Chapter 42: Squires Courtyard.

*DING*

"Welcome duellists to Toon Kingdom, please watch your step as you exit the train. The second round will officially begin in 1hr and 35 minutes. Please take this time to familiarise with the rules and regulations if you have not done so. Hotel, restaurant and park service information is available via your WDCV Duel disks." The announcement played over the trains public address system as the doors opened and Drake got off the monorail.

The station was decorated in a medieval style, the walls were large carved grey stone blocks, the supports and beams were made of a thick dark timber and the roof had the appearance of being thatched with straw. Large shields and coats of arms decorated the walls, alongside tapestries depicting battles between various duel monsters and standing suites of armour based on monsters like Gearfried, Gaia and Buster Blader to name a few.

Very medieval looking, but the tech was still there for those that could look past the facade. From the hidden security cameras to the more obvious vending machines, ticket booths and information points needed in any amusement park.

Drake felt a childish excitement as he looked around. Although his previous life's memories were far from intact, he could still feel a connection to his childhood, the excitement and fun of holiday visits to fair grounds, theme parks and carnivals. It was followed by a pang of loneliness as he remembered that such times and the people that he shared them with, were long gone, on a world far, far, away.

Dozens of duellists had exited along with Drake and even more were already hanging around the station, but the biggest groups were those surrounding the few Duel Vendors placed in the station. The Toon Gemini Elf, the Marauding Captain and the Skilled White Magician. These vendors were all holographic interactive projections, the voluptuous twin cartoon elves outrageously flirted with the male duellists surrounding them as the warrior captain looked on with a scowl from beside a hot dog stand and the magician stood indifferently by the main exit.

In order to access the Vendors digital store, one had to get within a couple of meters of the projection, at which point the duel disk would automatically form a wireless connection. As a Purple Heart duellist Drake had a lot of Duel points to spend. Seven thousand to be exact, but he still had no idea just how far such an amount would go.

Drake first went to the closest Vendor, the Toon Gemini Elf, the blond haired member of the pair turned to look at him as he got within range before sending a cartoon flying kiss his way with a wink of her eye as her sister was wagging her finger at a boy that was getting inappropriately close to the pair.

*Beep*

Drakes duel disk flawlessly connected with the vendor system allowing Drake to access the store through a projection display.

'Vendor Store 037 (Toon Gemini Elf). Duellist: DRAKE ATLAS. Current Duel points: 7000.'

Following that were three options, Information store, Card Store, Skill Store. Drake selected information first and was presented a short list of options he could buy.

Toon Kingdom Map (1/5), 500 Duel points, (One purchase per duellist) – a portion of the Toon Kingdom zone duel map detailing challenge locations, Duel bots, Vendors and Special zones. Assemble all five to discover the secrets of Toon Kingdom.

Toon code fragment guide (1/20), 3000 Duel points, (One purchase per duellist) – information pertaining to a random available Toon Zone passcode fragment.

Travel Pass (Ancient Forest), 1700 Duel Points, (Consumable Use once) – Allows the holder to pass through to the Ancient Forest Zone.

Travel Pass (Ritual Sanctuary), 1700 Duel points, (Consumable Use once) – Allows the holder to pass through to the Ritual Sanctuary Zone.

Toon Access code, 5000 Duel points, (Unlimited use) – Allows the holder to enter Toon Kingdom from any access point.

Drake discarded purchasing anything of these options other than the map fragment straight away. Since it was the just the start of the round Drake didn't need to head over to any of the other zones and the Toon Access Code would be a pointless purchase unless he was planning on returning here multiple times after he did leave the zone.

As for the fragment clue, that also did not matter. Even if he failed to find the code while wandering the zone, he could always duel for it once others had begun to gather them. For Drake these option were just a scam to consume duel points.

But the map piece could hold vital information, pointing out locations it would advantageous for Drake to visit or warn him of places he should avoid depending on just how detailed the information it provided was.

So he immediately spent 500 duel points for the map before moving to the next section. The Card Shop.

This was basically a searchable list of existing cards that one could buy a digital version of for their duel disk which could be used to adjust ones deck during the round. Although one could see all the available cards in the database certain high level cards could only be purchased at high level vendors.

However, as a Vendor placed at the very entrance of the zone, the selection was a bit poor, besides which as Drake was able to create any existing card for his deck before comming here his current deck was just fine. He would only need this card shop service if he knew he was entering an area with special rules that would require him to switch up his deck.

