“ we head back to town now?” Lua asked. “I still o drop off the boar meat.”

  “Well, I did have some experiments in mind, but I ru a different time.” I answered.

  “I’m fih going back as well.” Alice added.

  “Experiments? What kind?” Lua asked.

  “You know, just trying out a few cards.” I told her.

  Mainly some of the ritual support, test fly Gradius, test if A Hero Emerges be used to summon me and perhaps even perform a few fusion summons.

  “The’s do that first.” Lua said. “I want to see.”

  “They might take some time, so I think we should take the meat into town first. I don’t want it spoiling or something.” I told her.

  “Well, I suppose that’s true. If it goes bad, I won’t get much money for it. Not that it will go bad that quickly. So a quick stop to Moon’s pd then we get right back here.” Lua said.

  Oh. We are heading to the mooer get Gradius out here. Well, not really. I know it’s probably just someone named Moon.

  We followed Lua back to town aered a specific shop. It had a small circur sign out front that looked like a moon with a boar drawn on it. A real Moon shop. Well, perhaps not, but it does sound fun. A moon shop. We sell you the moon. Or perhaps a ticket to the moon.

  “Mrs. Moon. Are you here?” Lua called after we walked in and didn’t see anyone.

  “Yes, yes. I’ll be there in a minute.” We heard a woman’s voice call from somewhere.

  “So is this the shop you usually sell your meat to?” I asked.

  This was clearly a butcher shop. There were different ste taihat kind of looked like fridges all over the room. Some of them even had a gss door so I could see the meat ihey also had an ice department at the top, so I guess they used ice to stay cool.

  Actually, that one doesn’t have any ice. So perhaps only some of them use id others use magic of some kind. Perhaps they are another product that inates from a dungeon, and the ones with ice are man-made knockoffs.

  “Yes. Mrs. Moon has a great eye for quality meat and she became our first regur er. She is actually the ohat began calling us Prime Rib.” Lua expined.

  “Oh, so you have a long history with her.” I deduced. “I hope she maer you leave town.” I added.

  “Well, I’m sure she …” Lua began to say, but stopped when an elder dy walked into the room.

  I think I reize her. I’m detly sure she was at the guild when we had the funeral fire. So I failed saving someone important to her as well.

  “Oh, it’s little Lua. Here to deliver today’s meat?” The dy asked.

  “Well, that does tend to be my reason for ihese days.” Lua answered. “Well, I suppose I could e and enjoy a cup of tea before I leave if that is fine.”

  “Oh. You drink tea? I thought you only ehe tents of your fsk.” Mrs. Moon said.

  “Well, I went through a growth spurt, so I do enjoy other things nowadays.” Lua said.

  Oh. So she is already getting used to foods other than blood. That’s great to hear. I was afraid it would take her a long time.

  “I see. I see. Well, I’m happy that my little student is growing up.” She said to Lua.

  Student? As in, Lua studied under Mrs. Moon?

  … but then again, all that ice was likely made with magid Lua uses water magic. Perhaps she really could be Lua’s teacher. Now I just want to know why she is running a butcher shop instead of a magic school. If she make someone like Lua intnized witch, she could likely teayone. Well, then again, I’m not sure how good of a student Lua is.

  And perhaps this butcher’s shop was a way to get blood for Lua, before she could hunt monsters on her own. Yeah. That sounds correct. Lock that in until I hear the truth.

  “I would love to stay and chat for longer, but I do have pns, so we get this transa over with?” Lua asked. She didn’t say it in a malicious ravated tone, so I assume she said it on our behalf, as she doesn’t want to waste our time.

  “Yes. Yes. I shouldn’t waste the time of a noble or a hero.” Mrs. Moon said.

  “Hero?” I asked. “I don’t think I cssify as one.”

  “Oh, but you do my boy. You do. No one ever accepts it at first, but you will see. You are a hero.” She said.

  “If I really was a hero, you wouldn’t have had to gh the pain of losing someone. I’m sorry.” I said to her as I walked out of the store, leaving Alid Lua behind.

  “FUCK!” I let out as I punched a wall of the buildio the butcher’s shop.

