Age of Summoner

“Come on. Everyone who tries AOS has this same reaction. Let’s quickly go help him out and get this quest over with.”

With that statement, she quickly walked back inside the Duel Center because she had been spending way too many minutes on the phone with her mother; the guy named Joke would have been waiting for ages. The moment she pushed the door open, all of the chattering was heard once again, but it seemed like it was louder than usual this time.

When she stared far into the end of the room, she saw that several people were gathering in front of a single room: room number six… which was the room that the guy had just gone into.

“What’s that?”

Rin muttered before striding towards the room.

“What’s happening? Why is everyone crowding out over here?”

The young lady asked, causing the guys gathering there to turn their heads towards her. When they saw that it was Rin, the store’s superstar, they all slightly raised their eyebrows.

“Ah, Rin. Is there something wrong? You seemed panicked.” A young man asked.

“Why are you crowding out around this room? It's the new beginner’s room—the one I’m helping out for my mentoring quest.”

“New beginner?”

That man raised his eyebrows before looking back at the man inside the room and back towards each other in the crowd, looking rather amazed. This caused Rin to narrow her eyes, not really understanding what was going on.

“That dude was a newbie?”

“Uh. The deck he’s using really is our store’s tester deck.”

“Can’t believe he can perform this well with only this.”

Rin became more confused hearing their words. She then squeezed through the crowd full of men to have a closer look inside room number six and saw that the duel system was running full-on. Furthermore, the man whom she had to be looking after was currently battling all-out with his cards, not even having to rely on her mentoring.

“Wait a second. How was he able to turn on the duel system? And that is also not the easiest level bot, isn’t it?”

“That’s a maximum-level bot,” a man shouted in reply. “Plus, that’s the Singaporean champion’s deck.”

“Singaporean champion’s deck?”

Rin raised her eyebrows until another young man came to stand beside her.

“That seems like the deck Sith was testing out a while ago. That idiot forgot to reset the machine once he was done, while this guy also did not reset it before using and instantly commanding the system to start a duel. That’s why.”

The person who spoke was “Boe”, or the Duel Center’s supervisor. Once she heard that, she instantly looked at him.

“Quickly turn the machine off, then. He’s just a starter on his first try with those cards. He won’t stand against cards such as the Singaporean champion’s deck.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

The young lady went still at that dismissal. Boe turned back to look inside room number six once again.

“That guy’s pretty good. Plus, I don’t see how he was at a disadvantage against this bot.”

“Huh?”

Rin replied in confusion. She turned back to the battle in front of her again. After touching the glass window to open up the battle stats, she saw that there was not much difference between Joke’s and the bot’s LP. Even though the bot’s LP was still full at fifty, Joke’s had only reached 43.

In addition, the duel time now went over five minutes.

It was extraordinary for him to withstand them this long.

“Exciting isn’t it.” Boe laughed loudly. “No harm done in losing to this insane bot. But if this guy is so good he could win against it, that’s major news. So, I would rather not interfere.”

Boe explained with a smile, crossing his arms and looking at this newbie struggling hard to survive against the store’s maximum-level bots—the Singaporean champion’s deck. Of course, beneath her concerned look, she believed that no damage would be done in losing a fight against a bot like this.

But that was the Singaporean champion’s deck. She studied decks like this one before. They were considered as a meta deck, or an extremely popular deck during a specific period of time—a deck created solely with victory in mind. It was, of course, not the kind of deck a new beginner should be taking on as it could take away all the enjoyment from the game by crushing them, causing some to even quit AOS.

Rin sighed, hoping that this would not be the case with Joke.

.

.

“The hell is this? There is such a thing as this battle simulation?”

All Joke could do was mumble in frustration when the machine suddenly turned on its duel system, startling him; but the altered images surrounding him were regarded as extremely astounding. From a simple small rectangular room, it now turned into a gigantic castle hall that was lit up by candelabras from all directions.

The depth of the images was so realistic that he felt like he was standing in an actual location. The sounding system along with other surrounding sensations was of outstanding quality. In addition, all of its special effects were almost no different from the one in Arcadia.

While he was still amazed at his surroundings, a figure of a young boy in a tattered cloak appeared in front of him. Its shadowed face hidden under the cloak made it look uncannily similar to the shadowed face villains from the television show Detective Co—*bleep*.

And what worse was that as soon as this rascal appeared, it called out its half without any warnings.

The half it sent out was a monster that looked like a brown shabby cloak floating midair without any legs and also holding a storm lantern in its hands. When Joke checked out the information on that half, which stated that it was…

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Mage Candle LV25 (Dark)

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♦♦♦♦

Race: spellcaster

When more than 2 MP units are used, this half will produce one Candle Token (once every time MP is used)

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Attack-1

Defense-4

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HP 7,500 (DP-7)

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This Mage Candle seemed to be a harmless half, having fewer attack stats and damage points when compared to the other halves Joke had. However, it seemed like there was something deathly hidden beneath the surface because every time this shadow-faced bot used its Skill Card, this shabby cloak half would create a large white pillar candle beside it. These white candles were so annoying, making it difficult for him to handle this half.

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Candle Token (Dark)

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♦

When a Candle Token gets destroyed, 2 units of LP will be added to the summoner on its side and will attack the opposing summoner by 2 units of LP

*If a Mage Candle was targeted from the opponent’s half or Skill Card, pay 1 unit of MP to substitute this Token with the one targeted*

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Attack-0

Defense-2

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HP 200 (DP-0)

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It was frustrating enough with only those mad pillar candles because no matter how many halves he sent out to attack it, this crazy bot would generate more of these pillar candles, causing him to lose his LP and that bot to gain even more LP units. Furthermore, that bot also had a Skill Card that could be used to make its attacks even more powerful or block his attacks, causing him a headache similar to the one he was currently having...

“Ballade Knight, attack that shabby cloak!”

As soon as the order was issued, a knight in silver armor on horseback went straight at the enemy with a lance in its hands. With that, the bot on the opposite side began to move.

“Fireball!”

A drawling sound was heard as if these lousy robots were shouting back at him along with a Skill Card being deployed. The Mage Candle raised its storm lantern to its front before firing red flames straight at Joke’s knight in an instant!

“Flying Dash!”