Daniel woke up to the clear ringing of a bell resounding throughout his small room. It, like the light he'd been unable to turn off, didn't seem to have a source.
A moment later a voice laden with static echoed out from nowhere Daniel could identify, "This is a wakeup call for a," the voice paused as if to check a note, "Daniel, your group has returned from their expedition and are waiting downstairs."
'Well, that's good news at least,' Daniel thought.
"Thank you, I'll be right down."
Daniel wasn't sure if the guy issuing the wakeup call could hear him, but after realizing the voice wasn't going to respond to his thanks, he was fairly sure that they couldn't. Or they were just a bit rude. Which was worryingly likely.
'Not to self, no more monologues in the magic murder house.'
Daniel reached down and grabbed his pack, which was significantly lighter than it was the day before. Most of its contents weren't applicable to his current situation and would have to be left in the room. He'd pay for an extra few days when he got downstairs.
Daniel left his room and walked down into the main room, and up to the front desk. The same worker that had been there yesterday was there and gladly took the money for a few more days of rent before she pointed him towards his potential group.
Daniel's first impression of them was that they looked well equipped. One of them wore heavy plate armor and the rest wore leather armor interlaced with metal segments and chainmail that covered their vitals.
They were sitting around a table eating some kind of meat that Daniel couldn't recognize, but they all seemed happy enough. So, with a shrug, Daniel approached them.
Daniel waved as he walked up with a big smile on his face. First impressions matter after all.
"Hey, how's it going. I'm Daniel, the lady at the front desk said I was supposed to join your group."
The lone girl in the group snorted, "I'm sure she did."
'Well, that's not a good sign,' Daniel thought.
One of the men wearing leather armor stood up before giving Daniel a onceover with his eyes and speaking, "I'm Gabriel. I'm the leader of this group."
"Ehh," the man in plate armor said while making a so-so motion with his hand."
"Shut it," Gabriel said to the man before turning back to Daniel.
"Now, I take it you're the scout we've requested?
"I guess you could call me that," Daniel said as he took a seat at the table.
"How competent are you," Gabriel asked.
"I don't know, fairly? You want me to rate myself on a scale from one to ten or something?"
Gabriel rolled his eyes, "No, but I do want to test you before I put the lives of my men in your hands. Stanford, come with us."
Another man sitting at the table gave Gabriel a "really?" look before begrudgingly getting up. He wore the same leather armor that most of the group did, but was easily distinguished by his bald head and rather large beard.
"Can't you handle this yourself, I only just finished breakfast," Stanford complained.
"No, we need to make sure he won't get turned into red paste the second we take him outside the wall, and you can test his hiding abilities better than I can."
Gabriel turned to Daniel, "How many cards do you have?"
"Just the one. I'm not sure how much the guild told you, but it lets me turn invisible for a short amount of time."
Gabriel nodded, "It's at least uncommon though, right?"
"Yep."
"That's good, commons are poison. I'd prefer you abstain from using them all together. They'll clog your potential," Gabriel said while Stanford stifled a laugh.
"Don't let Steph hear you say that Gabe. She'll shoot you in the ass with that bow of hers."
Stanford turned to look towards Daniel, "Look, commons are acceptable so long as they synergize well enough with your overall deck. Just don't use too many of them. That's when you start getting problems."
Daniel nodded, "I'll keep that in mind."
The trio left the rest of the group sitting at the table and walked into a room hidden deep within the guild. It was large, and kind of looked like an indoor stadium. Seats surrounded the middle of the room, which had a pit that stretched almost as wide as the room and was about thirty feet deep. It had a rocky appearance with stones that stretched dozens of feet high littering the arena.
Gabriel grinned as he picked up two wooden swords from a rack and handed them over to Daniel and Stanford.
"Okay, here's how we're going to do this. If you manage to hit Stanford once with your sword, then we'll take you into our group. Otherwise, you'll need to go find a new group to join. Sound good to you?" Gabriel asked.
Daniel shrugged, "I guess so."
"Well, that's good because you don't have much of a choice. Now get your asses down in that arena."
"Whatever you say, almighty leader," Stanford said while doing a small bow with a voice laden in sarcasm.
"Just get down there," Grabriel said, his tone sterner than before.
Stanford rolled his eyes and motioned for Daniel to follow him before he led him to a descending platform on one side of the arena.
"Don't you worry one bit bud, the arenas covered in life preserving runes. You won't die down there, so I won't need to hold back," Stanford said with a wink. "So I expect the same treatment in return, deal?"
