Chapter 259: 54 Act The Road to Surpassing (Part 1)_4
Tu Men shook his head: "Keep listening. The Matatanians divide the day into six stages, and so too is a day strictly divided for a Travel Mage."
The young man with black hair brushing his shoulders glanced at Brand and continued, "The first stage is from the dawn to the morning. That is from six to ten o’clock. The Matatanians call this period ’Sun Growth,’ while the Travel Mages call it the ’Growth Stage.’ During this stage, Travel Mages can tap their Land Cards to gain the mana they need for the day—"
"Wait!" Brand shouted: "Tap the Land Cards?"
"Exactly, tapping the Land Cards is a basic ability of every Travel Mage. It is also the source of their power."
"Wait, can you explain that in detail?"
"It’s very simple. As long as you have Basic Land Cards, and your own Element Pool and Mana Pool. You can tap them during this time of the day. The Land Cards connect the power of the ’Territory’ they belong to with your Element Pool, injecting the Elemental Power generated throughout the day into it."
"Wait, but isn’t there a note on the Land Cards that states one element is generated per week?" Brand couldn’t help but ask.
"That one element is free-floating outside the Element and Mana Pools. It serves as a ’loan’ card for beginners on the path to becoming Travel Mages, allowing them to understand and touch the power of this world. Once you become an official Travel Mage, you no longer need it," Tu Men replied.
Brand pondered for a while and then nodded: "I understand, please continue."
"During the Growth Stage, Travel Mages can also benefit from the ’pay’ abilities on other cards. I remember you have a Grey Land/Water Element card called Highland Followers, which states that when Highland Followers are present on the field, the Lord can gain one point of reputation each day. And this point of reputation is paid during the Growth Stage."
"Furthermore, Travel Mages can use any cards that involve green (Life, Nature), white (Light, Protection, Nurture), red (Fire, Vitality, Energy), blue (Water, Nourishment, Irrigation), as well as mixed cards containing the above elements during the Growth Stage."
Brand frowned; he had never paid attention to this issue before. But Char did mention a similar issue to him, noting an exception, which was the white zero-requirement Magic Cards.
"Following this is the second stage of the day: from post-morning to noon, which is from ten to two in the afternoon. Not only do the Matatanians call this time ’Flourishing of All Things,’ wizards and witches also describe these four hours as ’Low Tide’—because this is when the sun’s power is at its peak and the moon’s power at its weakest, marking the period of magic’s decline. As magic wanes and elements grow stronger, this stage is when elements are most active and aggressive, so Travel Mages call it the ’Peak Stage.’"
"During this stage, it is the only time Travel Mages can use any card without restriction. Additionally, they can draw three cards from their deck into their hand."
"Wait," Brand was taken aback: "What does this mean?"
"These are the rules for Travel Mages. At the beginning of each day, a Travel Mage can only have a fixed number of cards in hand. They might draw more cards than this limit during the day, but by the ’Reset Stage’ at the end of the day, they must discard the excess cards. We call this fixed number of Destiny Cards the hand."
"Furthermore, the stronger a Travel Mage is, the more cards they can hold in their hand. For instance, as a novice Travel Mage, you can only hold five cards in your hand."
"Do I get to choose my hand cards?" Brand asked.
"No, your hand cards will be drawn from your designated sub-decks. For me, my card concept is the Unity of All Things with six elemental powers, so the rules divide my deck into six parts, and thus I have six sub-decks," Tu Men answered.
Brand frowned: "But if that’s the case, uncertainty increases significantly. Wouldn’t it be better if I only held a few powerful cards and discarded the useless ones, so I can freely maintain the strength of my deck at a certain level?"