Out of curiosity he checked if one could buy his Blue-Eyes White Dragons from the store. You could, not from this vendor but the Blue-Eyes was in the database. 3000 points per Blue-Eyes, 5000 points for any of its fusion monsters. Did this make Drake a pay to win player he wondered? One thing he did notice however was that the database did not include any Number cards, Orichalcos cards or Kites Photon cards either.

Finally Drake came the skills shop. According to the rules a duellist could use up to one permanent skill per duel and one consumable skill per duel. These skills could be selected from a players inventory at any point in a duel so long as they met the activation timing requirement. So a skill that had to be used at the start of a duel could not be used halfway through for example. And obviously a consumable skill would be lost after use.

The Toon Gemini Elf had a total of four skills available to purchase but only one was a permanent skill.

Pride of Tribe I – Consumable. 800 Duel points. Once during a duel at the start of your turn, all monsters you control gain 200 ATK/DEF points for each other monster you control with the same Type until the end of the turn.

Blessing of the Elf I – Consumable. 500 Duel Points. At the start of the duel increase your life points by 500.

Wisdom of Wizards I - Consumable. 1000 Duel Points. At the start of the duel decrease your life points by 500. Your starting hand size is increased by 1.

Land of Toons – Permanent. 4000 Duel points. At the start of a duel you may pay 700 Duel points. If you do then you start the duel with 'Toon World' in your hand.

These were the only skills available at the store and he wasn't bother about any of them. Drake then made sure to check the other two Vendors at the station and found out that only the Gemini Elf had an information store but apart from a slight difference in the card shop list the three of them were otherwise identical when it came to skills.

Considering he had so many points Drake decided to be cautious and purchased one copy of each of the consumable skills for another 2300 duel points, together with the map piece it left him with 4200. Leaving the station there was still just under an hour before the round would begin, so Drake decided to explore a little as the map fragment he received didn't cover this part of the zone.

The Toon Kingdom Zone wasn't just focused on a Toon monster theme like one would expect, it also had a strong mixed old world vibe going for it and featured a number of Warrior, spellcaster and fairy duel monster themes. The landscape was a mixture of attractions styled after European castles, eastern pagodas and even an ancient Greek coliseum to name a few.

At the centre of the Toon Kingdom Zone was a massive fairy tale castle like something out of a Disney movie, with gleaming white walls and numerous tall tower spires with red tiled roofs. Drake made it his first target, feeling that such a prominent location should naturally hold greater importance.

Along the way he passed many different rides, attractions, shops and games. Such as the Ghostrick ghost house, Kuriboh dodgems, Jerry Beans Man sweet shop, Swift Gaia's race track, Toon Mermaids archery gallery and so much more. Each had been organised into either a duel field, a duel trial, a general store for non duelling necessities or had been closed down for the WDC.

In fact Drake was a bit displeased when he passed the Kuriboh Dodgems, even though he had only created the card a bit over a week ago Heartland already had a Blue-Eyes Kuriboh car in this ride. Did they have no shame?

On the other hand perhaps this showed just how popular Drake had become as a duellist during the WDC, that one of his signature cards had been added to this ride at the last minute. In the end Drake decided to not bother with the matter, if in the future kids enjoyed themselves by riding a car based on his creation then why should he complain. He wouldn't be staying in this world forever anyway.

Drake wasn't the only duellist to have come out so far already, he noticed as he continued along the bricked pathways, many others had too. Perhaps they might be trying to escape from other duellists to avoid being knocked out as soon as the round started, others may have purchased map fragments like Drake and were trying to find the interesting locations marked out on them and some could be trying to find out of the way vendors that might be selling rare cards or skills.

Whether any of them actually wanted a shot at Drake or if any of them were part of New Order he didn't care, he would take on any challengers that came his way.

Once Drake reached the massive castle gate, he was disappointed to find the entrance blocked by a security door, this was a duel gate. They blocked off duellists from certain area if they did not have the qualifications to enter, much like the connecting passages between zones.

According to a notice sent to his duel disk, to enter the castle one had to have acquired sufficient 'reputation' through clearing challenges and trials in order to enter. Left with no choice Drake left the castle for now and instead headed off to a location marked on the map piece he currently possessed that was nearby, the Squires Courtyard.

