Bardray’s Ascension Translated by Enlightened End. Proofread by bloodadept, FroshiAnaki and mrbaconator
*****
The distribution of the Undead Legion’s treasure became the biggest topic on the Versailles continent. They originally agreed to do it, but to actually share it was another story.
Lies, scams! Such honesty did not exist in the world that fanned distrust. So this was an inspirational story that people could be proud of in the Versailles continent.
Weed’s true desire to keep everything for himself burned fiercely like a furnace in winter. His only relief was that he received the rights to Vargo Fortress and temporarily gained the Church of Lugh’s holy sword. “Identify!”
Sword of Lugh: Durability 140/140, Attack 165~317. Sword sent from the god for the humans. The sword has been impaled inside the Lich Balkan for a long time, suppressing his dark magic. If the sword restores its Sun Power, the Church of Lugh will be able to recover a weapon of god. Restriction: Church of Lugh’s Paladin. Faith: 1,350. Can only be used with the permission from the Church. Option: Suppresses dark mana. During a crusade it can create a miracle. Cannot be destroyed. Dominates monsters lower than intermediate level. *Remaining options impossible to check. |
This was an item that had to be returned to the Church of Lugh.
“There is a Church of Lugh in Morata, I can return it there.”
Weed received it from Geomchi121 who landed the last attack on Balkan and was keeping it for a short while.
“If there is an item to grab and run, this is it…”
Greed churned vigorously in Weed again; but this type of weapon could only be used by a paladin or with the approval of the church. Stealing and using this would instantly turn him into the Lugh Church’s public enemy, the sword could even become cursed because of it.
“Anyway, I need to return it!”
Inscribing this magnanimous act into his heart, he decided to return Lugh’s sword! Weed decided that he would go to the Church of Lugh in Morata personally to return it. Once he returned the sword, even the players who participated in the battle would receive contribution points.
“For the time being I don’t think there is any pressing work in Morata.”
The drops from Balkan’s death were mostly Necromancer exclusive items. Balkan’s skull, boots, cloak, robe, ring and necklace that formed a complete set of Balkan’s items! These truly were items that had an unfathomable price.
These were things that Geomchi121 did not need. Combining with the magic book Weed had, it completed Balkan’s full set.
A complete set of Balkan’s items have been gathered in one place. If you are a Necromancer, a special skill, Lich’s Power can be used. |
These were items that allowed one to succeed Lich Balkan’s legacy. By becoming a Lich in Vargo Fortress and using Balkan’s skull it was possible to use his 3 Great Magics. They were frightful items that had no equal!
But due to the items having adverse side effects, it would be difficult to change back into human form after he used them. Of course only by agreeing to provide Geomchi121 a lifetime supply of free meat, weapons,armour and 2000 oak barrels of alcohol, did he receive them from him.
But wearing the Necromancer exclusive gear constantly permeated bad feelings so he could not use it. Weed decided to just keep it for now. “There are more than one kind of people in the world. There is definitely someone out there who wants to be like Balkan. The Necromancers will not always be peaceful, when that moment comes I can sell it off.”
When a person dreaming of becoming an evil Lich appears, Weed would be the first in line to bargain off the items rather than restricting them from it. However Balkan’s equipment was restricted to high level and skill so there would be no chance to sell it to someone for some time.
***** The goods brought by the merchants to Vargo Fortress were all sold out. It was thanks to the share of the gold, silver and treasure that the players received and they were spending freely. Vargo Fortress became more active as the elves, barbarians, dwarves, and fairies came causing more people and players to gather there.
With a swift decision Mapan set up an exchange station, exchanging ancient gold coins and charging commission.
“Ah, I have so much money how can I spend it all?” “Should we change swords?” “Could hunting become easier then? In the morning I am going to try changing most of my gear to dwarf equipment.”
Vargo Fortress was bustling with players wanting to spend money. The vicinity was filled with hunting grounds no one found yet. Mountains, hills, forests and valleys, the local area had many hunting areas. The reason for many different tribes of barbarians living near Vargo Fortress was for the battles and hunting.
Weed conversed with the elders and the chieftains with his high fame and intimacy, acquiring information about the nearby dungeons.
