After a few minutes spent laying on the ground Stanford finally felt good enough to get up. He stood up slowly and cracked his back before grinning and turning to Daniel, "Man, I'd swear you had a strength or nullification card if you didn't already swear up and down that you didn't. That's the longest it's ever taken the arena to heal me."
Stanford's armor was slightly cracked and dented inwards where Daniel had hit it. Either it was due for a repair, or it wasn't very high quality.
"I'd tell you if I had more cards. I just work out," Daniel said with a shrug.
"Hell, I believe that. I'm wearing armor you know. You should have barely been able to bruise me, but you went and broke a rib."
"And I'd have already apologized to you if I was sorry," Daniel said slyly.
"Touche," Stanford said while leading Daniel back to the main room.
"We'll need to get you some armor though," Stanford said, eyeing Daniel's current getup.
"Steph can help you with that. I swear she'd be a merchant if she wasn't so… abrasive."
Daniel scoffed, "Well after that glowing evaluation I can't wait to meet her."
Stanford led the way back into the main hall of the guild where they found Steph still sitting at the same table she'd been at when they'd left. The room had cleared up quite a bit. With everyone who'd been looking for work apparently running off to do their tasks.
"Steph, lovely to see you." Stanford exclaimed as he took a casual glance around the room.
"Where's Jonathan at?"
Steph shrugged and twirled her drink with the straw as she spoke, "Where do you think?"
Stanford didn't so much as pause before responding. "The church?"
"The church," Steph confirmed.
At that moment she finally seemed to realize that Daniel was standing next to Stanford and pointed at him with her thumb, "What's he still doing here? I thought you were going to rough him up a bit before you kicked him to the curb."
"Well," Stanford said while scratching the back of his head, "he kinda beat me."
Steph's expression immediately soured as she looked at Stanford the same way she'd have looked at trash on the side of the road, "How bad?"
"I broke one of his ribs," Daniel responded before Stanford even had a chance to defend himself.
"With only one card?" Steph asked.
Stanford slowly nodded.
"A stealth card?" She added quickly after.
Stanford nodded again.
Steph placed her hand over her face and sighed deeply before shifting her fingers so that she could peer at Stanford.
"I'm upping your training. This is unacceptable,' Steph said sternly.
"Oh come on Steph. He just surprised me a bit, that's all."
Steph's glare almost seemed to turn violent at Stanford's comment, "Getting surprised outside the wall will lead to your head rolling across the forest floor. You're getting the extra training. That's final."
"Alright fine, fine," Stanford said while holding up his hands in defeat before turning toward Daniel and smiling brightly.
"On a better note," Stanford said while putting an arm around Daniel's shoulder. "Our friend here was able to beat me with a single card. Just one! I still have no idea how he dodged my attacks," Stanford said, his grip around Daniel tightening slightly, "but he'll make a fine addition to the group, no?"
Steph stared at Daniel for several long moments before eventually shrugging, "I guess so?" She said unenthusiastically. "My build isn't really made for stealth, so having someone specialize in it wouldn't be a bad idea. What's the next card you plan on picking up from the vault?"
Daniel shrugged, "I wouldn't know. I've never been there."
That seemed to shock the two as Steph almost choked on the alcohol she'd been drinking before managing to stammer out, "What, how have you ne-"
She stopped mid-sentence and just sighed, "Alright we're going down there right now."
"Am I missing something here?" Daniel asked.
"Not exactly," Stanford commented, "It's just that we've never met somebody from outside the city before. It's no wonder that Anton showed so much interest in you."
'Did I just mess up, when did I let it slip that I'm not from this city?' Daniel thought rapidly.
"What makes you think I'm from outside the city?" Daniel asked with a calm demeanor that didn't reflect his internal thoughts.
"Well, education is pretty important in this city," Steph commented, "everyone's forced to take a long series of classes from childhood to adulthood and one of the school's favorite activities was having us go visit the card vault."
"They said it was something about giving their students something to strive for," Stanford commented.
"Anyways," Steph said, "we're taking you down there right now. How are you supposed to build a deck if you don't even have a plan laid out?"
"Is there a lot of cards stored there?" Daniel asked.
Steph paused for a moment before responding, "More than there should be, but less than I'd like there to be."
"Ain't that the truth," Stanford laughed.
"Now, let's get our asses down to the vault. We still need to get our newest group member here some armor and we have work to do tomorrow," Steph said with a sigh. "This is butting into my drinking time."
