SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 44 - Botanical Fascination
Added 2023-12-30 16:24:19 +0000 UTC“How is the drawing going?” Clara asked from a distance.
“It's my best one yet,” cheekily replied Kai.
Clara came over and squatted by his side, looking at the page in his notebook. “See. You aren’t hopeless. You are getting better!”
“Thanks,” he had never been too good at drawing, and when he began making illustrations of the plants he saw, all that came out were doodles that cavemen would have easily outdone. “But I still don’t get why we’re spending so much time on this.”
“I’ve told you, Kai. A big part of being a good biologist is being observant. Drawing can help you develop that trait. For example, see how you got the shape of the leaf wrong? It should have a serrated edge. Also, you could put a little more work in the stalk. See how the plant has a hairy stalk? Why can’t I see that in your drawing?”
“Argh. I’m tired of plants. They’re so boring.”
“What did you say?” Clara asked the question with such fury that it made Kai yelp, startled.
“Uh… That plants are boring,” said Kai, afraid Clara would slap him.
Instead, she just looked at him wide-eyed and snorted, “Plants? Boring? That couldn’t be farther from the truth! Plants are incredible.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“I’m serious. Look, Kai.” She dug her hands into the ground and picked up a pile of dirt. “Explain how these boring creatures can pick up brown dirt and turn it into yellow lemons, ruby-red pomegranates, and blue flowers?”
So much passion was burning in Clara’s eyes that Kai couldn’t help but get excited. “It is quite something….” he admitted.
“Plants pick this same dirt and turn it into soft wood, hard timber, grain, fruit, oil, ointments, medicine, glue, rubber, and everything else you can think of.”
“Right.”
“Also, you couldn’t breathe if it weren’t for these boring creatures. Now, I want you to stop and listen.”
Kai rolled his eyes and looked around at the many trees and plants in the clearing where they were drawing. He heard nothing but the distant call of birds. “I hear nothing.”
“Precisely,” she said triumphantly.
“I don’t get it.”
“Plants do all the things I’ve mentioned quietly. How many machines in your workshop can do the same thing?”
Some of Clara’s excitement was rubbing off on Kai. “I guess I misspoke. Plants are kind of cool.”
“Of course they are! You bury an engine, and all you get is rust. You do that with a potato, and you get more potatoes. You make a machine and pollute the environment. You plant a seedling, and you leave the Earth a little cleaner. Plants are fantastic!”
Kai smiled at hearing the old biologist going on and on about plants. He had to admit. Plants really were cool, and so was Clara.
*
The sudden change of scenery woke Kai from his daze. His mind had shut down when he realized his brother-in-law was also in the Daisy exams. He could vaguely recall Maia calling him in a quiet, soothing voice, but it all felt like a distant dream now. Thankfully, the sudden change of scenery was the stimulus he needed to snap out of it.
He had often wondered where Alex had ended up, but he had never dreamed that he would compete with him in these exams. Alex was here. Kai was sure of it. The odds of someone else inventing their original shadow puppet were too small. But it wasn’t just logic that told him Alex was here; he somehow knew somewhere deep in his heart that Alex was close.
Thoughts of seeing him again brought many nights of trying to comfort his wife. With that came all the months, no, years of grief his friend had put them through. The hope of seeing him again quickly soured into resentment.
So what if Alex was out there? So what if he abandoned him and his sister? And so what if Kai still recalled the shadow puppets they used to do together? Kai wiped a tear off the corner of his eye. His old friend was dead, and there was nothing he could do about it. Competing against what was left of him shouldn’t matter.
He clenched his teeth. Although it shouldn’t matter, it did. It did to him.
Could he have been kicked out of the exams already? No. Alex was too brilliant to be kicked out so soon in the competition. Was he his opponent in this round? Or would he face him in the future?
Kai stomped toward the table, frustrated at the whole thing. All that mattered was getting allcure. He couldn’t afford to get distracted. He grabbed all of his cards, eager to get crafting. He would give it his all, even if Alex were the man on the other side of the scoreboard.
First, Kai grabbed all the cards that he had earned in this last arena.
2x Air (Uncommon)
Mix of gases that make up the atmosphere.
Hp: 2
Vp: 2
2x Rubber Tree (Uncommon)
A tree that is prized for its many uses.
Vp: 1
Hp: 3
Razor Clam (Common)
Bivalve mollusk characterized by its long, narrow, and razor-sharp shell.
Hp: 1
Vp: 2
Oyster (Uncommon)
Bivalve mollusk with a hard, irregularly shaped shell.
Hp: 1
Vp: 3
2x Crab (Uncommon)
Crustacean with a broad carapace.
Hp: 2
Vp: 2
Sunken City (Legendary)
A city that has been swallowed by the ocean.
Hp: 1
Vp: 10
2x Green Daisy (Rare)
A flower that seems to have been genetically altered.
2 of 2
Hp: 5
Vp: 2
2x Brown Berry (Rare)
A bush berry that seems to have been genetically altered.
1 of 2
Hp: 5
Vp: 2
2x White Fern (Rare)
A fern that seems to have been genetically altered.
1 of 2
Hp: 4
Vp: 3
Jaguar (Legendary)
The apex predator of the jungle.
Hp: 3
Vp: 10
Shadow Sea Monster (Rare)
A mythical creature that lurks in the depths of the ocean.
Hp: 0
Vp: 6
Unfortunately, he had wasted three shots at the end of the last round. Looking back, he had been foolish to insist. His pride as a shadow puppeteer had been hurt, but what was such a small thing as pride compared with what he had to lose? He should have just focused on taking photographs of other things.
He hoped his childish mistake wouldn't make the difference between victory and defeat. He needed to get allcure and save Ariel. That was all that mattered now.
Kai proceeded to grab all the cards left from the last round.
Mega Scrapdroid (Mythic)
A scrapdroid that has fed on so much technology that it has transcended into the realm of sentience.
Hp: +∞
Vp: 40 (Max)
2x Lightning Rod (Rare)
Hp: 0
Vp: 6
Power Outlet (Uncommon)
Connection point for electrical devices to access the electrical supply.
Hp: 2
Vp: 1
Spider Web (Rare)
Delicate, intricate structure woven by spiders using silk threads to serve as a trap for catching prey or as a shelter.
Hp: 1
Vp: 4
Spider Web (Rare)
Delicate, intricate structure woven by spiders using silk threads to serve as a trap for catching prey or as a shelter.
Hp: 2
Vp: 4
Unicorn (Legendary)
The mythical one-horned horse. Legend has it that its horn can pierce through anything.
Hp: 3
Vp: 15
Light (Legendary)
A form of electromagnetic radiation that stimulates the sense of vision
Hp: +∞
Vp: 2
Red Star (Mythic)
A powerful, nuclear ball of fire.
Hp: +∞
Vp: 0
Illuminating Adult (Legendary)
A human who has been forged in the fires of wisdom and love.
Hp: 0
Vp: 20
Finally, there was the [Pine Tree] and [Acacia Tree] produced by his sawmill upgrades.
Pine Tree (Common)
Coniferous green that produces needles and pinecones.
Hp: 2
Vp: 1
Acacia Tree (Uncommon)
Acacias are known for their resilience and beautiful, fragrant flowers.
Hp: 3
Vp: 1
He checked his scoreboard and saw that he was starting the crafting stage with a respectable score. He had 159 points even before beginning to craft. He had ended more than one round with fewer points than that.
Even though the point count should have made him optimistic, he wasn’t confident. One of the reasons was the possible presence of Alex in the exams. The other was that this time around, Kai had a mismatched combination of creature cards, a few loose ingredients, and little else. He wished he had found a way to get a tool card or had better synergies in his current deck of cards.
He would just start with the obvious recipes and take it from there. The first thing he wanted to tackle was the recipe he had found in the bottle on the beach. It was pretty straightforward.
