The Joker, The Trickster, And The Magician

The gunshots from earlier alerted not only the nearby base but the lurking enemies too. Wolfram didn't linger around any longer, he swiftly left this place as soon as he disposed of the two soldiers. He felt no remorse after what he had done, killing people had been a daily occurrence for him since a long time ago.

Although a place like Earth seemed to be a peaceful world, its dark side is more than cruel. Where the law of jungle always applied, one would be afraid of being backstabbed or killed if he or she were to drop his guard for a short moment.

'Now that the change came so suddenly, only the strong will prevail. The world will be turned upside down hahahaha!'

Wolfram inwardly laughed and joyed over the mere thought of leaving this facility and finding powerful people, who distinguished themselves apart from the normal masses and became strong enough to be hailed as Heroes or whatnot.

Of course, he didn't forget to loot the food and water of his two fallen 'comrades' then he hastily traced back his steps. Previously, he heard the arrival of a large group of goblins so going back there isn't a wise move. Even though he yearned for battle and wanted to get stronger, he wasn't completely delusional to the point of believing he can take on more than twenty Goblins alone.

Mid-way through this half-destroyed corridor, he found a cell similar to his but barely intact even after the earthquake. Like any other cell, this one contained a chair at the center and a table filled with either torture tools or syringes.

Fortunately, the door can be closed but he couldn't lock it, it didn't matter though as he was going to rest for a few minutes then organize his thoughts. He sat on the chair and took out the special card that shows his stats and skills.

The pair he killed just a bit ago only dropped one stat card, which is better than nothing, thought Wolfram.

With the addition of two skills, [Sensor Hearing] and [Light Steps] and the stat cards he looted from the Goblins, his stats increased yet again, though not by a lot but still to a satisfactory degree.

Wolfram Sakimoto

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Race: No Race

Class: 1 Star Trickster

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Cards Control : 1

Cards Sharpness : 1

Cards Speed : 1

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Strength : 2.1

Vitality : 1.6

Speed : 1.7

Perception : 2.8

Magic : 2

Magic Control : 1.1

Magic Resistance : 1

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Card Points : 0.62

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Skills: Sneaking Lv1, Dagger Mastery Lv1. Sensor Hearing Lv1. Lightsteps Lv1.

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Thanks to the stat cards, his overall prowess is slowly but surely increasing, especially his five senses, which were affected by the Perception Stats. His sight and hearing became higher than the average human. If he concentrated, he could hear enemies from far away, as for his sight, he couldn't ascertain that it really became better due to the narrowness of this place but he speculated that it did as it's what the description about the Perception Stat stated.

*Perception: Affects mainly the five senses and the instinct of the user.

Extra: High Perception can allow the user to increase the Level of his skills a bit faster.

Speed: The speed of the user's body, ranges from attacking, defending, running, jumping, reflexes etc...

Vitality: The endurance and recovery of the user.

Extra: High Vitality allows the user to regenerate from injuries moderately faster.

Strength: The brute(physical) strength of the user

Example: Lift heavier weights.

Magic: This indicates the ability of the user to use magic-related skills, the higher the number the stronger the power of the skills.

Magic Control: This indicates the ability of the user to control magic-related skills, the higher the number the cast time.

Extra: Magic Control also help the user control Magic-related skill in a slightly easier way(depends on the number).

Magic Resistance: This indicates the ability of the user to defend against magic-related skills.

Extra: The higher the number, the higher the percentage of damage reduction.*

Wolfram carefully re-read this long description and pondered on what to invest his gained CP into. The average stat of an a.d.u.l.t male ranges from 1 to 1.5 so an increase of 0.62 is like adding half the strength of an a.d.u.l.t, for example.

He spent more than three minutes thoroughly thinking about his choices and at the end, decided to risk it and add them into Cards Sharpness. The reason for this is first, due to this weird card System that is revolving around cards, secondly, due to only looting cards that add to his main stats.

The presence of the three stats revolving around cards is weird, to say the least, and they surely aren't there just for show. If his speculation is correct then investing them is sure to bring him bountiful results. Sure, they are long term gains and he didn't expect the sharpness of his guard to behead goblins with just a touch, but it's better to spend his CP on them as he would loot normal stat cards from dead bodies so there's really nothing to lose.

As long as he doesn't do anything reckless and suicidal then he'll continue increasing his stats and would be able to survive and leave this place safe and sound.

So, after careful consideration, Wolfram spent his 0.62 Card Points into Cards Sharpness. Then he took out his deck of cards and tried throwing them at the metal walls.

As per his expectations, the cards bounced off when they hit the walls but that didn't discourage him. It's unfortunate that there weren't corpses in this room so he couldn't fully test the sharpness of his cards, nonetheless, there are always other alternatives.

Wolfram spread his hand and held one of the cards into his other hand and tried softly slashing the front of his hand. Unlike normal cards, his slash was able to cause some scratch on his hand, not enough to cause blood to ooze out but it still able to make him suffer a really minor injury.

'If the Sharpness is increased by another point then it'll certainly start causing serious cut damages.'

He excitedly thought about the idea of beheading goblins with just a card, that will be a great spectacle, for sure.

When he fully recovered to his peak state, Wolfram finally left the cell after cautiously peeking out of the door and ascertaining the absence of any potential enemies.

