Chapter Fourteen: Abyss Demon
2014-11-28
Author: Floating Tower
“I’ll be damned!” Soren couldn’t help but curse as he quickly picked up the package that had been set aside and haphazardly put it on himself.
Fortunately, after disarming the trap, the things couldn’t be fitted onto him. Soren randomly used the clothes of the dead to make a bundle, packing the parts of the crossbow trap inside. After all, this was a real world, and Soren had no storage space, let alone any dimensional bags or treasures. There weren’t many things he could carry on himself. Unexpectedly, this situation allowed him to escape a catastrophe, at least the box that launched the crossbow was still intact, and he could still wear a dead man’s clothes.
As for the initial gains, naturally, they were all gone.
“Damn it!”
“I actually drew the Thief Card.”
Soren was not unfamiliar with this card, as someone had drawn it once before in a public setting.
The final outcome was predictable!
Unwilling to accept this, Soren put on the already moldy and heavily damaged clothes and immediately opened the second card. The Unpredictable Cards, once opened, would turn into an ordinary artifact, with all the attached magic dissipating. Some people used to collect these items, but no one has ever managed to collect a complete set. At that time, three sets of cards were wildly popular among players, all remnants from the Arcane Empire period: the Unpredictable Cards, Arcane Cards, and Fate Cards. The first set had 108 cards, the second had 72 cards, and the last had 36 cards.
The easiest to obtain was the Unpredictable Cards, the Arcane Cards could only be found in some rare underground ruins, while the Fate Cards only appeared after the fall of the gods, with just three cards being discovered.
A faint light emerged!
The second Unpredictable Card, after absorbing Soren’s blood, began to swirl like a vortex at its center. The first thing that appeared was a desolate land, with almost no living creatures in sight. In the distance was a vast wasteland, and amidst the flying yellow sand appeared a hunchbacked figure, stepping forward with determination. His body was sturdy as if carved by wind and frost, and his gaze was fixed on the distance.
—“Ascetic.”
A powerful force surged into Soren’s body, followed by a pain that felt like tearing across his entire being. An endless fatigue rose in his heart. It felt as if he had traveled thousands of miles, his body already exhausted, only sustained by a tenacious will.
A line of data appeared:
“Unpredictable Card activated! … Awakening personal specialty! …”
“Constitution raised to 18! …” “Magic transformation completed.”
Soren felt an indescribable sense of fatigue throughout his body, but he also felt a surge of powerful vitality.
It was as if he truly had traversed thousands of miles and had become stronger and more robust through countless hardships.
After endless fatigue followed by a strength that supported him to keep moving forward.
It seemed that as long as he did not fall, he would continue to stride forward until the moment of death, never stopping his steps!
“Endurance: Your will has withstood the difficult trial, forming a kind of tangible mental power! When facing any charm or control-type spells, you will gain an additional +5 to your saving throws!”
He struck gold.
A hint of joy appeared on Soren’s face, seemingly relieved by his stroke of luck!
There were very few cards in the Unpredictable Cards that could enhance attributes; among the 108 cards, only about ten could boost attributes. Apart from the mysterious two trump cards, the best card that once appeared was the ‘Champion Knight,’ which raised the user’s strength to 20 and constitution to 18. Even if a wizard opened the card, it still led to the emergence of a brawny melee wizard’s reputation. This guy once had a high reputation on the Northern Plains, but unfortunately fell during the catastrophe of the Frost-Rune.
Because the attribute points gained from the profession level upgrades were few, many people were looking for other ways to improve their attributes.
Regular training had already become ineffective for players with solidified hero templates. At the start, with a total of 90 attribute points to distribute, many had to make hard choices. The legend of Soren as a dual-wielding violent thief came from his decision to forsake charm and raise all other attributes above 15 points. This meant that aside from his lack of attractiveness, all other abilities were at the top level of ordinary people.
Things that could enhance attributes were very rare!
They were almost all legendary items, very difficult to obtain, and could at most raise attributes to 20 points.
After entering the extraordinary realm, it became almost impossible to enhance attributes with external objects.
“Raised 3 points of constitution.”
“That’s equivalent to the bonus of six professional levels!”
Soren patted his chest, and even using seven or eight points of strength, did not cause discomfort in his internal organs. This indicated that his constitution was already close to the extraordinary realm. With a normal person’s strength, merely swinging a fist would be nearly impossible to injure him. If his constitution could reach 20 points, he would awaken the extraordinary talent ‘Regeneration.’ This was the easiest extraordinary talent to obtain among all attributes; other talents required an awakening at 25 points.
Attribute values that could reach 25 points basically meant entering the legendary profession level!
