The forest was quiet.
Too quiet.
No wind.
No birds.
Even the wind dared not rustle the leaves when Lucky sat cross-legged at its heart, staring at the card balanced between his fingers. Its surface glowed faintly, threads of mana spiraling into the air like smoke from a candle.
But beneath the surface, his heart was pounding.
He opened his eyes.
He exhaled once, slowly, and whispered.
"Time to bring them back."
The ground trembled.
He raised a hand.
With a surge anticipation, he activated the Gate to Calamity.
The rift hissed into existence a jagged, black oval lined with pulsing red veins. From the other side, the stench of rot, acid, and burnt flesh poured through.
Before him, the Gate of Calamity flared open obsidian arch carved from scars in reality, its interior swirling with the violent colors of chaos. Beyond it, the echoes of screams and the rumble of battle whispered through, carried on a wind that stank of acid, blood, and burnt ozone.
Lucky's smile twitched. "Still smells like hell."
"Not like i know what hell smells like"
Lucky didn't hesitate.
He summoned a clone.
The clones knows why he had been summoned
It didn't speak.
It didn't salute.
It just nodded.
Then, it stepped through.
And dissipated.
——————————————————————————
Lucky braced for the memory flood.
But nothing came.
No pain.
No data.
No XP.
He frowned.
Then
WHOOSH.
The gate exploded with movement.
Not one clone.
Not ten.
Hundreds.
then Thousands
Clone after clone after clone marched through the swirling chaos. Their armor was scarred, their robes scorched, their weapons cracked, but their eyes burned sharp and cold. They didn't stumble. They didn't chatter. They moved in formation, each step measured, each glance disciplined.
But their eyes?
Cold.
Hard.
indiffrent.
They formed up in perfect formation, standing at attention.
Lucky blinked. "Whoa, whoa, whoa… what's with the soldier act? You guys look like you walked out of a war movie."
A clone with half his face full of green Blood actually smirked. "Because we did."
Dozens followed, then hundreds, until the clearing was packed with them. An army his army scarred but unbroken.
The tension in the air was thick, heavier than the gate's pressure. These weren't the playful shadows Lucky usually spawned. They were veterans, and it showed.
For a moment, none of them spoke. They only stood, their eyes locked on Lucky. Not in worship, not in fear. In recognition.
Then one of them an officer, his armor blackened from acid burns stepped forward. "We made it back."
Lucky grinned wide, throwing up both hands. "Welcome home! You guys have no idea how much I missed having backup dancers."
The army chuckled faintly. But it wasn't joy. It was weary, scarred amusement.
They had lived through something Lucky couldn't yet imagine.
——————————————————————————
Lucky clapped his hands. "Alright then, you all look like you've been through the grinder. Let's wrap this up dissipate, and I'll take in the memories. Easy as that."
He raised his hand.
Ready to dissipate them one by one.
A ripple went through the crowd. Dozens shifted uncomfortably. Then, one voice cut through like lightning.
"WAIT!"
A voice cut through the silence.
Every clone froze.
The shout came from the scientist robes shredded, hair wild, glasses cracked but still clinging to his face. His voice carried the kind of weight that stopped an army in its tracks.
Lucky blinked at him. "…Huh? What's your deal?"
The scientist stepped forward, his hands trembling but his eyes burning sharp. "You can't dissipate us. Not yet."
Lucky blinked. "What? We've done this a thousand times."
"Not like this," the scientist said, voice tight. "Not after four weeks of of us in a war."
Lucky tilted his head. "Why not? there is no danger or issue if i dissipate you guys the mental consumtion is always the same anyway!"
"No," the scientist said, voice shaking. "Not this time. If you do it now, you'll die."
The words hung heavy.
Even Lucky's grin faltered. "…Explain."
"If you absorb all of us at once… your body won't won't just overload it will..."
He paused.
"It'll explode."
Silence.
Lucky's blood ran cold.
He pointed at Lucky's chest. "Your Core will surge to its maximum level in a single instant. It won't stabilize it'll rupture becuase of the increased mana quality. And you, Lucky, will explode."
The scientist continued: "Also We're not just clones anymore. We're war forged. Our memories aren't just data or experience. They're trauma. Our habits are diffrent. Our neural network is too dense, We have fought for weeks inside the Gate. We adapted, changed, consumed more knowledge, more battle data, more mana strain than you can comprehend. If you absorb us now, all at once."
He pointed at Lucky. "If you try to absorb us all at once, you'll die. and there is no coming Back."
