“As expected. This is amazing!” Percy exclaimed, his eyes glued to the holographic screen.
The drone recordings revealed several angles of their fight against the Hellhounds pack. The battle ended quickly, but the recordings could be used for a short video nonetheless.
It showed Zayn circling the Hellhounds as if dancing while using Blink and his other Cards to inflict deadly wounds. Meanwhile, Nicolas killed the Hellhounds that Zayn and Percy injured.
Percy focused on attracting the Hellhounds' attention with his Class Cards, which decreased the temperature in the surroundings. The Hellhounds knew that Nicolas and Zayn were powerful enemies, but their instincts pushed them to focus on Percy and keep attacking him. He was the culprit who disrupted their racial trait, after all.
Zayn was glad that they focused on Percy. Their obsession with hunting Percy made the hunt easier than expected.
6x Hellhounds (Elite) have been slain – Major Contribution.
+11 Soul Essences, +7 Common Card Shards, +2 Uncommon Card Shards
[Proficiency of Blink reached 100%. Level Up!]
[Proficiency of Draining Touch reached 100%. Level Up!]
[Proficiency of Double Impact reached 100%. Level Up!]
The gains were satisfying, especially the level-up of three Cards. It had been a while since his Cards had leveled up, so he decided to check them out once again.
Blink
Uncommon - Level 25(2%)
Spell
Active
Requires Energy to be used.
Effect – Uses considerable energy to teleport the User to a designated location.
Remark– Blink may require several uses if the distance is too large.
-–
Energy consumption decreases with increase in Card Level.
Range of teleportation expands with an increase in Card Level.
—
Lifeforce Conversion
Uncommon - Level 28(5%)
Spell/Augmentation
Active
Requires Lifeforce to be used.
Effect – Converts Lifeforce into power.
–
The conversion rate increases with Card Level.
Power output increases with Card Level
—
Draining Touch
Uncommon - Level 21(0%)
Spell
Active
Requires Energy to be used.
Effect – Replenishes Lifeforce and Energy by draining the living with your touch.
–
The Card’s effect will increase with the Card's Level.
—
Double Impact.
Uncommon - Level 30(1%)
Spell
Active
Requires Energy to be used.
Effect – Produces a second impact.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
–
The power of the second impact increases with the Card Level.
The energy consumption decreases with the Card Level.
—
Zayn was the proudest of Blink. The Uncommon Card was as useful as a Rare Card and wasn't easy to level. It had been a long journey, but the Uncommon Card reached Level 25, unraveling more of its potential as it reached the halfway mark to its level capacity.
Zayn had to remind himself that he was just getting started and that there was no need to get excited over such minor gains. Instead, he should pay more attention to his primary goal.
Integrate 299 Soul Essences into the Hidden Class Path (Soul Lord)?
“Do it.”
299 Soul Essences have been integrated into the Hidden Class Path.
[Soul Lord – Hidden Class Path – (299/1000)]
“Are you guys down for a somewhat lengthy grind?” Zayn asked his brothers.
He knew that his brothers didn’t benefit a lot from hunting Hellhounds. They’d ascended by integrating a Rare Class Path into their Heart Deck. Their Foundation was less than 200 units higher than Zayn’s, but their drop rate was still relatively low due to their Rare Class Path and higher Foundation. Only Zayn gained a lot from hunting the Hellhounds. They were easy targets for him and provided generous rewards.
“Of course,” Percy declared instantaneously, “I want to see your Class Path! Stop spouting nonsense. We need to hunt more Hellhounds!”
Nicolas didn’t even have to say anything. Percy said all that had to be said. There was no need to waste their precious time spouting nonsense. It was far more important that Zayn filled the progression bar of his Class Path to initiate the Path integration.
**
Several hours passed in the blink of an eye. It was still not evening, but Nicolas and Percy felt like collapsing to the ground to take a long, well-deserved nap.
“Are you still not done?!?” Percy groaned. He looked at Zayn, who was cleaning the Verdant Saber, with a calm smile.
He responded with a chuckle.
“Done? I think you’re underestimating my Class Path.”
Percy looked at Nicolas, who returned his gaze. The brothers turned their attention to Zayn a moment later.
