The Holy Sword Deck

"Phew..."

Only then did Rhode let out a long breath and lie back down.

After talking with the girl, Rhode could now confirm that this was indeed the world of Dragon Soul Continent. Moreover, this wasn't the era he had experienced before, but a much more distant past—the Age of Dusk. In game terms, it was the period when Dragon Soul Continent had just entered open beta.

How had he ended up here?

Rhode sighed and shook his head, deciding not to dwell on these strange, mysterious matters. No matter what, he was here now. That was a fact. So what should he do next?

First, Rhode decided to test what he could do at the moment. He merely thought about it, and a clear, familiar system prompt soon appeared before him, displaying his current status and attributes:

Rhode

Level 1

Race: Half-blood (??)

Talent: Unsealed

Racial Bonus: Unsealed

Racial Trait: Unsealed

Class: Summon Swordsman (Hero Class)

Class Skill: Spirit Summoning (Proficiency E)

Swordsmanship: Moon Shadow Swordsmanship (Proficiency E) (Available Skill—Shatter Blade)

Secondary Class: Alchemist (Arcane Creation Specialty)

Skill: Focused Shaping (Proficiency E)

This was a status panel that was both completely normal and completely abnormal. In particular, when he saw the first entry, Rhode nearly cried out.

Half-blood? How could he be a half-blood?

On Dragon Soul Continent, "half-blood" didn't refer to mixed ancestry between different human races, as it might on Earth. Instead, it usually described someone born from a union between a human and a nonhuman race. But Rhode knew very well that he was human. Even his player character in the game had been human—he hadn't chosen another race. So why had "half-blood" appeared on his status panel? The question marks in parentheses meant that his bloodline hadn't fully awakened yet, which was why his racial bonus and racial trait were sealed. Rhode would have to discover what kind of blood he carried and awaken the power sleeping within his bloodline before he could claim them.

This was a troublesome development for Rhode, since racial bonuses were normally granted as soon as a character was created. The human racial bonus, for example, reduced the time needed to learn skills. Depending on their ancestry, humans could also receive other bonuses, such as poison resistance or increased reputation. But now, those bonuses and traits were out of Rhode's reach.

Still, it wasn't all bad. In the swordsmanship and alchemy sections, he found that aside from the basic skills he had at level one, the dozen or so sword techniques and alchemy skills he had learned as a player hadn't been forgotten. They were listed below, though grayed out. That meant he wasn't yet strong or high-level enough to learn or use them. But he didn't need to worry: once he grew stronger and met the requirements, he would regain access to those techniques and skills. The only blemish was that their proficiency had all been reset to the lowest rank, E, rather than SS.

Rhode didn't pay much attention to that. What mattered most about those skills wasn't their proficiency, but where they came from. Many sword techniques were extremely difficult to learn. They required more than just a higher level or certain attributes; often, a player had to complete a series of quests, build up their reputation, or simply stumble across a hidden item. All of that took a great deal of money, time, and even luck. In the game, it wasn't until the final year he spent in Dragon Soul Continent that Rhode had finished building his character. Only then had he been confident enough to challenge the Void Dragon.

Unfortunately, things had their ups and downs. He had resolved the issue with his sword techniques, but soon realized that his experience, level, and proficiency weren't the only things that had been reset. He had also lost the most important thing to a Summon Swordsman—his summoned spirits.

In the game Dragon Soul Continent, the Summon Swordsman was a deeply controversial class. At first, it had attracted a lot of attention as an official class exclusive to players. But once players got their hands on it, its half-baked, magic-and-martial-arts attributes left it unable to excel at either, while its complicated reliance on summoned spirits to fight—and its heavy experience costs during leveling—earned it a reputation as one of the most frustrating classes in the game.

