Chapter 5: CH 4 – First Step Towards Dream

[You have gained 206,500 Experience Points]

[Alert! Due to opponent's restricted stats, Experience Points gained will be adjusted]

[Experience Points gained; 84,000]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[...]

[You have reached level 13]

[Warning! The character's body will undergo changes after one minute. Please find a safe place to rest.]

[Congratulations on reaching level 5!]

[Inventory has been unlocked!]

[Congratulations on reaching level 10!]

[Milestone bonus is being generated]

[Error! Reason unknown]

[Trying again...]

[Error! Reason unknown]

[Trying again...]

[Error! Reason unknown]

[Alert! Failed to generate milestone bonus]

[Looking for solutions...]

[Congratulations on reaching level 10!]

[You have received a Special Card!]

[Congratulations! You have received your first Special Card!]

[Special sub-tab is being generated...]

[Success! A Special sub-tab has been added under the Cards tab]

[Alert! Due to Special Cards having no card case they are directly stored in the sub-tab, please open the Special sub-tab to access the Special Card]

[Alert! Inventory space increased by +5]

Axel Blaze slowly opened his eyes, stupefied.

One after another, things happened so fast that he can't make head or tail out of anything.

Baffled, he slowly reached out for his right thigh and pinched it hard.

"Aaahh... Siiii..." He rubbed the place he pinched with a twisted face.

It hurts like hell, but at least he confirmed that he isn't dreaming.

"Ouch!" "Ouch ouch ouch... It hurts! What the fuck!" Axel Blaze held his knees and rolled on the floor. The veins all over his body seemed to be popping out and his muscles could be seen trembling under his skin.

This is the effect of jumping directly from level 2 to level 13. The body adjustments seem to be going well.

[Congratulations! You have accomplished an impossible feat. You have defeated an opponent 100 levels higher than you!]

[You have received a new Title!]

[All your skills effects will increase by 200% for the next 24 hours]

[Experience Points gained increase by 800% for the next 24 hours]

[All your skills cooldown decreased by 40% for the next 24 hours]

More notifications popped up while Axel Blaze is struggling with pain.

After suffering for about two minutes, Axel Blaze finally took a sigh of relief. His whole body is drenched in cold sweat but after the body adjustments have been completed, he feels somewhat refreshed.

"Ah! I have to dismantle the corpses before they disappear." Axel Blaze jolted up and rushed towards the place where the HobGoblin had died.

There is a dried pool of blood under the boulder and blood splattered on the rocks but there is no corpse to be found.

"Oh, I am late, It has already passed 10 minutes since the HobGoblin died— Tch! Of course, what am I even thinking?" He somewhat regretted.

Without wasting any more time he rushed to the spot where the Bloody Nightmare took its last stand.

There is a ball of blood fog floating silently 5 inches above the ground.

Axel Blaze put his palm above the floating ball, "Dismantle".

The ball of blood fog slowly broke down then faded away leaving a walnut sized, spherical, red crystal.

Axel Blaze picked it up gently, "Inspect".

Raul's Orb

Grade : Unique

Restrictions : Level 50

A shining jewel made up of the named monster Raul's condensed blood essence. Raul the ex warden of hell was highly ambitious and sought after the throne of god. His ambition led him to create a unique skill which can even harm the strongest of the gods.

Item Effect : When embedded in a weapon, True Damage dealt increases by 10%. A very small chance of inflicting your opponent with the status ailment, Nightmare.

Axel Blaze puckered his brows. "What a shit Unique Item. It will increase True Damage? What the heck is True Damage?"

He rubbed his chin. "This status ailment, Nightmare, must be the skill which made me remember all those bad memories every time that monster slashed me with its scythe. This is somewhat useful but... A very small chance?— Can this item be any more useless?"

He made a crying face, "I was so close to death and this is all I received..." He stamped his feet and sat down on the spot.

"Open Status Window", he commanded.

[17:26]

[Character Information]      [Stats]      [Decks]      [Cards]      [Inventory]

Name : Axel Blaze

Age : 20

Species : Human

Level : 13

Experience Points : 86356/91000

Class : Non-Combat

Job : Card Collector

Titles : [3]

Affiliation : None

Skills : [5]

[Friends]      [A15,650]

"Hmm..." Axel Blaze clicked Titles : [3]

Titles

1. The One Who Collect Cards : Everyone has a hobby or two. Yours is collecting cards.

Special Privileges : Gain Unique Skills. Added Cards tab.

