Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards

(I need to make a trip to Nanchang later. Yesterday had four updates, so today there will only be the morning update. I'll be back tomorrow.)

A distance of barely a dozen meters.

Yet it took Soren over half an hour. The most troublesome thing about traps was not disarming them, but never knowing where they might be hidden. Especially with traps that killed in a single blow, every move was a gamble with his life. Even the slightest carelessness could get him killed. That was why many Professionals preferred steady work and had little interest in exploring underground ruins.

"Found it!"

With 15 points of Perception, Soren was highly sensitive to danger. Drawing on his past experience, he carefully used his dagger to pry an irregular stone from the Wall Corner. Sure enough, he found a complex firing mechanism inside. There should be a trigger buried underground as well. If someone with roughly an adult's weight stepped on it, the trigger would activate the firing mechanism before him, and more than three crossbow bolts would shoot out from the wall.

"One, two, three, four, five, six!..."

Soren could not help wiping away a cold sweat, silently grateful that he had been careful enough. This was actually a multiple repeating-crossbow trap. If he had carelessly triggered it, he would have been shot full of holes. Only heavy armor might have been able to block such powerful bolts. If he remembered correctly, each bolt from this kind of heavy crossbow trap dealt around 12 points of damage. Even without hitting vital spots, six bolts were enough to kill him instantly.

Crack!

Soren pinned the trigger with his fingers, then lay on the ground and used his dagger to tap an iron bar. These traps used special steel, treated with simple enchantments, so they generally would not rust or fail for decades. Some traps in underground ruins were fully enchanted and remained deadly even after being buried for centuries!

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Six crossbow bolts shot out, burying themselves completely in the wall on the opposite side.

Ignoring the dust all over his face, Soren dug out the firing mechanism, then followed his memories to locate the rest of the trap.

One trigger, one firing mechanism, and one heavy crossbow trap assembly.

"Good stuff!"

A faint smile appeared on Soren's face. He dismantled them into components and put them away. A thief could not set traps with his eyes closed. Even a legendary thief could not make traps without suitable materials. If he bought materials for a heavy crossbow trap like this from Shadow Mask, he would not get them for less than thirty or fifty Gold Dalers!

After all, this was a trap mechanism capable of instantly killing warriors below Professional Level 5.

A row of data appeared:

"Trap disarmed successfully."

"Your thief skills have improved. Gained 210 points of Professional Experience."

Disarming professional traps granted a great deal of experience, but also demanded higher thief skills. Soren put away the other items, though he reassembled the heavy crossbow firing mechanism. It was not an ordinary crossbow, but a box that launched bolts. After digging out the six bolts and loading them back in, he only needed to pull the trigger inside the box to fire all six at once.

This device could not fire a single bolt. It had to be fully loaded before it could fire, and each shot required all six bolts!

After all, this was not a properly forged heavy crossbow.

After dismantling one trap, Soren continued onward. It seemed that only an Acid Trap had been set up here, and it had already been triggered by that unlucky thief.

An Acid Trap cost even more, requiring around a hundred Gold Dalers to set up!

Because it might require a magical Trigger Device.

The cave ahead became winding and twisted, and Soren relaxed slightly. Setting traps in an environment like this was difficult, and they could easily be triggered by rats or similar creatures, so there should not have been any traps here. Still, he did not dare lower his guard. He continued forward cautiously until a concealed stone door appeared ahead.

Creak!

After confirming there were no traps on the stone door, Soren gently pushed it open.

"Whoo!"

A gust of cold wind swept past, and Soren suddenly felt a chill down his back. Without hesitation, he slashed behind him with his weapon. He saw only a hazy shadow emerge, a miserable smile appearing on its grotesque ghostly face. It let out a strange cry and vanished from where it stood.

"A ghost?!"

Soren cautiously pressed himself against the wall and swiftly pulled out Holy Water.

Ghosts were spirit-type lifeforms. Ordinary, unenchantmented weapons could not harm them. Even if they stood still and let Soren hack at them a hundred times, they would be completely unharmed.

Other methods were needed to deal with them.

"Hehehe!"

An eerie laugh rang out as the ghost's phantom appeared again.

It let out a piercing howl. This was one of its innate abilities, a low-level Undead Howl with the power of the spell-like ability Fear. A timid person would have been scared stiff in an instant.

Soren's eardrums ached, but there was not the slightest fear in his heart. He hurled the Holy Water at it with a backhanded throw.

Clang!

Holy Water splashed over the ghost's entire body. A shrill scream immediately rang out as its form rapidly dissolved, turning into a shadow and vanishing.

"Good thing I was prepared."