“According to the dwarven tribe of the Hardened Earth there is a dungeon nearby…” “Go a bit further. It’s what the dwarves said so it’s certainly there.”
Weed with Pale, Irene, Romuna, Hwaryeong and Surka searched for the dungeons in the vicinity.
“They were not drinking beer that time so I am certain the information is right.”
In between the boulders they found the entrance to the dungeon.
Dungeon, you are the first discoverer of, ‘The Hidden Pit’. Privileges: Fame increases by 415. Double experience and item drop rate for one week. Very first monster type you hunt will drop the best possible item. |
The search for the dungeon near Vargo Fortress! If the hunting ground was doable with their levels, they swept through it. Recklessly exploring an unknown dungeon was truly dangerous. Traps were installed, with some areas that had an abnormal standard or quantity of monsters.
Of course during those occasions Hwaryeong with her dance could put them to sleep, and with Balkan dead, Weed could summon Death Knight and Vampire Lord without any trouble.
“Van Hawk, Torido, to the front!”
Their long holiday was finished.
“Thank you for calling me after a long time, master.” “I was longing for hot blood.”
It was time for Van Hawk and Torido to do their part.
“Wipe them out completely.”
Those two were teammates who have been synchronizing their fights for so long that their hunting speed was very fast.
Weed also alternated his hunting party and went with the Geomchis, levelling up with them. Barbarians or dwarves, they wanted to talk to Weed so it was easy to find hunting grounds.
“I want to fight monsters.”
“For a long time these guys were bothering us. Their tracks are somewhere in the north… Our warriors followed the tracks but they disappeared by the tree in the groves. If you can find it please help us.”
“Don’t we need beer?” “If it is for beer I will do it anytime” “There is no difference between us brothers and the dwarves who fought against the Undead. I want to know more about what’s troubling you.” “Hmm, recently good iron ores are hard to find. If you have good iron ore at this time the price would not be a problem. In the old days when the fortress was normal the mountain behind it had a mine that we extracted a lot of iron ores from… If the humans could help us dwarves we would like to mine those iron ores.” “Of course we’ll cooperate. With a lot of iron ores you dwarves can make weapons and armor and market them at Vargo Fortress while paying heavy taxes… I mean, it would be good if you took back lots of beer.”
At Vargo Fortress there was much work to do as well.
“Excuse me, I know you are busy but I brought materials. Is it possible you could make a sculpture for me?” “This is gold with many impurities. If it isn’t pure gold the sculpture is not easy to make… Well, I will do it specially for you.” “Thank you very much for considering my order. When will the sculpture be done?” “There is a backlog of orders… please wait a while.”
The precious jewels of Vargo Fortress were Weed’s share. Selling sculptures he made, the leftover materials went into his pack! It was a method of bringing 3 rabbits into a restaurant and getting 3 rabbit soups but with another big pot left over! “It’s definitely faster to become rich by embezzling materials than by making money by selling sculptures!”
Weed’s fame as a sculptor was so great that they gave him expensive materials to make sculptures without hesitation. Usually he made sculptures out of wood in between hunting, now they brought the best gold or silver, sometimes mythril to sculpt as well.
He had to make a sculpture that fit the person’s taste so he could not attempt any daring pieces. But doing this still increased a small amount of mastery in the sculpting skill. Once or twice a masterpiece with high artistic value did come out. But as his sculpting skill was at advance level 8 the mastery rose slowly.
“It’s fine. There are only two more levels left. I don’t need to rush.”
They even celebrated the New Year during their hunting. Hwaryeong, Bellot and Maylon had work so they missed it, the people that left prepared a small cosy amount of food as they watched the sun come up making their wishes.
‘I wish to earn a scholarship so I can travel with Maylon.’ ‘My hands became better at hitting monsters. I am going to hit them many, many times. ’ ‘Should I change to a Necromancer? But I also want to see the final flame magic…’ ‘This year I am going to wish for no one to die from a botched surgery.’ ‘Please help me date Yurin in this New Year.’ ‘To rake in money following Weed-nim…’
They all had a variety of wishes, but compared to them Weed had a simple wish.
‘Let’s stay healthy. Or else there will be hospital bills. ’
Being healthy is best.
***** The Sculpture Lifeforms arrived at Vargo Fortress after being called from Morata.
***** 1 month passed in real time and during that period Vargo Fortress saw a tremendous amount of development. The population reached 30 thousand and the collapsed walls were gradually built up. But the Fortress did not earn enough money to maintain its walls or operate, so Weed’s recent windfall went into the fortress without leaving him with any spare change.
Along the twisted roads where the walls were repaired, houses were built. Following the cleanup of the Fortress it was found that the knight’s drill hall, basic training centre and warrior guilds could be rebuilt where they originally were.
Although only half the place where the Bone Dragon rampaged was cleaned up, more players came and now there were tens of thousands of them.
“It’s night already?”
The players in the central square looked up at the sky. In no time at all the sun settled down and became dark and the moon and the stars appeared.
“It’s about time, they are starting to come.”
The person resting and checking on his weapons stood up. The soldiers eating something in the restaurant came outside in full armour. Knights and soldier’s equipment were quite heavy so when there was no battle they hardly wore it.
People changed their tune when they searched for people to party with.
“Looking for people to protect the west wall together.” “Fighting monsters climbing over the north gate. Specially looking for someone with intermediate level 6 Shield Bash.” “The collapsed wall south east from here needs a priest. Priests please come with me.”
At the Square combatants were recruited in large numbers. Magicians’ lit lamps, where the lines of torches were erected.
Swarms of monsters are approaching to plunder the provisions. |
Monsters advanced every night! Monsters that the Necromancers fought before in the Undead Legion quest were now invading Vargo Fortress.
Although now, with the wall as defensive support it was easier to hunt. The players joined forces, the residents shot arrows and stones against the enemy.
Battle erupted every night in Vargo Fortress. No where else in the continent did the monsters so frequently swarm together to siege a fortress. Because Vargo Fortress was quite far from Morata and with the mountain ranges in the west and north that provided breeding grounds, the monsters attacked in quite large numbers.
When the Undead Legion existed Balkan turned them all into Undead. Now that the Undead Legion was gone the players had to defend the fortress. And if the monsters broke through Vargo Fortress, they would pass this area and spread all over the north.
To defend the fortress and prevent mass breeding of the monsters Weed had to continually invest the taxes into repairing the fortress and its walls as the destruction from the monster’s attacks were endless.
Vargo Fortress Military Power Novice Knights: 58 Average Level: 196 Soldiers without battle experience: 4,312 Average Level: 52 Loyalty: 91% Training: 46% An army has been created with immigrants from Morata. Army’s recruitment was focused on hunters or sturdy young men. The knights are becoming stronger in order to survive. Soldiers respect their lord and are honest in their service. But they are worried as they are thrown into battle without proper training. But as they are fighting defensively behind the fortress wall, they have some confidence. They do not provide public order, but the situation is dire without them. The fortress wall has to be fixed as fast as the frequency of the monster invasions. Putting one eye on another work could turn the whole Vargo Fortress into a monster village. |
An army had to be created as the Church of Freya did not provide protection as it did with Morata. Weed’s method of growing the armed forces was, if they live they become stronger!
All soldiers were archers and to make them learn how to use the bow they were all deployed on top of the fortress wall.
In the future as detachments of archers were settled in, there was a plan for a large scale enlistment of infantry for an expedition to the monster’s habitat. If the army could subjugate the monster’s den they could earn treasure and also the frequency of dangerous monsters coming near the fortress would be reduced.
While shops and guilds were necessary, public order was also an important factor for beginners to start at Vargo Fortress.
“If they come we can exploit them to our heart’s content.”
There was much work to be done in Vargo Fortress and it required a lot of manual labour forces. He was eager to start the exploitation so his main priority was increasing public order. There were fights that erupted in between the fortress wall and occasionally the situation was almost perilous. As many players left for dungeons or for adventures, there were many occasions where the defending forces were too few in numbers. But the players fought hard and resiliently.
Fortresses in the central continent were well prepared against monsters with strong walls, they even had moats dug up in case of sieges. The mere thought of monsters invading a village was not even considered.
