The next morning, the first thing Dylan did was try to make a Blank Card.

Last night, his father had promised to collect monster corpses and other materials, and on the man’s advice, Dylan had decided to wait on experimenting with card creation until after receiving them.

His father had also told Dylan that it’s likely he’ll be able to keep at least half of the mana crystals he’d earned in the dungeon, but again, he'd recommended waiting to use them.

He’d mentioned how, despite the town’s need for the crystals, not everyone felt right about asking the kids returning from the Tutorial to hand theirs over. After all, the purpose of the System giving them as a reward was to help those who’d newly awakened their classes grow stronger.

Because meditating with a mana crystal could improve the rate of a person’s normal stat gain in the same way meditating in a mana-rich environment could, there was an argument to be made that encouraging the kids returning from the Tutorial to use their crystals was also a way of strengthening the town’s defense. But the fact that doing so wouldn’t lead to a particularly large or fast improvement caused many of the town’s higher ups to view the idea as a waste of resources.

But Dylan’s father knew that even though they were in the minority, those in favor of letting the kids keep their crystals held enough power to force a compromise. The most likely outcome would be the town only asking for a portion of the mana crystals from the Tutorial, and because of the use value Dylan had for them, his father felt he might be able to argue for him keeping more.

Until the final decision was made, he wanted Dylan to carefully consider how many crystals to use for his cards and how many to use for meditation. Both were an important aspect of accumulating strength.

What his father had said made sense, but the stifled feeling Dylan had experienced when he’d been told not to use the patterns for card creation had returned. He wanted to experiment with all of the possibilities his class offered and found himself restrained.

But even though card creation was what most intrigued him about being a Deckmaster, there were still things he didn’t need to wait to test. For most of those, like familiarizing himself with his new cards, he’d need to go somewhere like the training grounds, but there was one test he could do as soon as he awoke. It was why he was attempting to make a Blank Card.

As his mana flowed smoothly into the card template, Dylan smiled. It’s working.

Limited by his class tier, he was currently only capable of making one Blank Card each day. But what did that mean, exactly? Was he only able to make a new card twenty-four hours after he’d made the last? Or could he make a new card one time at any point during each day/night cycle?

To find out, he’d made a Blank Card before falling asleep, and now, holding a new one in his hand, Dylan confirmed that he should be able to make one at any point during the day. He didn’t need to worry about wasting his limited chances to increase his card pool by failing to keep a set, twenty-four-hour schedule.

The only question left was when a new day was considered to have started, but that wasn’t something he could answer right now. He guessed the most likely time would be midnight, but he’d need to do more testing to know for sure.

Before leaving his room, Dylan added the card to the catalogue before trying to channel his mana into the Blank Card Template again. This time, it washed off the book before dissipating into the air.

So that’s what that feels like, Dylan thought, experiencing his first failed attempt to make the card. He stopped channeling, and called up his stats to see that his mana had only dropped a few points. Minimal loss. Not bad. Should help me find the daily reset by checking periodically.

At night, starting at the time he’d made the card before going to bed, he planned to try creating a new Blank Card every hour until he was successful. Next, he’d continue to pinpoint the exact time the following night by attempting to make the card once every few minutes in the hour leading up to the moment he’d succeeded.

Anything more specific seemed unnecessary, but Dylan could still think of one more aspect of the daily reset that he needed to study. Whether or not it was affected when traveling across time zones. If the reset was at midnight in Fairbasin, would it remain at midnight wherever he went, or would it change?

Essentially, I need to figure out if the reset is bound to me or bound to the world. Dylan stretched before putting away the catalogue. And if it’s bound to the world, what happens when I leave and go somewhere like a Boon War?

It wasn’t something he could answer in the near future, so Dylan tried to put it out of his mind and got dressed.

When he left his room, his father was cleaning up after having eaten breakfast.

“Morning,” the two said at the same time.

“I won’t be back until late tonight,” Dylan’s father said. “When you head out later, look for Risha if you have any questions. She’s on duty today.”

“Got it,” Dylan nodded. “Bet she loved getting that assignment.”

