SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 21 - Elephant Conditioning
Added 2023-10-30 10:58:59 +0000 UTCHi, everyone. This chapter brings the downpour of chapters to celebrate this novel's release on Royal Road to an end. From next week on, I'll release two chapters of this novel weekly.
If you haven't yet, can I please ask you to follow and rate this novel on Royal Road, leaving a sincere review?
Thank you for your great support!
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Summer of 346, A.D.
“I can’t believe this is what you’ve been up to, Alex.” Despite his non-stop complaining, Kai didn’t stop following his friend. He was still curious to see what he was doing on the wall.
“See, that’s why I didn’t tell you earlier. I knew you were going to freak out!”
“Only Trudy is supposed to go to the wall for the news rally!”
“If she can go, why can’t I?” Challenged Alex.
“Dude, there’s a reason why Daisy separated the sectors like this. She’s trying to watch out for humanity.”
“Yeah! Right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Why the sarcasm?”
“Have you heard the story of the elephant and the rope?”
“Nope.”
“There was a man who passed by a few domesticated elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. There were no chains. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, run away, but for some reason, they didn’t. He saw a trainer nearby and asked him about it. Do you know what the trainer said?”
“Probably that the rope was enchanted or something.”
Alex shook his head. Kai hated it when Alex did that to him. Just because he was a couple of years older, he acted like a know-it-all whenever he was around Kai.
“The trainer explained to the passerby that the elephants had been conditioned. When they were young and much smaller, the trainers used the same size rope to tie the baby elephants. When they were babies, the rope was enough to hold them. The elephants grew up to believe the rope could still hold them, so they never tried to break free.”
“Your point being.”
“Forget it, Kai. You’re just a baby elephant. You can’t understand.”
*
353rd Daisy Exams, Round of 128.
Shadow Unicorn (Rare)
The shadow of the mythological one-horned horse of legend.
Hp: 1
Vp: 8
Shadow Wolf (Uncommon)
The shadow of a formidable and highly adaptable carnivore.
Hp: 1
Vp: 2
Shadow Goose (Common)
The shadow of a waterfowl known for its sturdy body and distinctive honking call.
Hp: 0
Vp: 3
Shadow Bunny (Common)
The shadow of a small, adorable mammal animal with long ears and a twitching nose.
Hp: 0
Vp: 3
He still had many questions about these cards. One was: why did [Shadow Wolf] only have a combined stat point of 3, if it was an uncommon card? It was almost as if Daisy was telling him that this card was too good, and she had to shave one point off its stat line to balance it.
And why did [Shadow Wolf] and [Shadow Unicorn] have only one hit point each? Was it so he could count their points in two separate rounds? Or was there a recipe they could be used for?
Kai rummaged through his deck. From all the cards that he owned, there were only two possibilities that he could think of for merging candidates. One was to mix both shadow cards. They were bound to have some synergy. The other possibility was their opposite: [Light].
He had three [Light] cards that possessed infinite hp. Unfortunately, even though the card was supposedly ideal for repeated crafting, he hadn’t stumbled upon one single recipe in which [Light] looked useful. What would he get if he merges shadow and light? Did Daisy only care for cumulative synergy? Or did she also award a player who could find opposites and fuse them?
Although there was no pressure from experimenting with [Light], losing one hit point on the [Shadow Unicorn] could cost him eight points next round. He was stuck between playing the long game or maximizing his points right now. All it took for him to reach a decision was to look at the scoreboard and at how badly he was losing.
He grabbed the [Shadow Wolf] card. It only gave two victory points. It was much safer to use it instead of [Shadow Unicorn] as a guinea pig and find out how a shadow card interacted with [Light]. As he put [Shadow Wolf] on top of the engraving, the table sucked it in and lit up. He gulped and then put one of the three [Light] cards he owned into the other engraving.
[Shadow Wolf] + [Light]
Shadow Wolf | Hp: 1→0
Light | Hp: +∞→+∞
Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Wolf].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Wolf (Rare)
A formidable and highly adaptable carnivore.
Hp: 2
Vp: 5
Kai’s hands trembled as he reached out for the new shiny card that had materialized on the table. In it, a valiant, fearsome wolf looked into the distance. No way. He had crafted a wolf! And it had excellent stats, much better than its shadow counterpart. It offered five victory points! Cards like this were what Kai needed the most right now.
He looked at the other shadow cards and grinned. Had he just broken the exam? He spent countless hours of his childhood with Alex doing shadow puppet shows. He knew how to make dozens of shadow puppets. Additionally, [Light] was a card with infinite health points. His heart raced.
