Chapter Thirteen: Unpredictable Cards
2014-11-28
Author: Floating Tower of All Beings
In a mere distance of a dozen meters, Soren spent over half an hour. The most troubling aspect of traps is not how to disarm them, but rather that you cannot determine where they are concealed. Especially with traps that result in instant death, you often venture forward with your head on the line; even a slight mistake could lead to your demise. This is also why many professionists prefer to find stable jobs rather than exploring underground ruins.
“I found it!”
With 15 points in perception, Soren was keenly aware of danger. Drawing on his past experiences, he cautiously pried open an irregular stone in the corner with his dagger and indeed discovered a complex launching mechanism. There should also be a trigger buried underground; if a weight equivalent to that of an adult steps on it, the trigger would activate the launch mechanism in front of him, and more than three crossbow bolts would shoot out from the wall.
“One, two, three, four, five, six!… ”
Soren wiped the cold sweat from his brow, secretly glad he was cautious. This was actually a multiple crossbow trap; if he had been careless and got caught, he would have been shot to pieces. Unless he was wearing heavy armor, it would be nearly impossible to withstand such powerful crossbow bolts. If he remembered correctly, the individual lethality of this strong crossbow trap was around 12 points; if it didn’t hit a vital spot, six bolts could still kill him in an instant. Snap!
Soren held the trigger in place with his finger and then lay down to knock on the iron bar with his dagger. Such traps used special steel, and after simple enchantment processing, they typically wouldn’t rust or fail for decades. Some traps buried in underground ruins could be fully enchanted and still deadly after being buried for hundreds of years!
Bang!
Six crossbow bolts shot out, embedding into the wall on the other side.
Soren, disregarding the dust on his face, dug out the launch mechanism and then followed his memory to find where the trap was.
A trigger, a launching mechanism, and a strong crossbow trap device.
“Good stuff!”
A smile appeared on Soren’s face as he disassembled them into parts and put them away. Setting traps as a thief wasn’t something you could do with your eyes closed. Even a legendary thief wouldn’t be able to set traps without the right materials; such strong crossbow trap materials, if purchased from the Shadow Mask, would cost at least thirty to fifty Gind!
After all, this was a trap capable of killing warriors below profession level five in seconds.
A line of data appeared:
“Trap disarmed successfully.”
“Your thieving skills have improved, gaining 210 points of profession experience.” The experience for professionally disarming traps was very high, with stricter requirements for thieving skills. Soren collected the other items but assembled the strong crossbow launch mechanism. This was not an ordinary crossbow bolt but a box that launched crossbow bolts. After he dug out the six bolts and reloaded them, he just needed to pull the trigger inside the box to shoot out six bolts in one go.
This device couldn’t be fired at once; it had to be fully loaded before firing—six crossbow bolts were required at once!
After all, this was not a properly crafted strong crossbow.
After disarming a trap, Soren continued forward. It seemed there was just a strong acid trap here, which had already been triggered by that unfortunate thief.
The price of a strong acid trap was even higher, requiring about a hundred Gind to set!
Because it might need a magical triggering device.
The cave ahead became winding, and Soren relaxed a bit; it was very difficult to set traps in such environments, and they were easily triggered by rats and similar creatures, so there should be no traps set here. However, he dared not let his guard down, proceeding cautiously until he came across a concealed stone door.
Creak!
After confirming there were no traps on the door, Soren gently pushed it open.
“Woo!”
A cold wind blew through, and Soren suddenly felt a chill on his back; without hesitation, he swung his weapon back, and a hazy shadow appeared, revealing a gruesome ghostly face with a tragic smile before it vanished.
“A ghost?!”
Soren carefully leaned against the wall and quickly took out his holy water.
Ghosts are ethereal beings, and regular non-enchanted weapons cannot harm them; even if Soren stood there and swung his weapon a hundred times, it would have no effect.
The only way to deal with them was by using methods employed by others.
“Cackle!”
A strange laughter echoed as the ghostly figure reappeared.
It emitted a sharp wail, one of its innate abilities; a low-level effect that had a magical ‘fear spell’ quality, which could freeze timid individuals in place.
Soren felt a pain in his eardrum but felt no terror in his heart; he retaliated by throwing the holy water.
Clang!
The holy water splashed over the ghost, immediately resulting in a piercing shriek, and the ghost’s form rapidly dissolved, turning into a shadow and disappearing.
“Thankfully, I was prepared.”
