A Character's Hidden Power
After a few days of experimenting I discovers a few things about the [Character] card. For one thing I can’t use it to craft as much as I want. A soul card is the manifestation of power to the person who owns it. This allows the owner to manifest multiple versions of the card without running out. But to materialize more soul cards certain conditions need to be met. Each soul card has different conditions and for me my conditions was a bit more annoying then most.
[Condition for acquiring soul card has not been met]
- Current percentage 54%
- To increase percentage the user must acquire experience from subjugating monsters.
The screen before me appeared as I attempted to summon another soul card. Judging from the percentage it probably increased from that time with the horned wolves. Even though I didn’t deliver the killing blow as long as one of my crafted monster does it I will still gain the experience.
Anything interesting thing was the fact that even though Pebble was a monster it could still revert back into a card until I decide to call him out. Other cards have this ability as well. With the power of the card craft skill people could turn items back from being cards and vise versa. Although this was common with regular cards Pebble was a living creature. I had no idea if was even possible to go back to being a card. But just as I thought this Pebble of his own volition dematerialized before me and reconstituted himself into his card for just as he had been when I had first crafted him. Not only could he go back to card form but he could do it of his own will. I tried to see if he could turn back into his physical for on his own but there was no luck. I guess that means he has to rely on me to be summoned for the card.
After coming to a full understanding of my soul card and the what abilities it granted me I decided on a new goal. For the time being I will accumulate more experience by hunting monsters and acquire a new soul card. With each now soul card I create the stronger I will become and then I’ll be ready to head out on my journey as a true adventurer.
With that in mind I made my way back to the forest in search for more monsters to fight. This time I came prepared with a new cloak to help me blend into the forest and a brand new dagger. By selling most of the wolf corpses to the local butcher I was able to get enough money for some new equipment. The cloak I found at an off hand clothing store in the village.
Green Forest Cloak
Rank: 1
- A regular sized cloak with colors that match that of the forest. Makes it harder to be noticed by monsters within forested locations.
It was pretty cheap and not the best equipment but I was the useful in that it made it easier for me to sneak up on monster. The dagger was actually what I was really excited to test out. After I had gotten the horn wolf corpses properly butchered I kept the horn of the leader of the pack.
Horned Wolf Pitch Black Horn
Rank: 4
- This horn belonged to a horned wolf with slightly more power then the average wolf. It is the optimal material for forging a weapon for stabbing or slicing. The quality it superb with no damage from harvesting.
Out of all the materials I hot from the horn wolves this was by far the best by far. Even though as a full corpse the rank was 3 the horn itself was 1 rank higher, making it as rare as Pebble. With that material in hand I had asked my father, who worked as a blacksmith card crafter, to see if he could make me a proper weapon from the horn. It had been a while since my father had gotten such a rare material so he got a bit excited as he crafted me a new weapon.
Midnight Shadow
Rank: 5
- A pitch black dagger forged primarily from the horn of a very strong horn wolf. It was forged by a very talented crafter but because the other materials used were common the blade is not as strong as it could have been. When it is used for a sneak attack the blade has a 5% chance of dealing double the damage to an enemy. Speed of the user increases by 10.
This dagger was the strongest weapon I had ever seen. Not only did it have a chance deal double the damage to an enemy but also increase my speed. Although it said it could have been stronger this was more then enough to hunt some low level monsters.
I had summoned Pebble from his card and had him ride on my shoulder as we trekked deeper into the woods. Noticing a noise in the distance we made our way to the source, stumbling onto two blue slimes. These monsters were fairly weak creatures, an easy target for our first real hunt. As I ready my dagger I leapt out, slicing the first slime in half. Before the other slime could react to its friends demise Pebble used earth magic to shoot out a small volley of stones, swiftly ending its life. Seeing them both dead I removed the slimes cores from their bodies before turning them into cards for my collection. Slime were nice by the fact that it was easy to separate its body into different parts for card crafting. No messy butchering was needed. With that I acquire two blue slime cores and two blue slime liquid cards.
Excited from having my first real battle I checked the percentage rate for the new soul card. With defeating two slimes that percentage had gone from 54% to 55%. I was aware that slimes were weak but at this rate if I kept hunting slimes I would need to almost 100 more to get a new soul card. I had to go deeper into the forest and find stronger enemies. It was risky due to all the dangers that could be lurking further in but the rewards in my head convinced me other wise.
“Get ready Pebble, things are going to get more serious from here.” (Arin)
With determination in both me and Pebble’s eyes we pushed on farther into the woods. As we went on we encountered much more enemies. More slimes of various colors were taken down in the blink of an eye. Other monsters like rabid rabbits started to appear but they were not much of a challenge either. Then we came upon a large ant monster. At first the tough exoskeleton was tough to deal with but thanks to Pebble’s magic the ant was properly taken care of.
The day had flown by faster then expected. I guess we had hunted for quite a long time now.
“I guess we should head back home. What do you think Pebble?” (Arin)
Pebble shook his head in agreement and so we decided to make our way back to the village. But just when we started to head back a thought had just occurred.
“Which way was the village again?” (Arin)
I had been so focused on fighting monsters that I forgot the way we came into the forest. The sun was much lower then when we started and it would only be a little while longer until it would be night.
“What the hell am I suppose to do now!” (Arin)
There was no point in trying to find my way back when it was about to be dark out, so I decide the best thing for now was to set up camp and look for my way back in the morning. Hopefully there won’t be any major incident tonight.
Thinking back I shouldn’t have assumed that there wouldn’t be any problems. Once the night had come out much more powerful monsters would likely make themselves known.
