The Legendary Fool

Tom and Aleph stood before another incandescent symbol that sealed the pathway to the Theatre of Stone’s second auditorium— or so it had been labeled, by the first dungeoneers that had pioneered the exploration of this sector likely decades ago.

“Ready?” Aleph asked him.

Tom’s gaze shifted to his Revenant Claw, knowing that the armored gauntlet was clutching onto his newly acquired [Lifeblood] card. He had initially wanted to equip it directly within the Claw’s rotating mechanism, but his current copy of the Revenant Claw was merely a common— it wasn’t powerful enough to contain an [Uncommon] Card.

“Yeah,” Tom replied with a brisk nod.

Without further ado, the stone door leading to the second auditorium swung open.

It only took Tom a single kill to come to terms with a singular truth— Abyss Demons could no longer provide any meaningful level of experience to [The Fool]. On one hand, he supposed that it was a very fair consequence of gaining five levels in the span of a day— easily surpassing the combined experience he’d gained from months of life and death experiences in Artezia.

At the same time though, Tom found himself a little disappointed. Not because he found the lower experience total he’d gotten from slaying the Abyss Demon with an overhead assassination, no— it was merely a gut feeling, an instinctive pull that gave him a feeling that was hard to describe in words.

[The Fool’s] Level 10 had the possibility of being transformative and in an ideal world, he would spend months down in the Zelez Dungeon until he acquired the remaining 1.75 million experience points he needed to get him there.

Unfortunately, Aleph had already warned him against that possibility. Two dungeoneers coming back from a pathway that led to difficult sectors once or twice could be attributed to overambitious fools retreating after they’d learned their lessons but… multiple times, largely stepping out unscathed?

The Nameless District was a cutthroat environment where people would gladly betray a squadmate if it allowed them to curry favor with the various factions of the Noble District. Vexingly enough, Tom couldn’t even blame them—- ambitious youths from all across the Syrelore Kingdom willing to risk their lives for their goal? The society was broken, yes, but it was ultimately hard to begrudge people looking for a better life.

Simply put, if Tom stuck out too much, odds were that whispers of his odds-defying accomplishments would reach the ears of the Nobles.

Thankfully though, the skies weren’t completely overcast.

[The Fool] might have hit it’s level cap for now, but [Lifeblood] hadn’t.

It was only a meager Level 1 and Tom intended to funnel every bit of experience he got from now on directly into the [Uncommon] Deck Card.

With a casual backstep, Tom evaded the furious hammer blow of an Abyss Demon.

And then he kept retreating, falling back until he was at the entrance of the Theatre of Stone’s second auditorium.

Tom took in the battlefield that stretched out before him, finding the landscape much more adherent to the missives they had received. Clusters of Abyss Demons pelted stones from behind the cover of stony facades that rose from the earth, hallmarked by crude crenellations that were a far cry from the impressive stone fortress they had to overcome under the silent command of the Abyssal Lurker.

Aleph had once again captured a majority of the enemy’s attention, though this time it was at Tom’s behest.

He forced himself to take a deep breath as the chaos of the battlefield continued to unfold before him, his gaze sweeping the auditorium just enough to keep him abreast of any attacks that might be directed in his vicinity.

Then, with Tom’s voice barely above a whisper, he uttered, “Augmentation.”

Tom could distinctly feel his lungs pulling vitality from the air, supplying his heart with the thrum of life. He could feel his heart pulsating in excitement as it carried out its function, sharing its bountiful vitality with the rest of his body without holding back.

He shuddered in exhilaration as every inch of his body was suffused with power, or rather, the promise of power if he so willed it.

Then, Tom beckoned his heart to do it again, but faster.

And faster.

Two plumes of steam were exhaled by Tom as augmentation reached it’s crescendo. With every passing second, Tom could feel the strong pull on his SP, clocking around 1 SP lost every five seconds at the current rate it was ebbing away.

An impish smile stretched across his features as he stored his [Nether Blade] in his inventory and sheathed his [Netherstride Dagger].

Then Tom moved.

Truly moved.

All Aleph caught was a blur of movement rocketing forward in the periphery of her vision.

On the other hand, Tom found himself truly astounded by the sheer distance between a [Common] and an [Uncommon] card as his conceptualization of speed was changed forevermore.

His trajectory was that of a bullet fired at close range— straight and unerring as he found the distance between him and an Abyss Demon that had stepped outside cover to get a better shot at Aleph, evaporate.

It wasn’t as if Tom didn’t want to pivot and take care of multiple targets on his way but he simply couldn’t. Augmentation was too powerful and too fast at full capacity to allow him deft pivots and maneuvers without tearing at his own ankles.

That realization didn’t shatter the true terror of his [Lifeblood] card as Tom’s fist, newly enhanced by his Physical Stat, landed squarely in the Abyss Demon’s jaw.

Tom had expected to send the Abyss Demon skidding back with his punch, if not flying away. He had expected to deal enough damage to completely stun it, so he could finish it off later easily enough.

What he hadn’t expected though, was for the Abyss Demon’s skull to pop like a balloon the moment his fist fully connected and then went flying past it.

[Congratulations, Uncommon Ranked Card [Lifeblood] has reached Level 2!]