Pepper took his newly acquired frustrated energy and put it to use with working on the Nightmare variant of Mala in the workshop. By the time Marcus came to inform him they were ready to go, he was happy to see the amount of progress he had made. It was at least enough to where he didn’t feel like he was neglecting his responsibility of getting ready for the invitational tournament.

  Pepper jumped into the front passenger seat while Wilson and another newly acquired fangirl of Marcus’s sat in the back. Marcus tried his best to ease the tension with some light hearted conversation. But after a few minutes Marcus just let the radio play.

  They arrived at the store and Pepper and Wilson split off from the group. Pepper’s eyes glanced up at the sign which read, Platinum Card Reward Chest. Pepper raised an eyebrow as the sign and overall theme of the store left him questioning it all. A large pirate cartoon character was painted on the front glass panels. Directly on the opposite side of the main door was painted treasure chest. Only, there wasn’t any gold or jewels within it, rather a large collection of bright colored packages.

  Wilson placed his hand on the door and struggled to pull it open. Pepper reached in and aided his roommate. “Thanks.” Wilson muttered.

  As soon as they crossed the threshold Pepper distinctly heard a parrot callout overhead. “Rawr! Give me the booty!”

  What the? He thought to himself, but didn’t have time to discover the source as a customer was waiting for him to move out of the way. He stepped off to the side and noticed the shop keeper glaring his way. “Hey.” He called over to the worker.

  To his surprise, the shop keeper ignored his greeting and remained frozen in place like a statue. The large shop keeper took up almost the entire space behind the front display counter. The man was the largest person he had ever seen. A frazzled set of red hair which matched freckles scattered across his face. The man had a set of glasses on and a bright red shirt.

  “Nice hair.” Pepper complimented, but even that got no response. Not even going to have a ginger bond I see. Okay, fine then. He thought while turning and glancing over the store.

  Pepper could see some folding tables and chairs setup at the far end of the store. There were a few scattered couples sitting within the setup and were clearly engaged with some type of activity or event. He turned to look at the wall to his left and was taken back when he saw hundreds of options.

  The shelves were filled with different colored boxes of all shapes and sizes. Many had custom artwork on them and seemed to be placed by theme. Pepper admired how there was also random items such as plushy toys, action fingers, comic books, and custom molded dice sets scattered throughout the collectable items.

  Grosse's Mansion TCG, Mech Warfighter, Mech Warfighter Other World Adventures, Mage Quest, Mage Dungeon, Mage Tower, Quest Academy: The Path of the Hero, Demon Card Enforcer. Pepper mentally read off the names of the different card games as he slowly walked along the wall. He then started to ignore the multiple titles as they faded into a collection of board games.

  He turned around and saw Wilson standing in front of the opposite wall. His roommate practically remained as still as the dead and he couldn’t help but chuckle. Pepper placed his hands in his pockets as he came to a stop just off to the left side of Wilson. He arched up onto his tip toes and bobbed up and down. “A lot of options.”

  “You have no idea.” Wilson softly replied.

  Pepper turned and watched as Wilson’s mouth was partially open. Pepper couldn’t help the thought that Wilson was under some kind of trance. His roommate remained fixated by the multiple boxes sitting on the shelf in front of him.

  “Is this, uhh… what you came here for?” He asked.

  Wilson slowly nodded his head while his mouth remained opened in amazement.

  “So, what exactly is so special about these… boxes?”

  “This is the Golem League TCG Season 5 Tech Weaver Edition. It literally just released yesterday.”

  Pepper mouthed, ‘Oh, of course.’ But rolled his eyes with the fact that Wilson still didn’t pay him any attention. “So, it’s just the simple fact that this is the latest set, or version? That’s it?”

  “Pretty much.” Wilson muttered. His roommate reached up and adjusted his glasses higher up on his nose. But to Pepper’s surprise, he continued. “Special collectors art from Eric Stonx, Alec Smith, Lorenzo Leao. Multiple card rarities to include halo holographic cards, celestial star dust variations, and rare shattered metal flake plated cards.”

  Pepper huffed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Wow, sounds intense.”

  “You have no idea.” Wilson said and slouched his shoulders.

  “Well, What are you waiting for? Why don’t you buy a…”

  Wilson interrupted Pepper by raising his left hand up with his index finger telling him to wait. “I’m trying to be present in the moment.” There was a slight pause until Wilson warned him. “And you’re ruining the moment.”

  Peppers eyes widened and he nodded. Well okay then. He thought. He turned and was about to walk away when Wilson stopped him.

