As Dylan summoned his deck, cards flashing and rotating around him, he thought about his goal for this round of training. Testing the capabilities of the Lizard Ravager.
The first thing he wanted to do was to try and gauge the monster’s base physical abilities. It had excellent stats, which made Dylan excited, but not everything about the creatures he summoned could be reflected in the information displayed on his cards. He had no way of knowing how the ravager would move or behave until it was actually in front of him.
After drawing his opening hand, he sighed. No energy. He’d restored his deck while he’d been meditating in order to facilitate the tests he wanted to do, so all of the energy cards he’d played or discarded during his warmup exercises were once again in play. But even still, it wasn’t until his fourth turn that he could pay the four-point activation cost required to summon the ravager.
He waved his hand before him, and at the same time the card disintegrated into motes of golden light, an echoing howl reminiscent of the dungeon boss startled Dylan. None of his other summoned creatures had made noise when they’d appeared.
He quickly glanced around the rest of the training field, but no else seemed to have a reaction to the monster’s voice.
Am I the only one who heard that?
When his eyes settled back in front of him, they landed on a swirl of cold, blue light coalescing where the golden motes had disappeared. It rapidly expanded, flashing as it took the shape of the image burned onto the card’s surface. With another howl that no one else noticed, the Lizard Ravager tore its way into existence, coming to stand in front of Dylan.
This time, the creature did grab attention from across the facility. Dylan could hear some of the training around him stop, and at the same time, he could feel gazes brush past him while on their way to the monster he’d called forth. But there were a few lines of sight that didn’t move with the rest, choosing to examine him instead of the what he’d summoned. Especially prominent was the one he felt coming from the warehouse Bennet was leaning against; the intensity of the Warrior’s stare was enough to make the back of Dylan’s neck itch.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves, Dylan tried his best to put the others around him out of his mind. Instead, he focused on the creature before him.
It looked almost exactly like the lizard boss had. The same hardened, deep-blue scales. The same twin pairs of elongated arms and well-muscled legs that all ended in dagger-sharp claws. And that same whiplike tail. The only real difference Dylan could find was that it was slightly smaller than the boss had been, but that wasn’t enough of a change for the creature to be mistaken for anything other than an intimidating killing machine.
Dylan was satisfied, but he now had to figure out just how well the card had preserved the monster’s strength.
Starting with a simple test, he decided to order the ravager to run across the empty space in front of him until it reached the wall bordering the training mannequins, turn around, and then run back. He wanted to see how the creature would move and how fast it was. In the dungeon, the agility the boss had exhibited was extraordinary, and it was one of the reasons that he’d wanted to try to replicate the monster for his deck.
He'd always been a little disappointed that everything else he could summon was a bit clunky when moving.
Dylan’s mind touched the creature, ready to issue the command, but instead, he stopped in surprise. The string of consciousness connecting him to the ravager was substantially thicker than the ones that he was used to with the phantoms. As he examined it, he found it more responsive as well. He intuitively felt that it would allow him to issue more complex orders to the creature.
After his realization, Dylan made a change to his initial plan. He would still have the ravager run to the wall, but instead of simply turning around, he’d give the command to scale and jump off of the structure, using it as a springboard for the ravager to launch itself through the air and back at Dylan as it began its return journey. The inspiration for the idea was the memory he had of the boss using the giant rock pillars to maneuver around the battlefield in the dungeon.
It’d be good if it retained its flexibility and ease of movement, Dylan thought, giving the signal to begin.
The ravager bolted. Body tilting forward, it extended its long tail. The creature was fast. Not to the level of the boss that had been used to create it, but its swift pace wasn’t something Dylan’s current physique could match. I’m not sure many of the newly awakened can catch it. Especially those of us without speed skills.
Within seconds, it approached the wall. Never slowing, the monster leaped at the smooth stone surface before it, reaching high enough to scale half of the two-story height in an instant.
Watching the ravager’s claws gouge into the side of the structure, Dylan didn’t worry about the damage it caused. One of the most basic enchantments Fairbasin had paid to have installed in each of its training grounds was one for self-repair. Most of the facilities and equipment in the complex would slowly absorb the mana in the air and use it to regenerate their original shapes. The wall would be as good as new in half a day.
Things taking a bit of damage was an expected part of training. Of course, damaging them was never encouraged, but it wasn’t something that anyone would be mad about. Unless it was excessive. There were certain things that went beyond the enchantment’s abilities to fix. If someone caused that kind of destruction, the town would definitely demand compensation for the loss, but with Dylan’s level of strength, he’d have to either be incredibly careless or deliberately malicious to find himself in that situation.
The holes the ravager was creating as it flew up the wall wouldn’t be a problem. Although the damage created when it reached the top and flung itself through the air was more substantial than the rest, that only meant it would take longer to regenerate. It should still be fixed before sunrise the next morning.
Stone cracked, sending a small shower of debris falling toward the ground while the creature soared. Dylan’s eyes followed it through a graceful arc that traversed the majority of the distance between him and the wall.
Maybe I started this test a little too close.