He didn't head back to where the base of the current survivors might be, instead, he walked up to where he met the two deceased soldiers.

He wanted to strengthen himself a bit more before going to the base as it'll surely be a bloody battle. As he took their rations, they are bound to send more soldiers to scavenge some food and he will be expecting them..

With soundless steps and minimum presence, Wolfram headed down the corridor while sticking close to the wall. After a few minutes, a red card appeared in front of him, which brought a pleasant surprise

*[Lightsteps] Lv1=>Lv2! +0.12 Card Points.*

Amidst this short journey down the spooky corridor, Wolfram managed to loot two more stat cards. He couldn't get them earlier as he was being watched by Baldwin and Giichi, however, he was now free to do as he pleases. He crushed the two cards and gained stats on the spot.

*0.1 Strength.*

*0.1 Vitality.*

His luck wasn't good as the stat addition was only 0.1 but it was still better than nothing. Soon enough, Wolfram managed to arrive where the battle between the goblins and the soldiers occurred. He inspected the surroundings and surprisingly, he discovered that the goblins dragged the vending machines, leaving only the broken desks in this desolate room.

As he stood in this destroyed central room, Wolfram leaned against a wall and peeked at the only hallway he was uncertain where it leads. This central room was an intersection, one path was the place he came from at the very beginning and the second path was the one that led to the base of survivors.

The dragged vending machines left black trails on the floor and from the looks of it, this dark hallway is surely where the large group of goblins headed to.

With the rifle loaded and ready in his hand, Wolfram proceeded in that direction with wary attitude and slow yet steady breathing.

He walked for about two minutes until he saw three short and ugly creatures walked in his direction. Since this place was unusually dark due to the lack of lighting and the distance that was separating them, Wolfram, who had Perception, managed to see their figures before they spotted him.

Shooting them with his rifle is possible and the probability of killing them is high too, however, that would cause too much noise thus leading more enemies here. He wanted to sneakily and swiftly dispose of them, after all, sneaking and assassinating his enemies is his way of doing things, unlike a frontal assault that can change due to unexpected and unforeseen events, such as the appearance of some kind of boss.

'These motherf.u.c.kers are not sophisticated enough to live on their own, there must be something that is controlling them. Furthermore, I'm curious about their origin, did they just pop from nowhere or is there some kind of a gate?'

He already fought the goblins in a melee fight and knows that they have fragile and small bodies. A strong kick can very much kill them if it lands on a vital spot such as the neck.

Very calmly, Wolfram put the rifle on his back and took out the military knife, he held it in his left hand and approached the group of three enemies with minimum sound as to not alert them before he manages to cross a safe distance to them.

When he was around fifteen meters, the three ugly monsters finally reacted as they saw a dashing tall figure charging at them with malicious intents.

Two of the goblins had rusty short swords and the last had a small round shield and a bronze dagger that looked no different than a wooden toy weapon.

Wolfram focused on ones wielding swords, he lowered his body and dived ahead. The two parties charged at each other but the victorious side was obvious.

When there was only a five-meter separating them, Wolfram threw the dagger at the central goblin. His accuracy and the force behind the dagger were more than enough for this sharp weapon to hit its intended target and kill the goblin.

Without lowering his speed, he tackled the other goblin causing it to fall on its head then without even getting up, he stretched his hand and held the short and thin leg of the shield-wielding goblin.

Without hesitation, he applied more strength on his grip and threw the goblin two meters away causing it to drop both its dagger and shield.

Wolfram swiftly got up and used his leg to smash the tackled goblin's head, turning it into a mass of brain matter, blood and meat paste. In meantime, the other goblin finally got up and held its weapons, intending to attack the enemy.

As he saw the enemy, who was running at him while swinging its sword, Wolfram backed away and easily dodged the amateurish swing of the enemy.

Compared to veteran soldiers, this goblin was really an easy opponent, however, that didn't mean Wolfram was going to underestimate them or play around. Once he dodged, he found himself facing the defenseless back of this short and ugly monster.

With a quick frontal quick, the monster fell again but never got up as Wolfram walked up to him and smashed his fragile head too as if it was nothing.

'These bitches are really weak, even an adolescent wouldn't be killed this easily.'

Although he had superior strength, it wasn't to the point of being able to crush his enemies' head like nothing. This can only be explained by the weakness of these green monsters, their bodies couldn't be frailer.

*You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.08 Card Points.*

*You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.1 Card Points.*

*You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.97 Card Points.*

After he rampaged under their bodies, Wolfram was a bit dejected to see no stat cards dropping, nonetheless, he didn't despair and looked forward to the enemies he's going to kill next.

He retrieved a water bottle and drank some then took out his deck of cards, trying to check their sharpness after he invested all of his acquired CP into Cards Sharpness.

He squatted near the Goblins and slashed the cards at their exposed green screen.

'Slash!'

Unlike his previous experience, the cards smoothly cut through their skin as if it was butter. This could be attributed to their high Sharpness and the fragile skin of the victim.

After experimenting for another half a minute, he discovered that the Sharpness is effective against goblins. He tried slashing himself but it still couldn't go through his skin and cause blood to come out like with the goblins, such a shame but that doesn't mean he'll give up.