While cracking my packs would for most be the most prudent course of action I instead decided to take a peek outside my realm for a group of next plans. After confirming that there are only hazards and monsters around and no reason to go out, and that there is nothing actively looking for me in the local vicinity. I pause to think about what I want, before realizing that wishing for bonus core stats will not give them to me in the packs. I shift into a cross-legged position and Blobby and Inky take up positions beside me. Inky seems to have temporarily lost their humanoid form and has turned into a small round blotch, both are bobbing in excitement.
The first card I open is a common water card; I was wondering if I was going to have to quest for it. Surprised that this is not an exotic with the high value for a tier zero card. I put down the other three packs as I bind in the first card. Second was another resource, and it was a bunch of shredded cloth. What matters for cloth is that it’s purple and therefore I get to have purple cloth when I start generating my own. After that is a box of chocolates, which I summarily bind in while being excited with blobby. Inky and most shades as creatures of spirit correspondingly do not have stomachs for physical food, and instead operate via spiritual vampirism though they can eat from corpses rent asunder.
Then I get a class card for eight slayer essence, an empty ceramic jar, a book on breathing, a dog player card that I’m setting aside, a left wing thruster, an infurite crystal, and a ball for some kind of sport. All but the player card got bound in short order. Which leaves me the crazier cards in this pack, first up is a debuffer class skill card that weakens the barrier from the void. I train myself against the skill netting me some void affinity, before storing it away as a potential escape tool. Second was an undead monster card, which I set aside. The third was likely the crown jewel of the pack as it's a bonus to power when something related to a musical skill occurs; I crack open the card for the fractional power bonus and return the dregs to storage with my knife. The Penultimate card and the standard crown jewel of the pack is another player card, this time a catboy.
I flip over the final card and as always it is a space card upon inspecting that the lord is an ally to me, I telepathically connect to him, “I henceforth greet Lord Griffin. As I know you have no way to appraise me in full I am Lord Walker. I want to know your realm’s stability so I can see if I can get an alliance.”
“My dear’s realm has a stability of a bit greater than minus three. May I inquire as to what yours is as well,” the consort answers.
I regard the consort’s question before answering, “Without other divid, mine has a stability of zero, due to lords not being able to starve in their own realm when it is too small for food.”
“How much of that is essence?” asks the Lord.
“Three.” unless you are evil that is not enough to get killed over.
“If you have at least a point in void, vassal me.” I begin to project his realm out to claim it.
Yet as I do so, a trapped slayer interjects, “Why him and not me?”
“You have a point of void?” The Leader’s question silences the slayer.
The realms merge a moment later and I’m in the center of a small farm, surrounded by the five inhabitants. The landlord, his wife, his son holding a spear, a family friend holding a sword, and a man with a wicked aura. I inspect him summarily and find he has class levels in murderer. I simply suppress his regeneration, as I see the Pyg’s red glowing eyes in the distance. I also feel the wife’s intent as she appraises me. “Like what you see?”
“Mom, don't let him flirt with you.” I glance at the son, who has interposed himself between us.
“I have two unsummoned player cards that I couldn’t use, how bad should it be before I risk it?” I feel the wife’s appraisal skill on me again and I let it ping my cards.
“Cat’s a raider, and the Dog is a denizen; summon the dog once my son has remembered that calling her a bitch will become an incident.” Both the son and the friend bristle at the implication.
The slayer takes this as an opportunity to attempt to appraise me, so I summon my weapons to be ready. He doesn’t disappoint either as he attacks me a moment later. I block the first attack with one of my shields. Then I knife him between the ribs after I stomp his foot to break his only shield. Then the knife’s trigger happens and he’s already in card form. “I knew there was something off about him. Good riddance.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
I flip my knife around and swap it out for the wife’s short-spear, as I say “Perishables.”
“Not just people, what’s the limit?” asks the husband, definitely approving of keeping the wife out of the way.
“Diminishing returns on cultivation via card.” I state a common drawback from the forums on the extraction system.