2. The One Who Plays Cards : Being a Card Collector doesn't mean you don't like playing cards.

Special Privileges : Gain Unique Skills. Added Decks tab.

3. (New)The one accomplished an impossible feat : W-What?! Really? It seems you are not afraid of death.

Special Privileges : All visible stats permanently increase by 100.

"W-What?! Really? All stats increase by 100? Wow!" Axel Blaze couldn't believe what he just read. He instantly switched to the Stats tab.

Basic Stats

VIT : 1450/1400

MP : 240/240

Advance Stats

STR : 130/115

INT : 115

DEX : 142/115

AGI : 142/115

END : 115

Support Stats

VRR : 1% per minute

MRR : 1% per minute

Temporary Stats

All Skills Effect : +200%      [23:57:23]

Experience Points Gained : +800%      [23:57:23]

Skills Cooldown : -40%      [23:57:23]

SP : 120

"Indeed, all the seven visible stats have increased by 100." Axel Blaze swept his hands over his armor, "The armor seems unscathed, so the bonus stats are still working fine."

"These temporary stats with the countdown timers seem to be the effect of the new Title." Axel Blaze observed while tapping his chin with his index finger.

"Wait a minute!" Axel Blaze suddenly started counting with his fingers while scratching his head from time to time.

"Damn! Is it because I got the Title later after I received the Experience Points? It doesn't seem like I received the +800% Experience Points boost on slaying Bloody Nightmare— Also the system reduced the Experience Points to that of a level 50 World Boss with a bonus of 75% only— Why so stingy?" Axel Blaze grumbled with dissatisfaction.

"Well, it cannot be helped, it is what it is— In the first place, what the fuck is a World Boss doing here? Moreover it's a named monster which is supposed to be 10 times stronger than its own kind without any name. And the way it died doesn't seem to have anything to do with me... It must be those abnormal status ailments! It was inflicted with the curse or whatnot which must have killed it over time." Axel Blaze commented while juggling Raul's Orb in his hand.

"If I knew it earlier, I would have put all my focus on only dodging—if I did that, I would have saved all those expensive VIT Recovery Potions. Sigh!" Axel Blaze lamented.

"Well, you learn from your mistakes. Let's view the bright side. I gained a lot of experience today and learnt a lot of new things… Maybe." Axel Blaze murmured.

You are reading story Card Collector [LitRPG] at novel35.com

He stared at the shining Raul's Orb in his hand, "Tch! Only if this shit had good stats. With these stats I don't think even a beggar will take it."

"Let's check the inventory..." Axel Blaze switched to the Inventory tab.

The Inventory tab consists of 10 square boxes arranged in 5 rows and 2 columns. They are empty for now. From the earlier system notifications, it seems 5 inventory boxes are added per 5 levels.

At every 10 levels, people receive something related to their Job from the system. Like a new Skill or some sort of upgrade. These levels which are multiple of 10 are called milestones, as you noticed earlier in Axel Blaze's system notifications when he leveled up.

After opening the Inventory tab, Axel Blaze put Raul's Orb inside it before switching to the Cards tab.

[Character Information]      [Stats]      [Decks]      [Cards]      [Inventory]

[Common]      [Uncommon]      [Special]

Under the Cards tab are now three sub-tabs. Common, Uncommon and Special, which hold Skill Cards according to their respective ranks.

Axel Blaze switched to the Special sub-tab to check today's main bounty.

In the Special sub-tab there is only one card available. Though Axel Blaze can just click on the card to check its information, it's nothing compared to holding a card in your own hand. Though there is a time limit of one minute to keep a card outside of the Status Window, Axel Blaze is still willing to take the risk. One minute is enough for him to adore the card and put it back inside the Status Window before it vanishes into thin air.

Yes. If any card is kept outside of the status window for more than a minute, it disappears forever. Unless it is inside the card case. But once you open a card case, the card case itself disappears into thin air leaving the naked card behind... So yeh, it's kinda complicated.

Nonetheless, Axel Blaze put his fingers inside the floating Status Window in a holding motion and grabbed out a card.

Just like the other cards, this Special Card is also 4 inches long and 3 inches wide but with a different back.

