Just as Dylan was about to select the Rules option of the catalog, he was interrupted by the System.
[Now, summon your Card Catalog, and open it to the Rules.]
The corner of Dylan’s mouth twitched as he followed the System’s guidance. He mentally selected the word Rules, and the catalog’s pages turned on their own. When they stopped, the book displayed a new screen, but before he could read it, the System gave another instruction.
[Read the section titled Basics of Card Play.]
Dylan stared at the prompt for a moment before looking back at the book. He didn’t know why, but he felt the System was starting to micromanage this part of the Tutorial more than the others.
[Basics of Card Play]
[1. Every card in a deck has two costs, a summoning cost, usually paid in mana, and an activation cost, usually paid in energy.]
[2. Card Play begins when the Deckmaster summons a loaded deck, actualizing it and putting it into play.]
[3. To summon a deck, the Deckmaster must pay the combined summoning costs of all cards that deck contains.]
[4. To keep a deck in play, the Deckmaster must pay 5 percent of the deck’s summoning cost every minute.]
[5. The Deckmaster may unsummon their deck at any time.]
So far, it sounded simple enough. Dylan didn’t know what energy was, specifically, but with the context, it was easy to guess. A resource for using his cards.
Of the rest, the only thing that concerned him was the cost of summoning and maintaining a deck. When he received the starter deck, he’d seen at least forty cards. Unless they were affected by some percentage-based cost reduction skill or piece of equipment, mana costs didn’t usually come in fractions. If each card took even as little as one mana to summon, then the deck would require about half of his max mana to bring into play. The maintenance cost to keep the deck in play would also outpace his mana regen. He probably wouldn’t even be able to keep a deck in play for an hour before being completely drained.
Half an hour is probably a more realistic guess, Dylan thought. Assuming Deckmaster is a combat class, I’m gonna have trouble with any encounters that require endurance.
Dylan sighed. That was a problem for later. What he needed to do now was to figure out how all of this worked. He continued reading.
[6. Card Play is divided into 15 second turns.]
[7. When the first turn begins, the Deckmaster draws cards until reaching the hand limit of 5 cards (4 + Class Tier).]
[8. At the beginning of each subsequent turn, the Deckmaster may draw a card if their hand is not currently full.]
[9. Alternatively, if the Deckmaster’s available energy is less than their Class Tier (currently 1), the Deckmaster may forgo this draw and generate 1 energy.]
[10. If the Deckmaster exceeds the hand limit at the beginning of a turn, they have their Class Tier in seconds to reduce their hand down to the limit. If they do not, cards will be randomly discarded until at the hand limit.]
So, things look like they get more flexible as I advance through the tiers. Dylan thought about the future possibilities. A larger hand limit. More time to freely be over that limit. A greater ability to generate energy. Again, assuming this is a combat class, and assuming my cards are my means of fighting, that should mean I’ll have more tactical options the more powerful I get. To be expected, I guess.
Dylan looked at the fifteen second turn division. In a fight, that could be both long or short. Depending on how many cards he had to play and how long they took to use, he might be pressed for time. On the other side, with no cards in his hand and no means to defend himself, each turn might feel like an eternity. Fifteen second turns also meant he could play through his entire deck in just about ten minutes.
What happened then?
He refocused on the catalog.
[11. The Deckmaster may play any card in their hand at any time by paying its activation cost.]
[12. The Deckmaster may discard any card from their hand at any time.]
[13. Cards that are played or discarded are considered out of play; they will remain out of play even if the deck is unsummoned and later summoned again. Out of play cards can be brought back by either reshuffling or restoring the deck.]
[14. The Deckmaster may reshuffle a loaded deck at any time, even when unsummoned. This action shuffles all cards back into the deck, hand and out of play cards included. Every time a deck is reshuffled, its associated summoning and maintenance costs double. This includes the active maintenance cost of an already summoned deck.]
[15. The Deckmaster may restore their deck during meditation. Restoration returns a deck to its original condition. This removes all reshuffling costs, all boons, and all penalties the deck may have accrued.]
And that was it. The last of rules listed under the Basics of Card Play.
The mechanics of playing and discarding cards were, again, simple.
The more troublesome parts began with out of play cards and reshuffling. The former meant that his cards were finite resources he needed to manage well, and the latter meant that replenishing those resources would be costly if he wasn’t given time to rest.
What was also of particular note was that, in addition to the burden reshuffling placed on his already stretched mana supply, the reshuffling rule made no mention of drawing a new hand. If he needed to use the mechanic in the middle of a fight, he would be left with no cards immediately available to play.
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Relying only on the turn-based draw didn’t seem reliable.
Dylan thought for a moment. Maybe there would be more ways to work around those rules in the future. After all, tier advancement had already been confirmed as a way to increase the flexibility of Card Play.
Taking a moment to review all that he’d learned, Dylan summarized his thoughts. Essentially, he would summon a deck and receive a hand. Every fifteen seconds, he could either draw a card or generate energy. The rest was down to how he chose to play his cards.
It was a little odd. Being a Deckmaster felt like playing a game. It was different to any other class he’d ever heard of.
When the System arrived and brought its classes, Dylan had learned that people would often compare it to a game. Most classes made people feel like the embodiment of a game character. Their classes gave them the skills and power to fight. The abilities necessary to create amazing things.
Dylan’s class was different. He was not the embodiment of a game character; he was the embodiment of a game player. He still had the same stats, the same ability to grow stronger, but the mechanics he would operate under set him apart.
It even seemed like he had his own miniature version of the System in his card catalog. While he hadn’t seen everything it could do yet, the way it worked and the way it presented itself couldn’t help but echo the rest of the System.
