It had been years since Xavier had been scolded that much. His mother didn’t hold back and emptied all of her frustration and anxiety, dumping it all on her only child. To her misfortune, Xavier was already trained at enduring his mother’s scolding. Her words entered his left ear and they escaped through his right ear without taking a detour through the brain.
Of course, Xavier knew that his mother was worried about him and that she wanted the best for him.
The only question was if she could really ensure that they would survive in this world after it has gone crazy. The answer was pretty simple. Xavier’s mother couldn’t promise him anything. She could not even say for sure that they would survive the night. A group of Infected might appear at any time and rampage through their home – or whatever was left of it.
They had to hunt the Infected proactively before they would come to hunt them. That way, their family might be able to survive this disaster together.
One way or another, Xavier’s interest in hunting monsters increased drastically. He felt that the Card he obtained by killing the second Infected could secure their survival. Somehow.
If Common Cards like Dash exist there must be more as well. Maybe there are Uncommon or Rare Cards that enhance the Card Holder’s strength or something like that. A single Common Card won’t be enough to survive against the blazing boars either, but what about a full deck of Common Cards, or maybe even a full deck of Uncommon Cards?!
The more Xavier thought about it the more obvious was the advantage of going out to hunt. The stronger he grew the easier it would be to survive in this godforsaken world. Xavier wouldn’t have any issues reaching his grandma either. It was dangerous, but that was the whole point, or so Xavier thought. There wouldn’t be any rewards without a certain risk. The higher the risk the greater the rewards.
Rewards…What exactly makes these Soul Essences so special either way? How can I use them?
While pondering about the use of the Soul Essences, Xavier noticed that the seven Foundation Stars and the Card within the Classless Deck began to pulsate faintly.
What is going on? Xavier wondered, his fingers lightly brushing over one of the Foundation Stars.
Integrate one Soul Essence into the Star of Agility. Y/N?
“Yes…I guess?” Xavier answered with a shrug. The next moment, one of his three Soul Essences was removed and his Star of Agility increased from 5/10 to 6/10.
“Interesti–...” Xavier had barely begun but grit his teeth all of a sudden as a flood of warmth spread through his body. The warm feeling reached every cell in his body and changed something. At first, Xavier felt a sudden itching sensation beneath his finger. Not even a second later, he felt like his entire body began to itch.
The itching was bearable at first but it quickly grew worse as the sensation intensified. The wave of warmth that spread through him began to slowly penetrate the muscles inside his body, almost like the warmth was trying to enhance his physique.
A thin sheen of sweat formed on Xavier’s forehead and his body’s temperature increased.
Silvia noticed that something was wrong with her son, so she stopped lecturing him when he gave her no reaction. Worry replaced her anger and she almost ran towards her dear child to find out what was going on.
“So hot. Fever? All of a sudden? Was he bitten, or scratched?” The last bits of her questions were aimed at her husband, who peeked into the living room again. He smiled warily at first, but it disappeared when his gaze fell on Xavier. He rushed to his son worriedly while responding to his wife, “He was neither bitten nor scratched. I am sure of that!”
“I..am fine. I just increased my Star of Agility with a Soul Essence.” Xavier finally responded and his tired, yet excited voice reached his parents. The warmth that had spread through him dispersed as quickly as it had manifested.
Xavier wiped the sweat off his forehead and stretched his body while Silvia and Mark exchanged confused glances. But Xavier was only focused on the changes his body had undergone. He was sure something felt a little different compared to before. It was eerie, but his body felt a tad lighter – or did something else change?
Unsure how much of a difference adding a Soul Essence to his Star of Agility made, Xavier dashed to the opposite end of the living room and returned to the same spot he had been standing a moment ago. His parents eyed him weirdly, but Xavier ignored that.
Running around feels a little easier. I might be a bit faster than before as well. Does that mean strengthening the Star of Agility will increase my movement speed and athleticism?
There might be more to it, but integrating a single Soul Essence into his Star of Agility wouldn’t lead to a tremendous change. His Star of Agility’s quality was Inferior, after all.
The bigger change will probably happen once I add four Soul Essences to the Star of Agility to fill the bar all the way to 10. How fast will I be then? What about the other Foundation Stars? I wonder what they will change upon integrating Soul Essences into them. They will change my physique a lot. Probably.
It felt amazing to grow faster all of a sudden. The gains he made from a single Soul Essence made him feel like the world had become a game where he had to kill monsters to grow stronger; a typical MMORPG.
The only problem was that this game was his new reality and that death was real too. If they were too weak to defeat their enemies they would die without receiving the option to respawn or resurrect. Xavier swallowed his saliva at the thought of dying. He decided to use the two remaining Soul Essence immediately.
This time, Xavier decided to use one Soul Essence on Dash. The Common Card glimmered faintly when he decided to use his Soul Essences. That meant he should be able to integrate Soul Essences into Cards as well.
Integrate one Soul Essence into the Common Card [Dash]. Y/N?
Go for it. Yes!
Proficiency of Dash increased by 2%
“Soul Essences improve the Card’s proficiency by 2%? Well, that is a bummer…,” Xavier murmured before he took a second glance at his Common Card’s information.
Dash
Common - Level 1(2.4%)
Utility
Active
Requires Stamina to be used.
Effect – Increases the User’s Agility for a short moment.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
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Stamina consumption decreases according to Card Level.
Agility increases according to Card Level
Duration extends according to Card Level
Dash’s proficiency increased by 2% by integrating one Soul Essence into it. Yet, using Dash a single time until his stamina had been drained increased the Common Card’s proficiency by 0.4%.
Maybe it would be efficient to powerlevel a Card with a surplus of Soul Essences. But I am lacking Soul Essences, so I might as well improve my Card proficiency normally.
Understanding the concept of the Soul Essences and its uses was already quite pleasant. Taking that into consideration, Xavier spent his last Soul Essence. He integrated it into the Star of Agility and upgraded it to 7/10.
The warmth returned again. However, this time the warmth did not target only the muscles in his body. Something else changed as well. The warmth slowly traveled up and penetrated his mind. All of a sudden, Xavier felt like his movements would be smoother and much more refined, meaning that he would turn into a blur over time.
It was almost like he learned to run from scratch. That feeling was a little weird, but it was also interesting, almost addictive.
“What is going on with you, Xavier?” Silvia asked her son again, reaching out for his shoulder to shake her son hard. It had been years since he seemed this absent-minded.
Xavier looked at his mother, smiling from ear to ear, “I’m not sure. Either I’m going crazy, or we might just have a shot at survival.”
Silvia’s gaze narrowed and she looked at him pointedly. Other than worrying about her family, she was able to stay quite calm at this point. Not even the fact that her son beheaded the son of the Liveras and that her husband shot Mrs Livera ruffled her feathers. All Silvia knew was that something had changed and that the grotesque beings with the face of the Liveras had been monstrosities.
“By the way, dad, did you get any Soul Essences for killing the Infected with your hunting rifle?” Xavier asked his father, who sized him up from head to toe for a second before answering, “I received a notification saying that killing monsters with a hunting rifle and the likes won’t earn me any rewards.”
“Well, that’s quite disappointing,” Xavier murmured, to which Mark responded with a heavy sigh.
“Indeed.”
“I obtained some Soul Essences by hunting the Infected with the Katana. I was even rewarded a Common Card,” Xavier revealed excitedly. But his parents looked at him in confusion, so he added, “Cards seem to be like skills or abilities in games. Let me show you!”
Saying so, he made them both stand in the center of the room and began to run around the room as fast as he could.
“That is my normal running speed…but with Dash —” Xavier let his actions offer an explanation as he turned into a flash all of a sudden. He had activated Dash.
He ran the exact same path as before, but instead of spending a few seconds, Xavier completed the loop in an instant – or so it felt. Xavier was breathing heavily and a wave of exhaustion smacked him right in the face. He was drained after using Dash, but also satisfied with the result.
His mother stared at him with wide-open eyes and only blinked. Meanwhile, Mark looked at him quite calmly. He gave Xavier a thumbs-up and smiled.
Why do I feel like Dad is even more excited about this than I am? How is he even that calm in the first place? Meanwhile Mom–...
His mother was shocked to say the least. The cogs in her mind were running wild, various thoughts and questions flashing through her mind.
It took her quite a while before she calmed down once again.
“You said that you obtained these Cards and Soul Essences from these zombies, and Soul Essences can be used to do what exactly?” Silvia asked, trying to make sense of the situation.