The Common Skill Card has a gray colored back while the Uncommon Skill Card has a green colored back but this Special Card here has a special back. The back of this Special Card has the reflection of the cosmos itself. A dark background with stars and galaxies glittering inside. If you gaze deep enough, it keeps going and going. It's like you are traveling through space.

It's so mesmerizing that you get lost in it— just like Axel Blaze.

Awooo... 

Suddenly a howling of wolf resounded throughout the forest.

"Ah!" Axel Blaze cried in alarm and quickly shoved the card into the Status Window.

He took a breath of relief.

Too close. If his guys haven't snapped out of it in time he would have definitely lost the first Special Card he has gotten.

"Thank you wolfie, you saved my ass." Axel Blaze humbly prayed for the howling wolf's long life.

Axel Blaze clicked the card, now in the Special sub-tab to check its information.

The card zoomed in.

Status Window Upgrade

Truly special.

In the whole card, only these three words are written at the very center of the card. Nothing else.

Axel Blaze scratched his head in confusion.

"What?" Axel Blaze crinkled his nose and puckered his brows. With his chin pressing his neck, he looked at the Status Window in a weird manner.

He can't act more awkward than this. That's how dumbfounded he is dumbfounded with the content of the card.

System Upgrade? What System Upgrade? Is it edible? I have never heard of something like this in my whole life. Uh-huh! No no.

Axel Blaze clicked the card again for more options.

[Do you want to use the Special Card? Yes/No]

A pop-up window appeared along with a warning.

[Warning! You won't be able to access the Status Window while it is upgrading. The update may take anywhere from one day to one week! Experience Points gained during this period will be preserved]

"One day to one week... Won't be able to use..." Axel Blaze is still kinda confused with this thing. He contemplated for a while but couldn't make up his mind.

He stood up, dusting his back, "Well, let's go back home for now, this is not the time nor the place to ponder about such things, it's starting to get dark outside. I also have to talk about all the bizarre things that happened today with the grandpas."

Axel Blaze gazed out of the collapsed roof into the sky, he could see a faded visage of the moon. He stroked his belly, "I haven't eaten anything since breakfast and it's already about night time. Sigh! I am quite hungry."

He slowly started to climb up the 20 feet high wall. After crawling out he started treading towards the town carefully. Just in case to avoid any other monsters came attacking him. After all, he is quite deep into the forest.

Awooo... 

Just as Axel Blaze thought he had reached the periphery of the forest, the same wolf howl resounded from behind him along with the noise of dry leaves crushing and bushes moving.

Axel Blaze slowly turned around and looked at the rattling bush which is only 15 meters away from him.

He gulped a mouthful of saliva. And slowly started to step back. He also took out the short sword he had stored inside the inventory and held it straight in front. Ready for action.

The wolves found around this area are most level 8 Grey Wolf and rarely seen level 11 Silver Wolf, both of which can be somewhat handled by Axel Blaze with his current level, so he decided to fight rather than show his back to a predator.

Rustle... Rustle...

The movement of rattling bushes passed from one to another and it crept closer and closer to Axel Blaze.

Soon the hidden creature reached about 2 meters away from Axel Blaze.

Swoosh... Chomp!... Swoosh!

Something like a long neck launched at Axel Blaze from inside the bush, chomped at the air hard and pulled back inside the bush. All within a mere seconds of time.

It was only a breath of hair by which the mysterious creature missed Axel Blaze's neck.

Cold sweat dripped through Axel Blaze's temple. He realized the opponent he is facing is not an easy one. At least it's not a wolf. But what is it?

The answer soon came into his vision.

A 2 meter large tortoise with a 2 meter long neck. Sharp jagged teeth and tiny bead sized black eyes. There is an anthill-like structure on its back which looks like it will break if stepped on but that's not the case at all. There are some signs of smoke escaping through the ant holes.

While Axel Blaze was observing the creature it chomped at Axel Blaze again with extreme speed. This time it somehow caught the hem of Axel Blaze's shirt and ripped it off. The force made Axel Blaze trip backwards and fall on his bum.

A chance! For the tortoise that is.

Taking advantage of the situation, the tortoise rushed at Axel Blaze chomping and chomping, while Axel Blaze kept dodging and dodging.

Taking his own chance, Axel Blaze launched a furious sword strike at the tortoise. But unfortunate for him the tortoise pulled it's neck inside the shell. The tip of Axel Blaze's sword somehow met the shell of the tortoise but it didn't leave a scratch.

