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HC: Card Slinger | Ch. 48 - Turtle Power

Added 2025-03-10 14:30:41 +0000 UTC

Deckard had spent the entire last dive observing the Trash-Eating Turtle. The creature didn’t do much besides munching its way through the junkyard, tirelessly breaking down refuse into smaller, more manageable bits. It was a living recycler, turning chaos into order with slow, deliberate bites.

You’ve watched a Trash-Eating Turtle eating.

Your understanding of it grows.

He could almost feel the knowledge settling in, like a fruit ripening on the branch, waiting to be plucked.

"I think the fruit is finally ripe for harvest," Deckard murmured.

He raised an empty card toward the turtle.

Subdimensionalize!

A vortex spiraled open beneath the creature, sending the surrounding water into a churning swirl. The turtle barely reacted as the pull overtook it, drawing it into the shimmering void. A second later, it was gone, compressed into the card in Deckard’s grip.

Not bad.

The effect was promising. He had plenty of shellfish stored away, and [Shallows Swarm] could flood the field with random starfish and clams. If he played one and followed up with the other, it would be a strong synergy.

Even better, the turtle had potential interactions with the [Trash-Eating Seagull], which generated a [Trash] token. That combo alone made it worth considering for his deck.

More importantly, this was the final piece. He had combed the junkyard multiple times, making sure he hadn’t missed any starfish or shellfish. The turtle had been the last obvious capture, and now he was convinced his work here was complete.

He kicked upward, breaking the surface even though his tank still had a few minutes left. Floating under the moonlit sky, he took a deep breath before making his way to shore. Water streamed from his equipment as he sat on the rocky bank, opening his repository.

One by one, the newly acquired cards were pulled inside. The repository shivered with an almost organic hunger, its nanite-leaf pages shifting and restructuring as they integrated the additions. Five kinds of starfish. Six types of clams. One tenacious, trash-eating turtle.

A deep blue sheen spread across the latest page, signaling the completion of an ocean-themed set.

Collection updated.
+0.5 HP regeneration
+0.6% damage reduction
+1 HP

Deckard smirked. Not a bad haul at all.

He glanced at his updated stats, feeling a small surge of satisfaction. “I thought turtles would boost damage reduction, but turns out they increase HP instead. Nice!”

A longer HP bar meant he could soak up more hits—something invaluable when dealing with elites and dungeon bosses. A larger safety margin gave him more room for error.

Yet, as he waited for the notification confirming he’d completed the junkyard mini-set, it never came.

Deckard frowned. Did I miss something down there?

Flipping back through the collection page, he scanned the entries, looking for the missing piece. The best card so far was, without a doubt, the [Trash-Eating Turtle]. Then, there were the five kinds of starfish and six types of clams—all unremarkable.

Maybe there are six types of starfish, too? To match the number of clams?

It was a solid theory—until it wasn’t. His eyes landed on an unexpected card nestled among the creatures.

“Hello there! What are you doing here?”

Deckard massaged his temples. “What a nightmare. There’s a skill card in here. I suppose it makes sense. Fits the junkyard theme, after all."

That didn’t mean he had to like where this was going.

His first completed mini-set, the Shallows Set, had been simple. Every card in it had been a creature. All he’d needed to do was track them down and capture them. A straightforward grind.

He had assumed the junkyard set would follow the same pattern—just a collection of underwater creatures. But [Scavenge] proved otherwise. If one skill card belonged in this set, chances were, there were more.

This meant that instead of capturing the right creatures and calling it a day, he would have to hunt them not just for their cards but for the chance they might drop the missing skills.

Deckard sighed.

Still, he supposed he should be thankful. If it hadn’t been for his game against Ratu and his decision to take [Scavenge], it would’ve taken him much longer to figure out this puzzle. He would have wasted several more dives scouring the junkyard for a non-existent sixth starfish. Hours spent searching for something that wasn’t even part of the set.

At least now, he had a lead.

What creature even drops skill cards?

It had to be the turtles.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Starfish and clams weren’t meant to be fought. As far as he knew, they were only there to be harvested by players with the fisherman profession—something he neither had nor cared about. He doubted they would be the ones dropping skill cards.

A memory stirred.

That time at the pier...

A player had once offered him a starfish card during a trade. What had she said?

She had mentioned that fishing had a small chance of making a starfish drop a card.

If that was true, then it confirmed his theory. If shellfish and starfish only dropped copies of themselves, then the turtles were the most likely culprits for skill cards.

Which meant one thing: he was going turtle hunting.

His mood soured. His brief experience with underwater combat had already shown him how much his class struggled in submerged fights. Movement was sluggish, and his cards did nothing. How was he even supposed to handle the turtles?

He took off his spectacles, wiped them against his sleeve, and slid them back on.

I suppose I have an idea.

He checked his oxygen gauge. A few minutes left—just enough for an experiment. He pulled two cards from his deck, one in each hand, and gave them a few quick swipes through the air.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

"Let’s hope this works."

