Capítulo 8: Consult with The Keeper
Daniel looked into a nice-looking luxury living room behind the door and nodded in satisfaction. He thought about his day when he was just a normal designer, he remembered that those publishers want 70% of the cut and he only gets a measly 30% and that he still needs to use those 30% to hire many people to draw card images and also some of the miscellaneous cost.
Getting a 50% cut while the sponsor gives him a very nice place to stay permanently and also pays for material and facility costs is a very lucrative offer he wouldn't have dreamt of.
"I accept your offer er.. miss…?" Daniel extends his hand toward the girl in a brown robe.
"I'm known in the Curtained World as the Witch of Wrath. Just call me Wrath then." The girl in a brown robe introduces herself while shaking Daniel's hand.
"Ok… It's already late. See you later, Mr.Daniel." Wrath says goodbye to Daniel, faking her unfamiliarity.
Daniel didn't immediately reply, he just stared under the hood of wrath, trying to discern the face under the hood but he only saw the unnatural darkness that completely hid all of her facial features.
"Yes… See you later, Miss Wrath." Said, Daniel.
Wrath nods then turns back and goes in the direction of the elevator hall on this floor.
Daniel looked meaningfully behind her, the demeanor of wrath and the way she carried herself while walking and speaking sometimes, are very familiar to him. It was very familiar to the girl in his memory 10 years ago, the love of his life and also the one who lured him to his death.
[Is it possible that she's her?] Daniel thought to himself. That unnatural faking Wrath should be his girlfriend, she was never good at lying to others, His eyes followed her until Wrath left the hallway.
Daniel then puts the matter of Wrath to the back of his mind and enters the room, closing the door. He was walking toward the bed and was just about to sleep but then, an idea popped up in his head. He's looking at the room and remembered about the common Location cards type he got.
[Does this mean this place belongs to me?] He muttered and then shifted his consciousness to his mindscape.
In front of him, there are 6 cards, these represent the cards in his hand as the rule of the game states that the player will draw 6 cards at the start and then draw one additional card if you start later. Then he saw that the location conversion card was available.
He saw that right now, the location conversion card has three elemental symbols. It was Light, Fire, and Darkness, and additional information appeared on the card.
Card: Location conversion [The Witch of Wrath highrise safehouse]
Picture: The luxury room of The Witch of Wrath with the colored tone of White, Red, and Black.
Rarity: Common > Rare
Type: Location
Description: Generate Light, Fire, or Darkness Elemental mana.
Seeing that the information on the card has been updated, Daniel decides to try using this card. The card manifests through Daniel into the real world as the blue ethereal energy then disperse and disappears into the room.
A moment later Daniel felt that his connection to the current location is stronger and he felt an explicable power rise from within him. He could feel that this power should be mana as he felt like he could draw from it in one of the three elements of his choosing.
{Now… Including Dilmun. I have 2 Mana powers. One Light, Fire, and Darkness Element and one non-element.} Daniel thought and fell on the bed before fatigue and sleepiness claimed him.
—
In the morning, after Daniel had finished his bath and instant noodle breakfast. He went into the workshop area of the living space.
In the workshop area, he found that it was spacious enough to be considered a workshop. He's checking out many contraptions, tools, and some of the magic circles and found out that he didn't have any Idea about them.
Daniel tries to look for the place where Wrath has kept her magical ingredient and finds that there is a basket full of strange bones and fangs, and also some unknown metal and gems. He decided to pick the Basker up and meet with the Keeper.
He thought about the Keeper and his shop and the door leading to the shop appeared before his eyes.
Once Daniel enters the shop, the scene in front of him changes greatly from the barebone shop into a proper card shop where there are many card sets and a lot of single cards for customers to choose from.
"Oh! Welcome. Mr. Daniel. How may I help you today?" The Keeper greets Daniel and politely bowed to him.
Daniel smiles and places a basket full of magic material on the floor in front of the counter.
