The Magic of Cards

Mariana pulled something out of her pocket and held it in front of John’s face.

From what John knew, that was a Magic: The Gathering card called Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun. He had a very short stint with trading cards, but he never really got into Magic. Now, the question was what exactly Mariana wanted to tell him with that card…

“Uhm… It’s a Magic card? Judging from the name and the image, I guess it’s some kind of person? Is he famous? I have no idea what you’re trying to get at here…”

Mary just rolled her eyes, “It’s been four days and it looks like you already forgot… Well, I guess I can’t blame you… there was a lot to take in on that day. Look at the name again.”

John looked at the name again, deeply concentrating on every word to see if anything rang.

When he read the word ‘Naktamun’ for the fourth time, something clicked in his head.

Choose a side: Champions of Naktamun vs. Valkyries

He slapped himself on the forehead as that memory flashed by. “God, I’m stupid! Naktamun, that’s the name of the guys that I got involved with on my first day! But… why is that name on a Magic card?”

The captain had to suppress her laughter, “Well, at least you see your own stupidity! And as to answer your question, let’s go back to the question you asked just before. ‘Is fiction real’? Some of it is. Some of the stuff you know of is absolutely real; I’m pretty sure the Tolkien universe is a Kingdom somewhere. Some of the universes probably also were Kingdoms, as in they no longer exist. Hell, some of the stuff might actually exist here in some convoluted Barrier. The problem is that you can’t really tell what is and what is not. Like this guy here. Seeing as you have fought people from Naktamun, that place is obviously ‘real’ to some extent, even if it might just be a natural Barrier that’s just similar to it. Artists and Developers have for a long time drawn influence from Abyssal places for their pieces. That doesn’t mean every artist is in the Abyss, not even all of the ones that use Abyssal locations as inspiration. Sometimes people will just get… visions of places like that, and then the idea sprouts in their head. That’s also what I mean with ‘half-truths’. People interpret something they see and use that as their own truth. That doesn’t mean they are wrong, it just means that they potentially are missing the full picture.”

John thought about that for a moment before asking his next question. “So, you’re saying that in theory every piece of fiction, and probably science fiction, can be real, but the way we see it, it might be the truth or be the ‘deformed’ idea someone had of it?”

“Pretty much. What I’m trying to tell you is that you should look at everything that’s around you with a critical eye; there might be more behind it than you think.”

He nodded at that. It made sense to be critical. “So, does that mean that people have access to these Kingdoms?” Mariana shook her head forcefully at that.

“Hell no! Getting actual physical access to another Kingdom is really hard. I know there are some people around that can do it, but I have seen what kind of toll that takes on their bodies. No, accessing Kingdoms is not something people do often. But, visions or spiritual visits to Kingdoms are comparatively more common, even though they are still pretty rare.”

John was trying to process everything that he had heard and read in the last… hour? Had it already been that long? The amount of new information he had gotten was almost headache inducing.

So, he now knew that he should trust himself more and that he shouldn’t doubt himself without reason, he learned that not only is the story of Frankenstein real but also various other mythological creatures around the world, and he learned that a good part of the fantasy worlds he consumed in his teens probably really exist in some form or another… Yet, strangely, none of that information actually was new. He knew that Frankenstein was real since yesterday, he knew about Kingdoms and about how sometimes they are formed from the beliefs of the people, and he knew that Barriers have weird versions of mythological creatures like Dracula.

But thanks to Mariana’s explanation, it just felt a lot more… sensible and connected.

“Now that I have stuffed your head with so much information that you can barely think straight, how about we train? I want to see how much you have improved!”

Oh, now this was something John was looking forward to! While he was still below Mariana’s level, he was pretty sure that he could fight a lot better against her now in comparison to the first time they had scrapped. “Then let’s go outside, I have a training field there!” John said excitedly.

---

A minute later, they were standing on the activated training field, both on opposite sides of the circle with wooden weapons of their choice in hand.

Match: Duel (Training)
First person to deal 3 strikes wins.
Anything goes.
Match begins in 30 seconds.

Mariana had agreed to all that beforehand. She was lazily swinging her saber in her hand while she was waiting for the match to begin. “You sure this is going to go any better than at the beginning of the week?”

While John had told her about his exploits in the last week, he had somewhat forgotten to mention most of his abilities, so Mariana would be in for quite the surprise. To play himself down he just shrugged his shoulders, “Dunno, but I want to try.”

