Before anything else, Dylan needed to restore his deck.

He found a place in the center of the room to sit down and entered a state of meditation. When he focused on the void in his consciousness that held his deck, he probed it, trying to find a clue about how to start the restoration process. To his surprise, he didn’t have to do much of anything. The moment his will touched the cards, he felt as if he’d fallen into a hungry vacuum. It pulled at his mana, wanting to be fed. He obliged.

During normal meditation, regeneration stats are boosted, but at that moment, Dylan struggled to even maintain his natural rate of mana regen. Every part of the bonus that meditation provided poured into the deck. Washing over the out of play cards, reintegrating them one by one.

Each card took about thirty seconds to restore, and when the last rejoined the deck, mana swam across the entire stack. Dylan could feel the patterns branded on each card begin to resonate with those around them. Now, even his natural mana regeneration was diverted. Minutes passed before the surge finally slowed to a trickle. The deck hummed, and a comfortable vibration rang through Dylan’s mind.

It was done.

In total, it took close to half an hour. Normally, that would be enough for most newly awakened people to completely recover their class resources, but Dylan still felt empty. He checked his Status, only to find his mana barely half filled.

It took another fifteen minutes of meditation before he felt sated.

Comparing the time it took to recover against the time he had left to prepare, he felt he should be able to practice running through his deck five times. Hopefully, after that, he’d be ready to face the coming challenge.

Dylan stood up, looking around as he stretched. There should be a console somewhere that would allow him to control the training room. He found it extending from the table that used to hold his deck and catalog.

When he walked over and reached out to touch it, it activated. After poking through the available menus and quickly scanning his options, he found that much of what could be controlled was useless to him.

Why would I want to electrify the entire floor? What kind of newly awakened class would find that helpful training?

Dylan could only narrow his focus, noting the suitable options and how to access them. He didn’t activate most immediately, wanting to keep his next try at Card Play simple, but it didn’t hurt to prepare for his later attempts.

For now, the only option he chose was to expand the size of the training room. As soon as he finalized the selection, the walls around him shifted.

Dylan felt a moment of disorientation. It was like he’d gone cross-eyed against his will. When he recovered, a wall that used to look like it was a mere dozen yards away was pulled back to more than hundred.

He placed target dummy at the far side of the room. He was going to test the range on his cards.

After once again playing through his deck, he summarized his experiences.

First, the phantoms became more difficult to control the farther away from him they were. Additionally, archers seemed most effective within two hundred feet of their target. Any further and the already lengthy charging time on their shots would begin to drastically increase.

A Mana Bolt could only make it about one hundred feet before its course would become erratic.

As for Mana Spike, Dylan found it also had an effective range. In his previous uses of the card, it would appear directly above its target, but if that target was more than one hundred feet from him, there was a slight change. It would still strike down from above, but it would never appear more than one hundred feet from where he was when he played the card. This caused the projectile to travel down at an angle, requiring more focus from Dylan to aim properly.

Finally, Immobolize had a hard limit on its range, and once again, it was one hundred feet. Any further than that and it just wouldn’t work.

Dylan wondered why none of this was listed on the cards, but he didn’t find an answer. He supposed that all classes had features and limitations that required self-exploration to discover.

Before beginning the next round of training, he set the dummy to start moving. The archers still seemed to have no problems hitting the target, but Dylan’s performance was bad. He did, however, begin to more frequently notice that tugging he’d once felt at his mind when he was trying to control Mana Bolt during his first experience with Card Play. The more focused on control he was, the more prominent the feeling.

In his third round of training he had a whim and used Immobilize to target himself. It worked. It was an odd feeling, being trapped in his body while the world moved around him. But he also noticed that he wasn’t completely disconnected. He’d had a Phantom Soldier summoned at the time and had no problems giving it commands even while frozen. It made him aware of another limitation of the card. It could do nothing to prevent mental attacks or other similar powers that didn’t rely on moving the physical body.

Dylan finally found the door to controlling his mana projectiles during the fourth round. If he focused hard enough and pulled back against the tug at his mind the cards created, he could give them limited guidance. His Mana Bolts began to curve and seek their targets; his Mana Spikes began to form where he willed. Anywhere within one hundred feet of himself, and he could touch the spells.

In the fifth and final round of training, Dylan increased the speed of the dummy. He got better at actively controlling multiple phantoms. He got better at letting his spells strike their mark. Keeping track of the seconds left in each turn became second nature, and keeping track of the remaining cards in his deck became easier to manage.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After using them so much, he’d long discovered that he had eight Basic and five Intermediate Energy cards in the deck; each of the other cards had four copies a piece.

This time, when he neared the bottom of his deck, he decided that rather than play the rest out, he wanted to try reshuffling. All it took was a simple mental command, and the cards in his hand disappeared. Somewhere in his consciousness, he felt the out of play cards flow back into the deck, and after a few seconds, his mind thrummed.

A new turn began, and he drew a new card.

He knew that his remaining mana didn’t leave him much time after increasing the deck’s maintenance cost, so he decided to do one last experiment. He wanted to generate and hold as much energy as he possibly could to see where his limit was. With his mana quickly ticking down, he began to draw cards.

It didn’t take long to build up to his previous height of four energy, now he just needed to wait to draw the right cards. When he added the fifth point of energy, his movements felt stiff. At six, even his mind began to feel sluggish. Seven, and it was all he could do not to collapse, and finally, at eight, he fell to the ground.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t play any cards. He had no way to get rid of the pressure around him. He struggled to breath and could do nothing but watch his remaining mana count down.

When he bottomed out, his brain went blank. He felt a weariness he’d never known. Mana exhaustion.

In a distant part of his mind, he knew it wouldn’t last long. Even regenerating one point of mana was enough to wake him from his stupor, but until then, he could do nothing.

Without the ability to continue paying for its maintenance, the deck disappeared. But Dylan still couldn’t move. Pressure still held him firmly against the ground.

Slowly, as his thoughts came back along with his mana, he noticed the weight around him begin to ease. It got lighter every fifteen seconds. When he was cognizant enough to analyze it, he realized that he’d been losing one energy per turn since the deck was unsummoned.

When he finally had the strength to sit up, Dylan chose not to.

I never want to go through that again.

He laid there for longer than he should have, staring at the tiled ceiling.

Get up. Meditate. You need to prepare. Dylan mentally kicked himself.

He groaned and rolled over, getting ready to restore his deck for the final time.

When he was done, Dylan got up and went over to the command console. Stretching as he walked, he tried not to stress too much about what was coming next.

Although it hadn’t been that long since he’d fought the welf, he was a different person now. He had a class. He was a Deckmaster.

He’d never be so helpless in the face of a monster again.

Reaching the console, he looked down, seeing a countdown at the top of screen.

[Time remaining until the next phase of the Tutorial: 00:08:46]

Cutting it close.

Dylan took a breath. He thought about how to spend his last eight minutes of calm. Looking down at the dirty hands in front of him, he had an idea.

The System used magic of some kind to support the needs of those going through its initiation and training. No one would be hungry, and no one would feel weak. It even provided healing between major phases of the Tutorial. But what the System classified as human needs came down to simple survival. It had nothing to do with the psychological needs a person must fulfill in order to truly thrive.

Of course, not many of those could be taken care of in the training room. But there was one thing Dylan could do. That he felt he needed to do.

He was grimy. Sweaty. Covered in dust and dried blood.

In short, he felt like shit.

He was itchy, distracted, and even if he could tune out his discomfort to focus on the fight ahead, why should he? If he could eliminate the source of the problem, why should he continue to let it be a burden?

Dylan quickly operated the console and changed the environment of the training room along the wall nearest him.

To his left, a thin curtain of water came from the ceiling. It fell from and disappeared into the luminescent tile, leaving no trace of how it came or where it went.

To his right, an arid wind warmed the air. The mechanism behind its appearance bearing the same mystery.

Perfect.

Dylan took off his armor and stepped into the water. Carrying a bracing cold, it shocked him awake. He stayed under the deluge for about two minutes, and did his best to clean himself.

Once he was done, he walked into the warm wind gusting along the tiles. He simply let the heat radiate across his skin, calming his mind while drying his body.

After another few minutes, he finally felt better. It wasn’t perfect, but he was refreshed. He felt ready.

He took a moment to don his armor and then walked back to glance at the console.

[Time remaining until the next phase of the Tutorial: 00:02:14]

Alright, Dylan rolled his shoulders, ready check.

He called up his Status to make sure his stats were full.

[Statistics]

[Resilience: 11, Tier 1]

[Physical Power: 3.3, Tier 0]

[Magic Power: 11, Tier 1]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Mana Regeneration: 1.0/minute]

[Class Statistics: Resilience, Magic Power]

Dylan was primarily concerned with his mana, and it took him a second to notice the changes.

They’ve increased already?

He was excited. Although he knew the Tutorial was designed to help speed growth, he still didn’t expect his stats to go up so soon. His elation reminded him of what one of his father’s retired city guard friends used to say about the System. About how it designed the Tutorial to get people hooked on the dopamine rush of progress.

Meditation was the easiest way to increase stats, but it was also the slowest. There were ways to make it faster, but they were expensive. Like creating a good environment. The denser and purer the mana in the area a person used for meditation, the faster the progress. And the System’s Tutorial space had some of the densest and purest mana that could be found.

By forcing people into a situation that encouraged growth and an environment that supported it, the System had found a perfect way to use the Tutorial to motivate people to get stronger.

Everyone came out with increased stats.

Everyone came out with power and rewards.

And everyone came out wanting more.

And speaking of rewards…

Dylan forced himself to focus on the coming fight. The System didn’t say anything, but he knew he wouldn’t lose his life here. If he failed, the System would let the monsters hurt him to the point of near death, but before they finished him, it would stop this stage of the Tutorial and move on to the next. It wanted to encourage people to become stronger, and it couldn’t do that by immediately killing them.

But if he won, if he didn’t need the System’s help, he would be rewarded. When the individual portion of the Tutorial was over, everyone would be rewarded with something. But for excellent performers, like combat classes who successfully defeat their monsters, the System gave something extra. Something suited specifically to each individual. Dylan didn’t know what it might be for him, but he was determined to fight for it.

He looked at the timer.

[Time remaining until the next phase of the Tutorial: 00:00:31]

Taking a final stretch, Dylan readied himself to summon his deck.

When there were less than five seconds left, cards flashed into existence, circling him like a layer of protective wards.

When the timer reached zero, the room around him shifted, and he drew his hand.