Even if Daisy sent him to a barren wasteland, all he needed was a dark space and his gaslamp. With it, he could quickly create a ton of value. Only after two rounds was the true power of [Light] revealing itself.
He held the wolf card to the light and set it proudly in the middle of the table. He then looked at the [Shadow Unicorn]. He couldn’t wait to see what would happen now.
[Shadow Unicorn] + [Light]
Shadow Unicorn| Hp: 1→0
Light | Hp: +∞→+∞
Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Unicorn].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Unicorn (Legendary)
The mythological one-horned horse. Legend has it that its horn can pierce through anything.
Hp: 0
Vp: 15
Yes! Another awesome card. Kai looked at the scoreboard and shouted in triumph as he saw he had almost caught up with his opponent. He had 129 points, and his opponent had 137. There were still 30 minutes on the clock of the crafting arena, but there seemed to be some hope for him to go through to the next round. He wiped a tear off his eye.
He held his new shiny golden legendary card in his hand. In it was a muscular horse, majestic, with one single horn protruding from its forehead. This was, by far, the most valuable card he owned.
The movement in the corner of his vision told him that, while he was busy celebrating, his opponent kept crafting. He slapped his face with both hands and got his mind back into crafting. He still had some catching up with his opponent to do.
He put [Unicorn] right next to [Wolf]. [Shadow Wolf] had been an uncommon card, and after merging it with light, it became a rare card. [Shadow Unicorn] had been a rare card, and it was upgraded to legendary. This process seemed to elevate the shadow creature by one tier.
Too bad that he was going to lose [Unicorn] after this round. The number of victory points it offered was fantastic. Kai thought back to the last stage and looked at his [Fire] card and the surviving [Mining Wagon]. There might be a way to do that. But for now, he couldn’t afford to think about it. He would wait until the end of the round if he had enough time.
For now, the priority wasn’t getting points to a round he might get to or not. He had to figure out a way to overtake his opponent. Although his point climb in the scoreboard slightly lost momentum, it hadn’t stopped rising yet. Neither could Kai’s.
Kai reached out for the next card he wanted to craft with. He grabbed the [Flint Knife] he had crafted earlier on. He held it over each of the other cards, trying to think of possible combinations. What was a knife used for? To cut. Cut and slice. He stopped the card over the [Acacia Tree]. Could he perhaps make something out of the [Acacia Tree] using [Flint Knife]? He shook his head. That wouldn’t make much sense. If that was so, then why would there be a [Flint Axe] card?
His hand hovered over all the cards that involved leaves and shrubs. A knife could be used to cut them, but he wasn’t sure that was what he wanted to use it for. Finally, he landed it on the [Arabian Oryx].
Arabian Oryx (Rare)
A creature known as the desert’s unicorn.
Hp: 5
Vp: 2
Daisy had evidently given the possibility to trial runners of replicating Stone Age technology using the cards. A flint knife was used as a weapon, too. Maybe combining [Arabian Oryx] and [Flint Knife] would give him meat or something similar. There was only one way to find out.
[Flint Knife] + [Arabian Oryx]
Flint Knife | Hp: 1→0
Arabian Oryx | Hp: 5→4
Crafting Successful!
You've crafted [Oryx Forager].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Oryx Forager (Rare)
Mutant desert creatures that have learned how to harvest nature’s resources.
Hp: 5
Vp: 1
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Kai stared dumbfounded at the result of his experiment. This was the last thing he was expecting from this recipe. He grabbed the new card and found a picture of an anthropomorphized oryx holding a blade in his hand. It was something that a very imaginative boy would draw. Kai couldn’t hold in his laughter. Was Daisy trying to be funny? What was she getting at here?
Then, it hit Kai. Creativity. Out-of-the-box thinking. So far, most of the exam had leaned more toward logic. But if memory didn’t fail him, creativity had been the first trait that Daisy had mentioned. That meant that creativity was the main component of this exam. That was why he had gotten a [Unicorn] a little earlier. He should have seen it then. Why would Daisy include a mythological creature from human stories in such a serious exam? It was because she was appealing to human creativity.
An [Oryx Forager]. Kai still couldn’t believe the turn the exam had taken. From pure logic, it had shifted into the realm of the fantastic. Whatever the case may be, one thing was sure. The point count was fantastic. By combining [Flint Knife] and [Arabian Oryx], he had doubled the points these cards granted! It was time to start a flint tool assembly line!
