The Joker, The Trickster, And The Magician

For his next fight, Wolfram decided to use his cards and see if he can take them silently and from a safe distance. He tried a few times and concluded that the range of his card is actually small, no more than 12 meters. At such a distance, the goblins would have discovered him.

He hid the military knife and continued his advance inside this dark and narrow corridor. The lights were going on and off and the number of goblins seemed to have increased as Wolfram met his next group just after five minutes.

This time, there were only two goblins, both of which seemed to be mages as they were holding wooden staffs. Fortunately, their backs were facing him so he stealthily made his way toward them and surprisingly wasn't discovered even when he reached the necessary range to use his cards.

Just as he took one final step, both goblins fiercely turned around and shrieked loudly. Wolfram didn't know what exactly happened but he must have triggered some kind of defensive or detection spell that alerted them.

The man gritted his teeth and throw two cards at one of the goblins, however, only one was able to hit its target. The card was really sharp as it penetrated the abdomen of the goblin, causing blood to gush out and resulting in a loud wail to come out of the injured goblin's mouth.

'Tsk! I can't aim properly.'

Though the sharpness was just enough for two or three cards to kill a goblin, his card control was low so he missed three out of five card throws. Fortunately, his movements were faster than the goblins and in no time, each of the two goblins mages were hit by three cards before they can finish casting their spells.

The second goblin wasn't so lucky as two cards penetrated its skull and killed it but the first one laid on the floor with a puddle of blood under it. Wolfram appeared before the dying creature and kicked its head, killing it at last.

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

*You have killed a Goblin Mage Lv1; +0.12 Card Points.*

Luckily, a stat card appeared under the corpse of the first killed goblin. Wolfram quickly picked it up and crushed it thus gaining some bonus stat.

*0.09 Magic Control*

'Damn! A stat I don't need.'

Wolfram clicked his tongue in disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e and inspected the area to see if he didn't miss anything. After a fast glance to his surroundings, he resumed advancing only to meet a lucky harvest fifty meters from the previous fight.

There were corpses of humans and goblins, a fight occurred and both sides had many casualties but it's not like Wolfram cared. While humming with a low tone, he flipped the corpses upside down and thoroughly checked everything. In less then two minutes, he found himself holding four cards and that's without including the red card that popped in front of him.

*[Search] Lv1 acquired! +0.13 Card Points.*

*[Search] : Allows the Trickster to search bodies and object more efficiently.

The higher the level of the skill, the faster the search done and the higher the chance for Spell Card to spawn.

Error... You unauthorized to use Spell Card... Requirement: 2 Star Trickster.*

Wolfram used a bit of his acc.u.mulated CP to allow his Card Sharpness to reach '3' and dumped all the rest into Card Control. Using his deck of cards to take down goblins is better than having to face them in a melee fight, moreover, the cards are silent thus even if he battled a large group, if his aim is perfect then he'll kill them swiftly without alerting any potential reinforcements.

His primary goal is to escape this facility. First, he needs to ascend to higher floors but the issue was the group of survivors, who are controlling the path leading upwards. One of them is bound to recognize him so he just needs to get strong enough to face them and kill them if they ever try anything.

After crushing the four stat cards, Wolfram held the black card and inspected his stats.

Wolfram Sakimoto

--

Race: No Race

Class: 1 Star Trickster

--

Cards Control : 1.24

Cards Sharpness : 3

Cards Speed : 1

--

Strength : 2.2

Vitality : 1.76

Speed : 1.85

Perception : 2.89

Magic : 2.14

Magic Control : 1.19

Magic Resistance : 1

--

Card Points : 0

---

Skills: Sneak Lv1, Dagger Mastery Lv1. Sensor Hearing Lv1. Lightsteps Lv2. Search Lv1.

--

His stats were steadily increasing and all he needed to do is kill more enemies.

'I wonder how I compare to the others? I don't think they have the same system as me...'

He pondered over this matter but he was almost certain that the others must have some kind of universal system. The intriguing this is why was he the only one with the Card System.

It's such a hassle to take a card to be able to his stats instead of some illusory window like VR games but such downsides are negligible in comparison to the benefits it can bring him.

...

