HideousGrain
patreon
Forgotten Lands - Chapter 20 (Book 1)
🕑 Added 2024-02-13 14:03:29 +0000 UTC“Woaahhh. Our video is featured on the main page of MeTube!” Percy exclaimed, shoving his phone into Nicolas’ face.
Nicolas slapped his younger brother’s hand away, but the smile on his face remained. He grinned from one ear to another.
“The MeTube video has already 10,000 clicks and 850 likes! The sales for the first Beginner Guide are also quite high. It was purchased more than 100 times!”
“That’s amazing! We will earn a fortune from a few hours of work. Zayn is amazing!”
“Yeah…Zayn is amazing,” Nicolas agreed, his expression contorting ever so slightly as a thought flashed through his mind, “But something doesn’t seem right.”
“What’s wrong?” Percy asked, his eyes still glued to the phone screen.
“I read through some comments and it’s quite obvious that Zayn’s knowledge is much deeper than most Players. One of the commenters is a pro gamer who has been playing MMORPGs professionally for more than a decade, yet Zayn’s detailed information taught him a lot. He praised Zayn to the moon. Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”
Percy shrugged. He didn’t think much about the information Zayn provided. Of course, he read through them to be ready when it was about time for him to join Forgotten Lands, but it was not as if he doubted his brother.
“Maybe Forgotten Lands is where his talent lies? He loves doing the weirdest stuff in every game he plays, so he might have focused on doing some experiments while everyone else was grinding Soul Essences? Either way, if you’re worried that Zayn is a cheater or that he hacked into Forgotten Lands’ database, you should ask him. He doesn’t lie to us,” Percy said, “I think we should believe Zayn. He is not exactly smart enough to become a hacker, let alone create a cheat code for a game like Forgotten Lands.”
Nicolas glanced at the sales on Zayn’s channel and the scheduled videos and guides, his expression filled with confusion and uncertainty.
“Maybe, you’re right. I should believe Zayn. He is a little bit crazy, but he is not a liar or a cheater. He was just lucky, I guess.”
****
A wide variety of scents permeated the air all around Zayn. Some scents were sweet and fruity, whereas others were fresh and invigorating. There was also a rotten, musky scent that hung in the air, but Zayn ignored it. He followed the trails of the invigorating scent as it contained traces of energy. Scent of Treasure had been activated since he left the group of Players. He wanted to find all sorts of plants and herbs.
The plan he came up with was pretty simple. Zayn was on his way back to Emberfall, but he was willing to make some detours, following the trails of Scent of Treasure.
Scent of Treasure was still Level 2 and therefore, the scents permeating the air were difficult to distinguish at once. It took Zayn some effort and several attempts to find the correct trails and a new flower.
“Crescent of the Shadow Queen. To think I would find something like this in the outskirts of the Arylin Forest,” Zayn mumbled, bending down to the ground. He removed a layer of soil next to a batch of small thorny bushes, revealing a darkish-brown, almost black, flower. The flower’s stem was small, only a few centimeters large, and it shone in a dimly silver hue. It was almost as if the stem emanated moonlight to the outside world.
Zayn was certain that the flower was the Crescent of the Shadow Queen, also known as Moonlight Lover, but the bud hadn’t blossomed yet. The flower wasn’t ripe yet. That was a shame since the Moonlight Lover was a highly valued flower that could be ground into an ingredient used to prolong the effect of various potions and elixirs. Zayn would have left the Moonlight Lover behind to collect it at a later point in time if not for a particular fact. He owned a Card Set that contained Rapid Plant Growth. Zayn could accelerate the maturity circle of the Moonlight Lover!
His fingers grazed the Moonlight Lover as he activated Rapid Plant Growth. A warm glow pulsating with life shrouded the Moonlight Lover which reacted drastically. The silvery touch of the flower’s stem grew more intense and the flower bud grew in size. The bud responded to Rapid Plant Growth and began to mature. Unfortunately, a single use of Rapid Plant Growth was not enough for the Moonlight Lover to ripen. The steam glowed with more radiance and the flower grew a few centimeters, but it required a little bit more for the Moonlight Lover to be harvested.
Zayn used Rapid Plant Growth two more times, draining a considerable amount of energy before he stopped. His energy storage was almost sucked dry but the Moonlight Lover blossomed into a beautiful flower head that resembled a pitch-black crescent moon.
Scent of Treasure was still active, enhancing Zayn’s smell drastically, and he immediately noticed that the natural scent of the Moonlight Lover intensified upon blossoming. It was rich and overflowing with vigor.
A faint smile blossomed on Zayn’s face.
“The effect of Card Sets is truly miraculous,” He mumbled, recalling the good old times with his Card Sets. Fortunately, he didn’t have to waste several days to collect his first Card Set. That saved him quite some trouble.
Zayn was curious about Rapid Plant Growth’s progress and checked the Card with a quick glance.
Rapid Plant Growth – Level 1(30%)
“That’s not too bad. It should be possible to Level you a few times until I reach Emberfall,” He mumbled to himself before summoning the information of his Heart Deck and Foundation Orbit.
Heart Deck
Classless(Tier-0) Card Holder
Connected Cards: 5
Card Limit: 10
Stored Soul Essences: 52
Finances: 15 Silver
—
[Foundation Orbit]
[Star of Vitality – Inferior 3/10]
[Star of Strength– Novice 10/100]
[Star of Agility – Inferior 2/10]
[Star of Dexterity – Inferior 1/10]
[Star of Perception – Inferior 1/10]
[Star of Energy – Inferior 1/10]
[Star of Wisdom– Inferior 1/10]
Zayn wanted to Level his Cards for the next few steps of his multi-level plan. The only issue was that each Card linked to his Heart Deck consumed energy. Only Iron Bark’s passive effect didn’t consume any Energy, but leveling Iron Bark by relying on its passive effect was not exactly efficient. Therefore, it was about time to make some changes to his plan.
