HideousGrain
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Forgotten Lands - Chapter 8 (Book 1)
🕑 Added 2024-02-13 13:53:57 +0000 UTCA sharp bolt of pain passed through his chest when the flood of notifications appeared in front of him. Zayn looked down at his chest, his fingers caressing his chest right above his heart.
“I nearly forgot how this feels,” He murmured, momentarily forgetting about the dead body in front of him and the blood that poured down his cheek.
Zayn didn’t know what was happening to him, but his eyes watered at the painful, but very familiar sting that passed through his chest, his heart, to be precise. The painful sting was not like a raging fire that passed through his body. It was cooling, contradicting what one might expect.
Before Zayn realized it, he was already in his subconscious space. There was not much in his subconscious space, other than a radiant orbit with seven revolving stars that glowed dimly. It was the Foundation Orbit. However, Zayn’s attention was drawn to the speck of light that formed beneath the Foundation Orbit.
His Heart Deck was manifesting!
The speck of light expanded and transfigured. It formed into a radiant metal box, big enough to house a stack of cards. The metal box was small compared to the Foundation Orbit, but it was certainly the most important aspect of the whole awakening. Zayn approached the metal box and touched it lightly. The deck felt slightly rough due to its coarse texture. It was white-silverish and didn’t bear a single imperfection.
Zayn felt a little bit weird. He should not have access to his subconscious space yet. All he should feel was the changes in his body before his Heart Deck awakened. He shouldn’t even be able to perceive his Foundation Orbit yet. Suddenly, Zayn’s attention was drawn to a tendril of mythical energy that burst out of the Heart Deck. It shot upward and connected to the center of the radiant Foundation Orbit.
The Heart Deck was pulled toward the center, and the seven stars in the Foundation Orbit began to revolve around it. They illuminated Zayn’s subconscious space until he was pulled back into the cellar.
Several notifications popped up in front of him.
[Congratulations! Heart Deck has been awakened.]
[Assessing…]
[Assessment of the Player’s power has been completed.]
[Foundation Orbit can be accessed now]
“Now that this is solved we can finally start working on the real issues,” Zayn mumbled, glad that his first kill worked out even better than expected. To manifest one’s Heart Deck and gain access to the Foundation Orbit one would have to kill a monster or other entity. It didn’t really matter what it was since everyone’s foundation was equally low at the start of the game.
Zayn was not exactly satisfied with the fight. He could have won much easier, but it was quite difficult to adjust to his new body – or precisely to how weak his body was.
Despite the self-criticism, Zayn managed to kill Scarface without sustaining any serious injuries The kill rewarded him with additional benefits as well. An Uncommon Card, at that!
Zayn moved toward the corpse of Scarface and pulled it aside to search for the Uncommon Card.
“It must have dropped somewhere her– I got it!” He mumbled to himself, picking up a small object. It was the size of an ordinary card from a card deck and was equally thin. However, it was made from a unique material. Zayn had no idea what material Cards were made of but he knew that their potency and quality were determined by the metal’s color. Common Cards were white, and Uncommon Cards – like the one he picked up – were bronze in color.
Most Cards looked pretty simple. They had a small image filling the upper portion and some information written down underneath. The Card in Zayn’s hand showed a small figure in the front and an arrow pointing to another figure further in the back. Zayn inspected the Card a little bit longer and noticed that the figures moved, jumping back and forth.
He read the description.
Blink
Uncommon - Level 1(0%)
Spell
Active
Requires Energy to be used.
Effect – Uses a considerable amount of energy to teleport the User to a designated location
Remark– Blink may require several uses if the distance is too large.
-–
Energy consumption decreases with an increase in Card Level.
Range of teleportation expands with an increase in Card Level
–
“A teleportation Card at that quality? That’s possible?” Zayn blurted out.
He didn’t expect the drop-rate for killing an Elite Mob in the first hour of the game to be that high. It was a welcome surprise. Zayn lifted the Uncommon Card to his chest and pressed it against it. All he could feel at first was coldness. The Card felt cold.
But it was not long before the coldness dispersed – alongside the Uncommon Card. Blink disappeared in his chest.
Spell Card has been linked to your Deck. Please prepare for the Influx of Information!
