above the ring

Chapter 4 Waiting for Your Return

Lear woke up.

The moment he fell into the abyss, he woke up. There was no red "YOU DIE" prompt, no signs, not even a feeling of falling.

Standing up straight, looking out through the hanging towel, it was a sunny day outside without morning fog, the genius was just a little bright, and it was still immersed in blue.

I touched my phone and looked at the time. It was past five o'clock, which was not too early.

Taking a deep breath, Lear got out of bed, felt the cold air in the morning, and gradually woke himself up.

He stared blankly at his hands.

Everything that happened last night is still vivid in my mind, even the feeling of my body is still there.

The posture of swinging the shield, the steps under the heavy armor, and most importantly, the feeling of piercing the monster's flesh with a straight sword at that time.
Lear felt sick to his stomach, like the day we broke up, the morning after a hangover.

"vomit"

Lear rushed into the bathroom shirtless, retched while hugging the toilet.

After yue for a while, Lear felt much better, put water in front of the sink to wash, then rinsed his mouth, raised his head, and looked in the mirror.

"Wo Tangerine."

In the mirror, a golden spot of light appeared on his chest where his heart was.

Lear washed his head with bitingly cold water again, and the light spots that moved with him still remained in the mirror, staying at his heart.

It is a symbol of the restored blessing of the faded.

Lear stretched out his hand to caress his chest, in the mirror, his hand could cover the golden light.

The position of the light spot is soft and warm, slowly calming his mind.

"call"

Lear sighed and left the bathroom.

Put on your clothes, wear a mask, take good protection, go out and go downstairs, and happen to meet a handsome roommate who is walking back with sloppy feet and twists and turns.

"Lear? Go to work."

"Yeah, you just came back?"

"Well, I just came back. I was too tired last night. I'll go back first."

"Well, go to bed early."

Passing by his roommate, Lear smelled the high-end perfume on his roommate.

Well, there is no smell of alcohol, I should have accompanied guests last night.

Lear shook his head. To be honest, he was quite envious of this guy. He was romantic, chic, and most importantly, he had money to squander.

I bought this second-hand old-fashioned bicycle from the garage downstairs. It was bought in the second-hand market for 35 yuan. He has been riding it for more than half a year, and it has not broken except that it will creak without oiling.

Today, he was the first to arrive at the company.

What does he do?
sell insurance.

When Lear was talking about business, his tongue was not sharp, not at all like when he taunted his opponents in games, but he has one advantage, that is, he is willing to work hard to memorize, and the insurance industry is an industry that pays attention to speech skills , But he memorized everything he could memorize and kept it in his heart, so he could handle most situations.

Although he has a good relationship with Lao Feng, they often chat and play games together, but if you really have to count, Lao Feng is his superior and the supervisor of the department where Lear works. Lear does not know the specific management structure of the department. It's just a small employee who has just turned from a temporary worker to a regular worker. From a salary of only 1000 yuan a month, he has become a small soldier who has both a guarantee and a part of the commission.

Because Lao Feng and I have the same hobbies and are both loyal fans of soul games, so working under Lao Feng's hands is comfortable and down-to-earth, and they don't make much money, but they feel at ease.

It is enough to have a place for him in such a big city. He always comes early, often does some cleaning, and is sometimes seen by big leaders. Of course, it may be extremely ordinary, and no leader has ever seen No one will promote him even if he has been promoted.

Lear is also happy with this. If there are no major things to do as a soldier, there is still plenty of free time. You go to work at 08:30 in the morning and get off work at [-]:[-] in the evening. Apart from getting up early so you come early, Lear has nothing wrong with him. When you get off work on time.

It's different for Lao Feng as the head of the department. It depends on God when he is off work. It is rare to go home to rest and play games like yesterday.

A normal day of work has passed, and when it was time to get off work in the evening, Lear was stopped by Lao Feng.

"Lear, have you finished the plan I gave you yesterday?"

"Not yet, didn't you say you'll need it next week? I only wrote half of it."

"Take it here first. The big leader wants to see our planning ideas. Don't ask me. I don't know why. It was originally a planning case for a small event. I didn't know that the leader suddenly wanted to check it."

If it was someone else, maybe they would be secretly happy at this time. Did coming early for so many days have an effect?Did the big leader take a fancy to him?
Lear didn't think so, and the reality didn't make him think about it.

This big leader is a woman, and she looks like the kind of woman who is not beautiful but slightly mature.

Women who work in insurance companies are mostly married and have children. They are more stable than young girls, and they basically don’t take maternity leave. Most importantly, they are more experienced in interpersonal communication , can afford to let go, naturally, it is more strict with young people, especially those young people with relatively outstanding abilities who may be promoted.

The big leader should pay attention to Lao Feng. Lao Feng has been in this position for a long time, and he may be investigating him.

So, the big leader not only doesn't like Lear, he doesn't even have the desire to talk to Lear. He spends the whole time communicating with Lao Feng, and Lear can only stand behind stupidly, watching his nose and nose and his heart. , in obscurity.

So, when Lao Feng was left to work overtime, Lear could go home.

When I got home, it was already dark.