"Oh… There are a lot of things I need you to help me with."
Then Daniel begins to tell the Keeper about the deal he made with The Witch of Wrath and how she perceives him as an artificer and also about the thing that he currently knows about the curtain world from what Wrath had told him.
"I see…" The Keeper repeatedly nods, digesting the situation about Daniel and then continuing.
"So… in short. You want something to help you with this Artificer business without the world knowing that you are fake and to keep your true power a secret. Right?" The Keeper concluded.
"Yes, and also… I want to know something." Asked Daniel.
"Yes? What do you want to know?"
"The artifact from the card. After I had actualized it to the world. Can I sell it? or give it to others? Will it disappear?" Daniel asks.
The Keeper thought about how to arrange the answer for a bit before explaining.
"Ok… Let me explain. There are three basic rules about card actualization.
First- Everything that has actualized will become part of the world's reality. Everything is real, if it were to be destroyed, there would be corpses or wreckage remaining in the world. Nothing will disappear. Unless its nature is allowed to disappear, such as mana constructs.
Second - The only way to make it disappear is to banish them or destroy them with your card actualization or use the card that has the effect "Return to owner's hand".
And third - Every creature that has actualized will be absolutely loyal to you. No one can have authority over them. Even me. Unless they are affected by some kind of mind-controlling spell or something along those lines.
If you wish to change or tamper with those rules. You need to use the power of your cards. …I hope… this should… answer your questions. But that's the best I could come up with. Again… I'm not the one who created these cards. It's you."
The keeper explains to Daniel as he emphasizes in the context that he's not the one who created it.
Hearing the explanation, Daniel went silent for a moment before nodding.
"That's not much to go on but I understand… more or less…" Said Daniel, He decided that he would experiment with the cards as much as he can to see how much of the rules in the game carry on to the real world.
"As for your problem, I have a solution." The Keeper suddenly spoke and placed two cards on top of the shop counter.
Card: Grand Artificer
Picture: The man holding strange-looking tools concentrating on assembling a golem. Behind him, there are many powerful-looking weapons on the wall.
Rarity: Epic Rare
Type: Enchantment - Profession
Mana Cost: 2
Description:
Level1:
Artifact Casting cost: -1
Pay 2 and Sacrifice 1 Artifact: Upgrade to Level 2
Level 2: Give Artifact or Artifact Creature +2 Strengthen Counters
Pay 4 and Sacrifice 2 Artifact: Upgrade to Level 3
Level 3: When casting an Artifact card or One or more Artifact tokens were to be created, create a token that copies the casting card or create twice that token on the field.
Pay 6 and Sacrifice 3 Artifact: Upgrade to Level 4
Level 4: [Reduce Artifact ability cost to 0], [Artifact Casting cost: -2]
Pay 8 and Sacrifice 4 Artifact: Upgrade to Level 5
Level 5: At the start of each turn. Search your deck for an artifact card and put it into your hand.
Flavor text: Grand Artificer, The peak of the Artificer profession. From the household cooking artifact to the Colossus that could destroy the planet. There's no artifact too great to be created.
Card: Grand Artificer Tuning table
Picture: An unknown metal table with many strange tools extended out of it via many mechanical hands.
Rarity: Epic Rare
Type: Artifact
Mana Cost: 5 Non Element
Description: Tap and Pay 2: Add an Ability Amongst [First Strike],[True Strike],[Watchful],[Flying],[Soul bound], and [Drain Life]
Flavor text: Many Fine Artifacts need some personal touch from an Artificer before they could be sold to other people.
"These cards…" Daniel looks at the cards with some surprise in his eyes. He remembered that these cards were not part of the basic set.
Seeing the daze on Daniel's face, The keeper explained.
"The new card set just arrived last night. It seems that whatever you did in the real world affected this shop as a new box of card sets arrived while I was asleep. It was just one box but I had decided to open it and see all of these new things." He then added.
"I only opened half of the booster packs and I didn't find any Legendary. How about this, after you bought these two cards? Are you interested in trying your luck?" The Keeper asks in a teasing tone as his glowing blue eyes curve up like he was in a good mood.
Hearing that, Daniel let out a smile. According to his memory, one box only has three Legendary cards, which means he had 1 out of 5 chances instead of 1 out of 10. The chance increases by a fold!
"Deal!" Daniel answers without thinking about it and places a basket full of magical ingredients on the counter.
"Since the ingredients were not of high quality and also have a lot of pollution impurities. After the price of the two cards has been paid, you only have 5 chances to open the booster pack." The Keeper explained.
"Ok, That's fair." Daniel nodded, accepting the result of the deal.
He of all people knew full well how the card shops are working. Most of the rare category cards would get their price increase after they had been opened from the booster pack. Especially with the notable cards that have useful functions or a powerful one that could change the tide of the game after it has been summoned.
Also, Even if he's not the expert, actualizing something in the card to the real world should use a lot of power which he doesn't understand how could happen in the first place. So he didn't complain about why a basket full of valuable magical ingredients can only trade for 5 booster packs after paying for two individual cards.
Capítulo 9: Experiment
After the two had accepted the deal, the Keeper pushed the new box set that only has half of the booster pack on the counter toward Daniel and picked up a basket full of magical ingredients, and kept it in the shop storage room.
Daniel looked at the box that wrote, "The Golden Age of Atlantis". This set presents the card that tells the story of Atlantis during the Golden Age. Its key themes are Artifacts and magical technology that are far superior to modern technology by more than thousands of years. That's why a lot of Artifact cards are in this set as this type of card comprises more than 60% of the entire set.
Daniel chooses 4 booster packs from the box that he feels like he has a good feeling then begins to open them one by one at the table.
The first booster pack has no notable cards.
The Second booster pack has no notable cards.
The Third booster pack, still no notable cards.
Now, Daniel's face was serious, he began to slow down and started tearing the pack gently bit by bit. The result of the fourth pack? There are two useful cards that could help him in his current situation.
Card: Mana Refinery
Picture: A picture of a strange metal machine with a prismatic orb in the middle. It has the same size as a van.
Rarity: Rare
Type: Artifact
Mana Cost: 3 Non Element
Description:
Tap & Pay 1 Mana: Get 2 Elemental mana of your choosing
Tap & Pay 1 Elemental Mana: Get 3 Non-Elemental Mana
Flavor text: The latest invention of Atlantis that would fix all of our mana problems.
Card: Emergency Mana
Picture: Two prismatic orb-like mana containers are placed on the table.
Rarity: Common
Type: Spell
Mana Cost: 3 Non Element
Description: Tap: Create 2 Artifact tokens called "Mana flask" with [Tap and Sacrifice: Get 1 Elemental mana of your choosing.]
Flavor text: Carrying it along with you, in case of emergency.
"The last one…"
After all of the cards had turned into light particles and absorbed into Daniel's body. He then walked toward the box on the counter and slowly reached out for the last booster pack. He tried holding his breath and closing his eyes while choosing the booster pack as he believed this is a ritual for one to be luckier while choosing something such as this.
"Yes… use your heart that is calling out for the cards, don't use your eyes." Daniel muttered under his breath under the eyes of the Keeper who tilted his head in confusion.
Daniel chooses the last card and returns to the table to begin his last chance at getting a Legendary card.
After a sound of tearing plastic was heard, Daniel slowly pushed the last card of the pile in the booster pack up and what he saw was…
Rare…
A single rare symbol was on the card that made Daniel nearly go insane! A chance of 1 in 5 and he didn't get a Legendary card! Why!? Is he using all his luck when he has been resurrected!?
Daniel questions the way of the world and curses at Edward A. Murphy Jr. within his mind for a bit before suppressing his frustration and deciding to look at the rare card he got.
Card: Self-Replicating Scarab
Picture: A steel small scarab the size of a fingernail, flying with its friends. Behind it, there are clouds of countless steel scarabs.
Rarity: Rare
Type: Artifact, Creature
Mana Cost: 2 Non Element
Description: Create a token that copies itself at the end of the turn.
Power: 1
Toughness: 1
Flavor text: At first, It was just a harmless little helper for Artificer to make things until some idiot decided to add a self-replicating program.
"This… this card?" Daniel uttered in disbelief.
He remembered that if this card was not destroyed within the first 3 turns or the other side didn't have any field clearing card. This card could be called a game changer as it would replicate itself over and over and its token that was just replicated also has the ability to replicate itself.
Daniel let out a smile, even without a legendary card, getting this card was enough for him to be satisfied.
The Keeper can't keep his curiosity at Daniel's antics, He's walking toward Daniel and can't help but ask.
"Why are you holding your breath when choosing a booster pack?"
"Oh! It's just a little ritual of mine when choosing a booster pack. It is believed that it will bring good luck and get the card you want." Daniel Answered.
"Let me try." The Keeper said then walked toward the box on the counter and chose a booster pack while holding his breath and walking back to Daniel at the Table.
He tore the pack up and checked out the rarest card.
Card: Adamantine Colossus
Picture: A fiercely looking colossal black steel golem the size of a 70th-floor high-rise building.
Rarity: Legendary
Type: Artifact, Creature
Mana Cost: 10
Description: [Indestructible], [Unstoppable]
Power: 11
Toughness: 11
Flavor text: Size matters.
"Oh! seems like the ritual works!" The Keeper brightly said while showing the card to Daniel who wanted nothing more than to scream in frustration.
Seeing the glaring symbol of the Legendary rarity is like feeling salt in the wound.
"Thank you for your help Keeper, goodbye. I have work to do." Daniel said then stood up from the table and immediately walked out of the shop.
After exiting the shop with a little bit of frustration still left in his system. Daniel begins to check the gain he got from this session of opening the booster pack.
The highlight that he got was the Artifact that helped him with his mana problem and also a lot of Equipment and Artifact creatures he thought he could sell to the market.
But before that, he needs to do some experiments and see When the card has been actualized, Could it be given to other people or not? And also other matters about the rule in the card game that need more clarification on how it was implemented in the real world.
After that, Daniel focused his mind on his mindscape and found the 7 cards that represent his hand. But this time it's different as he now saw the real world that is slowly moving as it takes nearly a minute for a clock second hand to move.
The reason why he's seeing this should be a quick spell that is amongst one of his 7 cards in his mindscape.
Card: Disassembling
Picture: The picture of an Artificer waving his hand and all of the golem parts crumbling down from its skeleton.
Rarity: Common
Type: Quick Spell
Mana Cost: 2
Description: Destroy the target Artifact its controller gains half of its mana cost as non-elemental mana. This mana will be in the player pool until it is used.
Flavor text: It is a waste of resources, you better recycle it.
[I see, If there were a quick spell card in hand. I would be able to see the world around me in 10th-time dilation.] Daniel thought.
He then used the card "Grand Artificer" on himself. In the game, an enchantment card like this would enter the field and stay there but in this reality. Its portion of the word "Profession" is more dominant. It turned into many glowing particles and entered Daniel's mind.
Suddenly massive knowledge about how to create the basic knowledge of artifacts and how to create one entered Daniel's mind accompanied by a massive headache that was about to crush Daniel's soul.
"Arrrrggggghh" Daniel let out a cry as it helped him reduce the pain he felt.
The pain continued for an unknown time before it subsided and his mind brightened as a lot of things about the Artifact and Artificer and all of the tools he found in the workshop began to make sense to him.
"Damn… that was hurt… shit… It's like someone scooped my brain out and put it in a fire pit." Daniel uttered as he's trying to calm himself down.
