Shouren dashed through the familiar streets, his heart pounding through this chest. It was still relatively bright outside, so he had to skirt past the wandering people in the small town, but no one paid him any heed.
After a few minutes, the young boy gradually slowed down, recognizing the distinct shape of his grandmother’s derelict shack.
His home.
Shouren stopped outside the edge of the shack. He was feeling nervous for some reason. The place looked even more barren and gloomy than usual. Age and constant erosion from the weather had jaded the straw hatches on top. The brittle walls looked about to collapse, with a thin binding of cement barely holding the bricks together.
The young boy took in a deep breath before opening the door and slowly stepping inside.
A huff of stale air wafted into his nose, accompanied by the overwhelming darkness etched into every corner of the room.
“Oh no, grandma!”
Shouren cried out, his voice echoing with distraught. There were no lights in the shack, which meant Rhea hadn’t been able to pay the bills on time. Moreover, Shouren couldn’t sense her nearby.
“Grandma!”
The young boy’s hazel-green eyes quaked with horror when he detected a faint silhouette collapsed in the furthest corner of the shack.
“No no no no…”
Shouren muttered, dread leaking into his voice as he kneeled in front of the unmoving figure. His small hands shook with fear as he grasped the frail and bony hand of his only living relative. The boy could dimly see the face of the elderly lady.
Her cheeks, sunk deep into their sockets, gave her face a gaunt, almost skeletal appearance. In the span of a week, Rhea had become close to unrecognizable. The deeper grooves on her wrinkled skin, the thinning of her wispy white hair on her scalp, and the extreme weight loss all alluded to the misery the poor woman had gone through in the absence of her sole grandson.
A faint heartbeat flickered in an out of existence.
“I’m sorry, grandma, please wake up. Please, I’m begging you—don’t leave me alone.”
Shouren wailed atop the fragile old lady. There was a still a pulse. Rhea was alive. Tears rolled down the boy’s quivering cheeks and desperation took hold of his pleas.
Gone was the fierceness from his body, the ferocity he used to kill all those monsters. Right now, he was simply a boy begging for his grandmother to wake up.
Whether the gods took pity on the child’s tears or the elderly lady heard the sorrowful cry of her grandson, Rhea’s eyes weakly shuddered awake.
“Grandma!”
Shouren hastily gripped onto the old lady’s robe and supported her head with his arm. Rhea’s dull hazel eyes gazed feebly at the source of the familiar voice.
“… po… ta… to?”
Rhea’s parched lips struggled to form the words, but a new vigor surged into the old lady as she recognized her grandson. She clutched Shouren’s hand in a scared vice, afraid if it was just a mere hallucination.
“Little potato, is it really you? Why did you leave me?”
Rhea hugged Shouren’s small frame to her chest, bursting into a fit of uncontrollable tears.
“I was stupid, please forgive me, grandma. I won’t ever leave you again.”
Shouren bawled in relief and hugged the elderly lady back.
Both grandmother and grandson held on to each other as they sobbed their hearts away.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
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Late at night on the same day.
“You made this whole ludicrous plan to just avoid the Cardsmith class card?”
Rhea’s hazel eyes sternly bore into the identical hazel eyes of her grandson. Her lips were pressed into a thin, angry line, and her arms were folded so tightly it seemed her knuckles were white with barely contained anger.
Shouren shifted uncomfortably while seated on the floor. His eyes pointedly avoided meeting Rhea’s own. After their teary reconciliation, his grandmother had asked him about what had happened, and the boy spilled everything, concealing nothing from her.
He told her about his plan to risk entering the dungeon and find a different class card. How he fought the worm and got his Cardsmith class card, and everything from killing the monsters to the rewards he’d gotten from the dungeon.
Rhea’s hands trembled when her grandson recounted the tale of him clashing with the monsters, but she patiently waited for him to finish.
Shouren didn’t even hide his corrupted abilities from her. He told her about his [Unique] trait and listed the descriptions of the corruptions as well. The boy initially hesitated if he should tell Rhea, but after seeing the old lady’s condition due to his disappearance, Shouren dispelled those thoughts.
If there was a single person in this entire world that he trusted with his life, it was Rhea.
“Answer me, Shouren!”
Rhea’s steely eyes drilled into the young boy.
Shouren realized his grandmother was truly enraged. She never called him ‘Shouren’ unless she was serious.