On the surface, the Summon Swordsman's summoning magic seemed no different from a mage's. In practice, the two were completely different. Mages used their own power to tear open space, summon creatures from subplanes, and force them to serve through the power of magic. Summon Swordsmen, however, couldn't tear through dimensions. All their summons came from the present world. One of their abilities was to use the unique skill "Spirit Summoning" to reawaken the souls slumbering within ancient objects steeped in mystery and spiritual power, then seal those souls once more through a contract and put them to use.

It sounded wonderful and powerful, but it came with no shortage of trouble. At first, many players had been lured in by the skill and chosen the Summon Swordsman. They figured they could buy some damaged ancient relics cheaply from ruins or merchants, use Spirit Summoning to call forth and seal the souls of the weapons, and get themselves an artifact without lifting a finger.

Unfortunately, dreams were beautiful, but reality was cruel. For one thing, only high-level Spirit Summoning could awaken the slumbering souls within ancient weapons. And because those souls had lost their physical forms, they were far weaker than they had been originally. Take the quasi-artifact Wrath of the Dragon King, which Rhode had once used in the game. He hadn't extracted its soul from the remains of a weapon until he was already max level. Even then, the weapon he formed was nowhere near as powerful as an equivalent weapon made by a master blacksmith. Afterward, Rhode had spent a full two years traveling across Dragon Soul Continent, from the heavens to the depths of the earth, before finally managing to awaken the souls in every last fragment and restore the weapon to its original state. Time aside, the dangers of the process alone were enough to put many people off. What's more, spirit weapons consumed spiritual power to maintain, and summoned spirits also consumed spiritual power. A Summon Swordsman's reserves were far smaller than a mage's, so many eventually chose ordinary weapons instead of spirit weapons that "looked great" but didn't offer much practical help.

Besides that, there were three other ways to obtain summoned spirits. The first was to use a Soul Core, formed when a magical creature died, to awaken the creature and make it one's summoned spirit. But the result could vary according to the summoner's own attributes, the environment, and other factors. For example, a Summon Swordsman might obtain a Soul Core after killing a fire serpent, then awaken it in a snowy wasteland—or while wearing equipment with dark attributes. Who could say what attributes the creature would end up with? If it became a hydra with dark power, that was fine. But if it turned out to be an ordinary monster weakened by conflicting attributes, all you could do was cry.

The second way to obtain a summoned spirit was to defeat a nonhuman creature and, once certain conditions were met, make a contract with it and seal it as a summon. This was the most common method for Summon Swordsmen, but it had a drawback: these summoned creatures were too independent. In the game, that meant they might disobey their summoner based on their own judgment. Naturally, nobody liked that. No one wanted their summons making things harder instead of helping.

The final method became available after reaching level ten. It involved awakening the Attribute Adjustment talent and fusing several summoned spirits to create a more powerful one. To some extent, this reduced the uncertainty of the summoned spirits themselves. If you knew your spirits' traits, races, and attributes, you could usually make a good guess at what sort of spirit their fusion would produce. But this method had its own infuriating drawback: the level of the new spirit was unpredictable. You might fuse two high-level spirits and end up with a new level-one spirit. Or you might create a spirit far above your own level, one you couldn't use at all. The latter was manageable—all you had to do was work hard to level up. But if you got the former, you might as well delete your character...

Summoned spirits took their experience from their summoner. That was the main reason Summon Swordsmen leveled more slowly than other classes. With the same amount of experience, other classes only had to worry about themselves, while Summon Swordsmen had to set some aside to level up their spirits. But it was difficult to get the balance right. Giving experience to a summoned spirit could raise its level and eventually allow it to evolve, but, as mentioned earlier, a spirit's evolution could be affected by the environment, the summoner's will, and various outside influences. The spirit that emerged after evolving might not be the one the summoner wanted.

Because of all these "infuriating" traits, it was no surprise that the Summon Swordsman had been voted the "Most Infuriating Class of All" on Dragon Soul Continent's official forums. People even had a colorful description for those who played Summon Swordsmen: they were either newbies who had never played a game before and had been fooled by the class description and promotional CGI, casual players who didn't care about getting ahead, or gamblers who loved staking everything on luck. And then there was the final type... Rhode.

