It didn’t take long for James to find what he was looking for, a pair of armed hunters traveling together in the woods. One was equipped with a bow, while another held a pair of daggers. When he saw that there was no quiver of arrows for the archer, James paid it no mind originally. After all, there were far too many techniques to condense arrows out of energy, or to simply hold them in storage.

It wasn’t until they came across their prey that he was able to glimpse the power of the strange energy. As he suspected, the archer simply fired off magic arrows created by the bow’s enchantment. However, when they were done slaying their prey, a large bison-like beast with six tusks, he watched the dagger-wielding hunter walk over to it.

Naturally, James expected to watch a scene of the hunter skinning and cleaning the kill so that they could deliver the meat back to town. Such would be the ‘common sense’ of hunters in most worlds. However, his expectations were betrayed when he felt a tremor within that strange energy.

As the hunter placed his hands on the bison, there was a surge of energy from both the hunter and the slain beast. The spiritual energy of the latter mixed with the mana of the former, while the odd energy emitted a crushing force on the hunter’s body. Due to the energy that he was using, James was able to measure the weight of the force as being equivalent to the weight of the bison itself.

The hunter was clearly prepared for this, and did not waver in the slightest. Instead, he circulated his ki to resist the pressure. Once that was done, the unknown energy flowed through his body and into the mixture of mana and spiritual energy, where traces of it had already taken root. Like this, the energy created several self-contained circuits.

James was... intrigued by the process. He saw the bison disappearing, its body replaced by four small objects. “Cards..?” He muttered quietly to himself. On the image of one of the cards was the recently slain bison. On the other three were blue patterns with unknown words written beneath them.

The hunters seemed satisfied with their gains, pocketing the three unknown cards first before stowing the bison card. “It seems like the bison itself wasn’t their target, but rather those three special cards?”

James had seen his fair share of different systems in his time as a Keeper. While this particular one had clearly not been among those, he was able to infer a lot of information from this action. First, he knew that the creatures of this world were capable of being stowed into cards after being slain, and that other cards could be created in the process. This was the very basic information he had personally witnessed.

Next, these additional cards had to serve some purpose. Although James did not know the language that the cards were written in, he could make a guess for that as well, due to his experience. The cards should be components for either a magic system or a crafting system. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the hunters to value them so highly. Unless, of course, the cards themselves were a form of currency?

He thought that that final option was less likely, as it would lead to a world where there was an overabundance of currency with less and less to spend it on. In such a world, those three cards would not have been so sought after by the hunters that they would go out of their way to look for them.

As for a crafting system… if he wasn’t mistaken, the first card should contain the bison’s entire body. A world of this level shouldn’t have the ability to create crafting materials from nothing, unless the Keeper was far older than he let on. And the fact that he wanted James’ help for research led him to believe that that could not be the case.

In that case, this world uses a type of card-based magic. Interesting… I’ll need to get my hands on a few cards to test them out. Or maybe I can get the Keeper to give me some? But I’ll need a language primer as well. James was already lost in thought, imagining the different resources he’d have to request so that he could truly get started in this world.

The only problem was… as a ‘monster’ that had not been purchased by the Keeper, James had no way of making direct contact with the gods to issue his request. This left him rather troubled. He was sure that he’d be able to create a spell to contact a deity, once he fully understood the magic of this world. However, if he fully understood the magic of this world, he wouldn’t need to make that contact at all!

With a sigh, he began to focus, tapping into the natural energy of the world around him. “Oh spirit of nature, I bid thee to appear. As one who is known to your maker, I have need of your aid. Before I can assist this world, it is I who must request assistance.”

Oh? What’s this? An ethereal voice spoke into James’ mind. I haven’t seen you around before. And such power… you do indeed have the right to claim to know my maker. Very well, I offer a transaction. A favor for a favor. I shall aid you now, and in return I will bestow upon you a transmission card. When I have need of your aid, I will activate the card to inform you of my request. Do you accept this pact?

James let out a low chuckle as he heard that. There was little that a world spirit truly needed help with, unless some terrifying danger appeared. He could guess that this was something that this particular spirit did for fun, but at the same time, there should not be a threat to this world that he couldn’t help it overcome. “Very well, I’ll take your deal.”

Excellent. Then please, speak your wish, one who is known by the maker.