Since looting the numerous corpses, Wolfram strangely didn't find any more live goblins. He sensed that he almost reached the end of this corridor but no one jumped at him. His survival instincts finally alerted him when he noticed some lights at the end of this path.

He could feel disgusting noises coupled with the heavy breathing of a large creature.

'More than 10... no, 15 at the very least. One which seems to be the leader controlling this floor.'

Although he's become considerably strong since everything changed, he was still hesitant about a frontal battle with such a large number. It would be a hard fight even without the boss, so with it in the fray, it's practically impossible to kill them all on his own.

Even with the rifle, it'll be tricky as they'll surely use arrows, spells, and lances. There is also the issue of the boss, which may use unique abilities.

Wolfram steadied his breathing and pondered for quite some time before he squatted down and got rid of the rifle, which was slightly limiting his movements due to its weight.

He needed to be as light as possible for the next battle so he decided to forsake the rifle and only keep the handgun for dire situations. The knife was also kept as that's what'll be used to finish any goblins that come within two meters of him.

As he was preparing himself mentally, a red card popped in front of him:

*[Sneak] Lv1=>Lv2! +0.17 Card Points.*

The CPs were dumped into Card Control and after a final check, the man retrieved a cylindric black object from his back pocket. It was something he found in the corpse party a while ago so he decided to take it as it's useful despite its dangerous effect in such a small place so deep underground.

It was none other than a grenade, a strong grenade that could potentially cause the whole roof to fall on him but that's rather unlikely as this facility was built in a way to resist even the strongest earthquakes.

As he looked at the black grenade and noticed his shaking body, the man laughed excitedly and mumbled

"How many years has it been? This thrill... this feeling to be this close to death... I shall savor it yet again!"

Without hesitation, he pulled the ring off the grenade then precisely threw it toward the light, where all the goblins were staying. Before the grenade even landed, he backed away five meters and simply waited. Unknown to Wolfram, even amidst this supposedly tense moment, he was displaying a wide grin without any sign of fear.

'BOOM!'

A loud explosion that shook the whole place occurred and dust started acc.u.mulating thus blocking vision. As if he couldn't wait anymore, Wolfram charged forward with a handgun in a hand and five cards on the other. Just as he jumped inside this room, he was met with a nauseating stench of blood and dismembered goblins that were either or dead or going to die.

Some goblins were far away from the impact so they only suffered minor injuries and as they were getting up, white cards came flying from the center of the room, hitting their heads accurately.

The cards were sharp but Wolfram needed at least three to precisely hit the head and kill the target. He used his five cards to one unscathed goblin and another who lost both of its legs. There was too much dust that blocked his view, however, thanks to his perception and previous experience in fights, he correctly guessed the number of enemies alive.

Four goblins and another presence that was shrieking angrily. Before he deals with the boss, Wolfram dashed toward the nearby enemies and quickly finished them off using his knife.

All of this was done in about twenty seconds and the reason the boss didn't retaliate immediately was due to the grenade, which exploded right next to it and the noise it caused which caused it to feel dizzy and had to take some time to stabilize its body.

When only the two of them were left alive in this room, the dust was blown away by a huge two-handed sword that the boss wielded.

This creature resembled the small goblins but was way bigger than them. With a height that surpassed 2 meters and long fangs that protruded of his upper lips. It glared at the human before it and angrily banged its leg on the floor.

As he gazed at this big monster and noticed the small injuries it had all over its body, he concluded that the grenade did indeed explode right next to it and would have injured it heavily if not for the other goblins, which probably acted as a meat shield for their leader.

This creature was called a Hobgoblin and it's a goblin that successfully underwent its evolution.

'F.u.c.k! The bastard! It's wearing a helmet.'

Wolfram inwardly cursed the hobgoblin, he planned to finish it fast with a bullet in its forehead but it wasn't possible since the big helmet would surely bock the bullets.

The stillness ended when Wolfram raised his hand fired three shots successively. The first two shots hit the knees of the hobgoblin and the last was aimed at its heart.

The bullets were indeed strong enough to penetrate its skin but it was barely called an injury as only a small amount of blood leaked out. This was due to the excess fat the bastard had, coupled with its strong and durable physique, for a bullet to break its bones, it needs to be a bullet fired from a sniper rifle.