The card didn't remain on the desk for long.
Alexander picked it up, turning it slightly between his fingers, enjoying the feel of the freshly made card.
Petit Dragon. His very first successful creation.
For a brief moment, he simply observed it, then with a thought, the card vanished like some kind of magic trick.
Alexander's eyes narrowed slightly as he muttered, "As I thought, it can be stored."
Indeed, the card was stored inside the system just like his Elemental Hero Neos card.
With another thought, the card seamlessly reappeared in his hand in an instant, making Alexander think, 'This is so convenient. All the cards bound to the system can be stored and retrieved with a single thought. On top of that, even if the card was damaged or destroyed, it wouldn't be lost as it would simply return to the system where it can be summoned as a whole once again.'
This is something that Alexander found out during the previous week when he was working on the Petit Dragon card. More specifically, he suddenly remembered the Elemental Hero Neos card, and when he thought about it, it suddenly appeared in front of him.
The only issue?
He was also currently using the guillotine to give the card stock the right size, and because of that, the Elemental Hero Neos card also got cut in half.
For a moment, Alexander almost cursed in the name of the One Above All, but then he noticed the cut card fading away, and then he heard the YGO System chime and announce that the Elemental Hero Neos card had been retrieved and restored, and that it was ready to be summoned again.
He felt immense relief when he learned that the cards bound to the YGO System are basically indestructible.
Alexander exhaled quietly as he remembered that, but then his mind quickly moved on and focused on another issue, "One isn't anywhere near enough..."
His gaze drifted slightly as he started to already think ahead, 'If I want to present this properly to father... Not as an idea, but as something real, then a single card would be useless. I need to show the full structure, the working system, and the game. Which means I need two decks. Ones with at least forty cards each. This is the bare minimum.'
Having reached this point, Alexander spoke out the conclusion of this reasoning out loud, "This means I have to create around eighty cards... And a playmat, but that part, at least, could be handled externally if it is too troublesome. But everything else I would have to make with my own hands."
Alexander took a brief pause to let it sink in, then he picked up another card stock and said, "Alright. Let's do this."
Just like that, a month steadily passed. The routine that he used the previous week remained unchanged.
Wake early, have breakfast, go to school, maintain a healthy contact with his social circle there, return home, study a bit on a more advanced subject to not stall his education, and then spend most of the evening and a good part of the night working on the cards.
Rinse and repeat.
At first, progress was slow as he was able to complete one card every one or two days, sometimes even less.
The work began before the drawing ever did, with sheets of card stock laid flat.
He carefully measured, marked and cut.
The guillotine came down with a clean, final sound each time it was sharp, unforgiving. There was no correcting a bad cut. So he made sure he didn't make one.
Edges stacked and aligned before he checked again with the ruler, even when he already knew they were right.
Only then did he draw, and at that point the same problems resurfaced, not the same mistakes but the same areas where he still had some difficulties.
Hand control. Proportions. Consistency.
Lines that didn't quite align. Borders that drifted a fraction too far. Corners that weren't perfectly square unless he redid them. Shapes that felt slightly off.
Not wrong enough to discard, but wrong enough to bother him and make him redo it.
Details that required correction, like a curve too stiff or a line too hesitant, or even a figure that didn't quite hold its form.
So he adjusted, repeated, and refined.
Each card was a study; each mistake was catalogued, understood, and eliminated.
He never made the same mistake twice, but new ones appeared, as if waiting to mock him.
The process demanded patience.
The layout came first with measured margins.
Frame lines drawn with the ruler, slow and deliberate, pencil held just tight enough to stay precise, not tight enough to shake, then the structure using the guidelines of the projection.
He made it with light, barely visible strokes.
Then he moved on to the artwork.
First outlines in pen with careful and committed as erasing wasn't allowed at this point as it could spoil all the previous work, then he focused on the details.
He made sure that nothing was missing by checking the projected hologram multiple times.
Then the colour.
Paint markers glide over the surface, sometimes smoothly, sometimes resisting, forcing him to adapt pressure, angle, and speed.
And finally, the last refinement was when he sharpened the edges, corrected the lines where they could be, and balanced the tiny inconsistencies, if they could not be erased.
In the end, there was the negotiation with the Duel Spirits, but that was actually the easiest part of the process, as most of the chosen cards were weak ones, and those only had to gain.
It was a slow process, but then something noticeably started to shift.
Drawing became more familiar. His hand no longer hesitated at the start of a line. He knew how it would move before it did, and as a result, his yield increased to two cards per day, sometimes three.
The guillotine fell faster. The ruler spent less time adjusting, more time confirming. He needed to make fewer corrections and thus fewer restarts.
When something was off, he saw it sooner and fixed it faster.
And then he stopped thinking about every line as the pens and markers in his hand felt more and more natural.
His hand moved with more certainty, and the order became innate.
Layout first, then structure, then detail, then refinement.
The steps stopped feeling separate and started to flow together, one into the next.
Efficient shortcuts formed.
He learned where precision mattered most and where it didn't, where the eye would notice and where it wouldn't.
Three cards per day, four, sometimes five.
The stacks of finished cards began to grow as the completed pieces came out more and more consistently.
And for the first time, when he sat down at the table, tools laid out in quiet order, he didn't feel the weight of the process waiting for him nor did he brace for it.
He didn't measure the effort it would take; he just picked up the pencil, set the ruler, brought the guillotine down and worked.
And somewhere between the first line and the final stroke, without noticing exactly when it happened, he stopped enduring the process and started enjoying it.