The fact that his game ID had gone from being just a name to representing an entire phenomenon said it all. Rhode had played the universally reviled Summon Swordsman and claimed countless server-firsts, even conquering three New Eras in a row. One could only imagine how the players felt about that.

Most players disliked anything so random because it made them feel as if they weren't in control. But Rhode enjoyed it. The unknown meant a challenge, and that was why he had chosen the Summon Swordsman in the first place. Over the course of his long gaming career, he had encountered nearly every "infuriating" trait of the class. But he had never gotten tired of it. Only by overcoming such difficulties could he feel truly satisfied.

But now, the dozens of top-tier summoned spirits he had spent seven whole years raising had all been wiped out. The mysterious summoning array on the back of his right hand was still there, but he couldn't sense a single spirit within it. Then again, that wasn't surprising. This wasn't his in-game body, after all, so he couldn't expect too much.

But...

At the thought, Rhode's heart stirred. He reached into the pocket on his chest, and sure enough, his fingers soon found a card.

It was white, and depicted a long, immaculate sword entwined in thorns. Intricate, ornate patterns were engraved along its length, and its hilt was adorned with a pair of elegant wings folding inward. Just looking at it was a pleasure. Each of the card's four corners bore a different marking. In the upper-right corner was a white semicircle, while a small x was printed in the upper-left. Looking lower, he saw two tiny numbers in the bottom corners: 3. When he turned the card over, elegant, mysterious writing slowly appeared on its back.

[Eternal Holy Sword, Tenth Seat: Star Trace, no attribute, can be fused—Not even the dust of history can bury its dazzling radiance]

It was still here?

Rhode stared at the card in his hand and froze for a moment. It was a Summon Swordsman's exclusive equipment: a summon card. He knew this one very well. It was a rare commemorative card the game's official team had given him during an in-game event. After he had led his guild to the top spot across all servers for two consecutive quarters, the game company had specially made this card to honor him as an incredibly powerful top player. Of course, there were plenty of collectible cards like it, but Rhode had never been interested in wasting money on things that could only be looked at, not used. This was the only one he owned. After receiving it, he had carried it around as a good-luck charm. It hardly took up any space, anyway.

Originally, it was just an ordinary commemorative prize, distinguished only by the fact that it was the only one in the world. But now Rhode saw that it was giving off a faint glow, shining in his hand.

Should he give it a try?

Rhode hesitated for just one second. Then he clenched the card in his right hand, and the magic array on the back of his hand suddenly lit up. Thin lines of azure magic spread from it and extended to each of his fingers. Then the white card burst into dazzling light before dissolving into specks of light and vanishing into the air.

A system prompt appeared before Rhode.

[Obtained Eternal Deck 1/10, Eternal Holy Sword, Tenth Seat—Star Trace]

"Phew..."

Rhode gazed at the system prompt and let out a complicated sigh. He didn't know why something that had been an ordinary card in his original world had activated the summon card's original function here. But for him, it was definitely the most useful support he had found so far. In the game, weapons with a +2 attribute bonus were extremely rare before level fifteen, yet Star Trace had an initial bonus of +3. That was enough to let a Summon Swordsman, who had been practically useless, stand toe to toe with a proper swordsman. And with its ability to be fused, he could turn it into an elemental weapon as long as he found a suitable spirit. It did have one disadvantage compared to ordinary weapons: summon cards required their owners to expend spiritual power to use them. But in terms of attack power alone, it was already one of the few powerful pieces of equipment available at this stage.

Even so, Rhode found it hard to get truly excited. The situation he had gotten himself mixed up in was just too bizarre.

Was this a game or reality? If it was reality, where was he supposed to go from here?

"Knock, knock."

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

Rhode looked up and saw a middle-aged man push his way in. He wore a leather adventurer's outfit, and his bright red hair was casually combed back. Seeing Rhode, the man smiled.

"Hello, sir. I'm Carter, leader of the Star Moon Mercenary Group."