章 31: My very first deck Part I
“You’re interested in buying a deck? Well—I'm glad to be of service to you, sir!”
Immediately after hearing that Joke was about to become a customer at her store, the madame beamed from ear to ear and spoke to him in an overly sweet-sounding tone that caused Joke to sigh. The look on Madame Fon’s face slowly changed as she took a deep breath. She knew that with those words, Joke had already thought thoroughly about the decision of what he wanted to do with his life.
She did not oppose his decision. All she could do was carry on her role as the shopkeeper, helping him as best as she could.
"If you're really serious about walking down this path, I suggest starting with a fifty-card deck first.” Madame Fon began to explain. “Fifty cards are enough for you to go on adventures in Arcadia. If you want to try leveling up into tournaments later on, you can upgrade to a hundred cards then. Sounds good?”
“Yes.”
Joke nodded understandably. As a matter of fact, the store’s tester deck he tried out yesterday also consisted of fifty cards, and it was enough for him to defeat a difficult bot—so this meant that it should be enough.
"For a beginner, I recommend starting with the starter deck first."
"Starter deck?" Joke narrowed his eyes.
“Yep, it's a basic deck with exactly fifty cards packaged in the box, which contains all of the essential basic cards. Simply put, it’s a readymade deck. Almost all of the beginners start out with the starter deck, and then they go on to buy separate singles to add on to their deck later.
"Singles?" The young man raised his eyebrows at the new term.
"Ah... ‘singles’ are cards that are sold individually. Cards are sold in two ways in a card store: card packs and singles.”
“Oh,” the young man cried out in realization as Madame Fon placed the store's tablet on the counter before pressing some buttons. The tablet’s screen displayed images of starter decks listed out on one page for him to choose from.
"You probably know that all of the Half Cards in a firsthand deck are all at level one."
"I am aware of that."
The young man nodded. Rin had taught him yesterday that there were different levels to each of the Half Cards in AOS, ranging from level one to thirty. In order to level up, the Half Card needed to be used in battles to gain experience points inside of Arcadia. When those halves went through battles and gained experience points, their level would increase and data on their skill development would be recorded on a small memory chip embedded in their card.
Each half would develop their skills in correspondence with their level and statistics. Furthermore, each half would develop differently according to how its summoner used it during fights. For instance, halves that were used for attacks frequently would have higher attack stats—and vice versa, halves that were usually used in defense would have higher defense stats. Moreover, leveled-up cards could also be brought to any CF store to update information and change the cards’ appearance.
The design that allowed players to witness their halves develop was quite interesting.
“Do you have any style of deck that you’re interested in?” asked Madame Fon.
“Style?”
“Like, your preferred gameplay styles, half races, or elements—something like that.”
“To be honest, I absolutely have no idea. So, I don’t know what styles I like.”
Madame Fon took a deep breath after hearing that. She knew that even if someone as good as Rin had taught him the basics, he still had a long way to go.
“You should take this for a read first, then.” She then handed him the tablet. “These are all the starter decks that are sold in my store. It has both the information and gameplay style described in detail. Just read it over and see which one interests you.”
He took the tablet and skimmed over the information. When he saw the number stating that there were hundreds of decks to choose from, he felt like fainting.
"Looks like I am going to be wasting a lot of time."
"Well, of course. It’s usually difficult for new players to choose a gameplay style.”
Madame Fon laughed, hinting that he was not the first to be in this dilemma.
Before walking back to the sofa with the tablet in hand, Joke suddenly grabbed his shoulder bag that was hanging near his waist, suddenly realizing that he had one of the world’s rarest cards in his hand. If he were to really start playing the game, maybe he should find a deck that could be used with it...
"Ah, Madame Fon," Joke called. “I just want to ask if I upgrade a half and then sell it later on, will its price drop?… Because it is now kind of similar to a secondhand item.”
Madame Fon chucked at the question. She was curious about this thoughtfulness, always asking detailed questions that other newbies did not usually pay any attention to.
“Just remember this, boy, the price of most cards in AOS only goes up—almost none of them drops unless there are better cards that are similar to it coming out or it being nerfed by the staff to reduce its abilities. As for the halves that have been leveled up: if they are on levels five, ten, fifteen, twenty-five, and thirty; the cards will either be up-skilled or equipped with a new random skill. This is why their prices will increase even if their newly added skill is nothing extraordinary. Their prices increase as people consider it payment for the time spent acquiring experience points for those halves. But, this cannot be applied to every card–only the rare ones. Rare cards' prices fluctuate. Prices for those which are not so rare don't usually change much... In a nutshell, if you don't completely butcher your cards, their prices don't usually drop even if they underwent many battles.”
Joke nodded understandably. If that was so, he could rest assured that if he sold off his twenty-million-bath Snowbelle card, the buyer could not use this as an excuse. At the very least, if this card was truly the rarest in the world, there probably would not be any idiotic excuses like this to force its price down.
“Then, I have a deck type I want,” Joke stated.
“Huh? You got an idea? That was quick.” Madame Fon grinned. “So, what type of deck do you want?"
"Ah... a deck that deals with dragons."
"Dragons?"
The shopkeeper raised her eyebrows upon hearing that. She went still for a moment, stroking her chin while pondering about something. She then shook her head at him.
"I understand that dragons are cool. A lot of guys like to start with the cool stuff, but I think it would be better to ignore the dragon deck.”
“Ah, why is that?”
Joke stood there dumbfounded. The reason why he chose this type of deck was, of course, not because of its cool factor.
“First of all, beginners shouldn't start with a dragon because it is very difficult to use. Plus…” She rubbed her chin slightly. “They are extremely expensive."
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