The gears in Rakna’s brain stopped turning for a decent amount of time after checking Nyx’s status. He was forced out of his daze by a few shouts.

“They’re leaving!” Leis was one of them and he focused on the eagles again only to see them retreat toward the forest again. Although they were still hundreds of them, they seemed to have given up staying on the school grounds.

‘It’s probably a good thing for anyone who has stayed in the forest and hasn’t reached their quota of souls,’ he thought. Little did he know that he was one of the main reasons why Gray had decided to gather them in a single place.

Ding!

❮ ◈ ❯

You have completed a Side-Objective: Overtaking!

After strenuous efforts, you have managed to win against the invaders. There is no imminent threat remaining in your area.

Your contribution score has been calculated at 48%. You ranked first.

Rewards: One Random Utility Item, 2 Free Attribute Points, 4800 Talys.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna read the notification and nodded satisfyingly and thanks to a quick inspection of his group, he was obviously not the only one who had gotten this.

“Two Free Points, huh? So, you can earn them through quests too…” He heard Allan say and he coincided mentally. It was good to know you could get those from something other than leveling.

All in all, Rakna was fairly pleased with the money and points he got from this supposed side quest. As for his third reward, it appeared as a small inbox icon in the corner of his vision. He focused on it and it zoomed in to reveal a closed chest bouncing from side to side.

“I see… the game of the devil,” he mumbled inaudibly but Alexa didn’t fail to hear it.

[The game… of the devil?]

‘Of course, gacha games were probably the devil’s personal creation,’ Rakna responded with a tone that left no room to argue.

[…]

He then sighed and ordered mentally for the System to open… this chest. And as he expected, his vision exploded in a flurry of colors before displaying one item which magically proceeded to appear in his hands in a flash of red light.

“…dude, you need to stop doing that,” Allan grumbled as he saw it happen. “I’m seriously starting to believe that you use cheat codes or something. The heck is that thing?”

“Yes, I’m quite curious as well,” Flavia followed and Leis’ group agreed wordlessly.

“Reward. I ranked first in contribution and it gave me this… I think,” Rakna shrugged and began to inspect the object he was holding. It was… a deck of cards. The standard kind; 54 cards, thirteen for each suit (hearts, clubs, spades, diamonds), plus two jokers. That didn’t explain much about its abilities so Rakna didn’t waste checking the Item’s specifics through the System.

❮ ◈ ❯

Designation: Utility Item/Card Deck

Name: The Trickster’s Sleeve

Rarity: Red

Capacity: 13/13 Hearts - 13/13 Clubs - 13/13 Diamonds - 13/13 Spades - 2/2 Jokers.

Description:

Said to have belonged to the Legendary Trickster, Coyote. The creator of all animals and master of the apex of supernatural trickery.

The Trickster’s Sleeve is said to be an item made when Earth Maker and Coyote were still working together before the latter started introducing evil to the world.

Effect:

- Heart Cards: The cards that belong to this suit will be faithful to their appellation and heal a target. The effectiveness of the heal will depend on which card is used with the Two being the weakest and the Ace being the strongest.

- Club Cards: This suit has also been called the suit of creation in the past. They can be used to build anything that the user wishes for. Their limit lies in the user’s level as well as the rank of the card used. Note: System Items cannot be produced.

- Diamond Cards: The cards of infinite toughness. They were said to be capable of nullifying even the deadliest of attacks. When using one of these cards, any attack of any sort can be canceled, with the same limitations as the previous ones.

- Spade Cards: Also called the blade suit. According to the myths, even Earth Maker was afraid of these specific cards as they allowed anyone who wielded them to injure even the mightiest gods. When using one of them, a target defined by the user will be dealt a random type of attack that ignores defense. Effectiveness remains as limited as the previous suits.

- Joker Cards: Contrary to the other cards, the jokers require a price to be employed. That price being random attributes being reduced by 1 in exception of Luck. In exchange, the user can demand anything that the other cards offer and beyond. However, the limitations remain and the jokers’ help can sometimes bring more malfortune than fortune.

Cooldown: 30 Min.

Regeneration time for a specific card: As many days as its rank minus one. With Twos being one day and Aces being thirteen days.

Joker Regeneration: 30 Days.

Note: The Trickster’s Sleeve is bound to its user. It will appear and disappear on command and can also be controlled mentally. To use a card, shouting its name is required. Additionally, the user is granted feedback whenever a situation can or cannot be solved by one of the cards.

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna didn’t expect so much text and pretty much stayed rooted in place for several minutes in order to absorb the information.

“Um… Rak?” Allan waved his hand in front of him but was met with no response. “You there? Earth to- wait, it’s not Earth… Plateau Zero to Rakna?” Everyone looked at him with a blank expression. “What? You have a better idea?”

“By the way, Rakna, is that… normal?” Flavia asked as she pointed at his back. He was pulled out of his thoughts for a short moment to look behind him to see two wolf tails. He hadn’t paid too much attention to them until now since he was already used to the feeling of having nine of them.

“Yes. You have seen my tails during my transformation, right? I unlock them in this form by leveling up,” he replied casually and everyone easily accepted the answer. After all of what they had seen him do, this wasn’t the most surprising.

