The sheer number of notifications cluttered most of Deckard’s screen.
Collection updated.
+2.8% crit chance
Congratulations! You’ve captured all the cards from the macaws’ ecosystem.
Congratulations! You’ve captured all the creatures living in the forests of Beginner Island.
Congratulations! You've captured the five bosses of Beginner Island.
Congratulations! You’ve captured all the creatures living on Beginner Island.
Your repository cross-references all genetic information, allowing you to gain new insights into these ecosystems.
You’ve received the following cards: [Green Macaw], [Macaque Ninja], [Harmonious Island].
Collection updated:
+0.5% crit chance,
+1% movement speed,
+10 throwing deck capacity.
[Beginner Path] has been upgraded to [Islander’s Path].
You can learn a new skill: [Rainbow Throw].
You’ve unlocked new card sleeves: [Salty Jungle], [Beginner Island].
The over-the-top visual effects when he’d added the cards to his repository were well-deserved. There were so many rewards!
He needed to sort through it all.
“Let’s start from the bottom,” he muttered, setting the juiciest rewards to the side.
He chuckled, realizing what he was doing. Back in Nova Cardia’s digital version, Deckard had always opened packs the same way—dull comons first, saving the glowing rares for last. That was just his thing.
First up: the macaw-related cards. Adding them to his collection increased his critical chance—a welcome boost to his overall damage potential.
Until now, the only ways for him to land a critical hit were through [Four Aces]—when throwing a telekinetically charged card—or [Pinch Point], provided he struck a creature’s weak spot. But this new boost meant that even standard throws had a shot at triggering a crit.
What remained to be seen was how much damage a ‘normal’ crit dealt and whether it would stack with these other skills.
He couldn’t wait to see how much this new attribute would impact his strength.
The rewards for completing the macaw mini-set included a creature card and a new skill.
The creature card followed the same design language as the others in the set: it offered a bonus if he correctly guessed where his opponent would play a card.
Green Macaw ?? (Rare)
Type: Creature
Affinity: Nature ??
Cost: 1
Points: 1
Effects: If the opponent plays a creature here this turn, draw two cards.
Blue Macaw rewarded him with bonus points for predicting an opponent’s move. Red Macaw could be summoned ahead of the curve. Green Macaw, in turn, granted a two-card draw if he guessed right. Its effect wasn’t guaranteed, but it was efficient and cheap.
And thanks to its addition to his card collection, his critical chance increased by an additional 0.5%.
Then there was the skill: [Rainbow Throw].
Rainbow Throw (Uncommon)
Description: Tropical birds use colors to issue warnings to predators and communicate with their kin. You’ve figured out how to use them to attack.
Effects: Active. Throw three cards simultaneously in a fan pattern. 100% damage if you hit 1, 250% if you hit 2, and 400% damage if you hit 3.
He scrolled through his current skill set, weighing what to discard. His eyes landed on [Healing Ray]. He hesitated. It had saved his hide more than once. But healing meant taking hits. More damage output meant enemies went down faster.
My class is all about dealing damage. Not healing.
With a steady breath, he confirmed the swap.
You’ve forgotten [Healing Ray]. You’ve learned [Rainbow Throw]!
Eager to try it out, he grabbed three cards from his throwing deck.
Rainbow Throw!
Each card shimmered with a different hue—red, blue, and green—the colors of the macaws in his collection. They shot out in a wide fan.
It was essentially a shotgun blast. Only viable at close range, but depending on how the system calculated damage, if he landed all three, each card would deal 400% damage. That was the equivalent of twelve regular card throws in one devastating burst.
Then again, it seemed tailored for close-quarters combat. To land all three on a single target, they’d have to be right in front of him. Still, it made for an excellent finisher. A backup when things got too close for comfort.
“Up next!”
He turned his attention to the card awarded for collecting all the creatures from the forests of Beginner Island.
Macaque Ninja ?? (Epic)
Type: Fusion Creature
Affinity: Nature ??
Cost: 1 + [Macaque ??] + [Macaw ??]
Points: 2
Effects: Pierce.
Another fusion creature. Not quite legendary like [Turtle Ninja], but still impressive.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What’s with the ninja theme?” Deckard muttered. First, a turtle ninja, now a macaque ninja.
Then he spotted the keyword. “Pierce? That’s new.” He focused on the word, prompting a tooltip:
Pierce: Pierce points are always deducted from the opponent, regardless of their defense value.
He raised an eyebrow. So it cuts through everything.
He pictured a defensive player who had built an impenetrable wall. And then, just when they thought they were safe, bam—two unassuming points from a little monkey ninja, slipping right through the cracks and sealing the match.
Deckard grinned. “Nasty. I love it.”
Alongside the new creature, he’d also received a card sleeve.
Salty Jungle (Common)
Description: A card sleeve that captures the beauty of the jungle of an island.
Effects:
+5% movement speed;
+5% crit chance;
+10 energy.
Not bad—but it still didn’t beat his sunny beach sleeve.
Even though the macaques and macaws were the strongest creatures on the island, completing the jungle collection had only required two mini-sets. In contrast, the beach collection had taken six. And the difference showed. [Turtle Ninja] was legendary, while [Macaque Ninja] was only epic. The beach sleeve also gave him better bonuses.
He wasn’t disappointed, though. The Macaque Ninja was a great card.
