Card Apprentice Daily Log

Date- 3 April 2321

Time- 21:14

Location- Sun Blossom City, City Gate No:3, Unknown alley

“This alley should make a good place to introduce ourselves,” the boy said to the unknown stalkers as they revealed themselves now that he had chosen a perfect location for them to get to work.

“Boy, hand over the summon armament card,” One of the stalkers wearing a black face mask demanded.

“Summon Armament Card? I don’t have it,” the boy replied truthfully not because he was afraid of the unknown stalkers but because he did not have it.

“Boy, don’t think you can lie your way out of this, we know that you placed the winning bid for the Summon Armament card,” the black face masked stalker seemed to be well informed about his target.

“No, I did not, you guys are mistaking my identity for someone else,” the boy claimed that he did not bid for the summon armament card despite the stalkers being positive that he did.

“You-” just as the stalker with the black face mask was about to call out the boy for lying he was interrupted by an old man in a well-fitted black tux, everything about the old man reeked that he was a butler from a big family, “Boy, you have nobody but yourself to blame for your present situation. I was kind enough to warn you not to bid for the card but you had to bid for something that my family’s young master was interested in. You should have listened.”

The old man loosened his customer-made cufflinks imprinted with his family crust and pulling up his sleeves he added, “this doesn’t need to get messy, just hand over the card and I will give you painless death.”

“Listen to me, you guys are mistaking me for someone else. I did not bid for the summon armament card,” even in face of threats the boy stuck to his story.

“You leave me no choice then,” saying that the old man summoned a silver grimoire and chanted, “Field card torture dungeon.”

With the old man’s chant, the unknown narrow alley morphed into a wide field much like an empty basement with hooks and chains dangling from the ceiling. With passing wind the dangling chains ran into each other and made a metallic noise, like a wind chime.

“Wow,” looking at his surroundings morph, the boy exclaimed in excitement as if it was his first time witnessing something as magical as this.

“Hooks,” the old man chanted again, and with that, four hooks dangling from the ceiling extended, aiming for the boy’s wrists and feet.

Seeing the incoming hooks, the boy did not react but curiously waited to see what they were up to, allowing the hooks to pierce through his wrists and feet, blood rushed out tainting the hooks and the boy’s clothes while he moaned in pain.

Soon the chains attached to the blood-stained hooks tightened, lifting the boy’s body in the air as the hooks pulled his body in four different directions.

“So, is this pain?” The boy mumbled to himself as if this was his first time experiencing pain and his actions seemed to convey the same that he had never felt or experienced pain before.

“Boy, it didn’t have to come to this but you forced my hand. But I will give you one last chance to redeem yourself from a painful death, hand over the card,” the old man seemed to not care about the boy and was focused on achieving his target, missing the obvious signs that there was something wrong with the boy.

“This feeling, pain, I don’t like it, I don’t want to feel it ever again,” saying that the boy tried pulling on the chains to struggle free, but it only increased the pain he felt causing him to moan in pain.

Seeing the boy struggle by pulling on the chains made the old man laugh out loud as he yelled, “Boy, struggling is of no use, this field card is special, in here the captive’s power is dampened in exchange for their senses being heightened as per my choosing. And guess what sense of yours did I increase? Pain.”

After explaining his field card the old man continued to take pleasure in the boy’s pain-filled moans and then added, “For the current you, even a prick from a needle will hurt like a mortal wound. So, if I were you, I would stop the senseless struggle and start cooperating.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that I am not the one who bid for the summon armament card? You got the wrong guy,” the boy stopped struggling as in face of the unbearable pain he was not able to muster even the least bit of his strength and had lost the will to struggle and free himself from the hooks constraining him.

“Boy, stop lying, I saw you bid for the card despite my warning. Did you feel like you could overlook my words just because the good-for-nothing Rami was backing you back then? Well, guess what? The so-called ban on my family by the card creation guild of the sun blossom city is not enough to stop my young master from getting what he wants,” The old man was impressed by the boy for sticking to his story even when his sense of pain was increased by the same percentage his strength was decreased by. Which meant the stronger the boy was the greater the pain he was feeling at present.

“I am telling you I am not the one whom you saw place the bid for the summon armament card. All this is a misunderstanding,” the boy yelled again as the pain he felt right now grew beyond unbearable and he felt his consciousness can’t take it anymore.

“Boy, you got guts I will give you that. This is the first time I have seen someone as young as you who did not crack for so long under the effect of my card. You should be proud,” the old man applauded the boy’s mental tenacity for not cracking under the pain. And then added, “let us say, I believe you were not the one who bid for the summon armament card then who did? Don’t tell me it was your evil twin. He does the deeds and you are stuck paying the price.”

“No, he is not my evil twin but my original, I am his clone! So if you want the summon armament card go find him,” the boy identified himself as a clone. And did not think twice before pinning all the blame on his creator, the original.

“Hahaha,” hearing the boy, the old man burst into manic laughter and abruptly went quiet. Then he glared at the boy and snapped, “Do you take me for a fool? You want me to believe you are a clone. You know what, you are a damn good liar, I will give you that.”

“AHH!” The old man walked towards the boy and then poked into the wound on the boy’s left wrist, forcing the boy to cry out in pain while his index figure dyed with the boy’s blood.

Wiping the blood-stained finger on the boy’s cheek the old man said, “Guess what boy, no matter how good you are at lying, this right here will never lie.”

Understanding what the old man was getting at, the boy yelled, “Old fool, don’t compare me with ordinary clones, I am a high-level sophisticated clone created using a mutated soul-“

‘While you are at it, why don’t you explain to him the power system I developed based on mutated souls?’ mental voice of the original sounded in the clone’s head interrupting him midway from revealing the secret of his creation.

“Boy, why did you stop? Possing like a clone was too much even for you, a seasoned lair, to pull off,” the old man made fun of the boy who claimed to be a clone.

‘Original help, me,’ The clone mentally asked the boy for help.

‘The first time I let you act like an independent consciousness and you ended up asking for my help to deal with such trivial enemies, how disappointing,’ the original sighed, seeing the clone not amount to his expectation.

‘Will you stop with that and help me? The pain is getting beyond bearable,’ the clone begged the original for his help.

‘Sigh, just hand over the control to the slave Hive AI program in your body, it will handle the rest,’ the original was disappointed that in face of the intolerable pain his sentient clone had forgotten about its prowess. But considering that it was the clone’s first day in the world, it had done well for itself. With proper training and enough experience, it will become a powerful entity not to be indeterminate ever again.

“Boy, what happened? Did the pain finally get to you? Are you willing to cooperate?” Seeing the boy turn quiet for quite a while the old man felt that the pain had finally cracked the boy’s will unaware of the mental dialogue between the clone and its original.

“Hive AI, combat mode activated. Command: eliminate all threats.”