“Good morning Styx, I can’t believe it's mid midsummer and you're eighteen already. Hopefully your parents already let you know what to expect from this today?”
Our local priest of cards was fairly new to our community, but having been here since I was a small child I had taken my reading and maths lessons with him, so he was as familiar as an uncle by this point.
“Of course Bren, although dad hopes I get a crafting class close enough that I can help mum with the fletching. They did mention you would explain my training as it could depend on my card?” As we discussed my unveiling we made our way through the local church to Bren’s office where the altar was kept. I had been told the actual unveiling was usually pretty quick, but if you unlocked a combat class sometimes you had to spend weeks training your first skill to make sure you wouldn’t accidentally hurt anyone before you could go back home.
The church was as old as the village I grew up in, but clearly had been cared for. The stones were well swept and the windows showing the class archetypes were staining the light to make beautiful patterns across the floors. Crafting made of yellow, gathering of green, and red unsurprisingly for the combat cards.
Looking around Bren's office as we walked in I realised it really hadn’t changed since I took my lessons here, the same thinning rug on the floor, a book shelf for reference books against the left wall, a tidy desk and a doorway to the right to enter the water closet.
“Please take a seat, now this is going to be very boring no doubt, but I need to go over some standard information required by the church to make sure no mistakes happen. I know you're going to want to skip this but before the church formed and started helping to collect what we knew of core cards and the system people died regularly from mistakes others had already discovered. Tea?” “Yes please, no milk if you don’t mind”
“Not an issue, so lets get through this as quickly as we can as no doubt you are very excited to have your core card shortly. To start with cards are either crafting cards, like your mothers fletcher core card, gathering cards much like your fathers farming card. Or are combat cards, like Raz the guard captain's own core card or really any of the members of the guard. There are cards that seem to buck the trend of their type, but once they start to grow it's usually clear at least to the holder why they have that classification, a good example is my own. My core card is called Teacher but its type is combat. You do not have to take a job related to your class type. No one may compel you to do so, if someone does report them to your nearest church or guard who will assist you. There are programs that encourage certain careers, such as combat classes to join the guards or adventuring guilds, however these are optional. I also want to note personally it is very dangerous for a non-combat card to be used for combat, you will not get the extra experience those classes get from defeating monsters and you won’t have the skills for it. I am going to grab the altar now, there is a little more to discuss then we can get this happening for you.” As Bren grabbed the Altar a small stone plate with a raised image of five cards spread out across them, from a large draw on his desk. “Bren, if there are three types why do all Altars have five cards on them? I haven’t really thought about it before but that seems unusual”.
Placing the altar in the centre of his desk Bren responded “Well, this leads nicely into the last bit we need to discuss before we can finalise your unveiling. Quality of cards. Cards can be Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Mythic, or Legendary. All of them work functionally the same, one skill at level 1, then another skill every ten levels. Each skill can level up itself to its maximum which is more for your trainer or master to educate you about later so I won’t go into that. Now only a handful of people have ever reached Mythic or above cards, but what we know is at that stage they develop unique types, the two examples we have is of Ulas the head of our church who had the type of Scholar and Tyum who had a type of summoner.”
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“Now the rest can wait for your trainer or master depending on your card type, but remember levelling will allow you chances to improve your card quality so don’t be disappointed if you don’t get a legendary straight away. Place your hands on top of the altar however is comfortable and we can start”
Placing my hand over the altar slowly a mixture of yellow and blue lights streamed out of the cards, joined by green and red shortly after, then finally a violet light joined with the rest and they covered my hands before forming into a card shape above them.
Slowly spinning the card was yellow with a shimmer of all the colours across it, suddenly the card snapped around to face me and shattered an outer layer revealing a dark red card underneath.
“Take your time to read your card, based on that colour I am going to go grab Captain Raz who will be able to give you some advice on your options, and I will get us something to eat while we talk” As Bren left, gently closing the door behind himself, I was left staring in wonder at the card in front of me. As I reached out to touch it it vanished suddenly and a red window popped up in front of me instead with the card details.
Name: Phoenix flames Level: 1 (Exp: 0/1000) Type: Combat (Non-specalised) Skills:
* Phoenix immolation: At a cost of 10 mana, scaling to degree of injury, burn a wound with Phoenix fire healing the flesh and restoring injury.
Jumping I heard a polite cough behind me, turning around the imposing figure of Captain Raz was standing there. Standing at nearly seven feet tall with a beard that looked ready to hide a bear cub at a moment's notice Raz had always seemed intimidating. “I hear ye got a combat type card, mind sharing its details so I can give you some options? Not much for the recruitment pitch myself but figure least I can do is let you know if we would take you and the options you have on the table”.
Quickly standing and facing the Captain, trying my best to stand respectfully with a straight back, I informed him “ It's called Phoenix flames, uncommon quality with an ability to heal flesh by burning it.” Raz seemed deep in thought for a moment “Healing cards aren’t found too often, so there are definitely options for you, but being a healing specialised card means you can’t really fight directly so there are limited jobs outside of the army or a guard posting. These pay well, and the training is great, but it can be a boring job for someone your age”.
Thinking over the information Raz had provided I realised he had made some assumptions about my core card “Sorry sir, but my card says its non-specialised not healing specialised, is that a problem? My grandmother was a herbalist for the guards and hearing her stories growing up I wouldn’t mind working the guard as a healer”.
“This means you might still learn some more offensive skills, or even get no further healing skills from your card, not always a bad thing, not always a good thing either. How about you swing by the guard offices after lunch and I can give you some paperwork with information on the jobs I think you could be suitable for, and you chat with your parents about all of this”.
At his mention of lunch the smell from the bag in Bren’s hand made me realise he had swung by Tamah’s inn on the way back and sprung for some of her mystery rolls. Letting Raz leave I took a seat back at the desk with Bren and tucked into our lunch. The taste of meats, oils, and vegetables all left overs from the last few days and mixed in a gravy before being stuffed in a bread roll washed over me. Tamah’s rolls were a consistent pleasure in Leftbrook.
“I think it may be worth grabbing that paperwork and heading back home, letting your folks know what you got, and taking a read through what Captain Raz has to offer you. While you're considering things I will see if I can find some information on your core card or similar ones to get you a reference guide as well”. As Bren spoke I finished up my rolls and got ready to do just as he suggested. “Thank you for lunch Bren, and for offering to find some information for me, I don’t know I have really processed what my card can do yet so that might be helpful”.