Chapter Twenty-Nine
An emotionless, almost clinical voice spoke in his head. “Fascinating. She wasn’t wrong. One who can hear the melody has arrived. I feel the presence of the others as well.” The presence fell silent as if in deep thought before lights descended upon Arden.
He lifted his hands, letting the light rest in his palms as several cards formed. Before he could look down, the presence spoke once more. “To help with your journey, I added a few bonuses. The road you walk is a rare one and, as such, deserves support.”
The presence nudged him out of the hut before turning its attention to the snake.
Once outside, Arden inspected the cards. The first three were familiar. Excitement sparked at the potential of one of them, as it was similar to his Melody of Growth. Probably of the same set.
Melody of Growth (Epic)
Type: Ability Card
Affinity: Nature
Attunement: Biological
Effect: Listen to the melody of life to aid in diagnosing biological issues. Increased mana usage improves guidance. Must be in the user’s active hand.
After a quick glance, he put biological manipulation, biological resistance, and melody of the body into his deck, immediately feeling a weight settling on his body.
He wouldn’t be able to add many more cards to his deck. Which was odd, since he was only at 66 out of 100 for his deck. Maybe the limit wasn’t just the card’s weight but something else. He wasn’t grade one yet, so maybe his body couldn’t handle a full deck. Why didn’t his parents warn him?
To be fair, they probably didn’t expect him to have so many cards before grade one. He wouldn’t believe it either. Not even a week ago, rare cards floored him, but now he had two epic cards and a bunch of rares.
One thing was for sure. He gained a ton from the dungeon, and he wasn’t even at the end.
It was nearing time to decide what he wanted to focus on. There was no way he could build a potent deck focusing on all his attunements. Sometimes having multiple options was a detriment.
Before he made any decisions, he needed to complete the wood trial and see what awaited him at the center.
His focus shifted to the remaining cards resting in his hand. The first couple he expected as he earned them through the trial, both of which would come in handy.
The first card he looked at displayed a crisscrossing stitch.
Stitch Wound (Uncommon) Level 1
Type: Ability card
Affinity: Nature
Attunement: Biological
Effect: Use mana to stitch a wound closed. If the wound is actively bleeding, the user must push the blood back with mana. Must be in the user’s active hand.
Seemed simple enough. He wondered why he couldn’t do it without a card. It seemed to be more a test of mana control than a card’s power, though that might be because of the trial. The cards effect seemed amplified within the trial.
He was thankful for that, otherwise he might have gone insane with a melody card in his deck. The orchestra got pretty all-consuming in the plant trial.
So many things to test. It will be a pain to decide his deck composition. Maybe he could trade with the snake. It had more cards than he did. There had to be something useful in there.
The problem was communication, and even then, the snake may not want to trade. It was hoarding cards for some reason. Maybe it needed all of them.
Yet again, he lacked information to proceed. He hated being in the dark.
Arden glanced at the hut, finding it closed as he expected and no snake in sight. His hand snuck into his robe, but the moment he touched the pocket, said snake slithered out of the hut.
As if sensing its hoard was in trouble, it shot forward. Almost too fast for him to follow, it deposited another haul of cards into its hoard, then gave him a light bite before taking its spot atop his head.
A scaley head hung in front of his eyes, giving him a stare for several moments before it nestled in.
All he could do was shake his head and return his attention to inspecting his own reward. He almost didn’t want to add the Stitch Wound card to his deck, but he knew it would prove useful. It would be incredibly stupid to forgo using such a useful card just because the weight became uncomfortable.
To take his mind off the discomfort, he moved onto the next card, which had a picture of a familiar rot spreading over a patch of skin.
Rotting Wound (Uncommon) Level 1
Type: Ability card
Affinity: Nature
Attunement: Biological
Effect: Use mana to inflict rot on a wound. User must cause a wound for the rot to come into effect. Must be in the user’s active hand.
Another extra damage card? He already had several poison ones, but it couldn’t hurt to have more variety. This seemed like a higher damage version of his Creeping Itch or Crawling Boils cards. He might not have enough room in his deck for all of them, let alone his active hand.
For now, he slid the card into his pocket alongside the other cards he didn’t put in his deck.
His heart jumped at the next card, instantly knowing it would find a spot in his deck.
The picture showed a holographic arm with a steadily closing wound.
