Dylan took a moment to make sure there was nothing else in the room before returning his gaze to the monster corpses. They were the only “material” that he could find.

Giant spiders and lizard things.

Closing his eyes and letting out a breath of air, Dylan decided to just go with it. He walked across the room and began thinking about what he could use and what he could make.

Wild monsters, especially those from wild dungeons, were saturated with mana, and they typically would grow a mana core somewhere in their bodies. Dylan figured that it would be a good material to use to make cards, but these weren’t wild monsters. They’d come from a challenge dungeon. That meant they’d been created by the System; they weren’t natural, and they wouldn’t have a core.

What was left was the physical bodies.

Dylan couldn’t think of anything of value he could take from the smaller spiders. He only had two Blank Cards left, and he didn’t want to waste them. According to the System, he’d only be able to make one each day until he raised his tier. So, he focused his attention on the more powerful monsters.

But first, he had to think of what to do with them. Maybe he was mentally drained after everything that had happened. Maybe he was traumatized. He knew he could create cards with a wide variety of effects, but he was having trouble thinking about how use the materials in front of him.

Thinking back to what the System had…shown him, the energy that had felt like sunlight could make energy cards, and the mana crystal made a card related to mana. Dylan knew his thoughts were probably too simplistic, but he kept coming back to one question. If energy makes energy and mana makes mana, then do monsters make monster?

Back during the trial, he’d felt the phantoms were particularly useful. It would be nice to be able to fill his deck with more creatures he could summon.

He decided to start with one of lizards. Begin with something smaller before moving on to something big.

Dylan made his way to the creature with a bow. Its body was more intact than the others, and he felt that if everything went well, he could add another kind of archer to his deck.

He pulled a Blank Card from the catalog and focused his mind.

In his two experiences being puppeteered by the System, the materials used for each card were very different and the intents held were slightly different. But the mana operation was the exact same. Without more detailed guidance, guidance he no longer wanted, he worked under the assumption that the way he’d channeled mana before was the standard method for all card creation. The way to connect material and intent to a Blank Card.

Dylan squatted down over the lizard and reached out his hand. He touched the card to the remains of the creature’s chest, took a deep breath, and began.

While operating his mana he focused his mind on thoughts of summoning the creature. He didn’t quite understand what other intents to hold to get his desired effect, so he tried to focus all his attention on just the one. Making it as pure as possible.

The air around him began to hum.

He felt his mana begin to drain as the Blank Card began to glow.

There was a flash of light and the body before him vanished.

A brand burned itself on the card’s white surface. It was one of the lizard creatures, but it looked prone.

Dylan frowned, a bad premonition forming in the back of his mind.

The card took on the standard light-gold metallic luster.

It was done.

Dylan checked the information.

[Name: Lizard Corpse]

[Type: Summon]

[Subtypes: Object]

[Summoning Cost: 3 Mana]

[Activation Cost: 3 Energy]

[Effect: Summon a Lizard Corpse. Lasts the duration of Card Play.]

He was speechless.

A corpse.

It summoned a corpse.

And it was expensive. It had the most expensive summoning and activation costs of any card he’d seen. Is that because the duration is so long? Dylan wondered. Maybe it costs so much because I did something wrong when creating it?

He shook his head. That wasn’t the point. The point was that it was a corpse.

He’d made a card that did nothing but summon a monster corpse.

He did find one thing notable, though. The card’s name. Lizard Corpse.

Dylan was pretty sure the monster wasn’t actually called a lizard; that was just the way he’d been referring to them since the fight, but the name appeared on the card.

Was I thinking of it as a lizard when creating the card? Does my intent affect details like the card’s name?

He sighed, and checked his mana, ready to move on.

He’d noticed that each time he made a card, his mana was drained in the process. It wasn’t comparable to the cost of making Blank Cards, but it was worth keeping track of.

Making the Lizard Corpse card had cost him about fifteen mana, more than three times any card he’d made before.

Is it related to the summoning cost? Or maybe the activation cost? Both?

Putting the matter aside, Dylan stood up and shook out the tingling sensation his legs had started feeling after squatting for too long.

He took a few moments to calm his mind before walking to armored spider.

This time, he carefully thought about what intents might be needed. When he’d made the last card, he’d focused on summoning and had successfully created a summoning card. That would definitely be needed. But there was obviously something he was missing. Life? The characteristics of the creature he wanted summoned? He didn’t quite know.

Not finding any clues, he decided to just begin. Card creation was obviously a complicated process, and he figured it would take a considerable amount of practice before he could feel confident in making exactly what he wanted.

For now, all he could do was try and hope for the best.

He touched his last Blank Card to the massive, headless corpse and channeled his mana.

He focused his thoughts on the familiar intent of summoning. He focused his thoughts on life, on motion. And he focused his thoughts on the defensive nature of the spider itself, remembering the way it had protected against his archer’s arrows. He tried to create a complete picture of the living spider in his mind.

Mana drained.

Light flashed and the corpse disappeared.

