Abyss Demon

"Damn it!"

Soren couldn't help swearing. He hurriedly grabbed the bundle he had set aside and clumsily pulled it over himself.

Fortunately, after dismantling the trap, he had been unable to carry everything on his person. Soren had casually used a dead man's clothes to make a bundle and stuffed some of the heavy crossbow trap's components inside. This was a real world, after all. Soren had no storage space on him, much less a treasure like a Bag of Holding. There was only so much he could carry. Unexpectedly, that ended up saving him from disaster. At the very least, the box that fired the heavy crossbow was still there, and he could still put on a dead man's clothes.

As for the gains he had obtained at the very beginning, they were naturally all gone.

"Damn it!"

"I actually drew the Master Thief card."

Soren was no stranger to this card, because someone had drawn it before—and opened it in full view of everyone.

The final result was easy enough to imagine!

Apparently unwilling to accept it, Soren put on the moldy, badly damaged clothes and immediately opened the second card. Once opened, Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards became ordinary crafts, with all the magic attached to them vanishing. Some people had once enjoyed collecting these things, but no one had managed to collect a complete set to this day. Back then, three sets of cards had been highly sought after by players. All were relics from the Arcane Empire era: Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards, Arcane Cards, and Fate Cards.

The first had 108 cards, the second had 72, and the last had 36.

Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards were the easiest to obtain. Arcane Cards could only be found in certain rare underground ruins, while Fate Cards had only produced three cards by the time the gods fell.

A faint gleam emerged!

After the second Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card absorbed Soren's blood, its center began to spin like a vortex. What first appeared was a barren land, almost entirely devoid of life. A boundless desert stretched into the distance. Amid the yellow sand filling the sky, a hunched figure appeared. He strode forward with unwavering steps, his body as solid as stone carved by wind and frost, his gaze fixed upon the far distance.

—"Ascetic."

A powerful force flooded into Soren's body. After a tearing pain swept through him from head to toe, endless exhaustion rose in his heart. It felt as though he had traveled tens of thousands of miles, his body long pushed beyond its limits, sustained until now only by stubborn willpower.

A line of data appeared:

"Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card: Ascetic activated!... Personal Specialization awakened: Iron Will!..."

"Constitution increased to 18 points!..."

"Magical alteration complete."

Soren felt indescribably exhausted from head to toe, yet he also sensed a powerful vitality.

It was as though he truly had crossed tens of thousands of miles, endured countless paths of wind, frost, and snow, and grown stronger and tougher through the long journey.

After the endless exhaustion came a strength that would support him as he continued onward.

It was as though, so long as he had not fallen, he would forever keep moving forward. Until death itself descended, he would never halt his steps!

"Iron Will Personal Specialization: Your will has endured harsh trials, nearly forming a tangible spiritual force! When facing any charm or control spell, you gain an additional +5 bonus on saving throws!"

He had struck it rich.

A hint of delight appeared on Soren's face, as though he were celebrating his good fortune!

There were very few cards in Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards that could improve attributes. Out of 108 cards, only around ten could raise attributes. Aside from the two mysterious trump cards, the best card that had ever appeared was "Champion Knight." That card raised its user's Strength to 20 and Constitution to 18. Although its opener had been a wizard, he later earned a fearsome reputation as a brutally powerful melee wizard. That man had once held immense prestige across the Northern Plains, but unfortunately fell during the catastrophe of the Frost Calamity.

It was precisely because Professional Level increases granted so few Attribute Points that many people had sought other ways to raise their attributes.

Ordinary training was already ineffective for players whose heroic Professional templates had been fixed. During the initial allocation of ninety total attribute points, many people had been forced to make difficult choices. The reason Soren had the legend of the Dual-wielding Violent Rogue was that he had abandoned Charisma and raised all his other attributes above 15. In other words, aside from being unpleasant to look at, his other abilities had all been at the peak of what an ordinary person could achieve.

Items that could improve attributes were extremely rare!

They were basically all Legendary Items, difficult to obtain, and could raise an attribute only to 20 at most.

After entering the extraordinary realm, it became nearly impossible to improve attributes through external means.

"Three points of Constitution."

"That's equivalent to the bonus from six Professional Levels!"

Soren punched his own chest. Even using seventy or eighty percent of his strength, he did not feel any discomfort in his internal organs. This meant his Constitution was already nearing the extraordinary realm. With an ordinary person's strength—10 points—mere punches would find it very difficult to injure him. If his Constitution could reach 20, he could awaken the extraordinary talent of "Regeneration." This was the easiest extraordinary talent to obtain among all attributes. Other talents required an attribute value of 25 before they could awaken.

Those who could raise an attribute to 25 had basically already entered Legendary Professional Levels!

