Welcome, Alster. [You will only see this message once.]

Select your preferred color scheme. [You will only see this message once.]

There was a nice selection to choose from. A color wheel like from the paint program that comes with all computers popped up on the rectangle. I ended up choosing a black background with white letters. I always preferred dark mode as it was easier on the eyes.

Deck Dashboard (Normal)

Spellcards

Utility: 0

Normal: 2 [Select] _ Passive: 1 General: 1

Great: 0 _ Passive: 0 General: 0 Dark: 0 Holy: 0

Epic: 0 _ Passive: 0 General: 0 Dark: 0 Holy: 0 Summon: 0

Ultimate: 0 _ Passive: 0 General: 0 Dark: 0 Holy: 0 Summon: 0 Creation: 0

God: 0 _ World: 0

Attributes

Strength: 10 (+25%) Mind: 13 (+25%) Spirit: 20 (+25%) Agility: 10 (+25%)

Skills

None

Status

None

A dashboard? Like on a computer program?

I selected the button next to the Normal category and the cards I’d registered showed up. There was more info on them than before.

Card of Water (Normal) (General)

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

(River pictured)

[The wielder of this card may call forth torrents of water as they see fit. 10,000 Gallons of water per day. Card recharges over 24 hours.]

So these are Normal cards, second from the bottom in rank. Woah! The water card can summon enough water to fill a small swimming pool. Daily recharge? So if I use it all, I have to wait 24 hours. But it also recharges on its own over time.

I checked the other card.

Card of General Skill Mastery (Normal) (Passive)

(saw, hammer, other tools pictured)

[The wielder of this card earns physical skill levels at a faster rate. All attributes increased by 15%. If paired with other cards, effects may increase.]

This one didn’t specify a cooldown, so I assumed it passively increased all my Attributes by 15% and increased the rate I acquired skill levels. The dashboard said 25%, so that must have meant the first card was also putting in some work.

Paired with other cards, huh? So just by having more cards, one card’s effects may get stronger. Cool.

That must have been why I’d been feeling so good since I registered it.

I did my first test. I imagined a sphere of water like a beach ball in front of me. A clear sphere of perfectly still water about a foot in diameter manifested in the air. I freaked out and the ball splashed on the ground, wetting the floorboards.

Shit. I shouldn’t do it here. The wood in my room is gonna rot.

I tiptoed out of my room but ended up walking normally when I saw that Matilda and Trent were out of the living room and only Granny Eleonore was sleeping. I could hear moaning from Trent’s room.

Don’t make me a brother, you hear? The last thing I need is an infant’s crying.

I hurried outside to the back of the house. Our place was surrounded by trees and only the chief’s and two other houses were anywhere close by, so it felt safe to use the water card.

I again created a sphere of water. It floated in the air for about five seconds before falling again.

I tried making a bigger one. I again succeeded. I kept doubling the size of the ball until the ball was about five feet in diameter. I blinked fast.

I’d just realized I made a ball so huge I could fit it inside it with only my head poking out.

If I let this go now, I’ll be soaked!

I imagined throwing up and over a thicket of trees. The ball moved quickly, against the force of gravity, but it didn’t reach as far as I was imagining. Horizontally, it went about fifteen feet, and vertically about ten, eventually crashing into the branches of two adjacent trees The impact was spread over many leaves and sharp wood with about half spilling immediately on the ground. A bird’s nest with two birds dropped from a tree. The birds were too soaked to fly and seemed to be unconscious. I thought I’d killed them.

So I can move the water I make. But I have to do it before it falls naturally on its own. And once it starts moving it can’t change direction.

I checked how much water I had left. I’d used up almost 600 gallons so far. 10000 gallons wouldn’t go as far as I thought. Now I wished I’d paid more attention in math. There was probably some formula to calculate the biggest water ball I could make.

I bet my roommate would know.

He didn’t party with everyone else the first day so he could wake up early for class. That nerd probably read textbooks for fun and memorized formulas. Yeah, if only Elfindor was here.

I decided not to push my luck and go to sleep.

It was enough that I got the cards to work. I felt accomplished and unstoppable.

The cold, hard bed I slept in felt like a king’s that night.