"Here it comes!!" Daniel shouts in excitement startling the Keeper who is rearranging the booster pack and the card on the counter causing some of the cards and booster packs to drop on the ground.
"Err… Are you ok, Mr. Daniel?" The Keeper worriedly asks.
"Oh! It's nothing, I just get too excited. Please don't mind me." Daniel laughs wryly and reassures The Keeper who is looking at him like looking at a weirdo.
"Ok… If you say so…" The Keeper nods and mumbles to himself before getting back to his job.
After Daniel checked all of the cards and placed them on the table, they became light particles and flew into his body.
He tries utilizing his mindscape again; he needs to check if the time in his mindscape where he's choosing which card to use is equal to the real world or not.
Since Daniel didn't have a watch or smartphone to be used for timing, He brings out a coin from his pocket and tosses it into the air then utilizes his mindscape.
Once in the mindscape, he saw 7 cards he could choose but only 1 of them is available to be used as he only has 1 non-Elemental mana from the Dilmun card.
{Wait, the Dilmun card? Wasn't that the prototype card I kept on myself?} Daniel thought and his mind returned to the real world.
In the real world, the coin he tossed just fell to the ground. He didn't know if the real world is stopped while his mind is in the mindscape or not, but at least he was sure that there was some degree of time dilation in the real world.
Daniel then searched for the Dilmun cards in his body but after a few minutes of searching all of the pockets on his body, he didn't find the card at all.
"Huh? Did you lose something?" The Keeper inquired after seeing Daniel's action for a while.
Daniel was still searching and trying to look under the table as he responded.
"Oh! It's just that I seem to have lost one of my cards. It's not the card I bought here, It's the prototype card I brought here."
"If it was The Dilmun card, I don't think you need to worry about it. Mr.Daniel. It already merged into your soul even before you came here." Answer the Keeper.
"Even before I came here?" Daniel repeated and the Keeper nodded in response before shifting his attention toward rearranging the booster pack and cards.
Daniel looks at the Keeper who's still arranging the card and the booster pack on the shelf. He doesn't know how much time has passed but it should be nearly an hour since he came here. He should go back to Murphy's shack before the old man sleeps. Otherwise, he might need to use the sidewalks as a bed.
"Thank you, Mr. Keeper. If possible, Next time I'll come with some gold to buy a booster or two. See you around." Daniel says goodbye to the Keeper.
"Godspeed Mr. Daniel. Next time if you want to visit me, just think about this shop and the door will appear before you." The Keeper waves his hand while saying goodbye to Daniel.
—
In the outside world, nearly an hour has passed. Daniel walked out of the dark alley toward the bus stop and took the bus back to Murphy's shack.
On the night street lit by the neon light from the sidewalk, Daniel walked toward Murphy's shack. The scene he saw was Murphy drinking with his hobo friends who are living nearby on a wooden table made from recycled wood and scrap.
"See? Murphy, I told you he would come back." One of his hobo friends said with a smile.
"I think you're half one our bet. He came back with a smile. Whatever he's doing today won't be that bad." Murphy disagrees and then waves his hand at Daniel who's walking toward the three hobos.
"Oi lad! How is it today?" Murphy shouted.
Daniel let out a small smile and waved back while walking, then stopped at the table where the three hobos are having a drink.
"Not bad, Uncle Murphy, at least now I have a way forward," Daniel replied, then looking at the table and saw that there was a couple of grilled meat on the plate.
Seeing that Daniel was looking at the grilled meat and seemed to be hungry. Murphy picked the plate up and gave it to Daniel.
"Have you eaten? You seem hungry, Here take it."
"Thank you, Uncle Murphy." Daniel receives the few grilled portions of meat on the plate and makes a short work out of it.
Seeing that the plate had been cleaned out by Daniel. Murphy and his hobos' friend bring all of the plates and glass to wash at the nearby water tap. After everything finished he come to Daniel who was keeping all of the plates in the little cupboard in Murphy's shack.
"Daniel, You stay here inside my shack. I'll sleep outside." Said, Murphy.
"Huh?" Daniel was startled then pushed the last plate into the rack in the cupboard then turned toward Murphy.
"What are you talking about Murphy? You're old. You shouldn't stay outside. The mosquitoes and the weather are gonna kill you, uncle." Daniel refuses, then closes the cupboard.
"If you didn't stay inside, where are you going to stay? Outside? That's not good for your health, lad." Murphy said worriedly.
"Don't worry Uncle Murphy. I can manage." Daniel said then walked out of Murphy's shack.
Murphy quickly follows Daniel out of the shack to see what he's going to do and sees that Daniel begins to pick up some of the cardboard boxes and recycled material from the unsorted piles of garbage beside Murphy's shack.
