บท 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.
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