  “Are you going to get any?”

  Pepper fumbled over his words. “Well, I… uh. There, you know. I don’t think I have ever actually bought a pack of cards before.” He cleared his throat and was worried how Wilson would respond.

  To his surprise, Wilson nodded towards the cards. “You should. At least a pack or two. You never know what you’re going to get.”

  “Well okay then. You know what… why not.” He grinned but it was mostly trying to hide the grimace of not actually wanting to buy anything. He scanned the boxes on the shelf until he found the individual packs. He reached up and grabbed hold of three packs and started to walk up towards the counter.

  The large worker who gloomily stood behind the counter turned and looked at him. His large hands reached up and removed the ear buds from his ears. “Going for the new Golem League set. Nice choice.”

  “He speaks.” Pepper said jokingly. He glanced down and saw the employee had Keith printed on his name tag.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The man smiled and grabbed the sides of his head. “Ahh sorry about that. I have been listening to this book series and must have been zoned out when you came in.”

  “Must be a pretty epic book series.”

  “It’s called Expeditionary Force. It’s my favorite Sci Fi series out there.” The man smiled and Pepper started to feel bad for misjudging the man based on first impression. “Okay that will be 30 Flex.”

  Pepper dry coughed as he choked on his words. “I’m, I’m sorry, did you say 30 Flex?”

  The man looked surprised and huffed. “Yeah… that’s the standard cost for Golem League TCG.”

  Pepper was about to respond but was then caught off guard as Wilson plopped an arm full of card packs up onto the counter next to him. “Okay… I’ve chosen.” Wilson then crossed his arms. “Could you hurry up?”

  The man laughed and Pepper sighed. He tapped his holodex on the payment pad and felt his heart ache. The mental thought of his bank account dwindling further to zero weighed heavily on him. He was about to head for the door when he heard Wilson call to him.

  “Where are you going?”

  The question caught him off guard, as if the answer was obvious. “I was uhh…”

  “We have to open them.”

  “Yeah but… shouldn’t we head back to the truck?”

  Wilson didn’t answer but merely turned and began to walk back towards the tables with his arms full of all the packs he had purchased. Pepper sighed and let his head roll from side to side. His feet scuffed across the store carpet and he soon arrived at the table that Wilson had picked out.

  “Alright Squints… alright. Let’s see what cards you got. I guess…” Pepper’s statement dragged on as Wilson’s behavior reached a whole new level of weird.

  His roommate handed the foil package as if it was a delicate fossil he had just unearthed. Wilson slowly rubbed his fingers over the foil wrapper. What in the world is he doing… Pepper though as Wilson then brought the package up and let it slide across his cheek.

  Wilson’s tiny fingers than came up and gently crapped hold of the top flap. He grabbed the wrapper tight and ripped it open and immediately deeply inhaled. Wilson then lowered the cards away from his face and exhaled.

  “That fresh card scent hits hard every time.”

  Pepper could feel the odd expression form on his face and was flabbergasted. He watched as his roommate meticulously worked to cautiously remove the cards from the pack. Wilson quickly discarded the first card as if it was nothing.

  “Is that one not important?” He asked.

  “No… it is just an informative card which gives updates and stats on the card game. There is a code we plug in to the online tournament system that gives us more cards. It’s not the real honey within the honey pot.”

  “Oh, of course.” Pepper said with a nod. He was just happy that Wilson was not paying any attention to him and not realizing how much he was actively judging his odd roommates behavior.

  Wilson then slowly turned the cards over and Pepper took notice of the back side of the collectibles. In the top portion of the card was the Golem League text printed just above the league emblem of two gladiators facing one another. There was a multicolored wave pattern which gave off the vibe of ethereal energy.

  Pepper couldn’t help but watch as Wilson’s face. His roommate still remained emotionless but appeared to analyze every feature of every card now in his hand. The process repeated itself for every pack Wilson had purchased. Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle, At least he is getting good deep breaths in. He thought every time Wilson would smell the freshly opened packs.

  One by one Wilson opened up his packs until there was none left to open. Wilson had started to place his new cards into a small cardboard container he had also purchased from the store. He then cleared his area as if to ensure that everything was properly in its proper place.

  “You haven’t opened your cards.” Wilson said while blankly staring at the few packs Pepper had purchased.

  Pepper nervously laughed. “Well I mean, I don’t need to open them now. You know…”

  “You should open your packs.” Wilson cut him off.

  “Alright, fine. I’ll open my packs.” He huffed and started to handle the slick foil package. It lightly crinkled in his fingers until he finally tore the packaging open. He reached his fingers in to pull out the contents when Wilson added.

