When Ben thought it could not get any worse, the Mana now enters his brain and eradicates all impurities there. For Ben, however, this means a headache, and not the mild kind, but the nasty kind. It feels like someone has used Ben's head as an anvil.
With each mana pulse it throbs like a hammer blow in his poor brain. All sense of time lost, Ben stands in the circle. His eyes white and absent. The ritual slowly draws to a close as Maxwell takes the awakening card and places it in the ritual circle. The card begins to float and flies to Ben. As the card touches Ben's chest at the level of his heart, he collapses. It was too much for the teen.
Maxwell looks at the teenager with sad eyes `I'm sorry my boy, but that was the only option I had. I hope your second revival card is a good one, because you will need it for what is coming. Maxwell averts his eyes and his gaze wanders in the distance as if he sees something only he can see.
Ben wakes up on the floor of the revival room, next to him on a chair sits Maxwell, who is reading an old book. The book itself seems almost as ancient as the old priest. " Oh already up Ben. I hope you slept well" Maxwell replies with a friendly smile. "Argh I feel like someone took a hammer and worked on every single cell in my body." Whispers Ben softly. Ben tries to sit up but his body does not listen to him. "Easy my boy, the ritual took a lot out of your body. You should get some rest. I have already told your parents. You will have to stay here for the next few days until you recover." Responds Maxwell.
"Can't you use your healing card and patch me up?" asks Ben. " No absolutely not. Your body needs rest and nothing else." Maxwell puts his book aside and gets up and goes to Ben " You should try to sleep, that should speed up the process of synchronization." "I thought the ritual was supposed to synchronize my body and soul." Says Ben and looks at the priest.
"No the ritual only prepared your body. I was wrong, but there aren't too many books on the subject either. I had to improvise and it worked beautifully. If I had a few more tries I could adjust the circle and the purification would go smoothly" Maxwell says proudly. Ben's eyes widen when he hears that he is a guinea pig.
`I knew there was something wrong with Maxwell. Improvised, he says. I bet he threw together a bunch of circles and hoped for the best.' Ben wasn't that wrong with his assumption, because normally the purification should be done step by step with one mana crystal at a time, but Maxwell solved the problem at once, which was the best solution for Ben.
Three days later
`Finally I can get up and move around again, I was so bored just lying there looking at the ceiling. There are 172 individual tiles on the ceil and the worst part is one of them is crooked. I don't know what was worse. The cleaning ritual or the crooked tile. Either one almost drove me crazy,` Ben thinks to himself.
Maxwell comes in the door and says "seems like the ritual didn't leave any permanent damage but just to be sure I'll give you a quick exam with my card." No sooner said than done, Maxwell calls up the card and holds it to Ben's forehead. After a minute Maxwell takes it away. "Mhm no permanent damage. You should be able to use your interface again now. It looks like the synchronization is complete." Ben had been waiting forever for this.
He couldn't summon his interface, though he was dying to know what his second heart card was. `Maxwell said that because of the cleaning and synchronization, there may be problem with interference. Something about souls and bodies and different me's but I wasn't really listening.` Ben calls up his interface and it looks completely different.
Ben Allister
Age: 15
Hero System [tap to open]
Heart cards 2/5 [tap to open]
`Mhh I should probably start with the heart cards first` Ben thinks and opens the heart cards tab.
heart cards 2/5
Jack of all Trades (life skills) (Common +) [tap to open]
Jack of all Trades (magic skills) (common +) [tap to open]
Ben looks at his interface, beaming. Finally the expected combat card and even magic based but wait how do I get skills for magic. I can't think of anyone who has a magic card.
Maxwell sees Ben staring into space with glee as his face contorts into a grimace. "Are you okay Ben? Your expression doesn't look good." Ben fills Maxwell in on his card and his concerns. The old priest listens and nods. "Mhh I understand your dilemma, but I can help you. There are many books on magic in the church library. You cannot only get skills just by performing an activity or using cards.
A good old book can help you just as much. In my opinion, you should start learning some books on mana control and using magic-based cards. When your understanding of basic magic is good enough, you can start learning about elements." When Ben hears this, he groans. `Why do I have to learn all this from books. I hate reading books. Well, except for fantasy books my sister gave me to get better at reading. `Maxwell laughs at the sight of Ben's face. "Boy your face is easier to read than the books I give you and some of them a 10-year-old can read but I have a little suggestion for you. I have a couple of cards I could give you, but only if you put some effort into studying the scriptures as well."
Ben thinks for a moment and looks at the priest suspiciously "Don't look like that Ben. I'm just trying to help you. I have 3 cards which I can give you and one of them I can give you right now but only on one condition. You can't tell anyone about you getting cards from me and I really mean no one. Not even your parents." Ben looks at the priest even more suspiciously but asks " What cards and why shouldn't I tell anyone about them?" Maxwell sighs " The first card I'll give you later is an inventory card. This one allows you to open a 5mx5mx5m room in the void. The second card is a teleportation spell and the third card is a lightning type attack spell. It is called Chain Lightning. All three cards are rare type. That should answer your question. All three cards are too valuable for a small village here on the edge of the kingdom."
Ben's eyes start to sparkle as the priest explains the three cards. `Okay maybe I was wrong about Maxwell and he is a good man after all, even if he is a little weird sometimes. Still, I have a feeling that something is wrong. Why is Maxwell helping me so much. Is he afraid of something or does he know about a threat I don't know about.` Ben remains skeptical of Maxwell, but he decides to trust Maxwell at least for now. The three cards are too tempting and so is studying the books he has been offered.