Ashen God
Chapter 310 - 309: Divination Tarot Card - Fool[False] (Gate of Truth)

Chapter 310: Chapter 309: Divination Tarot Card - Fool[False] (Gate of Truth)

"Well, the bonus effect of this Divination Tarot Card isn’t necessarily going to be totally crap, even though the name does carry a "[Fake]" tag which makes it sound like a knock-off or counterfeit," Zhang Yanhang murmured to himself as he hoped that the enhancement effect of the tarot card would be somewhat useful. He opened the attribute list of "Divination Tarot Card·Fool[Fake] (Gate of Truth)".

[Divination Tarot Card·Fool[Fake] (Gate of Truth)]

[Quality: Blue]

[Type: Equipment]

[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, Small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, Alchemist.]

[Durability: 37/37]

[Defensive power: 25]

[Additional Attributes: Power Effect +5%.]

[Upgradable, Upgrade Conditions 1: Possess "Divination Tarot Card·Strength[Fake] (Gate of Truth)" (0/1), "Divination Tarot Card·Justice[Fake] (Gate of Truth)" (0/1), "Divination Tarot Card·Hanged Man[Fake] (Gate of Truth)" (0/1).

Upgrade Condition 2: Possess "Divination Tarot Card·Star[Fake] (Gate of Truth)" (0/1), "Divination Tarot Card·Moon[Fake] (Gate of Truth)" (0/1), "Divination Tarot Card·Sun[Fake] (Gate of Truth)" (0/1).]

[Usage requirements: Possess Alchemy or other related alchemy skills.]

[Score: 70 (Blue items are scored from 31 to 70.)]

[Set Effect One: Power is Justice (Two-piece set unlock attribute)]

[Set Effect Two: Trinity (Three-piece set unlock attribute)]

[Introduction: The Fool is one of the 78 cards in the Tarot deck and one of the 22 Major Arcana cards as well. The Fool does not have a number (or is considered either 0 or 22), representing both the beginning and the end of the Tarot, symbolizing infinite possibilities.

However, all of the above has nothing to do with this poorly made, misprinted counterfeit that came out of a small workshop.]

"So this thing was accidentally left here by an Alchemist after a wild night with the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, huh? I was wondering how such an item, which clearly has nothing to do with the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, could randomly appear in her treasure box."

"But, even though it’s only of blue quality, how can it get a score of 70 points just by adding a 5% Power Effect? Isn’t that the full score for blue quality? Could it be because this Divination Tarot Card - Fool is part of a set, and it’s even an upgradable set, that it can achieve such a high score?"

Thinking more carefully, Zhang Yanhang suddenly felt that if an upgradable set equipment couldn’t get a full blue score, then what kind of equipment would be qualified to get a full blue score?

"Speaking of which, since the Major Arcana Tarot cards have a total of twenty-two cards, could it be that this Divination Tarot Card set actually makes up a super high-level set with twenty-two parts?" At this thought, Zhang Yanhang immediately felt that he might have stumbled upon a real treasure this time.

"Raccoon City police gear as a ten-piece set of green quality is already so strong. Then this initial twenty-two-piece set of blue quality could be unimaginably powerful in strength. Just from the suffix in its name, maybe if I gather all twenty-two Tarot cards, I might be able to summon the Gate of Truth..."

Zhang Yanhang felt increasingly that he had indeed found a great treasure this time, and perhaps, compared to a set of dark purple-quality Makarov gear, this blue-quality Tarot Card Set was his real biggest gain this time.

"But, although I know that such a thing will be outrageously strong once complete, here comes the problem: how do I collect the other twenty-one Divination Tarot Cards?

This Divination Tarot Card - Fool was accidentally left behind by an Alchemist after a fling with the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, so logically, there should be no other Divination Tarot Cards in the rest of the Crimson Iron Ant Nests.

Therefore, if I want to get the other Tarot cards, I might have to find the Alchemist first. But who knows where the Alchemist could be, let alone if this Alchemist even exists in the Ashen World... And even if they do exist, whether they’re still alive is another crucial question."

At this thought, Zhang Yanhang suddenly felt a bit desperate. He had obtained an upgradable Tarot Card Set that was sure to be overpoweringly strong once completed, but he had no way to acquire the other Tarot cards.

However, although Zhang Yanhang did feel somewhat desperate, he wasn’t completely without hope, "Fortunately, I am not an ordinary Awakener. Perhaps other Awakeners can’t do it, but after all, I am the Heavenly Destiny Master with the Multiple Choice Talent. It shouldn’t be too difficult just to acquire a piece of blue-quality equipment."

If the initial quality of the Divination Tarot Cards were dark purple or even light gold, then Zhang Yanhang might have given up on the idea of completing the set for the time being. However, if the initial quality was only blue, then he was still a bit confident that he could give it a try.

"After all, I currently have a limit of 855 Energy Value. Logically, if I want to use these Energy Values to get a piece of blue-quality equipment, even if I can’t get it directly through options, getting some clues about other Divination Tarot Cards shouldn’t be a big problem."

Zhang Yanhang didn’t hold out much hope for acquiring other Tarot cards directly through options, but even just getting some clues would be much better than having nothing at all.

"But I’m currently in a state of Time Pause and can’t make a selection repeatedly, so I’ll have to think about how to find the other Tarot cards after I’ve opened all the Treasure boxes."

Although Zhang Yanhang wasn’t very confident about completing the full set of twenty-two Tarot cards, he felt that simply putting together a two-piece or a three-piece set should be doable.

Zhang Yanhang was quite curious about the Set Effect of this Divination Tarot Card Set. Based on his experience so far, the individual set parts’ added attributes usually aren’t that impressive; what’s most impressive are often the Set Effects.

Take, for example, the Raccoon City standard police equipment. Whether it’s the white or green-quality version, the equipment itself doesn’t have any added effects, but after assembling a ten-piece set, they achieve the excellent effect of All Attributes +1 and All Attributes +2 just by the Set Effect.

"Speaking of which, this Divination Tarot Card - Fool’s equipment requirement is not the typical attribute value but requires the user to have Alchemy skills. Indeed, as something that fell from an Alchemist, even its requirements are so special.

But luckily it only requires having Alchemy skills, not being an Alchemist to equip, otherwise that would be somewhat troublesome."

Because he had already taken on the sole designated profession "Heavenly Destiny Master," Zhang Yanhang felt it was unlikely he would ever obtain the profession of Alchemist in this lifetime, unless one could hold two professions at the same time, which was clearly impossible.

"So, I choose ’Crimson Iron Ant Queen Hormone Essence (solid compressed)’, ’Ant Power’, ’24,000 Soul points’, ’Makarov’s Regret’, and ’[Divination Tarot Card - Fool[Fake] (Gate of Truth)]’."

After reviewing all five items from the Crimson Iron Ant Queen’s treasure box, Zhang Yanhang immediately made his final choice. For the haul from the treasure box, he could only remark that a Lord Monster was indeed worthy of its title; the wealth it yielded was much greater than that of a Second Tier Second Star Elite Monster, the Crimson Iron Ant King.

After opening the Crimson Iron Ant Queen’s treasure box, Zhang Yanhang temporarily piled the items to one side, then picked up a green-quality chest; he still had one hundred seventy-nine boxes to open, which would take at least ten continuous minutes to finish.

...

Time quietly passed, and after opening chests for over ten minutes, Zhang Yanhang finally finished opening all of them. Surrounded by a large pile of items of various qualities, he suddenly remembered something.

"It seems the time I spent killing those monsters was less than ten minutes, but opening the chests took longer than hunting the monsters, taking up over ten minutes of my time. Ah, this must be the trouble that comes with a high density of monsters."

Zhang Yanhang felt that the high density of monsters indeed greatly limited his hunting efficiency. Like this time, if the Crimson Iron Ant Queen had committed all the ants from the start, he might have been able to clear the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest in ten minutes.