Then he pointed at his Head "Even if you survaived now the new You will replace the current you if all of these memory forged together "
The forest went silent. Even the Gate seemed to hold its breath.
Lucky stared.
Then he laughed. "You're kidding, right? ."
"this is not a joking matter?" the scientist snapped. "Have you ever absorbed thousands of battle-hardened clones who've fought in tactical war, built war machines, and died hundreds of times?"
Lucky's smile died.
The scientist wasn't bluffing.
The clones murmured agreement, their gazes grim.
He turned to the army.
Lucky's grin slipped, his eyes narrowing. "…Alright, then. What's the fix?"
——————————————————————————
The scientist raised three fingers.
"First. You need perfect, infinite memory. Without it, the flood of our data will corrupt you. You'll lose yourself personality changes, fragmentation, insanity. Maybe even overwrite your own mind. also this might sound silly we need it To store our data safely. No more dissipation. No more risk. We need a way to anchor us permanently"
The army nodded in unison
"Second. A physical strengthening technique. Your body is still bound by human limits. Without reinforcement, you'll tear yourself apart when the Core scales You can't even handle 50,000 MP which limits everyone here"
"Uh-huh." Lucky tapped his temple. "Brain boom, body boom. Got it. What's number three?"
"Third. Evolution Points. you need to use OL to get Evolution Points You must stockpile them. Don't waste them on whims. When the time comes, we'll need them to force controlled evolution, step by step."
Lucky crossed his arms. "So basically: memory upgrade, body upgrade, and stockpile cheat points."
The scientist glared. "That's right You die, we all die. ."
The army nodded in unison again.
And they were right.
He sighed. "Alright. We do it your way."
He turned to the golden mountain of cards that will be turned to OL soon behind him.
————————————————————————————
Lucky Started to use Lucky Draw.
He didn't hesitate.
He began drawing.
————————————
Lucky Draw:
————————————
World: -
————————————
Category: [Mental], [Passive], [Memory]
————————————
Energy: 5,000/mana
————————————
Energy Required: (5,000×2 + 5,000×2 + 5,000×2 ) = 30,000 mana
————————————
Mana Cost per Draw: 30,000
————————————
——————————————————————————
One.
Self-stirring mug. Useless
The clones stared.
Lucky coughed. "Warm-up."
Two.
Auto-sweeping broom. Useless
The clones watched in silence.
Some flinched at the waste.
Others just stared.
Lucky didn't stop.
He drew.
And drew.
And drew.
The air shimmered with golden light.
Cards piled up like leaves in a storm.
And again.
Hours passed. The golden mountain grew higher, cards stacking until they glittered like a city of light behind him. The clones began to murmur, their discipline cracking under sheer disbelief.
"Four hundred… still nothing."
"Six hundred. He's still going."
"This is… statistically obscene."
"This is also with... Category"
Lucky kept grinning, sweat dripping down his temple. His eyes burned with manic focus.
800. 1,000. 1,200.
Lucky's hands trembled.
His mana dipped.
His Summons mana dipped.
And his clones Mana dipped as well the clone had to sit down and meditate to recover as fast as possible
But he kept going.
Finally on the 1,233rd draw.
A card burst into existence, brighter than the rest.
The army froze.
Lucky snatched it, holding it high.
"Jackpot."
Item: Essence of the Great mage (AN: thanks to Boundless_creator Suggestion)
————
Tier: 6
————
Type: Item (consumable)
————
Use: 1
————
World: -
————
Description: An Essence of a Great mage that allow a person you gain several permanent effects related to the essence consumed
Effect:
1 Perfect memory with infinite storage
2 Obtain genius level intellect
3 Capacity to be able learn any 'magic' faster upon learning it or understanding enough about it.
4 Can teach others stuff within a system but it have to be close to their system (Power system)
————
Note:
1 Normally you can only consume 1 but Lucky draw allows you to consume as much as you want, as long as you draw it from lucky draw
2 the Third effect will not work but will make it easier to understand your Magic (easier experience gain)
3 upon consumption it will be Added as an Abilty.
————————————
The clones froze.
Then
"Holy…" one whispered.
"This is it," the scientist said, voice trembling. "This changes everything. With this… you can anchor us. Permanently."
A cheer erupted not of joy, but of relief. Veterans who had fought for weeks in hell finally saw a way forward After all they didn't want to dissapear.
Lucky grinned. "Then let's do it."
Lucky then used a card an in his hand a vial of wiered potion appeared in his hands
'Hopefuly it doesn't tast as a certain fruit'
Lucky Gulped it all at once the effects were immediate.
