Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1250: Chapter 1249: Amber Is a Professional

At the moment he saw the flowing sand, Modir’s face showed an expression of inexplicable astonishment. Clearly, he was impressed by the peculiar ”appearance” of this sand. As he watched the sand respond to Amber as if it had life, his gaze toward Amber grew even more peculiar—a momentary thought arose, and one could only guess how many conjectures formed in this Great Adventurer’s mind. In the end, he looked at Gawain with admiration.

Gawain: ”...?”

”No wonder she’s someone who can follow by your side,” the old mage suddenly said, ”I thought my own incredible experiences were deserving of being written into stories, but now it seems... these strange and mysterious things might not even matter to you at all...”

”Ah, you might have misunderstood,” Gawain immediately responded, waving his hand, ”These sands of hers are...”

He paused halfway, suddenly unsure of how to explain Amber’s uniqueness to this first-time meeting Great Adventurer. After much consideration, he figured the term ”free divine selection” would probably not be understood, so he shrugged off the latter part of the sentence: ”These sands are not like any dust you’ve seen, the situation is a bit special—however, it is related to shadow manipulation, so they might help identify what’s changed about you.”

As he spoke, the flowing gray-white sand had already begun floating in the air under Amber’s command, swirling around Modir. Compared to the first time she summoned this sand, Amber’s control over it seemed to have improved significantly—she could not only control their appearance and disappearance but also manipulate complex transformations. Surrounded by the sandstorm, the Great Adventurer himself appeared a bit tense; the old mage sat up straight, his eyes fixed on the whirling sand beside him, cautiously asking, ”Do I need to do anything to cooperate?”

”No, just sit still. I’m checking how much ’essence’ related to ’there’ remains in you,” Amber replied offhand while controlling the sand, her expression extraordinarily serious. However, Gawain, familiar with her, could see that this half-elf was entering a ’playful’ state—the opportunity to have a legendary powerhouse cooperate so seriously was rare, and this figure whose combat power was only slightly stronger than a goose was probably encountering this kind of scene for the first time in her life; of course, it was an occasion for pretension.

However, Gawain didn’t say anything to expose it, as he knew that even if she lost herself in her vanity, she wouldn’t neglect the task; she was indeed checking the abnormalities with Modir and... seemed to have found something useful.

Because beads of cold sweat had started forming on her forehead.

”What did you find?” Noticing Amber’s expression growing truly serious and her amber eyes full of tense bewilderment, Gawain couldn’t help but break the silence and ask from the side.

Amber did not immediately answer Gawain’s question. Instead, she froze for a few seconds before abruptly looking at Modir: ”Old Sir, do you usually feel anything unusual about your body?”

”Anything unusual?” Modir paused, ”What are you referring to?”

Amber carefully chose her words, aiming to convey her thoughts: ”Well... various awkward sensations, like feeling a part of your body doesn’t belong to you, limbs numb, as if you’ve lost an arm or a leg...”

The first part of her sentence sounded normal, but the latter gradually increased in complexity, yet Modir evidently did not feel offended due to it. The old mage merely looked down at his body with some bewilderment, seemingly in confirmation, moving his wrists and ankles before finally looking up with puzzlement: ”No, I think my body is still quite robust...”

Gawain looked at Modir and then back at Amber, who appeared incredibly strange, as if she had seen something enigmatic and inexplicable. He couldn’t help but lean down and quietly ask, ”What exactly did you find?”

Amber’s eyes remained focused on the Great Adventurer sitting opposite her. Gawain’s sudden proximity nearly startled her, but she then lowered her voice to a volume only Gawain could hear, speaking softly: ”You all really can’t see it, can you?”

”See what?”

”Modir, his... half of his body is made up of shadow sand dust...”

