So what do I do? Devin thought to himself, closing the books and refurling the scrolls. He got up to replace the study materials back where Dewey got them, but a furry hand forced the books, and rolls of paper back to the table, which wobbled dangerously.
“We do not put things back here in the Lost & Found.” The rat merchant said. “We put them where we feel like it!” He slid his hand on the table, throwing the books and scrolls to the ground. “Let those poor souls of the future get lucky, as you humans say.” The rat man said, waggling his patchy eyebrows.
Dewey sighed a puff of air with her entire tiny body, and picked up the materials her boss threw to the ground with her telekinesis.
“Right…How much for this book right here?” Devin asked, holding up ‘The Basic Methods to Refine Shards into Cards’.
“Hm.” The rat merchant eyed the book critically. “10 thousand shards.”
“That’s ridiculous! I can’t even carry that much in my vault.”
‘That is premium knowledge, my friend. Especially on a newly integrated planet. With that card smithing knowledge, it could be the entire foundation of your bloodline,
“It’s covered in mold! It looks like it could fall apart in any second.”
“Care falls upon the customer.”
“Your crappy cards aren't even that expensive!”
“That’s just how valuable that book is.” The rat merchant shrugged his gangly shoulders.
Devin groaned, looking for anything he had on him to trade. “What about this?” Devin asked as he reached into his chest, and pulled a card out of his vault.
The physical manifestation of the card was tinted a purple so deep it seemed black. Its back was covered in a beautiful curvy mosaic pattern, while the front showed a drawn eye that seemed almost half-asleep. A screen popped up, declaring its name Obsession.
The rat wrinkled its snout, its uneven whiskers standing up on end. “I am no witch! There are some things even I would not touch. A curse-type card is one of them.”
Devin flinched back. He looked at the card, feeling its insidious influence creep within his awareness despite being unactivated. “I see what you mean.”
Trying something, Devin directed his attention to the card, focusing on the flows of power he could sense within it.
Instead of reaching out with a mental hand, and subjugating the card to his will, Devin tipped the scales of power, letting it slowly spiral out of control.
Power fluctuated violently as the card burned white and shook uncontrollably, until it exploded into innumerable white shards and a singular, lumpy core.
Skill Gained!
Destroy (Uncommon)
A screen flashed in Devin’s face before he quickly dismissed it. “Is this enough?”
The rat merchant held up a palm, and the glitter that scattered through the room swirled into his hand, congregating into a neat pile. The storm of glitter slowed down, and Devin dropped the core into the merchant’s outstretched palm. “68 Rare Shards, 21 Uncommon, and a Skill Shard, which amounts to 13,710 shards.” The merchant said, enunciating every syllable of the transaction.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Awesome! That means I can afford the book with more to spare.” Devin tried to grab his shards and core from the rat’s hand, but he snatched it back.
“Wait a moment, dear customer. I have a proposition for you; it will be like winning the lottery, as you Earthlings say.” The rat merchant said with a greasy smile.
----------------------------------------
“I know I was exaggerating before, but this is literally just garbage, man.”
“Not garbage; treasure!”
The rat merchant had led Devin down the stairs hidden underneath his sales counter to a dark, smelly room lit only by the occasional dumpster and barrel fire. Heaps of junk and all types of garbage were laid out in massive piles. Occasionally, a piece of trash would spontaneously manifest, joining the mountain of trash below it.
“The Lost & Found Pits is where we get most of our products,” The merchant waved his arms as if that explained the phenomenon Devin was looking at, “but as you can see, it is mostly liquid assets.”
Dewey perched on the top of his head, trying to get as far away from the garbage and its smell.
“Job is simple. More magic items you find and dismantle, the more you can earn in store credit.”
Devin weighed the time he had left with the possible gain he could leave here with. There were still a few things on the front page he was interested in, like a Trial Card, or a Fruit of Ascension. Only problem was that they were extremely expensive.
With this opportunity, if he was able to find a lot of items to dismantle, it shouldn't be hard to get the shards he needed.
Keyword: shouldn’t. Devin shook his head.
