Daniel walked down the bustling town street, two guards from the Brighttree estate following close behind. He had a few errands to run, mostly revolving around getting the last card owed to him by Pavel.
He’d signed the contract with Pavel just the other day, and the shimmering silver ink of Mimics of Stone glistening on his forearm was proof of his commitment to the deal. The mimic coin had survived in Limbo for a week with no complications, and Daniel couldn’t reasonably put off the deal any longer. The contract hadn’t been extensive, only listing that he’d work with them for the allotted time and that should the city fall he’d assist the family as much as could be reasonably expected.
Daniel glanced down at the silver tattoo on his arm depicting a gargantuan walking mountain. If something like that was really achievable with this card then it was an outlier even among rares.
With one last glance at the tattoo Daniel entered the guild and made his way to the public card vault, opening the door with a ring from the bell hanging over the door.
“Ah, Daniel, lovely to see you again. I hope the uncommon you bought the other day is serving your purposes well,” Harold, the shopkeeper said, moving out from behind the counter.
The door rang twice more as the guards entered the room behind Daniel, silently taking up spots on either side of the door.
Harold paid them no mind, wrapping an arm over Daniel’s shoulder and leading him to the counter with a conspiratorial smirk.
“Looking to pad one of your legendarys with another rare? Perhaps the one that Anton gave you? That one's stronger than it should be, anything that imposes limits like that is bound to be.”
Daniel idly thought back to his deck and all the cards he had. There weren’t many, but each one would need to be taken into account before he could add another to the deck.
Flicker Between Worlds
legendary
Timer: 5,225,760 Minutes Remaining
Upon the timer reaching zero the wielder of this card will flicker between one of two distinct worlds. Upon which point, the timer will reset and begin to count down once more.
The wielder of this card can choose to remain between worlds for a limited amount of time.
(The timer will not be reduced while between worlds.)
Addendum 1: The wielder of this card may bring other creatures with them between worlds.
Addendum 2: The wielder of this card may does not need to accompany a creature sent between worlds.
Foundation of One
Rare
Physique
Timer: 0
The wielder of this card can increase the effectiveness of a single trait pertaining to their body by a significant amount.
This chosen trait may be swapped with another trait of the wielder's choice once every thirty minutes.
Addendum 1: The chosen trait will be further refined to better fit the needs and desire of the user.
A Sane Man’s Burden
Legendary
Soul
The wielder of this card is immune to all negative effects applying to the soul and mind.
The wielder of this card cannot have other soul cards in their deck.
Breath of None
Uncommon
Physique
The wielder of this card does not need to breathe.
Mimics of Stone
Rare
Summoning
The user of this card can imbue the souls of creature’s they kill into pieces of stone. This will animate the stone, which will then follow the orders of the user.
Size and weight of the stone is relative to the strength of the stone used.
They each served a purpose, though Foundation of One, while good, didn’t necessarily synergize with the rest of the deck. That could be solved with some creativity or some addendums in the future, but for the moment Daneil had it boost his muscles while working out and his reaction speed while doing anywhere else.
That wasn’t to say the card was useless. His muscles had grown noticeably in the short span of two weeks that he’d spent working out with the card. The reason he didn’t just leave it boosting his strength constantly was because he reasoned being able to quickly recognize a threat and retreat into Limbo trumped being a little stronger.
The shopkeep pulled Daniel from his thoughts and pointed out a few rares that would synergize with A Sane Man’s Burden, and while a few did catch his his eye, particularly one that would mentally attack anything in an area around the user, Daniel already had a plan for his immediate deck.
“Show me your geas cards, and if you don’t have any of those then cards that can boost the effectiveness of summons.”
Harold stopped listing off cards and turned to Daniel, his head tilted.
“Geas cards huh, you have interesting taste. Can I ask why you have an interest in those specifically?”
“Not unless you sign a contract,” Daniel responded sharply.
Harold snorted and stood back up from the crouched position he’d been in to point out the lower cards in the display case.
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“Kid, I got so many contracts layered onto me that I won’t even remember the card I sold you once this transaction is over. All I’ll know is the rarity, the price spent on it and the fact I sold it to you. The guild will keep a record of course, but only Anton will have access to it. I'm probably the safest person in the city to discuss a card transaction with.”
Daniel sent a glance back to the two guards and one nodded, confirming what Harold said.
“Well alright then,” Daniel said. “I've read that a geas card applied in a space that already has a geas sticks better. Like priming something before you paint it.”
“Oh I see what you’re going for. Say no more,” Harold said, moving behind the counter and digging through a few boxes before lining up four cards on the counter.
Dreamer’s Durability
Rare
Geas/Physique/Illusion
The user of this card can declare a space or structure as theirs. Inside that space the user of this card will have all physique cards in their deck act as if they were one rarity higher. This effect caps at legendary rarity.
Summoner’s Savior
Rare
Summoning
Increase the effectiveness of all other summoning cards in the user’s deck by twenty percent.
Champion’s Throne
Rare
Geas/Space
The user of this card can declare a space or structure as theirs. Once declared that space will enhance all other cards held by the user while inside it. This card will minorly inhibit the cards of others inside the space.
Lich’s Palace
Rare
Geas/Necromancy
The user of this can declare a space or structure as theirs. If the user would die while inside that space or structure, instead another living creature chosen at random inside the structure will die in their stead.
Each one of the cards were good, and Daniel read through each one twice to make sure he’d understood them correctly.
Dreamer’s Durability was particularly good, suspiciously so.
Daniel picked up the card and it showed a mountain of a man leaping towards a dragon before turning towards Harold.
“Why is this card still here?”
Harold chuckled, “Good eye, if something seems too good to be true then it often is. That card will do what it says, but when it comes to a rare card making another card become a legendary, the effects are typically subpar at best. It’d be a half step legendary, and only inside the effective range of the geas. But if you have a way around the effects of a geas, a legendary is still a legendary.”
“Is that why all these cards are still in stock? Because they’re geas’s?” Daniel asked.
“Of course,” Harold chuckled. “Most people don’t want to commit their power to only being effective in a single location. If it’s destroyed the cooldown before the user can pick somewhere new is absurdly long.”
“That makes sense,” Daniel said, placing the card back down. Even with that caveat Dreamer’s Durability was still a good card, but so were all the others. Summoner’s Savior was the card he liked the least. The pure bonus to effectiveness was good, but it’d only apply to summoning cards and he only had a single one of those in his deck.
Champion’s Throne was very good. It didn’t specify how much it enhanced cards or inhibited other’s, but that tended to be a good thing when it came to cards. If a card listed an exact increase in efficiency then that was it, but if it didn’t then the odds of it adding abilities to the cards it affected went up significantly.
Lich’s Palace though was tempting beyond belief. It synergized extremely well with what he had planned for Mimics of Stone. Since the structure he was going make would be almost entirely made of mimics the card would essentially make him immortal so long as he was inside the building, but good as it was at the end of the day it was a utility card. One he wanted, but one he’d have to shelf in favor of combat potential. Right now he considered himself on the weaker side, and if he wanted to survive he needed a better way to fight back. If something followed him into Limbo and the mimics couldn’t take care of it, then it’d be like a fox had broken into a henhouse, with the monster killing him over and over until there weren’t enough mimics to keep the structure standing and the geas card failed.
Which left the choice between Dreamer’s Durability and Champion’s Throne. They both had card types that matched up with at least a few of his already existing cards, with Dreamer’s Durability being a physique card and Champion’s Throne being a space card, so that didn’t necessarily narrow it down. Though he did have two physiques and only one space card to his name.
Dreamer’s Durability would also encourage him to specialize heavily into physique cards while Champion’s Throne would let him encompass more cards, but at the same time it’d affect them significantly less than Dreamer’s Durability would. While on the other hand Dreamer’s Durability could turn rares into legendaries, and even if they were only half step legendaries they would still be very strong compared to simple rares.
Daniel stared down at the two cards, his mind racing as Harold let out a chuckle pulling him from his thoughts.
“You remind me of me when I was young, kid. Let me lend you a hand.”
Harold picked up Dreamer’s Durability and Champion’s Throne in one hand, sliding the other two cards away and then laying the two cards back down in front of Daniel.
“I’m going to assume that you have a way to get around the weaknesses of a geas, and I won’t belittle you by implying otherwise. Which would make these two cards some of the best you’ve likely laid your eyes on.”
The merchant had taken on a more upbeat mannerism, as Daniel listened to him talk.
‘So that’s why he’s here. I was wondering about that,’ Daniel thought. ‘He’s like me, someone who’s looking to break the cards.’
Daniel smiled at the thought, “I’m going to use a card I have to make a walking fortress. It’ll follow me around wherever I go, only appearing in this world when I need it.’
Harold whistled, “Getting a geased location to follow you around would certainly be a strategy to behold, but I can’t imagine you’re using a physique card to have that kind of effect. Which is why you’re hung up on Champion’s Throne, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Daniel admitted.
“Assuming you have a few physique cards in your deck, and you plan on building around them then I’d go with Dreamer’s Durability. You’re a traveler, you can get addendums to cards that cumulatively can add up to Champion’s Throne, but a rarity jump in cards is a different beast altogether. Rare cards on their own can change the flow of a battle, I won’t even mention the effect a good legendary card can have.”
Daniel nodded slowly, beginning to lean towards Dreamer’s Durability, “But you already said that if something seems too good to be true it probably is. How much weaker will a legend made by this card be?”
Harold tapped the display case in front of him excitedly and shrugged, “I don’t know, but they’ll be weaker than a true legendary that’s for sure. Though, at the same time they’ll be a lot stronger than they would be as rares. Don’t forget that this card raises the grade of all physique cards. An uncommon that becomes a rare will be just as effective as any other rare out there, while costing you a fraction the cost of a real rare.”
"All of that is to say," Harold continued, a smile plastered across his face, "that Dreamer’s Durability is probably better than Champion’s Throne, but only if you can stick to a theme. You'll also need to ask yourself the question of what you want fighting for you. This fortress of yours, or yourself."
Daniel moved his eyes from Harold back the two cards with an ever-growing sense of apprehension. It felt like he was standing at a crossroads that would decide if he actually made it back home or not. Whether he’d get to see his family again. It felt like he was deep down in one of the more dangerous caves back home, the ones that his dad had told him to never go in, but he had anyways. Where the walls and ceiling constricted your body and threatened to come crashing down with a single misstep.
‘No, don’t put that kind of pressure on yourself,” Daniel thought. ‘It's just one choice out of the many you'll need to make. Just do the best that you can, and you'll have no regrets.
“I’ll take Dreamer’s Durability,” Daniel finally said with a confident tone that denied his internal thoughts as he desperately hoped he wouldn’t come to regret this choice.