[Oryx Horn] + [Big Flint]
Oryx Horn | Hp: 4→3
Big Flint | Hp: 2→1
Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Flint Knife].
Although Kai was sure that by merging this card with [Arabian Oryx] he would get one more [Oryx Forger] card, he wanted to see what would happen if he merged it with [Wolf] instead. Would he get a [Wolf Forager]?
[Wolf] + [Flint Knife]
Wolf | Hp: 2→1
Flint Knife | Hp: 1→0
Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Wolf Warrior].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Wolf Warrior (Rare)
A formidable and highly adaptable mutant carnivore trained for war.
Hp: 2
Vp: 5
Kai laughed at the result of this recipe. The wolf now stood on two legs, holding a knife in its paws. Interesting. The same tool had produced such different results. Kai put the [Oryx Forager] card and the [Wolf Warrior] card side by side and tried to think of reasons for the discrepancy. Nothing came to him. He had to dig deeper.
He grabbed the [Arabian Oryx] and [Wolf] cards now. They were both rare cards, but one granted fat hp stats, while the other offered more victory points. Its stats were the perfect inversion of each other. Five to two, and two to five. Suspicions started forming in Kai’s mind.
Could it be that, since oryxes were herbivores, Daisy had made them more of a peaceful race? Along that same line of reasoning, wolves were predators, and the addition of a weapon had granted him a warrior version of the wolf. That was the only explanation that Kai could think of. He still wasn’t fully convinced, though. After all, wasn’t [Unicorn] all victory points and no hp? Did it mean that it was a race fully geared for war?
He would keep an eye out for this in future rounds. That if he got so far. His opponent’s score showed no signs of stopping its steep climb. He had to now focus on how he could use the cards in front of him.
He first grabbed the [Oryx Forager]. “Forager. Why forager? What are you thinking, Daisy?” What did a forager do? They foraged for any resources that were easily accessible. They looked for berries, roots, fruit, and mushrooms. It also picked up resources that could be used in crafting, such as branches, flint, or vines. The question now was, had Daisy brought that over into this exam?
Kai had an idea. If he was right, he could potentially bring him even more benefits than the synergy between shadow and light. There was only one way to find out if his thoughts were going in the right direction.
[Oryx Forager] + [Acacia Tree]
Oryx Forager] | Hp: 5→4
Acacia Tree | Hp: 2→1
Crafting Successful!
You've crafted [Acacia Branch].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
Just as Kai had expected. Here it was. This was a much better alternative to just fusing [Flint Axe] with a tree card directly. [Flint Axes] only had one hit point, but the [Oryx Forager] had five! And he could make many more of them if need be. With that, it was time to let the [Oryx Forager] forage to its heart's content.
[Oryx Forager] + [Acacia Tree]
Oryx Forager] | Hp: 4→3
Acacia Tree | Hp: 1→0
Crafting Successful!
You've crafted [Acacia Leaf].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
[Oryx Forager] + [Acacia Tree]
Oryx Forager] | Hp: 3→2
Acacia Tree | Hp: 3→2
Crafting Successful!
You've crafted [Acacia Bark].
New recipe added to your recipe book.
[Oryx Forager] + [Acacia Tree]
Oryx Forager] | Hp: 2→1
Acacia Tree | Hp: 2→1
Crafting Successful!
You've crafted [Acacia Bark].
[Oryx Forager] + [Acacia Tree]
Oryx Forager] | Hp: 1→0
Acacia Tree | Hp: 1→0
Crafting Successful! You've crafted [Acacia Branch].
Like it was the case with the randomness of the [Spark] card, here, too, there was a game of chance involved. When [Oryx Forager] harvested resources from the tree, there was the chance of getting any of its parts as a result. He noticed, though, that he hadn’t gotten one single [Acacia] trunk. Was it because a forager would only have picked leaves, branches, and bark off the tree? Maybe he had to create some sort of oryx lumberjack to harvest more valuable tree resources.
Unfortunately, two of the resources harvested had been [Acacia Branches], which granted no points. Even so, it was a vital crafting resource, and if time was enough, he was sure he could convert that to victory points. Worst case scenario, he would use it as fuel for [Fire].
“Thank you, oryx forager.”
Kai threw the spent [Oryx Forager] card into the graveyard pile.
With all the new points he was getting from this, his score kept growing but still wasn’t enough to catch up with his opponent. He couldn’t stop now. Time was running out. Two-thirds of the time allotted to crafting was gone already.