There was never a dull moment in Vargo Fortress as small to big swarms of monsters came to attack it constantly. In the worst case, it could be said that Vargo Fortress itself was a hunting ground.
“Where do I hunt here?” “One good bow, also pack many arrows and go up the fortress wall.”
For swordsmen and knights different advice was given.
“If you want to fight as much as you want go outside the fortress wall and wait for a while. Death or fame, at the end it will be one of the two!”
That many monsters came flocking toward the fortress.
If seen this way, the Undead Legion could not be mocked. They had no stockpile of provisions to steal from and just by coming close would turn the monsters into Undead. Just the news of human occupation of the fortress spreading to the monsters energized them into attacking, as they could steal the mass provisions that were being transported to the fortress.
Weed could bring Morata’s army here, or otherwise as lord withdrawing massive funds to invest into Vargo Fortress.
“I don’t know if this might just become a bottomless hole… Still its too early to decide.”
Morata was the more impressive city and it lacked for nothing. So the residents and players crossed over to the fortress and helped with the development. There were even skilled personnel that came from Morata and helped accelerate the development of commerce on an incomparable scale. If only the development rate was compared, excluding Morata, Vargo Fortress was the next best place in the whole of the Northern continent.
The daily battle in Vargo Fortress was at such a degree that it popped up on the message boards.
Title: For the best place to level up, don’t hesitate and hurry over here. Increase your level and also take advantage of this chance to increase skill mastery. Come and see! It’s everywhere. It’s even stacked up. Make friends and hunt together. |
Title: Today was really dangerous Hello. This is Liz once again uploading the daily battle against the monster invasion in Vargo Fortress. The video uploaded today was 2 hours of dizziness. During today’s battle, the east wall that was built several days ago collapsed. The speed in which the walls are constructed has sped up these days, could it be the foundation that was weak? Or the lord using cheap construction methods? However I was suspicious about the possibility of the wall collapsing for a long time so I was able to avoid it without any danger to my life. But monsters entered through the breach and the battle erupted inside the fortress… It was frantic. I am sure you are asking, why should we struggle so much? Why not just go to a dungeon or a hunting ground? Well, when the morning comes and the monsters are repelled, people are hugging and are filled with so much joy. It’s happiness that only people who were in the battle can know. |
Videos related to Vargo Fortress pull in a lot of interest as it was the Undead Legion’s previous base and presently Weed was the lord.
At first, even if it was Weed, the people thought that he would give up on the region because of its dangers. But as they watched on, they could not help but feel admiration from the constant videos of the players and residents coming together and defending the fortress.
There were no safe days, they had to continuously fight and defend the fortress. It was a region where their survival was a daily battle. It was a fortress and a hunting ground.
Regardless of Vargo Fortress’s development it was a place that drew in popularity. It was the forefront where warriors from the Northern continent gathered to fight perilous battles with the monsters.
***** Baran village was located south of Rosenheim Kingdom. It was a famous city where a player could gain a seed for doing the elder Ghandilva’s request and use it to ascend to the City of Heaven Lavias. There was also the statue of goddess Freya that Weed made in his earlier days with immature workmanship, but the piece he sculpted in Seo Yoon’s image made the village widely known!
“Really, it’s a well-made sculpture.” “If this woman really existed, it would be great. Just seeing her face I could live happily forever.” “Perish the thought. This kind of woman does not exist in this world. It’s Weed’s sculpting skill that is unbelievably advanced.”
The visitors’ went to sightsee the sculpture once before leaving to hunt or they conversed with the residents. Meeting the residents allowed them to hear stories about quests, hunting grounds or talks of new dungeons.
There were pre-established dungeons but monsters could, later on, gather together and create a new one. The residents or the hunters could spot such signs beforehand and if the players built up intimacy with them, they could hear about such stories.
However one day the village people started becoming slightly strange.
“I will serve wholeheartedly.” “Yes?” “Listen to the teachings of the great god that will protect this worthless continent.” “……”
Some residents were looking at the sky blankly. When the players got closer and engaged them in a conversation, they told a story.
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