The gunshots from earlier alerted not only the nearby base but the lurking enemies too. Wolfram didn't linger around any longer, he swiftly left the intersection as soon as he disposed of the two soldiers. He felt no remorse after what he had done, after all, killing people had been an almost daily occurrence for him since a long time ago.
'Now that the change came so suddenly, the strongest will survive. The world will be turned upside down! I can't wait!'
Wolfram inwardly laughed and rejoiced over the mere thought of leaving this facility and finding powerful people, who distinguished themselves apart from the normal masses and became strong enough to be hailed as Heroes or whatnot.
Of course, he didn't forget to loot the food and water of his two fallen 'comrades' and then he swiftly retraced his steps. Previously, he heard the arrival of a large group of goblins, so going back there wasn't a wise move. Even though he yearned for battle and wanted to get stronger, he wasn't completely delusional to the point of believing he could take on more than twenty Goblins single-handedly, at least not now.
Mid-way through the half-destroyed corridor, he found a cell similar to his but barely intact even after the earthquake. Like any other cell, this one contained a chair at the center and a table filled with either torture tools or syringes.
Fortunately, the door could be closed but not locked, though it didn't matter as he was going to rest just for a few minutes to organize his thoughts and plan ahead.
The man sat on the chair and took out the special card that showed his stats and skills.
The pair he killed just a bit ago only dropped one stat card, which was better than nothing.
With the addition of three skills; [Sensor Hearing] and [Light Steps], and [Dagger Mastery], and the stat cards he had looted from the Goblins, his stats increased yet again, but the boost in physical strength wasn't that satisfactory or tangible.
Wolfram Sakimoto
--
Race: No Race
Class: 1 Star Trickster
--
Cards Control : 1
Cards Sharpness : 1
Cards Speed : 1
--
Strength : 2.1
Vitality : 1.6
Speed : 1.7
Perception : 2.8
Magic : 2
Magic Control : 1.1
Magic Resistance : 1
--
Card Points : 0.62
---
Skills: Sneaking Lv1, Dagger Mastery Lv1. Sensor Hearing Lv1. Lightsteps Lv1.
--
Thanks to the stat cards, his overall prowess was slowly but surely increasing, especially his five senses, which were affected by the Perception Stats. His sight and hearing became shaper than the average human. If he concentrated, he could hear enemies from a fair distance away, as for his sight, he couldn't ascertain that it really became better due to the narrowness of this place and the obvious lack of constant illumination. Nevertheless, Wolfram liked to believe that his sight was heightened as well.
*Perception: Affects mainly the five senses and the instincts of the user.
Extra: High Perception can allow the user to increase the Level of his skills a bit faster.
Speed: The velocity of the user's body: Ranges from attacking, defending, running, jumping, reflexes etc...
Vitality: The endurance and recovery of the user.
Extra: High Vitality allows the user to regenerate from injuries moderately faster.
Strength: Affects the user's physical strength and the unleashed outward force.
Magic: This indicates the ability of the user to cast magic-related skills/spells. The higher the value, the stronger the potency of the skills/spells.
Magic Control: This indicates the ability of the user to control magic-related skills/spells. The higher the value, the fast the cast time would be.
Extra: Magic Control also helps the user control Magic-related skills/spells in a slightly easier way(depends on the value of the Stat).
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Magic Resistance: This indicates the ability of the user to defend against magic-related skills/spells.
Extra: The higher the value, the higher the percentage of Magic damage reduction.*
Wolfram carefully re-read this long description and pondered on what to invest his gained CP into.
He spent more than three minutes thoroughly deliberating about his choices, and at the end, he decided to risk it and add the CP into Cards Sharpness. The reason for this this was actually simple; First, the fact that the System was centered around Cards intrigued Wolfram and subtly influenced his decision, making him opt to gamble on the unknown and less-explained stats. Second, he was naturally increasing his base stats by looting the Stats Cards, so their value would passively increase as long as he kept fighting.
The presence of the three stats revolving around cards was weird, to say the least, and they surely weren't there just for show. If his theory was correct, then investing them was sure to bring him bountiful results eventually.
Sure, they were long term gains and he didn't expect the sharpness of his cards to behead goblins with just a touch, but sooner or later, they would become deadly enough to threaten humans and goblins alike.
So, after careful consideration, Wolfram spent his 0.62 Card Points into Cards Sharpness. Then he took out his deck of cards and tried throwing them at the metal walls.
As per his expectations, the cards bounced off when they hit the walls, but that didn't discourage him. It was unfortunate that there weren't corpses in this room so he couldn't fully test the sharpness of his cards, nonetheless, there were always other alternatives.
Wolfram spread his hand and held one of the cards in his other hand and then tried softly slashing the front of his hand. Unlike normal cards, his slash was able to cause a superficial scratch on his hand, not enough to cause blood to ooze out but still deep enough to make normal people panic.
'If the Sharpness is increased by another point then it'll certainly start causing serious cut damages.'