Today's plan to see a psychiatrist has come to naught. In fact, Lear already knew that it was impossible. Even if there was no such thing, there would be too little time.

But people always have to think about it.

In the evening, I ate a few mouthfuls of steamed buns with the side dishes I bought outside the community before I came back. After making sure that I was really not hungry, I turned on the computer and continued to practice playing against Valkyrie.

He played it twice smoothly, and continued to die under the Valkyrie's big move. He stopped, looked at the time, 21:12, closed the game, turned off the computer, set the alarm, and went to bed.

Tomorrow is another day, the salary is stable, and I will strive to buy a house in this second-tier city.

He didn't play games for long today, and he only dealt with Valkyrie twice.

Maybe he was too tired during the day, and soon he fell asleep.

However.
In the dream, he felt that half of his body was submerged in water, his upper body was wet, and his hands were also covered with water droplets.

It didn't rain today, and the home is 3 floors, so it won't leak.

Oh, damn it, this dream came again.

Entering this dream world for the second time, Lear is not as ignorant as the first time. It is said that the greatest fear of human beings comes from the unknown, but he will not be so afraid of things that have been experienced once.

The touch of the dream is very real, but it also suppresses some uncomfortable feelings. These feelings will not disappear because of suppression, and they will hit like a tide when Lear wakes up the next day.

In order not to become as lazy as his roommate in the morning, Lear decided to take it easy today.

Thinking about what he was going to face next in the plot, he felt that today should be okay, and at his own pace, well, let’s not enter Stonewell City for now, and go south first, and then go to Moen City.

Well, how about meeting Melina first?

Lear got up from the puddle.

He shook his head, trying to concentrate as much as possible.

In the deep and dark underground pit, only the golden buds of the golden tree shone brightly. Behind the light of the golden tree was a double-opening stone door that looked very heavy.

It is said that the place where the seeds of the golden tree germinate is the place where heroes are born.

Oh, this is an old saying in the world of Elden. The first time Lear heard about it was near the royal city. At that time, the golden tree was still the benchmark in the hearts of human beings in this world. The golden law had not yet mutated, and the whole world was Under the illumination of the golden tree, they are headed in a beautiful direction, and countless humans, hybrids, and non-humans will all go to the royal city at the junction to meet Elden's ring.

Lear knew that behind that door was the entrance of the tomb, which was connected by a water mechanism elevator, and the location he was at was the ruins of the ancient floating tomb.

Yes, the drifting tomb was called a long, long time ago, and now, this tomb has long been replaced by another tomb.

This is probably the fate of the conquered.

On the side of the gate, there are dilapidated buildings, messy stone materials, a few dark and decayed wooden chairs, and a terrifying white ghost flickering on one of the chairs.

The ghost murmured: "Fadeer, jump down, learn, remember—learn how to fight, remember the fact of being a warrior."

"There is a study cave below."

The white word motto next to the ghost shows that it is still in a font that Lear does not recognize, but it has been transformed into Chinese characters he is familiar with in a short period of time.

Lear couldn't figure out what this meant for the time being, but he couldn't help thinking of a sentence: "Language is also a kind of magic."

This is the world of Elden's Circle of Law. To some extent, the "law" of the Circle of Law does not describe the law, but magic.

Shaking his head, Lear leaned against the edge and looked down.

The golden blessing is just below the dilapidated cave, and the height is very high. At least in reality, I dare not jump.

But maybe, this body can?

Lear stopped the thought of jumping, not because he regretted his life, but because he knew the plot in the game. This is a place similar to a novice tutorial, and he is no longer a novice.

"But maybe there's something to be found about the Drifting Graves down there?"

Lear looked around.

In the dilapidated cave, the former buildings and decorations were completely destroyed, and the dark and dark tunnel seemed to lead to an endless abyss.

Human beings are afraid of darkness, rather than diving into the deep darkness, they hope to follow the footsteps of light, no matter whether the light is bright or dark.

Lear turned back and walked into the darkness.

When his eyes got used to the darkness, he realized that he had reached the end of the tomb passage, under the wall at the end, was the remains of a soldier in red and green armor.

This is Greco's soldier, and Lear still remembers the color of this costume, because he stayed around here for the longest time, so he remembered it more clearly.

"Big tree and beast tube coat", in the game, this is a low-level piece of equipment. Big tree and beast refers to the golden tree and the lion. The golden tree is easy to understand, it is the totem of the whole world, and the lion describes It belongs to the royal family. At the beginning, there was a lion on the back of King Ge Fulei, the prime minister.

This is Greck's symbol. After Greck occupied Stonewell City and took this former storm city as the foundation, he established the emblem and flag of his own camp, which is "big tree and beast".

Of course, the emblem and flag of the City of Storms are not like this. The emblem of the Storm King is an eagle with a sword, and the soaring Storm Eagle is the flag of the City of Storms.

Lear remembered that there was an item left on the corpse, which was the same as the witch he was born in the King's Chapel. It was a thing called "finger calling medicine". The friendly companions in the world fight together, in fact, the role in the game is to be online.

But Lear didn't find the finger-calling potion on this corpse, just like he didn't find the finger-calling potion on the witch's body. Instead, he found a stone tablet with a proverb written on it.