As for the awakened personal specialty ‘Endurance,’ this was a fairly common personal specialty. Many people awaken in harsh environments. Soren’s awakening happened in the Fire Elemental Plane, where he nearly got roasted alive. Surviving from falling into lava, he also awakened a talent. At that time, Soren’s appearance was almost unrecognizable, and he eventually spent a fortune to hire a legendary priest to cast ‘Greater Restoration’ to save him.
During that period, his strength, constitution, and agility were all reduced by 10 points, making him almost useless!
“One more card.”
After gaining these incredible benefits, Soren looked at the final Unpredictable Card with a hint of eagerness. If he could draw another card that enhanced attributes, his current attributes would surpass those of the original hero profession template. At the very least, his charisma score now reached 16 points, unlike before when he was almost universally disliked.
It must be noted that his previous charisma was so low that even goblins ignored him, and a direct application to enter the Elf Kingdom would be rejected.
Those damned appearance-focused elves!
Having already used two cards, Soren naturally wouldn’t leave the last one to rust. With a sense of trepidation, he dripped blood onto the third Unpredictable Card.
A crimson glow appeared!
Soren’s face changed instantly, throwing the Unpredictable Card away as if it were burning hot.
This was a summoning card.
The Unpredictable Cards were unpredictable; the results of opening them were never certain. One could gain power or treasures, but could also summon certain monsters, and might even suffer damage! The blood-red glow represented the abyss and hell, while the holy radiance represented the gods of the heavenly realm, and the five-colored light meant that the summoned creature came from the elemental planes.
This card summoned a creature from the lower planes of hell and the abyss!
A mysterious vortex appeared in the center of the card, the image plummeted swiftly through sulfurous lava and ice, finally freezing on a twisted and ugly face.
—“Serpent Demon!”
The Unpredictable Card transformed into a blood-red portal.
Upon seeing that grotesque twisted face, a rough idea of its attributes sprang to Soren’s mind.
It was based on data that players had once collected and evaluated.
“Serpent Demon”…
“Challenge Level 6, Personal Level 12, has spell-like abilities.”
“Highest attribute 21 points, lowest attribute 10 points, total attribute value 85-95 points.”
“Special skills: Dual Wielding, Multi-attack.”
“Challenge Difficulty: A+.”
The Serpent Demon would grow an extra pair of arms as its power increased; for every additional pair of arms, the Serpent Demon’s challenge level would increase by +5, and its personal level would increase by +6. That is to say, a Four-Armed Serpent Demon would have a challenge level of 11 and a personal level of around 18, whereas a Six-Armed Serpent Demon would have a challenge level of 16 and a personal level around 24. As for the even more powerful Eight-Armed Serpent Demon, that was already a legendary being; generally speaking, the appearance of an Eight-Armed Serpent Demon indicated the arrival of a Demon Lord.
“It’s impossible to fight head-on!”
This was the first thought that popped into Soren’s mind. His current thief profession level was 3, while the Serpent Demon’s personal level was 12, making their level difference 9 levels. The team challenge level was 6, which meant that at least 5 or more experienced adventurers, all equipped well and with a profession level above 6, would have about a fifty percent chance of defeating the abyss Serpent Demon before him.
Although what was summoned was merely the lowest level Two-Armed Serpent Demon, it was certainly not something he could easily handle right now!
Abyss demons belong to extraordinary beings.
Considering the level difference in professions, the life energy of the Serpent Demon was more than three times his own, and facing it directly, he had almost no chance of winning.
Several thoughts flashed through Soren’s mind in a moment!
However, his actions showed no hesitation. Just as a dark red portal appeared, sending the Two-Armed Serpent Demon’s figure into the stone chamber, he quickly dropped to the ground, pulling out the box that controlled the crossbow and squeezing the trigger inside.
The teleportation completed in the next instant!
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
The painful screams echoed in the stone chamber.
The Serpent Demon, towering over 2.4 meters and weighing over 600 pounds, had just appeared in the stone chamber when it was met with six powerful crossbow bolts; most of them penetrated through its scales into its body. The sudden attack sent the Serpent Demon into a frenzy. Before it could even discern its surroundings, it began wildly slashing with its dual swords.
“Crack!”
A stone table, twenty centimeters thick, was split in two with a single slash. Soren, watching from the opposite side, twitched his eyebrows and unhesitatingly tossed the box away, then darted toward the outside. The six bolts from the crossbow hadn’t taken down the creature, making it almost impossible for him to defeat it; merely witnessing its combat power made him fear that a single sword swipe could slice him into pieces!
As soon as Soren fled, the Serpent Demon crazily chased after him.
Abyss demons are mostly chaotic evil beings; bloodthirsty, brutal, and murderous tendencies are their nature, and they never reason with people.
Once the summoning is successful!
Unless you can enslave it, you’ll have to face death by its hand!
