A gentle sea breeze blows amidst a blue sky riddled with puffy white clouds slowly floating above the city. The sound of hurried footsteps on rough dirt echoed down the quiet street of Kalamar's outskirts as Neon, Trell and Sal came into view. The former's robe was still damp at the hem, clinging to her calves, and her satchel swayed with every step, stuffed with spell notes and damp paper.
The men nodded at Neon and briskly walked a step ahead—eyes alert, lips pressed into a thin line. In his mind the store owner was a crazy kid selling artifacts to anyone like a wastrel. 12 gold coins or 1.2 magicoins for possibly 9 artifacts is such an insane steal, this is no business but a devil distributing his goods under the guise of attractive and entertaining people, while Sal was the same as Neon, infinitely curious with these so called cards.
In front of them, a glass-walled shop stood ahead. They could see that it was filled with customers, and a line still snaked outside. As they approached near they saw James and the mercenary couple Elaine and Robin standing near the store but not in line. As the pair approached, James gave them a brief nod. Trell saw the couple looked through the clear glass walls with worried faces.
Inside, the children were playing with all sorts of people. It seemed they had become dueling teachers to the adults gathered around the tables, as they enthusiastically showed how cards are played and answered any question the people had. There were some thuggish looking people, merchants, mercenaries, city guards, hooded figures, and all sorts of characters playing on the tables, standing beside the tables to watch other people play, and people on the line coming up to buy from the counter.
They can see the young store owner, Alucard looking a bit haggard with a stiff smile while selling and talking to customers. Far from the image they had in mind of a scheming artifact seller with dubious designs. This lessened their suspicions that roused after experiencing the cards' hidden mechanics, but they still wanted to demand an explanation.
With a serious gaze, James glanced at the two mages, "So "I'm assuming you came because of the… cards."
Neon said nothing at first. Her expression remained calm, lips flat, but her eyes shimmered faintly at the sight of the dueling tables through the glass. Her gaze locked onto the projected image of a metallic fish above a game board.
She clutched her bag tighter, after a few seconds she pulled out the field spell card Umi and showed it to everyone. "The card... It responded to mana," she said softly.
James grunted. "Same thing happened to me. Touched one while training my ki, Then a... uh, a monster appeared... Scared the hell out of me... it disappeared when I suddenly let go of the card due to my shock."
"That's impossible," Trell replied, voice low. "Projection without casting? No medium, no trigger glyphs? And the monster didn't attack you?"
"Yeah, normally, artifacts that contained sealed monsters have very aggressive guys that attack on the spot unless it's one of those rare artifacts with tamed contracts." Sal added.
James thought wryly, Well, I was definitely 'attacked'. "No it just appeared, stared at me, then disappeared the moment I threw the card away." he replied to Trell.
"What about you two? Did anything happen with your cards?" Trell turned towards the couple.
Elaine let out a soft chuckle. "No, we were just running errands and came to meet Annie. James gave us the rundown, so we're on standby… just in case something does happen." Robin nodded on the side.
Seeing that nothing has happened so far, they opted to wait after store hours and went in to watch their children play the games and accompany them for their safety.
~~
Alucard closed the shop as soon as the red light of dusk enveloped the city, much to the complaints of his customers who argued since his shop has light stones (what they thought the LED lights were) they can just continue playing till it's dark. Alucard refused as he was dog tired and wanted to go outside and buy food from the food stalls on the city's main street. Soon everyone left, carefully and securely stashing their expensive cards on their person. He also saw a glimpse of the ninja from yesterday taking the kids home.
As he was going to flip the store sign to close, a fully armored James showed up in front of his doorstep, behind him were the other kids, they all had stern faces... well except the pair of one buff elf and bright eyed mage apprentice.
Alucard, reluctantly led them inside seeing that the captain of the city guards wouldn't budge with his fierce expression. He threw his hands up and smiled stiffly, "Alright, alright, what did I do this time?" he asked helplessly.
Without a word, Trell stepped forward pulled out his Sword of Deep-Seated equip spell card and injected mana into it. The card flashed and turned into the aforementioned sword while he kept injecting mana. He stopped his mana flow and the sword turned back into a card. Elaine was surprised as this was the first time she saw the cards do something aside from looking cool and artistic.
Neon showed the card Umi, "This card too, but I don't flood your store." she briefly quipped.
"What are you exactly selling here, young man? These are artifacts worth more than at least 100 magicoins when sold on underground markets." Trell stared at Alucard, patiently waiting for a reasonable explanation. So far the young man in front of him has been cordial and polite, but due to recent events he had to make sure that this is not the exiled noble connected to the cult of the Pitch Black Gathering.
Alucard scratched his head in embarrassment, "Ah... you guys already found out the hidden mechanic so early. I thought it would take at least three days before someone finds it out."
"Well, these cards have another purpose. You can summon and activate the cards as long as you have the required mana or ki, meaning the stronger the individual, the more cards they can summon and use outside of the game." He explained briefly.
"You mean, one can actually summon THE Blue Eyes White Dragon as long as one has enough ki or mana? But when I accidentally 'summoned' a monster it only lasted while I held the card with my ki covered hands." James doubted what Alucard said because what he did was not summoning a monster, yet he hoped that it could be possible. Just the thought of being able to summon and control the majestic engine of destruction made him tingle.