Cracking his neck, Deckard took a deep breath and plunged back into the water.

The moonlight shimmered on the surface above him as he scanned the seabed, searching for telltale swirls of disturbed sand. It didn’t take long to spot a familiar sign—an underwater spiral where a Trash-Eating Turtle had been foraging. He swam toward it, careful with his approach.

Once he got as close as possible, he dove straight down.

Trash-Eating Turtle

Lvl. 5

HP: 300

Deckard surged toward the creature, his body slicing through the water like a hawk swooping down on its prey. The turtle remained blissfully unaware, too focused on chewing through the garbage pile beneath it.

At the last moment, he slashed the card in his hand like a dagger, aiming for one of the turtle’s fins.

-2!

What? Only two points of damage?

The turtle flinched, then immediately withdrew into its shell, vanishing inside the thick, armored carapace.

Deckard gritted his teeth and kept slashing. The makeshift daggers in his hands were proving utterly useless against the creature’s hardened defense.

Null!

No damage at all. It was like smacking a boulder with a piece of paper.

Frustrated, he switched tactics. Stowing away the cards, he reached for his [Wooden Sword]—the beginner weapon he’d received when first entering the game. It was a crude weapon, barely worth mentioning, but right now, it was all he had.

He slashed at the turtle’s shell.

-1

It was weak, but at least it was something. He adjusted his angle, looking for a more exposed area. Then, something slammed into the back of his head.

-7

Deckard spun around, catching sight of a tin can drifting toward the seabed.

Who did—?

-6!

Another hit. This time, his leg took the impact. He barely registered the source before another object—a rusty pipe—whizzed past his face.

Someone was attacking him.

But there’s no one here.

Confused, he turned in every direction, scanning the murky waters. More objects lifted off the ocean floor—crumpled cans, broken bottles, bent scraps of metal—before hurtling toward him like makeshift torpedoes.

Wait.

His eyes widened.

The turtle is doing this?!

Another storm of debris surged toward him, forcing him to shield his face. This turtle is telekinetic!

That’s when he realized just how unprepared he was.

A quick calculation ran through his head. He was dealing barely any damage, while the turtle could pelt him indefinitely from the safety of its shell. If he kept this up, he’d either run out of oxygen or get knocked out cold before even scratching its HP bar.

It was time for a tactical retreat.

He kicked off the seabed and shot toward the surface, narrowly dodging another wave of weaponized junk. His lungs burned as he breached the water, gulping in the air.

Treading in place, he looked down, half-expecting the turtle to come after him.

It didn’t. Instead, it simply sank back into the junk pile, resuming its endless feast as if nothing had happened.

Deckard wiped a hand down his face. This was going to be a problem. He swam back to shore, pulling himself onto the rocky bank to gather his thoughts.

On the one hand, he was almost sure he’d need to hunt multiple Trash-Eating Turtles before getting the skill card drops he needed to complete the collection. On the other, his class was laughably bad at underwater combat, and the turtles weren’t just tanky—they were telekinetic.

It was frustrating, not only for the challenge it represented now but for what it meant for the next challenge. This was just a common turtle. If he was struggling this much against a basic enemy, what about the elites? What about the wild boss at Shell Bay? If he needed to whittle down their HP for a capture, how was he supposed to do that when he could barely scratch this one?

He needed a solution for this turtle problem.

His class clearly wasn’t built for submerged combat, and his [Wooden Sword] was practically useless. He glanced at the weapon in his hand and let it drop to the sand. Garbage.

He needed something stronger—something that could actually deal damage.

His eyes widened. How did I not think of it right away?

Spinning on his heel, he sprinted toward the island’s lighthouse, weaving through scattered piles of washed-up debris. The rusted structure loomed ahead, its cracked staircase leading up to the weathered figure standing at the top.

Deckard climbed the steps, taking them two at a time until he reached the grizzled lightkeeper. The man turned at his approach, his eyes narrowing as he took in the visitor.

“Oh? You come ta Lighthouse Islet?”

“Yes, sir.” Deckard caught his breath. “I was wondering if you had any work for me to do?”

He already knew the answer. He had read about this chain quest before when researching why players wanted to hunt the elites of Trash Islet so badly. The quest wasn’t long, and he had already obtained the hardest-to-find item needed for the final step. If he played it right, he could get what he needed to deal with the turtles without too much hassle.

The lightkeeper scratched at his scruffy chin, thinking. “Hmm. Maybe. Maybe. Eh… yah, I got somethin’ need doin’.” He gestured toward the horizon. “Letter come dis mornin’ from da island. Smithy man needin’ tin an’ copper. He take scrap from da sea, make good things for people, yah?” His eyes met Deckard’s. “You go now, dig through da trash, bring ten tin, ten copper. We help ‘im, yah?”

You’ve received a new quest: [Rummaging Through the Trash].

Rummaging Through the Trash (Common)

One man’s trash is another man’s gold. The local smithy relies on recycling washed-up metal to craft necessary items for other islanders. Be a sweetheart and go find what he needs.

Objectives: