My Fate System

Chapter 173 – Upgrade Card

"Cecily Rainmaker," read Nikolai as he sat on top of the carriage. These were the notebook that the woman must have written before they were attacked. "I never imagined this was from that family."

Rainmakers were ancient people who danced and sacrificed for the gods to make rain fall over the land. These people were seen as symbols of wealth and prosperity.

The people of Rainmaker House were experts in generating money, the current equivalent of rain. As a result, this house was the Rosia Kingdom's wealthiest people and possibly the surrounding kingdoms.

"This caravan belongs to them, and it explains how much gold and materials are in it. This is either my fortune or misfortune because this is a ruthless family."

The Rainmaker family is known to be quite vengeful. Their power came from money, and money moves the world. After reading this, Nikolai was sure that a search item targeted these items.

There was nothing that he could do about this. However, there was nothing that they could do about this either. Their belongings were in a different dimension.

"Let me see you track this down," smirked Nikolai as he flipped through the notebook. Then, finally, after a while of reading, he concluded. "This girl is smart but arrogant. Who signs everything they write?"

However, her notebook was filled with facts about The Great Unseen. As a result, Nikolai gained a great understanding of the darkness and how it affected the world.

Trade routes have been destroyed, and the Great Unseen took many people's lives. This explains that Nikolai was still receiving Fate Points. The world suffered greatly, and famine struck the common folk.

However, several holy churches rose to fight against the darkness. Cecily wrote about her suspicions that the holy churches were somehow the most benefited from this darkness, and it made Nikolai have a good impression of her deduction.

"This is indeed similar to the previous timeline, but it seems the darkness was the perfect excuse for the Trinity to gain more followers."

The Trinity were the three holy churches that worshiped three separate gods. Those gods were the ones to banish the darkness long ago and give life to the people. This made their powers holy, unlike the rest of the gods.

These were his enemies. However, Nikolai was sure that the whole world would be his enemy at one point. The living cannot coexist with the undead.

[Skeleton Mage has leveled up!]

[You have obtained a new card.]

A notification popped in front of him. Nikolai had yet to find where he was, but the notice intrigued him. This was the first time the system mentioned something like a card, so he closed the notebook and saw his minions.

***

"Well, it seems you have changed?" blinked Nikolai as he looked at the mage, who had shiny bones now. "You were the one attacking, so I guess that made you the first to level up."

The three skeletons in front of him were standing idly next to the corpses of a few monsters. Nikolai closed his eyes and saw that his pocket dimension had more crystals than before.

"Good job," grinned Nikolai. "What card did you obtain?" he asked, but the mage was confused. Nikolai pondered and opened his system.

[Undead]

[Skeleton Soldier (Lvl. 1)]

[Skeleton Soldier (Lvl. 1)]

[Skeleton Mage (Lvl. 2)]

Nikolai pressed on the mage, and two subitems appeared instead of his earlier stats. In addition to [Stats], a new function called [Cards] was added, blinking in golden.

After opening it, the image of the mage appeared in front of him. There was also a list beside the image, where a single item was added.

[Skill Upgrade] [Equip]

Nikolai started to understand the card function. It was a way to customize his undead and strengthen them. In addition, this card seemed to allow him to upgrade the skills of his undead, increasing their strength.

"We humans use crystals, and it seems I can use these cards to strengthen the undead," pondered Nikolai. "Well, there is only one way to find out what they do."

Nikolai equipped the card to his mage skeleton, and a dark light appeared around it. The rest of the skeletons backed away as the mage raised its hands toward the sky.

"I guess you can feel more powerful," smiled Nikolai before he commanded. "Use your skill on that rock."

The skeleton mage waved his cane, and two Chaos Arrows appeared. Nikolai was amazed that they increased in number after equipping it with the card. Then, he unequipped it and asked the skeleton to use his skill again.

This time, only one Chaos Arrow appeared. The mage looked disappointed and downcast, so the other two skeletons tried to console it. Nikolai laughed at their antics and shook his head.

Then, he tried to use the card on one of the skeletons. It used a few moves of swordsmanship, and Nikolai noticed that it was more skilled than before.

"This works on all of my undead," Nikolai was amazed. "This makes things interesting and gives me room to improve my undead instead of summoning new ones."

The skeleton mage took large strides with a hesitant expression. It pointed toward the skeleton soldier who had the card and then pointed at itself.

"You think you deserve it more?" Nikolai laughed, and the mage nodded. "Well, fight it out. Whoever wins gets to keep the card."

Nikolai unequipped the card and watched as his undead vied for strength and his approval. The three undead were all serious, and they had several battles until it was decided that the mage would get the card.

"You three are thirsty, are you not?" smiled Nikolai. "Let us hunt some humans then. There is not much time for me, and I need to devour some souls."

***

"What have we done to deserve this?" the man cried as he carried his two children, on front and back. "This darkness took away my farm, my wife, and now…"

Life was too cruel. Marvin looked at his two children, both poisoned by the darkness. They could not afford a mask for each of them, so they had to buy one and use it in turns.

The alternative was staying at their village, which was dying of famine. Marvin knew that if he went alone, his two children would die.

"Mama," his daughter said in her sleep. Marvin looked at her pale face as she breathed in the darkness. Finally, his heart could not take it, and he took off his mask to make her live.

Her face returned a healthy shade of color, and Marvin sighed. His son was on his back, but there was only one mask for them. It seems that they were destined to die in this darkness.

"I curse this world," tears streamed down his face as he laughed. "This corrupted world where we were abandoned. Why were we chosen to die? What wrong did we do?"

As he took the next step forward, Marvin realized that the ground beneath them was gone. This was another danger of The Great Unseen. You cannot travel without a holy lantern.

Marvin felt his weight pull him downward, and he fell to roll down what seemed to be a cliff. His arms tried to hold his two children, but it was futile. Their descent took a few seconds, and by its end, Marvin realized that he could see.

"We… left… the darkness?"

Marvin looked around, realizing that he had reached the end of The Great Unseen. His tears came out unceasingly as he looked around for his children.

The two of them were unconscious and bruised, but they were otherwise fine. Marvin was sobbing as he realized that today would not be their demise.

"Oh ho," a voice came from the forest behind him. "What do we have here? It seems that a few rats managed to cross The Unseen. We are quite lucky!"

Marvin could tell things were going wrong. A few men came out from the forest wearing leather armor and carrying large swords. His body started shaking as he realized who these people were.

"Bandits…" his mouth was chattering from fear. "Please, please. Let us go. We have barely crossed the darkness. We are both humans, so please… let us live…"

"Hey, hey," one of the men laughed as he pointed at Marvin. "This man has lost his mind. He thinks that we should all help each other just because of The Unseen."

"Idiot doesn't know that this darkness is our chance to get rich! Well, I doubt that you have any money on you. So I guess we can just solve the two kids as slaves," said a man at the back.

"Hey, boss," one of the bandits squinted his eyes. "One of these two is a girl. Do you think that we can…?" a lustful expression appeared on his face as he asked.

"I will kill you!" Marvin stood up and took out his dagger, holding it with trembling hands. "I will kill all of your bastards! Don't come near us!" he was crying while waving his dagger.

"We will kill you first, then!" said one of the bandits as he rushed forward. Marvin saw the man disappear because his eyes could not follow. There was no way for an ordinary man to fight against a Defier.

'Ah, what have we done to deserve this?' Marvin watched the man slashing toward him, knowing full well that he was unable to stop it. 'I wish that this world burns…' as his thought grew slower, Marvin saw the man's head disappear.