Alex and the person who had led him to the dean, retreated to let the two siblings have some time together.
Alex looked at the man who seemed to be emotional as well. "Are you related to those two?" Alex asked him.
The man nodded. "I am their maternal uncle."
Alex nodded. Then asked. "What about their father?"
The uncle sighed. "He went missing many years ago."
Alex sat down on a window and observed the campus of the Warrior University. The students seemed lively and they all had their goals. He wondered about himself.
What was his goal? What did he really want? Why did he toil so hard at the point of risking his life and enter the Card Dimension? To succeed in a world that he wasn't even a part of? To find out what exactly he missed within his past in this world? Status? Power? Or was he just going through the motions...
He then thought of something that he had put in the back of his mind. Why did he come to this world? Why was only he shifted to this world of cards? He didn't know, but may be, one day he would find out.
As he was in a daze, Lionel appeared behind Alex. Lionel coughed, pulling Alex out of his daze. "Mr. Alex, thank you for your help. I... just I don't have anything of equal value to pay to you with."
Lionel looked embarrassed. "I don't happen to have many absolute rare treasures of a similar grade on me, since I would sell anything I could for stone attribute special items to grow."
Alex shook his head. "I don't need any crazy treasures. I would appreciate it if you could allow me to pick a few attribute based special items from your Warrior University of the same market price as that stick."
Lionel was embarrassed. "Are you sure?" He asked.
Alex nodded. Lionel then led him back to his office and asked him which attribute he wanted. Alex looked at Lionel. "Do you have Dark Attribute Special items?"
Lionel's eyes raised but he calmed himself. "Dark attribute? Yes, I do, but only one item."
Lionel opened his vault and entered it. After some time, he came out with a box. He opened the box and showed Alex. It was a black feather.
"This is the only object I have of the dark attribute." Lionel said.
Alex nodded. "Good item. This can be considered payment for the stick." Alex closed the box and put it into his bag.
Lionel was hesitant. Dark attribute special items were rare, but they couldn't compare to the rarity of that stick Alex had sold him. To others it might only help build a stone attribute body, but to him it was a life saving drug comparable to an elixir. Lionel felt guilty for the trade.
Alex then nodded and began to leave. Lionel remembered something and asked. "Your name is Alex Lune... are you from the Lune family?"
Alex shook his head. "I have no ties to the Lune family." He said in a heavy voice. "I bid my farewell."
Lionel felt the bitterness in Alex's voice as he left and he realized that this young man's life may be no less complicated than his own. After a sigh, he went to visit Aurora, who was recuperating on the bed, feeding on high grade nutrient solutions amd playing with her base card.
Alex took a train amd returned to the Dojo in Pond City. Back in the dojo, he absorbed the feather by guiding the energy into his inner world. Increasing the dark attribute energy storage to 16 units.
He decided to go into the Card Dimension again and quickly consume fragments to construct his third rank 1 card.
Alex decided to explore in another direction this time, heading eastward from the Highland Shelter when he went back to the Card Dimension. Perhaps he could take a look at some of the other interesting missions in the Adventure House.
The next day, Alex set off. He took the train to the portal and then entered the Highland shelter. After entering, he directly went to the Adventure House.
"Alex? There seems to be a mission in which the client specifically asked for you."
"Oh? What is the mission?" Alex asked with curiosity.
"Well.. the mission actually seems to be classified. You have to go to the client to obtain the details. Don't worry, the client is very reliable." The mission assigner said.
"Who is the client?" Alex asked.
"Family Alliance." The mission assigner whispered.
Alex took the slip with the directions on whom to meet. He was curious why Family Alliance suddenly wished to hire him for a mission, but he was willing to be a free agent if the pay was compelling.
Alex walked to the area of the shelter controlled by the Family Alliance. This place was probably the most well maintained and attractive area in the shelter. He followed the instructions and entered the main building and he was guided to a conference room where he was instructed to wait. After a while he was stunned to see that there were several people arrive into the room, almost everyone seemed to be Card Apprentices.
The group of individuals looked at Alex. "We have very conflicting information about you. Some of our members suggest that you are quite strong, however, our intelligence suggests you have never been seen using your base card. We also have a few snippets suggesting that you are a cripple who cannot form an active card."
Alex immediately turned cold. "Did you call me here for a mission or to sing a bard about my identity? Is this the way you request a hiring?"
Another person coughed. "We have to vet your identity, considering the nuances of this mission, what we are looking for is reliable people who are strong."
At that moment a person walked in. She looked at Alex and nodded. "I can assure you, he is stronger than most people you have hired for this mission."
The people in the room looked at the woman and then looked at Alex with curiosity. "If Miss Qianyu is guaranteeing it, then we will have to take your word into consideration."
Alex looked at Qianyu and nodded. The people in the conference room then looked at each other and described the details of the mission.
