Max found the decision surprisingly difficult. Adding another card to his permanent deck was a big decision. He had added Augment to his deck on day one, but hadn’t used it once because of mana constraints. What if he missed some similarly important detail about one of the new cards? He would have to carefully examine each one.
Some cards were easy to reject. He had seen Glue Gun in action and knew he didn’t want that. It wouldn't be useful in combat and was barely useful as a tool. Maybe he would consider it if it had some magic spell, but it didn't.
Actuator was interesting, but not something he wanted to use right now. He could think of all kinds of neat gadgets that he could make with a mentally controlled hinge. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any way to fight with it. He wouldn't slot it into his permanent deck. He could always ask James to make him a bunch if he wanted to do some crafting later.
The remaining three cards seemed good, but he couldn’t be sure. The Circular Saw card sounded like the angle grinder power tool he was used to. That would make a good weapon and tool. But what if it was useless without the charge to make it spin?
The Adjust card was full of possibilities. Being able to change the magical effect that each magical tool held was a game changer. Instead of a hammer that smashed things well, he could create one that moved on its own or something. But he couldn’t control the results so who was to say he would ever want to use the magic it gave him?
The Denuder had a weird name, but promised a powerful effect. It could strip of the surface layer of something. That would be was useful in construction, but also in battle. What was skin if not the surface layer? He could imagine lasers stripping off a monster’s natural armor to make the next attack deadly. But what if he was wrong and the effect was slow and useless in battle?
Max shook his head. He was being ridiculous. He had already had James test out cards for him before, there was no reason not to have him test cards now.
“Sure, I can help. I’m already full on mana again. Quicken is awesome,” James said after he explained what he wanted.
Max spread out the three contenders and said, “Here is what I’m looking at. I’m leaning towards The Circular Saw or the Denuder. Adjust might be a winner, but it’s a backup to the other two.”
“Gimme the Denuder card. The Circular Saw card is too expensive,” James said.
Max handed one card over and checked the mana cost of the other. It was only 28 mana. He hadn’t even considered James wouldn’t have enough mana in his pool for that card. He must have upgraded his Quicken again, which had shrunk his mana pool once more.
James would be able to sling spells one after another, but soon he wouldn’t be able to use the majority of the cards Max could. The system choices they made were having compounding effects.
“What does this thing do, anyway?” James said as he looked at the small metal device in his hand.
“You didn’t even read the description before you made it?”
James shrugged, “I trust you.”
Max shook his head and took the Denuder from him. It was six inches by two, all metal. Soft curves gave it an organic feel. There was a nozzle on one end, and a hexagon button near the top. It felt strange in his hand, inhuman.
It was the first time he used a Citadel card and got something that couldn’t have come from earth. Usually the card pulled the design from the user’s mind. This was something wholly alien.
The question was, what kind of alien? Was this something Lunuk used in their gardens, or something the Builders used to create Spinworld?
With no answers forthcoming, Max pointed the Denuder at a nearby tree and pressed the hex button. Thousands of thin laser beams burst forward, playing over the tree, top to bottom. The lights cut out and a high pitched pop sounded.
Nothing happened at first, but then the leaves started falling. All of them. The oak tree lost every single leaf. A few seconds later, bits of bark started falling off, a little at a time.
Max walked up to the oak and touched it lightly. More sections of bark fell off, starting a cascade that left the tree naked. Lily clapped as if it had been a show. James took a bow. Max rolled his eyes.
The test showed that the Denuder card was good, particularly if it worked on monsters. Max worried slightly that it would change once he put it in his deck though. His other cards had a metal theme and that carried on to new cards he slotted in. What if the Denuder only worked on metal after the merge? He pulled up his system while he thought about his two choices. Denuder or Circular Saw.
He could just add both to his deck, he had two points after leveling up. But even if he ended up doing that, Max wanted to treat this decision with the seriousness it deserved. This would be with him for the rest of his life. Sort of. Once he had all six cards, they would merge together into one. He would always be able to add more cards to his deck as they merged together, he just wouldn't be able to take anything out.
He felt something click in his mind. Only one of these cards really resonated with him. The saw. Whether in combat or building things, Max wanted a saw. The Denuder could be great, but he wanted a saw.
His mind made up, Max put a point into Specialize and absorbed the Circular Saw card. He excitedly pulled up the description to see how it changed as it merged with his deck.
Advanced
Circular Saw
Citadel
Transmutes mana neutral matter within aura into a handheld metal circular saw able to cut through any mundane material.
Mana Cost: 24
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Refresh: 6.1 hours
Card Level: 2
Max’s eyes went wide. That was a much better card. It was advanced now, cost less mana, and had a shorter refresh time. What was really shocking was the change in the description. Now it said it could cut through any mundane material. As long as it wasn’t reinforced with magic, he could cut it. That was wild.
Excitedly, Max uprooted a fern and held it in his hand. He clicked the new mental button and watched as a school of tiny lights swam out to devour the fern and turn it into a circular saw.
When the last of the lights winked out he was left with a metal handheld tool. It had a foot long handle and a sharp disc on the end. It reminded him of an angle grinder. Unlike an angle grinder, the cutting disc was in line with the handle. It was six inches wide and had tiny serrations all along the edge. Just like the Denuder, it had a hexagon button on the side. There was an empty socket at its base, just like the glue gun.
Its first victim was the tree Max had just stripped. It was going to die anyway, he might as well cut it up. He pressed the button and a faint whine started up. The disc’s edge grew fuzzy. Starting small, Max pressed the saw into an oak limb first.
The branch fell to the ground. Max hadn’t even put any pressure on the limb. The circular saw passed through it like it wasn’t even there. The cut wood was smooth and straight, like it had been polished.
Max took a step back and stared at the cutter. This was like a lightsaber. It could cut through anything with hardly any feedback. It was a marvelous weapon, but just as dangerous to him as it was to his enemies. He would have to be very careful.
He brought the spinning disc to the main trunk of the tree. It sunk in without effort, stopping at the handle. Max easily widened the cut to the sides, hoping to cut the tree down. He made it halfway around the tree when the cutter died. He probably needed to socket in a white core in order to power it to continue.
For some reason, he still wanted to cut the tree down. He mentally pushed on the circular saw, willing its magic to activate. A silver sheen covered the disc and then shot forward, expanding as it went. The circle of magic expanded until it was four feet wide. It flew forward twelve feet and dissipated into a sparkly mist.
The tree stood there motionless.
Then it started to slide off the base. Max yelled “Timber!” and jumped out of the way. The twenty foot tall oak tree fell to the ground, branches shattering as it landed.
James gave him a solid high five and Yang gave him a nod.
“Now that you’ve made firewood, are we ready to go?” Lily said.
Max realized he couldn’t win them all. “We can go. I just wanted to test my new weapon.”
Just as they were about to set out again, Gus fell to his knees as a change rippled through him. He lost two feet, his skin cleared up and his clothes were loose again. He was back to normal.
“Oh, thank god,” Gus said. “I thought I was going to be stuck like that forever.”
“I think you looked better before,” Yang said.
“Ooh, harsh,” Max said as he laughed.
Gus picked up a pinecone and threw it at her. She disappeared into the brush before it hit. Her laughter showed she was still nearby.
“Now that you can talk again, what was up with you eating that brown core? It was worth ten or more of the little ones,” Max said.
Gus put his hand to his mouth and worked his jaw. “I don’t really know why I did it. It was just instinct. The core smelled fantastic. It was delicious too.”
Max tilted his head. “So, what, Troll Form makes you eat cores?”
“It doesn’t make me do anything, but I think I know what happened. The description on my card said the transformation is supposed to last a few minutes, but I was a troll for more than an hour.”
“One hour, forty-eight minutes,” Lily interjected.
Gus gave her a look. “Anyway, I think eating the core made me last longer.”
“Like magic viagra,” Max said. Gus sputtered as Max continued, “It makes sense. The power to keep you transformed has to come from somewhere. The brown core was broken down to grant you strength and healing.”
“Something like that, yeah.” Gus said. “But I don’t wanna be a troll again anytime soon. I hate not being able to talk.”
“Stay human for now. You can save the potion for emergencies,” Max said. “Let’s head out. We’ve got miles and miles to go.”
“Before that, do you happen to have shoes I can borrow? My troll feet burst through these ones and I don’t want to hurt my human feet.”
Max did have a spare pair, but didn’t want to give them up in case they were ruined as well. Instead, he bound Gus’ shoes back together with duct tape. They worked perfectly after that. Duct tape was truly a wonder.
They set out again, trudging through the forest. They went slower on Yang’s insistence. She needed the time to find and avoid monsters. The raptor ambush had rattled her.
Max was happy to divert around monsters, but that slowed them down even further. They were getting a firsthand look at how much Ebba had done for them with her Disregard card.
A few encounters were unavoidable, but Max made quick work of the tier one monsters. A Void Cat, Snake Ent, and Trilobite Scorpion all fell to his crossbow, saw, and hammer. The others brought their magic to bear as well, but the fight was always over by then.
While they walked, Max debated what to do with his final free stat point. Did he want to give himself an option to add a card to his deck? There weren’t any cards he wanted right now. Except maybe Adjust. He had passed over it earlier because it wouldn’t be immediately useful. However, it would be wildly useful later on.
He decided to add the stat point to Specialize to but not use the card just yet. He would give himself a week or two before he filled that slot in his magic deck.
Throughout the day Max continued to build their arsenal, arming everyone with the weapon of their choice. Yang was particularly enamored with the cutting ability of the saw. Sadly, the silver slice and the disc spinning were both dependent on a magic charge, so the tool was only useful for a short time before it needed a six hour recharge. Either that or a white beast core, but that would be wasteful if it wasn’t an emergency.
When Lily said that night would be falling soon, Max started looking for a place to camp. He used Levitate to reduce his mass and scurried up a sycamore tree. Climbing at half weight was so much easier than before.
Thick forest surrounded them on all sides, so there wasn’t much to differentiate one spot from another. Max saw something deeply disappointing in the distance.
It was the city of Twelve Meditations. They hadn’t made it far today. He turned and looked towards the mountains north of them. They didn’t seem any closer. They were going to have to figure out a way to speed up.
He hopped down the tree, leaping from branch to branch. He only missed once and didn’t get too hurt.
“We can stop over there for the night. There are some brambles that should discourage monsters from wandering nearby.” Max said and pointed a short distance spinward. As they walked over, he continued, “We’ll have to set watch tonight. Without Ebba, the monsters that hunt at night won’t ignore us.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Yang said.
Max nodded and said, “I’ll take the middle watch. Gus, you ok with taking last watch?”
Gus grimaced. “Can I stand watch tomorrow night? Being a troll all day has really taken it out of me.”
“That’s fine. Lily, you good with taking the last watch instead?”
“Sure.” She said seriously.
“James, Gus, you two can stand watch tomorrow night.” Max pretended that it was random chance that James wasn’t chosen. The truth was that Max knew his friend had trouble staying up late without falling asleep. He wanted to make sure they had their best people keeping a lookout. He had a bad feeling about tonight.