Spring of 346, A.D.
Albert had made a partial recovery. Despite Trudy’s objections, he was back to teaching.
Instead of taking them to the museum section that celebrated past exams, he had brought them to a simple room with a single candle-holder, its flame burning at the center. Kai had never been here before.
“Today’s class will be a little different. Studying the past helps us perform better in Daisy’s exams.” He made sure to stick his tongue out at the nearest cyborg, ensuring Daisy heard his contempt. “But just as important is understanding why we fight to preserve our culture.” He gestured to the flame. “This is our sector’s flame.”
Kai glanced at Alex, who only shrugged. He didn’t seem familiar with this place either.
“When Daisy took over, humanity didn’t change. We remained selfish, obsessed with instant gratification. Those were dark days. But then, a hero emerged—Balin.”
Kai recognized the name. Balin was the sector’s record holder, having reached the quarter-finals of the 43rd exams. Statues of him stood across the city, and several streets bore his name.
“After the exams, Balin used his prestige to reshape our sector. He said that before humans destroyed Earth, there were simpler days. Better days. A time when people gathered around the hearth to share stories. His belief was that by returning to those traditions, we could reclaim something humanity had lost.”
“So he founded the firekeepers?” Ariel asked.
“That’s right, Ariel.”
As she spoke, Kai’s eyes met hers. She smiled. He smiled back. He expected Alex to tease him, as he usually did whenever Kai embarrassed himself, but instead, his friend was watching Albert with an intensity he rarely displayed.
“Since Balin’s time, we have kept this flame burning. It is a symbol of our way of life—our people, our culture. We are the people of the hearth, the people of the bonfire.” Albert’s voice echoed in the empty room.
Silence followed. At first, Kai thought it was a dramatic pause, but then he realized Albert had lost his train of thought again.
“Albert, what do you want us to do?” Trudy prompted.
“Oh, right. Split into focus groups. I want you to list why our culture has potential and is worth fighting for.”
*
353rd Daisy Trials, Round of 256.
From what Kai remembered, he needed something hard and pointy—like a sharp piece of bone or a metallic nail—to fashion flint into blades. Pressing a sharp object against the edge would flake off small pieces, serrating it in the process. He sorted through his collection of cards, searching for anything that could help him knap the flint.
He scratched his head. Nothing.
There was potential to create new cards, but he was missing a key ingredient.
Even though it was frustrating, he had to work with what he had. His [Rusty Pickaxe] still had one HP left, and there was no sense in letting it go to waste. He grabbed it again, along with another card with potential.
He placed both in the engraving patterns and let the table do its work.
[Rusty Pickaxe ??] + [Block of Granite ??]
Rusty Pickaxe ?? | HP: 1 → 0
Block of Granite ?? | HP: 1 → 0
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted 2x[Granite Brick ???]
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Granite Brick ??? (Uncommon) ×2
HP: 2
VP: 2
Kai studied the results. By making this move, he had effectively tripled the points from the original [Block of Granite]. The picture on the [Granite Brick] card showed a smaller, neatly cut piece of rock. There had to be a recipe that used this.
Unfortunately, that was the last hit point of his [Rusty Pickaxe]. He sighed and tossed it onto what he was starting to think of as the graveyard pile.
“So long, little pickaxe. You have served me well.”
Spending so much time alone with his thoughts was getting to him. He had started mumbling to himself. The pressure of the exams didn’t help either. Knowing that his opponent still had two pickaxes in their inventory was driving him nuts.
He forced himself to take a deep breath and refocus.
His [Flintstone] still had two HP left. What would happen if he combined it with [Granite Brick]? Granite was tough. He remembered the granite countertops in one of the houses he had lived in—those things were nearly indestructible.
Was flint strong enough to shape granite? Should he even try?
Grunting, he set aside all his [Flintstone] and [Granite Brick] cards. He still had other recipes to explore. He could always test these experimental ideas later, once he had exhausted the safer options.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
For now, it was best to focus on what was most likely to work.
Kai picked up one of the cards he had obtained minutes earlier.
Spark ??? (Common)
HP: 1
VP: 2
He had two of these now. There was an ideal candidate for merging.
Dry Pine Needle ???? (Common)
HP: 2
VP: 0
He took a deep breath. How many times had he started fires in the square? [Dry Pine Needle] was excellent tinder. It felt almost instinctual.
He placed both cards onto the crafting table and stepped back. As the table activated, light erupted from the engraving patterns. Kai’s heart pounded. He wasn’t sure why he felt so nervous about this particular recipe. Maybe because it meant something deeper to him.
For as long as he could remember, he had sat around the fire with the people of his sector. They were the people of the hearth, the people of the bonfire. His best and worst memories were set against the crackling of flames and the smell of smoke.
[Spark ???] + [Dry Pine Needle ????]
Spark ??? | HP: 1 → 0
Dry Pine Needle ???? | HP: 2 → 0
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted [Fire ??].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Fire ?? (Rare)
HP: 3
VP: 3
The recipe had worked!
Kai held the card between his fingers, watching the familiar tones of red, orange, and yellow flicker across its surface. He suddenly didn’t feel so alone. It was as if he were looking at a long-lost friend.
After a moment of nostalgia, he studied the rest of the card. This was the first time he had crafted something using materials from two different arenas. The results were promising.
Then, something caught his eye. His excitement dimmed.