The grinding spot for the Inferior Demonic Treants had been taken away by a group of Players, but he didn’t need it anymore. He could focus on Leveling his Cards before proceeding to the next hunting spots – after solving some other issues before that.
He thought about the distribution of his Soul Essences for a moment and made a final decision.
Integrate two Soul Essences into the Star of Agility. Y/N?
Integrate one Soul Essence into the Star of Dexterity. Y/N?
Integrate one Soul Essence into the Star of Perception. Y/N?
Integrate five Soul Essences into the Star of Energy. Y/N?
Integrate two Soul Essences into the Star of Wisdom. Y/N?
Integrate 41 Soul Essences into the Common Card [Root Strike]. Y/N?
“That should be fine,” Zayn mumbled, checking the notifications a second time before he continued, “Proceed with the integration!”
11 Soul Essences were drained instantaneously to strengthen his Foundation. The changes in his body were not instantaneous but he could feel his muscles tingle. His energy storage expanded and cold, refreshing energy flooded him. His Foundation Orbit was upgraded.
[Foundation Orbit]
[Star of Vitality – Inferior 3/10]
[Star of Strength– Novice 10/100]
[Star of Agility – Inferior 4/10]
[Star of Dexterity – Inferior 2/10]
[Star of Perception – Inferior 2/10]
[Star of Energy – Inferior 6/10]
[Star of Wisdom– Inferior 3/10]
Now that he strengthened the Star of Energy, Zayn could use most of his Cards more than a dozen times before his storage was drained. His Stamina reached a new height as well. Due to the enhancement of the Star of Wisdom, Zayn’s energy replenished much faster than before as well. However, the most important factor about the Star of Wisdom was that his memorization and quick-thinking abilities improved. Zayn could utilize his Cards much faster and his control of Energy improved as well.
Last but not least 41 Soul Essences were integrated into Root Strike.
[Proficiency of Root Strike reached 100%. Level Up!]
[Proficiency of Root Strike reached 100%. Level Up!]
[Proficiency of Root Strike reached 100%. Level Up!]
[Proficiency of Root Strike reached 100%. Level Up!]
“Four levels. That’s not too bad,” Zayn mumbled while checking the information of the Demonic Treant Card Set.
Card Set – Demonic Treant
Common – Set of 3
Level 7
1)Rapid Plant Growth – Level 1(30%)
Effect – Accelerates the growth of plants.
Has a low probability of enhancing a plant’s quality.
2) Iron Bark – Level 1(10%)
Effect – Reinforces the Card Holder’s skin passively
Can be used actively to temporarily enhance the Card Holder’s skin drastically.
3) Root Strike – Level 5(8%)
Effect – Manifests vines that can be controlled freely.
Lesser control of roots, and branches.
Set Effect – Effective Card Level of all linked Cards will be combined.
-–
Energy consumption decreases with increase in Card Level.
Range of Card effects expand with increase in Card Level
Card effects increase with Card Level
—
Leveling his Cards using 41 Soul Essences might be considered foolish by most but strengthening Root Strike increased his combat prowess drastically. His Foundation was not further reinforced, yet his combat prowess changed entirely. Killing stronger enemies using Root Strike at Level 5 would be much easier, resulting in more loot given the disparity in their Foundation.
Even hunting groups of monsters with similar Foundation would be much easier, resulting in more drops than before.
But that was not the only reason Zayn decided to integrate so many Soul Essences into Root Strike. Demonic Treant’s Set effect combined the Card Level of all linked Cards. By increasing Root Strike’s Level to 5, Zayn increased the power of Rapid Plant Growth, and Iron Bark as well. The Cards were still at Level 1, but their effects rivaled their state at Level 7.
The reason Zayn chose to increase Root Strike’s Level instead of Iron Bark and Rapid Plant Growth was also quite simple. Leveling up Cards was rather easy. All one had to do was use a Card repetitively to increase one’s proficiency. However, there were a few rules at play – rules that were written down in the Intermediate Guide for Forgotten Lands’ Players. Two particular rules were quite simple, but they affected a Player’s leveling strategy drastically.
1) The higher a Card’s Level and Rarity the higher the difficult to increase one’s proficiency.
Blink had to be used more often than Scent of Treasure to reach the next Level. Simultaneously, Root Strike had to be used far more often than Rapid Plant Growth to receive a level-up.
2) Using a Card for its designated task elevates the increase in proficiency. The harder the task the higher the increase in proficiency.
Zayn could use Blink dozens of times without gaining a Level Up. However, by doing the same mid-battle, Zayn was likely to gain twice, or thrice as much proficiency. The same applied to Rapid Plant Growth. It was possible to use Rapid Plant Growth without a target. Repeating the same task would grant some proficiency but it couldn’t be compared to the increase in proficiency provided by accelerating the growth of Moonlight Lover.
Since Zayn was in the Arylin Forest and searching for herbs and other plants to nourish and harvest, it was much easier to level Rapid Plant Growth. Therefore, he discarded the thought of artificially leveling the Card. It was much easier and cheaper to do it naturally. The same applied to Iron Bark. It was just a little bit different with this Card. Iron Bark possessed a passive effect. Even though it would take a while for Iron Bark to level passively, it was only a matter of time. Furthermore, Iron Bark’s effects were at the same level as the other Cards of the Set. Artificially upgrading it seemed like a waste. It would be much better to leave Iron Bark alone and wait for the Card to level up naturally.
One way or another, the potency of Zayn’s Card Set reached new heights after upgrading Root Strike. However, Zayn was not yet satisfied. He had to keep leveling his Cards to be fully prepared for the next step in his plan.