His father had told him that overseeing the training ground reserved for the newly awakened was one of the less stressful tasks members of the guard could get at the moment, and most of them saw it as a way to decompress. But, based on his knowledge of the Pugilist, Dylan didn’t think Risha was the kind to want to do what amounted to babysitting when she could be at the heart of the fighting.

His father sighed. “She’s been pushing herself too hard lately. We all have, but you know how she is. If I don’t force her to rest, she’ll just keep going until she gets hurt. Or worse. So, I put her name up for the training ground.”

“And you want me to ask her for advice?” Dylan walked to the kitchen and started preparing a simple meal. “If she sees me, she’ll probably want to ‘spar’ as a way to take her annoyance with you out on me.”

A soft laugh came from the pile of equipment next to the door. “And that’ll be a good training opportunity.”

“So, you did it on purpose?”

“Just happened to work out that way.”

Dylan rolled his eyes and turned to look back. “You know it’s not really training if I’m just there to be a punching bag, right?”

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“She might be a bit rough on you at first,” his father said, grabbing a sword, “but she knows how to measure. Besides, she won’t be able to spend all of her time on you. There’ll be other kids around for her to beat up.”

Dylan snorted. As if she’ll give them as much “care” as I expect her to give me.

“But speaking of training,” the man continued, “I had a few thoughts for you.”

“I’m listening.” Dylan walked back to the table and sat down with his food.

“First, don’t neglect your physical fitness just because your current deck is tilted more towards a caster class. There were already plenty of examples from your story last night where having more endurance would have helped you.” Dylan couldn’t disagree. “It’ll also be good for your future development. Like I said before, your class will let you fill any role with enough preparation. It’ll never hurt to have more physical power.”

Dylan nodded.

“And on that note, I think the energy your cards produce could be a good training tool for you. The feeling of pressure you described after you’d generated a bit of it sounded like it could give a similar effect to the weighted training clothes we use, and since you need to get used to running around with the stuff to activate your cards anyway, you may as well start running with it now.” His father looked thoughtful for a moment. “Then you can also add in some training clothes once you’ve got your physical power up to tier one.”

“Wouldn’t that be a bit much?”

“Don’t underestimate the boost you’ll get once a stat goes up a tier. It’s not as simple as the number just increasing again.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Although both his magic power and resilience stats were already tier one, both of those had started that way after he’d gotten his class. The only comparison he could make was between having the stats and not; he’d never felt what it was like for a stat to increase a tier.

Stopping in the doorframe just before stepping outside, his father added, “Almost forgot. When you get to the training ground, I want you to try out one of the old mana gauntlets we keep there for practice. I know your class is already mana-starved, but it really sounds like you need a reliable ranged weapon. One of those things will be better than nothing.”

Dylan nodded. Mana gauntlets allowed their wearers to consume a small portion of their own mana to fire off basic energy bolts. A user’s magic power and the amount of mana spent on each shot influenced how much damage the weapons could do, but the “old gauntlets” his father was referring to had limited capabilities. Their mana use was inefficient, and their power would never be able to exceed tier one.

Although more advanced versions of the weapons did exist, they were significantly more expensive. They could withstand and output higher tiers of energy and use mana crystals to support the consumption or boost the power of their attacks. Dylan assumed that any the town had were already distributed to those guarding the wall.

“Again, ask Risha for help using them if you can’t figure it out yourself.”

As his father walked out the door, Dylan kept his mind on the gauntlets. The concern about his class being mana-starved was a valid one, as was the concern about finding suitable weapons to support his deck in combat.

Without being initiated by the System, he’d never been able to practice with a mana gauntlet before, so he didn’t know how easy one would be to use. But he did know that his father had chosen the weapon for an obvious reason; it was essentially a glove. Different from a gun or a bow, the gauntlet would leave his hands unobstructed. It wouldn’t interfere with his ability to play or handle his cards. And although he didn’t particularly enjoy using swords, Dylan still planned to carry one for emergencies; the gauntlet shouldn’t get in the way of that either.

