Max sat down on the table, noticing for the first time that the chair had vanished with the Tigron. Well, that’s so convenient. With a rising excitement, he selected his new Title. In books, these were always the cheats that put the main character far ahead of the competition, almost as good as plot armor. He couldn’t wait to see what overpowered abilities this title granted him.
image [https://i.imgur.com/BPZD9RG.jpeg]
What the…, what kind of bs is this? God’s indifference? I have a fricken Blessing for crying out loud! Calming, Max tried to focus on the positives, it was percentage based, which meant that it would offer better bonuses as his stats increased. But it doesn’t look like my stats increased from my level, I wonder how I can increase those?
Focusing on the deck option pulled up a new screen which showed all his cards. Now how do I use them? Card. Monster. Young Hellhound. Appear. Summon. A minute later he stumbled on the right combination, when holding his hand out like he was holding cards and thinking Draw, he got a notification asking if he wished to Draw Hand. With that command, 3 cards formed in his hand and a golden line formed around the edges of the room. Inspecting it, Max found that he couldn’t touch the wall past it. His hand stopped in midair, as if an invisible force field had been drawn around the room. Pacing it off, Max guessed that it was about a 20ft square. Hmm, okay, so the playing field is isolated from the rest of the world. I wonder how that works in actual battles?
Inspecting his three cards, Max saw he had drawn Young Hellhound, Cloak of Shadows, and Deakron’s Hymn. Needing Mana to be able to use any of them, he attempted to draw again. A timer in the bottom left of his vision flashed, drawing his attention to it for the first time, stating 21 seconds. Letting it run out, Max drew again, this time adding a fourth card to his hand, his Forgotten Ruins. Since this one didn’t require Mana to use, he willed it into play. With a flash of golden light, it turned into black sparks that drifted to a stretch of floor to his right. Columns of stone grew out into a section of the ruin from the card. In the corner of his vision, a golden star lit up.
Alright, I’ve figured out how to summon cards, got a Mana, now let's summon a creature. Focusing on the Young Hellhound, he willed it forth and it too turned into sparks that flew to the ground in front of him, black flames grew from the ground consolidating into the form from the card. Yes! Now to attack. Looking around the run, Max realized that there wasn’t anything to attack other than the table he was using as a seat.
Turning back to look at his summon, he noticed a symbol on the floor dim, while the same symbol about 10 feet in front of him flashed, then his symbol lit again. So it has a turn based system, one mana and a summon, then switch to the other side, pretty standard. Drawing his next card he received Ring of Starlight, leaving only Withered Gaze in his draw pile. This time instead of sparks, he felt a cool touch on his hand followed by weight, as the ring materialized on his finger. It was perfectly sized, cool to the touch, but oddly seemed to weigh more than you'd expect from it. The Mana symbol in the corner of his vision was now overlaid with a 2. This allowed him to spend both to utilize Deakron’s Hymn. The harp from the card appeared and started playing by itself, ghostly music notes rising from it and drifting up through the air.
image [https://i.imgur.com/P0KdJvx.jpeg]
Surprisingly, unlike the rest of the cards, the harp vanished as soon as the notification popped up. I guess that green lightning bolt means that it’s not a permanent effect. Now, for the most important question, can I keep my items summoned without a field. Concentrating on the field, Max dismissed it, causing the golden fires, symbols, and all his cards to vanish. Looks like no, so I will have to create the field during each encounter, and then summon my cards. I’m going to need more lands, otherwise I risk having to wait 2 turns at worst right now for a no cost mana, and that could increase if I add any cards to my deck.
Looking around, Max decided it was time to say goodbye to this room at least for a while. The number one thing he wanted to keep an eye out for was food and water. Secondly, a more defensible place preferably with a lock, so he could sleep in safety. Third, meeting up with other humans could make it easier to survive the Trial. So with his objectives set in his mind, Max opened the door for the second time and set off down the hall toward where the skeleton and customer had come from.
For the next several minutes, he made his way through rooms and halls, all empty, not even any dust or footprints to distinguish them. The next door let out into an open air courtyard, where he finally spotted something moving. At the far end, a skeleton was plodding around a dried out fountain. Time to see how these cards work in real combat. Setting his shoulders, Max stepped out and triggered Draw Hand. The first thing he noticed was that rather than the 20ft field that he’d stood on before, this field appeared to be 40ft. The second was that around his feet shadows rippled into three circles. Glancing at them popped up a notification, User Max Silver, HP 12, Def 9. Looking across at the skeleton, he saw it had turned to face him but no circles appeared around it, instead a bar above it read Skeleton Level 1.
Bringing his hand up, Max saw he had Forgotten Ruins, Ring of Starlight, and Young Hellhound. Casting his land, Max utilized the Mana it generated to summon Young Hellhound to the field. “Attack”, he commanded. The hellhound didn’t move, instead Max watched the symbols near him dim, and the ones near the skeleton light up. Alright, so I guess creatures can’t attack the same turn as they're summoned. Hopefully, I’ll still be able to block the skeleton with it.
The skeleton plodded forward, bringing a mace up over its head, then bashing it down on the hellhound. Glancing at the notification, Max read Skeleton Level 1 attacks Young Hellhound, 1 attack verse 3 def. Inspecting his summon, he saw that its defense had dropped to 2. Then, the symbols reversed, lighting up his side of the field. Not even glancing at his new hand, Max directed the hellhound to attack. Young Hellhound attacks Skeleton Level 1, attack 5 verse 1 Def. The skeleton exploded into white dust, while golden light pulsed on his side of the field. As the light faded, so too did the field and his summon.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
image [https://i.imgur.com/qWlORBX.jpeg]
“Urtsal nigrif,behil!”
