Chapter 16: Level up

Chapter 16: Level up

A lone [Ankra Beast] peacefully feasted upon a patch of shrubbery, its beady orange eyes conveying an emotion akin to joy as it specifically plucked out blue flowers as if they were a delicacy, whilst ignoring the thick, veiny azure leaves. Its black fur was long and unkempt, the rodent-like creature sashaying its fleshy tail as it enjoyed it's meal.

A concentrated jet of water streaked towards the [Ankra Beast] catching it in the abdomen, the blow sending it reeling for three or so odd meters. The beast let out a confused, panicked whimper as it swayed its neck from end to end, in an attempt to identify the threat.

Another jet of water erupted from a different angle, this time landing a blow directly upon the [Ankra Beasts] small, delicate head. The squeal this time was one of agony, as the blow caused the beast to flop over its back.

A humanoid figure clad in what appeared to be a continually shifting cloud of shadows charged forth, his footfall sounding muffled and distant as he rapidly covered the distance separating him and the beast.

The pitiful [Ankra Beast] who had caught a direct blow to the head only had time to make out a writhing mass of shadows enter his field of vision. Before it could even begin to muster a response with its [The Flame] card, a white bone dagger slammed into its throat, causing fresh, yellow blood to spurt onto the grass.

Tom stood victorious over the Ankra Beasts corpse, but his expression did not show any joy at his victory.

His motions almost seemed practised as he waived away the notifications, looted the corpse and skinned the beast all under five minutes.

A pleasant breeze washed over Tom and with that he was gone, once again seeking refuge in the shadows.

The last six, or perhaps seven hours had progressed in this manner, as Tom had gone on an assassination spree. Well, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration, but during that time Tom had slain five level 1 [Ankra Beasts] and two level 1 [Symiril Tuskers].

If there was one thing hed learned during this time, it was that fear had made his experience a lot more nightmarish than it couldve been. The forest, as he was realizing, wasnt all that terrifying as his mind had made it out to be [Ankra Beasts] seemed to be the most common type of beasts that could be found within the forest, and Tom had even encountered a pack of three that hed chosen to ignore.

The commotion wouldnt have served his end-goal, which, after much deliberation, was to level his [Water Propulsion] and [The Shadow] cards to [Level 3] which only required six hundred soul experience each.

Each of the [Ankra Beasts] awarded experience in the 150-170 range, and the two [Symiril Tuskers] had afforded him another 230 and 260 soul experience, coming to a total of 1290 experience, this last kill finally pushing him over the edge.

[Water Propulsion [Common]: Level 3

He could still go through with it, but feeding a [Common] card to another [Common] card came with a heavy experience loss. So one ideally needed a higher ranked card if they wanted to level via this method, though in truth Tom still saw it as somewhat of a waste. [The Flame] card was infinitely more valuable than 200 xp, but there was no way, or point, of adding a duplicate to his [Deck Cards].

Was that why these beasts were so low levelled? It maybe part of the reason why, but what about [Soul Experience]? Maybe most beasts were just not particularly inclined to hunt each other, but Tom, an outsider, was fair game?

The final restriction was that Tom could only feed cards from what the system called fair kills, which meant that he probably had to have it directly deposited into his inventory if he wanted to [Feed] a card. That rule really didnt bother him, but Tom wondered if his opinion would be the same if or when he found an actual marketplace.

So far, hed gained 1400 XP this way, the [Symiril Tuskers] turning out to be female, which meant another two duplicate [Earths Vitality] card.

[Soul Card: The Fool.

Rank: Ephemeral [Legendary Unique]

Level: 1 (1550/5000)]

He had successfully found a way to level [The Fool] card, but he feared that it would become too inefficient even from level 2 the soul experience demanded by the card simply rather insane.

The suns warm rays were beginning to dim, signalling that night, a phenomenon that normally would have made a worst situation horrific, was approaching. But with [The Shadow] card, the night was his hunting grounds.

His kills so far had indeed been committed out of a desire to grow stronger, but that was not the only reason Tom stalked his prey each time, sometimes even as long as an hour, hoping that one of them would lead him back to their abode; at this point, any sort of shelter would do.

He did not believe that monsters would be thrilled at the idea of wandering around in abject darkness, so he figured that the time had come.

With that thought lingering in his mind, Toms resolve was stronger than ever.

His home base would become a reality.