A slightly embarrassed expression appeared on James’ face as he stated his request. “I would like you to contact the ‘maker’, or whichever god or goddess governs this world. As per the deal between us, I need some research materials delivered. First, a guide to help me learn this world’s language. Secondly, I need cards with which to understand the magic of this world. Finally… a map would be incredibly helpful, so that I can find my way to society after my knowledge of the systems in this world has reached a sufficient level.”

Three things you have asked for. Therefore, three favors I ask in exchange. The Goddess watches over all, and has told me to supply you with your needs. As the spirit spoke, James felt three cards forming in his hands. However, these were not the same style of cards that had been created by the bison. These cards depicted an empty circle on their cover, and he could tell that they were made of a mix of spiritual and natural energies.

A moment later, the air around James began to shake, green portals opening up one after another. Tiny spirits resembling fairies flew out of the portals, each holding a small box that they dropped at his feet. Once they had left, two more fairies emerged. One with a much thinner box, and one holding a rolled up paper.

James watched, a bit dumbfounded as the lesser world spirits delivered him a mountain of card boxes. When the last two appeared, they waited for him to take the packages from him directly. The paper was, as expected, a map of the world. He wasn’t too surprised to find that this world was quite large, as he had judged its size based on the horizon distance already.

The other package, the smaller box, held only a few cards within it. Each of these cards had different patterns on their surface. The only shared theme was that the cards depicted these patterns surrounding the silhouette of a head.

Shaking his head, he poured a small amount of mana into the first card, careful not to overload it. He knew how strong his own energy was, and couldn’t be sure how much these cards required in order to be cast.

When the card activated, he was pleased to find that it did not disappear. At the same time, he felt knowledge being transmitted directly into his mind. His understanding of the local language grew by leaps and bounds, but was still incomplete. It was hard for a single card of this level to store the entire language, and so he moved on to the next one.

There were ten language cards in total, and it took him barely ten minutes to go through all of them. After he had finished these ten cards, he felt as if he could fluently speak the language contained within them. This also allowed him to decipher the meaning behind the three mysterious cards he had seen the hunters acquire.

“Charge Three, Strength Three, Slow Two…” James muttered the names that had been written on the cards to himself. “So, this world has at least the third tier of magic unlocked, if you are to go by those names.”

Shaking his head, he swept his senses over the mountain of card boxes that had been deposited before him. When he did so, his lips began twitching slightly. “You totally robbed a store.”

These boxes were similar to ‘display cases’ in a way. Each box contained a hundred cards, but was also an enchanted storage device that contained another nine copies of each card. Furthermore, there were no duplicates among the ‘display cases’ that he found, which indicated that they were all likely taken from the same source.

I assure you, I have done no such thing. These cards are from the personal vault of the Goddess herself, used to bestow upon her chosen few to guide them on the path of card magic. It seemed like the world spirit had stuck around to watch him, as it replied immediately to his ‘accusation’.

“Either way, it’s good for me. Thank you, lady spirit.” He cupped his fist in a polite bow, hoping that the meaning of the gesture would be conveyed to the spirit. “I have received your favor, and shall do my best to honor it when you call for me.” Now, he had to get to work on his research…

Udona… did you give him fourth tier cards? I couldn’t help but ask after watching the large pile of boxes being arranged on a stone table. Before researching the use of the cards, it looked like he wanted to first sort through them.

Sadly, no. Udona replied in a sullen tone. I haven’t even been able to get a completed set of fourth tier cards for myself yet, how could I give them to that guy? Fourth tier beasts are too rare, for now. Even if one is found, it isn’t guaranteed to drop a fourth tier card. Any time a card of that level is found, it is immediately taken to the Card Creator Corporation and sold for a high price.

I gave a small nod when I heard her complaint. That corporation she mentioned should be one of the ones that handles card synthesis. It wouldn’t be odd to sell the new cards to them so that they can study them to begin mass production. How much are you still missing from the fourth tier?

About… thirty percent, I think? It’s hard to tell for sure, since each tier adds more and more cards. Right now, we have almost all of the advanced versions of the third tier cards, and are just missing most of the new ones.

Well, at least it wouldn’t be too hard to create spells at that level, if that was all that they were missing. Though, there were bound to be quite a lot of spells that couldn’t be created at the same time. Shaking my head, I decided that it should be fine to fast forward for now, and let things play out as they may.