  It didn’t hurt my fist at all, but I did leave a small dent in the wall.

  This fug sucks. Another one I couldn’t help. Who was she there for? Not Riost likely. She wasn’t standio Mario, after all. One of the Baku personnel? Well, one of them was in his mid-to-te twenties, so that would fit. The other one was an older man, so if it was him, that would be her husband. And having a husband w in a trading pany would be advantageous for a butcher.

  … ime, I’ll have all the copies of Monster Reborn I use. Even if I have to open up just Legend of Blue-Eyes for the year, I will get enough copies to save everyone.

  “Brian. Are you feeling alright?” Lua asked. I didn’t even notice that she came out of the store.

  “Who was it?” I asked Lua. If that dy really is her teacher, she should know.

  “hat?” She asked.

  “Who did she lose? She was at the funeral fire, wasn’t she? That means one of the people was reted to her. Who was it?” I asked.

  “... do you really want to know?” Lua firmed.

  “I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t, would I?”

  “His name was Mesk. He was one of the guards that came with us when we fouhe dungeon.” Lua answered in a way I could uand.

  … so that’s who she lost.

  “e on. We should go. Miss Alice is waiting for us.” Lua said as she pulled me by my arm.

  Before she did, I left a rge silver in the dent I made in the wall. I hope the owner of that building five me for denting his wall.

  Lua dragged me all the way back to the fields outside of the walls. Alice also came with us, but she did look a bit jealous that Lua got to hold my hand on the way.

  “Okay Bria’s do the experiments now. That is how you prevent that from happening iure, right?” Lua’s ent got my head ba straight.

  Yeah. She is correct. If I don’t do anything, nothing will ge. Better just to try, try, try again.

  “Yes. Let’s just do it. It’s not like I’ll lose anything if I try.” I decided.

  Let’s start with the thing Mrs. Moht up. A Hero Emerges.

  I ended up tossing some LoBY cards that I had for the toploader for A Hero Emerges. As well as some other stuff.

  4x Dragon Treasure, 4x Uraby, 4x People Running About, 2x Armaill, 2x Lesser Dragon, 3x Yami, 3x Fireyarou, 3x Power of Kaishin.

  I’ll get all the LoBY things bayway while trying to pull extra copies of Monster Reborns anyway.

  “Here. Hold onto this and activate it after I take some distance.” I told Lua as I hahe card over to her. I wao take a bit of distaween us, so I would see if it actually worked.

  She read the card, before she said: “Brian, just because she called you a hero, won’t mean this card will work.”

  “I know. But that’s not why. The real reason is the water spirit. Remember what she called me?” I asked.

  “Oh. I almost fot about that.” Lua said. “I suppose so. But then again, it did say ‘heroes’, so.”

  “Well perhaps I should have Alice use the card instead.” I said.

  “No. I’ll use it.” Lua said.

  “Thanks.” I said as I walked about 100 meters away from Lua and Alice.

  “A Hero Emerges.” I barely heard Lua as she activated the card.

  I was expeg teleportation to happen and waited. And waited. But nothing. The card didn’t react at all.

  I then looked as Lua and Alice talked for a sed, before Lua hahe card over to Alid Alice tried to activate it as well.

  But again, nothing happened. I guess I really am no hero.

  I walked back up to the girls.

  “It didn’t work.” Alice said.

  “Yes. It didn’t react at all.” Lua added.

  “I almost expected that. I’m no hero after all.” I said.

  “I’m not sure that’s it. This card does say something about being in danger, so perhaps it only be activated in times of great peril.” Lua reasoned.

  “... Well, I still doubt if it would even activate. And even if it did, it wouldn’t summon me.” I said. “Well, at least the hing should work.”

  “Sonic Bird.” I summoned a monster. I didn’t bother putting a sleeve or toploader on it, as I have 4 copies (well now 3) of it, so I just put a sleeve on a remaining copy if its effect is really worth it.

  A card appeared in the air and a rge bird flew out of it. It wasn’t huge like The Roc was, but still over oer ih.