And now we get to the really juicy part, he thought to himself as he rubbed his hands.
The reward for capturing all the bosses of the island was an upgrade to a skill he’d learned after completing the set made up of all beginner skills.
Islander’s Path (Uncommon)
Description: Success lies in a strong foundation and varied experiences.
Effects: Passive. +10 attack; +100 HP; + 200 energy; 30kg weight carrying capacity.
“Yes!” he burst out.
Leveling up through his card collection was powerful, but in many ways, he’d felt like he was trailing behind the other players. They could fully tap into their equipment’s potential, gaining set perks and bonus effects. He, on the other hand, only got the gear’s base stats.
Moreover, players gained more than one thing from each increase to a stat. For example, a one-point bonus to strength, boosted 1 HP, +0.1 HP regeneration, +1 attack, and a 0.5kg weight carry capacity.
Deckard needed ten common turtle cards just to match that 1 HP. For the rest of the bonuses, he had to throw in a starfish card, ten standard crab cards, and whatever else that boosted weight-carrying capacity. It was just too much work for too little gain.
And players gained five stat points per level up. Five!
The gap was massive.
But after he’d finally cleared his first real hurdle, the system had rewarded him generously. His HP had doubled. His energy? Tripled. He’d caught up to others in one single leap.
“This class has such great potential,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. “If I can stay the course, I know I’ll be much stronger than other regular players.”
He just needed to persevere.
Then he reached it—the crown jewels. The rewards for completing the full island collection.
He paused.
This was it. The culmination of hours upon hours of grinding: Tracking down every elite, capturing bosses, playing out hundreds of battles and competing with players and guilds. He’d scoured every inch of Beginner Island, finishing the sets like a man possessed.
And now, it was time to see if it all paid off.
First, the card.
Harmonious Island ??? (Legendary)
Type: Landmark
Affinity: Island ???
Cost: 1
Effect: Unlocks Island synergies.
Synergy: Draw this card in your opening hand.
Seeing that it was a legendary card, Deckard smiled. He hadn’t expected anything less.
It was a landmark, too. Interesting.
The synergy effect was familiar—it matched the one the Puppet master had used against him. What was it called again? [Statue of the Fan Macaw] or something like that. But as he read the text again, his brow furrowed.
“Wait. What?”
Deckard blinked, rereading the words. “Island synergies?”
He already knew what synergy did—it granted additional effects to cards if the whole deck was built exclusively around the same affinity. He’d learned that much during his fight with Ratu’s backer.
But an Island affinity? That was new.
From what he knew, affinities aligned with the game’s core regions—water, fire, nature, wind, lightning, earth, darkness, light. He’d never seen anything about an island affinity. Not in the documentation, not in fan wikis, nowhere.
He focused on the affinity, and to his relief, a description appeared:
Island: A special affinity made up of seabirds, tropical birds, crustaceans, testudines, starfish, shellfish, primates, and skills related to them.
Deckard stared, eyes wide. “The tribes of the island’s creatures.”
Seagulls were of the wind and darkness affinity. Crabs, turtles, starfish, and shellfish were of the water affinity. And macaws and macaques were of the nature affinity. Yet, somehow, this affinity brought them all together.
I wasn’t expecting this. A special affinity.
And it wasn’t limited to the cards he’d captured here. The affinity’s description didn’t just say seagulls—it said seabirds. Not just macaws, but tropical birds. There was no mention of the cards having to be all from Beginner Island. Which meant this affinity had room to grow. As he progressed and found new cards, he could swap them in without breaking synergy.
“Oh my goodness. This is incredible.”
Synergy decks were meta-defining. From his time watching tournaments while waiting for Understanding to climb up, he’d seen how dominant they could be. With the right build, synergy decks overwhelmed opponents. The extra effects were just too good to pass up.
And now, he had one of his own: a special rare affinity. Maybe not unique, but rare enough to catch opponents off guard.
“I just have to see how good this affinity is.”
Adding Harmonious Island to his collection had also expanded his throwing deck capacity. It was now up to 63 cards. With that, plus [Repository Recharge] and [Telekinetic Reload], he was edging closer to the dream: throwing cards non-stop.
He finally got to the final reward. A new card sleeve.
Beginner Island (Uncommon)
Description: A card sleeve that captures the beauty of Beginner Island.
Effects:
+1 HP regeneration;
+1 energy regeneration;
+10 attack;
+10% movement speed.
It had the best of the two other sleeves—and then some.
He equipped it immediately.
After everything he’d just unlocked, his stats had shot through the roof. (Author’s note: I might add here the updated character sheet in the future.) He felt like he could take on the world.
But one thing still gnawed at him.
There was no other reward. No final notification. He scrolled through everything again, just to be sure, and confirmed it. Nothing.
He let out a slow sigh. I was hoping that completing the full collection would unlock a way to travel to the mid-tier city. But the system had stayed silent.
That left two possibilities. Either completing the card collection wasn’t the trigger… or the only way forward was through the dangerous tunnel that linked Beginner Island to Aquascape.
He was leaning toward the first—and thankfully, he had an idea: Ronan.
Maybe the alien sketch artist had been waiting for this moment. Maybe showing him the completed collection would finally fulfill the conditions.
He really hoped so, because taking the tunnel sounded really dangerous. Deckard opened the menu and exited the dungeon.
