Eventually the timer for Blake’s ShaleskinWolf ran out. It was Level 4 now, and three quarters of the way toward Level 5. When it hit that threshold, Blake would be able to evolve it into a brand new form, and Blake was curious to see what forms his wolf might be able to take.
Between the wolf and Harry’s Stone Talons ability, they were making good headway clearing out the quarry. Halfway through clearing the quarry out, both of them had almost met the quest completion mark of 40 monsters each, so they decided to increase the number of monsters that they would kill before the end of it.
The highest they could pledge was 50 monsters each, and Blake figured they would have no issue killing that amount before the day was through. The quarry was absolutely infested.
Harry’s cards were growing quite quickly, and his Stone Talons card reached Level 5 as they fought through the monsters.
“Are you going to evolve that card right away?” Blake asked. “We can take a break if you want.”
“Yeah, give me a second to check out my options,” Harry said.
They retreated out of the aggro radii of the remaining monsters stalking around the quarry, and back into one of the administration building they’d ransacked earlier.
Stone Talons was already an uncommon card that neither Blake nor Harry had seen anyone else wielding. Potential upgrades were also things that neither of them had seen yet either.
The first upgrade pathway was something called Stone Beast. It would transform Harry into a monster himself. This new form had talons, claws, and a spiked tail that it could use to attack its enemies.
“I don’t know how I feel about being turned into a monster,” Harry said.
“What’s the next option?” Blake asked.
The second upgrade pathway was called Gargoyle’s Fury. This upgrade pathway turned Harry into a stone gargoyle with wings that gave him the power of flight. He still had claws on his hands and feet to attack, but he would not be able to leap into the air and take to the sky.
“You know, I am leaning toward Gargoyle’s Fury. Being able to take to the skies for half an hour, that could let me go anywhere in the world that I want to go,” Harry said.
“I totally understand the appeal,” Blake said, and he was secretly quite jealous. That said, if he found a Stone Talons card, he would be able to level it up into a gargoyle that could fly.
While Harry was pondering his choices, he suddenly screwed up his face and shook his head. “This city is getting into my head, man. I am a free person, and I make my own choices. Gargoyle’s Fury, here I come!”
A card flew out of Harry’s deck and into the air in front of him. It pulsed with shining light as the evolution process started, and then with a shower of sparks the evolution process concluded.
As Harry played the card, a burst of anima surged into him, enveloping his body in a brilliant light. Harry's hands and feet formed into massive stone talons, with razor-sharp tips that gleamed in the light. His incisors elongated into fangs that shone with a deadly brightness, and his ears extended backward until they had sharp points, giving him a feral, otherworldly appearance.
In a sudden explosion of power, two massive gray wings erupted from Harry's back, tearing holes in his shirt as they unfurled. They were unlike anything Blake had ever seen before, with a texture like stony leather and a wingspan that stretched across the entire room.
Harry flexed his powerful wings, and a creaking, grinding sound echoed through the room, as if the walls themselves were trembling in fear.
“I’ll be right back,” Harry said with a grin. His voice had grown a deep, gravelly quality to it. The card had changed that too.
With a roar, Harry took to the sky, soaring up as if he had always been meant to fly. His wings beat with an almost mechanical precision, each stroke carrying him higher and higher. He looked like a creature from another world, a stone-skinned monster with eyes that glowed with an inner fire.
Blake wondered how Harry intrinsically knew how to use these new wings. He figured it must have been a part of the information held within the card.
What point would a card that gave you the powers of flight be if your body didn’t know how to use it properly?
Harry flew circles in the air above the quarry, and Blake, who was standing on the ground, looked up in amazement. Harry's wings beat in a powerful rhythm, propelling him through the sky with ease. He let out a whoop of excitement as he swooped down toward Blake, pulling up just in time to avoid crashing into him.
“How did you like that hero pose landing?” Harry said with a grin.
“Very cool. Does that card increase your strength, as well?”
“Yeah it does, from what I can tell. These wings are heavy, so I need a little extra strength to be able to use them properly,” Harry said.
“This card opens up a whole new layer of tactics. Your movement speed and agility are through the roof, and these monsters are just lumbering towers of stone. I wonder what would happen if you took one and flew up into the air, then dropped it,” Blake suggested.
“I’m not sure I could lift any of the big ones and still be able to fly, but I could probably manage some of the little ones. If I drop one on another monster, we might be able to take out two monsters with one stone.”
“Well come on, let's give it a shot.”
Blake and Harry headed back into the quarry and faced off against a pack of stone monsters. The monsters were massive, with rock-hard skin and jagged teeth. They were dangerous and needed to be taken down before they caused any more damage to the surrounding area.
Blake commanded Shaleskin Wolf to stand by his side, and the beast appeared with a snarl. He set the wolf to attack, and it charged forward, taking down one of the stone monsters with ease.