The duels would be starting soon and according to the limited information on his map fragment Squires Courtyard was a challenge location with some rewards Drake was interested in.

---

All over the island the other duellists were spreading out across the different zones as the clock counted down. The island set up was simple, Heartland tower was at the centre of the island and each zone was divided like a spoked wheel. The docks that the duellists had arrived at was connected to the Ritual Sanctuary zone directly east of Heartland tower, in clockwise order from here the zones were Toon Kingdom, Ancient Forest, Megaroid City, Jurassic World, Dragon Ravine, Pandemonium which brough one full circle back to Ritual Sanctuary.

Bronk found himself at home in Megaroid City the high-tech city of machines, while Shark was enjoying the mythical land of Dragons Ravine to the north. Kite was preparing to make his move in the primal Jurassic World zone aided by the insider knowledge Heartland had provided for him and close behind were the forces of New Order.

With multiple subordinates in each zone and sophisticated communication devices that could bypass the communications block in operation on the island, they were quickly gathering together a frightening amount of information which was directed to their higher ups.

Wyvern found herself in the peaceful Ancient forest, but upon learning that Drake had been spotted in Toon Kingdom she decided to immediately make her way over. Each of the participating New Order Generals had been commanded by their king to make the elimination of Drake a top priority in this WDC round, and even more importantly to her, the Orichalcos King had promised a great reward to the person who succeeded in this task.

The Silver General, Hal, was also close by in Ritual Sanctuary, while the White General Tempest, was actually in Jurassic World and was setting his aged eyes upon the young Number Hunter. The disgraced cyborg Proteus was not actually participating in the tournament and had been confined to his lab as part of his punishment for his earlier failures.

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With just five or so minutes to go before the start of the round Drake found himself outside the Squires Courtyard. The place was peaceful, a romanticised recreation of a knights training school. At the entrance was a 'Sword Hunter' vendor carrying his five or six blades strapped across his body, but when Drake tried to access the bot he was denied for having insufficient reputation. Drake hoped that meant the vendor had some good stuff to sell him later.

Through the main gate Drake could see a duel monster Merry-go-round surrounded by several buildings and open fields setup with archery targets, jousting dummies and other things.

"Hey you!" came a cried from behind Drake, who turned to see who had called him.

A teenager was running up to him, dressed in a bright blue shirt and bottoms while wearing a red half length, fir trimmed cape. What was his deal? Drake thought.

"Are.. *ha* Are.. *ha* you Drake Atlas… *ha*" he asked, out of breath and puffing.

Drake replied with a nod of his head.

"And you are?" Drake asked.

"Charles… Charles Winconstance the fifth." Charles replied while holding out his hand.

Wow, now that was a name that screamed old family. Perhaps even noble, assuming it wasn't a kind of bluff. Either way it didn't matter to Drake.

"And what do you want?" Drake wanted to know.

"I… I want to challenge you to a duel!" Charles replied with growing conviction, lifting his duel disk in a challenge.

"Why? Are you acting under orders from Faker or New Order?" if this was some kind of trap, it looked like a poor one to Drake.

Everyone else who had recognised him seemed to want to avoid him at this early stage before the round had even started, this was the first guy to seek him out to challenge him.

Charles seemed confuse at the mention of these two names, like he had no idea what Drake was going on about.

"Who? What? I just want to duel you because you're famous. The fifth rank duellist they call the White Dragon, if I beat you then I will be famous too!"

Ah, simple youthful ambition. Drake didn't think he was faking his ignorance and there wasn't much time left till the start anyway. As for this nickname, The White Dragon… fine, Drake actually kind of liked it. Not that he would admit it to anyone.

"Sure, why not." Drake replied, he could do with a friendly warm up.

"Great! I know the perfect place, follow me!" Charles said as he cheerfully guided Drake to one of the side buildings in the Squires Courtyard. It was a room full of weapon racks along each of the walls, the Armory according to the signs outside.

Drake wondered why they had to move here, when there was plenty of space outside, but decided not to question Charles motives. He would find out soon enough.

Moving to the centre of the room the two duellists stood ready as the countdown slow ticked by,

00:07… 00:03… 00:00!

<<Attention Duellists! The World Duel Carnival second round has officially begun!>>

*Bang, Whizz, Boom!*

And the sky was lit up with purple and red fireworks.

It was time to DUEL!