Chapter 2
“General Reshual, Give me your report.”
“Yes your majesty. We have confirmed those accursed demons have killed another one. We are unsure as to why the demons attacked Earth. There is nothing of value and there is no human with any powers or magic there. I wonder, did they just want to spill blood needlessly or was there a purpose to this madness? Though we have confirmed that the demons have left Earth, the demons seem to be going to different worlds and killing in a similar fashion.
“However we can’t send any more of our troops to follow them. We already have 2 full scale wars being waged against the Nightling Empire and the Elven Trade Union. Our army of duelists are already fighting on too many different fronts as it is. We currently don’t have the resources to teleport to different worlds chasing demons, even more so if those worlds seemingly have nothing of value.”
“General do you know if the last deceased have any aptitude with the system unlike the last ones?” “Yes, your majesty. Like the other ones we found deceased, this man also used cards for games. It’s actually interesting that this world was able to came up with games that are similar to how our society and magic works. However, it seems that the demon which killed him cursed him your majesty.”
“We have encountered instances of curses being placed on our armies from demons before. This man may yet be useful. Have you identified the curse General?”
“Not entirely, your majesty. For some reason most of the information is incapable of being read. We have surmised the rituals on the other victims may have had something to do with it. What we do know is that this curse has to do with blood.”
“Did the demons curse any of the other victims Reshual?” “Yes your majesty however none of them were saved due to a lack of power and magic. With our ongoing war against the Nightling’s, any person with an affinity related to blood as been captured, killed, or turned and forced to work for them. With them doing so their fighting force has become formidable. I recommend obliterating this man’s soul to keep the Nightling’s from obtaining another tool against our empire. One that could potentially turn the tide of the war against us.”
“I see. However I think he may be useful in the coming conflicts. General Reshual, I order you to entreat the goddess of life to resurrect this man’s soul in a new body. Use our power to allow him to choose his any race, except anything demonic. The pantheon will bless him with one or more feats and our cardsmith’s will help him to build his first deck. We will send him to one of the smaller worlds to get some experience and to grow. Make sure to inform the guilds of this so he can register. After that it is on him to overcome the challenges that come before him. If he is able to distinguish himself in a manner befitting this great empire then we shall reward him. If not, then he will die for the last time.”
“As your command, your Highness. Glory to the Hegemonic Empire!”
*Resurrection Complete, Awakening Soul*
“Hello William.” I hear a feminine voice say to me.
“TURN OFF THE LIGHTS! It’s way to bright. What the heck is going on? Where am I and why can’t I move or see anything?!” I scream.
“Greetings and salutations, William Edgar Heath. I am the goddess of life Ankheno. You have been chosen to be revived and added to the ranks of duelists in the Hegemonic Empire. I will allow you to choose your race, look, and initial stats. Please make your choices now.”
“What the heck are you talking about?! I don’t understand what’s going on at all” I screamed!
“Your confusion is understandable. Where you came from, Earth, had no magic at all. However, you were deemed to have a latent affinity for magic by the Empire. I was entreated by them to resurrect you. We, the pantheon of this world, allow this to happen once every 1000 years. If you have any questions please ask them calmly and I will answer each of them as much as possible.”
“Fine… here is a question for you. What the heck happened to my body?!” I ask incredulously.
“Your body was destroyed when we resurrected you. During this process you will be allowed to choose what race you will be and how you want to look however, your name will remain the same.”
“OK, next question, what am I supposed to do?” I whisper. “Survive and if possible thrive. If you succeed in the quest you are given, they will reward you.”
“That sounds simple enough. You said something I had an affinity for magic. What did you mean by that?”
“You will have a new body with the power to summon monsters. Your had something similar in concept to this magic on your world. I believe you called them cards. Also the game that you played had tribes for creatures I believe. It’s something similar to that.”
“Hold on,” I said. “Are you telling me that magic of this world is based on trading cards? You can’t be serious. Don’t get me wrong, if that was actually true, I wouldn’t mind it at all. However, most conceptual ideas of how magic works in our games and entertainment is based off of using mana stored inside your body. Along with spells learned from a book, teacher or something like that. Can you give me a reason why it’s the former and not the latter?”
“Mana is used to cast spells and summon monsters and the people of developed worlds use cards as the medium in which to give mana a form and direction. Only extremely primitive, undeveloped worlds use mana without cards. Spells being cast without any thought or rules led to many worlds to ruin because there wasn’t anything to inhibit it from running wild. Such worlds are almost entirely non-existent because we, the pantheon, have worked with the pantheons of other worlds to develop the same system for each world.”