As the wolf fought, Harry took to the skies on his new wings, soaring high above the quarry. He picked up one of the stone monsters in his talons and lifted it into the air. Once up high, he dropped the monster from high above.
It smashed into a thousand pieces.
Blake and Harry worked together, Blake herding the monsters with his wolf, while Harry flew around, picking up stone monsters and dropping them from above. The two of them were a formidable team, and the stone monsters didn't stand a chance against them.
As the last stone monster fell, Harry landed next to Blake, a triumphant grin on his face. “That was awesome!”
Blake nodded, his own smile just as wide. “Yeah, it was. We make a great team.”
They stood there for a moment, surveying the destruction they had wrought. After fighting through a bunch of monsters and testing out Harry’s new abilities, Blake’s Stonefur Wolf card hit level 5. Now it was time for Blake to figure out what option he wanted to take.
The two options were Shale Knight or Shale Berserker.
The Shale Skin card was a game changer in its own right, offering players a layer of stone armor that fortified their bodies against attacks. But the Stone Knight card elevated the concept to new heights, transforming the user into a medieval-style knight, complete with full body stone armor. This armor provided unparalleled protection against even the most devastating attacks.
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But the Stone Knight card was more than just a defensive tool. It also summoned a massive stone sword, which imbued the user with the power to strike back with equal force. This added offensive capability made the Stone Knight a truly hybrid card, offering both defense and offense in one powerful package. It was a force to be reckoned with, and those who wielded it were feared by their opponents.
Unlike the defensive-oriented Shale Knight, the Stone Berserker was all about unleashing raw power and aggression in combat. Upon activation, the user's body would be infused with the primal energy of a berserker, granting them an immense boost in both attack and speed.
The card summoned a massive two-handed ax, which the user could wield with devastating precision and ferocity. The ax was made of solid stone, imbued with the same unrelenting power as the user's armor.
With the Stone Berserker activated, the user was transformed into an unstoppable force of destruction, capable of cutting down their enemies with ease.
Blake's Shaleskin Wolf was a formidable creature already. Blake was determined to maintain these attributes, as they were crucial for survival in the high stakes world of power card duels. By making the wolf even more formidable, Blake would be able to strike harder and dodge more effectively, all while reducing the amount of damage it would take.
Blake was eager to harness the power of the Stone Berserker card to turn his wolf into an even deadlier force on the battlefield.
As he made his decision, the once sleek and agile Shaleskin Wolf started to undergo a radical transformation. The stone coverings that once protected its body fell away, revealing a coat of fur that was now even wilder and more unruly.
Suddenly, a massive stone battle axe materialized from the earth, its double-bladed head buried deep in the ground. The wolf's eyes were lit ablaze with a fierce, untamed energy as it reached down and clamped its jaws around the handle of the ax. The wolf yanked the weapon from the earth and gripped it in its fangs.
The Shaleskin Wolf was now a fearsome sight, its fur standing on end, its eyes blazing with an insatiable hunger for battle, and its massive stone ax at the ready. It was a force to be reckoned with, a true Stone Berserker.
“Let’s focus some of that rage that you’ve got on our enemies, okay?” Blake asked his Berserker Wolf.
The wolf growled in response around the ax handle in its mouth. Blake looked over its statistics to see the difference between its old form and new.
Monster: Berserker Wolf
Level: 5
Evolution Stage: Advanced
Affinity: Earth
Strength: 120
Toughness: 100
Agility: 120
Magic Power: 90
Personality: Powerful, Brutal, Relentless
Traits:
* Brutal
* Beast Body
* Battle Axe
* Savage
Past Evolutions: Shaleskin Wolf (Shale Skin)
Future Evolutions: Unknown
It was still agile, which was something it shared with its previous form, but this time the Strength was just as powerful. Blake couldn’t wait to see what his Berserker Wolf was capable of.
With the newly evolved cards at their disposal, Blake and Harry made short work of the rest of the enemies that patrolled throughout the quarry. They didn’t even need explosives to take care of them, but they did manage to secure the explosives storage building.
As they cleared more and more of the monsters out of the quarry, Blake began to get a bad feeling that something else was coming.
After Blake had almost finished his quota of killing stone golem creatures, an achievement appeared in front of him.
Congratulations!
Achievement unlocked: Stone Golem Destroyer
Rank 1
You have now destroyed 50 stone golem creatures! Your chance at receiving power cards when defeating stone golem monsters has now improved a little.
+2% chance to find earth element power cards when defeating stone golem type monsters.
Higher ranks of this skill will increase the power card drop chance from defeating stone golem monsters even further.
Blake couldn't believe his eyes. This was the first time he had seen anything in the system specifically stating that his chances of discovering power cards had improved through his actions.
