Chapter 18: And Then There Were Fifteen.

Alabaster

Alley was honestly taken aback. He had always been close to the Knots, but the level of support left him flabbergasted. They were offering to send their eldest son on a journey from which he likely would never return almost casually. All because of a few silly words they had shared over cups of eel venom-derived alcohol when Alley was five.

No, that wasn't quite right. The ritual might matter to Leshy Knots but Alley thought it had more to do with the closeness the two families had built over decades than the strange code of honor the hunters lived by.

“Now.” Said Darius’ mother. “Let's get a look at that Deck you dug out of the ground.”

Alley nodded and summoned his entire remaining collection of cards, spreading them out on the table in front of him. It was a summoning, not a manifestation, Alley couldn’t do that anymore he thought to himself with a pang of regret.

With the larger Library size and the few cards he had managed to salvage from his original collection Alley ironically now owned more cards than he ever had before. The problem was not just the curse lock on the Deck but that he needed ninety cards to even use The Crown Of The Cursed King in a challenge match.

To make matters worse. Of the ninety cards that had already come with the library eleven had rotted beyond usability, a whopping twenty-two were too costly in life essence vials for Alley to play should he draw them, and weirdly eight of the cards were blank. He explained all of this as he allowed the Knots family to inspect his collection.

Alley wouldn’t normally have been so trusting as to reveal all of his cards, especially when he wasn’t even familiar with them himself yet. But as far as the last Roe was concerned Darius and his family were beyond suspicion. Besides, all of this was nothing new. The Roes helped the Knots and the Knots helped the Roes. By keeping the other family fully up to date their assistance could only be enhanced.

“Hmmm,” said Artunis. “ As good as they are, the cost of a lot of these cards would kill you if you try to manifest them.”

At that Alley offered a helpless shrug. He knew that but neither had the cards to replace them nor the option to get a different deck. While he had been doing his best not to think about it the moment he had touched The Cursed Deck it had locked to him. It was his Deck now and to the best of his knowledge, there wasn’t anything anyone could do to change that. Maybe if he somehow survived another attack worth 330000 Power it would destroy his Dealer again. It was a funny idea though he didn’t struggle to hold back a smile as he responded.

“ So how do I grow my life essence when I can’t use my Deck?” Alley knew technically all the training he had done since first getting a Deck of his own had been growing his life essence. The problem was he couldn’t access any of that power until he achieved lower ranks with his Dealer. Each rank came with its own set of challenges to advance past. At rank twelve Alley needed to win roughly six challenges.

“That is a simple fix, simple but far from easy.” Answered Leshy slowly whilst inspecting a card. “ What is this Resonance? “ He asked his wife. “ I recognize Undeath and Shadow.”

“Curse” She supplies absently whilst also examining the pulsing red cards laid out on the table.

“So your three are Shadow, Curse, and Undeath?” Darius’ father asks Alley who nodded. “ And your dealer is that Cloak?”

The dark-haired boy looked down at the ratty black cloak and weird archaic clothes that had replaced his own. “ uhh yeah I think so.”

“And you said it had just appeared on you after the Deck claimed you?” Alley wasn’t aware that was what you called chains magically coming to life and surging into him.

“That's right.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The gray-haired man glanced at his wife “That has the feel of an Artifact dealer to it, I think.”

“It does” Artunis replied without looking up; she was in the process of sorting Alley’s collection into separate piles based on some criteria she hadn’t shared.

“So it might have some sort of ability?” Asked Darius, his eyes shining with excitement.

“It might” Agreed Leshy. “But artifacts can be dangerous as well, there is often some sort of cost associated with activating its effect. So I can only suggest caution until you know what it does.”

Alley was still watching Darius’ mother. He was fairly certain the piles she was making were based on how useful she thought the cards would be relative to their cost, and of course if he could actually play them.

“I'll try to be careful but I don’t even know if it has an ability or how to go about activating it if it does. But that doesn’t help with my card problem.”

Finishing her sorting process Artunis suddenly unrolled a map made of some sort of oiled seabeast skin on the table.

“Undead.” Said Leshy his eyes shining in almost the exact same way Darius had moments before.

As traveling hunters the Knots family made its living seeking out resonance heavy monsters and animals. The organs and meat were valued for the creation of magic items, strengthening one’s body, and of course sometimes just because they tasted good. Many such beasts also grew a resonance crystal inside themselves which allowed the creatures to exhibit mystical abilities and were essential in the creation of spell cards.

While undead monsters might contain such a jewel if they had grown one prior to their death and subsequent resurrection. They did not have harvestable organs or edible meat. In a career where every hunt could be vital to the family’s success, the Knots could not afford to waste effort and risk their lives fighting dead things.

So over the years, Artunis had kept detailed maps of areas near their usual hunting grounds that should be avoided. Avoided because undead for one reason or another could be found there. Undead monsters might be different from living ones in almost every way but if you killed one a Dealer could still make it into a card just like anything else that wasn’t a human.

The four of them poured over the maps long into the night going over plans for Alley and Darius to grow. The Knots parents were both Rank Ten, with Darius’ grandmother having been the strongest in generations reaching the ninth rank, what they sometimes call a Transfigured. Even Arcadia herself, the regional champion had only been rank eight.

If the pair of boys were going to get revenge and to Alley more importantly recover the card of his mother the two of them would need to blow right past that level of advancement.

To start the pair would need to fill the gaps in Alley’s Deck, ideally with weaker cards that he could actually manifest. After that, he could work on replacing the cards that were too expensive to use and winning enough Challenge matches to unlock the next rank.

For Darius who was already rank eleven unlocking more power meant evolving five of his cards. Either those already in his Deck or new cards he collected along the way. Which could be monstrously difficult or utter child’s play depending on how difficult it was to obtain additional copies of his cards.

Once the pair reached the tenth rank that was when things would start to get complicated. Most people even accomplished warriors or hunters like Darius’ parents never made it further than that. Still, Alley wasn’t too worried, he could cross that bridge when he came to it. For now, filling out nineteen empty card slots would be challenging enough.

It wasn’t much but Alley felt himself once more overwhelmed by gratitude when Leshy retreated into the hall and returned with four Resonance-free True Deck cards he had picked up over his travels. Having really no choice in the matter, Alley immediately added all four cards to his deck. That left fifteen to go before he could use his Cursed Deck in a challenge match. It was a long way, but gaining almost a quarter of the cards he needed in mere minutes buoyed his spirits significantly.

Most were on the weak side as was the case with almost all cards that didn’t have a resonance. There was one however that drew Alley’s attention both for its potential and because he had no idea how such a card was even created in the first place.

“Fierce Negotiations” He murmured to himself inspecting the card after profusely thanking the Knots for what felt like the fiftieth time that night.

“It’s soft synergy, but this might actually work pretty well for me."

https://i.imgur.com/8gssOPP.png [https://i.imgur.com/8gssOPP.png]

Deck- Crown Of The Cursed King

Fierce Negotiations

No Resonance

Additional Cost: Send the top to cards from your Library to your Crypt.

Each Player selects a Card in their Hand. Selected Card is sent to the opposing player's hand and may be used by that player as per normal.

[Traded Card is sent to the Crypt of its original owner if sent to the Crypt for any reason]