“That makes sense if the spells people cast didn’t have anything to keep it in check. You said I could make a new body. How do I do that?” I ask as I try and locate the goddess by her voice.
“You need only speak or think the word ‘Status’ to pull up your character sheet.”
I wonder if all of this is real or if I’m actually just hallucinating before my death. However, there isn’t really a reason not to trust this information. It’s not like I can die again without a body if they are being honest.
“Status.”
Status:
Name: William Edgar Heath
Race: None
Affinity: Blood
Level: 0
XP: 0/0
Life: 0/0
Mana: 0/0
Feats: None
Skills: None
Skill Points: 0
Deck Size: 0/0
Starting Hand Size: 0
Card Shards: 0
Curse: Blood Pact*
“Why is everything blank except my affinity and why do I have a curse? I thought I would have a new body. I don’t even remember being cursed in my old body. Also, would you please help me understand all of this information?”
“Certainly. Your race is blank because you have yet to choose one. One’s affinity usually affects what monsters and spells are most effective in your deck. Monsters or spells in your deck will have a sub type related to your affinity. If you only use cards related to your affinity in your deck, the cards However, you seem to be abnormal because most sentient beings have an affinity to a particular type of monster. I don’t seem to have much information on your affinity, which isn’t based around a monster type, so you will have to learn that on your own. The curse placed on your soul by the entity that killed you can not be removed by the pantheon.”
“We have analyzed it as much as we can. The curse makes it where you can choose to use your health instead of mana to cast spells. You will be shunned by most if you use your vitality instead of mana because the act would be gruesome. Not only that, but every duelist tries to avoid taking damage as much as possible for reasons you will experience when fighting. Most people are very fanatical when it comes to mana, because of what happened with the other worlds that I told you about, being destroyed. We are very sorry you will have to endure this.” I hear her say sadly to me.
Well that sucks. I have to start my new life with a curse. Though I can see some extremely strong combos coming from the curse. Almost every decent player knows that your life is a resource just as much as your mana.
“I will now go over the rest of your Character sheet. Your level is your power given as a numerical value and your XP, also known as experience, allows you to get level up and get stronger. Your Life is your vitality displayed to you and those in your party as a red bar with a numerical value inside it. You can’t increase or go above your maximum life total without leveling. Mana is the amount of power that you can channel through your body in a given turn. It will be displayed as a blue bar with a numerical value in it as well also being displayed to you and your party as well.”
“Hold on! What do you mean by turn? Are you telling me that people that fight just wait for everyone to take their time before they attack each other. That doesn’t seem realistic at all. Even if magic is real, I don’t think most people would just wait patiently and give their enemy a chance to kill them,’ I yelled.
“You are correct William. People don’t just stand there and wait to be attacked. However, each world has the same system in which turns exist to allow people to channel power without overloading their system. If they were to channel to much mana through their body they would lose life which would lead to their death sooner. A turn is defined on each world as lasting 30 seconds. Also, if you join a guild, they usually have tournaments to see who the best duelist is. Turns operate slightly different during tournaments but are functionally the same. Is that sufficiently enough information to answer your question?” “Yes, please continue,’ I said.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“A feat is something you earn by leveling up. You acquire a feat every 5 levels. Feats are boons granted by the system to allow you to survive and thrive more. You however, will be allowed to start with 2 feats because of the curse that was afflicted on you. People born on these worlds regardless of their race never get the opportunity for such a boon. Don’t waste it.
“Your skills and skill points go hand in hand. When you level up you receive skill points. The amount of skill points you get go up with every 4 levels. Each time you level up, you recieve 5 skill points. You receive one more skill point each level after every 4 levels gained. You may spend these skill points on increasing your maximum life, mana and deck size and your starting hand size. You also have the chance to acquire skills to make yourself and your monsters stronger. You may spend your skill points on your skills to level them up. However, each level of the skill requires a certain amount to level it depending on the skill”
“Each 2 skill points into life gives you 5 more maximum health and you get 1 more maximum mana every 5 skill points per level. It takes 3 skill points per level to increase your deck size by 5 and it takes 4 skill points to increase your starting hand size by 1.
“Your Deck Size is the maximum amount of cards that you can put into your deck. You may have 4 copies of a specific card in your deck. However, keep in mind that will lower your options of drawing other cards that you may need. Your hand size is the maximum amount of cards that you begin a duel with. You draw two more cards every turn but you’ll experience it on your own.”
“Card Shards are a type of currency. They are dropped from any monster or sentient that you kill. You can use them in addition or in place of the normal currency that you may acquire to purchase goods. Furthermore, you may also take your Card Shards to a cardsmith and have a new card forged. The result is random but it tends to be related to your affinity. The rarity of the card created is based on how many shards are used to make it.
