“Alright,” Chester said, “let’s all get some rest. Once everyone’s ready to move on, we’ll talk strategy.”
The group settled down around the room to meditate, and before he did anything else, Dylan began to restore his deck.
It took longer than before. Unlike when he’d reshuffled in the training room during the individual phase of the Tutorial, only a few of his cards were out of play, and he’d briefly wondered if that would mean the restoration process would be quicker. But it wasn’t. Reshuffling meant that he now needed to comb through every single card before he could reintegrate his deck. It was like there was an extra layer of film that he needed to scrub off in order to return everything to peak condition.
When he felt a comfortable hum vibrate out from the void his deck occupied in his consciousness, Dylan knew the restoration was complete and began to focus on his mana. A gentle current spread across him. He fell into the sensation of mana washing through and slowly reforging his body. He doubted he’d be able to increase his stats again so soon, but the feeling of working toward that end was addicting.
Power massaged its way through his skin, working deep into his muscles and bones. Dylan wasn’t yet sensitive enough to feel everything that happened, but he couldn’t help but imagine how the mana made microscopic optimizations, a slow empowerment guiding him to advance.
When he opened his eyes, it was almost an hour later.
“You ready?” Chester asked.
“Not yet.” Dylan shook his head. “I still need to reconfigure my deck, but first, I want to try and make another card.”
“How long will it take?”
Dylan thought back to the previous times he’d loaded his deck. “It’ll be about half an hour to manage the deck. Card creation is a little harder to say, but it shouldn’t take too long either.” Dylan began to pull out the materials he’d collected. “We should still have plenty of time to discuss the upcoming battle by the time I’m done.”
The Guardian nodded. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
Dylan looked down at the small collection in front of him.
He had both the obsidian fragment and the incense bowl from the shaman’s altar. Next to them, he placed three mana crystals. One was the reward from the dungeon’s first section, the other two the reward he’d just obtained.
He started to think through his options. Looking at the mana crystals, he was tempted to try making an extra Mana Surge or another, similar card. Mana restoration was invaluable, both for longer fights and for those times he couldn’t find a chance to restore his deck and needed to reshuffle. But he could try making a card like that whenever he had a mana crystal. The problem now was that he could only make two more cards, and he wanted to keep at least one of them for the last section and the boss.
He’d save the mana crystals for when he had the chance to make more Blank Cards and could…
He paused for a moment.
Can I make another Blank Card?
According to his sense of time, it hadn’t yet been a day since he’d made the cards in the training room. But that was just his sense of time. What if the actual time that had passed since then was longer?
Whenever someone entered the Tutorial, the time of their return was uncertain. But the one thing that everyone did know was that the amount of time someone experienced in the Tutorial was less than the amount of time that passed in the rest of the world.
Dylan had learned that the people who studied the System had competing theories about why that was, but two were the most prominent.
The first simply said that time passed at a different rate in the Tutorial, so that a couple days inside was equivalent to a week or more outside.
The second theory, though, said that it was because of teleportation. It postulated that when the System teleported someone to and from the Tutorial, it wasn’t instantaneous. Instead, real time passed. Essentially, time passed at the same rate both inside and outside the Tutorial, but because the System kept people unconscious while in transit, they didn’t experience all the time that actually went by.
Some argued against the idea, pointing out that there were some rare classes with teleportation mechanics. It was an objective fact that, with them, it was instantaneous. Besides, Boon Wars displayed a similar time disparity, and with the higher tiers of those involved and their greater sensitivity to mana, wouldn’t some have noticed something was off during the teleportation process?
But Dylan had noticed something off.
When the System had sent him from the training room to the dungeon, he’d felt time passing. And he’d felt that his perception of that time had been wrong. He’d seen mana patterns flowing around him and carried the dual sensations of weightlessness and pressure.
The pain he’d felt had been real. He had no doubt that instance of teleportation had taken time. And he began to wonder whether time had passed when System had first teleported him into the Tutorial as well. He just hadn’t been able to feel it yet because he hadn’t been initiated. He hadn’t had stats; he hadn’t had a class. He hadn’t been as connected to the mana around him.
But why am I the only one that seems to be experiencing this?
Maybe it was due to the patterns he’d been seeing since the mana storm in Fairbasin. Maybe it was because the System had essentially highjacked his body and mind to “guide” him in card creation. And maybe he wasn’t unique at all; maybe others could experience it as well. He had to admit that his worldview was rather limited.
But none of that mattered right now. Dylan shook his head. It was something to think about after he finished the dungeon.
What mattered was that time had passed when he’d been teleported into the dungeon. Probably a lot more time than he’d originally believed. It might be possible to make another Blank Card.
Dylan summoned the catalog and willed it to open to the page containing the Blank Card Template. He touched its surface and channeled his mana.
I think it’s working, he thought. But then again, I’ve never tried making a Blank Card when I’ve already reached my daily limit.
He didn’t know what it would feel like when he tried to create a card beyond his limit, but thinking back, he regretted not at least attempting to make more in the training room. The System had said that the daily restriction had been relaxed, and Dylan had assumed that it had been relaxed just enough for him to finish the task he’d been given. But what if he could’ve made more?
No use worrying about it now. What’s done is done.
It wasn’t long before light flared from the template, pushing Dylan’s hand away. He’d succeeded. He had a new Blank Card.
Smiling as he put it with the other two, he almost wanted to try again, but this time, he seriously doubted there’d be the kind of loophole that he speculated might have existed in the training room. Also, Blank Card creation took a lot of mana; he didn’t think the rest of the group would appreciate him needing to add another round of meditation on top of everything else he was already delaying them with.
It was time to move on. He once again began to consider his material options.
First, he put the mana crystals back in his pocket. They’d be there if he had a sudden inspiration about how to use them, but if he didn’t, he planned to try and make a few more Mana Surge cards when the Tutorial was over.
For now, he put his attention on the materials he'd found in the dungeon. The things that would disappear once the group opened the gate to the next section.
Both the obsidian altar fragment and the incense bowl had caught Dylan’s eye in the fight with the shaman. He suspected that each had played a role in creating the creature’s barrier, but without more insight into how that barrier operated, he wasn’t quite sure where to start with card creation.
Having an extra Blank Card made Dylan more comfortable using one now, but he still felt the weight of the limited nature of the resource press down on his enthusiasm to experiment.
He mentally walked back through the second section of the dungeon to see if there was anything else that might be worthy of consideration.
Everything before the chasm was unavailable. Even if he could go back, there’d been nothing but rocks and webs.
He’d already done a detailed examination of the shaman’s room, but he did note that the rest of the altar was still there.
Alice’s trial space was a Blacksmith’s forge. When he’d looked for anything that might have played a role in maintaining the time distortion, he hadn’t noticed anything special. He supposed he could try to use the forge itself to create some kind of fire or heat based attack, but there was no need to waste one of his few opportunities to craft cards in the dungeon on something that he could do anywhere.
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Sara’s room was full of runes. Maybe something was there, but he didn’t know enough to make a decision. When Dylan asked if there was any meaning or power in the script covering her trial space, Sara replied, “No, they’re just words. It’s a simple logic puzzle with no additional effect.”
He decided to move on, considering his other options. The last room left was the one he was in right now, and it only had two notable features. The silver gate and the increased mana density. He couldn’t think of what to do with the gate, and if he was looking to try something with mana density, then it would be better to wait until he reached the core room at the end of the dungeon. That was where it would be the densest.
If the group managed to clear the boss, the System would give them five hours to practice and meditate in the core room. It was an extra little bonus they could take advantage of to try and increase their stats by a few more points before leaving the Tutorial. But even then, Dylan needed to consider whether or not it would be worth trying to use a Blank Card there. Assuming he made one card now and one card with the boss, only one would be left.
Dylan looked back down to the materials at hand. The shard and the bowl. He wanted to try and replicate the shaman’s barrier, but he needed to think about how.
From his experience, materials are required to have properties that correspond in some way to the intents he wants to imprint on his cards, but that’s it. Cards don’t become the materials they’re made from. Materials are simply mediums shaped by his intent.
He probably didn’t need the shaman’s entire setup to approximate its barrier with a card. He may not get the full power and benefit, but he should get something. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t supplement the parts he was missing with something else.
Dylan held the obsidian fragment in one hand and the incense bowl in the other. The only problem was that he didn’t know how to combine multiple materials into the same card. He felt it was possible, but had no experience with it. Experimenting with it now would be a gamble. It was one of the reasons why he didn’t go back for the rest of the altar. He felt it would be easier to try and combine one small fragment with the bowl than it would be to try and combine the bowl with the rest of the crumbling remains.
