[CC] Chapter 51

Something flashed in the distance, and in the next moment, a dark-haired boy appeared out of nowhere in the center of a forest glade.

Shouren already had a Spectral Threads spell card in hand in case he spawned right before a monster again. Thankfully, he was alone this time. He was surrounded by a vast expanse of trees and could see nothing else besides the lush greenery.

“Sweet! It’s all flat land, and monsters cannot easily ambush me.”

Shouren sighed in relief and plopped down on the soft grass. Returning the spell card to his vault, Shouren took out a medium-sized parchment paper instead, along with a black pen. He borrowed these two from his grandmother last night, but didn’t get the time to put it to use yet.

Gently setting the parchment down, Shouren began to write, using a light touch to avoid tearing the paper against the soft grass.

I need to plan this run carefully because I need to leave in time to join Virelle’s party. I can’t be lazing around mindlessly. Let’s start off with the main goals.

Shouren had originally planned to write out his dungeon goals once he went home last night, but the boy fell asleep the instant he started to brainstorm. The entire day’s exhaustion seemed to hit him right at that moment.

He wrote the first goal on the parchment with his shoddy handwriting. Fortunately, no one besides Shouren would have to read the squiggles on the paper.

1. Complete the 1st floor with a ‘B’ clear rating.

From what Shouren remembered, Rubin had killed a total of 27 monsters to achieve that rating while Shouren’s first clear of ‘C+’ rating only took him 16 monster kills. But the situation was different this time. The dungeon had imposed a penalty on his kills and floor end rewards. Would they still apply this time as well, even if he exceeded the kills by a certain amount? Shouren didn’t know and only time would tell.

He hoped to get something that would help him in his dungeon run with Virelle. The system contract ensured his safety, but Shouren still wanted to have a trump card in his arsenal if things went awry.

2. Forge Spectral Threads spell cards, and reserve 5 units of lumen for the spell card at all times.

After his last incident with the pair of leopard monsters, Shouren never wanted to be in a situation where his lumen tanks were completely empty. He lucked out that day, but he couldn’t count on luck to save him every time. He had a total of 20 units of lumen, with 5 lumen already reserved for the Dimensional Vault. With 5 lumen set aside for an emergency Spectral Threads activation, Shouren had only 10 units of lumen remaining for each battle. He had to be conservative with his lumen use.

3. Shard any viable cards to gain insights and to increase the synchronization rate.

Oh no! I tore the paper here.

Shouren bit the inside of his mouth when his pen pierced through the paper. He wished he had a rock nearby that he could use to place the paper on, but he was stuck with the soft grass.

Shouren’s third goal was to shard as many cards as he could and unravel their relevant insights. Not only were the insights the key to unlocking his traits, his grandma had told him they could be used to upgrade his attributes as well. Moreover, the smaller the shards, the faster his synchronization increased.

Actually, should I move the sharding goal to the number 2 spot?

Shouren couldn’t decide on the order of his goals. Sharding was quickly becoming his most prized ability in his toolkit. Deciding to adjust the order later, Shouren continued writing on the parchment.

4. Upgrade traits, mainly Lumen Weaver.

Shouren didn’t even know where to start with upgrading his Veinreader trait, but he had a few clues regarding his other trait, Lumen Weaver. He had a strong feeling that this trait would be integral to forging higher tier and rarity cards.

5. Find insights to upgrade my attributes.

Wait, goals number 4 and 5 are both connected to sharding and insights. Should I just combine the goals? Hmm, they all need insights, but the end results are different, so I’ll keep them separate for now.

Shouren bit the end of the pen in contemplation.

6. Train with the hammer.

The final goal for this dungeon run was to practice with the training hammer. Shouren desperately needed to learn how to fight in close quarters. A while back, he dropped this idea because he was a Cardsmith and wanted to rely on cards to achieve his objectives. However, the current Shouren today didn’t have the recipes of all the cards he needed to fight as a Cardsmith. Until he had multiple recipes, he needed a backup plan to engage with any incoming monsters.

He wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed all the time, and not every situation with a monster would be ideal to set up a trap in advance. Shouren needed an alternate method of fighting when he ran out of lumen or didn’t have any boulders in his vault.

If he could learn to stun monsters consistently with the hammer, that would give him enough time to finish them off using his Dimensional Vault [Rare]. All his recent battles had been him keeping his distance and when he faltered with the hippo back then, Shouren knew he couldn’t rely on that strategy forever.

A boulder hit wouldn’t work on a Tier 1 monster and it was better for Shouren to start preparing early in case it became a habit that could cost him his life in the future.

At the same time, using the hammer effectively was a difficult task. Shouren didn’t have the dexterity to aim at monsters’ heads while in motion with great accuracy. He needed to practice landing the first blow without getting mauled in the process.

Should I move the hammer training to the number 2 spot? It’s going to require the most amount of time to accomplish. Well, I wanted to move sharding to the number 2 spot as well…

Shouren chewed on the pen’s end.

Hiss.

An ominous sound made Shouren’s body go still.

I’m an idiot. I thought the flat plains would show me any monsters from a distance, but not all monsters are big like the hippo or the leopards. How long has this guy been watching me?

Shouren twisted his neck to the source of the sound with deliberate slowness. It was a thick 4 meter long python monster. Its scales were a mix of all shades of green, which made it blend imperceptibly with the grass stalks. The python’s draconian eyes dripped with savage hunger as it slithered towards Shouren.

It’s a python monster, so it shouldn’t be venomous. Should I take the risk of practicing my hammer or use the Spectral Threads now to finish it off quickly?

Shouren’s thoughts tumbled over one another in a rush. The monster was alone, making it a one-on-one battle, but there was a possibility that another one could join it later. Shouren didn’t want his first close-quarters fight with a hammer to be against a snake-type monster, but at least it wasn’t venomous.

Light flickered around Shouren’s right hand and one moment, his hand was empty; the next, it held the training hammer.

Shouren concluded in the end that the risk was well contained. If another monster ambushed him, he still had his lumen intact and could use the Spectral Threads to hold off multiple monsters back in that one minute.

The python monster didn’t wait any longer. With its fangs curled out, the reptile lunged at Shouren.

Hiss.

Shouren leaped to the side. He was expecting the monster to attack at any moment, so he was already ready with his knees bent slightly to launch himself out of the way. The Spectral Threads card was ready in his vault at a moment’s notice, but he wanted to take his time to adapt to the hammer.

It’s not balanced evenly. The weight is more heavily distributed at the top with the metal face, so when I move the hammer, it swings lightly in the air with its own momentum. Even when I hold it in my hand, the hammer head pulls down to the ground.

A torrent of his thoughts raced together inside his mind. Wielding a hammer differed from a bone spike, knife, dagger, or any other weapon Shouren held before.

Thud.

Shouren’s hammer struck the empty grass. He was aiming for the monster’s lithe head, but missed entirely. The python was astonishingly agile for not having any limbs. It didn’t even break a sweat to evade Shouren’s attack.

My swing is taking too much time and its head is also much faster than the rest of its body.

Shouren paled as he swung a few more times with the hammer, but only met with the empty air or the flattening of the grass. If Shouren was aiming at the monster’s body, then he could have landed at least one blow, but whenever he aimed at the python’s head, the monster seemed to know a fraction of a second in advance.

The green python’s forked tongue vibrated in the air, carnage burning in its feral eyes as it coiled around itself.

What is it doing?

That was Shouren’s last thought before a pair of searing fangs bit deep into his calf.

A raw, anguished scream tore through the surrounding air.

It was his own voice.

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A/N: Hi guys, I've started working on Tier 2 for patrons and will getting it ahead by 8 chapters. Currently it's ahead by 3, but I'll be bringing that number up in the upcoming weeks until it reaches 8 chapters in advance.