It took a while to get over the disgusting mounds of trash. But even after Devin got used to stepping on dubious liquids and around the sharp bits, the search was still slow going.
There were a few items that had the telltale signs of supernatural qualities—the only thing worth comparing to artifacts in this garbage dump—and they were few and far inbetween. Thankfully, the search got slightly easier as Devin got better at pinpointing where their aura grated against his awareness originated.
I see why he ditch this chore to the first sucker he could. Why the hell am I shoveling through garbage when I can be back home, enjoying rust-filled air? Devin summoned the store card that brought him here, lingering on the option to leave.
Then he remembered his sister—the woman he hadn’t seen in years, and thought he would never see again. He remembered how she was waiting for him back at home, ready to wring him by the neck.
I guess I could afford to stay here for a little bit longer. What is a hour, or three in the grand scheme of things? With Bella there, there probably wasn’t anyone in town that could do a thing to the boys.
After a hour of work, Devin found five trinkets, which after breaking down with a flex of his skill amount to a measly thirty six shards of common quality, utterly abysmal for the sacrifice he put it.
“Fuck!” He swiped the pile of garbage he gathered to the side. “Should I just sacrifice another card?” Those cards would make his life a whole lot easier.
A ruffle drew his attention to his waist. Dewey was digging around his pockets, grasping at everything with its grubby fingers. Devin pulled the little guy out of his pocket, along with the skill shard he took back from the filthy merchant in its grasp.
He held the mouse at eye level to give it a berating stare, until he saw the rodent move the shard in his direction. A splurge of arcanium came from it, followed by a screen that popped into Devin's face.
Skill Shard: Focus
“You want me to use this?” Devin asked the mouse, who nodded. “You sure? This is worth a lot of money.”
“Alright, I guess.” He was skeptical, but accepted anyway. The mouse hadn’t steered him wrong yet.
Devin crushed the shard into powder, and his awareness was immediately pulled into his deckbox.
The starry space was similar to the mental battles of [subjugate], yet starkly different. The star that Devin recognized as his vault burned a violet light, while comets and a crimson constellation that orbited hsis incandescent vault.
It was a beautiful picture, but it was puny compared to the massive iceberg that ripped through the outer darkness to collide with his deckspace.
Devin prepared himself for the hit, but it never came.
The comet melted as it touched the outer atmosphere of his deckbox, breaking off into smaller bits. Its biggest fragment flew directly into Devin’s vault which rippled from the impact. The rest of the pieces and vapor scattered throughout his microcosm, nurturing every aspect of the skill, cards, and constructs it came into contact with.
Images, words, ideas, and knowledge sped through his mind at a velocity that Devin could barely follow. They flashed by faster than he could think, just barely leaving an impression before moving onto the next, and the next, and the next.
He tried to make sense of what he was witnessing, but he quickly realized that it was futile. Instead, he allowed his mind to linger on what he was absorbing.
What is the meaning of focus? The question came unbidden.
Most of the images, knowledge, and instincts translated into a resounding concentration. Obsession was merely a derivative; focus was the real core of the concept.
It wasn’t constrained to limits imposed by the focus of the human mind. Focus, and by extension concentration, existed in gradients.
Skill Gained!
Focus (Uncommon)
The first thing he noticed was how his deckspace seemed bigger in his mental vision, almost enough to fit another comet.
The second thing he noticed were several lingering fragments of the skill shard floating at the edge of his deckspace, already past the outer limit of his ring. They floated at the edge of his awareness, until the moment they were sucked someplace beyond his deckbox.
What Devin didn’t expect was for the icy debris to come flying right back, reentering his innerspace as it flew straight towards him. A cool, refreshing breeze filled his soul as a tether snapped into place.
Link Established!
Achievement—Empath
Create a link between
yourself and another entity
Reward: Summoner’s Bond Card Pack
A screen alerted him, throwing his awareness out of his core. Devin opened his eyes to see the mouse sitting on his chest, staring right back at him.
“What did you just do?” He asked it.
Her. The puffy mouse corrected him.