Daman
patreon
[CC] Chapter 8
🕑 Added 2025-04-19 16:31:41 +0000 UTC“Hi there, friend. You’re looking a bit rough there.”
Shouren chuckled nervously. He was half-crouched in case he need to leap away. Yet, he remained in position, waiting. It was because the alpha dog/wolf monster was etched in countless wounds and gashes.
The alpha snarled in response, unknown if it actually understood Shouren’s words or not. It slowly tread around the boy, waiting to pounce. It was strangely wary of the human boy. The human didn’t give off any dangerous aura, and the lumen emitting from his body was puny compared to itself despite the same tier. But the alpha’s senses were warning it of something.
“Friend, you don’t look so good and I haven’t showered for a few days. You really don’t want to be tasting me right now. Why don’t we back off and go our own separate ways?”
Shouren continued to talk. The monster hadn’t attacked yet, so there was a chance it could understand his words. The alpha’s left eye was shut with three parallel claw marks bleeding into it. Part of the flesh on the top of its hind leg was brutally torn off, causing the monster to limp slightly.
The numerous cuts on the rest of its body were still spilling blood, making it weaker by the second.
And the monster seemed to realize this fact as well, as it swiftly launched itself on Shouren, its jaw aiming right at the boy’s heel. It wanted to cripple the human’s movement.
“Shucks, no deal then.”
Shouren was ready for the attack and directed his lumen to rush towards his legs, hastily evading the attack. His control of the lumen was rudimentary, but it helped him to keep up with the monster’s agility. If not for the alpha’s injuries, Shouren was sure the beast had at least E rank agility.
The monster’s jaws snapped the cold air and it quickly turned around for another dive. It whimpered in pain as it’s back leg tumbled for a moment.
I can’t keep dodging its attack. I need to land to hit on one of its open wounds.
Shouren grit his teeth and checked his status. He only had 8 lumen left. The previous burst to his legs had costed him 2 lumen, meaning he’d be to evade four more attacks before he’d run out as well. The alpha was weak but it looked like it could last longer than him at this rate.
With their positions switched, Shouren glimpsed something glowing gray to the side.
I can’t believe I forgot about the second card that dropped from the worm. It was a spell card!
The young boy cautiously moved around the monster. The moment it went for the strike, Shouren would leap to the card and use its ability with the <Oblation Pact>. If the gods favored him, it would be powerful enough to kill the alpha in one hit.
“Grr!”
The alpha contorted its head to side, trying to dispel the blood leaking into its eye and instantly bolted at Shouren.
The young boy was already ready to dodge and leaped away. A vicious glint flared in the alpha’s remaining healthy eye. It wasn’t dumb enough to fall for the same trick twice in a row. In a flash, its jaws changed trajectory and latched onto the human’s arm.
“Donke-“
Shouren was about to let out a string of curses but he was cut off by the sharp pain that exploded from his trapped arm. The monster crunched its jaws and its fangs tore into Shouren’s skin.
Feeling helpless, the boy tried to shake the beast off but it was relentless on its vice grip.
Screw it, I’m taking you down with me.
Shouren let out a savage roar and dragged the alpha with him towards the spell card on the ground. Its fangs dug deeper into the flesh, but the boy didn’t care. It was nothing compared to the agony he’d experienced with the shattered spine.
“I… got it.”
Shouren muttered in joy as his other hand plucked the card from the grass. It was a [Common] spell card. However, Shouren’s face deflated when he saw ability inscribed on the card.
[‘Sense Mineral’ - Detect all common metals in a 20 meter radius.]
Why is my luck so terrible?
Shouren wanted to yell at someone at the unfairness of his card drops, but he was running out of time, the alpha’s fangs were almost down to his bone. If the monster broke it, he couldn’t rely on another awakening to heal it.
No other choice, I’m using the normal Lumen Bolt.
The young boy drove his mind into his heart where his class card resided, and triggered the third ability, Card Sacrifice. The spell card within his hand glowed for a brief moment before it disintegrated into a pure ball of lumen.