As for the Personal Specialization he had awakened, "Iron Will," it was a relatively common Personal Specialization. Many people awakened it under harsh conditions. Soren had awakened it in the Plane of Fire, when he had nearly been roasted into jerky. Because he had luckily survived after falling into lava, he had also awakened the talent of minor fire resistance. At the time, Soren had been almost completely disfigured. In the end, he had spent a fortune hiring a legendary priest to cast Greater Restoration, barely saving his life.

During that period, his Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity had all dropped by 10 points, leaving him almost useless!

"There's still one left."

After obtaining such astonishing benefits, Soren's gaze toward the last Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card also carried a trace of fervor. If he could draw another attribute-raising card, then his current attributes would surpass even his old heroic Professional template. At the very least, his Charisma was now as high as 16, rather than leaving him nearly universally hated as before.

His Charisma had once been so low that even goblins ignored him. If he formally applied to enter the Elf Kingdom, he would be rejected.

Those damned elves from the Appearance Association!

Since he had already used two cards, Soren naturally would not leave the last one to gather dust. With a trace of unease in his heart, he dripped blood onto the third Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card.

A blood-red light appeared!

Soren's expression changed instantly. As though it had burned his hand, he flung the Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card away.

This was a summoning card.

Myriad Changes Unpredictable Cards were ever-changing, and no one could predict the result of opening one. One might gain power, or obtain treasure, but one might also summon certain monsters, or even suffer some injury oneself! Blood-red light represented the Abyss and the Nine Hells, holy radiance represented the gods of the Celestial Realm, and five-colored light meant the summoned creature came from an elemental plane.

This card summoned a creature from the lower planes, from the Nine Hells or the Abyss!

A mysterious vortex appeared at the center of the card. The image rapidly plummeted through sulfur, lava, and ice before finally freezing on a savage, twisted face.

—"Marilith!"

The Myriad Changes Unpredictable Card transformed into a blood-red portal.

The instant he saw that ugly, distorted face, Soren's mind produced a rough outline of its attributes.

It was information players had once gathered and assessed themselves.

"Marilith Abyss Demon, third tier."

"Challenge Rating 6, personal level 12, possesses spell-like abilities."

"Highest attribute 21, lowest attribute 10, total attribute score 85–95."

"Special Specializations: Two-Weapon Fighting, Multiattack."

"Challenge difficulty: A+."

As mariliths grew stronger, they gained another pair of arms. Each additional pair increased a marilith's Challenge Rating by 5 and personal level by 6. In other words, a four-armed marilith had a Challenge Rating of 11 and a personal level of around 18, while a six-armed marilith had a Challenge Rating of 16 and a personal level of around 24. As for the even more powerful eight-armed mariliths, they were already Legendary or greater existences. Under normal circumstances, the appearance of an eight-armed marilith meant that a Demon Lord had descended.

"I can't beat it head-on!"

That was the first thought to arise in Soren's mind. His current rogue Professional Level was 3, while the marilith's personal level was 12—a difference of nine levels. Its group Challenge Rating was 6, meaning that at least five experienced adventurers, well-equipped and with Professional Levels above 6, would be needed to form a team with roughly a fifty percent chance of defeating the Abyss marilith before them.

Though only the weakest two-armed marilith had been summoned, it was still not something he could handle easily right now!

Abyss Demons were all extraordinary creatures.

Factoring in the gap in Professional Levels, the marilith's health and stamina were more than three times his own. His chances of defeating it head-on were practically nonexistent.

Several thoughts flashed through Soren's mind in an instant!

Yet his movements did not hesitate in the slightest. Just as a dark red portal appeared before him and delivered the two-armed marilith into the stone chamber, he threw himself to the ground, pulled out the box from the heavy crossbow mechanism, and squeezed its trigger.

The teleportation completed in the next instant!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Agonized screams echoed through the stone chamber.

The marilith's body, over 2.4 meters tall and weighing more than 600 pounds, had barely appeared in the chamber when six powerful crossbow bolts greeted it, nearly covering its chest. Most of them pierced through its snake scales and sank into its body. The sudden attack drove the marilith into a frenzy. Before it could even make out its surroundings, it wildly slashed about with the two swords in its hands.

Crack!

A stone table twenty centimeters thick was split in half by a single slash. Soren, facing it from across the room, felt his brow twitch. Without hesitation, he threw away the box in his hand and bolted outside. Six consecutive heavy crossbow shots had failed to kill it. There was basically no chance of beating it. Judging from the combat power it had displayed, one swing of its sword would probably be enough to chop him into pieces!

The moment Soren fled, the marilith chased after him madly.

Most Abyss Demons were chaotic evil creatures. Bloodlust, brutality, and slaughter were their nature. There was basically no reasoning with them.

Once a summoning succeeded!

Unless you could enslave it, it would kill you!