Zayn’s danger sense tingled wildly after the Verdant Saber pierced through the Goblin Champion’s muscle-packed back. He used Draining Touch and Double Impact on the saber’s blade, but their effects weren’t as great as expected.
The second impact of Double Impact created a small opening, which Zayn used to push the blade deeper into the Goblin Champion’s back, but the injury was not severe enough to kill the monster. It resisted Draining Touch, preventing it from draining its lifeforce.
Zayn frowned but didn’t have the luxury of using Draining Touch again. He blinked away and appeared next to a duo of Spirit Souls.
The Goblin Champion roared at the top of its lungs. It was angry, injured, and partially restrained. Yet, instead of thrashing the puny enemy daring enough to attack the Goblin Lair, it was forced to deal with the Hobgoblins and Goblin Lumberjacks who had been fighting on its sight a few minutes ago.
The Spirit Souls charged the Goblin Champion once Zayn’s mental command dispersed the Intimidation inflicted by the Goblin Champion. They attacked suicidically, their Onyx Scimitars, Opal Spears, and massive axes cutting deep into the Goblin Champion’s flesh.
The Goblin Champion’s weapon arm was severed, a fountain of blood spewing through the air. However, the Goblin Champion couldn’t even scream in pain. Massive roots pulled its severed arm far away from the creature, removing the arm and massive axe from the Goblin Champion before it could respond. After that, it was only a matter of time and sacrifices before the Goblin Champion was covered in massive wounds.
The highly potent poison spread through the Goblin Champion, effectively slowing the monster. Simultaneously, several Aegis Shields from Aegis Natura conjured around the Goblin Champion while roots burst out of the ground. At first, only a dozen roots were coiling around the Goblin Champion, but their number increased rapidly. A dozen transformed into dozens until more than a hundred roots restrained the Goblin Champion, slowing him further and further.
This continued until the Goblin Champion was rooted to one spot.
Zayn willed the Spirit Souls to stop sacrificing themselves. There was no need for that anymore. Instead, the Spirit Souls could continue inflicting small injuries while keeping enough distance from the massive creature to avoid getting killed.
Once Zayn was certain he had control of the situation, he blinked behind the Goblin Champion. His hands reached out for the Verdant Saber, which instantaneously transformed into the Verdant Dagger Set. He retrieved the dagger set and used Blink again to appear above the Goblin Champion.
Zayn twisted his body until he grimaced in pain. He ignored the pain and focused on the attack at hand. The Verdant Daggers shot downward and embedded deep into the Goblin Champion’s eyes, while Double Impact, Draining Touch, Poison Augment, and Enhanced Poison were active.
The Goblin Champion roared in pain as the daggers pierced its eyes, but Zayn silenced the creature with a massive root shooting into the Goblin Champion’s maw. The root pierced through the back of his mouth while its eyeball splattered. Double Impact had been too effective, resulting in a small explosion of…eyeballs.
Zayn grimaced but maintained his iron grip on the Verdant Daggers. He drove them deeper into the Goblin Champion’s skull. His grip never loosened. On the contrary, Zayn found himself applying more strength as the Goblin Champion collapsed to the ground. He twisted the daggers in the monster’s skull, yet there was still no kill notification.
‘Fucking cockroach. Just die, will you?!’ He roared in his mind, pulling one Verdant Dagger out of the Goblin’s skull, using Double Impact several times before shoving it back into the skull. The Goblin’s skull cracked and gave in as the multitude of Double Impact was released on the same spot.
The Goblin Champion stopped resisting and collapsed.
A moment later, he received the message he’d been waiting for.
Magma Goblin Champion(Superior) has been slain.
+43 Soul Essences, +5 Rare Card Shards.
“This one was stronger than expected,” Zayn murmured, his attention lingering on the Goblin Champion’s corpse and the gathering Soul Wisp, “You’re at the Peak of Tier-1, aren’t you?”
Of course, the corpse didn’t respond, but that wasn’t necessary. Zayn would receive his answer shortly. He checked the notification as the Soul Wisp formed.
[Proficiency of Blink reached 100%. Level 23 → Level 25]
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
[Blink reached level 25. Congratulations. +4 Soul Essences]
[Proficiency of Nature’s Little Wrath reached 100%. Level 15 → Level 16]
[Proficiency of Poison Augment reached 100%. Level 13 → Level 15]
[Proficiency of Lifeforce Conversion reached 100%. Level 28 → Level 29]
Zayn nodded in satisfaction at the sight unfolding before him. Any time of improvement was great to look at. It would have been even better if all of his Cards were Rare or of an even higher rank, but Zayn had never been overly fortunate with high-ranked Cards. He had been unleashing the power of Card Sets to outweigh his lack of high-ranked Cards.
