Marilyn presented Nero with the card she seemingly pulled out of thin air, though Nero knew it was just a simple sleight of hand trick. Almost everyone alive used cards a lot, so it was quite normal for everyone to learn card tricks. Of course, not everyone attempted to learn them as it was up to preference, but as kids few could resist it, which meant most people ended up learning them.
Nero grabbed the card and read, surprised to find it was both familiar and unfamiliar.
Name: Snowflake Frost
Image: A single snowflake, spreading frost all around it
Type: Innate
Star rank: 3
Ability: [A snowflake that freezes everything it cuts, becoming stronger and sharper the more it freezes things. Can only be used by Marilyn Grant.]
Flavour text: "A curse will only kill you, but I can do so much worse" - Marilyn Grant
There was a lot to unpack in this card, not in the least because it was completely different from the Innate card Marilyn had given him before! How was that possible? An Innate card couldn't be changed!
Although Snowflake, which was the original innate card his mother had given him, was used up and thus destroyed, Nero remembered its details well.
Name: Snowflake
Image: A single snowflake falling
Type: Innate
Star rank: 0
Ability: [A snowflake that grows stronger and sharper as it absorbs heat.]
Flavour text: "I have no enemies, just volunteers who help paint my snowflakes red" - Marilyn Grant
He was trying to come up with an explanation for the difference when he recalled that his mother had transcended the Arcanist realm and entered the Mystic realm, which should have upgraded her innate ability. It was unusual for the name to change, but he supposed that it could happen.
Even then, in the back of his mind, he could not forget that his mother had just told him that her family specialised in altering spell models. Could that mean they could create different versions of an innate ability?
With the difference in the innate cards explained, for now, Nero focused on the second difference. Snowflake Frost could only be used by his mother, and no one else. That was something he had never heard of.
An Eldrim card was activated when aether was channelled into it, a feat that any card master could do. Sure Neophytes could not use starred cards, but basically everyone other than them should be able to use any card at all. So how was this card explicitly limited to his mother? Could that be what signature locked cards meant?
Also, this was not relevant to the cards themselves, but wasn't his mother a little too violent in her quotes? She wasn't that ruthless in real life - at least to Nero.
"It can only be used by you," he said, locking onto what she was probably trying to show him. She nodded, and then showed him yet another card. It was another Snowflake Frost, but this time it could only be used by Edward Grant.
"I get it. This way you don't need to fear someone stealing your cards, so you can create exceptionally powerful cards without fear of them being stolen or used against you."
"Yes. You're catching on. But there's also the fact that neither Snowflake nor Snowflake Frost are my real innate ability, which is why I need to produce these cards if I want to use them."
Nero froze, then looked at his mother with disbelief. What did she mean they weren't her innate cards? But the card type literally stated 'innate'. Was that fake?
The state of disbelief did not last long though. Nero immediately accepted what his mother was telling him, and began to imagine the possibilities. If he could tamper with the effects of his innate ability, couldn't he create cards more capable of destroying curses?
Ever since he got his innate ability, the thing that always stood out was how he could easily destroy curses and cursed objects, while almost everyone else was just forced to seal them, or somehow drain them of energy.
Nero had been more or less waiting for the day that the military tried to get him to sit in a room and just mass produce his own innate cards, but perhaps being a Neophyte was too limiting. They might be waiting till he turned into an Initiate until that happened.
But if he could change the effect of his innate ability, he could make it even more lethal to curses! More importantly, he could end up hiding the actual effects of his innate ability, giving the army only the parts they were interested in.
"I have a question," Nero said as his brain thought of the countless possibilities such abilities could bring forth. "Can you only alter spell models, or can you create them entirely? For example, can you recreate a spell model from someone else's innate ability?"
Marilyn shook her head.
"You can only alter spell models, not create them from scratch," she explained.
"In that case, can you alter the spell model of a card that has already formed?"
The question stunned Marilyn, for she never considered it. That was the drawback of a formal education. By having a pre-existing foundation, a person is forced to look at a subject through a preexisting lens of knowledge. It becomes more difficult to look at a situation with unorthodox perspectives. But in this case…
"No, for a card that is already completed, you cannot change the spell model, however you have touched upon a very high levelled topic. Although you cannot change a spell model for an existing card, you can refresh the durability of a card once it has undergone some use. Of course, it's far from simple, and requires a very high levelled artisan.
These things are beyond you for now, but it's good to remain interested in such things."
Nero and his mother kept chatting with one another as the van drove through the city, with Edward chiming in from time to time, and eventually exited from the toll. They had brought along snacks - apparently it was a tradition for road trips. With Nero's limited experience in the field, he could not judge whether it was true, but he happily accepted any food thrown his way.
For the first hour, the drive was smooth as the road was well maintained and the environment was relatively tame. But in the second hour, as they drove further away from the city and the regularly used routes, they encountered their first problem.
"Normally, when the army has large movements, they send a few cars ahead of the main group to take care of such matters. Since we don't have that luxury, we'll have to take care of it ourselves," said Marilyn as she looked out the front window. In front of them, the road seemed to disappear into a field of tall grass that was at least three metres (9.8 feet) tall.
The grass blades were practically trees. Clearly they had been cursed, and were spreading across the hills.
"Mom, when I was using Snowflake, they served as fuel for my innate ability, making them stronger. Maybe you could use that now - my innate ability is very good at countering curses."
Marilyn shook her head.
"Maybe you can handle curses on the Neophyte level, but for stronger curses, no matter how effective your flames are, they'll just get smothered out. No, let me handle this. Even if I can't destroy the curse, I can destroy the body carrying the curse, which is just as good."
Marilyn was getting ready while Nero moved to the front and sat beside Edward. Nero was not allowed to leave the van under any circumstances, and one of his parents would remain with him at all times.
"Quiz time," Edward said as he pulled out a protein bar and tore it open. "What do you need to be careful of when facing cursed plants such as this?"
Nero looked at the grass which was dozens of metres away, and then tried to imagine how the grass could possibly attack. It looked like they could only attack physically.
"It's to maintain a certain distance and stay out of their attack radius?"
"I suppose, but no. Plants have roots, and the roots can extend far greater distances underground than the actual plant above ground. So while it seems like you can estimate the attack range of a plant from a glance, in truth you should always assume you're within its attack range. Watch."
Everything seemed to be calm and peaceful outside when Marilyn opened the sidedoor of the van and leaped out into the distance. The moment she touched the ground there was an earthquake, and suddenly the earth erupted from underneath her!
Nero only saw a cloud of brown smoke, and a few moments later, he saw white roots sticking out from the ground like spikes. Yet Marilyn was nowhere to be seen. Edward placed a hand on Nero's shoulder, and a warm energy flowed into his body, augmenting him. He suddenly saw the world in slow motion, which finally allowed him to catch sight of his mother doing what she did best - cutting things down.