“Alright, kid, pick any of the 21 cards ya want, and focus on it!” Jim instructed, folding his arms. Finn did as told, concentrating on the Magician Card, symbolizing arcane power and magic.

“… What next?” He asked, a red glow surrounding his body.

“Mm, the Magician, eh? Not bad,” Jim said, recognizing the red glow. “But the hard part comes now. Raise yer hand in front of yer face, holdin’ yer middle n’ index fingers up, then pour mana into it.”

Finn raised his right hand in front of his face and put down his pinky, thumb, and ring finger, then directed his body’s mana flow into his hand. Slowly, a card, glowing red, appeared between his raised fingers. However, it wasn’t a normal playing card. It was a tarot card — and the figure of a Magician was imprinted on it, glowing red just like the rest of his body.

“Oho… yer control over mana is more precise than I expected, kid,” Jim chuckled. “But can ya change between different cards in rapid succession, I wonder?”

Finn threw the card between his fingers at the ground, causing a powerful explosion to occur. He could’ve made another card using more mana, but he decided to try a different card to meet Jim’s challenge.

In his mind, he switched from the Magician to the Tower, causing the glow around him to change from red to grey. However-

“…!” Finn suddenly coughed out blood in pain, clutching his chest in confusion and pain. Hurriedly, he covered his mouth and wiped away his black and red blood to avoid rousing any suspicion.

“Ha!” Jim laughed in amusement, seeing this happen. “Kid, that’s what happens if ya try switchin’ so suddenly. Yer mana needs time to convert — if ya do it so abruptly, they’ll overheat and harm yer own body.”

“… You couldn’t have told me this beforehand?”

“Oi, oi now… I was goin’ to… but ya did it before I could,” Jim said with a devious smirk. “Can’t bloody blame me for that, now can ya?”

‘This guy… he takes gambles seriously, even if it means using underhanded tactics. So be it.’

Now that Finn knew, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. Since he already used the Magician, he couldn’t use it again for a while, according to Jim. Therefore, he called upon the Tower, encasing himself with stone for protection and essentially making himself into a fortress, glowing grey with Angelica energy.

Then, he pictured a different card in his head — The Star. However, this time, he eased into it, giving his mana enough time to adapt before fully discarding the Tower card in his head. The grey glow around his body slowly changed into a gold one, shining bright. The stone armor on him melted away, and a real five-pointed star appeared above his head.

Jim’s draw dropped in response, sweat forming on his forehead.

“B-Boy… ya really did it…”

“How does this card work?” Finn asked, ignoring his surprise. “I know what it symbolizes, but what of its actual abilities?”

“E-Er, well… it can be used as light, and the star above yer head can also shoot out bloody lasers…”

“Oh, is that so?” Finn suddenly turned in Jim’s direction, pointing the star right at him.

“U-Uh… kid, what are ya doin’?”

“I just want to… test out the laser.”

“W-Well, don’t do it on m- WOAH!”

Jim hurriedly dove out of the way just in time to avoid being fried to a crisp by the powerful yellow laser that shot out of the star above Finn’s head, which incinerated the tree behind where Jim had just been standing.

“Whew… bloody hell, kid! Ya tryin’ ta get me killed, or what?!”

“… Hm. More powerful than expected,” Finn murmured, deactivating his Angelica and raising his voice. “But in any case… looks like I won our bet. Are you ready to pay up?”

“Grr… alright, alright, fine. Ya got me,” Jim sighed in disappointment, getting back up from the ground. “That’s the first time I’ve ever lost a bet, y’know. I’m startin’ to hate ya but like ya at the same time, kid.”

Finn spent the rest of that day training with the Cardmaster Angelica using Jim’s advice and guidance. By the end of the session, he had already become quite skilled with it, able to switch between cards almost at the same speed as Jim himself, who was impressed over and over again that day.

The fact that Finn didn’t require Zelestria’s help to learn this new Angelica was proof he was growing and getting stronger of his own accord, not just relying on the Ghost blood and Zelestria’s help.

Later, after dinner, Finn returned to his own room for an early night with the excuse of wanting to sleep in preparation for the Temple Raid tomorrow. Of course, that wasn’t really the reason — he just wanted as much time as possible to practice using those new tentacles of his. They were like six rowdy little children, unwilling to listen to their parent.

Luckily, by the time morning rolled around, Finn had more or less learned to control them a bit. However, they required insane mental strength and mana to control properly, just like switching between the cards of the Cardmaster Angelica but on a greater scale. Even Finn, who excelled in both of those requirements, found controlling those tentacles difficult.

As of right now, he could manage to control one tentacle at a time, but that was it. He would need to become a lot stronger if he wanted to control all six — without the help of Zelestria, anyway. If she helped, then he could control all six simultaneously no problem, but that was his last resort in a life-or-death situation.

“Oh yeah, by the way, darling~” Zelestria suddenly said right before Finn was going to return to the real world, causing him to turn around.

“… What?”

Zelestria smiled like an angel and crossed her hands behind her back, leaning down like a cute schoolgirl.

“Let’s have our date after the Temple Raid tomorrow, mkay~?”

Finn, remember what she said before about wanting to show him something important on their date, nodded.

“Sure.”