Amber spoke softly, her voice as if describing a phantasm within a dream, while Gawain widened his eyes in astonishment beside her. Yet her gaze never shifted from the Great Adventurer—the moment her summoned ”shadow sand dust” encircled Modir, as she finally sensed that familiar essence originating from the Kingdom of Shadows within him, the scene before her changed: the flowing gray-white sand moved over Modir, accurately sketching half of his physique, draping over him visibly, looking eerie and alarming.

Initially, Amber thought the sand only covered a portion of the Adventurer’s skin surface, but as some granules flowed and revealed a gap through which she could directly see the chair back across from the sand, she realized that the sand wasn’t just a surface layer—in fact, half of Modir’s body was composed of those ”shadow sand dust”!

Yet it seemed the Great Adventurer himself was completely unaware of this, and those around him could see none of it—only she, through some clandestine connection with the Kingdom of Shadows, witnessed this truth.

Instinctively, Gawain focused his gaze on Modir, observing this Great Adventurer entangled with numerous mysteries intently, amidst the old mage’s puzzled expression.

Of course, he saw nothing—but he trusted that Amber indeed viewed the terrifying sight she described.

”Miss Amber, did you discover what’s wrong with me?” Modir finally couldn’t resist asking—even with the strength of a legendary powerhouse, he could intentionally perceive and hear Amber and Gawain’s conversation but refrained from making this ”exceeding boundaries” move before the pioneer hero he respected deeply. ”Is the condition severe?”

”...You indeed carry the power of Lady Night, and your body has undergone some degree of transformation,” Amber immediately answered but deliberately concealed the true situation she saw—Modir’s anomaly seemed tied to his perception of himself. Until she understood the rules behind it, she had to be cautious to avoid inadvertently stimulating this Great Adventurer’s ”critical cognition,” ”but no need to worry too much. Since you yourself haven’t felt anything wrong, that implies the ’transformation’ occurring within you isn’t fatal, and Lady Night’s power... at least doesn’t bear malicious intent.”

”Oh, well, that’s good then.” Modir breathed a sigh of relief, and Gawain followed with a sigh as well.

For a moment, Gawain was even a bit worried that Amber would start by blurting out both relevant and irrelevant matters as usual, but now seeing this Empire’s blemish acting consciously when it comes to serious situations, he thought her habitual mischievous state was likely aimed only at himself... upon reflection, why did he suddenly feel even more irritated?

Meanwhile, as Gawain’s mind was turning with these thoughts, Amber seemed to have thought of something as well. She cautiously observed Modir’s condition and said, ”Sir, there’s something I’d like to confirm... but first, I need to know, do you trust me?”

”At this point, what can’t be trusted?” Modir laughed. ”Besides, if His Majesty Gawain trusts you, why should I worry that the Imperial Minister of Intelligence would try to steal something from an old fool like me?”

Gawain felt there were plenty of things to unpack in the old mage’s words. He thought that the old ancestor from the Wilder Clan apparently wasn’t aware what the Imperial Minister of Intelligence used to do for a living. But the bigger surprise was Amber, who went along and nodded, ”In a way, I do plan to ’steal’ something from you, sir.”

Gawain almost joined Modir in exclaiming ”Huh?”

”I want to try extracting a small part of the ’foreign object’ from you, but I don’t know if this will work, nor do I know how to explain the principle here,” Amber quickly added. She manipulated the Shadow Sand Dust circling around Modir, looking eager to try. Although she seemed to be explaining to Modir, she was in fact speaking for Gawain. ”I can perceive how those forces flow and can ’see’ the operable parts inside. This process should be safe, but it first requires Mr. Modir’s cooperation—most importantly, no resistance.”

”Extract the ’foreign object’ from his body?” Gawain first looked at Amber in astonishment, seemingly unwilling to believe that this Shadow Assault Goose was suddenly so capable, but he quickly realized she wasn’t joking, so he turned his attention to Modir. ”What do you think? Of course, I can vouch for Amber’s serious attitude, but as for her ’skills,’ well, I can’t be sure...”