An image etched itself onto the card face. It resembled a bumpy shield with eight legs.

Okay, not quite what I wanted.

White morphed into gold, and the card was finished.

[Name: Living Spider Shield]

[Type: Summon]

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[Subtypes: Equipment, Armor, Creature, Spider]

[Summoning Cost: 4 Mana]

[Activation Cost: 3 Energy]

[Effect: Summon a Living Spider Shield. Lasts for the duration of Card Play or until destroyed. Has a Resilience of 13.]

It was even more expensive than the Lizard Corpse.

At least this has an effect that isn’t worthless.

Looking at its details, Dylan didn’t know what to make of the thing being both a creature and armor. Was he supposed to wear it? As much as the card’s image may have changed from the appearance of the big monster, it was still, unquestionably, a spider. Was he supposed to wear a spider?

He considered the effect. If he guessed of right, the correct usage of the card would be to either equip it as armor or use it as a target to block incoming attacks. It offered a different form of protection from the Mana Shield card, and judging by its resilience, it could take more of a beating. But Dylan didn’t know how easy it would be to handle creature-armor in practice.

He decided to store the card for now. He had just put it into the catalog when the System returned.

[As you gain experience with and continue to use your cards, they gain Mastery.]

[You are considered to have Mastered a card when it has reached 100 percent Mastery.]

[Mastered cards unlock new features, such as the ability to upgrade their Tier.]

[Additionally, when you Master a card, its keywords become available for you to use as a part of Card Creation.]

[When adding a keyword during Card Creation, the new card is guaranteed to have that keyword.]

[You may add 1 keyword to each card you create at Tier 1, 2 keywords at Tier 3, 3 at Tier 5, and so on.]

As the System’s messages appeared before Dylan, the room around him was finally swept clean.

Nothing left but Dylan and luminescent tiles.

[Congratulations on finishing the Individual Phase of the Tutorial.]

[As a reward, you will be given Deck Enhancement: Summoned Energy.]

[As an additional reward for clearing the Individual Combat Trial, you will be given 2 copies of Card: Phantom Rally.]

[All functionality of the Card Catalog has been unlocked.]

[You may now create and manage your own decks.]

[You will be given three hours to rest before being transported to the site of the Group Tutorial.]

A weary elation swept through Dylan’s body.

It was over.

Soon, he could leave this empty white chamber.

He hadn’t been in it for that long, but after everything that had happened, his sense of time had been distorted. Fairbasin almost felt like another lifetime.

He’d never thought he’d miss being around other people quite as much as he did in that moment. A sense of presence coming from anything other than the System.

A vibration from the card catalog pulled Dylan from his reverie.

It should be the rewards.

Dylan focused on the book. Since he’d just been using it, it was already opened to the card collection. A new image appeared next to the cards he’d just made. The brand a group of indistinguishable figures amassed together.

[Name: Phantom Rally]

[Type: Spell]

[Summoning Cost: 3 Mana]

[Activation Cost: 2 Energy]

[Effect: Restore and then double the duration of all currently activated phantom cards. Salvage: Double the physical and magic power of all currently activated phantom cards for the rest of the turn.]

It was a nice card, but Dylan had to look up the new keyword.

[Salvage: When a card with salvage is discarded, activate its salvage effect.]

Dylan was surprised. That meant he could use his new card in two different ways. The first would extend the duration of all his phantom type cards, the second would give them a burst of power. And if he chose to use the salvage effect, he didn’t even have to pay any energy. He just had to discard the card.

Dylan liked the card’s flexibility and both of its effects. The only downside was the high summoning cost, but he felt that it was worth adding to his deck.

Thinking of this, he had the catalog open its deck section. In addition to displaying the starter deck, there was now an option to create a new deck, but Dylan ignored it. He didn’t feel like he had enough cards to support multiple decks yet, a fact that was confirmed for him a moment later. After choosing to manage his deck, the catalog displayed a new screen with several reminders.

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

[A deck cannot have fewer than 40 cards.]

[With the exception of Energy type cards, a deck cannot have more than 4 copies of the same card (3 + Class Tier).]

[You may have one deck loaded per Class Tier.]

[After editing the contents of a loaded deck, you must reload it before it can be summoned.]

Dylan looked at the rules, again noting how much more flexible his class would become as it advanced.

Glancing down the page, he saw an option for deck enhancements, and after choosing it, received another notification from the book.

[Each deck may be equipped with 1 Deck Enhancement.]

[Available Enhancements: Summoned Energy]

Dylan selected his only option.

[Summoned Energy: When the enhanced deck is summoned, generate 2 Energy.]

That’s convenient.

He equipped the enhancement.

Next, he turned his attention to the actual cards in the deck. He wanted to add all of his new cards so that he could test them in the time he had left before the next phase of the Tutorial.

Except for Energy Energy. That one was still unplayable.