The corner of Zayn’s lip uptilted, and he waited patiently for the influx of information. The flood of intel happened not long after, revealing the method that allowed him to jump through space, how much energy a single Blink cost, and the range of his jump.
‘Both the energy consumption and the range of a single use of Blink are far from perfect, but leveling Blink should solve those issues quickly. That’s pretty neat!’
Another piece of information popped up in front of him the next moment.
Heart Deck
Classless(Tier-0) Card Holder
Connected Cards: 1
Card Limit: 10
Stored Soul Essences: 8
Finances: 0
Zayn was more than satisfied with the gains he made from killing Scarface. Because the psychopath, Peter, had a much higher Foundation than Zayn, who hadn’t even unlocked his Foundation Orbit at that time, he obtained an Uncommon Card and six Soul Essences. That was a lot, considering that only a few entities dropped complete Cards and that the drop-rate of Soul Essences was not that high either.
Fighting and killing stronger enemies increased the drop-rate naturally, but it was also much harder to kill them. It was not unlikely to die facing stronger enemies, especially those with powerful Cards and abilities.
Obtaining some Soul Essences and a decent Card to start his journey in Forgotten Lands were two good reasons to deal with Scarface Peter. However, Zayn had a few more reasons to hunt down Scarface.
First, he could raid his hideout, therefore making a small fortune. The steel dagger wielded by Scarface was worth quite a bit. Second, and most importantly, Zayn wanted to make sure to get on the chubby workshop owner’s good side. He wanted to become the man's vengeance, bring him the head, receive the completion reward for the quest, and see if the follow-up quests were as good as the idiotic team said in the forums, repeatedly.
The teams who took down Scarface had been arrogant and really annoying. Despite that, they progressed rapidly in Forgotten Lands and earned a fortune. As for their secret. They said that it was related to their first big mission as a team – the hunt for Scarface.
Zayn guessed that killing Scarface created a unique quest or something along those lines. He couldn’t be certain, but it was certainly worth a try. He was better off with the rewards given by Scarface than the arrogant team, either way. They deserved a lecture – though they might never find out about it, in the first place.
Zayn chuckled lightly until he recalled Peter’s corpse was still lying in front of him.
“Well, I do not really need your corpse. All I need is your head, and your valuables,” Zayn said, not even trying to apologize for looting the dead. Instead, he thought that it was a shame, “You didn’t even drop your Heart Deck upon dying. Useless prick. That punch was enhanced with a Body Enhancement Card!”
He kicked the dead body and growled quietly. Picking up the steel dagger of Scarface, he started to get working. Zayn found a small bag in the room. That was convenient since he didn’t plan to openly carry Peter’s head through the forest and the village. He removed Peter’s head, coated it in a bunch of blankets, and stuffed the head unceremonial into the bag. He slung the bag around his shoulder and left the room with a new dagger attached to his belt and a head in his bag.
Because he found Scarface much faster than expected, Zayn had enough spare time to search for valuables in the cellar. Before Zayn had been walking through the cellar without paying much attention to the stuff hidden everywhere, however, he was certain that the underground warehouses hadn’t been emptied – not completely, at least. The monster horde’s attack happened at night and without warning, forcing the villagers to flee. Only some warehouses had been found and emptied since then.
Even without the products of Emberfall’s villagers, Zayn was certain that Scarface possessed a small fortune. His new mission was now to find the dead man’s treasures and take everything.
Zayn moved through the cellar for quite a while until he found a small shelf far in the back of the last room. The room must have been abandoned for quite a while because the wooden shelf had fallen over and was already covered in dust. The dust was a culprit. It was the culprit that hid away some hidden treasures: A bunch of steel weapons!
“Yes!” He exclaimed, searching for sheaths and blankets for the weapons to hide them before he packaged them inside another bag if they fitted. He found two glaives, which were a little bit harder to hide, but Zayn did his best by throwing a few blankets around the blade. It would still attract some attention, however, that was not something he could change. It would be fine.
Zayn spent a while searching through the rooms in the cellar, but he hadn’t found Scarface’s treasure trove yet. He was getting a little bit impatient, but he hesitated to enter the second last room he’d yet to search through. The pungent smell of rotten flesh and the penetrative scent of iron infiltrated his nostrils.
He’d reached Peter’s torture chamber.