Daniel's eyes narrowed, "You just want to beat the hell out of me with that stick, don't you?" Daniel asked the leather clad man.
Stanford, for his credit, at least pretended to be offended, "Is that how little you think of me? We only just met, shame on you Daniel."
"Anyways, I gotta get to the other side of the arena. See you down there buddy," Stanford said with a grin plastered on his face.
Daniel watched the man walk away with more than a little bit of annoyance brewing within him.
'Should I even bother asking what his cards are?' Daniel thought.
'Hmm nah, he probably wouldn't tell me. Besides, I doubt the monsters I'll be helping them kill will be nice enough to explain their cards to me,' Daniel rationalized.
'Besides,' Daniel thought, 'I don't really need to know what his cards are to land a hit on him. As long as his cards aren't complete bullshit like Anton's or Douglass' I should be fine. And they shouldn't even be close, Anton's essentially a king and Douglass is a noble. Their deck quality should be well above Stanford's.'
Daniel lifted the wooden sword up and swung it through the air to test its weight. It felt good, solid.
'Time to see how a legendary fares against cards ranking below it.'
The floor below Daniel began to descend like an elevator would, but it didn't quite feel like one. It made absolutely no noise and felt too floaty to be mechanical.
'Probably the work of another card,' Daniel thought.
The elevator reached the bottom in no time at all where it rested flush against the stone floor. Daniel looked out across the arena and could see Stanford standing far on the other side. A slim path stretched between them, unobscured by any wayward stones.
"Go on my mark!" Gabriel yelled from the stands.
A few moments passed where Gabriel held a single hand up as his gaze flickered between both Stanford and Daniel, before he finally yelled, "begin!"
Daniel moved to get cover behind the rocks but was knocked off his feet instead when something struck him hard in the side.
His breath was driven out of him, and far on the other side of the arena Daniel could see Stanford winding up for another swing.
'He doesn't need to be close to hit me,' Daniel hastily thought.
Immediately he flipped the switch in his head and found himself back in Limbo. His lungs burned, he hadn't had any time to regain his breath after taking the hit.
A moment later Daniel was sprayed with pieces of chitinous stone as Stanford's card struck the arena floor right where he'd been.
'I need to breathe,' Daniel thought as he scrambled up off the floor and ran behind one of the chitinous rocks.
With a thought he appeared back in the real world and took rapid, deep breaths while off in the distance he could hear Stanford talking.
"You should've used your invisibility card sooner. There's no use to a stealth card if you're just going to stand around and let your opponent hit you before it's activated. Now come at me newbie, let's have some fun!"
'I am going to hit you in the face so goddamn hard,' Daniel thought sourly before returning to Limbo.
He moved across the arena in a quick manner, but still tried to conserve his breath. Not much time passed before he was standing near Stanford who to his credit, had seemingly come up with a strategy to counter stealth users.
He was swinging wildly at everything. Or at least he was from what Daniel could tell. It was a bit hard to distinguish when the guy was made from smoke.
'His ranged strikes probably hit whatever they come into contact with first, or he's just an idiot who's wasting his stamina. It's probably the first thing, but here's hoping it's the second.'
Daniel moved closer, positioning himself where he'd have the biggest advantage, and thankfully Stanford didn't seem to notice him.
So far Limbo was seeming like a pretty safe place, relatively speaking at least. Though, a sample size of three people not being able to sense him while in Limbo may not be the sturdiest foundation to that claim. They were all very competent people though, so if they couldn't see him, then it standed to reason that most people shouldn't be able to either.
How well that transferred over to the monsters was yet to be seen.
Daniel tucked that little bit of info away and raised his sword. There'd be plenty of time to think about his card when he wasn't in a fight.
With a small step Daniel positioned himself behind Stanford and swung his sword with everything he had. It cut through the air, and just before it impacted, Daniel returned to the real world.
Where the sword proceeded to continue hitting nothing but air as Stanford appeared ten feet further away from Daniel.
Standford whistled, "Damn, you got a bit close ther-"
Daniel was back in Limbo before Stanford could finish the sentence. The small little quip he'd been trying to throw out had been a not so subtle ruse to give himself enough time to orient himself and swing his sword again.
Daniel watched Stanford back away hastily and once again begin to swing his sword like a madman.
'How am I supposed to land a strike on him if he can teleport?' Daniel thought as he spared a second to glare towards Gabriel for giving him this completely unreasonable test.