Forgotten Lands - Chapter 42 (Book 1)

Melanie breathed heavily. She was exhausted but smiled from one ear to another.

“That was much better than our first fight!”

Zayn nodded slowly, but his attention drifted to the kill notification.

14 Sabertooth Hounds have been slain +4 Soul Essences, +1 Common Card Shard, +1 Uncommon Card Shard

He was still the top contributor in the battle but that was fine. If he didn’t have the highest kill count it would be weird. Zayn had almost a decade of combat experience accumulated from countless life-and-death battles. Furthermore, the impact of the Demonic Treant Card Set couldn’t be underestimated either.

Even while Zayn gave out pieces of advice and commands he should have the highest contribution in the fights.

Set of 10 Common Card Shards has been detected. Combine?

Zayn agreed to combine the Common Card Shards. They transformed into Common Card.

Empower

Common - Level 1(0%)

Support

Active

Requires Energy to be used.

Effect – Strengthen your allies!
Allows the Card Holder to empower his/her allies’ Strength, and Agility

–
Effect grows stronger with an increase in Card Level.
Effect duration extends with an increase in Card Level

—

Usually, Cards like this spoke about ‘targets’ rather than ‘allies’. It would allow the Card user to use the Card on oneself as well. However, Empower wasn’t like that. It allowed the Card User to use Empower to strengthen his allies. While it was unknown how much stronger one’s Strength and Agility would be under Empower’s effect, Zayn could immediately tell that the Card was useless to him.

He didn’t plan to act as a Supporter.

“Catch!” Zayn threw Empower toward Natalia, who caught it clumsily. She stared at the Card for a second and tilted her head.

Once she lifted her head to look at Zayn, confusion was written all over her face.

“Since you stopped spamming Healing Light, you should have enough energy to use Empower a few times mid-battle. You should use it until you find a better Card to replace it with,” Zayn said nonchalantly, catching Natalia and the others by surprise.

“You’re really giving her the Card? Just like that?” David asked, his eyes narrowed to a slit.

Common Cards were still pretty valuable.

Even though their price has gone down quite a lot, the demand for useful Common Cards was astronomical. Most Players could pay their monthly rent in a good area by selling one decent Common Card.

“I don’t think I can accept that…” Natalia murmured. She and Melanie might have enough money to purchase a wide variety of Cards, but they didn’t dare to buy Cards wildly. They had a plan in their minds and searched for specific Cards. Unfortunately, those Cards were usually not sold in the Forsaken Auctionhouse. If they could be found…their overpay was several times the price for normal Cards.

Empower was a Card like that. It was a Support Card that increased the Strength and Agility of other Players. But that was not everything. The Card’s effect would increase with the Card Level. Many professional Players and Corporates would pay a lot to obtain such a Card. After all, it could increase the combat prowess of the whole group and allow various tactics and combat styles that would have been much harder to execute without Empower.

“You can give me a Common Card in return when you find something that could suit me. Or pay me the standard price for Common Cards. I don’t mind either.”

Zayn shrugged, not minding Natalia’s hesitation. He clasped, pulling everyone’s attention to him.

“Let’s not waste our time. We have a Tower to conquer!”

Zayn moved ahead and the others followed behind. Natalia linked Empower to her Heart Deck and caught up to the others while the information of Empower entered her mind.

The Tower of Nature’s 2nd Floor was much wider than the first floor. They had to walk several minutes before they reached the end of the floor.

‘Space distortion has always been very interesting,’ Zayn thought before he moved ahead with a shrug.

He would rather beat the shit out of some monsters and grow stronger than study the natural phenomenon of space distortion and unique phenomena caused by the invasion of energy and countless elemental-attributed specks.

However, upon thinking about it, Zayn figured that he should study more about Spells, their influence on the surrounding world, and their laws. Learning more about space and the relevance of spatial-attributed energy should help him acquire more proficiency for Blink rapidly.

‘The Grandmagus Library might help with that either way. Focus!’

The staircase to the 3rd Floor was blocked by another group of Sabertooth Hounds. Fortunately, they didn’t sense them yet.

“How many fireballs can you control at once, Blake?” He asked, only to see three fingers appear from underneath her cloak.

Zayn ignored her unique attitude and nodded. He used Root Strike and Rapid Plant Growth a few times to control the roots and flora around them. In less than two minutes, Zayn finished all the necessary preparations to execute his plan.

He gestured to Blake, who conjured three fireballs. The flaming balls of fire flickered wildly but they didn’t explode. Blake controlled them barely, however, she managed it. She released a burst of energy to send the fireballs flying. The Sabertooth Hounds saw the flickering flames that shot down toward them and began to move.

