Chapter 17: A Persevering Heart Part I
14 HIT COMBO!
A familiar text popped up causing Tan to pause momentarily. “Is this a fighting game? Didn’t the staff say that their game is unique and different? This is obviously from the other game,” he muttered.
As he was losing focus on a random thing, the Sappatula used this opportunity to attack him.
Due to Illusion Webs, Player Tanthai’s Speed has been decreased by 50%.
The system voice informed him as he felt like something made him move slower. Tan wiped his hand around and noticed that there were countless spider webs all over his body…
However, it was Tanthai’s day, so everything seemed to work out just fine…
“Speed Boost!” He activated the skill that consumed both MP and SP to increase his Speed by three times. Even though spider webs held him back, he was still 1.5 times faster than usual.
“449”
“448!”
“449!”
The Treasure Chest Monster dealt about 1,300 damage to the Sappatula.
“2,471!” The giant spider returned the favor with its eight legs.
“101!” “105!”
“103!” “100!”
“102!” “101!”
“100!” “104!”
Eight hits in a row, the same number as its legs.
The Crystal Lizard joined the fight as it bit the enemy.
“2,748!”
It then shot out an ice lance from its mouth.
“Ice Lance.” The ice lance dealt extra damage to the Air element monster.
“5,100!”
“That’s powerful!” Witnessing that, Tan realized that the spider was weak against Ice element. He decided to use one of the cards in his hand, but he had to discard three cards in exchange.
It was another copy of the Crystal Lizard card…
“Summon!” He summoned another Crystal Lizard and left with only one card in his hand. “It should end here,” he said as the Crystal Lizard joined the fight.
“7,545!” “7,100!” Suddenly, the giant spider used its move causing damage around itself. The first Crystal Lizard perished into spheres of light by the powerful move, but the light was still there, not disappeared. At the same time, the chest monster was performing a melee attack. It was not killed because it had high Speed stat and could dodge attacks more than the Crystal Lizard.
“15,312!”
The first ten thousand damage appeared before Tan’s eyes as the Sappatula perished. This amount of damage came from the Crystal Lizard’s special ability. Tan had calculated that when the first Crystal Lizard died, the special ability of the second Crystal Lizard would be activated. Combined with how the spider was weak against an Ice-elemental attack, the damage dealt by the lizard’s ice lance was multiplied to more than ten thousand…
Player Tanthai has successfully defeated the Sappatula and has received a 7-star, Sappatula Spider card, an Arachnid Metal, 14,358 EXP, and 70 Gil.
“70 Gil?” Tan repeated. “Such a small amount? So stingy…” he muttered then looked around the room to see if there were any monsters left. After confirming that the place was safe, he checked the card he got.
“What? I’m supposed to use it with other Insect-race cards, right?” Tan murmured as he saw the effect in which the Sappatula would increase Attack and Speed of allied Insect-race monsters.
“It’s useless for me, plus, you need to sacrifice a 5 or 6-star Insect monster to summon it,” he ended as he put the card in his inventory. It was useless for him as he did not have any Insect monster cards in his deck.
“And what does this do?” He meant the Arachnid Metal which provided only a short description— ‘A rare metal dropped from middle-tier spiders.’
Tan did not know a thing about the item he got, but he thought that Nicki might know about it. He put the metal in the inventory then reached out his hand to the invisible wall that blocked his way.
“It’s disappeared,” Tan said as he walked past the area and climbed up the spiral stairs. The stairs did not lead him to the first or second floor as it led him all the way up to the third floor of the castle. He found himself in a room filled with gold coins and jewelry. The greedy boy widened his eyes. He seemed to forget about how he encountered the Treasure Chest Monster from before.
“It’s all mine…!” He announced as he jumped towards the pile of treasure.
“Ouch!” He cried out as he fell through the pile of treasure and landed on the ground. There was no treasure; it was just a trap luring a greedy guy like him.
Player Tanthai has fallen into an illusion trap and cannot use any spells for five minutes.
