Chapter 83: Unable to Afford Anything...

After dinner, Lin Huang quickly found a hotel in Wuyou City and checked in. Entering his room, he sat down on the sofa in the living room and asked Xiao Hei to reorganize his card deck.

[Host has obtained a total of 9 new cards.]
[Among them, 5 are new monster cards: Black Charcoal (Epic), Purple-Eyed White Eagle (Rare), Azure-Scaled Wolf, One-Eyed Demon Ape, Ghost Shadow.]
[New skill cards: "Thunderblade" (Rare), "Drifting Cloud Step" (Rare).]
[New functional card: Advancement Card x1.]
[New item card (Treasure Grade) x1.]

Seeing this, Lin Huang was quite satisfied. The two cards awarded for completing the mission—the Advancement Card and the Treasure Grade Item Card—had already been granted when he entered Wuyou City.

But Xiao Hei soon popped up another message:

[Host has consumed 6 cards.]
[The consumed cards are: Temporary Transformation Card x5, Healing Card x2, Reward Doubler Card x3, Mission Card x2.]

"All the Temporary Transformation Cards are used up?" Lin Huang was taken aback. He muttered and tallied in a low voice, "Used one to kill the Purple-Dress Enchantress, one to enter the underground cave, one to kill Li Yanxing, one to escape the underground cave, and finally transformed into the Purple-Eyed White Eagle to escape into the sky... They really are all used up!"

"Both Healing Cards were used on Leng Yuexin, and the three Reward Doubler Cards were traded for twenty cross-tier reward cards..." Lin Huang frowned. "Xiao Hei, tally up all the cards I have left."

[Host currently possesses 18 non-monster cards, as follows: Advancement Card x4, Mission Card x1, Treasure Card x3, Vitality Storage Card x2, Item Card x4, Authority Card x1, Perfection Card x2, Healing Card x1.]

"Four Advancement Cards, just enough to advance both Bai and Sha Tu once each..." As his earliest monster cards, Lin Huang had always hesitated over which one to cultivate first. Now he no longer had to choose.

"Xiao Hei, will advancing Bai and Sha Tu to Epic affect my use of them?" Lin Huang asked before proceeding.

[It will not affect use, but a second advancement is equivalent to a metamorphosis. They will evolve into other species, and during evolution, will emit a powerful surge of vital energy. It is not recommended to perform a second advancement within or near strongholds. Abnormal vital energy fluctuations may attract the attention of nearby Transcendents and the Alliance Government's Monitoring Bureau. Advancing in wild areas with Transcendent monsters is also not advised.]

"Alright..." Lin Huang had to set aside the idea for now. He'd barely escaped from the Forget-Worry Forest alive and didn't want to return just for this. "I'll wait until next time I go out to the wilds. There's no rush."

"Four Item Cards—three should grant weaponry or other items, and the last, earned from the mission, can randomly provide a treasure. Let's activate all four at once!"

Four Item Cards appeared in his hand, their faces marked with question marks: three were white crystal cards, and one was a silvery-gray crystal card.

[Activating Item Card x4.]
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: Bronze Armor x1, Bronze Battle Blade x1, Bronze Water Flask x1.]
[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the detection treasure—Eye of the Candle Dragon (Replica)!]

"A detection-type treasure..." Lin Huang was somewhat speechless. Though such treasures were useful, they were money pits. One hundred-year-old Vitality Crystal might only power a single use. What he really wanted was a blade-type treasure; even without inputting vitality to activate it, the sharpness would never diminish.

He opened the treasure card to check the details.

[Item Card]
[Grade: Four-Star Treasure]
[Item Name: Eye of the Candle Dragon (Replica)]
[Category: Detection Treasure]
[Description: A replica of the divine tool 'Eye of the Candle Dragon,' able to perceive everything within its detection range. Maximum radius: 1,000 kilometers.]
[Usage Limit: No more than three uses per day!]

"It does seem like a powerful detection treasure. The usage restriction is so strict—only three times per day!" Lin Huang raised his brow after reading. The weapons had already transformed into ring forms upon activation, but only this treasure couldn't be stored within him, remaining in card form.

To activate a treasure required at least Gold-rank power to provide enough vitality. Lin Huang was still far from that, so he could only store it as a card for now.

After putting away his new items, Lin Huang turned his attention to the two skill cards he'd obtained from Li Yanxing.

