Chapter 18: Arcadia Part V
Once Rin saw that she shifted closer to Joke until their shoulders touched. Although she was way smaller than him, her face was now supposedly very close to his. Because he was not used to being this close to girls—together with the smell of her soft scent—he became quite flustered, but if he moved away from her, he was not sure if it would be considered rude.
“When we open up this window, there will be options of information we can check on: levels, status, world map, items we acquired, as well as the decklist that you are currently using.”
After saying that, Rin pointed at the ‘deck list’ button, which Joke immediately pressed on it. A new information window suddenly popped up in front of them. The window was filled with fifty cards, arranged in a row of ten and neatly categorized by its types.
“Alright. This is our tester deck. The deck consists of fifty cards, each with a maximum level of thirty. The cards in the tester deck are all warriors, making it a well-balanced deck as this is one of the easiest classes to play with. The deck is divided into twenty Half Cards, twenty Skill Cards, and ten item cards.”
Rin quickly summarized. Once Joke had some understanding about what each type of card was used for, he could now see each of their abilities, including each card’s special abilities. Rin was patient enough to explain the ability of each and every single card to Joke one by one to the point where Joke felt that she was also a very calm and kind person.
It was true that she would be receiving rewards in return upon this quest’s completion, but she taught him—someone who never once tried playing a video game before—in a way that made it easy for him to understand even when she had the choice to cut corners and quickly go receive her rewards with Madame Fon. The more he learned with her, the more he thought that he made the right choice coming to learn about the game at this store.
“Alright. Do you now understand the ability of each card and how to use them, Joke?”
She asked cheerfully as she moved away from Joke, causing him to smile weakly and nod at her in return. The truth was, her pleasant-sounding voice and soft scent made it hard for him to concentrate; but he could absorb all the general information, so he nodded to the question.
“Awesome. Let’s try to summon out a half to fight.”
“Okay.”
The young man nodded before concentrating hard on the task as he did not want to disappoint a mentor like her.
His right hand extended forward, then a long, deep breath was taken.
“Oberik!” He shouted.
The mentioned card appeared in his hand. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was a card set as his partner for this tester deck, or in other words, it was the deck’s strongest S card.
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Oberik LV30 (Earth)
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♦♦♦♦♦♦
Race: warrior
* atk +2 / def +2 when equipped with weapons *
* When attacked to death, two seconds of immortality granted upon sacrificing weapons in its hands *
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Attack–4
Defense-7
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HP: 15,000 (DP-9)
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“Okay. I’ll first explain that every time we want to activate a card, we must first pay for it with our mana before we can deploy it. Everybody’s mana is initially set at ten units,” Rin continued with her explanation with a smile on her face. “Do you see the diamond symbol on top of that card, Joke? That’s the symbol representing the amount of mana you have to pay to cast that specific card. For instance, you need six mana units to summon Oberik.”
“I see.” Joke nodded as he looked down at the card in his hand. “Wait a minute. There are up to fifty cards in my deck, and this single card already costs up to six mana units. Will the ten mana units we have be enough?”
The girl nodded before pointing at her chest.
“Don’t worry, the mana within us will be restored one unit every thirty seconds; therefore, we need to calculate the amount of time we spent during each battle. There are also many other conditions that can restore your mana. For example, some Skill Cards will allow you to attack and suck out your opponent’s mana, absorbing it into yourself.”
Joke nodded. He had some previous understanding of typical card games people liked to play, the ones where players took turns battling until one won; but it seemed like AOS’s card game was a real-time battle game where players could wield their cards at any point of time while having to manage their time and tactic to use their mana efficiently.
“Now, can you try summoning Oberik?”
He nodded before beginning to concentrate once again. He flicked his hand outward as if he was about to throw out the card. With his mind focused, he called out...
“Oberik, out!”
In the blink of an eye, the card in his hand dissolved into a magic circle with a figure of a knight holding a shiny silver sword emerging from it. He seemed to be in his forties, with sleek black short hair and wrinkles on his face. He was dressed in a black leather outfit, which made him look rather sharp.
“Great! You called it out flawlessly, Joke!”
Rin praised while the knight turned to bow at his master, an action which rendered Joke stunned.
“I really can call it out…”
He muttered as he looked down at his hand. When he met Rin’s eyes, the young lady tilted her head sideways as if she was asking what he was waiting for and quickly tried commanding his half. With that, Joke turned to glance at a blue slime bouncing near the spot where he was currently standing.
“Attack that slime!”
Joked tried shouting out a simple command. Upon that command, Oberik the knight suddenly turned towards its target, drawing out his gigantic sword from its scabbard, and went straight for the slime. With a swift of his blade, that slime burst apart right on the spot.
“Okay, great!” Rin praised while applauding for this summoner in training who did not seem so bad for a beginner.
“Go ahead, Joke. Try out any cards you like.”
With his mentor’s approval, Jakkarin licked his lips and immediately called out another card onto his hand, activating it.
“Use this spear, Oberik!”
The card in his hand shot out, dissolving into dust before forming into a long spear that went straight toward Oberik the knight. The tall figure caught the spear flawlessly with his right hand before spinning it around skillfully.
“Eliminate all the slimes in this area!”
Upon that command, the knight wielded his spear, stabbing every slime in his path with all his might.
Joke cracked a smile when he saw the action before him. He then pointed his fingers, continuing to direct his right-hand warrior to break through the crowd of enemies by slaying every single one in his path. If anyone were to witness this graceful knight going after the game’s lowest-ranking monster with its full determination, they would probably be breaking into laughter.
When a smile slowly crept its way onto Joke’s face, Rin—who was just stealing a look at him—let out a giggle.
“You seem to be having fun. You always have a straight face; I thought you were not enjoying it.”
She teased while looking at the man who never once played a video game before slowly becoming fascinated by it. Joke had to admit to himself that when he actually had the chance to try out cards, command battles, and also see his right-hand warrior carrying out those commands…
It felt rather awesome!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone