Chapter 40: The Enchanter

Xue Feifei covered her mouth, staring in astonishment at the man not far away. What was going on with him? Did he have eyes in the back of his head? Coupled with the strange sense of dissonance she’d just experienced in her memory, a wild and absurd idea suddenly flashed through her mind.

Though she was afraid, she forced herself to remain calm and asked, “You—you don’t mean you can foresee the future, do you? Or are you… someone who’s returned from the future?”

Kong Zhe got up from the ground, no longer interested in explaining anything to her. For one, the magical mist had already seeped into him just now, and since he would awaken in third place anyway, there was no need to rush.

He glanced at her, a wicked smile on his lips. “That’s right, I can foresee the future…”

Xue Feifei’s eyes lit up at his words, but before she could speak, she heard the rest.

“Next, you’ll walk over to the window and look down. Then you’ll understand what’s happening.”

She looked at him doubtfully, but unable to suppress her curiosity, she cautiously and nervously edged her way to the window and peered down.

Kong Zhe ignored her, found an empty spot, and prepared to begin his awakening. But before swallowing the box, he reminded her, “Oh, by the way, in a moment a fish-man monster will burst in. You’ll witness a rather gruesome scene, but don’t worry—I won’t be killed by it.”

With that, he swallowed the box. The golden light of awakening descended almost simultaneously with the woman’s scream.

Kong Zhe floated in midair, glancing toward the door. This time, after coming in, he hadn’t bothered to close it; even if he did, the fish-man would just break it down. Why waste the effort?

Five seconds later, a fish-man with glowing red eyes had appeared in his field of vision.

Closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, he tried to brainwash himself: just three minutes, only three minutes…

Soon after, a wave of excruciating pain swept through his body, bringing tears to his eyes. It really hurt! Box brother, do you take me for a masochist? Can’t we skip this part next time I reincarnate… Wait, what am I saying? Next time I reincarnate? Is dying becoming a habit? I can’t afford to die again!

“Ding! Unknown error detected. System malfunction. Update initiated ahead of schedule… Loading version 1.1…”

“Ding! Version 1.1 loaded successfully. City reputation and title system added. Awakening continues…”

“Hm?”

Kong Zhe’s eyes widened at the prompts in his ear, momentarily forgetting even the fish-man’s attack.

“System malfunction? Version 1.1? Title system? That’s not supposed to appear until three months later!” Kong Zhe was bewildered. He hadn’t done anything different this time, just taken the box as before. How had the course of history suddenly changed?

Lost in confusion, three minutes passed in a flash.

Once he regained control over his body, Kong Zhe kicked the fish-man aside. Still preoccupied by the system message, he didn’t bother to torment the creature further; he simply grabbed the dagger from the table and dispatched it with a few swift strokes.

He then sat down on the sofa and began checking his status panel.

Name: Kong Zhe
Level: 1
Experience: 20/100
Strength: 11
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 18
Health: 220

Mana: 180
Attack: 18
Skill Points Remaining: 1
Awakening Rank: Third in the world, First in Golden City

These basic stats were unchanged. The two treasure chests he’d received still contained the storage ring and the Holy Persuasion.

But what followed was different.

Ding! Awakening detected. Please select a class!

Kong Zhe clicked the select class button, and a row of basic class icons appeared before him.

Just as he was about to choose the Swordsman icon, he noticed a new, gold-glowing icon at the end of the row.

Ding! Ultra-artifact detected. Class system mutated. Hidden class ‘Thaumaturge’ unlocked.

“Hidden class?”

Kong Zhe was overjoyed at the new prompt.

Of course, he knew about special classes. In his previous life, over three years of the apocalypse game, the world’s secrets were gradually unearthed, including the existence of extremely rare special classes.

All special classes were unique, and generally far superior to normal ones. For instance, Flame Warrior, Dual Blade Dancer, Ash Mage—each class possessed exclusive skills, usually of high rank, and occasionally even S-rank abilities. Compared to the D- and E-rank skills of common classes, the difference was staggering. Virtually all of the world’s top two hundred powerhouses in his past life possessed special classes.

But special classes were exceedingly rare—over a hundred times rarer than golden treasure chests. Kong Zhe had only ever heard of them, never seen one himself.