He wondered what it would show him in the future.
[Open the Card Catalog to Decks.]
Awakened from his thoughts, Dylan followed the instruction.
Once again, the pages turned by themselves, and Dylan saw a new screen.
[Decks]
[1. Starter Deck]
There was only a simple list and only one item on it. As he looked at it, the System came again.
[After entering a state of meditation, select and load the Starter Deck.]
Is that how loading a deck works?
Dylan sat cross-legged on the tile, willing the book to float down in front of him.
He closed his eyes to focus on the mana that had begun to slowly course through him since he’d received his class. He slowed his breathing, calming both his mind and his muscles. It was standard for children to learn relaxation exercises in school to help prepare for the meditation skill.
Dylan followed his usual practice and soon entered the correct state of mind. Unlike before he was initiated, he suddenly felt a pull at the mana around him coming from his heart. Although anticipating the change, it still took him by surprise. Mana rushed into him, flowing through his veins. Twin sensations of warm and cool air, coiling together, gently forged and restored his body.
I could get lost like this.
Forcing just enough awareness of the world around him to surface in his mind, Dylan’s consciousness reached for the catalog in front of him. He selected the words Starter Deck.
[Starter Deck]
[1. View]
[2. Manage]
[3. Load]
Following the System’s previous prompt, he selected Load.
[Would you like to Load Deck: Starter Deck? Yes/No]
After agreeing, the catalog gently shook, moving to hover horizontally across Dylan’s lap. The screen displayed on the pages disappeared, replaced by several rows of cards. There was no time to see more details before the cards began to glow, bright enough to obscure all but their shapes. Motes of light, no bigger than specs of dust, began to drift up from each card. They coalesced into a ball centered over the catalog, just inches from Dylan’s heart.
The process was slow, and as more lights rose from the book, smaller and smaller fragments of the cards were left behind. The glowing ball began to stretch and change shape. By the time the last particle rose to join the now rectangular light, nearly twenty minutes had passed. After another five minutes the shape dimmed but became more defined. The lights finally flickered out and left behind a floating stack of cards.
Now fully formed, the deck stayed in front of Dylan for only a moment before rushing to a point between his brows where it disappeared. But Dylan could still feel it, the connection between him and the cards stronger than when they were dormant in the book. Now the deck occupied a void parallel to the one that usually held the catalog. He could see it floating there, and knew he could summon it in same way he did with the book. He also knew it would cost him.
The book could appear and disappear with no price more than a slight flex of his will. The deck was different. If he wanted it to come out again, he needed to pay the summoning cost he’d just read about.
57 mana. After loading, he instinctively knew there were 45 cards in the deck, and all together, they cost 57 mana.
More than he’d been expecting.
After doing a quick calculation, Dylan frowned. He’d only be able to keep the deck in play for just over 23 minutes before his mana completely bottomed out. He didn’t even want to think about the time constraints he’d be putting himself under if he needed to reshuffle.
[Summon the Starter Deck.]
Seeing that Dylan had successfully completed the task, the System began to urge him on to the next one.
Slightly shaking and jittery, Dylan couldn’t quite suppress his excitement. He was finally going to see what his class could do.
The stack of cards reappeared in front of him. He suddenly felt winded as more than half of his mana was emptied in an instant.
The deck flashed with golden light and then split into 45 distinct cards. They circled around Dylan in a way that reminded him of what could be a rudimentary form of those head-ache inducing mana patterns. After a few seconds, they stopped. Arrayed at every angle around him, they once more flashed with golden light before rushing back into his body. A moment later, five cards appeared floating before him. His hand.
That wasn’t very discreet, Dylan noted. He’d have to be careful about that if he was trying to avoid attracting attention in the future. That, or see if he could find a way to turn off the special effects.
It also took a little longer than I’d like to get from summoning to drawing my hand. Something else to plan around.
Before he could get a more detailed look at the cards, the System came back.
[Cards in a Deckmaster’s hand can be in either a real or an illusory state. When illusory, they are intangible and will hover in the air according to the Deckmaster’s will. When real, they can be touched and physically handled.]
[Cards are first drawn as illusory but must be in a real state in order to be played.]
[Manifest your hand in a real state and prepare to play the cards against the target dummy.]
As the Dylan finished reading the message, one of the tiled walls in the room fell away to reveal an almost identical space behind it. The only difference between the two rooms was that one held the table that had given Dylan his equipment and the other held what the System described as a target dummy.
It was a vaguely androgynous figure about twice the size of a normal man. It was motionless and, like the tile it stood on, completely white. Unlike the glowing surfaces of the System’s rooms, however, the dummy was matte and dull.
Dylan only gave the thing a brief glance before using his will to tug at his hand. Already on the clock, he wished he could easily monitor his remaining mana without needing to open his Status.
Just as he was thinking, and while he was busy collecting his hand, a small display appeared in the upper left corner of his vision.
[Starter Deck Summoned]
[Summoning Cost: 57 mana]
[Maintenance Cost: 2.85 mana/minute]
[Adjusted Mana Expenditure: 1.85 mana/minute]
[Total Mana: 43/100]
That’s convenient. Dylan fumbled a bit with the cards that were too large to be anything but awkward to hold. Can it abbreviate and show just the adjusted mana expenditure and total mana?
[Expenditure: 1.85 mana/min.]
[Mana: 43/100]
Looking at the display, Dylan noticed that his mana was still at 43. He assumed that meant the maintenance cost was calculated only once every minute rather than continually draining throughout the minute. Good to know.
Finally, Dylan looked at the details of the cards in his hand.