The family talks further with Ben about his card and decide that he should make lunch today so that he can level his skills. Ben starts cutting the vegetables. The more he cuts the easier it is for him. It is an intuitive feeling that he should lift the knife differently or hold the vegetables differently. These are small things, but he realizes that his map is helping him. Ben calls up his interface and is puzzled by what he sees.
Heart Card
Jack of all Trades (Common+)
Subtype: Life Skills
Skills:
Drinking games - 8
Dancing - 5
Storytelling - 3
Cooking - 2
Owners of this card can learn all life skills and level them by using them frequently.
Flavor: " Jack of all trades. Master of None"
Ben is questioning himself when he sees his skills Dancing and storytelling, he can understand but Drinking games at level 8. What the hell happened yesterday and what didn't his parents tell him. Ben groans and decides to leave it at that and best not to talk about it. The story of this morning has already embarrassed him enough, but what if they were just the harmless ones and he completely embarrassed himself in front of all those people.
Ben continues to cook and after he finishes eating, his skill has already risen to level 4. It's not that hard to improve the skills. I was probably too hasty with the card, if I learn as many skills as possible, I could work as a traveling merchant`, Ben thinks.
Ben calls his family over for lunch. "Not bad for doing it all by yourself" says his mother " but we need to practice the seasoning, but we have time, and your skill shouldn't be that high or did they already reach its beginner limit yet?"
Ben shakes his head as he tries to answer his mother, remembering that Maxwell told him to ask his father about the + behind his grade. When he asks his father this, his fork falls out of his hand. He looks around in panic and replies in a stern voice, "Boy, keep it down, talking about this kind of thing is dangerous." Ardan looks at his wife and daughter and nods slightly as he continues in a much quieter voice " Each heart card has a level from common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary to fabeld.
The higher the card, the stronger the effects and the weaker the restrictions. Then there are the limit breakers, these are people who can upgrade the level of the card. The upgrade challenges are secret until you complete the first one, then you can see the rest of the challenges. These Limit Breakers are a danger to the nobles, as they can bypass the norm and become more powerful without help. They bypass the regulations of the kingdom. It is not impossible to level up your card, but the resources to do so are regulated. Likewise, resources such as higher awakening cards or rare spell cards are also subject to the nobles and the kingdom. The only exceptions are the various guilds, which act independently of the individual kingdoms and are impartial. That's why it's taboo to talk about it in public because most people don't know that Limit Breakers exist.
I only know because I am one myself and Maxwell educated me about it, but it's good that your card can get stronger. Especially for a versatile card like yours, leveling up is much more powerful than for a specialized card like mine. My card is stuck at level rare. The challenges are just too hard to do in such a small village like Werchester. I myself am happy with my level of my heart cards." "Wait heart cards in like more than one? I thought you all only had one heart card?" asks Ben, caught off guard. "Only I have my 2nd heart card and this was payment for an old friend from my wild days when I was a wandering blacksmith."
"So, Mom and Selia both have only one heart card and Dad has two heart cards and at least one of them is on the rare level. Since I am also a limit breaker, I should try to complete a challenge so I can see the rest and improve my card. I wonder what my higher level card will bring.` Lost in thought, he doesn't notice his family looking at him.
"I think that's it for insights on cards today. There is a reason why adults like to avoid the topic of cards. On the one hand it is very intimate, on the other hand too much knowledge about it can be dangerous if one chats away without thinking. Just think about it Ben, what the hell would happen if the village knew I was a limit breaker. There are kingdoms where they are hunted down and killed. There are forbidden practices and rituals where it is possible to transfer the potential of a Limit Breaker to yourself. That's why you shouldn't tell anyone about this ever again except Mom, your sister, me, and Maxwell." "Wait priest Maxwell? Why can I talk to him about this?" asks Ben.
"Because Maxwell is trustworthy and most importantly, because he serves the gods. He swore an oath to them and to his heart deck. No priest would break that oath, because the consequences would be worse than death."says his Mother and with wide eyes, Ben looks at his her
He never thought his mother would have so much respect for the old priest but the more he thinks about it the more he notices how the whole village respects the priest but not only the village also the merchants or the adventurers have a heap of respect for him. Is the oath the reason for this or is there more to it?
The family spends the afternoon together when Ben decides to go to his room and think about his next steps. So much has happened in the last two days and he needs some time to himself to process it all. Once upstairs in his bed, Ben drops into his room. `What do I know. I can learn and improve many skills through routine but I am capped without a master to help me over the bottleneck. Also I am a breaker, I should keep it to myself like dad said but I could help out in the village and learn as many different skills as possible. Papa should know if it is ok to announce that I have a Jack of all Trades card. He seems to know this card and was apparently traveling a lot in his younger years.`
Lost in thought, he hears his mother calling for dinner. At the table he addresses his father "Dad do you think it would be okay to learn different skills from the villagers and possibly ask them to teach me?" Ardan looks up from his plate and considers for a moment " I think your heart card itself is not too rare and the more skills you unlock the greater the synergy of different skills".
"Synergy between skills how should I understand that Pops?" Ardan puts the cutlery aside and sighs " Actually we weren't going to talk about this anymore today, but Maxwell apparently wasn't that thorough with the explanation after all. I think the old Far... I mean Maxwell is getting old."
At the words of old Fart, he cleared his throat and looked to the left and right as if the walls had ears. "Back to the topic, different skills can develop synergies. This affects every heart card. The synergies develop when different Skills cooperate with each other. Let's take me as an example. I have a skill for melting and a skill for making fire. Both skills together allow me to judge the temperature for the ore better than each skill by itself. But what is much more important is the cross synergy you have because of your Jack of all Trades card. Here we take hunting as an example.
This skill falls under life skills for you. Hunting with a bow but also trapping. If you get a Jack of all trades combat card next and learn archery for dungeons or monsters, both the life skill and the combat skill will help you and together they will significantly increase your archery mastery. This can go so far as to far exceed your bottleneck."
"So in summary, learn as many skills as possible and lvl them up so I have as many synergies as possible right?" summarizes Ben. Melani answers " it's not that simple. The higher your lvl gets, the slower you level up in that skill and don't forget you need a master to solve the bottleneck. But yes basically this is the strategy you should follow. You should try all kinds of activities and especially experiment. Your fool of a father also forgot to mention classes.
There are two types of classes. One class also called main class you can determine in guilds or in any church. This class is a summary of all your cards in your deck as well as your heart cards. You can change this class as often as you want and it gives you special bonuses and disadvantages. Your father has the versatile weaponsmith class. It allows him to make weapons easier and faster, but at the same time he is slower at other items, which doesn't count as a weapon. I myself am a gifted baker. This class has no drawbacks, but the bonuses are also much weaker. I only get a small boost to my baking abilities and that's it. You can change the class as often as you want without any disadvantages.
The other class also called sub-class comes from your skills. If you have different skills, they can be combined into one class. You have skills in farming, field plowing and other skills in the area of farming so you get a farmer class which gives you bonuses on these skills. This is also a good hint for synergy and yes other card users can learn skills that have nothing to do with their own heart cards." I have skills in housekeeping and gardening but no class for it.
We are limited in how much time we invest in these skills and the bonuses themselves are much lower than you have with Jack of all Trades and before you think you are a big fish. No you are not we have no limits on the lvl of our skills but they take much longer than your skills to level up. Also, we can teach you but I at least don't know how much higher my skill has to be to count as a 'master' for your card. You'll have to experiment on that."