The alpha appeared to have detected the sudden change of the lumen in the environment, and attempted to escape.
“Too late, friend. Should’ve taken the offer when you had the chance.”
Shouren smiled ferociously as he used his mangled hand to clutch the monster’s fang, preventing it from breaking free. Then using his other hand, he brought the ball of lumen directly above the alpha’s bleeding eye.
The monster’s remaining eye pleaded with the human to let it go. Its snarls now morphed into desperate whines.
“Lumen Bolt.”
Shouren whispered as the ball of white light blasted into the monster’s brain.
A dull thud echoed in the now still forest.
“I thought life as a Cardsmith was going to be boring.”
Shouren chuckled dryly, loosening his hand from the dead monster’s jaw and collapsing on the grass. His hand was bleeding bad, but it wasn’t critical yet.
He stared at the starry night above and summoned his status.
Status
Name: Shouren
Tier: 0 [Synchronization: 0%]
Class: Cardsmith [Common]
Spell Card Slots: 0/1
Lumen: 4/10
Strength: F
Agility: F
Constitution: F
Intelligence: F
Class Abilities <Corrupted>:
1 - Card Forge <Writ of the Forgotten>
2 - Sharding <Devourer’s Rite>
3 - Card Sacrifice <Oblation Pact>
Traits:
1 - Corrupted Cardsmith [Unique]
2 - Locked
3 - Locked
Wait. I forgot about the first trait everyone unlocks after their awakening… mine is… Corrupted Cardsmith… Un-Unique?
Shouren’s brain was frazzled as he digested the ramifications of what he was reading. The boy couldn’t believe that he missed reading the traits section twice after awakening.
His first trait was [Unique].
That was supposed to be an impossibility. Everyone’s first trait was the same rarity as the class card they used to awaken. If you used a [Common] class card, then your first unlocked trait was going to be a [Common] trait as well. If it was an [Epic] class card, then you’d start with an [Epic] trait.
No one had ever gotten an [Unique] trait for their awakening.
This was because no [Unique] class cards had ever dropped. All current [Unique] class card holders had all evolved to [Unique] rank later in their path, but they all started with one of the existing class cards. The means of achieving a [Unique] class card was shrouded in mystery as all the Cardists that obtained it, had various triggers for the evolution.
[Unique] class cards weren’t necessarily the stronger than [Legendary]. There were some powerful [Legendary] Cardists who in fact, became much weaker after their class evolution to [Unique].
[Unique] class cards were just… Unique.
The second fact was that [Unique] class cards had never dropped from a monster or even as a dungeon reward. That was absolute fact.
This meant that no one ever had their first trait be [Unique].
Until Shouren.
“What exactly happened to me then?”
The boy muttered in confusion at the information unfolding before him. His memory after the altercation with the worm grew hazy. All he remembered was being surrounded by pitch blackness. It was the void.
“This trait must be the reason for the corruption then.”
Shouren discerned that this trait was the core of his corrupted abilities. The name gave it away. He was just an idiot for not paying attention to his status until the end. The boy tried to focus on the trait to glean any other details about it.
Corrupted Cardsmith [Unique]
????
“Give me something, you donkey of a system. What am I supposed to do with those question marks?”
Shouren grunted in distaste. This trait was the root cause of his enigmatic abilities and the system refused to give any details.
“Please?”
The young boy tried a more polite approach the second time, but it was fruitless. The status remained unchanged.
Did the system not want to tell him, or… did even the system not know about this trait?
Shouren put this matter aside for later and concentrated on status to see any changes after the battle with the alpha. It was a shame the spell card dropped by the worm wasn’t a damage card, but his normal Cardsmith ability pulled through. Luckily, the monster was already weakened enough for a simple Lumen Bolt to finish it.
“Card Sacrifice isn’t too bad. The ability didn’t take any extra lumen from me and used the card’s own lumen for the attack. That’s pretty hand if I’m low on lumen.”