Why had [Dry Pine Needle] dropped from two HP to zero HP in one go? Shouldn’t it have lost only one HP like usual?
And then there was the [Fire] card’s stats. Something wasn’t adding up.
Kai grabbed the other rare cards in his collection.
Mirror ?? (Rare)
HP: 4
VP: 3
Hallucinogen ???? (Rare)
HP: 1
VP: 5
[Hallucinogen] had started with two HP, dropping after the first round. But when he first crafted it, it had totaled seven stat points across HP and VP.
The same was true for [Mirror]. Seven stat points.
But [Fire] had only four.
That didn’t make sense. A rare card should have had more. With such low stats, wouldn’t it have made more sense to classify it as uncommon instead?
Kai drummed his fingers against the table.
Something isn’t right.
With a sigh, he tossed the [Dry Pine Needle] onto the growing graveyard pile and turned to his next guinea pig.
Pine Trunk ???? (Common)
HP: 2
VP: 0
It was just another card that was useless to him right now. He couldn’t think of any recipe in which he could use it, and it offered no victory points. If he had been able to craft some sort of axe, he would have tried using it to gather timber or logs—whatever Daisy was willing to give him. But that wasn’t the case, and he needed as many points as possible. He was ready to take the risk.
He grabbed [Fire] and [Pine Trunk], placed them on the table, and waited to see what would happen.
[Fire ??] + [Pine Trunk ????]
Fire ?? | HP: 3 → 4
Pine Trunk ???? | HP: 2 → 0
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted [Ash ?????].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Ash ????? (Common)
HP: 1
VP: 2
Sweet! He had just discovered a new recipe. But he set it aside for now, as something even more interesting had happened to [Fire].
Fire ?? (Rare)
HP: 4
VP: 4
What? [Fire]’s HP had gone up?
That didn’t make sense. HP was supposed to decrease when a card was used in crafting, not increase. And why had its victory points gone up as well? He retraced his steps, comparing the numbers again. Then it hit him.
If he was correct, [Fire]’s victory points depended on its health.
When he had fused [Fire] with [Dry Pine Needle], the [Fire] card had absorbed its HP. But at the same time, because [Fire] had been used in a merge, it had lost one HP there. The same thing had happened when he merged [Fire] with [Pine Trunk].
[Fire] had the unique ability to consume the HP of other cards.
That meant that, with proper management, he could keep [Fire] in his inventory indefinitely. As long as he supplied it with fuel, it wouldn’t burn out. The question now was what would happen if he merged [Fire] with a card that had victory points. Would it absorb VP as well?
To test his theory, he reached for [Pine Bark], one of the surviving cards from the first round. Many things in the woodland were combustible, so the cards he had saved in his inventory were proving to be exactly what he needed to make [Fire] shine.
Until now, he hadn’t found any use for [Pine Bark]. That was about to change.
[Fire ??] + [Pine Bark ?????]
Fire | HP: 4→4
Pine Bark | HP: 1→0
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted [Ash ?????].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
It was a little anticlimactic.
He had hoped that [Fire] would also grow by consuming victory points, but it had only drained the HP from [Pine Bark] and its victory points remained the same. Still, it wasn’t a wasted effort. He had learned that only cards with two or more HP could make [Fire] stronger.
Additionally, he had gained another [Ash] card, granting him two more victory points. Even if [Fire] didn’t grow in strength, producing [Ash] was an excellent way to boost his score at the cost of saving cards for future rounds.
Kai thought about all the upgrades available on the console and felt an intense need for more points. He didn’t want to stockpile points for later. He needed as many as possible right now. A strong snapping round meant more upgrade coins and a greater advantage over his opponents.
Things were only going to get tougher from here. No sector had survived three centuries under Daisy’s rule without refining a strategy that worked. All of his opponents were well-trained, and as the exam progressed, he would be up against even stronger challengers.
He glanced down at his hands and took a deep breath. It felt good to breathe like this again—without coughing his lungs out. He thought of Ariel and what awaited them if he failed to secure allcure. He needed every advantage he could get.
Matching Balin’s achievement was the only way for him and Ariel to stay together.
He counted his victory points.
91.
It was far better than his first-round total, but it still wasn’t enough. If he wanted to grab [Slow Shutter], he needed 200 upgrade coins.
He had to push harder. He would squeeze the full potential out of every card in his inventory.
Kai glanced at the clock. With all his experimentation, 35 minutes remained. He had to hurry.
He set aside all the [Flint] and [Fire] related cards and focused on two others he wanted to test. Reaching for one of his legendary cards, he picked up [Light].
Light ? (Legendary)
HP: +∞
VP: 2
This card had infinite HP, but he hadn’t been able to use it in any crafting attempt during the previous round. Now, things had changed. He had acquired a card that seemed like a perfect match.
Mirror ?? (Rare)
HP: 4
VP: 3
These cards appeared to have synergy, but he had no idea what would come from combining them. It was time to find out.
[Light ?] + [Mirror ??]
Light ? | HP: +∞
Mirror ?? | HP: 4→3
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted [Light ?].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Kai’s jaw dropped.
He had made another legendary card?
[Curiosity ??] + [Future ??]
?? | HP: 2 → 2
?? | HP: 1 → 0
Crafting successful! You’ve crafted [Early Access ????].
Want to read chapters before everyone else? Want to stay up to date on new releases? Join my Patreon for free and unlock exclusive peeks into the journey ahead.
Join my Patreon here.
