Chapter 3 - The cost of power

After experiencing control over leaves, Zane tried to repeat it on trees. The results quickly excited him, pushing him to try it on living creatures. This led him to search for weak animals in the forest, eventually bringing him face-to-face with a white rabbit.

It wasn't like the common rabbits he had known. Its shape was lean yet slightly muscular, and it was the size of a pug. Despite its unusual appearance, it looked cute and, above all, harmless.

"This is it. My first experimental subject," Zane thought as he tiptoed, making sure no sound escaped to alert the little creature.

From what he remembered, rabbits had exceptionally good hearing, so he even forced his breathing to slow while stalking behind it.

Thirty meters… twenty meters… fifteen…

That's when the creature's ear twitched. Only then did he notice the horn-like ridges folded within its ears. It turned toward him with a speed so quick his eyes ached to follow.

"Crap, it saw me," Zane cursed, assuming that, like a common rabbit, it would run away. Judging by its speed, he doubted he could ever catch up. But he was wrong.

"Growl…"

A low, predatory cry escaped from the rabbit's long teeth. Its eyes glinted red. The moment Zane saw the flash of color in its eyes, alarm bells rang in his heart, forcing him to activate his second card: Titan Leap.

In the next second, he jumped into the sky, soaring nearly twenty meters high. From above, he saw the spot where he had stood before scorched by dark red flames. Then, a shadow followed his leap and hit him square in the chest.

Zane watched in horror as a pair of sharp yellow teeth tried to pierce his heart, failing only because a thin layer of armor appeared, shattering the teeth into two. With a pained cry, the monster fell, creating a small crater as it landed on all fours.

Invulnerability: 5 seconds remaining, a mechanical voice announced, snapping Zane's frozen brain into action.

From the moment he activated his card and leaped, only five seconds had passed. Within those five seconds, he had almost died twice. The horrifying truth was that his brain couldn't keep up with everything that was happening.

It felt like it was working in slow motion.

Zane felt the system urging him to burn another 50 energy from his card, and he allowed it, hurtling down just a few meters from the trembling monster.

Time seemed to freeze as he clearly saw the panic—almost human-like—in the creature's expression. Then, a shockwave erupted around him, sending the monster crashing into a nearby tree.

Rising into the air again, Zane wasted no time burning energy twice more before jumping into air and slamming down onto the monster.

Blood and body parts splattered across the surroundings in the aftermath of the shockwaves, coating Zane in sticky, foul-smelling liquid that made him retch.

"Blegh," he spat, but the sour taste in his throat forced him to retch again, this time emptying the contents of his stomach.

After what felt like an eternity, Zane supported himself against a tree, using his hands and feet to climb up into its branches.

Just a few seconds after he hid among the leaves, rustling sounds came from all around. Peering through the cover of tree branches, he saw more monsters—like the one he had killed—filling the entire area.

They gathered around the remains of their companion, their expressions seemingly grief-stricken. Then, they scanned the surroundings as if searching for something.

Zane felt countless pairs of eyes, filled with indignation and a trace of fear, boring into his hiding spot. Low grunts of anger swept toward him.

Zane thought he was about to die, probably eaten alive, but nothing happened as the creatures suddenly turned and left.

He touched his chest. His heartbeat pounded against his palm, as if it was about to burst through his ribcage. A second later, darkness overcame him, and blood spilled from his mouth.

Congratulations, you died, a voice hammered in his ears.

Dying of a heart attack isn't unique or even a bit of gory. So, you've earned nothing but a friendly suggestion: Get good.

Zane tried to sit up, but his body felt like it was trapped in a swamp. No part of him obeyed his commands. Even his eyelids felt too heavy to lift.

He couldn't even breathe through his mouth. If his nose didn't have default openings, he thought he might suffocate.

'What's going on?,' he thought in panic, waiting for the system to explain.

You ran out of energy, came the voice.

'You're lying,' Zane protested, gritting his teeth mentally to suppress his urge to curse.

'You told me activating a card requires 50 energy points. I used my first card once, which cost me 50 energy points, and my second card twice, burning a total of 200 energy. I should still have 750 energy points left!'

You are technically correct; you have 750 energy left to use freely, the voice replied.

A blue screen appeared in his mind, displaying:

[Energy: 750/1000]

I'm not talking about this energy, the voice continued, and an icon next to his deck icon opened automatically.

Health Points: 0/140

Regeneration Rate (RG): 1/second

[Base Stats]

•Strength: 14 (+5)

•Agility: 12 (+5)

•Defence: 8

•Dexterity: 13 (+5)

•Endurance: 6

•Perception: (Locked until Copper Deck)

[Hybrid Functions]

•Magic Attack: 10 × Strength – 140

•Magic Control: 10 × (Agility + Dexterity) – 250

•Magic Defence: 10 × (Defence + Endurance) – 140

•Magic Scope: 10 × (Perception + Dexterity)

I am taking about your health points. the voice continued. 

All your base stats, except Endurance, have no direct connection to your health points, but they indirectly impact it. The Leaping Lagomor's attack power was 110. To keep you unharmed, your Magic Defence function burned 110 health points, the voice explained.

'That still doesn't explain why my health points dropped to zero. Do you need health points to function?' Zane snapped, channeling his irritation and frustration into his words.

If there were an Intelligence stat, yours would be in the negatives, the voice mocked. Without waiting for his response, it continued, As I said, all your base stats have direct or indirect impacts on your health points. Each action you take strains your health points.

"Explain," Zane demanded. He could now blink his eyes and open his mouth to talk, so his mood improved slightly, making him more attentive.

It's simple common sense. Activating your first card to train didn't directly affect your health points. But to control the area around the leaves, you needed some function, right?

That's Magic Control. And now you're wondering how that affects your health points. Let me simplify it for you.

Magic Control uses Agility and Dexterity, which naturally oppose air resistance—friction!

Your card had some amount of control over this friction, allowing you to become almost 99.9% invisible to it.

But what about that 0.1%?

Your body simply protected itself at the cost of a small amount of health points to run Magic Defence.

Now, I think you understand how your health points reached zero.

Zane began his calculations. By using his card the first time, he had burned some amount of his health points to defend against friction in the air.

In this way, upon activating his second card and leaping into the air, he supposedly burned his health points in two steps. 

First: For him to jump to that height, he had to push against the ground with his foot. There, he used health points to protect his foot bones from breaking due to the impact required to reach such a height, along with defending against air friction.

Second: When he plummeted down, the friction he faced increased because of gravitational force. After landing, to protect his body from damage caused by the impact, he burned health points again.

These two steps repeated twice. Additionally, there was a high chance he had to burn even more health points when landing directly on the monster to burst it apart.

After all, it must have had a certain amount of magic defence.

Even if his two cards had some unknown properties that helped reduce the health points burned, it was still not enough to completely nullify the effects.

Zane exhaled deeply.

He had discovered a flaw—or rather, a nerf—to his talent. After each resurrection, his energy and health points remained the same as they were at the moment of his death.

The universe is impartial; it favours everyone equally. The system's voice was calm and serene.

If it gives someone a useless talent, there must be a loophole in that talent for them to utilise to achieve their maximum potential.

The same can be said for powerful talents. You may feel your talent is overpowered, but in reality, there is a loophole designed by the universe to ensure there is no impartiality among its creations.