“Azfergoth untrilop norz!”
From the other side of the courtyard, Max could hear harsh commands in some strange language. As he debated on whether investigating the sounds was the best move, a new voice broke out above the others, in a strong strident challenge.
“Come at me, bro”
Shit, That’s Uffda. Pinching his nose, Max sighed as he realized he was going to have to get involved whether he liked it or not. Uffda Hildadöttier was a member of the night crew, since the large Scandinavian had too many anger issues to deal with customers on days. Hopefully, Max would be able to calm her down and work out whatever the issue was peacefully, but he wasn’t going to hold his breath. While she was incredibly loyal and hardworking, once she got going it took alot to change her mind and she was always ready for a fight.
Passing through the arch, Max came to a halt at the shocking scene in front of him. To his left was Uffda, the nearly 7ft tall redhead brandishing a huge, double headed battle ax. On his right, there were two humanoid figures in dirty, torn midnight blue robes covered with embroidered silver eyes. From the sleeves and hoods slick tentacles extended, writhing and contracting. The courtyard was already lined with the golden flames of an active field split between the octopoids and Uffda. Pushing his hand out Max expected to run into the invisible wall again, however a new notification popped up.
image [https://i.imgur.com/0IfCFLe.jpeg]
Selecting Uffda, Max was blinded by a glowing golden light. When it subsided, he had teleported in next to Uffda. She didn’t appear to notice him as she made a hand gesture and advanced on her enemies. As she did, a card appeared briefly to Max, before her ax lit with flames.
image [https://i.imgur.com/4n0zDTO.jpeg]
She advanced on one of the Syrgon, bringing the sharp blade of her ax down to bite into its shoulder. Instead of blood a -14 rose from the hit and Uffda appeared back by Max’s side. Inspecting the circles on the ground, Max saw that both Syrgon’s had an attack of 7 and a defense of 5. Above the one Uffda had hit, a bar appeared showing 11/20 health. The lights switched showing it was now the unwounded Syrgon’s turn.
One long, thick tentacle emerged from the robe to point towards Uffda. As dark blue light flashed towards her, a card flashed, and Max hurried to read it.
image [https://i.imgur.com/0POF57p.jpeg]
Uffda cried out and grabbed her head, as her health bar dipped. The lights flashed to Max’s side and he drew his first hand Forgotten Ruins, Young Hellhound, and Withering Gaze. Tossing down his land to generate Mana, he called his hellhound in and passed his turn. The wounded Syrgon’s shrouded cowl moved from Uffda to its teammate, before it too played two cards. The first summoned a brackish pool of water underneath it, it bobbed for a second, then righted itself with only the lower half of the robe submerged under the water. The second caused a far more significant reaction, as its teammate turned and struggled towards it. It struggled as bites seemed to be taken out of it, tens at a time. Before it even reached the pool, it collapsed, its life bar falling to zero, while the other was no longer wounded, its bar now showing 31/20.
image [https://i.imgur.com/NSQSDvh.jpeg]image [https://i.imgur.com/T2cJStL.jpeg]
As the lights flashed back to her, Uffda hefted her ax and charged again. Another -14 floated off the octopoid, which triggered another -14 to float up as a card flashed across Max’s vision. The octopoid’s newly gained health dropped away as its bar fell to 5.
image [https://i.imgur.com/y4YeTKY.jpeg]
How is she activating all of these cards without anything to generate Mana? The turn passed to Max, drawing his Ring of Starlight he activated it and Withering Gaze. An eyeball formed to the left of him and turned its gaze on the octopoid, wreathing it in green smoke and reducing its defense circle to 3. Max eyed the octopoid and his hellhound, its attack verse defense meant the attack wouldn’t do much, but since the last attacks had been mental or spells he didn't feel that saving it to block would be effective, so he willed it to attack. As it surged forward, Uffda let out a cheer.
“Take this ugly.”
Another card flashed across his vision, as his hellhound swelled in size and bit down on the octopoid’s head. A -7 flew up as the octopoid collapsed, vanishing as it hit the stones ending combat.
image [https://i.imgur.com/fcVHp9V.jpeg]
A series of small notifications flashed in Max’s view, one in that odd silver color that only seemed to be used for his recruiter.
image [https://i.imgur.com/aiVMxJ0.jpeg]image [https://i.imgur.com/WptBsE2.jpeg]
Before he could give it too much thought, Uffda started interrogating him.
“How did you get a Land bro? What I would give to have a Mana Generating card.” Uffda groused.
“I got it from my draw pack when I hit level 1. How are you able to activate cards without Mana?”
“Oh, I got this ability from punching a lizard.”
image [https://i.imgur.com/WsL1cSo.jpeg]
Oh, of course, she immediately gets something useful, while I get that useless Title. Did she really get it from punching a lizard? I can never get her humor.
Resolving that if he saw a lizard, he was definitely punching it, just on the off chance she wasn’t joking. Questioning her, Max was disappointed to learn that she hadn’t seen anybody else, or any food or water source. The notification only showed 21% completed, so they still had a while before any big changes, and he was starting to get hungry. Finding food, water and a place to shelter was definitely a top priority. Together, they decided to continue exploring. This time the exit leading into a sloped walkway, down the hill to the next level of the castle.