[Skill Card]
[Skill Name: Thunderblade]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Type: Blade Technique]
[Skill Level: Gold-rank Martial Skill]
[Status: Usable]
[Description: A blade technique notable for its speed and explosiveness.]
[Note: This skill must be activated with vitality.]
[Card Evaluation: Mediocre]

...

[Skill Card]
[Skill Name: Drifting Cloud Step]
[Rarity: Rare]
[Type: Movement Technique]
[Skill Level: Gold-rank Movement]
[Status: Usable]
[Description: A movement technique suitable for short-distance evasion.]
[Note: This is a special movement skill with no usage level restriction; effect varies according to the user's strength.]
[Card Evaluation: Mediocre]

"Not bad at all."

Lin Huang was quite satisfied. He'd trained Thunderblade for days without collecting many fragments, but after killing Li Yanxing, it finally dropped. As for Drifting Cloud Step, he had already witnessed its effectiveness in his fight with Li Yanxing; it was an excellent movement technique.

"Activate both skill cards!"

[Activation complete!]

When the message popped up, the two skill cards in Lin Huang's hand disappeared. He checked his personal card list, and under Combat Skills, there were now two new entries.

Drawing his attention back from his body, Lin Huang looked again at the dialog box listing cards from Xiao Hei.

"What are the Vitality Storage Card and Authority Card?" These two cards were among the twenty cross-tier reward cards he'd obtained by slaying monsters in the Forget-Worry Forest, but he hadn't had time to check them.

He opened the Vitality Storage Card and was left a little dazed after reading the description.

[Vitality Storage Card: Upon activation, this card can duplicate the user's Life Wheel, storing an amount of vitality equal to the capacity of the original Life Wheel.]
[Note: This card only increases vitality storage capacity and does not grant other Life Wheel effects.]

Even with that note, Lin Huang thought the card was almost overpowered. Once activated, it was as if he had an extra Life Wheel in his body—and he had two of these cards.

"As an Iron-level rank three, I can only use 1,080 units of vitality. If I activate both of these, I'll have three Life Wheels' worth of storage—3,240 units of vitality!" Lin Huang was thrilled after realizing the cards' potential. He immediately ordered Xiao Hei, "Xiao Hei, activate both Vitality Storage Cards!"

[Vitality Storage Card x2, activated!]

The two cards turned into streams of light and merged into Lin Huang's body. He checked within himself and, sure enough, next to his original Iron-rank Life Wheel, two identical wheels had appeared, though both were empty, unlike his original, whose first ring was already filled with black vitality.

Drawing his awareness back, Lin Huang looked at the Authority Card. "What does the Authority Card do?"

[Authority Card: Upon use, permanently upgrades the host's authority to use a specific item.]
[Note: Consumable. Disappears after one use on a designated item.]

"Authority upgrade?!" Lin Huang immediately thought of Xiao Hei. "Xiao Hei, does this work on you too?"

[Yes.] Xiao Hei confirmed.

"Great. I designate you as the target; upgrade my usage authority!" Lin Huang grinned.

[Confirm designated target?]

"Confirm!"

[Authority Card consumed... Host authority upgraded...]
[New function activated—Fragment Shop!]
[Random card reward authority upgraded; the number of selectable cards increased from 12 to 18!]

"Fragment Shop?!" Lin Huang's eyes lit up. He still had a lot of card fragments and wanted to see if he could exchange them for anything useful.

[Host only possesses Iron and Bronze grade card fragments; higher-level exchange pages cannot be viewed.]

"That's fine. Let me see the Iron and Bronze ones." Lin Huang nodded.

Items quickly appeared before him, but after looking them over, Lin Huang felt Xiao Hei was a real scammer.

"It's the same grade of card fragment, but if I want to exchange for a specific card fragment, it takes two for one... Normally, fusing thirty fragments is enough to assemble an Iron-rank ordinary monster card, but here in the Fragment Shop, it costs me sixty!"

[Because the host's fragments aren't for a specific monster. To exchange for a designated monster's fragment, even at equal value, you must pay a price.] Xiao Hei explained.

Lin Huang checked the rare monster cards—each required at least hundreds of thousands of fragments, with some costing millions.

"Clearly, I'm still poor. I can't afford anything..." Lin Huang shook his head helplessly. He had no use for ordinary monster cards, and the number of fragments needed for rare monster cards was simply astronomical, far beyond what he currently possessed.