Deck of Many Things

Only a dozen or so meters.

Yet Soren spent over half an hour covering them. 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 strike—most of the time, you were gambling with your life. The slightest carelessness could get you killed. That was why many professionals preferred steady work and had little interest in exploring underground ruins.

"Found it!"

With 15 Perception, Soren was highly sensitive to danger. Drawing on his past experience, he carefully pried an irregular stone from the corner of the wall with his Dagger. Sure enough, he found a complex firing mechanism inside. There should have been a trigger buried underground. If someone weighing roughly as much as an adult stepped on it, the trigger would activate the mechanism before him, and three or more crossbow bolts would shoot from the wall.

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

Soren could not help wiping away a cold sweat, secretly grateful that he had been cautious enough. It was actually a multiple Heavy Crossbow trap. If he had been caught by it, he would have been turned into a sieve. Only heavy armor might have been able to block such powerful bolts. If he remembered correctly, each bolt from this type of Heavy Crossbow trap dealt around 12 damage. Even without hitting vital points, six bolts would have been enough to kill him instantly. Click!

Soren held the trigger in place with his fingers, then lay on the ground and tapped an iron bar with his Dagger. These traps used special steel, treated with simple enchantments, so they generally would not rust or malfunction 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 and sank entirely into the opposite wall.

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

A trigger, a firing mechanism, and a Heavy Crossbow trap assembly.

"Good stuff!"

A faint smile appeared on Soren's face. He dismantled them into parts and packed them away. A Rogue could not set traps with their eyes closed, after all. Even a Legendary Rogue could not set a trap without suitable materials. If he bought materials for a Heavy Crossbow trap like this from the Shadow Mask, he would need at least thirty to fifty Gold Daler!

After all, this was a trap assembly capable of instantly killing a Warrior below level five.

A row of information appeared:

"Disarm Trap successful."

"Your Rogue skill has improved. You gained 210 Class Experience."

Disarming professional traps granted high experience, but also demanded greater Rogue skill. Soren put away the other items, though he reassembled the Heavy Crossbow firing mechanism. It was not an ordinary crossbow; it was a box that launched crossbow 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 bolts at once.

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

After all, it was not a properly crafted Heavy Crossbow.

After dismantling the trap, Soren continued onward. It seemed that only an Acid Trap had been installed here, and that unlucky Rogue had already triggered it.

An Acid Trap was even more expensive, costing around a hundred Gold Daler to set up!

Because it might require a Magic trigger mechanism.

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

Creak!

After confirming that the stone door had no trap, Soren gently pushed it open.

"Whooo!"

A gust of chilling wind swept past. Soren suddenly felt a chill run down his back and immediately slashed behind him with his weapon. He saw only a hazy shadow emerge, a miserable smile spreading across its ferocious ghostly face. With a shriek, it vanished from the spot.

"A Spectre?!"

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

Spectres were Spiritual Body creatures. Ordinary non-enchanted weapons could not harm them. Even if Soren stood there and chopped at one a hundred times, it would not matter in the slightest.

He could only deal with them through other means.

"Hehehe!"

An eerie laugh rang out as the Spectre's phantom reappeared.

It let out a piercing howl. This was one of its innate abilities, a low-level effect with power similar to the spell Cause Fear. A timid person would have been frightened stiff in an instant.

Soren's eardrums ached, but he felt no Fear at all. He flung the Holy Water at it without hesitation.

Crash!

Holy Water splashed across the Spectre's entire body. A shrill scream immediately rang out as its form rapidly dissolved into a shadow and vanished.

"Good thing I came prepared."

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

It was a fragment of the Spectre's soul!

When purely Spiritual Body creatures dissipated, they could sometimes transform into material matter. These soul fragments were common charging materials.

Necromancers liked them very much.

They were worth around fifteen Gold Daler!

A Spectre's Challenge Rating was level five. Without something that countered it, no number of people would have been useful.

Because it did not fear physical attacks at all.

However, with 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 information appeared:

"Holy Water hit Spectre, dealing 60 damage."

"Target dead!"

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

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

Because Slaughter Experience was far too difficult to obtain. This type of experience was generally used to improve advanced classes and multiclass abilities, and there was no need to spend precious Slaughter Experience before Rogue level five. If he encountered more traps, he only needed to disarm one or two more to level up. If he had an opportunity to multiclass, Slaughter Experience would be the most precious thing he had.

Creak!

Soren pushed open the stone door to the secret chamber.

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

Spiderwebs covered all four sides, and there were rat holes in the corners.

This place had been abandoned for a long time.

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

"No Supernatural Weapons, no Magic devices."

A trace of disappointment appeared in Soren's eyes. There seemed to be nothing valuable in this secret chamber, aside from the wooden box whose contents he did not know.

He touched it lightly. Only after confirming there was no trap did he carefully pick it up.

"Could this be Ironwood?"

Soren glanced 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 determine whether there was a Magic trap inside.

But this was only a low-level treasure cave, so it probably would not have had so many traps. Still, keeping it away from his head was better.

Crack!

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

They seemed utterly out of place amid everything around them. The three cards were astonishingly exquisite, with Mithril edging set with tiny Diamonds. At their centers was a vortex-like Magic pattern that seemed to draw in all attention at a glance. They did not seem like objects that could have been crafted by the current civilization at all. Even the temples' Divine Power emblems were not so exquisite.

Soren wore an expression that did not know whether to be delighted or worried, because what he held was a Legendary Magic item.

—"Deck of Many Things?!"

This was a treasure left behind from the era of the Arcane Empire, supposedly the idle creation of some Legendary Arcanist.

The Deck of Many Things contained 108 cards in total, and each possessed special Magic. It might grant unimaginable benefits, or it might bring devastating disaster.

No one knew what the Deck of Many Things would bring!

Some people had been buried beneath ten thousand Arcane Gold Coins that fell from the sky after drawing a card, while others had been struck head-on by a powerful bolt of lightning.

"Item Identification!"

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

"Deck of Many Things *3: Little trinkets left behind from the era of the Arcane Empire, the pinnacle achievement of Alchemy in the previous age. Something incredible will happen after activation."

Should he activate one?

A conflicted expression appeared on Soren's face. In the end, he gritted his teeth, took out one card, bit his fingertip, and let a drop of blood fall onto it.

The front and back of the Deck of Many Things cards were identical. Only blood could activate them. Before activation, no one knew what a card represented. Even a Legendary Wizard could not predict it.

A faint glow appeared.

After absorbing Soren's blood, the first Deck of Many Things card rippled like water. An image then emerged from the central vortex. First came a treasure vault piled high with countless Gold Coins, gems, and equipment. The sight thrilled Soren beyond measure, because it meant he might have drawn a Treasure card.

But then.

A furtive figure appeared at the entrance to the treasure vault. Holding a sack, he was desperately stuffing treasures into it.

"No!"

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

—"Master Thief!"

The activated Deck of Many Things card emitted a glow, and an incredibly furtive phantom appeared. It gave an eerie chuckle as an ancient Alchemy Rune emerged in its palm. In the blink of an eye, everything valuable on Soren had been stolen clean, and aside from the three cards in his hand, even his clothes had been stolen.

A chilly breeze passed by!

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

His weapons, clothes, Gold Coins, Holy Water, tools—everything on Soren vanished into thin air. Even the Ironwood box in his hand disappeared, leaving only the three Deck of Many Things cards behind.

The wind blew.

His butt was cold!