"Oh, and what a sacrifice that is," Stanford said with a voice steeped in sarcasm.
"Just lay off me and come along," Steph said before leading the group through the winding guild halls into a room that would have been right at home in a shopping mall.
As far as rooms went it was big, but not quite the grand piece of architecture Daniel had been expecting after hearing all the hype. Glass display cases lined the walls that were filled with cards. There were easily thousands of cards just within eyesight, and Daniel couldn't help but peer through the glass at some of them.
The vast majority of them had a bronze or iron color to them and every single one had the same level of intricately detailed artwork that Daniel had come to expect for the cards. Daniel focused on one at random and watched as it shifted from an image of a man standing on a small raft amidst a storm into legible text.
Ship in the Storm
Common
Water
The wielder of this card cannot be knocked off balance while in a boat.
'That doesn't seem useless per se, but it's pretty far from something I'd want in my deck,' Daniel thought as his eyes moved from card to card. Most of them being at least somewhat useful while also being staggeringly niche.
"You know," Daniel said, "I was wondering why you had such a huge stash of cards just lying around when you have literal monsters swarming outside the walls, but I'm starting to see it."
Steph nodded, "Yeah, most people don't want this trash in their decks unless it fits perfectly into the overall goal that they're aiming for. The uncommons and few rares we have are further in."
Daniel ran his fingers along the glass display case before asking the question that had been at the front of his mind this entire trip, "I'm not planning on doing this, but what's stopping people from stealing the cards. This doesn't exactly seem secure."
A soft cough directly behind him caught Daniel's attention and had him spinning around to face an older man, probably in his early seventies, wearing a worn cloth suit.
"I can answer that question for you, young man," the old man said with a smile.
"The first reason nobody steals from my little shop here is that this room is very close to Anton's office, and the second is that anybody dumb enough to try stealing from my store would have to contend with me."
Stanford's expression lit up upon seeing the old man, who had somehow materialized behind Daniel, "Harold, nice to see you again! We were hoping to look at some cards that would complement a stealth card. My friend here doesn't have a card that he's shooting for yet, and we were hoping to fix that."
"Then you've come to the right place," Harold said while gesturing further into the shop.
"Just place your hand on the stone over on the counter and I'll bring over the cards that it lights up as a good match."
Daniel eyed the stone suspiciously, "Does it read my mind or something?"
Harold actually laughed in response to Daniel's question, "God I wish. No, it's nothing like that. It just senses what your cards generally do and tries to match it with the cards that we have in stock. It's not the most accurate thing, but it certainly beats digging through our entire stock and hoping to find a good match."
Daniel eyed the stone on the counter suspiciously before eventually just shrugging and placing his hand on it.
An innumerable amount of runes glowing a soft blue light flashed across the small stone before sending tendrils of light out to the the display cases.
Harold moved with practiced ease to remove the cards from their display cases and place them on the counter in front of Daniel, and Daniel couldn't help but notice that they weren't being added to his deck by a simple touch.
"Is it safe for me to pick them up?" Daniel asked.
Harold's expression turned judgmental at Daniel's question, "Well you have a card in your deck, don't you?"
"Yeah?"
"Then nothing will be added to your deck unless you want it to be added. And this goes without saying, but don't add a card to your deck without paying for it. Our removal process is a bit... primitive so to say."
Daniel nodded at the old man's obvious threat and turned his attention back to the cards. Harold had laid out four of them on the counter before him. According to the stone, these were the cards in the shop that he had the highest affinity with. They were a mix of uncommons and rares, with the first displaying the crisp image of a man walking upon a frozen lake in the middle of a blizzard, the second showed a man crashing through a wall with a smile plastered on his face. The third showed a man walking through a cavern with a dimming lantern, and the last displayed a man submerged beneath a lake. He sat upon the mud at the bottom with an uncaring expression on his face as he stared up towards a surface that shimmered beautifully.
All at once their images shifted and Daniel was able to read the contents of the cards.
Sound of Snow
Uncommon
Sound / Ice
Sound that is made by the wielder of this card will be significantly suppressed. A small stability bonus is applied to the wielder of this card while navigating cold terrain.
Through the Stone
Uncommon
Soul
When the wielder of this card forces themselves past or through an object or creature it will be inflicted with slight astral damage.
Touched by Sight
Rare
Soul
When the wielder of this card touches a creature that is completely unaware of their presence, they have a high chance to be inflicted with blindness.
Breath of None
Uncommon
Physique
The wielder of this card does not need to breathe.