“Chance, are these prices for real?” Jaden called out an hour later. They still had thirty minutes left before they would be evicted, and he was currently browsing the card shop offered through the nexus. Even the cheapest card, “Placid Beaver,” which had a zero in all combat stats, and was intended to act as a sacrifice to block attacks in the original card game, costed five-hundred-fifty mana. Prices rose exponentially from there. “Loyal Soldier” was almost ten thousand, while the more powerful cards could have costs ranging into the millions. It got even worse for cards that were based on fusions of other cards. Jaden guessed that the constituent components were a factor in the price for those.

“Now you understand the value of what I offered you. Of course part of the discount you have is from being my prophet, but there are also other factors such as a discount for randomization, and another because it is a religious service. You’re essentially only paying me around twenty percent of the normal value for most cards.”

Jaden nodded vigorously as he did the math. That was when Erudeo manifested nearby. “Ah, so this is the godling that was born on my world. Greetings.”

“Greetings Arbitrator. To what do I owe the pleasure?” She asked him.

“You see, you and the others this one have created leave me with a problem. You were all created on this world. By the order of the creator, since your card summon race does not have a home world, I must offer you a choice. They may live here. They will lose sentience, and be used as fodder for the training program, since their power is within the appropriate range. They will also not be given the opportunity for growth. The power range must be maintained, you understand. In exchange, they will be offered immortality through resurrection. Your followers will never die, and will continue to tithe you ten percent of their mana. You can understand the appeal of this to a new god whose followers are still vulnerable to extermination. The second option is relocation. We will place you on one of the dead lands. You will be vulnerable to whatever natural dangers or non-native sentients are endemic to the world in question, but your people will have the opportunity to live and grow on their own merit. As the god of your people, you have been empowered to make this choice.”

Chance glanced at the encamped Jeffs in the distance, frowning. “Can we not follow Jaden to his home world? And shouldn’t he be making this decision?”

“No, the creator feels that individual races should have their own homeworlds. While your form was certainly inspired by humanity, you are your own race with your own unique biology, and methods of procreation. It would be unfair to thrust a group of refugees onto humanity when they are already struggling to establish themselves on their own world shard. As for Jaden, it was felt that someone with a more… objective perspective was required. Someone who valued the well-being of the race without being directly beholden to his will as its creator. You fit that bill. Of course, you may still seek his counsel. Now, what is your decision?”

Chance sighed, but before she could respond, Jaden interjected. “What are the dead lands?”

Erudeo nodded. “A fair question. When a race is harvested, they are offered the chance to survive on their own merits. If they fail to do so, through war, plague, etc, then the world is allowed to go fallow. We call this a dead land. In fact, this is such a world. We leave the nexus in place to harvest any passive emissions from the land and creatures there, but it is otherwise ignored. Of course, that doesn’t mean it is empty. Sentients may choose to settle one if they happen to locate a dead world. There may also be predators who have had an unknown lifespan to gather immense power. The plague that eliminated the original race may still be present. Really, anything could be there, or it could be a desolate wasteland of sand. In the interest of fairness, the selection will be made at random.”

Chance’s frown deepened. “Will we be told ahead of time what kind of world we are traveling to? It might help if we could prepare.”

Erudeo nodded. “I take it you are choosing the second option?”

Chance grimaced. “I don’t particularly like the idea of turning my followers into mindless slaves.”

“That is your choice. Would you like to go now, or wait out the remainder of your time here?” Erudeo asked, pulling out a notebook on which he wrote furiously.

“We will wait.” Chance stated definitively.

“What about us?” Jaden asked.

“What about you? You have a different home to return to.”

Jaden shrugged. “Can you at least give us the coordinates they’re going to be at so we can visit?”

Erudeo stroked his chin. His own chin, not Jaden’s chin. “Would you like to register yourself as their official ruler within the system? You would have resettlement rights, which would allow me to bypass the normal homeworld requirement. You could follow them.”

Jaden nodded. “Sure, let’s do that. Can you still give me the coordinates for Earth? I’ll probably want to go visit at some point.”

“Of course.”

A window appeared in front of Jaden.

*************************************

X: 1,538,241.985

Y: 2,890,675.327

Z: 1,408,982.845

*************************************

“Holy crap, what’s with these numbers?” Jaden exclaimed.

