Golden Wind

“Defeated [Golden Blade Lord (Boss)]. Experience gained: 2,000.”

“Defeated a [Poisoned] monster. Base health +1.”

As the massive body of the Golden Blade Lord crashed to the ground, the Eagle Spirit Companion leisurely flew back to Liu Xuan’s shoulder. It held its head high, looking immensely proud, as though waiting for its master’s praise.

Finally! Finally!

Today, it was finally my turn to fight! I circled the boss and attacked for ages just now. My damage must have been impressive, right?

Liu Xuan reached out and rubbed its head.

“Thanks for your hard work. It’s not easy scratching away at it for so long. Your claws are probably worn flat by now.”

“Ying-ying~~”

The Eagle Spirit Companion shot Liu Xuan a resentful look before its form slowly dispersed.

At the same time, the uproar from the surrounding arena gradually faded away, and the scene before Liu Xuan twisted with it.

When everything returned to normal, he found himself standing inside a somewhat dilapidated room. Two chests, one large and one small, sat in front of him.

[The Golden Blade Lord has been defeated. Second objective of the Battle of Orenburg complete.]

[The third objective is now available.]

[Proceed to the northern part of the city and ring the great bell atop the tower.]

“Whew. It’s finally over.”

Liu Xuan hadn’t expected the second objective to hold him up for so long. He had needed to kill four full waves of monsters before finally clearing it.

Before coming here, he had assumed that all he needed to do was clear out the monsters in the town hall.

Fortunately, it hadn’t taken too much time overall. He quickly gathered up his rewards and headed off to complete the third objective.

Standing before the two chests, Liu Xuan looked them over. The small one was rather plain, while the large one glittered with jewels.

He opened the small chest first, only to find a single key inside.

He picked it up and examined it.

[Key of Orenburg (Special Item): Opens every lock within Orenburg. Locks added afterward are not included.]

“What exactly is this thing for?”

Liu Xuan turned the key over and over in his hands. Its tip was nothing but a smooth metal rod, and he had no idea how it was supposed to open a lock.

“Could there be a lot of places in this city that can be opened with a key?”

The destroyers in the city possessed a little intelligence, but they were nowhere near as sophisticated as the creatures in the arena. There were no advanced variants among them; at a glance, they were nothing but monsters that knew how to destroy.

Perhaps some places had survived their original assault. Or perhaps certain treasures were still hidden somewhere.

Unfortunately, Liu Xuan didn’t have time to search everywhere right now. He could take his time later.

He shifted his attention to the large chest and opened it. A burst of golden light nearly blinded him.

Five hundred gold coins!

He was rich!

But then he curled his lips. He already had more than eight hundred gold coins on him, and he still hadn’t found many places to spend them.

So far, his biggest expense had been the single gold coin he’d spent in the Novice Village on a bottle of Random Attribute Potion.

He wondered whether there were any NPCs in Orenburg who sold good items.

Wait. There wasn’t a single damn NPC in the entire city!

Besides the gold coins, the chest also contained a golden one-handed sword and three skill scrolls.

[Golden Wind]

Quality: Epic

Level Requirement: 25

Attack: +200

Spell Damage: +200

Strength: +30

Agility: +30

Intelligence: +30

Effect: When you deal physical damage, you additionally deal 30% magic damage.

When you deal magic damage, you additionally deal 30% physical damage. Damage triggered by this weapon cannot trigger the weapon’s effect again.

An Epic weapon!

Not only were its attributes well-balanced, its effect was also brutally straightforward. It was more or less a weaker version of the Golden Blade Lord’s [Metallization].

But weaker didn’t mean bad.

The special effect alone increased damage by 30%, which was already incredibly powerful.

This weapon was perfect for someone who cultivated both physical and magical abilities.

As it happened, Liu Xuan was exactly that kind of person.

“Tsk, tsk. If I’d had this weapon when I fought the Monster Salamander, I would’ve crushed it.”

The only problem was the level requirement, which left Liu Xuan feeling rather helpless.

His inventory was already packed with high-level equipment—the chest armor dropped by the One-Eyed Hamovi, the Destroyer set, and now this one-handed sword—but he couldn’t equip any of them.

After reluctantly putting away the Golden Wind, Liu Xuan looked at the three skill scrolls. To his surprise, they were the skills of the three arena bosses.

It seemed that fighting more enemies took extra time, but the rewards were richer as well.