A wave of golden light erupted from his body.
His mind expanded.
Memories that has long been blury were remembered and his mind felt like a sponge almost absorbing eveything he see hear, taste, everything.
His intellect seemed to have changed but this can be left for later exploration .
He can lkeave the higher intellect to this scientist clones after all while they share Lucky's memories and initial personality traits, they are still individual beings who can develop distinct personalities over time, especially with prolonged existence or varied experiences
But Lucky wasn't done. "Alright, next order of business body upgrade."
————————————————————————
The Body Tempering
Lucky didn't stop.
He drew again.
1.
2.
10.
50.
100.
Then
on 105
CLINK.
A new card.
——————
Tier: 3
—————————————
Skill: Physical body training Technique
—————————————
Type: Technique (Passive/Active)
—————————————
Level: 1 / 99
—————————————
Description: Allows the user to use any type of energy within himslef to slowly temper the entire body which cause the body to grow stronger permanently.
Each type of Energy give different effects.
—————————————
Training Speed efficiency: 10%
Mental Consumption Reduction: 0%
Mana Consumption Reduction: 0%
HP Consumption Reduction: 0%
Type of Energy: 1
(Each level increase Training Speed efficiency by 1% )
(Each level reduce mental consumption by 0.5% )
(Each level reduce the mana consumption by 0.5%)
(Each level reduce the HP Consumption by 0.5%)
(Level 25 = +1 Type of Energy)
(Level 50= +1 Type of Energy)
(Level 75= +1 Type of Energy)
(Level 99= +1 Type of Energy)
————————————
Note:
1) Each Energy can only go to the limit of your current body Current potential limit : Peak Human condition (Normal human)
2) it cannot break Physical Limit
3) it is very Painful
4) the closer you are to the lmit the slower it will be
5) Every time New Energy is used it will double the difficulty of the previous difficulty
————————————
The clones crowded around, reading the text.
"It's low tier…" one muttered.
"But it's mangable," another countered. "With this being a skill it can grow absurd."
Lucky cracked his knuckles. "So basically… gym membership, but magical."
Lucky then looked at the notes he twitched about the Painful part which caused him to sigh in defeat
The army collectively laughed because this can only be done by lucky and they don't need to worry about the pain.
————————————————————————
The scientist stepped forward again. "With these two upgrades memory and body we can stabilize. But remember the third requirement: Evolution Points. Do not waste them. Stockpile everything. so we can get better upgrade"
Lucky smirked. "So no ten-pulls for shiny loot?"
All of the clones glared at him.
"…Kidding. Mostly."
The Mountain of Cards
Lucky turned, staring at the glowing mountain of golden cards his clones had collected for him over 4 weeks of madness. The light reflected in his eyes, twin sparks of reckless ambition.
He raised a hand, the Essence of the Great Mage glowing between his fingers.
"With this much stacked…" he whispered. "…I'll change everything."
"OK now to start converting them to OL" lucky say down and infrom of him was a huge mountin Of Loot cards which still need to be converted to OL
After 3 hours Of converting he has Acquired an Absurd amount of OL to the point he wanted to dessipate one of the clones to know what happen but he refrained after all he didn't want to explode.
But thinking about how almost all of this Cards has only Given him 0.01 OL he had to sigh becuase without them telling him he knew it was most likly Zombies or normal Zombies, but even with this He laughed because this Harvest was Good
Looking at the new status window Lucky had a wide Grin on his face.
Name: Lucky
HP: 100%
Stamina: 90%
SP (Soul Power): 7,500 / 12,500
MP: 10,245 / 50,003 (☆)
OL (Origin Luck): 400,000
Luck: ??? + 10.05
Attack Potency: Large Building — ???? (8-c — ???? )
Strength: Below Average
Agility: Below Average
Perception: Athletic Human perception
Endurance: Below Average
Intelligence: Genius
Lucky's grin widened. "The real game starts now."
Lucky will not waste OL even if had trillions he will takes his time to turn the OL into 1 EP daily
And with this the First 1,000 OL become EP.
——————————————————————
AN: chapters update will be either next day or the one after depending on how many words i write in this chapter for example if it is more than 1300-1600 words it is next day if it is more it depends on how much i write after all most of this is just me writing 90% of the story and leave AI to fix grammar spelling so it drains me is i write more than 1200-1500 words.
end of the day it depends if i have time or not.
ദ്ദി˙ ᴗ ˙ ) hope you enjoy my work