There was a lot Yarden had to do over the weekend. Number one being, he had to pack up his things to prepare to move to the Ra Yellow Dorm come Monday.
Number two, he had to do a lot of research. Specifically into some dragon based cards he wanted and to see if there were any more he'd missed. There were six specific cards he was aiming for above all else though. Divine Dragon Ragnarok, Lord of D, Flute of Summoning Dragon, King Dragun, Future Fusion and Five Headed Dragon.
Thankfully, they actually were all in stock in the card shop according to their main website. The problem though, was the prices. Lord of D, Divine Dragon Ragnarok and Flute of Summoning Dragon weren't too bad, and he could get his hands on the three for roughly a thousand five hundred or so DP. The problem was in the other three. A single copy of Future Fusion cost three thousand DP, King Dragun cost six thousand.
And Five Headed Dragon? He couldn't even afford it if he spent all his DP on it alone. It was worth thirty thousand DP. That was three thousand pounds and nearly four thousand, five hundred in dollars.
He decided on getting getting everything but Five Headed Dragon in the end. And put in the order online for them to be brought to his dorm over the weekend. It put a big dent in his funds though, costing ten thousand, five hundred DP. The equivalent of a thousand and fifty pounds in his own local currency.
It brought him down to seventeen thousand, a hundred and fifty two DP in total.
But honestly, despite spending so much, Yarden hadn't felt bad about it much at all. The simple reason for that, was because of how much he earned and cashed out from his duel with Zane.
As it turned out, his money was being payed into a savings account. Whoever used to own this body of his had gotten a great deal on their account, with a zero point five percent interest rate monthly. It seemed he'd gotten such a good deal, because there were high hopes placed on him for getting into Duel Academy.
He had three hundred and fifty going into that account monthly from his benefits. And ten thousand three hundred and fifty already in there right now. He'd be getting roughly fifty pounds a month extra a month that would slowly be going up little by little. By time his first year here at Duel Academy ended, he'd probably be looking at around fifteen big ones in it if he didn't cash out any more of his DP.
There was a reason he totally understood where Jasmine was coming from and what she wanted. Because he wasn't different at all. He was here to get rich, famous and powerful enough to survive.
Either way, by Sunday morning, the new cards had been delivered to his now temporary dorm room and added to his deck.
And the third reason why he hadn't really left his dorm room? Well, Duel Academy was still a high school, one with very advanced classes and he had homework to do.
As annoying as it was.
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"I still do not understand," Petit Dragon mused as he floated in the air looking down at Yarden, "You do not need to do this to get stronger. The more spirits you bond with, the more your physical abilities will increase, this seems pointless."
Yarden paused on his next crunch, tank top matted with sweat, "I know," he replied, before grunting and going through another, he'd been at it for fifteen minutes straight now, "It doesn't give me the appeal I want though. I want abs mate."
"Yes, as you have told me," Petit Dragon rolled his eyes, "But, what benefit do they really bring you? Your physical fitness will increase form you doing nothing at all, you could be a fat blob and you'd be healthier and stronger than the fittest normal human athlete in just a month by far, why waste all this time and effort for rigid looking muscle in your stomach?"
"Because girls like them obviously." Yarden snorted. Really, was there any other reason for him to do this with the fact that he was merging with legitimate spirits that enhanced him and gave him powers, or would in the future?
Which reminded him, it should only be a few more days, six at maximum before he was fulled attuned to Lesser Dragon and adapted to the merging. He already felt much stronger in the two days that had passed since the merging began. Once that was done, he would be able to merge with a bunch of his weaker spirits at once.
Petit Dragon opened his mouth to respond, but just as he did, a knock on the dorm room door stopped him. The little dragon rolled his eyes and disappeared.
"And I win again." Yarden chuckled, standing up fully and making his way over to answer the door.
"Yo bro!" Jaden greeted him from the other side when the door was swung open, "I ain't seen you all weekend. what'ya up to?"
"Right now? I was working out," Yarden replied, he cast a look over Jaden's shoulder and was relieved to find him alone and without his two shadows, "In general, giving my deck a tune up, doing my homework for class and getting packed to move dorms tomorrow." he stepped aside to let the brunette enter his room.
"Oh yeah, I heard you were moving up in the world," Jaden clicked his fingers together as he entered the room, "That was a sweet duel you had on Friday, that dice thing had me in stitches."
"Not as impressive as your own I hear," Yarden smiled back at him as he closed the door, "You ended up dueling that twit Chazz and punked him good."
"Yeah, that was great." Jaden laughed.
"So what brings you here to see me?" Yarden asked, curious, making his way over ho sit in one of the chairs at the computer, "And where's Syrus and Chumley? They're usually not far behind you."
"Ah, Chumley ran off looking for some place to get grilled cheese after we ran out downstairs, and Syrus ran off to try and keep him outta trouble," he replied, taking a seat on one of the other computer chairs, "I figured I'd come hang out with you, see what you were up to before you left us itty bitty reds behind to become a big mean yellow."
"Pretty sure you got promoted to Ra Yellow as well mate," Yarden pointed out dryly, before smirking and tapping a fist to his chest, "Besides red is definitely my color. I might be changing dorms, but at heart, I'm Slifer for life bro." Slifer was by far his favorite god card, give him the real dragon over the wannabe golden chicken and the big buff blue dude any day.
"I was promoted alongside you yeah, we're the only ones apparently, but I turned it down," Jaden smiled and gave a casual shrug, "Syrus was freaking out a bit about me leaving him behind, so I figure I'll just wait to rank up until he manages it as well."
Jaden was such a good guy man. It really was no wonder all his friends were literally willing to jump into alternate dimensions with him and risk their lives.
"You're a good friend." Yarden complimented him, truthfully. Jaden had always been one of his favorites.
"If you say so," Jaden shrugged, "Can't be better than you dude. You literally had my back when we thought some Obelisk's were out to get us when that whole thing with Alexis and Syrus went down."
No, he already knew what was gonna happen more or less. Him doing that was just to worm his way in to being friends with everyone, like a snake. A cunt thing to do, but something he didn't regret.
"If you say so." Yarden settled on replying back with a smirk.
Jaden snorted in amusement, "So you said you were tuning up your deck?" he changed the subject and eyed you in interest.
"Well, more making specific decks," Yarden replied, "I had a bit of a wake up call the other night, and the synergy was way off with my cards, so I decided to start making a bunch of different decks for all my cards."
...He'd seen some crazy shit when he was researching dragons available. Like, Seto Kaiba's cards for example. No seriously, what the fuck was with all the new Blue-eyes cards? A literal fucking level eight ritual monster with four thousand attack points that dealt double piercing damage. That was just bullshit!
It really did pay to be Seto fucking Kaiba.
"Sounds sweet," Jaden grinned, "I'm betting you made a dragon deck first right? Serpent Night Dragon is your total ace boss monster."
"Yeah," Yarden grinned back, "Honestly, I dropped a bunch of DP to get my hands on a bunch of cards to help with it, though I couldn't get my hands on one of the ones I wanted, just didn't have enough." there was another he wanted as well. Thanks to his spirits, he'd managed to get his hands on a Buster Blader. Now, he just needed a Dark Paladin. But, Sadie didn't have them in stock at the card shop because nobody bought them since apparently the only person who even owned any Dark Magician cards in the entire world, was Yugi Moto.
Buster Blader on the other hand, while pretty rare, wasn't anywhere near that rare. And with King of The Swamp or Sealed Hex Fusion, he didn't even need Dark Magician for it.
Why were people here so stupid? It wasn't hard to do.
"Ah, unlucky bro, don't you just hate it when you're that close to finishing up your new deck and you're just missing that one card? Drives you nuts huh?" Jaden shook his head.
"Tell me about it." Yarden sighed, leaning back into his seat. With Future Fusion and Dragons Mirror, he could bring out a five thousand beat stick in one turn.
Or even with just Future Fusion itself, it would be great to pair with Deal of Phantom, a trap card that usually gave one hundred attack points to a monster of your choice for every monster in your graveyard. Except the variation of it here in this world? It gave one hundred attack points, for every card in the graveyard.
It was just like Swordstalker's effect from that old Duelist Of The Roses game. Man he used to love using that thing.
"So what card was it you couldn't get?" Jaden asked, asked in curiosity.
"Five Headed Dragon. I've got an amazing combo for it." he replied with a shrug.
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Jaden's eyes lit up, "Oh hey, I've got one of those!" the kuriboh-haired boy jumped to his feet snapping his fingers.
'He does?' Yarden blinked, before his eyes widened. He did actually! Now that he thought on it, didn't Jaden have one in that episode about the Abandoned Dorm? "Feel like selling me it at a discount? I've only got seventeen thousand DP left though." he asked hopefully.
"Pssh, you don't need to pay me bro," Jaden scoffed, waving him off, "We're buds, I'm not gonna charge you for a card I ain't even gonna use, if you need it I'm happy to give it to you."
...That was amazing.
"Mate, do you even know how much those things are worth?" Yarden gave him a dubious look. He already took advantage of Jaden's trust before, he'd like to do it as little as possible, "They cost thirty thousand DP, that's three grand where I come from and more than most working adults make a month." that was absurd to just give away.
"Don't worry about it buddy, you had my back like I said, lemme have yours here and do you a solid to pay you back," Jaden grinned widely at him and flashed him a thumbs up, "Besides, it's not like I paid for it or anything. I won it at a local tournament back home."
And before Yarden could say anything else, Jaden was making his way out of the room to his own dorm to go grab the card from his collection of cards.
'Well, I can't exactly not accept it now.' Yarden sighed, leaning back into his char and staring up at the sealing, lips pursed. Now he felt even guiltier.
He'd have to do something nice for Jaden later to make it up to him. Even if Yarden himself was the only one who would understand it.
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Yarden ended up spending the rest of his night with Jaden. He was good company and had an eye for card combo's as long as he had the cards to look at alongside each other.
He was the type of guy you could just chill with and shoot the breeze.
That was until Syrus came back and in a panic, apparently Chumley had found grilled cheese...somewhere. And over eaten to the point where he couldn't move.
And so the remainder of the night, was spent with the three of them teaming up to lug Chumley back to the dorm. It really was a good thing he'd bonded with Lesser Dragon just a few days back or it would have been even harder.
Well, one thing was for sure. Yarden was really happy he wasn't Chumley's roommate. The gas he had after all that cheese would be torture on his nostrils. He truly pitied Jaden and Syrus.
But better them than him!
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Bright and early Monday morning, Yarden was up, dressed and out of his dorm room and ready for the day. His things were already packed and the moving staff would be collecting it while he was at class.
There was a reason he was up nice and early though. It was because, he wanted to hunt down some test dummies for his new deck build. And start making up for the DP he'd spent.
And before an hour was up, he'd already crushed five Obelisk Blue students. They as always, were so easy to rile up and draw into a duel.
Disappointingly, it seemed his transfer to Ra Yellow had already been put through though. Because, from the five, he'd only made a bit over three thousand DP, where before he would have made around six thousand at least.
Oh well, that just meant crushing more Obelisk Blue's! And, he was already beginning with his sixth!
'Show me the money!' Yarden cheered inwardly as he drew his starting hand. He would be going second as far as turns went here at the start of this duel.
"Today I'm gonna put you in your place Odhar!" his opponent, some randomer dressed in a mainly white blazer with blue trim called out over to him. A third year, he guessed.
"Seven." Yarden snorted.
"The hell are you on about you stupid kid?" the third year snarled.
"Seven, with you, that makes seven times in the week since I started mopping you idiots up that an Obelisk has told me they're gonna put me in my place," Yarden rolled his eyes, "Mate your patter is like fucking water, it's running down your left leg."
"..What?" the guy blinked. The meaning of his words flew completely over his head.
He was just about to mock him some more, maybe tell him to try out some of Yarden's on come backs, but he'd have to scrap his 'come back' out of his mother, but before he could a familiar voice sounded out behind him.
"Making a commotion this early on a Monday morning?" Jasmine snorted, "I should have expected this." the redhead shook her head as she passed through the crowd of students and made her way over to Yarden.
"Oh hey," he grinned at her, before noticing she was alone, "Where's Alexis and Mindy?" he wondered. It wasn't like it was too odd to see Jasmine apart from them. But then, that had only happened during the week last night because the redhead had been keeping her eye on his duels.
He kinda thought they were passed that point with what happened back on Friday night.
"Lexi already went on ahead, she wanted to browse the card shop, she's totally hyper focused right now after the show you put on the other day, I swear it's been like pulling teeth just to pull her away from researching new cards for her deck the past few days," Jasmine replied with a shake of her head, "And Mindy went along with her, I woulda gone too if I didn't hear you were out here causing trouble again."
Yarden made to reply, but once again, he was interrupted before he could, "Jasmine!?" Yarden's opponent spluttered.
Jasmine looked over to him and the sound of her name being called out, and blinked, "Oh, Tom right?" she greeted him with a small wave.
"Tony actually." he grimaced and corrected her, drawing a snort from Yarden.
"Yeah, whatever," Jasmine rolled her eyes, "So are you gonna be done anytime soon?"
"Yeah, it shouldn't take t-" Yarden began, only to be interrupted again!
Fucking rude!
"I can't believe this!" Tony clenched his fists angrily, "Not only do you not respect our superiority as true Obelisk Blue's unlike a filthy worm from Slifer like you, you even have the gall to talk to Jasmine!"
"Oh whatever guy," Jasmine huffed and waved him off, "Yarden can talk to me if he wants. You're the one who should take a hike, I already turned you down."
"We'll see how you change your mind once I stomp this little piss ant!" Tony shouted angrily, "Let's begin!"
Yarden Odhar: 4000 LP
Tony: 4000 LP
"I'll be starting off by playing the field spell A Legendary Ocean!" Tony didn't spend much time thinking at all and bulled on ahead, slapping his field spell down. A moment later, the area warped and they were suddenly at the bottom of an ocean. And it would have been a really cool thing to take a look around in, if the idiot didn't just continue running his mouth, "With this, all water monsters in my hand and on my field go down a single level, and they each gain two hundred attack and defense points while on the field. And thanks to that, I can summon my normally level five Giga Gagagigo without tribute summoning in attack mode!"
A moment later, a huge, muscular bipedal lizard man clad in silver armor appeared in front of the older teen.
Giga Gagagigo - Reptile/Water/Level 5(4)/Normal: 2650/1700
Yarden eyed the monster appreciatively. He was actually really fond of that monster line. This guy was a complete tard, but he at lest had some decent taste.
"Twenty six hundred and fifty attack points on the first turn!" Jasmine gasped from beside Yarden.
"Heh, you think that's impressive, well check this out!" Tony laughed boisterously, "I'm playing the spell card Double Summon from my hand, which lets me make an extra normal summon this turn. And with it, I'm summoning another Giga Gagagigo in attack mode!"
A second later, another bipedal reptile appeared at the ready beside its twin.
Giga Gagagigo - Reptile/Water/Level 5(4)/Normal: 2650/1700
Giga Gagagigo - Reptile/Water/Level 5(4)/Normal: 2650/1700
"And with that, I'll end my turn!" Tony laughed, "Let's see how you deal with a line up like this you little punk!"
"Two of them on the first turn," Jasmine shook her head, "This guy is actually really good, huh?"
Well, Yarden had to admit, it was a pretty decent start up. 'But what's with him not playing anything in the back row?' he wondered. Even if he didn't have a specific counter trap, just placing a spell or something face down would work as a bluff.
Well, he wasn't gonna go easy. This guy interrupting him constantly had just annoyed him. "Draw," he declared simply, drawing a card as he started his turn, and immediately placed a spell card down, "I activate Raigeki, allowing me to destroy all the monsters you have on the field."
Tony's eyes went wide in shock as the card appeared in front of Yarden and fired off a massive beam of orange lightning that swallowed his monsters up and erased them from existence, "...No way...my powerful line up done in that easily!?" he gaped in horror.
Yeah, this was why back rows were important! Why the hell did all these idiots just look at attack points!?
'You know what, I don't even care, it just means easy money for me, they're practically handing it to me.' Yarden shook his head, "Now I'm gonna finish this up okay? I'll be playing Future Fusion, which lets me send monsters from my deck for a fusion monster that will be summoned my second standby phase after activating it!"
He grabbed the first five dragon monsters he saw while rifling through his deck. Those being Two Serpent Night Dragon's, Petit Dragon, Luster Dragon and Curse of Dragon and slid them into the graveyard.
Tony actually outright chuckled, "For a second there you had me worried, but to think you'd play a useless card like that!" he ridiculed, pointing at Yarden as if he were an idiot, "What use is a card that only show its effects so many turns down the line, the duel could be over by then."
'I wanna punch him. I wanna fucking punch him!' Yarden's eye felt like it was beginning to develop a twitch, and his fists clenched automatically on instinct.
Instead, he took a deep breath, and exhaled through his nostrils and sincerely hoped this retardation was not some contagious condition. "Now, I'll be playing the spell card, Dragon's Mirror, which lets me banish dragon monsters in my graveyard for a fusion summon," Yarden bit out, "I'll be banishing the five dragons I just sent to the graveyard with Future Fusion, to fusion summon, Five Headed Dragon!"
A moment later, a titanic yellow bodied bipedal dragon appeared in the air above Yarden and he saw Jasmine gape up at it in shock, five gargantuan serpentine heads reaching up from its neck. One with void black scales, of the dark attribute, one made of flame, the fire attribute, one made of water, the water attribute head, one of yellow scales, the earth attribute and the final, a metallic silver head, the dragon head of the wind attribute.
Five Headed Dragon - Dragon/Dark/Level 12/Fusion/Effect: 5000/5000
"Now, attack him and finish him off." Yarden commanded his newly summoned monster, and gift from a friend.
The five heads let out a chorus of bone rattling roars and reared up, beams of their elements filling their mouths, before firing them in a barrage of gargantuan lasers that blotted Tony's form beneath them.
And when they finally died down, Tony was revealed on his knees, face pale and eyes and mouth hanging wide open and slack. "No..how can this be? I'm an Elite Obelisk..." he muttered in a daze as his life points dropped to zero.
Yarden Odhar: 4000 LP
Tony: 0 LP
The legendary ocean and five headed dragon faded away a few moments later, and Yarden found himself the center of attention as multiple dozens of people stared at him in shock.
How annoying. It felt fucking weird getting gazes like that for something so easy to do!
He grabbed the dazed Jasmine's arm gently and tugged her along with him as he got out of the crowd and entered the school.
"So new cards huh?" Jasmine gave herself a shake a few moments later, and raised a sardonic eyebrow his way, "You really went all out there. Five thousand attack point in one turn, you're absurd Yarden."
He sighed. This just didn't feel right. The only conclusion he could come up with, was that it was a strategy from back home he just used. And unlike there, people wanting to create combo's with their cards, wouldn't exactly just post it all online for anyone to learn from, right? So basically, most had to do all the research card by card and make combinations themselves, right?
...It still didn't explain the stupidity of throwing away cards like Decoy Dragon, Relinquished and only caring about attack points though.
"Come on." Yarden sighed again and beckoned Jasmine to follow him.
"..What's wrong with you?" Jasmine gave him an odd look, "You just crushed that guy easily and you have alone time now with a hottie like me, there's nothing to be down about from what I can see."
She was right honestly. But at the same time, it felt odd being so highly regarded for literal child strategies. He hadn't even chained a series of card, and that was the bread and butter of anyone dueling online for fun back home.
'Wonder if I can teach her some of the proper basics from back home?' he wondered. "Oh that reminds me." he blinked, clicking his fingers together.
"What reminds you of what?" Jasmine gave him an odd look. Which was fair, she must be hella confused with how he was acting.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a few cards. Five to be specific, "Here, these are for you." he said, "You use Harpie's right?"
"Yup, I do," the redhead replied and took the cards, before smiling widely, "Oh hey, thanks! I actually needed another Harpie brother and I only have the one of the sisters, they're pretty hard to get a hold of cuz Mai Valentine is a harpie user, y'know?"
And yet some idiot tossed Relinquished.
Jasmine surprised Yarden by leaning forward and placing a chaste smooch against his cheek and giving him a wink when he sent a raised eyebrow her way.
They idly walked around the hallways of the academy, idly chatting after that until the bell went and they had to get to class.
Yet, when they got there;
"Mr. Odhar," Professor Crowler grinned up at him from the bottom of the classroom as he entered and took a seat beside Jasmine, "Just the man I wanted to see. Will you please stay after class? There's something I'd love to discuss with you."
...Shit what did he want?