"Are you going to build your own shack? It's going to be morning before you even finish it." Murphy tries reasoning with the young man.
"Don't worry Uncle Murphy, I'll just build small shacks that help me ward off the weather and some mosquitoes for just one night. It's not going to be as sturdy as yours." Daniel reassured Murphy before going back to pick some sturdy-looking recycled material.
Hearing that, Murphy didn't continue pestering Daniel.
"Ok… See you tomorrow then." Then he entered his shack.
—
In Murphy's shack, after he has closed the door a person in a brown robe suddenly appears out of thin air.
"Why don't you give him the key?" The artificial voice that could not differentiate whether it's male or female voiced out from under the hood of a person in a brown robe.
Murphy looked at the person in a brown robe, his eyes sharp and no trace of a good-natured old man was left. It's the eyes of the veteran who saw blood and had weathered the storm life threw at him.
"I don't know what your deal is, mage. But give it to him yourself if you want to drag him into the curtained world. I won't do other people's dirty work." Murphy refuses and tosses the key to the person in a brown robe.
The person in a brown robe catches the key. The key in the person in a brown robe hand was just a normal key one could find anywhere, not the magic key or anything.
"I just want to help him. This is the key to one of my safehouses. He could stay there until he got a proper place to stay." A person in a brown robe said while trying to be reasonable.
"If you just want to help him. Do it yourself, don't think I don't know of your people's reputation. Some of you might even make those psychoses in the maximum prison look like saints." Murphy retorts.
"Not every mage is like that, there are also the mages who act properly too and they're not the minority." The person in a brown robe reasoned.
"Yeah, I know. But the moment they found out that fucking with some of the powerless people is going to make a lot of profit. They wouldn't think twice about fucking with other people's life or destroying a whole fucking city! Full of innocent people!" Murphy retorted in anger as if it were his experience.
"Shut up! Don't group me with those sick psychoses!" The person in a brown robe shouted, but this time. It was the voice of a young woman.
Seeing that, instead of fear or wary. Murphy just let out a smile like he had just seen something beautiful or had helped someone.
"What happened!?" Daniel rushes into the room and sees Murphy smiling at the person in a brown robe. But the moment he appeared the person in the brown robe suddenly panicked.
"Dan!?" The person in a brown robe startled and forgot to mask her voice confusing Daniel even further as this voice sounded very familiar to him, it was the same voice as his girlfriend.
Daniel thought about his girlfriend who was supposed to be dead, this girl voice, demeanor, and how she speaks it's very similar to her. He was 50% sure that it was her
He wanted to find the answer if the girl in the brown robe is her or not, but since she has gone so far as to hide her appearance and voice. It means she doesn't want to be recognized, fine…. he'll play along.
"This is all I can help you with, girl. If you want to thank me, don't forget to invite me to your wedding then." Murphy smiles widely seeing all of his white front-row teeth.
"Y… You… You damn nosy old man!" The girl in a brown robe wanted to smack this nosy old man's head and was about to jump to him and give a piece of her mind but then Daniel quickly interfered.
"Whoa whoa! Lady, please calm down." Daniel said while covering for Murphy who was laughing behind him.
"Murphy, stop provoking her will you?" Daniel turns to admonish Murphy who is still laughing and quickly takes the girl in a brown robe outside before she's going to destroy the shack.
After coming out of the shack. What shocked the girl in a brown robe the most was a group of spider-looking golems the size of a cat building the shack with its many legs and tools that pop out of its body. It's not three minutes yet since Murphy entered his shack and had a heated debate with her and the shack was nearly finished!
"What… are those? Are those… golems?" The shock made her forget masking her voice once again, and she subconsciously walked toward one of the spider-looking golems.
She inspected one of the golems for a bit without touching it. As she uses her mana to probe the inside of the golem.
"Fascinating… Are you.. also a mage? An artificer? perhaps?" She asks after inspecting one of the golems but this time, she masks her voice but with the female-sounding artificial voice coming out from her hood.
The artificer was the term given to a mage who was proficient in making magic golems and magical artifacts. They didn't have high combat prowess but their knowledge was valuable and could be seen as one of the prestigious professions for mages.
As for Daniel, Thinking about the strange and magical experience he has and the keyword mana that the keeper spoke of. He comes to the conclusion that he should consider being one of the mages as well.
"Yes, you could say that. Although, you should know that I'm new to this mage thing. So, It would be great if you could introduce me to er… mage common sense?" Daniel decides to play along as he smiles wryly. He doesn't know about the mage society, their rule, their unwritten rule, and many things. If he were to survive in this new world he would just discover.
It would be good if he played along while learning on the go without any actual mage knowing that he was just an anomaly who used cards to actualize what they had perceived as magic or golems.