Chapter Sixteen

The bone deep exhaustion washed away as he cycled the last of the liquid mana, sending a burst of energy through him.

Arden pushed himself up to his knees, then climbed to his feet before noticing something was in his hand. Upon glancing down, he found through the entire episode he clutched onto the card. Excitement pulsed through him as he inspected it.

The picture had five lily pads levitated above a pond very similar to the pond he just escaped from. In fact, upon glancing back at the pond, it was identical.

Lily Padkinesis (Uncommon) Level 1

Type: Ability card

Affinity Tree: Nature

Attunement: Plant

Effect: Use mana to control up to 5 lily pads. Speed reduced with range.

For several seconds Arden stared at the card, rage building before he threw the card toward the pond. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it sailed right over the pond and landed near the tree line.

When his rage passed moments later, he stomped around the pond and picked up the card. Refusing to put it in his deck, he slipped it into his pocket, then turned his attention back to the pond.

All that work just for a worthless card. What use would controlling lily pads bring? He already had limitations in the desert. How would he find lily pads in the desert? At least with his other cards, he could use seeds.

Though he supposed he could do the same with lily pads, but even then, what use would they bring? They were weak. Really, the only thing they could do was grapple things. He hadn’t found a use for his Dispense Spore card either a though it had a higher upside and potential synergy.

It wouldn’t be a terrible card if someone somehow had a dual water and plant affinity. He read stories of it happening, but it was much rarer than having multiple attunement under the same affinity.

Part of the reason was if it was a minor affinity, they might not even notice. He only knew he had as many nature affinities as he did because his parents threw cards at him. At least before he saw his soul tether. From the shades of green, he likely had every nature attunement, including one unknown one.

Quite rare but not unheard of, especially with the nature affinity as the attunements had a lot of synergy with each other. It gave him a huge advantage over other nature mages and great versatility, though.

If he found his way into a nature mage friendly area. Maybe the wood elf territory near Magna Vita Urbs. Wood seemed to be his primary affinity, but it was close. He would need to do some testing once he wasn’t crunched for time.

At the thought of time, he opened his Ortus menu, which was flashing. Before he checked the notification, he glance at the time left.

An era long past (Legacy).

Survive the ancient forest below a forgotten civilization and uncover its secrets.

Time limit: 4 days, 18 hours.

All of that only took two hours? Wow, it felt like days in the pond.

For once, he used his time efficiently. It was a fine thing, though. If he let himself pass out without cycling, the last of the liquid mana who knew how long he would be out. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to fall into a coma from the damage caused by rampaging liquid mana.

Crappy card and torture aside, he came out of the ordeal decently. Though he would have reached the peak of the communion phase naturally soon in such a mana rich environment. The liquid mana likely gave him an excellent base, but he wouldn’t know for sure for a while.

He glanced at his deck, only to pause in surprise.

Accelerated Growth (Common) Level 3.

Wood Manipulation (Rare) Level 3.

Convert Seed (Uncommon) Level 2.

Vine Extension (Uncommon) Level 2.

Dispense Spore (Uncommon) Level 2.

Poison Resistance (Rare) Level 1.

Why did his cards level? Was it from the kill? His bracelet started flashing after the kill, so probably. Why didn’t his parents tell him about this? Actually, why didn’t he read it in any of the books he read? Maybe his parents chose books without a mention of leveling cards through killing. There had to be a reason.

Curious, he pulled up his Convert seed card.

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Convert Seed (Uncommon) Level 2

Type: Ability Card

Affinity Tree: Nature

Attunement: Plant

Effect: Use mana to convert one seed into another seed. User must have a healthy, unsprouted seed. Must have knowledge of the desired seed. Must be in the user’s hand.

No additional effect from the level? Wouldn’t that make leveling cards through killing worthless? Every level he gained naturally gave him an additional effect. Why would anyone delve dungeons if levels through killing were worthless? Well, not worthless. The card was probably stronger or more efficient. Maybe it wasn’t common knowledge one could level a card without killing.

He didn’t want to live as a pacifist, though. Maybe they leveled because they were level one. If only his parents taught him about card leveling. Though, based on his experience so far, his lack of knowledge might be a boon.

Maybe that was why others had to use killing to level the cards. They already knew everything their cards could do, so they couldn’t gain inspiration. It couldn’t be that simple. If it was, his parents would have told him.

Arden clenched his fists. He hated being left in the dark. Even if it helped him not knowing, he would rather know. A boon through ignorance just felt wrong.

For now, it might be best to avoid killing, but that also meant he couldn’t gain more cards unless he got really lucky. What was more important to him? A larger deck or stronger individual cards?

He didn’t have time to experiment with the cards he had, and he wasn’t even sure if they would be a part of his long-term build, so finding more cards may be better for him for now. When he had a good base of cards, then he could work on leveling them through inspiration.

