroll and handed it to Morning Wind.

A hidden quest!

Upgrading the Brotherhood Sword was merely an advancement quest, keeping it at epic tier, but Morning Wind hadn’t expected it could be elevated to legendary status.

Taking the scroll, he examined the materials and steps required, feeling overwhelmed. He’d thought there’d be a quest to complete, but it was merely a matter of gathering the materials.

[Legendary Brotherhood Sword]: Advancement quest. Fuse a Brotherhood Sword with 100% stats and another with 90% stats to create a more perfect Brotherhood Sword. Materials required: one Talent Stone, a level 25 dark-gold weapon, a magic synthesis gem, a white gold coin… (You may use two Talent Stones and two white gold coins for higher success rate and better bonuses). Fusion process: furnace synthesis…

Two Talent Stones? Morning Wind happened to have two; he’d hoped to save them for future equipment synthesis, but now they were needed. He wondered if he could get away with just one, but ultimately chose to use both—if the fusion failed, he’d have no one to blame. As for the white gold coins, he had three; using two at once—worth 100,000 gold—instantly left him penniless.

In the past, Morning Wind had heard the saying: legendary equipment makes you legendary—and makes you poor! It rang true; just the cost of materials was ruinous. He’d recently used auction house gold to acquire a batch of resources, but now he’d need another round of purchases.

He realized he’d have to open that encrypted chest to save himself—it held ten items from the Alliance Armory, and if he could retrieve them, he’d be rich. He’d already told the Data Emperor about the situation, hoping he could crack the code quickly. Morning Wind promised him one item from the chest if he succeeded.

Morning Wind gathered the Monk and others to go leveling. By dusk, he reached level 30—the second player in the China region to do so. Rather than heading for the great map immediately, he visited the Eternal Auction House. He’d sent the material list to its chairman for urgent collection, raising prices by 30%, leaving him broke yet again.

A level 25 dark-gold weapon was hard to find, unavailable even with money. His alt had a dark-gold two-handed hammer, but had transformed it into claws. Now, with an epic two-handed claw weapon, he reverted the dark-gold claws for use. He had a Nature Talent Stone and a Frost Talent Stone, both stolen from the Alliance Armory, and used them directly.

Furnace synthesis was simple for Morning Wind, thanks to the scroll, making the process quick. Following the steps, he soon held a legendary Brotherhood Sword.

[Brotherhood Sword]
Legendary, bound, one-handed sword
Equipment requirement: Level 30
Damage: 318–426
+90 Strength
+90 Constitution
Additional effects: Increases damage to Horde enemies by 50%; when Horde enemies are within 500 meters, the sword emits a pale blue glow
Additional effects: 25% chance to convert lethal damage into health, 7% chance to convert damage taken into health (may trigger once every 15 seconds)
Additional effects: 10% chance to freeze the enemy in place for 2 seconds; 25% chance to slow enemy movement by 40% for 4 seconds; 10% chance to restore 3% max health; 25% chance for enemy to suffer 20% extra nature damage
Upgrade: Seek Brotherhood Alliance to enhance equipment

Description: The nightmare of the Horde!

Staggering damage and three powerful bonus effects—especially the third, which was derived from the properties of the two Talent Stones. The frost stone provided freezing and slowing, the nature stone offered healing and nature damage. If the probabilities were stacked, it would be a 70% chance to trigger an effect with each attack—a formidable power.

What dissatisfied Morning Wind was the first effect, which targeted only Horde enemies, useless against players and wild monsters. Now that he possessed the Magic Ring, he hadn’t raided a Horde stronghold, making this effect seem weak. Yet, if the Horde formations were unlocked in the future, this talent could become game-breaking. The second effect was the divine blessing—indeed, a staple for one-handed swords, though slightly stronger than the usual version. The Brotherhood Sword was a plot weapon, and its effects were impressive.

An orange-named weapon, glowing with blue light! Morning Wind checked the weapon rankings—the Brotherhood Sword had jumped to first place, with the Orichalcum Axe dropping to second. The axe boasted high damage but lacked the attributes of the Brotherhood Sword. Besides, Morning Wind’s Brotherhood Sword had consumed two Talent Stones and two white gold coins.

Missing a one-handed sword!

He suddenly realized that after merging his two Brotherhood Swords, he was left with only one one-handed sword. His inventory held only a blue one-handed sword—three tiers below the legendary blade, making its damage negligible. Without an epic one-handed sword, he needed at least a dark-gold or silver-flash sword. He toured the auction house, but found no high-end one-handed swords for sale.

The great map was ten times more dangerous than outside the main city. Morning Wind felt he needed to fully strengthen himself before entering. Though he had the Brotherhood Sword, the Magnetized Gravity Ring, and the Magic Ring, his defensive gear was still blue-tier, offering poor protection. In the great map, he wouldn’t be able to transform into Blood Dragon for a long while. Only a few players had reached level 30; if he transformed into Blood Dragon, his identity would be exposed.

As he fretted over his missing one-handed sword and lack of defensive gear, the Data Emperor called, saying, “I’ve cracked the code. Come to your guild headquarters.”

“How did you find it? Did you calculate it?” Morning Wind had told Data Emperor about a hidden encrypted chest, asking him to help solve it. He’d hinted it might be linked to the Alliance Armory, and Data Emperor immediately made the connection—someone had killed that thief, but hadn’t found the armory loot.

Data Emperor chuckled, “I found the thief on the forums, bought his password for 500 gold coins. Remember to give me an item from inside, or I’m losing out!”

“Damn, if I’d known the thief was so cowardly, I’d have just tossed him a few hundred gold coins! I wasted days trying passwords.” Morning Wind had thought Data Emperor had cracked the code himself, but he’d simply bought it. Morning Wind hadn’t considered this possibility, and now could only hope the chest held an epic one-handed sword or defensive gear.

Morning Wind and Data Emperor rushed to Frost and Snow Guild headquarters, both eager to discover the chest’s contents—treasures from the Alliance Armory, and ten items at that!