“Eh…?” Surprised, Tan let out a sound as he was struggling on the floor, but before he could say anything more, he had to prepare himself for a fight.
7-star, level 60, Mammon, the Demon of Greed, has appeared as the player has cleared the condition—come into contact with the treasure…
A flamed body of the demon appeared as its fiery wings spread out. Its eyes gleamed a golden color. The demon had a human-like appearance, except it was thirty feet taller and had a bat-like head and ears. Its mouth had no lips which made people see yellow fangs and black smoke coming out of its mouth when it breathed.
The Gambler’s skill has been activated. The player’s Speed has been multiplied by two times, but the player’s MP has been decreased by 50%…
Tan was surprised when he heard the system sound. “Well…You can random some good things sometimes,” he said as he became aware of the changes in his stat. In the situation where he could not use any Magic Cards, he thought that Speed was going to be more useful than MP.
“Summon…” It was not Tan who said that, but it was the Demon who summoned two monsters, level 50, Black Wing—a monster that resembled a human with a bat-like face and wings that were huge enough to notice its veins.
“What?!” Tan gasped as he saw the scene right in front of his eyes. He did not know that some monsters with level 60 or above in this game could speak the human language, but that was not important; what was really important right now was…coming up with a tactic from the first seven cards he drew in order to survive.
“Here we are…Why two of them?” Tan muttered as he looked at his seven cards and saw two Magic Cards—They were obviously trash as the trap caused him to be unable to cast spells.
“Equip! Equip!” 2 3-star crossbows, his old friends, were immediately equipped. He put three copies of them in the deck and switched out with melee weapon cards as he felt more comfortable with a ranged attack.
“I can’t use any spells, then I have to go all out.”
“Speed Boost!” Tan immediately activated his Class’s skill; his Speed was multiplied by three times. Actually, his Gambler Job had already provided him with a high Speed stat. With his level being over 30, the stat had increased further allowing him to move around very quickly.
As compared to ordinary monsters, he currently had the speed of those at level 70…
“401!” “405!” “407!” “405!”
“403!” “400!” “411!” “405!”
“400!” “401!” “405!” “405!”
“400!” “404!” “401!” “405!”
The damage he dealt with one of the demon’s monsters popped up like water shot out from a fountain. He was able to fire bolts faster than usual because of his Speed after receiving a boost and the crossbows which had a high rate of fire.
“Perhaps I can deal with this,” He said as he dodged around the room. Fortunately, the room was large, and there were pillars that he could use as a shelter.
He rapidly shot out three-set of bolts as he did previously. Finally, the first underling monster was executed. Its leader, Mammon, was slow but could summon pillars of fire around itself. Tan could clearly feel the heat. He soon noticed that before the fire pillars emerged, there would be lava appearing in a certain area in the room. He could use his high Speed to evade that.
“Take this!” He rapidly fired bolts at another Black Wing and perished it. His remaining few MP regained back to 4, while two new cards were drawn—one of them was 6-star armor which was not good for the current situation as heavy armor would cause him to move slower.
“Equip!” A 4-star Equip Card that Tan put in the deck but had never been drawn was activated.
“Can’t believe I have a chance to use this in a real battle,” he said as his crossbow in his left hand slightly turned different. There was something attached to the crossbow which gave off a blue light. The crossbow shot out two bolts at once; in addition to the regular bolts, strange bolts were fired.
“401!” “405!” “882!” “405!” “401!” “877!” “407!” “409!”
“883!” “400!” “883!” “885!” “887” “400!” “411!” “407!”
“410!” “881!” “405!” “890!” “404!” “401!” “879” “882!”
“877!” “404!” “807!” “405!” “877!” “404!” “401!” “884!”
Damage constantly appeared above the fire demon’s body. Some bolts dealt twice as much damage as usual. Tan cracked a smile as he saw the scene.
“I was right to include this hard-to-use card in my deck…”
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone