Chapter 9 – A new weapon card

Lucan was inside the basement, and now he needed to make some choices.

I need to go out and look for supplies.

Before attempting to venture through the ruined city, he took a nap to rest. He was too tired to try anything, and his torch on the floor illuminated the basement.

For the first time in a long while, he didn't have strange nightmares, nor was his mind on high alert, fearing Clyde might try to kill him during the night. Even though he imagined that Clyde somehow planned to use him as bait for the creature, Lucan couldn't relax and wasn't one to trust just anyone.

He didn't know how long he had slept, but he allowed himself to rest completely. He was about to walk through a city infested with monsters and could die at any moment. With his body fully rested, he could think more clearly.

Who am I kidding… I'm dead. This is a place no one would even consider searching because it simply doesn't exist on the map. I must be the only one in this hellhole. I was lucky enough to find Clyde. There's no other human here, and if I keep thinking like this, I'll be accepting my death. But in fact, I have no hope. I don't know the Oblivion World. Even if I am next to a mapped region, what difference will it make? I could very well head in the opposite direction without even knowing, getting further away and thus walking to my death. And I'm thinking positively, ignoring the fact that any creature could kill me first. The truth is… even if this place were devoid of creatures, I wouldn't make it… Empty hahaha, what a shitty power.

Climbing the stairs, he passed through the barricade with his intangibility and reached the top of it.

Focus!

Lucan went to the back of the ruined stone house, passing through the wall with his intangibility. He arrived at a part that was very cramped against the stone wall. Passing through the stone wall, he marked the place.

Okay, I'm close to the asylum. My reference point is it. If I get lost, I just need to look for it, and then I'll find the house.

Walking while hugging the wall, he stayed crouched, looking around with his rusty sword at the ready. Occasionally, he would hear a creature's moan, so he would hide by passing through the wall with intangibility to the other side. There was a small forest near the asylum between the city, but Lucan didn't dare enter it.

As he walked by some houses, his intuition told him not to enter. Slowly, he would stick a part of himself inside the house with intangibility and sometimes could hear things moving inside.

There’s definitely a creature in there. The question is… can I face it?

Thinking about this, he suddenly noticed, coming through that narrow passage, what looked like a large dog, but half of its body was hairless, as if it had a big black mane. The wolf had red eyes, and its face was smashed as if it had been hit.

Damn it!

He threw himself outside, passing through the wall, and stayed there.

Lying on the ground, he waited for a while.

I could walk inside the walls… or the wall, whatever this is. Walking through the walls would be safer, but my intangibility isn’t miraculous. I can’t see anything while I’m inside the wall, so I need to be careful where I exit and with holding my breath.

As he got up, he heard a low growl behind him.

'Grrrr'

Don’t tell me…

Behind him, near the small forest, was a wolf like the one that had passed by earlier. The difference was that this one's face was in better condition.

Lucan raised his sword in one hand and conjured the torch in the other.

I need to take this thing down quickly. If it howls, I'm screwed.

Approaching the monster, he sweated with the sword in hand. The wolf-dog growled and studied him, drool dripping from its mouth.

Looks like it's hungry too...

The monstrous wolf made a move; Lucan sidestepped and swung his sword, but it was unsuccessful. The sword struck the monster with all his might, but at most, it made a cut.

I guess this thing isn't very sharp...

At the same time, he swung the torch at the monster to try to confuse it.

Several ideas raced through his mind; he could still run towards the wall using his intangibility. But he needed to kill this thing to prove himself.

If things go south, running away is always an option.

But his fear grew; worse than dying was being severely injured in a place like this and then suffering a slow death.

The wolf tried to bite him, and Lucan dodged while trying to strike with the sword.

The grey wolf, with half its body hairless, leaped at him. Seeing this, Lucan threw the torch at its face and moved to the side. He focused on stabbing the sword but could only make light wounds.

How did that damn Clyde make it look so easy? Was it the prana? Well, it's not like he was facing a one-and-a-half-meter wolf-dog.

Dispelling the torch, he had to wait a while before he could summon it again. With both hands gripping the sword, he charged at the creature, striking it. The wolf leaped again, and Lucan fell to the ground but rolled to the side just before the wolf attempted another attack.

The experiment proved useless; there's definitely no way to make the sword intangible and then tangible inside the monster. The intangibility just deactivated, and I almost died from the shock.

Lucan had become intangible to drive the sword into the wolf, but as soon as it hit the wolf, the sword felt tangible even while intangible.

Alright, I can't pass through living things, nor can I make what I hold intangible. Intangibility is practically useless in battle because the living being will hit me anyway. I don't know what's happening, but every time I use the power, I accumulate a bit of fatigue. Is there a limit? It must have something to do with prana, some kind of "fuel" for this power. So besides naturally having the limitation of breath, I also have a prana limit? Well, I can't complain much. It makes sense for powers to have a fuel stock to prevent infinite use, but why do I still have the breath limitation? What the hell...

The wolf struck the sword with its paw, but Lucan lowered it, deflecting the force of the blow.

Summoning the torch back with one hand, he thrust it into the wolf's eye and, with the other hand, drove the sword into the creature's mouth towards its brain.

Gross!

He pushed the sword in as far as he could, but was thrown to the side. The monster gave a howl and staggered. Lucan ran with the broom in hand and shoved it down the creature's throat, nearly making it swallow it whole. The monster gagged and lost focus. In the midst of this, he forced the sword further into the monstrous wolf.

After staggering a bit, the monster fell to the ground with Lucan on top of it.

"Finally."

Lucan said, lying on top of the monster.

[You have killed a Dire Wild Wolf.]

[You have claimed a card.]

"Slow and steady..."

Still lying down, he checked his cards.

"Ah, that's good."

[Howling Battle Hammer

Description: A hammer belonging to the hunters and protectors of the region against wildlife.

Effects: Damage is increased when fighting wolves.]

“Okay, we’re making progress.”

Lucan stood up and conjured his new weapon. It was large like a spear, with the head of a hammer featuring a wolf design at the end, the weapon itself a gray color.

“At least this one isn’t rusted.”

Quickly, he dismissed the torch and kept the sword in hand. The torch was to prevent its light from attracting more monsters.

I especially don’t want to attract the intelligent ones; if one comes, it won’t rest until I’m dead… even if I run.

Crossing back through the wall, Lucan noticed something.

It seems like if I pass through with intangibility while holding something, it somehow tires me more. So my intangibility has these limits too; maybe large objects aren’t possible to pass through with me.

As he walked along the wall, he spotted the other wolf sniffing the ground near a house.

Throwing the sword to the ground but keeping it close by, Lucan held his hammer in hand. He made a small whistle, and as soon as the creature turned to look… he brought the hammer down with all his might on the monster’s skull, continuing to strike until the monster lay still on the ground.

“Gods, I’m starting to like this…”

[You have killed a Dire Wild Wolf.]

What smashed this wolf’s face?

Lucan paused and assessed his situation. Right in front of him was a food source. The problem was that his sword wouldn’t be useful for cutting and removing the wolf’s meat. At least he had a useful weapon against these creatures and could face one of them, as long as they weren’t in a group.

“But what’s this?”

Approaching where the wolf had been sniffing, he found something.

“A leather glove?”

Why is there a single leather glove here?

Looking closely, he saw that it was slightly bloodstained.

Wait, this blood isn’t dry… and that wolf wasn’t bleeding from the mouth. The blood is from the glove… so someone else has passed through here recently. Good… there are expedition members around.

Surveying the surroundings, he took a look and then put on the leather glove.

The size isn’t exactly mine; it’s a bit tight… and the glove is somewhat damaged.

To ensure he wouldn’t have problems, Lucan cleaned the glove with grass, then smeared it with the wolf’s blood before cleaning it again.

Let’s hope the wolf’s blood masks the human blood smell…

Looking around, he crossed back through the stone wall.

“Alright, I have a glove… now I just need the rest of the armor.”

At that moment, he regretted not having stolen Clyde’s things, but he knew that as soon as Clyde died, he would lose whatever was an item card.

Clyde was wearing armor and clothes that were item cards, so if I stole them, I’d lose them anyway as soon as he died… meaning the owner of this glove is still alive. Or this glove isn’t an item card, and by now, the owner is dead. Or Clyde’s armor wasn’t an item card… but in that situation, there was no way to stick around and find out.

Lucan decided to check out the small forest.

The owner of this glove might be injured somewhere in the city. I could just ignore this glove that I’m sure won’t protect me since it’s damaged… but if this glove is an item card, it will disappear as soon as the owner dies. I prefer to keep it for precaution; that way, I’ll know the person’s status. I just hope there are more people in this damned place.

As he wandered toward the forest, he held his hammer and looked around.

The small forest could be seen entirely from a distance; it was almost circular.

The only reason I’m going into a damn forest in a place like this is that there might be people camping there. It’s a good place to hide from the monsters and not too far from the city. Especially for setting up a large camp, I just hope I don’t step on a trap…

The forest was dense, and Lucan paid attention to the ground and his surroundings. He had an advantage: if anything appeared, he could simply dismiss his hammer and run without worrying about hitting a tree, thanks to his intangibility.

My advantage is running in a straight line; whatever comes after me will still have to dodge trees and branches multiple times.

He wondered if it was possible for him to try to go through the ground he was walking on.

It would be nice to hide inside the ground, but I’m not in the mood to fall endlessly or die by materializing underground.

Still walking, he looked up at the sky; from the little he saw that wasn’t covered by clouds, he could see the moon’s glow.

Unlike the broken moon on Earth, this one is whole.

A mixed feeling overcame him, the sensation of being far from home and that he would never see that person again.

Well, at least this moon doesn’t have that rabbit drawn on it.

Refocusing on the forest, he walked for a while, always avoiding stepping on branches, and when it wasn’t possible, he would go through the trees with his intangibility. Lucan still felt a bit strange about seeing so many trees together; he knew they were rare on Earth. At least in his zone, many trees like this were only seen in the wealthier parts of the city.

Lucan stopped as soon as he saw something, and what he saw left him surprised.