Soren wiped away a cold sweat and picked up a small black stone from the ground.

This was a Soul Fragment from the ghost!

Pure spirit-type lifeforms could sometimes transform into material structures when they dissipated, creating Soul Fragments like this. They were common charging materials.

Undead Wizards liked them very much.

They were worth around fifteen Gold Dalers!

The ghost's challenge level was five. Without something that countered it, no number of people would matter.

Because it was completely immune to physical attacks.

But if one brought items such as Holy Water, even an ordinary person could kill one. It was one of those creatures that were both extremely difficult and extremely easy to deal with.

A row of data appeared:

"Holy Water hit the ghost, dealing 60 damage."

"Target dead!"

"Extracted target's Soul Energy. Gained 120 experience points."

Soren already had enough experience to raise his thief level once, but he did not do so.

Because Slaughter Experience was far too difficult to obtain. This kind of experience was generally used to improve advanced professions and multiclass abilities, and there was no need to use precious Slaughter Experience on a thief before level five. If he encountered more traps, disarming just one or two would be enough for him to level up. If he had a chance to multiclass, Slaughter Experience would be the most valuable thing he had.

Creak!

Soren pushed open the stone door to the hidden chamber.

Many things inside were covered in dust. There were books on the walls, but they had all been damaged.

Spiderwebs covered all four sides, and there was even a rat hole in the Wall Corner.

This place had been abandoned for a long time.

Directly ahead stood a stone table covered with various odds and ends, such as an unidentified skull, broken finger bones, a dried bat corpse, and a black wooden box.

"No extraordinary weapons. No magical devices."

A hint of disappointment appeared in Soren's eyes. There seemed to be nothing valuable in this hidden chamber, apart from that wooden box whose contents were unknown.

He touched it lightly and, only after confirming there was no trap, carefully picked it up.

"Could this be ironwood?"

Soren looked around, held the box in his palm, kept it away from his head, and then pried it open with his dagger.

He still could not tell whether there was a Magic Trap inside.

But this was a low-level Treasure Cave, so there probably would not be so many traps. Still, keeping it away from his head was safer.

Crack!

Soren pried open the box before him. Inside were three cards.

They seemed utterly out of place with everything around them. The three cards were astonishingly exquisite, their mithril borders set with tiny diamonds, and at their centers were magical patterns resembling whirlpools that seemed to draw in every gaze at a single glance. They did not seem like something that could have been made by the current civilization at all. Even the divine emblems of temples were not so exquisite.

Soren's expression was one of uncertainty, caught between delight and worry, because what he held were legendary magical items.

—"Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards?!"

These were treasures left behind from the age of the Arcane Empire, said to have been the idle creation of some legendary arcanist.

There were 108 Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards in total, and every one possessed special magic. They might grant unimaginable benefits, or bring catastrophic disaster.

No one knew what Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards would bring!

Some people had been buried beneath ten thousand Arcane gold coins falling from the sky after opening one, while others had been struck head-on by a powerful bolt of lightning.

"Identify!"

Soren tried to activate the stream of data in his mind, and a row of small text quickly appeared:

"Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards, legendary items ×3: Little trinkets left behind from the Arcane Empire era, the greatest achievement of alchemy from the previous age. Something incredible will happen when opened."

(It was said that drawing the Ace could grant unimaginable power!)

Should he open one?

A troubled look crossed Soren's face. In the end, he gritted his teeth, took out a card, bit his fingertip, and let a drop of blood fall onto it.

Both sides of the Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards were identical. Only blood could open them. Before a card was opened, no one knew what it represented. Even legendary wizards could not predict it.

A faint glow emerged.

After the first Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card absorbed Soren's blood, ripples spread across it. Then images began appearing within the central whirlpool. The first was a treasure vault filled with countless gold coins, gemstones, and pieces of equipment. The sight thrilled Soren beyond measure, because it meant he might have drawn a Treasure Card.

But then...

A sneaky-looking figure appeared at the entrance to the vault, holding a sack and frantically stuffing treasures into it.

"No!"

Soren's expression instantly fell. He knew what he had drawn.

—"Master Thief!"

The opened Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card shone, and an incomparably sneaky phantom appeared. It gave an eerie laugh, and an ancient alchemical rune appeared in its palm. In the blink of an eye, every valuable thing on Soren's body was stolen clean. Aside from the three cards in his hand, even his clothes were gone.

A cold breeze passed by!

Soren shivered where he stood, naked from head to toe.

Weapons, clothes, gold coins, Holy Water, tools—everything Soren carried vanished into thin air. Even the ironwood box in his hand disappeared, leaving only the three Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards.

The wind blew.

His butt was cold!