Chapter 226: One more day
Irwin tapped the table slowly as he gazed at the dozens of differently-sized stacks of cards without really looking at them.
There was one stack for each of his types, a thin stack with generic cards and a thick stack with cards he couldn't use but were meant for practice and forging Daubutim's heartcard. To the side lay three other stacks, which he'd already sorted out of the others.
"This is going to be a bit more difficult than I had thought, isn't it?" he finally said, leaning back.
"Kid… I told you it would be," Ambraz snorted as he landed on a stack. "Every card makes it harder to slot the next one! Be happy you have so many types to choose from already. There are many carded that get stuck with two or three."
Irwin took a deep breath, then nodded. He knew Ambraz was right. Someone with a topaz or emerald soulcard would be limited to only a few types. He had Fire, Devouring Flame, Steam, Metal, and Physical Improvements.
"Is it normal that I'm limited to Firesteel for the metals and Strength, Endurance, and Constituation for the body improvements…?"
"Yes," Ambraz said. "The more specific a card's ability is, the more powerful. If you had some general metal type, you could have used all metals, but it would have been far less powerful."
Irwin hummed as he gazed at one stack of fire cards. It was one of the thicker ones, with over twenty cards and a few he even recognized. Many either had no type or a very generic one. To his surprise, there had been a few growth-type cards spread out amongst them, and even two impersonate and a hidden card.
The last one had made his eyebrows raise when Ambraz told him about it. A Topaz rank summon called Verdant Snake, with Grass and Hidden type. He'd put it on one of the thinnest stacks with cards to give to Drum. He was going to reforge those up to Emerald, then ask Bronwyn what he thought before either leaving them like that or reforging them to Ruby… if he could.
"You do know you don't have to pick all of your cards now… right? You can't slot them anyway. Just like with your first card, it will take you between hours and weeks after slotting a card before you can reliably slot the next one."
"I know," Irwin said as he picked up one of the stacks. It only had three cards. The only three Ambraz had said he had to look at. He'd left them for last after sorting through the others and getting a general feel of what Ambraz had decided to keep.
"This one looks similar to Eyes of Blaze," he said, tapping the first card, a Quartz card that showed an eye with a tiny flame in its pupil.