Just as Deckard reached for one of the uncommon fox cards, a thought struck him.

  He had played against Ratu for the first time not long ago. What if Ratu came knocking at his door soon with a third challenge? What if other NPCs in the village did the same?

  He needed cards that could strengthen his deck now—not just long-term investments. His [Sunflower SeaStar] and [Shallows Swarm] combo was good, but he couldn’t bank everything into this one combo. Good decks should have more than just one win condition.

  But then again, it would be a waste for Deckard to invest in a skill that later became easily farmable from a weak creature. Wasting his chance at an uncommon card for a card that dropped from a seagull would sting.

  He hesitated, weighing the two uncommon fox cards in his hand. Movement caught his eye. Ratu had stiffened.

  Deckard set the cards aside and sifted casually through the more common skills. Ratu relaxed, his shoulders dropping ever so slightly.

  Interesting.

  Deckard picked up the fox cards again, watching as Ratu tensed like a coiled spring.

  A grin tugged at Deckard’s lips. “Well, well. You really don’t want me taking one of these fox cards, huh?”

  “Eh, you mind your business,” Ratu snapped, his voice tight.

  Deckard leaned back, studying him. “Relax, Ratu. You’re starting to sweat. Got something to hide?”

  Ratu’s foot tapped against the ground in a rapid, uneven rhythm. “You pick your card an’ done. Don’ be wastin’ time, man.”

  Deckard laughed softly. “Tell you what. Instead of taking one of these,” he said, holding up the two uncommon fox cards, “how about I do you a favor? I’ll take two common cards from your deck instead.”

  Ratu’s foot stopped. He glared, then crossed his arms. “Hmph. I got better idea. I give you ten cards, an’ you pick two from that, ya? Leave these ones here.”

  Deckard raised an eyebrow. Ten? Why ten?

  He sifted through Ratu’s deck again, noting that nearly half of it was fox-related. He remembered Ratu mentioning he’d borrowed cards to build this deck. Deckard’s grin widened. Whoever had lent these cards was clearly someone Ratu couldn’t afford to disappoint.

  “Deal,” Deckard said with a shrug.

  Ratu scowled but relaxed slightly, pulling the deck from Deckard’s hands. He selected ten cards and handed them over. Sure enough, all the fox-related cards were missing.

  Gotcha.

  Pleased with how he’d read the situation—and exploited Ratu’s hesitation—Deckard sorted through the cards. Two stood out immediately. They weren’t related to seagulls or foxes. Both were cards with real utility and were playable in virtually any deck.

  The first was [Scavenge].

  As he fixated on the keyword, a pop-up window appeared.

  It cost two cards to activate but allowed him to draw two others from his graveyard. Deckard smiled. In a game where discarding cards was often necessary to play stronger ones, this card was a lifeline. Losing powerful cards to the graveyard could cripple him, but [Scavenge] allowed him a second chance at drawing them.

  The second card, [Reef Ambush], was equally versatile.

  For the cost of two cards, it removed any card from play for one turn—or two turns if the card was water-affinity. Against water affinity decks, it would be invaluable, but even outside of that niche, it was a powerful tool for stalling and buying time.

  “I’ll take [Scavenge] and [Reef Ambush],” Deckard announced, pocketing the cards.

  Collection updated.

  +2 HP

  HP? I wonder what creature dropped these? Deckard mused.

  Glancing over at Ratu, he found him scowling. He didn’t look happy, but Deckard didn’t care. He had earned these cards fair and square. Moreover, he’d done Ratu the favor of leaving him with the more valuable cards.

  As Ratu shuffled the remaining cards back into his deck, Deckard glanced at him with a brilliant smile. “Now what? Can you give me a ride back to—”

  Before he could finish, Ratu shoved him off the boat.

  “What in the world, Ratu?” Deckard sputtered, surfacing and flinging water from his face.

  Ratu stood at the edge of the boat, grinning triumphantly. “Ha! Got you, foreigner! You swim now, back to village. Good exercise for you!” He laughed, already rowing away.

  Deckard blinked, watching as Ratu’s boat veered in a direction opposite the village. He trod water, bewildered. Where is he even going? He’s rowing farther from the village!

  The childishness of it all left Deckard shaking his head. “What’s up with this guy?” he muttered before reluctantly starting the swim back to shore.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  *

  The boosted attack and energy filled him with confidence. Hunting seagulls would finally be easier.

  He put some distance between himself and the village, the salty breeze cooling his skin as the sounds of the ocean faded into the background. Once he was sure he was alone, he spotted a seagull in the distance. It stood on a jagged rock, its beady eyes scanning for prey, oblivious to the fact it had just become one.

  Deckard broke into a run, hurling a card with all his strength.

  -5!

  “Cool! The difference shows already!”

  The seagull let out a harsh, grating caw and flared its wings in an attempt to intimidate him. Deckard didn’t flinch. He hurled more cards, the sharp edges slicing through the air.

  -2, -2, -2, -2.

  The additional point of damage didn’t seem like much on paper, but in practice, it was huge. The seagull’s health bar dropped rapidly.

  Deckard’s confidence grew as he fell into a rhythm. His steps kicked up sand as he darted around the creature, throwing cards in quick succession.

  He hadn’t even gone through his entire deck when the seagull collapsed in a flurry of feathers and loot.

  Grinning, Deckard admired the results. Cards alone had been enough—no need for his toy sword. Best of all, the seagull hadn’t even gotten close to touching him.

  “Does this mean I’m ready to steal the Coconut Seagull card from under the noses of all those other players?” he wondered aloud.

  He quickly shook his head. “Nah. If they chase me down, I still don’t have a way to outrun them. Good things come to those who wait… and prepare. This class is about patience, and I’ve got plenty of time. Soon, though.”

  With renewed determination, he scanned the area and spotted another seagull in the distance. His energy bar had replenished enough. Time for round two.

  *

  After a couple of hours, Deckard’s inventory was stuffed with feathers and a handful of new cards.

  Switching between targets seamlessly and relying solely on card-slinging had sped up his hunts to a ridiculous degree. Once a seagull fell, he’d grab the loot, wait for his stamina to recover just enough, and move on to the next. Efficiency was the name of the game, and Deckard felt like he was finally hitting his stride.

  By the time he’d taken down what felt like hundreds of diseased seagulls, among the duplicates and feathers, there was one new card that caught his eye:

  Deckard frowned. “Unplayable,” he muttered. Still, it completed his collection of cards dropped by diseased seagulls.

  He opened his card repository, flipping to the page for the creature. The layout was familiar: the diseased seagull sat in the corner of the page, and the remaining space displayed all its potential skill drops. Now that he had the full set, he’d expected… something.

  But nothing happened.

  Looks like mini-sets like the shallows or beginner skills aren’t the norm, he thought. I probably need to collect all the other seagull cards before I can trigger a bonus.

  Sighing, Deckard flipped through the rest of his haul. Aside from [Seagull’s Call], he’d snagged duplicates of [Seagull Poison] and [Seagull Strike], as well as some general-use beginner skill cards like [Shield Bash] and [Healing Ray]. There was even a [Diseased Seagull] creature card.

  Not bad for a day’s work, but most of the duplicates were destined for the trading post in the village.

  Deckard slung his deck pouch over his shoulder, glancing at the horizon. It was time to head back to town. Trading would be easier now, and he felt the duplicates would fetch a decent price.

  Deckard started the trek back, his mind already working on the next problem: the next type of prey to hunt. Next would be the larger, rounder seagulls, the so-called terminal seagulls.

  They had larger HP bars and poison attacks but were slower. He was pretty confident that he could deal with the poison damage by using his high HP regeneration and [Healing Ray]; the problem was their high health bars. Sadly, even after upgrading his attack points, he could still not deal enough damage to surpass their 250 HP bars.

  After experiencing the joy of hunting exclusively with cards, he didn’t want to return to using his toy sword to finish the seagulls off.

  “There has to be a better way to improve my attack bonuses. Maybe an item or something lets me cross that threshold,” he pondered.

  Unfortunately, weapon bonuses didn’t transfer over to his cards’ damage. His toy sword’s attack points did nothing for his damage when card slinging. Other pieces of gear tended to focus on defense.

  “Perhaps it’s time I devote myself to a little questing, or maybe I can take a second look at what the stores in this village sell,” Deckard decided. If that didn’t work, he could try his luck at the little market run by players on the pier.

  He climbed the ladder to the wooden boardwalk, the creak of the planks echoing softly underfoot. The gear store stood as it always did, its shutters tightly closed to block out the sunlight. Inside, two players browsed the wares, their muffled voices blending with the faint scratch of a quill. Ronan sat hunched over his desk, as far from the door as possible, wrapped in a long coat with a high collar that shielded his neck and face from even the faintest rays of sunlight that managed to filter in whenever a player entered.

  Deckard approached cautiously. “Hi, Ronan.”

  Ronan glanced up, his quill pausing mid-stroke. His eyes flicked to the other players in the store, and his lips thinned. “Hello,” he whispered, barely audible.

  Deckard caught the warning in his gaze. Not now.

  Deckard stepped back and used the wait to scan the gear for sale at Ronan’s store. Sadly, none of the items seemed to grant direct bonuses to attack. Only weapons did, and those were useless for him.

  Finally, the other players left. Deckard stepped forward again. “Hi, Ronan.”

  Ronan slammed his quill onto the desk. “Argh! You have to learn discretion! They have eyes and ears everywhere.”

  “I—I’m sorry,” Deckard stammered.

  Ronan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What do you want, human?”

  “I’m looking for something to help me deal more damage when I throw cards. Do you have any suggestions?”

  “Bah. I don’t. Just look at the wares there. I’ve given you everything I could to help you save as many creatures as possible. What more do you expect?”

  Deckard clicked his tongue, frustrated. “Fine. By the way, did you give Ratu more cards?”

  Ronan stilled, finally setting his quill aside. “Ratu? No. I haven’t. Why?”

  “He showed up with a new deck and challenged me. It had fox cards. He said he borrowed them from someone. I thought you’d know something about it.”

  “Ratu? That fool,” Ronan muttered, setting his broken quill aside. A flicker of annoyance crossed his face before he sighed. “Borrowed fox cards, did he? Typical fisherman bravado. That’ll get him into trouble soon enough.”

  “What kind of trouble?” Deckard pressed, leaning closer.

  Ronan’s gaze darkened. “None of your business. And none of mine either. Let him dig his own grave. Let me work, human. Using your kind to help the Zulmirs was always a long shot. I need to focus on fixing the malfunctioning subdimensionalizers in case you fail us.”

  The bell over the door chimed, and Ronan’s expression immediately froze into a mask of stoic indifference.

  Deckard sighed, stepping back. Guess that’s all I’ll get from him for now.

  Without another word, he turned and headed for the door. If Ronan wouldn’t help him, he’d just have to figure it out himself.

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