  “You need to smell them.”

  “Wilson, I don’t think I need to.”

  “Smell them!” Wilson sternly exclaimed.

  “Okay, okay. Just chill out Squints. I’ll smell them.” Pepper’s eyes widened and he took a wiff of the package. That’s weird… it does have a distinct scent to it. He thought, but certainly didn’t want to admit it out loud. “Alright, I smelled it and now I can look at them right?”

  Wilson merely nodded in approval and Pepper started to look through his random drawing. “An energy card, energy card, gladiator assist, an obsidian sword of hatred.” He paused and turned the sword card towards Wilson. “Okay, I’ll admit, that art work is pretty good.”

  “It’s not pretty good. It’s amazing.” Wilson said.

  Pepper laughed and went back to looking through the cards. “A brown clay, a forged steel, a power core, another gladiator assist, a basic shield and oh… this card is different. A holographic battle griffin golem. That’s pretty cool.”

  “A very nice pull on your first pack Pepper.” Wilson said in his standard monotone.

  He grinned at the compliment. “Thanks, Squints…” He started to open up his next package but added. “I’ll have to trust your judgement on that. I wouldn’t know what is good or bad for any of this.”

  Pepper finished his second pack and read off the list of cards to Wilson. His roommate told him what was good and what was common and Pepper moved right along to his final pack. He opened it up and just as Wilson had instructed, he smelled the pack and started to catch on to the odd behavior.

  Pepper wasn’t planning to admit that any time soon to him though. He removed the wrapper and began to sift through each card one by one. That was until he got to the final card. The light reflected of every intricate detail of the artwork printed on the card. His wrist and hand gently rotating at different angles to appreciate the quality.

  “This… this seems like something special.” He said.

  He looked up and saw that Wilson had perked up regarding his statement. Pepper rotated his wrist around and watched as Wilson’s face lit up with a wave of emotion. Wilson’s eyes widened and his mouth opened in awe as he gazed upon the card.

  “That’s…. that’s…. That’s an ultra rare halo holographic Panda Cakes golem card!”

  “So that’s good right?”

  Wilson reached up with both of his hands and grabbed hold of his face. “Good? Good? Are you serious? Pepper… that is one of only ten cards ever printed in this latest edition!”

  Pepper smiled and perked up. “Oh, well that’s… well, really cool I guess.”

  “More like amazing….” Wilson said in disbelief.

  Pepper glanced down at the card and enjoyed the artwork for another few seconds. He looked up and noticed Wilson’s gaze was fixated on the back side of the card and he couldn’t help but feel at peace. He gently placed the card down on the table and gestured to his roommate.

  “It’s yours.”

  Wilson’s head shook. The whole act made it seem like multiple computer chips in his brain were immediately fried. “What?”

  “You can have it.”

  Wilson’s eyes blinked rapidly and he didn’t stop for seconds. “Are… are you serious?”

  “Yeah, go ahead. It’s not like I need…” Pepper didn’t have a chance to finish his statement.

  Wilson stood up from the table and bolted across the card store. He had never seen his roommate move with such speed before. Wilson quickly went from one side of the store to the other and then came rushing back to the table.

  In Wilson’s hands was a giant block of clear plastic. He started to manipulate the protective case and eventually had it separated into two large pieces. Wilson then picked up the rare card as if it was the most delicate thing he had ever encountered. He carefully placed the card into the center of the holder and tightened it back down.

  Pepper was amazed by the entire ordeal but couldn’t help but start to smile. He watched second by second as a new life was breathed into his roommate. The last thing he expected though were tears forming in Wilson’s eyes.

  “Uhh, Squints… you okay?”

  Wilson sniffled and tried to hold on to his composure. “Nobody has ever come to the card store with me.”

  The statement caught Pepper off guard and he was almost shocked to hear that. “Wait, your mom and dad never came with you?”

  Wilson just looked at the rare card sitting before him. He shook his head as the tear finally fell down his face. “No… they would just drop me off. Leave me there for a few hours and pick me up later.”

  “So… you’ve never had anyone who would just come and open cards with you huh?”

  Wilson just shook his head. He finally reached up and grabbed hold of the ultra rare card and gazed at it. It was a few seconds later and Pepper watched as a smile formed on Wilson’s face. His eyes shifted upwards and Wilson’s soft brown eyes finally locked on to his.

  “Thank you.”

  Pepper smiled and replied. “You’re welcome, Squints… you’re welcome.”