Chapter 7: CH 6 – The Journey Begins

After walking for several hundred meters, Axel Blaze's whole body felt tired and it started to ache at places. Now, Axel Blaze realized that he isn't in a good condition to continue his journey, he needs rest.

He looked for a safe spot and sat under a tall tree. Thanks to this place still being quite close to the Meri Town and further away from the Meru Forest there are less monsters in the vicinity.

He pulled out a small leather flask, popped the cork and turned it over his mouth. One drop of water slowly dropped in his mouth, that's all the water he had left.

Sitting under the tree, Axel Blaze slowly took off his shirt to check on his wounds. There are bruises all over his torso and some places are even slightly bleeding. The area struck by the scabbard has swollen quite a bit and Axel Blaze can sense an intense pricking pain whenever he touches the spot.

He patted his trousers pockets and checked his shirt pocket as well but it's all empty. He now realized that he has left all his belongings at home. Moreover he has also used up all the VIT Recovery Potions he had.

He looked towards the direction of Meri Town.

Should I go back and get my stuff?

But it's not like there is any useful stuff in there. Just old bedding and some broken utensils. I don't remember having any sort of medications at home either.

Sigh! Leave it.

It's the season of spring in Seraphine, so the nights are not that cold.

Axel Blaze decided to spend the night there. In the morning, he can go searching for water, food and possibly some medicinal herbs in the nearby vegetation.

Wait a minute, the buff!

Remembering something he quickly opened the Status Window. First he checked his Experience Points and then took a look at the VIT and Temporary Stats.

Experience Points : 86356/91000

VIT : 975/1400

Experience Points Gained : +800%   [19:27:11]

Axel Blaze murmured, "About 4 hours and thirty minutes have passed since I defeated— Er... since the Bloody Nightmare died itself."

"That bastard bodyguard of that bitch really didn't show any mercy. 425 points of my VIT are gone." Axel Blaze ground his teeth in anger.

He started counting with his fingers while mumbling. "VRR is 1% per minute, so time required to recover 425 VIT is 42,500 minutes. That would be about 708 hours, which is around a month."

He grabbed his hair. "Siii... Oh-my-god. I would be dead by then."

"As I thought. Without any VIT Recovery Potion or medicinal herbs, my only choice is to level up to heal my injuries. It will be bad if the wounds start festering. I have to be quick." He stood up ready to search for monsters nearby.

He has only taken a step when he remembered something again.

He again opened his Status Window, this time checking his Unique Skills.

Unique Skills :

1. Lucky Shuffle : After shuffling a deck of 50 cards, pull out a random card from the deck. Your luck will increase from +1-50% according to the card pulled.

Duration : 1 minute

Cooldown : 60 minutes

2. Card Case Drop : Everyday at 6:00, you will receive a Card Case containing a random skill from your daily activities.

3. Collectible Card Game : You can use the cards placed in the deck. When using any card the stats of the card will increase by +5%.

Standing, he rubbed his chin pondering. "I have experimented with the 2nd Skill 'Card Case Drop' before. I have noticed that it is somewhat influenced by the time I spend on a particular activity or how much of an effort I put on a particular task."

He raised one brow in question.

Hmm... Since the most time I spent today was in the battle against the Bloody Nightmare, wouldn't the next Card Case drop be affected by it? 

As he thought this, all the adrenaline that had rushed throughout his body just a moment ago, pulled back completely.

With a thump he fell on his back and instantly lay flat on the grass.

"I will wait till the next Card Case drops." He mumbled.

"Aaahh... It hurts..." He groaned before falling asleep.

...

"When I grow up, I will become a world class Adventurer like Rodrick. Then no one will be able to look down on me." Black hair, cute face. A seven year old little boy held his waist and puffed his chest.

He then raised a wooden stick with one hand and held a wooden board on the other hand as a shield. He yelled. "Come Demon Lord, let me give you a taste of my unyielding sword."

After making some moves in the air. The boy knelt down huffing and puffing. "Hah! Demon Lord, you are indeed quite strong. But too bad for you, I am not alone."

A small blonde girl chanted from behind the boy. "Oh, the benevolent goddess of healing, Hygieia. Please bestow your child with the ability to save people from suffering." She called with her arms wide open. "Sanctuary."

The little boy made a delightful expression. "I can feel it. My body, my soul is being healed. I can feel my strength returning." He shouted. "Demon Lord, your end has come. Take my attack!"

"Haha, we won. We won, Luna." The little boy cheered.

"Yes Axel, we won. No one can beat us when we are together." The little girl pumped her fist.

"Haha, yes! No one can beat us when we are together." The little Axel Blaze affirmed.

