`We're about to start. Please, gods, hear my prayers and give me a good heart card.´ Ben thinks to himself as he enters the circle. Once there he looks at the priest who has pulled a chair up to the circle. "What, I'm not getting any younger and the ritual takes half an hour to an hour depending on the type of card". Replies the priest when he sees Ben's puzzled look.
Maxwell looks Ben in the eye and says in a serious voice, "no matter what happens, don't leave the circle, otherwise it can lead to failure at best and your death at worst if the ambient mana gets out of control. During the ritual you will feel hot because the mana will start circulating in your body and create a path to your bloodstream. Then it will travel with your blood to your heart, where it will collect and activate your heart deck. Likewise, your heartbeat will increase greatly and it feels like your heart wants to jump out of your chest but don't worry, hopefully this won't happen." Ben is left spitting at Maxwell's attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.
"So enough explanations for now. Are you ready Ben?" asks the priest. Ben just nods his head slightly in agreement.
The priest concentrates and a deck of cards appears in front of his chest. `So this is what a priest's deck of cards looks like. I've heard that each priest has a special card to activate the ritual circle.` Ben watches the priest and sees a card come off, on it is a circle that looks just like the circle he is standing in.
The card and circle both begin to glow with a bright blue and Ben feels the mana entering him. Through all the pores of his body he feels it. A pleasant warmth flows through him, as if he were standing under a shower, only without the water, of course. But it gets warmer and warmer. Ben begins to sweat, as old Maxwell said. He was also right that his heart is beating faster and faster. It feels like it is tearing his chest apart. `I wish that old bag of bones would have been wrong. He must be doing it on purpose` Ben mumbles to himself.
After what feels like half an eternity, the circle begins to dim and the blue light goes out. The priest says, "So it looks like everything worked. Say `Heart of Cards` to summon your interface and then we will know if everything worked out fine."
Ben says the magic words and an interface appears in front of his face:
Ben Allisten
Age: 15years
Heart cards: 1/5
Deck of cards 0/20
Sidedecks 0
Ben looks closely at his interface, but before he can do anything the priest beats him to it and says " From your face the awakening worked, you should only have one heart card. There are 2 ways to check your heart cards.
The first way is to use the interface and check your heart cards. The second way is to call your deck, this is much less accurate and should be avoided as the heart cards are a representation of yourself. You should only show them to people who absolutely trust you. To make it simple, say Summon Heart Cards." Ben ponders, `Can I trust this old fart? I think so, after all he is a priest and one of the oldest in the village.` Finished with his thoughts, Ben nervously says the magic words "Summon Heart Cards".
In front of him flies a single card which he himself is depicted on and around him is a pickaxe, a knife, a hoe and a hammer, which seem to float around himself. Ben takes the card in his hand and turns it around it says.
Heart Card
Jack of all Trades (Common+)
Subtype: Life Skills
Owners of this card can learn all life skills and lvl them by using them frequently.
Flavor: " Jack of all trades. Master of none"
Disappointed, Ben looks at the card. This was not the card he expected, he really wanted to have a battle card and then join the adventure guild, but the card seems to be absolutely useless and his dream seems to be shattered. Ben looks deeply sad at the old priest.
He says to him " Mhh I haven't seen a Jack of all trades card in a while." "What am I supposed to do with such a useless card. It's even worse than a normal specialized card like my parents have." Ben replies in anger as he gives vent to his grief. The old priest laughs, "Not so fast, my boy. There are no useless cards only people who don't know what to do with their card. Every card has its advantages and its disadvantages. Often the disadvantages are hidden or hard to see but they exist. Let's take your card as an example and I'll explain it in more detail. Both its advantages and its weaknesses. It's true your card is weaker than a specialized card in a field but its biggest and strongest advantage is that you can learn skills in many fields. You could grow a field of valuable herbs, brew those herbs into potions with alchemy, and then sell them as a merchant. Your card would give you different assistance in the form of knowledge depending on your lvl. The card would give you a sense that the herbs need more water, or that you need to keep the flame low when alchemizing or negotiate more profit when trading. In sum you are not as good as a farmer, an alchemist, or a merchant with specialization, but the difference is you can do everything on your own. What I want to say is that the advantage of Jack of all Trades is to be versatile."