They noticed the fireballs a little late due to their low Perception Foundation, but it was early enough to evade them. Following the incoming fireballs, the Sabertooth Hounds skidded to the side. It was exactly at this moment when a wave of roots shot out of the ground. The root wave pierced some Sabertooth Hounds while pushing the rest back into the masses. The fireballs reached them a moment later. They exploded and drowned everything grazed in blazing flames.

Zayn used Root Strike a few more times after the fireballs exploded. He took advantage of the chaos and struck the surviving Sabertooth Hounds, dragging them to the ground where the monsters were pulled apart, pierced over and over again, or strangled.

The fierce monsters died by one until none was left.

18 Sabertooth Hounds have been slain +4 Soul Essences, +2 Uncommon Card Shards.

Zayn was quite satisfied with the gains. The Sabertooth Hounds dropped more Card Shards and Soul Essences than he expected. He retrieved an Energy Potion and downed half the bottle at once. Booster was still active, accelerating his natural Stamina and Energy recovery. But the potion was not perfect. It refilled his Energy and Stamina over time. An Energy Potion had an immediate effect. Half the bottle replenished roughly half of his used-up Energy.

‘My Energy consumption is a little high. I should stop going over the top to defeat those weak mobs. Combining Root Strike and Rapid Plant Growth and using both a dozen times to kill 18 Sabertooth Hounds is way too much.’

Zayn liked watching Root Stike and Rapid Plant Growth’s combi. The combination was powerful and their Card Levels were very high. Dealing with most ordinary monsters didn’t pose a threat even if their Foundation was more than a dozen points above his.

He walked past the monster corpses and collected the Uncommon Card Shards. The others looked at him blankly but Zayn was deep in thought.

‘I am not alone right now. Fight with your team to save enough Energy and Stamina for the important fights. Ensure everyone’s growth and support them. Even if you want to protect humanity, you are no hero. You don’t have to do everything alone!’

Zayn had to remind himself that he was not alone. He might have ended up as the God Killer, but Zayn was not sure how he survived this long. No. He knew how he survived ten years in the hell Earth had turned into. He survived because of the people around him. Zayn received far more help than anyone else. He was carried through the apocalypse for several years. He only managed to stay on his feet independently after years of relying on the strength of others. Their protection and guidance allowed him to become a true powerhouse…strong enough to kill a God.

They reached the 3rd Floor after a short break. Zayn didn’t rush ahead. Instead, he stayed next to the others, tightly gripping the Shanyt Axe’s handle while blurting out orders.

Natalia used Empower to strengthen Melanie, David, and Zayn, whereas Blake’s entire focus was on her fireballs. Zayn was not sure if she had any other Cards, but her fireball spell control was getting better. If she continued to improve this quickly, Blake might turn into a decent Sorceress.

David and Melanie were doing much better than before as well. Empower increased their Strength and Agility Foundation temporarily. The improvements were enough to turn slowpoke David into a slightly more agile turtle – a turtle wielding a huge double-headed War Axe.

Empower allowed David to see and feel the difference of having more versatile Foundations. His Strength Foundation was extremely powerful, allowing him to cleave through the Sabertooth Hounds, but he had to be agile enough to hit them, in the first place. Empower made that possible.

Melanie’s movements accelerated due to Empower. She moved faster and ended up in a more intense fight against more enemies than before. The pressure from several enemies put her into a tricky situation but it also forced Melanie to adapt and grow stronger.

‘Her Card utility is improving. Good. Her movements are still groggy. Not so good.’

Melanie and the others were far from perfect, but Zayn didn’t consider them helpless baggage anymore.

They defeated the group of Sabertooth Hounds swiftly. In the meantime, Zayn dealt with the Burly Wolf that had appeared out of nowhere. It was stronger than the Sabertooth Hounds and had a higher Foundation, but the monsters were not strong enough to escape Zayn’s blade and roots.

More Card Shards dropped and it was not long after that the group managed to combine some useful Cards. The drop rate for Card Shards was a little bit increased within dungeons. Even Normal Difficulty dungeons had an increased drop rate. However, more important was that dungeons provided Cards Shards that would combine to better Cards.

The Card Shards dropped in dungeons are more likely to turn into something useful. Of course, this did not only apply to Common Card Shards but also to Uncommon and Rare Shards.

That was another reason why dungeons were so popular and why certain dungeons would soon be claimed and treated like private property. It was only obvious but fierce battles would emerge between large Corporations, Guilds, and Workshops. Everyone wanted to own their own dungeon.

After all, Dungeons were one of the most valuable assets within Forgotten Lands.