"Flare" Axel Blaze used the only effective skill he was equipping. But it doesn't have any effect on the hard shell of the tortoise.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!— abnormal slimes, wolves, HobGoblin, that Bloody Nightmare and now this. This..." "Inspect." At last Axel Blaze used inspect on the monster.

Name : SheShell (Buffed/Enraged)

Level : 9

VIT : 4599/4500

"Oh my god! This one's an abnormal shit as well. Just what is going on. I am not cursed am I?" Axel Blaze pulled his hair in frustration.

He took the chance when the tortoise hid its head inside its shell to stand up and pull away from it.

"Open Status Window" "Open Cards tab"

Axel Blaze scrolled through the cards at a fast speed looking for something usable. But all he has are Common Skill cards with mostly non-combat skills like household related skills.

After thinking for a while he opened the Uncommon sub-tab and equipped the Acid Shot card in the deck thinking it may work to melt its shell or something.

His movements were as fast as lighting and it only took Axel Blaze about two minutes to get ready for another battle.

The tortoise has also pulled out its head by now preparing for another strike.

"Acid Shot" Axel Blaze shouted, waving  his short sword like a wand.

[Error! Skill cannot be used due to Class restriction]

"Fuck! I thought leveling up might have solved the problem but well..." Axel Blaze cursed while dodging a sharp strike from the turtle.

"Sharp Edge" He launched another attack, this time aiming for the protruding neck of the tortoise. But the tortoise is even faster than Axel Blaze and it quickly hid it's head inside the shell making Axel Blaze cut air.

Axel Blaze held the sword tightly, activating the Sharp Edge skill again, this time chopping at the tortoise shell.

Clank!

The sword hit the hard shell and rebounded back while vibrating.

Axel Blaze's hand went numb and his palm almost cracked.

"Shit!" Axel Blaze cursed.

He pressed the sword between his armpit and checked his palms for any blood.

His palms are as red as tomatoes but fortunately there's no blood leakage.

"Inspect" Axel Blaze focused on the monster's VIT.

VIT : 4594/4500

"Sigh! Only 5 damage? Really?" Axel Blaze looked depressed.

Well I still have 120 unallocated Stat Points, if I use them to raise my strength... No. It won't work. Maybe INT to increase Flare damage? Nope. The damage will still be low for sure. This monster seems to excel in defense. Just how long do I have to fight to kill it? And to fight in this forest where you don't even know from which side, by how many or by what level of monsters you may get attacked at any time... It's not worth it.

Then what about agility? If I am fast enough I may be able to catch the timing of its neck...

Axel Blaze scratched his head thinking. Then he shook his head.

I shouldn't be careless with my stat allocation; it will make or break my future. Then... That only leaves one way.

Axel Blaze took a deep breath while putting away his sword.

Well, I want to take advantage of those Temporary Stats, but life is more important.

Axel Blaze waved his hand, "Until we meet again Sir Tortoise, cya!"

He turned around to run away but halted mid step.

He scratched his cheek looking at the tortoise, "SheShell... You are not a female are you?— Hmm... Did I just offend a lady?" He then shrugged his shoulders, "Well, who gives a fuck anyways. Cya!" 

This time he left for real.

The tortoise gave chase but it couldn't seem to catch up to Axel Blaze.

Axel Blaze turned back for a moment while running and teased the tortoise by sticking out his tongue. "Too bad you ain't a wolf, hehe."

Awooo...

It's as if the wolf heard him and answered back.

"What the fuck! I am sorry mister wolf, please forgive me..." Shouting Axel Blaze disappeared into the grasslands running towards the town at full speed flailing his hands above his head.

...

In today's adventure, Axel Blaze lost a huge amount of wealth but in exchange he gained some good things like... 12 levels?

With this, he has taken his first big step towards achieving his dream of becoming a world class adventurer. Just like the legendary hero, Rodrick.

I will become an adventurer even greater than the legendary hero, just watch me.

Axel Blaze started skipping while running, fiddling with his Status Window. He seems happy with his current Stats.

You can find story with these keywords: Card Collector [LitRPG], Read Card Collector [LitRPG], Card Collector [LitRPG] novel, Card Collector [LitRPG] book, Card Collector [LitRPG] story, Card Collector [LitRPG] full, Card Collector [LitRPG] Latest Chapter