Alex finally understood something about his bizarre Card growth regimen that was so different from other people.

Other people had one base card, that had a mixture of a few energy attributes. They could grow cards of those particular attributes, have multiple possibilities for rank 1 cards and thus rank 2 cards and so on.

Alex on the other hand effectively had four base cards. The Light attribute, Dark attribute and Energy attribute cards were like usual base cards, but had the peculiarity that each of these base cards could only grow a single card in each rank. Thus, Alex's path in the light path, for example, was very clearly defined. There was a single route which he had to work on to grow further in.

He also had a fourth base card - the vortex card. This card did not generate a deck of activation cards, instead it digested any and all types of card fragments and could be used to further the paths of the other three base cards.

However, Alex frowned. With only one card of each rank, his possibilities in combat would be severely limited. However, the rank 1 cards he had, Energy Affinity and Light Aura were both cards he had never heard of or seen any information of among rank 1 cards before.

With a thought, he initiated the activation of the Light Aura card. The card floated in front of his body and glowed following which a thin layer of light covered his body. Alex grabbed his stick and hit his other arm with it, but felt that the layer of light gently formed a cus.h.i.+on dulling the blow considerably.

Alex also felt like he could actually potentially spread the layer of light onto his stick, but he did not have the proficiency in using this ability properly yet.

"I never wondered about this before, but the abilities of individuals differ drastically with the same cards, as the Card Frontier shows. How do people improve their proficiency in cards? I will have to look up this information in the future." Alex thought.

"Light Aura is a really powerful card. I can use it for both defense and attack once I maximize my understanding of its usage." Alex thought.

He had finally figured a way to grow and chart out a plan.

The first step was to kill beasts and consume fragments, and at the same time consume special items with condensed source energy like the Lotus Seeds or the Pure Energy Crystal from the Beetle Nest.

The second step was to increase the proficiency of the cards he had. What he seemed to lack in card quant.i.ty, he could make up with quality.

The third was to work on his physical strength and combat tactics.

This was the path that was decided for him by fate, then this was the path he would choose to become as strong as he could, and one day find out the truth about his hidden past.

Alex then continued further in his exploration and arrived at felt the landscape gradually changed. He felt like he was at least 200 mils away from the shelter and the environment had turned into a gra.s.sland from the mountains and valleys he had come across before.

In the gra.s.sland, he saw a lot of beasts that reminded him of gazelles. These beasts appeared to be herbivores and were calmly chewing the gra.s.s that was abundant in this large gra.s.sland.

Alex carefully observed the beasts. The gazelles looked like normal animals, except their legs were extraordinarily powerful and they had horns that seemed to be made of ice. Although they were herbivores, to Alex these beasts seemed quite powerful and he didn't feel like provoking them.

However, not everyone seemed to agree with this notion. For a large lion beast which seemed to be made of rocks, suddenly jumped out from within the ground, giving Alex a fright. This lion was huge, almost as large as buildings within the shelter and seemed to be made of rocks. However, what terrified Alex was it's ability to suddenly appear from the ground.

Alex tried to hide his presence as much as possible and observed the scene. The lion roared and smashed its paw to the ground. Immediately a line of spikes emanated from the earth impaling tens of gazelles.

The gazelles, however, were a pack. Their leader suddenly came forward and shrieked loudly amd the other gazelles formed a formation. Then they collectively breathed and cold freezing breaths emerged from their noses.

In a mysterious manner the breaths all collected together to form a powerful ice laser that was directed at the Lion made of earth. When the laser like beam of ice struck the Lion, it began roaring louder and louder, but its body was beginning to freeze up.

It made a powerful roar and then the earth shook and several spikes came out again, impaling many gazelles. The half frozen lion then shattered the ice, but it seemed like half of its body was damaged. It quickly grabbed a few of the dead gazelles in its mouth and dived into the ground, merging with it and disappearing.

The terrifying battlefield suddenly became calm. Alex was frozen in fear. Such a destruction filled scene left him feeling like an ant.

"No wonder humans haven't explored too far beyond shelters. The Card dimension is too dangerous." Alex nodded.

After seeing this scene, he had only one thought in mind. He was too weak! Seeing this battle he was reminded of the helplessness he felt when he sensed the terrifying aura of the Lord of Scarlet Tide, who had invaded the school.

He decided to back track his steps amd return to the shelter. He did acquire a decent haul for the first time and had done a fair bit of exploring. Now he had to return and consolidate on his gains. He stealthily turned back, tracking his own steps to return to the Highland shelter, back to the inn.