It took me a week to get back in top shape, and that alone has been pretty much hell. Since I couldn't train my body in that period I was made to train my mind, made to endure extreme bouts of studying and quizzing that would probably scar me for life, but in the end it wasn't all for nothing. But today training would resume in earnest, and frankly speaking I was not looking forward to it. I sighed as I shrugged my shoulders and left my dorm room; the facility that I was being kept in had three floors and three sub levels. I was kept right at the bottom on sublevel three, I haven't been to sublevel two or one yet, as that's where the really important secrets of the caliphate were being kept.
The first floor was the entrance and had a few offices, the second was the barracks, and the third… I don't really know what's up there too since I haven't been there yet. But either way most of my lessons and training were carried out on sublevel three, unless there were days where I had to go out and use the facilities wide field to train. Either way it seems that today's training would be a bit more different than I thought, Hajiya Suraiya was here, and looking at her gave me chills in the wrongs sort of ways. She turned around to drag a white marker board before placing it in front of me, then she cleared her throat.
"we've met before young Number Seven, but we haven't been introduced to each other. But I don't think it's necessary as you probably remember my name from the evaluation last week just as I've known yours since you were born. In retrospect I'm almost like your mother as I've been taking care of you from the shadows, or you could say I'm your favorite aunt. But let's skip the posturing, I would like to highlight a bit on your abilities to prepare you for entrance into your first dungeon. You need to get cards for yourself and Triumphant; it's important that you start building up your deck from when you gain a card cradle."
I was confused, what was she talking about, I know I needed cards to gain passive and active abilities, and to upgrade any one of such abilities. But the words 'Card Cradle' and 'Deck' were completely unfamiliar to me. And it seems my confusion was shown on my face as Hajiya Suraiya decided to ask. "Don't tell me you have no idea what I'm talking about, haven't anyone told you about Card cradles and decks?" she asked me again, her brows furrowed a bit in confusion…. Or was it annoyance, with this woman I really couldn't tell. But I gave her a reply by shaking my head 'no'. and she looked even more pissed after that.
"What the hell! by Allah this entire facility needs a complete overhaul. And a change of management as this is just terrible. Your education is the most important thing, it's the reason why this stupid place stands, yet it's so messed up and unorganized to the point that an extremely important of your education is not being taken serious. Very well then, I will take it upon myself to educate you, it is a part of my job after all."
I gave her another nod and absently worried if a day will come when my head might fall off my neck, it was really annoying not being able to speak and having to nod my head for every answer and conversation. It's pretty annoying, but at the very least Hajiya seemed a lot better than Mallam Yusuf, but then again my instinct and guts were telling me something else. I won't let down my guard.
"the thing about terminal orbs and terminal beasts is that for terminal orbs depending on the type of maintenance and evolutionary path they take; most people have the same type of terminal orb beasts. And their evolutions come from the kind of cards slotted into a terminal orb passive skill slots. Now the most amount of cards a terminal orb can have is six like most humans, terminal beasts are 10, making it a hard cap for humans. The lessons that were given to you previously by nurse Carrol and doctor Salami were based on speculation on you and your elder siblings. But the truth is, the most slots for active and passives you can get is 12, this is something I've also done extensive research on with using your elder siblings as experimental test subjects to discover it. Also unlike other people who can gain more terminal beasts and orbs as they grow stronger, you and your siblings and most of civilization are hard capped at just 3 terminal beasts or orbs, which means you will have to make your choices seriously. That cap is part of the reason why many people are upset you have a compound Raptor for a terminal beast, but you and I both know the young woman is special.
But on to the topic at hand. Because of the Cap, it becomes possible to use the Card cradle to utilize the special abilities and skills of other cards, but only temporarily, and these cards though normal will eventually been worn out and would have to be replaced. The skills can be used by owner and beasts by utilizing the cradle's connection with the system. You have access to ten cards in a cradle at first, then 5 for each major realm of power and ability you gain. Now there's what they call 'Deck Effects' abilities born from the combinations of different cards in a cradle. Many combinations have been found, many more are still being researched as synergy between cards are required for a Deck Effect. Even you need to work with cards that are synergistic in your passive and active skill slots to build up on your strengths.
The Cradle is a neural chip, I will have a specially designed one installed for you tomorrow, then there will be an extensive study into cards, their types, the other types of Terminal orbs and terminal beasts, and perhaps a foray into weapons training and a little foray into advanced engineering, and finally pilot training. After all, this is a space age ehh, now pay attention, the first topic we will be covering today, would be about card types and synergy, this is important Number seven, so pay attention."