Buoy (Rare)
[Air] + [Rubber]
Luckily, he had found [Air] in the arena. The problem was that he didn’t have rubber. What he had was a [Rubber Tree]. Kai scratched his head and tried to remember the general procedures to harvest the rubber tree. If he recalled correctly, one had to slice a groove on the rubber tree and then collect the milky sap. Slicing, slicing… what did he have to slice the tree?
He looked over every one of his cards and came down to two candidates. They were both long shots, but he couldn’t think of anything else he could use. One was the [Razor Clam]. Maybe it wasn’t an accident that this creature had been in the arena. The other possibility he could think of was [Unicorn].
Unicorn (Legendary)
The mythical one-horned horse. Legend has it that its horn can pierce through anything.
Hp: 3
Vp: 15
It was right there in its description. It said its horn could pierce anything. Certainly, that would include the bark of the rubber tree. There was only one way to find out whether this would work. He grabbed one of the [Rubber Trees] and placed it over the engraving. Then, after considering which one he would try first, he decided on the [Unicorn]. Even though using a legendary card for this felt bad, he worried that [Razor Clam] might be necessary later on.
[Unicorn] + [Rubber Tree]
[Rubber Tree] | Hp: 1→0
[Unicorn] | Hp: 3→2
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Crafting successful! You've crafted [Latex].
Latex (Uncommon)
Emulsion of polymer microparticles.
Hp: 2
Vp: 2
Clara was right; plants were incredible. It was baffling that this plant could transform brown dirt into latex. At the memory of his old tutor, he smiled. She would have been happy knowing that what she taught him was helping him.
Done reminiscing, Kai studied the new card on the table. His crazy attempt had worked. Despite the name, what one got from harvesting the rubber tree wasn’t rubber, per se, but latex.
Kai tried to remember how latex was processed and turned into rubber. If he was correct, he needed an acid to mix with latex to get rubber. He looked at all his cards, trying to think of ways to get acid, but couldn’t think of anything. Latex would have to do.
Latex was less resistant than rubber. He hoped this would be one of those instances when Daisy wasn't too stringent. If he had to follow the traditional steps of adding ammonia, coagulating latex, and then drying it to get a [Rubber] card, there was no way this would work. He grabbed a [Air] card to see if the recipe still worked with what he had.
[Latex] + [Air]
[Latex] | Hp: 2→1
[Air] | Hp: 2→1
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Crafting successful! You've crafted [Floater]!
Floater (Uncommon)
Hp: 4
Vp: 0
Thank goodness it worked. The new card in his hand had the picture of a small floating device. Kai guessed that [Floater] was the weaker version of [Buoy]. Hopefully, it would still work for what he had in mind. Before he went on a [Floater] card crafting spree, he needed to do an experiment.
He reached out for the powerful card he had gotten in the last stage.
Sunken City (Legendary)
A city that has been swallowed by the ocean.
Hp: 1
Vp: 10
The first thing that caught Roth’s eye was the one point of hp in the card, suggesting it could be used in crafting. Furthermore, it couldn’t be a coincidence that the only recipe Daisy made available on the stage was for a floating device while hiding a [Sunken City] at the bottom of the ocean. He had a feeling that there would be some extraordinary outcome from fusing both. It was time to risk it.
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 1→4
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
As the table lights cooled down, and Kai found the dull [Floater] and the shinier [Sunken City], he threw his arms up in triumph. “Bingo!” he shouted.
He checked the stats of one card and the other. [Sunken City] had sucked the hp from [Floater]. The way both cards interacted reminded him of [Scrapdroid] and [Fire]. Both those cards had been upgraded after Kai had fed them enough. He might get a new mythic card if he stayed his course and kept letting [Sunken City] drain the hp of [Floater] cards. It was time to make more [Floaters] and see where this recipe led him.
[Latex] + [Air]
[Latex] | Hp: 1→0
[Air] | Hp: 1→0
Crafting successful! You've crafted [Floater]!
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 4→7
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
Seeing how [Sunken City] was still hungry, he tapped his foot nervously. He had no idea of how many [Floaters] [Sunken City] would need to feed on before evolving. It could evolve after getting its hp to ten, twenty, or two hundred. He was flying blind. He just hoped he had enough [Floaters] to make this happen.
He needed to harvest the other [Rubber Tree] card. It pained him to bring [Unicorn] so close to zero. He felt he was using a cannon to open a can of tuna, but what else could he do if he had no can openers at hand?
[Unicorn] + [Rubber Tree]
[Rubber Tree] | Hp: 1→0
[Unicorn] | Hp: 2→1
Crafting successful! You've crafted [Latex].
Despite using [Unicorn] like this, it still had one hp left. He had to find a way to bring its hp back up. Alternatively, he could leave it in the [Card Fridge] to keep giving him 15 points over the next few rounds. He would decide on that later.
With a new [Latex] card, Kai made two more [Floaters].
[Latex] + [Air]
[Latex] | Hp: 2→1
[Air] | Hp: 2→1
Crafting successful! You've crafted [Floater]!
[Latex] + [Air]
[Latex] | Hp: 1→0
[Air] | Hp: 1→0
Crafting successful! You've crafted [Floater]!
This is where things would get tricky. From now on, he had to tread very carefully. He still had the photocopier if these two [Floaters] weren’t enough. After these last merges, he also had eight spent cards for fodder. If he kept cycling through these used cards, sacrificing two to make one more [Floater], he could make at most… Kai counted using his fingers, trying to ensure he got it right. He could make nine more? Maybe ten? That had to be enough. Right?
Hoping for the best, he pulled up his sleeves and got to work.
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 7→10
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
It was as he had feared. Getting [Sunken City]’s hp to ten wasn’t enough. The next milestone would be twenty if he had to guess. It was time to make more floaters.
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Air] and [Air] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 10→13
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Rubber Tree] and [Rubber Tree] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 13→16
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Latex] and [Latex] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 16→19
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
After using these cards to make more [Floaters], all that he had left was the spent [Floaters] themselves. He had six in the graveyard to use as fodder in the photocopier. He just hoped that his efforts wouldn’t be in vain.
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Floater] and [Floater] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 19→22
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
Kai clicked his tongue. He had been expecting 20 hp to be the threshold to make [Sunken City] evolve. But it looked like that had been wishful thinking. His only hope was that he didn’t have to make it past thirty.
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Floater] and [Floater] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 22→25
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Floater] and [Floater] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 25→28
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
He pondered whether he should use the one good [Floater] left as an offering to the [Sunken City] or if he should just keep making more [Floaters]. He realized that if the threshold was up in the forties, there was no way he would be able to make it unless he started eating up the other cards. But what choice did he have?
He sighed and prayed that thirty was all that he needed.
Copy successful! You’ve exchanged [Floater] and [Floater] for [Floater].
[Sunken City] + [Floater]
[Sunken City] | Hp: 28→31
[Floater] | Hp: 4→0
[Sunken City] has upgraded to [Raised City of Atlantis]
Raised City of Atlantis (Mythic)
The city that had been swallowed by the ocean has risen back above the waves.
Hp: +∞
Vp: 15
This card also works as an upgrade. You’ve unlocked [Risen].
Kai sighed in relief. He had managed to make the city evolve. Unfortunately, that only granted him five more victory points! That was very little, considering he had just sacrificed fourteen points from multiple cards to make [Sunken City] evolve.
An exchange of fourteen points for five left him with a deficit of nine points. He was worse off after all of this. He was starting to realize that getting a mythic card wasn’t always a great way to amass points. This upgrade had better be worth it.
Wondering what [Risen] did, Kai picked up all the dull cards and stacked them neatly on the corner of the table when something caught his eye. He blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things. “No. It can’t be.”
He crossed the room in a few wide strides and felt the upgrade console with his hands. How could this be? The upgrade console had appeared before the crafting round ended!