“I know you’ve been amassing Soul Essences even before we started grinding Soul Essences. You should have collected enough Soul Essences even if you found an Epic or Unique Class Path.” Nicolas pointed out.
“That’s right,” Zayn nodded, glancing at the progression bar.
[Soul Lord – Hidden Class Path – (563/1000)]
“Unfortunately, my Class Path is a menace. I’m still missing 437 Soul Essences.”
Nicolas pressed his lips together, leaving a thin slit, while Percy stared at his younger brother.
“You’re still missing more than 400 Soul Essences? That’s how much I had to integrate into the Cryo-Swordmaster Path,” He said with self-ridicule, “I’ve been complaining for days because it took way too long to integrate 400 Soul Essences into the Class Path. Yet, you’re casually saying that you’re still missing that much…after we finished several larger packs with more than 40 Hellhounds alongside batches of Hellhound packs?”
“Yup. My Class Path requires exactly 1,000 Soul Essences before I can initiate the Path integration.”
Nicolas fell from the stone he’d been sitting on while Percy felt a shudder sweep through his body.
“Fuck you,” He grumbled.
Zayn could only smile in response.
“I love you too.”
Nicolas got up. He emptied the energy-infused water bottle that was usually used to replenish Stamina and Energy faster and grasped the Ebony Reaper.
“We won’t be getting any real sleep today,” Nicolas announced, while Percy could only shrug.
“It’s not like we need real sleep, either way. We can play Forgotten Lands while our bodies are asleep. Who cares about a bad headache from overexerting our brains all night? It’s only our mom who is going to kill us for another all-nighter. What’s there to be afraid of?”
The brothers looked at each other and burst into laughter.
“We’re so fucked.”
“Whatever. There is no time to waste. We need more content, and his Classless Status is holding back our little ace,” Percy said while trying to hide a shudder from the shitstorm that awaited them once their mother found out about their all-nighter.
“I hope that your fucking overpriced Class Path will be worth it!”
“It better be,” Zayn acknowledged.
The brothers resumed to prey on Hellhound packs for a few more hours. Unfortunately, they were interrupted at some point.
A group of Players pursued another group in the middle of a large grassfield. The pursuers, clad in Ranked Armor, smiled menacingly at the half-naked members of the second group.
One of the pursuers suddenly accelerated and appeared behind the slowest member of the escaping Players. He cleaved the unfortunate Player in half and roared in excitement.
“One more gold coin for me!”
Zayn raised an eyebrow, his attention lingering on the fleeing Players. They were far more, but their equipment was subpar. All of them were missing several pieces of equipment.
“Stop following us! We have nothing more to lose. Just leave us alone!!!” One of the fleeing Players screamed at the top of his lungs.
“You’re funny. Your death is precious, just like your Cards,” The pursuer from before said lightly before accelerating again.
The brothers looked at each other from a safe distance and sighed deeply.
“They’re bounty hunters, right?” Nicolas guessed.
“And there is a bounty of one gold coin on each of those poor souls,” Percy added, “It looks like the escapees have been killed a few times up until this point as well. They seem somewhat familiar with the bounty hunters.”
Percy’s perception was pretty good. However, both Nicolas and Percy missed a few things.
‘I didn’t expect to find some bounty hunters aiming for guilds.’
The escapees weren’t ordinary Players. They were members of a guild, and the emblem engraved on the remaining pieces of their clothing proved that.
‘Bounty hunters preying on guilds. That didn’t happen often in Forgotten Lands. Seems like that guild got on someone’s nerves.’
Zayn couldn’t be certain about that, but he was pretty sure that the bounty hunters must have been hired to hunt the guild members until they were deprived of their equipment and cards. They would be pursued until the last Card in their Heart Deck had been ripped out of their chest.
Given that the escapees weren’t even trying to use their Cards, Zayn could only guess they didn’t have many Cards left. Their remaining equipment was already damaged as well.
It was only a matter of minutes before the remaining escapees would be dead.
Zayn was about to turn his attention away from the bounty hunters and the fleeing Players to focus on his Class Path when he discovered something from the corner of his eyes.
‘What on Earth are they doing here?!?’