Amber Sword
Chapter 96 - 40 Acts: The Summer War

The description on the card changed:

Holy Tree Secret Land

(Elf Forbidden Land VII)

[Basic Land—Forest]

Produces 1 water element per week into the Element Pool.

Tap: Construct forest terrain.

’My soul returns, returns to my hometown.’

"Is this deck called Elf Forbidden Land?" Ben was taken aback. The card’s description didn’t specify the conditions for its activation. Could it be that as long as it entered his deck, it would naturally produce one water element per week? But what would he do without an Element Pool?

And tapping the card to construct forest terrain was also subject to debate. Naturally, he wouldn’t experiment with it here. Although the Golden Magic Tree had fallen and its demon servants would disperse like birds and animals, quickly withering due to the loss of magic supply, perhaps a Magic Tree-man might re-root in another part of the forest and continue the ecosystem, but that was none of Ben’s concern.

What worried Ben was that the Stone Cone Worm below, after absorbing all the scattered earth element and magic, might come looking for trouble with the three of them. Elemental creatures never got enough to eat.

He put the card away and remembered the previous magical resonance. There must be another card belonging to the Knight Deck here. Unfortunately, magical resonance was natural and couldn’t be triggered repeatedly. Otherwise, he could use this method to search. Meanwhile, Ben asked Frey and Romantic to gather some Golden Tree acorns. Mature acorns could be used to make advanced magic potions, which were the most luxurious consumables in the game.

Alas, a Golden Magic Tree could at most produce seven or eight mature acorns; a once-and-for-all solution was impossible.

He walked to a spot, lifted the leaves, and found a pair of gloves wrapped around an aerial root. By their style, he recognized them as Protective Gloves, which in the game provided 2 points of protection but had strength requirements. Ben vaguely remembered it was 2.5 energy levels, and as soon as he picked them up, he felt their weight, confirming his guess was nearly correct.

He tossed the gloves to Frey to try on. He hoped she could be more like a tank, but alas, as soon as the ponytailed girl caught them, her hands sank immediately. Too heavy—there was no way, and the future Valkyrie returned them with a look of regret.

"Such a pity," Ben shook his head. "If you wore these, along with the Wind Queen Half Armor, Swordsmen below Iron Rank couldn’t even touch you."

"I’m sorry."

"What’s there to apologize for? Even among the Guard Team, I see only a few people who could wear these." Ben said while putting on the gloves himself. The ponytailed girl noticed this detail and felt a slight shock in her heart—so Ben had already reached the elite level of the Guard Team?

Of course, she didn’t know that even Breson was no match for Ben at this moment.

The three of them circled the fallen treetop and found a Swift Short Sword with a dexterity boost of +0.1 energy levels, and Frey found an invaluable enchanted ring of 22Oz, which could imbue her sword with a layer of flames by consuming a bit of mana.

As for the rest, most were items whose magic had long since dissipated. Ben used the Elf Sword to peel open the Golden Magic Tree’s bark, finding the Heart of the Golden Tree—which greatly disappointed him because, with a three-year difference from game time, it was still in the state of a tree crystal.

Of course, it was much purer in quality than ordinary tree crystals.

But material was material, equipment was equipment, and there was an insurmountable gap between them. This unexpected discovery made Ben wary; he shouldn’t view things through the perspective of the game many years later.

After all, this was a real world, and history moved forward slowly.

As Ben retrieved the Heart of the Golden Tree, he felt a breeze gently pass through the valley—the Golden Magic Tree had died. He looked up to see eight silver light balls swiftly fly out from the tree trunk and merge into his chest.