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First Blood
(Rune Cost: 1 Vampire)
-Jinx-
.
.
Effect: When an enemy creature is summoned,
drain 2❤ from it and then heal select Vampire
you control 2❤.
.
Lore: Young vampires often have a hard time
controlling their hunger and lash out at the
first sign of prey.
.
✪✪ (Uncommon)
#1,260
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A lumpy stone came whistling through the air, pinging off Eric’s forehead with a loud smack. “Ow!” he winced.
[-1︎❤ (9/10)]
He retreated a step back. Then he saw the label floating above the creature’s bulbous head.
[Goblin Grunt – LV2 (︎❤6/6)]
No sooner had he read the ghostly red text than another projectile hit him square across the bridge of his nose.
[-1︎❤ (8/10)]
“Hey! Knock it off! That hurt!”
“Arcklefrack!” the goblin hissed with a forked tongue.
“Yeah? Well... Takes one to know one!” Smack! Another impact, another heart shaved off his total. Eric could only think to run at first, retreating across the clearing in long strides that left the goblin in his dust. But it was a temporary measure. The goblin scrambled as fast as it could in hot pursuit, and it was a bit like trying to outrun a murderous snail that never gave up.
Thump! Its latest attack bit into the tree trunk next to Eric’s head, spitting a handful of bark shavings and wood chips. His forehead stung; putting his fingers up to it, he drew back a faint smear of blood. So much for a warm welcome to... wherever this is. Oh, right – the Hundred Realms, whatever that means. And I’m a... Cardcaster?
He thought about facing the creature head-on, maybe grabbing it by the neck and body-slamming it like a ragdoll. Something told him that still wouldn’t deter it from attacking him. On top of that, he didn’t want his fingers anywhere near that thing’s piranha teeth. He was too fond of his fingers and the way they were attached to his hand.
Then he remembered something from the flurry of data that assaulted his mind on arrival. It said I had a deck of Tenkei cards—and they were all Mage type! His hand found the box at his hip just as another stone whizzed past his ear. Will these help me at all? It did say I was a Cardcaster, after all.
There was only one way to find out.
“Take this!” Eric jumped out from behind the tree, drawing a card from his belt box without looking and holding it out in front of him. His attacker skidded to a stop, guarding its slingshot jealously, ears pinned back in alarm... but nothing happened. “Wasn’t something supposed to happen?”
Smack! [-1︎❤ (6/10)]
“Bro! Stop!”
“Rrrraggle,” it snarled, jumping up and down and clicking its clawed heels together. It loaded another pebble into the slingshot from some magical, endless arsenal at its disposal.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Come on, cards! What the hell?” Eric was back on the defensive, retreating behind the next tree as the goblin chased him. Thump. Another attack buried itself in wood. “What am I working with here?” He glanced at the card he’d just drawn.
[Apprentice’s Homunculus (Rune Cost: 2 Mage) -Creature-
STR: 12 | DEF: 9 | ︎❤14
Lore: An adequate execution of the Anthroparios incantation, this weakened being lived for two weeks before dissolving into arcane residue.
Rarity: ✪(Common)]
The language on the card was distinctly non-English—he remembered that English was the language he spoke, wherever he came from—but he could still read it clear as his native tongue. The card’s colored border was a dark gray, all its strangely legible alien text printed in black ink. The artwork depicted a featureless orange humanoid standing on a wooden desk and peering into an hourglass twice its height.
Rune Cost: 2 Mage? He was beginning to piece together the start of a rule system for this card game he’d never seen before, but he only had so much attention to devote to it in the heat of the moment. Whish! The goblin’s latest attack skimmed just over his hair.
Time to make another tactical retreat. He ducked between a pair of bushes and bolted off deeper into the sparse woods.
“Arcklefrack!” the goblin growled behind him.
Its attacks had left Eric’s forehead bruised and bloodied. Comically stupid and small as it was, that thing was a real danger to him. I’ve already lost four hearts, he realized. I only have six left. If every hit takes off one heart, and I get hit six more times... does that mean I’ll die?
The safest bet was to assume so until proven otherwise. He was low on health, but he was not about to go down without fighting. The thought of duking it out fist to fist crossed his mind again—he dismissed it just as quickly.
Rune Cost: 2 Mage. 2 Mage runes... The notification said I was a Mage. Does this have anything to do with my Rune Power? Is that how it’s all connected—they have to match or something?
The idea held water. He seemed to be inching tantalizingly close to a breakthrough.
If that’s true, then I need to find a card with a cost of only one Mage rune...
