Chapter 82: Level 4 Watch Tower
He had brought all the items that were needed to upgrade the ⟨Watch Tower⟩s.
Edgar’s attention immediately shifted away from the warehouse.
A smile appeared on his face.
"Looks like our timing couldn’t have been better."
Andrew followed his gaze toward the gate.
Gordon dismounted from his horse with ease before handing the reins to one of the guards.
Although dust covered his clothes from the long journey, his expression looked considerably lighter than it had after returning from the Norwood Mountains.
He walked straight toward Edgar.
"My Lord."
He gave a respectful bow.
"I managed to obtain both items."
Edgar nodded his head.
"Ask one of the soldiers to bring them to the Central Tower."
Gordon nodded and did as instructed while Edgar walked toward the tower with Andrew.
"By the way, Young Master," Andrew said, looking around cautiously. "Don’t you think there is something fishy going on here?"
With a confused look, Edgar looked at the young boy.
"Define fishy."
"I can’t pinpoint it," he replied. "Ever since we came back from the destruction of the Yamhad Clan, it feels like something is always watching us."
Edgar’s expression gradually turned serious.
He didn’t dismiss Andrew’s words as paranoia.
Ever since the boy had inherited the Three-Legged Raven’s Shard, his senses had become extraordinarily sharp.
If Andrew felt something, there was a good chance there really was something.
"You’ve felt it this whole time?"
Andrew hesitated.
"It’s difficult to say. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t."
Edgar slowly nodded his head and kept the information in the back of his mind.
For now, strengthening the Fortress was his highest priority.
It didn’t take long for Gordon to bring the items after the duo reached the tower.
Edgar had already asked someone to bring the Burning Tree Bark.
His gaze then shifted to a chest that contained the Hondor Ghost Eyes and the Shin Glass Orb.
The Hondor Ghost Eyes looked unsettling.
They resembled a pair of pale, translucent eyeballs suspended in a clear, viscous liquid inside a glass jar.
Even without touching them, Edgar could feel a faint chill radiating from the container.
Beside them rested the Shin Glass Orb.
Unlike the Ghost Eyes, it was beautiful.
It was a perfectly spherical crystal no larger than a fist, so transparent that it was almost invisible beneath the light.
Tiny threads of silver seemed to drift through its center like frozen lightning.
Edgar nodded absentmindedly before placing both items back into the chest.
He then looked toward the bundle of Burning Tree Bark lying nearby and the hundred Nightmare Stones.
After confirming everything, Edgar placed them aside.
He turned and looked at Gordon.
"Can you train me with the sword?"
Gordon nodded his head.
"It would be my pleasure."
---
As soon as the time was right, when the fog was receding and the Eternal Night started to take over, Edgar returned.
He looked at the ingredients, making sure everything was right.
Once everything was prepared, Edgar willed the tower to upgrade.
’Last time I got the Light Net. I wonder what I will get this time...’
A translucent screen appeared in front of his eyes.
======
Choose your upgrade path:
1) Can create constructs like chains, blades, and hooks of light containing extreme heat within a range of fifty metres.
2) An Active Skill, ⟨Light Inferno⟩, that sends a beam of extremely hot light.
3) Can create a poisonous gas around an area of two hundred metres that can kill low-level Nightmares and have adverse effects on high-level Nightmares.
======
Edgar looked at the three options seriously and decided to eliminate the first one.
The area of the Fortress Wall was bigger than the range of the attack.
’That leaves me with the second and third.’
Edgar instinctively began comparing them.
If the Fortress was besieged by a powerful Nightmare, ⟨Light Inferno⟩ would undoubtedly be the superior choice.
A single devastating attack could decide the outcome of a battle, but it still consumed resources every time it fired.
And it could only attack one target at a time.
His gaze shifted to the third option.
Two hundred meters was enormous.
It would cover not only the Fortress itself but also a significant portion of the surrounding land.
Any weak Nightmare wandering into its range would simply die, and stronger Nightmares would be weakened before even reaching the walls.
In other words, the battlefield itself would become his ally.
’The Fortress isn’t meant to chase enemies.’
’It’s meant to outlast them.’
Edgar’s philosophy had never changed.
He wasn’t trying to build the strongest weapon.
He was trying to build the safest home.
Taking in a deep breath, Edgar chose the third option.
As soon as he chose it, the Nightmare Stones cracked and floated into the air.
The ingredients for the ritual were absorbed into the light as well, as though they had always been a part of it.
The countless motes of light gathered before the Watch Tower.
The floating lights gradually formed a brilliant sphere above the tower’s peak.
Within it, the crushed Nightmare Stones dissolved into streams of white essence.
The Burning Tree Bark burst into golden flames.
The Hondor Ghost Eyes slowly floated out of their shattered jar, hanging in the air.
The silver threads sleeping within the Shin Glass Orb suddenly awakened.
They raced across the crystal like countless tiny rivers of lightning.
The observation platform expanded outward, while countless glowing runes etched themselves into the timber before sinking beneath the surface.
The transformation lasted nearly a full minute.
The blinding sphere above the tower quietly descended until it merged with the structure itself.
A gentle golden mist seeped from countless tiny runic vents hidden throughout the Watch Tower.
Like water poured through invisible channels.
The mist drifted across the Fortress before spilling beyond the walls in every direction.
Within moments, it had spread across nearly two hundred meters surrounding the Fortress.
The grey-black fog remained.
But wherever the golden mist reached, the oppressive atmosphere noticeably weakened.
"...It smells nice," Edgar mumbled softly, looking around the place.
A satisfied smile slowly spread across his face.
As Edgar was looking around, the Eternal Night took over everything.