Abyssal Fiends

"Fuck!" Soren blurted out a curse, 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 him, so Soren had casually wrapped some of the Heavy Crossbow trap components in a bundle made from a dead man's clothes. This was a real world, after all. Soren had no storage space, much less treasures like a Bag of Holding. There was only so much he could carry. Unexpectedly, that had saved him from disaster. At the very least, the Heavy Crossbow firing mechanism was still there, and he could still put on a dead man's clothes.

As for his initial gains, they were naturally all gone.

"Damn it!"

"I actually drew the Thief Card."

Soren was no stranger to this card, because someone had drawn it before—and had activated it in public.

The result was obvious!

Seemingly unwilling to accept it, Soren put on the moldy, badly damaged clothes and immediately activated the second card. Once activated, the Deck of Many Things became an ordinary craft item, all magic attached to it disappearing. Some people had once enjoyed collecting these things, but to this day, no one had gathered a complete set. Back then, three sets of cards had been highly sought after by Players. All were relics from the Arcane Empire era: the Deck of Many Things, Arcane Cards, and Fate Cards. The first had 108 cards, the second had 72, and the last had 36.

The Deck of Many Things was the easiest to acquire. Arcane Cards could only be found in rare underground ruins, while Fate Cards had only appeared three times after the fall of the Gods.

A faint glow emerged!

After the second Deck of Many Things absorbed Soren's blood, its center began to spin like a vortex. What first appeared was a barren land, nearly devoid of life. In the distance stretched an endless Gobi Desert. Amid the yellow sand swirling through the sky stood a hunched figure. He stepped forward with unwavering determination, his body as solid as stone carved by wind and frost, his gaze fixed on the horizon.

—"Ascetic."

A powerful force surged into Soren's body. After 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 only by sheer will until now.

A row of information appeared:

"Deck of Many Things activated!... Personal Feat awakened!..."

"Constitution increased to 18!... Magic modification complete."

Soren felt indescribably exhausted, yet he also sensed powerful vitality within himself.

It was as though he had truly traveled tens of thousands of miles, endured countless storms, frost, and snowy roads, and grown stronger and sturdier through that endless journey.

After the boundless exhaustion came a force that supported him as he continued onward.

As if so long as he had not fallen, he would keep moving forward forever. Until death itself arrived, he would never stop!

"Fortitude: Your will has withstood harsh trials, forming an almost tangible spiritual strength! When facing any Charm or Control Spell, you gain an additional +5 bonus to Saving Throws!"

He had struck it rich.

A trace of delight appeared on Soren's face as he silently rejoiced at his good fortune.

There were very few cards in the Deck of Many Things that could increase attributes. Of the 108 cards, only around ten could do so. Aside from the two mysterious trump cards, the best card ever seen was the 'Champion Knight.' It increased its user's Strength to 20 and Constitution to 18. Even though the one who activated it had been a Wizard, he later earned a reputation as a brutally powerful melee Wizard. That man had once held immense prestige on the northern plains, but unfortunately fell during the disaster of the Snow and Ice Riot.

Precisely because so few attribute points were gained from raising class levels, many people had sought other ways to improve their attributes.

Ordinary training was already ineffective on Players whose Heroic Class templates had solidified. During the initial allocation of 90 total attribute points, many had been forced to make difficult choices. The reason Soren had become known as a violent dual-blade Rogue was because he had abandoned Charisma and raised all his other attributes above 15. In other words, aside from being unpleasant-looking, every other ability of his was at the upper limit for ordinary people.

Items capable of increasing attributes were exceedingly rare!

They were basically all Legendary Items, difficult to obtain, and could only raise attributes to a maximum of 20.

After entering the Transcendent Realm, it became nearly impossible to improve attributes through external means.

"Three points of Constitution."

"That's equivalent to the bonus from six class levels!"

Soren punched his own chest. Even using seventy or eighty percent of his strength, he felt no discomfort in his internal organs. This meant his Constitution was already nearing the Transcendent Realm. If an ordinary person merely swung their fists, it would be very difficult for them to injure him. If his Constitution reached 20, he could awaken the Transcendent talent of 'Regeneration.' This was the easiest Transcendent talent to obtain among all attributes. Other talents could only be awakened after reaching an attribute score of 25.

