Dragon Tribulation of All Realms

Chapter 246 - Life Always Requires Taking Risks
Wu Chen naturally wanted a straight sword that could spew fire.

Hera gave him even more than he had expected—after all the runes were drawn, Hera plunged the two-handed sword that Wuchen had found, made of material clearly superior to ordinary steel, into the remains of the White Walker. With a sudden burst of fire, the remains of the White Walker, and the ice spear tightly gripped by the remains, both turned into burning flames.

Cold flames, azure flames.

The flames subsided, absorbing into the two-handed sword, and finally transformed into a faint blue light that flowed continuously along the sword's spine.

The sword was handed to Wu Chen—who gripped it firmly. He wielded it with a rapid, rhythmic single note taught to him by Hera. Following this note, a faint blue flame illuminated the blade.

“Local magical flames.” Hera observed Wuchen’s stamina consumption as he swung his sword. “Although you have lost your soul, you still have life force to use as fuel. Activating it will cause your stamina to be consumed at a faster rate than normal, and this flame can be replenished by devouring the magic of the undead or the souls of living beings. Unless the situation is extraordinary, it should be enough to keep you using this sword until it breaks.”

Wu Chen carefully examined the sword—besides its exquisite craftsmanship, the hilt bore a delicate wolf's head emblem. Clearly, its original owner belonged to House Stark, the rulers of the Northern Kingdoms. He only wondered if the deceased possessed a name he recognized.

Benjen Stark? — The timing might be right.

Wu Chen thought for a moment, but couldn't find the corresponding fragments in the body's remaining memories. Moreover, the chief ranger in his memory didn't seem to have the face of someone who had died by his own sword.

Probably not.

But that’s okay.

Wu Chen brandished his burning sword, performing a sword flourish. In his assessment, the energy consumption after activating the flames was more than three times that of normal combat.

"Not bad," he commented. "However, its actual lethality still needs to be tested. Hmm... the flames on this sword give me a slightly dangerous feeling. It can't be like magic from before, where it wouldn't accidentally injure me."

“After all, we’ve lost our souls.” Hera waved her hand, rummaging through the ashes. “Souls still have many uses. But we should have a replacement soon, so it’s not a big problem.”

"Do you have a strategy yet, senior?" Wu Chen wasn't surprised, but his eyes still lit up.

"Yes, a healthy body can give birth to a healthy soul—you already have a healthy body, so all you need to do is continuously strengthen your body. Sufficient vitality should be able to do this, and when your vitality overflows, the spirituality that houses self-awareness will ascend to the level of the soul."

A slight smile suddenly appeared on her lips—a smile of joy. She reached out and pulled a black longbow adorned with raven feathers from the ashes. She drew the bowstring halfway through, letting it emit a crisp, resonant sound.

It looked a bit like an amateur's attempt at using a bow, but since it was Hera, there must be some explanation for her actions. She rummaged around a bit more and quickly found a quiver, where many well-maintained raven-feathered arrows were arranged and loaded.

Wu Chen gently clenched his fist. During the previous magical ritual, he had indeed sensed a certain increase in his life force—his senses had become sharper, and the precision of his movements had increased. Some close-combat techniques he had never considered before were also vaguely emerging in his mind.

"So..." ...Should we continue searching for those undead, and then hunt and plunder them?
“No.” Hera slung her quiver over her shoulder, seemingly quite pleased with her appearance. The longbow she held in her hand blended perfectly into her aura. “This isn’t Mondas; many of the fundamental rules are different. The magic generated from those hundred-odd ghouls was actually enough for you to elevate your soul to its most basic form. But the results were quite different from what I expected.”

"Your spirituality is indeed pulsating, but the degree of sublimation is less than a third—I suspect it's because the living beings in this world have high magic resistance. Hmm, this world was much more prosperous than I expected during its past magical peaks."

She finally came to a conclusion. "The ritual wasn't effective enough, and we couldn't use the same method repeatedly. Just like the resistance that comes with taking a potion, if we wanted to quickly remedy this lack of soul, it would be better to use another method."

Which one? — That was the question Wu Chen originally wanted to ask.

But he already knew the answer before he even asked.

It is the power of will.

“It’s faith, it’s the breadth of the legend.” Hera nodded at him, acknowledging his unspoken thoughts. “It’s not impossible for us to achieve this on our own, even if it takes a few months or years. But I think we should speed things up a bit.”

"Is it because of these White Walkers?"

“That’s part of the reason,” Hera waved her hand, tilted her head, and suddenly chose a direction. That direction wasn’t the more dangerous north, and Wu Chen followed immediately.

"When I was resuming the magic ritual, I also performed a divination. The divination told me that if I went north, I would face certain death. And I feel there must be some reason for this."

Forward, keep moving forward.

She suddenly drew her longbow.

“There must be some terrible crisis lurking in this world, at least not on the same level as the undead we’ve encountered… You mentioned the Cold God earlier, I’m not sure if it’s that. But whether it is or not, we should prepare in advance.”

'Thud—' The arrow shot out.

The arrow flew over two hundred meters, landing on a distant target—it was hard to imagine that Hera, a witch of classic style, was so skilled with a bow and arrow. Or was it that the body she currently possessed was in even better condition than expected?
“No.” Hera gently brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “This body is more demanding on fuel than I expected. Moving like this is already the limit I can manage right now. So close combat is your responsibility, Dust. We need to divide the roles properly.”

It turned out to be the case.

Wu Chen roughly understands... Wait a minute!
According to her, she has absolutely no melee combat ability. So, does that mean that her setting up the cube ritual and casting the hand-drawn magic... meant she had absolutely no backup plan from beginning to end?! Did she just rely on her gut feeling and recklessly charge in?!

—I thought if I couldn't hold on, she would activate the automaton's million horsepower to punch and kill that White Walker! Turns out she can't do anything at all!?
A few beads of cold sweat suddenly appeared on Wu Chen's forehead.

However, Hera merely raised an eyebrow.

"Life is always full of adventures."

"Aren't we doing just fine?"

(End of this chapter)