O'Brien exhaled and calmed his thudding heart. Drops of perspiration nested on his brows and his body felt a bit sticky. It was his first time using his Natal Card and his body was still not used to it. Although, after such a prolonged battle, he would naturally be a bit winded as of then. Maybe he underestimated the effects of such a powerful natal card.

The sun's rays turned the clear droplets of sweat into containers of golden light, heating the surface of his skin slightly. It was a cloudless noonday sky accompanied with scalding heat.

‘I can't do much more than this… I need to rest…’

Fighting alone on many occasions and having enemies all around taught him how to sleep light and regulate his energy.

He had done so for nearly fifteen years.

He had also lost more battles than he won, and ran from more battles than he fought. But he had stayed alive, so he was clearly doing something right.

With O'Brien's then mechanical body, he could train himself to do things otherwise harmful and incredibly difficult, such as limiting himself to using exactly sixty-five percent of his full strength.

In the past, he could control his strength by two percent intervals above fifty percent of his total strength. With his current body, he could only manage five percent.

Having met his predetermined limit, he went back to rest a bit.

In the gap between several fallen buildings, akin to a forest clearing, O'Brien lightly trotted behind a block of broken concrete and took a seat, obscuring himself from any distant onlookers.

The distance between himself and his RV was short, but this spot had wind and shade. The cautiousness in his bones was also uncomfortable. Going out into such an open area with sixty-five percent of his card essence consumed and zero passive cards or defensive equipment was a huge risk.

He had already scoped the area, making sure there were no foes to jump him unexpectedly, but there would always be a 'what if'. The constantly changing environment, weather, and every other outlandish phenomena were things to always be aware of in the New World.

Using his rest time, O'Brien brought out the Yellow Gold card, deep in thought.

He had been ecstatic when he first obtained this beautiful magic card, but having selected his natal card, the playing field had shifted.

The blank canvas could no longer be randomly splashed with paint. Every further decision he made regarding cards from then on could affect him years into the future. He had to tread carefully.

He focused his attention internally, placing his spiritual vision within his card aperture. The magical organ appeared before his eyes in a grey expanse.

The surrounding space outside the aperture was once pitch black, but this had changed along with many things after he had fused with his natal card, the Immemorial Dragon God of Death. He had thought it was a summoning card, but after he fused with it, he discovered it was one of transformation.

Now his card aperture was worlds apart from its initial appearance. The same Grey Ash essence calmly shifted like a gentle ocean, but it had penetrated thirteen layers deep into his aperture. The ash color remained unchanged, indicating he was still in the initial realm of Card Apprentice.

The width of the aperture also expanded almost six times more, something he had never heard of. New layers were rumored to be able to be penetrated by luck and chance, as well as deepening cultivation, but an expansion of the aperture itself? This was the first he had seen.

His aperture was surrounded by a grey dragon roaring to the heavens. Above his aperture was an abnormally colorful sky, cloaked in a thin mist containing ever-changing shadows. It seemed to reflect an alternate dimension.

High above the aperture were nine card-shaped lights fixed in the sky, representing his available card sockets.

I had just two card sockets in the beginning of the future past, gaining one after I ascended into the Card Master realm,’ he thought with a wry smile. ‘But having nine at the start? Unbelievable.’

One's beginning truly dictated their achievements in the New World. It was possible to grow strong even with humble beginnings, but that required great luck.

He had been reborn with a silver spoon, but he was aiming for gold.

*

O'Brien sighed looking at the card in front of him, his heart felt like countless ants were running over it. Despite his mixed feelings for his selected natal card, he still thought it better than the Blue Phoenix.

‘Blue Phoenix must know how to raise her natal card to a higher level. It would be difficult, yes, but someone of her previous status would know exactly what to do. The materials could be hard to find, but she'll find them.’ O'Brien couldn't help but chuckle seeing how the tables have turned. ‘I guess the Blessed Ones have their own drawbacks as well; she is stuck with that as her natal card without having a choice in the matter.’

The many advantages of Blessed Ones, such as their head start in cultivation and using cards, also restricted them in other ways, such as lacking complete control over their future paths.

Of course, this was a laughable issue that no one thought of. The advantages of the Blessed Ones easily stood tall by themselves. Only those in a position to fix past regrets would even think of this as a 'limit'.

O'Brien merely saw it as such from his perspective. He was a completely blank canvas with the sky as his limit, but she was not.

For the Phoenix, she was innately disposed to a special kind of flame or talent. Attempting to use ice or water-type cards would likely risk a conflict occuring.

Putting Blue Phoenix to the back of his mind, O'Brien refocused on himself and his current headache. Having nine card slots, there was no profession that had that many core abilities, so he had to pioneer a new path, which was incredibly risky.

Extraordinary professions were strong and systematically tested for combat effectiveness, and so many flocked to them once they were aware of the requirements.

The Warrior profession for example was one of such. Regardless of the natal card, the basic composition to be a Warrior was a vigor-type card to increase endurance like Reinforced Vigor, armour-type cards whether the rare completed set or individual pieces like Death Knight's Breastplate, and at least one attack skill, like the Sword Qi Wave. These were the basic cards needed to walk the warrior path.

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One could further refine this path and become a Flaming Swordsman, Water Calling Spirtsword, Sword Caller, and so on depending, on the natal card, future path, and socketed cards.

Socketed cards were cards that grew with the user as they got stronger. It was a never-ending debate on which were the most important to have socketed.

There was too little information in existence and within his knowledge base to select a good extraordinary profession for his natal card, so O'Brien could only choose based on his style of battle or needs. His goal was to be a one-man team, so he needed multi-faceted and wide-ranging skills to deal with different situations on his own.

"There are too many useful cards to begin with, like the Danger Perception talent card I got. Even though it’s an invaluable socket card for any profession, it's only a Black Iron quality card," O'Brien moaned in disappointment.

With the high level of his natal card, he didn't necessarily need another high-quality card for now. He also had no idea what the card he held even did, nor the penalties it could bring.

Once again inspecting the Yellow Gold-grade card, his eyes traced the depiction of a yellow cloud dancing in the sky. Did it cause rain? Did it turn its user into a cloud? Would it cloud one’s judgement? He had no idea.

"I have six more suitable cards here. They will be a pain to upgrade, especially Danger Perception… I can just use them all since I have the sockets, but I feel that would be an extremely stupid thing to do," he sighed and leaned back, staring at the gap revealing the sky above him. He stretched his legs and roughly rain his fingers through his long white hair.

"My gut says just do it but it might be my greed and perfectionist nature acting up." O'Brien could hear voices echoing in his head, tugging him to either side of logic and desire. "I could just…wait? Maybe use a deduction-type card or get some appraisal ones or something. I'm not exactly in a rush, but there are risks…"

He knew he had yet to become invincible. Not only could he barely bring out the full power of his natal card, but he also didn't know how to use most of the cards he had. It was a big flaw that many could exploit as their enlightenment progressed. At this stage, many Blessed Ones were still a threat to his well-being if not matched properly.

His blindspot about Yellow Gold cards was too large. It wouldn't run off, would it? Cards were known to have some incredible effects. Most cards needed to be activated. He had already prevented this one from self-activating, but even then anything could happen in this crazy new world.

Preventing a card's self-activation was simple. He had to remove its access to spiritual energy or socket it, regularly pour some of his own card essence inside it, or insert it into his card wheel—the most popular and convenient option.

O'Brien had the sneaking fear that the card would suddenly push out all his card essence and activate in his sleep, running away after activating, or worse, attacking and successfully killing him.

What a ridiculous death that would be.

"Fuck it! Repercussions and penalties be damned. I won't carry it around everywhere until I know its use. Too risky."

O'Brien couldn't take it anymore and flung the card into his card aperture, directing it to the first card-shaped light high above the aperture.

For him who had only ever seen Red Steel quality cards in large battles where strong men released them to fight. He who only ever touched two trashy Green Copper cards with hellish activation conditions, one even stolen before it could warm his calloused hands and the other sold since he was unable to use it.

For a destitute man such as he, losing such a rare card was absolutely unacceptable.

If he lost it for whatever reason, he would be bitter for the rest of his days, even with a better-quality natal card. Even if it had unfavorable side effects or penalties, he could find a card to remove it somehow. Afterall, they had made the impossible possible.

The higher the rank of the card, the lesser the effect. Thinking of the worst case scenario, O'Brien was comforted and so threw caution to the wind, socketing the card.

A couple minutes passed.

Five minutes dragged by.

Surely, it had been about twenty minutes by now.

Nothing happened. How could such a powerful card be so…

"Oh shit, I didn't activate it —" O'Brien realized.

The stress had made his mind foggy.

He half expected to fail. The average card had at least three different material or energy requirements, so even if one requirement was erased, the others would still remain.

With the heart of giving it a try, O'Brien focused on the card which had materialized from its card form within his aperture space. He felt a soft sensation come forward, almost like cotton.

Soon, a yellow cloud the size of an ottoman furniture appeared, floating in front of him.

Was it a summon-type?

He tried to order it to attack but nothing happened. He couldn’t sense intelligence from it, so it was clear that it wasn't alive. He tried attacking it himself but —

Poof.

It faded away like a cloud.

He poked and prodded for nearly an hour. Finding it a waste of card essence, he deactivated the Yellow Gold card. He wasn't too disappointed; this was a common occurrence for Card Masters in their attempts to discover card abilities.

"Well, at least it had no permanent penalties, like losing an organ or worse, so the worst is out of the way. I can slowly figure it out later."

It was a good outcome. Just being able to summon it was lucky enough.

He stretched his limbs, finding all his shallow cuts and scrapes to have healed, completely replaced by rosy skin. Sensing his current body's condition, he inhaled sharply in suprise.

He had recovered more than half of his full power in a short time, despite depleting more while toying with the cloud.

This regeneration rate of card essence was completely monstrous. It matched the effect of an high-ranked recovery card, yet this was merely his natural recovery rate, thanks to his natal card!

Ordinary Card Masters, depending on their natal card, could only recover all their card essence in several hours to over half a day.

Starting with a gold spoon was truly enviable.

*

The broken buildings and plants growing through hardened cement was reminiscent of a scene out of a movie, a sight seen by the world years after a nuclear apocalypse or global plague. The absence of humanity in these once busy streets was an eerie symbol of desolation and ruin.

The noon day sun reflected off the streamlined body of a metallic blue RV, increasing its artistic impactfulness to the untrained eye. Around this RV were four women at different vantage points, with one on the roof of the mini lookout cabin, her blood red hair hidden under a hood.

Roya sat beside a covered object, cleaning her rifle. Lea was making some notes and drawing diagrams of various objects and monsters, glancing up every now and then to keep an eye out for danger.

Golden-winged boots kicked up dust as Jules ran around in them, at times rising off the ground but falling down after losing her balance. She blew her light hair out of her face, determination burning in her eyes as she pushed herself off the ground and tried again.

A terrifying grey wolf sat by a distant corner, large paws sitting up in a protective stance while his predatory eyes oversaw the camp.

Seeing Rose step out from the lookout, they all became alert and looked in the direction of her gaze. A tall grey-skinned figure in tattered rags approached them. His bright white hair swayed calmly behind him, but his golden eyes matched the fierceness of the wolf to stopped to pet.

"You were gone since morning,” Roya commented, settting her rifle aside and standing up with a popping stretch. “Jules was getting bored, so we let her practice and kept watch. What are we doing today?"

O'Brien needed to find the perfect amount of bugs he could handle and still have a good fight for his maiden battle. This took him a few hours to find and lure the optimal size troop of Sickle Beetles to the proper battle field, away from external influences.

Rose descended the external ladder, looking over his body in concern. "Were you injured? Do you need Lea to heal you?"

O'Brien didn't wince this time, getting used to her care.

"No. I'll take a short nap before I bring you out for some more experience,” he said. “You and Lea can approach your lovely group of pitiful survivors. Check their condition. See if they have anything worthy of exchange ready. Word should have spread by now about me and our offer."

O'Brien was about to enter the van when Lea hesitatingly spoke up.

"About that... Some survivors approached us while you were away