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The next time, Tom had been more judicious with his use of Maya. Sure, maybe he could use it on every member of the Neem Guild if he wanted to pry out every secret they had, but unless Tom’s party started junking uncommon cards, he wasn’t sure how they’d be able to pay for the months it would take to accomplish such a task.

Instead, when he had been on his own, with Aleph having returned to her hotel room, Tom decided to take fifteen minute walks to and fro the plaza, sometimes taking longer to return lest the Neem Guild catch on to suspicious behavior and try something.

Tom had seen many Neem Guild members enter and leave the headquarters, but he had refrained from using Maya on any of them. The older members, which there were few of, had high SP requirements, ranging from low sixties to a maximum of a hundred and five.

It came as no surprise to Tom that the Neem Guild had someone that, at least on paper, surpassed Zeth in the value they held to him. As tempted as he was by the secrets of the powerhouse, Tom had refrained from using Maya once again.

He had a particular sort of individual in mind. A young sort who possessed something that indicated a high station within the sect. Like the sect master’s son or daughter, or a prodigy full of swagger. In either of the cases, Tom did not expect them to have the mental resilience and resistance of an older, more experienced Guild Member.

So when he saw a young man leaving the Neem Guild, his steps sure as they were steady as he stepped into the plaza, decked in what had to be an armor set, considering that the helmet, chest piece and leggings seemed to be fashioned out of the same material. A leather base overlaid by a weave of vines that had been knitted into a protective mesh that wrapped around the wielder except perhaps for the barbute-like helmet, which sported a T-shaped open space that allowed the wielder’s light green eyes and grayish-white hair to peek out.

That had to be an uncommon armor set and from the looks of it, the man could not be older than twenty.

Sixty-five SP was all that was asked to cast Maya on the man, so Tom didn’t hesitate.

While Rowan didn’t manage to impose his will over Tom, it took him exceptionally long to rediscover himself in Rowan’s Maya.

Tom had to admit that he’d never met anyone with the sheer amount of clarity that Rowan possessed.

As it turned out, Rowan was the deputy guild leader of the Neem Guild. Which didn’t much, not until the current guild leader died or absconded. Still, until someone from the younger generation of the Neem Guild challenged Rowan for his position and won, his title would remain in his possession.

Everyone qualified to challenge Rowan was somehow related to either the current Guild Leader or one of the members of the guild’s upper echelon.

The Current Guild Leader had no children, so he had apparently decided to base succession on merit. Rowan was the current prospect as deputy, but there was no guarantee that it would last.

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The fascinating thing about Rowan was that he didn’t see it that way. In his mind, his victory was already set in stone and considering that his record was fourteen wins to zero losses, there was merit to his line of thought.

He would be the successor and he wanted the entire Nexus City: Bulwark to know it. That was his identity, that was the goal he was working towards and that was the reason why he continuously challenged himself to grow stronger.

Few could claim to have Uncommon (Mezzanine) Soul Card at birth and the years he had spent growing up with his card were years he had to master it. In his mind, Spectral whip was simply the ultimate card for one on one duels and he did not hesitate to exploit the advantage he had.

In battle, Rowan could call upon a translucent vine that had thorns jutting out of it, a whip that could only be dodged, not parried for it would simply pass through anything impeding it, whether that be a metal sword or thick plate armor to wrap around the organic, living life form he had targeted.

Once latched around his enemy’s waist, they would be immobilized for a minute and twenty five seconds, but that wasn’t all. For it wasn’t just an uncommon card, it was an uncommon (mezzanine).

During that time, Rowan could sap vitality from his opponent, directly proportional to the amount he’d lost.

If he was low on stamina, he could siphon the enemy’s stamina. If he was injured and bleeding, he could siphon their health to heal his own wounds and greatly weaken them.

The only downside was that he couldn’t move while Spectral Whip was immobilizing his enemy, but that was why he walked around with a rare artifact strapped to his back, a self-reloading magic crossbow that shot arrows formed out of force magic.

Of course, no lethal weapons were allowed in duels, so they usually ended with him using spectral whip to incapacitate his opponents. Long range attacks were his only dire weakness, but his uncommon artifact set would shield him against those kinds of attacks long enough for him to get behind cover or counter in a real combat scenario.

Tom had only managed to snap out of Rowan’s Maya after his arrogance had begun to rub him the wrong way. Rowan was kind of Tom’s exact opposite in personality, or atleast, Tom couldn’t imagine being that belligerent when he was expected to lead the people he kept pummeling in the ground with an effectively unparryable attack at their level.

It was bound to build resentment, a resentment that Rowan simply ignored and that way of thinking happened to be incompatible with Tom.

Well that and the fact the dissonance led him to inspect his surroundings more carefully, allowing him to discover the lanyard.

In the realm Yul, there were not one but three glittering gold stars and after he used resonance technique with the questions he absolutely had to know, the purpose, goals and strength of the Neem Guild, his instincts led to one of them.

Had Tom met Rowan a few years from now, there was no way he would've managed to even get a silver star, let alone attempt a gold.

As he floated in the midst of shining silver stars, Tom found that while the pressure was crushing, it lacked a dimension that the likes of Zeth and Zirel possessed.

As he thought back on Rowan’s personality, it didn’t take him long to figure out what that something was. Rowan possessed an extraordinary clarity that set him apart from most people his age, however, his ideals, convictions and beliefs had yet to be tested by reality, outside a testing ground that wasn’t sanitized by rules and regulations set by the Neem Guild.

Zirel and Zeth had both suffered hardships that had changed their perception of the world, that had altered their personalities and had led them to discover their true convictions. Zeth had lost to one he believed weaker than himself and that had led him to discover a new path to power while Zirel had been betrayed by his own family and that had unlocked a cold strength in him that gave him the strength to challenge those he should’ve instinctively feared.

Rowan was a sharp blade, but ultimately a brittle one, for he had not been tempered by the flames of fate.

That was why Tom could get to the Astral Gold stars and seize the one he sought for himself.