Those whose attributes reached 25 had basically entered Legendary Class levels already!

As for the awakened Personal Feat, 'Fortitude,' it was a fairly common Personal Feat. Many people awakened it in harsh environments. Soren had awakened his in the Elemental Plane of Fire, where he had nearly been roasted into jerky. He had survived by chance after falling into Magma, and had awakened another talent at the same time. Back then, 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 little better than a cripple!

"There's one more."

After gaining such astonishing benefits, Soren's gaze toward the final Deck of Many Things also held a trace of fervor. If he could draw another attribute-boosting card, his current attributes would surpass those of his original Heroic Class template. At the very least, his Charisma was now as high as 16, unlike before, when everyone found him repulsive.

His Charisma had once been so low that even Goblins ignored him, and he would have been denied entry if he applied openly to enter the Elven Realm.

Those damned appearance-obsessed Elves!

Since he had already used two cards, Soren naturally would not leave the last one sitting around to rust. With a trace of unease in his heart, he dripped blood onto the third Deck of Many Things.

A blood-red glow appeared!

Soren's expression changed drastically. As though it had burned his hand, he threw the Deck of Many Things away.

This was a summoning card.

The Deck of Many Things was ever-changing, and no one could predict the result after activation. It might grant power or treasure, but it could also summon certain monsters or even inflict harm upon its user! Blood-red light represented the Abyss and Hell. Holy radiance represented the Gods of Celestia. Five-colored light meant the summoned creature came from an Elemental Plane.

This card summoned a creature from Hell or the Abyss in the Lower Planes!

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

—"Marilith!"

The Deck of Many Things transformed into a blood-red Portal.

The instant Soren saw that ugly, distorted face, its approximate statistics surfaced in his mind.

They were the records Players had once gathered and evaluated themselves.

"Marilith."...

"Challenge Rating 6, personal level 12, possesses Spell-like Abilities."

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

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

"Challenge difficulty: A+."

As a Marilith grew stronger, it gained an additional pair of arms. Each extra pair of arms increased its 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 stronger Eight-Armed Marilith, it was already a Legendary existence. Under normal circumstances, the appearance of an Eight-Armed Marilith meant a Demon Lord had descended.

"There's no way I can beat it head-on!"

That was the first thought that entered Soren's mind. His current Rogue class level was 3, while the Marilith's personal level was 12—a difference of 9 levels. Its group Challenge Rating was 6, meaning that only a team of at least five well-equipped veteran Adventurers with class levels above 6 had roughly a fifty percent chance of defeating the Abyssal Marilith before him.

Though only the lowest-ranked Two-Armed Marilith had been summoned, it was still not something he could easily handle right now!

Abyssal Fiends were all Transcendent creatures.

Including the difference in class levels, the Marilith's Hit Points and stamina were more than triple his own. His odds of winning against it head-on were virtually nonexistent.

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

Yet his movements did not hesitate in the slightest. The moment a dark-red Portal appeared before him and brought the Two-Armed Marilith into the stone chamber, he threw himself to the ground, pulled out the box from the Heavy Crossbow mechanism, and pulled its trigger.

The teleportation completed in the next instant!

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

A pained scream echoed through the stone chamber.

The Marilith's body was over 2.4 meters tall and weighed more than 600 pounds. The instant it appeared in the stone chamber, six powerful crossbow bolts greeted it, nearly blanketing its chest head-on. Most pierced through its snake scales and buried themselves in its body. The sudden attack drove the Marilith into a frenzy. Before it could even see its surroundings clearly, it wildly slashed around with the twin swords in its hands.

"Crack!"

A stone table twenty centimeters thick was cleaved in half with a single strike. Soren, standing opposite it, felt his eyelids twitch. Without hesitation, he threw away the box in his hand and sprinted outside. Even six consecutive Heavy Crossbow shots had failed to kill it. There was basically no chance of defeating it. Judging from the combat power it had displayed, one strike was probably enough to chop him into pieces!

The moment Soren fled, the Marilith pursued him madly.

Most Abyssal Fiends were Chaotic Evil creatures. Blood Frenzy, 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!