Then both the children looked at each other and held their hands. "We will always be together." They spoke at the same time.

...

Slap!... "Don't you understand what I said to you before? Stop pestering me Axel. It's already over between us. I am a Saintess. I have a Zero Grade Job! And you? You..." A 17 year old, beautiful girl clenched her teeth in anger pointing her finger at a somewhat handsome, 17 year old boy.

"You don't understand Luna. That man only cares about your Job. He doesn't love you at all. Yesterday I heard him speak with-" The young Axel Blaze tried to reveal the truth but was stopped in-between his speech.

Luna raised her hand to stop him from speaking. "No more talking. You know Axel, you are just being jealous of Mark." 

She looked somewhat depressed, "After being sent to the Capital by the Church of Occupation, I had to stay in confinement at the Temple of Hygieia. That's just how the life of a Saintess is meant to be. You lose the opportunity to live the life of a normal person. If Mark didn't find me and recruit me into the Hero Party, I would have had to spend the rest of my life alone living like a preserved flower." She looked at Mark standing behind her with a thankful and loving gaze. "I know better than anyone what kind of person he is."

"But-" Axel Blaze wanted to speak but Luna won't let him.

"Enough is enough! Get lost! I don't want to see your face anymore." Luna shouted and turned back to leave.

"Luna!" Axel Blaze called from behind but got no response.

He sobbed standing in the middle of the road surrounded by the people of the town, mocking him.

A shadow approached Axel Blaze after a short while and whispered into his ears. "I have seen a lot of trash in my life but none compare to you. Why don't you visit Luna's home tonight? I will keep the window ajar to let you see how I make love to your childhood sweetheart. Take it as a present from me for taking care of her all these years, hehe."

...

"Mark Briton, you bastaaaard!" Axel Blaze sat up screaming with a fuming face, breathing heavily.

After a minute he groaned. "Aigoo, it hurts so bad. Fucking stupid dream. Of all the things, I had to dream of that time. Ah, my shoulder..." Axel Blaze caressed his whole body trying to soothe his pain.

Standing up he opened and closed his mouth. "My throat is completely dry and my stomach is empty. I have to search for water and food." He looked in a certain direction. "If I remember correctly, there is a stream passing through the town. The source should be somewhere in that direction." Making up his mind he started walking slowly.

After about an hour he reached the stream. On his way he met some slimes but they seem to avoid him knowing the level difference. It's the instinct thingy.

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Taking advantage of the stream Axel Blaze washed up his body and cleaned his wounds before wearing his tattered clothes back. This time he took out the armor set and donned it. Since there is no one around here to snatch his belongings he doesn't have to hold back on protection. He also filled the leather flask when at it.

He checked the time on his Status Window. It's 7:30. The Card Case drops at 6:00.

Habitually, Axel Blaze went to the Cards tab and tried to click at the Case sub-tab but...

"It's not here." Axel Blaze panicked. "Where did it go?" He swept his finger left and right on the Status Window continuously— Nothing changed.

After a while Axel Blaze squeezed his eyes, thinking hard.

He suddenly opened his eyes and switched to the Inventory tab. As expected. The Card Case is available here.

After thinking hard Axel Blaze remembered that yesterday in the pit-room or whatever it was, he only saw three sub-tabs after getting the Special Card. He neglected the Case sub-tab as he was highly enthusiastic about the Special Card. Now it seems, due to the inventory being available after reaching level 5, the Case sub-tab has been removed by the system.

"It should at least notify me about it. I almost got a heart attack." Axel Blaze complained.

Nonetheless he took out the Card Case out of the inventory.

A pitch black case, 4 inches in length, 3 inches in width and about 5 millimeters in height with a bold, number 5 written on one of the faces in the color white. A tiny, flat, push button is present on the supposed lid of the case.

Number 1 is Common card, number 2 is Uncommon. Then according to the skill ranks, number 3 should be Rare, 4 should be Epic, 5 should be Unique, 6 should be Legend and 7 should be Mythic, which I will probably never see in my life.

Still... Number 5 means I have a chance of scoring a Unique Rank skill.

Axel Blaze licked his lips in anticipation though he didn't open the Card Case immediately.

He commanded, "Fucking Lucky Shuffle, let's go! Let me take advantage of the buff which increases skill effects by 200%." He made a delightful smile.

Nothing happened...

"Er... Ahem. Lucky Shuffle." He tried again.

[Starting the Lucky Shuffle]

[Shuffling Cards]

So the way the former command was carried out was the problem. With a proper command of only using the skill name, it worked just fine.

[Congratulations! You have pulled a +50% Luck card]

[You current luck is 100%]

[You have one minute remaining to use your luck]

Axel Blaze made a fist, "Knew it!"

