After a brief time of experimenting, Roge only found one new combination, though he did find new uses for the boost coins.

  Roge sighed at the first one, it being obvious once the [Flame] and [Icing] abilities combined. The problem with it was that he was never sure when he’d get a realistic outcome or a video game outcome with the combinations, especially considering the experiment he was planning on doing with [Icing] and [Blighted Fire]. But his friends pulled him away from the experimenting, wanting him to get started on the card idea he had.

  “I still don’t see how it could be useful,” Hops commented, watching Roge as he pulled out one of the blueoak branches.

  “It could not be. We’ll just have to see,” Roge replied, focusing on the branch and making it grow into the shape he wanted. The first card he’d make would not be a weapon, he knew that, but past that, he was unsure of what effect he wanted to make. At least he could get started on the shape, as a rectangle with rounded edges was easy for him at that point. He once again kept the bark on the outside, smoothing it out to a shine while still keeping the grain. It was bigger than he was expecting, about the size of his hand, but it would still work for what he needed.

  He stopped at that point, looking at the blank card as several ideas came together in his mind. The fact that when he made the fire arrow, it changed the ability. The evolution of the creeper vine. Abilities could change depending on what process you put them through. He wondered how much of his mana exhaustion last week had been from the vine sucking up his mana, and how much of it was used to upgrade the plant using his [Farm Hoard] skill. Either way, he pulled out the last idea that he had, a [Flame] coin. They were the concentrated essence of abilities, and each one had two distinct features. Something etched in the center and the color of the coin. If he could mimic that, while giving the cards enough magic, Roge felt like he could make something new. And he knew exactly what to start with.

  The painting of the card ironically took him longer than his original shaping, the art he made on the card’s surface needing to be spot on. The face of the card had a campfire on it, Roge wanting the colors to be exactly right for the flames. Once the drawing of a campfire was done, he carefully pushed the [Flame] coin into the card, focusing intently on not just [Screen Hoard], but also [Bonded Tools] and [Magic Tool Creation]. He didn’t want to make a card that blew up or caught on fire. He wanted a card that, when activated, would give him a campfire. He’d had so much fun with the campfire tokens when he’d played Dnd, and he thought that having that in card form would be a happy medium.

  The system seemed to deny him that at first, the coin stubbornly staying outside of the card. He wasn’t sure what he was doing wrong, but he tried to push harder to no avail. It even felt like the skills were trying to tell him something, but he was unsure what until he looked at the one that was screaming at him. Or, to be more specific, he turned on [All Seeing] and looked at what was wrong with [Bonded Tools].

  It almost immediately gave him a headache, looking through the lines and lines of code that he barely understood. It might take him days to read through all of it, and he’d only understand small chunks. Thankfully, as he was scrolling through the code, he found one spot that was out of place. A spot that had red text instead of white.

  Roge looked at that line confused for a moment until he saw the last line. ‘So it can’t… give me the information it’s supposed to?’ he thought to himself, remembering that Static Mind prevented his mind from being changed. ‘Why can’t it give this to me in text box form then?’ He jumped as a new text box appeared at that, the admin apparently summoned once again by another error.

  ‘Thanks… I guess…?’ Roge thought, not hearing any more responses from the strange starry box. Moving on from the mini heart attack that box had given him, Roge pulled out the four branches and three coins, confusing his party members as he focused once more. This time, he succeeded, though he wished he hadn’t as his already low mana bottomed out from making the card. He barely kept himself up as he watched the four coins and branches fractured into glitter and absorb into the card. He felt like it was a bit much until he looked at his drawing again and froze.

  It wasn’t just a campfire anymore, as two people were seen embracing behind the flames. He couldn’t see any details of them, though, only knowing one person looked a bit blue and the other yellow. On either side of the campfire and people were a total of four wooden posts with what looked to be crystal tips. And what made him freeze the most was the words painted on the top and bottom of the card. ‘IV’ and ‘Wands’.

  “Oh my god…” he mumbled, finally looking up from the card with an exasperated expression. The other three were looking closely at the card as well, all of them showing confusion.

  “So… it’s a divination card? Not what I thought you’d go with,” Hops commented, prompting Roge to [Inspect] the card.

  “No. That’s not what I meant to do at all,” Roge grumbled, flipping around the card to look at the back. “And of course it decided on that…” he grumbled, noticing the sapphire dragon decal on the back.

  “What is it… supposed to do?” Marge asked, prompting Roge to look at the card again in confusion.

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  “Hold on,” he muttered, pulling out his recipe book and flipping through it to the card. It detailed the process he just went through, but at the bottom is where he found his answer.

  “I have to make it un-bonded,” Roge grumbled, pulling out another five blueoak branches and four coins. Turning one branch into the card and decorating it was simple, since he had the design from the previous card. Enchanting it took only a moment as well, and he was left baffled at how different the description was.

  “That’s… so good Roge!” Sean cheered, Roge looking at the lion in surprise. “What? Making a campfire is hard work sometimes.”

