Chapter 45

  “I’m back, grandma!”

  Shouren burst through the door. A few steps away from his house, he could already smell the sweet citrus aroma of lemon pie. His favorite!

  “Welcome back, potato. You’re just in time. The pie should be cool enough to eat.”

  Rhea was in the midst of cleaning the oven, and turned around with a smile when she heard her grandson. The old lady chuckled and gestured at the steaming pie on the table.

  Shouren rushed to the pie, a dribble of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth.

  “You made pie today? I thought we were going to wait to see who won the bet?”

  They still had time to decide the outcome of their earlier bet to see who could shard the most pieces out of a card. Shouren’s stomach was bloated with chunks of monster meat, but there was always room for pie.

  “I realized that we never properly celebrated your birthday and your awakening, little one. A part of me feels useless that I have to rely on you for all the bills. I wish I could help you in some way, potato, but all I can do is cheer you on. If you’re going to be fighting in the dungeon, I want to do my part here to make it easier for you.”

  Rhea took off her apron, her aged eyes crinkling with gentleness as she met Shouren’s eyes. Since her encounter with the merchant Boris, no one in the market even approached her. Then, adding the recent chaos with the Sunspire Guild closing the dungeon, the mood in the village had been a bit tense as of late. Before, Rhea could at least make enough chronas to maintain the rent and food rations for a week, but the situation had become incredibly dire during the past week.

  If not for her grandson’s return from the dungeon, they would have been thrown out into the streets. With no combat ability, she couldn’t help Shouren in the dungeon, and her presence would be more of a liability for the boy than an asset. That is why Rhea decided to do her best to help Shouren in whatever capacity as she could.

  I’ll kill more monsters if it means that I get to eat lemon pie every day!

  Shouren swooped a few lingering crust crumbs that fell onto the table to his mouth, his eyes closed in delighted pleasure. Nothing beat a freshly baked lemon pie.

  “Grandma, I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

  Shouren craned his neck back with his hands firmly placed around the pie. He was letting his hands cool down the pie further so he wouldn’t burn his tongue. Shouren wanted to clarify a few things he’d been pondering over the past few days, and Rhea might have a few answers.

  He didn’t want to tell her about Virelle yet. It was not because Shouren trusted the loud-mouthed nun, but because he knew Rhea would instantly bar him from entering the 2nd floor of the dungeon, especially with a group of strangers. And she wasn’t wrong. Shouren was taking a reckless risk by going into the second floor. His intuition was telling him not to trust a random nun who promised him thousands of chronas.

  Yet he couldn’t give up the opportunity to enter the higher floor. Something was telling him that he’d find a lot of answers to his questions there. Many considered the 2nd floor as the real beginning of the dungeon. Moreover, the 5000 chronas would go a long way in helping him and Rhea. They wouldn’t have to worry about their rent and food for a while. Shouren could sell his cards, but then he wouldn’t have enough to shard or for the corruption to absorb.

  He still hadn’t signed the system contract, and could still back out tomorrow if he didn’t like the terms.

  “Ask away.”

  Rhea shuffled to the shelf in the corner with her back towards Shouren and neatly placed her apron inside.

  [‘la4=/dg]

  Before Shouren could react, the crimson demonic chains shot at the pie quicker than he could blink and devoured the pastry in one quiet gulp.

  “Y-you—”

  Shouren was about to let out a string of curses, but Rhea was already walking towards him.

  “Go on, I’m listening. Eh? You put the pie away in your vault? I’m surprised at your discipline, potato. A few months ago, you would have scarfed it down in seconds.”

  Rhea patted her grandson’s head with pride. Her little one was growing up.

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  I’m going to twist your chains one by one, you demon! My delicious pie…

  Shouren’s eyes moistened with grief. He only got to savor the crumbs while the greedy fiend got to eat his pie. Could the chains even eat pies? Shouren thought the crimson chains only liked to eat cards.

  Hey, give it back!

  Shouren desperately pleaded with the demon to give back his pastry.

  Please?

  [\le2kr_*]

  It sounded like the burning chains belched with satisfaction.

  “Are you alright, potato? You don’t have to hold back this much. You can have a bit of the pie.”

  Rhea bent down to look at her grandson with worry. It appeared as if Shouren was struggling to contain himself with emotion.