In fact, Dylan had seen plenty of adventurers equipped with a sword and gauntlet. Unlike him, they were mostly melee-types who took the gauntlet as an auxiliary weapon to add some versatility to their arsenals. It also didn’t hurt that many of the basic Warrior-adjacent classes would often have an underutilized mana pool that a gauntlet could take advantage of. Not everyone could be like Rowan and have skills that let them channel their energy into destructive elemental attacks.

The only real problem the weapon presented for Dylan was, once again, his own mana consumption. Continuous use of a gauntlet could drain someone fast, and that was especially true for the old models that were currently the only ones available to him.

Maybe, if they work out, I can look into getting a better version in the future. Dylan was wistful for a moment. I wonder if Eric can learn how to make one as a piece of adaptive gear.

After he finished eating, Dylan once again summoned his catalog. He planned to reorganize his deck to suit his training needs, but soon ran into a problem. In addition to running through all of his old cards at least once, he wanted to try out the new ones. Lizard Ravager, Wisps of Knowledge, and Assimilating Void.

He felt the best way to test everything that he wanted to would be to tailor his deck to the needs he had for each card. But he recalled one of the first rules he’d learned about deck management and paused.

[All cards are unique. They can only exist in one deck at a time.]

He’d have to manually change the cards in his deck between each test.

Things would be so much easier if I could create, I don’t know, fake decks or something that my cards could shift between for better management.

Dylan was caught off guard as a sudden resonance formed between himself and the catalog, and after a moment, the book vibrated. He instinctively opened it to the deck section.

There was a change.

Originally, the book had simply listed his single deck, still named Starter Deck, but now there were more options.

[Decks]

[1. Real Decks]

[2. Phantom Decks]

Selecting Real Decks, brought up the list he was familiar with, but opening Phantom Decks brought him to a new page of the catalog. At its top was a new prompt.

[Phantom Decks may include any cards in the Card Catalog and do not need to follow the normal rules of deck management.]

[Phantom Decks cannot be Loaded.]

[If a Phantom Deck does conform to the normal rules of deck management, it can be Activated, becoming a Real Deck.]

[Warning: Activating a Phantom Deck may Deactivate one or more Real Decks depending on the cards the Phantom Deck requires.]

[Warning: Any Loaded or Summoned Deck that is Deactivated will dissipate.]

This is just what I wanted, Dylan mused, but then he frowned. I can’t tell if using this book is becoming more intuitive or if the thing’s becoming more intelligent.

He forced himself to not think about it any deeper for now and started to work on the three decks he needed. They weren’t perfect; in some aspects, they weren’t even good, but he didn’t need them to be. The purpose of the decks was just to help him test the new cards while he trained.

His deck centered around the Lizard Ravager had just about all of his summoned creatures included.

The Wisps of Knowledge deck was designed to have as low a summoning cost as possible.

And the Assimilating Void deck was basically the same as the one he’d made the night he’d returned from the Tutorial. He honestly wasn’t sure if or how he wanted to test that one yet, but he made it just in case he found a suitable opportunity.

Dylan looked back to the catalog and named his three phantom decks.

[Phantom Decks]

[1. Ravager]

[2. Wisps]

[3. Void]

The names were simple, but they were enough for his purposes.

Think I’ll do Ravager first. Dylan was excited to see the new creature and had been since he’d made the card.

He focused his mind on the deck, and a prompt appeared.

[Would you like to Activate Deck: Ravager? Yes/No]

After agreeing, the catalog began to vibrate. It turned back to the deck section, and Dylan almost thought he could see card shadows seeping through the book’s pages. The whole process took about thirty seconds before finishing.

[Deck: Starter Deck has been Deactivated.]

Interesting. If it’s been deactivated, has it become a phantom deck?

Returning to the list of newly created decks, Dylan found an addition at the bottom.

[4. Starter Deck]

That’s useful. Should make organizing everything a lot easier.

Finally, Dylan looked at the real deck section of the catalog and found that it now listed Ravager as its only option. He chose to load it, selecting the Lizard Ravager as his Favored Card.

Stretching as he stood up, Dylan was finally ready to get started with training. He opened the door and began to jog to the training grounds.