Eric drew the full deck from his belt box, tucking the Apprentice’s Homunculus card at the bottom. He thumbed through the other forty-nine cards, marveling at their intricate artwork, seeing more Creatures like his Homunculus as well as Spells, Items, and even Jinx cards. He saw mostly Common cards, as well as a handful of Uncommon cards with silver-bordered artworks, and then a Rare card with a similar art border whose name was printed in holographic silver letters. There were rune costs of all kinds, some much too high to be useful—then he found just what he needed.
[Skriggle (Rune Cost: 1 Mage) -Creature-
STR: 10 | DEF: 5 | ︎❤3
Lore: A volatile being that coalesced from ancient magical energies.
Rarity: ✪✪ (Uncommon)]
The card artwork depicted a radish-shaped creature with two stubby legs and no arms, beady ember eyes, and glowing magenta tendril-leaves sprouting from its head.
Flick! The goblin’s latest attack nicked the sleeve of Eric’s new tunic—close call. It was now or never.
He panicked. “How do I use this thing? Uh—uh—go Skriggle!” Once again, nothing happened. “Skriggle, I choose you! Wait, that can’t be it... Um...” Thump! Another narrow miss hit the tree trunk just above his head. He spun around to the other side of the tree. “Play Skriggle! Appear! Skriggle, materialize! Come forth, Skriggle! Beckon! Uh...” The goblin gave chase and loaded its next attack into the slingshot. Eric closed his eyes, breathed out, centered his mind. “SUMMON SKRIGGLE!”
[RUNE TAPPED (1) | RUNE POWER 0/1]
The card in his hand vibrated with sudden energy. A whorl of magenta light oozed out of the face of the card, a baseball-sized vortex that spat out the creature onto the grass as the card itself dematerialized between his fingers. Skriggle was about the size of a squirrel. It unfurled its leafy hair, blinked its beady eyes, and licked its wide lips, which Eric realized wrapped halfway around the circumference of its body.
[Creature summoned!]
“Rrraggle...” growled the goblin apprehensively. Its eyes slitted mistrustfully.
“You can handle this, right, Skriggle?” Eric asked. The diminutive creature cocked its entire head-body at him. “Uh... go get ‘em? Fight?” The goblin redirected its aim toward the newly summoned creature, and only then did Eric’s frazzled mind blitz through a series of battle calculations. It does 1 damage to me every time. I have way more hearts and defense than Skriggle—it’ll be dead in one hit! “Skriggle, do something! Hit it first! Switch to offense! Combat mode!”
The goblin pulled back the elastic band of its weapon. “Arcklefrack!”
“ATTACK!”
The Mage creature unhinged its jaw, bending its entire body in half at the spine, and belched a basketball-sized sphere of crackling pink energy at the goblin. In that same instant, the goblin fired another rock.
Thwack! The stone punctured Skriggle’s skull-body and it shattered into a thousand little spinning shards that faded from existence.
But its magic blast still burned through the goblin, incinerating it instantly.
[Enemy creature slain!]
“Finally!” Eric sighed. He relaxed his painfully tensed shoulders. “Go arcklefrack yourself...” He looked around, realizing he was alone again. “Dang. I can’t believe no one was around to hear that line.”
[New card discovered! (Goblin Grunt) | Cards Discovered: 51/10,000]
From an orb of kaleidoscopic rainbow light at eye level, the card dropped into Eric’s waiting hand. It was a Common, and its artwork featured the same creature he just killed, crouching in a battle stance with its ugly teeth on display. Instinctively, he tucked it into the side of his belt opposite his deck box—a new box was there to accept the card. Neat.
[New RUNE unlocked! (GOBLIN) | Runes Unlocked: 2/100]
With the dust settled, he shuffled along through the clearing until he came across a comfortable-looking tree, one with a straight, smooth trunk and an exposed root big enough for him to sit on like a bench. He slumped against it, leaning his back against the wood. His forehead throbbed.
ERIC RAO [LV1 (︎❤6/10)]
All it took was a glance above his head to see the information he needed. It was just as he feared—defeating that Goblin Grunt did nothing to heal his injuries. To make matters worse, he had no way of accessing the other cards in his deck.
[RUNE POWER: 0/1]
If something else comes after me, I’m screwed! I can’t summon any creatures or use any of these other cards. He undid the metal clasp on his deck box once more and pulled out the cards. They were all still there, all fifty of them; the Skriggle card had somehow reappeared, but he saw that the card was now entirely in grayscale, its texture dull and rough compared to its glossy counterparts. I’m a sitting duck out here...
(REGEN: 1/hour)]
...well, at least for the next 55 minutes or so. He decided his best course of action was to lay as low as possible. Time was his greatest ally now, and he hoped it wouldn’t betray him.