That should change soon, but it was not like Zayn could alter his luck. He would have to play with the cards he was given – quite literally.
His eyes traveled to the Goblin Champion’s body and locked onto the golden wisp. His hand reached out for the Soul Wisp. It rested heavy in his hand, but he didn’t resist. That was good.
Zayn pressed the Soul Wisp against his chest and activated Soul Link.
The instant Soul Link was active, Zayn felt like his soul was squashed. He forgot to breathe and stared down at the Soul Wisp, his eyes widening as the Goblin Champion Spirit formed in his hands. Unsurprisingly, the Soul Link succeeded, but Zayn didn’t expect the Spirit Soul’s pressure to be so heavy. It was almost ten times heavier than the Hobgoblin Spirit’s pressure…and was already several times worse than the pressure of the Magma Goblin Spirits.
Zayn could have integrated more Soul Essences into the Star of Spirit, but he figured it wasn’t necessary. Only the Hellhound, the Hobgoblin Assassin Spirits, and one Hobgoblin Warrior Spirit were left alive. The Goblin Champion had crushed the other Spirit Souls before it succumbed to the eternal – or not so eternal – embrace of death.
The Goblin Champion formed before him after the connection between them was established. It roared at the top of its lung, grasped the heavy Onyx War Axe, which belonged to its former body, and threatened to attack Zayn when he ordered it to freeze. The Champion Spirit slowed down but resisted the command to freeze.
“Freeze!” Zayn growled, focusing on the Champion Spirit, which froze.
‘You are a little bit rebellious. I see. It makes sense. You’re occupying half of my Spirit Foundation’s space. Annoying, heavy bugger!’
[Soul Link succeeded. The connections to Magma Goblin Champion Soul has been established]
The Magma Goblin Champion occupied more space in his Soul than the Magma Hobgoblin Assassins, the Hellhound, and the Hobgoblin Warrior. That was a lot and the reason Zayn stored the Champion Spirit inside one of the Empty Spirit Cards.
However, before he looked at the information displayed on the Spirit Card, Zayn turned around.
‘I forgot about the Souls. Fuck!’ He swallowed hard and stared at the bloody mess of a training hall, but his attention lingered on the Soul Wisps that ascended, ready to go wherever the souls of the deceased would usually go.
Zayn didn’t want that to happen, though. He wanted to nourish Rune Engraving and create his 4th Spirit Card. There were more than enough Soul Wisps to create the 4th Spirit Card.
Zayn took a deep breath and ignored the Spirit Souls around him. A batch of interwoven roots shot out below him, propelling Zayn into the air. He reached the ceiling, somersaulted, and pressed his feet lightly against the ceiling to soften the impact. A moment later, more roots shoot out of the ground. They created an unsteady path close to the training hall’s ceiling. It wasn’t much, but it should be enough to reach a few Soul Wisps. That was all Zayn needed.
“Let’s see how many you can escape my grasp!”
**
Zayn’s clothes were drenched in sweat, and his chest heaved up and down heavily after he finished his little self-made parkour through the blood-soaked training hall of the Magma Goblins.
The last few minutes drained his Stamina, but the result was worth the effort.
[You, as the Lord of all Souls, have accumulated enough power to expand your Heart Deck forcefully.]
Do you wish to engrave your 4th Spirit Card into the Heart Deck?
Yes.
Zayn expected to be in unbearable pain when he permitted Rune Engraving to engrave the 4th Spirit Card into his Heart Deck, but nothing like that happened.
His Heart Deck expanded, creating another Card Slot for his Class right before creating the 4th Empty Spirit Card.
The creation didn’t look as special as Zayn had hoped for. Countless golden particles burst out of his Heart Deck. They revolved around his Heart Deck slowly first. However, it was only a matter of seconds before the particles accelerated. They clashed into other particles, were pressed against each other, and forcefully meshed.
The golden particles merged more by force than through compatibility, but that didn’t matter.
Rune Engraving shaped the golden mass. It squashed the mass of golden particles, shaped it into the familiar shape of his Cards, and started engraving.
‘I might have been mistaken,’ Zayn thought, the corner of his eyes curling upward as he witnessed the birth of his 4th Spirit Card through his closed eyes.
‘This is beautiful.’