Ch2 Card Weavers
"Mana is the basis of all card creation." Staring at our confused faces, Faustus sighs. "Cards are a magical phenomenon that can be used to soar through the skies or blast fireballs at your enemies." Still seeing a few confused faces, he decides to demonstrate.
Watching Faustus, I see a subtle glow in his eyes before a small ball of fire appears in his outstretched hand.
"Woah!" Hearing the gasps of the children and seeing their amazement made him smile. He seemed like a very genuine guy.
Dispelling the fire, he goes on to demonstrate slight levitation and a shield made of mana. With his demonstration completed, he continues his lecture.
"Every card that is created by card-weavers is unique. We have to create cards on our own. No one else can make them for you. Meaning that even if a card uses the same runes as another, depending on the person's talent in engraving the rune into a card and their ability to represent the spell when drawing, they can end up completely different."
'I think I get it.' Cards are like empty canvases. Anything can be engraved on a card using your mana as long as it has an idea in mind. Runes were created to steer a card in the right direction.
For example, if you want to make a fireball spell card, then you can use a fireball rune along with a drawing. Drawings enhance the spell in different ways depending on the artistic skill of the weaver.
Paying attention to Faustus once more, my curiosity peaks.
"Aside from the spell cards that I've just spoken about and demonstrated, there are 3 other types of cards, enhancement, enchantment, and transformation cards."
Suddenly jumping up into the air, Faustus touches the 20-foot-high ceiling with ease. "That was an example of an enhancement card. It's an ability that is always in an active state. Enhancement cards can only be used on oneself. This saves you precious card spots, as enhancements can be stacked on one card. The more cards you have, the more of a burden your soul has to handle."
'There's a limit to the number of cards you can make. I wonder if that's decided by talent or magical ability.'
Seeing as some of the kids were falling asleep at his tiresome explanation of cards, the excited Faustus decides to end things there as this was just a method to hype the orphans so that they would become interested in the subject of cards.
Not everyone can become a card-weaver, but even if they can't, becoming a scholar is still helpful.
Waving to us, Faustus says his goodbyes before leaving the room.
"Oh wow! I want to be a card-weaver!"
"Me too!"
"That was boring as shit."
*Smack*
"Language!"
Hearing the chatter of the children around me, I sit in my seat, pondering what I learned just now.
'He never stated what method I could use to make cards of my own.'
Eager to start creating cards, I tried to concentrate on my body while Ronja talked about news from the village. Must be to keep the kids well informed.
Trying to feel the energy called mana, I have no luck as I don't even know what I'm looking for or how to properly look for it.
'Maybe I'm a bit too eager. The aptitude test is tomorrow, so I can wait till then.'
Closing my eyes, I listen to Ronja speak before falling asleep.
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"Carano!" The very familiar feeling of being shaken aggressively comes back seemingly to torment me.
"Carano, wake up, or we'll miss dinner!"
Hearing something about dinner, my eyes snap open as my stomach makes an audible sound.
'Dang, I'm starving.' Looking around the now sparsely lit empty room, I get up from my seat and glance at the clock.
'6:24 p.m.'
"Well, are you coming?" Nodding at Dirk's question, he began to walk away as I followed closely behind him.
Not too far away from the assembly hall which resembles a college lecture room is a large door that leads to the dining area. It is a lot larger than I expected it to be and could easily accommodate over 100 people.
Though by my estimate, there are only about 60 people in total. 53 children including the older and younger kids who weren't at the assembly and around 17 nuns.
Walking to the kitchen attached to the hall, I grab a plate of food and utensils that had already been laid out. Dirk also grabs a set before following me to take a seat.
Taking a seat at one of the 5 long tables, I sit next to a girl with curly platinum blonde hair as Dirk sits on my left.
Staring at the thin slice of meat and abundance of strange vegetables on my plate, I sigh and begin eating.
'This is already a lot, I should just be thankful.'
Tasting the food, I'm surprised at how familiar the strange-looking multi-colored vegetables are. They taste similar to the vegetables from my world with a little bit of extra flavor.
The meat was reminiscent of pork but better tasting. It didn't take me long to finish my meal, Dirk didn't take long either, so we took our plates back to the kitchen together.
"That was delicious. Thank you!" Seeing one of the women working in the kitchen come out to grab our dishes, I thank her.
Receiving a smile from her, she grabs the plates before leaving while saying, "Wait here."
A few seconds later, she comes out with a popsicle and hands it to me. "Enjoy." Winking, she looks over to Dirk, who was looking at me with regret for not telling her thanks as well.