It was an exciting revelation for him, as it seemed that the more types of monsters he defeated, the greater chance he had of receiving a power card when defeating that particular kind of monster. It was the kind of compounding effect that made it, so people actually had a bit of control over what cards they got and when.
Blake was curious, and he wondered if this was something that was only innate to him and the way that he interacted with the system, or whether Harry received the same thing. He decided to ask Harry about it subtly.
“Hey, Harry. How close are you to finishing your quest?” Blake asked.
“I'm done, man. I'm just continuing on because I'm getting decent experience from these things, and the stuff they're dropping is pretty valuable. Are you done too?” Harry replied with a shrug.
“Almost. I wonder if we're going to get any achievements or anything for killing these things,” Blake said, trying to sound nonchalant. He didn't want to reveal that he had received an achievement if Harry hadn't received one too. That would be revealing too much.
“Yeah, I’ve finished killing my fifty, but I haven’t got any achievements or anything. How long do you have left on your empowerment?”
“I’ve got about four minutes left. That should be enough to finish off the rest of these monsters, right?”
“Yep, let’s get to it,” Blake said.
Blake commanded his Berserker Wolf to launch into battle and attack. The wolf let out a ferocious howl and charged forward, its stone ax in its mouth. Harry transformed Gargoyle form.
The first stone golem monster to reach them was met with a barrage of blows from the Berserker Wolf. The wolf's ax crashed against the golem's rocky exterior, sending chunks of stone flying. The golem swung its massive fist at the wolf, but the wolf was too quick, dodging out of the way and attacking again.
Meanwhile, Harry took to the air, his wings propelling him higher and higher. He swooped down, hauling a stone golem into the skies before dropping it. The monster hit the earth with a resounding crash, and when the dust cleared, it was nothing more than rubble.
The battle raged on. Blake and Harry working together to take down the stone golem monsters. The wolf and the gargoyle, a formidable duo, tore through the enemy ranks with ease. The wolf's ax and Harry's stone claws made short work of the golems, and soon enough, the last of the stone golem monsters had fallen.
Blake and Harry stood victorious, surveying the battlefield. The ground was littered with the remains of the stone golems, and the air was filled with the sounds of their labored breathing. Harry transformed back into his human form, and Blake’s wolf trotted over next to him.
“Well, that was a workout,” Harry said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
“No kidding,” Blake agreed. “But it was worth it. Think about all the credits and loot we’ve got.”
“And don’t forget about those construction vehicle keys!”
Blake nodded, a smile spreading across his face. They had triumphed over the stone golem monsters, and they had earned their rewards. They were one step closer to getting strong enough to survive in this new world.
Suddenly, a message appeared in Blake’s view.
Warning: Anima anomaly detected in this area.
“Did you just get that message as well?” Blake asked.
Harry nodded. “Yeah, I got it too. Never seen anything like it. Do you have any idea what it means?”
“Well, if anima is what creates these monsters and all of the powers the system gives us, and it’s concentrating all in one place, I don’t think it’s going to mean anything good,” Blake said, trepidation building in his gut.
“Yeah, I agree. But hey, maybe disrupting the anima flow in this area has triggered something within the system. Something that nobody else knows is even a thing. I think we should stay and figure out exactly what is happening, because we might get something really good out of it,” Harry said.
Blake nodded in agreement. This was too good an opportunity to miss, even though they only had a few minutes left on their powers.
As they moved from one lifeless body to another, gathering as much loot as they could fit in their backpacks, Blake noted that some of the remains of the defeated monsters had started to animate. The once still and silent stones now began to roll and tumble, drawn toward the heart of the quarry.
Initially, it was the smaller rocks that moved, but soon, larger and more substantial stones joined the steady flow. They converged to form a colossal mound, which then began to transform and assume a shape. Rising higher, the mass of stones split into two towering columns, seemingly guided by the very essence of the creatures that once inhabited the area.
The fallen bodies of the smaller stone golems, now mere fragments, merged together to create a gargantuan stone colossus. This behemoth, born from the remnants of its fallen kin, cast a tower-sized shadow over the once triumphant adventurers.
As Blake concentrated on the colossal monster, an information panel materialized before him, sending shivers of fear down his spine. The stone colossus was marked as ‘Level ??’, a cryptic indicator that left him puzzled.
Seeking clarification, he turned to his AI assistant and inquired about the meaning of this peculiar level designation.
The AI assistant responded with a somber tone, explaining that such a level representation only appears when the enemy is vastly superior and beyond the capabilities of the person observing it. The menacing skull icon adjacent to the monster’s name panel only served to emphasize the severity of the predicament they now faced.
Harry, equally unsettled by the sight before them, voiced his concern, “I really don't like the look of that.”
Their circumstances began to sink in, as the adventurers recognized that they were now facing an adversary that could prove to be their ultimate test. They would need to muster every ounce of courage and skill they possessed or perish.