Under the starter deck’s management options, he found the ability to add and remove cards. As he was just testing things out and not making a final decision about what to put in his deck, he first removed all of the Mana Shield and Draw cards to keep the deck at a manageable size. Then he added the Mana Surge, the Lizard Corpse, the Phantom Rally, and the Living Spider Shield cards.

While managing the deck, Dylan noticed a change in his cards. The numbers on some of them had gone up. He examined one more closely and its text shifted. There was an additional mastery progress beside the name, and instead of the numbers he was used to, there was a formula.

[Name: Mana Shield, Mastery Progress 0.07%]

[Type: Spell]

[Summoning Cost: 1 Mana]

[Activation Cost: 1 Energy]

[Effect: Create a personal shield with, Power = (.4) * (Magic Power). Uses a maximum of 100 Magic Power. Lasts 10 turns or until destroyed.]

It was a pleasant surprise.

In addition to Mana Shield, Dylan found that Mana Bolt, Mana Spike, Phantom Soldier, Phantom Archer, and Living Spider Shield all scaled with his stats. That scaling stopped at 100 for each card, but that only reminded him of what the System had said about the ability to upgrade cards once he mastered them. The threshold for entering tier 2 of a stat was 100, so Dylan figured that explained why tier 1 cards were capped there. Once upgraded, he speculated they would be able to continue scaling until the tier 3 threshold of 1000.

The only issue was that gaining mastery progress seemed like it would take a long time, but there was nothing he could do other than take things step by step.

He reloaded and then summoned the deck.

After some experimentation, Dylan found the new card effects to be mostly what he'd expected. Mana Surge refilled his mana. The Lizard Corpse just laid there. Phantom Rally had a powerful effect on his other phantom cards. Even the Phantom Sword.

The only surprise was the Living Spider Shield.

When summoning the thing, he’d expected it to be big. Maybe not so massive as the material used to make it; after all, it did need to function as armor in some way. But he’d been thinking it would be larger than the little ball thing jumping on the ground in front of him.

It had a rocky, circular back, and was only about a foot and half across. Eight stubby legs bunched under it, and they seemed to carry a disproportionate amount of power for their size. One hop and it could reach Dylan’s head. Left to its own devices, the thing seemed content to follow Dylan around the room, bouncing up and down.

Dylan would almost describe it as ugly-cute. If it wasn’t still a spider.

He’d had one of the phantoms beat on it for a bit and it seemed just as durable as the soldiers. The only difference in power being that it couldn’t hit back.

When his thoughts moved to how it was also classified as armor, the spider immediately jumped into the air and attached itself to him. Its legs wrapped around his forearm like the straps on a buckler.

Dylan flinched a bit, trying to shake it off, but it wouldn’t budge. Only after calming himself down and using his mental connection to order the creature release him did it fall to the ground to continue its hopping.

So, it can turn itself into a literal shield. He recalled the feeling it gave him. The weight on his arm was less than he’d expected, but it was still heavy. If he wanted to use it proficiently, he’d need to train. And get past his aversion to spiders.

Once he’d finished his tests, the last thing Dylan did was contemplate which cards to put in his deck, and which, if any, to remove.

It was easy to decide on adding Mana Surge and both Phantom Rally cards.

The Living Spider Shield was a tougher choice. He was surprised to find himself reluctant to leave it in the catalog, but it was just too expensive. Until he increased his mana and mana regen, or until he found himself preparing for a specific situation where he felt he’d need the card, he couldn’t justify adding it to the deck. Additionally, as useful as he felt its protection could be, that protection was predicated on him being able to effectively wield the shield. Without more practice, it would simply be a burden.

Even without the spider shield, the other cards added six mana to his deck’s summoning cost. Mana Surge could help alleviate his strain, but he still felt it wasn’t enough.

In the end he chose to remove one Draw and two Phantom Sword cards. He’d be joining a group soon and would hopefully be better able to avoid melee combat.

He thought about adding his new Basic Energy cards, considering he’d replaced three cards that cost one energy with three that cost two, but he decided against it, hoping that his deck enhancement would help offset the exchange.

When he was done, the deck still held 45 cards, but now, its summoning cost was an even 60 mana. With the help of Mana Surge, he should be able to maintain Card Play for about the same amount of time as before the changes.

He reloaded his deck and then meditated before doing a final check of his stats.

[Statistics]

[Resilience: 13, Tier 1]

[Physical Power: 3.9, Tier 0]

[Magic Power: 13, Tier 1]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Mana Regeneration: 1.0/minute]

[Class Statistics: Resilience, Magic Power]

Dylan was, once again, surprised at how soon his stats had increased.

I guess card creation is an effective way to help advancement. He paused. Then again, I did do ten days’ worth at once.

He calculated the time and guessed he still had a little under an hour left.

He decided to just sit down and rest. No training, no meditation, just rest.

When he opened his eyes again, it was to a notification from the System.

[The Group Tutorial will begin in 5 minutes.]

After hours of fighting, training, and learning, the Individual Tutorial was over.

His final test was about to begin, and he was ready.

He was ready to enter the dungeon.