Cards Wasted?

The sun shone brightly in the daytime sky; the dust rings that glowed faintly added a mysterious charm to the blue sky where the four-winged avian creatures mingled amongst themselves.

The streets were bustling with people who had once again started their daily life as the dark sky cleared, and the sun rose to its peak.

The rays of sun entered a rather poorly developed region of the city, knocking on the windows of the old apartment, falling directly on the face of the young man sleeping soundly on the floor.

The rays illuminated the dark room, making the man's face visible to others; his dark hairs glistened, feeling the embrace of sunrays. His angular face with sharp masculine features shone with the healthy light as his eyes flickered slightly, slowly opening.

"Hmm."

Ian groaned as he looked at the familiar ceiling he woke up to every day; his head felt lighter as he groggily woke up.

Still in light sleep, he spread his hands around, searching for his phone...

"Where is it?" he questioned slightly before getting up and looking around with slightly opened eyes.

"Ah, there it is."

Looking up to his bed, he grabbed his phone first.

9:00 AM.

Looking at the lock screen, he stopped momentarily as his gaze landed on the time.

"Last time I checked it was around 5, wasn't it?"

Yeah, he entered his house near 5 PM and then...

"Oh yeah, System!"

[Name: Ian Crown]

[Rank: ... ]

[Talents: Curse Of True Immortality(Myth), Map(D)]

[Cooldown: 6 days, 9 hours, 17 minutes remaining]

[Talent Upgrade Cards (legendary)

Valid Till: 30:32]

[Talent ...]

Ian's eyes went wide with shock as he looked at his new status where the myth level talent was mentioned. His heartbeat quickened as he got excited, but as his eyes read through his system, his smile vanished.

As if someone had poured cold water on his head, his excitement to own a mythical talent vanished, and his face went pale with realization.

There were around 17 hours for the talent upgrade cards to expire when he used the system last time, but now there was only half an hour left. For upgrading talents to mythical grade talents, it took Ian 16 hours, where he was unconscious.

For the past 16 hours, he was sleeping, and now only half an hour is remaining before the other two cards expire.

It means that Ian just has 30 minutes to find some talents to upgrade; if not, he would lose his chance to use these two cards, bidding farewell to two top-tier talents he could get.

"OH FUCK!!"

With the sudden realization, Ian panicked, forgetting about checking out his new talent; his focus solely lay on the two cards that were about to get expired.

Shooting up from the ground, Ian hastily got up; all laziness he had before vanished as it was just replaced by pure panic.

Still wearing casual clothes, he changed yesterday's wrinkled by his sleeping, he made his way towards the door without thinking much, only to get his toe stubbed by the table which he consciously ignored without noticing how the pain faded away in the matter of a second as if he never was stubbed.

"Fuck! Where can I find two talents now in such a short time?!"

He now can't use the replication ability of his system given it has entered cooldown mode, making him unable to copy any kinds of talent for the moment, so even if he finds the talent, he can't replicate them instantly like he did with Serpentile Renewal.

Ok, first let's calm down and think clearly...

Not slowing his pace down as he walked down the stairs, he took deep breaths to lessen down his panic and think clearly.

I already have another talent Map which I can use anyway, so let's just use one card on it.

So what's remaining is searching for a single good talent.

But even if I find one, I can't replicate it... so what shall I do?

Yeah, since the system is in cooldown, so he can't replicate the talent for himself, this caused a great dilemma for Ian who exited his building and ran towards the nearest supermarket while keeping his eyes on people passing by for their talent, ignoring their weird gazes.

Talent cards have no special restriction to be only used on system holder and his owned talents, so if Ian wants, then he could use it on others, upgrading their talents... but does Ian want that?

No! Fuck no, I don't want to use it this way.

First of all, he doesn't have much close relationship with anyone to give them a talent upgrade, and if others just found out their talents evolving, one can understand how serious problems it can cause Ian... so giving up the cards for anyone is just impossible for Ian to consider...

The next option to use these cards on can be live beasts that Ian could keep as a pet, but he honestly doesn't have any money to buy one, nor could he find any stray monsters with good talent nearby, so this is also an option Ian can't choose.

I can't use these cards on any living things, but what about dead?

In the market yesterday, Ian was able to observe the talents of even dead monsters that were slaughtered still remaining on their corpse.

If I just find some dead beasts with some talent, I can still use this card no?

With this thought, he dashed into the supermarket where in the section of that sold beast meat, disregarding other customers and their talents, keeping his eyes on the products and his Map which assisted him to search.

"Damn! There is no meat of any talented beasts here."

[Valid till: 19:16]

Time was running at a fast pace, making Ian's heart beat faster with each passing second.

Ian searched through the different sections fo beast meat, unable to find any that possesses any talents.

Oh fuck! Just one talent, one talent regardless of grade or effect! Please, just one talent!

Ian kept on praying in his heart as he kept on running through the store searching for the thing he desires, which he finally discovered.

[Sea Burst (F)]

A common talent that allows marine beasts to gain minute control over seawater, releasing a pressurized stream of water for a variety of purposes.

The holographic screen hovered over the row of expensive fish-type monster meat that was selling at an extremely high price of sixty thalums that a miserable like Ian would never waste his money on.

But disregarding the high price, Ian grabbed the box and ran straight to the counter, paying for the monster meat before dashing out of the store to his home.

[Talent Upgrade Card (Legendary)

Allows the user to upgrade a targeted talent to the level of legendary grade.

Valid Till: 02:48]

[Talent Upgrade Card (Ex)

Allows the user to upgrade a targeted talent to the level of Ex grade.

Valid Till: 02:48]

[Do you wish to use 'Talent Upgrade Card (Legendary)?']

[Do you wish to use 'Talent Upgrade Card (Ex)?']

"Fuck Yes!"