Chapter 4. Off To The Well

With that done, I saw my Time Wizard disappear from the field. I held him in my hand though. I could feel something was strange about him, but I didn’t know what. It was right on the tip of my tongue, but I had other things to deal with. I sighed in relief from actually winning this duel. I had to admit, it did get me excited to see all of the monsters and effects happen in reality. I put my time wizard back on top of the rest of my deck, and looked over to see Jayden was done with his duel as well.

“Rakki! Did you also win!? That’s totally sweet! Too bad I never got a chance to see your epic duel.” He was still just as goofy as before. I was surprised how little failing, and getting kicked out of this school with a massive black mark didn’t phase him. I sighed and shook my head with a defeated smile. “It’s good to know you won too.” I jumped onto Jayden’s boat alongside him and Syrus. Alexis looked surprised that I was able to beat her friend as well, but I knew she was still more interested in Jayden.

I yawned and sat in the back of the boat. “Let’s get out of here… I’m too tired for this.” I laid down near the back and let my feet hang over the side of the boat, while using my arms behind my head as a pillow. Alexis seemed a little hesitant now to let us go, but she stood by her promise. “Just as I promised, we’ll let you go…”  I didn’t listen to much more than that, as I was about to just pass out from exhaustion.

We started to go back to the dorms while Syrus kept apologizing to Jaden and I about dragging us into his mess. Both Jayden and I kept telling him not to worry about it, and as we kept sailing away the girls had their own private discussion. “That was the luckiest thing ever! If I ever duel him again I could beat him easily!” Jasmine kept going on about my luck, while Mindy and Alexis were trying to understand what happened. “What was so lucky Jasmine?” Mindy asked cautiously, trying not to set her off. It failed.

“Everything! He made me draw 4 cards to deal extra damage to me with this dumb spell, Restructure Revolution! Then after I destroy his life points, he comes back with three dice rolls of 6 to beat me in that turn! It’s so stupid! He acts like he has skill, but he just relies on luck for everything!” Jasmine kept huffing about how aggravating I was. Alexis stared off in the direction we left. She already knew Jayden was strong, but now she wanted to know if I was really relying on luck, or strong as well.

Back on the boat I looked at my school issued PDA. Turns out it wasn’t technically a phone. ‘It says I gained 5,018 DP. Is that a lot? I don’t really know the currency here.’ I then looked over to Jayden who was still rowing with a smile on his face, probably replaying the duel in his mind. “Jayden, how much did you get from beating Alexis?” Jayden looked at me with confusion. “Did your PDA not say anything about getting DP?” That seemed to click for Jayden as he nodded with an understanding expression. “Oh I totally forgot to check!”

Jayden laughed a bit while Syrus looked over Jayden to see the amount he got as well. Syrus’s jaw dropped at what he saw, but Jayden seemed as baffled as me when it came to knowing the actual exchange rate. Syrus seemed to be the only one that knew. “You got over 7,000!? You could buy so many cards with that!” Jayden gained a smile, thinking of what cards would be good to get to add to his deck. Probably matching the smile I had on as well.

We all made it to the dorm rooms, and said our goodnights. I went back to my room, and had a choice. I could either look at my deck to finally see more of what it had, or I go to sleep. I went for the ladder, from how tired I was. I went back to bed, and almost passed out immediately. ‘Long, crazy day…’ As I drifted off I didn’t notice the presence that was staring at me from my deck.

I woke up the next day fully refreshed. I looked around the empty room, and sighed. ‘I guess this is my life now.’ I let out a light chuckle as I grabbed my things for school again. There wasn’t much for me to learn, except some of the older rules, or different card effects that I knew of.

Mostly what I wanted was to make a brand new deck that didn’t rely so much on luck. I was looking through the PDA while on my way to class. Trying to find any ideas for a good deck I could make for cheap. ‘Nothing… I’m stuck with these cards. Hopefully That weird sense of luck comes back when I need it.’ I didn’t know where the confidence came from when I was so close to losing, but somehow I did manage to pull through. ‘I could try out the dumping well for cards. But this deck already seems mostly built, and I don’t want to give those Duel spirits false hope if I can't deliver on taking them with me… But I don’t think it could hurt to check, I guess.’

I came up with a plan. I would go to classes, and after they were done I would make the trek on the island to find this so-called well. I didn’t remember too much about the powers of Duel spirits, but I didn’t really care about their powers, as much as how I wanted something to confide in, and someone to lean on. I remembered all of the horror show things that happened at this school, and would want a good Duel spirit to help me through it.

I did exactly that. Nothing interesting happened in class, except for Jasmine and Alexis boring holes in the back of my skull. I sighed from the trouble this might be for me later. Causing Jasmine to almost jump out of her chair in anger. ‘I honestly don’t know what her problem is…’ Class ended and I made my way over the only person I thought might know where it was. I quickly went over to Alexis, causing all of the Obelisk students to give me death glares. I sighed, and went on to ask my question. “Alexis, you know where the well that people dump their cards is?”

Jasmine jumped out of her chair to yell at me with only Mindy holding her back. “You trying to ask her out to that crappy of a spot!? She is way out of your league, Slifer!” The rest of the Obelisks snickered and laughed as I rolled my eyes at them. ‘You all really think the world revolves around yourselves don't you?’ I looked back to Alexis who was ignoring the rest of the blue coats as well. “I need to go there, but I don’t know the way. I was hoping you could just tell me…” I said that last bit unhappily, knowing full well that this girl wanted to duel me since I beat Jasmine.

Alexis stared at me for a bit, trying to understand my thought process of wanting to go there. However she smiled since she had a bargaining chip. “What if I show you in person, but you have to duel me when we get there.” ‘She definitely wants to duel alright…’ I sighed while thinking of my other options. I knew the Obelisks would want her to duel me as well, just to have me get crushed like the rest of them probably did when they tried to flirt with her. That only left one person. “I’ll pass. Hey Bastion! Wait up!”

I left the trio and ran after Bastion, who was my second go to. I thought he might not know, since he likes to make like 5 decks with probability. Not the kind of person who would spend their time hiking in the woods to find a well with cards others deemed useless, but my best bet at the moment. What I didn’t notice was all of the looks of hatred for disrespecting the school goddess like that.

I made it to Bastion after he noticed me, and stopped. “Do you know about the well where people throw cards away?” Bastion raised an eyebrow while thinking. “Yes, I do. But I don’t see why you would want to go there unless you also had cards to get rid of.” I shrugged my shoulders at his guess, and continued the conversation in my direction. “Do you know where it is?” Bastion thought again, but shook his head. “Sorry. I do not know where the well is located. That information is most likely privy to-”

I cut him off with annoyance at my luck. “Obelisks, yea…” I sighed and thanked Bastion for the info anyways. “Thanks for the help Bastion.” He nodded and proceeded to leave. As soon as he did I turned around to be met with a smiling Alexis and her other friends. I frowned and folded my arms. “I’ll duel you if you take me there, but I get to grab the cards first.” Alexis nodded and led the way. Her two friends walked behind her, and Jasmine bumped into me purposely as she did.

Just as I was following behind them I saw Jayden and Syrus also staring at me from behind the corner. I sighed and waved them to come with. They both smiled and ran to my side. “Rakki. Why do you want to go to this well so much?” Syrus asked albeit a bit timidly. Jayden was nodding at me to answer the question, and I could see the girls were also a bit interested, Alexis for the most part. “I need more cards. And I don’t think any should be left rotting in a well somewhere.” I shrugged at my answer. I didn’t really know how to talk about duel spirits without sounding a bit crazy.

We all made our way outside the school, and kept walking through the forest. “This place is too dang big for its own good. Did Kaiba hire people to carry him around? I swear.” I was complaining about the journey while adjusting my Duel disk. I could see Syrus also struggling a bit from this arduous journey, while Jayden didn’t seem to notice we had even walked that far. I sighed at him. “Where do you get your stamina?” Jayden looked at me with confusion. “Aren’t you just out of shape?” I heard laughing from the girls ahead, mostly Jasmine just liking anything that made fun of me.

“Thanks for that.” I said back to Jayden who averted his gaze a bit.