But the Crimson Iron Ant Queen, despite its rather strange way of thinking, wasn’t rash, so it only committed two-fifths of its ants, leading to Zhang Yanhang spending several more hours to progressively clear the ants from the nest.

Fortunately, in the last moments of its life, the Ant Queen ’had a conscience’ and gathered the ants together, saving Zhang Yanhang precious time.

"Ah, I’m somewhat nostalgic for the days back in Raccoon City when I could easily amass three or four hundred treasure boxes and then had to spend half an hour opening them continuously. Now, it feels like a distant and delightful memory."

Zhang Yanhang had said that it would be difficult to quickly obtain that number of boxes in the future, and now it seemed his prediction had come true perfectly. However, the overall yield of the chests had greatly increased, even though their number had decreased. So, overall, it was still a great profit.

After opening all the chests, Zhang Yanhang immediately started to tally his loot, starting with the extremely important Talent quantity. He had a total of one hundred eighty-one E-level Talents ’Ant Power’.

Adding the ten Ant Powers left over from his last upgrade, he now had a total of one hundred ninety-one Ant Powers. He was still five hundred thirty-eight Ant Powers short of the number needed to upgrade his S-level Talent "Bear Power" to SS-level.

"Five hundred thirty-eight Ant Powers...assuming that one Ant Power drops from every twenty Crimson Iron Ants, I would need to kill roughly eleven thousand more First Tier Crimson Iron Ants. In other words, if the small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu could come back to life for me to kill again, it would be just enough."

Zhang Yanhang estimated that if he could find a large Crimson Iron Ant Nest with over fifty thousand ants, he could not only upgrade the S-level Talent "Bear Power" to SS-level, but he might even be able to gather enough Ant Powers to upgrade to SSS-level in one go.

"But digging tunnels and the like can wait until later; next, I should continue taking inventory of the items." Zhang Yanhang put the one hundred eighty-one Ant Powers into his waist bag, then continued to take stock of the equipment.

This time, he had a total of one hundred twenty-two green-quality Crimson Iron Rings, fifty-seven blue-quality Crimson Iron Necklaces, and a pair of dark purple quality Makarov Earrings. Of course, the most important item was the blue-quality Divination Tarot Card - Fool.

After taking inventory of the equipment, Zhang Yanhang immediately picked up the pair of Makarov Earrings, brought them together, and began to view the specific Set Effects. He planned to first deal with the Makarov Earrings and Divination Tarot Card - Fool, then start fusing the Crimson Iron Rings and Necklaces.

[Makarov’s Regret]

[Quality: Dark Purple]

[Type: Equipment]

[Origin: Ashen World, Crimson Iron Ore Vein, small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu, Nameless Blacksmith.]

[Durability: 70/70]

[Defensive power: 40]

[Additional Attributes: Flame Resistance +17.5%.]

[Additional Attributes: Acid Resistance +17.5%.]

[Additional Attributes: Strength +1, Agility +1, Charm +1.]

[Usage requirements: 30 points of Charm.]

[Score: 260 (Dark Purple Quality items score from 151 to 260.)]

[Set Effect One: Makarov’s Gift —— Strength +1, Agility +1, Constitution +1, Intelligence +1.]

[Introduction: Damn Alchemist! Damn Alchemist!! Damn Alchemist!!!...

...Customers who once commissioned me to forge their Crimson Iron Equipment have come knocking at my door, demanding an explanation and claiming they would smash my smithy into pieces if I didn’t compensate them for their emotional distress.

——From a Nameless Blacksmith who can no longer earn money quietly]

"Although it’s just a two-piece set, the set effect seems surprisingly good, each providing a point to the four main attributes of Strength, Agility, Constitution, and Intelligence. If I add the earring’s own boost, wearing this pair of earrings alone would give me an all attributes +2 bonus."

After all, it was a dark purple quality set, so Zhang Yanhang wasn’t very surprised at this effect.