When I woke up after my research session last night, I washed up and was ready for the day. Walking out to the kitchen, I saw my parents getting breakfast ready. "Good morning, son—good morning, dear," they both said almost simultaneously. "Good morning," I responded, still with a hint of sleep in my voice.
I sat down, and Mom brought breakfast over to the table today. She made a plate of onigiri, a rolled omelet for all three of you, and a kettle of green tea. After finishing breakfast, Dad said, "I have some troubling news. They are sending me out to a base in South Africa for a few months to help with a group training with their local forces. I should be back to see you off to the dual academy."
"That's some bad luck, especially because I just got home," Mom said with a hint of disappointment in her voice. "Yeah, I know, but there's not much I can do about it. I still have years left in my deployment before I can retire and join you in your adventures," he said with a humorous tone. " Well, luckily it's just some training and not something dangerous, right? " I said those words in an attempt to further lighten the mood. "Yeah, you're right. It's not that bad. What do you two have planned for the day?"
"I have to finish my post-survey report, and I need to get some groceries later after I visit Dr. Pamela Isley about the plant fossils I found in the tomb. Fortunately, she is here working on one of Mister Kiba's projects." She said, a bit excited to see her old friend. "I have to take the letter of recommendation down to the exam hall. Then I plan to search for another card shop. I might take a hike in the forest just outside of the entertainment district later, too," I said before finishing my breakfast.
"Sounds like you both are going to have a lot to do today. Jason, just be careful. There have been many attacks on dualists who are alone lately, almost as serious as that battle city tournament," he said with concern and a hint of anger about the whole situation. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. You did teach me how to defend myself from anyone." I said the words with confidence in an attempt to reassure him.
"You're right. Just be safe, okay?" he said before leaving his room. I got up and helped with the dishes before grabbing my backpack and putting on my dual disc. I stored the gloves and Gleipnir in the backpack before going to the living room. "You want a ride to the exam hall? It's on my way," Dad said with a big smile. I expected the trip would be the last time we would see each other for a few months.
Going out to the truck, we both got in. "Did you know that I used to be a dualist as well, a few years ago?" "No, I didn't. You never said anything about that," I said. "I guess I didn't. I was only an OK duelist, that's why," he said with a bit of embarrassment. We pull up to the exam hall. "Son, I just want to say I'm proud of you. Always remember that, ok?" he said while giving me a half hug. "I know, Dad, and I'm proud of you too," I said, returning the hug before getting out of the truck.
After dropping off the paper, I start to walk to the central district, and I find an old game shop on the edge of the district. Inside, the old woman at the front desk greeted me before returning to her crossword puzzles. I see boxes of singles, so I make my way over. I look through them and find a couple of cards I can use for my second deck. If that raven with gold runes belongs to the archetype, I think it does. I also bought a few cheaper common cards. Costing me a mere 1,000 DP, I head out to grab some lunch and catch the bus to the edge of the entertainment district. I start walking down the path into the forest. After walking for half an hour, I found a game trail made by some of the local wildlife. I decide to follow it and eventually end up at a small clearing with some other game trails going in various directions.
I walk down the least-used trail. At the end of the trail, I come across a clearing with a cliff face overlooking the ocean, an ideal location for practicing with magic items: it's away from prying eyes, provides ample space for practice, and offers a picturesque view as a bonus. Pulling out a small picnic blanket, I lay it out and lay my dual disc down on my arm before pulling out the gloves and Gleipnir. I start by putting on the gloves and flexing my fingers. They are almost skin-tight, like batter's gloves in baseball. Reaching down, I grab one of the common cards I bought earlier. It's easy, as if I weren't wearing gloves at all. This knowledge will come in handy when I practice using the dual disc later. Putting the card in my pocket, I walk away from the blanket and focus on the gloves. After about a minute, I can hear whispers coming from the left glove. I am learning about spells, like the one needed to start a shadow game, and how to absorb and replicate the card's effects. I took out the card from my pocket. It's the trap Negate Attack. Upon uttering the spell, the card transformed into a plethora of golden light, which the glove then absorbed. It also displays a purple rune.
Pointing the finger forward and willing the rune to activate, a swirl of blue and red energy appeared in front of me. It was about the same size as me, lasting about a minute before dispersing into the air. Then I tried to listen to the glove on my right hand. I heard quiet songs giving instructions on how to recover BA faster, how spell circles work, and how to make them. Listening to the instructions requires a lot of material related to dual alchemy that I don't have access to, so I will have to wait until I go to the dual academy.
After that, I absorbed a few more of the common cards into the gloves, like Dragon's Gunfire, Raimei, Remove Trap, Shield Crush, Dark Spirit of the Silent, and Rainbow Life. With this, 4 green runes and 2 pupil runes appeared on the gloves. I start by testing them out on the iron tree by the cliff. I point at it and say the name of the card to activate the rune, starting with Raimei. A weak bolt of lightning emerged from the glove, striking the tree and leaving a black scorch mark where it blew off the bark. "Makes sense; the burn damage of the spell in the game was not that strong," I say reluctantly.