Match begins in 20 seconds

“Tell you what, I’ll make this a bit more interesting. If you win, I’ll give you something to make it worth your while.”

“Like what?”

Match begins in 10 seconds

“I’ll keep that a surprise for now.”

Well, that just meant he would find out once he beat her.

Match start!

Auditory Atmosphere Supplement Activated. Now Playing: BlazBlue Chronophantasma - Rebellion II

As soon as the message popped up, John had already thrown two Mana Daggers towards Mariana and was rushing towards her with his Flash Step. She obviously wasn’t prepared to counter three objects coming towards her at the same time, so she did the best thing she could do at that moment, take a big dive to the side, out of the way of all of the incoming attacks. The daggers flew against the invisible Barrier around the Training Field, disappearing in a moment’s notice. John, on the other hand, pivoted his charge by creating a Flash Step beneath one of his feet and another one at his hand to swing around. This time, Mariana didn’t have the time to dodge the attack, and John was immediately on her, using Flurry Strike to repeatedly hit her while still in the air.

Hit registered! 1:0
Hit registered! 2:0
Hit registered! 3:0
Match over! Winner: John

He landed behind her and quickly came to a halt turning around with a shit-eating grin. The captain could do nothing but look absolutely flabbergasted at him while trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“So, about that reward?” cheekily asked John.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!?” Mariana shouted indignantly. “What the hell was that?!? On Monday you barely could stand me, and suddenly you zip around as if you’ve escaped from some anime. What kind of steroids did you get in this week??”

John shrugged in a nonchalant way, “Dunno, but I keep hearing how I’m some kind of freak with really bullshit powers. And that was basically just three of my skills, I currently have…” he opened up his character sheet to look at the number of skills he had.

“… 29 skills I can actively use, twelve of which are somewhat combat oriented. So I can do a lot of things now… So much actually that some of the stuff I never used once.”

That got Mariana thinking, “Why is that? And if you don’t use them, how did you get them? The way you get skills is weird anyway, but from what you said they should come from things you did, right?”

“Only partly. There was also a combat style I chose which gave me a lot of things to fight with, most of that stuff I do use. And two days ago I had the option to do the same thing again, and the second combat style mixed with my old one, dumping even more skills on me. I can see the uses of some of this stuff, but I just don’t feel like they mesh right…”

“Well, seeing as how I was soundly beaten by you and doubt that I’ll have a chance to beat you now, let me use the one thing I’m good with: my brain. Explain or show me your skills, maybe I can help you with some tricks,” Mariana said as she got up from the ground, dusting off her clothes.

Well, she did have more experience than him, and the second pair of eyes and a second mindset could really help him.

---

Half an hour later, the two of them were standing in the shade of the fruit tree where John showed Mariana the last skills he had picked up.

“So this is the Shadow Cloak. Honestly, I’ve never actually used it yet because it seemed… unfitting for my combat style. It says that I ‘become one with the shadow’ and can only move inside the shadow.”

Closing his eyes and concentrating on the shadow underneath him, John felt his body become somewhat lighter for a moment. Opening his eyes, he saw a black and white vision of the world around him, with anything outside of the shadow being in varying shades of grey. Anything inside the shadow was just as dark as the shadow. He was still standing in the same spot where he had used the ability, but apparently, Mariana couldn’t see him anymore. After a second, his vision turned normal again, and Mariana looked at him.

“Okay, yeah, becoming one with the shadow seems to be about right… You literally disappeared into the shadow… Did you deactivate it?”

Shaking his head, he answered, “No, it has a limited time depending on its current skill level, which is one second.”

Mariana pondered for a moment before asking, “Can you do things inside the shadow?”

John had to check his Character Sheet for that, “Uhhm… I can move in it. The skill ends once I attack or move outside of the shadows… It doesn’t say anything about me not being able to use skills… Do you have ideas?”

Nodding, she explained, “I do. Now, if we go by what the skill says, you can move inside that single shadow you entered into, but what exactly is ‘a single shadow’? I’d say that you could probably move freely in the entire shadow that is connected to the spot you used the skill at, giving you the possibility to sneakily move around the enemy. Second, if you can use skills inside the shadow, you could prepare things like one of your Mana Charges or something with your alchemy.”

He pondered about that. That would surely be handy if he could safely craft something while hidden in the shadows… “Problem with that is the time though… The Mana Charge takes as many seconds as I put Mana in it. But the Essential Alchemy stuff could work if I can select the ingredients quickly enough. Or drop some of the traps I have…”

Mariana looked at him, curious, “Traps?”

