CHAPTER 217: CHAOS’ CHOSEN

Inside the dimly lit stretch of a dark tunnel, laughter once lost echoed, accompanied by merry chatter, gulps, and burps, as the savory smell of roasted meat wafted.

The air wasn’t so stale, and the atmosphere wasn’t as somber anymore.

Nighttime had already arrived, and the wizards of the Imperium were an hour away from possibly their last battle, not only in eastern Maegrath but in their lives.

They weren’t sure what the situation outside the sealed entrance was.

Were there five thousand Fell Beasts and more than a hundred Fellkin waiting for them?

Would they reunite with Zephyron, or his cold corpse?

Not a single one of them knew.

For now...

Meanwhile, in a corner and hidden by [Dark Ward], Hal tapped away.

When would be the most appropriate time to use his Chaos Points, if not now?

In fact, he requested that Cedar make the break a bit longer to give himself some extra time to strengthen himself—level up a few spells in his arsenal and gain new ones.

He was able to earn a total of almost 69 thousand points from both the kills and the few thousand points he cheated Cedar and the others out of.

Certainly, this was the biggest number he was able to save before using them on the draws.

The first thing he did was improve the draw rates fifteen times for a total of two thousand nine hundred points.

He was certainly a bit displeased that, although his chances of success improved, the price for increasing them had also begun to inflate, which meant that he would need more points if he wanted to improve the abysmal draw rates of the higher-tier cards.

==

Common Draw Success Rates:

Common-tier spell card = 85%

==

Uncommon Draw Success Rates:

Common-tier spell card = 20%

Uncommon-tier spell card = 60%

==

Rare Draw Success Rates:

Common-tier spell card = 20%

Uncommon-tier spell card = 30%

Rare-tier spell card = 25%

==

Hal also needed the consecutive draw bonus, and so, as usual, he began the drawing session with the [Common]-tier draws, planning to invest all the extra 16,080 points in them.

He would still have 50,000 extra after this.

It was quite a shame that he wouldn’t be able to strategize the usage properly, but his and Ennya’s lives were at stake, and he couldn’t be too stingy in using them.

That would simply be stupid.

He could worry about earning more if he lived through this ordeal, but first, he had to survive.

And so the young agent of Chaos tapped away, drawing ten at a time.

[Congratulations! You’ve drawn [7] [Common]-tier cards!]

[Congratulations! You’ve drawn [8] [Common]-tier cards!]

[Congratulations! You’ve drawn [10] [Common]-tier cards!]

[Congratulations! You’ve drawn [10] [Common]-tier cards!]

[Congratulations!...

He spared his fingers no rest, pressing, and pressing, and pressing even more, as he attempted to draw however many he could in the short time he had.

He could still draw more later while marching to the sealed entrance.

However, this wasn’t any reason to relax.

He had lots of points to use and less time to spend them.

Luckily, as it turned out, thirty minutes was quite plenty for merely 1,608 [10x Common-tier Draw]s.

He finished in merely twenty minutes, and perhaps earlier had it not been for the additional prompts he had to go through after each draw.

The extra ten minutes were very welcome.

Now wasn’t the time to sort his messy deck, however, as the timer for the consecutive draw bonus was ticking.

He quickly navigated to the [Uncommon]-tier Draws section and began tapping away once more.

Unfortunately, after around 600 draws, he had to walk over to Cedar first, as per their agreement.

Only then did he turn invisible again using [Shadow Walk] and journeyed alongside them.

With Cedar and the Zephyr Battalion’s sharp senses when it came to shifts in the winds, it was very easy for them to track where Hal was, and he made sure to stay right in the middle of them for maximum protection.

Cedar even had the Augurs cast protective spells on him before he turned invisible.

Then, with ample time remaining before the consecutive draw bonus ran out, Hal continued tapping away.

He drew with the [10x Uncommon-tier Draws] 200 times, spending a total of 20,000 points and leaving himself with 30,000.

’Phew...now comes the hard part...’

He had to be wise in spending his remaining points.

Should he invest them all in 600 [Rare]-tier draws, or should he allot some for [Unique]-tier spells that might save his life?

The problem was that the cards he would draw weren’t within his control.

He could invest some in [Unique]-tier draws, but there was no guarantee he would be able to obtain a card that would be suitable for what was to come.

Heck, he can’t even guess what would come, so what was the point in even overthinking?

Any choice was just as good as the other, in this case...

Hal took another deep breath, finding himself praying: ’Chaos, guide me...’

He didn’t know what or who "Primordial Chaos" was; A god? A spirit-deity? Or perhaps a malevolent entity.

However, it didn’t change the fact that it was Primordial Chaos who picked him up when he was at his darkest and gave him a chance to fight against his bleak fate.

Hal somewhat felt closer to the entity than he did the gods served by the Imperium.

In less than an hour, he would have to fight what could possibly be the biggest and most dangerous battle in his life, and he needed all the luck and blessings he could get.

Hal’s mind told him that reinforcing his limited [Rare]-tier spell card arsenal was the wiser choice and would give him more options.

But his heart...

...His heart and instincts screamed otherwise...

’Invest in the [Unique]-tier draws’, they whispered.

It was the more uncertain choice of the two, but wasn’t he Chaos’ chosen?

He shall embody the meaning of the name of the entity that saved him.