Book 2: Chapter 20: Three of A Kind

    Arthur made his way, deliberately slowly and with dignity he imagined befit a noble, down the first few levels. No one offered him a dragon ride down. Not a big surprise -- from the glances outside the windows, many of the hive dragons were still on the wing, seen as darting shadowed shapes in the night air.

    This had been already been long, long night. And he had a very long walk ahead of him.

    But there was more important things to be done.

    By the third level down, he was reasonably sure no one had followed him. He increased his pace to a jog and ducked into one of the side rooms marked with a servant''s stamp over the door frame. It was a storage closet about as big as his apartment. It even had its own lamp lit by card anchor magic.

    Touching it to illuminate the anchor stone, he sat down on a crate and drew out his new cards.

    He had some decisions to make.

    Back when he''d been a boy, he had no qualms about shoving cards in his heart without considering the consequences. He knew better now. Not only was there a general limit, plus or minus a few cards, anything tucked away in a heart became part of that person. It changed who they were on a fundamental level, so it was important that he choose wisely.

    For that reason, he tucked away the Uncommon Alcohol card in his card anchor, not his heart.

    He didn''t know if he was going to keep the card long term or not. Might be best to sell it. He needed a combat card.

    That left the bookshelf card and the perfect memory card.

    Did he want these as useful tools, able to switch out at need? Or did he want them to become an intrinsic part of him?

    Arthur weighed the pros and cons for a moment, but he had already come to his decision.

    The scholars had used these cards on a temporary basis. Perhaps given to a favored disciple to memorize all books on a subject before they returned them to the library. And in the long run, they''d lost them.

    He wouldn''t make the same mistake.

    But what really tipped the scales for him was that these cards were too much alike. They looked like they could be part of the same set. It was a risk, but a well-reasoned one.

    He put the two cards in his heart.

    You have added:

    Mental Bookshelf

    Knowledge

    Rare

    This card grants the wielder the ability to organize learned knowledge into a mental bookshelf, and is able to find and retrieve that knowledge at will. If placed in the heart deck, the wielder may voluntarily display pages from the mental book to other parties. As memories fade, so do the pages inside the books.

    Eidetic Imagery

    Knowledge

    This was his Personal Space.

    He was aware of it -- even saw the items within itemized as a list. But how could he see it like this? Unless...

    Arthur''s eyes widened. Turning away from the space, he heard the vault door slam shut behind him as he ''stepped'' back into his normal body.

    Back in the storage space, Arthur gasped and looked around, heart beating.

    He had been so eager to look at the bookshelves, he hadn''t gone through every notification in his heart deck.

    Alert: Three of your cards share unusual synergy.

    Mental Bookshelf

    Eidetic Imagery

    Personal Space

    These three cards have been combined into Three Of A Kind.

    Alert: Due to this rare find your basic Luck stat has been temporarily increased by +1.

    The hair on the back of Arthur''s neck rose. He rubbed at it, and when that didn''t calm him down, he started to pace the length of the small room.

    By all rights, he should be jumping with glee. Finding a pair of cards within the same set was extraordinary luck and a big part of the reason why he''d picked the bookshelf and memory over the Phase In, Phase Out.

    The fact that they were the same set as his Personal Space was... unbelievable. Or it would be, had he just not spent the last two nights with a Rare Meta dragon in his storage space.

    Had Joy had something to do with this?

    Metas twisted the fabric of the universe in strange ways. Joy had linked with Cressida''s quest card, but before that, her existing card was partially unwritten.

    No one knew exactly how sets came into being. It was a slow process guided by the world''s magic. It was known that a set could take years to complete.

    He thought that Joy''s card had something to do with Quests. But what if it was actually related to completing existing cards?

    No wonder Valentina had sent Cressida off to train. Joy wasn''t a dragon who could fight the scourge, but she was invaluable to the hive.

    An old memory flashed across his mind. A pink dragon set upon by other hive dragons, its rider falling to his death. That was how Arthur had gained his Return to Start card.

    Pinks were dragons with incredibly valuable cards who couldn''t defend themselves.

    He was glad Cressida had a fire and shield cards to protect them both.

    Meanwhile, whatever suspicions he had about their card, he''d keep to himself.