He pressed the button on the Card Case murmuring. "I have pulled +49% before and gotten 99% luck, but it still was shit. That 1% can really fuck you up. You can't relax without being 100% sure, huh?"

He continued while the Card Case started to disintegrate. "It's quite amazing how my base luck is 50% and I still got a Trash Grade Job. Guess it was either 50% Zero Grade Job or 50% Trash Grade Job and I hit the wrong mark beautifully." He snorted. "Let's see what I get this time."

[Congratulations! You have obtained your first Unique card!]

[Unique sub-tab has been created]

"Hahaha, yes!" Axel Blaze held a 4 by 3 inch red colored card in his hand and jumped with joy. "Ouch! Idiot me."

He stored the card in the Unique sub-tab before inspecting it.

True Damage

Rank : Unique

Restrictions : Level 50

Everytime you deal damage to your opponents you will also deal a fixed amount of damage along with it. This fixed damage isn't affected by any form of defense the opponents have.

This is a bound skill which comes with its own special privileges.

After reading through the description, Axel Blaze raised his eyebrows, curved his lips and slowly nodded his head. He closed the Status Window and went to look for monsters to hunt.

If I physically show how happy I am right now, I will definitely lose half of my current VIT. Even though there are lots of questions in my mind regarding this skill, one fact is for sure. This skill stands up to its Unique Rank. It's truly unique.

He mumbled, "A skill card which will get bound to my Status Window and is not restricted to any Classes or Jobs is definitely not something simple."

After searching for a while Axel Blaze found some medicinal herbs. Though the potency of the herbs are drastically reduced if not processed, Axel Blaze doesn't have the methods nor the time to do so. He just chewed them and applied the paste over his wounds.

He also found some wild berries and fruits, which helped him relieve his hunger.

On his way he found some level 2 Acid Slimes and level 2 Metal Slimes which he surprisingly one shotted but gained no Experience Points from them due to level difference.

If you hunt an opponent under your level, the Experience Points gained is dropped by 20% per two levels under you. For example, if you are level 10 and hunt a level 9 or 8 monster, you will only gain 80% Experience Points. So at a difference of over level 8 under you, you will gain zero Experience Points.

Here Axel Blaze is level 13 and the slimes are level 2, there is a gap of over 8 levels between them and hence he gets zero Experience Points. But at least he can keep the materials from the hunt as the corpse will still remain if you kill a monster.

Unfortunately for Axel Blaze he didn't find any monsters above level 4 for half of the day.

"What's the use of this buff if I can't even find a monster I can gain Experience Points from. Sigh!" He lamented.

After walking for about 10 kilometers, Axel Blaze came across a jungle. He had never gone much further away from the Meri Town but due to his hobby he has memorized quite a lot of information related to adventuring.

According to the general outline of the map in his mind, there should be monsters above level 5 present inside this jungle. Though he doesn't know what is the highest level of the monster present here, given that the Sol Town is just 2 kilometers away from here, there shouldn't be any monsters which Axel Blaze can't handle with his level.

Without thinking much further, Axel Blaze traversed the jungle.

By the time Axel Blaze came out of the jungle it was already 6:00 pm and the cooldown for the buff was over.

Looking at his face, the adventure inside the jungle was quite fruitful.

Walking towards Sol Town, Axel Blaze commanded, "Open Status Window".

[Status Window Upgrade 1.3%]

[Friends]      [A15,650]      [Inventory]

Axel Blaze gently patted his chest, "Phew! I was really scared after I used that Special Card but it's a relief that I can use my money and inventory."

After hunting inside the jungle for hours, Axel Blaze hunted quite a lot of level 5, 6 and 7 monsters. Though there were higher level monsters available, Axel Blaze realized that it isn't efficient for him to hunt those monsters due to his lack of proper combat skills. Even hunting a level 7 monster seemed somewhat taxing without the Rare Grade short sword. Axel Blaze felt deep gratitude towards his blacksmith grandpas.

Anyways, even with all the hiccups, Axel Blaze managed to rise up to level 15 and acquired quite a lot of materials to sell. His inventory space also increased to 15. And best of all, his wounds have completely healed.

Each inventory box has a capacity of 500 kilograms but can only hold one type of item inside.

…

As the duration of the buff was over, Axel Blaze decided to let the Status Window upgrade till he reached a big city. The closest city to him is about 5 days away. And looking at the progression speed of the upgrade, it should be done right on time as he reaches the city.

Axel Blaze reached Sol Town around night, after paying the toll fee and registering his name at the town's gate, he ate dinner, booked a room at the inn and went to sleep.

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