It was time to get back on the road. Jess had gone and rounded up the horses that ran off and got them refitted in the night, while Rook seemed to have made us some new cushions out of cloth and leaves.

  Radwin was having a discussion with Laurence, who apparently had a storage Binder, gear that could hold extra Cards if you somehow had more than 3 copies of a Card. Laurance was letting Radwin study the common Cards and make notes.

  ‘I should ask him if it's for the same reason he wanted to see mine,’ I contemplated this before making my decision. ‘I'll do the same with my commons. The potions he used saved me. It's only fair.’

  It was only another hour of making sure the carriage was going to be sturdy. The rest of the trip was 5 hours from where we were to Brittlemar. We only had to reinforce the Wheels and reattach the horse harnesses before the coachman hopped up on the coach seat. Rook settled right next to him with a grunt. Radwin, Jessamine, Laurence, and I crawled inside the carriage. We were all thankful for Rook's makeshift cushions on the wooden benches.

  _______________________________________

  After about 40 minutes, we broke free of the cover of trees to start crossing a plains region, absolutely riddled with puddles and ponds. I'd noticed several extremely large frogs jumping about, some even crossing over the carriage. Fish swam in the air beside the carriage as we continued down the way.

  Jess noticed the look of awe on my face.

  “This is known as one of the shifting plains. Currently, this area is the Coral Plains. You'll mostly see fish and water themed monsters here for at least a few more months. I'm personally glad it shifted before we headed back.” She seemed to shudder for a moment, and Laurence chimed in in her place.

  “Jess here hates creepy crawlies. The field for 2 weeks was the Flower Gardens. Lots of insects and gelatin type monsters, and don't get me started on carnivorous flowers.” He doubled over in laughter. “Rook lost his greaves on the way to Tundra's kiss, to a giant fly trap, and Jess was halfway inside one of the slugs' mouths by the time I got her out. She was covered in so much slime!” Jess started punching Laurance in the arm harder with each swing the longer we went.

  It was nice just being able to relax, and the Cub Pack was surprisingly laid back. Apparently Jess was the only Essence Cultivator in their party, while also being their rogue. It just reminded me that I hadn't really taken them in, as I'd have noticed that at first glance.

  ‘I'm either surprisingly selfish or just very observant,’ I huffed.

  Eventually I turned to Radwin, when we were about 3 hours out from Brittlemar.

  “I've thought on it, and I'll share my common Cards, but I'd like to see just as many. If you have higher rarities, I'll show an equal rarity.”

  The light in Radwin’s eyes was almost suffocating and quicker than thought.

  -Radwin Roal has invited you to their party. Join y/n.-

  With a chuckle I accepted and allowed my common Cards to be read on my status and looked over Radwin’s Cards. My eyes went wide, all but one Card was Common, or at least I believed so, since I saw 4 common Cards on Radwin’s sheet.

  -Name:Radwin Roal

  Binder: Commons: Pocket Cauldron, Hidden Garden, Thaumic Inspiration(Growth), Inspect(Growth).

  What surprised me the most, was that Radwin showed me he had not just one, but two growth Cards. I quickly added Displaced Spear to the list Radwin could see. Radwin’s Cards were definitely Alchemy themed in their purpose.

  Pocket Cauldron(C), Equipment Card.

  Type: Equipment. Affinity: Alchemy, Metal.

  -Effect: Summon a Cauldron that can be fully managed by the user. Heat and size can be manipulated. Can be used to craft all known recipes. Self cleaning.

  “Well that's handy, make potions on the go,” I muttered under my breath

  Hidden Garden(c), T1R1.

  Type:Constant/Storage. Affinity: Alchemy, Growth.

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  -Effect: Able to store and grow Alchemical ingredients placed inside. Requires fresh ingredients to reproduce. Current field size 10'x10’.

  –Cost: Perminate draw of 5% mana regeneration for the duration of being in an active Deck. Garden goes into stasis when not equipped in Binder.

  Thaumic Inspiration(c), T1R2, Growth.

  Type:Passive/Emergency. Affinity:Alchemy. Knowledge.

  -Effect:Able to learn Alchemy easier than your peers. Able to gain inspiration based on willpower and focus. Will activate in a life threatening situation granting options for survival.

  –Cost: Passive. Variable (Willpower x Focus). Emergency cooldown: 24 hours.

  “Wow” slipped out of my lips before I could catch myself.

  “I'm honestly too specialized, I feel. My soul Card is the only reason my Cards work as a Deck,” Radwin admonished.

  “These are still amazing. I didn't even know about these types of Cards. I'm kind of looking forward to my classes more now, and I haven't even read them all yet." We both laughed at this.

  Inspect(c), T1R2, Growth.

  Type:Active. Affinity: Knowledge.