“… Yes.”
Shouren slowly looked up and returned Rhea’s gaze. He was sorry for keeping his grandmother in the dark, and the toll his silent disappearance had caused, but he wasn’t sorry for choosing to defy the path his grandmother set for him.
Ultimately, he ended up as a Cardsmith. However, it was through his own fate and choices that led to that. He could accept the results of that. What Rhea wanted him to do was to become a Cardsmith without his consent.
“Cardsmiths are not combatants, potato. You could die in the dungeon.”
Rhea held the boy’s stare and sighed with defeat. Those hazel-green eyes, strikingly same as members of their family, were resolute in their conviction. Rhea wasn’t oblivious to the boy’s repulsion to the Cardsmith class. She’d known about it for a long time.
However, her family’s legacy had to be kept alive. Maybe she’d tell the boy one day, but he was not ready for it yet.
Her eyes softened as she glanced at the defiance within the boy.
“But I have the corrupted abilities. I can fight like others.”
Shouren rebutted in response.
“The corruption will let you fight only if you have the right cards. What happens when you run out of them, potato? How will you fight, then?”
Rhea shook her head gently, trying to persuade her stubborn grandson. She went over in detail with the boy about the corruption of his class’ abilities. The old lady had never heard about ‘Corruption’ until today, but she’d look more into it by getting access to the public libraries.
It didn’t seem like it was harming the boy for the moment, but Rhea would find information about the ‘Corruption’ regardless. She wasn’t about to let her only grandson jump into an unknown danger by himself.
“That’s where you come in, grandma. Here!”
Shouren grinned as he took out the invaluable scroll from his vault and held it out to Rhea.
The old lady’s eyes widened in astonishment at the use of the Dimensional Vault. Her grandson had told her about equipping that [Rare] utility card in his spell slot, but it was still her first time witnessing a storage ability. That card alone would put Shouren’s life in danger if anyone saw him use it.
“What do I do with this?”
Rhea raised her eyebrows in response. She knew about the final dungeon reward the boy had selected. But why was he handing it to her?
“If you have a recipe for a card, you could make the cards for me and then I’ll have a permanent card to use for Card Sacrifice or
Shouren answered enthusiastically, prodding the scroll towards his grandmother, asking her to take it.
“You want me, in my current age, to jump around the dungeon with you and climb trees to assassinate unsuspecting monsters?”
Rhea chuckled mirthfully, pushing the scroll away.
“No, you’ll stay here and make the cards for me. I’ll stack them and bring them to the dungeon.”
Shouren shook his head. No way in hell would he ever take his grandma into the dungeon.
“And what if you run out of those cards as well? Stop being foolish, little potato. You know you need this scroll more than I do.”
Rhea said gently while tussling the young boy’s dark hair.
“But—“
“It’s your reward, and it’s meant for you. If you want me to accept your decision to go back to the dungeon and fight the floors, then use that scroll so I know you have a way to fight back.”
Rhea placed her thin hands on Shouren’s shoulder and answered with determination. If Shouren had a way to forge new cards in the dungeon, he’d always have one form of attack all the time. Besides, a Cardsmith’s true abilities lay in their forging skills.
“You’re a better Cardsmith than me. It’s your dream.”
Shouren whispered sadly.
“And it’s still my dream. But it’s my dream to fulfill, not yours, little potato. This bag of old bones still has a lot of life left in her.”
Rhea lovingly patted the boy’s wet cheek.
I’ll help you with your dream, grandma.
Shouren made a promise to himself. He’d do everything he can to improve Rhea’s health and increase her lifespan. His grandmother was right about one thing. Cardsmiths weren’t actual combatants. Their ability lay in building the blocks to power for others to use.
Except for Shouren.
He will build the blocks to power, not for others.
But for himself.
[Synchronization: 8%]
[Synchronization: 9%]
“Activate it, potato. Let me see what your first recipe as a Cardsmith will be.”
Rhea smiled, her face beamed with pride.
Shouren nodded with excitement and with a bit of nervous anticipation.
Then he unfurled the scroll.
A ray of lustrous light filled the dark room.
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Status
Name: Shouren
Tier: 0 [Synchronization: 9%]
Class: Cardsmith [Common]
Spell Card Slots: 1/1 - Dimensional Vault [Rare]
Lumen: 15/20 (-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
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