He hadn’t expected to be lucky enough to encounter one this time.

He then noticed that the golden icon bore the same symbol as the black box. Coupled with the earlier system prompt, Kong Zhe deduced the origin of the so-called ‘Thaumaturge.’

The class must have appeared because the system fused with his box.

But if so, why hadn’t this class appeared in his previous two reincarnations? Maybe last time, the box just happened to absorb enough experience to fully activate it this time?

That was the only explanation he could think of.

Whatever the reason, a special class was the obvious choice.

“Select class: Thaumaturge.”

Ding… Class confirmed: Thaumaturge.

As the system notification sounded, Kong Zhe noticed that the black box he’d previously stored in his inventory had vanished. In its place, a new slot appeared at the bottom of his panel, containing forty-eight neatly arranged cards.

“So it’s finally bound to me,” Kong Zhe murmured. This was a good thing, at least—he no longer had to worry about the box being stolen.

He then examined the state of the cards. Most were grey and shrouded in mist, with only the top two faintly glowing. At the bottom, two cards were pitch black, exuding a deathly aura.

After thinking for a moment, Kong Zhe realized that the glowing cards were currently usable, while the two blackened cards below were the ones he’d expended in his previous two reincarnations.

Yet since they remained, perhaps they could be recovered somehow.

Now that he’d chosen Thaumaturge, he could view the class description.

Thaumaturge: “Thaumaturges are a mysterious profession from ancient times, capable of wielding the ultra-artifact ‘Divine Tarot Cards.’ They command the essence of the seven magical elements and possess strength on par with the gods themselves.

But such overwhelming power provoked the jealousy of the gods, who cast upon them an eternal curse named ‘Misfortune.’”

That was the brief introduction.

Kong Zhe’s jaw dropped in astonishment. Wasn’t that a bit over the top? In his previous life, he’d heard many descriptions of powerful hidden classes; at most, they’d be described as “extremely strong” or “far superior to common classes.” But this so-called Thaumaturge was apparently so powerful it inspired divine envy?

There was no time to dwell on it. He immediately checked for any exclusive skills the class might have, only to discover there were none. The class’s skills were the forty-eight cards themselves. Through the class description, he learned these were called the Divine Tarot Cards.

He clicked the learn skill button. With only one skill point available, he tried assigning it to one of the two glowing cards. Instantly, explanations appeared for each.

Ripple of Water
Attribute: Water
Star Level: One Star
Card Basic Skill: “Your sensitivity to magical fluctuations is extraordinary. Within a certain range, you can transmit your mana to others through a special resonance, or absorb mana from others into yourself.”
Requires one skill point to learn. Cannot be upgraded.

Distorted Light
Attribute: Space
Star Level: One Star
Card Basic Skill: “Grants you initial mastery over the faint laws of space. By channeling mana, you can distort the light around your body, rendering yourself invisible to others.”
Requires one skill point to learn. Cannot be upgraded.

“Water attribute? Space attribute?” Kong Zhe muttered. So the cards were categorized this way. Recalling the class description—‘command the essence of the seven magical elements’—he realized the cards must be divided into seven types by attribute.

The icons above the two illuminated cards—a water droplet and a cube—seemed to represent water and space.

By this logic, the card with the hourglass symbol, which had allowed him to reincarnate previously, was likely a time attribute card. Besides these three, he also spotted icons of flames, leaves, lightning, and earth among the grey cards below—clearly representing fire, wood, thunder, and earth. Yet, curiously, there was another category: cards marked with a golden cup.

He had no idea what attribute that represented. Wasn’t he supposed to command just seven elements? After thinking for a while, Kong Zhe could only classify these as special cards.

There were six cards each for water, fire, earth, thunder, and wood; space and time, counting the two cards he’d already used, had five each. The special category had eight cards, making forty-eight in total.

He then tested placing a skill point on a grey card, hoping to see its skill, but only the name was visible—no further explanation.

After carefully studying the system, Kong Zhe deduced that every card required a skill point to learn, but only the ones that were glowing could be learned. To activate a grey card, he needed experience points. This explained why he’d previously lost so much experience: it hadn’t been absorbed by the box, but used to unlock these two cards.