“The first card you’ve picked out, Born of Rain, isn’t a bad card,” Pavel said, lifting the card. “It’ll do what it says on the card, protecting you from physical damage, but you need to remember that some of the attacks that monsters use will be imbued with the effects of other cards. Those will always have a chance of getting through this card's innate defensive properties, especially if they’re of an opposing element like lightning or ice. Not being affected by physical attacks sounds good on paper, but it’s almost never as good in the real world.”

“Damn, really? I didn't even know opposing elements affected card,” Daniel said. This was the first time he’d heard of something like that.

Pavel shrugged, “Opposing elements do play a factor, but it’s a minor one, and we don’t even have a complete catalog of all the card types. Every time we think we have it all figured out a new type pops up. Last I checked there were around two hundred different card types and that list has been growing steadily for centuries.”

Pavel placed the card back down on the table and turned to Daniel, “I was rambling, the card’s not bad, but it will only stop physical attacks. Where a card stops being a physical attack and becomes something else is a blurry line, and I personally wouldn’t want to be the one guessing if an attack was going to pass through me harmlessly or not while I'm in the middle of a battle. That’s not even mentioning the cards out there that can negate other cards. This card does one thing, and it does it relatively well, but that heavily incentivizes you to leave this as the only card covering your physical defenses while constructing the rest of your deck, and that’ll leave you open to negation effects. Ideally you want some overlap in your cards.”

The point he made about overlap made sense, and Daniel mentally tucked away the information. Flicker Between Worlds was an all-around good utility card that could serve multiple purposes, but A Sane Man’s Burden was the only thing protecting his mind and soul. Which meant negation cards could open both those avenues for an attack if they managed to disable the card. It was something he’d need to fix going forwards.

“What about this card,” Daniel said holding up Void of Peaks. It’d stun anyone who missed an attack against him, and that debuff only grew with subsequent missed attacks. It’d be good if it comboed with Flicker Between Worlds, but that was the only reason Daniel could see himself taking the card.

“That,” Pavel said, picking up the card, “is a very good card. A half second spent stunned in a fight may as well be an eternity. The ruling with subsequent missed attacks increasing the duration will only really come up if you’re fighting something that you can’t outright kill, or if you can get this card to somehow synergize with another card, but that isn’t really needed. Stun is a keyword used in a lot of cards. It makes the creature affected by it unable to move and unable to use cards that do anything besides provide passive effects.”

“Dang, that is good,” Daniel said, looking at the card in a new light.

“I’m glad you like it at its base, because I don’t think it’ll work with Flicker Between Worlds. Not until you get an addendum for it at the very least. I don’t know the exact details of how your card works, but if you dodge an attack by going into a different dimension, I doubt this card will be able to target the creature that you just avoided.”

“And betting on it gaining an addendum so specific does seem a bit risky,” Daniel rationally stated.

Pavel nodded, “Now taking a look at Mimics of Stone has me wanting to ask you some questions. This is a building card, a good building card mind you, but still, you’re already in one of the safest places on the continent. What’s your plan with this card, exactly?”

Daniel grinned, “Let me answer that with a question with one of my own. Do mimics need to breathe?”

Pavel’s expression turned to one of understanding, “I see, now that I think of it Douglass did gather several cards that supplemented the need to breathe when his son had Flicker Between Worlds. And no, I don’t think mimics need to breath, but I'm not an expert. They can take many forms, but I do know for a fact that there’s been several documented cases of them being found in places with no air, like underwater or buried deep in the city's quarries.”

“How smart are they?” Daniel asked.

Pavel made an ehh motion with his hand, “They’re smart enough to follow orders. It's probably better if you think of them as somewhat intelligent dogs. But this is a summoning card, so they’ll follow your orders to the best of their abilities no matter what. The intelligence of the summon just determines how well they’ll actually do what you ask.”

Daniel’s smile grew, “Alright, right now I’m leaning towards Mimics of Stone, but first I want to check your family's ledger to see if it's ever been used. I’ll also need a few books on mimics. Oh, and I’ll still need to get an uncommon card from the public card vault.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“You’re still set on adding an uncommon to your deck?” Pavel said with a hint of distaste in his voice. “If you’re only doing this to pocket the leftover silver I already intended to have my family cover your living expenses and provide you a wage while you work for us, within reason of course.”

“You’re looking down on the weaker cards,” Daniel said with a grin. “From what I can tell decks are all a matter of compatibility and vision, and mine is going to have both.”

