Monster Paradise Chapter 57: Heading Home
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"Brother, you're finally back!"
A pink silhouette dove into his embrace as he opened his house door.
The time was way past 11pm and Lin Xin should have been asleep by now. That was what Lin Huang thought as he opened his door. What he did not expect was that his sister would be waiting for his arrival.
As he got a closer look at the silhouette, he saw that his sister wore pajamas dotted with tiny cartoon dogs. Still the same little sister.
"Why aren't you asleep yet? It's way past your bedtime." Lin Huang made a straight face as he pinched her cheeks.
"I've read your message. You said you were going to be back home late so I had originally planned on sleeping earlier so that I'd be awake to welcome you home. However, I was too excited and ended up staying awake throughout…"
As she said this, she latched tightly onto his arm as if she was afraid he would slip away. "Did you know I was worried sick when I heard the news about the monster horde. I couldn't even contact you on the Imperial Heart Ring."
"The signal must have been affected by the horde." He shook his head and laughed before changing the topic, "By the way, I brought you a gift."
As he said this, he retrieved a holographic stone from his personal space and gave it to her.
"What's this?" Lin Xin asked.
"I got Yi Zheng to help me record this, his autograph is on the back." Lin Huang flipped the stone over as he said this revealing the signature and date on the back.
"Yi Zheng? That Yi Zheng who is ranked in the Golden Hunter ranking board?" Her eyes sparkled as she heard her brother's words.
"Yup, that Yi Zheng."He nodded in response.
As he said that, his hand felt immediately lighter. By the time he finished, Lin Xin had already ran up the stairs.
"Don't forget to go to sleep after watching that. You still have school tomorrow!" Lin Huang immediately shouted up the stairs.
"Got it!"
"This girl…"
He laughed as he shook his head. He knew this little lady who was still studying in the Preparatory Hunter Institution loved idols. Her favorite are ranked Hunters who are young, good looking and strong. Kind of like the fangirls on Earth who liked good looking movie stars and singers.
Yi Zheng was ranked 7th in the 7th District Golden Hunter ranking board, and possessed a young dashing face. Plus, he was known for having a sister complex. He was a perfect fit for Lin Xin's tastes. He had even been given a title by a number of girls : 'The nation's big brother'. That stone was definitely a fitting gift for Lin Xin.
A full day had passed since the incident. Due to Yi Yeyu's door being destroyed, Lin Huang wasted half a day traveling back to 7C87 to register with the Association. The registration itself took a few hours as well. By the time this whole matter was settled, the sun had already set. Furthermore, the Yi siblings had invited him to dinner to celebrate their victory.
Yi Yeyu's memory regarding her dimensional door had been altered as well : it got affected by the energies of the 2 transcendents fighting and flew out of her body automatically. It then vanished without a trace.
After having dinner with the pair, Lin Huang didn't waste anymore time in the medium stronghold. Taking a griffin back, he rushed home.
With his sister settled, he went for a shower and then headed to bed.
However as he laid in bed, he found that he couldn't sleep. Time ticked by as he stared at his ceiling motionlessly. Suddenly, he remembered he had something left to settle.
"Kuro, can you combine all my applicable card fragments."
[Master currently holds 3,657 card fragments. Proceeding with card combining.]
[Fragments have been successfully combined…]
[Attained ---- Monster Card Rakshasa (Normal) x3]
[Attained ---- Minotaur (Normal) x3]
[600 fragments have been expended. The remaining card fragments do not possess sufficient numbers and can't be combined.]
[Duplicate cards have been discovered. Do you wish to consume them to upgrade your cards' skills?]
"Consume them."
Lin Huang immediately accepted Kuro's suggestion. Duplicate cards were useless to him. Each card type could only give him one skill and his available summon count was only at 1. Keeping more than one copy of each card was pointless. He might as well consume these cards and stand a chance at directly getting a higher level skill.
[Card Consumption complete. Rakshasa's skills have been upgraded. Minotaur's skills have been upgraded. ]
Lin Huang selected his two new cards and inspected them. Both of them had a white crystal card body and had their likeness shown on the front. Flipping to the back , he inspected their attributes.
[Monster Card]
[Rarity: Normal]
[Monster Name: Rakshasa]
[Monster Type: Demonic]
[Combat Rank: BlackIron (3-stars)]
[Skill 1 : Oppressive Gaze (Lv. 2)]
[Skill 2: Horizon Slash (Lv. 3)]
[Summoning Status : Unlocked]
[Card Rating : Crap]
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[Monster Card]
[Rarity: Normal]
[Monster Name: Minotaur]
[Monster Type: Demonic]
[Combat Rank: BlackIron (3-stars)]
[Skill 1 : Giant's Power (Lv. 2)]
[Skill 2: Bull Rush (Lv. 3)]
[Summoning Status : Unlocked]
[Card Rating : Crap]
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"Kuro, begin the skill absorption." Having finished his inspection, he was ready to absorb their skills.