  If there was any pie.

  Shouren shook his head and let out a bitter smile. Next time, he would be one step ahead of the gluttonous chains.

  “It’s alright, grandma. I’ll take my time with the p-pie.”

  Shouren almost choked on the words, but continued lest Rhea got suspicious.

  “I wanted to talk to you about attributes. You already know my Intelligence upgraded to E rank, but since then, none of my other attributes have even budged slightly.”

  Rhea’s face creased in understanding. She had forgotten about that as well. In times like this, she’s reminded that her grandson had only been a Tier 0 for a few weeks. His accelerated synchronization, the ease with which he unlocked his traits, and his ability to forge cards unlike her, made her forget his relatively fresh status as a newly awakened Cardist.

  “I don’t know the exact details surrounding the attributes, but here’s what I know from my time at the guild. There’s a bit of dispute regarding the methods of increasing your attribute rank, but the first one is to simply let them rank up on their own.”

  Rhea sat beside her grandson and spoke slowly. Her face appeared as if she was racking her memories of the past. Mentioning the guild seemed to have brought further unwanted memories as well. Shouren listened eagerly, unaware of his grandmother’s thoughts.

  “The belief is that relying on the system for the attributes can taint your future evolutions in the Chamber of Ascendance. If you unknowingly rank up one of your attributes and it’s not primarily tied to your class, it can distort your evolution options. Imagine you have an Archer class card but you accidentally upgrade your Constitution. There’s a chance that it might skew your evolution. It’s why most people don’t risk upgrading their attributes until their Tier 1 evolution.”

  Shouren’s eyes widened as Rhea explained.

  Will my E ranked Intelligence be a problem?

  Rhea seemed to have sensed her grandson’s train of thought, and gently patted his cheek with affection.

  “Don’t worry, potato, Intelligence is one of the essential attributes for the Cardsmith class. Luckily, that was the only attribute that got upgraded.”

  Shouren breathed a sigh of relief. He recalled back in the dungeon when he tried to raise his other attributes as well. What if he had actually ranked up one of his attributes? Then a sudden thought struck him.

  “Grandma, what if someone raises all their attributes to E rank before the evolution? Wouldn’t that balance it out like the original F rank attributes?”

  “I don’t know, potato. It seems impossible that anyone can naturally attain an E rank in all attributes without doing anything.”

  Rhea furrowed her brows in deep thought. Would that work? Technically, none of the attributes would be out of equilibrium and it would be similar to the situation with all attributes in the F rank. She tried to think if anyone in the village had ever tried this method but failed to remember. It was an absurd idea. Raising a single attribute to E rank from F rank was already difficult enough.

  “Actually… it might be possible with the other method of raising your attributes: using insights.”

  Rhea’s hazel eyes darted pensively.

  “Insights?”

  Shouren asked in an eager voice. Insights could be used to raise his attributes? Now that the thought of bringing all his attributes to E rank took root inside his mind, he wanted to go after it.

  “Insights are the prerequisite, but the main requirement is copious amounts of lumen. Your attributes are essentially a combination of how lumen courses inside your body. To rank up the attributes, you need to fundamentally alter the way your body works. You can use lumen to force this change. If you gain an insight to alter the way your muscles work inside your body, and then use lumen to modify your body, it could possibly rank up your attribute.”

  Rhea breathlessly explained in excitement. The prospective theory filled her with satisfaction. She had always liked solving puzzles. Rhea didn’t have the natural talent to raise her attributes, and the second method required a colossal amount of lumen. This was why everyone fought for a place on the higher dungeon floors. The lumen there couldn’t compare with the outside world.

  Is that why pumpkin-head never raised his attributes beyond F rank despite having access to the 20th floor? He couldn’t risk only raising one attribute, and to raise the others with lumen, he needed the insights.

  It dawned on Shouren why Rubin had been stuck at the F rank while close to 80% synchronization. It made sense now.

  This makes me want to risk the 2nd floor even more now. What will happen after I raise all my attributes to E rank?

  Shouren’s thoughts raced with frenzy. He had one advantage in terms of insights: his E ranked Intelligence. Could he use it to bring his other attributes to E rank as well? What would his Tier 1 evolution look like with all E ranked attributes?

  I’ve decided. I will go with Virelle into the 2nd floor.

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