Amber rolled her eyes at this, seemingly wanting to retort, but before she could open her mouth, Modir spoke first, ”I think we should try it. After all, my situation is already like this, and even the leader of the Dragonkin couldn’t think of a good solution. Now there’s finally a plan... at least it’s a plan. Miss Amber, besides not resisting, do I need to do anything else?”

”Just don’t resist. If you feel uncomfortable, just speak up, and definitely don’t retaliate casually,” Amber quickly said, looking unusually serious—she wouldn’t boast about other things, but she had always been confident in her own strength. In front of such a Legendary Mage, especially one oriented towards combat, she was sure if he casually took a swing at her, she might die on the spot, so fast even Gawain wouldn’t be able to save her in time...

After getting Modir’s repeated assurance, Amber finally relaxed. She then stepped forward, dispelling the makeshift Shadow Sand Dust she had summoned, and placed a hand above Modir’s head.

The old mage sat upright, his face tense, ready to cooperate with the experiment. Gawain and Victoria both showed focused, curious looks, watching what Amber was up to. They saw Amber standing there with a solemn look for a few seconds, then suddenly, a very faint ”rustling” sound came over.

Gawain widened his eyes; he saw shadowy dust-like smoke separating from Modir’s body. The dust was very fine and light, rising like steam. Once detached from Modir’s body, it began to disperse, but they quickly regrouped under Amber’s control. Spiraling upwards, they finally gathered at Amber’s fingertips, forming a small vortex no bigger than a palm.

A brief daze flashed in Modir’s eyes; he seemed completely unaware of what had just happened as Amber’s operation had already ended.

”Did you feel anything?” Victoria immediately asked, concerned.

”It’s over already?” Modir touched the top of his head and looked back at Amber, who had stashed away the vortex of dust somewhere—with a puzzled expression, ”I just zoned out. I didn’t feel anything.”

”Zoned out...” Amber muttered thoughtfully to herself after hearing this, then nodded, ”It’s done. If you don’t feel anything unusual, that’s even better.”

”What did you ’steal’ from me?” Modir asked curiously, frowning slightly at Amber. ”I didn’t feel a thing.”

”As I said, it’s the ’abnormality’ on you—more precisely, the ’influence’ left on you by the Lady Night,” Amber said casually. ”But I can’t extract all of it. I can only take a small part for study—for now, you need to wait patiently and see when I can figure something out from those ’samples’.”

Modir blinked his eyes, his gaze sweeping over those around him. There was a hint of doubt beneath his eyes, as if thinking, ’Are you all here to trick this old man?’ But upon seeing Gawain sitting upright nearby, his moment of doubt quickly dissipated, and he slowly nodded, ”I understand.”

Gawain looked at Amber, and the two briefly exchanged glances, then he stood up and nodded to Modir, ”That will be it for today, Modir, Amber has already gathered a lot of clues. We’ll need to return to research further on a ’solution’.

Modir quickly stood up as well, smiling, ”Of course, I hope to hear good news from you soon.”

Gawain reached out his hand voluntarily, ”I hope in the not-too-distant future we can discuss your thrilling adventures and the profound discoveries you’ve made.”

...

Gawain and Amber left the room, and the black-haired girl named Koleta was standing in the hallway. Seeing the guests appear, she immediately came forward.

”Please take us to the places we can rest,” Gawain casually said to the Humanoid Dragon, ”It looks like what that Great Adventurer is experiencing is indeed worth our study.”

The black-haired girl looked curiously at Gawain first, then lowered her head, ”Please follow me.”

On the way to the resting place, Gawain glanced several times at Amber walking beside him. Only when they were near the room did he finally couldn’t help but ask, ”What exactly did you ’extract’ from Modir?”

”I knew you would ask, yet unfortunately, I’m not sure yet,” Amber exhaled lightly, her voice unhurried, ”But I suspect... those dust particles might reveal what exactly happened to Modir Wilder around the critical moment he was split in two.”