He excitedly thought about the idea of beheading goblins with just a card, an evil grin forming on his face.
..
When he fully recovered a bit of energy, Wolfram finally left the cell after cautiously peeking out of the door and ascertaining the absence of any potential enemies.
He didn't head back to where the base of the current survivors might be, instead, he walked up to where he met the two deceased soldiers.
He wanted to strengthen himself a bit more before going to the base as it would surely be a bloody battle. As he took their rations, they were bound to send more soldiers to scavenge some food. Suffice it to say, Wolfram was eagerly expecting more of them to come.
With soundless steps and minimized presence, Wolfram headed down the corridor while sticking close to the wall. After a few minutes, a red card appeared in front of him, which brought a pleasant surprise
*[Lightsteps] Lv1=＞Lv2! +0.12 Card Points.*
Amidst this short journey down the spooky corridor, Wolfram managed to loot two more stat cards. He couldn't get them earlier as he was being watched by Baldwin and Tachi, however, he was now free to do as he pleased. He crushed the two cards and gained stats on the spot.
*0.1 Strength.*
*0.1 Vitality.*
Soon enough, Wolfram managed to arrive where the battle between the goblins and the soldiers had occurred. He inspected the surroundings and; surprisingly, he discovered that the goblins dragged the vending machines, leaving only the broken desks in this desolate room.
As he stood in this destroyed central room, Wolfram leaned against a wall and peeked at the only hallway he was uncertain where it led. This central room was an intersection, one path was the place he came from at the very beginning and the second path was the one that led to the base of survivors.
The dragged vending machines left black trails on the floor and, from the looks of it, this dark hallway was surely where the large group of goblins headed to.
With the rifle loaded and ready in his hand, Wolfram proceeded in that direction with a pair of narrowed eyes and regular, silent breathing.
He walked for about two minutes until he saw three short and ugly creatures walking in his direction. Since this place was unusually dark due to the lack of lighting, and coupled with the distance separating them, Wolfram was able to notice them before they did.
Shooting them with his rifle was possible, and the probability of killing them was high too, however, that would cause too much noise, thus leading more enemies here. He wanted to sneakily and swiftly dispose of them, after all, stealthily assassinating his enemies was his way of doing things. It was more efficient than a frontal assault that could change due to unexpected and unforeseen events.
'These motherfuckers are not sophisticated enough to live on their own, there must be something that is controlling them. Furthermore, I'm curious about their origin, did they come from somesort of a portal? They couldn't have appeared out of thin air.'
He already fought the goblins in a melee fight and knew that they had fragile and small bodies. A strong kick could very much kill them if it landed on a vital spot such as the neck.
Very calmly, Wolfram put the rifle on his back and took out the military knife, he held it in his left hand and approached the group of three enemies with minimum sound as to not alert them.
When he was around fifteen meters, the three ugly monsters finally reacted as they saw a dashing tall figure charging at them.
Two of the goblins had rusty short swords and the last one had a small round shield and a bronze dagger that looked no different than a wooden toy weapon.
Wolfram focused on the ones wielding swords: He lowered his body and dove ahead. The two parties charged at each other but the victorious side was predictable.
When there was only a five-meter separating them, Wolfram threw the dagger at the central goblin. His accuracy and the force behind the dagger were more than enough for it to hit its intended target and end its life.
Without lowering his speed, he tackled the other goblin causing it to fall on its head, then, without even getting up, he stretched his hand and held the short and thin leg of the shield-wielding goblin: He applied more strength on his grip and threw the goblin two meters away, causing it to drop both its dagger and shield.
Thereafter, Wolfram got up and used his leg to smash the tackled goblin's head, the force behind his kick strong enough to kill it. In the meantime, the other goblin finally stabilized its body and held its weapons, intending to fiercely retaliate as it hideous mouth opened wide.
When he saw the enemy, which was running at him while swinging its dagger, Wolfram backed away and easily dodged the amateurish swing of the enemy.
Compared to veteran soldiers, this goblin was really an easy opponent, however, that didn't mean Wolfram was going to underestimate it or play around. Once he dodged, he found himself facing the defenseless back of the enemy.
With a quick frontal quick, the monster fell again but never got up as Wolfram walked up to it and smashed its squishy head.
'These lame ass monsters are really weak, even an adolescent wouldn't be killed this easily.'
*You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.08 Card Points.*
*You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.1 Card Points.*
*You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.97 Card Points.*
After he rummaged under their bodies, Wolfram was a bit dejected to see no stat cards dropping, sill, he didn't despair and looked forward to the enemies he was going to kill next.
He spent all the gained CP into Cards Sharpness then knelt near one of the corpses and repeated his earlier tests.
Unlike his previous experience, the cards smoothly cut through their skin as if it was butter. This could be attributed to their high Sharpness and soft skin of the goblins.
After experimenting for another half a minute, he discovered that the Sharpness was effective against goblins. He tried slashing himself but it still couldn't go through his skin and cause blood to come out like with the goblins.