Returning to my p Returning to my previous location, I gestured towards the tree once more and exclaimed, "Shield crush!" I unleashed a dense green beam of energy, destroying the tree completely. launching the spell, I feel a small headache start, so I stop for a minute and follow the instructions on how to recover BA from earlier. I shut my eyes and concentrate on the BA emanating from nature. I pull it toward me and absorb it to recover my BA rmys. It's a rapid process procerapidhat can't be used a lot in one's area compared to absorbing it naturally while people sleep. After about a minute, the headache stops, and I'm back to full power.
Picking a new tree as my target, I point at it and activate the rune for Dragon's gunfire, charging it for three seconds. As I cast the spell, a fireball around the size of a basketball starts to form. Once the fireball is fully formed, I launch it with a loud bang that resembles the sound of a Desert Eagle firing at high speed, causing the tree to splinter and burn into ash almost instantly.
I make sure there are no more embers that could start a fire anywhere before walking away from the tree and back to the blanket to take a lunch break. After I ate and relaxed for a few minutes, I got up and grabbed Gleipnir. As I reached for Gleipnir, it wrapped about six inches of itself around my wrist and forearm, magically tightening to secure itself without causing any pain.
I went to the middle of the clearing and practiced swinging the chain; every time I hit myself, it would move to just slightly miss me. After about an hour, I finally started to get the hang of it and swung it at a tree with a thunderous crack. About a third of the tree was broken. When I swung the chain again, it smashed another third of the tree, causing the tree to begin falling forward. Next, I swung the chain at a new tree and said, Fange (capture). After saying the trigger word, the chain came to life and wrapped around the tree extremely tightly and would not let go until I said Frigive (release). The chain then unwrapped itself from the tree, and I pulled it back to myself.
As I looked at the tree, I noticed that the chain had just wrapped around it. I saw it leave deep grooves in the tree about an inch deep. Walking back, I repeated the same process, but instead of releasing the tree, I said dræne (drain) and absorbere (absorb). After I said this, I saw the chain light up and the area around the tree release small spikes into it. After that, I see the tree quickly start to lose its leaves, and I feel a steady flow of energy enter my body. A minute or so later, my head hurts a little bit, like when you stuff a suitcase too full. Just as fast as the pain appeared, it left as the overflowing energy was released into a green rune that I could feel on my soul. I can feel that my soul grew slightly while the majority seems to have disappeared into the rune.
My guess is the rune sends the energy I can't handle to strengthen and grow my soul before sending it to Hela as part of our deal. After not paying attention for a minute, I saw that the tree was nothing more than a dead, withered stick pulling on the chain. The tree shattered and turned to dust. After yanking it back to me, I wanted to see if I could combine the gloves and chain. Wrapping the chain around a second chain, I cast Raimei. The lightning traveled down the chain and burned the tree a lot more than Raimei did by itself.
About a minute later, I hear a loud noise coming straight at me from the forest. Bursting into the clearing was the dual spirit, Trent. A large, dark blue living tree is prepared to attack. Launching a large tree branch at me like a spear, I responded by activating the purple rune of Negate Attack, with a spiral of energy appearing and blocking the branch. Running to the side, forcing it to spin to keep its eyes on me, I launched Gleipnir at the monster, which wrapped itself around it and bound it, stopping its movements. Taking my chance, I fired off Dragon's gunfire multiple times, weakening it further than I had. Gleipnir finished it by absorbing its energy and absorbing it myself, strengthening my soul far more than a normal tree did. Pulling Gleipnir, the Trent burst into gold dust and scattered it in the air. Walking up to where the monster died, I see the monster's card, nothing more than a weak, normal monster. Next to it was the Trap Shadow Spell. The way I killed the monster likely inspired the creation of this item. After two hours, I have finished cleaning up all the debris from my testing by pushing everything off the cliff. I repack everything into my backpack and make my way out of the forest.
About halfway out of the forest, I see someone just ahead of me walking towards me. Getting closer, I see the person is wearing a purple cloak with a gold eye symbol on the hood. "A new victim just delivered themselves to me before I even had to go look for one. It must be my lucky day," he said in a smug voice, sounding like someone who smoked 20 packs of cigarettes a day. "You must be the person responsible for the attacks on the other duelist. Let's get this incident over with." I said with a service voice, activating my dual disk.
"After I beat you, I will be taking your most valuable card just like the rest," he said with a voice full of greed. "Too bad that won't be happening. You won't be walking out of these woods," I said, activating the rune on the glove, starting a shadow game. As the magic took effect, an emerald green dome formed around us, and a blistering wind started to blow. A giant wolf started to prowl around the edge of the dome in between the trees. My deal with Hela appears to influence my shadow games, drawing in a portion of Helheim.
"How, how do you have the same power as Master Merik!?" he said with a bit of fear. "That's not something you need to know. I suggest you either draw your cards or get out of here." I said, drawing my five cards, anticipating his next move…