After only a few moments, the ravager was back where it had begun, and Dylan noticed that many of the eyes on him from around the training ground had never left. Although they made him a little uncomfortable, he chose to ignore the gazes and continue with his practice.
He was more than pleased with the first test. The ravager was fast, its movements fluid, and it had the capability to take advantage of complex terrain.
Next, he wanted to see its damage potential, so he brought the creature over to the training mannequins. Unlike when he’d first arrived at the facility, there were now a handful of people practicing with the manatech dummies.
Like a lot of the world’s manatech, the mannequins had been designed after reverse engineering System generated rewards with similar functions. They looked like bulky human figures wearing heavy armor. When fully operational, they could change their appearances and physical properties to simulate different levels of hardness, different elemental resistances, and different regenerative capabilities. Advanced versions could add even more variables like damage absorption and reflection, but the few of those that the town had weren’t installed in this training ground.
Not that it would have mattered if they had been; they required mana crystals to work. Even the basic versions did.
Like the five mannequins in front of him now, all the advanced ones were currently good for was to act as simple targets. Without their primary power source, the only physical properties any of the dummies could display were the innate characteristics of their component materials and the slow regeneration of the standard self-repair enchantment seen across all the training facilities.
As he watched the guardsman that he recognized but couldn’t name press his palm against the back of one of the mannequins, Dylan mused that if it weren’t for an extra enchantment allowing for the absorption of human mana to increase the speed of regeneration, the things wouldn’t even be able to stand long enough to last through morning.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Dylan walked to the designated area of the last unoccupied mannequin with the ravager. The dummy was at the end of a lane ten yards wide and two hundred yards long. Normally, a control panel would allow him to adjust the target’s position, but without power, he had to do it manually.
He shifted a lever, unlocking the mannequin, and then, seeing that the boy next to him was taking a break, jogged down the lane. Once he reached the dummy, Dylan began to push it toward the thirty-yard marker. Although it was heavy, with the help of the track it was attached to, it wasn’t as much of a burden as he’d expected. He’d been prepared to order the ravager to push with him, but instead, he treated the exercise as another small workout.
Once it was in where he wanted it, Dylan moved back to the front of the lane and reset the lever, locking the mannequin in place once more. He took a moment to catch his breath and check his mana. Seeing that he still had more than enough time before he needed to meditate again, he looked at the ravager and ordered it to attack the mannequin.
He didn’t want to tell it anything more specific. Before he started trying any kind of more precise control, he wanted to see how it would behave naturally. And so, he simply watched.
He watched the ravager sprint down the lane and jump at the target. And he watched claws and tail stab and smash at what would have been the vulnerable areas on a living creature in rapid succession. Noticing the mannequin didn’t dodge and couldn’t be knocked down, the ravager gave up all attempts to bind the target as well as all pretexts of its own defense. Instead, it focused its efforts only on its offensive.
Brutal and primal. Those were the words Dylan found most suitable to describe its combat style. It used all of the weapons at its disposal in its attempt to tear the dummy apart. Six sets of claws from its hands and feet. Fists, knees, and elbows. Its head and its teeth. And of course, its most powerful weapon, its tail that swam through the air like a thick cord of steel.
Dylan didn’t pay too much attention to the passage of his turns as he put the ravager through its paces; he simply collected the cards he’d need later in his tests, and once he had them, he began to pass all of his beginning of the turn actions.
After watching for about five minutes, he called on the creature to stop, and when it returned, he could see the damage it’d done to the mannequin. Pits, dents, and gashes covered the target’s armored body. Particularly focused on its head and neck. Even without power, the material used to make the dummy was too tough for a creature with stats at the lower end of tier one to completely destroy in the time the ravager had been given, but the target was definitely starting to look rough.
Dylan glanced at the other mannequins around him. While a couple were in a comparable condition, there were none that looked worse.
Nice, he thought. He felt that the ravager by itself might already be on even footing with many of his peers with melee classes. In fact, with its physique, natural armaments, and aggressive nature, it may well be stronger. The only thing it was lacking in comparison were skills.
It had Unfettered, but that was it. The ability to ignore and resist control effects was certainly helpful, especially when combined with the creature’s mobility, but the newly awakened who were training around him all had multiple skills of their own. They could usually display a range of offensive and defensive capabilities that complimented and were enhanced by their stats. If it came down to a fight between one of them and the ravager, Dylan didn’t know who would win.
But a single one of his cards already having enough power to possibly rival his peers being a plausible enough idea to not be dismissed out of hand was more than Dylan could have hoped for before the Tutorial. Summoning the ravager was not the extent of his abilities, after all.
He looked at the cards in his hand and smiled. It was time for the next test.
As he moved away from his practice lane, Dylan noticed the guardsman working with the mannequins walk behind the one he’d just left and begin inputting mana to kickstart the repair process.
He must have a big pool or decent regen to be constantly doing that for us.
Dylan was grateful. And a little jealous. He’d been so mana-starved since he’d awakened as a Deckmaster that the thought of using the resource for anything other than his cards felt like a luxury. Although, he did suppose that things would be different after he’d had more time to grow.