Passive Heal (Rare) Level 1
Type: Passive card
Affinity: Nature
Attunement: Biological
Effect: Passively draw mana to improve healing time. Must be in the user’s passive hand to activate.
Without thinking twice about it, he added it to his deck and sent it straight into his passive hand. Instantly, he felt a few aches he didn’t notice before vanishing. Still, that didn’t overpower the discomfort that built.
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The last card brought a smile as well. He itched to add it to his deck, but he knew he was treading on dangerous ground, having so many cards of different attunements in his deck at once before he reached even grade one.
An underdeveloped mana system wasn’t meant to handle so many cards. Even he knew that, but he kept adding cards, anyway. He wasn’t at his limit, but the amount of attunements gave him issues. At least that was his theory, as his deck was only about three quarters full.
After a few seconds of thought, he removed all fungi attuned cards from his deck. The moment he confirmed his desire, the particles of green light left his bracelets and formed cards in his left hand. He promptly deposited them into his stash, feeling the snake atop his head perk up.
Maybe he had traded ammo after all. He didn’t see himself focusing on fungi attuned cards, so it might not be a bad idea to see if he could trade them for something more useful for his deck.
Based on his current trial results, he seemed better attuned to plant, biological and wood. At least, he thought he was. Maybe if he tried harder on the fungi and poison trials, he might have done better. The melody didn’t come naturally to him on those trials, though. Thoughts for later, at least the weight lifted for now.
Finally, he returned his attention to the card in his hand. Like the previous one, it was holographic, denoting its rare rarity. However, the picture confused him. It had a healing wound which made him think it was an active heal but when he read the description, it was something else entirely.
Something that could both shoot his capabilities with biologically attuned cards through the roof but was useless on its own.
Biological Boost (Rare) Level 1
Type: Passive card
Affinity: Nature
Attunement: Biological
Effect: Passively draw mana to boost the effects of biological attuned cards. Effect scales with level current boost ten percent. Must be in the user’s passive hand to activate.
Without thinking twice, he added it to his deck and slotted it into his passive hand.
Like the Passive Heal card, the effect was immediate. Mana pulsed through his body as his Passive heal activated once more, fixing the damage from some minor injuries had had when he was younger it missed on its first pass.
Even if he only used Passive Heal with the card, it was worth keeping Biological Boost in his deck.
His thoughts shifted to the Rotting Wound card in his pocket. This card could be one of his most valuable, both offensively and passively. He fished out the Rotting Wound card and added it to his deck, then put it straight into his active hand, joined by Biological Manipulation and Melody of the Body.
Or at least he tried.
For the first time, he had a full active hand. That didn’t last long, though. The three poison cards didn’t need to be in his active hand full time. After removing them, he fit Melody of the body and Biological Manipulation into his active hand while still having one extra slot.
His passive hand was full, though. If only the passive hand had ten slots like the active hand, but it wasn’t something he could change. He could just have to be picky about what resistances he used.
Once done, he checked out his full status for the first time in a while, marveling at how full his deck got.
Name: Arden
Age: 25
Affinity: Nature
Current Attunements: Wood, Poison, Plant, Fungi, Biological
Attunement Balance: 68/100
Wood: 6
Poison: 14
Plant: 20
Fungi: 0
Biological: 28
Deck:
Accelerated Growth (Common) Level 3.
Wood Manipulation (Rare) Level 3.
Convert Seed (Uncommon) Level 2.
Vine Extension (Uncommon) Level 2.
Poison Resistance (Rare) Level 3.
Wood Spike (Uncommon) Level 3.
Poison Manipulation (Rare) Level 1.
Creeping Itch (Uncommon) Level 1.
Crawling Boils (Uncommon) Level 1.
Lurking Heart Attack (Uncommon) Level 1.
Biological Manipulation (Rare) Level 1.
Biological Resistance (Rare) Level 1.
Melody of the body (Epic) Level 1.
Stitch Wound (Uncommon) Level 1.
Rotting Wound (Uncommon) Level 1.
Passive Heal (Rare) Level 1.
Biological Boost (Rare) Level 1.
Active Hand: 9/10
Wood Manipulation (Rare) Level 3
Wood Spike (Uncommon) Level 3
Poison Manipulation (Rare) Level 1.
Melody of Growth (Epic) Level 1.