Shouren muttered to himself. <Oblation Pact> allowed him to use all spell cards but it was extremely lumen hungry as well. He really needed to upgrade his class card to [Uncommon] to satisfy his lumen requirements. Simply moving and dodging attacks was draining his abysmal amount of lumen.
But the sheer cost of 100 [Common] class cards seemed unattainable for now.
“Why didn’t my synchronization go up?”
Shouren’s attention was then drawn to the stark ‘0%” written on his status. He just killed a powerful Tier 0 monster. That should have increased his synchronization at least a little bit.
His eyes hovered over the ‘Tier’ line to get more details.
Tier: 0 [Synchronization: 0%]
Increase synchronization by gaining deeper insights into your class and its mysteries.
“Since my class card is Cardsmith, I need to do Cardsmith things to increase my synchronization. Killing monsters doesn’t seem to be part of it.”
The young boy grumbled in dismay. He’d risked his life to kill the alpha, but that didn’t even add a single percentage point to his synchronization. Hence, if Shouren wanted to evolve to Tier 1, he needed to eventually use his non-combat class abilities to gleam insights about the Cardsmith class.
Speaking of the dead alpha.
Shouren glanced to the side. Did it drop any cards?
“Killing monsters might not be useless…”
The boy’s hazel eyes sparkled in amazement when he saw the three cards floating above the dead monster. One of them was glowing green!
Shouren’s hand slowly reached for the cards, and immediately went to the green [Uncommon] card. It was a spell card.
He quickly read the ability inscribed on it.
Tier 0 - Sonar Pulse [Uncommon]
Discharge an attack wave made of invisible sound. Ignore armor.
Cost: 12 lumen per wave.
“Woah! This should sell for quite a bit.”
Shouren was disappointed that he couldn’t use this card for himself, but it was still a fantastic card that would earn him a lot of chronas. It wasn’t too expensive of a card that he’d need to worry after selling it in the market.
He didn’t even think about keeping this card for himself in the future. It would be a long time before he’d be able to collect a 100 [Common] class cards, and his grandma didn’t have that much time left. Obtaining a few hundred chronas would keep a roof over both their heads and ensure immediate survival.
“Let me see the other two cards as well.”
Shouren shuffled the [Uncommon] card back to reveal the other two. The first [Common] card was actually a class card.
Tier 0 - Rogue Class [Common]
“If only this was the drop from the stupid worm.”
Shouren’s fingers grazed the cool surface of the class card. Rogue class card wasn’t rare, but it was definitely worth more than a Cardsmith or a Warrior class card. The Rogue class had a lot of useful abilities for any dungeon party. In fact, any variation of the Rogue class was an essential member of a party.
“No point dwelling on the past. I might not have gotten the Rogue class, but I got something much better instead.”
Shouren shook his head with a smile. Sure, if he had a Rogue class, he’d have been able to dispatch that wolf monster much more effortlessly. However, in the long run, he’d be stuck as a regular Cardist with Tier 1 being the highest he’d achieve.
But now, Shouren had a genuine shot at becoming a true powerhouse. The lone capability to upgrade his class card to [Legendary] was enough to thwart any negative feelings he had regarding the Cardsmith class.
Setting aside the [Common] class card, Shouren saw the final gray card.
“I guess my luck isn’t so bad after all.”
The boy’s lips curled up. He finally had a card he could use the <Oblation Pact> on, and he knew exactly which monster to target.
The clues of what happened to alpha and its circumstances had taken shape in Shouren’s mind. Last he remembered, the alpha and its pack were headed in a certain direction. Whatever had happened there led to the death of the 3 pack members and the alpha knocking on death’s door.
But the pack’s opponent hadn’t chased down the alpha despite its injuries. That only meant one thing. The opponent was critically wounded as well.
There was a sole Tier 0 monster in the direction the alpha came from.
“Time to greet another old friend.”
Shouren confidently clutched the gray card and gingerly stood up, keeping his injured hand to his hip.
Unbeknownst to the young boy, the corruption wasn’t limited to just the abilities.
He was changing as well.