"The power of magic is engraved in the hero's name." (Note 1)

hero?name?magic?

Lear doesn't know how to connect these three things, what does Slate want to say?Lear didn't know, what did the Grek soldier who died holding the slate and was stabbed through the heart by a sword want to express?

name?

Lear suddenly thought of something.

The Houwang Chapel, the Chinese translation is this, not the Houwang who is associated with the "attached" noble in the traditional sense. (Note 2)

The name of the place where he was revived is the King's Chapel. It is not only a place to worship the former Storm King and Storm Eagle King, but also a place where future generations wait for the "king" to come.

Lear suddenly figured out one thing, the name of the King's Chapel meant to him, and to all the players of Elden's Circle of Law.

"Even if the guidance is broken, please become the king of Elden!"

Maybe she will have another sentence later, but it's too late to leave a message: "Waiting for your return, my king."

Lear shook his head with a smile. A dead witch whom he didn't know when he was alive still held a heavy weight in his heart, even though he had taken revenge and came to a place far away from her.

Of course, Lear felt that he was worrying too much. After all, that place was the place where the Storm King and the Storm Eagle King were sacrificed. He had some special associations.

"I'll go back and see her later." Lear muttered to himself, and put the slate in his hand back next to the corpse.

But something unexpected happened, the corpse turned into flying ash and flew towards the direction of the golden tree bud.

In the end, only the armor and a straight sword of the King's Army remained.

The Grek soldier suit has no advantages, except for those soldiers who can cosplay the initial land in the game, there is no merit. Even the Grek knight suit, there is no need to keep it.

The main reason is that Greg's faction is the weakest in the entire border, and he himself is also the weakest. Although he holds the big rune that everyone wants, he has not been recognized by the big rune.

Weakness is the original sin, but Gregor's weakness is only relatively speaking. Compared with those descendants of the Eternal Queen who were born as demigods and received the approval of the Great Rune early, he is indeed weak, but for those who started from a small No matter how weak and embarrassing he is in the legend, with the blessing of the forbidden technique of "attaching limbs", today's Greco seems to be extraordinary.

Lear picked up this set of equipment, regardless of whether it is strong or not, it can be regarded as a collection after all.

Just like Lear picked up the "ceremonial straight sword" and "golden round shield" before, they disappeared after only a short while in Lear's hands.

Where did the equipment go?
Lear thought for a while, and he felt that what the ghost above the cave said seemed to hide some mystery.

"Jump down, fader, learn, remember—learn how to fight, remember what it is to be a warrior."

Normal faders should not have returned to the junction from here. Following the guidance of the witch, they should have come directly to the "land of the beginning" above the tomb.

Then, who sent him here without the guidance of the witch?

It shouldn't be Melina and Lingma Torret. In the game plot, they found Lear after he arrived at the drifting tomb.

So, is Kitty Hawk?
The spirit body born from the ashes of the Storm Eagle King would be so intelligent to send him, a dying man, into the tomb?

But the faded people who came here could hear the old ghost's thoughts. Although the ghost was dressed in rich and powerful clothes, he seemed to be on the faded person's side.

For the faded, death is not the end. Those who have received the blessing will wake up from the long sleep of death and eventually become heroes.

In the old ghost's mouth, faders are warriors, reminding them of the fact that they were warriors.

Oh, by the way, when the original King Ge Fulei was expelled by the Eternal Queen, he took away a group of warriors who followed him.

They are all expelled fighters.

Like a knight who lost his homeland, a soldier who was exiled.

It is as if the wanderer who was never blessed by the golden tree has become a faded person who wanders in this world without a fixed place.

Lear suddenly understood.

Drifting graves, study caves.

He walked to the edge of the cave and jumped.

Stepping steadily in the shallow puddle, Lear seemed to hear something vaguely.

PS: Updates are irregular. Some small details that can be associated with the game will be filled in the novel content. Most of the plots will respect the original work. After all, it is a derivative game with humanities. The plot fragmentation in the game is serious, and there is no complete and clear world view structure yet, so I will use some of my own ideas to fill in this aspect. After all, the protagonist is not a faded person controlled by the player. He is a living person who can speak and communicate. Therefore, there will be errors and discrepancies. I hope everyone knows, and I hope everyone can understand.

Note 1: The associations from the "Harry Potter" series, if they are all in the magical world, probably some rules can also be used. After all, many prayers in the Golden Law are names, that is, the law itself.

Note 2: The translation of "Hou Wang Chapel" comes from the simplified Chinese text in the game. The four tones of "Hou" and "Waiting Waiting" are also derived from the conjecture of the noble descendant "Hou Wang".

In addition, the text reference of "Elden Ring" is different from the previous Soul series. Its reference value is that the English text is greater than the Japanese text. The main reason is that Mr. Martin wrote the main text, but because there are also some details from the Miyazaki team. It was perfected by people, so here I did not find the original meaning of English and Japanese to revise, mainly because I think there will be no big difference, and it will not affect the fluency of the overall plot, so I guessed it myself, and I have learned about it. Friends can leave a comment in this section for easy understanding.

(End of this chapter)