Lennys Breakfast Adventure [Solo]

It was the night after his mission with Elvira had concluded and Vincent had been hard at work studying the card she'd allowed him to borrow. The magical properties contained within were more marvelous than he could have imagined. He wished that he did not need to eat or sleep so that he may make progress on the development of a spell which would track the location of other cards. There were many problems in making such a spell with such little information on the cards, though, one of which was distinguishing between cards that collectors already had and cards that had yet to be found. It would be unfortunate if his enchantment just ended up leading Elvira to a museum or the house of a private collector if she used it within a city. To remedy this, he would have to make the spell such that it somehow interacted with a map of Fiore or Earthland so that she may see which cards lie in cities and which in the wilderness. A second, albeit it more minor, problem was the question of rarity. Vincent postulated that the rarer a card the more powerful the magic contained within, and thus figured he would make it so that different elemental markers would denote various rarities.

Before he could continue thinking about the problems he faced, and potential solutions, Vincent needed to eat. As someone who operated primarily in the night for various reasons, his dining options were quite limited. Either he would need to learn how to cook himself - a task which would require a luxurious amount of time that he would rather spend studying, or find restaurants that were open twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Vincent, of course, sought out the latter option. One such eatery was located in the harbor town of Hargeon Town. The redundancy of Hargeon Town never ceased to amuse the wizard. He had asked the pilot of the Crystal Swan airship to drop him off in the town earlier in the day so that he may walk around and think before eating. After about half an hour, he was ready.

Vincent walked into Lennys: a semi-popular diner open all day every day with a specialty in their breakfast items. He looked around the main counter which stretched horizontally in the center of the restaurant. Behind it was a wall with an window with a steel frame for the chef to take orders. On the leftmost part of the wall he could see double doors leading into the kitchen. "Hey Vince! Could I get you the usual?" the only man behind the counter asked joyfully. "If you'd be so kind, Joseph" he responded, sitting in the padded stool closest to the door. Jo, as the waiter was commonly known, called to the chef who called out from the kitchen and greeted Vincent. He returned her greeting with his own.

The wizard looked around and noticed a couple of patrons sitting down, one of which was drinking coffee while the other was enjoying a subway sandwich. Vincent took out the card depicting a Siren from his drawstring bag and studied it from top to bottom. It was a masterfully drawn illustration of a beautiful woman sitting on top of a rock surrounded by clear blue water. Her arm was raised and her mouth open as if singing the a song which would entrap any who listened. It was certainly working on Vincent. He took the brown border as a sign that it was relatively common. Of course Elvira wasn't going to entrust someone she'd just met with her more treasured cards. Perhaps I should focus less on the fact that these cards were all made with the magic of over a hundred different mages, but rather they were created by the same mage: this Uncrowned Saint. This link between all of the cards in their maker should be strong enough of a bond so that I may base a tracking enchantment. What better medium to cast the enchantment through than one of these cards? Without one the enchantment would be worthless, but with one... the impossible becomes possible Vincent thought, a smile gradually forming across his face as he'd solved the most immediate problem.

A plate of eggs, sausage, and toast were put in front of the wizard, snapping him out of the Siren's spell. "Looks like someone had a good idea!" Jo said, looking at Vincent's face as he'd made the realization. "Is it obvious? It wasn't a particularly good idea, but it 'puts me in business'" he responded, putting air quotes around the end of his sentence with his hands. "Puts me in business! Hah! I love it! Looks like I have taught you something!" Jo responded after a laugh, happy that Vincent temporarily adopted a similar word choice as himself. "Could I get anything else for you Vince?" he continued, prompting the wizard to simply shake his head.

As he ate, Vincent thought: How unfortunate. I can't think of any way I can make a simple spell to cast through a card to find more. Now that I know I'll be focusing on the connection of this Uncrowned Saint, a simple spell isn't going to be stable enough for tracking these cards. Maybe we'll get to see a general area for a couple seconds, but that won't cut it. I need to perform a ritual using this card. But that presents a new problem. A ritual that tracks down cards with the same underlying magical signature belonging to a Saint level wizard requires materials of a similar magical level - and those are not easy to acquire. He took more and more bites from his food until he didn't even realize he'd finished. As he thought, he tried cutting the plate and putting whatever he thought he'd cut into his mouth. "You can't eat the plates Vince." Jo said jokingly, taking the dirty plate and utensils into the back. Vincent continued to think on what kind of artifacts would best suit the kind of ritual he needed to perform.

Well, any belongings of the Uncrowned Saint would be incredibly beneficial including more cards. I wonder if we might be able to find his resting place. As far as more generic materials are concerned, dragon scales of any kind are known to be incredibly durable and replete with magical power. They also cost a fortune. Phoenix feathers too. The bark of magically enhanced soil wouldn't hurt, but those only grow in Seven. Come to think of it, Seven would definitely be the place to go for magical objects as powerful as the Saints, but that's quite a journey. That rarity discrimination is also out of the window since I'm no longer focusing on the magic of the individual mage but rather the magic of the Saint behind the cards which are probably contained in equal amounts among all of them Vincent thought as he tossed a piece of gold onto the counter that was clearly worth much more than the meal. Before Joseph could return the gold, Vincent had already turned around and walked out of the door.

Armed with this new knowledge of what he had to do, Vincent needed to prepare for the journey to Seven. If we was to successfully set up and perform a ritual of this scale, he would need to be strong enough to get these materials himself. In the morning before he went to sleep, he would return the Siren card to Elvira and let her know of what they had to do in order to track down more cards.