“If you say so," Pavel said, sounding unconvinced. "I’d wager that power plays a much more important role in decks construction. But that's just my philosophy."

“I’m a traveler. I’ve been told that power kinda follows the cards I choose.”

“Hah,” Pavel snorted, patting Daniel on the shoulder. “I almost forgot why I hired you there for a minute. Always nice to have a cheater on the payroll.”

===

Navarre, the goddess of blood, danced through waist high blood with a plastic-like smile on her face. Elegant marble pillars filled the space around her, stretching out from the blood and up towards the sky.

She’d made this place a long, long time ago, but she didn’t remember much from its creation. For example, she didn’t remember building any peaks to the pillars that surrounded her. The silent monolith’s that stretched upwards near endlessly.

But what she did remember making, what she cherished, was the strings that stretched from pillar to pillar like disjointed serpents. They crisscrossed over one another, intermingling and tangling intermittently, but they all made the journey, they’d all been saved.

A throne of bright red sat in the middle of space, stretching out of the pool of blood like it was struggling to climb out from it.

No matter how frayed, tangled or decrepit a sting was, they all connected to the throne. Every single one. If a string broke free, it’d slip to the edge of the space where it’d fall into the endless void alongside a waterfall of blood.

Navarre danced amongst the pillars, gently caressing them as she passed by, smearing the blood that climbed up them as she went. The smile she wore was unsettling, and when her dance took her through a path that had strings, some were bound to be cut loose as she passed by, sending them hurtling to the void below.

Eventually her dance took her to the throne at the center of the realm, and for the briefest of moments her smile took on a more natural look as her eyes fell upon a single string that connected itself to the right arm of her chair.

The vibrancy of the red in this particular string was beautiful, but other’s amongst it shone brighter. The quality of the string was good, but several others were clearly stronger. The only thing that set it apart from the other stings was that the right arm of the chair that it’d connected itself to was home only to it.

Every other string on the chair was cluttered and tangled to an impossible degree, and magic was clearly at play to make it possible for all of them to connect to the chair, but this one sting stood alone.

Navarre skipped up to the throne and climbed atop it as she leaned up to the lonely string and cradled it gently.

“You better keep your promise,” Navarre said, lightly kissing the string before climbing down from the throne to continue her dance.

===

Several days later Daniel sat in the Brighttree library, which was apparently what Pavel’s family name was. Everything had moved so fast that he hadn’t even had the chance to learn it up until he'd actually made his way to the library.

Servants bustled away in the hallways outside the multistory library situated in the middle of the Brighttree estate, but the library itself was rather quiet, and only a few librarians were left to attend to the books.

In front of Daniel sat a stack of books as tall as he was that was completely dedicated to the creature known as mimics, and next to that was a shimmering iron card.

Breath of None

Uncommon

Physique

The wielder of this card does not need to breathe.

So many of his problems since coming to this world could have been prevented by this one little card. That was assuming it worked like it said it would of course, but once Pavel heard what he'd planned on using the card for he’d assured Daniel that he thought it would work. Though he had given Daniel a small ruby colored orb to bring into limbo that would test the environment for various conditions.

A small booklet sat in Daniel’s lap that listed all the possible outcomes the orb could discover, each one determined based on what happened to the orb upon exposure to the environment of Limbo. Apparently, a lot of places had weird rules pertaining to them, and this could be used to find out just what was enforcing those rules.

Idly Daniel flipped through the booklet, sighing as he did so. Many of the readings this thing could be described as ominous at best. From the environment being placed in something called a domain type card, to it actually being inside the belly of something called a Vigrant which lured creatures into its maw using illusions.

He’d been putting off actually using the sphere, worried the reading he’d get would absolutely ruin his plans, but he hadn’t just been reading about mimics. He’d perused the other books in the library and his beliefs of this world had only been reinforced by what he found.

How humanity was continuing to survive in this place, Daniel could only guess at, but one thing he could say with certainty is that if they didn’t have access to cards then they’d have been wiped out centuries ago.

The sheer amount of creatures that can kill you with absolutely no effort on their part was astounding. Which was why Daniel was so interested in Mimics of Stone. For the most part Limbo was safe. Sure there were those gremlin things that would attack you if you breathed, but those could easily be avoided with Breath of None.

‘Which makes Limbo the perfect place to build a panic bunker, and if that bunker can follow me around then all the better,’ Daniel thought, picking up the ruby orb.

“No use putting it off I guess,” Daniel said, making his way to the door. It was time to see if there was any merit to this plan.