Akashic_Tales & VIPER SCANS
CardMaster: Awakening the Mythic Codex
Chapter 5: Attribute Surge, Apprentice Lv.2
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When Ethan opened his eyes again, a sharp pain shot through his foot, and his palm felt like it was on fire.
Fortunately, before entering, Ethan had already planned what to do.
First, he dragged his injured body to an area where the vegetation wasn't as dense.
The visibility was better here.
Then he found some soft-looking leaves to bandage his palm, and two relatively flat stones to stabilize his ankle.
Next, he got up and searched the forest for two not-too-thick wooden sticks, then found a flat stone to sharpen them.
Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion according to plan.
But the wooden sticks weren't as easy to sharpen as he had imagined. It took nearly half an hour to achieve a reasonably pointed tip.
"Good, now it's time to level up."
Ethan held one stick in his hand and tied the other to his back, then limped back to yesterday's vegetation area.
He moved slowly, carefully paying attention to his surroundings.
"Rustle-"
The vegetation in front of him suddenly moved.
Though Ethan's foot made movement difficult, his hands were still quite nimble. Without thinking, he thrust the meter-long wooden spike forward.
He felt the sensation of piercing something. Ethan immediately took down the other wooden spike and thrust it forward as well.
The spike in his hand began to shake violently. Ethan approached step by step and saw the familiar rabbit from yesterday.
One spike had fortunately pierced its eye, while the other was embedded in its body.
The rabbit lay on the ground, still convulsing. Ethan pulled out the spike and thrust it back in, giving it a quick end.
He then retrieved his spikes and left the vegetation area, returning to the forest clearing.
Finding a small depression in the ground, Ethan lay down and turned his attention to the Mythic Codex in his mind.
He invested another Aether point into the [Ironhorn] page.
The sensation of enhancement washed over him again.
[Name: Ethan Drake]
[Level: Apprentice Lv.1 (20/100)]
[Strength: 0.86]
[Constitution: 0.94]
[Agility: 1.05]
[Spirit: 3.50]
[Aether: 3/3]
[Soul Card: Mythic Codex]
[Card Slots: (Empty) (Empty) (Empty)]
[Inventory: Tusk (Common)]
His three basic attributes had each increased by 0.01, spirit by 0.02, and Aether by 1 point!
The [Ironhorn] page progress had also reached (2/20).
This time he didn't obtain a [Tusk] material card, but Ethan didn't care about that right now.
The feeling of becoming stronger was definitely ten thousand times more satisfying than making money by selling material cards!
Ethan eagerly returned to the vegetation area. He noticed that after investing the point, his injured areas seemed to be improving, with less pain than before.
And so, the rabbits in this vegetation area met their doom.
No matter how tall the grass, it couldn't stop Ethan's determination to hunt rabbits.
Armed with two wooden spikes, Ethan became the god of this vegetation area and the nightmare of these rabbits.
An hour passed.
Ethan pulled out his spikes and wiped the blood on the rabbit's fur.
Just one more to go.
Just one more and he could level up.
At that moment, the grass beside him suddenly disappeared, and a shadow loomed over him.
Ethan immediately dodged to the side.
"Boom—"
A black snake tail slammed down hard where Ethan had been standing.
Goodness, there were snakes here too?
When Ethan got a clear look, he couldn't help but feel his scalp tingle. What kind of snake was this?
A body half a meter thick, with two snake heads, constantly making hissing sounds.
A two-headed rattlesnake?
Just as this thought flashed through his mind, the snake's tail came at his face.
Fortunately, Ethan's physical attributes had significantly improved. He leaned back and avoided the strike.
The tail made a loud "crack" in the air, giving him a clear idea of its power.
Seeing that it had missed the human twice, the two-headed snake stopped using its tail and instead lowered its heads, rapidly approaching Ethan.
Cold sweat dripped from Ethan's forehead, but he didn't retreat a single step.
At this distance, running from such a large python was useless. It would catch up in seconds, coil around him, and suffocate him to death.
Besides, dying here wouldn't affect him in reality.
Ethan took a deep breath to calm himself, his eyes fixed intently on the two-headed snake's movements.
The moment the snake's body curved slightly, about to spring forward in attack, Ethan gripped his wooden spike tightly and thrust forward.
"Squelch—"
The sound of liquid bursting forth accompanied Ethan and the two-headed snake as they fell to the ground together.
Blood from the snake's eyes poured like water onto Ethan's face.
Seeing the blood continuously affecting his vision, Ethan forcefully turned and grabbed the snake's head, trying to pin it beneath him.
However, the two-headed snake was clearly stronger than Ethan. It lifted him up, and Ethan found himself sitting on one snake head in mid-air, using his remaining wooden spike to repeatedly stab at the other snake head's eye.
In the last moment before being thrown off, Ethan successfully embedded the remaining spike into the other snake head's eye.
"Thud—"
Ethan was then thrown about ten meters away.
He felt like his entire skeletal structure had shattered, but considering the two-headed snake's presence, he forced himself to stand and walk toward the violently moving vegetation ahead.
When he parted the nearly two-meter-high grass, he saw the two-headed snake writhing on the ground, blood gushing unstoppably from its eyes.
Seeing this, Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. Now he just needed to wait for it to bleed out and die.
"Congratulations! You have killed a Two-Headed Snake. Your level has increased to Apprentice Lv.2. All attributes increase by 0.01, and Aether increases by 1 point."
"Congratulations! You have killed a Two-Headed Snake."
"You obtain [Twin Snake Skin] material card."
Just as Ethan was about to approach and deliver a finishing blow, the game notification finally appeared in the lower left corner.
He immediately checked his status panel.
[Name: Ethan Drake]
[Level: Apprentice Lv.2 (20/100)]
[Strength: 0.95]
[Constitution: 1.03]
[Agility: 1.14]
[Spirit: 3.67]
[Aether: 11/11]
[Soul Card: Mythic Codex]
[Card Slots: (Empty) (Empty) (Empty)]
[Inventory: Tusk (Common), Twin Snake Skin (Rare)]
This two-headed snake had given him 30 experience points.
It had also provided 8 Aether points and advanced him to Apprentice Lv.2, increasing his three basic attributes by 0.09 and spirit by 0.17.
This feeling of gradually becoming stronger was utterly addictive to Ethan.
Tonight's harvest had been quite impressive.
He had even obtained a rare-quality [Twin Snake Skin] material card.
But it wasn't over yet. Ethan looked at the lower left corner of the Mythic Codex.
[Aether: 3]
Indeed, the Aether dropped by this two-headed snake was different from the rabbits.
Ethan returned to the forest, found a comfortable position, and invested the three Aether points into the [Ironhorn] page.
[Ironhorn (12/20)]
His three basic attributes increased by another 0.03, spirit by 0.06, and Aether by 3 points.
Originally, Ethan had thought that gaining only 0.01 attribute points per Aether point was a bit slow, but now he felt only two words.
Reasonable!
If he progressed like this every day...
It wouldn't be long before he could unlock the [Ironhorn] skill.
But at that moment, a friend request unexpectedly popped up on his panel.
Ethan didn't remember sharing his game name with anyone.
Curious, he opened it.
"Noah Wells requests to add you as a friend. Do you accept?"
His mouth twitched as he accepted the friend request.
His first message was: "How did you know my game name?"
"Drake, don't you always use River Drake as your username in games?"
"..."