“Each rarity has a certain number of shards that are required for the smith to craft it. You don’t have to worry about that currently. You can also acquire cards from other duelists if you kill them however, I strongly discourage you from going around killing people. You won’t live very long if you do so. You will learn more when you visit the royal cardsmith when you are sent before the king who entreated me for your soul. Most cards and some feats also have what you would have called flavor text on the cards in your world. If that is all the information you will require I would ask you to create your new body.”
Everything I was told make sense for some weird reason even though it was information overload.. Maybe I am just in shock because I understood everything, though I don’t know how I could be without a physical body currently. I pulled up my status, clicked Race and it opened a menu with what looks to be a character creator from a standard role playing game.
I see a list of possible races and my goodness there are so many. I see everything from normal fantasy races like halflings, elves, dwarves, half-orcs and even the regular old human race. I notice monster races like goblin, orcs, minotaurs, vampires and what looks like some type of roach person. *Bleh* There was also many more that I don’t even recognize. For some reason the demon race is grayed out though but, I didn’t even want to be one because I was killed by one. As I keep looking through the list I notice an extreme amount of race hybrids so I decide to ask the life goddess, Ankheno, about it.
“Why are there so many different races and how does choosing one affect how I will live? Also, why does it seem like there are a bunch of half this-half that races?”
“Every race you see there is sentient and able to cast magic through cards. Each race is favored or is disfavored depending on which world you are currently on. The place you will come into being is simply called ‘The Hegemonic Empire’. They are very open to most races for the most part. Certain so-called monster races are usually despised no matter which world you are on. Please keep that in mind when you make your decision. The reason there are so many different half races is because people procreate with whoever they want without restriction to race. However, certain worlds are more homogeneous than others.”
Different strokes for different folks huh. I guess no matter which world you are on, people are always going to find things that they are turned on by, even if for some reason that person chooses to have a fetish for roach people. Which I have absolutely no idea how that would work and I never want to know. Seriously, don’t ever tell me. I hate roaches so much.
I decide to look at the elf races because who doesn’t love being some type of elf. They are tall, awesome and good with magic in almost every fantasy game. Though I do remember one game having them be cannibals. Though for some reason I can’t remember the name. Either way, as I continue to look at the elf sub-races I notice that a dhampir version of elves exist.
If you don’t know what a dhampir is, I’ll enlighten you. A dhampir is born when a vampire uh… copulates with a human. Though for some reason it looks as if a dhampir can be born from any race here. I chose to pick an Eclipse Elf Dhampir. Dhampir is because my affinity is blood so I thought it would be cool for thematic reasons. I chose an Eclipse Elf because its not a normal type of elf you would ever see or hear of in a game. Also the fact that that look and sound absolutely radical and I hope it helps with any weakness the sun may afflict me with from being a Dhampir.
After I confirm my choice, a menu with what looks like it has a bunch of sliders appears before me. The sliders range from anything from height, hair color, skin color, eye color, muscle tone, to even genital size for some reason. It kind of reminds me of a certain game that I watched my brother play when I was younger. I end up making myself six and a half feet tall with a toned body. For some reason my skin was always slightly gray no matter what I did, I guess because I was a dhampir, though I was able to choose a nice color because of it. I make my skin look like charcoal after it was lit bright gray with tones of crimson around my ears.
I made my hair platinum white based off a fairy villain from a game about transforming into a dragon suit. I always thought that guy looked cool. I made my eyes look like the sun during an eclipse with a blood moon, a dark crimson with highlights of a bright gold halo around the edges.
Though I will not tell you how big I made myself. You don’t need to know. Pervert!
“I’m finished making my character uh… I mean my handsome and sexy new body. May I choose my feats now?” As I say this I feel my perspective shift. I realize that I feel whole and look down to see my new body. As I do, I find myself in a pair generic black trousers and a black shirt. I was wondering why I couldn’t find any options for clothing. I flex all the muscles, stretching in ways I could never achieve in my old body. I try one pose at a time to get used to how I felt.
“Yes, you may choose your feat from the list in your status. All you need to do is click Feats and it will show you the choices currently available. Remember to choose wisely because once you confirm your choice, you will never get another free feat ever again. Lastly, each feat you see during this selection will be unique to you and based off of you affinity. This is most likely the only time you will have these options presented before you.”
I see a list pop up in front of me and there is 5 different options to choose from. All of them are ridiculously strong for multiple different play styles and deck building. I really need to think long and hard here.
