“Well, what is the recipe?”
Rhea lovingly poked the boy on his forehead, bringing him out of his reverie. The old lady tried to hide her excitement, but even she was bursting with curiosity at what the card recipe was.
Shouren stared ahead with a blank expression on his face. At the same time, a torrent of images were rushed into his mind, the memories of how to forge the new card. The fragments of knowledge pieced together, detailing the process of how to hammer the lumen into the new card.
Seeing her grandson unresponsive, Rhea began to worry. She didn’t touch Shouren again. The old lady, unfamiliar with the process of activating a recipe scroll, hesitantly stepped back, a nervous flutter in her chest.
The boy remained motionless, transfixed in place.
“Ugh.”
Shouren groaned, clutching his head as a deafening clamor—a cacophony of images, memories, and instructions—rang inside his mind.
“Little potato! Are you alright?”
Seeing that her grandson was conscious again, Rhea darted over to him, her hands examining the boy for any injuries. There were none.
“I’m okay, grandma… my head just feels like it’s been through a grinder.”
Shouren said while taking in a series of deep breaths. The knowledge of the new card recipe was firmly tethered inside his brain.
[New card recipe detected. Cardsmith class confirmed. Unlocking new section in status.]
Shouren ignored the notification and turned to his grandmother. His face lit up with unbridled excitement.
“Watch this, grandma.”
The boy clasped his hands together and raised them to his chest.
Tendrils of silky lumen swirled from his chest and swam towards his shoulders and then down to his arms and finally, where his palms were connected. Shouren’s skin around his fingers glowed softly.
“Card Forge.”
Rhea muttered in reverence. The boy was using the main ability of a Cardsmith, an ability she’d longed for her whole life to use one day. Pride bloomed inside her, as her hazel eyes watched her grandson forge his first card.
Shouren’s face distorted with exertion. He guided the raw lumen between his palms and used his control over it to hammer it into shape. Slowly, his palms extended out, revealing the luminous blank card. It had no face or design. It was an empty shell of a card.
The blank card’s border twisted as the boy struggled to maintain its shape.
Rhea didn’t dare interrupt Shouren. This was a critical stage, and her grandson was forging a card without an anvil or a proper smithy. He was hammering the card purely with his lumen alone.
Shouren’s forehead contorted with concentration. He channeled more of his lumen into his hands to stabilize the blank card. This was an integral step before he molded the lumen into its final card function.
Miniature tremors quaked below the boy, sending the vibrations through the flimsy floor tiles. The blank card was hovering in the air between Shouren’s palms. It thrummed with each hammering by the whips of lumen coming from the boy’s hands.
The blank card flashed with a deep resonance.
Shouren heard an inaudible click inside his mind and knew that the blank card now had enough lumen to not explode and store the spell.
Stolen novel; please report.
The boy rotated his arms and moved his palms from the card’s sides to above and below it. Taking in a quick breath of air, Shouren then started to unleash a new wave of lumen inside the blank card. This time, the lumen washed over the card, slicing numerous nicks on the face. It was a lengthy process.
Gradually, an outline of the spell began emerging out of the card. Shouren relentlessly poured his lumen over the card, carefully making the smooth incisions.
After what seemed like hours, and his back and the rest of his body drenched in sweat, Shouren growled with triumph at last. A burst of gray light immediately exploded from the card.
[Synchronization: 12%]
“I did it!”
The boy panted breathlessly, his hand shaking as he reached out to grasp the card.
Tier 0 - Spectral Threads [Common]
Create thin spectral threads from your hands to bind a target for 3 seconds. Threads will break if damaged or over-strained. Effective only on Tier o targets.
Cost: 5 lumen per use.
“Spectral Threads.”
Shouren read the name out loud of his first ever forged card. His face radiated joy at his creation. It was his first card that he made himself.
It was a spell card.
He hoped for a class card, which would speed up the progress to his class card upgrade. However, Spectral Threads might prove to be even better. He could always find cheap [Common] class cards to buy in the market, but a reliable offense spell card was quite expensive.
Spectral Threads wasn’t exactly an attack spell card, but Shouren had an idea that could work in a similar function with a combination of his existing cards and
“How does it feel, potato?”
Rhea smiled at the exhausted boy. She’d already glimpsed the spell card’s details and had an inkling of what the boy would do with it.