Soren wiped his cold sweat and picked up a piece of black stone from the ground.
This was a fragment of the ghost’s soul!
Purely ethereal life forms may transform into material structure upon dissipating, and these soul fragments are common charging materials.
Necromancers love them.
The price is about fifteen Gind!
Ghosts have a challenge level of five; without something to counter them, it doesn’t matter how many people come.
Because they are not afraid of physical attacks at all.
However, if you have items like holy water, even an ordinary person can take them down, making them among the most difficult but also easy creatures to deal with.
A line of data appeared:
“Holy water hit the ghost, causing 60 points of damage.”
“Target is dead!”
“Extracting target soul energy, gaining 120 experience points.”
Soren’s experience points were enough to level up a thieving level, but he didn’t do so.
Because the difficulty of obtaining killing experience is too high; such experience is generally used to enhance advanced professions and part-time capabilities. For a thief below level five, it’s completely unnecessary to use valuable killing experience. If he encountered other traps, he only needed to disarm one or two more to level up. When there is an opportunity for part-time work, killing experience is the most valuable thing.
Creak!
Soren pushed open the stone door to the secret room.
Inside, many items were covered in dust, and some books were placed on the wall, but they were damaged.
There were spider webs on all sides, and a mouse hole in the corner.
This place had been abandoned for a long time.
In front was a stone table covered with various odds and ends, such as unknown skulls, broken finger bones, dried bat corpses, and a black wooden box.
“No extraordinary weapons, no magical devices.”
A hint of disappointment appeared in Soren’s eyes; it seemed there was nothing of value in this secret room, except for that wooden box with an unknown content inside.
He gently touched it, confirming there were no traps before carefully picking it up.
“Seems like ironwood?”
Soren glanced around, cradling the box in his hands away from his head, and then pried it open with his dagger.
He still couldn’t determine if there were magical traps inside it.
However, it seemed that such a low-level treasure trove wouldn’t have that many traps; it’s better to keep it away from his head.
Crack!
Soren pried open the box in front of him, and inside lay three cards.
Seemingly incongruous with everything around, the three cards were so exquisitely made, with mithril edging embedded with tiny diamonds, and at the center was a vorticity-like magical pattern, immediately drawing all of one’s attention.
These seemed to be items that could hardly be made in the current civilization, even more exquisite than the divine power badges of the temples.
A mixed expression of surprise and worry appeared on Soren’s face because what he held in hand was a legendary-level magical item.
—”Unpredictable Cards?!”
This was a treasure left over from the era of the Arcane Empire, said to be a bored creation of a legendary archmage.
There are a total of 108 Unpredictable Cards, each possessing special magical powers, capable of granting you unimaginable benefits or bringing catastrophic disasters.
No one knows what the Unpredictable Cards will bring!
Some people were buried under a rain of ten thousand arcane gold coins upon opening a card, while others were struck by a powerful lightning bolt.
“Item identification!”
Soren tried to activate the data stream in his mind and soon a line of small text appeared:
“Unpredictable Cards *3: A trinket left over from the Arcane Empire, the highest achievement of alchemy from the previous era; unbelievable events will occur upon opening.”
Should he open it?
Soren showed a hint of hesitation, finally gritting his teeth and pulling out a card, biting his fingertip to let a drop of blood fall.
Both sides of the Unpredictable Card are the same, and only blood can open the card. No one knows what the card represents before opening it, not even a legendary wizard can predict.
A faint light emerged.
The first Unpredictable Card rippled after absorbing Soren’s blood, and then an image began to form in the swirling center. The first scene that appeared was a treasure trove piled up with countless gold coins, gems, and equipment. This image thrilled Soren because it indicated that he might have drawn a ‘treasure card.’
However.
Suddenly, a sleazy figure appeared at the entrance of the treasure trove, clutching a bag and desperately filling it with treasures.
“No!”
Soren’s face instantly fell; he knew what he had drawn.
—”Thief!”
The opened Unpredictable Card emitted a glow, and then an extremely sleazy shadow appeared, grinning eerily; an ancient alchemical rune appeared in his palm, and in the blink of an eye, everything of value on Soren was stolen clean, leaving nothing but the three cards in his hand, even his clothes were gone.
A chilly wind blew!
Soren shivered in place, completely naked.
Weapons, clothes, gold coins, holy water, tools—everything Soren had disappeared into thin air, even the ironwood box in his hand was gone, leaving only the three Unpredictable Cards.
The wind blew.
Chilly!