Feats Available:
Bloody Snackrifice: You may sacrifice any target unit you control and gain Life equal to its health. You may go above your maximum life total with this feat but you revert to your maximum given life total at the end of each fight/duel. Limited to once per turn.
(The steak was quite sublime, though a little rare.)
Bloody Relics: You may may destroy any target relic by spending life equal to its mana cost.
(I guess you can get blood from a stone.)
Bloody Mana: You may spend half your life rounded up, to double your total mana for that turn. Limited to once per fight/duel.
(The path to power requires blood, sweat, and tears... but mostly blood.)
Blood and Darkness: You may spend life equal to target friendly unit’s attack to give it the keyword ‘Darkness’ until end of turn. You may target a unit which is controlled by your party members. Limited to twice per turn. (Darkness: Unit cannot be blocked by any enemy unit that does not have the keyword ‘Darkness’. It can’t be targeted by any spells, feats, skills and abilities until the end of the turn.)
(Cape and utility belt not included.)
Bloody Bomb: You may sacrifice any target unit you control and Choose one: Deal damage equal to its attack to target enemy unit or duelist. Limited to once per turn; Destroy all enemy units with health less than or equal to the sacrificed unit’s current health. Limited to once per fight/duel.
(I’m here to blow stuff up and chew bubble gum,
and I’m all of gum.)
These choices are insanely broken if you can build around them! It seems that the people in these worlds don’t think of life as a resource like in some of the games back on Earth, though I wonder why that is? Maybe that’s why the goddess before me apologized. The biggest standout and clear winner in all of these choices has to be Bloody Snackrifice. The goddess said that you can’t go above your life total but this feat completely breaks that rule wide open.
Bloody Relics and Blood and Darkness have their uses but, they are more situational. If my opponent’s don’t use relics at all, whatever those are, then Bloody Relics will be completely useless. Blood and Darkness is cool to use as a finisher. I could target a unit I control and attack my opponent unmolested but, after I target it, my opponent nor I can do anything else to it. Which isn’t a bad thing but what if I need to sacrifice it to Bloody Snackrifice to not die? That would be a horrible situation.
Bloody Mana is another feat that completely breaks the rules that were outlined to me. Being able to use twice the amount of mana in a turn is amazingly strong. However, the cost of half my life rounded up is prohibitively expensive if I start with a low maximum amount of life in this world. Though I would assume the reason for the life lost using this feat would be because the rules about how if you channel to much mana through your body at once, you lose life anyway. Maybe this feat just allows me to use that for my benefit.
Bloody Bomb is what you would consider as removal. Removal in card games usually allows you to spend a card to destroy one or more or the opponent’s monsters or other permanent things they control. It can target one specific thing, usually what I refer to as “Screw you in particular”, or it can be a board wipe. Board wipes are usually expensive to cast mana or resource wise but they destroy things indiscriminately. Having targeted removal that I can use every turn and the ability to board wipe, innately as a feat, is one of the most broken things you can do in a card game. All it cost’s is my life.
After thinking about it and weighing the pros and cons, there are only 2 feats that I think are worth choosing no matter what. I choose the ‘Blood and Snackrifice’ and ‘Bloody Bomb’ feats. Here is what my status looks like after confirming all of my choices.
Status:
Name: William Edgar Heath
Race: Eclipse Elf Dhampir
Affinity: Blood
Level: 0
XP: 0/100
Life: 10/10
Mana: 3/3
Feats: Blood and Snackrifice, Bloody Bomb
Skills: None
Skill Points: 0
Deck Size: 0/10
Starting Hand Size: 3
Card Shards: 0
Curse: Blood Pact*
“Anhkeno, goddess of life, if I am expected to venerate you because you ressurected me… well you can just kiss my brand new behind. I only believe in God and I will not bow or capitulate to anyone or anything else.” After saying this, I get knocked face first to the non-existent ground.
“It seems after all we, the pantheon, have done for you, you are an ungrateful and profane heathen. No, you aren’t forced to venerate us, though it was assumed. It seem that you are ready to leave. I will be sending you before the King that entreated me. I have blessed you with the ability to understand all languages, even if you don’t deserve it, so you may communicate effectively. This is not considered a skill but more of a boon which will not show up on your status. This is the last time you will ever speak to any of this pantheon. Good luck with everything and may you try to survive and thrive. Though if you don’t, you will meet us again. I assure you when that happens you will bow!”
As the self proclaimed goddess finishes her sentence my surroundings turn blinding white. I feel my whole body become weightless and wracked with pain. I focus on staying lucid however, I can’t help I wonder what and how cardsmithing works.