Chapter 40

  “You did it, grandma!”

  Shouren jumped at Rhea, his small arms wrapped around the frail elderly woman, and shoved his face into her stomach.

  “Please don’t break my ribs, potato.”

  Rhea wiped off her tears and joined her grandson in celebration as she mirthfully chuckled. It was all thanks to Shouren that she was able to unlock her second trait. Her radiant hazel eyes gazed lovingly on her grandson.

  “Show me your Veinreader, grandma! I want to see how it looks on you.”

  Shouren popped his head out of Rhea’s embrace and asked with obvious excitement seeping into his voice.

  “It’s not Veinreader, potato. I got a different trait. Let me read it out for you.”

  Rhea flicked Shouren’s forehead and opened her status.

  Shouren staggered as Rhea described her trait. His thoughts stumbled to a halt.

  Grandma unlocked a [Rare] trait!? And it sounds so different from Veinreader. Based on what grandma said, the trait lets her locate the weak points all at once and she doesn’t have to pierce her lumen into them like I have to.

  Shouren mused over the new trait. He was genuinely happy for his grandmother and pondered over its effects. At first glance, the [Rare] trait appeared better than his [Uncommon] Veinreader, but Shouren quickly noticed that his grandmother’s trait wasn’t upgradeable.

  Card Echo would remain at the [Rare] level forever, whereas Veinreader could still upgrade to higher levels. Was it because Shouren’s insights were not as solidified as Rhea’s, allowing more room for growth?

  But grandma also has an advantage. She doesn’t need to trace the star nodes or maneuver the lumen inside them to break it apart. She can use Card Echo to shatter instantly all the weak points she detects in a single pulse.

  Shouren was now curious how the traits unlocked for each individual. He initially thought that sharing his information would unlock the same trait for his grandmother, but now he realized that a person’s insights could drastically change the end outcome. Both he and Rhea knew about the card’s weak points, but Shouren’s trait manifested in him visually spotting their exact position while Rhea could feel their resonance.

  However, Card Echo had one major disadvantage. It couldn’t detect all the star nodes, and only the largest ones. Meanwhile, Veinreader couldn’t destroy all the star nodes, but it showed every single weak point on the card. It then depended on Shouren to break them.

  “I think I prefer this trait, little potato.”

  Rhea noticed Shouren’s slight disappointment. Her grandson was probably thinking he did something wrong. Shouren was clearly looking forward to both of them sharing the same trait. The elderly lady wanted to console the boy, but she also wasn’t lying. Rhea wholeheartedly loved her new trait.

  “But you can’t see all the weak points, grandma.”

  Shouren answered dejectedly. His eyes glanced down sadly.

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  “Not everything is about having [Rare] traits or ‘upgradeable’ traits, potato. A trait is simply a trait. Even a [Common] trait can become the best trait in the hands of someone who knows how to use it properly.”

  Rhea tousled her grandson’s hair, breaking him out of his reverie.

  Shouren looked up at her, his glittering hazel eyes asking if Rhea meant what she said.

  “I am not like you, little one. You’re crafty and often take risks that would send my soul to the afterlife, but I am different. Veinreader would have paled in my hands compared to yours. While I think Card Echo would probably frustrate you to no end.”

  Rhea laughed, her gentle voice bringing out a warm smile from Shouren.

  “Come back after another week and let’s see who can get more shards from a single card.”

  The old woman wrinkled her nose and pulled on Shouren’s earlobe teasingly.

  “Want to bet, grandma? After one week, we’ll both shard a card and see who gets the most pieces.”

  Shouren snickered confidently, holding out his pinky finger to Rhea. Although his grandmother had earlier sharded a card into seven pieces, Shouren could easily beat that. The boy still had his Lumen Weaver trait.

  Oh, I forgot to tell grandma about that.

  “Overconfidence is often the folly of young men. I’ll take you on, potato. If you win, I’ll bake you your favorite lemon pie. And if I win, you take me to the village’s flower garden for a picnic.”

