Chapter 5 - Actualize

Reading the card description, Daniel let out a smile. These cards are easy to use and don't need too much mana cost. It's very good for an early game. Even though he needed at least 30 cards to play, he didn't have any money to buy more booster packs. Being able to open a booster pack, reading the card description, and admiring the card's picture while imagining gameplay scenarios in his head is the pleasure he enjoys the most.

Daniel then looked through the remaining three common cards and found out that they are unfamiliar cards he had no recollection of.

"Huh? What is this?" Daniel uttered while reading the card description.

Card: Location conversion

Picture: -

Rarity: Common

Type: Location

Description: Use to convert a location to become your mana source. The location you convert needs to belong to you by law or be recognized as yours.

[I never designed this kind of card. What sort of card is this?] Daniel thought to himself and turned toward The Keeper.

"Mr. Keeper! Could you spare a minute?" He called the The Keeper who was arranging the booster card on the shelf behind him.

"Huh? What may I help you with?" The Keeper puts down what he's doing and walks toward Daniel. If… floating a little above the floor at the speed of someone walking can be called a walk.. then he's walking.

Seeing the unnaturalness of The Keeper, a little sense of fear started to rise in his heart, but then he thought.

[What the hell? He's not human? Is he a ghost? Then speaking of ghosts. Am I not the biggest ghost? Being resurrected and all that shit.] Thinking like this immediately suppressed his fear that was starting to rise. He faces The Keeper like a man and asks.

"Mr. Keeper, what kind of cards are these?" Daniel then shows the three strange location cards to The Keeper.

The Keeper looked at the cards on the table and then let out a loud laugh.

"Ha Ha Ha Ha… I'm sorry, It seems that it's my fault this time. I didn't explain it clearly to you." Said The Keeper then waved his robed arm.

All of the cards Daniel had opened out of the booster turn into light particles and enter Daniel's body.

"What!?" Daniel was startled and tried to find the card in all of his pockets whether it was a shirt pocket or pants pocket.

"Don't panic, all of those cards have become yours. You can use its power whenever you want, as long as you have enough mana to use it of course." The Keeper explained.

Hearing the explanation from The Keeper, Daniel's brain starts to work and the thought that he couldn't have imagined comes to mind.

"Use its power? Enough mana? Wait, don't tell me"

The Keeper nodded and waved his hand again, now dozens of booster packs that he had arranged flew toward him then they floated around him like planets floating around the sun.

"You see… Mr. Daniel. All of the cards in our shop no matter what it was can be actualized in the real world. And for that to work, You also need mana from the real world to fuel its power and activation process. Those conversion cards are for converting the location in the real world to generate mana for you to use. No matter where you are in the world, you can use that mana to fuel the spell in your arsenal." The Keeper explained while presenting the cards he just opened from all of the booster packs that are floating around him.

Hearing that, instead of excitement or shock or fear. Daniel's face became weird as if he was hearing the most ridiculous thing in his life.

"Is this a prank? Where is the camera?" He asks while turning his head left and right, trying to find a hidden camera.

"It's better for you to try it yourself." The Keeper waves his hand at the other side of the shop and a magic circle appears on the floor, it lights up and a scrap-looking golem appears from it.

The keeper then placed two orbs he brought out from the inside of his robe on the table. Daniel remembered that's it the artifact that contains the fire mana from one of his artifact cards called "Mana Container" It's just a common artifact that will draw the mana from the Location cards for later use.

This card is considered to be a trash common card since it also needs to tab the location and itself in storing the mana making it too slow for the Meta game that relies on fast and effective cards.

"Try feeling the strange power that was inside you, then think about the Acidic Fire spell. You could move your hand aiming at the target. It should help you to visualize when firing the spell at the target you wish." The Keeper explains and guides Daniel's arms to aim at the scrap golem.

Daniel felt something strange well up inside him, it was the same feeling he felt when he was gazing at the river. The strange power that was within his control was about to be released from his hand. He quickly thinks about the Acidic fire spell.

Then, inside his mindscape he saw three cards in front of him, two of them can be used right now while the last one "Cultivate Prismatic Flower" cannot be used because he didn't have access to wood mana.

He immediately chooses to use the "Acidic Fire" to destroy artifact property, then the view in front of him changes as it returns to the real world.

The red flame with red electric spark-like fire from his hand at the scrap golem in front of him.

Boom!

The whole body of the golem was burnt and suddenly decayed then it quickly turned to dust.