“Like I can do anything!”
Shouren replied cheerfully. He waved the card around without his eyes leaving its sight. It was so beautiful. It looked the same like his other [Common] cards, but Shouren felt an inexplicable tie to this card. His lumen was inside the card.
It was a part of him.
“You’ve taken the first step of a Cardsmith today. Cherish it, potato. There’s a reason why high ranked Cardsmiths are priceless to the world. We can create new cards with our lumen. No one else can do that.”
Rhea explained calmly, with a hint of seriousness in her tone. No one cared about a Tier 0 Cardsmith, but her grandson’s destiny wouldn’t stop here. It was merely his beginning. One day, this boy would evolve to the higher tiers and the world would soon take notice of him, whether he wanted to or not.
If they found out about his other abilities as well, then Shouren needed to be strong enough to face that reality.
“I think I understand a bit now, grandma.”
Shouren nodded slowly, raising his head to meet Rhea’s gaze. He’d disdained the class his whole life because it was weak. However, something changed in him today. Cardsmiths might be weak at their initial stages, but once they could forge powerful cards, a single Cardsmith was akin to an entire army.
“I’m sorry, potato. I won’t be much help to you from now on since you’ve already gone ahead than me as a Cardsmith.”
Rhea shook her head sadly. Her grandson liked to attract trouble wherever he went, but she was helpless to aid him.
“Don’t say that, grandma. You’re the best Cardsmith I know! Other Cardsmiths can only extract 4 shards from a card but I’ve seen you get more.”
Shouren laid the card down and hugged the elderly woman, her thin body shivering slightly against his. The smell of stale barley and lavender clung to her robes.
“Thank you for the compliment, little one. Untrue as it might be, I’ll accept your words.”
Rhea wiped away the tears on her cheeks and continued while gently running her hands through the strands of Shouren’s wild hair.
“But there is one thing I can help you with, potato. The ‘Chamber of Ascendance’.”
The boy tilted his head in confusion. What was his grandmother talking about? What was the ‘Chamber of Ascendance’?
“Before I tell you about that, what is your current synchronization level?”
Rhea saw the confounded look on her grandson’s face and posed another question.
Shouren opened his status. He recalled his synchronization had gone up when he forged his first card.
Status
Name: Shouren
Tier: 0 [Synchronization: 12%]
Class: Cardsmith [Common]
Spell Card Slots: 1/1 - Dimensional Vault [Rare]
Lumen: 6/20 (-5)
Strength: F
Agility: F
Constitution: F
Intelligence: E
Class Abilities
1 - Card Forge
2 - Sharding
3 - Card Sacrifice
Traits:
1 - Corrupted Cardsmith [Unique]
2 - Locked
3 - Locked
Cardsmith Recipes:
Tier 0 - Spectral Threads [Common]
Oh nice, there’s a new section for my card recipes. I had 15 lumen at the start, meaning it took 9 lumen to forge the Spectral Threads spell card. That’s not too bad. Maybe the lumen cost will decrease as I get better at forging or buy a smithy.
Shouren ceased his train of thoughts and answered the waiting elderly lady.
“Grandma, it says my synchronization is at 12%.”
“Huh? Why is it already at 12%? Didn’t you tell me you only awakened your class card a week ago?”
Rhea stared at her grandson, perplexed at the absurd number he’d told her. It had taken her a full year to reach 10% synchronization. How did the boy already achieve 12% synchronization?
“Did you shard any cards to absorb?”
Rhea inquired, trying to comprehend the situation with her strange grandson.
“Um, no?”
Shouren scratched his head. He needed those cards to sell, why would he waste them on Sharding? Well, he did use Sharding a few times for making the bait in dungeon, but he didn’t absorb any of them.
His previous statement of me being the best Cardsmith feels like an insult now.
Rhea chuckled to herself in her mind.
“Listen to me, potato. You need to start Sharding cards and bring your synchronization to 80% as quick as you can.”
The elderly lady stated in a heavy voice. Before the boy could ask why, Rhea gingerly grabbed Shouren, and leaned down, bringing her face closer to his.
“Because you will succeed where I failed in the past. I never talked to you about Tier Evolutions, potato. Mostly, it was due to my own shame. Listen close, little one. It’s time for you to learn about the ‘Chamber of Ascendance’…”