Still, he was worried.
It’d be nice if I could fuse them together.
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he remembered Alice’s trial. The forge room was still there.
“Hey, Alice,” he said, continuing when she looked over, “do you think you could forge these together in the time we have left?”
“I don’t know.” She reached for the bowl and the shard, but after examining them, she said, “Probably not. Why?”
“I want to use them to make a card, but I’m worried that I’ll fail if they’re two separate materials.”
“So, you want to turn them into one and then use that?”
Dylan nodded.
“Would it work if I just melted this down and you pour it into the bowl?” She waved the shard. “The forge back there is a good one, and with my class skills, I should be able to get that done quick enough.”
“It’s worth a shot.”
Dylan followed Alice back to her trial space and watched her work. At the same time, he began to consider the rest of the card creation process.
He had an image of how the barrier operated in his mind. The projectiles flying at the shaman had seemed to be drained of their energy, slowing down as they went. It was something to start with, but he still didn’t have the kind of feelings he’d begun to associate with successful card creation intents.
He knew what it felt like to have a Mana Shield surrounding him, and while not the same kind of barrier, maybe he could combine that with the idea he had of the shaman’s defense? And straddling multiple time streams had given him a pretty good idea of what being slow felt like. Maybe that would work too?
Was there anything else?
Things that meant defense, deceleration, or loss of energy.
He thought of Dena and her debuff.
Jaiden had covered herself with rock armor before. That could help with defense.
Chester’s Taunt also might help. If the affected target didn’t hit the Guardian, its damage would be reduced. And the man had told him to ask if he needed anything.
If he could convince his teammates to target him with their abilities, maybe he could find the correct feelings when channeling his intents.
“Done.” Alice’s voice pulled Dylan from his contemplation.
“Oh,” Dylan took over the bowl the Blacksmith was handing back to him, “thanks.”
He looked down to see a quickly cooling black substance pooling at the bottom of the bowl. The greyish-green powder still lined the rest of its sides.
“Pass it here.” Dylan jumped a bit at Sara’s voice coming from behind him. He hadn’t noticed her following them into the forge.
“Sure,” he said, turning around. “Why, though?”
“I want to try something.” When she held the bowl, her eyes began to glow. She reached out her free hand and began to write in the air with her fingers. Dylan leaned over to see better and could make out a runic character appear on top of the pool of obsidian. When she was finished, it flashed with light. Next, Sara lifted the bowl and repeated the process, depicting the same character on its bottom surface. “Okay.”
As Dylan took back the bowl, he asked, “What’s it mean?”
“Connection,” Sara began walking out of the room, “I heard what you wanted to try and thought it might help.”
“Thank you.”
She nodded without turning her head back to look at him.
When the trio rejoined the others in the stone room, Dylan decided to just make the card a group project and asked for help. He explained a bit about how card creation worked and said, “So, basically, I want you to activate your skills on me so I can use the feelings I get to enter the right state of mind to create the card I want.”
“You sure that will work?” Chester asked.
“Nope, but I figure it’s worth a try.”
“If you say so.” The Guardian obviously had some doubts.
“Alright, once I light the incense powder, we can start.” Dylan looked around the group. “Chester, I want you to Taunt me.”
The man nodded.
“Dena, I want you to decelerate me.”
“Got it.”
“And Jaiden, if you can, I want you to try casting that rock armor on me.”
The Earth Mage looked a little troubled. “I’ve never tried using it on another person before, but I’ll give it a go.”
“All I can ask for.” Dylan took one last look around the group. “Okay.”
He was about to walk over to one of the braziers flanking the gate to light the incense, but then he noticed Rowan all by himself, leaning back against one of the walls. Everyone else had already been or would soon be involved in making the card, and it felt a little weird to exclude the swordsman. Dylan knew that it was a waste of the man’s abilities, but he still held out the bowl and asked, “Can you use your sword to light this on fire for me?”
The redhead looked at Dylan like he was an idiot before he snorted and drew the weapon. Light steadily rose from the blade until the metal burst into flame. Rowan lowered the sword and let a lick of fire gently brush the inside of the bowl. The powder erupted in a blaze; a reddish-green gout overflowed from the top of the bowl before calming to a smolder. Soon, all that remained were wisps of grey-green smoke rising in a steady stream.
