The Master of Cards Chapter 90: Climbing

Alex calmly climbed his way through the stairway. There were ninety nine stairs in all, of which Alex had gradually reached the seventy fifth stair. However, at this point he was calmly sitting on the stair, looking at the sky.

This particular stair was too difficult. He had spent an entire day trying to mimic the circulation within his body, however, it was futile. He was constantly struggling at the last moment. As a result, Alex decided to rest. He took out nutrition bars he had taken from Mead and chomped down on them as he gazed at the second sun.

He wondered how his friends were doing. He was a little angry at Qianyu for blindly pushing him to such a near death situation. He remembered that Lily had probably entered the Card Dimension and there had been no news from her since. He remembered Nia, the quiet girl who hid her beauty brought a slight smile to his face.

However, then he remembered Luke's parents... His face turned serious. Scarlet Tide was still active on Earth, and even were in cahoots with Negima Corporation. He had to find out if Luke was alive and if so, how.. and why.

Alex then calmly shifted his legs and fell asleep on the seventy fifth stair. The stair was an uncomfortable bed, but Alex was tired. The cactus was also snuggling beside him, sleeping quietly.

The next day Alex woke up and continued practicing the complex circulatory path of the seventy fifth floor's barrier and after a few hours and several tries, eventually managed to complete one circulation. Once again, he formed a connection with the filter and absorbed it.

Alex continued his gradual progress along the stairway. He was a little frustrated. This trial wasn't technically dangerous for him, but the amount of time and patience he needed to display to force himself to continue despite constantly failing the harder circulations the higher up he went was abnormal.

He was feeling mentally tired, but his curiosity of the stairway's origins kept him on. The sand had not reacted since he had entered the stairway either and the cactus was acting like it had nothing to do with this.

Alex was a little suspicious about the cactus. The cactus was acting cute and hitchhiking on Alex's shoulder, getting a free pass to the top of the stairway. However, the cactus had helped it many times by replenishing his life force, it was a living Life Replenish Card so he didn't feel like throwing the cactus away. He had already been in two situations where he ended up almost over drafting all his life force to the point of certain death and felt like the cactus might be useful in the future.

Alex kept constantly grumbling as he slowly made his way along the stairway. More than a week had passed while Alex was slowly climbing the stairs, eventually reaching the ninety ninth step. When he observed the final film of pure attribute energy, he discovered that it wasn't extremely thin like its predecessors, but extremely thick like a barrier. The circulatory pathway hidden within its form was so terrifyingly complex, Alex felt like cursing.

"Can this even be performed by a human?" Alex wondered. "I can barely remember this complex a pattern."

Luckily, the barrier was constantly in front of him and he could always observe if he had any deviations within his body from performing the circulation.

However, Alex quickly turned pale. Unlike the paths before, which simply failed if he made an error, everytime Alex failed in this specific circulatory path, he suffered an internal injury, coughing out blood. He had to use his Light Aura to help himself heal.

Alex had an angry look in his eyes. Just what was this stairway? He wanted to return, but then he thought about the incredible amount of pure attribute energy hidden within this thick barrier which he could potentially absorb if he formed a connection with it.

The greed motivated Alex through the periodic coughs of blood and dazed confusion he occassionally felt from observing the daunting circulatory path. This single barrier alone took three whole days interspersed with nights of rest to come even close to success.

On the fourth day, a haggard looking Alex finally managed to barely perform a cycle and completed the trial. The moment the cycle completed, Alex couldn't take it anymore and sat down, however, the terrifying barrier turned into a stream of pure attribute energy and flooded into Alex's body, funneling into the transparent base card.

Alex could zee visions of a memory and intuition of the final circulatory path embedded within his mind. At the same time, his Energy Affinity card was quickly upgrading from Grade C to Grade B and finally reaching the absolute peak at Grade A.

The energy finally subsided, and Alex found himself on a platform at the top of the stairway. Alex looked around, but couldn't see anything at all.

Then a laughing voice boomed within Alex's head surprising him and instilling fear.

"Hahaha, I never through that I'd find someone with my attribute so soon!" The voice laughed.

Alex was stunned. So this person was of the pure energy attribute? Considering the trial and tests, Alex guessed this was probably the case.

"Kid, you remind me of when I was young. The path of pure energy attribute is a difficult one. It took me until I went to the fourth card dimension to realize I was on the wrong path and could never reach the peak. There I fought with a Pure Energy Dragon and observed its circulatory path." The voice said with some happiness.

"I sent this stairway down to the first card dimension, hoping to set up a trial so that future generations with this attribute can find the correct path for themselves. However, something happened that caused the key to the trial to be destroyed and only the fragmented dust in your hand seemed to have remained."

Alex was a little shocked, but nodded. So it was really some kind of inheritance trial.. circulatory path of a dragon... Alex had a bizarre thought.

"The steps all had circulatory exercises to prepare you for the dragon's path on the ninety ninth floor. I can't imagine my luck. You boy, not only have my attribute, but you found the key and discovered the trial and even learned the dragon's circulation exercise. "

Chapter end