The Master of Cards Chapter 2: First Class

As Alex quietly scrolled through the holographic interface, spending his time trying to understand the changes, the homeroom teacher entered the class along with a fairly young man, who didn't look much older than the students.

"Goodmorning students. I know you are excited today. So I won't interrupt. Here is the special trainer who will teach this class about the theory of cards. He is a student who is in his second year at the City University Card Division, interning as a tutor on behalf of the government. Everyone, please welcome Tutor Kim!" The homeroom teacher gushed and clapped, looking at the students with a clear signal that they should clap as well.

Tutor Kim bowed slightly, before coughing. "Thank you students. I was a student of this high school myself, graduating two years ago, so I have some understanding about cards which I will teach."

Most of the students were excited and clapping, however, Alex noticed that a few students looked at the tutor with clear despise in their eyes, though they didn't openly show it.

The homeroom teacher took her leave and Tutor Kim looked at the classroom for a bit. He then began speaking.

"From today, we will be having two days a week dedicated to learning about cards and training. The world of cards is deep and profound, but in this class we will only be learning the basic fundamentals.

Today I will talk about what Cards are. What are Cards? They are a manifestation of certain talents that we, as humans are able to generate because of the special nature of the world. Does anyone know what the special nature is?"

A student raised her hand. "The special nature is that the world is filled with a special energy. We can condense this energy within our bodies to form cards."

Tutor Kim nodded. "Good answer, what is your name?"

"Mary" The girl said.

Tutor Kim continued. "Indeed, our world is surrounded by a mysterious energy field that the theory of science and technology hasn't been able to either detect, or explain. However, since time immemorial, we humans have been able to sense this energy, force it to converge within our bodies and create manifestations which we today call cards."

Tutor Kim looked at the class. "The most important thing you need to work on, is building a foundation within your body. Every human can potentially form at least one card, this card is the Seed.

The Seed is the foundation, it is the basis on which your body can create cards. The human body can be considered to be a patch of soil. The seed is the source of energy a human could harness from the world.

Cards are like leaves on a tree. The tree that grows out of the seed. Thus, you can understand how important it is that the seed be the best seed you can make.

The quality of the seed is the pillar over which the castle of your card strength will be built. In this class, we will only learn one thing, which is to build the seed.

The government has released the Fundamental Training Formula for this purpose. It is a method to absorb the special energy of the world in a careful manner to form a seed and to fortify it."

As Tutor Kim said this, he sent a mail, and everyone's holographic terminal had a copy of the Fundamental Training Formula.

"Needless to sy those of you who have their own formulas do not need to practice the Fundamental Training Formula." Tutor Kim said.

"The very first lesson we are going to study is to sense the special energy. The ability to sense energy is a talent that belongs to us, but the talent may vary. I will underline the process, you can try to follow it and see if you can sense what I am describing."

Alex followed the instructions and closed his eyes. He stopped all distracting thoughts to calmly try to look inwards, as Tutor Kim asked from the students. Alex was trying to find his inner world, a place that supposedly existed in every human. Talent was closely related to how easy it was for a person to find their inner world and how well they could sense and control the flow of the special energy.

Alex spent several minutes trying to find his inner world, with no results. After fifteen minutes, Tutor Kim told them to stop.

"Who all could find their inner world?" He asked.

About fifteen people raised their hands. Tutor Kim nodded as this was an acceptable result.

"Who could sense the special energy of the world?" He asked again.

From the fifteen around eight raised their hands. Tutor Kim continued to explain the theory.

Alex was disheartened for a minute. He couldn't even find his inner world. He tried to calm himself down and shut down his senses, but he wasm't able to do this very first step. Many of his friends including Luke had mentioned that they could enter their inner world.

This training went on for the entire day, before classes ended. After the end of classes, Alex quietly left with a sigh of disappointment. Was he really so poorly talented when it came to even finding his inner world.

He quietly walked back home, looking at the changed world around him. He wondered why he had ended up in this world, when he had a happy and satisfying life in his own world.

When he went home, his mom saw him looking dejected. "Hey Alex, why do you look sad? Did someone bully you?"

Alex shook his head. "I think my talent in cards is terrible."

His mom sighed. "Young man, you don't have to pressure yourself, no matter what life you choose, Mom, Dad and your elder siblings will always be proud of you."

Alex didn't reply. He put his bag down and crumpled into the comfortable couch.

"What happened?" His mom asked him.

"We were supposed to try to sense the special energy to form the seed, but I cam't even seem to find my inner world." Alex said.

His mom nodded. "That isn't a big problem. Finding the inner world can be trained with hard work. The question is, are you willing to put the effort?"

Chapter end