“Yeah, the last two skills I didn’t show you yet. Mana Spike and Trapper’s Kit” At first he created one of the Mana Spikes dropping the ethereal blue disc onto the floor where it lost its coloring.

“Step on it and a spike of Mana comes out of it. It’s pretty self-explanatory.”

Next was one of the traps from his Trapper’s Kit. He threw a small string onto the ground which unfurled itself into a meter long tripwire. “With this, I get a couple of non-lethal and non-damaging traps that either hinders my enemy or make me aware of them. Trip-wires, pitfalls, spring traps. The higher the level, the more traps I get, I think.”

“Ah, that’s useful.”

“Yeah, but it’s not really how I fight… Thanks to Flash Step I mostly weave in and out to attack my opponent or keep pressing on to them.”

“Well, in that case, concentrate on the shadow thing some more. Expand the time you can use it. If you can use it long enough, you can easily change attack angles, prepare stronger strikes and, in the worst case, use it as a tool to retreat.”

The more she explained the merits of the skill to her, the more he realized what kind of potential power it had, given that he would spam the shit out of it and increase the time frame.

Then again, nothing said he couldn’t keep using it…

Trying to confirm his theory, John once again used Shadow Cloak to disappear into the shadow. He would’ve liked to experiment with the distance he could move inside the shadow, but sadly the shadow of the fruit tree they were under was isolated from every other shadow, so he just moved to the other side of the tree. Once his vision returned to normal, he used the skill again to move back, appearing in front of Mariana.

“Huh, no cooldown…” he mumbled to himself.

Shadow Cloak, Lv.2
Move 10% faster while in shadows.

“That makes things a lot easier,” said Mariana, “but will lead to problems when you’re already using a skill, I guess.”

“Probably, also I guess I have to find out what counts as an attack and what doesn’t.”

“Want to try that right now?” Mariana asked, obviously eager to help him further experiment with his abilities.

John had to shake his head though, “Not today, I’m out of Mana right now and I’d like to get ready for my date soon.”

“Date? Oh hooo! Who’s the lucky girl? Brunhilde? She’s the type of girl that would do that.” Mariana haughtily laughed as she spoke.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t know? Oh, I won’t spoil that surprise. Did you plan the date or did she?”

“She did.”

“Then I know exactly where you’ll go. Now, let’s get back to my ship so that I can give you your promised prize,” she said with a lecherous grin on her face.

---

As the two returned to the Ship Barrier, John had to fight off both Thorn and Gary who wanted to come with them. Apparently, they both were highly infatuated with Mariana. Well, maybe she would visit them often with the card that she had gotten as they went back.

On the ship, the captain was once again rummaging through one of her shelves, looking for something.

With the smile she had given him, John had expected something… different. After a moment, she found what she had been looking for and returned to him with a silver bracelet.

She handed the bracelet to John, “If my assumption is correct, then this will get in handy for you. Just show it at the entrance and it should work.”

This bracelet seemed familiar… It looked exactly like the one James had around his arm yesterday!

VIP Bracelet
Silver Bracelet identifying you and your entourage as VIP in The Inferno

’The Inferno? What kind of club is that?’ John thought as he looked at the bracelet.

Was this actually the same kind of bracelet? Or was this just the ‘default’ bracelet one would use for enchantments?

“Where did you get this from?”

“Oh, you know, old favors. Thankfully, these bracelets are tamper-proof, non-traceable and not tied to a singular person. It’s a bit weird, but Dante knows what he does.”

“Dante?”

“The owner of the Inferno. You’ll understand it when you see it for yourself, explaining it will only confuse you.”

That certainly gave John some anxiety about the place where he would go. But, then again, he would be there with Brun who seemed to know the place well enough.

“Don’t worry about it, as long as you don’t rub people wrong, nothing bad should happen. Now go on, you should get ready!”

Checking his phone, it was already 6 PM inside the Barriers. Depending on the dilation, it should be somewhere around… 4:30 PM outside. Good enough, he would need half an hour to get to the Gjoskenholm’s home, leaving him with about an hour to get ready and maybe restore some mana.

“Okay, yeah, I should get ready. Uhm… I guess I’m going to be back as soon as I can?” he said as he stuffed the bracelet into his inventory.

“You better! Otherwise, I’ll bust into your hidey-hole and steal your cuddly friends!”

That threat lacked any kind of seriousness, so John just laughed as he and Mariana went back to the spot they’d leave from.