  -Effect: Channel Mana into your eyes to inspect magical signatures. Focusing harder can give access to status sheets or item descriptions.

  –Cost: 10mp on activation, 2mp per sec upkeep

  Radwin was a support class through and through, from what I saw. He could help a party know weaknesses possibly, or find ingredients quickly to make potions on the fly, as long as he has a recipe.

  “These are amazing Radwin. These are far more focused than my Cards.”

  Radwin just gave me a funny look. “You say that as if your Cards don't specialize you as a combatant that's mostly defensive. And I wasn't expecting you to share the evolution requirements on your Card as well. Those are super rare to find on accident or even do the action right the first time to start the unlock.” His eyes stared at me incredulously.

  “And I somehow think you don't realize how special this is. Commons usually only go up in rarity based on Tier, before an evolution is possible. At least that's what my Pa said, and he went in a Spire when he was in the Academy.”

  Somehow everytime me and Radwin chatted, I found even more questions that couldn't wait till classes started to get cleared up.

  “So are you just studying Card options, or are there other purposes?” and at this he almost seemed sheepish.

  “I'm sorry for not going into full detail, but I'm studying the magic composition to adapt them to potions, and my Soul Card helps with that.” He didn't go into further details. “Are you going to look at the Cards you got from the bandit…”

  I wasn't sure how to respond to that.

  “I'm not sure to be honest,” I just stared at my hand, imagining blood that had never splashed them to be there. “It doesn't feel right to keep them when I..” my words hitched in my throat. “It doesn't feel right to keep confiscated Cards”

  Radwin gave me a knowing look.

  “At least give the Cards a look over. You don't have to add them if you don't want to. You could even sell them, that's what most people do with incompatible Cards.”

  I hadn't thought about that at all, I was so focused on my own self pity that I didn't realize there were options.

  ‘Not like you didn't kill several bandits in the Draco Tomes series. Sell the loot, save the next band.’ These thoughts seemed to help ground me.

  “Thank you Radwin, I was being stupid.”

  He just smiled at me with his sharp teeth.

  “We all do stupid stuff. It's just learning to be just a little less stupid each time. Now don't keep us in suspension. You can take them out of your Binder later.”

  I just nodded my head at this. Suddenly, I felt the weight of the Cards in my pocket disappear.

  -Quest rewards finally claimed-

  Instant quest: Survive.

  -Goal:Don't fall in this combat.

  Reward: 3 Cards of enemy Deck.

  ‘So I'd have gotten Cards one way or another, it seems, just got traumatized in the process.’ I frowned. ‘Then shouldn't I get something else for a higher clear?’ Shaking my head, I started to pull up the New Card description, when I heard a weighing from up front and the carriage started to slow down.

  “We should be to Brittlemar within the next hour, but the view of the Brittlemar Spire is in clear view, now that we’re under its illusion bubble,” the coachman called back, his voice sounding rougher than when we left from Tundra’s kiss.

  The new Cards in my Binder pushed off to the wayward, my vision was locked on the grand Spire I saw in the distance. It reached for the heavens unapologetically in hues of blue, green, red, and yellow.

  “Every Spire has a different color combination. It's common theory that the color is a representation of the affinities you can find inside, others say it's to tell you the type of challenges. Although both have been proven true as an inconsistent rule.” Jess chimed in, raising her finger to point at the blue of the tower.

  “You're lucky that Brittlemar is known for having a lot of ice themed floors and challenges. The red in the tower is actually for spiritual powers, fire is actually orange, in case that worried you. Green is for nature, though the green used to be lighter 100 years ago, making it a Wind Affinity instead. The yellow means it's a Wildcard Spire, they always respect their rules, unlike a lot of the other Spires that are said to be run by powerful beings. Wildcard Spires are true training tools, supposedly from the System.” Jess informed me. She had seemed to guess every question I would ask before I could voice them.

  “I can't wait till I can explore it,” childlike wonder on my face, making me look to finally be acting my age.

  We arrived at the gates to Brittlemar not long after, Jess only went into a few more details on Spires but ultimately told me I should take the basic survival classes my first year, as they are based around getting General Skills, and that's all that's required to pass the class. Unless, you want more training to advance the General skill. That just added another question.

  ‘Maybe I should take a bunch of classes that teach me profit General skills so I can make cash on the side. Jess said I can't take hunting quests till my second year, unless given permission.’

  Lost in thought, I didn't realize we'd reached the gate.

  “All passengers present for the guard!” The two gate guards said in unison. “All emblems are to be verified, and records checked.”

  They stood before each of us individually, and had us show our emblem and place our hand on a book that glowed for a moment and stopped. When the guards were done, they opened the book.

  “All good, the bounties in your possession have been calculated. In two days time, come to head barracks to get your pay. NEXT!”

  Bittlemar was just a few steps away now.