Daniel then walks toward one of the workbenches that a normal Artificer would use to create an Artifact. From the knowledge he got from the Grand Artificer profession cards, these kinds of tools are very inefficient. But it was easy to use and friendly to people with low magical capacity.
He places his hand on the workbench and uses Disassembling.
At that moment, all of the parts and materials that are assembled into this workbench parted from each other in a very neat and efficient way. Then it was dropped to the ground one by one and ready to be used or recycled for their value.
Daniel picks all of it up and puts it in a basket that has the "To be recycled" nearby and clears the area for the actualization of his new card. But then he remembered that he should have only 1 non-elemental mana remaining from the "Disassembling card" and shouldn't be able to do anything much, but he decided to enter his mindscape and found a surprise.
It turns out he has 3 mana, 1 Elemental of [Fire],[Darkness],[Light], and 2 non-Elemental one of them is from the "Disassembling card".
As he has 1 mana from using the "Disassembling" card and 2 from his locations, Daniel enters into his mindscape and chooses the "Emergency Mana" card to actualize.
In a moment, two "Mana flasks" appear in his hand.
[Great! It seems that the mana from the Locations can be constantly drawn whenever I wish. I wonder if the mages in the real world could also do the same thing.]
Now, Daniel has 4 Mana, and from the Artificer profession. The cost of casting the "Grand Artificer Tuning Table" was reduced by 1.
Daniel begins to actualize and two mana flasks immediately break and become a pile of normal glasses and metal dust. The large metal workbench then replaced the old workbench Daniel had Disassembled. Many metal tubes came out of the many holes in the metal workbench as it prepared for any new task.
Seeing that everything was in order, Daniel then began his experimentation as he tried to find out how his new power worked.
— 2 Days later —
After 2 days of experimentation, Daniel's entire living space was no different than the workshop itself. Many strange-looking artifacts and scrap are lying around here and there and a finished product he had actualized is placed neatly on two weapon racks he ordered the "Self-replicating scarab" to build for him from the scrap he could find.
Now he knows that many cards when they had actualized into the real world would also have the ability it has that was mentioned in the flavor text and also the lore that he had created back in the day when he was designing these cards.
For example, the self-replicating scarab in the lore was created as the helper for Atlantean Artificer and when it was replicated it also needed any carbon base material it could find.
The result was that it also needed carbon base material when it was going to self-replicate. Then it also has the function to help him build tools and miscellaneous things with the expertise of a skilled craftsman.
The reason why it was the problem for the Atlantean in his lore was that those artificers didn't install the fail-safe program to stop them from self-replicating. So, the first thing he did when he actualized the Self-Replicating Scarab" was to use the knowledge in his mind to install the fail-safe program since he had achieved Grand Artificer profession level 3.
This made every self-replicating scarab that was self-replicated later also have the fail-safe installed into them.
After that, He learned that the term stated in the game didn't exist in the real world and can't be applied in his mindscape. The rule will bend to match the real world but also in favor of him.
For example, the term "Turn", since the real world didn't have a turn, it became 1 hour. This means he will draw a new card from the deck every 1 hour. Also, the tap mechanic will untap every turn, nearly everything that uses the tap mechanic also uses 1 hour as a standard to do things.
Just like the actualized "Grand Artificer Tuning Table" he could only use it to tune the Artifact he actualized once every 1 hour. But during that time other than adding two abilities as stated in the card description, he could do anything with it. Change its appearance, add some handy function that exists in the real world but does not state in the card description or card game rule such as the ability for it to fly toward the owner after being called.
Daniel also has discovered that the cards such as the Artifact, Enchantment, and Creature will be forever lost once it has actualized in the real world, but the Spell, Quick spell, and Blessing/Curse cards will always stay in mindscape, after use then it will be put back into the deck after 0.00 AM of a new day.
This means each new day considers the new game and the used cards that didn't disappear after actualization will be put back into the deck.
Regalos
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