  The bird nded in front of me a out a “caw”.

  (Master. Show it a ritual monster and it will bring out the ritual spell for it.) Laura instructed.

  Ah. Sure. I opened my colle and checked my ritual monsters. Crab Turtle, Hungry Burger, Performance of Sword and Relinquished. The only one I don’t have the ritual spell for is Relinquished, so I pulled it out and showed it to Sonic Bird. I guess I could use tract with the Abyss to summon it, but might as well get the proper ritual spell when I have the ce. And with tract, I o tribute mohat exactly equal the level of the monster summoned, whereas with Bck Illusion Ritual I tribute any monster with a level of 1 her.

  After taking a good look at the ritual monster in my hand, Sonic Bird flew into the sky before accelerating quickly, almost like it was trying to enter light speed or something.

  “Um, Brian.” Aliy attention. “Where did you send that monster? And how did it disappear like that?”

  “I’m actually not sure. I think it went somewhere to get a card for me, but I’m not sure where it went.” I responded.

  Just after that, Sonic Bird returned. Again, it looked like it slowed down from a speed that exceeds my ability to see. Or perhaps it came from a different dimension.

  “Oh. It came back.” Alice said when she saw the bird.

  Then Sonic Bird once again nded before me. Opening its beak, I saw the card it held in its mouth. I pulled it out and looked at the pristine copy of Bck Illusion Ritual. So it really brought me one. Nice.

  Spoiler

  [Yes. The picture has a differe code. Just ighat. It’s a good quality s so I used it for the picture.]

  [colpse]The card number for it seems to be SDP-038. I’m not positive on that as I don’t remember all of the set codes, but I think this would be from Starter Deck: Pegasus. Probably.

  “It really brought you a card. I didn’t know your monsters could do that.” Alice said.

  “Well, I wasn’t pletely sure it would work either. But apparently it did.” I ented.

  “It’s an impressive monster.” Lua added. “It fly at such high speeds that you ’t even follow it with your eyes. It could easily do a surprise atta someone and they couldn’t ter it at all.”

  “Yeah, but it would most likely die iack. Kamikaze attacks aren’t that great for the person, or monster, perf them.” I added.

  “Well, what about the card it brought you? What you do with it?” Alice asked.

  “How about I just show you?” I should probably use Sonic Bird better anyway, as I didn’t put a sleeve on it, so I’ll lose the card anyway after its time is up. So I just use it as a sacrifice for the ritual.

  “Yes. Please do.” Alice said.

  I already had both the ritual spell and the ritual monster in my hands, so nothio it but to perform the ritual.

  “I activate Bck Illusion Ritual. I tribute my Sonic Bird so that I ritual summon Relinquished.” I said to perform the ritual summoning.

  The blue card of Relinquished appeared on the ground under Sonic Bird. Then Sonic Bird burst into blue fmes, filling the card with more blue looking energy.

  After the card seemed to almost overflow with energy, Relinquished finally rose out of it. Perhaps using an overleveled sacrifice for the ritual caused the overflow. I should probably not do that iure, even though it seemed to work this time.

  “Iik.” I heard Alice scream a little.

  I ’t bme her too much. Relinquished is not the most pleasing moo look at.

  “Hey Brian. Are you sure this thing is safe to summon? Like at all? It looks like it came straight out of nightmares.” Lua ented.

  “I think it is. I think.” I responded.

  The blue base color skin, covered in white, or perhaps more so a beige color veins was not the only terrifying thing about Relinquished. It also had a giant gaping maw in its lower body and its eye was at the end of a …appendage. I think the ‘it looks like it came from a nightmare’ analogy is correct.

  … yeah. I’ll just unsummon you now, thank you very much. I don’t want to look at you if I don’t have to.

  I then took the now sleeved card of Relinquished and hid him in the depths of my colle. I hope I never have to pull it out again. Well, if I ever get Thousand-Eyes Restrict I’ll have to pull him out again.

  “Thanks fetting rid of it.” Alice said after she collected herself.

  “Yeah. No problem. Let’s summon some more family friendly ritual and fusion monsters .” I decided.