[…] Meanwhile, Alexa was making… noises? Akin to someone trying to open their mouth to say something but unable to form the words needed to convey their state of mind. [C-congratulations, Rakna. You acquired a Red Utility Item…]

He then returned to his thoughts to talk to Alexa and Allan facepalmed. “And here I thought he was going to stop…”

‘Red, huh? I guess my luck truly isn’t bad after all.’

[Affirmative… I feel obliged to mention that Red equipment, in general, is very difficult to find and a Red Utility Item is several times more so.]

‘Well, what can you tell me about my luck? Is 9 a high number or not?’

[It is,] Alexa said with no further hesitation or shock in her tone. [The Luck Attribute behaves very differently from others. They function, for the lack of a better word, in powers. For instance, a Host with 2 of Luck will be two times luckier than someone with 1. In other words, Rakna, your luck is higher than the minimum value by a power of 9. Taking binary numbers as a basis. 1 luck would be equivalent to an imaginary measure of 2 while 9 of luck would be equal to 512.]

“Interesting…”

“Okay, I’m losing it,” Allan snapped and started shaking his friends’ shoulders who let himself go along with it with no change to his expression but it had managed to divert his attention again.

“Hm? What is it? Also, stop shaking me,” he replied dully and Allan groaned. Flavia chuckled and Nyx smiled faintly. “You were asking what this was, right? It’s a special item…”

After saying that, he fell back into his thoughts again and Allan rolled his eyes which then almost popped out in shock when the cards in Rakna’s hands started floating around the latter.

“Neat,” the ever so indifferent teen said before snapping his fingers. The cards flashed in a crimson light before disappearing as if they were never there. Rakna looked back at the stunned onlookers and wrapped Sonata around his neck.

“Well, now that we’ve collected enough souls and experience, let’s go back inside the gymnasium for now. I propose that we depart after resting. I also believe that some of you have received a certain prompt after reaching level 10, correct?” He asked and a few nods were returned; including Nyx, Allan, and Flavia.

“In that case, let’s hurry up to look through it. From what I have seen of it, it’s something we’ll have to carefully proceed with.”

* * *

“I can’t believe this kid…” Gray muttered dumbfoundedly, once again sitting on the head of a very irked Aquila. “Do you believe this? He pulled a fucking Red Utility Item on his first try. I think it’s official, I hate this kid… I hate lucky people. But goddammit, I’m loving it.”

The giant divine eagle sighed. “Why did I have to be in the group you oversee…”

“Well, that’s a bit of a misplaced euphemism. Since, you know, you were cloned to fill the spot in every group. So, technically, there literally wasn’t a way for you to not be stuck with me.”

Aquila sighed again.

* * *

Back in the gym, Rakna was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed; conversing with Alexa who also was directly sending him visual input without him actually needing to ‘see’ to have his brain register the System windows.

‘So, if I understand correctly, these ‘Paths’ are similar to the concept of Jobs, yes?’ He asked inwardly.

[Affirmative. Every Host gets this choice. However, the choices vastly differ from one person to another. To be exact, the number and quality of choices differ. The number never goes below 3 or above 10. So, in other words, you have gotten the maximum, Rakna. That is a rare occurrence. On top of that, you have a Unique Path available to you.]

‘So, these things also have a concept of rarity to them?’

[Yes. It goes from normal to uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary.]

‘What about Unique then?’

[Unique refers to a Path that has never existed before. To be more specific, there has never been a Nine-Tailed Werewolf in the entire history of the System.]

‘Really?’ Rakna scowled. ‘I find it weird that it had no precedents.’

[That would be correct if you lonely meant either a Nine-Tailed Wolf or a Werewolf. A combination of the two has never been seen before because the former is essentially nobility and the latter can be seen as commoners if I dare say so. Nine-Tailed Creatures are noble and they are as such since birth. A Werewolf on the other hand is merely a beast in their eyes. A beast without an ounce of magical or spiritual talent.]

‘I see… All right, then explain to me what a Skill Point is.’

[It’s very simple. A Skill Point can increase the level of any skill. More often than not, Hosts save them as much as they can to break through a bottleneck. Usually, to increase the levels of skills with a level above 8. However, its most useful application is on a level Ex skill.]

‘Ex, huh?’ Rakna mused. He had seen it a few times already. Most of them were just recently when he saw Nyx’s status, which he would have to think about later, but there was also Pronos’ poison resistance.

[Yes. Ex is an abbreviation for Excelled. It signifies that a skill has gone beyond its original set limit and is now on the verge of an ascension per se. Skills that go beyond Ex once are called Ascended Skills, those that go beyond twice are called Demi-God Skills, and those that surpass their origin thrice are called Divine Skills. However, the latter is said to be inconceivably hard to attain.]

‘So, if I understand correctly, these points are rare.’

[Correct. At level ten, most people get 1 Skill Point while Hosts with S Potential get two. Then, they receive one every hundred. There are also ways to earn them through other means that you will come to learn when reaching the First Plateau.]

Rakna had finished asking the questions that interested him and spent a few minutes mulling over it before mentally bringing a prompt into his vision. He stared at the Unique Path at the bottom of the list and slowly selected it.