  Rhea’s lips curled as she grabbed Shouren’s pinky finger with her own. If her grandson thought she would still be stuck on seven shards in a week, he was severely underestimating her decades of solely sharding cards.

  “Now that we have already shaken on the bet, I should tell you, grandma, that I have another trait.”

  Shouren scratched his head while a lopsided grin plastered over his youthful face. There was no way he was going to let his grandma beat him and go see some flowers in punishment. They weren’t even cool flowers to start with. Shouren would rather have the lemon pie. He drooled just at the mere thought of it. Now that he could kill monsters in the dungeon, he and Rhea could afford to buy the ingredients.

  “Huh? You have another trait, potato!?”

  Rhea squealed, grabbing her grandson before he could make his escape. The naughty brat was still hiding things from her. Shouren laughed while he tried to squirm out of his grandmother’s clutches.

  “I was going to tell you, grandma!”

  Shouren raised his hands in defeat and told Rhea how he unlocked his latest trait.

  “Phew.”

  Shouren breathed out as he stared up at the starry night. He was sitting alone outside his house while his grandmother made some stew for dinner. Rhea had used the cards and chronas he’d given her to pay the rent and also buy groceries for the week. Now that he thought of it, it had been a long time since his grandmother had cooked something in the house.

  A few hours ago, Shouren had detailed out his latest trait to Rhea. He told her about splitting the lumen to stabilize the card’s frame while destroying the weak points in the veins. His grandmother remained confused the entire time. She tried emulating Shouren in splitting the lumen into two, but failed each time.

  Rhea deduced that there was a prerequisite insight she was missing to understand the splitting of lumen threads. Besides, she didn’t need it anyway. Her techniques didn’t involve stabilizing the card’s frame like her grandson.

  After that, Rhea wanted to celebrate both of them getting new traits with some stew and told Shouren to wait while she prepared the meal.

  “There’s so much I have to learn and do.”

  The young boy traced the stars in the sky. They were so far away, and yet he could see their brilliance from where he stood.

  Upgrading my class card to [Uncommon] is the highest priority. A lot of my plans revolve around that. I’ll eventually be able to upgrade grandma’s class cards as well. Today was the first time I saw her so happy.

  Shouren ran his hand through his dark hair. He learned this habit from Rubin.

  Can you come out?

  Shouren was nervous as he sent out his thought to the demonic chains. If he wanted to upgrade his grandmother’s class card, he would need the help of the crimson chains.

  There was no response.

  I’ll talk to it the next time it comes out.

  Shouren sighed and continued to make plans for the immediate future. He needed to forge the Spectral Threads cards for Isola, and then he planned to enter the dungeon daily.

  He would not stay longer than a day each time. The lumen density inside the floors were greater than the outside world, and he would also have access to monster meat to further replenish his lumen reserves. Card forging used up a lot of his lumen and he needed to do everything to hasten the process.

  Without lumen potions, Shouren had to rely on the monster meat. It was inefficient, as there was only a certain limit of meat he could digest every few hours, but every little bit helped. The monster meat would give his family a steady supply of food while also speeding his forging.

  Since I will enter the dungeon alone, I need to learn to fight using Spectral Threads.

  Shouren figured his grandmother would need at least 30 minutes to finish the stew, so he decided to forge the card while he waited. Unlike the rest of the cards in his arsenal, Spectral Threads was a card he could forge anytime. Shouren wanted to build his combat strategies around cards he could reliably forge. And the first one on that list so far was the Spectral Threads spell card.

  He was a Cardsmith, and although the corruption allowed him to use any cards, Shouren preferred to rely primarily on his own skills. He already had an idea of how to replicate his old strategy of using traps and his Dimensional Vault, but he also had to prepare for any unexpected situations where that strategy failed.

  Shouren’s chest glowed in the darkness as the lumen rolled out to his hands.

  “Card Forge.”

  He then started to hammer the lumen into a card frame.

  Hm, why don’t I use Veinreader as well?

  Shouren had an idea and activated his trait at the same time he began forging the spell card.

  “No way…”

  Shouren recoiled at what he saw and whispered in disbelief.

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