Mana and mana regen typically increased slower than other stats, but with enough time and accumulation, Dylan was confident he’d be able to overcome the worst of the difficulties he’d been having.
He activated an Intermediate Energy card as he walked, looking for an open area where he could have the ravager run at him. He’d already taken one of his turns to generate a point of energy while using the mannequin, and now carried the total weight of three.
His eyes ran across Risha, who was supervising another pair sparring in the ring. She noticed him too, waving with a gleam in her eyes. Dylan nodded and tried to look busy. He couldn’t avoid it forever, but he didn’t want to have a practice session with the woman until he’d finished everything else he’d set out to do first.
In the end, he returned to the wall the he’d had the ravager scale. Telling the creature to stay put, he walked about fifty yards away before turning back around. He played a Basic Energy card, and ordered the creature to charge.
No longer surprised by its speed, Dylan still couldn’t help but be impressed by the way it moved. In the short time it took him to pull one of his cards from its illusory state, the ravager had already crossed a fifth of the distance between them. He played the card, waiting for its effect to activate, but nothing happened.
Immobilize wasn’t working.
Dylan smiled.
The card’s failure gave him a sensation that was different than the struggle and resistance he’d felt when fighting to hold the boss in the dungeon. Instead, it was as if he’d been trying to catch a ball; only, when he finally reached it, he discovered that what he’d thought was a solid object had actually been a cloud all along. His will reached out to the ravager and washed right through. Incompatible states of being.
Unfettered. The skill gave a medium chance to completely ignore control effects. And that’s exactly what’d just happened. Dylan didn’t even have the opportunity to try maintaining Immobilize’s channel; its effect had simply ended.
I guess that just shows the difference between the real creature and a card created by imposing my ideas about it on its corpse.
The boss hadn’t had the skill; the skill was simply the card’s way of approximating one of the boss’s prominent features. Resistance to control.
Pleased by the test so far, Dylan pulled a second Immobilize into his hand and tried again. This time it worked, but he was puzzled; maintaining the effect didn’t take any more effort than it usually did. He’d expected the ravager to at least display a shadow of the mental fortitude he’d faced against the boss. But there was nothing. The pressure he felt was the same as when he’d used the card against the basic lizard monsters in the dungeon.
Dylan frowned. He felt along the string of consciousness connecting him to the ravager, not finding anything unusual. Is the second part of Unfettered not working?
The skill was supposed to reduce the duration of any control effect the ravager failed to resist by seventy-five percent. Dylan wasn’t sure how, exactly, that reduction would manifest, and he’d speculated that it might vary depending on the type of control effect the creature was under. But he couldn’t see any form of resistance in the ravager at all.
He was puzzled and didn’t like the feeling, so he looked closer. He became so focused on his connection with the creature that it took him several seconds to realize a strong current of mana was pouring out from his body. He was losing much more than what he’d normally need to spend on channeling Immobilize.
When he checked his stats, he found that he was using four mana every second to keep the card active and immediately released his hold on the ravager. Dylan was quick to realize that Unfettered had worked. It was reducing the duration of Immobilize, just not in the way he’d expected. It had caused him to spend four times the usual cost to maintain the card, effectively cutting how long the effect could last by three-quarters.
Dylan hadn’t known a monster’s resistance to something could affect him in that way. It was a scary realization, and one he’d have to keep in mind when using cards like Immobilize in the future. Unexpectedly draining mana he needed for something else at the wrong moment could get him killed.
Dylan shook himself and took a deep breath. He still had one more card to play.
The ravager began to charge again, and when it’d closed the distance to just over ten yards, a mass of sticky white fibers stretched out from the familiar golden motes of a disintegrating card. The threads rapidly entangled the creature, causing it to stumble and fall.
Giant Web.
It was a card with control effects, but those effects were imposed by the physical properties of the obstacle the card created. It wasn’t the same kind of magical control method as Immobilize. It was tangible, and Dylan wanted to see if Unfettered would interact with it.
He wasn’t disappointed.
Almost immediately, the ravager moved to regain its feet and began to tear at the fibers. Within a few seconds, it had already made enough of a gap to pull itself free from most of the web around it.
None of it’s sticking, Dylan realized. While the presence of the web wasn’t something the ravager could just ignore, its adhesive nature might as well have been nonexistent. It’s like it’s just a mass of rope.
It wasn’t long before the monster ripped its last clawed foot free, bounding forward to complete its final sprint. As it came to a stop beside him, Dylan once again smiled.
Things were going well.
There was just one more round of tests he wanted to do with the ravager before changing decks, but looking at his mana reserves, he sighed. He’d have to meditate first to be safe. He might be able to finish what he wanted to do without resting, but with him having used significantly more mana than he’d planned on Immobilize, he couldn’t quite be sure.
Releasing the deck, Dylan watched the ravager dissipate with the rest of his cards and then found a place to sit. He closed his eyes to begin restoring his deck.
His mind slowly blocked out the sounds of training continuing around him, but he couldn’t block out the shadow that covered him just a few minutes later.
“Quite the show,” a rough voice said.