"Haha, maybe next time, kid." Seeing her head back into the kitchen, Dirk looks dejected. Wanting to cheer him up, I gesture for him to break off a piece.
Shock clear on his face, he takes me up on that offer and breaks the popsicle perfectly in half, leaving the other half on the wooden stick still in my hand.
This seemed to deepen our bond as Dirk, who hadn't spoken to me entirely during dinner, now became a chatterbox.
He even took me on a tour of the place, showing me our shared room and the bathroom that is reserved for the orphans.
We talked for a bit as we along with the other boys took a bath, which was very uncomfortable, but as we needed to do so at this time, I could only bear it. Luckily, there were set times for when the boys and girls could use the bathroom to take their daily baths.
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Collapsing onto my bed, I stare at the ceiling as Dirk wishes me good night.
"Goodnight, Dirk."
Closing my eyes, I try once more to sense mana but fail again.
'Maybe I'm going about this all wrong.' Instead of trying to sense mana, I try to summon a card directly.
After a bit of concentration, I see a blue light come into my vision. Opening my eyes, I see a grey canvas with a blue glowing outline. The light didn't seem to shine on anything probably meaning that only I could see it.
Floating beside the canvas is a pen reminiscent of the one used with my tablet. Grinning like a madman, I grab the pen before thinking of my first card.
'How do I even start?' Sitting there blankly for a bit, I try to create an enhancement card. Something that wouldn't make a lot of noise. 'Shoot, I forgot about runes. I don't know any!'
Sighing, I just try to create something random as there was no stated backlash for making a card that doesn't work.
Writing the word enhancement in English, I follow up with stealth. The engraving seemed to work as the black letters turned to gold for a second before sinking into the canvas. It was still there but had become transparent.
I decided to simplify my usual drawing style and created a featureless man who gradually turns invisible. I was able to accomplish this by thinking about the settings I wanted to change and turning the opacity of the pen down gradually.
It is interesting how convenient this is. I'm able to erase, color, and layer the drawing.
Finishing it, the canvas seemed to understand my intentions as it glowed gold before disappearing and reappearing in my mind. This is a new experience but looking at it, the space is quite empty.
The card floated there glowing a golden color instead of the blue that it used to be.
Getting up from my bed, I jump on the wood floor which surprisingly didn't make a noise. Running toward the door, my footsteps were almost completely silent. Looking around, none of the boys seemed to be alerted so I consider this a success.
'Before my steps were loud despite just walking but now, I'm a ninja!' Elated at my achievement, I went back to bed to try more.
A new canvas appeared as I began writing another enhancement card.
'Enhancement - Silent steps' Drawing an image of someone walking but with a lighter opacity, I finish the card. The same process happens again but this time the card merged with the first one.
Looking at the card once more, I see a change. Now there's a +20% bonus for cards relating to stealth.
Getting up, I run to the door once more as fast as I can. This time, there is no noise.
'Bonuses change the game! Back to the drawing board.'
For the rest of the night, I went crazy, creating enhancement cards. By midnight, I made 10 all with unique drawings.
-Swift step (Increases movement speed, +20% bonus)
-Extraordinary senses
-Eagle eyes (Increases vision, +60% bonus for cards relating to stealth, extraordinary senses, and the experienced hunter cards)
-Experienced hunter (Increase in senses and hunting abilities)
-Enhanced smell (Increase in sense of smell, +40% bonus for cards relating to the experienced hunter card and extraordinary senses cards)
-Extraordinary Hearing (Increases hearing range, +40% bonus for cards relating to the extraordinary senses and experiences hunter cards)
-Godly Body (Increases strength, durability, dexterity, and regeneration)
-Immortal body (Increases regeneration, +20% bonus for cards relating to godly body)
-Danger sense (+40% bonus for cards relating to the experienced hunter and extraordinary senses cards)
-Night vision (+40% bonus for cards relating to the experienced hunter and extraordinary senses cards)
'It seems I haven't hit a limit yet for the number of enhancements I can put on one card. I'll continue tomorrow.'
Doing this allowed me to figure out that the better the name is, the better the effect. Now I feel like some sort of super soldier that can handle even the strongest foes.
'Don't get cocky just yet. I'm probably still very weak compared to other card weavers.' I don't plan on dying as soon as I got another chance by arrogantly trying to fight more experienced fighters.
*Yawn* 'Time for bed.' Mentally and physically exhausted, I decide to call it a night.