"The Scarlet Tide stole an object that was to be extracted by the Family Alliance. We have obtained intelligence about the hideout of the Scarlet Tide close to the Highland Shelter.
The Family Alliance, Army Alliance and a few other individuals will launch an attack to eradicate the Scarlet Tide from this shelter."
Alex looked at the information. According to this intelligence the scarlet tide has a base in the south west. The previous time Alex had headed south, but had not encountered any person from Scarlet Tide. However, the young masters had and they had even said it was a tablet with a paw mark on it.
He did not say much, simply accepted the mission. He had hatred for the Scarlet Tide anyway.
Alex was provided details. The expedition would leave in two days and he was asked to make preparations. Alex prepared meat, he also carried the explosive cores of the golems. He already had several single use cards, he acquired through scrupulous and unscrupulous means. Since he had two days, Alex spent time exploring around the shelter.
He went around looking at the various stalls to see if anything was on sale that could interest him. However, he was disappointed. These street vendors were extremely poor and only sold some meat and... card fragments!
Alex was excited. Since he could absorb any card fragments he didn't even need to hunt, couldn't he just purchase fragments directly?
Thinking in such a manner, Alex walked to one stall and asked. "How much for this card fragment?"
"Just one?" The vendor stared at Alex.
Alex nodded. "Yeah, just this one."
Soon Alex purchased the card fragment and took it in his hand. However, he was immediately disappointed. "Why isn't the vortex card digesting this fragment?" He wondered.
He purchased a few more fragments from different stalls at random, but he had the same issue.
"Could it be, that I can only absorb fragments of creatures that I kill?" Alex had a thought and then realized that that must be true. He sighed because his potential way to just become a juggernaut by purchasing fragments did not work.
Two days later, Alex arrived at the appointed spot. There were twenty people from the family alliance, twenty people from the army alliance and ten other people. Among them Alex spotted Nia and Qianyu as the only people he was familiar with. Nia seemed to be the only person other than himself who was a card initiate.
The group departed under the leadership of Qianyu who represented the army alliance. The group quickly set off for the location. No one in the group was weak and the group had a fairly large number, so monsters did not dare to attack along the way.
Their speed was very high and after three days of constant travelling they neared the enemy territory. At this point, the group turned discrete, in an attempt to launch a sneak attack and take down all the Scarlet Tide members. The area was actually a rocky crevasse filled area with many caves. The Scarlet Tide were hidden within these caves.
The group split up surrounded the area and on careful observation, the activity of the Scarlet Tide could be seen. Hundreds of individuals were gathered here, running around, busy with work.
Upon a sign, the group immediately set out to attack the base. The fifty individuals, including Alex, all pounced on the unsuspecting Scarlet tide and began attacking.
Alex took out his stick and began fighting with the opponents as did the others. The invasion group was very strong and all the scarlet tide members outside the caves were forced into a defensive.
As Alex fought against the scarlet tide member, who took out blood cards and activated it, Alex calmly rushed in and struck using the stick. A powerful vibratory force intruded the cultist and he crumpled to death. Similar fates befell two others who Alex quickly got rid off.
After ten minutes, all the Scarlet Tide cultists outside the caves had been killed. Qianyu then spoke up.
"Split up and enter the caves, find any cultists and kill them!"
There were ten caves in all, and so the group of fifty split into groups of five and entered. Within the cave, Alex's encountered several cultists whom they slaughtered without much effort. The group were starting to think that they had really over prepared for this eradication mission.
Following through into the cave, the group found that the cave continued to expand larger and larger until it merged into a gigantic underground hall.
At the center of the hall was a temple where the clay tablet with the paw mark was placed at an angular altar. Alex noticed that there were nine other caves leading into this hall, and as if to confirm his suspicions, the other groups arrived from the other caves.
When all the fifty entered the huge temple hall, a voice spoke up from within the temple. "Welcome, everyone. Thank you for accepting my invitation."
"Accepting your invitation?" A member of the Family alliance asked in confusion.
"Of course, how exactly did you suddenly receive this tip?" A man suddenly appeared. He seemed young, but he had red hair and red eyes. However, when Alex saw him, he was shocked.
"Luke?" Alex realized with horror. This young person seemed to be Luke! But he had died right in front of his eyes. Although he was shocked by the situation, he did not speak out the name out loud. "How is he alive?" Alex thought in his heart with bewilderment.
The red haired Luke didn't seem to recognize Alex. He laughed as he spoke out. "I invited you to witness the first grand opening of the scarlet tide. Today, you will lay your lives as sacrifices to see the power of this ancient artifact!"
Suddenly, behind the fifty attackers, hundreds of cultists appeared from the caves. These people had already realized the situation. This was an ambush prepared for them, to activate the artifact.
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT