Axir saw the gang sitting under a giant tree with a proper campfire, wooden tables, and Robin preparing barbecue.
"That's monster meat." Axir blinked.
'So Robin must have gotten the Wilderness Chef Uncommon deck.'
Monsters usually didn't drop meat because they would disappear and leave some of their body materials on the ground alongside any possible loot.
They wouldn't drop edible meat.
But there were cards and decks that could allow meat to drop.
Wilderness Chef had a passive card. As long as the user had the deck, all monsters they participated in slaying dropped 10% of their body meat.
"Yep. That's my deck." Robin laughed. "I was hanging out with the chef in the kingdom, and I got a quest that gave me this deck."
"Great." Axir smiled. He arrived and sat down next to Aunt Kira on the finely wooden trunk table cut from nearby trees.
"Boy, what are you sitting for? It's time to fight with cards." Sakamoto stood up while grinning.
"Hold on." Axir shook his head. "Didn't you see I shot up to level 50 fast? I was hunting in the nearby level 70 to 100 zone. Full throttle, no breaks, for eighteen minutes straight. My heart is still racing since I pushed myself to the limit."
'Well, I mainly did that to speed up my Mana control progress.'
"…"
"No wonder." Siddha nodded. "And to farm there, you must have a powerful deck. Utterly powerful."
Axir grinned. "You all will see it soon. And I assure you, you will get equally or even more powerful decks soon."
He couldn't imagine how these monsters would develop if he guided them right off the bat.
"First task is to collect Mysterious Decks."
"Oh, we have one." Ling blinked. "Bianca found an elite dungeon, and we got one from it."
"Surely you didn't use it, right?" Axir asked.
"Of course, I did." Bianca chuckled.
"Right, of course." Axir wryly smiled. That was common because the game didn't inform players that the Mysterious Deck had another use. It was up to players to discover it.
"I got a Rare deck from it."
Axir raised his eyebrows. "Oh, now that's quite lucky of you."
"Why, you also used one and got an Uncommon or Basic?" James chuckled. "But you clearly have a very strong deck, so you must have gotten another Mysterious Deck."
"Nope. But I found another use of the Mysterious Deck, which gave me the strong deck I have." Axir grinned and snapped his fingers.
Everyone's eyes moved upward, their eyeballs steadily focused.
Even Robin was watching while his hand moved swiftly, peeling potatoes without pause.
"Wow." Ling whistled, amazed.
Ten exotic weapons floated and circulated vertically above Axir.
[Long Range]
Exploding Slingshot
Blaze Parallax Rifle
———
[Blunt]
1. Roaring Impact Bat
2. Gravemarch Mace
———
[Blade]
1. Ashveil Edge
2. Cinder Verdict Katana
———
[Pole]
1. Novasun Halberd
2. Whirling Inferno Lance
———
[Hybrid]
1. Volstring Warbow
2. Pyrovamp Chain Scythe
"Is this part of that strong deck you got?" Bianca asked, her eyes sparkling.
Not just her, everyone was thirsty for power.
They could feel the weapons were powerful even though they couldn't inspect their details.
"Ten weapons. Could it be these weapons are just the effect of one card in your deck?" Siddha asked, amazed.
Axir chuckled. "Correct."
"Holy shit, that's crazy." James cursed in astonishment.
"Batshit crazy." Robin nodded, his peeling speed increasing.
"So how do we get that kind of deck?" Aunt Kira asked curiously.
Axir opened his mouth and then closed it.
Everyone stared at him.
Two seconds of silence later, he spoke.
"I have two things to say first, which I hope you will respect." Axir cleared his throat. "First, don't ask me questions. Second, you will know what kinds of questions you don't have to ask soon."
Everyone blinked.
"Okay…" Ling's voice trailed. "Five out of ten performance."
Axir wryly smiled.
"So, the first thing we need is a Mysterious Deck for each one of you. What I found is that Mysterious Decks are keys to areas called Ancient Grounds, where divinities once resided."
"Each kingdom has an Ancient Ground, and there are also hidden Ancient Grounds. So we will go to the royalty of this kingdom with a Mysterious Deck and talk to them. They will give us a quest, and if we complete it, we can enter the Ancient Ground."
Axir smiled. "In that Ancient Ground, we can manifest a unique deck tailored to our experience and character. Basically, you will feel extremely high, like no drug can replicate, and also in pain. You must find equilibrium to understand what the Ancient Ground is coursing through your mind in your own way."
Everyone was visibly surprised.
"That's sick." Robin stopped peeling completely. "How do you know all that in such a short time? Stumbled upon some text?"
Axir smiled.
"Oh, the condition. Got it. No questions about how you know anything." Robin nodded and resumed dicing meat.
"In that case, I hope you know how to find a lot of Elite Dungeons." Ling smiled.
"This world is big, and Elite Dungeons are hard to spot, but if we can sense the flow of magic properly, we can find them," Siddha said. "I was reading some books in the library to learn more about Mana while experimenting with it and found a few applications."
'No wonder he was the strongest when it came to using Mana and even invented some crazy techniques,' Axir inwardly sighed. 'He must have started researching Mana early in my past life too.'
Well, Siddha was the strongest player on Earth.
'But not this time.'
"That's true. I did the same." Axir nodded. "Though we would also need high Perception to sense stronger magic. Using a sensing technique, we can find Elite Dungeons because they have strong, condensed magic readings."
"Wait, you already know how to sense them?" James asked in surprise.
"Well, yeah." Axir nodded with a light chuckle. "But that still takes time and active searching, so I have a better idea."
"We will teleport to another kingdom called Crossberg Kingdom. I know the locations of all five Elite Dungeons around there, so that's five Mysterious Decks. And there are still four more Elite Dungeons I know around the Suryax Kingdom."
"Wait, doesn't that mean you got tons of stat points?" Maria blinked.
"Yep." Axir chuckled. "But I still haven't discovered the dungeons around Crossberg Kingdom. I just know their locations, so when we go there, we'll still get the points. And I'll get dibs on them. I'm saying it first. No sharing."
"Since you know their locations, the points are yours." Siddha nodded.
"Then we'll leave after a ten-minute break." Axir smiled.
Robin was already roasting the barbecue sticks, so in ten minutes, everyone finished eating and teleported to Seraphel Kingdom's plaza, then teleported again.
[You have arrived in the Crossberg Kingdom]
"It's snowing here." Aunt Kira blinked. "Beautiful."
"Cool."
Everyone was briefly surprised.
"Yep. This is a snowy kingdom. Ice- and water-based monsters are more common here." Axir said, then shared a location with everyone.
"That's the first Elite Dungeon we'll be clearing. To save time, let's hold hands and form a row with me at the center."
As Axir spoke, he summoned Rocket Wings.
"We will first fly to each area where the Elite Dungeons are located and discover them so we can teleport there directly."
"Sounds good." James nodded.
"You can already fly, eh? That's pretty handy."
"You can fly with Mana, too." Siddha suddenly floated up calmly. "But it consumes Mana fast. I won't last long enough to reach there on my own."
"Yep. Flying using only Mana is exhausting for now." Axir nodded.
'For now?' Siddha blinked. He was curious, but didn't ask. He wanted to discover on his own.
And so, everyone held hands and flew as a string behind Axir.
The players watching them fly away were dumbfounded.
It looked a bit weird, but it was the only way to save time.