"There are certain rules when it comes to summoning and activating cards, What you guys did was inject mana into the cards and that can have various effects depending on the card you are injecting mana to. To summon and activate cards, they need to be in a 40 to 60 card deck, for fusion monsters and such, you need to assign them to an extra deck and you can have as many as 15 in an extra deck. You are only allowed 3 copies per card, this may change for certain cards in the future." Alucard said as he showcased his fully blinged out Blue Eyes Deck.
"What is the difference in summoning and activating cards to just injecting mana into them?" Elaine raised her hand as she asked.
"Great question, The difference is pretty significant. An example is with Trell's Sword of Deep-Seated, as an equip spell card it will be equipped to you as long as you keep injecting mana into it. But it is more efficient to activate the card, activating the card will instantly consume a set amount of mana and will keep the equip spell active for an hour. Here let me show you-" Alucard pulled out an equip spell card from his deck and held it up.
"I activate Axe of Despair and equip it to myself!" A sharp hand axe with a green creepy shriveled-up smiling head fused on top of the handle appeared on Alucard's hand. His tier almost went up to D-, and the crowd felt that his aura got a lot stronger. "It's more efficient doing it this way since you spend less mana or ki. Also, you don't have to yell to activate cards, it's just cooler that way so I did it." he said with a cheeky grin.
"The artifact seems more solidified and stable! When captain equipped it, it did feel powerful but it was odd like it didn't fully materialize in this world even though it was tangible!" exclaimed Sal, to which Trell nodded with furrowed brows.
"Right, because this time the equip spell card has been activated. You can deactivate the spell card by just saying or thinking deactivate." Alucard explained as the eerie hand-axe vanished and turned back to being a card.
"What about Neon's spell card, it's called Umi which you call a field spell card." Trell asked as he saw Neon wanting to say something but couldn't find the timing to speak. Neon nodded to him in gratitude and put forward the field spell.
Alucard took the card but did not activate it yet. "As you know, there are multiple kinds of spell cards, the same applies with monster and trap cards. Each type of card will have a different effect. For field spell cards, you have to be careful when injecting mana into it. It will project the element or material inside the card art, activating it is a different matter. If you read field spell cards, they indicate their effects that apply to your field, like Umi which says: All Fish, Sea Serpent, Thunder, and Aqua monsters on the field gain 200 ATK/DEF, also all Machine and Pyro monsters on the field lose 200 ATK/DEF."
"Field spells differ from other cards, in which when they are activated in the real world, it opens a domain that applies enhancing and/or hindering effects on allies and enemies. You just have to read the card's effect to get a gist and experiment to confirm which effects apply." Alucard handed the card back to Neon.
"Hmm... Will test out all the cards before my mission..." whispered Neon.
Grabbing another card from his deck, he showed a normal monster card. "Now, monster cards can be summoned if certain requirements are met. The first, and most important requirement is the overall strength of the user. There could be other requirements depending on the summoning method or what is stated on the card itself, like fusion monsters need you to have the materials specified and a fusion effect. The easiest monster cards to summon are level 1 to 4 normal monsters, the lower the level the lower the requirements, like this, I summon Celtic Guardian!" Alucard demonstrated.
Celtic Guardian lvl 4 EARTH Warrior/Normal ATK 1400 DEF 1200: Hmph..
A handsome, buff, and armored elf warrior materialized in front of them. With crossed arms, he had a large broadsword which hung from his back and wore a dashing navy blue cape. Sal was surprised that a fellow elf appeared, and that it was a jacked muscular warrior much like himself too. Most elves were graceful, very few like Sal lived the warrior's way.
The Celtic Guardian glanced around the room, his arms still folded, before giving a small respectful nod toward Sal. It was subtle, but for those attuned to martial discipline, this gesture was of respect and recognition between warriors.
Sal blinked. "He… acknowledged me. But he isn't a monster, unless elves are considered monsters in your dueling game."
Alucard chuckled. "Cards can depict anything, just because it's a monster card doesn't mean it can be a human, animal, object, or whatever. Also, they're not alive, if that's what you're thinking. Not truly. But some cards contain what you may call a Duel spirit. As for what Duel spirits are, just consider them a much more unique kind of card."
Trell narrowed his eyes. "The monsters, what do they do exactly? If my nephew accidentally summoned one, can it possibly harm him or the people around him?" the other parents nodded as they turned to the store owner.
"Only if you're careless. The monsters won't attack the one who summoned them and they follow intent. Without specific commands they won't attack randomly, they would also defend the summoner in a heartbeat if they felt that harm was coming the summoner's way. And if you ever feel they're out of control, just issue the unsummon command. Simple as saying or thinking 'Return'." Alucard held up the card and said, "Return."
The Celtic Guardian gave one final nod, then dispersed into motes of light, the card glowing faintly before settling back to normal in Alucard's hand.
"Hmm... so these monsters can be used to defend oneself from harm? That means our kids can defend themselves if push comes to shove as long as they're able to summon a monster." Elaine muttered.
"If it comes to the point yes, Now let's go over trap cards." Alucard pulled a trap card with a bearded old man proclaiming something, his smile twitched as he remembered all the times that this card made him lose.