Endless expanse of grasslands, sunny skies, light breezes and harmless little Furpuffs. If you want to go on a picnic, then Dandelion Fields is the perfect place to go. It is one of the few Gates where children are allowed.
Inside the Gate, a few kilometers from the entrance, a young man was pummeling the living daylights out of a Furpuff.
****
Pant. Pant. Pant.
I gasped for air after killing the Furpuff, that d*mned thing kept healing itself. Weapons? No can do. The Grimoire gave me the feeling that I could only equip cards. So before I get myself some battle cards, I could only stick to my fists.
15 minutes of punching non-stop, the Furpuff finally disintegrated in specks of light. A deck of cards appeared in its place. The cards automatically shuffled. The card on top became a stream of light and flew towards into my chest. Summoning my grimoire, I noticed something different. There was a speck of light gathering at the bottom of the magic circle of the cover.
"What would happen if the light filled the entire circuit?" I have a hunch that this would mean big rewards, or the possibility of upgrading the card book. There was a new card on the magic-type equipment sleeve.
[FIRST AID]
RANK - WOOD
TYPE - MAGIC/ACTIVE
[At the cost of 2 MP, Double the target's regeneration and prevent wound contamination. Duration 5 minutes.]
After checking the card, I continued torturing these poor Furpuffs.
Two Furpuffs later, I added kicking to my attacks. Another two after those I started stomping on them. For the sixth Furpuff, I used it as a flail. I used all my strength to smash it on a rock.
As the sixth looted [FIRST AID] card entered my chest, the card book appeared in front of me. Six [FIRST AID] cards floated on top of the book, one card for each point on the magic circle. A swirl of colors took shape in the middle of the circle and sucked in the six cards. The vortex became a sphere and burst out like a balloon. All that was left was a brand new card on top of the grimoire. The new card turned into a stream of light and went in between the pages.
"What the heck just happened?" I blurted out. Ofcourse no one was there to answer. It would have been great if my book had an AI or a Tool Spirit. Sighing, I turned to where the new card was held.
[HEALER'S TOUCH]
RANK – COPPER
TYPE – MAGIC/ACTIVE
[At the cost of 3 MP, instantly heal light wounds. For a duration of 10 minutes, triple the target's regeneration and prevent wound contamination.]
My very first ever copper rank card greeted me. Six of the same cards would fuse to make a better card. If I collect 30 more [FIRST AID] cards. I'd be eligible to fuse for an iron rank card. After iron is bronze, which is just 210 [FIRST AID] cards away.
With the [HEALER'S TOUCH] I'd be able to join wood rank parties. Having an iron rank is even better as it will allow me to request for the last hit.
The specks of light in magic circle had filled more than 10% of the entire circuit. "This means I need to torture no less than 40 more of these Furpuffs."
An hour and a half later, I was able to fuse another copper rank card. The energy gauge was nearly a fourth way up. Three hours later, I got another two copper cards. For now, I decided to go back home for lunch. The hunger and exhaustion was killing me. I was determined to take morning exercises starting tomorrow. In this world, Solon's weak body was a hindrance to my survival.