What if he took the cards he didn’t need for combat out of his hands? Maybe that would avoid unwanted levels. As he was, the only card that helped him in direct combat was his Wood Manipulation and Poison Resistance. Neither leveled from the kill, but that might be because it took more to level them.

Figuring he had nothing to lose, he removed every card but his Wood Manipulation and Poison Resistance from his hands. If he needed them, he could always move them back. It might be a hassle, but if it meant avoiding leveling cards he didn’t want to level, it might be worth it. Though what if inspiration happened during combat and he didn’t have the card in his hand?

Some of those cards had combat applications, but he was far from utilizing them. For now, he would have to rely on his own body and weapons made of wood. That didn’t mean he couldn’t prepare with the cards, then swap them out before entering direct combat.

Actually, what if he swapped them out in direct combat right before the kill?

He shook his head. That would be incredibly stupid. What if he swapped out cards only to give his enemy a chance to turn the tables? It was best to be decisive.

Arden stared at his broken spear floating in the now disgusting pond. Did all of that come out of him? He expected to expel impurities as he progressed, but not to that point. His parents ensured he had a healthy diet, but apparently, it wasn’t as healthy as it seemed. He couldn’t even see the bottom of the pond anymore.

Good thing he made it out when he did. Even if the mana wasn’t burning out his insides, it couldn’t be healthy to stay in that disgusting pond long.

His nose scrunched as he stood at the edge of the pond. It stunk too. No way was he going to retrieve the remains of his spear. That meant he needed to make a new one. Preferably out of smelling range of the pond. It seemed the longer he stayed near, the stronger the stench got.

As he turned his back to the pond, movement to his right caused him to dive forward. He spun around in a crouch, eyes locking onto a familiar small dark green snake.

Said snake sent a hiss his way, deep green eyes flashing with annoyance.

Instead of attacking again, the snake slithered through the grass toward the tree line, but Arden, fed up with the stalker snake, jumped toward the snake, hands extended.

Unfortunately for the elf, the snake easily dodged the grab then shot off far faster than before, disappearing in bush moments later.

With a huff, Arden turned his attention to the tree line nearest to him and used his dagger to cut down three moderately sized branches of a bit over a meter in length. He learned his lesson of trying to cut a spear ready branch with his dagger. Much easier to combine three smaller branches.

After once again activating his Wood Manipulation card, he twisted the branches together until they fused, then made a near identical spear to his previous one. The only difference being he made the tip more leaf blade shaped like as he slashed with it against the lily pads.

He wondered if there was an easier way to manipulate the wood. His parents didn’t need to use tool to form things out of sand and earth, but they had centuries of practice. Based on what they did, it should be possible he just had to figure out how.

When he activated his Wood Manipulation card, all it did was turn his targeted wood into putty. He had to physically shape it. Something told him he was a ways away from graduating from physical shaping. His mana control was solid for his age, but that had to require exceptional control well beyond what he was capable of. Plus a lot of practice time, which he didn’t have.

For now, he would have to settle for physical shaping. As it was, it was crazy helpful in both the time saved and quality of the final product.

Without it, he doubted he could have made as nice of a spear or bow. Just finding a straight enough branch would take him hours he didn’t have. For some reason, these trees didn’t like to produce straight branches. In fact, many were as curvy as that pesky snake.

Arden scanned the tree line, surrounded the clearing while monitoring the grass in case the snake tried a follow up attack.

Now, where should he go? He couldn’t even tell which way he came from. Walking at random wouldn’t do him any good either. Especially with all the hidden dangers and a snake ready to pounce at any moment.

Another plus he found was the ambient mana no longer felt warm or anything at all. If anything, it felt like a perfect body temperature bath. The downside was he couldn’t use the feeling to tell him which way lead him deeper into the forest.

An idea sprouted from that train of thought, prompting him to focus on the ambient mana, trying to sense where it felt stronger or denser.

After a couple of seconds, he rotated to look across the pond. It was hard to tell with the still potent pond interfering, but the mana felt both stronger and denser beyond the pond. Worth a try, at least.

He wasted enough time in the clearing, and the stench of the pond was giving him a headache. The smell may attract something as well. Not that he could think of anything that would want to approach that disgusting pond.

With as wide a berth as he could, he circled around the pond while monitoring his surroundings. He pinched his nose as he focused on the ambient mana, finding his previous observations correct. As long as he headed toward denser mana, he should reach his destination.

Though who knew? Maybe his goal was at the edge of the forest somewhere, dooming him to failure. Still, he doubted that was the case. A legacy quest would probably lead him to the deepest point of the forest.

After a momentary scan of the tree line, ensuring none of the trees moved on their own, Arden ventured forth while using his spear as a walking stick.