Erudeo snorted. “Oh, I’m sorry, you didn’t think we were using your strange three hundred sixty degree coordinate system did you? No, distance is measured in light years from the origin point. There is a shard somewhere in each of those light years, most of them populated.”

“So we’re actually super close to the origin point here then?” Jaden posited, thinking back to the coordinates he had been given a week earlier.

“If you consider several hundred light years to be super close, then I suppose so, why?”

Jaden shrugged. “No reason, I just thought it was cool. Does that mean this was one of the first few hundred worlds?”

Erudeo nodded. “In fact this was only the second dead land to be created. The former residents genetically engineered a type of invasive plant which eventually overran their civilization. Do not worry, we scoured this world bare when we took it over. The strain is gone.”

Jaden shivered, imagining how terrible the plant must have been to wipe out an entire species of magically enhanced people.

Erudeo interrupted his morbid train of thought. “You have been instated as ruler. Normally there would be a vote, but since you hold magical authority over them, it was skipped.”

Jaden nodded. He felt uncomfortable with the unsubtle reminder that he essentially held his summoned creations as slaves. Still, he would do what he had to to survive. He certainly didn’t see himself becoming powerful in single combat anytime soon. Card magic simply took too long in the face of magically empowered melee combatants. He needed allies to give him time to work. Jaden sighed, resolving to be the best ruler he could be under the circumstances.

Deflecting from his discomfort, Jaden shifted the conversation. “By the way Erudeo, I’ve been meaning to ask. While I was browsing the shop earlier, I noticed something called a blank card. The shop didn’t really explain what they were for, so I was wondering if you could tell me?”

Erudeo nodded. “If you have a copy of the soul snatch card, you can use it with a blank card to create a card version of a creature that is on the verge of death.”

Jaden perked up at the thought. “So its basically a pokeball.”

Erudeo shrugged. “That is a cultural reference I have yet to study.”

“Chance, do you have a second?” Jaden said to the empty air next to Erudeo.

“What did I tell you?” Chance's voice spoke from nearby.

Jaden sighed. “Oh great goddess, I beseech thine aid.”

“Better, though I could do without the sarcasm.” Chance said dryly, appearing in the spot Jaden had been looking at. He felt slightly vindicated when Erudeo flinched at the sudden presence.

“What do you need?”

“I was wondering if there are blank cards in any of the packs on your store.”

“While I normally wouldn’t give you the odds, I actually haven’t even heard of blank cards.”

Jaden shrugged. “They were in the nexus store.”

Chance blinked in surprise, then vanished; reappearing with her hand on the nexus. “This must have been added in the last two hours. Actually, it seems like more and more cards are filtering in even as I stand here.”

Erudeo laughed. “The creator is what you might call a hobbyist. When something captures his fancy, he can spend decades, sometimes centuries obsessing over it. This particular system is especially in his wheelhouse, since it provides a way to mass-produce his craftsmanship. You may find that the number of cards in the store soon numbers in the tens or even hundreds of thousands as he turns it into a catalog of everything he has personally created. You might have guessed that is a long list.”

Jaden was thinking furiously. “So I could eventually use almost anything the creator has ever made by buying the right card?”

Erudeo snorted. “If you can ever afford tens of millions of mana. Your growth might seem fast now, but it isn’t truly exponential. You will quickly find there are diminishing returns on normal training that require you to farm other creatures in order to have any meaningful growth. Mana regeneration also doesn’t scale heavily with your mana pool. You may someday find it takes weeks or months to regenerate your full mana.”

Jaden shrugged, and smiled. “That’s ok. I have field cards.”

Erudeo winked. “Just don’t go spreading that news too widely. You might find yourself in danger from those who have been bottlenecked for centuries.”

Jaden nodded, taking the warning seriously. Who knew how powerful such creatures might be.

“Enough though, we’ve reached the end of your time limit. You can return here exactly thirty days from now.

“Oh, let me jus-” Jaden was cut off as he felt his body dissolve; reforming somewhere else. His surroundings now consisted of a massive desert, populated by the Jeffs, several Akis, Ryan, Yuki, and his human companions. As he turned around, he found a nexus behind him.

“A little warning would have been nice.” Jaden muttered.