Now Alexander looked at the desk where two complete decks were laid out in such a way that he could see all the cards.
He didn't touch them immediately, just observed them with a frown on his face and muttered, "These are... Inconsistent, unrefined, and messy..."
Alexander released a slight exhale while thinking, 'Full of weak vanilla monsters. A few effect monsters. Scattered spells and traps. No real synergy or strategy. No optimisation.'
In the end, he concluded, "…Trash."
The word came out flat, but then he stopped before he continued his harsh analysis.
A brief silence followed, and after a few moments, he corrected himself, "No... That isn't accurate. That's my skewed bias..."
He was comparing them to something else, something far more refined and polished. Something optimised to absurd degrees where a single combo could run through the whole deck if it wasn't stopped.
In the end, Alexander admitted, "That's not the standard here. Not yet... maybe never..."
These decks worked for what they had to do, and for now, that was enough.
His gaze shifted slightly to some of the cards laid out on the desk, more specifically the spell and trap cards, while thinking, 'Binding those was quite different. There was no Spirit to negotiate with. Instead, what was needed was intent, focus and full understanding.'
Every line had to be drawn with purpose. Every effect held clearly in mind. Even a moment of hesitation, and the card would fail and end up destroyed.
More than once, he had watched a nearly finished card collapse into nothing because his focus slipped at the last moment, and what was worse was that every attempt left him both mentally and physically drained, as if creating Spell and Trap cards also required something else, some form of energy, which may actually be true because some cards drained him more than others.
Just remembering those failures made Alexander click his tongue and mutter, "Tch… How annoying..."
But now everything was ready, there was only one thing left, making him mutter, "Testing."
For that reason, Alexander didn't waste any more time and called for Roland, who arrived without delay, "As requested, Master Alexander."
Alexander calmly handed him a deck and said, "I need your help testing these... This way I can get a feel of the game's flow."
Roland accepted it without hesitation, though his gaze lingered briefly on the cards, "Of course."
They moved to the table where the playmat was already set.
It was a simple one without unnecessary decoration, divided into zones, five Monster zones, five Spell and Trap card zones, the position for the Deck and the Extra Deck, the Field Zone, the Graveyard, and the Banish Zone.
Roland took his position across from him with the deck in hand before he asked, "So... What are the rules?"
Alexander paused for a fraction of a second, then began explaining, "This will take some time, but here it is... It's not as complicated as it may seem.
A Duel is always between two players. Before it starts, each player shuffles their Deck. The cards fall into three types: Monsters, Spells, and Traps. You'll get used to what each does soon enough, but know that Monsters are light yellow and orange, Spells are green, and Traps are magenta.
Both players start with 2000 Life Points. Think of that as your health. When it hits zero, you lose. Simple.
At the start, the players draw five cards. That's the hand. From there, you take turns. On your turn, you draw one card, but if you ever need to draw and your Deck is empty, you lose right then and there.
A turn is divided into 6 phases: Draw Phase, Standby Phase, Main Phase 1, Battle Phase, Main Phase 2, and End Phase. I won't go into details as they can be easily understood as we play.
Now, most of the game revolves around your Monsters. You can Summon them from your hand in one of two ways: Attack Mode or Defence Mode. Attack Mode means they're upright, ready to fight. Defence Mode means they're turned sideways, bracing for impact.
Only monsters in Attack Mode can attack, but not on the very first turn, so don't get ahead of yourself.
When monsters clash, the numbers decide everything. If two Attack Mode monsters fight, the one with lower attack is destroyed, and its controller takes damage equal to the difference. If they're equal, both are destroyed.
If you attack a monster in Defence Mode, it works a little differently. If your attack is higher than their defence, you destroy it, but no damage is dealt. But if your attack is lower, your monster survives, and you take the damage instead.
And if your opponent has no monsters at all? Then your attack hits them directly. Their Life Points take the full brunt of the attack.
Whenever a card is destroyed, it goes to the Graveyard. Think of it as the discard pile.
Spells and Traps are where things get interesting. Spell Cards can be played from your hand, either immediately or set face-down for later. They don't fight, but they can change the flow of the game in all sorts of ways. Once used, they go to the Graveyard.
Trap Cards are trickier. You have to set them face down first, and you can't use them right away as you'll need to wait a turn. But after that, they can be activated at just the right moment, even during your opponent's turn, usually to respond to something they do.
And that's the basics. The rest can be learned by playing."
Silence followed that lengthy explanation; Roland didn't speak immediately.
He looked at the cards in his deck, then at the field, then back at Alexander before he commented, "That is… a lot more elaborate than I thought."
"Most card games are significantly simpler," Roland continued. "The structure alone—"
He stopped briefly, considering his words before he concluded, "...This is far more involved."
Alexander gave a faint smile before he said, "These are just the basics."
Roland's gaze sharpened slightly as he repeated, "The basics...?"
Alexander nodded and calmly said, "I've planned more advanced rules for different formats with way more complex interactions."
After a slight pause, he added, "This is the simplified version. The training wheels, if you prefer the term."
Roland looked down at the deck in his hands again and muttered, "I see..."
His grip adjusted slightly, becoming more deliberate now as he added, "Then I suppose I will learn as we go, as you said."
Alexander's expression didn't change as he replied, "You will..."
They both placed their decks on the table. The cards were shuffled.
The air shifted as Alexander drew his opening hand.
Five cards.
Across from him, Roland did the same.
Neither spoke for a brief moment, then Alexander looked up and with a faint smile, he said, "It's time to duel..."