Daniel was stunned speechless at the scene in front of him. He never thought that one day he would be able to act like those superhumans in the Hero movie, no in this case it should be those magicians in the game instead!

A rush of excitement rushes into his head, and happiness and hope appear within his heart as the miracle had happened to him.

"Are you the devil? Do you require my soul to pay for all the cards in this shop perhaps?" Daniel asks warily.

The Keeper stopped, crossing his arms, and thought for a moment about the question Daniel asked then shook his head.

"No, I'm not the Devil, But I do include souls as one of the currencies for trading within this shop," The Keeper explained.

"One of the currencies? What about other currencies then? Is it Tessia Coins? Dollars? Or Euro?" Daniel asks with excitement still clear in his eyes.

The Keeper shook his head. "No, normal currencies such as banknotes are useless to me." Then explained.

"We're dealing with the magical power here... so, the thing I count as currencies other than souls are, magic artifacts, the more powerful it is the better, magical ingredients such as Wyvern bone, Vampire fangs if you can't find them. I also accept gold as it is one of the best magic metals."

After hearing The Keeper's explanation, many questions come to Daniel's mind, but hearing that gold could be used to purchase the cards in this shop he smiles.

"Then how much is the price of one booster pack in gold?" Daniel asks.

The Keeper immediately answered, If his face can be seen he would have a salesman smile across his face.

"If it was 99.99% pure gold then, 1 Kg. is enough to buy a single booster pack. If you were buying an entire box then I can give you a 20% discount. Since each box has 30 booster packs, it will be 24 Kg. of pure gold!" The Keeper said with a bright voice.

Hearing The Keeper explain the price of cards as if it was cheap. Daniel nearly got a heart attack and depression in one go. Gold was indeed easy to find but its price could easily kill people.

"Er… Thank you for your clarification." Daniel smiles wryly and asks.

"Is there any rule I need to know first when using these things?"

The Keeper then explained.

"I don't know the specific rule, but from what I know. These cards are the product of your creation so, the rule should be pretty similar to the rule you created. But since it can actualize in the real world. Some rules and effects might change. You need to explore it yourselves because my duty was to sell you these cards, maintain this shop and help you with some little problem that relates to these cards."

Hearing that The Keeper knew he was the one who created this card game. This should mean that The Keeper knew him in the first place as he didn't tell anyone other than those executives in the publisher company. Which means he should know more than he let on, he might even know the reason why he was resurrected.

"Keeper, Do you know why I'm resurrected? Is there a price I need to pay for this stroke of fortune?" Daniel asks.

"Oh… Me and my big mouth…" The Keeper suddenly grows quiet after hearing what Daniel asks. He's thinking about what he could answer and what he could not.

"Mr. Daniel, I can't tell you the answer straight away as to why you have been brought back to life. It might affect my existence or even yours. But please rest assured that other than the cost of the cards you need to pay. There is no hidden price or fine print anywhere. You're not dealing with the devil here, Mr. Daniel." The Keeper reassures Daniel.

Daniel thought about it some more, from what he had guessed. There might be higher power in the work behind the scene, and if He's too nosy about it. It might do more harm than good.

He decides to let it go for now and asks again when he's stronger than this. Maybe at that time, something might change and he could uncover the truth about his resurrection and all of this power and this mysterious card shop later.

"Got it." Daniel nodded, then continued. "Thank you very much, now I feel like a lot of weight has been lifted off my shoulders."

After that, Daniel returns to the table and opens his remaining two booster packs.

The second one didn't have anything of note as it was only rare cards, two average uncommon, and some common ones that might be useful.

Then, comes the last pack. Daniel checked the rarest card in the booster pack and saw a diamond symbol with a gold frame. This is the Legendary card symbol!

Card: Michaela - Defender of the Faith

Picture: A very beautiful Silver-Haired female archangel with 3 pairs of wings stood tall with a Silver Spear and Tower Shield in her hand.

Rarity: Legendary

Type: Unique-Creature, Angel

Mana Cost: 3 Light, 5 Non-element

Description: [As long as Michaela - Defender of the Faith is still on the field. No damage can be done to its original owner.], [Flying], [Watchful], [Mitigate 3], [Immune to Dark]

Power: 6

Toughness: 8

Flavor text: "As long as I am still standing, No one shall harm even the hair of our lord creator." - Michaela - Defender of the Faith.

Once Daniel saw the card, excitement immediately filled his heart. This card is the first legendary card he got. Especially if anything in the card description can be actualized in the real world. It means that this card is the card that could guarantee his safety.