  “So you’re going to make other cards to have utility effects?” Hops asked, looking over the new card with a smile. “For once I’m going to advocate skipping training for him to make more cards. It’s going to sure up his test.”

  “Let’s do that,” Sean said, nodding and leading the conversation on what effects they’d need for adventuring.

  ~~~

  After Roge had recharged a bit, they’d decided on three more potential effects for the cards, Roge making each in quick succession now that he was informed of what he was missing. He was allowed to make up to seventy eight bound cards, one for each of the tarot deck, or so Roge was led to believe. Who knew how many other cards there could be here.

  The card to fill waterskins needed five [Icing] coins and, weirdly enough, five copper coins. It made sense after the card was done, showing itself as the five of cups, though Roge felt a bit bad about losing his increased icing buff.

  The next card was all about making traveling easier, which felt like a nebulous concept, but it seemed to work out. It required six of the sparking coins, as well as six iron nuggets, which Sean thankfully had some laying around in his inventory.

  The last card was the more difficult one, not only needing fifteen [Acid] coins to make, Roge having to dip into his petals for that one, but also requiring bedrolls. It didn’t specify an amount, so the four decided to contribute one of each for each card, finding the card to be well worth the sacrifice when the non-bonded card was revealed.

  “Sean, go out and get as many iron pellets as you can,” Marge commanded, the lion quickly rushing off to buy the materials.

  “The wood and copper are easy enough to get,” Hops muttered, writing everything down furiously. “Is it going to be too much for you, Roge? To supply both potions and these cards?”

  “Shouldn’t be too hard. I get enough for like, two sets of potions on average. So sacrificing some of that for these cards isn’t too much of a waste.”

  “Good. Good. Now make these wands as well,” Hops stated, shoving over a piece of paper. “Your bonded wand is fine for yourself, but you’ll want to show off that you can make the other kinds without having to swap.”

  Roge nodded, setting up each wand and waiting five minutes in between to regen mana. The only ones he had trouble with were the boost wands, needing to grind the materials they came from to put in the bottle. Luckily, he only needed one of each, as branches and acorns were a lot bigger than petals.

  Once he was finished, it was just a few hours before the start of his test, feeling a familiar nervousness come back. Thankfully Sean had gotten back at some point with bags of iron nuggets, lending the dragon a bit of comfort.

  “You’ll do fine,” Hops commented, the dragon giving him a small smile.

  “I know. Doesn’t stop the feeling, unfortunately.”

  “Well how about we take your mind off of it. Any plans for what your Christmas mural is going to be?” Marge asked, the dragon feeling his mind blanking for a moment before remembering the tradition.

  “I’m not sure. Wish I could use an inscription wand, but since it’s only permanent in my recipe book…”

  “Your drawing skill isn’t too bad, right?” Hops asked with a frown.

  “Only at rank three,” Roge replied, noting that his [Bonded Tools] skill had gone up to eight without him noticing.

  “You can only go up to rank nine for your wand, right?” Sean asked. “So what would a rank ten or higher inscription wand look like?”

  Roge paused at that, thinking it over before nodding. “You’re thinking it might become a permanent effect? Makes sense. When do I get an increase in rank?”

  “When the skill rank hits ten,” Hops replied, giving Roge a secretive smile. “You’re going to get a lot with it. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what added effects you get too.”

  Roge grumbled as Marge and Sean snickered, wanting to know more about what he was going to get. “And you-“

  “Still not going to give specifics,” Hops stated, waving off the notion. “Besides, you might get something different. I’ve heard it’s rare to have as many additional recipes as you have at your level.”

  “It is indeed,” a voice called from the entrance to the training yard, everyone looking towards it to see the purple skinned drow, Harold. “Oh don’t look so surprised. Of course they’d have me here for Mr. Youngston’s testing day.” He wore a more formal looking purple cloak that day, though it was a lighter color than his skin.

  “Afternoon Mr. Robbins,” Roge said, fishing out the book for the test and flipping through it. “I think I have every part down pat?”

  “As I expect you would,” the drow said kindly, moving over and picking up one of the bonded tarot cards. “Are you moving into divination?”

  “Not really. Here’s the unbound version.”

  Harold blinked upon [Inspecting] the other card, looking it over with a furrowed brow. “Now, trinkets I can get behind. What a marvelous effect. From where did you get the idea from?”

  “Well…” Roge stalled, letting out the first thing that came to mind. “It was… more just seeing the runed plates. I wanted something more portable and with more effects. And now that I know intent can change things, it might let me make other kinds of wands as well.”

  “So, spells without the danger,” Harold commented, Roge feeling defensive when the elf held up a hand. “It’s a good way to do it. The recipes won’t become tainted in the same way, and you can act like a fully functioning mage. It’s a path a lot of people have gone down before.

  “Now.” Harold stood up at that, looking to the exit of the private training yard. “We should check in early for your test. Come along Mr. Youngston.” Roge got up and collected his things, his friends giving him encouraging looks as he followed the priest into the building.