The Master of Cards Chapter 88: Learning

After a while, the person who was eager to find a way to return left the inn. Alex observed the other man who stayed in the inn. He seemed to be the owner of the inn. Alex was mildly surprised by the adaptability of this man.

He walked beside the counter where the man was standing, cleaning the bar, and calmly whispered.

"Are you from Earth?" A terrifying whisper scared the man and paralyzed him into shock.

"Well?" the whisper asked again.

The man nodded and braced to ask a question. "Who are you?"

"Just a traveler who lost his way... how long have you been here?" Alex asked.

"Fifteen years..." The man said.

"Which organization were you a part of when you were on Earth?" Alex asked.

"... Black Market.." The man replied.

"Good. I want to integrate into this civilization. Is there a way for me to learn the language?" Alex asked from the darkness. Even now he didn't reveal himself.

"I have a knowledge card that could teach the language of the sonic civilization... but it is expensive." The man was from the black market. Even under duress he wouldn't shy away from business.

"Help me with all the things I want and I will point you to the direction in which an Earth based Shelter is." Alex whispered.

It was morning and the oasis shelter was bustling with activity. A young clueless boy was looking around the stalls, helpless and slightly scared.

"Kid! Is it your first time in the Card Dimension?" A stall owner gruffly laughed.

The Kid nodded. "Yes, I don't know what to do."

The stall owner beckoned the boy and explained some of the things in the shelter as well as which organizations to avoid.

"Kid, don't go out unprepared. You don't even have a sound horn with you. Its good to gain some experience, but you really are a pup. Return to Mead and prepare some more before you come to the place where big boys hang out, huh.."

The boy nodded. He quietly returned to the teleportation station... and entered Mead. The weakling boy was none other than Alex. Mead was the home world of the sonic civilization.

Alex wanted to take a look at this alien planet, and asked the man from the black market to organize a fake identity as well as guides to not be flagged.

Alex spent a good amount of time, roaming around the city connected to the portal on Mead. Alex spent his time learning about the culture and people on this planet. It was remarkably different from Earth, especially how important music was for them. On mead, every individual was an amazing singer and manipulating sound was a way of life here.

Alex found that Mead was hundreds of lightyears from Earth, a civilization they didn't know about. The technology level of the sound civilization was a little less than Earth, but their use of acoustic technology to perform mechanical jobs was probably unrivalled.

Alex joined the local mercenary equivalent of Earth's Adventure House and began to spend his time performing missions and gaining points. He wanted to follow the arrow, but right now he was very curious about this world as well. Here, few months passed by, as Alex quickly rose through in points and he was able to discover a lot of unique special items that pertained to sounds.

Alex wasn't too interested in sound attribute energy special items and formula, instead he turned his attention to combat arts. He found great similarities between Painful Vibrations and the flute based attacking tactics of the sonic civilization, which he had practiced to a basic level.

After a fruitful search, Alex finally found an ancient art that was also related to using a bell. However, this was actually an art pertaining to training the second gate and involved using a different kind of bell.

The bell was made of some kind of special material that was endemic to Mead and was hard to create. Alex wanted to take this bell, but he was confused about how to take it back to Earth later.

Alex was puzzled by this when he asked the man at the inn.

"You can use a single use rank 2 storage card of the space attribute. However, it is extremely expensive and can only be used once." The man sighed.

"Good, get one of those for me. I have explored this planet to my satisfaction for now. I will tell you the path you must follow to leave this shelter and return to Earth."

A few days later, Alex had packed the bell in a storage card along with other items from the Sonic Civilization that he found to be interesting. He met the two individuals from Earth, who had helped him get acclimated with this foreign civilization.

"You are good. How did you manage to integrate with no help?" Alex asked the innkeeper. Throughout all this time he had hidden his identity from the both of them.

"A woman fell in love with me and helped me. Yet today... I am abandoning her." He said.

Alex nodded and took out a map of the area that he made, which only showed the path towards the Highland shelter along with some details about the monsters on the way.

The two teared up when they saw the map, but with determined expressions they left the oasis shelter, travelling along the desert. Back home.

From Alex's bag, a hand sized cactus doll jumped out and sat down on Alex's right shoulder. Alex flicked its head. "You are a very intelligent little doll. How come you decided to follow me?"

The doll simply punched Alex's cheek but it was very gentle. Alex had a small smile on his face as he took out the white sand and continue along the direction it pointed towards, hoping that whatever it lead too was a good thing.

The sun was setting and a young man and a small cactus made their way through the desert sands, towards unknown territories. Over three months had passed since Alex escaped from the Highland Shelter. Once he obtained whatever the arrow led him to, it was time to eliminate the remaining officers.

Chapter end