“They are not zombies but ‘Infected’ as per the notification. But that is not so important. To answer your question- Killing Infected rewards Soul Essences and Cards, yes. Soul Essences can be used to upgrade the proficiency of a Card and to strengthen the Foundation Stars. That will improve your movement speed, physical strength, and much more.”
“In that case…we should go out hunting as well. We might not have to run away from the Zom– Infected but we cannot stay here either,” Silvia said, nibbling on her lower lip as she eyed the gaping holes in the walls of the living room nervously.
Their home was not a good shelter for the night anymore. If anything, the cellar was probably the only somewhat secure place. But for how long?
“Grandma’s place should be much easier to defend. We have to make sure that she’s fine, either way. How about we rush to her place and build a temporary base over there?” Xavier asked, looking at his mother expectantly.
It was obvious that Silvia was worried. But who would find fault with that? She was a worried daughter, wife, and mother.
“I don’t want to interrupt your lovely talk, but it looks like we got some uninvited guests. We might have been a bit too loud,” Mark informed in a low but clear voice while loading the hunting rifle. He stared intently at the gaping holes as three swaying, growling figures emerged from it.
Despite having killed the Liveras, the shock of seeing Infected had not completely subsided yet for Xavier and his parents. Like the Liveras, these Infected too had familiar faces; faces of people they had chatted with, been to town gatherings, and clinked mugs of beer. But the Infected were only advancing towards them to rip off their flesh, all traces of humanity wiped off from their minds and souls.
Silvia tensed upon seeing her neighbors looking like that, but she regained her senses quickly. If she remained unmoving, she might become a burden to her beloved family. Mark gave her an encouraging nod as she slowly moved toward the wall where the Damascus katana was still hanging. Silvia grabbed it quickly, and it was the first time in her life that she realized how heavy the weapon truly was.
Truth be told, the katana was actually not that heavy. It barely weighed a kilogram and could be held with both hands. However, the stress weighing down on Silvia’s mind turned the katana into a heavy weapon weighing no less than a ton.
“Can you take on three at once?” Mark asked Xavier with a grim face. Xavier’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t say anything at first.
He glanced at his mother, whose arms trembled violently and he shook his head.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” He muttered before leaning forward. Xavier pulled the katana back before using Dash once again.
Xavier turned into a flash the moment he kicked the ground. He crossed the living room in an instant and appeared in front of the closest Infected.
Without wasting a second, he swung the ruby katana in a beautiful arc through the air and severed the head of the Infected. Ignoring the message that appeared in his sight, Xavier kicked the Infected and simultaneously pushed the one to his right. He twisted the ruby katana mid-swing, ignoring the discomfort caused by the sudden change of the katana’s momentum before thrusting the blade through the second Infected’s eyeball.
The blade drilled through the eyeball in a single go and continued to pierce through the eye socket and brain easily.
This katana is insane. Looks like Dad wasn’t scammed this time! Xavier thought, turning to the last Infected with renewed confidence. But he saw that Mark was already aiming at it with the hunting rifle.
However, instead of shooting, Mark waited for a moment. He wanted to see if Xavier could kill the third Infected as well using the power granted through the upgrade of his Star of Agility, and the newly gained Dash Card.
Xavier was just about to move when he noticed his mother charge at the last Infected. Her arms were still trembling and her expression was as stiff as a stone. But she did not stop moving. She overcame her fear and charged ahead.
She is too slow.
Xavier noticed that his mother had put herself at a great risk. She had never learned any martial arts and she was not exactly the most athletic person in their family. Thus, her disjointed and uneven movement speed showed. She was just about to slash down with the katana – that felt like it weighed a ton – when the arms of the Infected lunged forward.
Her eyes went wide as she saw the black, grimy, and bloodied hands of the Infected trying to reach her arm. It was just about to scratch Silvia when two sounds rang through the surroundings simultaneously.
First, a gunshot blasted through the Infected’s right hand which was torn apart into several pieces, leaving a bleeding stump behind.
Second, Xavier appeared next to his mother in an instant, his arm moving smoothly as he brought down his weapon, aiming at the head of the Infected’s left arm.
The next moment, the Damascus steel katana cleaved down, straight into the skull of the last Infected.