Chapter 801: Return of a Hero

It was before dawn when Rhode woke up.

He felt two warm, soft sensations on his elbows. He slowly sat up on his bed and through the slight glimmer from the window, he admired the two fair young ladies laying beside him and their fragrant scents. Marlene and Lize clung onto his elbows in their slumber. He gazed at their calm sleeping faces and found it unimaginable how wild they were last night. He shook his head helplessly, extended his arms, and caressed their long hair. Ever since the three of them experienced their first night together, Marlene and Lize had been making advances on him as a duo and Rhode always dealt with them effortlessly. To the contrary, Anne was a totally different case, which was why he never agreed to Anne even though she had always tried to join in their fun. If Rhode were another man, he would be thrilled to spend the night with three gorgeous young ladies at the same time. But he didn't think of it as something great because he only needed a few hours to handle Marlene and Lize. If Anne were to join them, who knew when he could finally get some sleep.

Rhode shook his head at this thought. Then, he got off the bed without waking them up, changed his clothes, and left the room.

"———!"

Rhode brandished his sword. The burst of blade air streamed across the night sky in trails of starry radiance. Then, the shimmering trails coalesced into silver rays that weaved across one another into a large net. Rhode took half a step forward and thrust his right hand—a shadow clone emerged and retreated from his body simultaneously. Rhode opened his eyes and flicked his wrist.

In an instant, the sacred white blade in his hand was dyed in dark colors and he lashed it forward like a black whip. Along in his movements, the huge net of silver blade rays that he had brandished slithered in all directions before him like vipers. Then, almost instantly, the net shattered and vanished into thin air.

"Tch."

Rhode grunted and shook his head helplessly.

The experiment failed again.

Ever since he created the 'Fantasy Daybreak' swordsmanship with a sword creation point, his new form of entertainment was to master it. After all, all players desired having their unique swordsmanship. Even though they could modify their swordsmanship in the game, it was ultimately others' swordsmanships. Now that Rhode finally had his very own swordsmanship, he definitely wouldn't let this opportunity slip, especially after experiencing the sweet taste of success.

Rhode had seen small successes with his experiment earlier on. He deployed an attacking style that was similar to the 'Internet lag' in the game and created this shadow clone that was effective against individuals or a range of opponents. After he transcended into the Legendary Stage and gained the enhancement of the legendary attribute, the 'Fantasy Daybreak' was especially effective against the Undead Army. But it still wasn't enough.

From the start, he had hoped to create three 'lag' shadow clones to coordinate with his attacks. This would allow him to maintain a battle with three clones of himself, which meant that the enemies would be facing four of him simultaneously. The difficulty of this technique was whether the time of execution and remaining time could be perfectly connected, but this wasn't a huge challenge for him. Not only could he easily create a shadow clone anytime, but the shadow clone would also possess equal strength and defense as him. In other words, the shadow clones wouldn't be shattered easily anymore. When he faced lower-level enemies, he could simply defeat them by releasing the shadow clones.

However, Rhode wasn't satisfied with this result. After achieving successes, he came up with a new idea.

He held four holy sword cards, namely Star Mark, Succubus, and Gracier and Madaras as a set and could switch around with three unique sword skills continuously in battles. Star Mark could unleash powerful attacks while Succubus's chain sword could deploy mid-range ambush. Gracier and Madaras were useful for close-combat battles. All this while, his shadow clones were only able to release a sword skill that he released on the spot. So, how could he make them cast other sword skills too?

In other words, for example, he wanted to summon a shadow clone that attacked using Star Mark while summoning Succubus, Gracier, or Madaras from the rear to launch an ambush.

Or perhaps he could go much deeper by turning the sword skills into unique identities which allowed him to use two summoning cards at once. But this was only a thought.

If it were a regular sword skill, Rhode surely wouldn't have such wild thoughts. But since he had created the 'Fantasy Daybreak', he dared to imagine the impossible. Anyway, the later stages of 'Fantasy Daybreak' hadn't been developed yet, so he might as well test it out at this phase. He had even considered summoning a dozen shadow clones at once, where the leading shadow clone would be the main tanker while the shadow clones at the back would summon different cards simultaneously. If that were possible, the instant burst of attack would surely be enough to take on an army even if Rhode were alone in battle!

But the experiments weren't successful because as soon as he switched his weapon, the shadow clone that he summoned would vanish into thin air immediately.

"Sigh..."

Rhode swung his right arm and the pitch-black sword in his hand returned into the form of a card, spinning above his palm and vanishing into thin air. He retrieved a pocket watch from his pocket and looked at the time. He had set a rule for himself to practice for an hour after waking up every morning. In fact, he had cultivated such a habit in the real world, but he went for jogs instead. After coming to this world, he woke up on time almost every morning unless there were unexpected events or nights related to Anne...

After checking the time, he put away the pocket watch. Then, he stuck out his finger and the system interface emerged before him.

[The king is steadfast and seeks lost glory. His subjects have scattered and disappeared, but eventually they will return. With your twin in the reflection, protect the sacred glory from being stained. At the end of the ancient era, will the throne of the soul inheritance be crowned?— Triggered Mission: <>]

This mission wasn't complicated. All it asked was for Rhode to assist the Battle Mage Group in completing the long-lost inheritance ritual and make the Battle Mages of the legends return to this mortal world. In the past, the Battle Mage Group had failed this ritual. Not only that, but they also suffered gravely when they fought for the staff. Before they returned home safely, they were ambushed by the Undead Army on their way back. Without many choices, Sovann could only retreat with the staff because no matter what, he couldn't allow the key of the soul inheritance to be snatched by the Undead Army. It was apparent that this mission was triggered due to the re-emergence of the Battle Mage Group in his fortress.

This situation seemed really simple. Sovann obtained the 'Soul Road' Staff and needed a place to complete the ritual. However, there was a problem—the ritual altar was located in the Eastern Plains where they used to live before the Undead Army attacked. In other words, they had to sneak in under the Undead Army's watchful eyes now...

Of course, it would also be a decent idea to set up an altar in the Land of Atonement. But... how could Rhode rely on one to remember how a centuries-old ritual altar looked like?

If the mission reward was only gold and EXP, Rhode would have given up just like the 'Fiery Rose' mission.

However, its rewards attracted his attention.

Apart from EXP, there was also another reward—the [Astral Key].

The Astral Key was similar to the Fantasy Keys that unlocked the channels to the Silver Ocean and Burning Plains. It was also one of the keys to the Seven Fantasy Boundaries. After receiving the Astral Key, Rhode could unlock the channel that led to the Astral Temple. Not only that, but a projection of the Astral Temple would also be added into his construction system.

[Astral Temple: The holder can summon his high-level creature into the projection and it can call forth its lower-level creatures into battles. When the appointed high-level creature is present, it can upgrade and strengthen the lower-level creatures.]

In the legends of the Dragon Soul Continent, the Astral Temple was the eternal resting place for heroic spirits and this excited him. He currently had four extraordinary holy sword cards: Celia, Celestina, Gracier, and Madaras. After the Astral Temple was built, it meant that they could summon their heroic spirits into battle! Did this also mean that godlike figures like the Carlesdine could also be summoned?

If that was the case, who could still defeat him if he used Gracier and Madaras and summoned 80 Carlesdines into battles?

Despite the exciting prospect, Rhode didn't rush off to complete this mission due to one reason—a particular statement in the mission description.

"With your twin in the reflection, protect the sacred glory from being stained..."

Twin in the reflection. There was only one person who came to mind.

Christie.