Holding the bowl, Dylan expected the wisps to tickle his nose, but what surprised him was that he felt nothing. There was no smell. It reminded him of how the green fires in the shaman’s room were visibly there, but seemed detached from the space around them until the creature had used them to attack.
“Thanks,” Dylan said, watching as Rowan dismissed his flames and sheathed his sword.
“Whatever.” The man sat back down to meditate and recover the mana he’d just used.
Dylan summoned his catalog and pulled out a Blank Card before he turned to the rest of the group. “Let’s start.”
Dena played. Chester shouted. Jaiden waved her staff.
Multiple skills hit him at once.
His body was sluggish, his arms weak.
He felt a strange pull at the back of his mind directing his attention toward Chester.
Rough earth shaped itself around his limbs before encircling his torso.
He let every sensation wash over him, focusing on each individually and then trying to feel them all together.
Dylan sank into meditation.
He began with something simple. He let himself recall the feeling of protection his Mana Shield gave him, and then he superimposed that thought on the sensation of the earthen armor now wrapping his body.
Next, he fell into the repeated sense of fatigue he’d experienced since the dungeon break. Draining fight after draining fight. The helplessness of mana exhaustion. He wrapped it all with the weakness he knew was a result of him not having attacked Chester after being affected by the man’s Taunt.
Finally, he let himself slip into time. The feeling that more time was passing than he was aware of that came during the System’s teleportation. His slowest train of thought while straddling streams of time in Alice’s trial. Once he felt he had a handle on the sensations, he anchored them with the decelerating effect of Dena’s music.
Protection. Weakness. Sloth.
He let them echo back and forth across his mind and body.
Through it all, he kept the images of Jaiden’s Stone Bullet and his archer’s first arrow being stopped by the shaman’s barrier. How they’d dissolved into smoke and joined the incense burning on the altar. Dylan suspected they’d became fuel to help maintain the effect, and whether or not that was actually true, he cast that thought into the card he was creating along with everything else.
Subconsciously, he channeled his mana and reached forward to touch the Blank Card against the bowl of burning incense.
Mana drained from him and light flashed before his closed eyes.
It was done.
He felt exhausted, but it was done.
Beyond the mindsets and negative effects that still bound him, he could feel that he’d spent more mana to create this card than any other.
He opened his eyes, breath heaving. “Okay, you can stop.”
Dena put down her violin, and Jaiden released the armor.
“You just need to wait a bit for the Taunt effect to decay,” said Chester.
Dylan nodded, and then looked at the card.
Its face was branded with a ring of smoke. For some reason, just looking at it made his eyes feel tired.
[Name: Siphoning Veil]
[Type: Spell]
[Summoning Cost: 5 Mana]
[Activation Cost: 4 Energy]
[Effect: Creates a veil of smoke that both slows and siphons energy from all incoming attacks. Weaker attacks may be stopped altogether. Lasts for 1 turn. A portion of the siphoned energy is used to further empower the veil, increasing its duration. This effect scales with the amount of energy siphoned from each attack. Each turn, the duration may increase by no more than 3 additional turns.]
The description of the card’s effect was a bit nebulous, but it seemed powerful.
It slowed and, in some cases, completely nullified attacks, converting their energy into power to increase its duration.
What happens if the attack it affects comes attached to a body? Would a monster get slowed trying to claw at me?
Even for blows too powerful to negate, Dylan felt the card could help give him the chance he’d need to avoid getting hurt.
The only problems are the short initial duration and the fact that I want to avoid situations where I can be directly attacked. He paused as he felt the effects of Chester’s Taunt lift. Can I cast it on someone else?
He thought about his Mana Shield cards. He’d never considered if they could cover anyone other than himself. But the cards’ effect described them as a personal shield, so it might not work. Siphoning Veil had no such wording. In all likelihood, it could be used more flexibly.
Assuming the stopping power is worth the card’s cost, if I can play this on someone like Chester…
Dylan imaged the already defensive Guardian becoming damn near unkillable. And with all the hits he takes after using his Taunt skill, the veil effect could keep going indefinitely.
The card was the most expensive he’d seen. Both its summoning and activation costs were higher than any other card in his collection, but if it worked the way Dylan suspected, then it might finally be an expensive card that was worth its price.
Dylan smiled. He was looking forward to trying it out.