The three skills were [Charge] from the Ironjaw Ravager—the one that repeatedly charged back and forth and stunned its target;

[Roar] from Thornthroat, a wide-area fan-shaped slow;

and [Storm Descends] from the Golden Blade Lord, an area-of-effect attack with an enormous range.

They were all excellent skills. Naturally, their numbers were somewhat different from the bosses’ versions.

After putting everything away, Liu Xuan sent Zhang Meng a message to ask about his progress while making his way toward the tower in northern Orenburg.

He had spotted the tower earlier while exploring the city and working out the routes, but the main entrance had been closed at the time.

When Liu Xuan arrived, the door was still shut.

He quickly realized what he needed to do and took out the Key of Orenburg. The moment he brought it close to the keyhole, the key—which had originally been nothing more than a smooth cylinder—began to change.

With a series of clicking sounds, teeth emerged from its tip. Liu Xuan gently slid it into the keyhole. It fit perfectly.

He turned the key, and the tower’s main gate let out a grinding creak as it slowly swung open.

The interior of the tower was cylindrical. A small area on the ground floor held a wooden table and several stools.

A spiral staircase followed the inner wall of the cylinder all the way upward. Standing at the bottom, Liu Xuan could see the ceiling at the very top.

The tower was probably twenty or thirty meters tall.

Liu Xuan climbed the steps cautiously. In the second objective, he had fought one elite monster and three bosses. For this final objective, there might be something truly formidable waiting for him.

Yet Liu Xuan reached the platform at the top of the tower and stood before the cast-iron great bell without encountering anything at all.

“Could this stage really be free?”

Even so, Liu Xuan didn’t let his guard down. For all he knew, a powerful boss might leap out the moment he struck the bell.

A ring of flat gemstones, each about the size of a dressing mirror, was embedded in the great bell. There were six in total, each glowing with a faint golden light.

The six gems were evenly spaced around the bell, corresponding to its six sides. From the top of the tower, an iron chain hung down before each one, with a spherical clapper suspended at the end.

Liu Xuan tried pushing the clapper in front of him.

The metal sphere struck the gem, instantly releasing a dazzling beam of golden light that shot into the distance.

At the same time, a humming sound like celestial music rang out. It was as clear and melodious as jade striking jade, and together with the golden light, it spread far into the distance.

Liu Xuan pondered for a moment. Then he walked around the great bell, striking the six gemstones one after another.

Six beams of golden light and six ringing tones spread across every corner of Orenburg.

At that moment, the NPC survivors hiding in the wilderness all raised their heads and looked toward Orenburg.

Inside an underground cavern somewhere.

“That sound is…!”

“The bell of Orenburg? Could it be that someone has reclaimed the city?”

“Should we go over and take a look?”

On a certain mountain.

“Orenburg? What a shame. The entire area below the mountain is crawling with monsters. I can’t even make it down there now.”

At a hidden camp in the woods.

Gina and her brother had just returned to camp and reported their discovery to Kyle, the camp’s leader.

Although her brother’s persuasion had helped her accept reality somewhat, Gina still held on to a faint hope. Perhaps Kyle, the leader of their group of survivors, might have a different opinion?

Unfortunately, Kyle himself was the most cautious of them all.

After hearing the information Gina and her brother had brought back, he merely said, “Remember the entrance to that tunnel for now. We’ll discuss it another time.”

Gina’s heart sank, but she was still unwilling to give up.

“We can keep watch over the tunnel and try to make contact with the person who entered the city. If he’s still alive, he must know a great deal about Orenburg!”

“No!” Kyle refused outright. “We don’t know whether he’s friend or foe. We can’t approach him recklessly.”

“Not this again!” Gina cried anxiously. “He isn’t a monster. Why are you so afraid? At the very least, we’re all human, aren’t we?”

“That’s enough! You don’t understand a thing!” Kyle shouted. “It’s not as though you’ve never seen it yourself. Other survivors have murdered our people for a single bite of food—even just one piece of fruit!”

“But—”

“No buts. I’m the leader! I’m responsible for the hundred or so people in this camp!”

“So we’re supposed to hide in these woods for the rest of our lives, eating wild fruit and rats? Live like savages?”

“But at least everyone’s still alive! If we really followed your—”

Before Kyle could finish, the sound of a bell rang out in the distance.

To these former residents of Orenburg, that sound was both familiar and soothing.