[Skill Absorption has been completed. Congratulations Master, you have attained ---- Oppressive Gaze (Lv. 2) and Giant's Power (Lv. 2). ]
[ Master still has a duplicate Sand Ogre available for consumption, would you like to proceed?]
"Consume it." That was the Sand Ogre he kept to stand watch at night but with the recent additions of these monster cards, it had served its purpose. There was after all no point in having a second Sand Ogre when he had Tyrant.
[Card consumption complete, Sand Ogre (Tyrant)'s skills have been upgraded. ]
Lin Huang checked Tyrant's attributes and saw that his Giant's Endurance had been upgraded to Lv. 2.
Having finally finished his inspection of his monsters cards, he began inspecting his own Master Card.
[Master: Lin Huang]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 15]
[Combat Rank: Nil (Below the minimum threshold)]
[Skill 1: Blood Arts (Lv.2)]
[Skill 2: Grand Desolation Blade Scripture (Blade Martial Skill)]
[Skill 3: Giant's Endurance (Lv.2)]
[Skill 4: Traceless Snow Steps (Movement Skill)]
[Skill 5: Oppressive Gaze (Lv. 2)]
[Skill 6: Giant's Power (Lv.2)]
[Summoning Authority: Activated]
[Available Summon Count: 1]
[Rating: No matter how many skills you gain, it won't change the fact that you are a scrub...]
Ignoring that last line, he began to inspect his two new skills.
[Oppressive Gaze (Lv. 2) : Unleash a psychic attack from one's pupils. 80% chance to inflict a slowing trance on the target. (Has no effect on targets two realms above the user.)]
[Giant's Power (Lv. 2) : Passive skill, 400% increase in Power.]
These were the two skills he had gained from the two monster cards.
Furthermore, Lin Huang noticed that his Giant's Endurance had leveled up as well. Feeling curious, he asked Kuro, "Kuro, when a monster's skills have been upgraded, will that increase my skill level as well?"
[Correct, once a monster card's skill has been leveled up, Master's skill will level up as well. If the monster card disappears, the skill gained from it will disappear as well.]
"Monster cards can disappear as well?!"
[Correct, once a monster dies, its card will disappear as well. The skill you have gained from it will also disappear.]
This news came as a shock to Lin Huang. He had assumed this was similar to a card game where a monster's death would mean it merely turned back into a card. He had assumed the penalty would just be that he couldn't re-summon it for a period of time.
The fact that death was permanent and would result in him losing skills was completely unexpected. The seriousness of his situation finally dawned upon him. This wasn't a card game but a living breathing world. It was just like Earth : death meant that it would disappear and be forgotten…
"Give me a rundown of my remaining support cards." He vaguely remembered that he had gained 9 bonus cards from killing monsters above his rank and had attained a mission reward.
[Master currently possesses : Advancement Card x1, 100% Bonus Reward Card x3, Temporary Transformation Card x3, Mission Card x1 ,Treasure Card x1, Corrective Card x1]
He ignored the mission card and selected the two new support cards.
[Treasure Card: After using this card, the card will guide the user to the nearest treasure location. Treasure locations include : Mineral Veins, Tombs, Treasure Caves etc. Once this card has been activated, the coordinates guidance will last for a month.]
[Corrective Card: Using this card will correct any defects in the target's body. This includes but isn't limited to : Life Wheel, Life Sections, Bloodlines and etc.]
"Hmm, this Treasure card has a time limit so using this is out of the question. I still have a lot of matters to attend to so I'll have to save that for later. However, this Corrective card is definitely useful. My Life Wheel has been fixed so my body shouldn't need correcting. However, I seem to remember that Shirou's bloodlines had some defects in it; he was susceptible to the Blood Suppression Factor. I should use this card on him so that he doesn't need to fear such attacks."
Having decided on a target for the Corrective card, he summoned Shirou.
Shirou stood by his bed and silently stared at Lin Huang. With a flip of his body, he sat up and used the corrective card. He crushed the card causing the card to shatter into a cloud of golden fragments which circled around his finger. With a light tap on Shirou's forehead, the fragments began to engulf Shirou.
Soon a golden layer formed around Shirou, obscuring him from sight like a golden cocoon.
After a long wait, Shirou's signature wings burst out of the cocoon, shattering the golden layer and causing it to dissipate. His wings had turned a reddish gold hue. Lin Huang immediately inspected Shirou's attributes but he found that nothing had changed. However, he knew that the card worked as Shirou's wings had undergone such a dramatic change.
"When I have the time, I should get a bottle of Blood Suppression Toxin to test it out."
After another round of inspection, he finally recalled Shirou and went to bed.
It didn't take long for a drowsy spell to hit. The fatigue from the past few days had finally caught up causing him to fall into a deep sleep.
Footnotes :
Credits:
Special thanks to 7STARDARK BLADE! The first ever patron of Catato Patch Translations.