Stitch Wound (Uncommon) Level 1.
Rotting Wound (Uncommon) Level 1.
Melody of the Body (Epic) Level 1.
Passive Hand: 5/5
Poison Resistance (Rare) Level 3
Biological Resistance (Rare) Level 1.
Plant Resistance (Rare) Level 1.
Passive Heal (Rare) Level 1.
Biological Boost (Rare) Level 1.
The imbalances worried him, especially poison. Depending on how the wood trial went, wood should reach near plant and biological but not poison. It was hard to give up on poison, though. Poison had an abundance of offensive power. It may fall behind his other three attunements, though.
At least for now he would run with the four attunements. The weight was still there, but it barely bothered him.
His eyes drifted toward his biological cards. Despite taking up the largest section of his deck limit, he couldn’t help but yearn for more. He would need to hunt more down. They were so useful. Unlike the other attunements, biological cards helped his own body.
There was a reason the attunement was so prized. It wasn’t the only healing attunement, but it was up there in the healing hierarchy.
Still, he couldn’t see himself becoming a coddled healer. He preferred caution but still enjoyed the thrill of a fight as long as he kept risks minimized as much as he could.
Even if he didn’t want to become a full-time healer, maybe he could leverage his attunement to get more biological attuned cards. Could also be a way to build up some income.
Something to think about once he reached a city. For now, he needed to focus on completing his legacy class quest and maximize the benefits of the dungeon.
With that thought, he walked toward his ladder, then peered down at the clearing below. He strained his senses looking for anything that stood out, but like the last one, nothing did, so he climbed down.
After grabbing his spear, he ventured down the path toward the last clearing. He had high hopes for the next trial. Everything pointed to him having a high compatibility with the wood attunement, but who knew?
He tried his best to push down the anticipation as he ventured down the path. There was no point in rushing and falling into an ambush. He couldn’t trust the snake to scare off everything.
From experience, he didn’t let his guard down, even though he couldn’t sense anything nearby. The lack of even small creatures he sensed earlier worried him.
Usually, when animals cleared out, there was a bigger predator lurking nearby. He couldn’t be sure if that predator was the snake.
Just in case, he picked up the pace but kept his spear at the ready. Still, the leisure of the snake atop his head seemed to point to nothing ready to attack.
He didn’t slow even when he reached the next clearing that wasn’t really a clearing. With little effort, he scaled the tree with wood spikes reaching the platform in record time.
This time, the snake didn’t dismount early. It seemed to be in no hurry to leave his head. Wood attunement must not interest the snake.
A gentle but firm pull sped his approach to the hut. The presence within fluttered with both interest and excitement, but it seemed almost muted not because it wasn’t as strong as the other trials though. Something about the presence felt ancient.
Upon laying his eyes on the podium, confusion sparked. There wasn’t a crystal within the translucent wood. Instead, a larger chunk of the clear, almost whitish wood rested atop the podium. It wasn’t formed like the other pieces, either. It appeared to be a section chopped out of a tree.
Curious, he peered deeper with his senses, only for the presence to spike, shoving his sense back with a firm but gentle push.
An elderly but potent voice spoke in his head just as he recovered from the rebuke. “Temper that curiosity, young one. I may be a mere splinter of what I once was, but I have more than enough power to repel someone so early on their journey.”
The presence probed him. Unlike his attempt, there was nothing he could do to push it back, proving its superiority, not that it was in question to begin with.
Once satisfied, it retreated and spoke once more. “I sense excellent compatibility with my element, so I shall give you a chance to prove yourself.”
A familiar blackness took hold as his mind, or whatever else, entered the trial.
When awareness returned, a dense forest not unlike the forest outside presented itself to him.
As with the previous trials, a flash of his bracelets prompted him to open his Ortus menu to view the notification.
Welcome to Oaklina’s domain.
Trial begins in ten seconds.
As soon as the timer hit zero, the surrounding forest exploded into motion.
On instinct, he jumped back, but he was far too slow. Roots shot toward him, but instead of striking him, they wove themselves into a cage large enough for him to stand and take one step in each direction.
Bolstered by the trial, he latched onto the cage while activating his wood manipulation. Despite the card saying it wouldn’t work on wood still connected to a tree, the cage bent to his will after a momentary resistance.
Unfortunately, the moment he stepped through the gap he created, more roots shot toward him.