She nods and moves on. The trees sway. I pause. I sense neither angels nor spirits. The Pyg are now charging Griffin’s farm. My loose cards rupture. Valiant comrades suffer. Souls burn as the darkness lurks. I alone have already slain over a hundred. Pyg care not for their fellows being butchered. I am given some Pyg cards that I incorporate to push out the problem.
“Thy plans have been deemed irksome,” and dread pervades the air as that voice spoke. Then the entire realm ignites in black flame, as the malevolence behind the continuing Pyg assault made manifest attempts to engulf us. I summon my knife to me to cut down the hellfire. The voice continues, “Thy futility is amusing, distractions shall not even be ash.”
I raise my cloak for the others to hide under, as my realm screams new fire resistances into existence in a futile attempt to stop the spread. “Begone foul Demon,” says the son, “What, I thought a witty one-liner would improve our spirits.”
“Thy idiocy amused me, what say thee for thine own Lord Walker.” I drop my arms in response.
I then begin cracking my neck and knuckles, before replying “I think it was ‘Rip and Tear until it is done.’ What do you think?”
I spend the next several moments inflicting physical bodily harm upon my opponent, but then I am punched across my realm. “There thee are.”
The wife uses the knife to dump all of them into my storage, only for their cards to buckle and moments later. And then my other sealed packs succumb to the strain. Then it speaks
“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay,”
“Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,”
“The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
I'm sure whatever ability it is using right now is really mighty and impressive, but no. Just no. I slash at it at a distance and let the destruction of space pull the attack into its target. Another attack probably breaks a bunch of my bones, but I neither feel it nor care as there is no reason I cannot just summarily ignore the damage in my realm. Or to it. Or by it. Not that it matters, as merely surviving damage will not cause me to win. So I simply flare my soul and use the void perforation skill I opened. Why don’t I just burn the void too.
“What is going through thy mind, fire is mine to command.” Soon my class levels ignite and I didn't hear anything else after that. It is only when my soul has incorporated enough from the void to double itself, do I wake with a start. I check what I can of my stats discovering that my soul, level and some of my elements have improved, from the ordeal. I push myself into the void and start my trek back down to the bottom again. My void affinity must be much higher as it is much easier this time, eventually I reach the bottom and then I go back to sleep while I wait for my missing pieces to return. They do and soon I am whole again.
I do a once over of my dungeon defenses and make sure that my anchorite does not register outside of my realm. Then I create some chocolate to eat, partly because I can and partly because it’s been pretty rough; the chocolate is fairly bitter. Then I feel something looking for me and I just physically bristle. I don’t do anything externally and try to relax as they will pass on to somewhere else. Then I pay attention to the previously missing pieces and discover that they are all still embedded in other realms and while the other party cannot find me directly through this they can find the local area I’m in. I start not renewing the essence in the areas my fragments are in and soon both the far connection points and their mechanism for finding me has dissolved.
Realizing that the trackers have not gone away, I invert my levels to push myself down even deeper. Once down I nudge myself horizontally and then revert the inversion. I end up grabbing one of the nearby realm shards and dragging it down with me, before ducking underneath another bigger realm and throwing that shard in such a way that it continues bouncing beyond the realm I’m underneath. This confuses the pursuers, who have at this point lost my trail. Forcing them to overturn the local area fruitlessly. In the end they have to stop and settle in for the long haul by setting up an outpost and monitoring all who leave.
In turn they have turned this zone into one of the most hazardous, for cleaning up the weakest of the monsters leaves only the strongest behind. Which I have to stay in as they track everyone who leaves. And they are indexing all of the entries present, to monitor what is in each realm. In response under the shroud, I start replacing everything with void so that they have noise to find when they index my realm. I end up getting indexed several times over it, and proceed to sleep off the search pattern. All in an effort to be thrown into a realm and convince the hunters that I am not the target. Eventually they invert my space affinity and throw me into a desert realm to see if I notice or care. Eventually they start looking again and the trackers on me fade and are forgotten. I use my knife to get a smidge of hydrolith, and hunker down for the long haul.